One Sixty: Needing to get Nailed

Needing to get Nailed

Would you believe I have not had the pleasure of entering or exiting through the new doors yet? Pathetic - it's been nearly a week and we still haven't shimmed, caulked, and nailed them yet! (Sounds kinky!) But I have to admit, with bday parties, dinner parties, exhaustion, and snow days - it's been a bit of a crazy week.

On Monday during that freak storm, we were getting some leaking at the bottom of the door too, so it has been on my mind.

And this weekend's going to be a wash. Tomorrow we have to haul scrap metal and then take our skid steer down to Mike's parent's house for some work they need done. I imagine that will take up the whole day - and I may hang back. I'm not sure. I'm undecided.

Not that it matters much. I have no money to move forward on anything, so I guess I should be happy that I can spend the time relaxing. And if there's any extra time, we can definitely shim, caulk, and nail the door. And if there's any extra extra time, we can move the switches, exterior light, and doorbell to their new home next to the new doors.

Now that I think about it, since we're messing around with the wiring of the exterior lights anyway, wouldn't it be a perfect time to put in that street lamp?! Oh my god, I can't believe I just thought of that. Damn me, now I want to put it in.

Oh - and I almost forgot about the most exciting little tidbit of good news. ANDERSON windows. FREE. Big double windows from what I'm told. They come courtesy of our good friend Hal, the oil man. (Hourihan Oil - look 'em up if you're in the Cape Cod area) He recently built his own house and I'd imagine that they're probably just leftovers. I'll be totally pschyed if they fit in the mudroom where that 'ol stinky door is currently. But again, there may be no time to pick those up this weekend. I don't even know all the details, since I fell asleep on Mike at 8:30 last night. That's how pooped I was. But I'll find out...

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.

2 comments:

Fred said...: Your project schedule sounds like the "mythical two day project" I just wrote about. It seems like even with the best intentions, projects take on a life of their own (or better yet, your life takes on a life of its own and the project gets back-burnered). My basement has been in production for nearly a year now. And its got at least another year before its finished.; 5:10 PM
Anonymous said...: Yay for free windows!; 10:00 PM