Day 56: Floored

So two things going on in the sun room.
1) THERE'S TILE (and it's grouted)!
I love it, it's beautiful. We had considered a lighter almost more tan and green tile. But with the coolness of the walls, and the tan mix color tile in both bathrooms, I felt at risk of looking like I just went with same tile everywhere. So I wanted something different, something that popped a bit, and I want this room itself to be fresh and sunny and vacation or escape feeling.
I am a little relieved after seeing tile about wall color. Still not my fav but it's growing on me, or at least not a neg for me. Just not something I am actively into. Like my tile. LOL.

I lied. There are three things. 2) is actually that thermostat. Why did he put it on the far wall? Why between two windows, and off center? Neither looks good nor is functional. Will have to be moved. I mean I get it; it was easier, not much wiring to be done, and I am SURE they did a lot of things the 'easier way'. I don't mind, it's how they make money. But when easier means annoying to use and eyesore, gotta call them out on it.

3) HARDWOOD ARRIVED! There is a bizarre warm front and then a POLAR VORTEX and so temp flux and humidity going on so installation a little delayed. But it's here! So excited to see this in master bedroom.


And now into the kitchen- MORE TILE FLOORING!


It was tough and we need to stay off it a little longer than normal as the floor was different heights and so in some spots they had to use more cement than others. I am a little nervous that will be a prob one day, but what to do? Looked like they really took their time and did it right, and we will not be stepping on it until after they give us the ok.



A little nervous about grout too. Wasn't sure about going dark on floor and wall, but then again especially on back splash, nervous about light showing stains near oven and such. And kitchen is very high traffic. So hoping that comes out well. The sun room worked well so I am thinking this should be fine.

Upstairs hall walls and trim are painted. There may be additional coats or touch ups after getting flooring upstairs but so far looking good. This is same color as in sun room, and again not my fav but looks decent, opens the area up, and in general works well enough.



And looking into the bedroom...


It's a mess! But check out that sweet new fan! This is where they have been spray painting cabinets our Lancaster White. But just about done with that and floor going in imminently. Love the Revere Pewter color on the walls. Thank you mom for the great rec!

Day 50: Trimming

Into the sun room:


Windows trimmed and room continuing to take finished shape. Can't wait for the tile!!!!!


*a note... I am nervous about the paint color. Baby bluer than I orig thought, and YES while it is changeable... now that it is painted, it's moved down the list of priorities... like - throughout this process I have been given a lot of ideas as far as "well it would only be a couple hundred bucks more for..." and they are great ideas. BUT, thing is... we are doing work to the kitchen, dining room, office, guestroom, master, sun room, living room, minor bathroom stuff, attic, halls/stairs, closets, outside (siding, three doorways, outside lighting), and eventually yard. There are probably 50 to 100 EASILY thought of things I could do slightly nicer, better, etc for 200-1000$ a piece. But the issue is, can't do them all. Have to pick and choose.
Also, at the end of this, we will be continuing to look for deals on new appliances, a new couch, new arm chair, guest bedroom furnishings, etc. Soooooooooo...it's not my fav color but FINGERS CROSSED it comes together because we certainly have someplace more important to put the $ to redo it.

Mess - one day this will be a dining room not a storage room... excited... they plan to paint it soon! We are going with the old kitchen color. Its like a bisque tan color. The yellow was bright and fun for a while but a little extreme considering most of the rooms have a more historic classic look:


And THANK YOU to MICHAELINE and MOM for providing our touch of Christmas this year! Was a sad year without a tree but I come home to this wreath every day and smile.

Days 35- 37: Goings on in the front of the house

So the outside being mostly done, we've had some goings on in the sun room and master bedroom.
Here's the front:



First Floor (Sun room):
View from in the living room-

To the left-

To the right-


The walls are kind of blueish grayish white (Ben Moore's LOOKOUT POINT), and doing MARSCAPONE for all trim work, and going with a sage-y tile. Looks a little dark in pics, but I think it will be really pretty.



In general going for a fresh outdoorsy sun room, something peaceful and different from the very warm rest of the first floor. Like a vacation from the house.


Meanwhile, upstairs:

To the right-

Looking straight into the room-

To the left-

Entering the closet-

To the right-

To the left-

Looking out of closet into the room-

Smartest Thing I Did

Putting in a powerful ceiling fan in the living room. Go me!

2011 Status Update

So... going into the year I had a meeting with my financial advisor, who felt that given the projects that I wanted done by end of 2013...

-roof
-attic conversion to bedrooms
-siding
-porch
-front door to porch

...that I should look into getting them done sooner than later. Based on reasonable expectations of my future income it seemed plausible. Until it suddenly wasn't. So the thing is, these things STILL need to get done by 2013. While it is very clear it will not be happening this year, it is also very clear to me that I need to remember that nothing is a given, and I need to really save as much as possible to get ready to have this done. Yes I would LOVE kitchen cabinets, or the stairwell to be fixed up, or the bathrooms to be done asap (these will get done this year), or a myriad of other tasks. But the fact is... if I want to have a kid, I need a room for him/her. So this year there is not going to be the kinds of transformations we saw last year. This year is more about functionality. My 2010 New Years Resolution was to become more handy. My 2011 is to become a better hostess. So just a heads up that the general theme of this year will be working more to make my house a more livable home by increasing storage, functionality, and organization.

Anywho. more pics to come soon, finally got some hanging done!!! (I've had some decorations that have been waiting forever to make it to the wall).

Other things to look forward to:
- finishing the bathrooms
- making a walkway to the front of the house
- better tending the garden
- creating an outdoor "hang out" area with table and chairs, and putting in a dog run
- organizing and cleaning out the porch to make it a usable area at least in the warmer days
- window treatments that are not paper blinds

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.

Vanity

It's Arriving @ Lowes SATURDAY




This is what it will look like in my bathroom (note the awesome sand paint, bath tile, bronzed faucet, and floor tile).

Lazy Updates

So I was a little lazy and lacking in wit last night and for the most part just posted pictures with little to no real explanation.

Here's where I stand. I need to paint the downstairs bathroom, a vanity for the downstairs bathroom, and I need to paint trim in the bedroom. Actually I need to paint trim everywhere. But here is why those first two things need to happen:

Once I paint the trim in the bedroom, I can
1) put the furniture in its final resting place
2) fill the furniture with the clothing currently residing everywhere but in drawers
3) take tupperwares of clothing out of attic (thereby clearing attic space) and go through and organize what I need and don't need (mostly basing it on what I can fit reasonably in two Tupperware, half a closet, a pant trolley, and drawers)
4) Have a clean organized room.
5) Organize desk area / unpack my office supplies currently loitering in Brendan's office.
6) Hang pictures (there by also clearing space in attic room and living room).

Once I paint and get the vanity for the downstairs I can:
1) Call the plumber to hook up toilet, sink, and radiator in downstairs bathroom, as well as check plumbing in shower
2) Put an above the toilet cabinet in
3) Begin unpacking toiletries in a more permanent manner
4) Clear out (take apart toilet) in upstairs bathroom
5) Floor upstairs bathroom
6) Return tile saw (clearing area in sun room)
7) Have plumber back to put in upstairs vanity and toilet (also clearing area in sun room)
8) Put in linen closet/shelving in nook by shower
9) Unpack rest of toiletries-towels-linens, freeing up space in living room, bedroom, attic, and closet downstairs.

At that point, ladies and gents... I will be able to walk in my sun room again, thereby being able to organize for a garage sale. I am not 100% sure I have enough for a real garage sale but I think I do... (sink, vanity, books, toys, porcelain dolls, may be a book shelf, dvds, stereo, etc...) also once I have the room to move and put things, I may have more that I don't even know of. I will also happily at that point take things from others to sell in their stead in a grand ol' joint sale.

After that? I get to actually focus on making the place presentable to have company (yay).

So there it is- the hold ups: I am lazy and sick of painting (getting over that this weekend) and Lowe's won't get me my vanity (supposedly arriving tonight).

It's Official!

I am a first time homebuyer and I gots the tax credit to proove it!!!!

Brendan is a Genius!

So the upstairs bathroom has been smelling particularly rank. I blamed it on it being upstairs, heat rising, it being humid out, no ventilation, etc... but all that being said- the prospect of it being unfixable seemed pretty miserable.

In typical fashion I looked to solve it. Unfortunately I didn't know where we packed the matches/lighters and so my candles were unhelpful.

BRENDAN, however, realized the uncovered pipe from the sink (that's been exposed for weeks), had dried out, and so septic vapours were coming up. My genius boyfriend poured some water in to fill the S trap, and covered with cellophane to keep it from drying.

WAA-LAA, no more stink.

New Pics & Updates coming soon!

So this one time Brendan & I were driving our friend to the train station after he had come to visit. It started out well but we ended up dealing with some bizarre intermittent rain storms that were so heavy, the highway of traffic slowed to like 5-10 miles an hour due to lack of visibility.
For hours we were in that car, continually on the brink of being late- then making up time. We dubbed it the lamest race against time ever. We lost it. Had to drive him all the way into the city to catch his bus.
But this feels like that. I have all the stress of running late, lacking time, needing to get things done... but I can't really do anything until Friday. So every day I come into work exhausted and moderately panicking and can't do anything about it. I've been distracting myself googling bathroom vanities. LOTS and LOTS of bathroom vanities.

Booked the moving truck. Budget (name of the brand): 250$ with tax and all for 2 full days, unlimited miles. I think that will work well. I was going to use U-Haul but it was like 130 for the truck and included 48 miles for one day. Just the trip from my apartment to the house is greater than 48 miles, never mind storage space or making more than one trip, ... so I went with Budget. Doesn't come with the dolly cart like my UHaul one would have, but I can try to get one of those myself.

Anyways... back to work. :)

How Appropriate

From dinner last Saturday...

Odds & Ends...well really just odds...

I get inspired by some unique items. No clue where they will go in the house.


Found this at the dollar store...isn't it dignified looking?




Easter gift from Brendan as I had longed for it whilst fan shopping at Lowes and he noticed!




I thought she was pretty (came from Marshall's).




Hmmm,... seems like I have a thing for dignified water dwellers. Got this bad boy from Home Goods.

Recycling...

So OK, it's not bad enough that I have turned to blogging to sort of let everyone know what's going on with the house, but now I am plagiarizing my own emails to use as blog material. Who cares- it's good for the environment!

:)

Picture updates from last weekend to come, but until then... this is where I stand:

Giving up for now on:
fireplace, baseboard heating, finishing bathrooms before moving, and finishing kitchen before next year.

Pending giving up:
residing the house, finishing the sun room. (the outside looks dreadful and will be more noticeable as the weather gets nicer. Can't reside until I am ready to fix/replace sun room windows because they might be a different size. Can't replace windows until I am ready to insulate the walls and fix it up because it would be silly to spend the money on better windows is the walls and floor are still uninsulated)

Reasons why:
have to upgrade electric. had to pay for permits and inspections by licenced electrician, may need to put in hard wired smoke and carbon detectors, will need to pay for some of the painting and trim work that I originally thought I could do myself, some plumbing needed in the bathrooms to put in scald guards, all of which at this point is totalling about 6-8K.

Good News:
getting my 7 radiators picked up, cleaned (via sandblaster), repainted, and dropped back off for about 2/3s of what it was originally quoted. Hooray for the benefits of paying cash and good family friends.
Also, while it stinks that I will be paying for some of the painting, they are giving me good rates on the labor, and I think in the end I will be both happy to have my life back sooner, as well as happier with the final result.

Currently: wall work is being finished, Brendan and father should be doing the floors this weekend, and in between that there shall be continued painting of the upstairs. Electric should be mostly done this week.

Making Up for Lost Time

So this weekend felt a little bit lost because a lot of time was spent speaking with and dealing with contractors. I Got a few plumbers in to do radiator estimates, and a couple of guys to discuss walls. In the end I chose a wall guy, who is actually a general contractor named Steve, and his son John (who it turns out I went to school with) to do the electric. They were particularly helpful in going over everything, sharing honest opinions and helping me organize my head without making it seem like I was crazy. It is these two who may make my wildest ideas come true. Just you wait.

In the mean time here is what we did:

Pulled out the ceiling in the kitchen.




Dad making short work of the moldings with his large pry-bar.




Brendan proving his smaller pry bar is not made for Play Skool.




Remnants:






Colors Discovered Under the the Moldings:










Problems (dryer vent was left outside the washer/dryer closet and the door way to the kitchen from the downstairs office/bedroom is a lil' funky):






Possibilities (cuz I like to end on a high note!) new vanity and shelf:




BTW, Mom and I were there managing the debris.