October Projects

I finally got my 8k from Obama (Thanks!) and my mom encouraged me to look into window replacement. I met with 4 different companies and the range in prices was crazy. The lowest estimate was $3,500 and the highest was more than $15,000. I never imagined there could be that much of a difference. I settled on Michael Woody with Bon Air Exteriors. He was actually the first person I called and the first who met with me. I really liked his no-nonsense attitude and he really did a good job of explaining everything. I am going to replace all of the windows in the house and garage. I am also having his crew repair my gutters and to make sure they are draining properly.

After that I plan on removing all of the little odds and ends screwed into the molding of the windows and then getting shades. I am leaning towards roman shades because I think the dogs/cats would destroy cellular shades and I don't care for typical mini-blinds. Any opinions out there?

Joel and I are also working on building a fence. This has been a slow, on-going project as he can only help me during the week and I usually only have off on Wednesday and I am not always free. As of today, the post holes have been dug, the posts are up and cemented, the horizontal pieces are installed, and the pickets are up. Now we only need to do the gates (x3). Joel also decided to add 2 extra posts to create a trellis for my wisteria to climb on. After that is completed, I would like to dig up the boxwoods in the back yard, hang a swing from my big tree, and create some sort of walkway from the main gate to the patio. In the front yard I would like to start planning out what I am going to plant in the spring. I would like to put hydrangeas in the raised bed on the left side and some sort of foliage on the right side.

I would also LOVE to gut my kitchen and laundry room. I would like to figure out how to expand the kitchen into the laundry room to create a bit more counter space and a pantry along with a half bath while retaining a space for laundry. Unfortunately, I am no where near close to being able to afford that so I just get to daydream about it for the time being.

I will post pictures a bit later.

Pictures

Our living room as of a month or so ago. Now it is clean and rearranged.

The creepy glowing eyes are from Yoda, Jack, and Monkey. The fluff would be stuffed dragon guts.

The screened in porch. The old screen had already been removed. We then removed all of the old nails and staples, added some wood, painted, etc.

The strange gap between the bricks and the concrete.

This is the assortment of old wallpaper I found while working on the kitchen.

Monkey hiding in the closet.

Monkey in the dog's crate and Wilbur very confused.

Wilbur's first outing to the dog park. He met a Boston puppy named Big Mac.

And the best for last. Katie, Andrew, and I went to the Saturday Farmer's market. We (and by we, I really mean he) made an epic breakfast. Apron compliments of Katie's mom.

A Very Late Update

Ok. Let me first apologize for not updating for more than a month! There have been lots of changes:

1. The dryer situation is now resolved. There were adaptors in the fuse box which were preventing a good connection or something like that. What is important is that we can now wash and dry laundry.

2. The closets are done!!! After getting all of the wallpaper off, sanding the remaining glue, priming, painting, and putting up new shelves, I was finally able to unpack my clothes. I think the closet is my crowning achievement since it took soo long.

3. Ben and Daniel helped clean out the gutters.

4. I filled in with soil between the sidewalk and street where everything had eroded away. I then planted some hand me down variegated Liriope from Julie. So far it is still alive and looking good. I also bought some borders to put in to prevent further erosion.

5. The electrician came back for more projects. He hung a ceiling fan in the living room. There was previously no ceiling light. He also put up a new one in the kitchen. I had him redo the lights in the closet since they were miss-wired and kind of a safety hazard. I also had him install the new over the stove microwave.

6. Joel and I have been working on the screened porch. He planned everything out and I got to assist and learn. He recommended closing in the bottom quarter of the porch to prevent damage to the lower portion of the closed in area and elongating the life of the porch. I wanted a doggie door so the cats and dogs could eventually go in and out as they pleased. We also framed in both sides to create architectural symmetry on both sides (ALL Joel’s idea). Last week on Friday we finally completed it. I never was able to get all of the paint off of the cement floor. St this point, I plan on tiling it in. Uncle Alan has some slate I might be able to use. I just need to look at it to make sure it will work.

7. Joel also helped with the interior door knobs. Initially I was planning on putting on the beautiful bubbled glass door knobs. They turned out to be a huge nightmare. The latch portion or the part that is in the interior of the door did not come with the knobs. Also, that part was not a part carried at Lowes/ Home Depot. I finally got it at Pleasants however they did not fit well in the existing holes. Also, the rosettes were too small and did not completely cover the hole in the door. I totally am over them. They are not worth the hassle. Instead, I got some normal knobs. The problem there is when I went to install them, the hole was too small! Ugh. Not only that, the bit I have to drill the hole needs something in the center to “bite down on” in order to work. Joel came up with the great idea of clamping a piece of plywood against the door so that the drill bit would have something to drill into. It worked! Now we have operational door knobs.

8. I finally got most of my stuff unpacked. It is nice having that storage area in back. Anything I don’t want to unpack I have just left in there (books, etc.). We also finally got the house completely clean!

9. Probably the biggest change so far is the addition to the family. I decided that a house was not nearly enough work. I have been looking at dogs for quite awhile and settled on getting a rescued Boston Terrier. I have applied with numerous rescue organizations over the past several months knowing it would take quite awhile before I heard anything back. I was looking on Craigslist and saw a family wanting to re-home their Bostons. I won’t really get into all of the details of that but I drove out to Ft. Lee with Anne (who was home from Missouri) and drove home with a 13 month old Boston named Sarge. He is now Sgt. Wilbur since he really didn’t know his name. Since then he has been to the vet to get all of his shots and been neutered. He is adjusting very well to his new home and absolutely loves Jack (Katie’s dog). He also really likes the kitties but they want nothing to do with him since he likes to play chase. He is crate trained, walks well on his leash, and is starting to be trained. When he and Jack are not chasing each other around the house, he is my total shadow and follows me around the house.

In a nutshell, that sums up the major changes since my last post. Next on the list of things to do is put in the fence. The water pressure also seems to vary so I need to figure that out. I also want to put in a new showerhead. I still have a ton of yard work to do- ensure the gutters are draining properly, diverting the runoff water away from the house, raking… Yeah, I know it won’t ever end.

I am still happy with my decision to buy a house and am enjoying (for the most part) seeing all of my hard work pay off.

Ok, I will do my best to post more frequently and I will add pictures later this week since I am sure that’s all anyone is interested in seeing.

Finally, I just added a subscribe option. If you would like to be emailed whenever I post something new, put your email into the box at the top and follow the instructions.

Living room is finally a room!

So I figured I would do a mini-update while I was relaxing.

The repair guy came to look at my dryer today. He says there is nothing wrong with the dryer itself. The problem is that there is not enough electricity being emitted by the outlet. That means they need to send out another technician to look at it. I am secretly hoping my fuse box is the problem and my home warranty will pay to have that replaced. Today I straightened, relaxed a bit, did laundry, moved a few things from the apartment, and sanded the no longer wallpapered closet. Next step for the closet is to patch holes/ uneven areas and caulk cracks.

Yesterday was also productive. A good friend of my mom's, Joel, came by to check the place out. He is also handy and offered assistance and teaching. I am so lucky to be surrounded by so many skilled and knowledgeable people. My mom met us over here for a quick tour and update. Her portacath will be removed tomorrow. YAY! That is the last major step to the whole ordeal. I know once that is out she will feel like a much more normal and free person. Anyway, she and Joel had matching hair.

They even have on matching shirts.

Later that evening, David came over and helped me decompress and move around furniture. I am getting frustrated because I do not do well living in chaos. I seem to just be moving around piles and not completing projects because there are just so many. I need to slow down and take a little time each day to relax. We got my new carpet laid and rearranged the living room furniture to a much more workable layout. It now feels like an actual room instead a jumbled mess of stuff. It still looks like a mess, but believe me it is better.

That is Jack's massacred stuffed animal all over the carpet btw.

Here's a good story I forgot to mention before. A few days after pulling out the poison ivy I thought I was in the clear. I was almost out of the time range for reactions when my arms started itching while I was at work. I paid no attention to it at first until it was itching so bad I felt like I was going to rip off my skin. I took off my lab coat and my arms and chest were BRIGHT RED and hot to the touch. I started freaking out thinking I was getting a poison ivy reaction. I ran back to the kitchen and asked Dr. Redman if I was having an allergic reaction. After a few questions he laughed and said I was "flushing." I recently started taking a Niacin supplement that I got from work. It is one of the B vitamins. One of the side effects is called flushing. When a certain amount is ingested, the blood vessels dilate and the blood rushes through the vessels, especially through the surface vessels. That causes the blushing of the skin and the feeling of heat and itching. I had taken my Niacin on an empty stomach so I experienced the side effect intensely. It only lasted about 10 minutes and I am glad to say I did not end up with poison ivy. I did however get bitten by some sort of bug all over one of my arms. All of the bites are swollen and itchy and not going away. Looks like I got my reaction after all.

Pictures

Here are some recent pictures of everything going on.

The before shot of the tub.

And after!!! So much better.

Finished floors and some furniture moved in.

This was the funk behind the radiator.

Mom showing me how to skimcoat the wall.

The first "real" dinner at the house. Ben and my mom came over and we grilled corn on the cobb, chicken, and zuchinni. Check out the shiny new grill from Uncle Alan and the wrought iron table and chairs from Julie. I'm stylin.

I tried to take it easy this weekend. I got odds and ends done. I am starting to find places for things. I FINALLY got the wallpaper down in the closet. Next I need to sand it to get the last few bits and glue up. Then to patch, caulk, fill holes, and paint.

Update

Soo moving the cats was not easy. I have 3 cats and only 1 cat carrier. Yoda and Izzie are both crazy and needed to be crated. Monkey is more like a dog and could care less what you do with him. I had to figure out how to get all cats from the apartment to the house without losing any of them or getting scratched to death. (This whole process kind of reminded me of that mind puzzle- you have a wolf, a sheep, and a boat...) Izzie and Yoda could not be together in the crate since they would attack each other but I did not want to make more than 1 trip. I ended up getting Yoda and Monkey into the carrier together and put that in the car. I captured Izzie and stuck her in a bow. My mom threw the lid on top however the cat flew out as soon as I took my hands off of her. We tried this a few times and finally got her in there. My mom walked out to the car holding the box tightly but Izzie busted out as she was trying to get the car door opened. We tried luring her back into the apartment with wet cat food but she would only take a few steps in before jetting out again. I sat on the porch with the food and somehow grabbed her when she got close enough. I threw her in the car and slammed the door after getting in. OK! Ready to go! I start driving and Izzie goes nuts- running all over the car, sliding down the dashboard (blocking my vision of course), meowing. Meanwhile my mom is on the phone with a client and I am just trying to get to the house ASAP. When she gets off the phone, she grabs the cat and holds her still. We get to the house and decide while she holds the cat, I will run and unlock the door. I returned to the car, grabbed the cat, ran inside, and shut her in one of the bedrooms so that we could get all of the other cats inside. The mission was a success. Everyone made it inside. The only problem was when I went to open the door to let Izzie out- the knob was locked. We got out a screw driver and paper clip to poke in the hole but the door would not unlock. I ended up going around the side of the house with a ladder, cutting through the screen, and going through the window.

So I've more or less totally moved into the new place. It is still a construction site and no one room is complete yet. Katie and I have gotten 2 of the closets painted. Although I originally decided to pull down the wallpaper in the bedrooms, closet, bathroom, dining room, and kitchen, I changed my mind. My mom came over ready to help and pointed out that it would take at least 2 weeks to get everything down. The paper in the bedrooms really was not in bad condition. Instead of pulling it down she showed me how to 'skimcoat' the uneven areas. The paper in the closets is in very poor condition and already coming down in some areas so its going.

I pulled down the wallpaper in the bathroom and painted the closet. I also painted the medicine cabinet interior. Today, A&J Refinishing came over at 8 AM to begin refinishing my tub. I won't be able to use it for 24 hours. All I need to do after that is paint the shelves, mop the floor, hang the shower curtain, paint the shutters, and move stuff in. Then it will be DONE!!!

I bedroom closet is a bit more difficult. Ive spent 3 days scoring, steaming, and scraping. It is more than half way done but I still need to sand, prime, and paint once all of the paper is down. I can't really move into my room until that is done since it will be so dusty. I suppose that is my main project right now.

The kitchen is almost complete. There is plenty left to do but it is in usable condition and is clean.

The Move

So yesterday was the big day. The night before I was at the house cleaning and painting the closets. Unfortunately, in my room the closet is actually wallpapered. Since I am a perfectionist and want to do it the right way, I need to scrape off all of the old paint and wallpaper. I painted the 2 closets that were not wallpapered. FYI- 1 coat of white paint is not enough to cover antique rose pink or old olive green. I got home at about 11:30 PM and went to bed.

I guess I was anxious about moving the next morning because I was up at 6 AM ready to go. I packed up more stuff and moved things around. My Uncle Alan came over with a truck at 8 AM and we were ready to go. He was in a great mood and we had fun (as much as any sane person can have) moving everything. All of my furniture is bulky. The legs on my couches had to be removed to get them out of my apartment. My dresser was so long that it look some mad geometry and physics skills to get it through the hallway and into the bedroom. I think whenever I get new furniture I am going to go minimalist. That or I am just going to hire a moving company. The funniest part of the move was trying to get my desk into the back room we are going to use as an office. We got it around the hallway only to discover we needed to angle it in so we reversed out, flipped it, and tried again. Same problem. Next, Uncle Alan removed the door hoping that would give us the room we needed. Not quite there. I was about ready to say 'OK! I give up! The dining room and office are going to switch places!' when Uncle Alan ripped off the felt feet on the bottom of the desk. It worked. With that tiny change the desk fit perfectly. We made about 4 trips and got all of the big stuff and some of the boxes moved. It was thundering as we were loading the truck for the final drop off. Just as we finished the unloading the last load, the sky opened up and it poured. I took Uncle Alan out for lunch and went back to the house to clean.

Unfortunately, the 'professional painters' had another surprise for me. When we were talking with them they made the comment that every room had been wallpapered and they had done the hard part by peeling it down. Unfortunately, they only meant SOME of the rooms. I pulled off the radiator in my bedroom to clean out the trash and scrub the wall only to discover remnants of wallpaper. Upon closer inspection, there were several areas on the other walls that were peeling off. Not only was there wallpaper in the closet- it was still in the bedroom. They had just painted over it. I checked the whole house. It is still in both bedrooms, part of the dining room, part of the kitchen, and part of the bathroom. I think I went into shut down mode when I realized this and just sat on the couch looking into space the rest of the evening. Next on the list- steaming and scrapping the old wallpaper down. Then repainting. I think it is safe to say I might never hang wallpaper in any house I own ever.

I spent my first night in the new place. It was a little strange without the cats, but I still slept well. I got up this morning, took a nice long bath to relax, and started cleaning/ moving the small stuff. Not much is left at the house. Next is to let Katie move her stuff in and then move the cats. My mom is going to come over this afternoon with a steamer and help me get down the wallpaper. Lets hope it comes down easily- I have too much else to do.

Work Update

It has been a very long week already. Very long.

I relaxed and worked the 2nd job Sunday- didn't go to the house at all. Monday after work, Katie and I met at the house to take care of the azaleas. We trimmed them, cleaned out all of the leaves from underneath, and fertilized them. I would like to think they look healthier now but I can't really tell. We also cut back the ivy on the light pole and cleaned out the brick planter in the front. Another big surprise (not) - after promising my floors would be finished on Monday, they still were not done. Ugh. I am beyond being frustrated. I am out of energy. I told him that the electrician would be coming Tuesday to work on the ceiling fans and stove electrical outlet so they would need to work around his schedule. They came Tuesday morning and finished off everything.

Jay the electrician came over at about 3:30 and started working on the ceiling fans. I am so glad I had him do the rooms that did not already have fans. It turned out to be much more work than either of us anticipated. After he got those up, he helped me put in the new outlet. By help, I really mean he did it and explained everything to me during the process. Katie and I worked more on the house. We washed the windows and the window/door frames. While I cleaned the bathroom Katie ripped out the old shelf lining in the kitchen. We also replaced the filters (which were filthy as you might guess) and scrubbed the back splash behind where the stove would go. Uncle Alan also came by with a fancy new grill and set it up for me. I don't think I got home until after 11 PM.

Wednesday morning Lowe's installed the new stove and hauled off the old one. NuNu also came by to get paid. There were several areas where dirt was stuck in the top layer. He explained that one of the guys on their crew was new and did not know everything. Great. So Freddie the foreman had to come back out and re-sand and re-finsh several areas. It still isn't perfect but I am so over them and I don't really care. I continued cleaning the kitchen drawers out and scrubbed the dishwasher and ran it with bleach. It is truly amazing how much grime there was in the kitchen. I then set off the bug bombs in the house and garage. Comcast is supposed to come Friday while I am moving to turn on the cable and I plan on running washer cleaner tomorrow before I actually do any laundry.

Weekend Drama

So this weekend was interesting to say the least. NuNu the floor guy still had not returned my calls. He had called Donald though so I knew that he was able to call, just wasn't doing it. I asked Donald to give me a call Saturday when NuNu was on the way over so that I could talk with him in person. That morning, I woke up with a killer headache. I ended up having to go over at 8:30 AM. When I got there, I walked in and told NuNu I was a little upset because he promised they would be done by Friday so I could move in over the weekend and he had not returned any of my calls (I left messages on 3 different numbers every day during the week and heard nothing back from him or his foreman). He instantly started yelling. I told him I could not hear him over the sanding machine and that I would be out in the backyard when he had a few minutes to talk. He came outside and instantly started yelling at me. He started screaming that he was in the hospital and he was doing the best he could. He said my lease was not up until the end of the month and that there was no rush. When I pointed out that he promised they would work on my place Monday, and his crew could have been there yet did not start until Wednesday he flipped out. He became totally irrational. He was shouting curses at me and throwing things. He said it was my fault he was back in the hospital. He was at my house lifting a sander and that caused some bleeding. Actually, he told me when this happened and he was at another job site. He also did not go into the hospital until after he promised they would start my job. Of course, he would not let me talk and it was not worth arguing about the facts as he would deny everything. I do not handle yelling well. This guy is more than a foot taller and has at least 100 lbs on me. Tears started running down my face because there was NOTHING I could do about this situation. He was loud enough that 2 of my neighbors came out with their phones wondering if they needed to call 911. NuNu stormed off saying he would stop doing my floors right now and call his lawyer. I called Donald who said he would be right over. In the meantime, the neighbors comforted me. NuNu came back out yelling again. At this point I'm seriously crying. I said to him "NuNu, I'm a little emotional right now and need a few minutes to calm down. I will talk with you in a few minutes." He just kept yelling that he was upset too and that he didn't need this. I said "Yes, we BOTH need a few minutes to calm down." He wouldn't give it up. Donald finally got there and went inside to talk with NuNu. He reminded him that I'm the customer and a young lady who has never been in this sort of situation. He said it was not appropriate to yell at me. He was mad at the job, not me. Donald remained very calm yet NuNu's anger kept escalating. At one point he began threatening Donald. I unlocked my garage and identified where the hedge trimmer and hammer were. I would run in and attack should a fight break out. NuNu told Donald he would not do his floors and that this situation was none of his business. Donald finally calmed him down and got him to say he would definitely be done by Monday evening so that I could move in Tuesday. While they worked on the floors, I worked outside on the window. Eventually NuNu came out. I apologized for getting him upset and said that was not my intention. He also apologized for yelling. He told me that he was way overbooked and should not have agreed to do my kitchen. I feel a little better about the situation and I know he is going a really good job, but I can't recommend someone that unstable. I am just ready for this all to be done with so I can move in.

Here's my kitchen floor now that it has been sanded. It is going to be sooo pretty. :)

After that, Polly came over and went through my entire yard with me. She identified what plants I have and told me what to pull. She also recommended how to prune the plants and the time of year to do it. She told me not to buy any plants right now and to see what blooms and what I like because I have a really good foundation- the old lady really cared for and loved her garden. On the plus side, my tree does not have galls, they ARE apples. On the down side, an entire rear corner is engulfed with poison ivy.

Seeds inside, not larvae.

After Polly left, I went home and slept for another few hours. My head still hurt and I was drained from everything that had happened. I woke up a few hours later and went back to the house to do more work. I finished working on the window. All of the glass has now been replaced and glazed. It now needs to dry for 2 weeks. After that I tackled the poison ivy. I filled up 3 or 4 trash bags with the ivy. It had wrapped around the fence posts to such a degree that it was embedded. I also had to cut down all of the other plants in that area since they were totally taken over. I've never been sensitive to poison ivy so here's hoping that I am not allergic. Most reactions happen within 12 to 36 hours. I am itchy, but I think its paranoia since I am itchy in areas where clothing covered my skin. I figure I can always get a prescription if I end up breaking out. Anyway, it really opened up the yard and will make it much easier to put up a fence now that the area is cleared out.

That entire naked area is where the poison ivy was.

The entire empty area was FULL of poison ivy.

Tuesday the electrician is scheduled to put up ceiling fans in the 2 bedrooms that don't have fans. I might also ask for his help in wiring the plug for my new stove since it was previously hardwired. Wednesday my nice new stove is to be delivered and I am hoping I will be able to move a few things in.

Here's my to do list for the week: I need to trim and fertilize the Azaleas, clean out the gutters, paint the closets, get the lawn aerated, and clean the interior.

Bonus- that would be the bird skeleton I found in the vent for the stove. YUCK!

My "apple"

Ok, thanks to my dear friend Matt in Seattle I am now aware that this is NOT an apple.

Image of NOT an apple above. :)

It is actually what is called a gall and is made by the oak apple gall wasp. No wonder I don't have more apples!

Here is a picture of one I found online. It looks just like mine.

This is what the inside looks like. Apparently the larva is in that middle core and it eats the strands while it grows.

So, definitely not an apple.

Midway through week 2, floors still not done.

I am fuming. The floor guy I hired- NuNu is not returning my calls. When I talked with him about adding the kitchen floors, he said they would start Monday and would finish the kitchen and bleaching that day. I let him know we needed to move in that weekend. Well, Monday I went over during my lunch break with Meredith and Julie... no one was there working. I called all of his numbers and left messages. Tuesday after work I checked and again no one had been there. I left more messages. I talked with Donald who said he had spoken with NuNu on Monday which confirmed that he was NOT in the hospital so it was ok for me to be pissed. Keep in mind, he told me this job would be done in 2 days. That means it would have been completed on 7/1/09.

Tuesday evening, I finished scraping out glaze from the second window. I then went to Lowe's and bought a ton of stuff I needed. I can't really do anything with it since the floors aren't done. When they are, I will be ready though.

Tonight I stopped by on my way home. I had called NuNu all day and he STILL had not answered or called back. At least they were over there. They had removed the kitchen linoleum and sanded a portion of it. It did not look like they bleached the floor in the 3rd bedroom. It did not seem like they were there all day- everything in the unplugged fridge was still cold.

On the plus side, my floor looks amazing. Where they have sanded, you can see stunning bright pine with lots of interesting knots. I know it will look amazing if it ever gets completed and thats the only thing keeping me from ripping my hair out. Hopefully there is more progress tomorrow.

Here is the close up of the floor. The light portion is where they have sanded and the dark part is where the floors are still covered with tile glue or something.

So much better than that yucky green linoleum.

Here is a picture of my grape vine. I actually have grapes growing!

A bonus shot: Here are Marilyn's dogs. Chili the brown lab has taken over the chair and Lauren the yellow lab sleeping on the floor. They have the life!

A Lazy Weekend

I fully intended on doing lots of work this weekend buuuttt that didn't happen. Since Katie was out of town, I took Jack for the night and he got to check out the new dig. He got to smell all of his new back yard and seemed quite excited to have so much space. Saturday I cleaned out the garage/storage room. I moved everything out, swept down all of the cobwebs from the walls and windows, and vacuumed the floor. I painted over the rusty areas of the metal shelving units that the former owners left behind and moved everything back in. It looks SO much better with just a little bit of work! I then power washed the porch and patio. Again, what a big difference! After that I drove to Woodlake and took out the boat with Ben and some friends to watch the fireworks.

It rained Sunday and I didn't really feel like doing much. Jeff helped me bring over my grill and some patio chairs and we moved the rest of the stuff out of the kitchen. No active leaks in the garage! Hooray!

The wood floors should be finished by the end of the week and then we can start moving in.

7/3/09 My Friday "Off"

Friday I had off of work so I spent the day working at the house. I bought all of the supplies to replace the broken and missing glass panes. You would think the easy part would be buying the stuff. Not so. I went to 3 different stores before I found somewhere that could cut glass. Home Depot no longer cuts glass. Lowe's claimed to be out of glass (how can a home improvement store be out of glass??). Peasant's Hardware was the winner. Replacing the glass was easy. I had already prepped the surface by scraping out the old glaze and sanding everything down. Donald showed me how to tack the glass into place and then to tightly fill in all of the gaps with glaze. It was surprisingly easy. Once that dries, he is going to come over again with his miter saw and show me how to cut the molding. After it is painted, door #1 is done. One more to do.

After that, I scraped up the old linoleum tiles in the laundry room. I have no clue what I am going to do in there but figured if I was going to redo all of the other floors in the house, I might as well do everything.

Here is midway through scraping up tiles.

An electrician Donald recommended also came out to check out everything, review the inspection report, and make recommendations on what I should have done. I think if I wanted to, I could easily spend $5k on that alone. I do think I will have him install the ceiling fans in the rooms that do not have them because it sounds to be a little more involved than I anticipated.

I am also planning on getting some estimates on replacing the windows since it needs to be done sometime and there is a tax credit now.

So much to do...

7/2/09 A Quiet Moment

I scooted over this afternoon to give Donald the keys and to check out what was going on. Donald has almost completed all of the locks. He filled the hole in the front door that was left from the old knob with PC Woody so we just need to wait for that to dry before sanding and repainting. Other than that, all knobs are on!

The crew was there sanding the floors while he was changing locks. The floors look really good. Donald had completely pulled out the old stove while I was at work and there are definitely pine floors underneath. I called NuNu to give me an estimate so I can get those refinished as well. He promised that everything will be done by the end of next week and that Monday they would rip up the linoleum in the kitchen and bleach out any dark areas that needed to be done. I didn't do much else.

Check out the 1st bedroom now!

Notice the dark stains next to the wall. Once that is finished, it will appear even darker. Thats what needs to be bleached out.

Heres the VERY DIRTY tub. The red area is where the glaze has chipped off. The red stuff is actually a filler that was used to patch indentions in the tub.

7/1/09 Day 3- Yard, Floors, and Locks

I woke up this morning and hurt everywhere. I decided to start raking the yard yesterday and headed over early. Within a few minutes I had to stop and get bug spray because I was being eaten alive by the biggest mosquitoes I've seen in my life. When I got back, there was someone sanding the doorway of my house. As I walked in and started talking to Jimmy, the floor refinishing foreman, I noticed it was Donald!! He offered to help me put on the rest of the locks.

I don't thing he realized how much he was getting himself into. For starters, all of the screws used to install the locks were one way. See the pictures. One way screws can be installed normally however they may not be removed with a screwdriver due to their shape. Also, all new holes needed to be drilled and several old holes needed to be filled. I had no idea there was so much involved in changing locks!

While Donald worked on that I raked. I raked some more. Then I continued raking. I know the couple living there before me did not rake and their grandmother was unable to. Who knows the last time it was done. I raked for about 10 hours and probably filled between 15 and 20 bags. I found a buried brick walkway, several rose bushes, wisteria, a water key, and the cover for a vent along with all sorts of trash. The next door neighbor made the comment that she had never actually seen dirt in the yard before- she had only seen leaves. The difference was pretty amazing if I do say so myself.

Look! Dirt!

The patio actually exists underneath all of the leaves.

You would never believe how deep the leaves were behind this tree.

Check it out, I have an apple (or something) growing.

Donald, being the trouble maker that he is, said that there was a chance there might be wood floors under the layers of old linoleum. We peeked under and he was right! We then began pulling out the disgusting old stove to find pine floors under several layers of other flooring. Thanks to him, I might spend my weekend pulling up the old flooring. :)

I ended the evening with a trip to Home Depot to buy some more supplies. Next on the list is to clean the garage up a bit, clean old cobwebs, and replace some glass panes. After that, reglazing the tub, painting the closets and possibly repainting a few walls. Lots and lots to do.

6/30/09 Day 2- Locks and Floors

I intended on having a locksmith come to rekey Wednesday morning at 8:45 AM but changed my mind. I was told that the vertical locks were not very predictable in that they could easily jam due to house settling. It was also possible that we would not be able to have all of the house locks on the same key if they were made by different manufacturers (which of course they are). I decided to try it myself before paying about $150 for a locksmith.

I went by my apartment to get some tools only to discover I have misplaced my cordless drill. Another trip to Lowe's. I bought another drill along with the bits needed to drill the hole in the side of the door since I would be converting to standard deadbolts. So far so good.

I started on the back of the house and successfully put on a new doorknob... but discovered I had put the locking mechanism on backwards. I had to uninstall it, rotate the lock, and reinstall the handles. Other than that, it worked quite well. Then Brett came over to help with drilling holes and adding a new deadbolt. Here's where things got interesting. NONE of the previous holes worked. Either they were too small or too far over into the door. In the end, we got 1 knob in and 1 lock in.

The floors are really starting to look good. So far they have sanded the front rooms and it looks great even with no finish.

Check out the difference! Pretty red oak.

And off with a bang!

After work I went over to MY NEW HOUSE to start working! My brother Ben, Grandma, and Mom all came over to join in the festivities. First up was pulling out the nails and remaining carpet while there was still light out. There were more than I thought... way more. Most came out with a little bit of force but a few were stuck. We marked these for the professionals to work on.

Check it out! It looks a million times better without the junk!

1st bedroom now empty. Note the painted over outlet. Nice.

The (still dirty) newly painted bathroom.

3rd bedroom looking into the kitchen.

A bright kitchen NOT filled with junk.

The laundry room.

Can you believe it?? The garage is empty!!

Next, since Ben has some experience with renovations we started on the wooden accent divider that I so despised. He went to town with the saw while I carried away the wood and Grandma supervised. Once it was out the entire room seemed so much larger. I am so glad we decided to take that out. Another good thing- there was wood underneath it so I don't need to worry about filling in more wood.

Here's before.

The start.

Grandma supervising the construction.

Grandma showing Ben how its done. All of that golf finally paid off!

No more divider and Ben showing off his sledgehammer.

Mom worked on painting the ceilings in the 2 main bedrooms while Grandma went around with a broom, dustpan, vacuum, and wet washcloth to clean up the bits of dirt and debris that the previous owners left behind. David and Katie both stopped by to check out the place. Katie moved a few things in, pulled nails, we picked up my pie safe, and we ordered a pizza from the place down the street. I certainly could not have gotten everything done that night without everyone pitching in. (Thanks!!) Hopefully all of the work that needs to be done will work out this well.