Down with Mailboxes!

It finally happened on Monday. Our ancient rusty iron mailbox died. Seriously - it just keeled over and died. I'm shocked the poor thing made it as long as it did.

To tide us over, Mike duct taped it to some pieces of wood and stood it back up again. So it's out there right now, standing tall and still accepting mail for the week.

But knowing this was a sign, we bought a new mailbox and post on Tuesday. I wanted a green mailbox and a white post. Unfortunately, the only mailboxes in green were super huge.... and the wooden posts were, well, even bigger. So we're going from a small, inadequate, embarrassingly cruddy mailbox to a large, phallic, bigger-than-all-the-neighbors mailbox.

This picture is terrible - but as you can see, this mailbox post is huge. Thank god half of it goes in the ground! Mike sanded it last night and will hopefully paint it tomorrow if not tonight. If all goes well, we could have this baby up and running by Monday!

It'll be such a change just to have a mailbox that doesn't leak or lean to one side. I still have to get some of those wrought iron numbers for the post - that's another thing I hated about the old mailbox: the number stickers. Ew!

Anyway - enough about mailboxes! That was a total tangent project.

We're finally making headway on the trim! Yay! At this point everything is cut and nearly ready to be installed. Mike put on the 2nd coat of stain last night.

The only thing remaining to be stained is the closet doors, which need to be sprayed. (We have an automotive grade paint sprayer - no junky sprayers here.) And they need to be sprayed outside. And it looks like weather will not be cooperating for this weekend. So more delays there.

Also - I got a couple bounce backs from my email to Closetmaid regarding the organizer. So glad they care, you know? So I suppose we'll be going with a white organizer, (Grrrrrrrr!) which we will probably purchase sometime next week once all the trim is installed.

I guess I should just be happy it's all coming together. This Sunday begins the 30 day countdown. I have to admit I'm nervous. Mostly about getting everything done in time. All the weird dreams and hectic work days aren't helping either. I have to get everything prepared at work too, after all!

Cherrified!

I have a closet organizer in my bedroom closet that I'm just in love with. It's a Closetmaid Completions Cherry 16" set with matching drawers and shelves. The cherry color just happens to match our hardwood and trim color perfectly!

Granted, the dam thing was expensive. Nearly $90 for the 16" base set and then around $30-40 for each 10" drawer. So, as you can imagine, I didn't purchase everything at once. Whenever I had some extra cash, I'd head over to Lowes, where I first bought the main $90 set, and I'd pickup a drawer here, a shelf there, etc.

I was really looking forward to purchasing a second set for the baby's room - the main set, the drawers, the shelves - I was just going to purchase everything. So yesterday at lunch I went out to my nearest Lowes...

And they didn't have it. In fact, they didn't have any more Closetmaid Completions sets. They had a new brand! They didn't even have any of the accessories for the Closetmaid sets. And the new brand, though similar in style, was a completely different color.

Then I tried Home Depo. They were carrying Closetmaid Completions.... but not in Cherry.

At this point I went online and frantically started searching. Neither Home Depot or Lowes had the Cherry colored set available. Lowes still listed it, but you couldn't purchase online and it wasn't finding the item at any of my closest stores.

I found several blogs talking about a big sale on Closetmaid Completions at Lowes - 75% off. Boy am I pissed I missed out on that memo!

Then I went to the Closetmaid site - turns out you can't order Completions direct from Closetmaid, though they still listed the cherry set and accessories in their online catalog.

I checked Ebay - no luck. And no other store or website seemed to carry it.

So I went back to Closetmaid's website and sent them the following inquiry:
I currently have one of your Closetmaid Completions Cherry 16" closet organizers with several drawers. I love it because it matches the cherry hardwood floors and trim of my house. I want to purchase another 16" Closetmaid Completions Cherry closet organizer with drawers and other accessories. However, it seems Lowes has discontinued carrying it, Home Depot does not carry it in the Cherry color, and I cannot purchase it online. Has this product been discontinued? I hope not. I would really like to purchase. Where can I purchase?

But I have a feeling they're going to tell me that color has been discontinued. I can't tell you what a disappointment this is. It was the perfect color! And now I can't even get new accessories in the same color for my closet set. I can purchase the wire drawers instead of the laminate wood-looking ones, so I'm not totally screwed, but still!

Hopefully Closetmaid will get back to me soon. If the set is indeed discontinued, I will have to purchase an odd ball wood color - or just go with white. I can't help but think that I wouldn't be in this situation if the sets and accessories weren't so dam expensive!

UPDATE - I just looked again at Home Depot's website - they're calling the wood color of their Closetmaid sets cherry - but it is definitely not the color I previously purchased. Looks more like oak to me.

This is Home Depot's Cherry


The Cherry color I currently have and am looking for.

The Lions and The Lambs

This March the lions and the lambs are just running around in circles! One day it's winter, next day - spring. Surprising that living creatures don't go into shock from the constant changeover.

Yesterday was definitely a lamb day. Mike and I cleaned up around the yard and burned some brush. It felt good to be outside, even though I couldn't do much yard work save for picking up some bits of trash. (Although I did dare to go for a short motorcycle ride late in the afternoon.)

And in the evening - well, I sort of have a confession to make. I went to the deepHo and bought baseboard trim and closet doors on my HD card. I had a coupon.

So before you shake your head and remind me that I shouldn't be using that dam card - I'll have you know that I paid off the entire balance this morning. (Minus what I just purchased yesterday.) And there is the matter of having a coupon... a coupon requiring you to purchase on your card of course, but a coupon nonetheless. And if I don't purchase anything else, I can have this paid within the next billing cycle. So it's not so bad after all.

Now comes the cycle of cutting and staining and sanding and staining again. The rest of the window trim still hasn't been cut. Mike and I have both been really busy... and he doesn't much like trim work anyway, so he's been procrastinating and I just haven't pushed the issue yet. Although I did pick up the new rug on Saturday! I'm really happy, it looks good, and now I'm even more eager to have the trim done so I can put the rest of the curtains back up.

The only things left to buy are the closet light and organizer. And if I had remembered, I would have bought the closet light on my coupon too. The organizer is a Lowe's item.

Baby's room with rug - looks pretty much completed from this angle. You can't see the other sides of the room where there are no curtains, no closet doors, and a big pile of hardwood....

Spring Edition of Now What

As you may remember, purchasing 500sq feet of hardwood flooring was a 100% gamble. Sure, Lumber Liquidators had their No Payment No Interest for 12mo's deal going on, but who wants another card and another must-pay-this-off-in-a-year monthly payment? I gambled on upcoming tax refunds to pay off the entire thing. (An educated gamble based on the amount of past years refunds.)

This past weekend we prepared our returns (thank you to my in-laws and their edition of Turbo Tax) and were both pleasantly surprised to find that we would be able to pay off the entire hardwood purchase AND THEN SOME. The "and then some" was definitely an unexpected surprise.

Already a flutter of possibilities are swimming around my head... although I know I have to rein myself in. Immediately and without thinking, the first thing out of my mouth was, "now we can do the floors in the living room." Although after thinking on it further, I reminded myself that the siding is still in desperate need of replacement and the porch is still in desperate need of railings and trim.

Not to mention the obvious - the baby's room is not 100% completed yet!

Our biggest problem (that Mike and I share) is our tendency to begin new projects without completing the old ones. We just get waaay too excited about new projects sometimes, and it bites us in the butt. Might I bring up the examples of the upstairs (still awaiting some trim and lighting fixtures), the downstairs stair railing (as of yet unfinished), and of course the porch and siding.

So when the money arrives (March 20 if all goes well), completion of the baby's room will be the A #1 priority. Baseboard trim and everything for the closet. Not much - but it all needs to be done.

Then what? That's the question isn't it. But I'm not even going to ask myself right now.

Trimming Here and There

First off, thank you all, we won the case. The floor shalt not be poly'd.

With that decision made, we quickly moved on to window trim. Mike's been cutting and staining and scuffing and staining since Sunday. And last night he applied the final coat.

With another baby-related class tonight, we won't be able to install the trim until at least tomorrow night, pending Mike's schedule. Then, once this trim is installed, we can put up the new shades and then begin the fun and exciting process of cutting and staining and scuffing and staining the trim that goes around the windows.

Closet doors, trim, light, and organizer are next on the list after that.... then we're done!

Granted, I still have yet to purchase the rug. But I plan to probably after the 15th of this month. And hey - wouldn't you know that's right around the corner!

Seeing as how we decided not to poly, we put together the crib on Sunday. (I just couldn't stand looking at the box any longer!) Though I was apprehensive about the color at first, once I saw it in the room I was just in love. Perfect contrast - not too yellow. And the bedding matches the room just perfectly. I couldn't be happier!

Notice the little Fidget head... yeah she thinks this is an awesome new cat bed. Boy is she going to be disappointed!

Making a Case

I'd like to bring the court's attention first to Myth #20, found on the Lumber Liquidators "Flooring 101" Common Flooring Myths article.

20. Wood floors that are sanded and finished at the job-site are more durable than a factory manufactured finished floor.

A pre-finished floor gives you the added benefit of a perfect finish applied under dust-free, ideal conditions at the factory. Ours include from five to eight coats with aluminum oxide suspended in the finish. The only thing harder is diamonds! Factory finishes are much harder than any product site-applied, requiring air-drying.

Next, I ask you to read Myth #34 from the same article.

34. I was told to re-seal my hardwood or bamboo after installation to protect it against pet urine, vomit or spills. Regular cleaning is always recommended however applying another sealer over the original finish will void the warranty. Once between the boards sealers can promote gapping and act as an adhesive preventing normal expansion of the flooring.

Please note this important detail from Myth #34, and I quote, "applying another sealer over the original finish will void the warranty." Might I remind the court that our beautiful pre-finished flooring comes with a 25 year warranty. Furthermore, 25 years is a long ass time.

Also for your consideration we take a look at the rest of the evidence:

Exhibit A: The beautiful floor.
Exhibit B: The price tag for the aforementioned beautiful floor - this portion of which can be estimated at over $1,000.
Exhibit C: The inexperienced Mike, who has never sanded and poly'd a floor before in his life.
Exhibit D: The boxes in the living room.
Exhibit E: The calendar, which has begun its nine week countdown to April 29th.

Ladies and gentlemen, upon review of this new evidence from the Lumber Liquidators website, specifically Myth 34's confirmation of warranty null and void - there is no question as to the next course of action. ie, There will be no next course of action in this case. The floor should be moved in upon as is.

Any supposed benefits are as of now far outweighed by the major disadvantages.

1. Further application of sealer to the current hardwood via inexperienced do-it yourselfers could cause major damage to the expensive and beautiful floor, all while voiding the incredible 25 year warranty the floor came with. At worst, this leaves us with a floor we have to completely refinish. Another waste of time and money, especially since we love the floor's pre-finished beauty. This is why we purchased and spent the extra money on a pre-finished wood product.
2. Sealing the area and moving out for 3-4 days or more because of the smell is impractical when weighed against the disadvantage stated in #1.
3. Time is of the essence. It is not worth risking the worst case scenario of #1. The room must be completed and this lengthly court case alone has held things up long enough.

Though the argument may be made that the Lumber Liquidators Myths article is simply a bunch of marketing designed to make you purchase their products and not whine about the imperfections and inherant shortcomings of real wood flooring, there is no argument that re-sealing will void the 25 year warranty.

In closing, the new floors will NOT be re-sealed. Thank you ladies and gentlemen. I'm sorry to say you're not the jury in this case. Lucky for me I'm the girl. The prego girl! And what I say is going to go. But you can't say I haven't done my research! As you know, I didn't know!

So check your warranty on your pre-finished hardwood! If you don't have a warranty and you don't have a baby on the way and you have some experience at finishing wood floors - I'd probably recommend the poly. Otherwise, forget it.

Can I buy the rug now?!

Decisions and Timelines

February is over. Face it people. And here it is, a week already since the completion of the floor and we're still mulling over the next step.

This poly has become a major decision, mostly because we realized it's going to disrupt our lives more than originally expected. Here's a minor detail I didn't think of in the beginning - I can't be in the house at all with the smell of that stuff.

Once we realized it... and then filled our oil tank with all the available monies, work came to a screeching halt. On top of that, our exterior water spout thing, (you know, that the hose attaches to?) the supposedly freeze-proof water spout thing.... well, it froze. And on Sunday we discovered it gushing water.

So the entire day was spent running to this person's house to grab our plumbing tools, that person's house to grab some fittings and other do-dads to fix it, and finally home to take care of the job and get the water back on.

And then the week started and here we are at Wednesday wondering should we or shouldn't we poly? Scratch that. We know we should. We know now's the only time. But the pain in the butt factor is really making it a hard final sell. We've never applied poly before and this is a large stretch of expensive and beautiful flooring that I would die to see ruined. We need to move out for 3-4 days. It's already March - 9 more weeks to go! The living room is full of boxes of large items just waiting to be assembled.... and more to come after this Saturday. (My shower.)

I said this last week, but if it's going to be done, it needs to be done this upcoming Sunday/Monday. So we'd need to be out Tuesday - Friday. So the decision needs to be made by Saturday. I have a feeling we're going to bite the bullet on this one.

It's Done!

The floor is down!

It looks amazing! Mike was so proud to have accomplished it all yesterday. We talked for a long time about what we needed to do next to really finish the room - besides the poly - we need window and baseboard trim, closet doors, and the closet light. (I'd like to add the closet organizer to that list too.)

And then we couldn't help but talk about the living room... it's so tempting to just start on that floor too while we have an empty room to move furniture into. But we have other things to worry about. Besides that, when we do the living room, we have to do it right. We have to fix the drywall and repaint. Some furniture I'd like not to put back at all or replace. I'd like to get a new TV. It's just too much for right now.

Besides the baby, spring is coming and we still need to complete the farmer's porch and put up the siding. We've got to keep focused instead of doing what we always do.... starting new projects without completing old ones.

Another Wood Weekend

Before Plywood

Plywood

Old square nails from the old old flooring.

Friday progress - just one halfa missing on the left side.

The hallway was in fact 95% finished by the end of Friday. It looked great too and I had high hopes for the next work day - Sunday. Over the week, Mike and his friend and carpenter TJ had struck a deal for Sunday - Mike would fix TJ's truck while TJ worked on the floor for us. Hours for hours. Perfect!

So on Saturday, I spent the better part of the morning cleaning up in the baby's room. Removing all scrap wood and unnecessary tools, vacuuming, etc. You know, general prep.

I had hoped the floor would go on easily and without any major snags. However, as usual, things were not as easy as they seemed. Our hardwood was in fact so hard that the nailer could not penetrate fully with the nails! Mike tried to find a way to set the air pressure to change the nail set depth when he worked on Friday to no avail. He even searched the internet! (I was so proud.) And then he made this comment:

The internet has a lot of crap on it!

To which I had to laugh. Truer words have never been spoken. (He was mainly frustrated after finding several forums where people had complained about the nailer... complained but not offered any solutions, which he thought was pointless. Then again, here I am doing the same thing...)

Anyway, the guys could not find a way to adjust it. (This is on the Stanley Bostich pnuematic 3/4 flooring nailer if any of you are wondering.) So every single nail out of the nailer then had to be countersunk by hand... thus slowing down the process considerably. Even TJ, who is an awesome carpenter by the way, could only get halfway through the job by the end of the day. Mike and I continued laying rows for a little while after he left until we ran out of staples for the rosin paper - thus leaving the room at the half way point.

But everything still looked incredible! And Mike has the day off today, so he'll hopefully be able to finish the second half of the room.

Sunday - hallway completed

Sunday work - halfway through the room

One more half to go.

And now for the frustrating news. Once the floor is done, it's not done. To prevent wear and also water damage from future spills, TJ recommended adding a coat of poly to the entire floor. Unfortunately for all the baby furniture stuck in boxes in my living room, I have to agree that it's probably a good idea. But this means closing off the hallway & baby's room for a full 72-96 hrs - aka 3-4 days - and living in the living room with no access upstairs.

If that wasn't inconvenient enough, I worry too that we're going to mess up this really beautiful, really expensive floor. We've never poly'd a floor before. And it has to stay completely spotless and dust/cat hair free - or else. But on the good side, the poly will fill in the spaces between the wood, thus creating a seal that will prevent any water spills from seeping through the cracks to warp or rot the wood from the inside out.

I'm nervous! And it all could begin as soon as this next upcoming Sunday or Monday if things go well today. That would put us for final completion right at the end of Feb.... OMG, the end of Feb. Yeah - we totally need to stay on track too, with no problemos.

Always easier said then done.

Slappin It Down

It's lunch time here at the 'ol office. And I can't help but wish I was home right now because Mike is putting down hardwood today! I miss being the layout/cut gal... although so much kneeling down and getting up and kneeling down and getting up would probably be exhausting with my basketball belly.

Last night Mike came home with the 3/4 nailer.... rental free of charge. (Have I mentioned how much I love his new job?!) He began working on the measurements right away - this is always the difficult part. And to make matters worse, he had to start in the hallway so he could seamlessly transition into the baby's room with no threshold. But of course the hallway is small and un-square as un-square could be.

Nevertheless, by the time I got home from dance around 8:30, he had the first row nailed down. Theoretically, once the first row is down, you're good to go, although he only managed to do a few more rows before we turned in for the night.

I am hoping upon hopes that at least the hallway will be completed when I get home from work tonight. I know he's not going to have time to get into the baby's room, since he had some other errands to take care of today, but a finished hallway would be huge. It's one step closer!

Then maybe I can hope for him to have the baby's room completed by the end of the day Monday... maybe. This is the exciting part because once the floor is down - rooms look 100% better. And they feel finished.

Home Despairo

If you have a Home Depot credit card, this is for you. Or if you have another Citibank credit card, this is for you too. They are raising their APR’s DRAMATICALLY. Up to 26% or up to 30% if you have any late payments. What’s more, they are sneaking the announcement in a mailed monthly statement.

Have you checked your Home Depot card mailings lately? If you're like me, you pay online and normally ignore mailed statements. BUT BE WARNED! If you haven't already, you will receive a notice in your monthly Home Depot card statement outlining an APR hike for all. That's right - APR increase for ALL. The Home Depot credit card, brought to you by CitiBank, is just one of CitiBank's cards soon to see an increase. As in - next billing statement soon.

Thank god I had been warned by a family member or, as I said, I would have just thrown out the entire letter.

It doesn’t seem to matter that my account is in good standing and that I’ve never made a late payment. Or that I have awesome credit and have spent thousands upon thousands of dollars on that card over the years. They’re still jacking up the APR. For me, I’m so pissed I’m paying off and closing my account ASAP. Sure there'll be no more 0% for purchases over $299 - but honestly, most of my purchases are below that amount anyway and I don't want to get sacked like this.

I've already written Home Depot/CitiBank a scathing email regarding this. Their reply - your APR isn't 26%. My reply back to them, Oh I'm sorry, I guess you don't read your own mailings. The change will take place next billing cycle. And you just lost a cardholder.

I thought to myself, I know I can get a better rate on a regular credit card – non Citibank. But then a few days later I recieved a letter from Capital One. Same thing - rate hike. I could hardly believe it. It's an epidemic!

So I did the internet thing and Googled the issue. Check out an informative article about the many credit card companies that are doing this HERE. I did and it really cheezed me off. But better to educate yourself before you find yourself down in a financial hole you can't get yourself out off.

Relief!

After a December and January straight out of the depths of you-know-where, February is turning it all around at lightning speed. In fact, I dare say that this week has been the best in months and months and months.

Our economic woes were swept away on Monday when Mike got a new job complete with some awesome benefits.

If that wasn't enough of a reason to celebrate, I got the stamp of approval from our insurance agent. They had one more question about our skid steer, whether or not we owned it and if it was used for business. The answers were yes and no, and they seem to be good with that. They will renew the policy. What's more, no to-do list for the year!

I mean, I'm sure they'd love to see the siding replaced and a real railing on the porch instead of just the temporary one - but we'll be taking care of that in the spring anyway.

What a relief all around.

Meanwhile our hardwood is still acclimating. Friday it will be ready to go! Mike may be able to get his hands on the floor nailer for a discounted price this weekend. Although he will be working Saturdays from now on... and with Sunday being ATV riding day... well, that leaves him to floor on his own on whatever day of the week he decided to take off. Unless we do an evening or two together. I'm sure it will work out somehow.

I even dare say that if things keep on this uphill path, we may even be able to complete the hardwood in the living room sooner than expected.

Wood Weekend

Have you ever been faced with a persistent glaze of dust on everything in your home due to continuous renovations? After methodically cleaning for last week's home inspection, at the end of this weekend I was appalled to find the house looking like I hadn't cleaned in months. But for once I didn't give in to my obsessive compulsive urges - it will only get worse, I told myself, and then I'll be in the same situation next weekend and before you know it, I'll be spending half of all my weekends dusting.

And if you think that's how I want to spend half my weekend... well... you can come dust for me then.

So - another weekend. A really productive one, I might add. On Friday, I left work early for an appointment and decided not to come back. (Yay!) With the extra time, I met up with Mike and we picked up the hardwood and unloaded it into the baby's room. (Rather, Mike unloaded it. Heavy stuff this 3/4 as you can imagine.)

On Saturday, Mike decided that it would be easiest to hardwood the hallway at the same time as the baby's room. So he spent the day tearing up the old wood and reinforcing the beams from underneath. Late that afternoon, he cleaned up, took all the old wood to the dump, and purchased 2 more sheets of plywood. Our neighbor Rich came by too - because after he heard we were doing the hardwood in the hallway, he really wanted to help us finish up the drywall. The hallway really only needed one more skim coat and one more sanding to prepare for paint. And the last coat only took about 10 or 15 minutes for Rich to slap on, so it was no big deal.

Sunday Mike was able to finish installing the new subfloor in record time. Again, Rich came by in the evening to see if the mud was dry enough to sand. Nope. Maybe early this week if he's available.

And now we just wait for the hardwood to finish acclimating - about a week - before we put it down. And no dusting until that's done.

Floods and Updates

It was as I had expected. That inspector was definitely a hard ass. And the strange thing was, he had been instructed only to take pics of the boiler, the bathroom, and the kitchen. All of which are in perfect working order. Mike tried to explain to him that we'd made improvements to avoid cancellation and pointed these out to him, but no no. He didn't need any of that.

Apparently he had a photo of the house with the farmer's porch on it - so they'd been to the house before without our knowledge, taking pics of the exterior. And that's honestly fine with me - but we JUST added the railings a few days ago. Not to mention the gutters. Again, Mike tried to explain this, but to no avail.

When I found out around 4 yesterday, I immediately got on the phone with our rep to make her aware of it. She was going to be following up with the insurance company anyway. And she better not take any guff from them if they try to say things aren't done. I wish I could talk to them myself.... on second thought, probably not the best idea.

"Home insurance cancelled due to psychotic home owner." Yeah, I'm definitely a liability.

Anyway, long overdue, here are some pics of the recent inspection-ready improvements:

Gutters and downspouts on one side - Mike's advice - it is easier to put them together on the ground and then put them up as one unit instead of trying to attach them to the house piece by piece.

Gutter on the back - much needed!

Temporary porch railing - lookin good.

Ah the exterior lights are back up again. It's all for temp, but still...

Completed basement railing - a little funky, but still functional.

And now on to the drama.

After clicking on the title to this post you're probably wondering where the flood's at. Well, it was a dark and stormy night. (Last night.) We started out with snow in the morning, which changed to rain in the afternoon and evening as the temperature climbed from the 30's to the mid 50's! What an incredible change. The wind was wild, the fog was everywhere, and by the time I got home, melting snow was creating huge rivers and puddles.

Around 7 I suddenly turned down the volume on the TV - I heard water. Not just dripping water either - this was definitely a fast moving waterfall dripping on some kind of hard surface. We started walking around, hoping that it was just the new gutters doing their job. Unfortunately, when we reached the basement - we discovered our favorite back window leaking again.

And not a small leak either.

Immediately, Mike shut off the boiler - which you can see in the pic is right in the line of fire. I had to quickly prop up a wooden sleigh bed I was storing near by on a few pieces of wood to keep it out of the fast growing puddle - although luckily that was the only thing I was worried about being damaged.

Mike grabbed his gordan's fisherman outfit and rushed outside, where he discovered that it wasn't so much the falling rain off the roof, but a river of melting snow running off the hill, straight into the window.

He was outside for nearly an hour with a shovel and the skid steer trying to divert the oncoming tide. Meanwhile I'm in the basement snapping a few pics... I guess I nearly gave the poor guy a heart attack. He thought the flash was something electrical arcing out in the basement!

Note the faint line about halfway up the window glass - that's where the water is. Trapped in the window well. It looked like a fish tank.

Eventually Mike was able to divert the water and slow the flow as it were. The flood ended with a quick vacuum of the basement with the wet dry vac.

Thank god the inspector wasn't around for that!

I-Day

I-Day or Inspection Day has arrived. And did I mention there's a few inches of snow on the ground and it only just turned over to freezing rain?

Excellent day for an inspection. Who knows what the roads will be like between 2 and 3 when this dude is supposed to show up, but I haven't received a cancellation call yet.

Mike is home tidying up a few last minute things - installing that basement stair railing, installing an exterior light, and hopefully not creating any big messes after I ran around this morning like a madman to finish the cleaning.

He finished the gutters on Monday, to great relief. We actually had a boatload of extra pieces that I was able to return to the Home Depot yesterday. What an even greater relief! Yesterday he installed the temporary railing on the farmer's porch - which looks great. Too bad I didn't have an opportunity to take down the xmas lights. But no matter. They're not even plugged in.

I'll be glad when 4:00 rolls around and I know the dude has come and gone. Then we're back to the baby's room. (Thank god because it's already Feb as far as I'm concerned.)

Lumber Liquidators called me yesterday - the flooring is in. Mike will be able to pick it up this weekend if not tomorrow/Friday depending on his schedule. He keeps asking me where I want to put all the extra. Hell if I know. (That's my one cheezy joke that I know - what do you get when you cross an elephant and a rhino? 'El-if-I-know.)

Anyway - as I said before, once we pick it up we can go ahead and install it. This time we'll have to rent the traditional flooring nailer (you know, the one you hit with a hammer and all) instead of the little 3/8 stapler. Mike would like to do the hallway at the same time too - and now we wish we hadn't returned those two sheets of 3/4 plywood.

I doubt it can all be done this weekend. Everything's just been so crazy leading up to this stupid inspection. We need a break.

Only 48 Hours

The inspector will be at home Wed between 2 and 3.

Side note - I'm totally going absolutely extreme annoyance theorem right now. I want to run screaming out of here at light speed, in fact. (Imagine someone repeating, sometimes singing, the same word for over an hour in the next room. Yup, that's life sometimes.)

So obviously I need to take a break before I go anymore insane than I already have.

So the inspector - yes! We were preparing for him all weekend. Saturday Mike continued work on the gutters, though didn't get very far. First he needed more connectors. Home Depot trip 1. Then it turns out our downspouts and turn outs were the wrong size. Home Depot trip 2.

Nevermind that the warm temperatures (40 degrees) were melting all the snow off the roof... causing severe discomfort during gutter installation. Mike spent a lot of time with the push broom trying to clear it all off, but still couldn't silicone any of the joints with all the gutter parts so damp.

Needless to say, the end of the day came without much progress. In the evening, Mike had to help out a friend of his while I got to cleaning. I cleaned the basement and the entire downstairs. Sunday, Mike's riding day, I finished the cleaning upstairs and felt pretty satisfied with that.

TJ was over on Sunday too... with good news and bad news. The good news - Mike did a great job on the baby's room subfloor and there's no need to put down an additional 1/2" of ply. When the hardwood arrives - we can just slap that down and be done. Bad news - the remainder of the downstairs should be done in the same fashion. Meaning we rip up the old flooring and install 3/4 ply instead of just installing 1/2" over the old flooring.

Well, that's all well and good save for the additional cost of 3/4 vs 1/2 inch. Big cost difference, actually. Unfortunately, if we don't, the final floor will squeak and shake on the unstable base. Just another reason to hold off on hardwooding the entire downstairs. We have too many baby's room periferals to worry about.

After the floor is finished it'll be window trim, closet doors and trim, closet organizer, closet light, rug, window treatments, and don't forget all that baby stuff.

Anyway - back to inspection news. Today Mike will hopefully have finished up the gutters... and not had any more crazy problems. Also over the weekend, we picked up some 2x4's to create a temporary railing on the porch and a 4x4 to attach the bottom of our basement stair railing to. So that's all got to be done too - if not today then definitely tomorrow.

And that's it. If they're not satisfied with everything - I can at least say confidently that we've done absolutely everything we could.

More Floor

We took the official plunge last night and ordered the hardwood. 500sq feet of 3/4" cherry goodness, soon to be delivered to our local Lumber Liquidators for pickup.

I'm still unsure about the sanity of this decision. 0% financing or no 0% financing. But when it came right down to it I thought, I'm going to regret not doing this. And that thought made my final decision for me.

Plus, you know, I'm sitting here and the inauguration is on TV in the next room and I'm thinking optimistically. Cautiously, but optimistically.

Yesterday Mike finished installing the 3/4 subfloor in the baby's room. Next up, 1/2 inch! Subflooring is just madness. Especially when you're trying to stiffen an old wobbly floor. You begin to think to yourself, how sturdy does this floor need to be anyway?


Luckily, we have some 1/2" in stock. And - we had two extra sheets of 3/4" leftover, which we can return and purchase some additional 1/2 inch, plus more caulk.

The hardwood plan of attack is as follows:
We'll install the 1/2" ply in the baby's room and possibly the hallway if we have extra and hardwood those areas. The living room (and possibly the hallway if we have no extra) can wait. We can hold on to the hardwood until we can purchase more 1/2 inch.

Meanwhile - and I think I jinxed myself yesterday - I finally received that home inspection scheduling call. They'll be out a week from tomorrow. So cold or no cold, those gutters have to get up. And the whole house needs to be cleaned and tightened up. That includes the garage.

I'm not looking forward to it. The inspector sounded like a douche over the phone - a real hard ass. I'm sure they picked him out special just for us.

But no matter. I'm feeling pretty good about our progress and if they don't want to insure us - there's got to be someone out there who wants our business.

Change in the Forecast

All did not go exactly to plan this weekend, but worked out well nevertheless.

Saturday turned out to be insanity. We were all loaded up to go to the dump first thing in the AM when Mike's truck batteries (2 of em) died. Wouldn't take a charge, couldn't be jump started, nothing. So unfortunately we had to go out and buy two new ones at the tune of nearly $200. Timing couldn't be better, eh? But you can't get anywhere without batteries - this was definitely a "have to."

By the time we got home from that ordeal, I had to run out for my luncheon date with a friend, leaving Mike to hit the dump and the deepHo solo. He was going to pick up some additional gutter connectors, the 3/4" plywood, and caulk. Outside, the temperature wouldn't budge above 20, ruining any gutter/burning activities for the day.

And of course by the time Mike returned home and unloaded everything with the help of his parents, who came by to give him a hand, it was time for him to leave to meet up with me at my parents' house for dinner!

Amazing how long all this running around can really take. Oh and all that plywood, another $200. It's almost comical how all this stuff ads up. And you don't want to know how much I had already spent over at BJ's on baby stuff on Friday. (I had coupons.)

Sunday it rained and snowed all day - further delaying any outside activities. So we stayed in. Mike did a few odds and ends for me - installed the last outlet and switch in the baby's room as well as the smoke detector. Then he started in on the floor, first finishing up the final reinforcement beam downstairs. Once that was in, he nailed down the old subfloor. (Which had previously been just, you know, hanging out on the beams, not really nailed to anything. Maybe a few nails here and there just for luck or something.)

Once everything had been nailed down and feeling sturdy, he began installing the plywood.

And once again, the moment the afternoon hit, time just flew. Mike only had time to install a couple pieces before we had to go out to our friends' house for taco night. But all in all, a very progressive weekend.

I'm sure Mike is working on the subfloor again today if not the gutters. It really is much warmer out today, but I didn't feel like leaving him a to-do list after such a crazy weekend. I haven't gotten the dreaded call from the home owners insurance co anyway, although they did send me a letter stating that they were going to call to set up an appointment.

Joy.

And as for the decision on the hardwood - I still haven't made it yet. I have until the end of the day. I just don't know.

Waiting, But Not Wasting Time

I'm happy to report that this week really turned around for us after Tuesday.

First off, that presentation I was worried about last post was scheduled for this morning instead of Wednesday morning. So we actually had Wednesday and Thursday to work on it, much to my relief on Tuesday night.

Secondly, still no call from our home insurance rep. I'm still not sure if that's good news or bad news, but nevertheless it's given us (us, that's a good one because I'm pretty much useless at the moment) It's given Mike a chance to work on several projects.

Wednesday, he spent the day on gutters. Or, rather, preparing for the gutters. Because really once he got up on the latter and started inspecting the roof line, it was obvious that some prep work needed to be done first. One major area of concern was over the mudroom.

And we knew this was a problem because back when we did the roof, I noticed while cleaning out the attic - Hey! There's a big hole to the outside where the roof meets the wall! At the time, we brushed it off and said, "we'll take care of that with the new siding."

But of course with no new siding as of yet, and temperatures creeping below 0 lately - probably a good idea to plug that hole. So, using some of our extra PT decking (the ugly pieces left over from the farmer's porch) Mike trimmed out that area. Later, the gutter will attach directly to this piece.

Notice how the piece just melds into the farmer's porch. Perfect!

If the weather hadn't been so cold and snowy, Mike could have actually installed the gutters yesterday. He wanted to, the nut! But really, the snow plus major wind chill factor - even I'm not that much of a slave driver.

Here's the second area that is in desperate need of a gutter. This is the back of the kitchen, and when it rains, the water just slides off the roof. If conditions are just right, it can actually seep through that window and sometimes the wall itself. We had several major rain events one after another back in fall that caused a flood in the basement window directly under this kitchen window - not good.

Anyway, tomorrow the high temperature is a toasty warm 30 degrees. (Ooooo!) And sunny! (Ahhhh!) So hopefully Mike will be able to continue on this project then.

Yesterday, while the weather outside was frightful, (and at my suggestion) he started in on the baby room floor. If you remember, this room was the most unstable one. Jump on the floor and watch it buckle and shake the whole room! Not good if you can imagine the future shenanigans of a small Mike in there.

Our carpenter and good friend TJ suggested we just rip off the top layer of flooring altogether and put down 3/4 then 1/2" plywood before we hardwood to really firm things up. So Mike spent the better part of yesterday demo-ing.

In this shot you can see the old hardwood still in the closet area. The rest is the very old subfloor.

Of course, once the old hardwood was up, it became obvious just how unstable the actual subfloor itself was! It buckled to nearly the breaking point when walked on, nevermind jumped on. Luckily, we had some 2x6's in stock. (God, just call the basement the Miscellaneous Lumber Co!) And Mike began reinforcing the room from underneath.

He got quite a bit done and only has two more 2x6's to install to complete the reinforcing job. Very cool.

Plus - that's not all! Yesterday being the 15th, Mike went down to the FD and bought our burn permit. He spent some time burning what he could in the afternoon, but everything was still pretty wet and frozen. I imagine we'll get a fire going tomorrow too and continue making a dent in the ever present brush piles.

So let's refresh - this weekend:

1. Install gutters
2. Continue burning brush
3. Complete baby room beam reinforcement
4. Purchase plywood (?)
5. Dump run

I don't know about that plywood purchasing. We don't have any 3/4 in stock, and that's what we really need right now. 7 sheets of it to be exact. We have some 1/2" although I'm not sure how much. That'll be pricey. We'll see - we'll definately be at the HD anyway for some additional gutter connectors.

Oh - and lumber liquidators is tempting me with a 12months same as cash no down no payments no interest offer. I'm wondering if I should just screw the world and go for it. Buy all the 3/4 aztec cherry for the downstairs. (Which is really just the babys room, hallway, and living room.) I have to take some measurements and all that first... but it's almost tax time and I could use the refund to pay it all or at least make a dent.... right?

Something else to think about. We're officially more than halfway to Feb after all....

Happy New Year?

2009? When did that happen? It was 1999 about 5minutes ago.

Let me tell you, my absence from this blog is a good indication of just how badly our holiday season went. I can't go into details on the internet, but here are some high level highlights - the poor economy finally hits home, there's a death in the family, work and home to-do lists become overwhelming, and all of a sudden free time evaporates and we don't know whether to scratch our watches or wind our butts.

At this very moment I'm enjoying (enjoying - HA!) a momentary lull, soon to be followed by a mad rush of late night last minute presentation preparation for a giant meeting likely to be scheduled for first thing tomorrow morning. In this momentary lull, we're awaiting confirmation and further instructions.

Yeah. Perfect example of these more-than hectic last two weeks. And it's only Tuesday.

In the midst of all this, I got a cancellation from my home owners insurance company in the mail on Saturday. Reasons - mostly all that we had done our best to repair over the past year. Ok, red flag. They're supposed to know we made repairs and I told them they could come and reinspect at any time... and this was waaay back around Septemberish.

I got on the phone with our insurance rep right away and was pleasantly surprised to hear that she was there on Saturday. She would check into it for us and call me back with an update. I still haven't received that call yet, but it's ok. It gave us time to reexamine that list. After all, this is no time to be switching to a more expensive plan.

There's nothing we can do about the siding. The entire front of the house is Tvek'd and it's going to stay that way until spring. Sorry. But we built the farmer's porch complete with temporary stairs & railing, added a railing to the basement stairs and upstairs overhang, re-did the entire roof, removed the wood stove from the garage, and finished the mudroom. Honestly I would imagine that would be enough to subdue them for another year, but after all the bad luck we've come across lately, I worried about it.

So we removed and threw out the old garage chimney setup as one extra precaution. (Not that it was connected to anything, but can't hurt to be rid of it, right?)

We also decided to go and check out gutters. The insurance company had issue with all our missing downspouts. And since adding the farmer's porch, even more gutters are missing. Knowing nothing about gutters and how much they cost, we researched at the deepHo last night. Turns out metal gutters are cheap! About $9 for a 10ft section and $20 for a 16ft section. (How they figure that is beyond me - but whatever.) Cheap! And all the little connectors and many of the accessories were under $1 each.

We couldn't believe it and started loading up a cart. No use losing the insurance over $9 downspouts. When all was said and done, we had picked out enough to cover the house - although not the entire farmer's porch. (One thing at a time - besides, hopefully the porch will count as "still under construction.")

Mike is likely to have time to install them tomorrow - weather permitting. If not, then definately by the end of this week. Cross another item off the list.... as long as they don't call me in the next hour and want to inspect tomorrow. Knock on something.

Also, Jan 15th starts the official town open burning season! That wonderful annual time to get rid of all the brush that we cut or lost during numerous winter storms. Weather permitting, we should be burning all weekend. Thus further cleaning up the yard.

This brings me to another point about the insurance company.

It's so hard to decipher what the insurance company is complaining about sometimes and what exactly they'd like you to do about it. Great example, the insurance co mentioned debris in the yard - that's a big WTF. We have some items next to the garage that I wonder if they consider debris - just some scrap metal and heavy auto parts/tractor parts that Mike would rather keep out of the garage. But the amount is not excessive. I've been to several homes that should have been condemmed for the amount of junk in the yard. I wonder though if this is what they're even talking about. Or maybe they object to our backyard brush burner made from our old oil tank. Nobody knows! I suppose we'll find out soon enough.

This little unexpected home insurance side trip is unfortunately keeping us from what our real focus should be on - baby's room. It's all painted, but the flooring needs to be done ASAP. After that, trim, closet doors... time is ticking away and don't think we haven't realized. There's only a few months to go and all of a sudden all of this "we'll take care of it after the holidays" stuff is upon us like a sack of bricks.

What a way to start 2009.