Me Time

On Monday, Mike sanded the bathroom. On Tuesday, Mike sanded the bathroom again. And now it's time for me... to paint! Yes, I just said paint, or, technically, prime. Tonight I shall be priming! And I couldn't be more ecstatic.

Come to think of it, I hope I have at least one roller and a brush kicking around. I feel like it's been forever since I did any painting and I have no clue what we have in stock anymore.

I already have the colors picked out for Mike to pick up on Friday. A dark teal for the ceiling and a near-white (tinge of mint) for the walls. If I'm painting color by Saturday night, I will be one super psyched lady!

Mike will have to do some caulking around the top of the shower where they just couldn't squeeze any drywall compound in. It's that tight. After the paint is complete, the shower head can be installed along with the glass enclosure. (Which was of course, removed for drywalling.) A little baseboard trim to do, then the vanity can go in and the sink plumbing hooked up. Oh, and of course the lights, recessed trim, fan trim, and mirror can go up too.

Amazing how fast stuff can happen once a stubborn roof leak is fixed!

Meanwhile, before that...

I completely forgot about madness Sunday! Wow. Yes, last Sunday there was actually too much happening. Even for me! Our carpenter was over first thing in the morning to finish up the shingling up on the tippidy top of the house where Mike dared not go, ladder or no. Later on that morning, our chimney sweep (do we not have a friend for everything?) came by to clean our blocked chimney.

I don't think I've even mentioned that in the midst of all the craziness we've been going through, Mike awoke in the middle of one night a few weeks ago to a house filled with smoke! There was no chimney fire, thankfully, but it was definitely plugged up. And there was Mike in the middle of the night with a bunch of box fans, opening up all the windows and airing out the entire house.

It took weeks for the smell to dissipate. The basement still stinks.

So, enter the chimney sweep. After much cleaning, the chimney was clear again. While he was here, the guys checked the stove and tried to run it again. Our sweep confirmed - it does not run hot enough. And he couldn't give us any solutions on what to do. A few things to try perhaps, but we all pretty much agreed that the stove is too old and inefficient.

New wood stove. Add that to the shopping list. Luckily, there appear to be some tax credits available if we were to purchase a new, highly efficient wood stove. Not a bad idea. How much does it cost to fill an oil tank now-a-days? For the price of two fills, I bet we'd have the price of a new stove right there. But we'll have to shop around, see what's what. To the list it goes!

After those two guys finished up, it was yard cleanup time. Mike brought home the blower the night previous, and, after moving a buncha logs out of the back yard, blew the entire thing thoroughly. Looks great! No more sticks, less leaves, and no logs.

I took Zaida in the stroller with a bag (I had the bag, not her) and picked up all the trash I could find. (Being on a relatively busy road plus track pickup Tuesday, we get a fair share of garbage on the lawn.) After Mike was done out back, he and Mikey cleaned up all the construction/shingle debris from just outside the downstairs bathroom. I had no clue it had been such a mess over there! Glad that's taken care of, pre-bday party.

And thus concluded the busiest Sunday ever - I won't even mention the fact that I was pumping out 30 handmade bday invitations and that there was a salamander loose in the kitchen. Just that kindofa day.

Starting the Holiday Season with a Bang

It was the morning after our 10th Anniversary Annual Halloween Party. Mike and I cleaned up, took down all the decor, ate some food, and then set our sights on the dreaded bathroom... that last remnant from the house as we bought it in 2004. Demo day had finally, thankfully, arrived.

The goal of the day was to remove everything - fixtures, walls, flooring... everything. I removed those few items I wanted to keep and Mike started in on the demo with a few choice hammer blows to the shower wall.

And then my camera died. (Too many Halloween party pics.) Mike continued on as I kept on post-halloween cleaning. (Although I did help carry out some large pieces of wall to the truck that wouldn't fit out the bathroom window where we were shoveling and throwing the rest.) In the midst of one of these trips to the truck, a single pink tile fell off the wall piece and hit me on the head. I thought to myself, "I should save one of these tiles," picked it up, and kept it.

Once most of the walls were down, the tub had to be removed. The cast iron tub. Mike's original plan was to bust it up. This proved impossible. Repeated blows with the hammer barely dented the green coating. These things were made to last forever... and ever. By some fit of amazing strength, Mike was able to turn it up on it's side. Then, we used a hand-truck and a couple straps to carefully wheel it out of the house and onto the porch. (Where it still sits.)

The breaking of the green sink and toilet must have been much more dramatic. But, unfortunately, I missed that too. I was picking up the kiddos by that time in the late afternoon. Mike said they both just shattered. I can only imagine!

When I returned home with the kids, the majority of the work was done. Mike was just finishing up demo on the floor. I took some pictures with my camera, now charged.

Wall

Back wall and floor

Floor

Other wall, window

Ceiling

The old pink and green monstrosity bathroom was no more. With no tub in there, the room actually looked much bigger. I was surprised. We also discovered that the roof was leaking! In not one, but two places! Rain dripped right onto the floor. (Leaky roof, leaky pipes....) Luckily for us, we have enough roofing leftover from doing the main house a few years ago to cover this small area of space. That will be our next order of business, before any drywalling can be done.

In the following days, Mike put down one sheet of plywood that we already had in stock, steadying at least a portion of the floor. As you can see, we have just a bit more to cover.

In the days following that, the chimney guys came back and finished the chimney! To prepare for our inspection, Mike re-organized and moved all the "combustibles" from the wood stove area in the basement and placed them over by the furnace and oil tank... what will be their final resting place. (This area will be a utility room once the basement is fully finished.)

If you focus on the top of this photo, you'll see Mike's genius idea for storing long pieces of wood and trim board... a couple wooden shelves attached to the ceiling. Perfect for keeping all of that stuff out of the way!

The rest of the stuff he managed to condense to three shelving units - carpentry tools, paint, plumbing and electrical supplies, drywall supplies, and misc.

That half of the basement looks pretty amazingly clean, doesn't it?

And the work paid off! We were inspected and approved in about 30 seconds. Trouble came when Mike tried to call the fire department to come and inspect the stove. "You don't have a permit," they said. Mike replied, "Yes we do, a building permit and it was just signed off on." Come to find out, we needed some special stove permit? Which the town never told us about? Yesterday being Veteran's Day, Mike couldn't get it all sorted out. The secretary was out. He'll try to call again on Thursday. It's always something!

Oh, and for those of you who may have missed our basement bathroom closet door install, which happened right before the party, here ya go! Sometime we'll have to stain these bad boys...

Chimney - A Reality?

Great and unexpected news - chimney work is scheduled to begin this Sunday! I was betting against this project for the simple reason that we started it before we should have and created a giant hole in the yard.

The arrival of the permit was the first surprise. Now, the guys have scheduled themselves for this coming Sunday. Mike is going to fix the dude's truck and the dude is going to poor the footing. (I still have no clue how we're funding this endeavor by the way.)

This last weekend, I also spoke to our plumber regarding the basement bathroom. (Yes, that's still down there... just hangin out.) He's available, in his words, "whenever" to come over and plumb what we need plumbed - the pump to the septic, out. Awesome! So when are we available? Ur... um... uh... dunno. Maybe I shouldn't have started the conversation without a calendar and the entire family at hand.

Already this weekend's booked... so, the following? Of course I wasn't able to articulate that when I was talking to the guy. We'll see what happens after this weekend, I suppose.

A Hole, A Yard Sale, and A Place for Everything

News news and more news.

The new chimney project is for the wood stove - good news. It's not going in the same place as the old chimney. The old furnace chimney will eventually have to be replaced. That's our first headline of the week.

Mike has not received the plans from his friend yet... but hopes to by Monday so that he can return to the town hall and get the permit squared away. Nevertheless, he began digging for the footing.

And I have to admit, there's less of a mark on the yard then I had imagined. But here we are, sitting on a hole in the yard for over a week with no plan and no permit. Just gives me something else to worry about, if I didn't have enough on my plate already.

Second headline of the week: Yard Sale Sales Decent! Ok, so it wasn't a mad rush of people and we didn't make a million dollars. I don't think the craigslist ad did anything for us and neither did the signs... last time I put Mike in charge of signage. No clue where he put those things. Most of our folks were neighborhood locals.

But still, we sold a lot of the big stuff, make enough to make it worthwhile, and made some much needed space.

I spent the rest of Sunday and potions of Monday trying to organize stuff. Mostly stuff that had previously been stored on the now-junked bookshelf.

Some of the stuff is scattered around our bedroom and some of it is still in the office. But I made good progress for the amount of time I had and how incredibly tired I was feeling.

While I was cleaning, Mike was down in the bathroom. Yes, I said the bathroom. He had, over the previous couple of days, gotten the foam brushes and completed the final coat of stain on the trim. On Monday, he installed it and began the laborious tasks of getting in the sink and toilet.


The toilet posed a bit of a problem because some of the tile around it was cut too wide and it showed on one side. We discussed it and decided we didn't want to wait to fix it. "It's a bathroom in a basement," I repeated. So when all was said and done and the toilet was in place, there was a little bit of caulking showing on one side. (I still say, No Big Deal.)

After the toilet, Mike installed the faucet fixture to the sink, attached the sink top to the cabinet for good, and put the whole thing in place. Plumbing will have to wait, as the caulking had to dry. 

Onward and upward! Mike hopes to bring back our plumber friend to help him properly plumb the pump to the septic-out and test everything. Me? I hope to finish organizing and find a rug for the now half-office so we can set up all the baby furniture. (Seven more weeks to go!)

Do you HAVE to remind me?

A couple months ago I switched home insurances - from the stupid MA Fair Plan to something more economical. And of course, this meant a home inspection. I always dread these things because, of course, this renovation is still in progress and many things are not finished. Many little things that people like home inspectors like to eat you up over.

When I've had these inspections before, I've been very quiet and let the inspector roam around by themselves. This last time, however, I had a woman who was very talkative and had questions about this or that. But I felt good about the whole thing because she was nice and very complimenting of our upstairs and kitchen. I knew the exterior would be an issue. And she asked about the wood stove in the garage - and I knew that would be our downfall for sure.

But the months went by. No phone calls. The switch went through and we got our new insurance plan in place. I thought, maybe it was ok because they knew we were renovating.

Then yesterday I get a phone call. A phone call with a list of grievances that must be addressed, fixed, removed, etc.

The siding must be replaced.
The chimney must be properly sealed.
The roof must be replaced.
Gutters must be installed.
Railings must be installed on all stairways and exterior entryways.
The wood stove must be removed from the garage.
Debris must be cleaned from the yard.

And honestly, none of this is really all that surprising - except for the debris part. Mike always has junk all over the place by the garage - and the garage is a freakin disaster area all the time and I can't stand it. BUT, I don't see why that would be an issue. I've seen all these places on TV that are absolute disaster areas - and I've been to houses with so much junk in the yard that they were actually condemned.

All we have in front of the garage is the little trash hut, ramps, the grill, some bits of scrap metal, misc parts, and I think there's a snow shovel.

Whatever - it's a good excuse to make Mike clean.

As for the rest, the only thing that worries me is getting it all done this summer. As you know, the farmer's porch and front siding are in the works. However, I hadn't planned on refinishing the rest of the house's exterior.

We did talk to a guy about doing the roof this summer - so that's only a problem of monetary fundage. Gutters are no big woop-de-do, although I hadn't planned on it. That's just another expense, plus time. The wood stove we can take out of the garage any time. And indeed, we do plan to put it in the basement this winter... but then that comes with building another chimney in addition to our current "unsealed" chimney.

And I don't even know what they mean by "unsealed." We built that chimney ourselves with concrete and terra cotta - a kind of, build-your-own-chimney-kit that we purchased from a local masonry place. All it needs in the surround, a decorative facade, and the cap. So... ok. Yet another cost.

The insurance company will be back out to inspect again in mid-September. And obviously, we have to show major progress or else they'll cancel us. More summer fun! Yay! I don't even want to count how many weekends we have to get all this done. It's like a reality show or something... I just wish I would win a million bucks if I did complete everything.