One Sixty: Another Fiesta

Another Fiesta

Me 'n Mike

The Creeps - Ghosts last year, Vampires This Year

Mummy Bread

The Girls

Mouths

Ahhh, the annual Halloween party is officially over. And may I be the first to say, thank god. I really do enjoy throwing this party - we only have one party a year and this is it - and I love it. But this year with the baby plus my co-hostess bowing out last minute due to swine flu, conflicts with my friend Anya's wedding, half the guests attending the wedding, three weeks of decorating and cleaning.... I'm just glad it's over and everyone had a fabulous time, including myself.

Of course now comes time for cleaning the house.... or, I should say unhalloweening. Such a pain! I have to neatly put away all the decorations, wash all the spooky dishware, and throw out anything broken, ripped, or otherwise unusable for next year.

After that I wish I could say we could return to our normal madness, however this whole vehicle thing is still looming over us. My yello truck is still hurting and the reason is still unknown. Mike has changed the spark plugs, the vacuum lines, the fuel pump, the fuel filter... checked the timing, switched computers with the green 4runner, switched the coil and various other electrical components trying to find the culprit. But still it's acting up - specifically, like it's getting no fuel - you put the petal to the metal and you're still only going about 30mph and not accelerating.

What is this, the 4th weekend he's been working on it? So frustrating for both of us. Mike's eager to move on to his other Dodge to Dodge project and I'm just eager to make progress of any kind. With only a few weeks until the start of the holiday madness, I'm hoping for a bit of good luck. Because you all know I have a big winter to-do list....

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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

Another Fiesta

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