Candy with an I

New Year's Resolutions

2012-01-20T05:28:00.000-08:00

Trying to be responsible this year, so I've come up with some manageable resolutions.

1. No snacking after 8pm.
Seems reasonable enough to me. Stay out of the kitchen. I eat dinner early, and typically, if I stay up past 9, I am getting hungry again. So I start trolling the kitchen and shoving anything I can find in my face. Sometimes I hit my mouth. This has to stop...

2. No fast food.
This one is pretty easy for me. Typically, the only fast food I eat because I'm in a rush and hungry is Taco Bell. I do not enjoy McD's or BK, so that is not difficult. Now, I will say that if I have been out and it's late night, I will go through a drive through. I also have caveats. Subway, is not fast food - I am defining fast food as restaurant where I do not have to get out of my car to order. Pizza, again, not necessarily fast food, although I'm not going to derail this whole resolution by ordering pizza every night.

3. No drinking during the week.
I have a lot of caveats to this one. My purpose here is to not sit at home every night of the week with wine. It's just not necessary. If I have a professional meeting where there is wine, suer, I'll have a glass. I just think I have some potential to cut back here.

4. Train for the races I sign up for.
Seems obvious to you, not to me. My way around this is to sign up for so many races that I'm always training. Genius! And super expensive.

I think that is it. If I come up with more, you will be the first to know.

The Heat, my God the Heat!

2011-11-29T07:15:00.000-08:00

An HVAC unit has finally been installed (three months and a few loans later...)! It is enormous compared to the old one, but it works. There will be rebates and deductions and discounts because it is efficient. The system is now all electric (single point of failure) so we hope to sell back what little oil we had left and we should get some money back there. An electrician did have to come out and rewire half of the house to get everything to work, but that was expected. The wiring on the house is a little scary if you ask me.

In the morning, the preset goes to 68. It is entirely too hot since the temp has been steady around 62. I wake up sweating.

Of course, it has now been unusually warm, about 70 the past few days since the unit was installed.

And it's... November

2011-11-01T11:08:00.000-07:00

We still do not have a heater. The debate rages on - electric, hybrid, wood stove... Our budget is $0, hence the stand still. It was a solid 54 in the house yesterday. Not cool.

OK, very cool, but you know what I mean.

The Other Side

2011-08-30T10:51:00.000-07:00

Hurricane Irene has come and gone. We had some water come in through the ceiling, windows, and walls. Our dock was also turned about 90 degrees in one section, and sank in another (I keep pulling planks that floated off out of the brush when they wash back up on shore). We have a lot of debris that has washed up on shore - the kids are enjoying the treasures they are finding (buoys, floats, tennis balls, etc.). Other than that, we were very luckily.

I spent 3.5 hours on Sunday cleaning up the yard. I have not weeded all the flower beds since last year. I did not mulch this year, either. I know, I know. It was one of those projects that got so out of hand, I did not even know where to start. At least it is finished now, and all I should do is weed eat to hedge, and trim the large bushes. I said should.

Right now, though, I cannot move my right hand due to the blisters from pulling all the weeds and debris out of my yard.

Trifecta

2011-08-26T10:15:00.000-07:00

We live in the North East/Mid-Atlantic area. We had an earthquake on Tuesday - no biggie. Lived in earthquake allies before, used to those.

Then there was talk of Hurricane Irene for the weekend. You may have heard about it:

Again, been through hurricanes before, this one is not too bad, no problem. I am ready.

What I was NOT ready for was the little thunderstorm that blew through last night, bringing a tornado or 5. I drive from one county to another for work, and the counties are separated by water. There is a little narrow two lane bridge that goes incredibly high separating the two counties. I was leaving work county to get to home county, driving over the bridge, with little rain ahead of me. I glanced in my rear view mirror to see clouds rolling at my quite quickly and a pure black sky.

I got over the bridge, looked to my right, and could see the storms, wind, tornadoes, squalls, Dorothy coming at me. I got to my house, get out of the car, and my neighbor is there yelling about the tornadoes, getting to my storm cellar (yuck, spiders), and proceeds to run under my house with his dog. I shrugged my shoulders and walked inside. My kids heard the yelling and were already crying asking that I stall Armageddon because they did not want to die. Drama queens.

I started cooking dinner, and did not get far. LOUD boom, power goes out - but just briefly. 3 seconds, I would say. Power comes back on, no problem - keep cooking. The house is starting to warm up. I turn the AC up to about 80 during the day when no one is home, so that is natural with the oven on. I notice, though, that it is not cooling after an hour, but pretend I have a fever and ignore it. Finally, I conceded that there is a problem - reset every fuse, flip switches, rewired several small appliances - nothing.

I had the AC Guy (that is his name) come out today. $7,000. One shot of lightning from the little storm no one mentioned blew up my entire AC unit and will now cost me $7,000.

Hurricanes and earthquakes got nothing on that one tornado.

Well I hope. I will try and write again on Monday and let you know.

Not Progress, Per Se

2011-07-05T09:14:00.000-07:00

Progress would mean that you had updated or reinvented - you know?

This is more fixing...

Last year, my mom spent the night in the basement apartment, and left at her usual 3am. She texted me at a more reasonable hour (430) to tell me she had a great time, and oh by the way, the place flooded.

On further inspection, the place did in fact flood.

It had rained heavily, but the walls are cinder block. What you should not do is just start cutting out chunks of dry wall until you find the leak. Guess what approach was used...

There was talk of plumbers and pipe work, and scenarios that were sounding expensive. Turns out, the gutters were clogged.

Once the gutters were unclogged, they led to drains that drained nowhere. There was piping that led six feet under ground. They never surfaced to actually achieve the "drain" part. The water was just running down the cinder block (porous) and into our basement.

The walls somehow lost more drywall in the process.

The walls have been redrywalled - made that up - sanded, painted, etc. The floorboards had to be replaced and the flooring in some spots. The gutters are unclogged, and the drains drain.

The second issue also had to do with water. It seems someone secure the external water before the winter last year, they did not secure both of the valves. Naturally there were water spouts when the water was turned back on. Some of the copper piping broke, and the PVC out to the dock exploded in several areas. I found some parts online myself and the PVC is fixed, but a plumber did have to replace some of the copper piping.

Live and learn.

PS - Door 3 is still pink. Don't judge.

2/3 of the Way There

2011-05-17T05:08:00.000-07:00

Two of my doors are now painted bright ass blue. That is the technical name, look it up. I did not like bright ass blue at first, but it is growing on me. The house has a light yellow siding, with blue/gray/grey shutters. I think bright ass blue doors make the shutters look unintentionally faded, although I am pretty sure they are intentionally colored to look faded (probably not). Eventually, I will want to update the shutter color, I am thinking, but it is fine for now.

I still have one more external door to do that is pink, however, said door needs the extra steps of stripping and priming and it has just seemed overly daunting to me for some reason. It may be because I am lazy. Maybe. Not sure.

Here is the back door before - I told you they were pink...

Here is the hardware that I took off (I am really just showing off my counter tops which I love).

Side door - the house has no front door. Seriously. Strangest thing.

This is the paint that I went with since the doors are metal based. The color on the can is what I wanted. I do not think that is the color I necessarily got. The actual color is a tad brighter and shinier.

BLUE!!!! No seriously. BLUE!!!!

It is not too bad. Like I said, it is growing on me...

Feelin' Blue

2011-02-22T11:53:00.000-08:00

Dark, Navy blue. I think it will work. Light yellow siding, light grey/blue trim on the porch - how about a navy blue door?

Opinions, Welcomed.

2011-01-21T15:00:00.000-08:00

I overlooked the most obvious of all obvious pinks... Other than the light bulbs, the walls, the trim, the bathroom tile...

The DOORS! Three of them.

OK, I will say Mauve, not pink, but still in the reddish family.

They need to be changed, but I do not know to what... I could use some input. Remember, I am color boring.

Siding on the outside of the house is very mellow yellow. Trim is basically grey with a hint of blue, then faded horribly.

Thoughts?

Night Time

2011-01-05T09:25:00.000-08:00

Before I took everything down... DH must have tried to take 30 of these to get a good one. Ironically, we did not have to turn on any additional lights to be sure that they were ALL on for this picture. Yikes.

House: De-Christmas'ed

2010-12-30T12:33:00.000-08:00

Dedecorated? Undecorated? Probably closer to actual words at least. Eh, I tend to work better in computer languages than the English one.

Focus - I took down the Christmas decorations. The Clark Griswold special has been removed from the house and is out back. I would like to point out that no cats or squirrels were harmed in our good old fashioned fun family Christmas. Just a giant tree.

Usually, I do not like when the lights go down*, but I actually put everything away earlier this year than I typically do. I try to wait until after New Year's, but with all the construction, I just wanted my regular, plain house.

There are a few other (HUGE) projects that we have to prioritize**:

1. We have no garage. We have a large, metallic, lean-to structure. We have a footprint, which is a good start since we cannot create any new structures on our land (zoning/water/permits), but we can take down an old structure and improve it. The house could really use a two car garage with a room over it. Not a rent out room, but you know how men refer to a man cave? I would be game for that. Because as badly as men want to go to their man cave, I would like to send mine to time-out in his.

2. Stairs to the downstairs. Sounds ridiculous, I know, but at some point, the prior homeowner sealed off the stairwell to the downstairs to make the basement a rentable apartment. Problem is - it was not done to code, I doubt. The "bedroom" has no windows, which is more than likely illegal. Just put the damn stairs back in. I am actually thinking a spiral staircase to save some space.

3. Once the stairs are in, or at the same time... Make the downstairs a master suite. Not too many homes have the master suite in the basement, and there are certainly some "issues" to work out, but I think it could work. Now, there is a full kitchen, full bath, and a stacked W/D. I would want a full bath, large closet, and bedroom. I like the idea that you could walk out the door of the bedroom to the little brick patio and be at water level.

4. Once the downstairs is a master suite... This is exhausting, by the way... I want to redo the bathroom off the kitchen, by removing the shower stall, expanding the wall, and putting in a full tub. The door to what is now the master bedroom would be sealed, and the master bedroom would simply be a bedroom. I would redo the walk-in closet, bathroom off the living room, and small linen closet to create a small closet for the bedroom, small half bath, and an actual laundry room.

5. Pave the driveway. I am not doing this until after the kids are out of the house. As it stands now, when someone comes or goes, you hear every rock as it is run over... You with me? Sneaky McSneakoutsersons?

I do not know if any of this will ever happen, but it sounds fantastic. Right?

Now. I just need to find a benefactor...

*...in the city...
**i.e., figure out which child may be smart enough to get a scholarship so we can use their college fund

Success

2010-12-28T10:51:00.000-08:00

The true test of the kitchen came over the holidays. I made five different types of cookies, hosted Christmas Eve dinner (Seven Fishes style), cooked a turkey dinner for Christmas, made pies, simmered drinks, baked bread - you name it. If there was ever a way to test every facet of the floors, counters, and appliances - leave it to me to do all the testing at one time in a public forum.

Let me tell you - it exceeded all of my expectations. My family is Italian, no one ever leaves the kitchen. You sit at the counters, lean next to the cook, taste the sauce as it stews. I wanted to be able to have everyone in the kitchen area - while no one was in my way. Hors d'oeuvres were out on the counters, drinks were on another counter, and one one was under my feet. Perfect!

I should also note that the ceiling fan was fixed and the scaffolding was removed in time for the holidays as well.

And to top it off, my Christmas gift this year was this:

WOOHOO!!!

This Again

2010-12-21T05:04:00.000-08:00

Soooooo close. I was so close to having a normal house. Sigh.

DH is off work this week. And next. And a few more. I get off for about 3 days total, but that is beside the point. I get out of work yesterday, and take the kids to our semi-annual family dental appointment (as if the dentist was not painful enough, you try managing a five year old at your feet while someone is scraping your teeth). DH had swapped cars with me to take my car to pick up....

Scaffolding.

See? You are sighing too.

All of the brass (and pink) in the house was replaced with brushed satin/nickel, to include two ceiling fans. At the time, we bought a third ceiling fan that would go in our family room. The family room has vaulted ceilings, and the two ladders we do own would not reach the top. For months, the fan has sat in our Narnia (the kids call the walk in attic spaces in each of their rooms their Narnia). I kept hearing - I have to get scaffolding, I have to get scaffolding. We do the kitchen, everything is in the living room for months. We finish the kitchen and for one week. ONE WEEK. The house looked like a normal house.

I walked into the house yesterday, and could see from the door into the living room... Scaffolding. All over our living room. Coffee tables pushed out, decorations pushed away, electricity off...

Of course nothing can be easy. That is just a given. Once the old fan was down, "Bob Villa" realized that for some reason, the box for the fan was inset into the drywall, and the covering for the new fan would not cover the huge hole where the old fan covered. Mind you we are paying for the scaffolding by the day. And we rented it for only one day.

I suggested a drywall patch, and that idea was scoffed at. DH thought buying satin spray paint to cover the old bulb that would cover the hole may work. At this point, it was 8pm and Lowe's would be closed soon. He left to go to Lowe's presumably to buy the paint. No sooner does he leave, than our neighbor knocks on the door. I guess they passed in the driveway and DH asked him to come in and have a look, the neighbor used to do home repair work.

DH calls from Lowe's to tell me the (genius) employee there suggested one of those large decorative disks to just cover the hole. Negative, Ghost Rider.

Neighbor looks at the problem, and within minutes, is up on the scaffolding with drywall tape and mud fixing the patch. Love Neighbor. I sat and watched him with a great glass of Greek white wine.

Neighbor leaves, DH comes home, naturally I told DH I fixed it.

The ceiling should get a coat of white today after being sanded, and baring any further problems, the fan should be replaced.

And the scaffolding will be out of my living room.

DONE!!!!

2010-12-15T04:38:00.000-08:00

The kitchen has been completed! The hardware is on, and the side panel has been fixed. Everything has found a home and has been put away. I even have empty shelves and drawers, there is so much space!

All of the pictures, from start to finish, can be found here. There are more pictures there than what is on the site. Below are a few pictures of the kitchen as finished.

Standard view, of course:

This is the coffee nook area in the old kitchen, it has a pantry on either side.

The coffee nook area, and wine rack:

This is looking into where the kitchen used to be, you can see the island and mini-fridge:

This is where we had them expand the opening to the hallway:

And here is the new kitchen:

New range area in the new kitchen:

This is the eating area:

TV Area, we need to get a black leather loveseat for in there:

And that is it! For this project of course...

Tonight is THE night!

2010-12-13T06:54:00.000-08:00

I am so afraid to get my hopes up! But. I have received word that the broken panel will be replaced today, and all hardware will be put on the drawers/shelves, and then our kitchen will be finished. FINISHED! And I can finish putting everything away. Sigh.

I did make my first meal in the kitchen this weekend - Corned Beef and Cabbage. I also baked brownies for the school, cookies for the kids to decorate, and dip for Army/Navy. I was on a roll.

And as if the home destruction Gods knew we were close to completion, our basement flooded for the second time this weekend. Good thing we have a GREAT Contractor to work with now.

Hm, maybe it was the blogging Gods who did not want me to stop writing.

Maybe it is YOU because YOU did not want to stop reading!

That is it. I blame you, and will charge you for this. Please send your checks payable to me. Thank you.

And we are....

2010-12-10T06:23:00.000-08:00

SO CLOSE!!! In fact, I am not posting any more pictures until it is completed. So there.

The floors are done. The counters are done. The electrical and plumbing is all done.

The backsplash is done - it was quite the PIA from what I could gather though... Poor guys. The tile came in 1 foot sheets, and it had a paper backing. The directions said wet paper, let sit for 15 minutes and peel off. 4 hours later.... The paper was not coming off for anything. They had a steamer, DIF Wall Paper Stripper, straight edges... They gave up that day and got a fresh start the next. It is off now, though, and is beautiful.

The only thing left is the cabinetry. One side of the cabinets came damaged, the replacement is in, just need someone to install it. Also, all the hardware is still not on the cabinets.

The appliances have all left my living room, and are installed - WOOfrickinHOO!

Also, we put kitchen stuff away that goes in shelves, since the hardware for that can be installed easily. Anything that will go in a drawer is still out on the table, since when you drill the holes for that the saw dust will fall into the drawer and they will need to be vacuumed.

It's nice to have the kitchen almost done, and it is great to have a living room free of kitchen supplies. I am so excited for this to be over!!

Counters Are In!

2010-12-03T14:42:00.000-08:00

As is the sink, faucet, disposal, and the tile! Also, the metal rim spanning the two floor types was installed in two places. Also the wooden columns were covered and painted. Quite a bit of touch up was done.

Yes, I was gone for the week again, but the workers were only here one day, so you are not missing too much.

The counter tops look great. They are dark and offset all the white quite nicely. The blue tile is hidden behind cardboard right now, but I am sure it is great, as well.

The best news is that I can start putting things in the cabinets (not drawers)!! The hardware still is not on the drawers/cabinets, so we can fill up anything that will not get a pool of sawdust in it when drilled. The hardware should be in next week sometime. The electrician and plumber should still be coming out to finish up next week, too.

Furniture/electronics are being acquired at this point. So far, the TV has been purchased, three square black leather bar stools, the TV table, and an end table. We are still looking for two small sized black leather arm chairs, and I think the purchasing will be complete.

Famous angle:

Productive Saturday

2010-11-22T10:41:00.000-08:00

After my freak out email to the designers, both called me within about 5 minutes of each other and showed up at the house the next day to address anything and everything. They also brought donuts and bagels - nice touch!

We talked cabinet "shadows", counters, islands, hardware... I think we have everything straight. The decision was made to add a bar stool area to the small island, which had not been thought of before. Additional seating never hurts.

Later that day brought a trip to the granite farm to look at the two slabs of granite coming to the house. A sink came with the granite, but there were several to choose from - and that took about 45 minutes... A sink was finally chosen, how about we leave it at that. Biz picked out a faucet (she has expensive taste, and would only look at ones where she could pull out the sprayer and use it like a phone). We decided to do a sink top bottom for the garbage disposal to eliminate the need for an extraneous light switch on the wall as well.

A few new lights were installed in the upstairs and downstairs hallways as updates and to match the hardware throughout the rest of the house.

I stopped by the house today at lunch time and the cabinet guy was there - begrudgingly removing the shadow. I am sure he blames it all on me - based on the 'tude I got from him, but whatever. I had nothing to do with that other than to say - it looks cheap! And it did look cheap. Regardless, he was moving the molding up to cover the shadow. The granite guy was coming out in a bit to measure the countertops, and those will be put in on Dec 2. After that, there will be tiling done in the back splash, and all the electrical/plumbing will be finished. Hopefully, that will all happen before the start of the new year. Ha!

Virginia Mist

2010-11-19T11:37:00.000-08:00

That sounds like a flavor of Boones Farm, right? It is actually the name of the granite for the countertops.

I realize that does not help much. Think black with sand in it.

Anyway, I sent the designers an email today and laid everything out. Basically, I am frustrated and panicking and things are going not so hot. They both called me and tried to talk me off the ledge. Some things are not the way we wanted them, some things we just need to be patient with, etc. They are going to come by tomorrow morning to address everything with us. We can go to the granite place tomorrow to pick out our slab, and we still need to buy a faucet which should be interesting since we have no idea what the sink looks like. Sigh. I cannot keep it all straight.

I will see if there is anything to update today, but things have definitely slowed. Last night, there was someone at the house painting until about 7pm. Incredible.

Well, it seems I over tipped.

2010-11-18T15:03:00.000-08:00

Today, the islands were put into place, both the small and large ones. My panic level is rising over things at this point. The designers say they left the cabinets with a gap at the top to create a shadow. I do not buy it. Even the contractors here working do not buy it, and said it looks like we simply did not order the correct size cabinets. No one asked if we wanted a shadow.

The small island was supposed to be flush with the center pole. It is about 3 inches off. It is also screwed into the tile. I am guessing this was done intentionally to allow for the granite to overhang. That is fine, it will be symmetrical to the other island, I can live with that.

The more we have to deal with the design people, the more upset I get with them. They made some decisions without us, and are just doing what they want, not what we want.

I am sure everything can be fixed. Hey, we got the hardware at cost, right?

Deep. Breath.

Same pic, new day. You can see the beadboard on the back of the islands.

Here is the mini-island where the mini-fridge will go:

Cabinetry Installation

2010-11-18T14:51:00.000-08:00

Seems defeating to post the pictures of yesterday when there are already new pictures from today, but I am a good sport!

Usual spot for pics:

This is the entrance, and where the old kitchen was

And here is the new kitchen! Obviously, the fridge is on the left, oven is in the middle, and a microwave/convection oven goes over the range:

Mid Haircut

2010-11-18T08:39:00.000-08:00

I have some (serious) anxiety issues. Whenever I go to get my hair cut, I am sitting there in the chair, and I start to panic. This is not what I asked for, I wanted layers. Why is it looking like this? Are they almost done? Are they going to finish cutting the other half of my head, or will I have to come back another day to get a full hair cut?! Should I tell them I want ALL of my hair cut?

Eventually, my desire not to be a PIA overwhelms the anxiety, and one of two things happen. First, they are no where near finished, and eventually I get the full hair cut - I just need to calm the hell down. Second, I get a shitty hair cut and over tip.

Walking in the door to the house yesterday was, I really hope, situation #1. The cabinets are in, but there were so many little things that were bothering me. Some were not in the right place. The molding did not meet the ceiling. The doors were not properly aligned. The rough ins for electrical were still really rough ins. A side of one of the cabinets is dented.

The only problem is unlike the haircut, this will not be over within the hour.

Freak.ing.out.

I will try and let them finish before pointing out every OCD aspect of the problems I noticed, and just really hope they will finish cutting...

I did take pictures, I will try and post them tonight. The cabinets are quite pretty, though.

Time Warp

2010-11-17T04:29:00.000-08:00

OK, I will not lie, I do not remember what day we are on, but I skipped about a week. Last week, my Grandfather passed away. I went back home to be with my family, got to meet my nephew which was amazing, and missed out on the construction.

From what I can tell, they are almost finished with the construction side of the house. Walls are drywalled and freshly painted (bright white). Framing is in for the counters. Electrical is in place. Holes have been spackled and covered. Old light fixtures are completed gone. The floors are finished entirely.

When I walked in the house last night, I was greeted by about 50 boxes of cabinetry. That is a good sign. The cabinets should start going in today. We did have a minor problem when we got an email from the designers reminding us to have the hardware ready for the install. Problem there is we picked out the hardware with the designer and they were supposed to do the ordering.

The designers were great on the front end - very responsive, timely. As soon as the project started and they got their money, they disappeared. I really would have expected them to come by at least once a week to check on progress, or to even respond to my emails when I ask question, but no. The only time they email is when a payment is due, and then they are very responsive.

Anyway, another several hundred dollars later, and we have hardware on the way. At least we got it at cost.

The cabinets will go in today, and once they are in, they will come out and measure for the counters. The counters should be delivered and installed Dec 2. After that, the electrical and plumbing will be completed, under the counter lights will be installed, and then the tile backsplash will be inlaid. I asked that we be able to pick out the granite we will be using before it is cut, so hopefully that will happen this weekend.

One thing I have to say again is how impressed I have been with the contractors. Saturday morning, we get a call asking if they can come tile today so they do not miss a day of work. Sunday morning, I head out to church at 8am, and they are outside ready to start patching holes in the walls. You just do not hear stories like this about contractors. They have just been great to work with.

I will try and take some pictures tonight - hopefully of the cabinets as well.

Day 8

2010-11-06T04:03:00.000-07:00

"And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made." Gensis 2:2

OK, so they were off by one day, but you get the idea. No crew yesterday, no work done, the tile is still setting.

Day 7

2010-11-05T05:38:00.000-07:00

On Day 7, the majority of the tile was laid. I am in shock at how much the crew has gotten done. They left a path from the back door to the hallway which leads to our bedroom, and a path to the living room. The entire rest of the room has tile down. The tile cannot be walked on until Saturday night, which should be interesting.

There is not a whole lot of space between the tiles, which I am fine with - less grout means less to clean - but less grout also means more tiles and more money.

The grout between the tiles has not been filled. It looks almost white in the pictures below, but the grout color should be a gray once it is filled and complete.

Oh Look - A Path, A Path!

Meanwhile, all of the carpets I had down in that room were left outside in the rain while this was being done... Nice. Eh. Most of them did not match the new room anyway.

New vents were created in two places - they will come out from under the cabinets.

I finally got a picture of the new hallway opening as well, although I do not know why I did not get closer than this, just remember the entry way used to end in line with the bathroom door opening, and you could not see the light or the light switch on that back wall. In the pictures below, you can also see how the tile will work with the wood floors.

The glass door is still not fixed, but apparently a glass guy did come out to measure for replacement panes.

I will be on travel next week and will not be able to update daily. I will do my best to document everything when I get back, though! At this pace, it could be done!

OK, I don't believe that either, but it would be nice.

Day 6

2010-11-04T05:55:00.000-07:00

Day 6 was mostly a flooring project. Now, I am hoping that the roofing shingles are gone and the kerosene situation was addressed, but I am not sure since when I got home, the plywood was all down. The wonky light switch was reversed so off is now two down light switches (thank God - my OCD would have been up all night trying to find a way to remove entire walls to fix that after the fact). And that is really it I think! Tile is supposed to start Day 7, but it is raining, so I am not sure what will end up getting done today.

What a difference the plywood makes from yesterday. When you walk on the floor, it feels solid. Nothing moves. It feels even. That is a good feeling!

Crap, one picture I did not get is the entryway to the hallway - you can just barely see it in picture 4 above. The crew increased the doorway by about a foot to the left, opening it up to be the size of the hallway. I LOVE it. That small change made the entire hallway and the kitchen just look that much bigger and more open (but now there is an ugly brass light in the hallway we have to replace, I can do that on my own after all this). I will get a picture of that tonight.

Two things occurred to me. The floor vents we had used were white, and very rusted. Those will need to be replaced to match the satin nickel hardware that is going everywhere else. Although most of the vents are now where there will be cabinetry - which means they will be funneling through kick plates under the cabinets if I am not mistaken. I am not sure how that works.

Also, the doors leading into the house match nothing now. They are - you got it - pink! Well, mauve, but close enough. I am going to plan on painting both of those at some point as well. White, blue, grey, black? That is basically the palate of choices. The outside of the house is yellow siding, with blue shutters that match the blue/grey paint on the exterior concrete and deck (pictures 1, 2, and 3 above). I do not know that I want another identically matching blue color. I like that the color is offset, but I am not color savvy enough to know how to pick an appropriate offsetting color. Maybe just a darker gray would be best?

I am getting a bit restless with the house being in disarray. A week and a half is nothing, I realize, for this to be going on, and there is more to come, but our living room is barely livable at this point, and it is pretty much the only room in the house we can sit in. It is a mess. Not to mention if we want any food, it is all in the downstairs apartment which is not accessible from inside the house. And when it rains - no one eats.

Day 5

2010-11-03T04:56:00.000-07:00

I really cannot get over how much is done every day when I get home. Yesterday, the electrician came back out, and installed 10 recessed lights. All of the light switches are set (except this one where there are two switches for the light, and "off" has one switch up and one switch down... Absolutely not.), the wiring for the oven was started, wiring for all the outlets was done, old lights were removed, old wiring was removed, and everything electrical is in it's happy place.

Also, the floors were removed. All of the beautiful hardwood is now good. Don't panic don't panic don't panic... The floors were held in place with these metal spikes. The crew said that there is no way the spikes would have fit a nail gone, and each were more than likely hammered by hand. Woah.

Standard view

Below is the old kitchen. The old light fell and met it's demise (evil laughter), and the crew apologized. I thanked them. All of the lighting is new. Most of those holes will be patched, there will not be much of a need for outlets in that room. On the right side, will be wall to wall cabinets and pantries. This will be (I think) where there is some glass shelving (I need to look at that, I forget now). There will be a small counter section in the middle. We have a small bench that will go under that window, where you would come in, take your shoes off, etc. It is more or less going to be a mud room. Basically, we are creating a foyer where there was not one before.

Below is the old dining room/new kitchen. All the lights are new in this room. It was tempting to put great hanging lights in over the counters, but I wanted a clean view of the water with no obstructions. The fridge, stove, and cabinets will be on the far left pink (why is there so much pink?) wall. You can see the plumbing for where the sink will be. The framing had to be removed (again) to put down the tile.

The house has some oddities to it. Things where you scratch your head and just wonder why things were done a certain way. For instance, in the area that separated the old kitchen from the old dining room, the house must have settled and the floor was not even. We did not know this until we had the floor ripped up and found roofing shingles (yes, they would have rotted!) being used to level out the flooring...

There were also what looked to be wet spots on the floor in two places. In the picture above you can see the smaller place - it is just above where the shingles (that would have rotted...) start at the top of the picture. The larger area was by the back door. Clearly, we were concerned this was water coming in, and I do not know if we should be relieved or not, but it is not water. It is kerosene... Hm. The house does not currently have kerosene, and I do not know when it did. Maybe the "oil" chimney that was connected to the brick was kerosene? Who knows.

There was one casualty today - the glass doors that separate the work being done from the living room. Apparently a few of the spikes ripped through the panels of glass in the door yesterday, breaking two of them. That should be replaced today.

Day 4

2010-11-02T06:55:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend, the flooring situation got worse, and then a bit better, I think. The decision had been made that patching the existing floors was just not going to work, and we would need all new flooring. There is hardwood throughout the house now, and it is all matching. The new floor would either have to match exactly, or contrast. Matching would be difficult, since the floor has been in the house for some time, there has been fading of colors, so even if identical wood was put down, it would still never "match".

How about - Tile. The area has the only two entry points for the house. I have kids who are very hard on the floors. It just makes sense. The cost is the same, I was hoping it would be less, but what are you going to do. This is the tile:

It is neutral, with a marbling look. It has grey and dull blue tones in it. It is 16" x 16". We are using a darker grey grout - since this is a well traveled area and includes the kitchen (I spill a LOT of food when I cook), we do not want a light grout.

The cabinets will be white with some glass (I think that is still in the plan) in the top shelving in the entryway. In the doors to the bottom shelves, the bottom panel is beadboard, and the top is solid. This is beadboard:

The cabinets will have hardware from Berenson - Overture, colors 6/10ish, not bronze, more nickel:

The counter tops are black granite with finished edges, and there is a grey/blue glass tile going in the back splash. The tile should work nicely. The only other color in the room is blue around the concrete on what used to be the porch before the room was enclosed. I don't think that blue is going to match much after all this is said and done.

On Day 4, the crew took out the framing that did not need to exist anymore (have I "My Bad"ded that one enough yet?), framing was put in for the drywall around the air handler and old chimney, and the electrician came out. All of the wires that did not need to be there were taken out and the Thermostat was remounted. The old recessed lighting was removed, as was the old air vent that used to sit above the oven. The ceiling will be patched, and matching recessed lighting will be installed. I believe there will be 13 lights. There will also be under the cabinet lights.

In the picture below, you can see a section of the floor that was part of the problem. There were several other sections like this. First, you have the area that was not finished originally that was under a cabinet. That is fine, the floors could have all be sanded down and then refinished. Then you see the area that was under the wall. The wood did not meet. There are gaps all along that rectangle (not to mention the cuts to form the giant rectangle) that would have needed to be filled somehow, along with the holes in the form like the circle where old pipes and wires used to come out of the floor.

Luckily, the crew had someone that does HVAC work come out, look at the air handler, and make sure it was actually mounted to something. Not sure if I mentioned that - the handler was there, and in place, but was not actually connected to anything... Yeah... I'm hoping this helps our AC/Heat system a bit more!

At this point, they are going to have to start ripping out the old flooring, and removing it. They will have to put down a layer of plywood to give the tile/grout something solid and firm to adhere to. The tile will have to sit for a few days to "set" before the cabinets can go in on top of the tile. I am not sure how the cabinets will just sit on the tile, but I trust the crew. I also do not know how we are going to manage not walking on the floors for 2-5 days, as the master bathroom, bedrooms, and rest of the house are only accessible through this area (as I mentioned, the only two doors to the house enter into these rooms).

Should be interesting! I do love going back at night and trying to figure out what was accomplished in that day.

Day 3

2010-10-29T20:20:00.000-07:00

I happened to be home all day today with the crew. I quickly realized that although I thought it would be fun to be home and watch everything happen - it actually is not at all. People constantly ask you questions that you have specifically paid other people to be able to answer. No, I do not remember the height of the counters or if there is a back splash. Sigh. Luckily, they do not fault you when you tell them there is a back splash, they frame for one, and then there is no back splash. Oopsie. I only did it twice.

Today, the framing for the counters (no back splashes) was put in. The plumbing was piped in, old plumbing was taken out. I had to make a few decisions.

1. The old (now exposed) brick chimney. There is one side that is great. Looks awesome. Another side has a hole where an oil stove used to pipe in, and the third side has a giant air handler in front of it that cannot be moved. Behold:

Yes, you mathemagicians, I realize it has four sides, but one is completely covered already and cannot be exposed. Calm down.

The air handler cannot go anywhere. I am not even sure where it is "handling" to now, we just know it needs to be there (I really should pay more attention when I talk to the construction crew). That said, I really cannot do much with the brick, so it will have to be covered. A masonry guy came out, and we talked about brick (expensive, and needs supports in the basement crawl space area), stone (expensive and does not match anything else in the design or house), and just drywall. I love having the brick exposed, but I am not gaining anything from it like that. Poo. One idea that I do not quite understand yet is to drywall it, but leave a picture box almost with a shelf so you can see a portion of the brick. Again, I really should pay a little more attention when others talk.

2. The small island (how tropical sounding). Does it go in line with the other counter, or stick out differently - these are the tough decisions that I cannot make alone!

Like how I snuck in the every day pic? Focus. The framing on the left is a small island that will have a mini-fridge (beer) and a cabinet. We want it to open into the room where I am standing. It will be for a bar area, that room will have two chairs, an ottoman, and a small TV. The drawing called for the island to basically sit in that room, but I decided to flip flop that. Now, had I known that, I could have saved the crew a few hours of framing that area. Refer to the Oopsie above.

3. Flooring. In the pic above, you get an idea of the problem. You can see that giant gap in the flooring. Well if it were one large gap, it would be fine, but it is not. It is a few large gaps, small gaps, small holes, large holes... You get the idea. I am going to have to just put in all new floors. Sigh. Good news is I am taking advantage of it. I am going to put in an inlay in front of the back door of a compass. I think (optimal word) it will work. Part of the reason we are just going to drywall the chimney is to pay for the floors.

Gratuitous Day 3 pics:

Since I only get one Friday off every two weeks, I tried to do as much as possible today - so I also had the chimney cleaned (the guy came in a top hat!) and had DirectTV installed. We did not need cable when we moved in, NOOOOoooooooo, but hell if we do not need it now that we are deep in the throes of football season. I am not bitter.

Day 2

2010-10-28T15:06:00.000-07:00

Day 1 was extremely successful! There was quite a bit of concern as to what was behind the walls (mummies) and if there would be a show stopper, and I am not seeing one so far! There may be a problem with the floors, but we can work that out (anyone want to send me $5k?).

Day 2 saw the removal of those concrete half walls. The new I-beam is in, and the wall is no longer a wall, but two lone supports. The framing was removed as well.

I am trying to get pictures from the same angle for perspective.

You can see that the concrete is now gone, and the framing is gone. As I said, the floors are a problem. I do not want a lot of small patch jobs here. I will have to figure that out quickly. Those beams will be where the two smaller islands will go. The far beam will be where the sink is placed. The kitchen will be in what was the dining room.

Day 1

2010-10-28T14:49:00.000-07:00

They're Here! They're Here Rick! They're Here!

The remodel has begun! The construction started and on day one - from what I can see - they took down the drywall that surrounded the two half walls in the center of the room. Behind the drywall was was concrete. The concrete was the original exterior of the house. They also removed the kitchen cabinets, and the wall that was separating the kitchen from the supposedly the dining area.

Old Kitchen area sans cabinets, appliance, pantry, and personality (it was a bad one anyway, do not feel bad).

Note the exposed brick. The original house had a furnace in the basement that vented through the brick chimney in the pic. They covered the brick with drywall when they went from the furnace to the central a/c. Much to my delight, they brick is still there and in rather good shape! It shall stay exposed!

Here you can see the concrete that was under the drywall.

The lovely framing was put up temporarily to ensure that the entire roof did not cave in. Smart thinking, gentlemen.

Again, the idea here was to make this one large room, and not four small rooms.

Everything that was in my kitchen is now in my living room. It is quite cramped.

And so we wait...

2010-10-08T05:22:00.000-07:00

We are still in a holding pattern for the kitchen revamp. We have paid, everything is on order, but we ordered when we did because there was a "sale" on the cabinetry, and so did every other Joe Schmuckitelli. The normal two week wait is now a five week wait.

Once we get the green light, I'll have to move everything out of the kitchen to make way for the demo of the existing walls, and removal of cabinets (which I think I mentioned we're saving for a potential garage someday). Since I know that this is what will occur, I am having a difficult time putting anything away. Why put it away if I am just going to have to move it out in a week. Well, five weeks, but still I have pots and pans everywhere.

*********

The pic of the mantle. The new doors we put on, I did not like them. I gave it a few months to see if they would grow on me, but alas, they did not. Finally, I realized I wasn't the only one who was not enjoying the doors (if you ask me, they look like portholes on a Navy vessel). Plus since we removed the stenciling and pink trim, the room looked boring. I liked 'the boring' for a month; if nothing else it removed the mental image of the stenciling and the pink (my God, the pink), but then 'the boring' wore off.

I found a fix. We had to have those doors made specifically to fit the fireplace, and it was expensive to get the tempered glass cut. We need the doors, so I found something that will sit in front, cover it, and bring some sort of personality to that wall.

Now, the screen sits in front of the doors, and you can barely see them. I like that the screen in front adds some dimension to the wall as well - everything was flush and it was, again, 'the boring.' I have a different type of "screen" that is already in the room with a similar pattern, so this all works. I can take a picture of the actual end result at some point. The screen and accompanying items can be found here (and were combined still less than the doors I might add).

*********
We had a lot of rain come through last week. We thought we were in the clear, unlike these people, and we are way better off, but water definitely got into the bedroom in our basement. We are working with the insurance company now to have that fixed. The floors are wet/muddy, and the wall. It was just in one corner, not to bad, but definitely something we need to have fixed.

After pic of the Mantle

2010-09-06T14:58:00.000-07:00

Ta. Daaaa.

I almost forgot - remember my 'brass' tirade? The cover over the fireplace was originally brass as well, and that clearly had to go. I do not necessarily like the replacement, but it will work for now. Because it make my one qualifying factor - not brass.

I also took out the wood holder - I'm sure there is some technical name for that - and it was in rough shape. I cleaned it, and I bought high temp black spray paint, and sprayed it. It looks just like new. Perfect!

Laboring on Labor Day

2010-09-06T14:56:00.000-07:00

I thought the whole idea was to relax. I must have been mistaken.

I had nothing to do today. I had things I wanted to do today, but you know how that just about never pans out. Instead, I was sitting, watching back to back episodes of Cake Boss on Netflix (Season 1 - all 13 episodes, I accomplished something big today people), wondering at what point it was appropriate to open a bottle of wine, and realized - huh. The trim is pink.

Now, I know the trim is pink. The mantle was pink, but I fixed that. Someone put the paint away before I could finish the trim around the windows, and so the windows would have sat - because I mean come on. The paint was ALL the way in the shed! Do you know how far that is?

20 feet.

So I got the paint back out - opened it - taped - covered the floor - moved furniture. I'm really trying to make this more than it was - which is simply that I had one window with pink trim.

Had <- optimal word.

Since the window is - well - a window, and the sun is just about always shining on through, I can't get a good picture. But. Two coats later - white trim!

We have one week until the start of the kitchen/dining room reconstruct. I need to start packing things and getting them moved out.

I think I'll start a Yes to the Dress marathon instead. I love the fighting!

And just in case you were wondering, it is always an appropriate time to open a bottle of wine.

Pshaw.

2010-09-03T06:29:00.000-07:00

I'm looking at you, Earl.

That's the best you got?

Cheers!

2010-08-29T17:32:00.000-07:00

I think I'm caught up!

I have another coat to do on the pink mantle, and I still have to paint the pink trim around the giant window in the sunroom. That's the only current project. From what I can see, it is definitely the simple I was going for, good and bad. I'll need to do something with it, but I think I'll live with simple for awhile. I like simple.

If anyone wants the name of a brand, or contact for contractors, email me and let me know. I'd be happy to share the good and the bad!

So. For now. Cheers.

The Great Outdoors

2010-08-29T17:29:00.000-07:00

The previous homeowner is the groundskeeper for the marina a street down. The yard is beautiful. She had hydrangeas, crepe myrtles, roses, hostas, hibiscus, clover, and so much more. Just lovely.

It's a difficult task to keep up with it all. I have to weed the driveway. The driveway is just stone, and I could pave it, but I'm waiting until my younger ones grow up and are out of "sneaking out of the house" age. I want to hear cars come and go... It's easier to just weed the damn driveway.

I've planted a few more hibiscus, roses, jasmine, heather, clematis, Japanese maples, azaleas, and hostas.

I've hung a hummingbird feeder that the hummingbirds emptied in a week. We have osprey, herons, raccoons, possum, and groundhogs. There are geese, and I hate their poop. There are snakes, and fiddler crabs. We have blue crabs, fish, skates, and rays.

My favorite, are the ducks. I know, I was surprised too. We have a marsh area in our yard. The ducks lay their eggs there and hatch their young. I have started buying the ducks oats and bread. I love sitting on the step of my porch in the quiet and just opening a bag of bread. They just start flying into the yard, and will eat out of my hands! When they see me come outside, they start waddling over.

There are two trees in the yard that I do not like. They are pine tree/fir trees. One is honestly dying. The second is just not nice. I wanted to remove them. Because of where we are in relation to the water, I cannot simply remove the trees. I had to apply for a permit, pay a $200 bond, and promise to replace new trees. Beaurocratic BS. Whatever, I filed for the permit, it was granted, and am waiting for the tree guy to call me back!

Bring. It. On.

2010-08-29T17:14:00.000-07:00

I've showed you the kitchen:

This will take some "splainin'"

I've mentioned the Italian thing - factor in my love to cook.

I've mentioned my cheap yet expensive thing.

I'm a complex person.

The house has no "front". There is not part of the house where you think - OH, front door! Weird, I know, but it's not that kind of house. This is a little beach house that grew. There is a driveway that turns and leads you to a door on the side of the house that is logical. If you continue to walk around the house there is the door at the deck that is pretty. You have logical and pretty, but not front. I'm fine with it - the focus is the view, not the house.

BUT.

When you do walk in the logical door, you walk into that kitchen area. Pretty much, you walk right into the pantry. You walk in and feel claustrophobic. You have to walk another 10 feet to feel comfortable. You walk into the kitchen. The remainder of the immediate area is where the dining room, and then sun room are. Basically they took a giant room, and put in fake half walls to make it feel like four rooms. I think they wanted to make you feel like the house was bigger and with more rooms that it truly was.

Here is my goal. I am moving the kitchen. The kitchen now will be an entry way/mud room. The pantry and half walls are gone. The dining room will now be the kitchen.

Discuss.

I have not thought of this alone. There has been some professional help here. I am not this creative.

So this post is actually, gasp, forward looking!

The only thing I have done so far is to get the appliances, which were in one of the pictures I posted earlier. The professional help suggested we go to their source, and we did. The people at the small store were very helpful, and we walked out with an entire GE catalogue earmarked with prices. We then went to the good old stand by Lowes who blew the source out of the water.

First off, Lowes has a standing 10% discount that we automatically get. They also had a sale going on for all Samsung appliances, 10% off everything. Throw in a discount for energy start that gave us a rebate from our energy company, a visa gift card for spending so much, and a free set of pots and pans and SOLD!

There is a commercial where the couple is buying a car, and they work on the man's game face. Basically he has none. That is me with a sale. I love a sale. I can restrain. I can. Someone else, cannot.

We came out with all new appliances. They are all Samsung. As is our TV, computer, cell phones...

We should really get some sort of promotional deal from them.

The TV we had was not a standard size. It was incredibly small, so now we have a normal TV. The oven is an induction stove top, which I didn't know existed much less that I needed, but I did! Thank goodness the salesperson told me that. It meant I needed all new cookware of course. New dishwasher, which we didn't necessarily need, but I'm very angular, everything has to match, so we needed the accompanying dishwasher.

The kitchen "project" should start in two weeks. Cabinets with hardware, counters, sink, plumbing, and electric. BE EXCITED PEOPLE.

MAKE IT WHITE!

2010-08-29T16:29:00.000-07:00

I am fortunate in that my mother and her boyfriend own and run a contracting company, so they agreed to help me paint the inside of the house. Not the entire house, but most of the living areas in the main house. Two bathrooms, halls, stairway, living room.

For the 14th time, the original house was built in the 1950s, but there was an addition built in 1995 that consisted of a two story living room, build out of two bedrooms in the original attic, storage, and a downstairs full apartment. The house settled over the years, things moved, and things needed a fixin'.

Specifically the walls in the living room. All of the seams needed patched, nails needed covered, a door jam had cracked, and AGAIN with the hand painting.

As if that were not enough...

We have a lovely new TV (yawn, I am not into the electronics side of the house), complete with surround sound. The only problem is that the whole thing requires more wires than the Golden Gate Bridge (holy random reference). Instead of having the wires Criss Cross (Jump, Jump) the house like a spider web, holes were cut into the walls, outlets were installed, and surges protectors have been put into place.

Redoing all the seams:

I am a good Catholic girl (stop laughing) but I had to look that up. It has to do with the rising Morning Star. When the sun rises in the morning, it comes in through that window.

Note the pink trim everywhere.

I'll get the after pictures soon. I'm not quite finished with the trim, I have actually been painting that today. Here is a WIP (work in progress, keep up) pic:

Bye Bye, Pink.

I can Appreciate it, but I do not Like it

2010-08-29T15:57:00.000-07:00

I've mentioned the hand painting.

This room used to be a porch. There is a concrete wall that is only about two feet tall, but it was clearly the "outside" at one point. The room was enclosed, quite well, and then windows were framed.

Again, I tried to bribe the child labor in my house into helping, and she was good for two coats, but look at that red and green... I did the third coat. Child Labor did figure out that the painting was done before the framing was completed - some of the hand paint was behind the window frame. My guess is that it was done before the board was even hung.

The woman who did the painting did a beautiful done. It's just not me.

When I walked into the house, the woman who owned the house at the time was sitting in the main room where there was some of this painting. She was watching for my reaction and immediately said - this room needs painted.

At the time, I was just taken by the view, and hadn't even looked at the room itself. But she was right.

After:

I decided to leave one:

Amen.

We've Gone to Plaid!

2010-08-29T15:45:00.000-07:00

So that kitchen. That plaid had to go. Again, lovely. Just not me, remember? Simple?

I tried to pay off one of my children to help me remove the wall paper, and that worked for about 5 minutes and then I realized she was my child and her attention span was as long as that of a gnat, and she disappeared. DAMNIT.

I spent a good bit of time with a mixture of water and fabric softener and scraped the hell out of those damn walls.

Before:

In all fairness, that is a before me picture. That bird is not mine. I do like birds, in cages. I do NOT like birds out of their cages. The day I looked at the house, the owner had the bird out, and I almost just left. It was flying around. Around my head. Not ok!

After:

Ignore the appliances, I'll get to that.

But, I will draw attention to the wallpaper behind above the oven.

Look up at the before picture. That oven was literally from the 50s. There was another oven there, and it broke, and the previous owner brought in the one that was above (the time machine).

How did the wallpaper get behind there?

They redid the kitchen, obviously, at some point. They redid the whole kitchen/downstairs. Well they wallpapered the entire kitchen and then hung the cabinets and put in the appliances. Wouldn't that be so much easier? There is not cutting! Isn't that just fabulous? Well, not if you are trying to redo said kitchen. Sigh. I sigh a lot.

THBU

2010-08-29T15:32:00.000-07:00

The House Before Us

This is the house prior to us moving in.

(At some point, I started this post and never finished. Literally, I wrote those two lines, said F-it, and just left this as a draft. Really? Wow, I've gotten Lazy.).

I remember the day I looked at the house, and that my camera died, so I won't bore you with too many BEFORE pics. Just enough (basically, two) to get an idea for what I'm in for here.

This is the kitchen.

That is actually a time machine, and not an oven. Seriously, that thing is one piece. The two burners on the right do not work at all, and the top oven has no temperature sensor, so it is either ON, or not on. The counter tops are possibly Formica? I wouldn't even go that far really. And the walls are definitely a pink and blue plaid.

This is the view from the kitchen into the sun room. We have made this room our dining area for now, but that will change. I don't know if you can tell from this picture, but see the post holding up the I Beam? Crooked.

It. Is. Crooked.

And every day, the crookedness of it slowly eats away at my soul.

Also, notice the painting above the windows. Yes, paintings. Those are hand painted. They are above those windows and another set off to the left in the sun room. They are also over the mantle and over the windows in the living room.

Hey, at least I didn't get the white carpet.

2010-08-29T15:21:00.000-07:00

The entire downstairs of the house is hard wood. It's pretty - it's not the newer looking wood, this definitely has the 1950s look to it (in fact, it is identical - look and smell - to the floor at my grandma's house. This was the first thing I noticed when I walked in the house. It was such a welcome smell/look. I love my grandma's house. Well, not necessarily the house, but being there with all my family, and of course all the food. I need to stop this sidetracking, sorry).

The upstairs, stairs included, had what I would consider a step below renter's grade carpeting. It also had not been tacked well on the steps and the whole bottom step was pulling. When you were running down the stairs (no one in my family walks slowly down the stairs - full speed at all times), you would hit the bottom stair, and it was a matter of time before someone went through the wall at the bottom of the stairs.

Now, back story. Grab a beverage, preferably a nice chilled Pinot Grigio, it's hot out - this is lengthy.

We own another house - can't sell, not worth a fraction of what we bought it for. We were lucky enough to get renters (since we couldn't buy another house until we could prove we had renters, I sidetrack a lot, sorry sorry sorry). Well, part of the agreement was that if the people had no pets, we would get new carpet - the carpet was bad when we bought the first house 4 years ago, but we are incredibly lazy and complacent and never replaced it. If the people had pets we would just clean the carpets - which we did do when we bought the house, thankyouverymuch.

Anyway, the renters had no pets. Granted they had three girls under 5. Um..... How are they better than pets?!

So after calling around, Lowes was the best option. I schedule, get all the calls, they come out and measure, everything was working out.

Until the install day - which happened to be the same day as moving day between the houses.

You know the drill, 10-12, we'll be there. Sure. 12 comes, no call, nothing. So I start calling. I'll skip the rest of this and do the short version -> swearing -> 2pm they show -> didn't have ALL the carpet -> we'll finish later -> I don't live in the house anymore -> I got a "discount" so I would stop calling and screaming at the Lowes flooring department.

Sigh. I'm Italian. I have a friend who teases me for my angry southern Italian tendencies. He does not complain about my cooking abilities though.

The last conversation I had with Lowes was this - Look, you are the only people in the area that I can afford. I need new carpet in the new house. Can you give me some guarantee this will not happen again?

Yes Ma'am.

And they stood by that. They did good (I know, they did well). I went with a thicker floor pad that had a water barrier since we live near water, and since I have idiot children*.

I only looked at carpets that were Stainguarded, but they have about 10. And I didn't like them. There is a difference between actually being Stainguarded and having a stain guard on them. Stupid semantics.

I wanted white carpets.

White. Kids, etc. I know. Luckily, they didn't have it. So I got blue. Oh picture the blue shag. You can, can't you? Bright blue shag. Are you done now? Stop that. It's dirty.

I got a blue gray. I am a simple person. I like bright. I like basic. All the main walls are white. So the carpet is my little bit of color. The house is not small, but it seems small to me, and I want the house to pretty much have one color pattern and flow. Quite honestly, it's because I just can't keep up with too many different concepts, colors, paints, patterns, you get the idea.

Here is the new carpet:

Those are Japanese tea boxes in the corner, which I covered myself with washi paper. Go. Me.

*I love my children. DO not get me wrong. But come on. We all know they can be idiots. Take for instance the youngest, who caught a crab and brought it in the house to keep as a pet. Idiot. See? I need water barrier floor pads. Plus they were thicker and OMG so nice on your feet. It's like walking in slippers.

Tone it Down

2010-08-29T14:51:00.000-07:00

The house was owned by a widow. Her husband passed away several years ago, and the house definitely had a bright feminine feel to it. What does that mean? Well, the walls (even some of the light bulbs) and even the trim are/were pink. Every face plate and door handle, kick plate, screen, EVERYTHING was brass.

Fast forward to me. I am neither bright nor feminine. You can see my dilemma.

The first thing we tried to do was tone down the brass a little. We switched out every light switch and electrical outlet face plate. We also switched every door handle (inside and out, just not the screen doors). AND even the door stops!

Let me emphasize the empirical "we". WE could refer to any number of people in the house that either live here or stop by (I am not above putting guests to work). For instance, when "WE" changed all of the door handles, that was my mother and I. Etc. Come over, I'll show you what I mean.

I realized quickly that there was a LOT of brass. We removed a large hanging light fixture that held the pink light bulbs. It was in what had been designated as a dining room, but I am not doing a dining room. The house isn't formal. Neither is any way that I choose to dine. The fixture hung too low and you hit your head on it constantly (because you know you aren't smart enough to remember it is there). We bought a cheap light to go there in the meantime, but I have bigger plans for that room - more on that to come.

We removed a second light fixture that was stained glass/Tiffany Lamp-ish. That same room also had two ceiling fans that were brass. Not a large enough room for three light fixtures. We removed the stained glass and put a patch over the wall - another place holder. We changed out the two ceiling fans, and put in ones with light kits, so now we have two lights versus just one with two fans. Confused?

There is a third fan, but it's a good 15-20 feet up in our living room and we can't reach it yet on our own to change it. Or SOMEONE is too afraid of the big boy ladder.

Every air vent - you got it. Brass.

The face plates all went to a simple white. All of the metal is now a brushed nickel (I have no idea what that means, really).

I took every piece we have removed to Habitat for Humanity, it's not right for me, but it will be right for someone, I'm sure.

Just about everything we have done has been through Lowes. We live in an area where we basically only have a Lowes. I have been moderately happy with Lowes.

Except their flooring department. They have my picture posted next to their register.

Before:

Focus on the door handle, not how tidy her house was. My closet looks nothing like this.

You get the idea.

After:

Air vent on the floor:

This is the patch where the stained glass was, and one of the new ceiling fans:

Would you say this door is pink? Both outside doors are painted this color. The rest of the outside does not have this color. I'll be looking for color suggestions, thanks.

Eh, just focus on the new door handle for now.

Ketchup

2010-08-29T14:04:00.000-07:00

I'm going to try and post a lot here at once, I've lived in the house a little over three months now, and I'm quite impatient, so I've done a few things already. I'll try and post those things now to catch us up to today. Here goes nothing...

So this is about a House

2010-08-20T12:50:00.000-07:00

So theseare the new digs.

If you are looking at the house, the flagpole is a good reference point. The left of the flag pole is the initial house. It was built in the 1950s. To the right of the flag pole is the addition which was built in 1995.

The windows above the deck on the left is an area that used to be a porch, that was converted into a room of the house. The windows and door on the bottom right of the house are entry into a full apartment complete with kitchen, bath, and a bedroom. The actual house has 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms.

The woman we bought the house from was the local groundskeeper for one of the marinas, and she did a spectacular job with the landscaping. I am having two trees removed that are too close to the house, dying, and I just don't like them. Yes, I'll replace them.

The house is primarily a light yellow with a blue trim. I think the blue trim could be updated some. The house is on the water, most of the green in the foreground of the picture is actually a critical zone. The tide comes in and out, and brings ducks, snakes, crabs, groundhogs, herons, muskrats, and, of course, fish with it. We have also seen foxes, raccoons, and opossums.

There is a pier with a boat lift and a boat shed, but we do not have a boat.

We do have crab traps.

There is a makeshift garage, that one day we hope to turn into an actual garage. That will take some time.

The house has a fireplace, electric heat with propane back up, electric appliances... What am I missing...

I think that is about it. Other than Patrick's bedroom has no windows.

Background

2010-08-18T12:22:00.000-07:00

I think it only fair to give a heads up about me before we begin this "adventure".

There are certain things you can be assured of when reading. My goal, as I have said, will be to document what I'm doing (and let's be honest, paying to have done) to my house. Does that mean I will always stay on topic? Not even close. Will you still get some sense of my sarcasm? Drippingly.

I'm sure I'll rant about other things, say maybe if some idiot at the local hardware store rear ends my car (while I was in it, mind you, and I was parked, in a parking spot, and somehow he still tried to get out of it), but I'll try to stay focused.

I am cheap. I like to get a discount, and use a coupon. I am also lazy and will just buy the first thing that remotely resembles what I need so I do not have to go endlessly from store to store. It's a struggle for the lazy to fight the cheap.

I love coffee and wine, and most days have a little (or a lot) of both. The coffee battles the lazy, and the wine then battles the caffeine. All ends up right with the world.

I am a mom of three, and I work full time. I pretend to be a runner.

I'd rather spend a night in than out, have trouble in crowds and large groups, and prefer small gatherings. I do not do movies unless there is popcorn involved.

I am awful at talking on the phone.

My next post will actually be about my house. I promise.

New Approach

2010-08-16T13:42:00.000-07:00

The last time I wrote on this blog was August 9, 2009. It was to say I was back to blog.

Apparently, it didn't take.

My family and I have moved to a new-to-us house in our same general area, and it needs some work. The original portion of the house was built in 1959. There is an addition and upgrades that were done in 1995.

Somehow, in all of those upgrades, the oven was never touched. One repairman we have had come out asked if we thought about putting it in a museum.

We moved in back at the end of May, and have done some small things since, but I can anticipate doing quite a bit, and would like to track it. With pictures and illustrations of course.

I hope to catch up on what we have done so far soon. Well, before August 2011.