The Fumes Have Definately Gone to My Head

I think I have paint particles embedded in my brain at this point. My lungs have been repainted several times now. I could probably take them out, turn them inside out, and sell them as modern art. But that would be disgusting and weird. You probably think I'm disgusting and weird for even suggesting it.... and you'd be right. But that's beside the point.

As you've probably already guessed - I spent Saturday and Sunday painting my butt off.... Hmmm, actually I wish. Friday was another waste. Mike got a call from his friend JP who said, "I got a free 30 pack, wanna help me drink it?" And like any self respecting male - that was an offer he just could not refuse. But Saturday and Sunday were all paint.

AND NOW FOR SOME REALLY IMPORTANT INFORMATION!!

I purchased a gallon of Glidden PVC white drywall primer at the home depot. (You guys already know this - see previous post a few posts down.) Well, Friday night I decided to take it upon myself to finish priming.

Turns out, all primers are not created equal. And this junk, this sh*t I bought at the deepHo was probably the worst of 'em all. To put it nicely, it was like painting with milk. No coverage whatsoever.

The walls were previously painted pink, plus there were areas that were newly sanded and mudded, and areas that were single or double coat primed with BunkerHill brand. So the whole room was a giant mixed bag. And let me tell you, this stupid stuff failed on every surface.

It did not cover over pink,
Just barely made it lighter.
It did not cover over mud,
And did not make white brighter.

I tried to paint it really thick,
Across the longest wall,
Hoping it would really stick
But it did not help at all.

And though I thought a gallon can
Would definitely do
I discovered man oh man!
It barely lasted halfway through!

After that and much complaint
I'd finally had my fill.
We decided on the better paint
And bought some BunkerHill.

The End

(Didn't I tell you the fumes went to my head?) So let that be a lesson to you all - don't cheap out on primer.

A coat of BunkerHill later near the end of the day on Saturday:

The office was all primed! The stairway/hallway was all primed! (That's my kitty The Fidge at the bottom of the steps.) Sunday I spend the day painting while Mike was out riding. Although he was nice enough to paint the sketchy slant over the stairs for me when he got home.

In this pic the color looks way pinker than it actually is. I think that's just the morning sun and my laziness in not adjusting the camera white balance.The actual color is more of a warm beige/vanilla latte with milk.

And the other wall is a muted pink called "Princess Stephanie." Very appropriate, no?

One More Snag

I um.... have a confession. There was no painting or any other work done last night. And this time, it's me messing up my own schedule.

We had a little Thirsty Thirsday party at work yesterday... and all us girls started drinking at around 3.... started dancing around 4.... were on the floor around 6.... and chugging water by 8 so we could get home. Crazy office madness.

So forget everything I said yesterday - forget all schedules. I'm not even going to try and set a goal for this weekend... we'll just have to see what develops.

Paint and Never Ending Supplies

Our neighbors were over on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. For primer, touch ups, and more touch ups to the upstairs officina, which severely changed my upstairs schedule. Monday, I purchased paint thinking that all the priming would be done.... nope. The guys made their touch ups and we were plumb outta primer. So when they finished sanding the touch ups on Tuesday, they couldn't prime them.

I was so frustrated yesterday about my fast rising deepho bill that I just sat on the couch like a frumpy lump all night, mad cause I couldn't get any work done.

Of course, it doesn't make it any easier that my neighbors prefer Bunker Hill primer. Which I can only get at the local Town Paint. Which is only open 9-5, which is when I work. And it's too far to go to on my lunch break.

So today, I could only purchase a gallon of deepho brand primer on lunch break (because of course there's a deepho 5secs from work) and not the usual cost effective 5 gallon bucket. Oh well, I have to tell myself, I've wasted $9 on worse.

I'm hoping that Mike will get home on time tonight so we can paint. (I have issues working the pole, but he's great at it.... and stop thinking that, you sickos!) Once we slap another coat of primer all the way around the office, we can get to painting the colors.

If we can manage to get alllll the painting done tonight and tomorrow, we can rent the nailer on Saturday and get that floor down. And then we have to buy all the trim boards. Ahhhh! Money money money. I need to pay my deepho card off again before I buy a sh*t load of wood. Sunday is Mike's riding day, anyway.... so we'll see how money flows next week.

Laaaaannnd!

Now that my horrific freak out of terror is over, I can get back to business. Can't believe it's been nearly a week since I updated you guys. Ok, here we go.

Friday Nick Mitchell was over to grade, loam, and hydroseed. That night, Mike and I had a bday party in Providence to go to, so I didn't even get to see the yard until Saturday. But when I did, boy was I impressed! It looks beautiful! I can already tell that once the grass comes up, it'll be like living in one of those Cape Cod Life "Most Gorgeous Lawns" articles. How novel!

Here is the front lawn. And It looks pretty much the same, since we had it graded when we did the house lifting.

Of course, to keep the whole thing watered, we've got el crazy sprinkler chain going on. Lucky for us, our neighbor let us borrow a couple of sprinkler heads and some hose. We already had two 50 footers, but bought 2 more plus 4 sprinkler heads. Our other neighbor even contributed an additional head because we were short just one.

You would think that all those would keep every inch of the lawn moist and happy - no way. There's still a couple missed areas that we have to hit with a hose & sprayer. I hate to go around purchasing a million dollars worth of watering equipment, but you know - I would hate even more for my $2400 grass not to grow.

The back yard is the most spectacular transformation. On the right side is Trogdor, the Oil Burninator. (aka, our old oil tank that we turned into an enclosed burn pit for brush and branches - see the handle on the front? It opens upward.)

Anyway, behind Trogdor used to be a hugeoungous pile of stumps. And I'm not exaggerating here - we had probably 10 REALLY big knarly stumps piled there.

Thursday night, when we knew Nick was coming, we loaded all the stumps into Mike's truck. I should have gotten a picture because it looked so weird - the dodge bed, overflowing with knarly snarly stumps. Saturday we took 'em to the dump - and finally got a dump sticker... geez, only been three freakin' years. (In our town, since we have trash pickup, we can take stuff like stumps to the dump for free with a sticker - too cool! We were previously paying to get rid of stuff like that.)

I have never - ever - seen that corner of the backyard look so nice and flat and nice.... That's been the worst looking part of the entire yard! That and the way back section next to the camper - that's normally where we park our trailer, skid steere, lawn tractor, and racing lawn tractor - yes yes, I know. Racing lawn tractor. That's another story. I'm so glad I told Mike to move all that junk. I figured - as long as the guys are here, we should have them do as much as they can. And I am soooo happy with the result.

Here's the other side of the backyard. Looking good. Now I'm all antsy to get the privacy fence that I want to separate the gravel driveway (seen here just a little in the lower left) from the backyard. I can't wait.

Here's the side of the garage, newly primed. And there's the gravel.

Heart ATTACK

I nearly died yesterday. Blogger finally switched me over to the new version - but lo and behold - this blog was missing from the Dashboard!!! Not only that, but I couldn't access it via the URL.

I freaked out, posted a frantic message to the Blogger Help Group and searched the internet in vain for answers to no avail.

All I have to say now is "PHEW!!!"

Lawn's Away!

Great news!

Mike talked to Nick Mitchell yesterday after work. Turns out he'd been to our house yesterday. And boy did he give us a super price. Super Duper. And I don't normally use that phrase.

This is what they're gonna do:

* Grade the entire yard so it's silky (er... sandy) smooth. This means taking off 3inches of soil off the backyard.

* Put down 3 inches of loam over the entire yard. (No more fear of walking on broken glass/nails/garbage in the yard!)

* Spread out said loam all nicely - just like the rich people's lawns!

* Hydro-Seed the entire yard with a special "Guaranteed-to-Grow" formula.

All this for the low low price of $2400. That includes materials AND labor. And that's a super duper deal. We're basically getting the labor for free. Of course, Mike would always be on hand if they needed any mechanical work in the future. These guys always trade off in labor, which is too cool in my opinion.

Nick said they'd come and do the job either tomorrow, Monday, or Tuesday. Wouldn't that be awesome? I am so excited. Grass... lawn... what a concept. It's worth every penny.

Down & Lazy

It has been raining for days. Stupid Nor'Easter. It's really got me feeling down... and lazy! Saturday was the last good day I had.

But let me start back on Friday. I had the pleasure of getting out of work early, so went home and primed one entire exterior wall of the garage. It looks really good, although it took an entire gallon of cover-all primer for two coats. (The formerly blue painted garage really needed two coats to cover that old smelly color.) I could have painted more on Saturday, but I didn't want to spend any more money. Not even on a little 'ol gallon of paint.

I figure if I buy a gallon every week and keep doing one wall at a time, the whole thing will be primed in no time. And then comes the actual paint part. It's going to be an off white with green shutters. That's my color scheme goal on the house too. So for a little while it's going to look pretty unmatched - a blue house and a white garage with green shutters. But oh well. It'll look a heck of a lot better than a blue house with a really run down gross ew disgusting garage.

Back to Saturday. We called early to see if we could burn and spent the remainder of the day by the fire, putting in all the branches we could pull out from the yard and the hole. (Yes, our far backyard is a hole - not just a Sh*t hole, an actual hole.) It was a little frustrating because I really wanted to get more accomplished inside the house. But with our neighbors still working on the drywall and us low on cash, there was nothing we could do.

Near the end of the day we pulled out a few stumps - making our stump pile officially huge and eyesoric. I think in the coming weeks we'll just throw all the stumps in the truck and take 'em away. Because we've got at least 10 and they take forever to burn - if they burn at all!

After the stumps, I made Mike call our friend Nick Mitchell - landscaping/excavating/etc extraordinaire - to get an estimate on loam/spreading loam/hydroseed for the entire yard - front, back, side EVERYTHING. I don't know if we'll be able to afford the whole thing, but I don't want to miss my spring window of opportunity to get grass. Especially with all this rain we've been having. It's probably the perfect time right now.

Hopefully, Nick will be able to come take a look at the yard soon. He was supposed to come on Sunday and then Monday - but he didn't, so Mike will probably stop by his house to see what's up today or tomorrow.

I know it seems like we got a lot accomplished, but I was still feeling a little gray at the end of Saturday. Sunday was a waste. Monday I didn't get any work done, but the neighbors were back to work on the drywall in the evening. They said they could come back on Thursday for the last coat and sand... or maybe it's just sanding, which would be awesome because I'd love to paint all weekend and then spend next week on the wood floor/getting the upstairs back to normal.

Ah normal. What a foreign concept!

And Now For The Office

I've been on blog-hiatus whilst going nuts at work. But never fear, work at home never stops... Well, I should say stuff to do never stops.

But we have been making major progress once again. After finishing the bedroom, it took us a week to move all the furniture out of the office and into the bedroom and put down the subfloor plywood in the office. This picture shows us at our halfway point in the plywood.

Tuesday and today, our neighbors have come to work on the drywall. This room is much easier than the bedroom - fewer problems. But I'm still going to repaint the whole thing anyway.

You see, I really thought I'd love a pink office - but when it comes right down to it - it's too girly for me! Plus, I want something warmer than the ice pink. Something feminine but not so girly if you know what I mean. And since I have to paint anyway - may as well repaint like I want. Also - I want to bring down the ceiling like I did in the bedroom by painting the upper slant white.

So if you look sideways (sorry, forgot to flip the pic) You can see the current paint and the closet. I don't think I'm going to do the color blocks again either - just because I found that it limits me in where I can hang pictures. And again, I thought I'd like that - but I like to have the flexibility to change my mind at will.

Have ya noticed? HA!

Anyway, hopefully the guys will be done with the drywall early next week and at that point we'll prime and paint.

Now, you'd think the next step after that would be the floor - but actually we have to put in our stair railing and all that because it attaches to the floor joists - not just the floor. Which is just as well, because the stairway (which opens up into the office) really needs to get railed. hee hee.

Anyways - So

100% refund for the bad nailer. YAY!

A Case of Mis-Stapler Identity

Ok - first you'll see on your left, a pic of my truck after a night of awesome mud-action. Beautiful, isn't it? Couldn't resist showing you all.

Second - I'd like to thank everyone for their help and suggestions on where the heck to purchase a nailer - which were Awesome by the way. Some stuff I would have never thought of... like pawn shop.

But, there's a twist to this story that Mike and I did not expect. And now I'm going to tell all 'yalls about it.

Thursday night, Mike laid down the first few rows - face nailing, then pre-drilling through the tongue and hand hammering with finish nails. Then, he did a couple with the nailer. (As you guys know from previous posts.) Well - the nailer wasn't doing a great job. It seemed to be set up for 3/4 hardwood instead of 3/8.

Friday, Mike and I got together, talked to TJ, our carpenter, and asked for his advice on it. He told us that a stapler would probably do a better job for us than the nailer. So, we decided to check out Home Stupid DeepHo and see what they had for staplers. And lucky for us there was a guy in the rental dept. who actually had 1/2 a brain. (Annoying as hell because he thought he had a full brain...I was thinking the whole time, just shut up dude - stop talking.)

Anyway, 3/8 hardwood actually requires a specialty stapler. The nailer we had been using was only designed for 3/4. (So at that point I'm psyched I didn't buy a nailer anywhere.) We asked if we could purchase the specialty stapler, but the dude said no - it was too much of a specialty item for the store to carry and very expensive. He may have just been trying to lure us into renting the thing - but whatever.

So we gritted our teeth and rented the thing for a day. (At least I could put it on my DeepHo card - it was about 30 something bucks.) And we figured we'd bring the other nailer back to United Rentals on Sat and bitch them out until they gave us a full refund - or at least a refund of 6 days. Because we barely used the thing.

So - I say "so" too much. Have you noticed? "So" and "Anyways"

Anyways, so we get back home from the DeepHo with the stapler & some staples. And boy what a difference! That thing worked awesome! I laid out and cut the planks and Mike did the stapling. We might have finished Friday night, but I was pooped. We were more then halfway done by 9:30/10:00 though.

Saturday morning we got up early and drove 20 min to return the bad nailer in Hyannis. Well - guess who's not open on Saturdays anymore? United Rentals! Those bastards still had the Saturday hours posted on their door too. We were so pissed. Hopefully this morning Mike went there and gave them a little bit of hell - because we definitely shouldn't have to pay the weekend rental. I'll let you know tomorrow.

Upon returning home (see, I didn't say "so") we got right back to work. And the floor was done by early afternoon. It took us some time to do the cutouts by the closet and end the room - but all in all - it was an easy and straightforward install that turned out beautifully. Oh - the color I chose by the by was Aztec cherry I believe, from Lumber Liquidators Casa De Colour series. (By Durawood - 25 year warranty, 3/8 of course as you know.)

As soon as we finished the floor we were in the truck headed back to the DeepHo to return the gun. And, while we were there, we decided to purchase all the floor moulding (while the room's cleared out) and also crown moulding for our loft storage space. (We still need window moulding, but that can come later.)

So, here's the Sunday pics when everything was done. (Sunday we didn't work - it's Mike's ATV-riding-with-the-guys-Day and my day to do girly things.) Take a look at how the painting turned out - I put on the final coat while Mike was measuring and cutting the moulding. (Which is still drying in our basement from staining by the way - that we'll put on this week at some point.)

Ok - so here's the Before Pic - all in primer.













And Here's the after pic. It's a little hard to tell just how awesome it looks just from these pics. But you'll have to trust me on that. You see, previously, I had painted the upper slant red too and just left the flat part where the recessed lights are white. I think this way though looks much better.
And here you can see the closet loft storage area moulding - we stained that right on the wall, hens the blue tape. It needs one more coat, but you get the idea. And also, you can see my beautiful closet organizer, in once again. That red thing on the top shelf is Dracu-Bear. He rocks and sucks... your blood that is.

Wrong Again?!

Alright, so remember yesterday I thought, "Mike must have bought the nailer because $200 is waaaay too much for rental."

Wrong.

$160 for a week and then he got $40 worth of nails. Do you know how much it costs to purchase one at Home Depot? I do - we went and looked yesterday evening. $500 some odd dollars. So basically, when this machine rents out for just three weeks - it's more than paid for itself. I was outraged. But Home Depot's rental fees for the same type of nailer were even more expensive - they charged via 4-hour intervals or 24-hour intervals. $40 for a day. $40!! That puts a week with their nailer at $280.

They just don't think you're going to be flooring a whole 1/2 a house at one time. They think, "oh, the do-it-yourselfer isn't smart enough to go all out like that. They'll only do one 12x12 room at a time."

Be that as it may - now we're trying to push ourselves to work late nights yesterday and tonight and get just the bedroom done and then take the damn thing back. We'll rent it another couple days when we have all the furniture cleared out of the office. No use paying for it when we're not using it.

Why don't I just purchase the one at HD? I mean, eventually, we'll be doing the entire downstairs too. I guess I'm just too pissed off to purchase. I know that's a horrible excuse. But can't we get like, a USED one somewhere? The whole thing's just ridiculous.

On the brighter side... of life.. de doo dee doo be doo bee doo - sorry. It is Fancy Friday after all. And despite my pissed-off-ed-ness, I really am feelin good today.

I'm excited for my floor! Mike set the first few rows last night - he told me to leave the room early on because I was stressing him out. I was just so pissed about the nailer and the money and then I was all worried cause he wasn't following the written installation instructions - and apparently, I was breathing in a way that was somehow stressful. And I admit - I was freaking out like a girl and needed to just butt out. So I did.

I didn't even go up to look at it until after he'd left for work this morning. It looked good. I'm very excited. And, yes, I did apologize about being a psycho and asked if I could be allowed back up to help tonight. And he accepted my apology and oh isn't that great and warm and make you feel all yum dum doodle dum inside...

Now that the kodak moment is over, back to the issue. I really really want to get a lot accomplished tonight. If we don't finish the room, I want to be so damn close that we can get up early tomorrow and be done with it. I still have to do my third coat of paint, but of course, we have the nailer now and have to make tracks on the floor. So I'll just have to plastic. Hopefully I can do that Sat afternoon or evening.

And watch out for pics on Mon.

Another Nailer

Mike left the house early this morning to rent the nailer. Turns out it was $200. I wonder how long we get to have it for the $200 - because that seems really steep to me. Couldn't we buy one for that? Maybe that's what he did.

*Ok - since the last paragraph I looked up prices on power floor nailers. They're really varied - from $200 some dollars to $600 some dollars. So it's quite possible he could have purchased the thing - especially if you take into consideration that he used to work there at the United Rentals. They probably gave him a discount.

I wouldn't mind owning it for that price. Renting for that price? Pshaw. That's what I say. I better be able to keep it for like 6 mo's for $200.

Anyway, as you probably guessed Mike finished plywooding over the last two nights. I didn't get home in time from work on either night to help, unfortunately. But I do need to touch up my paint. I think since I have plenty left, I may as well third coat the whole thang tonight.

After the floor is in, we'll have to trim out the windows and put in baseboard trim. I mean, why not? All the furniture is outta there. If I was really cool I'd get my closet doors too - but I think I can wait on that.

But we have to do it quick - with everything out of that closet, there's clothes EVERYWHERE. Clean, dirty, mine, his - who knows - they're all over the place and all mixed together. And, being semi-OC about messes, I don't know how long I can stand to look at it before I break out a paper bag to breath through.

I Think I'm Wrong

I have to say, I just loved allll of your comments to my last entree. And you all are right - why should I obsess over it?

But, I have to admit - I was wrong.

Sunday I started painting, and decided to give method #2 a try. And by the time the first coat was on, I was in love. Leaving the entire top slant white totally makes the room look bigger! I love it. It 's a nice contrast to the red and matches my white TV stand.

Last night I did the second coat. I didn't look at it this morning, but hopefully this time around I wont' have to do a third coat.

Meanwhile Mike's been putting in the 1/2 inch plywood (underlayment for the hardwood) and boy has it been tricky. But I think we're making good progress. The bedroom is almost all done - and with very little cursing and swearing and throwing of hammers.

Tonight's madness involves removing the closet organizer - which is conveniently attached to the wall in, oh, 10 places! Last night I took out all the stuff in the closet though - so everything's ready to go. We'll probably use two more sheets of ply - which is two less than we thought we'd need. So that's good too. I hate to curse it, but everything is going smoothly.

Hopefully Mike will be able to see what it takes to rent the hardwood nailer too. If we can get that tomorrow night.... oooo! Think of the fun! I can't wait.

I think I'm Right

There is a debate that needs to be settled. Any maybe some of you house bloggers can help me out with this.

Ok - first off, my house is shaped like a barn with no dormers or anything. So the upstairs has slanted ceilings on both sides, a cathedral ceiling slant up, and a flat part at the very top of the ceiling.

The debate is in regards to painting - painting the room in dark color with a white ceiling.

First School of Thought: Paint the walls AND the cathedral slant up - only paint the flat part at the top of the ceiling white. This draws the eye up and makes the ceiling appear higher and the room, bigger. Painting the cathedral slant up white would bring the ceiling down and make the room feel small and short.

Second School of Thought: Paint only the walls. Painting the cathedral slant up and the flat part of the ceiling white will make the room appear larger because the lighter color will let more light into the room.

I learned of the first school of thought from HGTV - so I am of that mindset and believe that to be true. However, my neighbors are trying to convince me otherwise and it's pissing me off.

Also - I'm sick of everyone saying "dark colors make a room look smaller." It's absolutely ridiculous. People tell me that again and again because I happen to like dark colors. And I'm sick of it. Color is beautiful! I had to live in all white houses growing up and hated it. And now this ceiling thing. So settle the score for me, because I think I'm right.

Pros vs Joes

Dana and Rich were over again last night, putting on a second coat. They couldn't finish, mostly because everything is taking so long to dry in this winter weather. They have to come on Monday to give everything a light 3rd coat and a little bit 'o sanding. After that it looks like I'll be priming and painting the whole bedroom... again.

I'd like not to prime - but Dana advised it, and lets face it - I don't want to do these walls a THIRD time. This time I'm definitely going to use tinted primer though. I didn't the first time and it took a zillion coats to get it that deep red color. And the ceiling needs to be repainted too.

And then we've got to move all our office furniture across the room so they can get the 2nd half of the office done.

Ooo! Ooo! I have to tell you - I found the most awesome lamps at Walmart. Yes I know, I'm supporting "the man" and contributing to pollution, cheap overseas labor, and the end of the small business as we know it - BUT - I got three lamps that perfectly match my office FOR $7 EACH!!! One has a hyper modern pink and magenta lamp shade and a white base. One has a black w/fringies lampshade and a chrome base. And the last is a black hangy chandelier - very sheek (chic) and minimalist with a touch of that 70's bead door look - in black!

Good thing they only had a few left or I would have bought two of each!

Pictures! Pictures!

Finally - I remembered to take some picktures for all 'yalls. Ok. First off, check out my glass blockage. Now, I know I'm not a mason... or a tilest. But I'm really happy with this. Look how nicely the blocks fill in those tiny holes left by the smaller beams. (The big beam holes were where we put the basement windows seen in the wide shot) And you should see the beautiful light they let into the basement. How it comes through the glass is just beautiful. I love it.




Now onto last night's drywall. Our neighbors Dana and Rich were over and boy did they do an awesome job! Mike finally got to see some professionals in action and I think he learned a lot helping them. Which is great, because the drywall was so frustrating when we first did it. Rich was saying that he and Dana started in 1964. Too cool! Mike on the other hand started in 2005.


The whole thing brings back memories of our first drywalling experience - which was terrible. We hired some people who were... well, unprofessional at best. I'll leave it at that. We ended up having to re-mud and re-sand every room. It was horrible. Anyway, all that's over now.


So everywhere you see patched in the pictures formerly had cracks. The small patches are where new screws were added or old ones were re-patched. (Because you could see some of them.) The bedroom was really hit the hardest. The bedroom and the kitchen. The upstairs as a whole was never done right in the first place - so believe me I'm glad to have professionals helping us now!


The guys will be back in on Thursday to finish up. At that point it'll be me and the paint again. Joy. But all I have to remember is how good it's going to look. That otta keep me going. Maybe I'll even get eggshell this time instead of flat... Now that the drywall is fixed. Do I dare?

We've Got Wood

There's 500sq feet of hardwood sitting upstairs right now. And I have to admit, I was nervous about it. But when we picked it up last Saturday, brought it upstairs, and opened one of the boxes, I was excited and relieved to see that it was beautiful.

The color is awesome, the sheen is shiny, and it all seems to match everything perfectly. I love it. It's been hard to let it sit in the boxes, but it has to get used to the house's temp and humidity and all that for 3-7 days.

Up until Sunday, the plan was to install it this upcoming weekend. But on Sunday our neighbor Dana came by. Now he's an old drywall pro, now retired. (Makes a killer cranberry moonshine, tear-jerking jalepeno poppers, and venison chili that would grow hair on a gecko.) Anyway, he rightly pointed out that before we go putting down the hardwood, we should fix the drywall that was damaged during the house lifting. Because of course drywalling makes the biggest mess ever - next to demolition of course. Lucky for us, he offered his assistance, plus one of other other neighbors who used to work with him.

So they're coming over tonight to start. And believe me, having the drywall repaired is another sigh of relief that's been long awaited. We had to wait until winter was over because we wanted the house to have fully settled before we went fixing anything.

There's not much drywall damage in the office, but the bedroom is pretty bad - with 1/2 inch of crack separation in a couple of locations. So they'll probably start in there. And of course, once they're done, I'll have to paint again. Figures the bedroom is a deep burgundy color - so I'll expect to be doing a lot of coats.

Oh - and later on Sunday, our carpenter recommended we put down another 1/2 inch of plywood over the 3/4 we already have up there. So.... we'll have to do that too before any wood can go down.

Annoying isn't it? But I kinda saw it coming. I'll have to take some pics tonight. This cadbury egg tastes interestingly...

Addition Boredom

I am sooo totally bored. I'm at work... waiting for folks to get back from a meeting so they can throw a bunch 'o crap on my lap at 3pm on Friday that I have to prepare in a rush for Monday so I can get out of here on time so I can meet my friend for Chinese food on time.

Don't you love it? I hate knowing that there's a million things to do, but I can't do anything about any of them.

Anyway, whilst I was bored, I went into photoshop and did a quick bathroom addition rendition. I know the quality is mediocre, but I just wanted to see how it looked.

So here is a pic of the back of the house from the house lift so you can get an idea of its current structure.
And here is the photoshopped version I just finished.
So, as I said, it's not perfect. I'm not a designer by any stretch of the imagination. But you can see how it would look if we stacked a second bath on top of the original bathroom, following the roof line of the house. AND - with the addition of the chimney for a woodstove. I'll show it to Mike tonight and see if this was what he had in mind. The green door actually would go down into the basement - this area functions as our bulkhead too. (Just in case you thought it was weird that a bathroom had a door to the outside.)

Check's IN the Mail

THE CHECK IS HERE! Hooray for tax returns! I hope we can go get the floors this weekend. We'll see if our local Lumber Liquidators has what we want in stock. Not that I know what we want yet - but I can't wait to get it.

Squeee-Squwah!

That is the sound our downstairs floor makes - and the entire downstairs vibrates when someone walks across the current oldy floor. Not a lot - but you know when someone's walkin around. No sneaking into the kitchen for a cookie in this house.

The current wood floor floats on... well, I'm not sure what it's covering, but it's even older and rougher wood. Plus, below, the beams are way off 16 on center, therefore, there's not as many of them to properly support the floor.

So, prior to putting in a new floor, Mike wants to firm up our current one. Our carpenter has advised us to install more support beams from below and then screw down the current floor with long, high strength screws. Mike wants to hire him to do all this... and I'm wondering, how much is that going to cost for labor and materials?! Never mind the 3/4 ply that needs to go over the old wood floor before the new one can be installed.

You know - I can make cost estimates all day long and try to work out every detail. And in every single case, the job goes over budget before it even starts!

Fresh Flip

Well, I got the samples on Saturday. And let me just say that neither the web pics or the catalog pics were accurate. Mike and I weren't "thrilled and excited" about any one of the colors.

And at first I think we were both convinced that we could "live with" the oak color. But the more I thought about it and stared at the samples, the more I thought, "Why should we spend all this money on something we don't absolutely LOVE?"

Plus, I had apprehensions about the whole laminate thing. I know I know I know - I had decided. But now I'm un-deciding my decision. Why not spend the extra thou and a half or so? These are going to be our floors forever. Why go the cheap and easy? Everyone agrees that wood is best. So rather than be unsatisfied, I'd rather spend the dough and elbow grease.

I know this is so completely contradictory to what I've been saying for weeks. It just took some samples to really get me thinking about it.

So now our plan is to stain a small piece of trim and bring it to the LL store. We'll compare it to the hardwoods on display and choose one that way. (After tax returns come back, of course.) Hopefully if they have all our sq ftg in stock, we can bring everything home that very day.

Choices Choices

Well - I'm confident that we want the Nirvana V3 line of laminate from Lumber Liquidators. No glue, no nails, 25yr warranty, soundproofing underlayment already attached - very cool.

So I ordered up some samples - you get 3 for $10 and they give you a coupon for $10 off your next order... so you end up getting your samples for free. (Did I mention free shipping too? Super awesome.)

Although I'm pretty sure that I want this line of laminate, but I'm not sure about colors - so I ordered three different colors. I'll show you them.

Option #1 is a mahogany color - which I love at first glance. But Mike is worried that it's too dark.

Option #2 is oak, and although it's a little browner than I'd like, the grain looks really cool and dimensional. It'll be a good comparison and middle of the road-type choice option.








Option #3 looks too light and too brown on the web - but in the catolog, it's the color Mike and I agreed upon. (This is the reason for samples guys: internet and catalog do not do a floor justice.) This is the cherry sample and we're hoping it will be the best match for our trim color.







I'm so excited! I can't wait for the samples to arrive. In fact, I think I'll my tracking # now.... *checking checking*

Ok, the samples are scheduled to arrive tomorrow - right now they're in:

HAGERSTOWN, MD

Eeeee! Our tax returns are scheduled to be sent out 2/23. So definately by then we'll have decided on a color, measured our square footage, and perhaps nailed down some 3/4 ply downstairs to further firm up the currently bouncy floor.

So what do you guys think?

My Unlucky Jan

It's been a while. Mostly because I've been out of commission due to... well... continuous bad luck. First Mike caught the stomach flu. Then I had jury duty for over a week and my work was raging mad about it. Then I caught the stomach flu. Then work was madness because I missed so much because of jury duty and the stomach flu. Then a friend and I got into a bad car accident on our way home from a concert. (No injuries though - so I guess that was lucky.) And now I'm just waiting for the next bad thing to happen... though hopefully this string of misfortunes is over.

But would you believe we're inching forward on the homefront! Amazing that I've felt like it. Although I have to admit I was really depressed right after the whole stomach flu thing. Every crack in the wall, every splat on the floor, every lapse in the paint - it was painful. But I'm feeling more hopeful now, after forcing myself to do some work.

The Sunday before last I stripped the paint off my vanity, cleaned the basement, and insulated our attic space. Meanwhile, Mike finished installing the baseboard in the mudroom, the mudroom closet light, and a smoke detector.

This past Sunday, we sanded and stained the vanity, picked up and installed the last of the basement windows, researched glass bricks on the internet (for use in the small basement windows), fixed my truck's back power window, and cleaned a portion of the garage.

But what's really got my psyched is our upcoming tax return - it'll be enough to buy new floors! I think we decided to go with a laminate, mostly because it looks good, installs without glue or nails, has 3mm of underlayment already attached, has a 25 yr warranty, and still costs half as much as real wood. Yes - I know wood is good. But I think the laminate is a better/easier choice for us.

Heat Today, Gone Tomorrow

Well - I guess you could call it a good weekend. We made the scrap metal run Saturday morning then picked up a baseboard from the DH on the way home and installed it in the mudroom while waiting for our friends Andy and Crystal to pick us up for the RV show. (Hopefully, we'll be able to hook that baseboard and the kitchen baseboard into the system tonight if Mike's not feeling ill.)

The RV show was fun - very tempting, but we didn't walk away with anything new. We all went to dinner afterwards, then hung out at our house drinking watermelon-tini's and taking digital pictures of each other in weird hats and posting them on Andy's myspace. Very random.

After our friends left, around 1am, Mike got terribly ill and was throwing up again and again. It was awful. We were up half the night. The next day he continued to be sick - it was a bug, not an alcohol related thang we thought. So sunday was a lost cause.

I still managed to take back THE LAST BAG O CANS!!! (No more redemption - ever - because you'll remember that Mike got a kegerator for x-mas.) Boy, was that liberating. And I sold the truck to our friend Ben. We gave him a good deal, and he'll have to make payments - so it wasn't my ideal situation. But since I got the raise at work, I'm not too worried about cash flow. I got the minimum I needed to get anyway, and sold it to a friend in need. It was weird though, because all Sunday people kept coming by and calling me - wanting to buy it! So ironic, right?

Bread Makes It Better

Let me tell you, there's few things that will squash a bad mood like a freshly baked loaf of sourdough. That's what's brought me out of the depths. I should count myself lucky that we have a bread maker here at work - and delicious dipping oil.

So I'm sorry for yesterday's rant. I wasn't feeling very well when I got home from work yesterday and just collapsed. But now it's Friday and I feel a little better. Especially since tomorrow I'm going to the RV show with my good friends Andy and Crystal. Not that I'll come home with a shiny new RV - but it's so much fun to look.

And I talked to Mike seriously about the heat problem. He did agree that the windows and door in the kitchen and mudroom weren't helping the problem. And he's going to hook up the baseboards for me this weekend! I'm so excited! We may also blanket wrap the side door and use the front door only until we can get a new door.

I would imagine that I could purchase the door at the end of this month. If I hadn't filled the oil tank, I could have gotten it this week. Thank god for pay raises. And... hopefully my friend Dos Bequis and her beau will come over Saturday morn to look at the truck. I offered it to them for a discounted price. If they buy it, I will be a happy pancake.

Doesn't that just Chill you out?

Freezy-Cheez. The awesome new frozen dispensable cheez product sweeping the nation. Not really. I'm just feeling a little out of my mind. I was freezing last night. The house just couldn't get up to temp in the downstairs zone.

Mike continues to claim it's because we're missing 2 panes of glass from the basement windows - but the holes are all boarded up. I think it's because Mike didn't hook up the baseboard in the kitchen and mudroom - the two rooms that still have old and crappy windows that leak. Plus our side entry door in the mudroom has a 3" gap at the bottom of it from when we replaced the mudroom floor and had to slice the bottom of the door to make it fit.

Let me tell you - being cold does not put me in the greatest of moods. In fact, I'm having one of those infuriating days when little stupid stuff is enough to just make you crazy.

We were supposed to have the window panes by now, but our friend keeps forgetting to bring them from his work, where we purchased the windows from. Mike can be so single minded. As if putting two window panes in is going to solve the freezing kitchen and mudroom problem. Yes, I'm sure it's a contributing factor - but it's not the only one.

I'm not going to argue with him - he's been singing this same tune for months because I don't think he wants to hook up the baseboards. That's fine - I can understand that. I'll just put on another sweatshirt and keep my mouth shut until the windows are in. And once they're in, I bet you a lifetime supply of freezy-cheez that Mike will claim it's cold because we haven't put in the glassbricks in the smaller window holes - even though we stuffed those with rigid foam insulation.

Not that I can afford 5 new windows and a door at the moment. I'd love to just get a door. The one I want is only about $250. But we filled up the oil tank this week. That and my paycheck was late, so I'm overdrawn at the moment. That's awesome. Know why? Mike bought a pizza. Normally I wouldn't care - but it was just bad timing with the check being two days late and all. I have overdraft protection - but I used it all to cover my bills that get taken out automatically - because the check was late. Oh it's such a pain. I had to text him this morning to say don't buy anything. I can't call him because he gets pissed off if I call while he's working.

See what I mean about the cold being detrimental on my mood? URG. I wish I could buy soup from Paneras for lunch - but there's the matter of the overdraw again.

El Dube

I've been working on some spec stuff today at work for a possible new client. And I've been thinking in my head that I want to install my laundry closet light tonight.

I'm so itchy and restless this week. I just want it to be the weekend so I get feel accomplished. Mike and I are probably going to make a scrap metal run on Saturday - hopefully get at least $100. I don't know what we'll do after that. If it's not raining, Mike will probably want to finish up the shingling behind the chimney - which is only about a 2ft section.

Theoretically - we shouldn't do a thing, money wise. But I may have run out of stuff already purchased and procrastinated!

Although I do need to pick up those coin wrappers....

Photo Update

Here's the newly stained door from office to our bedroom:
Office before picture September 2005:

And here's my newly re-organized re-designed office after:
Here's the opposite angle of the office:
Here's the view from my new desk:
*This picture is ironic because I'm sitting at this desk right now looking at a picture of this desk...

Here's our bedroom:

Sad

I've been feeling down the past few days. It's been rainy non-stop and my truck hasn't sold. I've had some offers - but none at the price I was hoping for. It's very sad - I was really excited about having some extra money for once. Now I'm worried that it won't sell at all.

Plus I hardly got anything done over the weekend because the guys were over allll weekend. Not that I would normally mind, but I was just bored to tears.... and poor to tears, so I couldn't really do anything. I installed the dimmer and fan control that I wanted to install. I tried to put together my new fluorescent lights, but messed up and couldn't get one of them apart again! (Mike helped me out with that last night.) And I bought a few small things at the DeepHo with a gift card from my friend Kie.

That's it.

I'm not really looking forward to this upcoming weekend because I'm going to be poor again after filling my oil tank. Joy, right? I need to bring the last bag of cans to redemption and count out all my coins... which should be enough to purchase coin wrappers that I need to wrap the coins. So ironic.

Maybe the truck will have sold by then, if I'm lucky.

fancy2

What are we going to do today?
There's the beach or miniature golf to play...
We can go to the mall, are you ready to say -
Let's all go to the zoo!

If you grew up on cape cod, you know the zooquarium song. Isn't it sad? But I'm not doing any of that this weekend. Looks like it's supposed to rain straight through. But I guess that's alright because we've got some interior work to take care of.

1. A dimmer needs to be installed in my office.
2. A fan control needs to be installed in the living room.
3. Mike's getting the other two panes of glass for the basement windows - so we should really finish that up.
4. I need to put up my tape storage in my office.
5. And maybe if Mike is feeling super generous, he'll fix the back window control in my 4runner. We'll see about that one - that's a big job.

Fancy!!

It's Fancy Friday again! And I just ordered a novel thing from the Home Improvements Catalog website! These are switch box spacers! Now, if your drywall was done incorrectly, as mine was, your switches and outlets don't sit flush to the wall as they're supposed to. So therefore, your wallplates fit poorly and when you try to plug stuff in, you end up pushing the outlet into the wall. And it's all jiggly and messed up.

So I discovered these spacers in one of these catalogs that I usually just throw out. With these and some longer screws, you can firm up your outlets and switches. For just $7.99 you get a set of 56. You can't beat that, so I figured, why not try it? It just might work. In fact, it's a rather ingenious invention if I do say so.

Ok, I'm sure you're all dying to know what my weekend war is all about this week. Well, last weekend we got so much accomplished that I don't know if it can be beat! All in one day too. This was last Saturday:

7:30 - Wake up and load Mike's truck with demo for the dump.
8:30 - Arrive at Jess's eye appointment
9:30 - Stop at CarQuest, pickup auto primer, a relay, some wire, and a bunch 'o butt connectors. (And other connectors.)
10:00 - Arrive at the dump, unload the stuffx.
10:30 - Arrive back home, prep and prime Mike's new truck hood.
11:30 - Between priming coats, finish the shingling on the back wall. Jess conditions all the inside closet trim with pre-stain wood conditioner.
4:00 - The shingling is finally done and the truck hood is drying. Install exterior outlet next to the side door. Re-install exterior security light on the newly shingled wall.
5:30pm - Jess paints the mudroom closet trim and gives the mudroom ceiling a coat.
6:30pm - Mike comes inside and installs our newly stained bedroom door and door knob. We stain the upstairs closet trim and the bedroom door trim.

Then we were done for Saturday. Mike went riding on Sunday and I finished re-organizing and re-decorating my office, then hooked up and organized my computer. So all in all it was crazy. I don't know how were going to beat that. Let me start a fancy2.

Expensive Decisions

Remember those little dormer doors? I got price on them. At my dimensions, with one raised panel, each door will cost $140. $30 shipping. Without the raised panel it would be $120 per door, same shipping. A little freakin' expensive, right? That's more than a full size door. Amazing what they can charge for stuff now a' days. So I guess we'll try to make them ourselves. I'll print out those pics and we'll see what we can do about building them.

Also, we talked to our carpenter about the whole "new bathroom plus upstairs bathroom stacked on top thing." He thinks that while we're tearing off bathrooms and building new ones, we should add rooms on top of our kitchen and mudroom. And while that's an exciting prospect, we'd have to have an architect draw up the plans, pull permits, go through the whole conservation commission BS again, demolish half of our existing upstairs, either move out or live downstairs, and pay a crew of three guys for a month of work - just to frame out the entire thing and get it weatherproof.

Having just come off the stress of the whole basement thing, I don't know if I'm mentally ready to go through it all again, despite my current expertise. Not to mention the cost of all that - I'm definitely not ready to spend another $10,000 or more, which I know it would cost. Three guys working for a month plus materials, plus the architect, plus permits. No way. I just can't do it with the loan for the basement already hanging over my head - and that won't be paid off for a few years.... and by a few years, I mean like 10 years.

But I want the bathroom done - BAD. I looked at a free camper/trailer last night that had a bigger bathroom than mine. That's pathetic. And IT WAS NICER LOOKING!

For the First Time Online

Hey guys - want to support my home improvement efforts? Buy my truck! It's on Ebay right now - just click HERE.

Dormer Doors

One of my frustrations - among many - is my attic space lovingly referred to as The Loft, an homage to The Loft of tween makeout sessions belonging to my good friend Becci's house.

Anyway, it's really just an attic crawl space accessed by two small holes in the wall. One hole in my office, the other in my master bedroom. The frustration - how to create doors for these holes. Nice looking ones, you know, with a knob, and some trim. Maybe a raised panel.

My internet searches had previously turned up nada for pre-hung attic doors. Mostly because I didn't know this type of attic was called a Dormer or knee wall. Once I discovered that, I pulled up a site with very suave-looking pre-hung dormer doors. All custom made to my specifications. Here's a pic:


Those aren't my doors - those are the examples on their website - which is http://www.access-doors.net/index.html

Anyway - I measured my holes last night... that sounds kinda dirty. Clear you minds, just the attic door holes. And just now I filled out the dimensions on their online form and hit the submit button.

I wonder what kind of pricing they'll come back with. I know that custom anything means mucho dinero, but these doors are small, and I'm hoping hoping that will keep cost down.

$50 Doesn't Even Cover It!

Toilet update - it seems to have fixed itself. Which I guess is a good thing because I'm not ready to re-do the entire bathroom yet. If it lasts until May, I will be so psyched.

On the other side of my to-do list, I ordered two of my hard-to-find switchplates from a website I just discovered - http://www.switchhits.com Previously I was looking at myknobs.com - but I'm just not satisfied with their selection, their prices, their shipping options... They estimated 4-6 weeks on the availability on one switchplate. Ridiculous. I found one I liked better on switch hits and they estimate shipping within 24 hours. Their site has better selection of cool cool stuff too! I highly recommend checking it out. I wish I could afford to deck out all my wall plates using their designs.

My Toilet Is Crying Right Now

It's happened. The little green toilet is fatally ill! I woke up this morning, when into the bano, and discovered that my rug was sopping wet! And there was a tell-tale dripping sound. Sure enough, water was pouring from the handle of our little green toilet.

Now we've had issues with this toilet before. First off, it's green. That's issue enough. But when it was leaking like this before, we had to super glue it together and replace many of its insides - a major surgery that would extend its life, but not for long. And now it's finally ill again.

We have to replace it. There's no other way around it at this point. I'm wondering if Mike knows yet - he leaves before me in the AM. Although I hate to replace it without doing the entire bathroom. Oh well. These things happen.

Yup. It's Outta Here

Well, we had a great time new years eve. And we started off 2007 Jan 1 by ditching the xmas tree and putting away all decor. (Xcept for the bowtie lights - because I've been getting so many compliments this year.

So now's the time for those all-important resolutions. I'm the type of person who'll look at this post a year from now to see what I wanted to get done - and if I did it or not!! Yes, a little p-psychotic, I know.



OK, house resolutions:
1. Bathrooms - do 'em
2. Dry wall and interior trim - get it fixed and done
3. Wood floors (Turns out the $1.99 special I was looking at was laminate and not hardwood. Darn. Maybe we'll go for the cheaper unfinished variety and do it ourselves.)
4. Kitchen roof - it leaks when rain blows in a certain direction
5. Exterior repair - If we can get at least one of the big walls shingled and the rest of the new windows, I would be so happy with that.
6. Garage - That thing needs a paint job and I think I can handle it in spring.

That's probably good for main goals. I think most of that is do-able. As I've said before, I just have to keep picking away at stuff.

So what's my task this week? Well - I need to finish organizing my office. I picked up a new desk at the IKEA sale plus Mike got me a new filing cabinet for xmas. Then, I have one more dimmer and one more fan control that I need Mike to install. Oh, and also, we've begun staining our bedroom door. We'll finish staining the trim on that and reinstall with the new doorknob.

On Friday I'll probably order my living room switch plate from myknobs.com. And this weekend, if it's not raining again, we can finally finish up the shingling on the back wall.

Small is Tremendous

Ah, didn't you enjoy my lovely poem yesterday? I enjoyed rhyming out my frustration. But in all honesty, I've been enjoying catching up on these little things because it really makes me feel like I'm getting stuff done.

All this week I've set myself to the task of purchasing and installing wall and switch plates. I even purchased a couple fan controls and dimmers, which Mike was nice enough to install for me on Wednesday. It feels good to flip a switch without fear of accidentally poking live wires. Plus, the outlets and switches look soooo much better.

At this rate, if I continue taking on at least a couple small tasks per week - I'll make great progress through the winter and be well positioned to begin work on the house's exterior and/or the bathroom in spring.

Yesterday I also checked out Lumber Liquidators - just because I like to check out their current prices on hardwood every once and again. Wouldn't you know, they had a beautiful pre-finished hardwood on sale for $1.99 per sq ft?! It was a gorgeous mahogany with a hint of cherry red. I just love it. I'm contemplating making the calculations for the house - upstairs and down. I know it would probably be around $2000. And I know I shouldn't be spending around $2000 when I have to contribute $2000 to my IRA or else my parents are going to annoy me about for a zillion years.

I know retirement is important - especially since Mike is getting to be almost 30 and the cost of everything is only going to go up - so we'll need over a million dollars saved.... I've heard this speech over and over.

But I could always get the Lumber Liquidators credit card. I did pay off my home depot card recently. No interest for a year - and I could pay the $2000 over one year to avoid interest entirely. AND - we are selling that Tacoma of Mike's.

I'll have to talk it over with him. $1.99 per sq ft for beautiful pre-finished like that is hard to pass up.

THAT would be a BIG small thing to get accomplished.

Ode to Little Things

Demolition I can do.
Electric, plumbing, carpentry too.
Major construction, no big deal.
It's worth $10 grand - that's how I feel.

But this little tiny stupid stuff -
Wall plates, trim boards - enough is enough!

$20 fan controls
$20 gets one eyeball trim
$82 bi-fold doors
$15 for a switch that dims

$5 for the wall plates
More for 3-toggle and four
Hundreds in wooden molding
And don't forget the floors!

$20 per closet light
(Light bulb not included)
$15 for a door knob
Too much, I concluded.

$60 for a pendant light
$100 for a lighted track
$80 flowering shrub
$400 for a tractor shack

And though I'd rather be spending my cash
On bigger things than this little trash,
A house with wires hanging out,
And untrimmed drywall all about,
Or closets with no bi-fold doors,
Knobs missing from half the other doors,
And too bright lights that do not dim,
No molding, no plantings, no window trim -

It makes the place look quite undone.
Too bad those little things cost a ton.

Merry Moosemas

Can't wait til xmas? That makes two of us. I know I'm not getting anything from my dream house gift list, but that's ok. All in due time.

I am hoping though to get a couple more drawers for my closet organizer after xmas. And maybe I'll even spring for some more closet lights.

Back in Bathroom

Hey jize. It's Decemberween time once again. Time to start dreaming of spring and all those home improvement projects that dreams are made of.

LIKE BATHROOMS!

So in my latest caper - I designed a downstairs bathroom of EPIC proportions - which would totally make my current 6X7 look like an ink blot on a billboard. (Whatever that means.) See - I decided to totally stop compromising. Which is good. Bigger is better. That way I can get my jacuzzi corner tub, stand up shower, and everything else.

I designed a 6X11 that extended my current bano by 4 feet and fit all the amenities in it. I thought it was rather brilliant.

Mike thought it was rather ridiculous. Because if we stacked an upstairs bathroom on top of it (which we wanted to do) we'd lose both our windows in our bedroom. Plus one of our living room windows - a small problem, but the loss of the upstairs windows would be for ventilation's sake.

Very uncharacteristically, Mike unveiled a scheme of his own. And I hate to admit it, but I like the way he's thinking.

Step one - tear the current bathroom completely off the house and rebuild downstairs and up at the same time. It'll be easier than trying to retrofit old wood to new and trying to stack an upstairs bathroom on top of an old not-so-well-built bathroom.

Step two - keep the downstairs bath small, with just a stand up shower, sink, and toilet, with maybe just a small linen closet. New dimensions would make the upstairs bathroom 11 x 8. (Because we'd be able to build over our current basement stairs which are in back of our current bathroom, if you can picture it.) So the upstairs master could have the corner jacuzzi, stand up shower, double vanity, and private toilet enclosure. (Mike even picked out a design in a bathroom book that we both agree on... amazing.)

In the upstairs we'd only lose one window - which would become the doorway into the bathroom. Downstairs, we wouldn't lose any living room windows.

The kicker - Mike doesn't want to build this one. He wants to hire our carpenter TJ to do it. And I must admit, it can't be wrong because that jacuzzi tub alone is bound to be heavy and the framing has to be solid to code. The problem - costly costly. Currently, I have the tub priced at about $700 (unless I ebay it), toilet at $200 (times two), stand up shower at $250 (times two) and vanities at about $who-knows (times two) Plus building materials.

Plus, since we only have one bathroom currently, we'd be living sans-bath for x amount of time. Sounds dirty, don't it?

But I'm still confident that my luck will hold out and we'll be able at least to build both baths without buying all the accessories for both at the same time.

AND!!! I GOT A RAISE TODAY! IT TAKES EFFECT AFTER THE FIRST OF THE YEAR BUT I HAVE IT! ANOTHER $5000 A YEAR!

All I Want For Christmas

The Ultimate Wish List, Never to be Obtained, But Here Goes
(House only, personal X-mas gifts not included.)

1. New Bathroom: Corner Jacuzzi tub for two, new vanity, stand up shower, American Standard Champion toilet, mosaic tile, river stone floor tile

2. Kitchen: New windows plus trim, under cabinet TV/Radio, Kenmore refridgerator - the new double door freezer bottom $2200 model

3. MudRoom: Flooring, new door, new windows with bay window box built, laundry cabinets, laundry closet doors, closet light wainscotting, cushy big blue IKEA chair, tiffany pendant lamp

4. Living Room: Flooring, trim all round, new IKEA media center, Sony 32" HDTV, carpet pad, switch and outlet plates, stairway going into the basement, closet light

5. Hallway/Stairway: finished drywall and paint, new front entrance door, ceiling fixtures, a little door for the under-stair closet, banister, stairway trim, top stair step, stairway track light with dimmer, flooring, runner rug

6. Guest Room: Closet organizer from Closetmaid, closet light, Closet doors, window trim, flooring, new wood door

7. Office: recessed lights dimmer, new desk and file cabinets from IKEA, built in library shelves, closet organizer from Closetmaid, closet light, closet doors, door to the attic crawl space, new office chair, flooring plus an area rug, more throw pillows, better couches, window trim, railing for stairway overlook

8. Bedroom: plywood - foam - and batting so I can make my headboard, bed risers, new HDTV, closet light, closet doors, more drawers for my Closetmaid set, curtain pulls installed, flooring, area rug, new dresser for Mike, red mattes for my picture frames, trim and moulding, finish work on above closet storage, new storage boxes, door for attic loft space, stain for the bedroom door, a door knob for the bedroom door

9. Upstairs Bath: BUILD IT - frame it, electrify, insulate, drywall, paint, design, stand up shower American Standard Champion toilet, small vanity, stand up shower, pretty tile, skylight

10. Garage: Drywall and paint, Two garage doors, storage system with shelves, new wood stove and chimney, addition on back of garage - built, and whatever else Mike is dreaming of out there

11. House exterior: shingles for three sides, clapboards for the front, window boxes, green shutters, a new mailbox, lampposts, more grass, less gross plants and trees, flowering trees and other nice plantings, a shed, wrap around farmer's porch, chimney overlay, chimney cap, a bigger chimney with all accessories to vent wood stove, hammock, new driveway (ie, repour it)

12. Basement: finish it off with a bathroom (toilet, vanity, stand up shower), bedroom (twin bed, dresser, small closet), work room (shelving and storage), and rec room (comfy dark colored furniture and rug, pool table, air hockey, HDTV and storage unit). And I want my wood stove hooked up down therez.

Is that too much to ask?

Christmas Bowtie

Mike and I have not had an official Christmas in our house for the two Christmas' that we've been there.
Christmas #1: we got heat hooked up a couple weeks before and had just moved in - despite the fact that all the drywall wasn't completed and we only had heat downstairs. At that point we were living in our guest bedroom and eating out because we had no kitchen - except for a refridgerator, which was helpful for takeout at least. We had no other furniture besides out bed. All our clothes as well as toiletries were in trash bags and boxes. And we were working night and day to finish the drywall. I spent new year's eve watching an exhausted Mike sleep through.
Christmas#2: we were very depressed about the house lift. Our house lifter had originally told us he'd be able to do it in summer, but hadn't. $35,000 lay idle in our savings account. He was now telling us he'd be able to do the job after the new year, but we didn't keep our hopes up. Plus, both our vehicles had just died, right before the holiday. Mike bought a new truck at a high expense only to have the motor blow up after five miles. Luckily the previous owner helped us buy a new one. Meanwhile the headgasket in my 4runner went and we had to put my new one on the road. All those expenses, plus a trip to Maryland to visit relatives made it impossible to spend money on a real christmas.So this year I took the initiative the day after thanksgiving. I pulled out all the decorations, put the candles in the windows and bowtie on the garage. We got a tree the very next day and decorated it. There's no stopping the holiday this year!

blogging blogging i-2-3

This is a test of the emergency blog not working system. If the blog is actually not working.... i won't be surprised.

The System Is Down

I have been attempting to post pics for a straight week now, with no luck. In fact, my entire blog has been down for some reason. Don't ask me. I don't know.

But despite the fact that this post may not post - I'm writing it anyway. Can't stop the presses you know. Ok, update. The toyota pickup is mechanically fixed. This weekend we're going to hopefully complete the cosmetic repairs. Also, we have to put a new starter and windshield wash squirter motor in my 4runner.

At the same time, we'll work on finishing the shingling on the back wall where we put up the chimney. (It's already half way done - I took care of it last weekend.)

I think that will keep us busy for the whole weekend. I don't really have any other goals except for a bit of holiday shopping. Thank you internet. I don't want to leave my house on weekends. It's just dangerous with all the psycho holidites out there ready to kill over parking spots and nick-nacks. I'm one of them. Internet saves sanity. Save the Holidays - Shop Internet... sounds like an It ad for Ebay.

Friday four friday four. Not even, three forty. I need to get outta here. Another two hours save me save me.

It was Fancy Friday When I started this...

Welcome to another Fancy Friday. Normally at this time of the week, Mike and I would be gearing up for a rough and tumble weekend of work around the house.

But not this weekend.

Shocked? Well, I'll tell you what's going on. We finished the chimney last weekend. I raked leaves. Our carpenter extrodinaire TJ put in our new kitchen window. It was fairly productive.

But in light of the upcoming holiday and fast growing Home Depot credit card balance, Mike and I are taking a well deserved and neccessary break from home repair in order to catch up on our other other hobby - vehicles!!!

You see, last year round holiday time, Mike's '96 Tacoma ran into problems. Rather then fix it, we just stuffed it into the garage and bought a full size Dodge. (Cause you know we have the slide-in camper and the trailer and all - plus having a Dodge diesel is pretty fuel efficient for a full size truck - anyway - this is a tangent.)

So.... in order to pay off debt and have some money for the holidays and hopefully some for my beloved '78 trans am, which was so ruthlessly kicked out of the garage when the truck went in. (She needs two new doors, both inner fenders, a full weatherstrip kit, and one fender, plus motor mounts and a crud load of small niceities. Tangent 2. On a roll.... with cheese.) For these reasons and more, we need to fix the Toyota.

With a four day Thanksgiving weekend on the horizon, timing couldn't be any more perfect. So, we'll be spending our vaca in the garage. And hopefully, by monday, the truck will be for sale on our front lawn.

Ever so Toasty, There's Nothing Like Heat

So over last friday and saturday, as I prepared for our annual post-halloween bash, mike set himself to the psychotic task of making the heat work. 

The chimney is not totally finished, but it was high enough to be considered safe. So Mike installed two new baseboards upstairs for the second zone and finished plumbing in the basement.

Upon first pressurizing the system, everything seemed okay - no leaks. Then, just a few hours before the party, as Mike fired up the furnace for the first time, a few leaks appeared in the basement. We had to call over our plumber friend Brian to bail us out, for which I am ever so grateful.

We got it working and the party was a success.

However, now we're having some detail issues. The thermostat seems to be hooked up backwards - the heat is hooked in to the AC. Which means, the thermostat thinks that the heat is air conditioning.... a slight problem.

Plus - we don't have the second zone thermostat hooked up yet, so the upstairs keeps getting super hot. Hopefully we'll be able to get these problems resolved soon and then take a breather for the holidays. 

My home depot account needs to recover a little!!!

Hi, I'm Jess. And This is My Job

Last night the foundation we poured for the chimney had hardended, so we set ourselves to the second step - drilling a 6" hole in the basement wall where the pipe from the furnace will intersect the chimney.

After that was done, we had to drill matching holes in both the cement flue surround and the flue itself - a task that we thought was going to be so much easier than drilling the basement wall....

And drilling the cement flue surround was. Mike took care of it in less than 5min. But when we got to the flue - a terra cotta-like clay flue - all I could think about was Dirty Jobs' Mike Rowe and the episode where he's smashing huge terra cotta pipes quite easily with a sledgehammer. Terra cotta is not tough.

And sure enough, we tried drilling it, chipping it, grinding it - but every time, the flue piece just cracked and broke.

After some research, we found out that only a diamond tipped tool will cut it without breakage. Unfortunately, we don't have one. But a way around it is to build a brick base for the flue and allow the furnace pipe to enter through the bricks. 

Hopefully we'll be able to do that tonight. We're already a few days behind on this whole chimney project and cold weather is fast moving in for this weekend....

Another Option

So after being all gung-ho for ISOKERN, thinking this was the most economical thing ever, I was shocked when Mike came home with a similar setup at a cost of under $300 for an entire chimney on Saturday.

He just went down to our local concrete company, asked them for a pre-fab modular chimney setup - and they had it! This one has separate flue and concrete surround peices. You just put on a peice of flue, slide a concrete square on top of it, put mortar on both, and stack another flue on top of the flue and another concrete square on top of the first concrete square. And after twenty feet of repetitions, you've got yourself a chimney. Plus, you can purchase all sorts of fassads (Wrong spelling, I know.) that just stick on the outside with mortar. Various kinds of brick, stone, stucco - you name it. (Those Mike didn't purchase, we'll do that after the fact.)

So.. we're saving about $1,100 with this system vs. ISOKERN. Amazing huh? Pictures to come.

Rock yo Widget Post Test one two

Guess what guys! I'm posting from a DashBoard widget! Isn't this the greatest thing since cell phone pic postings?

ISOKERN

Housebloggers: Has anyone used ISOKERN pre-fabricated fireplaces and/or modular chimney systems before? And if so, how did you like 'em? Did you put them together yourselves? How easy was it? Mike and I had a modular type chimney system to vent our furnace previously - and we thought it was a nifty and likely cost effective, so I googled it.

ISOKERN came up as one of the only companies to make these pre-fab and modular fireplace & chimney kits. (www.isokern.net) Plus, they have an office in Auburn - which is relatively close to us. I printed out a brochure with all the types and measurement specifications, plus a sample of their installation instructions.

Now, theoretically, you're not supposed to f around and install these yourselves. But technically, Mike and I were probably not supposed to install our own heating, electrical, windows, etc. And we definately weren't supposed to rebuild our own second floor and redesign the layout of half the house. I think with the help and support of our many friends in the trades, plus our intimate knowledge in a variety of fields - we can do it.

Ok - so I ringaglinged ISOKERN this morn and told them I wanted pricing on a DM 44 appliance modular chimney for the furnace, standard 36" fireplace, DM 54 fireplace chimney, and of course, another DM 44 chimney for the wood stove.

The DM 44 is $54/ft
The fireplace is $1275
The DM 54 is $65/ft
Plus, we'd need their mortar - one big 'ol size at $60 per project

They don't really have a showroom, but they can deliver the goods within 1 to 2 days, depending on when you get your order in. (Major credit card required, of course.)

So - now we need to do some measurin' & calculatiing to figure out how many modular sections of DM 44 we need. We need this stuff like, toot sweet. I'm freezing my bum off and not feeling too good about it. I'm sick - seriously - I hope Mike doesn't need me to work on stuff tonight. *yaaawwn*

I DID IT!

Laundry. The final frontier. Well... maybe not the final final frontier. Anyway, as you may have guessed, we got it hooked up! And let me be the first to say, woo hoo. I did two loads just last night! Very cool.

But, speaking of cool - we still don't have our heat 'n hot water hookyed up yet. The problem is venting - triple wall metal pipe is expensive. Chimneys are expensive. Professional help is expensive. Most of our pipes are still in place from the old system... so that's not the issue.

Mike's been talking to one of our plumber friends - getting his advice. I think we've decided on a do-it-myself modular chimney system. Truth be told - 30 feet of metal pipe on the back of your house is just fugly. And going chimney is really not that much more expensive when all's said and done, plus it looks better. We just have to head down to our local supply place and see what they have to choose from.

We'll still need some pipage to go from furnace to chimney - but we do have some that was gifted to us by a chimney sweep friend of ours. So that'll save a few hundred dollars.

If the chimney system is economical enough, we'll also purchase enough for a second chimney - for our wood stove. I'm tempted by the idea of a pre-formed fireplace. That would just rock out loud, but needs furthur investigation.

We plan to start on all this tomorrow. The first step will be to wrip off the old siding on the back of the house where chimney #1 will be and replace it with shingles. (Cause who wants to do that when the chimney is on?) Step two is to go down to the supply place and check out the goods. Step three... well, let's just see if we can get step one and two out of the way first.

Yes, I know that's not healthy.

On Saturday our awesome carpenter TJ had a cancellation, so he came to our house to give us back the mudroom.

You see, the story of the mudroom is a tale as old as, say, the wireless web. Or footless leggings. Once upon a time before we owned the house, there was a concrete patio off the kitchen. Circa 1930's. Well, the home's owners decided to make this patio into a room! (Circa, perhaps 1970's.) Normal people might think to hire a contrator. Do it yourselfers might attempt to build it themselves. But this depression era couple decided to save themselves a lot of time, money, and effort by simply attaching a pre-built shed to the house.

Yes, they just took a shed, plopped it onto the concrete, chopped 1/4 of the roof off so it would line up with the rest of the rooflines, and called it done. We know because of this weird roof line - plus they didn't bother to take the old roof (ie roofing shingles and all that jazz) off of the 1/4 left roof side that is now part of our upstairs attic. (I actually had to do this - imagine me in a dark, small crawl space attic in mid-august 2004, ripping off old roofing. I've never sweat so much in my life.)

Anyway - when it came time to lift the house, our housemover said the concrete slab below the mudroom floor had to be removed - it couldn't be lifted.

So we ripped out the plywood and then jackhammered the concrete until it was far enough gone to be able to lift the mudroom with the rest of the house.

And through these past months, the mudroom has been floorless through the entire procedure. Lift, dig, pour, set, tar, fill. And of course, it's been exposed to the elements.

So TJ came on Saturday to rebuild the floor. Almost right away, he and Mike made a discusting discovery. Moisture had seeped in behind the wainscotting and mold was growing - everywhere! Luckily, the wainscotting was only on the bottom part of the walls, but green and fuzzy drywall is never a healthy site. That's some cancer-causing action right there. They guys immediately removed all the wainscotting but continued building the floor next to mold. Gross.

Mike and I were super busy and lived with the mold until Monday. Couldn't hurt to live with it a couple days, right? Well, on Monday when I walked in, I could smell it. That was it. I grabbed a razor knife and started cutting. Mike gave me a hand and in less than a half hour, all the moldy stuff was in contractor bags and out of the house.

That's some sketchy stuff right there. But boy does it feel good to have the room back. We even moved the washer & drier out of the kitchen! Amazing to have that room sans laundry. No more wash-in kitchen! WooHoo! Hopefully we'll have both machines re-hooked up this weekend.

Window Pains

You know, we still have eight big 'ol basement windows to put in. And with the winter months nearly all up on us, that's a big concern. Without the windows, the pipes could freeze just as quick and easy as they did before we had a basement!

Mike tried cementing one in about a month ago - but plain cement is too juicy and rocky to really work well. It just flowed out the sides and made a big mess. So, naturally, we called a mason. He told us that the kind of windows we have are supposed to be put in before the foundation is poured. *sigh* And they're really hard to put in after the fact. The quote he gave us reflected that - $1200 to $1400.

No way did we want to pay that. That's waaaay too much. So, Mike got creative and fashioned a set of window forms made of 2X4's and plywood and bought some masonry concrete mix.

His plan was ingenious. First, he'd put in the window. Then, he'd tape off the interior border with good duct tape. (Not that junky job lot stuff - actual, for ducts duct tape.) Then he'd put on the exterior form, which covers the entire window hole, and feed through two long, thick screws through pre-drilled holes. Then, he'd put on the interior form, lining up the screws with the pre-drilled holes in the interior form.

And then he'd wrench a nut on each screw until the two forms were as tightly squeezed together as possible. This would prevent the concrete from leaking out all over Z place.

Once all that was in place, he'd mix the mason's concrete and pour it in over top of the forms - on the two sides of the window and on top of the window. He'd smooth the concrete on top of the window to match the level of the foundation. And then, leave it to dry.

With only two forms and a lot of labor involved, we can only do one window per day. Last night we completed the first one - a test. We'll see how good it works when we take off the forms today. But it seemed to work perfectly - the forms held in the concrete, none dripped anywhere inside or outside!

The only concern I have is the bottom of the window. Mike thinks that enough concrete will seep in there to hold it in. I think a layer of concrete should be put on the bottom before the window/forms are put in. Mike's also concerned about the masonry concrete forming a strong bond with the foundation concrete. If the bond isn't strong enough, he may have to rough up the surface of the foundation concrete in the window hole to allow for a better grip.

Tonight we'll see! If all goes well, we'll do another window - and in 7 days, all the windows will be in!

Out on a Trim

FINALLY! We are so lazy sometimes.... well, not that we're lazy. We just happen to start new projects before old projects are really completed. The countertop, the hallway drywall, the trim in the entire house, painting behind the kitchen stove, the second heating zone... god, I could go on forever on half finished projects that were inturrupted halfway through.

But - at least now I can say that the countertop is finished! Yay! Also, we painted our exterior window trim - it would not have survived winter elsewise.

Now if we could just get our heat/hot water hooked up. We got the furnace... now it's just a matter of pipes and vents.