The Clock is Ticking!

We are down to the last little wire before my mother-in-law comes to visit.  And yet, we are still not done with nearly as much as we had hoped!  Of course, it would just be too easy if, for once, things went smoothly.  After the Rabbits finished and cleared out, the state of the floors was something that Jared and I were quite unhappy with.  Unfortunately for Glenn, since his carpenters didn't take care of things, it came back to bite him.  Because of the damage to the floors, Glenn decided to pay for them to be refinished in the rooms that had the most damage.  So his floor crew came in last week to do just that.  However, even they couldn't get it right!

The main issue with the floor crew was that they spoke very, very little English.  They asked me what color I wanted the floor to be, and I told them the color that was already there.  I wasn't really interested in going in a different direction with the floor color.  What was there was fine.  Clearly, they did not know how to pick a stain color, because dark mahogany was NOT what was there originally.  After they stained the front two rooms, Jared and I tried to tell them that the color was wrong, and we ended up having to go pick up a half pint of the right color to show them what it should have been.

The picture quality isn't the best, but in person, the difference is astounding.  The crew purchased the right stain color a little too late, and finished the family room staining around Thursday afternoon. However, in the midst of it all, the crew didn't understand that they needed to re do the front rooms.  It might sound ridiculous, but I don't see a point in "suffering" through badly stained floors when the whole point of the refinishing was to make them look better than before.  Also, I'm a believer in voicing an opinion when something isn't right.  Just because it would create more work for the crew to re do the front rooms doesn't mean that they shouldn't have to do it.  They messed up, they should fix it.  The problem came Friday, when instead of redoing the front rooms, they "sealed" over everything.  The crew, without a care in the world, "sealed" the floors in less than an hour and then left me stuck in the bedroom for five hours.  I say "sealed" because I'm fairly certain that based on the texture of the wood as it currently is is not really proper.  So Jared and I are NOT happy with the results.  The floors look streaky and the finish is rough.  Even though they were scratched and dirty before, at least the floors weren't water soluble.  After expressing the problem, yet again, to Glenn, he has determined that he will have them fixed...after Thanksgiving.

We had discussed getting the floors done properly this week, but the time frame kept getting smaller and smaller, so after the holiday, they'll be redone.

Now, on to things that are within my control...

With the Rabbits out, Jared and I are on our own with the rest of the projects around the house.  The family room needed a lot of love before it started to look decent, but Jared spent a few evenings painting the new ceiling, and now it looks fab.

This last Saturday, Jared had Jack come over to fix a few things.  Unfortunately, the main bathroom had an extremely leaky tub faucet, and without any actual water shut off valves, they had to hack into the wall to cap off the lines.  I'm not too bent out of shape about it, considering we have a working shower in the other bathroom.  It just means that shower schedules while the family is here will be a little interesting.  The rest of the bathroom works fine, although it's a little ugly, so for now, we're just going to pull the shower curtain over it.

Also on Jack's to-do list was covering the holes in the living room.  The hole in the ceiling is no more!

Other than a few more coats of joint compound and tape, this room is pretty much paint ready.  I will not miss the ugly mustard yellow paint...

My weekend was spent making the family room pretty.  As we move through the house with our renovations, I'm never sad to see the paint color go.

The new light yellow is so refreshing after the baby poop brown that used to occupy every single wall in this house.

The color is called "Barcelona White."  We had to pick a color that would coordinate with the couch we have picked out for this room, and that proved to be tricky.  We haven't purchased the couch yet, simply because we didn't have anywhere to put it before now, but that is on the list of things to do for this week.

The far wall we painted in "Gravity" as an accent wall to bring out some different tones in the couch.  The picture isn't the best, but it does look super fab!

And Jared stretched his electrician's wings and installed our new ceiling fan all by himself.  Although, he managed to get the entire thing assembled and ready to go without connecting the wires in the very top...haha.

This room is not without a future...The bathtub on the other side of this wall seems to have some serious issues, but we'll have to address them at a later date.  The main thing is, it's not leaking now, so it should be fine for the time being.  However, the old sheetrock and patch has left this wall looking like a wrinkled old man, even though you can't see it in this picture.  We'll have to tackle that eventually.






And lastly, I was informed yesterday that Tobe, Jared's mom, is coming in on Friday, not Saturday as was originally planned.  As happy as I am to have family visit, I'm seriously about to go whirlwind crazy on this house to get it sort of ready.  We still don't have the rest of our counters in the kitchen, which could prove interesting when I'm cooking.  The living room needs to be painted, but I have to wait on the joints to be done and feathered out.  The master bath needs to be painted too.  All I need to do there is pick out a color, and that is proving to be difficult!  We've got to rearrange the house, too.  The cat room is getting turned in to our guest room, and Ullr's old room is being turned into the cat room.  Ullr doesn't really need a room anymore, as he's got the yard.  When this next week is over, I'm going to take a long nap and just chill for awhile.  Until then, I've got PLENTY of stuff to do!

A Sunday of Surprises

There's nothing like a little DIY home renovation to get your blood pumping.  Among the contracted work, Jared and I agreed to do the finishing touches, as well as tackle certain jobs that weren't on the list for the carpenters.  One such job was the paneling in the front living room.  When first diving into this house, both the living room and the dining/kitchen were decorated with the faux pas paneling that was popular back in the day.  Of course, when the kitchen was being renovated, the paneling had to come down, and I was not sad to see it go.  There also was the added benefit of not having to remove it ourselves.  However, the living room was a different story.

This room, other than the water damage under the window, really didn't need too much to be livable.  Paneling, though hideous, is not that difficult to live with.  The problem with having carpenters around is that Jared gets in the mood to do something handy as well.  So we decided that even if the Rabbits aren't going to tear off the paneling, we can do it ourselves!

Of course, in the time that we've been living here, this room as acquired some furnishing and a whole lot of junk.  So we had to clean up and rearrange a bit before tearing into the job.

Looks harmless enough, doesn't it?  In this house, we have learned that just because the walls are intact on the surface, that doesn't mean it's not a Pandora's box just waiting to burst open under the seemingly harmless paneling.  So we crossed our fingers and hoped for the best...

Jared removed the trim and wasted no time pulling down the sheets of death.  Apparently, Ullr thinks he's helping.

At least we prepared ourselves for some surprises.  In actuality, this didn't really surprise us that much.  The first surprise was a small outlet under the bookcase that had been covered.  Not that big of a deal.  The first few sheets came off just fine, and then we discovered a hole in the wall where an old wall heater used to be.  There were intact units in the other living area as well as in the master bedroom.  As we had no intention of using them, they've since been pulled out and patched over.  However, Jared and I don't know why this one was removed before the others.  Still, this hole didn't really concern either of us.

With the water damage to the exterior of the home, we really should have assumed that there was some to this wall.  The room behind the door was added on, and it appears as though the former owners discovered this house had a drinking problem ages ago.  Luckily, though they left the damaged frame work in the wall, they did reinforce what was there with new lumber.  Clearly, once the added room was finished, there were no more leaks at this location.  So other than being an annoying patch, this surprise didn't totally derail our project.

But of course, the surprises just couldn't stop there!  Behold, the mysterious doorway!  From what we have seen, this door used to go right into the hallway on the other side of the wall.  However, it was original to the house, and neither Jared, nor Pete, nor I can figure out WHY.  If you go through the arch into the dining room and immediately turn left, you will go through a doorway into the same hallway that this old doorway used to go...What is the point?  We know that all of the doors in that hallway are original because there's no disruption of the hardwood.  This surprise definitely caught us off guard.  It's also big enough to need a good size sheet of drywall.  So are you counting?  This doorway makes four surprises since taking off the paneling in this room.  I think it's a little excessive.

I took this picture while standing right under the arch.  With the main door on the right, the door to the addition, the door to the bathroom, the door to the closet where the laundry is going, and the door to the spare bedroom, that hallway was chalk full of doors.  I would think that being in that space with all the doors closed would be like something out of a horror film.  What's behind door number one?

So if our calculations are correct, which they are, the door would have been on the blank wall.  I took a closer look at the wall when we discovered the doorway, and I could see a little discrepancy on this side of the wall.  If we hadn't have taken down the paneling and discovered the door, there's no way any of us would have know that there was anything behind that wall.  Even though you can run your hand over the wall and feel a slight bump where the frame is, it's so slight, I didn't even notice it until I really looked.  I still can't fathom why anyone would want so many doors in one place.

But wait, there's more!  This gash in the wall we uncovered with the last little bit of paneling.  All we can figure out about this one is that someone decided to fiddle with the wiring for the outlet right underneath this area in the wall.  The outlet is controlled by a light switch on the other side of the wall.  For whatever reason, someone decided to play electrician before they put up the paneling.

To make the patch job easier, Jared enlarged the hole and made it nice and clean.  The black wire going up goes to the switch on the other side of the wall which then comes back down via white wire and controls the outlet down below.  Someone had fun with that.

Jared also had to enlarge and clean up the water damaged hole to patch later.  So there's all the surprises!  I do think that five surprises for a room of that size is overkill, but it definitely explains why they put the paneling up.  However, now that the paneling is GONE, the room looks a million times better than it did, even though it's got a few holes to be fixed.  In all honesty, though, the absence of paneling makes the room seem bigger for some reason.

Moving on to the outside, Pete has just about finished with the ex door.  The window is great, though we've had to get used to not using that door.

Also, Pete's been bringing his ancient dog with him for the last few days.  Max, as he's called, has already marked his territory at least three times inside, so he's been banished from the indoors.











I know this has been a long post already, but there are a few other things that have happened in the last week or so.

The back porch got finished the other day.  With the absence of our normal back door, this has been amazing.

This little deck area has enough space for a small chair.  It also has a great view of the sunrise in the morning!

It might not look like much, but the contents of this large box contain a magical water fountain that is used to keep a person clean.  Even though the master bathroom hasn't made much progress since day one, we've got the goods to finally finish the space, so I'm hoping it won't be long until Jared and I can shower in our own home.  Also, we won't have to take cold showers, because........

WE HAVE HOT WATER!!!  The new crew came in bright and early Wednesday morning and put the water heater up in the attic.  Though we currently don't have the ability to shower in our home, when we do, we'll have some nice hot water!

Moving on, the old railings and supports for the overhang HAD to come down.  These nice new posts should last quite awhile.

It's a good thing our kitchen door and new back door are functional, because the new window went in on Wednesday too.  The new crew did this in a matter of minutes.  I'm really hoping that they come back soon, as they got more done in four hours than Pete has done in a four day period.

It might not look like much, but that, my friends, is the gateway to doggy paradise.  Last night, Jared and I took Ullr for a short walk, and when we came back, our fence, gates and all, was finished.

Needless to say, Ullr LOVES his new play space.  He spent a good majority of the evening sprinting around the yard, and boy can that dog run.  It was such a great feeling to see the joy he showed when playing.  The trick is to get him to come inside, now.








The last little bit of this renovation is on its way out.  Jared has put the pressure on our contractor to have his guys out of here by the 26th.  I find myself constantly reminding myself that the deadline is THIS Friday!  Though I have my doubts as to whether the Rabbits will be able to complete the rest of it in time, Jared and I have finally laid down the law with Glenn.  Hopefully by this time next week, I'll have an actual bathroom!

The list of to-do's is getting smaller.  Here's what's left:

• The ceiling in the family room is getting refinished
• The master bath needs to be started
• New countertops have yet to be installed (due to a misunderstanding when we ordered them)
• Pantry in the kitchen still needs to be finished
• The laundry room needs outlets and an exhaust for the dryer 
• Back deck railing to be finished
• Various random patches throughout the house

This post has been long enough!  Have a good Sunday afternoon.

A Countdown to a Kitchen

This week has certainly been eventful!  After coming home from Washington, I was ready to see some major progress on the house.  They have made progress, believe me, though I wouldn't complain if the Rabbits worked a little harder (there's a story about that, too).

The biggest improvement since I've been back has been the kitchen.  Shall I refresh your memory of what it looked like before?

Oh yes, in all it's salmon-colored many-layered floor and plain white and dilapidated cabinets, this was not my dream kitchen. From the beginning of this process, I knew that the space needed some love, but never in my wildest dreams did I imagine this space getting completely and utterly gutted.  Which is exactly what happened.

The floor was the biggest challenge to overcome.  After tearing off five different layers of improvised and real flooring, the bow in the floor became very obviously the result of a significant amount of water damage.  Had there been a drip edge on the roof and a decent seal around the window, it's very likely that this floor would have been mostly salvageable.  Alas, it wasn't to be.

So Jared and I were left with a giant pit for a kitchen.  When I said gut job, I MEANT gut job.  This was one of those moments when I ask myself, "WHAT have I gotten into???"

The good thing about the wood rot is that now this part of the house is probably the most sturdy of it all.  New joists work wonders!  However, once the support was put in, I wouldn't see an actual floor until coming home from Seattle.  Basically, this is what my kitchen looked like for three weeks.  Originally, our general contractor estimated the entire reno would take three weeks. Does that put it in perspective?

This is what I came home to, though, which brightened my spirits considerably.  That's not just any floor, that's a sub floor.  After waiting for the inspector to inspect the plumbing, the Rabbits were finally able to start closing up the kitchen.

The pass through also made me giggle and squeal like a teenager.  I'm ridiculously in love with this thing.  Irrational?  Maybe, but I think after all this time, I'm allowed to get excited about something in this house.

I don't think I've ever been so excited about tile in my life.  Maybe this renovation is starting to get to my psyche.  Once this started going down, I was in full on laughing-while-jumping-up-and-down-in-place mode.  At least I'm easy to please, right?

Isn't it beautiful?  The tile went in in about three days, and then the Rabbits started patching the walls in preparation for the CABINETS!!!  In case you're wondering, the little room to the left of the door is a pantry, and yes, I'm excited about that too.

Last week the cabinets started coming in.  The two guys installing them were Chinese and didn't speak a lick of English, so it was an experience to try and tell them where everything was supposed to go.  Based on the finished product, they did just fine.

The kitchen is finally starting to look like a kitchen!!!

Sadly, they weren't finished in one day.  I could live with that, though, as that's just kind of been the way things are these days.  There's Pete working on the patching job.

Grout went in as well.  There is really something amazing about watching this house slowly come together.








Yesterday the cabinet guys showed up to finish their job.  I had to work, though, so once they came, I had to leave, and I didn't get to see them put up the rest of the cabinets.  It was worth not seeing it happen, because when I came home from work, it was all laid out before me like a present!

Does it look like a kitchen?  I'm thinking, YES, much more so than before.  I keep looking back at the before and during pictures.  The cabinets are beautiful, and there's plenty of storage space.  The floor is all one level, and it doesn't shake when you walk on it.  AND the drawers are soft close, a bonus that I was not expecting.  When I first opened and closed one of them, I totally giggled and clapped and jumped up and down on the spot for a good five minutes.  I'm not even ashamed to admit it!

The glorious right side of the kitchen.  The space is for the dishwasher, which will be going in soon.

The left side of the kitchen.  The stove is going in the space.  The peninsula is going to have a slight overhang on the other side, so Jared wants to put a few bar stools there.

There they are, in all their glory!  The hardware came with the cabinets, but I'm not sure if I like them or not, so they might get changed in the future.  All I can think about is the fact that I have a space that could actually pass for a kitchen, not just a hole in the house.  The bad news is that there was a mix up when ordering the countertops, so they won't be in for two weeks.  Jared has decided that once the water is connected to the dishwasher, the stove is put in it's place and the fridge is moved, we can use the kitchen by putting plywood over the cabinets.  I'm definitely not opposed to the idea.  I just want to be able to cook!





In other news, Jared and I have observed that Pete has really not been working as much as he should be, so we could be getting a new carpenter.  There's also a third of a fence put up in the backyard, so there's another project that is in the works.  Right now we're waiting on the laundry room to be finished, the water heater, and the new bathroom to go in.  We're on the downhill slide, but there's still a bit to go.  With any luck, we'll have a finished house by Thanksgiving!

Sarah