One Sixty: So Very Outtofit

So Very Outtofit

Out to lunch. That's the sign I should have put up on this blog. Because I've been 100% not here. Last week was madness, what with my wisdom teeth getting out, a settlement meeting, work madness.... This week will be no better. I got to work early this morning, tomorrow I'll be in the office at 5:30am for a shoot and not back until probably after dark, plus I have to work all day Saturday.

Joy to my world.

And I haven't even told you about the weekend before last.

Well, it was just a tornado of insanity. Saturday (the 31st) I did not feel well, but still I had to prep for Sunday's Impromptu-BQ for Mike's BDay. Meanwhile the guys worked on the porch in the AM and early afternoon - until of course it started looking really stormy out. Of course, after the guys left, it never ended up raining at our house. Figures. The Cape got hit pretty bad though I guess.

Wow. I can't even write coherently. I apologize. This post just sux! But I'll try and continue on anyway.

By the time the guys left on Saturday, the rest of the decking was done. And we had a new mascot - the scary petrified looking lizard. Our neighbor Dana found it in his garden and brought it over to try to scare me with... I wasn't scared, but the guys adopted it as our porch mascot.

At the end of the day, the guys tacked on our old makeshift stairway that used to be on the front door... you know, just so we could retire the step stool.

Here's the completed decking by the door. You can tell the difference between the Morse Lumber decking and the DeepHo decking. DeepHo stores all their stock inside, so their decking is dried out and lighter than the Morse PT decking, which is housed outside and is green. But it won't matter, the two will even out as they age, and we'll be eventually painting or staining it anyway.

But boy were we happy we got the rest of the decking from Morse. Their 14' pieces were as much as the DeepHo 12' pieces. How's that for a royal rip off? I don't even want to know how much I wasted getting all the 16' pieces there. Oh well. It's done now, nothing I can do.

Oh, and I forgot to mention - Saturday morning's delivery was our last huge delivery! All that's left to purchase now is trim, roofing, and clapboards... and paint and little stuff. I shouldn't speak to soon actually. All that little stuff ends up being super expensive.

And since this post is not quite all there, I'll attempt to tell the rest of the story in a second one.

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

So Very Outtofit

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