Winter Prep

It's cold. And by my definition of cold, I mean below 70 degrees. The leaves are turning color... the Halloween decorations are up... and the Weather Channel is talking about naming snow storms with name choices including: Athena, Draco, and Maleficent. Ok, so maybe I added Maleficent. (Maybe I should be on the naming committee.)

All this changing of the seasons means it's high time for some winter prep around the house. First thing's first - the kitchen roof. Last weekend, as you recall, we were supposed to be roofing. Well, turned out to be rainy and windy. Foiled again. However, the past two days it's been sunny and in the 60's. Perfect roofing weather. So, the guys have been working in the evening.... in fact, they're working right now as I type. And I hope they plan on finishing tonight because it's supposed to rain tomorrow and the next day. Thunderstorms. Wind. Lovely.

The chimney would be second priority. Wouldn't you know, the guys were supposed to come out and finish that this past Monday. Didn't end up happening for reasons unknown. We are still waiting for the rescheduling call, as we're just 10 feet away from completion on that one. Mike was so excited, he even got a log splitter and split all that locust wood we got from the Nstar fallen tree in the front yard. Oh well, no stove today Senor Lumberjack Breakfast.

Third priority? Well, while we've got chimneys (chimnies?) on the brain, Mike decided to help out our poor old furnace chimney so it could possibly survive another winter. (This one he built years ago, on his own, before having any knowledge of proper chimney construction. It's a bit of a hack job.) Today, having accidentally scheduled a Thursday off a week prior to me returning to work, Mike decided to really have a look at the thing. And wouldn't you know, upon closer inspection, the chimney had some huge hole in it that was allowing sand to enter whenever it rained. Nearly the entire exhaust was full of sand. No wonder the thing ran like poop and made loud noises whenever it kicked on.

As Mike worked to clear that mess and fix the hole, he discovered dead spiders all over the place and more trying to enter through the same orifice. (Yay vocab!) Great. Sand in the furnace exhaust and another grand entrance for the wolf spiders.

He ran to the chimney store, picked up another couple pieces of pipe and replaced the entire lower portion of the stove exhaust and chimney. Already the thing is running quieter, and hopefully more efficiently too. With a new baby around, we've already had the heat on for nearly two weeks and I can feel the upcoming disturbance in the monetary force... oil is not cheap these days.

Still on the agenda - staining the basement closet doors. That must be done before our Halloween party. (Or bust!) Window bottoms would be nice too... we'll see how things go in the next two weeks!

Is There Bathroom Yet?

Would you believe after our disappointing run to the HD, Mike went to begin plumbing and discovered that we’d purchased the wrong gauge of pipe? A fitting end to a trip fated for disaster.

But it all ended well, since on the same trip to return the pipe, Mike returned a bunch of lattice connectors (leftover from summer farmer’s porch work) that we didn’t need.

*And let me take a time out here because I had to FORCE him to take this stuff back. What is up with guys and returning stuff? Sure it’s been months. Sure we don’t have the receipt. But they’re Home Depot! Unless you’ve cut it, drilled it, or damaged it in some obvious way – they will take it back! But did he want to take it back? Noooooo. Not without me. I said, “Fine, I’ll go.” Then, the reply was, “But I’ll have to put away all the stuff in the garage…[that was littered about the driveway]” So I said, “Ok, then I won’t – but you’re going to take it back! I would do it myself, but it won’t fit in my truck.” He grudgingly loaded it up… And came back with nearly $50 in store credit from the lattice connectors alone! ($40 additional in cash from the pipe, which he’d had the receipt for.)

$50 that would have been otherwise just sitting in the basement until it was damaged and needed to be thrown away. GUYS! And by the way, I have embarrased myself plenty of times trying to bring stuff back that was cut, drilled, and/or damaged in an obvious way. So what? It’s worth the try every time.

Going back to the bathroom – Mike then purchased the pipe at his work for a better price. Boo-yah, meant to be. He’s been plumbing all week after a flair up of eczema on my face got us both back thinking about the ill health effects of that dang old bathroom.

And as for the tile? My sweet sweet sweet tile. I asked Mike to measure and give me the amount of tiles we needed. (12x12 makes it simple – one square foot each.) The grand total: 120 tiles, and of course we’d need extra. No problemo. I hop back onto Lowes.com, find my tile, put the price into my caculator and…. HAD A FREAKIN HEART ATTACK.

A box o tile contains 11 tiles. A box o tile costs about $58. I estimated we’d want to get at least 13 boxes. THAT’S OVER $700!!!!! Plus tax, thanks Massachusetts.

I was so flabbergasted.  I thought about it for over a week, looked at other tile on other websites, and even visited Lowes the store. $58 for 11 was a comparable price. Plus, I didn’t like anything else I saw anywhere else. There’s just not much choice in the Blue color scheme. Much of it was 12x12 squares made up of itty bitty mosaic tiles. No thanks.

I thought about it. Thought about it. Then last night, Mike gave me the news… he was going to be finishing up the plumbing. The closet would need to be built – a fairly easy task. And then the tile. That was just the next step.

I had to make a decision and I bought it. My plastic is still steamy hot from the transaction. Ugh. Who would have thought the flooring would have been nearly as expensive as all the fixtures?

It will be delivered to the store 2/8. Almost makes me wish I had ordered it a week ago, but no matter. Plenty of time to finish up the plumbing, closet, and tie up any other lose ends.

And we may be getting a brand new kitchen… yes. Maybe.

DeepHo Lack of Anything

With the beginning of a new week, Mike and I were all fired up to get back on track and back downstairs a-workin. But, first thing was first. We needed more materials! So Mike made a list on Monday and we packed up the fam and headed off to the Home Depot around 6:30pm.

Upon our arrival, we decided to pick out the tile first. They had NOTHING. And I mean NOTHING besides gross, ugly, mundane, monochromatic, or cheeseball. I couldn't believe it. No brilliant colors whatsoever (besides black - cheeseball) and no aesthetically pleasing textures or designs. It was all these boring earthtones - brown, brown, lighter brown, greenish brown, etc etc. They reminded me of tile you'd find in the bathroom at your local Casual Family Dining Establishment Chain. Ew and gross. No.

What I'm looking for is a brilliantly interestingly textured dark blue (like the deepest depths of the ocean and you get lost at sea just looking into it) tile. Big tiles - 12x12. Here's ones I like from Lowes: Awesome Tile This will be in stark contrast to the walls, which will be a light (but still "deep" if you know what I mean) grey. Think of that same day on the middle of the ocean... the sky covered in clouds - but not storm clouds. Peaceful, quiet grey... no harsh sun beating down on you. You're all with me on my design vision here now, right? The white tub and toilet, brushed nickle fixtures, and dark wood trim and vanity hint at a nautical feel without putting stupid boats and life preservers on the wall. Because I'm not "beachy," despite being a native Cape Codder, and I'm not "boaty" either. In fact, I have an aversion to either theme and all the related items sold at Christmas Tree Shops.

Long story already made long, we left the flooring department empty handed. I'll go to Lowes, where the tile selection is so much better. (This is where I purchased my mudroom tile.)

Next stop - plumbing, for all the copper piping and fittings. Only one problem. Hardly ANY copper pipes. And I mean there were like 5 for each size category. I'm not exaggerating. We picked them dry of the category we needed, (with 5) leaving a warped 6th pipe on the shelf. It was the most ridiculous thing I'd ever seen, especially since all the other shelves of PVC were stocked full. As you can imagine, this did not satisfy our list. Mike picked out all the fittings he could, but still couldn't find many of the other things on his list.

Mikey and I left him for a bit to pick out a fan/light fixture in the next aisle. (Didn't quite plan on it, but sometimes I don't get to go on these DeepHo trips. May as well pick out what I want while I'm here. Plus, we wanted to get up to $299 to avoid interest on the DeepHo card... fat chance with the lack of copper, but we would soon see.) So there we two were, in the fan/light fixture section. I picked out one at a median price that moved a lot of air while still being very quite - plus had a light and night light feature. Just what I wanted!

Problem was, they didn't have any in stock. I even got down on the floor and searched through all the boxes. No luck.

Mike and I met up shortly after. He had bad luck, I had bad luck, and the cart wasn't very full at all. It was very frustrating for the two of us, who were already frustrated that we were behind schedule and hadn't been able to get out and purchase these materials. The one night we decided to just do it - we're sh*t outta luck and outta stock.

Needless to say, we did not make the $299. I'll have to buy tile in cash since I don't have a Lowes card. (And don't want one at the moment.) Urg. Not as planned.

Maylay and Delay

It's been a full 10 days since I last said of our progress, "Wow." Today, on the other hand, I say, "Eh." Eh because we've accomplished nothing substantial. Eh because I've been just flat out dead tired and not feeling well. Eh because I had to work last weekend and that sent me into a spiral of exhaustion from which I am just now starting to escape from. Hey, other then that, things are just peachy keen.

I'm hoping we can start turning all that around this weekend. Already this past Tuesday night, Mike brought home a new filter for our furnace and installed it. (Whole house still smells like oil... or maybe I'm just super sensitive to it.) But we're both pretty happy since that seems to have fixed our whiny, noisy furnace issue.

The cement is probably dry downstairs at this point and ready for tile. Too bad we have yet to purchase the tile... It's on the shopping list along with all the copper piping to finish the rough plumbing. If we can purchase all that this weekend, great. If we can start plumbing this weekend, even better. If we can schedule the tiling... well, that would just be ice cream next to a cake that had already been iced.

In with the Water Out

Wow. That's all I have to say. Our plumber came out Sunday morning as planned and he and Mike hooked up all the drains (bathtub, toilet, sink) in under an hour. Mike spent the rest of Sunday morning and early afternoon cleaning out all the rest of the broken cement, rocks, and dirt from the basement. (Throwing large pieces up and out the window, carrying small bits and dirt up in bucket loads.)

By late Sunday afternoon, he was on his way to the DeepHo to pickup cement. 

By late Sunday evening, all the trenches and pipes within the trenches were sealed and re-cemented beautifully. Not to mention that the entire area was clean and free of cement debris.

Pipe Pattern

The Evacuator

Cat prints immortalized

To repeat, Wow.

Too bad the dump was closed today. (Monday)

Next up, all the copper piping to plumb the water "in." (Since we already have the water "out" covered... literally at this point.) Then tile, electrical, insulation, and drywall. As far as I'm concerned, all that is the easy part. Once the copper is bought and installed, the difficult and expensive part will be officially complete.

What a way to ring in the new year!

Not Enough Hole for My Pocket

Pipe – check. Lumber – check. Pocket door framed out – check….

Mike spent an entire laborious Thursday setting up for the pocket door. Turns out, we didn’t leave enough room after all. Mike had to modify the door to make it work and it took ALL day.

So, check your pocket door kit installation instructions before you do anything, everybody. You may need more space then you think.

And now we’re officially ready for Sunday – hoping we’re still on with the plumbers!

Living Room Week!

Welcome to LIVING ROOM WEEK! Probably the best week I've had in quite a while, actually. This sickness is finally leaving me, house work is being completed, and best of all, Mike and I have a special event in Boston to attend at the end of the week. Everything has been generally good.... note I'm not claiming that this is the best week ever or anything like that... but "generally good" is pretty good after a slew of "very bad," "horrible," "sick," and the ever-popular, "Uuughsph" weeks.

First lets rewind to last Sunday. Mike completed the leveling to a point of less then perfect, but more then adequate. And, I might add, no cracks in the upstairs drywall or hardwood floors. The same afternoon, I was able to get a break to remove the living room window trim and a large section of drywall that needed to be replaced.

Upon removal of said drywall piece, I was shocked to find a portion of the exterior wall that had been left uninsulated. How we managed to forget one little portion is beyond me and this was definitely contributing to the whole downstairs heat problem.

I also found some nifty souvenirs in the wall from when we originally demolished the old plaster walls that I'd completely forgotten about.

This "No Snake" sign I created to help guide and inform all the confused snakes that kept getting into the basement. (at that time a dirt crawl space)

I hoped to encourage natural snake control with this "Mongoose OK" sign... but never saw any mongooses. Both signs I left in the wall for future renovators.... funny that I got to take one last look before the wall went back up again.

On Monday, Mike cut a new sheet of drywall to replace the damaged one. Monday night, he removed the pipe - put in originally in hopes of a wood stove. (We still hope to add our wood stove someday... just a little differently.)


Also he cut a new piece of drywall to fill the void left by the pipe, insulated the wall portion that had been previously neglected, and then screwed both pieces of drywall to the wall.


On Tuesday night, Mike started on the plywood - managing to install 3 sheets. (Note that each cat couldn't resist getting his and herself into Tuesday and Wednesday's picture.)

On Wednesday our neighbors Dana and Rich came over to tag team the drywall while Mike and I were at work. Though we really just needed a couple of areas fixed, these two are perfectionists and taped up ALL the problem areas.

And that brings us up to date. Next, after the mud dries fully, the guys will return to sand and all that good stuff. Then the entire room will need to be primed and repainted. (Yes, they fixed a lot and the entire room will need to be repainted. No way around it.) At the same time, Mike can continue installing the subfloor.

Timetable? No clue. But this is a heck of a lot farther then I thought we'd be at this point. Just goes to show how much you can accomplish when you do a little every night.

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