One Sixty: Feels Like A Year

Feels Like A Year

Remember how I had that mad-crazy last saturday plan? Well, that was foiled. My sister in-law is selling her house and needed Mike's home-improvement expertise on Saturday.

Which, actually worked out perfectly because I really shouldn't be buying more stuffx at the DeepHo until I pay off my bill next week! That's a conundrum isn't it? Paying off a credit card so you can buy more stuff on it and get yourself back in debt.... it's almost philosophical in its retardedness.

So my Saturday was spent on my ass. There was a Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends marathon on and one point - and I enjoyed that waaay too much.

On Sunday I had to shoot in NH and Mike was the one on his butt all day... probably watching the Power Block on Spike TV... followed by Man-Type movies.... and eating chips 'n cheez.

This week's going to be a complete loss too. Since I'll be shooting in Laconia next Saturday I decided, what the hell? Why don't we just go up there for the weekend and do some riding? Since we won't be up there for bike week. I wish we could camp, but the grass isn't strong and tall enough to drive the big 'ol truck over it to pick up the slide-in, which is at the back of the back yard.

What does all that mean - I've got to hoard more money so I can pay for room and food and fun and gas. *sigh*

It's always something.

Although I did get my plants in the mail! I got three pink flowering shrubberies, one lilac, and a bunch of little ground-cover-type purplie flowering things. (You can tell I'm sooo into gardening, right? Pshaw!) Yeah, I just plant 'em where I'd like 'em and if they live they live and if they die, I don't cry about it because I don't have the patience to deal with taking care of them. I just figure - these plants normally just grow in the wild allll on their own, right? So they should be able to fend for themselves in my yard.

Gardeners of the world are screaming at me and my laziness right now, I'm sure. My neighbor is an awesome gardener/farmer - I have to plant stuff when he's not looking so he doesn't see how many rules of gardening I'm breaking.

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.

One Sixty

Feels Like A Year

1 comments:

Search

Blog Story

Archive

This Rant Brought to You By:

Places to Go Peeps to See

The Infamous LIST

Zazzle Designs!

Found Me, Now Check This Out!

Other Awesome Blogs

Twitter-Bug

Save Now!