The Many Faces of Busy.

The biscuit is sick with a tummy ache...so what better way to make myself feel better than to share pictures from an impromptu dress up day I had with the poor little guy (on a day he was sans tummy ache).

Batman!

Bumble bee!

Lobster!

In my defense, we only did this to him to see which ones needed to go in the donate pile...yes! we did keep one. Yes! we are "those people". Target really shouldn't be allowed to sell these things with crazies like me running around...but he looks cute, right?

Upstairs Framing.

Trying to play catch up on the current state of the house before the plumber (HOPEFULLY) finally starts his work this week. It's getting a little old waiting around for that next step to start, and if he weren't such a large man we probably would have physically drug him over there to start the work. But we haven't. So, framing.

This is the wall in between the back bedroom and bathroom/hallway. Built by yours truly (and P). We only messed it up once...not too bad for my first wall.

Another angle. I'm so proud. We opted to frame in a second door going directly into the bathroom, which we will actually drywall over. Crazy right? Well, we wanted to leave the option to easily cut in a door open for the future and this will keep the plumber from running any pipes across this space now.

After getting some more updated structural drawings from the engineer we went ahead and had the contractor come back in and put more LVLs upstairs. This allowed us to remove part of a load bearing wall and open the two front rooms (bedroom and formerly my large closet) into one large office/guest room.

Busy checking out yet another pile of debris.

Those are some seriously huge LVLs...well at least we know we can safely have a roof deck one day.

While he was in there the contractor also put up the other wall dividing the bedrooms and leveled all the ceilings out...while we were downstairs tearing up the poor little addition.

We will also be raising the head height walking down the stairs so the P won't have to duck anymore.


Yay!

Now onto plumbing, wiring, floor patching, fireblocking, window installing, door installing, insulating, drywalling and floor refinishing. Just to name a few.

Laundry Dilemma Brings...More Demo...

What do you do when you score an awesome front loading washer and dryer set for a great deal because a friend hooked you up with an appliance discount website and when it finally is time to plumb them in you find out that they actually won't physically fit down the basement stairs? Hmmm? What? You put them in the addition. You know, the addition off the back of the house that was going to be redone at a later date? The one where you were going to install a door at the threshold so that you could close it and not think about how yucky it is? That's the one.

Since I already mentioned it's general yuckiness it was quickly decided that we would just add this very small room to our list of places to drywall so all that blue goodness had to come down. (don't worry, it wasn't that dirty when we actually lived in the house)

Three! layers of linoleum.

This is what we found behind the old kitchen sink. That's beadboard painted two, maybe three different colors and some sort of plastic tile that I refused to touch.

More multi-colored beadboard and the walls start coming down.

I won't bore you with step by step demo pics of this tiny room...but when it came time to take the ceiling down I unleashed P on it with the floor scraper. Pulled the whole thing down at once. Amazing.

I managed to capture this action shot amidst all the dust...not that you can actually see what's happening, but it was pretty impressive.

Luckily there is a pretty easy to access crawl space underneath so we can reinforce the joists to get rid of the "trampoline effect" the room currently has. I have only been brave enough to crawl inside once...the spiders in there look like prehistoric creatures, very scary.

So, we have now managed to tear every little room in this poor house apart. We are hoping to stack the washer where the kitchen sink used to be and enclose them somehow. This will leave us with enough room for a small kitchen table or seating area at the end of the space...and that hopefully the addition of a skylight and a sliding patio door will make it a space you actually want to sit in!

Paper Wreath Love.

Dying to make one of these with some creepy old books I found in our basement. It's not looking like it will happen this Christmas, guess I'll have to settle for a scraggly Christmas tree (hoping to get one this weekend!). Putting it on the list for next year.

Well Hello There.

So I guess I took a little accidental break from blogging? I won't bore you with any excuses like Thanksgiving, or changing jobs (not me) or the fact that I've actually had some progress pictures to share for the past week, but I can not seem to find my camera cord. You know, the one that connects to the computer at work to upload photos because you can't do it at home because you don't have the internet at home? The one that is, of course, different from the other hundreds of camera cords in my possession or anything that I can find at work? Yeah, I can't find that camera cord. Nope, no excuses. Anyway, in the meantime I will share what we have been up to in the past month (can't believe it's been that long) around here with my lovely writing skills. In bullet form.

-Drank a lot of coffee
-Went to see Harry Potter...maybe more than once (me, gonna take some flak for that one)
-Visited Georgia (me) and Alabama (P) for Thanksgiving
-Watched Auburn pull out a victory over our arch-nemesis
-Did some more framing
-Consulted our structural engineer about the permit implications of removing part of another load bearing wall (this time upstairs)
-Realized that our washer and dryer would physically not fit into the basement
-Made new plans to install them in the addition (this would be location #4 for the washer/dryer, if anyone is counting)
-Visited Martha's Vineyard for a day (P)
-Signed an affidavit saying that we are not loud, terrible, horrible people, so that our landlord could take it to his court date (looooong story)
-Christmas shopped (me) Online only though, I don't like crowds.
-Got another official stamped drawing from the structural engineer so that an amendment to our permit can be filed
-Hired our contractor to come back in and install more LVLs upstairs
-Decided that framing is over rated and got the contractor to finish up the last wall for us (bums)
-Watched the Tigers scoop up an SEC championship. I actually felt a little bad for those Roosters...or whatever they are called.
-Tried not to freeze while working in our house without heating.
-Plugged in my brand new shop light and then jumped out of my skin five minutes later when it exploded.
-Demoed the addition so that plumbing could be run for the washer dryer (and because it was nasty), because, you know, I'm not tired of demo yet

There was more in there of course. I think I hit most of the highlights...pictures will follow for the house stuff. Right when I find that damn camera cable. Maybe Santa should an an extra one of those little guys in my stocking.

Coffee love.

Ummm, if anyone still reads this blog, We're alive. Boring, but alive. We did get a very exciting shipment of plumbing goodies mentioned here and I'm happy to report that nothing was left out of the shipment or damaged (they really harped on triple checking the shipment, so I was scared this might be a common occurrence). Unfortunately, the Cifial faucet for the downstairs that is also featured front and center on the last post will be taking a ride back to FaucetDirect.com. Sad. I love it. But, thankfully, P suggested we look at it with the sink we will be using and...well...it's just not right. The poor little faucet gets engulfed by this guy. Seriously. It looked like a fly on a horse..you know, small. I cried a little and then said my goodbyes and packed him back up. The faucet hunt continues...but, no worries all the other faucets get to stay, which means, showers and hand washing are covered! What isn't covered? Well, the actual plumbing. Details details.

Well, guess what else came in the mail this week?! The new coffee maker! We went with the newer, smaller, sleeker model, and I love love love. Day two of bringing coffee to work and did I mention I love? Well, I do.

And just in case you were wondering (cause I am sure you were) this is my new best friend that will keep my coffee hot for up to 24 hours. For those of us who are finicky about what time they wish to consume said coffee this is a little miracle.

Miracle.

Hopefully I will have more house progress to share on Monday. I hope I hope. Since that's what this blog is actually supposed to be about.

Fall Back Already!

So, the whole get up in the morning early isn't working so well. I think this is the first time I have actually been excited for the whole "fall back" daylight savings thing. Usually I would be moping about how it will be dark outside long before I even leave work. Nope. Not this year. This year I need morning light!
In other news, we are expecting a very exciting delivery tomorrow. Our tub and the rest of the bathroom fixtures! P is taking the day off to receive the (very large) shipment...and to do some framing since we have repeatedly failed at framing in the mornings. Here is some of the stuff we got:

Faucet for the downstairs bathroom sink.



Shower head, trim and tub filler.

And, yes, that is a whirlpool tub. Ooooooh fancy. We have officially joined the ranks of middle class suburban developments everywhere. Yesssssss.

Ok, I think I will save the other fun stuff for when we are actually installing it all...hopefully that will be before the end of 2010? Ugh.

The Great Coffee Maker Debate.

Ok, so maybe it's not really a debate...only inside my head. We need a coffee maker. We drink coffee every morning. Even with the awesome $1 deal (if you bring your own cup) at the cafe downstairs...that's at least $60 a month...if we don't go back down for more in the afternoon, which, let's be honest, we do. So, coffee maker. Now, because I am my father's daughter I have been periodically perusing the Costco website trying to decide whether I want to become a member. About a month ago I found a coffee maker that I wanted on this website. Grind and brew, great reviews, sold. So I figured, instead of being hasty about opening a membership I would wait until my Dad arrived and we could go to the store. Great plan? Not so much. Upon their arrival we checked the website and the coffee maker was gone. GONE! Ugh. Well, maybe it will be in the store. Nope. Wasn't in the store. It was a sad day. So then I thought, maybe if I wait long enough it will come back on the website. Well, after two weeks of waiting, it hasn't come back to Costco and I have finally come to the realization that waiting is stupid when you can get the same thing on Amazon (for a slighly elevated price). Ok, so the point of rambling about my personal craziness is that now that I am ready to purchase said coffee maker, Amazon has opened up another door. A newer (better looking) model. For a slightly higher price, of course.

Ok, so this is the original one I wanted. Great reviews. Not a bad price for how amazing it makes coffee (supposedly). But here is what now slightly bothers me now that I have seen the new version: the size. They are the same height, but this one is listed as 16"hX12"lX11"d. Doesn't that seem excessively large? The one below is the newer model and is listed as 15"hX9.5"lX9.5"d. Maybe I am being crazy. Maybe that's not a big difference, or maybe it is when you have(one day will have) a kitchen the size of a postage stamp. And don't you just think it's prettier?

Thoughts?

Too bad I didn't make this decision a week ago when my parents told me to "ORDER ONE OFF AMAZON ALREADY!", guess we will have to drag our guests for Halloween extravaganza 2010 to the coffee shop in the mornings. Sorry guys! Oh well.

Happy Halloween!!!

Framing begins.

Now that the bulk of the demo is done (and been dragged away in a massive dumpster) we have even more framing to do that we originally thought. We have to start with a few key walls in both bathrooms so our plumber can (finally!) get started.

Porky found a safe spot to lay on one of my many birthday gifts. Cement board for the bathroom!

My dad helped us pry up the newer flooring underlayment so that the new tile will be closer to the level of the hardwood in the hallway. The area under the toilet was part rotted and part missing, so we cut a clean edge to easily replace the two layers.

The first layer of plywood cut to size and put in.

Then the second layer using scrap pieces we had laying around from the kitchen window re-framing.

This is my excuse for why everything takes so long. Dogs. Maybe they think they are helping?

This is about as far as we got before there was a knock, no, a banging on our front door. Of course we already knew who it would be...our friendly neighbor Tommy. Now, when I say friendly, what I actually mean is "he hates our guts". This is only something we had guessed, and was confirmed last night when he informed us that he is "sorry you *expletive people ever moved in". Well, ok then. Point taken, we will no longer be doing any work on the house that makes any kind of noise past 7pm. Awesome. Guess what I will be doing tomorrow morning before work? Yeah.

We're Still Here.

This post might be more appropriately titled "A lot has been done, but I apparently forgot to pick up a camera". Oh well. My parents came in town for what can only be described as a week long birthday extravaganza. I took the week off of work and we worked on the house, went shopping, ate, went shopping, did some sight seeing, ate and then shopped some more. Amazing. I probably should have thrown in "worked on the house" one more time, because we spent the first half of the trip working them to death. Thanks mom and dad!!! I wasn't kidding when I said I forgot to pick up the camera a lot during their visit, but I did manage to snap a few pictures.

Step one was to finish the back bedroom demo.

We only managed to get the plaster down and bagged before their arrival...we could have done more, but we got "distracted" by a work party the night before that we were only supposed to attend for 30 minutes. Whoops. This is also apparently the part where I "misplaced" my camera...because I don't have any pics after this. Just imagine, no lath and a little bit cleaner.

The next project I was really excited to tackle...and then I never got around to it. The front chimney has been ready to take down since our roof adventure and the front bedroom demo were finished. This is as far as I managed to make it.

In my defense, I promise I was working on other things....like the back bedroom demo.

Ok, maybe I made it to this point and after that mom arrived! She took down the whole chimney brick by brick. We dumped the bricks that were turning to dust and stacked the ones worth saving in the back yard (it's a really big stack).

Mom's amazing handiwork. Again, that damn camera just kind of disappeared during the whole "during" phase.

Boom. Chimney gone.

Now, maybe you are wondering what we did with all of that junk? Well, we finally broke down and rented a dumpster. It was a lot cheaper than paying the guys to tote it out. Although, maybe the sore muscles from carrying 7.5 tons of stuff out of that house wasn't worth it? Dad? Was it worth it? That's right, 7.5 TONS! That is just from the upstairs. I think P put it best, "our house just had gastric bypass".

HUGE dumpster, stuffed to the rim.

Dumpster and dust, or are those ghosts? Ooooo spooky.

All covered up and ready for pick-up the next day.

More Demo...of which I did not participate.

Ok, I participated a little. Only enough to get the paneling down and get these "before" shots. Although, now I am realizing that I don't have any actual before pics. I will try to post some later...actual before pics...taken back in November.
So clearly there are some past and present roof issues. Too bad, because I sure would like to keep this wallpaper hanging in the hallway. Ha.

Front room that used to be my closet...complete with new toilet just hanging out waiting to be installed.

Tape does not make for a good plaster repair job friends.

Neither does brick patterned contact paper.

Now, a "Recycle Kisses!" sticker on the other hand...awesome.

This is the part of the story where the scene ends and we have intermission, because after I took the pictures above I did not touch that room. Instead P's dad and bro tore. it. up. Have I mentioned how grateful I am?


After some back breaking cleanout it now looks like this.

And the bathroom looks like this!

Dumpster leaves in the next couple of days. So we have got to wrap. this. up. Back bedroom pics to come!