Another Day, Another Window!

Saturday was almost a complete bust. In the AM, we rushed out of the house after seeing missionaries coming down the street towards our house. But we had planned on visiting a friend of ours in Hyannis anyway.

After we stopped there, we went to check out some possible free Anderson windows. Unfortunately, they had been sitting outside unprotected and were no good. Too bad, there were 8-10 big, nice windows.

So, we went home. Hung out for a bit, and then went to Home Depot to purchase windows. For the first time, they actually had the windows in the sizes we needed in stock.... Or, I should say, for the first time, we actually had a need for windows of a NORMAL size. Most of our windows had to be special ordered because of the old non-16-on-center construction.

We purchased the two for the mudroom. One to replace that old window, and one to replace the old door. But by the time we got home it was 6.

Mike, that psycho, said, "When does it get dark? 7? Do you think we could put this window in by 7 - in an hour?"

And so we did! We ripped out the old window, and just caulked and nailed in the new one. It fit so perfectly - no additional prep work was needed. Amazing! And, we were done in about a half hour. Record time!

Out with the Old

A few nails to hold in those shingles...

And In with the New

Done by Sundown!

Now, replacing that old door with a window will take some doing.... That will have to wait until this upcoming weekend.

Historical Shimishtorical

Mike and I got a letter from the Town on Wednesday. And for a split second, I imagined that our permit had arrived already - sans Conservation Commission.

When we opened it, we were shocked to discover that it came from the Historical Commission. Some Demolition Delay Bylaw would require us to pay $50 and appear before the Historical Commission - because our house is nearly 100 years old.

I was raging mad. First off - no demolition of any kind was in our permit. This was simply the addition of a farmer's porch - simple stuff, people! Second off, we hadn't gone through this when we lifted the entire house to put a foundation underneath... why was this project subject to this bylaw?!

And besides that - it's another $50 - so the Historical Commission can notify all my neighbors and everyone else in town via the newspaper. (And who reads that anymore anyway, but that's another blog.) So I have to pay another $50 on top of the $25 for the permit and another $50 because I'll probably still have to go through the conservation commission.

If that weren't enough, guess when the meeting is? 10am on a Tuesday. WTF!? So now, my husband has to miss work - lose pay - all in addition to paying the $50, I mean, $125.... At least the Conservation meetings are in the evening.

So Mike and I got into a huge argument. (We don't usually have arguments, so when I say huge argument - I mean we were just both pissed off.) At one point I said, "We didn't buy into any historical society and if we can't do what we want to this house - we're moving and I don't care."

I mean, we were pissed. And right there and then (at 10:00 at night mide you) I left a frantic and probably bitchy message on the town voicemail.

The next morning, however, a very nice woman called me back. In my psychoticness, I left the message on the wrong voicemail. (Well, they sent me the wrong business card, so partially not my fault, but I should have checked.)

Anyway, this woman was sooo nice. She explained that the law was created in just the past year or so, because of all the old buildings that were being just torn down in Bourne - without anyone saying anything about it. And I knew that to be true. I knew of a couple on my own street, in fact.

Urg... I hate to admit it, but I agree with the bylaw... having worked for the last almost 4 years to restore a historic Bourne home that probably would have been just bulldozed otherwise. And even though it's called a "Demolition" Bylaw - there's some stupid sentence somewhere in there that makes reference to the alteration to the exterior of the property... hence - our invitation to the commission review.

But I'm still not happy about the $50 and the Tuesday, 10am meeting. And I wouldn't mind it so much if I didn't have to go through the whole thing again with Conservation.

AND - with this "Demolition" notice being sent to my neighbors, they're going to think I'm tearing down my house or something!! That's probably going to get the Andersons up in a tizzy. I'm sure they'll show up at the meeting and claim that we're ruining a historical blah blah blah... Aholes.

I get so frustrated. But as I said, I do happen to agree with this bylaw. The nice town woman assured me that I probably wouldn't have any problems.... though she doesn't know about the Andersons. Plus, they're an old Bourne family who just love to throw their weighty opinions out in the open. And they may be politically connected as well.

I'm sooo nervous. And I'll be sweating it out for a couple weeks until the meeting.

Switching It Up a Little

You know it's almost spring when you get home from work and your husband says, "I was thinking about putting in those switches..."

Not, "Do you want to watch a movie?" Not, "I'm going out to the garage for a while." Not, "What's for dinner?" Those are all winter-laziness-type after work questions.

It's something about sunlight, I swear, that motivates us all to get more accomplished. That's why I say, YAY to turning forward the clocks in March. It really helps productivity around the house!

Now, I must admit I was super hungry last night and just wanted to laze about and stuff my face with veggie lasagna.... but this sign of spring could not be ignored.

So off we went to the home depot to get two three pole switches. (Having, of course, a box of plain 'ol two poles.) We also picked up a couple other little odds and ends - like a light activated light socket for your outdoor lights to turn them on when it gets dark and off when it's light.... Wow, how many times can I use the word light in one sentence!

Upon returning home we got right to work. And first thing - I put the light activated light socket (hereafter to be referred to as the "light thing") on our front door light. Low and behold - it worked. Yay. Ok, no problem.

But when I went to shut off the breaker for Mike to install the new switches - there was a buzzing emanating from the breaker box! Seeing as how strange electrical noises are never a good thing, we tested each breaker until we found the culprit....

The breaker controlling the living room lights and the front door light. The one with the light thing on it. So, naturally, I removed the light thing and the buzzing stopped. Weird, huh? Now, it may be because I have an energy saving bulb on that light. The light thing package warns "incandescent bulbs only." And also, the living room lights have a dimmer on them. The light thing package also warns, "do not place on the same circuit with a dimmer."

Of course, I had not read these before testing the thing. Who does? So unfortunately, I can't use the light thing! I was so disappointed, but I don't want my breaker box buzzing! That's freaky. I'd be worried about it constantly.

Even more disappointing, we couldn't get the switches hooked up. Wiring is confusing!! Especially in our basement and especially when you throw in 3 pole switching, new lights, old lights, new wires, two feeds.... I can't keep track.

But at least we tried to get stuff accomplished! A for effort!

Whatta Weekend!

It's 7am on Saturday and my alarm is going off.

Instead of whacking it violently, like I usually do, I calmly turn it off and get out of bed. I hop into a pair of jeans, my black sheep shirt, and a pair of Chooka Love Hurts purple rain boots and head downstairs to do all those morning chores - you know, feed the cats, brush my hair, make some oatmeal etc etc.

By 8am I'm on the road, headed to the ER to have my stitches taken out. (Long story, don't ask.) I'm there before 8:30 and low and behold - there's no one else there! I get right in and those three little pains are out before 9. My mom pops into the hospital room where I am - we were supposed to grab breakfast together, but I didn't expect her to meet me at the ER!

We run out, through the rain, over to pickup my new glasses - which have been sitting at the eye doctor's for two and a half weeks. And then we head over to Panera's for a coffee and pastry. It's not even 9:30.

We just barely get out coffee and get seated when Mike calls.

"Where are ya?" he says, obviously just waking up.
"I couldn't tell you last night," I replied, thinking of the impromptu neighborhood bash he'd had in the garage the previous night. "But I had a few things to do in Hyannis this morning"

I listed off my to-dos and promised him I'd be home by 11:30. While I was away, he offered to start working on the mudroom. AOK - cool.

By 10 I was off and running again, this time to drop off my friend's scarf she'd left at my house at my b-day party the previous weekend. We hung out at her house for a little bit, and as promised, I was on my way home by 11.

When I got there, Mike was just finishing up some wiring. And I won't bore you with the unending details - but by the end of the day, we had reconnected the mudroom outlet power (returning power to the laundry closet, all outlets, and a couple of the kitchen fixtures), disconnected the side light and replaced it with a security light, disconnected and removed the side doorbell, increased the laundry closet door height to match the new floor (thus preparing it for new doors), and installed the new basement stairs door complete with trim, new hinges, and a new knob.

What a day! And I had been worried that my morning errands would make this day another wash.... But boy did we get a lot done. We would have even put the old side light on the front next to the new doors, but Mike didn't have his drill bits at home, so we couldn't drill the hole for the wire.

Sunday, I was able to get more accomplished - even though Mike was out riding. I did errands like cleaning, laundry, grocery store, home depot, gas - the usual Sunday stuff. But I was still able to put up my two new candle sconces in the living room, paint the new basement door and trim in the same off-white as the hallway, and install the last remaining outlet needing to be installed in the hallway.

What a fulfilling weekend overall! I was so psyched! I can't wait for this upcoming weekend. I hope to get the new windows for the mudroom and put those in - taking out that 'ol original side door in the process. With the windows in, we'll be officially ready for drywall!

And... dare I say it? That means we're almost done....

The Deed Is Done

Well, I did it. Just this morning I dropped off the permit app and all related plans down at the town hall. Now we get to play the waiting game. It'll probably be a couple weeks before we get the call from Conservation. And after that we'll have to wait for the next hearing, which may be a couple more weeks.

Wouldn't it just kick butt if conservation didn't notice the river across the street? Or maybe the law has changed so that you can complete small projects on pre-existing structures without dealing with the red tape of conservation. I mean, they're only going to make me put up some hay bales! So I wait weeks and weeks for they to tell me that in some ridiculous public forum meeting, for which I have to alert all my neighbors?

Now if I was right on the ocean, or on a lake front, or on a river front - and I was doing new construction or messing with the sea wall or installing a septic - then I totally understand the purpose of Conservation.

But the thing is, we're across the street from a river. And it's not even a river - it's a dinky little herring stream. I could walk through it and barely get my ankles wet. And we're not even right on top of it! It's across the street - 100ft away. But Conservation says whenever you're less than 200 feet from a river, you must pay the ultimate price.... did I mention it's $50 just for processing of all the conservation paperwork? Talk about adding insult to injury. Not to mention you have to send all your abutters (neighbors) certified letters stating what you plan to do.

And in our case, that seems to get the Andersons up in arms. I wonder what kind of ridiculous plan they'll have for trying to stop us this time.... Thank god the rest of our neighbors are so supportive.

Moving Wires

I'm finally getting around to posting about this. We moved these wires the weekend before last, and I just couldn't get motivated enough to download the pics!

Anyway, let me explain it from the top. So we installed new french doors in the mudroom, but the light switches, 4 of them to be precise, were still located next to the old door! And really it would be silly to leave them there after we removed the old door. They had to be moved to next to the new door.

And although 4 switches does not seem like a lot, boy did they have a lot of wires going to them! Lights from the kitchen, lights from the mudroom, two exterior lights.... With two or three wires plus grounds for all, and then the feed and all its wires - that's a lot.

The first step was to label the wires as to which slot (1-6) they each went into. For two wires in one slot, we labeled #3.1 and #3.2. Then we drew a diagram to show which wires were connected to the switches and which were connected together.

Then came the fun part. Mike knew that we had slack in the wires in the small space above the mudroom. So he cut a trap door through our attic to access the space.


As you can tell, the space is very small and full of insulation dust - which made it difficult to breath in there. Mike and I both had turns pulling wires up the wall, through the ceiling, over to the opposite wall, and down from the ceiling. It was so uncomfortable, but we were able to get everything through.

Then we just followed our diagram and rewired everything. And although it sounds easy, with just a few steps - it took forever. Probably just because of the number of wires.

And even now there's more wiring related work to do. We have to hook up an additional exterior light outside the new door, move the doorbell, and wire for new exterior outlets to go on the farmer's porch.

At least now we can move onto the next step - preparing to repair the mudroom drywall - which has been torn apart during all these renovations plus cracks from the house lifting.

Making Trades

First off, let me just thank all 'yalls for your input on my - What-Should-We-Do-With-Our-Tax-Refund-Money survey. I'm happy to report that we got our return last Friday. (Thank you e-file with direct deposit! Quicker than quaker!)

But over the weekend a trade opportunity made the decision for us. We have in our possession a '99 Honda F4 motorcycle. And although I love the thing to death, Mike hates its ergonomics. He bought a cruiser last summer and has since wanted to sell the F4. Anyway, to make a long story just a little bit shorter, our friend and carpenter showed interest in purchasing it.

And on Sunday Mike offered him this trade: the bike for the porch.
*Materials not included. Labor only.

And he agreed! Labor on the porch plus extra... Mike did not elaborate to me on what the "extra" might be, but I don't really care. I thought that was a really awesome deal! Everybody wins.

On the same day, TJ was over too and took with him our sketchy permit sketch. He's going to turn our scribblings into a permit ready work of art! Thank goodness, because we were at a loss at how to draw the roof line and what materials to list out.

Now, if we can manage to get the permit stuff in by next week - I'd imagine that we could be through conservation by April 1st. And I imagine we have to go through conservation again. Crazy - for something so small as a porch. Then, we could begin construction shortly after. That would be nearly perfect timing - with spring in the air...

So all that money will be put towards materials. In addition to the porch itself, don't forget that we'll also have to re-do the siding on the front of the house. We plan to get rid of the gross blue junk we have now and put up clapboards - not the wood kind, but the kind that look like wood but never need any maintenance or anything. More on that when I find out more on that. =)

On the Porch

Mike asked me recently what I wanted this farmer's porch to look like. And I found I couldn't give him a very descriptive answer. In fact, he had no clue what I was talking about. So I dug up this picture on the net:
Believe it or not, this house is actually in my town. Down by the library, the picture-taker told me. (Picture-taker... yeah, how about photographer, jess?) I wish I had a current pic of my actual house to compare it to.... then again, it would put my house to shame.

THIS is pretty damn near to what I want ours to look like. The white with green, the farmer's porch, the super-nice grass... *sigh*

But you can see what I was trying to explain to Mike on the porch - he said, "What do you want it to look like?" and I said, "Like a fence! You know, with posts..." And he said, "Oh, columns?" So, you can see how circularly confusing that conversation was.

But this is a great pic, because this house is the same exact style as ours, except for the mudroom jutting out the right hand side... that will be tough with the porch roof line.

Ahhh, Friday at Long Last

I've never been so happy to be on the edge of a weekend! February is almost over and I'm feeling fine. Over the past week, I've gotten so much relieving news too. No more worries for me! Well... at least not as many.

We did our taxes last night - and now comes time for the all important tax-return decision. If you remember, last year's returns purchased all the hardwood for the upstairs. I'm wondering if we should continue this year and purchase all the hardwood for the downstairs...

Or, should we save it for the construction of the farmer's porch.

I'm really on the fence about this one. Getting the hardwood for the downstairs would bring the house-interior-doneness level up to over 95%. As in the upstairs, we'd have to fix the downstairs drywall cracks, install subfloor and hardwood, and then finish the baseboard and other trim. And although that's a lot of work - it's the last hoorrah. At that point, the downstairs would be officially nearly done. We'd just have to do our stair railing and a couple other little things and that would be it. An amazing concept....

But we've been really gearing up for the farmer's porch, what with the installation of the french doors and permit preparation. Putting on the farmer's porch would be a huge improvement for the house's exterior. At the same time, we'd replace the disgusting old siding on the front of the house with nice clapboards - white with green shutters, window boxes, and of course the beautiful porch. It would be picture perfect.... at least from the front.

I want both equally as much! Ok housebloggers, let's take a vote. What would you do if you were me? Interior doneness or exterior progress?

This Room's Name Is Mud

Just when I was riding high on the progress of the mudroom, (soon to be dining room by the way) an obstacle popped out and smacked me in the butt. Upon said smack, I fell down and a fight ensued, causing major suable damages to myself and the obstacle in question.

Ok, so that's a gross exaggeration of a weird metaphor. Let's back this truck up.

On Sunday, Mike was with our carpenter friend and DIY answer man, TJ. And of course, Mike showed off the mudroom floor and talked with him about our plans for the room's floor. (Tile by the door and in the laundry closet, and the remainder of our 3/8" hardwood for the rest.)

But TJ pointed out that since this was the house's main entry point and an extreme high traffic, high dirt, high muddy boots stomping all over the place room - the 3/8" hardwood would quickly wear down. And, being 3/8 and not 3/4 - you can only refinish it a couple times before completely refinishing it down to nothing. He suggested that we tile the entire room.

He's right. He's 100% right. But I have several problems with tiling the entire room.

1. From a design/personal opinion standpoint - I think tile is too cold and unloving for a dining room.
2. We don't have enough leftover kitchen tile to do the entire mudroom, and I don't want to have to buy new tile.
3. The kitchen tile design, although fine for beneath the french door and laundry closet, does not match the color scheme of the room and I'd have to re-think all that.
4. We currently have plenty of leftover 3/8" hardwood from the upstairs to do the mudroom. BUT, that's the only room we could use 3/8 in. The rest of the house we need to do in the more supportive 3/4. So... we'd be left with a whole bunch of 3/8 that we could never ever use anywhere else. (Can you say, a lot of money just sitting around?!)
5. I cannot afford to purchase 3/4 right now. If I was to purchase it, I would want to purchase for the entire amount I need for the entire downstairs anyway.
6. For all those above reasons - this delays the completion of the room.

So Mike and I talked about it back and forth. We went through all the options. We finally decided to just put down the 3/8 with a couple of rows of tile. I will purchase an area rug to help cut down on damage to the floor, and if we indeed need to replace it 5 years down the line, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

It's just the most cost effective, materials effective, time effective solution. And I know it's probably not the best solution - but we're going to just go with it.

Semi-Solved

Alright - I know you've all been wondering how the whole plywood ordeal turned out.

We returned to the DeepHo Friday night with our electro-measuring thingie. Sure enough, the plywood measured 0.46... something. (Or, 15/32.)

I said to Mike, "Well, how is that going to work with the piece we have currently that measures 0.4?!"

He replied, "Oh, that measured the same... 0.4-something."

Ok, he forgot to mention the dot dot dot after the 0.4 when he told me the measurement the other day. So the piece we had in was in fact 15/32.

So we purchased all we needed, used our coupon. 15/32 seems to be the standard "actual" width of 1/2" plywood. BUT that does not excuse the Home Depot from labeling it in such a manner, thus confusing those of us (like myself) who are novice DIY - er's. LABEL IT 1/2" OR DO NOT LABEL IT AT ALL!

Over the weekend, I was working like a crazy gal - 14 hour days all weekend - the whole bit. While I was working, I asked Mike to go on Saturday and see if our good friend Hal still had his extra Anderson window and if we could get it/buy it.

But when I got home Saturday night (at about 10pm mind you) I was shocked and elated to discover that he had installed all the plywood in the mudroom! He had even moved our stackable washer/dryer all by himself. It was all done and it looked awesome!

He hadn't gone to see about the window, but I didn't care - this was great! Another big step in finishing the mudroom! And it made my tough weekend just that much easier!

It's Only A Little Bit Off....

Undo shenanigans. That's what we're dealing with here. UNDO shenanigans.

Let's back up a few months into last summer, I believe it was. Mike and I purchased what we thought was a 1/2" sheet of plywood from the DeepHo, brought it home, measured and cut it to our needs, plopped it in place, and discovered that it was not 1/2" plywood.

It was, in fact, we discovered after making some measurements and checking the markings on the plywood sheet itself - 15/32."

Now, you may think that 15/32 is not so far off from 1/2, (which would be 15/30) but when you're working on an underlayment for a floor and you have even the most minuscule difference, it makes a BIG difference.

So we got pissed and couldn't use the piece. But, we figured that it was just a flook. We picked plywood from the wrong DeepHo bin - or somehow it had been mislabeled, or that piece had been put back incorrectly, something like that.

Fast forward to last night. I had a coupon for the DeepHo, so we figured we'd head down and purchase the rest of the plywood for the mudroom floor. And low and behold the plywood was labeled as such: "15/32 or 1/2"

Or. What is the word "or" doing in that sentence? It should not be "or" and moreover, it should not be "15/32" It should be 1/2. But apart from that, "or" in there begs the question: WHICH IS IT?

In an industry where fractions of an inch can make your life and the life of your future flooring a living hell - why the crap would they do that? Even a big box store like Home Depot should know that they're just going to piss people off with undo shenanigans like that.

And so we're standing there staring at it.

We have in the mudroom already one sheet of 1/2" plywood. And now we're second guessing that piece. Is it really 1/2" or is it 15/32? Because if you had all of one or the other, life would be grand. But you can't have both.

And then we're thinking, well, is this Home Depot bin full of 15/32 AND 1/2? Are we playing plywood Russian roulette?! What are they doing to us?

So of course, with all these doubts in our minds, we left without buying anything - much to our aggravation. Upon returning home and measuring our already installed piece of plywood - it measured 0.4" and 15/32 works out to 0.46875."

And now we're even more confused on what to do. Another strike against big box stores. But what am I supposed to do? I shop there because I can use my Home Depot card. I suppose I should just get a regular credit card and shop elseware... but then there's the fact that Home Depot is open later hours (because everyone in the known world works 9-5) and all that. Plus the coupon!

Watch your local DeepHo stores! "OR" is on the loose! Along with a buncha fractions that have no place in standard construction.

Time, Mike, and a Dream about a Toilet

Yes, I had a dream about a toilet - weird huh? I haven't even been thinking about it lately either. It's been a good toilet. Anyway, I knew I had to address that first because that's why you clicked onto this post. I dreampt that we were getting a new toilet as a temporary solution. I don't remember much else except images of shopping for a toilet. Maybe it means something... or maybe I'm just bathroom obsessed.

Time has been killing me. I've been doing some traveling for work and it's been just exhausting. I slept 24 hours between Saturday night and now. And Sunday I spent the entire day recovering from the previous week on the couch. Next weekend will be work crazy too - no rest for the weary.

While I was away, Mike did a lot of work in the back back yard. He pulled out a lot of stumps and loaded up the truck 3 times with dump runs of stumps. (Great band name: Dump Runs of Stumps.) I haven't even been back to look at the yard, but I'm sure with that much stumpage gone, it looks great.

Mike was also going to put in the new basement door for me on Saturday night, but his back was killing him from the stumps. He did manage to cut the drywall in prep for the door though. The current door to the basement is an old 24" bi-fold closet door that we shortened to fit. But since it wasn't a solid wood door, shortening it basically ruined it. I wouldn't recommend it. It just doesn't fit in the tracks like it should and falls out every time you try to open it. The new door is also 24", but it's solid and we decided that rather than cut the door, we'd just add height to the doorway.

(This original doorway was for a tiny closet under the upstairs stairs, and a short one at that.)

So hopefully we can get that accomplished this week if I'm not too pooped. AND the new french doors, which are still not screwed in completely. I need to push to get that room done. I need to push myself too.

Speaking of Feeling the Spring

Ironic that I was talking about the closeness of spring just on Friday because Saturday actually felt a little spring-like. Not in the sense that it was warm, oh no. It was freakin freezin.' But, be that as it may, Mike and I decided to do yard work.

Burn season started Jan 15th - and I don't know about you guys, but around our house, we always have stuff to burn. Fallen branches, fallen trees, dead stuff - it tends to really collect given the crappiness of our nearly 1.5 acres. So first thing saturday morning, we went down and got our burn season permit, went home, and started burning.

As you remember, we turned our old oil tank into a burning device. So for most of the day, we just hung out at the picnic table throwing stuff in. I gathered sticks and branches from the front yard in the wheelbarrow while Mike cut up larger branches and trees with the chainsaw. As long as we kept moving or were close enough to the fire, we kept pretty warm.

In our town, the fire has to be out by 4pm - so in the late afternoon, as the fire died down, we took on some more long overdue exterior maintenance. Namely: the trans am. Or, more specifically, MY trans am.

Here's a pic from last spring, when my poor car was evicted from the garage. So - for nearly a year it's been outside and exposed to the elements. (It has been covered, but still.) Late afternoon on Saturday, we put it back in the garage. It does not run yet, so we use our lawn tractor to pull it. (Mike made a bracket for the back of the tractor and put two cinder blocks there to weight down the back, so it can actually pull and push a good amount.)

With the car in the garage, we had to rearrange the motorcycles - we have 4 of them. Plus two quads. (One of those belongs to a friend, at least.) One bike had to go in the basement. (Oh my god, they're starting to take over the house - ahhhh!)

Believe it or not after all that, we still had some daylight left to burn, so I swept the driveway and then raked the entire side yard.

After that I really wanted to start moving the electricals in the mudroom - but by then it was dark and Mike conveniently pointed out, "How are we going to see what we're doing when the power's off?" I could have pressed the issue and held a flashlight for the next couple hours, but I knew it would be aggravating for him. Darn it.

So we were highly productive - but still didn't get any work that I really wanted done, done. Next weekend, perhaps? Oh, and then a boat load of snow came down on Sunday.

What T'do Now....

Realization - it's Friday. And believe it or not, I haven't been thinking about the weekend all week. It's still status quo around the house and we're pretty much in the same boat as last weekend.

Does anyone else get the winter blahs like this? I mean, I'm not motivated to do anything. But I know that if I don't get my butt in gear, I'm going to be kicking myself when spring comes around.

The past two winters have really been killers in that respect. I say every fall, "I'm going to get such and such and such and such done this winter." And then by spring, only a fraction of that is accomplished.

We're already just a week away from February - and that's almost March and that's almost Spring! Time is weird. I just can't deal with it. Plus, work-work is going to be crazy in Feb... damn that day job.

Prepare to Look Away, It's Not Pretty

I arrived home yesterday evening, looking forward to a relaxing night after a dull dull MLK day at work. It's the usual - I pull myself through the door, block the cats who are meowing and flopping right in my way, put my junk on the coat rack, and head for a hot hot shower.

But the minute I turn on the bathroom light - AHHHHHHHHHH.

No, it's not some knife wielding maniac or overwhelming mildew. It's that stupid green toilet again. And it's leaking all over the freakin place. Again. It's so disgusting, I'm ashamed to show you this picture:


No that's not poo water - it's just clean water mixed with a whole lotta dirt. It's pretty much impossible to clean back there. And yes, that floor is actually rippled from all the water damage. In fact, I just know the day will come when I'll sit down on the toilet and fall right through to the basement.

Those who know this blog know that I have written about my hatred of this bathroom and particularly of this toilet time and time again. And believe me, I'm as sick of writing about it as you are of reading about it.

And if I'm sick of writing about it, you know I'm sick of dealing with it. So I just stuck a bowl under the leak and tried to ignore it. Kamikaze the cat, however, was highly intrigued.


Mike eventually got home and fixed it - again. The basic problem is that this toilet is old... duh, right? Well, the tank is actually waaay smaller than a new toilet tank. So the replacement parts we got for it at one point do not actually fit correctly. The drain, especially. So when the water level gets too high, it doesn't drain out, it leaks out the handle. Our solution for now was to take tin snips and cut the drain pipe thingy so water at a lower level can drain out correctly.

Why not get a new toilet? As I have explained before - this whole bathroom will eventually be demolished and two new ones (stacked on top of one another) will be built in its place. Why buy and install a new toilet just to have to take it out again? But the whole thing is an expensive proposition and I'm not ready to take the plunge. (hee hee, bathroom humor.)

Needing to get Nailed

Would you believe I have not had the pleasure of entering or exiting through the new doors yet? Pathetic - it's been nearly a week and we still haven't shimmed, caulked, and nailed them yet! (Sounds kinky!) But I have to admit, with bday parties, dinner parties, exhaustion, and snow days - it's been a bit of a crazy week.

On Monday during that freak storm, we were getting some leaking at the bottom of the door too, so it has been on my mind.

And this weekend's going to be a wash. Tomorrow we have to haul scrap metal and then take our skid steer down to Mike's parent's house for some work they need done. I imagine that will take up the whole day - and I may hang back. I'm not sure. I'm undecided.

Not that it matters much. I have no money to move forward on anything, so I guess I should be happy that I can spend the time relaxing. And if there's any extra time, we can definitely shim, caulk, and nail the door. And if there's any extra extra time, we can move the switches, exterior light, and doorbell to their new home next to the new doors.

Now that I think about it, since we're messing around with the wiring of the exterior lights anyway, wouldn't it be a perfect time to put in that street lamp?! Oh my god, I can't believe I just thought of that. Damn me, now I want to put it in.

Oh - and I almost forgot about the most exciting little tidbit of good news. ANDERSON windows. FREE. Big double windows from what I'm told. They come courtesy of our good friend Hal, the oil man. (Hourihan Oil - look 'em up if you're in the Cape Cod area) He recently built his own house and I'd imagine that they're probably just leftovers. I'll be totally pschyed if they fit in the mudroom where that 'ol stinky door is currently. But again, there may be no time to pick those up this weekend. I don't even know all the details, since I fell asleep on Mike at 8:30 last night. That's how pooped I was. But I'll find out...

Update to the Pics

As you can tell by the pics posted yesterday - we finished! Well... we got the door in there and secure. We still have to put in some more screws and shims and caulk, and then the whole thing needs to be painted inside and out.

I have to admit, I'm soo totally happy with out it came out. The room looks so much bigger, grander in fact. All of a sudden it's fancy, despite lack of flooring and drywall.

Speaking of which, that's the next task. The drywall. Actually, I lied. First we have to take out the old door and the one remaining old window and replace them with new windows. And, we have to move the light switches, exterior light, and doorbell next to the new door. That'll be a little bit of a pain in the butt, but oh well.

The StDoory

Drive thru now open.

Everything's framed up, cut out, and ready to go.

Let 'er go!

Our little hole in the wall...

Job well done! AOK

Now if we could just get that farmer's porch out there...

A-DOOR-ed

Huston, the door has landed!

With a heave and a ho and - Oh my GOD that thing was heavy.

Ok, lets back the truck up. Mike and I had to get the door last night instead of tonight - if you're local and you're looking out the window, you know why. It's going to be pouring rain and windy all today and tonight. (But Saturday installation day looks good, so we're still a go there.)

First off, we got into an argument on the way there about which exit on which highway the stupid Lowes was off of. But we managed to arrive and shook it off.

An actually very helpful store dude helped us get the door.

*WORD OF ADVICE
When purchasing a big ticket item such as this from a major home improvement mega-mart, you MUST check it before you buy it. Look it over - does it have any dings, scratches, or dents? Is the hardware package and instructions missing? Look at the glass - any hairline cracks? Play with the functionality - in this case, pull the blinds up and down, tilt them. Do they work? Are they in good shape?

If you find this process to be a pain in the ass, just ask yourself - do you want to have to go home, or worse, install the item - only to find out there's a problem and have to uninstall it, take it back, or try and fix it yourself? TRUST ME - I've been there. No fun.

I did have a point to all that, besides setting you all straight on the protocol of the HIMM (home improvement mega mart.) The first door we pulled out looked good, but then when we tested the blinds, we discovered that the left side door blind control was broken.

This makes me nervous that these doors are what we refer to in the industry as "el cheapo." But, here's the kicker to purchasing "el cheapo." Look for a warranty. Most mass produced big ticket items will have 'em now adays. And this one too - 20 years on the blinds. Just keep all your receipts and register your product and if it breaks, call and cause a big stink and they usually take care of you.

My friend Dawn and I thought we should start a company, Bitch Inc, where we call on behalf of our clients cause we're such professionals in causing a big stink with "the man." hee hee!

Back to the Stdoory (the door story):
We had our door all picked out and had a nice store dude helping. Which was great, because it turns out that a steel set of 6' french doors is DAMN heavy! Mike estimated that it weighed about 400lbs.

We also picked out a screen - just $88 more! And that's when the store dude asked if we needed knobs. I looked at Mike - I completely forgot about knobs. So we navigated the door down to the knob aisle and picked out a locking rod knob... that just sounds odd, doesn't it? Sounds like some crazy heavy metal band. And we also got a deadbolt in the same style. Of course, the stupid knobs don't come cheap. The deadbolt was 23 and the other was 40-something. Ridiculous.

So when all was said and done at the register, it came to $900. That was about $100 more than I had figured on, but I hadn't figured on knobs and tax - whatever. It was worth it.

The store dude helped us load it on the truck - not an easy task, and I began to worry about what was going to happen at home with just Mike and me having to get this thing down and off and in the garage. I began to understand why Lowes charged about as much for the installation of the door as for the door itself. This was not going to be easy. Poor Mike. Another impossible task that I set for him...

Now, let me give you all another piece of advice if you think you can just go and get a 6' steel set of french doors too. We own a diesel dually dodge pickup - biggest freakin truck evah. And the doors still hung an uncomfortably big distance off the side of the bed. Any smaller pickup, and the doors would have just flipped over the side of the bed. SO - Beware! Honestly, a van would probably be the way to go for picking up a pair of these bad boys. Not to mention that laying the doors down in the bed actually dug into the trim around the glass a little bit.... at least that can be taken care of with a little putty and paint. No biggie, but just another warning for ya.

So - we take it easy all the way home. Upon arrival we had a little bit of a strategy going on. We backed the truck up to a hill, so we could just stand the door up and walk right out with it. Problem was, there was a long way to go to the garage from there.

We managed to get the door out of the bed all on our own. But here, I became the weakest link. I could only lift it for a step or two before having to put it down and rest for a couple minutes. Though the door had handles on either side, it was top heavy and you had to keep a hand near the top at all times to keep the thing from going over! I was so nervous and kept imagining it falling and breaking.

Mike had the idea to get our little lawn tractor trailer - a small metal box on wheels that you can hook up to your tractor and carry stuff like logs or whatever. He took off the little tailgate and we slid it under one side of the doors. Then, with Mike holding the other end, and me steadying it and guiding the trailer, we slowly made it to the garage. JUST BARELY. The thing nearly went over a million times, I nearly lost it, Mike nearly lost it, I nearly tripped and just barely escaped being run over and crushed....

It was painful and stressful - and to think, we haven't even begun the installation process yet.

Tomorrow we have to pick up wood and some other materials at the DeepHo. And early Saturday morning - if any of you are free - you're welcome to come and help because this is not going to be fun. If we make it to Sunday without injuring ourselves or busting the doors - it will be a freakin miracle.

Inching forward at LUDICRIS speed...

Well, as I predicted, no french doors yet. But! Before you all navigate away from the page - let me just say that I'm ok with it. Because - we got everything ready for the doors.

Let me show you the before picture. Here is the mud room soon to be dining room:

Excuse the mess. But you can see here, this double window is where the door will go - and the current door, there on the left, will be boarded up and walled in. And here's what we accomplished yesterday:

Basically we took out all the drywall and removed some of the insulation. There was an electrical outlet under the window, which we had to move over to the left. The next step is to purchase and install the door. And at that point, we need to relocate our exterior light, doorbell, and light switches to the left of the new door.

I was bummed that we had to remove so much drywall - but it was the only way to get to all the electrical wires.

Next weekend, for sure, we are purchasing and installing the door - come what may! Because without insulation under the windows, it's freakin cold.

Can You Believe It's Nearly Fri?

TGINF! I have been out on another planet all week - barely surviving the toxic atmosphere, threat of alien attacks, and free floating space chunkies about to puncture my space helmet!

Saturday, I'm looking forward to going to the dump and then possibly picking up a garage door from my neighbor. He's selling the door plus all the hardware and tracks for just $200. A 10' door. And even though I probably shouldn't be spending anything, I just can't pass that up. Our current door is a little.... well.... let me just say this. I think it was Overhead Door's first model. The model T of garage doors.

I still don't think I'm going to be able to get the french doors. Depressing as that is. I just don't think Mike will be able to install them without assistance, and I doubt that's going to happen on such short notice, and I haven't even gotten an estimate yet, so who knows if I can afford our carpenter friend anyway.

It's another kink in the line.

Plus, we still have to finish our permit app for the farmer's porch. I tried to take it in on Monday, but we were missing some critical info. What a pain in the butt. And Mike hasn't had time to fill in the blanks.

So we'll see what happens. I'm not very optimistic at this point.

Productive and 1/2!

Saturday I created one of my infamous to-do lists. Infamous because I always set out to do waaaay more than can physically be done - and Mike gets all cheezed off because I never take into account the things that he needs/wants to do.

I had listed the following:
-Cement downstairs
-Closet rod
-Fix cedar chest
-Put in basement door
-Attic Doors
-Make basement lights work
-Get French Doors
-And Oil change for me

But knowing how these things usually go, I predicted that the first thing on the list would take all day. And that didn't turn out to be far from the truth.

Let me start at the beginning. In our basement we don't have a bulk head. I don't know why - I asked for one. Anyway, we have just a narrow, steep stairway leading up to a door to the outside. And when they poured the basement floor, they did not cement in this little space under the stairs. It was left just rocks and dirt. Mike explained that it was so that water could easily be pushed into the dirt, thus draining a wet basement if it ever got wet.

That made sense to me and we left it.

But after we created stairs from the house into the basement, Mike feared that the cats would use the space as an all natural litter box.... and he was right. So we decided to just cement it in.

That's a little history for you. Ok. So Back to Saturday. We headed off to the newly opened Lowes and picked up some cement - and I looked once again upon my french doors, which we couldn't purchase because of the rain. (It always rains when we buy concrete for some weird reason.)

But before we could even start mixing the concrete - we had to do something about the basement door to the outside. The door was currently screwed shut.

Again, let me explain. So we created the stairs from the basement into the house... but this made the house accessible from the unlockable outside door. You see, it's not just a regular door - it's just an old piece of wood on hinges without a knob or anything. So Mike put some foam insulation on the back of it, and then reinforced the whole thing with plywood and we hoped to add a locking knob to it. But we had some technical difficulties at the time and with time of the essence, Mike just put it up and screwed it shut.

Now back to saturday - we needed to get the wheelbarrow downstairs to mix concrete. So we unscrewed the door and took a chainsaw - yes a chainsaw - to the pieces of wood that were sticking out and preventing the door from fitting originally. That actually worked perfectly.

Then, on to the knob. Using a hole drilling drill attachment, we drilled both holes for the knob and - wouldn't you know - the insulated/plywooded door was too thick for it to work! Just by a CH. Frustrated, Mike took a jig saw to it and cut a recess where the knob could sit. And that seemed to work, except for one little problem - the knob was faulty! (hee hee, faulty knob - sounds like a new punk rock band.)

The thingy wouldn't spring back on its own after being opened. (You know, the little thingy on the side of the door that fits into the little hole thingy on the door jam. Whatever, shut up.) But it held and it locked so we said screw it! Plus, by now it was around 4pm... you see now how this little crap tends to take all day.


Anyway, finally we finally (finally finally!) got the wheelbarrow down stairs and mixed and poured the cement. That turned out to be the easy part. We just pried up a couple steps, and poured.

And it actually turned out pretty nice and level if I do say so myself. Anyway, by the time we finished this it was near to 6 and Mike really wanted to do that oil change for me. I begged him to put in my closet rod first, and he did, which was nice.

So then we cleared out the garage and brought in my truck. I went on a beer run while he changed my oil and, amazingly, when I got back, he asked me what else I wanted done to the truck while it was in. WELL! Boy did I have a list there. I was shocked that he asked. So then he preceded to fix my back window so it went up and down again and then, after dinner, he went back out to install my old speaker and amp. I was feeling really sick and went to bed and only learned the next day that he had been out there until 1am working on it.

I was so happy and amazed. It was like having another Christmas. Who cared that the whole list didn't get done - I got more than what I wanted.

Submitting to My Door-sires

I got in the car after work last night, feeling invigorated after just completing a project. I had just been given a free bag of clothes from my good friend Sylena and her daughter Trystan too, and boy was I feeling fine.

I got home and walked into the mud room with a handful of groceries and just stood there for a few minutes, staring at the two windows facing the street. Everything suddenly seemed very clear, and all the swirling thoughts in my head just drained. I had but one little desire... French doors.

I hopped online, wondering if I could even afford to make it happen. As usual, bone stock Andersons were up in the over-$2,000 range. But Lowes had 6' steel doors, primed for paint, and complete with those cool between-the-glass blinds for only $498. Totally in my price range. Add a screen for just $88 more.

I allowed myself to dream for just a minute... of a beautiful farmer's porch in spring. Opening the French doors and feeling the sun on my face as I brought out a glass of ice tea to enjoy on a comfy patio set....

And I felt really excited for the first time in weeks.

Not So Merry

What a Christmas. This has to be the most depressing and crazy holiday yet. Depressing because of the financial situation. We had no tree and barely any decor. At the last second on xmas eve I put up my little blue tinsel tree that usually goes to work in my office. The office had no decor this year, adding to my blue holiday mood and ongoing creative slump.

Mike and I went to Baltimore with my parents to visit my grandmother, which was nice. Although by the end I was about ready to strangulate my mother, who was really getting on my nerves visa-vi the "Extreme Annoyance Theorem"

E.A.T.
definition: When you spend waaay too much time with someone and begin to get annoyed by everything they do and say.

We got back Christmas eve and headed out to a party. That should have cheered me up, but being around all the decor and presents, and being given a nice present when I couldn't provide one in return - that was difficult, but I was thankful at the same time, if that makes any sense.

I know this all has nothing to do with my house, per say. But it does. It really brings into focus all the undone projects, all the unfinished work, and of course all the money. My family, knowing all this, was very generous to us. However, I feel like I need to save all that for hard times ahead and for paying bills.

Knowing myself, though, I'll probably end up spending it. There's a million things I could put that money to. I'd like to buy the hardwood floors or a new mattress or a new fridge, or lumber for the farmer's porch.... but all those things would have to be partially financed, and I just can't do that right now. Not even partially.

There's a million little things I could spend it on - the stuff to finish the stairway and upstairs. A new dresser for Mike. New dinnerware. French doors. A new front door.

Or I could blow it all pointlessly on a new HDTV, clothes, car parts, a terabite of storage, shoes, polka dot luggage sets, or nick-nacs....mmmm, nick-nacs.

So once again I'm caught between what I know I should do and what I want to do.... but in this case, there's so many "wants to dos" that I should compare it more to being chased and tackled by an angry mob of "should dos" and "wants to dos"!

And all the while I think about all the goals I'm missing out on, worry about all the bills I used to handle with ease, and wonder if checks will come in on time.

Tacky Holiday Here We Come

The past week has been crazy - at least for me. Now is that magical time when I have to make all my xmas cards (yes make - I'm not buying them this year god damn it!), buy all my presents, attend all my xmas parties, have friends over, visit friends, visit family, decorate mi casa, and above all else, try to keep myself from going completely insane.

Luckily, I have Mike - who's been doing all sorts of stuff around the house without me having to nag or anything. It's been great. He's been down in the basement, wiring for more lights and light switches. He's been at it like crazy with the expanding foam and insulating foam tape, trying to keep out draftiness. And he even got us a new door for the entrance into the basement from inside the living room.

This saturday I really want to get a few things done upstairs. Like putting up my headboard and creating doors for the attic space. We already have all those materials. And now we can put up this new basement door. That'll be fun and exciting.

More Ups and Downs of Stairs

It's going to be a hard winter. Without elaborating too much - I got some really depressing news last week and money is going to be tight. I'm afraid our projects around the house will be even more delayed. First a very unproductive summer and now this.... *sigh*

But we did get some good news too - our basement has been a-oked by the town inspector. What a relief. A project three years in the making - finally and officially done. Hard to believe. And yesterday in celebration, we put the icing on the basement cake so to speak.

Stairs. We built stairs from our living room to the basement. We now have interior access to the basement. Again, what a relief.

Here's Mike destroying our former hall closet under our stairs to the 2nd floor.

And cutting the hole...

You can see where the little tiny harry-potter like closet was under the stairs - now we have to figure out what to do with the hole where the door used to be.

Almost done. We figured out the stair-math using the stair calculator from blocklayer.com - very quick and easy.
Mike figures out the laaast step.

All I Want for Chrismas Vol 2

You know, I had such fun in my last post, that I think it's high time I create this year's xmas list. After all, Santa needs plenty of time to check this thing twice!

Ok here we go:


1. New Bathroom: stand up shower American Standard Champion toilet, small vanity, stand up shower, mosaic tile, river stone floor tile

2. Kitchen: Fix drywall and repaint, new cabinets, new windows plus trim, new (Kenmore or LG) refridgerator - the new double door freezer bottom model

3. MudRoom: Flooring, new french doors, get rid of the old door, move exterior light, doorbell, and switches to new doors, new windows, fix drywall, paint, and reinstall wainscot, laundry cabinets, laundry closet doors, pendant lamp, recessed light trim, better dining set

4. Living Room: Fix drywall & repaint, flooring, trim all round, reinstall that one crooked window, new IKEA media center, Sony 32" HDTV, carpet pad, stairway going into the basement, closet light

5. Hallway/Stairway: new front entrance door, a little door for the under-stair closet, banister, stairway trim, top stair step, stairway track light with dimmer, flooring,

6. Guest Room: Closet organizer from Closetmaid, closet light, Closet doors, window trim, flooring, new wood door, fix drywall & repaint, get all the junk outta there

7. Office: Closet organizer, door to the attic crawl space, new office chair, better couches, railing for stairway overlook, ceiling fan, bigger area rug

8. Bedroom: new bed and mattress, new HDTV, more drawers for my Closetmaid set, new dresser for Mike, door for attic loft space,

9. Upstairs Bath: BUILD IT - frame it, electrify, insulate, drywall, paint, design, , pretty tile, skylight, Corner Jacuzzi tub for two, new vanity, stand up shower, American Standard Champion toilet

10. Garage: Drywall and paint, paint outside, Two garage doors, storage system with shelves, new wood stove and chimney, addition on back of garage - built, and whatever else Mike is dreaming of out there

11. House exterior: shingles for three sides, clapboards for the front, window boxes, green shutters, a new mailbox, lampposts, less gross plants and trees, flowering trees and other nice plantings, a shed, wrap around farmer's porch, chimney overlay, chimney cap, a bigger chimney with all accessories to vent wood stove, hammock, new driveway (ie, repour it)

12. Basement: finish it off with a bathroom (toilet, vanity, stand up shower), bedroom (twin bed, dresser, small closet), work room (shelving and storage), and rec room (comfy dark colored furniture and rug, pool table, air hockey, HDTV and storage unit). And I want my wood stove hooked up down therez.

This'll Be Fun!

Now this is cool. Last year on 12/13/06, I published a post called "All I Want for Christmas" featuring all the stuff I wanted to do on the house.

At this point, it's nearly a year later - so I'm going to go through and mark all the stuff we've accomplished! So we'll really be able to see the progress.

Ok - here goes. Here's the original post with everything we've done marked in RED:

The Ultimate Wish List, Never to be Obtained, But Here Goes
(House only, personal X-mas gifts not included.)

1. New Bathroom: Corner Jacuzzi tub for two, new vanity, stand up shower, American Standard Champion toilet, mosaic tile, river stone floor tile

2. Kitchen: New windows plus trim, under cabinet TV/Radio, Kenmore refridgerator - the new double door freezer bottom $2200 model

3. MudRoom: Flooring, new door, new windows with bay window box built, laundry cabinets, laundry closet doors, closet light wainscotting, cushy big blue IKEA chair, tiffany pendant lamp

4. Living Room: Flooring, trim all round, new IKEA media center, Sony 32" HDTV, carpet pad, switch and outlet plates, stairway going into the basement, closet light

5. Hallway/Stairway: finished drywall and paint, new front entrance door, ceiling fixtures, a little door for the under-stair closet, banister, stairway trim, top stair step, stairway track light with dimmer, flooring, runner rug

6. Guest Room: Closet organizer from Closetmaid, closet light, Closet doors, window trim, flooring, new wood door

7. Office: recessed lights dimmer, new desk and file cabinets from IKEA, built in library shelves, closet organizer from Closetmaid, closet light, closet doors, door to the attic crawl space, new office chair, flooring plus an area rug, more throw pillows, better couches, window trim, railing for stairway overlook

8. Bedroom: plywood - foam - and batting so I can make my headboard, bed risers, new HDTV, closet light, closet doors, more drawers for my Closetmaid set, curtain pulls installed, flooring, area rug, new dresser for Mike, red mattes for my picture frames, trim and moulding, finish work on above closet storage, new storage boxes, door for attic loft space, stain for the bedroom door, a door knob for the bedroom door

9. Upstairs Bath: BUILD IT - frame it, electrify, insulate, drywall, paint, design, stand up shower American Standard Champion toilet, small vanity, stand up shower, pretty tile, skylight

10. Garage: Drywall and paint, Two garage doors, storage system with shelves, new wood stove and chimney, addition on back of garage - built, and whatever else Mike is dreaming of out there

11. House exterior: shingles for three sides, clapboards for the front, window boxes, green shutters, a new mailbox, lampposts, more grass, less gross plants and trees, flowering trees and other nice plantings, a shed, wrap around farmer's porch, chimney overlay, chimney cap, a bigger chimney with all accessories to vent wood stove, hammock, new driveway (ie, repour it)

12. Basement: finish it off with a bathroom (toilet, vanity, stand up shower), bedroom (twin bed, dresser, small closet), work room (shelving and storage), and rec room (comfy dark colored furniture and rug, pool table, air hockey, HDTV and storage unit). And I want my wood stove hooked up down therez.

Where's My Stamp of Approval?

Supposedly, as I reported last time, the town inspector was out at our house looking at the basement on Monday. Now, I'm not sure how all of it works, but we haven't heard from the town, and we didn't see any APPROVED stamps on the basement anywhere. Maybe they mail us something? I have no clue.

Meanwhile, I started filling out the stoopid form for the farmer's porch permit this morning. Mike and I agreed that he needs to continue to handle it single handedly. Because I just can't take another conservation commission meeting with the Andersons. I don't have the constitution.

Of course, I have no clue when I'll be able to afford to put on the porch. So much to do... so little cash.

Good News and Spaz News

The good news is - Mike made it to the town hall today and talked to someone who was apparently quite nice and now the dude is coming out to the house on Monday to take a look at the basement and, hopefully, sign off on the permit that all is well and good and we can get on with our lives.

The spaz news is in regards to the farmer's porch. And again, there's good news and spaz news. The good news is that the nice person said she didn't think it would be a problem, and we could just draw out our plan on the house map. The spaz news is we need to fill out application forms again.

And Mike started arguing with me, "They're just going to tack it on to our current permit - we just fill out the form and it's $25 and it'll be all set."

But I know better. That means it's a whole new permit. And for it to be approved, it has to pass hands through all the departments - including conservation, who will say, "oh look at this, they're across the street from the river... DENIED."

And then we'll have to go through 500lbs of paperwork, again. Notify all the neighbors, again. Pay a buncha fees, again. Wait three weeks and then appear before the conservation commission, again. Have the Andersons stand up and speak against us, again. Cry, again.

This is what I was afraid of. Not that I even care about the paperwork or the notifications or even the fees or the three weeks or the conservation commission meeting. It's the Andersons. Them, I'm afraid of. They hate us for no reason and want to viciously shut down our projects just to spite us.

And that's why I call it good news and spaz news.

Woe Wednesday

I am not feeling so hot this afternoon. Urg. It's hard to function.

I just want to get home and shower. But my good friend just read my Mold Report and said, "I could imagine how desperate you felt and how disgusted you must be taking showers..." And that's true. I want to close my eyes and imagine myself in a beautiful bathroom.... too bad that's a little dangerous. I might end up washing my hair with shave gel or something.

Mike has sworn to me that he'll go to the town hall soon (and by soon, I mean like I'm going to make him go this week or next) to get this whole basement permit thing taken care of. Meanwhile, speaking of the bathroom, I should probably start that process soon too.

Post halloween party I need to take care of finally finishing the upstairs, which I've been talking about forev's. It's just all the banister stuff that's going to be annoying. And I did just rack up more deepho charges with all my painting.

I really just want to lay down right now.

Before and After

Before

After

Looks Like Wallpaper huh? Too awesome! It's our painting!

White Doors

Well, I just finished painting. But the real story of the night is the door. Remember how stupid and dark it made the hallway before? Well, while my 1st coat of paint was drying on the wall, I decided to just paint it in the same off-white color.

And oh my god what a difference! I almost love it too much to get rid of it. (almost.)

Hall of Fame

My hall is striped! Well... at least with tape. I had a busy Saturday and Mike had a busy Sunday, so we really weren't able to work together on it until Sunday night.

In that time, we managed to stripe tape one wall out of two. And it was actually easier then I imagined - I was thinking plumb lines and levels and drawing lines every which way... but Mike came up with a much easier solution.

Since I wanted my stripes to be tape width, (2") we simply placed three small pieces of tape at the top, middle, and bottom of the wall, lining one edge up with the adjoining wall. Then, we'd unroll a wall-length piece of tape, line up the top with the opposite edge of the guide tape, the middle with the middle, and bottom with the bottom. Then we'd just move the guide tape pieces to the opposite side of the newly stuck tape line to line up the next stripe with.

This method worked perfectly! We were pretty meticulous about lining everything up right and making sure the tape was smooth with no wrinkles to offset us. We were actually pretty surprised when we put the level up to a stripe halfway down the hall and found it to be dead-on straight!

Small is Tremendous

Ahhh, Wednesday. And I am crawling up the hump on my hands and knees, exhausted and looking forward to rolling down the other side while screaming, "wheeeeeeeeeeeeeee" at the top of my lungs.

Although I have been trying to keep my butt rolling with the momentum generated by last week's frantic Czech footage editing spree.

Monday I purchased a new light for the hallway and winter-time fertilizer for the lawn. Then I got home and cleaned the house. (Because it had fallen into shambles due to ast week's frantic Czech footage editing spree.) Meanwhile, Mike was kind enough to install the light for me.

Tuesday I brought my beautiful poster from Czech to be framed. At a cost of $WAYTOOMUCH. Seriously - I can't even tell Mike how much I spent and on what. I just have to smile and let him by the nerf bars for his 4wheeler. (That's probably not how you spell it - I just never spelled it before, but I'm imagining nerf balls.)

WAIT A MINUTE. It's freakin thursday isn't it? I just realized that. God damn it, I should already be rolling and screaming. Ok ok, let me get on that right now:

"WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE"

Back to Tuesday.

Then, when I got home on Tuesday, I attempted to install a fan control and dimmer switch in the upstairs. That didn't turn out so good. When wires aren't the right colors - I get highly confused. So Mike had to bail me out when he got home. (And he rightly pointed out, why are you installing a fan control when we don't have the fan yet and why are you installing a switch for a light we don't have yet?! My argument - we bought the switches, so why not get a jump on it?)

Wednesday - yesterday. I finally took the fertilizer out of my truck. But didn't apply it. In fact, I don't even know what I did last night - after my shower, it's all a blur. Must have been the shiraz.

Tonight - I want to fertilize.

And this weekend is going to be soo busy. But maybe if I have time on Sunday, I'll be able to stripe my hallway. We'll see. I have a 10% off coupon from the deep-Ho. And they just increased my credit line to $10,000.... those fools.

It's that time again...

Time once again for the biggest bash of the year - the 5th Annual Halloween party! This year unfortunately, I can't claim credit for the invite. It's all my good friend Becci - who took our house into Photoshop, gave it a moon, some clouds, and an eerie orange glow.

Another Bathroom Disaster

So Mike thought he was being really awesome last night - fixing the leaky bathroom faucet. Me? I was sure it would lead to disaster.

Why? Well - history, my friend, history. Every single time we open up a wall in this house, it's like one of those fake cans of peanut brittle. The minute you open it, the stupid thing blows up in your face and you break your nose and there's a mess of little unexpected things everywhere that you now have to clean up.

We take down walls - we discover old chimneys. We take down ceilings, we discover bat poo. We take down the kitchen and there's a big hole behind a clock. We take off floors, we discover wood rot.

It's just not a happy scene every time.

So Mike opens up the little access door behind the shower, and, sure enough there's a problem. One that I expected, but was not looking forward to staring right in the face. Home owner's worst nightmare - MOLD.


Like, put on your haz-mat suit and run for fresh air kinda sh*t.

"Just spray some bleach on it," Mike said as he wrestled with the pipes.
And I just shook my head and said, "It's too late for that, this bathroom just needs to be demolished."

For a brief moment I wanted to pick up that hammer so bad and destroy everything in a fit of mad bathroom-hating rage. Because I do so hate that bathroom anyway. And I want to rebuild it soooo bad it pains me whenever I go in there. But instead I held in my urge, went back into the living room and sat down.... imagining dollar signs all over the place.

If we demolished the bathroom, there would be no turning back and consequences would be financially dire - especially since this is our only bathroom.

Despite all the disaster's we've discovered in this house - we've never turned our back on them or walled them back up, or said, "eh, we'll tackle this later." We've always dived in, no matter what the cost or labor involved. So it pained me when Mike put the little access door back on.

Part of me really wanted him to say, "Well, we can't wait any longer. We need to do the bathroom." Because with one little push, I would have been all over that like hobos on a ham sandwich! It's always easier with Mike behind me, pushing me over the edge to get things done - especially when its urgent.

Maybe we should call this guy - 1966 Bathroom remodel. Forty so odd years ago... I think it's definitely high time for another remodel.

Just Czech-ing In...

We're back from Czech! Oh did we have an awesome time too... incredible. And believe me when I say, I think we're both rejuvenated from the trip. I mean, the whole summer has been a line of bad luck, injury, work-related madness and depression, lack of funds, and lack of inspiration.... But now I really feel like all that is behind us. (Except for lack of funds - because we had to buy about a million souvenirs of course!)

So now we need to get back to business. First on the to-do list is to get approval, or begin the process of getting approval, for the farmer's porch. Even though we wouldn't be able to build it until possibly spring, we need to either add it to our basement permit or get the basement permit signed off and start a new application. Because the basement is done and I'd like to move on to other projects and get that signed off. Mike has promised me that he'll handle it (because I just hate the permit process and the stress that goes along with it) - so it's just a matter of getting him to the town hall in the morning before work.

Secondly - we just a few more things to finish off upstairs, and then we can move on to the stairway/hallway. I don't know that I expect anything to be accomplished this weekend - I have a mile long list-o-stuff to do. But if I had my way, I would like my headboard put on the bed and the attic doors made. I don't think that's much to ask... so we'll see.

The annual bash of the year - Halloween party - is fast approaching too. So the race is on to wrap up a few of these little projects.

One Sixty in the WSJ!

Another blog moment - a reporter from the WSJ read my blog on our Demolition party and contacted me for an interview!

Read the article here!

And the blog that started it all? Read it here!

I'm always amazed that people that I don't know read this blog. I love all your comments. And I get so flattered when I see a link to my blog in someone else's blog or website.

You guys ROCK! Thank you!