Changies in Schedule

As you may recall, we were tentatively scheduled to work on the farmer's porch this weekend, garage door next weekend, and possibly backyard grading the weekend after that.

But, as always, nothing goes as planned. Garage door is still scheduled for next weekend. And now the farmer's porch is scheduled for next weekend as well. (Timmy was stuck at work this past Sunday and couldn't make it over.)

So, what were we to do but start on the backyard?

Mike firstly came to the realization that he just couldn't and shouldn't grade the entire backyard. It was too much and our little skid steere would spend the next billion years trying... probably blowing itself up in the process. Mike decided that the best course of action would be to pour more cement and increase the height of the garage addition floor. He'd also grade down the gravel driveway, and angle it towards the pavement driveway so that water would flow in that direction instead of towards the garage.

We spoke about the possibility of getting rid of the gravel entirely and pouring a cement side-driveway. I told Mike if we were going to do that, we should do the entire driveway at the same time... we imagined it would be an expensive proposition and left the idea on the table for the time being. One thing at a time.

The backyard.

Now, this all started when I got out my rake and started raking the rocks. (Yes, the rocks. They were fulla leaves.) And when I got near to the end I thought, "Why should I rake this corner when I want it gone anyway?" So I asked Mike if he would get the skid steere and cut the corner.

He agreed and made a nice circular sweep around, creating a new entrance down into the backyard hole. (Which we'll eventually add gravel to...) Meanwhile I kept on raking the back of the backyard where I had left off a few weekends ago. That led into my next problem - there were all these new, small trees growing sideways that were in my way. So Mike got out his chainsaw and we chopped a bunch of them and piled them on the Trogdor for later burnination. (Next weekend, perhaps?)

Well that helped with the raking, to have all those out of the way. And it looked a heck of a lot better. Except now Mike's CB antenna was in the way. So our neighbors from up the hill came down and gave Mike a hand raising the thing to back on the back of the garage. Mike secured it as I continued raking, now unimpeded.

When that was done, I asked Mike to help me out on the waaaay back of the back. I had him skim the top, (where all the gross old leaves and logs were) with the skid steere. This would make a big difference in ease of raking. But that raised another problem. Mike couldn't effectively smooth out the area due to large, massive old stumps.

So he had to hook up chains and drag out a couple giant stumps, which he then loaded onto the truck for a Monday dump run.

Meanwhile I kept raking. (Never go years and years without raking people. You'll die - like I did at about this point.) I raked the bulk of the leaves and called it a day when my arms were about ready to fall off.

And at about the time Mike finished loading the stumps - he was beat too. We called it a day.

Would You Like Windows With That?

Ok, so I'm stoopid. I'm checking out Monday's post and reading right there in my own writing, "no windows [on the left hand side of the house.]"

This is entirely wrong.

There are two windows - the two living room windows - on that side. DUR. But the siding will still be easy. In looking at that side of the house, I forgot that our gambrel style roof goes waaay down. Like to the level of the first floor ceiling. Yes, we won't be siding up two stories even!

Incredible - that's not a lot of siding at all. I can see that side really getting done sh*t quick....

Clean Up, Siding, and An Unexpected Guest

Yes, it's time again for the Sunday Show! The show where we present, for your reading and viewing pleasure, all the awesome and wonderful things that happened around the house on Sunday! You may have thought we were off the air - but yesterday unexpectedly kicked off the spring season of the Sunday Show in ways never thought possible.

We were up at our usual early hour on Sunday. And, inspired by a Saturday burn by our neighbor up the hill, (and not to mention my stick-gathering of two weeks ago) Mike went downtown at 9am and got a burn permit. Needless to say, we were burninating by before 10am. Awesome.

Shortly after the fire was self sufficient, Mike went about moving stuff in the yard. The camper - back to the gravel driveway. Those old logs - pushed down the hill with the skid steere. One lawn tractor - gave to a neighbor. Snowmobile - on the side of the garage, cover on. Junk - loaded in the truck for the dump. Sweet.

Although I must admit, this after photo doesn't look like much. But it looked a lot worse before. Additionally, Mike considered the grading project. He'll need to get himself a bigger machine, that's for sure. He estimated about an 18 inch difference from the garage addition to the edge of the hill. Plus, this nasty bit you see in the bottom third of this photo? All that has to be cut off as well. I'll be prodding Mike this week to remind him to source out a machine he can borrow on the cheap/free. Sounds like a plan.

And if you think that's all we've got on this edition of the Sunday Show - well, you're wrong! Around 12:30pm, Timmy and Richard came over and got right to work finishing the siding. Mudroom/Kitchen Side - done. (Save for a bit of trim and trim-painting.)

It's all one cohesive side! Imagine that.... Mike also cleaned up that side driveway whatever-you-want-to-call-it area. We had a buncha dirt piles there from snow plowing and sanding over the winter. Plus, we had our garage doors stored there on saw-horses. No more. Mike moved those, dug out the dirt, and put in some pea stone from the gravel driveway to fill in. Sigh of unexpected relief. I'll be prodding Mike some more to schedule his friend for garage door installation as soon as this upcoming weekend.

The last little triangle of siding up on top? (There on the right.) Oh yeah, it's done. Trim's back up. All is well with the world of siding.

If you simplify all and everything - you could call our siding half done. But, as Mike is quick to point out, the left hand side of the house is barren - no windows (save for an octagonal one yet to be installed), no doors, no additions, no porch, no nada. And without any of those strange cuts and jags, it will be quick work to side the left. (Not to mention less wasteful as well.) We're so much more then halfway there.

Nearing the end of the Sunday Show, Timmy made us a materials list for another upcoming Sunday Show. And believe it or not, it's not going to pinch my pockets too too badly.

Wrap for the last of the porch posts
Two more railings and a stair rail
Misc trim - and not much of it

Weather permitting, I will be prodding Mike to order everything on Friday. (Lotta prodding going on this week.)

Now it's time for the most Unexpected thing to ever happen on the Sunday Show. And I Missed It. MISSED IT! I'm so pissed. Ken Thompson stopped by. Name ring a bell? As in, just a couple weeks ago I was talking about Mr. and Mrs Robert Thompson, previous owners? And how the strange coincidence of my friend Christine having visited Mrs. Thompson caused me to reconsider all the unanswered questions about my house in my own mind??

And the dude shows up and Mike gives him the grand tour and I'm not there. Oh, I was livid.

Needless to say, he was impressed. Surprised that the bathroom had gone basically unchanged. Loved the kitchen, loved the tile. He did tell Mike in regards to the yard that they dug out a huge hill in order to build the garage. They dug it out and pushed it down the hill in back. It used to be just one giant hill in back of the house. And the family had always wanted to renovate, but didn't have the means to do what we did.

He said he usually has to go to the Cape for something every couple months. Mike encouraged him to stop by at any time, and I hope he does.

After that, Mike cleaned up the gravel driveway with the leaf blower.

And that's all we have time for this week on the Sunday Show! If you can't tell, I'm just giddy with excitement. Everything all of a sudden seems so close and easy again. If we can get that garage door installed next weekend.... If we can get the last posts trimmed and the last railings up next weekend.... If we can grade the backyard the weekend after that....

It's never that easy though, is it?

In the Glass of Her Boudoir

Boudoir - French, literally means "sulking place." I'd like to think of my all-new office as a boudoir. Yes, you heard it here first, all-new. As in, I'm sick of sitting stagnant and couldn't live in the virtual photoshop renovation world any longer. I decided to re-arrange my upstairs office.

It had been annoying me for quite some time - ever since I started my piano lessons and found I couldn't get at the keyboard comfortably with three computers, a TV, a sewing machine, and various pictures, nic-nacs, and other oddities all over the desk. Plus, the excess dust and garbage was highly aggravating to look at. I mean, I had old empty boxes of nothing, giant dust bunnies, a file cabinet from the dump, and wires - wires everywhere! Oh, and the books! Tons and tons of books!

 This is what happens when you have a little boy and don't use your office for near to two years.
It was high time I stormed the castle and regained my place on the office-throne.

As usual, I highly underestimated the time it would take me to do such a thing. Two hours tops. Four hours later and I still wasn't done. I'm actually still not done. It took an additional two nights to clean up the major mess and now I need to organize the minor mess that still remains.

Why did it take so long? Well, I suppose I should have gone back to photoshop land first, because I rearranged that room every which way to Sunday. I knew I wanted to flip the desk around so the chair would face the wall instead of facing out. But beyond that - uugh!

I flipped the desk and centered it. I flipped it and put it to the left - the right - back to the left. Measured to determine if it would fit on another wall. And finally I flipped it so it faced the window. Now, I thought, I was on to something. The rest would be easy! WRONG. Where to put the couches? I can't even tell you how many couch configurations I did. This was the bulk of my time. I moved those things again and again and again. Finally, as the sun began to set, I said, "Come on, think outside the box here." And that seemed to work - I put the large couch in the middle of the room.

Now I was really onto something! All of a sudden I had two defined areas, which solved the problem of a big freakin gap in the middle of the room.

But the love seat was still a problem. I wanted it to fit opposite the couch, but it was just too big for the space. I needed a chair. I didn't have a chair. I needed to buy a chair.

And that pretty much brought me to the end of Day1.

On Day2 I left the dang love seat where it was and brought in all the misc items I had stuffed into the bedroom on Day1. Books, video equipment, nic-nacks, etc.

On Day3 I went into HomeGoods to check out their chairs. I had previously looked online at IKEA and decided I didn't like anything there for the money. I planned to check out HomeGoods and take some measurements and on Day4, get an armchair for around $200. But - I had a total Maxx moment. They had, in the back, a perfectly matching chair... same color as the couches, microfiber, very soft.... on Clearance - $75. It didn't have any arms, but for a price like that, I didn't care.

I brought it home at put it in place of the love seat. And unfortunately I had to stick the love seat on the other side of the room temporarily. I need to get it out of there, but since it won't fit thru the living room basement door, I have to wait until the temps warm up enough for us to open up the exterior basement door.

Final thoughts - the chair could be bigger, but for the money, I think it's great.

Full Frontal Photoshop

I'm getting waaay too ambitious again. Either that or my vitamin D level has dropped to catastrophically low  proportions.  Whatever the reason - I hit the photoshop again. And despite the fact that I'm not totally finished with this pic, I have a need to share anyway.

 

Click to Enlarge

Check it out!!! The green grass, the lush trees, the fully-doored garage, the nicely paved driveway, the shutters, the front steps, the maple tree on the left hand side that you can barely see, the lattice, and of course the rock wall.

That's the unfinished part. I have to put some plantings in there. Listen to me, I talk like the photoshopping is the hardest part of this whole landscaping thing. If I think this is difficult... woo! I ain't seen nothin yet.

Here's the "Before" picture. (I quote it because in reality, we're still in the "Before" state.)

A Girl with a Rake and a Dream

We had some unseasonably warm weather over the weekend. Or was it seasonable? Winter has been so terrible that I've lost all concept of normal. BUT, seasonable or not, I was motivated by my own summer backyard photoshopping to get out there in the yard and make things happen!

First, I cleaned up and organized some of the JUNK around the garage. (Remember last year when I totally cleared and cleaned up both sides of the garage for painting... yeah, both sides have become a dumping ground yet again.)

Then, I dug out my handy dandy rake... oh wait, I didn't need to dig it out. It was on the side of the garage. Nevertheless, rake in hand, I set myself on the back of the backyard. (You know, the skid steere/trailer parking area.) And I raked until my blisters popped and then kept on raking. Then I went inside and baked cookies. (Oh, the strange and random life I lead...)

So with probably near to two or two and a half hours of sheer raking agony, you'd probably expect that I'd have finished the entire back of the back yard. Wrong. I finished half of the back of the back. And not even the most horrendous half. Looming just to the other side I have more then just leaves and sticks to contend with. I have logs! As in, there used to be a log pile there a million years ago. And there are still some gross old logs hanging out under a buncha gross old leaves.

I've got to find out whether or not the logs are salvageable, and if so, make a new and neat pile. If not, I need to chuck them down the hill with all the leaves and sticks. And if that wasn't bad enough, this section of yard has NEVER been nice. The good twin next door used to be lush, shady, grassy, and wonderful. Its evil twin has been leaf'd upon, log'd upon, and neglected for eons. And that means layer upon layer of disgusting old leaves, decomposing logs, prickers, bugs, and possible snakes/frogs... all the more reason to get a-rakin before spring really springs back.

Mike has some strange notion that come spring, he's going to re-grade the entire garage area so the garage doesn't flood again with snow melt and heavy rain. You know what I've got to say to that... Uh-huh. Not that I'm not in favor of such a thing. In fact, when I was cleaning the yard, I discovered that over the winter, Mike dug a huge hole in the yard to get sand with which to spread over the then icy driveway! And so now I have a freakin huge hole to contend with.

And I'm wondering if I should just bring in the pro's with a skid steere that doesn't have street tires on it that dig in and ruin the lawn. Grade the yard, fix the hole, push the malarkey down the hill, and then spread loam so we can seed. I wonder how much it would cost? I can't remember how much it was when we had Nick Mitchell grade the front after the house lift.... but I remember how incredibly happy I was with the work.

Like I said before, Uh-huh.

In the short term, I need to have Mike move the camper back to the gravel driveway now that Dodge #2 is gone. Then, I need to finish raking the back of the back and move on to the front/mid of the back. And I want to buy those two trees this spring too.

It's Curtains For Me... and I'm Quite Pleased About It

This is a story about one living room window.  Last year, when we totally re-did the living room, (fixing the drywall and re-painting, securing the floor, installing the hardwood) we re-installed two out of three window curtain sets. Two brackets per window, two rods per window, two curtains per window.

*And don't make that rookie mistake of installing your curtains right tight to the window frame. That is incorrect. Install at least 4" away from the window frame in each direction. That means 4" above and 4" aside from your frame. This will make your windows look so much bigger and more professional.

However, our third window just would not have it. One bracket installed on the left just perfectly, as normal. But the one on the right found nothing to hold on to. No stud - all mud. A drywall screw couldn't hold it. The molly bolts we had in stock couldn't hold it.

And so, that poor little window sat there sans curtains, sans rods, and sans uno bracket for near to a year. NEAR TO A YEAR! But just this past Saturday, Mike brought home a molly bolt that worked! (For the outrageous price of just a few short cents mind you...) And we were finally able to put up the last set of rods and curtains.

What a difference and what a relief to have something so stoopid finally taken care of. And now those pictures in the center of those two windows look un-centered. I decided at the time not to worry about it. Maybe I'll re-center them next year....

And speaking of stuff that's been hanging over our heads for a year or so... Dodge #2 is GONE! The guy and his posse came back on Sunday as promised, tow truck in tow, and carted it away. We can breath another sigh of relief. That, plus another load of yard fodder gone to the dump... kinda makes me think there's hope in the world after all.

But that's it.

I had wild dreams of starting some new and exciting project this Sunday... or at least making progress on an oldy-moldy project this Sunday. No such luck. I'm having renovation withdrawal and I don't like it.

Strange Coincidence?

Things about my house's past totally freak me out. Things about my house's previous owners freak me out. Way back when we first bought the house, I even purchased this book from the historical society: Bournedale the forgotten village, which recounts the story of the families of Bournedale, including the man who built our house.

But I haven't been able to stop thinking about what happened Monday night.

My zumba/belly dance instructor Christine came to pick me up for an African dance class we were going to together. But when I hopped in her car, she said, "I think I've been to one of your neighbor's houses... maybe 10 years ago when I did meals on wheels. Is there an old lady that lives over there?"

She gestured to my neighbor's house.

"Not for a long time," I replied. "The owner of that house just recently passed away maybe 6 months ago." Then something struck me.

"Mrs. Thompson?" I asked.

"YES! That was it."

I gasped. That was my house. That was the previous owner, who had outlived her husband and died just previous to us purchasing the house. Of course she'd never recognize the house in its present state... plus it was dark outside. "That was my house," I said in disbelief.

"I only went there once, but I was in there talking to the woman for over an hour," Christine went on. "Then as I was leaving, the VNA nurse came in and told me, 'If you want to come here, you have to come all the time - every day. You can't let her down.' So I didn't go back." She frowned. "I just couldn't make that commitment."

It seems like a very small coincidence. I mean, Bourne is a small town. But still... I couldn't stop thinking about it. "You have to come in - do you mind?" I asked Christine on our way home after the class. "We've done so much work... you won't believe it."

To expect someone to remember a house they were in for an hour 10 years after the fact is a bit of a stretch, but I couldn't help it. She had remembered being there, after all. And when we went in she couldn't recognize a thing until I prompted her... "and this room was covered in wood paneling..."

"Yes, and it was very dark!"

Of course Mrs Thompson would have never given her the grand tour, but I certainly did. I couldn't help myself. And I just yacked and yacked away about this and that, before and after. At the end of the tour I remembered I had a "before" picture of the outside of the house hanging up in the living room. I pulled it down and showed her.

"That was it. Oh my god."

I thought about it long after Christine had gone. It doesn't creep me out as much as it just amazes me. The prior life of the house I live in. I wish I had access to more pictures... stories... something. I'd probably seem psycho trying to hunt them down from the Thompson kids. (They had three boys who no longer live in the area.) I have so many questions....

Why is there only one garage door? Why was the chimney cut off and walled off? How did you survive with three boys and no washer/dryer? What was the condition of the house like when you renovated it in 1955? What was the bathroom like before it was pink and green? And who picked out those colors? Who's idea was it to stick a clock over the hole in the kitchen wall? Where did you keep your towels? When did you stop burying your trash? Or did you.... What was up with all those dang tires in the backyard? I don't even know what the Thompsons look like.

I had forgotten about all these questions until I talked to Christine.

Wishful Photoshopping

 

 Ta-Da! Look, it's beautiful end-of-May-type weather and Mikey and I are headed out to the backyard to play... and the backyard looks so beautiful that I can't help but take this photo.... (click to enlarge)

That's the reality I wish I was living in right now.

This is an extremely photoshopped landscape portrait of the backyard - which I created by merging two skuzzy pictures from Spring, 2010.

Look, the garage addition hasn't even been built yet in this pic. Amazing! (Hard to believe it was just last year? I had to think about it... was it 2009? No - I looked it up on the blog. We began garage addition construction in April of 2010.)

So obviously I added in the addition - with an addition of an addition door. I extended our side-gravel driveway up to that door and added the most perfect grass you've ever seen. The green in the background I actually stole from a much earlier summertime backyard photo - so that is actually what it will look like in back.

Then, since we have a lovely drop-off style cliff just on the horizon of the backyard, I decided to add a Mikey fence. Behind which, we'd store the skid steere and the trailer. (Actual skid steere and trailer may vary. Images for illustrative purposes only.)

Then some hydrangeas on the base of the hill to the left... some azaleas on the base of the hill to the right.... a coat of black paint for our Trogdor burninator apparatus (plus some gravel underneath for safety)... and two of my favorite trees in the known universe.

Looks oh so simple, right? (I tell myself while at the same time reminding myself that We-Can't-Start-Any-New-Projects.) I wish I could just handoff the pic to some landscape dude and say, "Make it so #1."

Unfortunately that's not all. The first pic came out so awesome that I just couldn't help but do another angle.

I took the liberty of adding a bucket of Coronas to this pic... add me sitting in one of those chairs and Mikey going down the little slide... Oh yeah. That would be a dream come true.

Hey! There's a quarter in the gravel! I guess I forgot to take one out. Oh well.

Believe it or not, I went through several incarnations of this angle to really get something sweet. I tried everything on that back garage wall. A couple wall mounted trellises.... a cabana thing... a different patio set... but I really just like this simple awning with the two chairs, a burning bush, and a small decorative trellis. I don't have THAT much room back there, after all.

Here's the pic I started with this time. Note I kinda moved the scene to the left... couldn't help but to do it. I don't have any pics facing the right direction.

Ok landscapers. I'll pay you like $100 and you make my yard look like this. Deal? Deal.

Frustrations and Looming Spring

I was so hoping for big joyful tax returns to jump start spring projects like they always do. (Lowes, by the way, has what I think is a genius promotion. Put your tax returns on a Lowes gift card, then come in on March 18th or something like that, and it'll be worth an additional 10%.)

Unfortunately, I have a gorgeous new fridge and porch railings to pay off. And apparently, we make too much now to get more then that amount back. I suppose I should be thankful not to owe.

Meanwhile, temps have increased and the snow-pack is melting down. I can actually see grass! Which is getting me thinking about landscaping again. And over the weekend we took a deposit on Dodge #2. In the next two weeks, if I'm not cursing myself by saying such a thing, it'll be gone. (And don't think for a second I get a piece of that big money action... Mike needs it to get his trans in the current Dodge fixed.) Bottom line - I get the back yard back. And with the garage addition completed and the Dodge gone... and the porch out front still unfinished, I can't help but think about the landscape.

What about the porch? Well, we still have a decent amount of snow and ice on that side of the house. But if by some miracle we get enough melting to actually work, the next step is to wrap the next pole, install our last "in-stock" railing, and finish the side steps. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Front steps still need to be built and the bottom needs to be wrapped. We have to purchase a fan and install that, as well as the remaining outlet covers.

And don't forget that new garage door that's just hangin out on saw horses. Unfortunately, there's a big mound-a-snow in front of the garage, making installation impossible. That whole thing needs to melt. Then Mike needs to cut the hole and have his friend come by for installation. (I have to purchase the opener at that point in time too.)

Inside, I have it on my to-do list to count and purchase end caps for all the dang radiators. Plus, we need to finish the radiant heat on one of these warm days. (It's been waaay too cold to turn the heat off for even a second, never mind an entire day.)

Donde esta el bano?! Home Depot has been running these "Bathroom Savings Event" ads on the radio and they're driving me crazy. It's like they know.... They know we're way behind schedule and they're mocking me. Mocking me!

Mike was sick again on Sunday, much to his frustration. He wanted to move the camper and get Dodge #2 into the driveway and ready to fly.

And this is what winter has been - sick and frustrating. Oh, and the weather has been nothing short of THE WORST WEATHER EVER. So unlike previous years, here we are at the center point of Feb, with nothing to show for Nov-Feb save for a kitchen window and a new fridge.

This might be ok for some weekend warriors. For us, it's our least productive winter ever. For example, last year on this very day we installed the hardwood floors in the living room. We had spent the better part of Jan-Feb preparing the living room - fixing the drywall, securing the floor, repainting, etc. The whole works. And on Valentines Day, we tag teamed that floor and did it all, trim and everything, IN ONE DAY. (And we managed a seafood lunch from Eastwind too.)

This winter's accomplishments are nothing more then shameful.

Ode to a Fridge

2004. We're new home owners and demolishing our brand new (old) home. The kitchen is so dilapidated and smelly that I think any food I cook there is somehow tainted. It tastes weird and I don't know if I'm imagining it or not. There's a fridge, a gas stove, and a sink. Four cabinets. Two above the sink and two below. Thaz-it.

Over the years, a new stove, a new dishwasher, a granite sink, and a full set of yard sale cabinets for $200. The fridge stands alone.

We stick stickers on it. Renovation stickers from new windows, new washer/dryer, and more. Giant stickers. Tiny stickers. Silly print outs from natalie dee.

Mike puts 30 packs in it and I'm annoyed because they take up half the fridge. This prompts a Christmas gift, a kegerator.

2010. The replacement fridge is purchased on the Friday after Thanksgiving.

2011. The replacement fridge is delivered on Feb. 5th.

I wanted to keep that old fridge. I wanted to stick it in the basement, not plug it in, and put a TV in the freezer and keep the bottom fridge part for storage. How cool would that be in a cool hangout basement room? I had been thinking about this for years when Mike snapped me back into reality just a few days before new fridge arrival, pointing out that unless I cleaned that thing to the N'th degree, it was going to mold. And he did not want to carry it downstairs either. Plus, it was impossible to carry down anyway, since we winterized the basement's exterior door. (The interior door is too small for a fridge to fit.)

So my dreams were crushed and I elected to say "Adios old fridge." I removed as many of the stickers as I could and watched the delivery dudes as they hauled it out.

And by the way, I swear they were drinking beers in the truck. I was a bit concerned as they pulled up, not backing into the driveway. They just sat there for a few minutes and I caught a glimpse of a silver and blue can... I suppose I could give them the benefit of the doubt and call it a Pepsi.

They did a good job though - beers or not. They measured the doorways, helped me move some furniture out of the way, removed the old fridge even though I told the store I wanted to keep it, kept the box from the new fridge, put it nicely into place, double checked its functionality... I was very pleased.

And I spent the remainder of Saturday afternoon loading the thing up and reading the instruction manual. Mikey figured out how to defeat the child lock on the LED display within the first five minutes. WHY they put the lock button on the bottom of the display where a 1 1/2 year old can reach it... I have half a mind to write them an email.

This particular model as the ice and water in the door, so Mike will have to run water up for it at some point. I'm not EXACTLY sure of its placement, since I want to replace that cabinet to the left with a corner cabinet that we can butt the fridge right up to. And as to when I will have that cabinet?! That's a bit of a laughing matter, since the kitchen is waaaay at the bottom of any kind of list.

The only reason I got the fridge was the amazing deal...

And by the way, it is amazing. This model features that cool blue lighting like you see in all the grocery freezer sections now adays. Plus a slim ice maker that still allows for storage on the left hand door. (Specifically, can storage - which is great for those beers when we have cans.) It has sliding, spill proof shelves. It has a big 'ol platter drawer for your sheet cake, cheese platter, etc. Adjustable crisper drawers. Water and ice in the door - selectable ice shape. Pull out freezer with two drawer levels. And it's so efficient and quiet... Wouldn't that be so cool if my electric bill went down?

Breakfast Discussion = Nooooo

First thing Sunday morning, Dodge Dude showed up - truck and trailer at the ready. But with the 60 or so total inches of snow we've had this winter, plus the less then 48hrs dig-out notice, Mike hadn't yet had the opportunity to dig his way to the backyard.

Remember, Dodge #2 has no brakes. It can't just be driven outta there... well, it shouldn't anyway. So we have to move 1 giant snow bank and 1 camper to even gain access to the dang thing. Lucky us, we've got a skid steere.

The DD decided to go to breakfast with his GF while Mike worked feverishly on the snow bank. Or, I should say, the ice bank, because that thing had a solid, impenetrable core. Meanwhile, I dug out the title confidently. I shouldn't have been so bold.

DD returned as Mike was still desperately trying to clear snow from the front of the camper. And all of a sudden he was having second thoughts. He wanted a Dodge. He knew this was a good deal. He had his trailer and, undoubtedly, a pocket-fulla cash. No one shows up at a place with all this and goes home empty handed. (Although this is the second time it's happened with this particular truck... strange.) Not only that, he knew Mike was working his butt off to get the thing out for him.

I imagine that the breakfast discussion with the GF just didn't go so well. I bet she told him it looked like a piece and it wasn't worth that kind of money and she didn't like it and so on and so forth.

He's going to think about it.

I suppose it would be worse. Mike could have completely dug out the camper, moved it, dragged the truck into the driveway.... I don't want to even think about it.

Bottom line - Dodge still for sale and it's going back on Craigslist. Like tonight or tomorrow.

But I do have good news! The new garage door arrived today! So exciting! As to when and how we're going to get it installed... your guess is as good as mine.

Wonderland? N. O.

The snow is once again upon us, undoubtedly translating into another missed Sunday out on the porch. Meanwhile, winter is ticking away and all those "winter" projects haven't even been started yet. I'm about ready to throw my own No-New-Projects mantra out the window until New England thaws out a little. I mean, how can you possibly install railings when there's a solid couple of inches of ice on the porch?! How can you pour concrete in subzero temps?

It's just silly. The porch cannot be finished in these kind of conditions.

At least we can rest assured in the fact that the kitchen window wall is coming together. Richard came over just a couple nights ago and taped/mudded all our hodge podge seams. Of course, with all the cold weather, we're going to give it a good week to really dry up before we invite him back for sanding.

 And can you believe the new fridge is set to be delivered on 2/5?! Seems like just yesterday when I purchased it and complained about the two month + backorder.

Adding to the madness, I'm still (yes, still) sick. This sinus thing makes me want to rip my throbbing face off and then sing about it in a death metal song. I felt great yesterday.... today I feel as bad as Wednesday if not worse. Am I drinking enough fluids? No. Am I taking my vittamins? No. Am I staying home on the couch with tea and Vicks until the pain goes away? No. So, therefore, I already know what my problems are and why I'm still ill. But sometimes you just can't do the things you'd like to do.

Unlike the dreaded Man Cold - where the dude of the house is incapacitated on the couch for days, watching an ungodly long war-themed show/mini-series/movie and/or the entire Rocky series OnDemand, unable to mutter more then an "eeuuurrr, can you make me some ramen noodles?" Yeah. I've been sick since last Saturday, at work every single day but Wednesday, and generally doing everything I normally do. (Miserably but still doing it.)

That's all I'll say about the Man Cold.

Now, on to some additional pleasant news!
THIS JUST IN.... DODGE #2 (is it #2? Well, it is poopy - so, I'll go with #2.) HAS BEEN SOLD!
For the amazingly low sum of just $2500.

That barely covers what we have into the thing. Don't you just love that? But I nearly had a conniption fit when Mike suggested he sell it for $1500. The dang new transfer case alone was $1000! So I'm pleased. And if all goes swimmingly, it may even be gone this weekend.

And, it's been purchased by the same doode who's putting on my new tires and aligning my truck. (Special vehicle = special alignment doode required.) So, I feel pretty confident he'll give us a little bit of a deal, since he knows this dodge is a steal. He only wants the motor!!!

Just think.... when the snow melts, no more vehicles in the backyard! Just a boat, a trailer, a skid steere, the camper, the snowmobile, and that little jeep go-cart thing. BUT! At least there will be no more VEHICLES!

I'm even laughing at myself and how ghetto that sounds. I should start a new toy-inventory blog that tracks vehicle acquisitions and transfers.

Two Words

I'm sick.

Third word: Again.

But the good news is, our neighbor and drywaller Richard is coming over tonight to tape up the hodge podge wall job Mike completed a couple weeks ago.

Finally, something to make my day a little brighter. T-minus less then two weeks until new Fridge time.

Movin In

The No New Projects rule cannot apply to Still Outstanding Projects. (And we have many.) Or I should say, Projects I Consider Complete But Aren't Really Because of Something Stoopid.

Like for instance, our baseboard heating. Sure, we've had baseboards for eons now. But do they have end caps? Heck no! Do we own end caps? Well, I thought not, until I found one when I was cleaning the basement Christmas Eve Eve. (Just one... interesting, huh? Like... who buys just one end cap?)

So at that time, I tried to slap it on the end of the mudroom baseboard. Didn't fit. Well, it was supposed to. It was the perfect size, but didn't want to go on there. Being Christmas Eve Eve and having better things to do, I gave up at that time. But wouldn't you know, Mike started complaining about lack of end caps on Sunday... so I just had to pull out our 1 token cap for him to try and put on.

Sure enough, no go. The baseboard was too low, since we had re-floored. Plus, there was that one piece of wood floor that was destined for underneath the baseboard that we'd never installed. (And how long ago did we hardwood in the mudroom? That was the first downstairs room we did!) And there was a screw in the wrong place - blocking the cap.

Ok - time to fix all that... x amount of years after the fact. Mike detached and raised the baseboard, installed the one piece of hardwood, and then put on the end cap - which now fit beautifully.

Now on to the second small matter at hand: the kitchen drywall. As in, we needed some, since removing the old and adding the new window. But did we have enough "in stock" to do the job. That was the question. We had one full sheet and a buncha pieces. We needed at least one full sheet and a buncha pieces. It was going to be close. We didn't want to buy anything.

Luckily, we had some expanding foam in stock - and we were able to steal some insulation from the garage to meet our draft elimination/insulation needs. (There's a big 'ol new door going on that garage soon... we won't need all of that insulation anymore.)

The one full sheet slipped in perfectly, since Mike had purposely cut the old drywall at the seams.

The smaller pieces were not so easy. But it was less of a hack job then I expected. Mike did fabulously! (And Mikey was super helpful throwing things away for us and taking care of the measuring tape.)

At the end of Sunday, we had more then half the drywall up.

 

At the end of Monday, it was all hung - with every single last scrap we had in stock!

Happy What?

La la la la - WHAT? 2011? Shoot.

Sorry, I've been totally MIA for about three weeks, preparing for xmas and for the annual family trip to Baltimore. (From which we returned just last night.) Oh, and yeah, there was a giant blizzard in the middle of all that. Throw in a buncha crazy deadlines, the stomach flu, the common cold, a toddler, traffic, and an unnatural love of bananas.... and boy you've got a stinky Christmas stew bad enough to send even the most devout Christmas fan to sheer insanity.

DUDE - ok, the ad just came on TV and I'm pissed. I bought a chicken sandwich at BK yesterday and did not get one free. Dam you jersey turnpike!

Anyway, needless to say, I'm glad to return to reality... whatever that is. Honestly, I need another vacation. Say... ME... on a cushy lounge chair.... next to a pool... in 85 degree temps, light breeze... and, oooo! Bay Breeze! In my hand, pink umbrella, bendy straw. No such luck, welcome to 2011 - it's still winter in New England and we've got things to do.

The boys did some work the weekend before Christmas. Mike had some of the guys over, plus Timmy, to help him with the siding on the kitchen/mudroom side. (Ahhh, as I recall now, this was the day I got the stomach flu.) But despite my incapacitation, the four-five guys made amazing progress within an amazingly little amount of time. When I peeked out at them around 1pm, they had already stripped the shingles off the mudroom, removed the temporary tar paper from the kitchen side, stapled up TvVek, and installed siding up to the bottom of the windows.

The most amazing part - the kitchen/mudroom were now one cohesive side! Not one side with one tacked on addition. The mad plywood leveling was paying off big time!

Unfortunately, that was the last thing I saw before I was totally bathroom bound. BUT - when I was feeling better, I saw that Timmy and the guys had continued until they were at the top of the mudroom windows. It looked incredible! Our house suddenly is looking like a really nice house...

Just today, Mike cleaned up that side and continued siding - all the way to the top of the kitchen window! He's left some of the difficult cuts for Timmy, who should be by next weekend. And don't think I've forgotten about the porch... Hopefully we'll have some snow melt by that time too.

All I Want for Christmas 5

The yearly tradition continues! Want to see what I wanted in 2009? Click Here What about 2008? Click Here What about 2007? Click here. What about 2006? Click here.

And now for 2010:

Ok here we go:

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

2. Kitchen: Fix drywall and repaint, new cabinets

 3. MudRoom: reinstall wainscot, baseboard trim, dining set from IKEA - the white round table and the wickerish chairs.

4. Living Room: crown moulding, reinstall that one crooked window, fix the durn curtain rod, fireplace?

5. Hallway/Stairway: banister, stairway trim, top stair step, dimmer for stair light, install octagonal window, second electrical outlet

6. Mikey's Room: fix closet light

7. Office: Closet organizer, door to the attic crawl space, bigger area rug

8. Bedroom: new mattress, new HDTV, more drawers for my Closetmaid set, door for attic loft space, window and closet door trim

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

10. Garage: Drywall and paint, Three garage doors, storage system with shelves

11. House exterior: new clapboard siding on the remaining 3 sides, complete farmer's porch stairs, window boxes, green shutters, lamppost, more nice plantings, a shed, chimney overlay, another chimney to vent wood stove, hammock, new driveway (ie, repour it), re-do the rocks

12. Basement: finish it off with a bathroom (toilet, vanity, stand up shower), bedroom, work room, 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.

Amazing how much I was able to delete off the list this year! What an exciting time! There's finally l
light at the end of the tunnel after more then 6 years working, more then 5 years blogging!


Our goals for this year?
Complete the porch before winter really sets in
Re-side the new-window side of the house before winter really sets in
Complete the radiant heat
Install all new garage doors
Build the basement bathroom
Frame out the basement bedroom (since we're right there anyway)
Begin work on 1st and new 2nd floor bathroom

Radiating

Rainy Sunday. No fun. Except if you decide to install radiant heating!

Now, if you recall (no, not the most famous reindeer of all) we ordered all the materials needed months ago from TruVal... but just hadn't had the time to pick them up and install. Until this past Sunday! The forecast was rainy and windy, so the guys weren't planning on working outside. But it was also going to be 50 degrees - what a perfect time to shut down the heat for the day! So Mike grabbed up all the tubing and fittings on his way home from work on Saturday.

Sunday, everything went fairly smoothly - for a heating job. Usually, when copper pipe is involved, it's a long, strenuous, expensive day. And we get leaks and other things go wrong... Plumbing is downright difficult! Mike's become rather adept at it over the years, but he's no master plumber. This experience was the exact opposite. The only real problem - and we knew it as soon as we started uncoiling the tubing - we didn't have enough to do the entire downstairs, only the living room. (And we also had to run to the DeepHo for about 10 extra feet...)

We cut and removed a couple of the long copper sections, then just attached one end of the tube at the beginning of the loop, snaked it up and down the floor joists, and attached it at the end of the loop. (Sounds like it took 5 minutes, but there was a lot of drilling and connecting involved.) At the end of the day, Mike strapped the entire living room section to hold the tubing up near the floor.

Pre-strapping - the white may look like wires. Nope it's tubing.

The concept is simple. Hot water travels through the pipes. Heat radiates out and up onto the floor. Then, heat radiates up from the floor and heats the room. We still have our baseboards, this just helps our home reach optimum temp faster and more efficiently. Plus, the floors are toasty.

We've had heating problemos in the past, mostly because our house is old, but partially because we didn't evenly distribute the length of baseboards when we installed. (Mikey's room, strangely enough, has the longest one, so if his door is closed, his room gets super warm while the rest of the house is at a normal temp.) The only zone downstairs is controlled by a thermostat in the living room. We had at first considered adding another zone for Mikey's room... but we think this will prove more economical and efficient.

We hope to complete the radiant heat in the rest of the downstairs soon, before it gets any colder around here. Of course, the porch still needs finishing. My "no-new-projects" rule is still kinda upheld... this just happened to be a "rainy-day-project." And that's totally different, right?

Window In

It's window-time! Now, break it down! Yes, yes, Sunday was Dia de Los Windows, as Mike set himself about cutting out plywood and installing the new window! I brought Mikey outside for the occasion, so we could watch the magic driveway-side.

Cutting cutting cutting (From Inside Out of course!)

 

Here it comes!

There it goes!

Hey, that's my kitchen!

 

Here's Mikey helping on the stairs.

Mikey jots down the measurements

Unfortunately, installing the window was a bit more difficult. We had to shim and re-shim and level and re-level.... Mikey was throwing a fit because we wouldn't allow him to play with the Sazzall.... It was just madness! But we finally accomplished it with beautiful results:

Window!

Mikey holds the level, which he kept calling "Bubble" Strangely appropriate, but I think he was trying to say level.

Mike applies heat to adhere the ice and water - keeping those drafty winter winds out.

 After nearly 5 days, I'm still not used the view. We pushed the fridge over to it's proper location and I'm loving the extra room in that little dining area we have. Once we have a corner cabinet on the other side and the new fridge... look out world! But the best part is the loss of two tragically drafty old circa 1950's windows. We can already feel a big difference. Just in time too, as temps are dropping to the teens this week.

This coming weekend, the guys will hopefully be back at work on the stairs. And, now that the window's in, all that shingling on the mudroom end of the kitchen/mudroom side of the house has to go too. Then, that entire side can be sided. Lucky for us, we should have enough siding in stock. Will it all happen this Sunday? Probably no. Will it all happen before Christmas? Likely not. Will it all happen eventually? I hope so.

Stairs, Windows, and Random Plywood

Mike was feeling much better this Sunday. And, with cabin fever setting in, and Timmy due over (haha due-over) to work on the stairs, Mike decided to get himself back to work on the kitchen window. I had some friends coming over at 2:30pm, so the guys were on a strict stop-everything a las 2:30 deadline.

Mike measured the wall and the window, allowing for new-fridge and future-corner-cabinet width. Then, we decided on the exact placement of the new window.

Next step was to create the window frame and insulate the sans-window area. Then came the difficult part. You see - our mudroom was an addition, tacked on to what used to be a cement porch. Unfortunately, when they joined the exterior mudroom wall to the exterior kitchen wall, they did not do a very good job. The two walls are at two different depths....

So... if we want to side that entire side with siding and make it look like a nice, one-piece, continuous house with no stoopid additions that weren't done correctly... We would need to build out the kitchen wall to match the depth of the mudroom wall. Build it out how? Plywood. Layers of plywood.

Lucky for us, we happened to have plywood. Plywood in the basement, plywood in the garage, plywood in the garage addition... plywood plywood everywhere! Leftover from this that or the other project.

 

You can see here the puzzle of plywood Mike and our neighbor Richard put together. Amazing that we just happened to have just enough to complete the job. Unfortunately, the hunt for plywood + cutting of the plywood + installation of the plywood = longer then expected. Mike was hoping to be able to install the window before the 2:30 deadline, but just couldn't make it. He papered the plywood and called it done for the day.

MEANWHILE! Timmy was hard at work on the side steps. To start, he had to pull up some of the decking to make room for the first post. The second post went down on top of the footing Mike poured last weekend.

From there, it was a simple matter of framing and decking the landing, then the first step. By the time my guests were arriving between 2:30 and 3:00, they had a step to enter on. And by the time they left around 5:30, they had a second step to exit on.

Mike will need to pour some additional concrete for the final groundish-level landing step, but all in all, I'm totally psyched about how the steps came out. Mike decided to make them nice and big - key for bringing up large items, large amounts of people, large people, and holding hands with kids down the stairs.

To finish off the kitchen wall for temporary, Mike put up tar paper. This weekend, the window goes in, do or die. And Timmy will be back on Sunday as well. It's a whole new look for the holidays!

We're so happy to be wrapping up our summer/fall projects. Winter once again will take us indoors, where the basement bathroom will be taking shape soon.

PS - Guess who couldn't resist the Home Depot black Friday appliance sale? I GOT MY FRIDGE! It's the LG model lfx28978ST.... and I saved over $800. The MSRP is $2700 .... I bought for $1899. WITH 18 months of 0% financing and a 4 year extended warranty for only $80 extra!!! Boo-Yah! Only problem is I'll have to wait until Feb 5th for delivery. Backorder.