One Sixty: Slappin It Down

Slappin It Down

It's lunch time here at the 'ol office. And I can't help but wish I was home right now because Mike is putting down hardwood today! I miss being the layout/cut gal... although so much kneeling down and getting up and kneeling down and getting up would probably be exhausting with my basketball belly.

Last night Mike came home with the 3/4 nailer.... rental free of charge. (Have I mentioned how much I love his new job?!) He began working on the measurements right away - this is always the difficult part. And to make matters worse, he had to start in the hallway so he could seamlessly transition into the baby's room with no threshold. But of course the hallway is small and un-square as un-square could be.

Nevertheless, by the time I got home from dance around 8:30, he had the first row nailed down. Theoretically, once the first row is down, you're good to go, although he only managed to do a few more rows before we turned in for the night.

I am hoping upon hopes that at least the hallway will be completed when I get home from work tonight. I know he's not going to have time to get into the baby's room, since he had some other errands to take care of today, but a finished hallway would be huge. It's one step closer!

Then maybe I can hope for him to have the baby's room completed by the end of the day Monday... maybe. This is the exciting part because once the floor is down - rooms look 100% better. And they feel finished.

Blog Story

My now husband Mike and I purchased this quaint home back in spring of 2004 - our first home - and, being the handy folks we are, expected to have the entire thing renovated in about a year or so.

And here we still are... renovating away.

This house needed a complete overhaul. Its plaster walls were uninsulated, its attic floor covered in 2" of bat guano, its basement - dirt and snakes, its exterior - asbestos siding, and lead paint windows in every room. The electric had not been updated and light sockets hung bare from the ceiling. Plumbing featured cast iron radiators - and only one for the entire upstairs.

We began by gutting almost the entire house from top to bottom. (sans bathroom - we needed to pee) We rebuilt the entire upstairs, with a new floor (not new carpet or wood - the once unstable framing underneath) and turned 3 small rooms into two. We reinvented the downstairs by turning a closet into a hallway and eliminating interior exterior windows and doors from old half-assed additions.

New insulation, windows, electrical wiring (including phone and CAT-5 internet), plumbing and baseboards, and drywall were all added.

We purchased kitchen cabinets from a yard sale. (None existed previously.) Our families helped us replace and purchase new appliances including the once also missing washer & dryer.

Then we had the entire house lifted - straight into the air - dug out the dirt, and had a real basement foundation poured. We updated our oil tank and burner and created heating zones.

Outside, we took down trees and planted grass. We dug out an awkward hill to create a 2nd part to the driveway and used the rocks our house once sat on as a retaining wall. We electrified and repainted the garage.

And of course, we spent many an hour on finish work like paint, trim, closet doors, lighting fixtures, hardwood floors, curtain rods, dimmer switches, and many other things everyone else takes for granted. We are still working to complete all this final finishing, but happy to report that we are FINALLY nearing completion of all little things in all rooms!

In 2008 we began overhauling the exterior by creating a new french door entryway and building a farmer's porch and garage addition. We replaced our roof and then stripped off our siding and replaced with new clapboards. We then planted two new flowering trees and a maple in the front yard - our first major landscape purchases. I'm happy to report that here in 2011, the porch is nearing completion and the back yard is on the road to recovery with some new loam and grass. More plantings soon to come!

In 2012 we plan to attack the last MAJOR (emphasis on major) job in the house - the dreaded BATHROOM! We plan to first add a second bathroom in the basement. Then, demolish our current bathroom and rebuild it, adding a second bathroom on top for the upstairs.

And that pretty much brings you up to date. The battle continues day to day as we try and complete everything.

One Sixty

Slappin It Down

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