You Can't Build A Brick House Without Bricks

Turns out, we are fresh out of rollers and brushes. No painting last night. Instead, Mike cleaned up the entire drywall mess - vacuumed the bathroom and the living room, and cleaned up all his tools from inside the bathroom.

We'll be ready to go for tonight!

Me Time

On Monday, Mike sanded the bathroom. On Tuesday, Mike sanded the bathroom again. And now it's time for me... to paint! Yes, I just said paint, or, technically, prime. Tonight I shall be priming! And I couldn't be more ecstatic.

Come to think of it, I hope I have at least one roller and a brush kicking around. I feel like it's been forever since I did any painting and I have no clue what we have in stock anymore.

I already have the colors picked out for Mike to pick up on Friday. A dark teal for the ceiling and a near-white (tinge of mint) for the walls. If I'm painting color by Saturday night, I will be one super psyched lady!

Mike will have to do some caulking around the top of the shower where they just couldn't squeeze any drywall compound in. It's that tight. After the paint is complete, the shower head can be installed along with the glass enclosure. (Which was of course, removed for drywalling.) A little baseboard trim to do, then the vanity can go in and the sink plumbing hooked up. Oh, and of course the lights, recessed trim, fan trim, and mirror can go up too.

Amazing how fast stuff can happen once a stubborn roof leak is fixed!

Meanwhile, before that...

I completely forgot about madness Sunday! Wow. Yes, last Sunday there was actually too much happening. Even for me! Our carpenter was over first thing in the morning to finish up the shingling up on the tippidy top of the house where Mike dared not go, ladder or no. Later on that morning, our chimney sweep (do we not have a friend for everything?) came by to clean our blocked chimney.

I don't think I've even mentioned that in the midst of all the craziness we've been going through, Mike awoke in the middle of one night a few weeks ago to a house filled with smoke! There was no chimney fire, thankfully, but it was definitely plugged up. And there was Mike in the middle of the night with a bunch of box fans, opening up all the windows and airing out the entire house.

It took weeks for the smell to dissipate. The basement still stinks.

So, enter the chimney sweep. After much cleaning, the chimney was clear again. While he was here, the guys checked the stove and tried to run it again. Our sweep confirmed - it does not run hot enough. And he couldn't give us any solutions on what to do. A few things to try perhaps, but we all pretty much agreed that the stove is too old and inefficient.

New wood stove. Add that to the shopping list. Luckily, there appear to be some tax credits available if we were to purchase a new, highly efficient wood stove. Not a bad idea. How much does it cost to fill an oil tank now-a-days? For the price of two fills, I bet we'd have the price of a new stove right there. But we'll have to shop around, see what's what. To the list it goes!

After those two guys finished up, it was yard cleanup time. Mike brought home the blower the night previous, and, after moving a buncha logs out of the back yard, blew the entire thing thoroughly. Looks great! No more sticks, less leaves, and no logs.

I took Zaida in the stroller with a bag (I had the bag, not her) and picked up all the trash I could find. (Being on a relatively busy road plus track pickup Tuesday, we get a fair share of garbage on the lawn.) After Mike was done out back, he and Mikey cleaned up all the construction/shingle debris from just outside the downstairs bathroom. I had no clue it had been such a mess over there! Glad that's taken care of, pre-bday party.

And thus concluded the busiest Sunday ever - I won't even mention the fact that I was pumping out 30 handmade bday invitations and that there was a salamander loose in the kitchen. Just that kindofa day.

A Hole, A Yard Sale, and A Place for Everything

News news and more news.

The new chimney project is for the wood stove - good news. It's not going in the same place as the old chimney. The old furnace chimney will eventually have to be replaced. That's our first headline of the week.

Mike has not received the plans from his friend yet... but hopes to by Monday so that he can return to the town hall and get the permit squared away. Nevertheless, he began digging for the footing.

And I have to admit, there's less of a mark on the yard then I had imagined. But here we are, sitting on a hole in the yard for over a week with no plan and no permit. Just gives me something else to worry about, if I didn't have enough on my plate already.

Second headline of the week: Yard Sale Sales Decent! Ok, so it wasn't a mad rush of people and we didn't make a million dollars. I don't think the craigslist ad did anything for us and neither did the signs... last time I put Mike in charge of signage. No clue where he put those things. Most of our folks were neighborhood locals.

But still, we sold a lot of the big stuff, make enough to make it worthwhile, and made some much needed space.

I spent the rest of Sunday and potions of Monday trying to organize stuff. Mostly stuff that had previously been stored on the now-junked bookshelf.

Some of the stuff is scattered around our bedroom and some of it is still in the office. But I made good progress for the amount of time I had and how incredibly tired I was feeling.

While I was cleaning, Mike was down in the bathroom. Yes, I said the bathroom. He had, over the previous couple of days, gotten the foam brushes and completed the final coat of stain on the trim. On Monday, he installed it and began the laborious tasks of getting in the sink and toilet.


The toilet posed a bit of a problem because some of the tile around it was cut too wide and it showed on one side. We discussed it and decided we didn't want to wait to fix it. "It's a bathroom in a basement," I repeated. So when all was said and done and the toilet was in place, there was a little bit of caulking showing on one side. (I still say, No Big Deal.)

After the toilet, Mike installed the faucet fixture to the sink, attached the sink top to the cabinet for good, and put the whole thing in place. Plumbing will have to wait, as the caulking had to dry. 

Onward and upward! Mike hopes to bring back our plumber friend to help him properly plumb the pump to the septic-out and test everything. Me? I hope to finish organizing and find a rug for the now half-office so we can set up all the baby furniture. (Seven more weeks to go!)

Early Grout and Sunday Miscellaneous

Feast your eyes on the glory that is finished tile! Duh duh duhhhhhhh! Friday night, Mike and I sat down at the computer and picked out the grout color - Mist 939, a medium grey. My dad picked it up Saturday morning and arrived early Saturday afternoon to begin work. By late Saturday afternoon, the job was done - and beautiful.

Dr's orders, stay off the tile for a couple of days, then hit the grout with a wet - dry cloth. Good to go. Couple days = Tuesday. And I told Mike Saturday night, this battle station must be operational ASAP. Just Five Easy Steps! 1. Baseboard Trim. 2. Vanity and Toilet. 3. Plumb from pump to septic pipe 4. Lighting and fan fixtures. 5. Doors. I don't think we've ever had so much "in stock" and ready to go like we do in this room. Quite a satisfying feeling, knowing we're not going to be running out to the deepHo for anything major.

So with the bano tiled a day early, we had Sunday to tackle some other tasks and even managed to have friends over! (ooooooo!) The previous Thursday or Friday, I finally had an opportunity to purchase winter moth repelling tree spray, and Mike applied it to all our new trees Sunday morning... those bugs love the cherry blossoms and the two trees in the front yard have suffered hard for the past couple years. Next on the agenda, Mike trimmed the garage door and installed the weatherstripping. (Only been a year that this job has been sitting idle.) The garage finally looks finished now! Then, he cleaned up wood and logs from the tree we felled after Hurricane Irene and chopped up another tree that we'd lost in the backyard over the winter.

After a little bit of building material cleanup on the porch picnic table and cleaning of the kids' water table, we still had plenty of time for friends. (Awe, muffin.)

How To New Kitchen In Less Then 3 Weeks. The End.

I have been completely and utterly out of control for the last week. Yes, for some reason, I suppose I had gotten used to chaos…. so when the chaos suddenly ended, I was lost and confused, running around not knowing whether to scratch my watch or wind my butt.

The kitchen was completed last Friday – but basically done on Thursday minus the cabinet hardware. I remember walking in the house after work Thursday night… it was literally one of those HGTV “Big Reveal” moments. I had seen the layout. I had seen all the cabinets going in. I had seen the MDF countertop form. But to see the real countertop on those cabinets… and all the doors and drawers on… the sink in…and all the appliances in place. It was amazing. Drop dead gorgeous, I can’t believe this is my house, this is a rich person’s kitchen amazing. After our installer left, Mike and I just stood there like idiots, marveling over it. We were both blown away.

 The light colored countertop brightened the entire room and complimented everything – the cabinets, the floor, the appliances, the sink… And I just knew all my red accent pieces (toaster, knives, Keurig, etc.) were going to really pop against it. Not only that, the entire countertop was seamless – even in the corners! And the backsplash went up on the wall much higher then our old one. The countertop also butt right up to the stove, so no more dropping massive quantities of foodstuffs down there with no means to clean it up. It was awesome.

The sink fit so much more easily in our  new cabinets too – no more too-big stuffed-in-there look with no room to clean behind it. Now we have countertop behind and in front of the sink for easy cleaning. Plus, the sink light, which was always off-center above the sink is now truly centered! (You have to remember, we made yard sale cabinets fit the space, so we’re lucky the light made it in even the right vicinity the first time.)

The weird corner by the fridge where the old window used to be is finally looking like “part of the kitchen” instead of “a weird corner where a window used to be.” The upper cabinets on that side work perfectly, despite my hesitation at getting them. And the extra counter space on that side makes the whole kitchen look bigger, as it creates a better flow. (A U shaped, circular flow, if you will.) The large fridge finally looks like it was meant to be there, instead of a huge-ass fridge somebody stuck in a super small space.

Our stove, if you recall, we moved over about the space of one cabinet, at the suggestion of our designer. This too, I was unsure about, since I didn’t want to lose any cabinet space. But I’m so glad I followed his advice. Again, this one small change, a little tiny move to the left, makes a huge difference in the overall flow of the room. Before, the stove was too close to the fridge and, again, boxed in that weird old window corner. Now, the two appliances have room to breathe, and there’s still a ton of cabinet space, especially with the new above-microwave unit.

We are 100% satisfied. Expectations exceeded by leaps and bounds. Mike told the dude straight up, “You’re the only contractor we’ve ever had in here who did a great job.” And it’s true. In fact, he went above and beyond, taking his time with every detail of the installation. Everything is perfect. Perfect! There isn’t a thing out of place, and no compromises and no excuses (“Well,  X and Y aren’t working so we have to do Z instead.”) and no extra monies or materials or anything needed… And no mess to clean up afterwards. Our experience was unbelievably good.

After we got over being completely dumbfounded in our new kitchen, Mike and I re-installed the track light, re-moulding it to fit the new space so that lights shined now in both corners as well as across the front. (We ended up only using four lights out of 5, which is perfect since I broke #5 while cleaning back around Halloween.) We also put back up some of our wall décor. Mike, seemingly inspired by the meticulousness of the kitchen installation, took the time to measure and properly center everything too.

Last Friday, the hardware and bottom trim installation was complete, thus completing our kitchen renovation. You’d think after our installer said, “It’s all yours!” I would have gone gung-ho, replacing and reorganizing all the foods and dishes in the cabinets right away. Nope. As soon as those words were uttered and the door was shut and the van was driving away… My brain turned to mush.

 I began putting a few things here and there, but felt mostly like an overwhelmed zombie. Saturday wasn’t much better. Again, I continued to put away more stuff,  but felt scattered. Thankfully, I had somewhere to be in the afternoon. I needed a mental break from lack of chaotic activity. Sunday, Mike spent most of the day installing and re-plumbing the sink and dishwasher. We ran into a few hurdles, some leaks, some bad hose, a minor flood… the normal stuff. By the end of the day – and I mean truly the end because we had a hose go bad when I finally tried to run the dishwasher around 6pm – everything was back to normal and functioning well.

But the return of the sink F’d me up for an additional day or two. Knowing the day was soon at hand, I’d let dishes just sit for a while. So there were a lot of them. And we had run out of paper plates. So there were plates too now. If I can manage to put away dishes from the dishwasher tonight, I may be finally caught up after 4 days.

And at this point, everything is finally put away and organized after all the picking away at it. I think I did a decent job of figuring out the  most efficient arrangement. (Took me long enough though.) The plates/bowls are over the dishwasher for easy putting away. Pots, pans, bowls, and frequently used small appliances are in the lower corner next to the stove. Infrequently used items like good china and fondue pots are in the upper corner next to the fridge. Food items are mostly in the lazy susan next to the fridge with additional small and canned items in some of the upper cabinets around the stove.

The cutlery is below the cutting board work space. The trash cabinet is right next to the cutting board work space for easy cleanup during food prep. The trash bags, plastic wrap, etc are all in the cabinet next to the trash cabinet. The old trash can is out. (Let me say, it took us a few days just to transition to a new trash can… that’s how messed up I was.)

The cups and mugs are back where they were originally… and believe it or not, we have unused cabinet space. AND – all that bulky BJ’s food and potato/onion containers that previously had to be stored on top of the fridge because they didn’t fit anywhere else?! They all fit in this kitchen. No lie. The lazy susan is big enough to handle large and bulky items with ease. My only gripe is that items in the lazy susan must be arranged so as not to bump the hinge mechanism of the door. That’s a little bit annoying, but in no way am I dissatisfied.

The only other small inconvenience – my ice cream machine does not fit under the cabinets anymore. But that’s ok… because it fits in the cabinet with all the pots, pans, and other frequently used items.

We now have trim at the base of the cabinets, whereas before we had none and the grout from the tile was splattered messily on the bottom of the old cabinets. The hardware looks great and coordinates well. I just can’t say enough good things about this kitchen.

And here on Wednesday, I think we’re finally close to enjoying it. We have to clean the floor of all drywall mess… do those last remaining dishes… and reinstall the bag holder and pot lid holder.

How To New Kitchen In Less Then 3 Weeks. The End.

Jumping in the Kitchen Headfirst

As name implies – there’s no going back. We’re kitchen committed now. Mike… my poor guy. He’s going to need a serious break after all this.

Let’s roll the clock back to Saturday AM. My monumental task of the day is a mission of epic proportions. The entire kitchen needs to be emptied. The contents of the entire kitchen cannot be in the kitchen. Dangerous, sharp, and spillable/breakable items cannot be within the reach of our 2.9 year old. The entire house needs to be meticulously cleaned. The entire kitchen needs to be meticulously cleaned. Why? Well, here’s a portion of the big kitchen secret. It’s all being filmed.

I can’t divulge more then that at this time, but, very HGTV-like, we needed to prepare a proper “before” shot. Clean, clutter free, but still appearing as though someone really truly uses this kitchen. (Can’t clean the counters completely, can’t remove pictures from the wall or plants from the window sill.)

It took the entire day. Literally, the entire day, to do this. First, I cleaned areas not the kitchen. Bathroom, mudroom, living room. Did the dishes. Did the laundry. Made a quiche. Started marinating a pulled pork to put in the crock pot Sunday AM. (Preparing for a difficult-to-cook situation. Can you tell I’m an old pro at this??!)

Once that was accomplished, it was on to the kitchen. I started with the clutter. The stuff on the fridge, off. The pens/pencils, vitamins, and other junk on the counter, off. Then, time for the cabinets. I took a deep breath and went through them one by one, stuffing stuff wherever stuff could be stuffed. I threw out some things. I brought some other things to the basement for storage. Discovered I had at least 10 Coors Light cooler bags. (No new cooler bags this summer!) And slowly, all the cabinets were emptied.

There’s stuff on the piano. There’s stuff under the piano.There’s stuff on the wall of the mudroom where I removed Mikey’s easel and our shoes. The glasses and tupperware are in the laundry basket, in the laundry closet.

There’s stuff on top of the kegerator. 

There’s stuff on the living room shelf thing – and on top of it.

There’s stuff on top of the entertainment center. Plates and bowls are in one end table. Pans are under the couch.  

There’s stuff in and on the bar.

 

There’s fondue pots in the hallway. I felt like some sort of super-organized hoarder. Stuff, stuff, and more stuff everywhere. And yet the house was still clean.

I discovered the original yard sale price tag from when we purchased our current cabinets. $200 for the whole set w/sink. We didn’t take the sink. Either that or we took it and threw it out.

Without much time to reminisce, I continued on. Once the kitchen had been emptied, it had to be cleaned. I was exhausted, but cleaned and tidied what I could before calling it a night… because that’s what it was at that point. Night.

Sunday morning, we were all up early. After breakfast, Mike got out the buffer (yes, an automotive buffer) and cleaned the stove and all our stainless steel. (Refrigerator, stove, and dishwasher.) And if you think cleaning your stove with a buffer is crazy… well, you should see what an awesome job it does. Just put a little glass cooktop cleaner on there and have at it. (Make sure you’ve wiped the surface free of all crumbs, etc first – else you could scratch your cooktop.) Meanwhile, I tidied up more, cleaned more, vacuumed, and swiffered. 

In a groundbreaking first-time-ever event, we were finished before the film crew arrived. (Usually never finished on start time – whether it’s a party or any event.) Then, for the next hour or so we did all our “befores” and even took down a few cabinets for show. It all went surprisingly smoothly and the crew was out and on their way on time, leaving us to do the rest on our own.

Everything went very well at first. The tops all came down no probs. There was a little mildew on the upper wall by the stove. Ok. No sign for alarm yet. The bottom on one side of the stove, no probs. Sink – pain in the butt, but not really a problem. After everything was disconnected, it wouldn’t come out. We had to use a sazall to cut the countertop around it off. Dishwasher unhooked with no problem. Shelf demo was fun and exciting.

Then we got to the rest of the cabinets on the back wall, on the left side of the stove. Problem. The cabinet right next to the stove pretty much fell apart as it was taken out. As in, all the sides collapsed. Why? Water damage. Behind the damaged cabinet, more bad news. Moist and spongy drywall. (Three words you never want to hear together in the same sentence.) Behind the moist and spongy drywall, yucky insulation. More bad news. Prognosis: the ceiling is leaking down the wall. How do we know? We can see the trail of cracked paint on the ceiling and now moist & spongy drywall, yucky insulation, and a damaged cabinet on the wall. Treatment: immediate removal of grossness and immediate emergency roofing.

Cracks in ceiling paint - mildew on upper part of wall

Potion of no drywall = bad. See that blackness on the insulation?

First, of course, we finished removing the cabinets and countertop and hauled them all away. Then, we ripped out the entire kitchen back wall. Drywall and insulation. Mike examined the sill and the studs for water damage and luckily, everything looked good. He spent the rest of the afternoon on wiring, since the new layout moves the stove over and incorporates a microwave on top. (A couple outlets needed to be moved… and we had an extra wire in there already, having planned for possible future stove-vent wiring. Smart, huh?) I spent the rest of my afternoon doing what else – cleaning up.

Hope future generations appreciate my insanity

So, changes in the wiring + no outlets in stock = no stove. Smart again with the dinner in the crock pot! The refridge is of course on its own breaker, no problems there. We did however have insulation in stock, extra from the basement bathroom. Most of that went up Sunday night before we called it quits.

We also put a call into our roofer/builder, Timmy. He did our entire other roof – everything but the kitchen, which we held off on at that time. He also did much of the finish work on our farmer’s porch. And let me say, he’s a great resource for questions or advice in either of those fields. Bruins fan – great guy. Another asset to the neighborhood. Anyhoo, Mike briefed him on the situation and they agreed that a rubber roof was the only way to go on a poorly sloped roof like our kitchen’s. Problem – you can’t rubber roof in temps under 50 degrees. But, and this is good prep for a new rubber roof anyway, he advised us to ice & water the entire thing. That should hold us off until spring.

Now, it’s the end of Sunday night. There’s stuff everywhere. There’s tools and building materials everywhere. The stove is off. The drywall is down and insulation is up. The truck is full of demo. In prep for the new kitchen, we had not planned on replacing any drywall. We had only planned for fixing cracks along the adjacent wall and re-painting. (No paint behind old cabinets.) We had certainly not planned on a new roof! The wiring, we knew about, and that was relatively easy. There are two pipes for the upstairs heat that need to be re-routed that we had forgotten about. Kitchen sink plumbing can come after the fact, thank god.

And the new cabinets are coming – this Thursday! Gulp. Everything must be completed by this weekend.

In with the Water Out

Wow. That's all I have to say. Our plumber came out Sunday morning as planned and he and Mike hooked up all the drains (bathtub, toilet, sink) in under an hour. Mike spent the rest of Sunday morning and early afternoon cleaning out all the rest of the broken cement, rocks, and dirt from the basement. (Throwing large pieces up and out the window, carrying small bits and dirt up in bucket loads.)

By late Sunday afternoon, he was on his way to the DeepHo to pickup cement. 

By late Sunday evening, all the trenches and pipes within the trenches were sealed and re-cemented beautifully. Not to mention that the entire area was clean and free of cement debris.

Pipe Pattern

The Evacuator

Cat prints immortalized

To repeat, Wow.

Too bad the dump was closed today. (Monday)

Next up, all the copper piping to plumb the water "in." (Since we already have the water "out" covered... literally at this point.) Then tile, electrical, insulation, and drywall. As far as I'm concerned, all that is the easy part. Once the copper is bought and installed, the difficult and expensive part will be officially complete.

What a way to ring in the new year!

Stain, Dig, Repeat

Allergies. I have severe allergies. And boy did I suffer last weekend... right after I cursed myself by saying, "F this sickness, I'm going to keep on doing whatever I wanna do." Yup. Never ever say that. Because the sick came back with a vengeance and bit me in the butt so hard I could barely get off the couch to make myself some Sleepytime tea.

I was going through a box o tissues a day. But after going to the Dr's on Wednesday, I'm Clariten clear! Now I understand that ad campaign - because I was in a serious fog o allergies. And that Netipot that I swore I'd never do? I'm doing it daily. And I'm going to be seeing a specialist.... Loverly.

But despite the pain... progress cannot be stopped. (Just slowed a little bit, which is super frustrating when you're on a tight spring chore/project schedule!)

Mike did in fact get the porch stainer and stain last weekend. The stainer thing looks a bit like a Swiffer, except with a brush in the middle to get the insides of the boards. Unfortunately, due to sickness, the porch was not cleaned off or prepared before Sunday as was planned. Mike had to do it all... and the job took all day.

Additionally, we realized last Sunday, "Hey it's May 1st and it's the last day we can burn!" And boy did we have a pile from all that yard work and trimming of trees we did a few weeks-a month back. So Mike set up a burn while he worked out front. It was a little hectic for a while...

But the brush got burnt and the stuff got stained.

The porch looks AMAZING! Not only because of the beautiful dark cherry stain, but also because all the poop is gone. (And by poop, I mean siding, wood, tools, etc.) I put back our porch furniture just a few days ago, plus a couple potted plants from BJ's.... OMG it looks like a real live nice person's house. I'm in love all over again.

I Actually Had a Nice Cup of Coffee Out Here While Mikey Played on the Bus

The Plants Make a Difference - So Nice!

The only unfortunate news - it's going to need another coat. And, with this week just made for diggin', I just don't think we're going to get to it in time for Mikey's 2nd bday party on the 15th.

But speaking of diggin', Mike picked up the machine on Thursday and began the lovely process of cleaning up the yard. (Did I mention he took the camper back to our friends' house on Tuesday night?) So the camper was already gone. Next, Mike cleared around the garage (again) and put some scrap metal in his truck for the dump. The boat he moved to our vacant neighbor's house. Mikey's little bus - on the porch.

And that's about all we had time for on Thursday....

Clean Up, Siding, and An Unexpected Guest

Yes, it's time again for the Sunday Show! The show where we present, for your reading and viewing pleasure, all the awesome and wonderful things that happened around the house on Sunday! You may have thought we were off the air - but yesterday unexpectedly kicked off the spring season of the Sunday Show in ways never thought possible.

We were up at our usual early hour on Sunday. And, inspired by a Saturday burn by our neighbor up the hill, (and not to mention my stick-gathering of two weeks ago) Mike went downtown at 9am and got a burn permit. Needless to say, we were burninating by before 10am. Awesome.

Shortly after the fire was self sufficient, Mike went about moving stuff in the yard. The camper - back to the gravel driveway. Those old logs - pushed down the hill with the skid steere. One lawn tractor - gave to a neighbor. Snowmobile - on the side of the garage, cover on. Junk - loaded in the truck for the dump. Sweet.

Although I must admit, this after photo doesn't look like much. But it looked a lot worse before. Additionally, Mike considered the grading project. He'll need to get himself a bigger machine, that's for sure. He estimated about an 18 inch difference from the garage addition to the edge of the hill. Plus, this nasty bit you see in the bottom third of this photo? All that has to be cut off as well. I'll be prodding Mike this week to remind him to source out a machine he can borrow on the cheap/free. Sounds like a plan.

And if you think that's all we've got on this edition of the Sunday Show - well, you're wrong! Around 12:30pm, Timmy and Richard came over and got right to work finishing the siding. Mudroom/Kitchen Side - done. (Save for a bit of trim and trim-painting.)

It's all one cohesive side! Imagine that.... Mike also cleaned up that side driveway whatever-you-want-to-call-it area. We had a buncha dirt piles there from snow plowing and sanding over the winter. Plus, we had our garage doors stored there on saw-horses. No more. Mike moved those, dug out the dirt, and put in some pea stone from the gravel driveway to fill in. Sigh of unexpected relief. I'll be prodding Mike some more to schedule his friend for garage door installation as soon as this upcoming weekend.

The last little triangle of siding up on top? (There on the right.) Oh yeah, it's done. Trim's back up. All is well with the world of siding.

If you simplify all and everything - you could call our siding half done. But, as Mike is quick to point out, the left hand side of the house is barren - no windows (save for an octagonal one yet to be installed), no doors, no additions, no porch, no nada. And without any of those strange cuts and jags, it will be quick work to side the left. (Not to mention less wasteful as well.) We're so much more then halfway there.

Nearing the end of the Sunday Show, Timmy made us a materials list for another upcoming Sunday Show. And believe it or not, it's not going to pinch my pockets too too badly.

Wrap for the last of the porch posts
Two more railings and a stair rail
Misc trim - and not much of it

Weather permitting, I will be prodding Mike to order everything on Friday. (Lotta prodding going on this week.)

Now it's time for the most Unexpected thing to ever happen on the Sunday Show. And I Missed It. MISSED IT! I'm so pissed. Ken Thompson stopped by. Name ring a bell? As in, just a couple weeks ago I was talking about Mr. and Mrs Robert Thompson, previous owners? And how the strange coincidence of my friend Christine having visited Mrs. Thompson caused me to reconsider all the unanswered questions about my house in my own mind??

And the dude shows up and Mike gives him the grand tour and I'm not there. Oh, I was livid.

Needless to say, he was impressed. Surprised that the bathroom had gone basically unchanged. Loved the kitchen, loved the tile. He did tell Mike in regards to the yard that they dug out a huge hill in order to build the garage. They dug it out and pushed it down the hill in back. It used to be just one giant hill in back of the house. And the family had always wanted to renovate, but didn't have the means to do what we did.

He said he usually has to go to the Cape for something every couple months. Mike encouraged him to stop by at any time, and I hope he does.

After that, Mike cleaned up the gravel driveway with the leaf blower.

And that's all we have time for this week on the Sunday Show! If you can't tell, I'm just giddy with excitement. Everything all of a sudden seems so close and easy again. If we can get that garage door installed next weekend.... If we can get the last posts trimmed and the last railings up next weekend.... If we can grade the backyard the weekend after that....

It's never that easy though, is it?

Week of A Million Catastrophes!

Well, of course #1 Catastrophe: Mike returned from South Butt late Monday night/early Tuesday morning sans Dodge. And upon his return, I got the entire U-Haul scoop, which was, unbelievably, worse then I could have ever imagined. (Full disclosure expose' to come!)

#2 Catastrophe: A crazy guy set my office building on fire last Monday night. Thank god our offices are in back - they sustained no damage. But due to the arson investigation and then lack of electrical power, we were unable to get into the building until late Thursday afternoon.

#3 Catastrophe: Crazy mad deadline rush at work Thurs-Fri!!!

And #4 - #1 million Catastrophe were of course, smaller in nature, but all directly related to the first three major catastrophes.

All in all, a week that most certainly took some years off my life. But, amidst all the stress, I have good news to report.

Firstly, Mike and I found ourselves together on Tuesday.... yes! Together on a weekday during normal business hours! (Imagine that?) So after Mike finished his lengthy phone calls to U-Haul, we high tailed it over to Morse Lumber to pick out railings for the farmer's porch. Azek was the composite brand recommended to us - good quality, a best seller, and no-maintenance. (You have to think to yourself - do you really want to re-paint railings year after year? Square poles and trim are one thing - one easy thing. A whole buncha railings and balusters?! A whole buncha pain-in-the-butt.)

We selected a basic white model - no frills, but complete with the bracket-hiding kit or whatever they call it. We'd need 8 sections, not including the stairways. (The figuring for those will come at a later date, as we haven't spoken to Timmy about them yet.) Total cost, approx. $1400.

That probably sounds outrageous.... and, admittedly, we could probably purchase wood for 1/3 of that... but I just don't want to go wood. Wood posts - fine. Wood trim - fine. Wood railings?! Not so much, in my opinion. We saved a boatload going wood on the rest of the porch, so I feel like we can spluurge a little bit where it's going to count.

We didn't order, since we want to check in with Timmy and make sure it's cool. Luckily, what we want is in stock, can be delivered next day, and likely be installed by Mike in one weekend. Each section comes in a box. You just put the pieces together and then attach to the poles. Hopefully, it will be easy.

(Pole wrap hasn't been completed yet, as the guys took this Sunday off, which worked out for us as you'll see in a moment.)

Secondly, 4Runner #1 has been sold! Though I didn't get quite as much as I was hoping, it's gone and the buyer was very happy with it and understood all its problems and quirks. Sweet. Two vehicles down, one to go.

Third, I return you to this past Sunday. As I said, the guys took a break from the porch, so Mike jumped on the opportunity to get Dodge #2 put together. (You know, the one in pieces in the back yard?) He devoted near to the entire day on it and stopped just short of 100% completion. He'll need a little more time, but when it's as tidy as can be for $0, it can be put up for sale as is. And with the sale of Dodge #2, we'll have no more extra vehicles!!!! (Amazing to think.)

Monday, Columbus Day, I took it upon myself to paint the garage and garage addition. I painted the garage white about two years ago.... then we picked out a grey siding for the house. So that white was in need of an update, plus the addition needed a coat of SOMETHING before winter. And what better time then a random Monday off?

Back two years ago, I did the job with a roller and a brush... and it took me hours upon laborious hours. Days, in fact. Yes, I'm pretty sure it took me days. This time around, however, I had a new painting weapon. A super duper power painter.  This thing painted one side of the garage is less then 5 minutes. It took longer to clear away all the mechanical misc from either side then it did to paint! I was blown away! A little bit of touching up on the trim from over-spray and the job was done.

Of course the job still took all day.... Why? Well, the clearing and cleaning up of all the mechanic misc of course! (I took the initiative and loaded up that garage addition. I mean, come on. It was empty and all this junk was outside, next to the garage. Ridiculous!)

Just check out the awesome results:

Look, Ma, no junk!

 Complete With Matching Addition

And the Other Side - One Hood and One Wheelbarrow Left, not too shabby

We survived the Week of a Million Catastrophes and somehow managed to come out.... well, not on top, but pretty high in elevation nonetheless. At this point, no expectations for this week. My brain is no longer processing information.

Hurricane Earl A'Comin

Ah, Cape Cod on Labor Day weekend. Time to kick back, roll down the windows, and prepare to sit yo' ass in traffic for the next two hours. And, oh yeah, there's a hurricane a'comin!

Having already lived through the "I Survived Hurricane Bob" t-shirt craze, I can't wait to add an Earl to the list of incredible Northeast natural disasters. But, since we're always under construction at home.... and since we're always a mess in the yard... we have some doings to do to prepare, and we don't have much time in which to do them.

Take in the porch furniture
Take in tools and other small items littering the porch
Secure all lumber
Take in the plants
Move the grill inside
Secure the trash hut
Move all machines inside the garage
Move all machine parts inside the garage
Secure Dodge #2
Secure the boat and camper
Put all trash in the trash hut and secure it again!
Take in Mikey's bus
Start up the generator and make sure it works

So far, the latest info from weather.com shows Earl hitting us sometime late Friday, early Saturday - with wind gusts of 90-100mph. Although they admit, these are only just educated guesses.

This will be our first hurricane in our home, but I doubt it will be the last.

Get a home insurance quote from Direct Line, voted Britain’s number 1 insurance provider.

Round the Front

This Sunday we celebrated a momentous occasion. The completion of the top exterior farmer's porch trim! YAY!

It looks amazing! Like suddenly it's a real live actual porch.... And that's not all! For super coolness, check out how Timmy did the left hand side.

Yes, that's right folks. He added some siding in the triangle to make it fit in with the rest of the house. (Or the rest of the house when eventually it's all sided with that siding.) So awesome looking and so much better then just white trim in there.

But the guys didn't work too much on Sunday, having family parties and other affairs in the late afternoon. I was just psyched to see that exterior trim. The interior trim is next, followed by pole wrapping. And lucky for us, we still have some materials left. Hot dog!

Then, on Sunday evening, Mike mowed the lawn and weed whacked everywhere. What a difference that made! It's like a whole new landscape! That, plus yours truly took a moment to clean up some of the debris in the backyard on Saturday. Thank you, thank you. Hold your applause por favor.

Oh - and then the guys started tempting me... talking about extending new siding out through the mudroom and kitchen side... which would mean a big new bay window in the kitchen and removal of two of the remaining three oldy cruddy gross 1950s windows in the house.

Ohhhh.... seriously. Don't tease me like that. I'm going to start getting all excited!

Get a home insurance quote from Direct Line, voted Britain’s number 1 insurance provider.

Cleaning Up

Last Saturday night, while trying to finish up repairs on 4Runner #1, we couldn't find the intake boot. The garage was a mess, the yard was littered with misc boat parts and beer cans, and Mike and I were both very frustrated about it. Luckily, after over a half hour of searching, Mike finally tracked down das boot in the garage addition, amongst another pile of misc.

But the whole debacle was enough to spark a Sunday Morning Clean Up. So first thing in the AM, Mike loaded up all the old boat trailer rollers, cans, and every other piece of junk on the side of the garage, in the garage addition, and in the regular garage - to the dump to the dump to the dump dump dump....

And here's the resulting "after" shot. I don't have a before shot for you. Too gruesomely messy for even the internet.

Upon returning from the dump, Mike set about REALLY cleaning out the garage. (It's been a disaster zone ever since he threw out his trash can... not the smartest move.) But I must admit, after just a couple hours in the AM, plus a few more hours in the PM (after we returned from our Clambake and BDay party) he made great progress. Half of the garage is clean.

4Runner #1, I may have forgotten to mention, is now fixed and running perfectly. I plan to clean it up and take pictures on Saturday, time permitting. I'll try and get it on Ebay... although now that it's the dead of summer, first gen 4Runner prices are down. I expected that, which is why I really wanted to take care of this back in spring, when every 4cyl manual sh*t box on there was going for 5,000+. This is a V6 auto... and sure it's rusty with a host of small issues and mileage up the wazoo - but it's still a V6 auto. And that's worth something to a lover of these. It just needs some TLC from someone who's willing to take the time with it. It's still the wrong time to sell. But I'll give it a go anyway. Winter is certainly not the time and I'd like this thing outta my hair.

Today - Mike will hopefully remember my box for the soft top. No bites on the craigslist ad yet.

Next up? The wiring of the farmer's porch! The speaker cable should be in by now - Thursday night we will probably purchase everything else we need. (Tues is my dance night, Wed is the demo derby at the fair, Friday is a tractor race, and Sat night is a potluck dinner - Summer of a Million Events continues!) So we probably won't be able to wire until Sunday at the earliest.

Will the roof be done by then too?! My sources say yes if weather permits. Can't wait!

Get a home insurance quote from Direct Line, voted Britain’s number 1 insurance provider.

What'Snoomoo? Not Much, What'snoomoo With Yootoo?

It's official - SnooMoo weekend this weekend.

But that's ok - I have plans of my own. Most of them involve cleaning and errands... but that's ok too. Both are long overdue and it'll get us in a better position to move forward with the to-do's into next week.

I've def got to return the too-small cat door I bought and buy a bigger cat door at a different store. (Turns out the exact same cat flaps at Petco are nearly $10 cheaper than PetSmart. Petco - it's where the Jess go.)

I have to get a burn permit.

I have to pick up that last lighting fixture - a bubbly track light from Lowes to match my hallway lights. And baby gates - can't forget baby gates.

Hopefully Mike will remember to bring home more stain brushes so we can finish up the hallway trim and get that on by Tues at the latest.

Then I have to see if I can return all the pictures/mirrors/etc back to the living room and hallway walls.

That all, plus the cleaning, will most likely be all I can handle.

Next week - small stuff, watch out. You're going down.

Get a home insurance quote from Direct Line, voted Britain’s number 1 insurance provider.

Two Days of Baby

And yes, I feel fine. I'm almost sick of everyone asking. I want to say, "No I feel terrible! I'm dying! Ahhhhdslkgjldfasldkf....." and fall on the floor trailing off incoherently. Granted, I'd be a lot better if I was lounging out in the sun right now, but hey, you can't have everything right?

Oh, and another thing. Everyone thinks I'm nesting. But you all forget one thing - my average everyday no-prego self is psychotically organized and cleanly! So keep that in mind as I tell you about my weekend.

First off, if you weren't in New England over the weekend - shame on you because the weather was an event to behold. 80's and 90's in April - unheard of! And believe me, I'm not complaining. I was lovin it - belly and all. Such weather naturally leads to motivation, especially around the house.

Saturday I spent most of the day cleaning and running errands. (Which I usually do on Saturdays now that Mike works Saturdays - nothing weird there.) One of my big tasks involved tackling mildew in my costume box.

For years I've kept halloween costumes in an old steamer trunk. And for years, the box has spread its smell of mildew to everything I've put inside of it. And now, after my mom complained after borrowing a strawberry shortcake costume, I was finally doing something about it. (You may classify this as nesting - although I've been working on this project for weeks.)

I researched a lot about mildew online before attempting anything. The consensus for clothing was using a cup of vinegar in with the laundry detergent, washing in hot water, drying on high in the dryer, and then setting out in the sun - with repeat cycles as needed. Previous to this weekend, I sent the machine washable items through two wash and dry cycles and one sit out in the sun. The method worked well, although I needed a couple good hot days to really bake off any lingering odors.

Then there was the unwashable items, which brings me to Saturday. In the case of costumes, most of my unwashables included wigs, shoes, and hats. So first thing Saturday morning, I washed the wigs and hats in the sink with a half cup of vinegar. The shoes I sprayed with Tilex mold and mildew killer. Then I left everything outside in the sun to bake for the day.

On Sunday, we were able to put up an actual clothes line and I hung out the machine washed items and again set out the unwashables. By Sunday night I couldn't smell a thing on most items. Some of the unwashables may need another dip in vinegar - but all of the clothes passed my rigorous sniff test. (Oh boy what the neighbors must have thought.... a whole clothes line of halloween costumes - and then me coming by in the evening and sniffing everything as if I were in a Fbreeze commercial!)

And if you're wondering about the box - the one that started this whole mildew problem? Well, unfortunately it can't be saved. I tried washing that too. I tried the Tilex. I set it out in the sun for a week straight. And it still smells. The minute you think you've fixed it - you close the box and it just starts festering in there. Open it just a couple days later and it smells again. If anyone's interested in a smelly trunk, I'll probably have it free on the lawn next weekend.

Ok, returning to the weekend. Sunday morning, I enlisted Mike to help me with another big spring cleaning task I've been wanting to try for months. (See, I've had this on my mind for months, nothing weird here either.)

A while ago, I read a great blog about cleaning your large area rugs at the self serve car wash. And I thought, what a brilliant idea! You just spread the rug in the back of your truck. (Yes, you need one, unless you trust putting the rug on the ground at a car wash - ew no!) And then you wash and rinse it with the car wash pressure washers. Take it home, dry it in the sun, and it'll look as good as new.

Again, I needed to wait for a hot sunny couple of days to try it myself. Plus, we recently acquired a pressure washer - so we could cut out the car wash entirely! And here we were, with a random 80 degree Sunday. Perfect.

We grabbed our large 8.5 x 11 living room rug and draped it over the farmer's porch railing. We wet it first with just the hose to saturate. Then we prepared the soap. Luckily, our pressure washer had a soap mix option, so we just mixed some tide in a bucket with water, put the soap hose in the bucket, and let the machine do the rest. No scrub brush requried!

I had several set in stains that I knew in my heart wouldn't come out... but they did! Mike just got really close with the wand and let that rug have it! Especially the stains. And they all washed right out! I was impressed. Of course our pressure washer isn't your run of the mill Home Depot Joe Homeowner special. This is a high powered professional machine that could probably take off a finger if set to its highest. (For a rug, not quite that much power was needed, but I just have to disclaim myself in case your pressure washer isn't as cool.)

After the soap had been applied, we rinsed throughouly with the pressure washer, and then with the regular hose, and we left it to dry.

It's still out drying today. By the end of yesterday, it was mostly dry except for the bottom. But another day in the sun is always a good thing. I'm curious to see how it smells too. Hopefully like Tide or not at all.

So that was our clean weekend. Today, Mike plans to grab an overseeder machine from work and seed the lawn - which is super green, but patchy. His timing is impecable with rain on the way for Wednesday and then Friday. We've been seeding and re-seeding every year since we lifted the house. It's so hard to get a good lawn back if you've destroyed it completely. Takes time. Maybe this year we'll finally have it.

And I haven't forgotten about my trees for the front yard. Now is the time to plant those too. They'll be expensive, but I really have to do it. Just makes sense. Have a child, plant a tree. It just feels good, right?

Losing Steam

No dump. That was the one thing I was really looking forward to and the one thing that we didn't get to do over the weekend. And honestly I can't help but feel that we're losing steam.

Sure, the guys worked Saturday and framed out the porch ceiling - thus ending work on the porch for now. And sure Mike was good enough to put up the new hanging tool storage solution I bought for the garage last week. Looks fabulous - and organized!

And as for me, I cleaned the house. Woo-2Da-Hoo.

It may be partially because I've been feeling rather useless lately. I haven't been able to do a dam thing around the house except for garage cleaning - and that did feel good, don't get me wrong. I just hate stagnating.

And today I paid off the DeepHo card - had to. One of my 0% interest gigs was expiring 8/3 and I knew I wouldn't have another opportunity to pay it all off before then... There goes another $962.28. But it's paid. Phew. A relief and a bummer all at the same time.

As for the coming weeks - progress is unknown. Siding and roofing are next... a lot depends on a lot of other stuff. As usual, nothing comes together easily. I have to wait until my ebay auctions end, Mike has side jobs, we both have bbq's 'n other summer events to attend...

I'm going to try and be pushy, but we all know how that usually goes. Not well. =)

Lean Mean Cleaning Machine

Ah, 4th of July weekend. Time for beaches, bbq's, boating, fireworks, friends, fiestas, and garage cleaning.

That's right - garage cleaning.

For quite a while now the garage mess has been annoying me to no end. We can't find stuff when we need it, we think we don't have something so we buy it and then we find out we already had one, carpentry tools are mixed in with mechanical tools and plumbing tools are mixed in with building materials, and so on and so forth. Plus junk and trash and dirt - EVERYWHERE.

It was so bad, you couldn't even walk through. You couldn't even look at it, it was terrible. I said to Mike, I don't know how you can work in here if I'M this annoyed. I just couldn't imagine how he could accomplish anything.

So with the guys on vay-cay from porch work, I told Mike that Sunday was the opportune time to get this mess straightened out. He did not want to spend a day cleaning - but agreed that it was long overdue and we needed to do it.

We employed the HGTV method I learned from watching countless hours of Mission Organization. It's basically a five step process.

1. Remove EVERYTHING from the garage.
2. Separate into organized piles of like items - plumbing tools, building materials, trash, liquids, straps 'n chains, garden tools, stuff-that-should-be-in-the-house, etc.
3. Double check each pile - get rid of anything you don't want or need and consolidate. (For example liquids like oil if you have a million half empty containers like we did.)
4. Clean the now emptied garage and decide where everything is going to go.
5. Put it all back neatly.

Additionally, we had some other challenges. You may remember that our homeowners insurance company had a problem with that wood stove in the garage - so we had to remove that using our skid steer and get it down in the basement. (Using some straps and a plywood stove-surfboard mind you.) Also, our two car garage has just one door. No, not one big door. One small door on the left side. Well, eventually we'd like to put in another door, so we decided to make ready for this by moving Mike's tool box and bench to the opposite side of the garage where the stove once was.

We decided too that to help keep the garage clean, we would store all non-mechanical, non-garden tools and materials in the basement. This includes all carpentry, plumbing, electrical, and paint (non-automotive) supplies, tools, and materials. Unfortunately, we only have one shelf in the basement currently. Not enough storage space by far. And in the interest of time, we decided to leave new-shelf-building for another day. (By the by, we have so much scrap wood, we should be able to build more shelving without purchasing anything but storage boxes 'n stuff.)

So the basement is currently a mess of organized piles. I guess you could call that halfway there. When we get the shelves built, all we'll have to do is put stuff away neatly.

Luckily, we had time to make one dump run - and boy did we get rid of some junk! Phew, what a relief! Next weekend, we'll have to make one more dump run to finish the job. (Dump closes at 3pm, so we weren't able to get everything.)

Now at this point I'm sure you're all wondering, "Where are the before and after photos?"
Well, would you believe I didn't take any before? I was just too horrified by the mess. But I'm so proud of the after that I just want to hang out in the garage all day! Isn't that crazy! Although the basement's mess is going to start cheezing me off soon if we don't get those shelves built....

A little hard to tell the clean with all the bikes in there - but trust me, you should have seen the before!
Here's where the 2nd garage door will eventually go. Now we're ready for it with the bench moved!
I've never seen these shelves so clean since we bought the house. OMG it's amazing!

And finally, the bench area. There's a place for the bench, and the red tool box fits next to the compressor, and the welding cart has a place... so amazing!

I can't wait for the guys to see it next weekend!