What's New?

First...MY KITTY relaxing in the living room:



OK... enough kitties...Updates:

getting rid of the wholes in the door by hammering in ill fitting white pegs...



peeling off the tape...this is what blue tape did...


peeling off the tape...this is what the green tape did...


LESSON: GO GREEN!


bought this chair...(along with a coffee and side table)...


my living room is now cozy...



and so we had a PARTY! (well invited over 2 friends)...



This is my porch. Apparently there are people in town complaining about the appearance of my porch hurting their property values. So instead of spending my money on a sink in my bathroom, or insulating pipes in my basement, or getting a basement door, or windows that close, or screens without holes, or cabinets in my kitchen, or up to code plumbing with scald guards, or fix the grout in my shower, or blinds for the rest of my house other than bedroom, or shelves in my pantry,... I could go on...

THEY believe TOP of that list is trimming the hedges to proper shape, putting in a walkway to a front door I don't use, and emptying a porch I use as convenient storage and instead storing tools, tiles, and stuff I plan to sell in a basement or attic or garage where it's not as climate controlled or easily accessible, SO THAT when they drive by... the look of my front porch is more appealing to them.




SO I will be figuring out how to get a happy medium accomplished AND FAST.

Two Months

This past weekend marks two months since the blizzardy day I closed on the house (according to my documents). Technically I signed over power of attorney that day so my lawyer could close for me (the sellers didn't want to come out in the blizzard) and we dated the documents Feb 10 so my rate lock wouldn't expire.

So here I am 2 months later. Sunday, lugging a few boxes in, kinda mystified that move-in is around the corner. It doesn't look move-inable yet but it's gobs better than it began.

So far brought in my Christmas decorations, and about 10 boxes of books, cds, and dvds. Also brought the spare towels and some other odds and ends...
...One small step for moving, one giant leap for making my house a home.

Walls & Floors

Painting continued... we finished the bedroom and upstairs bathroom. Well, really I ran off with Aunt Debbie and crew to Lowes, and Mrs. Ehlers finished painting the bedroom and upstairs bathroom.






Aidan came upstairs to "help".




Actually he, Brendan, and Mr. Ehlers were rockstars on the floors. Note the lovely piece of black walnut I have as an accent now.






By the way, Mr. Ehlers came back for the next week+ to finish the floors. Things took longer because we got like half a foot of water in our basement and saturated the wood.

Good Things Come in Threes: Aunt Debbie, Dad, and Nanie

Two Notes:
1) Yay! Dad got to see my house for the first time and didn't hate it! Yay for artistic vision.
2) Aunt Debbie is not pictured and that drastically understates her participation, it's just that she moves so darn fast you can't capture her on film!

Aunt Debbie and I took turns trying to scrape this out. It was harder than it looks.




We also worked to get up tile and take off window dressings.




Took out the vanity in the downstairs bathroom. Turns out it went straight through the wall!






Unpictured: pulled out the rest of the staples in stairwell and floor in living room and hallway, moved most of the scraps and junk to the garage, got rid of remaining wall paper, pulled out cabinets in downstairs bathroom, uncovered the rest of the radiators, put a door over the opening to my basement where animals could get in, and I am sure there were more things, but off the top of my head that was Saturday!

Just a Thought or Two

-Pull up pee smelling carpet and replace or check for hardwood floors
-Take down wallpaper everywhere
-Paint!
-Mend the grout in bathroom tiles
-Replace the P trap with S
-trap in bathroom (or vice versa) I just know it has the wrong one.
-Put in support beams in garage
-Throw out greenhouse structure access area to basement and replace with lockable doors
-Make walkway up to house
-Repair driveway potholes
-Replace Windows in the front, in particular larger picture windows
-Reside house in a french country blue with gray or off white trim
-Put in gas fireplace with access from sun room and living room where window separating those two rooms is (take out window and build mantle and wall)
-Brick patio out back
-Knock down old stairwell and replace with a more open structure taking out a closet (this is subject to feasibility)
-Put in new cabinets in kitchen
-Make tile back splash for kitchen
-Look into cheap flooring for kitchen and bathrooms (that peel and stick tile I saw on HG TV)
-Replace support beams in basement
-Clean out and try to get to blocked off areas of basement
-Expand room in front to make full third bedroom
-Move vent from sun room back to third upstairs bedroom (apparently used to be there and moved to sun room)
-New roof all one level and with dormers.