One Sixty: Let the Inconvenience Begin

Let the Inconvenience Begin

It was so much less of an inconvenience to be inconvenienced a few years ago when we had less stuff and no baby. Now the mudroom is fulla tables and hutches, the upstairs is fulla couches and pictures, and the kitchen is fulla miscellaneous - including liquor. Looks like we just had a rockin party, actually.

Woo-hoo we partied so hard, the living room just exploded all over the house! I wish that were the case.... there'd be less dust.

But the guys really accomplished a lot. Besides moving all the remaining major furniture, they took up the entire old floor and nailed the subfloor to the joists. No plywood yet, but already the floor feels stabler... stabler? That might not be a word. More stable. Yes, more stable.

The next unfortunate task is the leveling of the room. *sigh* With everything removed from the room, the slope and bow of the floor was so painfully obvious that it couldn't be ignored. Why a slope? Apparently, the foundation is low in one corner - as in they didn't pour it level. Why a bow? Apparently, one of the studs is jacked up too high.

How to fix it? It's difficult. Mike will have to break out the lazer (yes, lazer) level and shim, trim, and jack his way to tranquility. He's not looking forward to it. I haven't half a clue as to accomplishing something so tricky, so I'll be no help. (But apparently I'm no help with anything anyway and Mike's done the entire house by himself, but that's another story.)

I suppose that crazy task will be tackled throughout the rest of this week. We're hoping we don't royally mess up our upstairs drywall/flooring. If we do, I'm going to have a conniption fit. I'm so petrified of the very notion that I tried to convince Mike not to level anything... but of course he can't take that for an answer.

Meanwhile we've tentatively scheduled our neighbor/drywall man for this week... pending completion of the leveling process... which will undoubtedly cause mad wall crackage.

As for the weekend - it's all up in the air depending on how the next few days pan out.

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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

Let the Inconvenience Begin

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