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.