One Sixty: Clean up clean up everybody do your share

Clean up clean up everybody do your share

Clean up clean up everybody everwhere - is the next verse to that #1 jam if you wanted to know. It's true. It's time to get all the concrete out of the backyard.

Our original plot was to get a demo dumpster. But upon talking to our friend Nick Mitchell, Mike discovered that because of dumpster weight limits, it would cost approx. 2.71 bragillion dollars to get rid of our concrete jungle. So that's very depressing on the one hand. On the other, Nick offered to get rid of our concrete plus grade our front yard for the price of what it would cost him to dispose of the concrete. He estimated about $1200.

So basically, it's a buy one get one free situation. We pay to get rid of the concrete, and he gets rid of it and grades out our front yard! That deal's not too shabby... I just wish I still had like $10,000 in my account to feel warm and cozy about the whole thing. But you got to do what you've got to do. Nick's all booked in September, so if we don't take him next week, we don't get it done... unless we pay approx. 2.71 bragillion dollars.

Nick asked Mike if we wanted grass... oooo how I want grass. And not just plain 'ol ordinary grass. SOD. Growing stuff reeks. Especially for me because I touch a plant, and it dies... or makes me itchy. Me and plants just don't get along so great for some weird reason.

I know sod is an expensive proposition for us and our large property. I'd want it in the front and in the back too. (No sick jokes guys.) And of course we'd have to put loam down first because we live in a sandbox. No soil whatsoever. I want Mike to get a price on it. Wouldn't it be so cool if suddenly the price of Sod plummeted because of a world-wide-sod overstock? Maybe some SOD company will read this and think "I'm going to use their house as the ultimate before and after picture for our marketing campaign in exchange for freee sod!" You never know. I should pitch that to some sod co's.

Or, maybe the price wouldn't be so horrific. It would be sooooo worth it.

Imagine - nice fluffy grass. All new and pretty. Those Andersons wouldn't say my yard looks like shznt then now would they?

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.