One Sixty: Bread Makes It Better

Bread Makes It Better

Let me tell you, there's few things that will squash a bad mood like a freshly baked loaf of sourdough. That's what's brought me out of the depths. I should count myself lucky that we have a bread maker here at work - and delicious dipping oil.

So I'm sorry for yesterday's rant. I wasn't feeling very well when I got home from work yesterday and just collapsed. But now it's Friday and I feel a little better. Especially since tomorrow I'm going to the RV show with my good friends Andy and Crystal. Not that I'll come home with a shiny new RV - but it's so much fun to look.

And I talked to Mike seriously about the heat problem. He did agree that the windows and door in the kitchen and mudroom weren't helping the problem. And he's going to hook up the baseboards for me this weekend! I'm so excited! We may also blanket wrap the side door and use the front door only until we can get a new door.

I would imagine that I could purchase the door at the end of this month. If I hadn't filled the oil tank, I could have gotten it this week. Thank god for pay raises. And... hopefully my friend Dos Bequis and her beau will come over Saturday morn to look at the truck. I offered it to them for a discounted price. If they buy it, I will be a happy pancake.

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.