One Sixty: Stagnant - Like Puddle Water

Stagnant - Like Puddle Water

Doo bee doo, la la, na na, - OH, it's my audience. Hi everybody. Don't mind my quiet singing to myself, it's just a sign of my complete transition into boredom. Thousands of thousands of dollars are sitting in my savings account, just waiting to help lift up my house. And if not lift up my house, re-do my bathroom, build a fireplace - who knows what else! But, as happens very often in the wide world of contractors and homeowners, I have lost track of all my bargaining chips and am at the will of the contractor.

I talked to our house lifter last week... I hadn't heard from him for over a month, and so I called to say, "Hey what's going on? I thought you were going to do this job over the summer - SUMMER"S OVER!" Good news was, a mutal friend of ours mentioned us to him. Never hurts to have a connection, no matter how small... keeps things human.... or so I keep telling myself.

Anyway, he said he was finishing up a few jobs. Again confirmed that our house would be easy and he wasn't going anywhere. He said he'd get a letter/contract with a start date in the mail ASAP.

That was a week ago. *sigh* So here I am, back to twiddling my thumbs. I have a feeling it will be another month before I hear from him. And I'll have to call him. It's depressing. I know he's a good guy - he is the undisputed source for house lifting on Cape Cod and I'd never go anywhere else. I just wish we could be first on his list.

Blog Story

My now husband Mike and I purchased this quaint home back in spring of 2004 - our first home - and, being the handy folks we are, expected to have the entire thing renovated in about a year or so.

And here we still are... renovating away.

This house needed a complete overhaul. Its plaster walls were uninsulated, its attic floor covered in 2" of bat guano, its basement - dirt and snakes, its exterior - asbestos siding, and lead paint windows in every room. The electric had not been updated and light sockets hung bare from the ceiling. Plumbing featured cast iron radiators - and only one for the entire upstairs.

We began by gutting almost the entire house from top to bottom. (sans bathroom - we needed to pee) We rebuilt the entire upstairs, with a new floor (not new carpet or wood - the once unstable framing underneath) and turned 3 small rooms into two. We reinvented the downstairs by turning a closet into a hallway and eliminating interior exterior windows and doors from old half-assed additions.

New insulation, windows, electrical wiring (including phone and CAT-5 internet), plumbing and baseboards, and drywall were all added.

We purchased kitchen cabinets from a yard sale. (None existed previously.) Our families helped us replace and purchase new appliances including the once also missing washer & dryer.

Then we had the entire house lifted - straight into the air - dug out the dirt, and had a real basement foundation poured. We updated our oil tank and burner and created heating zones.

Outside, we took down trees and planted grass. We dug out an awkward hill to create a 2nd part to the driveway and used the rocks our house once sat on as a retaining wall. We electrified and repainted the garage.

And of course, we spent many an hour on finish work like paint, trim, closet doors, lighting fixtures, hardwood floors, curtain rods, dimmer switches, and many other things everyone else takes for granted. We are still working to complete all this final finishing, but happy to report that we are FINALLY nearing completion of all little things in all rooms!

In 2008 we began overhauling the exterior by creating a new french door entryway and building a farmer's porch and garage addition. We replaced our roof and then stripped off our siding and replaced with new clapboards. We then planted two new flowering trees and a maple in the front yard - our first major landscape purchases. I'm happy to report that here in 2011, the porch is nearing completion and the back yard is on the road to recovery with some new loam and grass. More plantings soon to come!

In 2012 we plan to attack the last MAJOR (emphasis on major) job in the house - the dreaded BATHROOM! We plan to first add a second bathroom in the basement. Then, demolish our current bathroom and rebuild it, adding a second bathroom on top for the upstairs.

And that pretty much brings you up to date. The battle continues day to day as we try and complete everything.