One Sixty: My Unlucky Jan

My Unlucky Jan

It's been a while. Mostly because I've been out of commission due to... well... continuous bad luck. First Mike caught the stomach flu. Then I had jury duty for over a week and my work was raging mad about it. Then I caught the stomach flu. Then work was madness because I missed so much because of jury duty and the stomach flu. Then a friend and I got into a bad car accident on our way home from a concert. (No injuries though - so I guess that was lucky.) And now I'm just waiting for the next bad thing to happen... though hopefully this string of misfortunes is over.

But would you believe we're inching forward on the homefront! Amazing that I've felt like it. Although I have to admit I was really depressed right after the whole stomach flu thing. Every crack in the wall, every splat on the floor, every lapse in the paint - it was painful. But I'm feeling more hopeful now, after forcing myself to do some work.

The Sunday before last I stripped the paint off my vanity, cleaned the basement, and insulated our attic space. Meanwhile, Mike finished installing the baseboard in the mudroom, the mudroom closet light, and a smoke detector.

This past Sunday, we sanded and stained the vanity, picked up and installed the last of the basement windows, researched glass bricks on the internet (for use in the small basement windows), fixed my truck's back power window, and cleaned a portion of the garage.

But what's really got my psyched is our upcoming tax return - it'll be enough to buy new floors! I think we decided to go with a laminate, mostly because it looks good, installs without glue or nails, has 3mm of underlayment already attached, has a 25 yr warranty, and still costs half as much as real wood. Yes - I know wood is good. But I think the laminate is a better/easier choice for us.

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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.

One Sixty

My Unlucky Jan

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