One Sixty: Paint and Never Ending Supplies

Paint and Never Ending Supplies

Our neighbors were over on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. For primer, touch ups, and more touch ups to the upstairs officina, which severely changed my upstairs schedule. Monday, I purchased paint thinking that all the priming would be done.... nope. The guys made their touch ups and we were plumb outta primer. So when they finished sanding the touch ups on Tuesday, they couldn't prime them.

I was so frustrated yesterday about my fast rising deepho bill that I just sat on the couch like a frumpy lump all night, mad cause I couldn't get any work done.

Of course, it doesn't make it any easier that my neighbors prefer Bunker Hill primer. Which I can only get at the local Town Paint. Which is only open 9-5, which is when I work. And it's too far to go to on my lunch break.

So today, I could only purchase a gallon of deepho brand primer on lunch break (because of course there's a deepho 5secs from work) and not the usual cost effective 5 gallon bucket. Oh well, I have to tell myself, I've wasted $9 on worse.

I'm hoping that Mike will get home on time tonight so we can paint. (I have issues working the pole, but he's great at it.... and stop thinking that, you sickos!) Once we slap another coat of primer all the way around the office, we can get to painting the colors.

If we can manage to get alllll the painting done tonight and tomorrow, we can rent the nailer on Saturday and get that floor down. And then we have to buy all the trim boards. Ahhhh! Money money money. I need to pay my deepho card off again before I buy a sh*t load of wood. Sunday is Mike's riding day, anyway.... so we'll see how money flows next week.

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.