One Sixty: Ahhh, Friday at Long Last

Ahhh, Friday at Long Last

I've never been so happy to be on the edge of a weekend! February is almost over and I'm feeling fine. Over the past week, I've gotten so much relieving news too. No more worries for me! Well... at least not as many.

We did our taxes last night - and now comes time for the all important tax-return decision. If you remember, last year's returns purchased all the hardwood for the upstairs. I'm wondering if we should continue this year and purchase all the hardwood for the downstairs...

Or, should we save it for the construction of the farmer's porch.

I'm really on the fence about this one. Getting the hardwood for the downstairs would bring the house-interior-doneness level up to over 95%. As in the upstairs, we'd have to fix the downstairs drywall cracks, install subfloor and hardwood, and then finish the baseboard and other trim. And although that's a lot of work - it's the last hoorrah. At that point, the downstairs would be officially nearly done. We'd just have to do our stair railing and a couple other little things and that would be it. An amazing concept....

But we've been really gearing up for the farmer's porch, what with the installation of the french doors and permit preparation. Putting on the farmer's porch would be a huge improvement for the house's exterior. At the same time, we'd replace the disgusting old siding on the front of the house with nice clapboards - white with green shutters, window boxes, and of course the beautiful porch. It would be picture perfect.... at least from the front.

I want both equally as much! Ok housebloggers, let's take a vote. What would you do if you were me? Interior doneness or exterior progress?

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.

8 comments:

Jennifer said...: I would go porch... but my house is a constant state of undoneness!; 4:33 PM
kitrainia said...: One vote porch. I need to see what Mike thinks too, actually. I was thinking about it all weekend and still can't decide!; 9:07 AM
gemteck60 said...: Loved the 2 minute rough cut of Suzanne Vega which turned out to be 7 minutes +! Nice work!

I'm a retired jewelry designer turned contractor so I;ll suggest you do the floor first since you live inside and will have so much pleasure from them. We just refinished the fir floors in our 100 year old farmhouse on Lopez Island in the San Juan's and I am so happy!

Also made a new entry complete with porch, the challenge was to make it look like it had been there all along. Pics on Flikr if interested.

Clarke
Seattle
clarkebeattie@comcast.net; 12:04 AM
kitrainia said...: Wow - now this was a freaky internet experience! I worked on the Suzanne Vega documentary 4-5 years ago and so I was highly weirded out that you would comment on it.

I thought to myself, Oh my god, how do I know you? How do you know I edited some of that?!

But then of course I went to the Mooncusser Films website and Chris has a link to my blog under my bio! How cool, I thought. Of course, my bio needed to be updated, so I sent him an email. And I'm embarrassed that you saw that pic of me - it's terrible!

But thanks for the comment! Now I've got to check out your pics! =); 12:58 PM
gemteck60 said...: Hope I didn't scare you, I thought the Suzanne Vega thing was a work in progress. I thought it was a nice pic. go figure? Hope you enjoy mine.

Clarke
seattle; 11:45 PM
gemteck60 said...: http://flickr.com/photos/organize/?start_batch=recent_uploads2; 5:12 AM
gemteck60 said...: http://flickr.com/photos/organize/?start_batch=recent_uploads; 5:13 AM
kitrainia said...: Nah - I just had to figure it out. And I'm glad you like that pic! At least someone does. LOL =); 9:16 AM