1924 Cottage

Wrapping Up the Bathroom

2011-12-31T19:13:00.020-05:00

We've been slack about updating around here. We've got a finished bathroom and I still haven't blogged about it. I blame life. It gets in the way. I also blame the fact that I've got a semi-busted hand from ripping out our kitchen floors...but that's another blog post. That I might do. In the next year.

Regardless, I've convinced myself that I have to finish blogging about the bathroom before the new year. That starts in less than three hours. So we're going to wrap it all up in one post. God help us.

After we refinished our floors we set out to install beadboard and our new sink. Not alot to the bead board. Went in easy peasy.

After the bead board went in, Neil set out to install the sink. We wanted a console sink much like this beauty from Pottery Barn:

However, we couldn't stomach the $1,200 price. So we searched around and found an exact match for alot less via Signature Hardware. The shipping was free(!) and super quick. And they managed to get the huge tractor trailer up the narrow historic street.

The sink was super easy to install and the directions were clear and after about an hour, we had a working sink.

At first, I was nervous about the sink. Compared to the pedestal sink - the new one is HUGE! For the first day or so I felt that it took up too much space and that it dwarfed the room. Now, I'm loving it and all of the counter space that it provides.

After installing the sink, we realized that next to the white sink and white trim, our bisque/cream toilet looked well, gross. So, 4 separate trips to Home Depot and Lowes we found a new Kohler in white and installed it.

Lovely? Lovely.

Throughout this ordeal you might've noticed that we had plywood over the window. This was due to a renovation mishap that involved a dinky stick, sanding, and a broken window.

The window had some rotten wood and needed serious work, so we hired a local window restoration company to come and take the window and rebuild it, but in privacy glass and re-install it. When they reinstalled it, we discovered that most of the ropes that operate the weights were broken, so we received fresh ropes too.

After the window was installed, we made the executive decision to install new trim. The old trim just WOULD. NOT. strip and it had taken a beating during extracting the window. Luckily, Neil's been doing trim carpentry most of his life so he was able to trim out the window to look almost exactly like the original mouldings. He had quite the setup on the lawn and we had several people stop and comment on the workshop set up.

With the window in and trimmed, we finished up the mouldings for the beadboard. 7 1/2 speed base on the bottom and a basic chair rail at the top to give it more edge.

After puttying nail holes and caulking everything within an inch of our lives, the bathroom looked like this and was ready for paint.

Painting was easy and we were thrilled when the paint started going up.

We chose Sherwin Williams "Monorail Silver" for the walls and Allen + Roth/Valspar's "Subway Tile" for the trim. We added a few new accessories, cleaned it up a bit, and our bathroom finally was finished. LOOK!

I cannot tell you how proud we are of this bathroom. We took it from ordinary blah, to something sleek but still true to the time period of the house. It feels so chic and like something you'd see in a boutique hotel.

And just to give perspective - here's a poorly done side by side showing the before and after. Sadly, I had to gank the listing photo from 2006 because my original photos died on my computer.

Who knew that it could be so saucy? And who knew that my step-dad falling through the ceiling in 2009 would lead to a beautiful bathroom. In 2011.

I plan on doing a source post/what it cost us post in the near future, not to brag, but because I find those type of things helpful.

Until then, I'm going to lust after my finally finished bathroom -- and enjoy the last few hours of 2011.

Absolutely love it. <3

Evolution of the Bathroom Floor Part 2

2011-10-30T12:31:00.006-04:00

When we last updated you, gentle reader, the bathroom floors looked like this:

We had pried all the floor up and removed most of the felt paper/glue from the linolium using various methods. We had a few patches of stuff that wouldn't come up, but felt confident we could sand it out.

Neil took on the task of sanding and staining the floors - as I was freezing my butt off at a yard sale in March.

He started by sanding with 40 grit sandpaper on a palm sander and belt sander. Which yielded these results:

After using the 40 grit to remove the remnants he switched to 120 to level out the floor and finished with a 220 to make everything nice and pretty.

Once everything was sanded he put down a coat of wood conditioner which makes the floor absorb stain more evenly. After letting that soak in, he put down the stain and let it dry for a couple of hours followed by clear coat.

We used Miniwax "Golden Pecan" - which happened to match the floors outside of the bathroom perfectly.

The bathroom floors are on the left of the line, the hallway floors to the right.

Ironically, Neil had a sample of the Golden Pecan in his truck and we put it down for giggles -- not expecting to come anywhere near a match. There you have it.

The entire process staining/sealing/etc took about 12 hours (two six hour afternoons....and only two because we decided to put another layer of stain on to make the floors darker than how they look in the pictures). We used a water based polyurethane on the floor simply because it dries faster and this is our only bathroom. Also, we find that water based poly smells less than other products and since I have severe migraines that tend to be triggered by smells we decided to play it safe. The smell wasn't bad at all and had cleared out of the house after 3 days.

All and all, we're pretty proud of ourselves. We had zero experience doing floors of any kind and we think they turned out pretty damn good.

Yay!

Bathroom Shower Progres

2011-08-24T18:06:00.000-04:00

We're going to be a bit delayed with the bathroom reveal. We had a tragic accident involving paint, freshly refinished hardwood floors and a lack of a drop cloth. So until we can refinish the floors, again, I thought I'd show some bits and pieces of our reno.

The bathroom shower was gross. Not even going to lie. The white grout absorbed every dirt/scum you could imagine. The tile was basic standard contractors tile. And it was uneven. The tiles didn't line up and there was a big bulge in one of the shower walls. Needless to say, it needed to go.

During out bout with the flu in January, Neil and I were forced to take a realistic look at our expectations of finishing the bathroom - specifically with tiling the shower. While we wanted to try it, we also realized that it's taken us almost three years to get to this point. And when it's your only bathroom? You have to get serious. So, if we wanted a working shower, we should hire someone else to do it for us. Luckily, with Neil working in the construction industry, he called upon his tile guy to help us out.

We agreed to take care of the demo. Neil and I had a mutual agreement to take care of it the evening before the tile guy came. Then I had the phone call from hell, specifically in regards to my student loans. I had been battling for FOUR MONTHS to try to get my loans deferred. According to the company, all I needed to do was show my W-2 and *poof* my loans would be deferred. However, I'm an independent contractor, so I have a 1099 for tax purposes. To make a long story short, a 1099, letter from my employer, AND my tax returns were not sufficient enough evidence for the student loans people to determine if I could make my payment. They actually argued with me that a 1099 is not a legal document and was insufficient proof of wages earned. At which point I became completely belligerent, starting looking up tax laws while on the phone, demanding a supervisor, etc. To make a long story even shorter, the supervisor eventually got on the phone and apologized and told me that they did, in fact, have had sufficient proof for months to defer the loans, but they had, "dropped the ball."

You think?

So, I hung up the phone, grabbed a glass of wine, and proceeded to wail the hell out of the tile wall. Didn't even take off my work clothes, I was THAT pissed.

Special note: I took the action shot on my own. I am *that* talented.

Neil said when he walked through the door he knew something was up from the music blaring and the constant pounding. He was pretty impressed with the amount of progress I had made thanks to the rage I had coursing through my veins.

After pulling the tile completely down, we were able to see why there was a bulge. When the tile was done, it appears that they removed the lathing to a point and replaced it with drywall as a backer board, and then tiled all the way up. Thus, there was two different thicknesses of material on the wall - causing an uneven surface.

At this point, I was feeling remarkably stress free (amazing how demo is therapeutic) and turned it over to Neil to remove the rest of the wall, as we had decided to tile to the ceiling.

After removing everything, we inspected around the tub for damage (only a small chip - which was my fault for not throwing something down to protect it) and discovered that the tub had no insulation surrounding it.

Of course, part of it faced an exterior wall - so really, why would we expect it to have insulation?

Meanwhile, the cat was fascinated.

Regarding the lack of insulation, we decided to improvise and stuff some left over insulation between the tub and the walls. And let me tell you, it has made a HUGE different. I used to be able to make my hot baths last about 20-25 minutes before the water cooled off to the point of getting out or having to refill with hot water. Now I get 40-50 minutes of a hot bath before having to refill/get out. It's absolutely amazing! And so worth the five minutes.

The next day, the tile guy came to put up the permabase and thinset. It took him two days to get the walls even, which made Neil and I both SUPER thankful that we hadn't taken on this ourselves. Because we would've ended up right back where we started - with uneven tile and bulging walls. I did, however, discover that I LOVE the smell of permabase. Yes, I know how weird that sounds. I'm a weird person.

After another two days of work (he was fitting us in between other jobs) we had this!

You guys, I actually squealed when I walked in and saw it. Such a drastic change from before.

While we were at it, I convinced Neil to switch out the hardware from this

to this:

Those beauties are thanks to Kim from Newly Woodwards. She has the same set in her bathroom and was nice enough to share the source.

So there you have it. I'll have a final picture when we do our final reveal - but we think the shower has improved by LEAPS and BOUNDS. Best $500 we ever spent.

What do you think?

Our Summer Thus Far

2011-08-01T17:04:00.012-04:00

We've been a bit quiet on the blog lately. We've had a busy summer one that's had amazing highs, and amazing lows. We've barely been home and when we have, honestly its been way too hot to do anything other than curse our under performing AC unit. However, underperforming or not, we're still happy to have AC that works and cools the house. Even if it does take forever and a day.

So. What have we been up to?

May:

- My brother-in law and his girlfriend came down for an all day concert in the beginning of May. 30,000+ people and we managed to get pretty close. It was a great time.

- I hosted a bridal luncheon for my boss and her fiance at the local Thai place. It was AMAZING, if I do say so myself. Chocolate covered fortune cookies for the win.

- I assisted my brother with shooting my bosses engagement photos and managed not to drown in the humidity. A behind the scenes look:

-Traveled to see two old college friends get married. It was great to have all of our old buddies together (some even came from France) to celebrate.

-One of my BFF's came down for the weekend from Wisconsin. We went to the beach (where I received the most epic sunburn ever), went to several wineries, and to the mountains all within 3 days.

-Neil, my brother, and I road tripped to Nashville where we got to do an amazing photoshoot with Sean and Mel McLellan of McLellan Style.. We shot at the Old Tennessee State Prison (you know it from The Green Mile and Earnest Goes to Jail) and it was an amazing expeirence. The architecture, the history....it was all amazing. Here's a few behind the scenes pictures.

June:

-June started out pretty crappy for us. We had to make the painful decision to put our Rottie, Maya, down. She was recently diagnosed with Cushing's disease and was not responding to the treatment in a positive manner. Plus, the treatment of the Cushing's was making her multiple neurological problems worse. To the point where she couldn't walk. It was, hands down, one of the toughest things we've ever had to do as a couple. Although it still stings everyday, we are comforted in the fact that Maya is in no more pain and out there, somewhere, living the good life. While we didn't have her long (we rescued her from a neighbor and had her three short years) she made such a lasting impression with everyone she met and we will fondly remember her and her multiple idiosyncrasies. We're also thankful for the full support of our vets and family members during this tough time.

-We had whirlwind wedding weekend that involved two weddings in two states. My brother and I did the photography for the wedding on Friday night. Great setting in Colonial Williamsburg, but man was it hot. I'm also surprised that we didn't get kicked out as my brother, Neil, and I were running around at 1am the morning of the wedding with flashlights and cameras trying to scope out the best places to do bridal portraits.

The Saturday night wedding was held in the mountains of NC, which was a nice 20 degrees cooler from the wedding the day before. It was nice to sit back and relax and just enjoyt he wedding from a guests perspective. Cute location!

July:

-Neil and I traveled up to WV to see my dad and
grandfather. It was nice to see them and catch up. On our way home we stopped at the New River Gorge Bridge to take in the sights.

-A family member had surgery and has not been doing well, prompting me to take a few days off of work and travel 1.5 hours away to offer support to other family members. Luckily, they are out of the hospital and in a facility that will help them regain strength. However, its one of those situations that everyone dreads when a family member gets older and you're left with questions about their ability to care for themselves.

So. We've still got a full month to go before summer is "over". Luckily we don't have any travel plans, but we do have some fun festivities planned with the family, friends, and neighbors. We also plan on chilling until the weather becomes bearable. It's honestly too hot to do anything and thus, our yard looks a hot mess. As usual. Meanwhile, we're planning things to do once it gets cooler, and projects we'd like to start around the house.

How's your summer been?

Curb Appeal....if you squint your eyes.

2011-07-28T16:44:00.005-04:00

We've been trying to work on the curb appeal of the house lately. Small things like painting the railing on the porch, painting the window boxes, the shutters (that's a whole other post) etc.

We've had moderate success with our flower beds out front. I've been going for cottage/country garden and I would say we almost achieved it.

And by almost meaning the bed next to it did absolutely nothing. It's really kind of embarrassing. I mean, we did the exact same thing to both beds, same amount of water, mulch, plants, etc. One just took off and the other well.....

And yes, our grass is tall. It's in the high 90's every day with ungodly humidity. And its raining every other day. We can't keep up.

So to counteract our lack of gardening abilities....we hung the most epic flag our street has seen.

I am hopeful that our local garden centers will have a sale so I can grab some established black eyed susans to fill in the gaps on the other bed. Because really, it looks BAAAADDDD.

Any suggestions on how to fix it?

......who knew prison could be beautiful?

2011-06-02T00:08:00.003-04:00

Believe it or not, we have a finished bathroom! I haven't posted photos yet because I've been busy preparing for a scheduled visit to prison.

Proof is in the pictures. And yes, we are that weird -- and that awesome.

Now that we've gotten that out of the way. Expect a full detailed report....coming soon.

Meanwhile -- enjoy the photos!

I think the paint is mocking me

2011-04-30T11:00:00.006-04:00

The fact that I'm this close to finishing this damn bathroom -- makes the painting process that more complicated. Really -- all we have to do is sand down the walls, paint, and get a new trim kit, because brain trust here ordered the same kit we already have and we're done.

So I've had some paint on the walls for awhile. Our intended soothing blue/gray combo turned out almost baby blue. And really? Almost everyone in our neighborhood who has their house for sale has a blue gray bathroom. So we scratched that. Inspired by multiple bloggers who had been putting up beautiful pictures of various grays - we decided to go that route.

Simple -- yes? No. Why is paint such a hard thing to do? I seem to be the only person in the world who can't find a paint color they like. Which shocks me, because I picked the entire paint color of the interior of the house off of a paint chip in Lowes. Same with previous apartments paint choices. So why is my bathroom kicking my ass? Am I missing a chromosome that is vital for picking out decent paint? Did I miss that class in home ownership 101? But,I digress.

Anyway:

Ignore the mess. We're renovating and we're past the point of caring to clean up for a photo. And yes, there's a reason and a story as to why the window was missing and boarded up. Time and place for everything...

The bottom is Martha Stewart's Bedford Gray which looks great during the day (and on everyone's walls but mine) - but turns into a dirty looking beige at night. The horrific middle color? Like pea soup vomit? Sherwin Williams Austere Gray. Which is supposed to look like this:

I really wanted Austere Gray to work. Especially since we would be getting the paint for free, but I couldn't live with the ugly green undertones. Side note, Neil has clients who are using it in their bathroom -- looks exactly like the damn swatch. Seriously.

Our tentative winner is Sherwin Williams Monorail Silver. Its the first sample we've both liked during the day and at night. And with natural light and without. Cool. We have a winner - paint the damn thing and call it a day.

Except we need to paint the trim. And by trim I mean all of the bead board we just installed. Which takes up the bottom half of the wall. I wanted something that was a crisp white, but not primer white. That didn't wash out, look dirty, or make my new crisp white subway tile shower look dingy. So, 24 paint chips later....

Believe me when I say those are, in fact, two different paint colors. We ended up going with the top - Allen + Roth by Valspar's "Subway Tile".

So I sucked it up and pulled the trigger and started painting yesterday. Not only was my primer all jacked up and frothy (obviously I didn't stir it enough) no doubt causing more work today, but after I put the first round of the white on the trim and bead board? My new shower tile looks a dingy shade of white.

*headdesk*

I really don't have it in me to pick another color. The only other thing I can do is primer white -- and just -- no. So, I think I'm going to ignore it and let Neil paint the rest of the day. Because I just might lose it trying to figure out how to solve this.

Is this over yet?

Street Love

2011-04-29T23:23:00.002-04:00

Our street is beautiful in the spring.

Well that was a fail......

2011-04-14T17:32:00.005-04:00

So I saw the most BEAUTIFUL tub trim set over in Kim's bathroom at Newly Woodwards. It is gorgeous and amazing. It's exactly what I wanted. (Not to mention her lights, but I'm still trying to warm Neil up to those...) So I whipped out the card and ordered them.

The UPS guy literally just delivered them 5 minutes ago. I ripped open the box.....and had to slap my hand to my eye to keep it from twitching out of my skull. The problem? I ordered the trim set in white porcelain, instead of chrome. In fact, I ordered the same damn trim kit that's currently installed in my bathroom. You know, the one I'm trying to get rid of.

Nice, Sarah, nice.

I wonder if I can find the UPS guy and get it back on the truck?

Meanwhile, I will continue to keep my hand pressed to my eye - in the hope that it will stop twitching so I can overcome my stupidity, order the right trim kit, and get the bathroom done.

Evolution of the Bathroom Floor

2011-04-09T17:12:00.008-04:00

To distract myself from the fact that our bathroom sink is being installed right now...and I'm pretty sure I've made a HUGE design mistake...I'm going to talk about our bathroom floors. I've only been hinting at them for a month.
-----

For months we've been curious about the condition of the bathroom floors - especially after last years teaser of the fun to come.

.

When we last left you, gentle readers, our bathroom floor consisted of white painted sub floor, on top of icky yellow vinyl floor. On top of another layer of sub floor. On top of linoleum. On top of hardwood floors. One day, we had enough and just ripped the hell out of everything. Excuse the craptastic cell phone shots -- it's all we had to work with.

We were able to cut down through each layer fairly quickly. Due to the quickness, we thought we were going to be able to do this in an afternoon. Then we got to the linolium.

Ugly, ain't it?

Linoleum. Oh, how we hate the Linoleum. We couldn't get it up. Industrial floor scrapper? Wouldn't touch it. Heat gun? Pffft. Cutting it into strips and trying to remove it that way? Left behind the felt paper which created an even bigger mess. We seriously spent over two hours trying to just peel SOMETHING up. Hot water and scraping? HAHAHAHA. I was at the point where I was ready to throw in the towel and just tile over it when Neil remembered that he had an oscillating tool with a scraping attachment in his work truck. At which point I was annoyed as hell because seriously? It took you two hours to remember that?

So we got that bad boy running and starting making "progress"....

Until I burned out the motor not two hours into using it. Not impressed Rockwell. I am however, impressed with Lowe's replacing it. Yay warranty! Anyway, we were left with this....

At which point Neil and I both seriously questioned a)our sanity, b)the likelihood of removing the linoleum, and c)our sanity. Tile started looking like a viable option again.

Instead, we got pissed off. And we played around with different combos of stuff off the internet until we found what worked for us. After several days of blood, sweat, tears, and swear words....we were greeted with this:

Just imagine the angels singing and other stuff. You can't really tell from the picture (once again, crappy cell phone pic) but they're heart pine - and pretty much flawless. We absolutely adore them. And it was totally worth the effort to get them exposed.

Sanding/staining is another post....but we'd like to share what worked for us.

We scoured the Internet looking for ways to remove linoleum. We tried almost every method and here's how we scored.

Suggestion: Industrial Floor Scraper. Results: FAIL. Didn't put a dent into the floor.

Suggestion: Soak the floor with denatured alcohol or mineral spirits. Allow floor to absorb then scape up. RESULTS: FAIL. Although I did get kind of loopy from the smells.

Suggestion: Use a steamer to loosen up the felt paper/glue, then scrape up. Results: FAIL. The room steamed up quickly, I opened up my pores, but we were only able to get little pieces up.

Suggestion: Lay down a towel. Soak towel with hot water. Allow to sit for 5-10 minutes. Remove towel, scrape up floor. Results: We had moderate success with this. You have to be quick and use a lot of strength, but we were able to clear a section up with this method. Be advised. It makes the floor look like patches of vomit on the floor. See?

Suggestion: Heat Gun. Heat the hell out of it and scrape. Results? This was our winner. We used a two person method - I would heat up the patches and Neil would then scrape the hell out of it with an industrial hand held scraper. It required ALOT of effort - but with the two of us we were able to knock it out in about two hours.

So there you have it. We found the best results with the heat gun and hot water. It took us the better part of three days to complete it and I think it was a worth while effort. Next up.....sanding and staining!

A hammer fixes everything...

2011-04-02T12:32:00.003-04:00

I had some rage issues last night.

I feel much better now.

New tile is going in as we type. And the best part? We're not doing it!!!!

....this looks ok......right?

2011-03-19T00:05:00.004-04:00

So.

I'm under the gun here. I've got a sink arriving on 48' foot tractor trailer on Monday. (Side note, I have NO IDEA how the tractor trailer is going to get down our narrow historic streets. The very nice coordinator lady assured me the driver will have a pallet jack and can get it to me. Even if he has to park a bajillion blocks away.) Yes, a sink. For my bathroom. That's literally a floor stain and two paint color choices away from completion. Not counting the work involved with applying said choices, but work with me here.

But let's back up a minute. Remember when I was talking bathroom inspiration a few weeks back? Neil and I were determined to build a console sink on our own -- as the cheapest sink I liked had a staggering price tag of $1,200. So we put it on the back burner.

But then came the need to apply for the HELOC loan, which meant the bathroom needed to be finished. I can't imagine why a appraiser wouldn't find painted wood subfloor charming (sarcasm), but I don't make the rules. I just have to follow them to get money. Which meant we would have to figure out the flooring situation. Long story short: we ripped down to the original hardwoods. And they're pretty much flawless. And beautiful. (I have pictures, and a camera chord now...!!! So I can prove this) But don't match the color of the rest of the wood. Hell, all of the wood has different colors, but that's another headache.

Once the floors were up, we were both leveled with the flu and had a week of couch time to contemplate the bathroom situation in which we said "fuck this" we're finishing it if it kills us. Also, we're tired of doing it ourselves...we're going on year three of the bathroom being torn apart. Obviously we're not fast workers. Or motivated. So we decided to suck it up and dig into savings and get it done and OVER WITH. Which means new sink, tile, etc (including subs to install some of this stuff) because if we're ripping out a bunch of stuff to stain the floors - might as well replace it back with what you want, right?

So this brings me back to the sink. Bear with me, it's after midnight and I didn't finish working until after 9. After pricing out what it would cost us to make the sink ($600 just for the legs. I literally fell out when we got the quote back.) we both jumped when this beauty came on our radar.

This except with Carrara marble. For less than $900 and FREE SHIPPING. It's exactly what I've been looking for, at a price I can swallow, and as long as its not ugly as sin I'm going to make it work.

So now that I have this arriving in my house in 72 hours, I need to pick floor stain. Because I can't install the damn thing until the floors are stained. I'm apprehensive about picking stain because I don't want to go to dark. Or too light. I want to come as close to the hallway stain but not matchy matchy. Because I know when we sell this house one day -- some buyer is going to bitch about not liking the transition of the colors from the hallway to the bathroom -- that's if they can even get past having hardwoods in the bathroom in the first place.

I want something that will look good with a gray or gray/blue or silver or silver/gray paint color. That will also compliment the marble. Because I am not painting this bathroom again. I'm also afraid to commit to a color choice because I've lost my ability to find the perfect shade of paint for this space.

Anywhoo...this looks ok.....right? Minus the tile color. We're going with a white color.

The floors look similar to the color of the hallway stain. The gray is the general family we're shooting for should I ever get over my neurosis and commit to a color. And the white, I'm not even going to launch into my epic tail of trying to find the right color for the bead board.

Thoughts? Got an idea of what stain color would come close to this? While we're at it...anyone gotta a paint color in the gray/blue/silver family they like? I'm also all ears if you have any white feedback. For those of you still reading at home here's what we've tried and failed: SW Austere Gray (it looks like pea soup) Martha Stewart's Bradford Gray (which is perfect in the day, but turns beige at night) and Behr's Cloudy Day (which has turned into a sickening baby blue for the last six months its been in my bathroom).

You know, this would be alot easier if I had just put down vinyl.

Where the hell is my camera cord?

2011-03-17T17:07:00.003-04:00

So, we've lost a lot of things lately. A wedding ring (the night before the wedding none the less), a netflix disk, the unedited video from the wedding, W-2 forms, a camera cord, debit card....you name it, we've lost it. So Neil ordered another camera cord for me, because I'm DYING to show you the progress around the house. Except for the fact that the replacement camera cord.....is lost as well.

I think we need to purge the house and give it a deep, deep clean. I also think we need to get some sort of organization system going - stat!

---

Meanwhile, I'm absolutely in love with the project the DIY DIVA is doing for Habitat for Humanity. Brilliant!

---

But where in the hell is my camera cord?

Ashes, Ashes.....

2011-02-25T00:11:00.004-05:00

Ah Murphy. You grace our house again. Last week we set a drop dead deadline to get all of the repairs done so we could have the appraisal for our HELOC loan. We even recruited my family to come over and help. And we had honest to God progress. REAL progress. Progress that would've been epic and built upon had Neil and I not been leveled with the flu this week. So we've lost this week and realistically next week as we both recover.

But on the plus side, we're down to the hardwoods in our bathroom. Allegedly I say, as our bathroom floor is currently covered with a weeks worth of clothing that hasn't been washed. Maybe when I can clear a path to the washer and dryer I can confirm. But that requires energy. And I used that up today taking Neil to the doctor and walking the dogs four houses up the street and back.

Bless it.....

A Statement.....

2011-02-12T19:45:00.001-05:00

There is a special place in hell reserved for people who put linoleum floor over hardwoods without using subfloor.

Wanna take a guess at what we've been doing for the last 9 hours?

More to come soon!

Randomness

2011-02-02T22:57:00.004-05:00

In bullet points tonight...because that's how we roll.

- I can't find my camera cord. Which irritates me to no end because I need to talk about the color we painted the shutters. So I can figure out what color to paint my front door and planter boxes to coordinate. Or our new dining room set that we scored for $90. Madness, I tell you.

- Received some reliable gossip for the house next door. If it's true, we're going to all breathe a sigh of relief.

- We're being forced to do some quick repairs for a HELOC loan we need to take out. I'm a little irritated that I'm having to do said repairs so that I will, "get the best appraisal for the property." (Side note: No shit, Sherlock, I work in real-estate...I understand the concept of an appraisal.) However, I would be even more irritated than I already am if I were having to do said repairs, to get the loan, to undo the repairs and redo the house. If I recall correctly, The Diva went through some asinine hoops involving counter tops when moving into the station. Side note #2: I sound like a stalker.

But really, why the hell do I have to put flooring onto my painted subfloor to get this loan, only to rip it out in a few months? Hell, if I put some effort into it, I can make the floor look much better than any floor out there. It's going to cost my more money and time...so screw it. We'll rip the floor in the next couple of weeks. But really, what if I were getting a HELOC to redo my bathroom? What the hell is the point of making repairs to get money to make more repairs?

*sigh*

- Anyone got any advice on how to get rid of a bunch of leaves in a backyard? We can't burn them and we just missed the last leaf pickup. I'm thinking of mowing them down. But there's a lot of those suckers.

That is all.

This should be interesting.......

2011-01-30T11:27:00.001-05:00

The house next door to us is under contract. Let's hope for good neighbors!

Serious thoughts.....

2011-01-28T10:47:00.003-05:00

Today's post at Young House Love really stuck with me. I've been thinking about the two families all morning. This is the second house blog post this month I've seen about house fires. House fires have been on my mind for almost two years. Right around Thanksgiving of 2009 -- a house at the end of our street caught fire. If I remember correctly, it was an electrical fire, and luckily was put out before the house was completely engulfed. Thankfully the people inside escaped without harm. The house still stands -- boarded up and charred - a silent reminder that it could happen to anyone.

Right after the fire, I was panicked. I wanted all of our electrical checked. I wanted wiring replaced, especially in our death trap of an attic. I wanted to prevent something like that from happening to us. However, I lost my job and had taken a part time job with less pay, less hours. The money just wasn't there.

Fast forward to now. The money still isn't there. But I've spent the better part of the hour walking around our house just thinking. What would we lose? Frivolous things like Neil's video games, all of my books, tons of clothes, our new cookware that was a fabulous wedding present. But the more serious things came to mind: our wedding pictures that we just got in the mail (they've already been moved to the fireproof safe and will eventually go to the safety deposit box), jewelry from my grandmother and great grandmother, furniture that's been passed down for generations, my beloved art collection. All of these things and so much more that are priceless and can't be replaced. But the most important things are currently asleep on the couch with me as I type this: Maya, Toby, and Trouble. Our animals...they're our children. And really, besides our health and theirs, nothing else really matters.

The money probably isn't going to be there for awhile. But perhaps its time to re prioritize. We may not be able to afford to have the house re-wired, but we can afford to have an electrician come out and tell us what needs to be done. We can take the time to inventory the house and get an updated list of our belongings. We can check the batteries in the smoke detectors. We can put the cat's carrier in the laundry room, where he sleeps at night, in case of a quick escape. We can stop running appliances while we're gone or asleep. We can learn from the stories of the two families on YHL today. We can do what we can to prepare.

And at the end of the day, that's all you can do. Prepare and hope for the best.

Bathroom Inspiration

2011-01-11T14:25:00.006-05:00

Last week I got an awesome wake up call in the form of an e-mail from the DIY Diva letting me know that we won a gift card from True Value to work on any project in our house. We're super excited as we need all the financial help we can get. Also, it's a new year and we're hopeful we can finish the bathroom this year, or at least get it 80% done.

A comment from Sarah at Russet Street Reno about our bathroom floors inspired us to try and refinish the wood floors in the bathroom if possible. I wanted to refinish the floors anyway, and it's going to *hopefully* be much cheaper than trying to put in tile floors. This is all assuming that we're not greeted with multiple gaping holes and rot when we rip them up in a few weeks. So I've been trolling the 'net for inspiration for bathrooms with our needs: wood floors, wainscoting (that we scored for free last year) and a wall mount/console sink that will give me much needed counter space without blocking the air vent -- much like our setup we've got now.

Here's what I've found:

Source:DecoPad.

I want a console sink, but the ones I want are anywhere between $1,500-$4,000 and I REFUSE to pay that for a sink. Neil thinks we can build one for cheaper.....we'll see. I also need to find a blue gray paint that is more gray than blue. And tile. *sigh* Tile.

But first, we've got to figure out the floors.

Here we go again.....

2011-01-03T21:20:00.003-05:00

The house next door to us. You know, the one I mentioned in the spring? It's back on the market again after an unsuccessful run in the fall market. It has a more realistic price, despite the....*ahem* rough condition. Hopefully, it will attract a nice buyer who will fix it up and turn it into the gem that it could be. We'd really love to have a neighbor. However,I will eat crow if it sells anywhere near the list price. And be pissed for nearly a year after it sells as it will semi-tank the comps in the neighborhood. I guess that's the price you sometimes have to pay. If the thing ever sells.

Anyway, I expect we will start having fun again in the spring when the market picks up. People watching when potential buyers are next door - always a fun activity. Which means we will need to make the yard looks presentable once the weather gets above freezing. We've stopped caring about bringing the dogs in for showings -- we figure people will know right off the bat that we have dogs (one being a "vicious" breed) and can make their decision accordingly. Besides, the Rottie scared off one lady right off the bat. We figure she wouldn't have been up to the task of being our neighbor anyway.

Dear God let it sell to some awesome people.

Roof Saga Part V

2010-12-31T14:13:00.003-05:00

The postman brought an early New Years present -- the settlement check to fix interior damage from the whole roof debacle. Color me shocked. I guess Monday we'll track down contractor and try to get stuff rolling.

Happy New Years to us?

A White Christmas!

2010-12-26T17:55:00.011-05:00

I still can't believe it -- but we had a white Christmas this year! The last time North Carolina had a white Christmas (as defined by accumulation) was in 1947, I believe. I usually scoff when the weather people call for snow -- and didn't pay much attention when the weather people called for snow on Christmas Day. It had already snowed two weeks before -- and we only get snow like at most, three times a year. It's the south, you know?

Believe it or not, it started snowing yesterday morning about 11am and continued throughout the day and well into the evening. We ended up with about 6 inches while my brother in law in the mountains ended up with about 8 inches. My aunt who lives closer to the coast ended up with almost 10 inches. So of course, we're all pulling out the camera's to document the occasion. I had planned on doing a Christmas decor post regardless, but this time its enhanced by snow!

Christmas Tree (and yes, that is a six pack under the tree -- we keep it classy)

Christmas Night -- also featuring the world's largest front door wreath. Seriously. The thing blocked out daylight.

That about wraps it up for our decor. We put some poinsettias in the fireplace and all the cards we received on the mantle. We can't do things that hang, or are breakable as the cat will destroy it. One day -- we will have a saucily decorated house. But that's not going to happen while we're hosting the cat during his earthly reign.

We hosted Christmas Eve dinner at our house this year because we live three blocks away from my mom's work. My mom works as a oncology nurse and had to work Christmas Eve, so we took the burden off her shoulders and hosted the family here and entertained them with yummy goodness.

Christmas Cookies

Peanut Butter Balls

Bacon Stuffed Mushrooms

Christmas Dinner: Beef Tenderloin with roasted shallot gravy, The Pioneer Woman's green bean casserole (TO DIE FOR) and whiskey glazed carrots, and cheddar mashed potatoes. It was great!

We gorged our self on Christmas Eve dinner. Then gorged ourselves at mom's house for breakfast and dinner on Christmas Day. We marveled at the snow, watched the worst movie ever, took a nap, and then came back here to relax.

It was a great holiday. We had great food, great presents, and got to spend time with loved ones. We hope your Christmas was just as fabulous!

Side note:We're looking forward to the new year -- especially New Year's Day where my brother will be marching in the Tournament of Roses Parade with Western Carolina's (Neil and I both are alumni -- go Gats!)Pride of the Mountain's Marching Band. They're a showtime band -- guaranteed to have air time when making the turn. While we're bummed we couldn't make the trip out there with him -- we're SUPER excited to cheer him on New Year's Day - three hours ahead of time and from the comfort of our own home.

Have a good December everyone!

Roof Sage Part IV

2010-12-16T23:40:00.002-05:00

So....

The roofer finally agreed to submit the claim to insurance after making an attempt (half assed, in my opinion, but I'm biased) to get subs into our house to fix the damage.

His insurance company? Not so much on the technology bandwagon. But whatever, they've finally received the pictures of the damage (complete with measurements or said damage) and they've sent us paperwork to sign -- essentially saying if they pay to get it fixed we won't sue them. In a nutshell.

Considering this has taken another two months (really, two months to receive a .zip file and evaluate)? I don't anticipate getting a check until March. At which point our quote to fix all of this will either be a)not valid or b)unable to be fulfilled as god knows where the contractor may be.

*sigh*

All I wanted was a roof that didn't leak.....

Bathroom Progress.....I think?

2010-11-28T17:34:00.014-05:00

It's been awhile since we've written about the bathroom. When we last updated you, back in January the bathroom looked like this:

In January, we finally got around to priming the bathroom walls and were deciding on paint colors. And then we sat for a few weeks. Until one day, I needed to relieve some stress from the mounting pressures of Grad School and wedding planning. So I decided to take out frustrations on the bathroom floor. Much to Neil's horror.

Side note: I HATE HATE HATE our bathroom floor. It's vinyl white with pink/mauve diamonds in it. It's got tons of scratches in it, it never gets clean. I despise it. I figured Neil would be happy with it being gone. Not so much. It's not that he liked the floor. It was much more of a' $%&* another project that we need to do sooner rather than later, without any money to do so' feeling. To be honest, I didn't think about -- I just needed to relieve some stress. So I set out to see what was underneath the vinyl floor.

So of course the area I pull up shows water damage. Naturally I wanted to see how far the damage went. Luckily the damage is contained right at the tub. But I wanted to be inspect every thing. Which at that point I made the decision to just rip the entire thing out.

Before I could do so though, I had to remove the cat who wanted to do some inspections of his own.

And yes, that's us pulling him out -- not pushing him in. As much as he deserves to live in the vents, we don't have time for that.

Back to ripping out the floor.

Once everything was up. I was left with an uneven hot mess of sub floor and splinters. Yet, I wasn't satisfied. We've got a good three inches of height difference between the bathroom floor and the hallway floor. I wanted to know why. More importantly, I wanted to know if the original wood floors went into the bathroom. Because I couldn't leave well enough alone, I decided to try and hack at that, as well.

At which point Neil smartly intervened and suggested we just take out a little spot, allowing us to see what was underneath but not putting us in a compromising position (more so than I had already just done)in case the floors were shit underneath. Someone has to be the voice of reason, and obviously it wasn't me during this point.

Layer One: Vinyl Floor - Gone.

Layer Two: Sub floor

Layer Three: This lovely gem:

Layer Four: More Sub floor

Layer Five: Ewwww:

Layer Six: original hardwoods baby!

At that point, Neil wisely took away the tools and made me go back to writing one of my papers. And our bathroom floor looked a bit like this for oh....three months.

That's right. We keep it classy. And that gold colored bathmat? That's covering the hole in all the flooring layers that we cut out. No, we didn't put it back. Because that would've made sense.

Fast forward to the week of graduation in May. I get an unexpected phone call learning some guests are coming to graduation and staying at my house. And on top of that, we were now hosting my graduation party.

Talk about motivation. We trucked off to Lowe's to get crown moulding, paint, and other various supplies. And when we weren't working or in my case, working and studying -- we were in that bathroom trying to bust it out.

This was what I came home to three days before our guests were supposed to arrive.

I'm not even going to get into that story -- but needless to say we got to visit the trim department twice and learned a great lesson about installing crown mouldings.

Finally, it all came together to look like this:

Presentable and semi-functional.

Updates include:

-New Wall Paint: Beher Cloudy Day. Which we're not 100% sold on. We wanted something more gray/blue. But this is just.....blue. Almost baby blue.

-New Trim Color - which we have NO CLUE what it is. We think Dover White.

-New crown mouldings

-New Toilet: Kohler (Brand Spanking new -- which we scored for free! The perks of working for a construction company - came out of spec house that Neil's boss had for sale).

-Painted floor - left over primer. Which I WILL NEVER DO AGAIN. In my act of desperation, I painted the floor primer white. Forgetting that my husband works in construction and comes home with muddy shoes. And let's not forget the two dogs. Or the evil cat. It looked clean for all of five minutes and then became grungy. Never again I tell you.

-New window frost (not pictured)

We're not anywhere near where we want to be. We've got to figure out what to do with the floor. We've got wainscoting sitting in the basement ready to be put up. We've got to decide on a sink. We've got to re tile the bathtub surround. We've got to repair the window that has some damage. We've got to get a better exhaust fan. And we've got to figure out if we can live with the paint or not.

But, we're half way there. Which is more than we can say when we started down the bathroom reno path two years ago.

Yes? Yes.

Last Wedding Post, I Swear.

2010-11-21T19:38:00.004-05:00

This week -- we had a special treat. Our awesome friend and wedding photographer,Punam Bean posted our sneak peek photos from our wedding. Check out the awesomeness here.

That is all.

It's been all quiet on the Western Front.....

2010-11-07T12:40:00.008-05:00

....not because we haven't been busy. In fact, quite the opposite.

However, the main reason for our lack of posts? We were working on a project much bigger than the house. Our wedding.

We got married last month -- and it was a whirl wind experience. People are absolutely correct when the say that it will go by SO fast. The days leading up the wedding were pure hell -- our wedding venue got seized by the federal government...oh TEN DAYS before the wedding (luckily we were still able to get married there), we had last minute problems with vendors (no one knew of the problems, except for the bridal party), it got uncharacteristically cold (Thank God for booze to keep the guests warm). But perhaps the saddest thing that happened; my grandmother slipped into a coma the Monday before and ended up dying the morning of my wedding (my family had a pow wow and decided not to tell me until after the wedding). We figured she wasn't going to miss the wedding and just decided to have the best view in the house. We're still sad, but relieved to know that she's been released from the situation she was in here.

Regardless of everything that happened, all the bumps in the road, the missteps, everything; we had a beautiful day. We got to celebrate with friends and family who we hadn't seen in years, everyone had a great time, and it all came together perfectly.

We don't have professional photos back yet -- but thought we would share a few pictures from my bridal session, from the wedding, and our wedding video.

Also, yes, it's a non-traditional wedding - and I wore a non-traditional dress. One of the best decisions I made -- I looked and felt wonderful and felt true to myself. I don't feel any less of a bride, nor feel that my wedding was/is any less legit because I didn't wear white/cream/or any other shade that would've looked horrible with my skin tone.

/rant.

We'll start with the bridals from my super AWESOME friends Sean and Melanie McLellan of McLellan Style.

Our preview wedding video -- one of the best things about our wedding -- we were able to share this video with our guests who weren't able to make it within a few days of our wedding. It's a great piece that we will treasure forever.

Neil & Sarah Cinema Reale from Daniel Boswell on Vimeo.

We've got more to come -- honeymoon pictures, pictures of stuff we've actually done on the house. We're excited to get back into the groove of things!

A blank slate

2010-09-11T17:18:00.005-04:00

Hey guess what? The damage from the roof saga still isn't fixed.

*sigh*

Moving on....

We tackled some outdoor yard work that desperately needed to be done. Nothing sexy. But still necessary.

Last year we cut out trees out of our side bed. Trees that were growing directly against our house. Due to our sheer laziness, the bed grew back up again.

Now it looks like this:

Obviously Toby approves. I approved after the copperhead snake was removed. Ick.
I don't know what to put in the space. I'm leaning towards butterfly bushes or camellias. But I'm open for ideas. Something low key....that would be nice. You know, cause upkeep is obviously our forte.

Thoughts?

Roof Saga Part III

2010-08-05T17:37:00.004-04:00

This story is so ridiculous that I even have a hard time explaining it. In fact, I wasn't even going to explain it. However, inspired by a blog post I read today over at DIY Diva, I'm going to post it out there and keep it completely real. Because why the hell not? It's what's going on. Will we get mocked, probably. But I know that sometimes I get disillusioned with other house blogs that I read -- where it seems that nothing goes wrong, and everyone has a perfect and beautiful project where no one breaks a sweat, cusses out their significant other, and they do it for $100 with all the amazing deals they find. So we're going to be real, even if it kills us.

Let's do a time line....that might flow easier.

June 14-15th. House gets new roof. House gets rain inside the house from lack of roof and tarp. As previously mentioned in my blogs -- wtf?

June 19thish -Roofer says to get a quote to fix the damage. Depending on the money, he will take care of it or file it with insurance.

July 2nd - Finally convince someone to come out to the house and quote the job (despite contacting three other people).

July 6th - Receive the quote. It's a damn good quote. $800ish that includes labor and materials. That covers pulling down two ceilings and insulation, putting in new insulation, new sheet rock, new crown mouldings, repairing a water damaged plaster wall, stripping the window and surrounding mouldings and repainting them, and repainting a ceiling.

July 7th - Pass on quote to roofer. Who then says he will need to file it with insurance and will give us the information and policy number soon.

July 8-15th - Wait on information that's never given to us. Call several times to ask for information. Get various bs excuses. Get a past due notice in the mail. Become infuriated and quite possibly unreasonable.

July 16th - 10am ish. Call Roofer's office. Threaten the poor office manager with legal action if we do not get the information by noon. Thirty minutes later, we get insurance information.

July 16th - 1pm. Call and file a claim with insurance. Feel validated.

July 16th - 2pm. Receive call from roofer who has heard from office manager about insurance information and said legal action. Roofer begs us not to go through insurance as it will cause his premium to go up (yes, gross negligence will do that to you.) and can he please fix it out of his pocket. Promises to start work immediately. Promises to do whatever he can to make us happy.

July 16th - 3:30pm. Receive phone call from Roofer's insurance. Office Manager gave us the workman's comp policy and not liability policy. Start to drink in frustration.

July 17-19 - Stew about various options. Argue with Neil about various options. Neil wants to give roofer a chance (he works with him and wants to give him the professional courtesy of having the opportunity to fix the problem) while I want to put it through his insurance and let him live with the consequences.

July 21st - Finally agree to let roofer fix the problems but under very specific guidelines -- all of which he has to sign, agree to, and not argue AT ALL before stepping foot on the property.

July 22nd - Roofer agrees to terms. Thanks us profusely for not going to small claims court or insurance. I'm still irritated beyond belief. Set appointment for him to come and view the work. Have to reschedule appointment to August to accommodate out of town guests.

August 4th - Roofer calls to reschedule appointment because he's "too busy on another job." Become infuriated, perhaps irrationally so. Am tired of living with half ripped down mouldings, wet ceilings, discolored ceilings, and peeling paint from damage. Proceed to reschedule with the roofer for today and tell him if he's not here at said time, all deals were off.

August 5th. Roofer shows up an hour late for appointment. I prepare to call an attorney we use for our real-estate transactions. I tell Neil not to bring him to the house. He does anyway. Roofer then comes in, insinuates that we fluffed the quote, that it all needs to be cosmetic repairs (cause you know....slapping some paint over cracked water damaged wood IS THE CORRECT WAY TO FIX THINGS)and then had the nerve to essentially say because he gave a professional discount to Neil, that we should just suck up the damage and go on with life. Needless to say---the day deteriorated from there.

On top of that, Neil and I got in a HUGE screaming match about what the other deemed acceptable behavior from not only a subcontractor but repairs in general. And the house. And how shit wasn't getting done. There may or may have not been threatening of bodily harm with a wrench. It wasn't pretty. At. All.

So I don't know where we stand with repairs. I'm so pissed off that I don't want let him in the house again. However, Neil's boss (a builder) vouches for the crews that have done interior work and thinks we should give him the courtesy of fixing it. However, I'm worried that the crew is going to come in and do a cheap ass job, and I'm going to be stuck supervising all of this, and we're going to be stuck with cheap ass repairs with no leg to stand on because they "fixed" the damage. And it all boils down to what is deemed acceptable repairs. Patch vs. Repair/Replace.

So it's not pretty here at the cottage. But I believe this sums it up the best:

"The moral of this story is, life– javascript:void(0)particularly when tearing your house apart– is not a fairy tale, romance novel, or story from someone else's website. It’s not easy. And sometimes it’s not fun. But it is what it is– you get into it, you learn to work with the person you love, and sometimes you have to dodge a screwdriver or two, just to keep things interesting."

Wise words from the Diva. She's my hero.

Now if we can just get the damn damaged repaired, we can move on with life.

That takes balls......

2010-07-11T23:28:00.003-04:00

So the roofer, you know, the one who sent the crew out without a tarp and subsequently caused damage in our home?

Had the nerve to send a past due notice to the house. Nice.

I don't care who you are. That takes balls. Really, this guy sends a crew to rip off my roof, without a tarp, on day where there's a 45% chance of rain in the forecast. Then, when we asked him to stop his crew for the day and put the tarp on because there's rain coming he tells us he won't because "I have a big job tomorrow and they need to finish here." Then, when it rains, and his workers are scrambiling for their life trying to double felt to keep the rain out, and they call and asked him to bring a tarp -- he said he would BUT NEVER SHOWED UP, forcing us to foot the bill for plastic sheeting to protect the house. He never found the time to come out and assess the damage at the hosue, BUT YET, he managed to grow a pair big enough to send a past due notice to my home.

Honestly, I take a moment to applaud him. Really, I do. Because that takes balls.

He can send all the past due notices he'd like. He's not getting his money until the damage is fixed in our house.

Here we go.

The Saga Continues.....

2010-06-27T23:03:00.002-04:00

Why is that I can't get a contractor to come to the house to do work? I'm sure there's some secret network amongst professionals that has spread the word, "Don't do work at the cottage---it's a bomb that keeps exploding."

Which is an accurate statement. But still.

I'm trying to give you money. Why won't you return my call?

When trying to get quotes for the roof - we called six roofers. Three returned our calls. The person we wanted to use? Never returned our calls after he gave us our bid.

Now, I'm trying to get someone in to fix the damage in the house from the roofing exploits. It's like a full day of work. Easy money. Hell, it's not even my money. I can't get anyone to return my calls.

I WANT TO GIVE YOU WORK! I WANT TO SEND REFERRALS YOUR WAY! I WORK IN REAL-ESTATE! WE HAVE A NEED FOR YOUR SERVICES!

But I can't help you. Because you can't/won't help me.

The whole irony of the situation? Neil works for a builder. Who has a great crew who could do the repairs. But we can't use him due to ethics and insurance policies.

*sigh*

Burning Questions......

2010-06-15T07:43:00.006-04:00

As I sat up late last night and cleaned up the water on the interior of my house, and in turn, photographed the progression of water damage; I was left with two burning, or rather dripping questions.

What professional roofer doesn't keep an eye on the weather?

AND.....

What professional roofer sends his crew out without a house tarp?

On a day that has a chance of rain in the afternoon. After the homeowners say, "The radar shows rain in about an hour--let's go ahead and put the tarp on."

I'm sure the neighbors enjoyed both Neil and I soaked to the bone shouting at the roofers while the were trying to keep out the rain. Without a tarp.

Meanwhile, to the smart aleck at Sherwin Williams up the street who thought it would be funny to harass my fiance' when he was frantically buying plastic sheeting (you know, 'cause the ROOFERS DIDN'T HAVE ANY) with smart ass comments about "oh, are you trying to keep out the rain? Her, her, her." And then leaving him with the clerk who couldn't ring him up because he was on a phone call while you went and took a break in the back room? You got off easy with the FOAD look he gave you, and I can't wait to make the phone call to your management this afternoon.

Pissed? Doesn't even begin to cover it.

I'm taking bets if they'll even show up today.

Pictures to come soon!

Sneak Peek

2010-06-13T11:41:00.004-04:00

Sneak Peek at a major project starting at the cottage tomorrow.

Cottage Note: The white stuff in the picture? Not a ghost. That's fog on the lense from the oppressive heat and humidity. It's 11:30am. Currently 90* with a heat index of 97*. Humidity at 55%, Dewpoint 72*. In other words -- it's like drowning when you walk outside. HOORAY FOR NC SUMMERS!

Let's Tackle It Together

2010-06-13T10:24:00.007-04:00

Last week Young House Love posted a simple and easy project. And I've never jumped on something so faster in my life.
Neil had to work last Saturday, so I took the opportunity to tackle it myself.

I have a love/hate relationship with our cabinets. Much like this house. They're tall, in most place they're deep. However, they're old. Like die from tetnus from the 60 year rusty nail and splintered wood old. And they're DIRTY. No matter how much I clean, they just suck in dirt and nastiness.

Just look:

Kinda dingy right? And man, can we cram some stuff in a cabinet.

Throughout the process, I hauled everything out. I feebly attempted to clean our shelves. It didn't work and it's so nasty I didn't even take a picture for sheer embarrassment. I decided that shelf paper would become my new best friend. If you can't beat it, hide it.

I noticed a lot of patterns:

We apparently use our cabinets as a catch all. Framed pictures, a pendant light, a water gun, fuzzy dice, necklace and earring set, drip pans for a stove (we have a smooth top range....um what?), and half of the pharmacy isle from a drug store. Also, my fiance' sends me tons of flowers. As evidenced by the 11 vases I have lying around. I feel like I'm hoarding the things.

Anyway, the final product:

This cabinet is our "food" cabinet. Everything was arranged into categories: side dishes, fruit/veggies, soups/fast meals, pasta/sauces, boxed meals (Hamburger Helper ftw!)

Baking, tea, and spices cabinet.

Our glasses cabinet. Seriously? We have enough glasses to host a White House Correspondence Dinner. That's one thing we WON'T be registering for. The fact that we have a whole shelf dedicated to alcohol drinking? Embarrassing. We look like lushes. However, if it looks like a duck.....

Plates, Tupperware, serving ware, the animal's medicine cabinet. Each animal has it's own three distinct meds that they take. It's exhausting. I used small decorative bowls that I rarely use and sorted the dogs meds into two different bowls. The cat's meds were thrown into a shallow vase that I rarely use. Now we no longer have to sort through 10 individual bottles to find the right meds.

The last cabinet isn't finished. Right as I went to take the photo, the cat went in and knocked some things over---so you'll just have to use your imagination.

Cost for the project:

Four Square Cork Board (not yet installed): $6.99
Wire Lid Holder: $4.99
Plastic Spice Rack: $7.99
Padded Shelf Paper(two rolls): $20.00
Decorative bowls: FREE

Total: $39.97

Not bad. Not bad at all. I wish I would've thought about using place mats as shelf paper like John and Sherry. But live and learn for next time?

Now to keep Neil from messing them up......

Garden Update

2010-06-04T17:24:00.004-04:00

1924 Cottage
Quite Contrary
How Does Your Garden Grow?

Holy Cow!

We had great success with our garden last year. This year, however, will blow last year away. I hadn't really thought much about our garden this year -- as my soul was being sucked out in Grad School. However, my future mother in law sent us a box of plants from The Tasteful Garden.

We've got squash, cucumbers, a bazillion different types of basil, chard, lettuce, spinach, peppers, onions. You name it, we've got it. The best thing? I haven't lifted a finger to help the plants out. They're THRIVING in the humidity. It also helps that it's rained every day for the past two weeks.

We used some of the herbs and onions the other night for dinner.

Amazing taste! We're waiting for a few more things to try before we give them a full endorsement. But for right now--they're worth giving a try!

Well hey there!

2010-06-04T16:55:00.005-04:00

Guess what? We're baaaaaccckkk. You're thrilled, I know. Please contain yourself.

So we took a small hiatus so I could focus on grad school. Despite my best efforts, I managed to graduate and now hold a snazzy masters degree in Nonprofit Management. What am I going to do with that? Heck if I know. I'm too busy enjoying not having to read or write papers for class. I'm enjoying down time. I'm enjoying the little things in life, until I have to buckle down and finish planning my wedding. 4 months to go until we're officially not living in sin! But that's another post.

Because a post is always better with pictures -- enjoy some graduation day festivities!

Paranoia

2010-04-19T19:36:00.002-04:00

The house next door to us is for sale. Amazing price. Someone's going to get a hell of a deal. I'm DYING to see the inside.

Meanwhile, I've become paranoid at the thought of getting new neighbors. What if they don't like us? What if they don't like dogs? What if they're scared off by the rottie? What if my dogs act like assholes during showings and no one can buy the house? What if......I'm going to refrain from saying the other what if's outloud---for fear of jinxing myself.

Am I the only one who's paranoid when a neighbor puts their house on the market?

---
In other news. I regain my life back at 9pm next Thursday night. Then I will be able to complete all the things I've started in my fits of rage/procrastination/stress relief from the last few weeks.

Things I will never do again.....

2010-03-23T09:01:00.003-04:00

In October of 2007, I was in the midst of buying my first house while completeing my first semester of Grad School. The stress was so bad that I stopped sleeping about a week before closing. Neil, on the other hand, slept like a baby.

After closing, I swore that I would never do two life changing events at the same time.

Silly me, I forgot the promise I made to myself.

It's now March of 2010. I'm six weeks away from graduating from grad school and I'm in the midst of planning my wedding, which is a little over six months away. I haven't stopped sleeping....yet. However, there's limited work being done on the house because when I'm not at work I'm reading for class. Or working on a project for class. Or writing a paper for class. Or meeting with vendors for the wedding. Or having to change vendors for the wedding. Or having to deal with the incesscent drama that accompanies weddings. Because everyone has an opinion. And wants to share it. Loudly. While I'm trying to write papers. For class. *sigh*

And for the record? I'm never going to try and graduate and plan a wedding again. Ever.

So needless to say, we're here. We're just occupied. We'll see you after May 8th. A little worse for the wear, with a graduate degree under the belt (providing I don't fail) and ready to tear some stuff up.

Ding Dong the PINK IS GONE!

2010-01-11T18:38:00.009-05:00

At least from the bathroom that is. First layer of primer went up today. The bathroom already looks SO much better.

That window is driving me up the wall. We're on our 3rd? round of Peel Away. The paint is REFUSING to come off in parts. I don't know what I'm going to try next...but something is gonna make that paint come off.

Now comes the hard part----agonizing over paint colors. Of course, Pink isn't a hard color to top. However, I don't want people to think, "wow, she complained about pink for two years and she chose THAT color?!?!"

So, we decided on blue---but we're stuck on a few color choices. I now know how Sara at Russet Street Reno felt while picking out paint a few weeks ago.

I didn't think this would be hard...I mean it's paint for goodness sake. It shouldn't be hard, right? Yeah. That's karma coming back to kick me in the face.

Let's take a look at the contenders:

The one at the bottom--the one that looks like nuclear highlighter blue is Behr "Clear Water". That's a no go. The one above it is a lovely shade, Behr "Rain Washed" but is in fact a bit too green.

The hue in the middle is Behr "Cloudy Day" our first color choice. I like it during the evening. I don't know if I *love* it during the day. The color beside it is Behr "Tropical Breeze". It's perfect at night, but is aqua during the day. And aqua my friends is (in my personal tastes), in fact, quite worse than pink.

At the top, we have the very vivid Valspar "Betsy Ross House Blue"...aka as "Wow, way too much blue." Below it and to the left is Valspar "Palisade Blue" which we thought looked too purple..but now is starting to grow on us. To the Right is Valspar "Cincinnatian Hotel Ashley Atrium" which in fact, is great during the day. But too purple at night.

*sigh*

How hard is it to find the perfect shade of blue? I think I'm just going to have to pull the trigger and hope for the best. This, I'm sure will be surpassed by picking the perfect shade of WHITE for trim.

Regardless, we've made more progress in three days than we have in the past year. And that's something to celebrate!

It's always darkest, right before dawn.

2010-01-10T18:05:00.003-05:00

Sanding is no fun.

Neither is peeling away 80+ years of paint.

The bathroom smells absolutely horrible.

Eww.

Ok, Seriously? Part II

2010-01-07T19:07:00.006-05:00

I cannot get over this. I truly am so amused by this, I had to share.

Someone took/stole our discarded Christmas Tree from the curb.

I'll pause a moment to let you take that in.

When I walked outside to go to work today, I noticed it was gone. I didn't give it a thought, as I thought the city had been up on its game and picked the trees up. Until I noticed that the rest of my neighbors trees were still in front of their houses.

The hell?

Then I noticed the wreath and ropping I had placed on top of the tree after we had disposed of it? Were placed neatly beside where the tree had been. The kicker? The trail of pine needles that go off the curb, onto the street, and proceed 25 feet down the road until it dissapears in front of our neighbor's house.

Seriously, what is someone going to do with a dried up tree that the neighborhood dogs have all peed on? And why my tree? I keep joking with Neil that it might reappear on the lawn on fire or something worse. I'm joking...but there is a small part of me that is serious.*

So here's to you......1924 Cottage Christmas Tree stealer. Thanks for the amusement.

*I will completely shit a brick if that tree comes back. Seriously.

Obligatory Christmas Photo

2009-12-31T18:59:00.000-05:00

Sadly, that's the best photo we have of our Christmas Tree.

Ah Well.

Happy Belated Holidays!

Snow Day(s)

2009-12-24T18:55:00.000-05:00

So we didn't get as much snow as anticipated---but we still got around 7 inches. Still unheard of in NC.

Which of course gave me a chance to make my Chilli....nom nom nom nom. Be jealous, very jealous.

It was nice to slow down for the weekend and appreciate the snow. It was also a great to see that our insulation was doing its job...as we were one of the last houses on the street to have the snow melt off. Almost made falling through the ceiling worth it.

Or something.

Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow!!!!!

2009-12-18T17:37:00.004-05:00

We're getting hit with a winter storm--forcasted for 10-15inches. This NEVER happens in our part of the woods. We're making chilli, and hunkering in for the evening. Viva la snow!

2:30pm

We've already his 3.5 inches---woot!

Let there be light!

2009-11-08T15:50:00.010-05:00

A few weeks ago, I finally got fed up with the ugly lighting situation and took matters into my own hands. I trucked over to Lowes and was determined not to leave until I came home with something better than what we had currently. Luckily---we came across the deal of the century: our ceiling fan of choice - normally $160, on clearance at $50 a pop. Naturally we bought two to compliment the one we had already installed in the master bedroom. We also bought new front porch lights.

We'll start on the inside first.

Previous:

The ugly living room light which I'm assuming was part of a value pack as the same light is located in two other rooms in the house. I made a bet with Neil that we'd find an unpainted mess underneath the light when we took it down. And what should we find?

Neil's learning to never bet against the house. Three different shades of paint, and maybe water damage. Lovely. Of course, the fan only covers oh...NOTHING of the eye sore. So, painting the ceiling just got pushed up higher on our list of things to do, as I refuse to take the lazy way out and cover it with a medallion or anything. The one thing I've learned from this house is to think about the people who will come after you. I know I sure as hell haven't appreciated having to fix the stuff done half assed before us, so I'm determined not to put out that kind of karma out into the world. Anyway, behold:

While some might argue that it's too modern for the house, we think it's alright, especially since we live in the south with an under performing AC system. It kept us cool the last dog days of summer, therefore it stays.

Next we updated our lighting outside. The previous lighting was alright, it was too small and just wasn't our style. It also didn't throw out alot of light, which is essential as we live on a very dark city street. Before:

After:

We also replaced the numbers out front. Once again, not our style, and didn't go with our new lights.

Not bad, not bad at all. They really do get the job done (it's like a nuclear flash, really), with two bulbs in each light. It really lights up the porch, and the street which is nice at night for all the dog walkers and it keeps the robbers who've been a bit too active in our neighborhood at bay. And, they look good too!

All we need now is a new porch, pain the shutters and the door, and a new mailbox and we're set!

We're waiting on the locusts to decend....

2009-10-29T09:13:00.003-04:00

To celebrate two years of home ownership....the plagues have been hitting the house.

I can handle many things. I can handle the excessive rain causing the sump pump to work overtime, I can handle the infestation of springtails in the bathroom. I can handle the backyard swarming with flying ants--so many that the whole yard shimmered with movement.

What I cannot handle?

The cat coming up from the basement with a SNAKE writhing in his mouth. CAN.NOT.DEAL. Of course, Neil was out of town on business, but had the distinct pleasure? of listening to me on the cell phone scream bloody murder and then psych myself up to get it away from the cat, keep the dogs away from it, and get it outside. I was pretty sure last night when I got it outside that it was dead....as it looked as if the cat bit the head off. This morning? Not there. So there's some pissed off snaked probably looking for revenge. That's all I need. Of course, the cat was pissed that I took it away from him and spent the entire night glaring at me from across the room. The only saving grace to all this? The cat dropped it on the dining room floor, and not into my glass of water like he normally does when he catches something. *shudder*

Meanwhile, this incident finally convinced Neil that we need pest maintenace. I think they're coming tomorrow.

Current Score:

The Evil, Evil House: 29009843

Sarah & Neil: -5

If only the house was in NC....

2009-10-21T22:10:00.002-04:00

then I would snatch it up in a heartbeat.

DIY Diva! has put her house on the market. And it's perfect.

Meanwhile, me thinks our house is cursed. But what's the fun in owning an old house without it trying to suck the life out of you? Right?

People piss me off....

2009-09-13T20:22:00.003-04:00

There's a special place in hell reserved for whoever is responsible for the following in my house:

-Painting around light fixtures in the ceiling, not taking the time to pull them down and I don't know, paint under the fixture. Replacing a light fixture this week? Left me with FOUR different paint rings from previous light fixtures, and what looks to be like possible water damage. Why, people, why?
-Choosing bargain bin BULLSHIT chair railing as "crown moulding" in each room. Not so bad, but when there is a different style in each room--I start to loose my patience. I especially love when there's TWO or THREE different types of "mouldings" in a room right next to each other. There are two different types of trim over my fireplace. Like, someone was putting it up and ran out of the wood they were using and decided to use whatever was in the bargain bin at Lowes or, even better, ripped out of someone else's house and sitting on the front yard because it was UGLY and deserved to be thrown out. So they decided to put it up, and then in an attempt to disguise the fact that it's not the same wood-they decided to cover it with 50,000 layers of shitty white latex paint. Oh, that area has a flaw? Let's cover it with more layers of shitty white latex paint.

I can't get too mad. I didn't notice it until this week when I've been up rooting around in the ceilings replacing light fixtures. But seriously? There is a special place in hell for whoever made these decisions....there really is.

Pictures to prove my point coming soon.

Timber!

2009-08-30T11:55:00.006-04:00

We've finally recovered from the flu that leveled us both last week to get some yard work done. We're an odd couple---first day we feel decent--we're in the yard. Dedication? Not so much. Masochism? Perhaps. Regardless, we finally got around to a task that needed to be done since we bought the house.

Cut down the trees growing beside the house.

This was something I struggled with doing. The trees provided great shade, as well as privacy from our neighbor, as our windows look directly into each others. However, as the trees kept growing, it because evident that they were going to have to come down. They had surpased the roof line, and the branches were already against the windows--it was time.

Luckily we didn't damage the fence when Neil brought it down on top of it. We were suprised at how big it was.

I'm still sad that the trees are gone, but I'm amazed at the light we have in the house now. I don't know if it's an even trade, but it had to be done.
---
In other news: Opperation Get the Bathroom Decent is underway. My matron of honor is going to be in town the week of Thanksgiving to see the house and do wedding stuff, so we need to have a functioning bathroom. I'm willing to bet we'll be doing this down to the wire. I also suppose I should be figuring out paint choices. Or, perhaps finishing the paint stripping process. Where to start first?

Busy Bees.....

2009-08-16T19:06:00.012-04:00

We've had lots going on at the Cottage these past few weeks.....but I think I can lump everything into three key subjects: backyard/garden, bathroom and the dogs.

Our first subject---the backyard/garden. We've actually improved our backyard a bit, thanks to an unexpected visit by my future in laws. Did I mention that they called about 12 hours before their visit? The yard has never seen that much attention in such a short amount of time. We were, in fact, helped out greatly by the neighborhood lawn guy who takes care of our next door neighbors yard who sadly passed away in October. A few days before they came down our yard looked like this:
.

It now looks like this:

During the day---he decided to pull out all of the overgrown bushes and weeds that were growing into our yard from said neighbors yard. It was an amazing difference. The pile out on the curb was at least six feet tall. We were momentarily alarmed, thinking all of the yard work meant the house was going on the market, meaning we would a) have to start doing yard work on a more regular basis and b) become the reason the house wouldn't sell due to having the "vicious breed dog" in the yard. However, the house is not going on the market yet, and we resumed our interval yard maintenance. We also took the motivation to clean up our patio and "covered" patio area to make it more visitor friendly.

Hours of frenzied yard work to prepare for future in-laws visit: 7.5
Actual minutes of their visit: 15.

Harumph.

My future mother in law brought be tons of things for the garden--beans squash, tomatoes, eggplant, etc. I think a total of like 30 some plants, all in assorted stages of growth, all in their own pots. I've tried desperately to keep everything alive and I would say I'm succeeding---I've only killed three things thus far. And I maintain that it's not my fault. She grew them in the mountains, then brought them down here where there's on average a 10 degree temperature difference. Between the heat and the lack of water, we did hit a rough spot where we getting blossom end rot on alot of things. However, we mulched out the garden and the problem rectified itself as evidenced by this morning's harvest.

We've had a good run with our garden this year. We've learned that we'll plant the same amount of tomatoes, more lettuce next year, less cucumbers (seriously, we have about 15 in the kitchen right now) and perhaps do an herb garden. Other than the garden, we have plans for the backyard next weekend which involve taking down two trees that are growing into the house, and perhaps mapping out next years flower beds.

The bathroom project is sputtering along. I've stripped down one of the doors and discovered that our door hardware has cute little hearts engraved into one side.

I stripped the rest of the doorway from our test area of peel away. I will admit that I may have gotten a little too carried away/zealous away with the peel away as I may have sort have stripped a hole into the sheet rock. I also had a momentary lapse in judgement and thought it would be a good idea to put peel away on the walls to see how many layers of paint it would eat through....for fun. Resulted in a conversation like this:

*Neil walks by, does a double take and comes back into the bathroom*
Neil: Um, babe, what are you doing?
Sarah: Stripping Paint.
Neil: Yes, but why did you apply it to the walls?
Sarah: I thought it would be fun to see how many layers of paint and wallpaper I could strip off.
Neil: Oooooookkkkkk, but you realize by doing that you're causing a big hole in the paint--and it's going to be a pill to sand down, and cover and make even when we paint. Essentially---you're doing what everyone else has done---which is the reason you're scraping down the mouldings in the first place. You're causing more work for yourself.
Sarah: Oh, *^$(*@&#

Not my brightest moment. So Neil and I have decided to pull the mouldings off the wall for me to strip to avoid my impulse control problems that happen and cause more work. We have gotten the much needed kick in the rear to get the bathroom finished---or at least presentable. My matron of honor is going to be in town the week of Thanksgiving, which gives us a few short months to whip everything into shape. This should be interesting.

Our latest project: the dogs. Our dogs haven't been doing so well. While walking around the neighborhood the past couple of weeks---we noticed that Maya had been stumbling and tripping over the sidewalk. We took her to our family vet, where they ran tests, did blood work, and did x-rays. Based on their findings, we were urged to take Maya to get a neuro consult at NC State's Vetrinary Teaching Hospital

We had a tense week of waiting while Maya appeared to get worse---refusing to eat, loosing weight, and just not herself. We googled everything our vet thought it would be so we would be prepared to ask the right questions, etc. I did research on all of the vets at the teaching school and demanded to be seen by the best of the best there:Dr. Olby.

And yes, I demanded. Our dogs are our babies. And if I was going to be seen by a specialist, I wanted to be seen by the best. I didn't take no for an answer. We spent two days in Raleigh with the vet staff--where they treated Maya like royalty. The staff was very gentle and caring with her, and patient with us. Maya was put through the ringer, more xrays, blood work, ultra sound, CT scan and a spinal tap. I'm not going to lie--we were on the verge of a meltdown when they thought it was cancer---but we were very lucky. Her official diagnosis is 1. Lumbosacral Interverbial Disc Disease, Progressive Paraparesis, and Bone Cysts in the right sacral body. The staff mentioned they were surprised we had even noticed something was wrong---as her clinical signs were not really noticeable--and that most owners only realized something was wrong when their dogs stopped walking. She doesn't need surgery---they're hopeful we can provide her a comfortable life with medicine and a change in lifestyle. So far--two weeks on the new meds and lifestyle--she's bounced back. She's like a puppy again, albeit, a 75 pound rottweiler puppy. She appears to be in good spirits, she's eating, and his tripping alot less. We have to take her back to State in a month, and will be visiting State at least once a year for the rest of her life. But that's ok. We're in good hands. We'd like to give a shoutout to Dr. Olby, Dr. Campbell, and Libby who took awesome care of Maya. When we were leaving, they kept telling us how they had never encountered a sweeter Rottweiler and were amazed at her temperament.

Meanwhile, the day after we returned from NC State, Toby who is fighting a nail disease, broke off one of his nails.

So...back to our vet we went. Really--we should get frequent flyer miles.

It's all worth it though--when I get to watch my babies play in the yard.

So we've been busy bees around here. Maybe one day we'll actually make some progress.

I <3 Peel Away

2009-07-25T19:02:00.005-04:00

We've been trying different methods for removing paint from all the woodwork in the house. We can only remove so much with the scraping method--and let's be honest---we shouldn't be scraping it anyway.(Thanks to Sarah at Bangor Bungalow for the heads up.)We've been using the heat gun, but there are some things even our heat gun can't tackle. We'll call this exhibit A.

So we did some research on strippers and decided on Peel Away, especially after seeing multiple bloggers have great success with it. We were especially swayed by the results posted by Westview Bungalow.

So we decided to give it a try.

We had so much fun watching the process of the chemicals during the 24 hours it was on. Neil and I were like kids waiting for Christmas--we kept wanting to peek underneath the paper. Our results:

Not bad, not bad at all.

Aside from the smell, we found it easy to use with good results. On surfaces we haven't previously stripped with the paint gun, we're having to do multiple sessions--but all in all we like it.

scratches head

2009-07-18T22:07:00.003-04:00

Why in the hell are there two different types of crown molding in the kitchen?

And more importantly, why has it taken us almost two years to notice?

--

Real progress (inspired by my future-in-law's spur of the moment visit) post tomorrow.

Ant-ics part deux

2009-07-09T12:30:00.003-04:00

Current score:

Ants: 2

1924 Cottage: 1

They've infiltrated the laundry room and were swarming in Mr. Giggle's food bowl. Might be why he's so pissy lately.

Meanwhile we have a new battle.

Squirrels of Doom: 1

1924 Cottage's Tomato Plants: -2

Anyone got any hints how to keep the squirrels out of the planters? We have fencing around it---but apparently that's not enough--as I walked out this morning to see our tomato in the neighbors yard half eaten. Second one this week.

Bastards.

Brilliant....really.

2009-06-09T21:17:00.003-04:00

My parents do-it-yourself version of the Topsy turvy tomato plant.

Absolutely brilliant.

Ant-ics

2009-06-01T23:15:00.003-04:00

Tentative score:

Ants: 1

1924 Cottage: 1

Unexpected bonus: The cat is eating his new dry food enthusiastically--sans the aid of wet food.

Ants

2009-05-29T13:08:00.003-04:00

We've got Ants.

Yippie.

We've cleaned up the food source and now I'm researching natural ways to get rid of ants, as the cat has way too much curiosity to put out bait.

Combined with the oppressive humidity, the lack of air circulation in the house, and the severe thunderstorm watch we're having a rocking Friday night at the Cottage.

Backyard Antics aka What the Hell Is This?

2009-05-24T22:34:00.012-04:00

Despite Neil working all weekend I decided to get some stuff done around the house, specifically the backyard.

I started the morning by ignoring Neil's strict instructions of "do anything but move the planters, because it'll eff up the yard." First thing on my agenda---move the planters. In all fairness, I only moved one, and I moved it to the one place he specifically told me not to. I take instructions *so* well. I stripped the sod, and then hauled all 10 bags of dirt across the yard, and poured them in the planter my step-dad made for us out of spare 2x4 he had at his house. Poured in some manure, spread it all around, and planted the squash. At which point, I decided to to take a photo to send to Neil at work.

Nothing like a little immaturity on a Saturday morning to prepare him for marriage to me.

We're excited though, and hope that the squash will turn out as well as our tomatoes and lettuce are doing.

I need to plant the cucumbers this week--and then find out what, if anything my Future Mother-In-Law has growing for me. I know she has some peppers, but I need something well---I don't know what I need. Anyway...

After taking a break to avoid the oppressive NC heat and humidity, I was back in the yard to pull weeds. Our backyard is horrible, and I'm sure it pisses the neighbors off. It's mostly shaded, it has all these weird plants, and then there's the backpart which has years and years of yard clippings. Nice. The more we haul out, the more we unearth. Bricks, toys, car parts-- It's just a mess.

See what I'm saying?

Then there was the massive weeds. I'm 6'1 ya'll. This is how high we let it get:

While weeding, I've come across several plants that I just don't know what the hell they are. I don't know if they're weeds, or some sort of shade plant covering. Anyone know?

We need to pull out the pine needles we didn't get out when we bought the house in 2007. We need to spread mulch. And I need to try and control the hot mess that's in the the back yard. All advice is welcome.

Meanwhile, I was stalked by a bird but the dogs had a great day enjoying the weather.

So today's progress was a bust due to the inability to move from Friday's 4 mile walk putting out flags for the holiday weekend, and then yesterdays jaunt. Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to get out there some more and figure out what exactly it is I'm doing.

That which doesn't kill us.....

2009-05-23T09:56:00.006-04:00

makes us tired as hell.

When we last checked in dedicated readers....all 1.5 of you....we were in the calm before the storm. Both Neil and I were motivated, and we were going to get work done. Then, life happened. Since April I've had two major papers or projects to do over the weekend, school, working two jobs, and coordinating over 195 volunteers for the local wine festival. Meanwhile, Neil has been working overtime as they're short staffed and haven't had anyone decent to come along and fill the position which would alleviate his working for 9 days straight pattern that's become a bit too common.

Needless to say, we're both exhausted---and most of the time when I finally made it home at 9 or 10 at night....this is what you would find me doing:

Luckily, school has let out for the summer, the wine festival went off without a hitch, and life has slowed down so we can do some work.

We've had major progress--and all my pictures to prove it are on my computer which died on me last week. Huzzah. However, Neil found a fabulous deal on Dell---and my new computer is sitting in the guest room waiting to be set up. Hopefully we'll have pictures soon.

Things we've done:
-Pressure washed the front of the house, porch and sidewalk. AMAZING difference.
-Planted part of our veggie garden in the planters my step-dad made for us.
-Planted new plants to help with irrigation but to help make our yard pretty.
-Had a friend clean our NASTY NASTY house to make it presentable.
-Put up paint chips to decide what color we're going to paint the bathroom.

This weekend I'm on my own---as Neil has to work the entire three day weekend----boo hiss. But I plan on tackeling the back yard, planting the rest of our veggie garden, and pulling out the weeds that are almost to my chest area. No lie. I'll take pictures to prove it too!

Meanwhile, I leave you with shots from our veggie box from a couple of weeks ago---and the pile of crap I have to put out this week.

Progress?!?!?! And a serious reminder....

2009-04-04T18:29:00.011-04:00

Believe it or not, we haven't died. The house, however, has consumed us....and is slowly killing us. We thought this would be easy, that we knew what we were doing....somewhat. The house, has proved us wrong. The house is always here, mocking us. However, we are not defeated. We just took a break to regroup. That, and I decided to mourn the loss of my job by sitting on the couch watching the complete Grey's Anatomy Season 2 on DVD....but I digress.
I got fed up with our half ass progress on everything and one day after work, decided to start scraping windows in the bathroom.

Which went suprisingly easily as the p.o.'s or the flipper before them decided to paint over oil based paint with latex. Came off really easily. Then I decided to tear down some of the ugly wallpaper that was sticking up from underneath all the ugly pink paint.

Neil, who thought this would be a passing phase, decided to grab some photos to prove that I actually do stuff around the house. And was surprised when I kept at it for awhile. Note the progress I did in about twenty minutes before I was pulled away for dinner.

Then I discovered the best thing ever---my heat gun. My step-dad, while over to help work on the ceiling of the bathroom suggested I use the heat gun. BEST. IDEA. EVER.

I love my heat gun. I can't believe I thought I was going to scrape down every damn molding in the house by hand. No freaking way. I was a complete dork and spent half the afternoon in the bathroom with my heat gun. Neil was able to coax me to come up for air so he could take the following pictures:

And on top of all that.....we finished sanding the ceiling and got the first coat of primer on. *gasp*

So my plan is to use the heat gun on the doors and mouldings, paint the ceiling, install new crown mouldings, and decide on paint. I'd like to get this done by....oh....June. Although one of my bridesmaids might be coming into town for a visit, which means, this will get done before her visit.

While it's not much---it's a start. We just need time and money.

-----
On a serious note---we have a reminder for everyone remodeling. While we know that it's essential to protect yourself while remodeling (safety glasses, resperators, etc) don't forget about your pets. They need just as much protection, if not more. We had a pretty bad scare with one of our animals. Maya, our Rottweiler, ended up getting into the remnants of the Kilz primer we had used on the ceiling. (Yes, we know this is odd---but the dog eats sticks of butter, bread while still in plastic bags, licks doors---she's a bit goofy.) We don't know how much she ingested, but when I got home, it was all on her face, whiskers, paws, and nails. Kilz does have some chemicals that are toxic to dogs and cats, so we had a tense couple of days watching all of the animals, but especially the rottie. We appreciate not only the staff at our vet's office (minus the nasty receptionist who I hope was fired due to how she acted when I called) but the ASPCA's Animal Poison Control center---who are available 24/7 at (888) 426-4435 or http://www.aspca.org/pet-care/poison-control/

Luckily, Maya is great, and doesn't seem to have been affected. Toby and Trouble are good as well, but we realize things could've gone alot worse. And it could've been prevented if we hadn't had a careless moment. So, as a friendly reminder, make sure all tools and chemicals are stored in a secure location where your pet or children can't reach them. It only takes two seconds for something to go horribly wrong.

We're thankful we still have our babies.

Snow! (In which we learn to hit PUBLISH).....

2009-03-10T10:27:00.005-04:00

We had an unheard of five inches of snow in March. Of course, I had to take pictures to document this rarity. And then, prompty forgot to hit PUBLISH back in March. *headdesk*

I like the snow. It hides the work we need to do....

Oh come the (%&()#@&$% on.....

2009-03-04T16:47:00.003-05:00

The county that we live in is currently re-assessing tax values of homes. I knew that our tax value would go up. I expected it. What I did not expect, however, was for our tax value to almost DOUBLE. Total value it went up: $92,500.

You've got to be kidding me.

Needless to say, the gentleman at the tax office and I had a nice little chat. Went something like this:

Gentleman at the tax office: "You can dispute it, if you want. We attached a form stating what you would have to fill out to dispute."

Me: "I'm sorry, I didn't get past the OVER-INFLATED UNREALISTIC TAX VALUE OF MY HOME to see a form."

There has to be a clerical error in this somewhere. Meanwhile, I ponder leaving the bathroom ceiling as is for the home assessor. Surely that will help......

New Years Resolutions

2009-02-08T10:45:00.005-05:00

Before I start the New Years Goals For the Cottage/Bungalow (why yes, I'm aware it's February, that's how we roll around here) I'd like to bring you up to speed on our progress on the bathroom ceiling.

If slow and steady wins the race, we're on our way to being rulers of the motherfin' universe.

Anyways......Goals for the House for this Year.

1. Finish the Bathroom Ceiling

2.Renovate the Bathroom--which involves new paint, crown moulding, tile, fixtures, floor, vanity, lighting, electrical work, and other various stuff that will come up. Projected cost $2,500-$5,000

3.Save the backyard from itself: seed the backyard, mulch out the rest of the beds, remove debris, make it look decent.

4.Porch - remove the dinky trelis that's being used as a safety thing....and put in actual posts.

5.Windows--our big project: pull out all 17 windows, scrape them down, repaint and reglaze and replace all ropes with chains, and then rehang.

6.Start scraping down and repainting and recaulk all the mouldings in the house. AH HA AH HA, shoot me now.

7.*Hopefully* replace the front porch so I don't have a lake on the front for three days after it rains.

8. Get an electrician in to wire new outlets for the basement, move switches in the kitchen and bathroom, and install a switch for the disposal. We've only had it for two years.

9. Plant a garden....I have no idea what to plant that we won't a)kill and b)Neil will eat.

10. Become more energy efficient. Despite our insulation and thermostat, we have a $100 electric bill and $250 Natural Gas bill. This sucks. We might start composting, I think.

So that's our plan--I'm sure we've cursed ourselves by placing this out for the world to see---but who cares.

--
In other rivioting news, I got notice that I will be officially laid off effecting Feb. 27th. Which motivates me to really work on our tasks. Because if we have to sell this house, no one is going to buy it in the condition that it's in. Although I think the drywall adds a lovely ambiance.

And now that I've spread cheer and good will---I leave you with pretty pictures from the neighborhood.

Question.....

2009-01-07T20:58:00.005-05:00

Can you really consider it progress if you're repairing the damage you did yourself?

No, we didn't think so either.

How'd this happen? I don't really know. I was making the 2nd of 4 trips to Home Depotthis weekend when it happened. What I do know is this: my step-dad who graciously agreed to come over and help was working on the death trap known as our attic (Trust me, whole other post there)when he rolled his ankle, tried to regain his balance, and went through the ceiling. The only thing that kept him from falling all the way through is the floor joist he took dangerously close to the family jewels. I just happened to be on the phone with Neil when this happened, and heard the commotion in the background. I wasn't encouraged when Neil ended the call with "oh my god, I have to call you back." I'm sure the employees and patrons of Home Depot were intrigued when they heard me screeching, "WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU FELL THROUGH THE CEILING!?!?!" Oh to have been a fly on the wall.

So, obviously insulation was sidelined by ripping down the sheet rock and crown mouldings, only to discover this.

I never thought I would say this.....but judging from the previous paint colors and hideous wallpaper choices, the infamous pink color was a BIG improvement. BIG improvement. I should note--I had planned on repainting the bathroom blue. Neil made a smart ass comment of the paint already being there. I started re-thinking my color choices.

But I digress....

Anyway, ripped down the sheet rock, pushed up the fallen insulation, rescued the cat from his curiosity of the big hole in the ceiling and the ladder, hung new sheet rock and called it quits for the day.

Sunday we were up at the crack of dawn (to all my neighbors---I'm sorry!!)to tackle the insulation. Four hours and 20 bags later, we successfully raised the level of insulation from 4-5 inches to about 16 inches. The house feels warmer and the furnace has been running less.

Although, if we're being completely honest, this could all be a figment of my imagination trying to convince me that this was all worth it. And that my bathroom will magically clean itself from the disaster.

So, we're kind of approaching the hole in the ceiling as the jump start to re-doing the bathroom. Granted, I would've liked to have started it on my own accord, but we like a challenge. Isn't that we bought this damn house in the first place?

S.N.A.F.U.

2009-01-03T15:30:00.004-05:00

The plan was to blow insulation in today.......

We're all ok.....but damn......

Christmas Cheer and the Grinch Brings Bills....

2008-12-25T10:36:00.003-05:00

First of all, Merry Christmas from the Cottage/Bungalow. (I really need to figure out if we're a Colonial Revival Bungalow or not.) We hope that your holiday season was and continues to be nice.

Santa was good to us this year. The dogs got toys, Mr. Giggles got a bunch of cat nip, Neil got a nice cordless drill, and I got a heat gun. *MUAHAHAHAHAHA*. Although, the countless warnings to not burn the house down with it have spoiled my joy a bit.
Santa was also nice and provided us with the money we needed to blow in insulation in the attic---which is greatly appreciated and needed. That appears to be our first project of the new year.

However, the Grinch rained on our parade in the form of our Gas bill. Freaking $214.00. Now, I must admit that I've been living in a hole for the past few months with two jobs, an internship, a brutal semester at school, etc. But what the hell? Are gas prices that high? We put the programmable thermostat in, we're running 64-68....good god. So, any insight would be helpful. Apparently we can't get this insulation in fast enough.

Oh! Our big news at the cottage/bungalow......We're GETTING MARRIED! Neil popped the question Monday night on our front porch. It was completely sweet, unexpected, and a beautiful setting. If nothing else, the house is a beautiful back drop for the start of our life together.

Procrastination is a beautiful thing.....

2008-12-14T15:08:00.010-05:00

Instead of doing last minute studying for a killer exam tomorrow, I decided to upload photos from the past three months onto my camera. Let's share, shall we?

Neil and I have done more of our patetended "half-ass progress." As previously mentioned, we're having moisture issue in our bathroom. While brushing my teeth one night, I got a wild hair and pried open our exhause vent. And discovered this:

Which may be the reason we're having problems such as this:

The jury is out on if it's mold or mildew. We can all agree that it's gross. The jury is also out on how we're going to fix it.

We did the responsible thing as homeowners, and cleaned our gutters. Witness the proof--

Sideways is sexy. *snort*

Meanwhile, Halloween came about and our neighborhood went crazy. I have never been a part of a neighborhood that really gets into the holiday season....as evidenced by one of my favorite homes decorated:

As time went along---the foreclosure across the street has been sold and in the process of being flipped. And while I did venture across the street (in the middle of the night, in heels, across the precarious board placed across the wet concrete) I confirmed that they did not install the front door upside down, but rather jacked up the door knob to about five inches under the door's window. I dunno.

And, with that, I leave you with some pretty picture from my street.

We're those people again......

2008-12-05T19:34:00.003-05:00

The foreclosure across the street was auctioned off a few weeks ago---and it looks like they've actually closed on the house---as evidenced by the onslaught of contractors. It's nice to see the house getting some TLC, but it's making us look bad. Once again we're those people. Across the street, they've cleared all the brush, poured a new front porch, raked, installed the front door upside down (ok, we're not a 100% sure, but I'm sneaking across tomorrow to check it out) etc.

Meanwhile, my summer planters are proudly decaying on the front porch. Along with the second covering of leaves the tree barfed on the yard.

Me thinks we'll have to get off our asses this weekend, and get something done. Nothing like being those people as a motivator.

Seriously?

2008-10-21T19:13:00.005-04:00

The city did sewer testing today. And really, it should come as no surprise that something would go wrong. To our property.

The very long short of it: we have an easement at the back of our property. I just learned that today. I won't go into my rant about it not being recorded or on record or disclosed, or any of that information. Apparently, the home behind me has something wrong with the sewer lines on their property, and possibly on my property. So, guess whose yard and fence get to be ripped up to oblivion and THEN, the best part, GET TO BE REPLACED AT COST TO THE OWNER.

Why, yes, that would be me.

The rest of my afternoon was spent making various phone calls that got me exactly no where.

Ahhh.....yes.

At least the dogs didn't bite the workers when they tried to enter the yard.

New Appliances, yardwork, and auctions oh my!

2008-10-19T09:32:00.002-04:00

We've been somewhat busy at the cottage/bungalow.

Busy ignoring the mildew, the insulation, the fact that we need to get the house ready for winter. You know, things that would make life more comfy here.

However, we have done something.

Last week after Neil hung my curtains in the front two rooms for me, I yanked down the blinds before the cat could destroy or eat anymore of them. I have no idea what to do with them.

I also scored a new (to us anyway) dishwasher and glass top stove for the kitchen....for less than $300. I love you, craigslist. The stove has a few dings and a cracked button on the control panel, which I hope we can replace. The dishwasher is stainless on the inside, CLEAN, and not rusting away---like our current one.

We plan on keeping the old appliances around for a while, cleaning them, and putting them on Craigslist ourselves, or taking them down to the ReStore.

In other news, we had to turn on the heat for the first time last night. Ahhh the smell of burning dust and animal hair. NICE. It also reminded us that we need to get off our asses and get the house as tight as we can.

Oh, *drumroll* we mowed the front and back yard! I think my neighbors might've fallen over in shock.

AND---the foreclosure across the street is going up for auction. I believe the starting bid is $20,000. Quite a far cry from the bank pricing it at $190,000. We'll see if it actually sells.

Not so epic fail......

2008-10-12T09:30:00.002-04:00

I forgot to add to yesterday's post. We have made progress. After a year of home ownership? We finally hung curtains yesterday.

Hold on to your hats people!

One Year.....

2008-10-11T22:13:00.003-04:00

Today marks one year of home ownership.

Our house decided to fall apart to celebrate.

We've discovered a nice mold and or mildew problem in our bathroom. Our bathroom vent most likely needs to be ripped out and a better one put in. Then all the mildew/mold needs to be bleached out, kilzed over, and painted.

The edge of our countertops decided to become unglued and hang in the floor. Eventually I got tired and ripped it off -- which is so unsightly, but at the same time, is an upgrade over the pink counter tops.

I think we have a leak in our roof---or something has died and the decomposition is seeping through the ceiling.

Our porch continues to retain water when it rains. Fabulous

Meanwhile, we've bought insulation, we don't have time to install it. We need to buy insulation to blow in the attic---but neither one of us wants to tempt death trying to get into the attic. We plan to send my 17 year old brother instead.

I finally managed to dead head the plants in the front and pull weeds. And!!!!! While sorting through the fall out shelter also known as our basment---we found a couple of usuable storm windows, and screens which we decided to install---right in time for winter. Awesome.

Now, maybe we might actually mow our yard one day.

I wouldn't push it.

Gettin' Ready for Winter

2008-09-22T09:24:00.006-04:00

Inspired by rising gas prices, and Jennifer over at Tiny Old House, Neil and I decided to start winterizing the casa. We started by installed a programmable thermostat yesterday, and slung around some insulation in the basement. Sounds like fun, right? You betcha.

It was pretty cool to see all the previous paint colors. There was a 1950's aqua that I actually found pretty, but would most likely come in on me and set off my claustrophobia should I actually paint the dining room that color.

I should also note that while this was a "team" install, Neil started the project, however an argument arose (the subject of which shall not be mentioned) and a level was produced and proved my point. I ended up finishing up the install. Take that teamwork.

Although, I did have help from my buddy Mr. Giggles. And personally, I was shocked that we could run the drill without flipping the breaker. Seems that's only reserved for my hair dryer.

After that, I decided to torture Neil some more by making him hang insulation down in the basement. I helped, kinda. The whole basement situation is tricky with all of the fabric wiring just hanging there, still in use, so we decided to leave those spots alone and focus on the spots where we wouldn't cause damage. So we have about 1/4 of the basement insulated. I don't know if it's going to do any good----but hell, I don't think it could get any worse.

Although, if looks could kill. And wow, our basement looks like a fallout shelter. But on the plus side, we found some cool stuff hidden in the joists. And that's what makes it worth while, at least until the reduced heating bill comes in.

Details....

2008-09-14T16:54:00.008-04:00

Progress has slowed to a crawl here at the cottage/bungalow. (Edit...I really just can't think of the house as a bungalow.) Aside from having no money for renovations (Three cheers for cutbacks and the economy!!!) and no time (Another cheer for picking up an additional part time job and grad school at night), I simply can't figure out where I want to start on the designated cheep/free things we need to do around the house.

My new obsession? I want a heat gun. I want it now. And I desperately want to use it on every peeling, chipping, ugly painted surface in the house. Everywhere you turn in this damn house there's peeling paint. On the doors, on the mouldings, the fireplace, the windows, the door hinges. I'm the type of person who sees something like that and immediately begins to pick at it....I can't leave it alone. So I'll walk by..and *pick pick pick* sending paint chips everywhere. I really should stop, as god knows if anything I'm picking around has lead based paint. I even started picking at the paint on the fireplace, and ended up ripping a HUGE chunk of paint off---exposing, you guessed it: more paint. This time, in a khaki brown if I remember correctly. As I hated the paint color underneath it more than the actual peeling paint, I then completely lost my mind and SCOTCH TAPED THE PAINT I PEELED OFF BACK ON. I have reached a new level of sadness. It hasn't stopped the urge. Alas, I must resign myself to doing it the old fashioned way, by hand. So of course, I've completely lost interest in it.....until I walk by a spot.

Anyway, I decided to take some very bad detail pictures of the house....because, well, yeah.

I would of course, pick the knob in he house that is missing a screw and CROOKED. Note to self: get Neil to fix that.

The inside of our tiny, designed for coal, fireplace. I love all the stamps on the brickwork.

The inside of our chimney.

The bane of my existence, also known as the faux painted fireplace front. At least I'm assuming it's painted...because I've been cleaning the heck out of the sucker and the color still remains the same. AUGH.

And now, I shall be productive and research to see if Lowes or Home Depot has any screen doors on clearance as ours is being held together by duct tape, and just begging for someone to break in.

Curiosity.......

2008-09-07T14:13:00.010-04:00

Instead of reading for class tomorrow, I decided to see if I could strip paint off the knobs on the built ins. I don't know who or why they painted over the knobs, or everyting else in the house. You name it, window sash locks, window lifts, outlets, hinges; if it could be covered, it's got about three layers of paint on it.

So I'm thrilled that the paint will come off and the knob looks to be in great condition. I'd be estatic had we not just replaced most of the window sash locks and lifts in the house with a brushed nickel.

Meanwhile, the dogs could care less....

And while my curiosity didn't kill the cat----he looks mighty dead sometimes, in his sleep.

Fresh Air

2008-09-06T18:56:00.005-04:00

I can't believe I'm posting this...but, the petri-dish of nasty-ness is a surface test from our return air register. It has sense grown worse. It's about as gross as the salmon color counter tops it rests on.

What brought this on?

Some vendors came by my work to give a presentation to the Realtors about a product that would help sell homes, blah blah, reduce smells, blah blah. I didn't sit in on the presentation, but afterwards, I saw 85% of our agents walking out with their product. My agents are notorious cynics and cheap skates, so of course I had to investigate. The representatives claimed that not only did the unit purify the air, but sanitized surfaces. Here's an "official" blurb that I ganked somewhere:

Nature-based germ-killing, odor reducing technology tested by the Kansas State University. Ecobox kills germs on surfaces. That's proven. Viruses on doorknobs, like the flue, die. Bacteria, like E.coli and Salmonella on countertops, are stopped in their tracks. And mold is attacked wherever you can see it. That means less exposure to illness-causing germs for your friends and family. So you can worry less about: places you touch; odors that linger; stuff that smokes; things you use; odors that just show up; or things that are just 'icky'.

So they're convincing....but I'm skeptical beyond belief. Our house.....smells. It's a very distinct odor consisting of basement, two dogs, cat, and just old house. I inwardly cringe knowing that every time people come into my house, they smell it and most likely think horrible things about us. I tell the vendors this. They tell me the box can eliminate it. They throw in a free trial. I decide to take it, because honestly, there's no way this little box is going to make my house not smell.

Damn if three hours after plugging in the box my house smells clean, no dog, no cat, no horrid basement smell. Two weeks later, when you walk in, it's still fresh.

I'm getting another petri dish to see if our house is actually cleaner, or if this is all a placebo effect.

http://www.activtek.net/

In other riveting homeowner news.....

-the city finally picked up the branch pile of doom. The little old ladies have stopped glaring at us when walking by.

-Extensive repairs/projects/the new front porch in November have been put on hold as my full time job is well.....no longer full time. Or providing benefits. Or much of anything. Basically, I get paid enough to provide gas money to get to work. After the pay check this week...we're launching into survival mode. A new front porch is not essential to survival. It would however, make the house look a lot better.

So, alot of work coming up on the house is either going to be a)free (I've got tons of yard work to do), b)cheap (spreading mulch, and possibly cleaning and waterproofing the deck and nailing down some loose boards), or c)vitally necessary (We've got to put in some new insulation either in the basement or attic before it gets cold. We've got roughly 4 weeks to accomplish this.)

But we're going to suck it up and continue along at the bungalow. Even if it kills us.

A name change might be in order.....

2008-08-24T11:14:00.002-04:00

Discription of our home from the National Register of Historic Places...

Miller House c.1925 Contributing
Colonial Revival Bungalow. One-story; side-facing jerkinhead roof; aluminum siding; arched hood at entry; four (vertical lights)-over-one, double-hung sash. 1925 CD: Sicie Miller, Miller’s Sales Store.

Hmmmm.

I must research now.

Hostage......

2008-08-23T12:37:00.002-04:00

Day 6. My two six feet high tree debris piles are still on my curb.

It's starting to piss me off.

I would say that the city is ignoring my pile, because it's too big--but someone on the next street over has a comparable pile...and there pile remains untouched as well.

Apparently its starting to piss other people off too, as we're recieving some nasty glares as people walk by, as well as the lovely douche bags who are using it for their own personal garbage disposal.

We'll see how long the city decides to torture me.

Well......that was interesting

2008-08-16T21:08:00.006-04:00

Back story required.

After the storm, we needed the service of a tree trimmer. We got several quotes, and went with the quote that we could afford. (IE: not almost $1,000.)He cuts out the broken limbs, we'll cut up and chip the rest. Verbally agreed to have the guy come out the following week. We all know where this is going.

Two weeks pass--no tree trimmer, no phone call. Neil calls, as he does much better in those situations, and talks to the guy. Said he'd be out on Monday. We all know he didn't.
So I start getting recommendations for another trimmer. I was going to start calling people on Friday, however, both of us got busy at work. I was also going to make the nasty phone call this morning of,"Hey, obviously you don't need the business, we'll call someone who does and can conduct their business as such."

The trimmer shows up at 7 something last night pulling me out of the shower to see why the dogs were going nuts. So he decides to start cutting--with 45 minutes of daylight left.

Hindsight--always 20/20. I should've asked for him to come back---but truth be told I was so damn happy for them to get cut before they took out my fence.

I won't get into details about the entire visit---but it involved his wife with him on the job (and all over my porch) my next door neighbor (an Ardmore legend) talking major smack to him, him mouthing off to me, and apparently a horrible looking job. I have yet to see the full extent of the damage as my previously blogged ankle injury turned out to be a lot worse than anticipated, (A bone bruise, small fracture, and a completely torn ligament.....woooo no)and I was sidelined from participating with the cleanup.

Luckily my family came out, and hauled it up the curb. I'm sure the city workers are just going to LOVE us.

Lesson learned? Don't let the tree trimmer cut into the night. Amongst other things.

Oh the joys of home ownership.

Ugh......

2008-08-16T08:51:00.001-04:00

The tree trimmer came.

Tree Trimmers

2008-08-14T12:27:00.002-04:00

Anyone in the Winston-Salem area know of a tree service who will a)not cost an arm and a leg, b)SHOW UP when they say the will, and c)has tree climbers--not just dependent on a cherry picker?

This really shouldn't be this hard.

Yardwork Part Deux

2008-08-05T21:45:00.006-04:00

Picture progress from this weekend....

What the house looked like the day we closed. And to be honest, what its looked like most of the past year. I didn't get any pictures before we started....but imagine a lot of weeds, and overgrown bushes.

Ignore my goofy look. I had no idea what I was getting into. Neil nailed it with the "WTF am I doing" look. If you look beside of us, you can see the multiple dead plants and weeds that we battle daily.

The beds after weeding, pulling out huge hydrangia bushes (I have about three more that I need to rip out...for any locals who may want them), planting new bushes, and mulching. You can also get a glimpse at our porch which will be getting a face lift this fall.

Pretty porch bling.

Ahhh much better.

The house across the street for reference. And Neil's right. We weren't getting that bad. Our weeds had only grown up a third of the height of our house, not half.

Yardwork

2008-08-03T20:52:00.003-04:00

It was another unbearable hot, humid, NC weekend. Which means one thing: we were masochists and worked outside.

Normally when the temperature is hovering around 100* I like to stay inside. But when I pulled into the driveway Thursday night and looked at our yard, I realized one thing: the Foreclosure (been vacant for a year, hasn't had yard work in about six months) has a nicer yard than ours. We were on our way to becoming THOSE people. There's always one on every street---and hell it looks like we might be it. It wasn't on purpose. I'm still down and out from my ankle injury three weeks ago, and Neil has been in and out of town on business. And frankly, it's been too damn hot to work outside. It's one of those you don't really realize it until it's too late....

I called Neil in for a closer look. He said I was overreacting. I think he just wanted to stay inside.

Saturday started the conquest. A trip to Lowes (and really, what's a weekend without a trip to Lowes?) to buy mulch and some bushes. Then back to the house where I spent the afternoon dragging out the new branch that had fallen (Only a ten footer this time!)and mowing the yard. I am ashamed to say that our two week break from mowing the yard left the grass so high I didn't see one of the dog's toys until I mowed right over it. Oops. On the plus side, our new mower can shred and chip just about anything. My Grandfather (who gave us the Lawnmower)will be thrilled when I tell him.

Today we spent chopping down ugly bushes, pulling trees that were trying to grow into our foundation, transplanting some flowers, planting new bushes and spreading mulch. We also learned from our neighbor that her roof guy noticed our gutters were stuffed full on the back of the house. Mental note: clean out the gutters.

After all that? The front looks decent. We still have alot more to do. But I am content that we're not as bad as we were a few days ago.

Now all we need is to pressure wash the front....that could be fun.

Storms

2008-07-23T18:34:00.004-04:00

Our backyard---not exactly ready for Better Homes and Gardens.

Certainley not after this.

Our area was hit on Tuesday with a severe storm. We wern't here---but our neighborhood was/is TRASHED. There isn't a single house on the street that didn't have some sort of tree limb/trunk/something down. The house behind us had a massive tree on their house. The house across from us had their tree go onto someone's garage. Almost every road was blocked in some way and some people had power lines on their house.

We were very lucky. The trees in our backyard are as old as the house, if not older. Nothing came down (except the lovely 27 foot branch pictured above and ou fenced missed being taken out by about a foot) but the tree took alot of damage. Part of the top snapped off and is hanging by a thread---conveniently over our fence. God help me if the limbs take out the fence for the second time in a year.

The trimmers are coming out next week to take the limbs down. Neil and I will take care of the rest.

I can only imagine we're going to top our branch pile from yesterday---our biggest thus far.

It's the little things we get a kick out of......

Last Weekend

2008-07-12T17:33:00.017-04:00

Last weekend we took advantage of the three day weekend to get some work done around the house. We mowed the yard, pruned some bushes, majorly weeded the front beds, and finally got permission from our next door neighbor to trim down his vegetation that was taking over our yard. I manged not to go blind as I sent wood debris flying into my eye while using the bush hog. Our big project: painting the Laundry Room. It needed it, in a horrible way.

The previous owners decided to paint the entire inside of the house pink. With the exception of a mint green room. After sanding down and fixing the horrible paint job---we discovered that they chose pink over the nice white walls they had. I can think of many colors to paint a house -- pink would not be one of them. But to each their own. Picture of color for reference:

So, the first thing after we closed on the house? Paint.

MUCH BETTER.

However, we left some of the smaller rooms to paint later---because we were too busy getting the house clean enough to move into without worrying about the small rooms. Last weekend was the perfect time to do the laundry room.

Neil started off with breaking one of the windows in the laundry room trying to open it. Pushed a little too hard and the sash broke--sending the mechanisms crashing within the wall. No worries---I'm sure will give us free shipping seeing as we now will have to do this to every window in the house now. We tried to clean the walls before painting to remove the various grease, kids drawings, and other stuff left behind--but nothing was coming off---so we just ran with it because the paint we were using was thick.

Then....we had the lovely job of scraping down the patch jobs that were never finished.

So, we had to sand and scrape the excess putty off. And here's where it got interesting--we had three reactions. It would either smooth out, or dry particles would come pouring, almost like sand out of the middle of the place we just sanded, or about five layers of paint would come flying off. Like so:

Seriously?

Our Cat, Trouble, aka Mr. Giggles who had perched himself in the window to supervise decided to express exactly what he felt about the process.

And can you blame him?

Yeah, that was a lovely gem we didn't get to see until our walk through. And yes, that is matching pink and white linoleum. It matched the pink walls and our current pink counter tops. Oh joy.

Meanwhile, we got everything taped, patched, cut in, and a first round of paint on before fireworks. You can see the color difference even with the cut in.

Ever tried to paint with a white cat lurking in the room? Yeah, I wouldn't recommend it. Remarkably, he remained without a spot on him.

We didn't even chance it with the dogs--they were banished to the backyard where they spent all afternoon digging holes.

We did manage to get a second coat on. However, we're having an issue with a wall where we're going to have to touch up some paint that just decided to bubble and peel off. That was the plan for me this weekend, but alas no go.

Hopefully, we'll get this completed next weekend and I will actually enjoy going into the laundry room without throwing up.

Doh....

2008-07-12T17:07:00.010-04:00

Despite the fact Neil is at work all weekend, I had plans to do some work around the house. That is, until I got in a fight with the ground.....and lost. While walking out of my hotel in Asheville yesterday morning, I stepped into a hole which resulted in my ankle going one way--me the other--and landing in an ungraceful heap in front of about ten people in the parking lot. Luckily, several kind gentlemen rushed to my aid and helped me up and over to a bench. My brother, just stood and looked at me.

Jerk.

My brother and Mom both felt I should head home and forgo the rest of our day. Instead, I fought back nausea, slapped on an ice pack and spent the rest of my day touring Universities for my brother, and potential wedding venues for myself.

By the end of the day, I was done---and practically had to be carried anywhere. I stopped being a martyr and went to the doctor. Results? Possible sprained or torn ligaments. If it's still hurting as bad on Monday--I have to go get an MRI.

Lovely.

The State of the Cottage

2008-07-07T22:29:00.007-04:00

Some people may wonder why we're blogging about renovating/fixing up a house that appears to be, well, renovated.

Our house is like a magician---it looks great from the outside--but it's all a bunch of smoke and mirrors. Really, our gal is a borderline hag.

There's lots of things wrong with the house: 20 pages of things wrong to be exact. With pictures! My personal favorite being the home inspectors screw driver embedded into the dry rot of our floor joist. But I digress. The highlights:

-We've got a front porch with crumbling foundation and water damage plus railing that is no where near up to code.

-The original wiring in place and still being used (much to the dismay of my insurance agent)

-Original windows that are all broken in some capacity, some are missing locking mechanisms, some have broken window pains, almost all of the ropes are broken.

-Our kitchen is sinking

-Rotting floor joists and support columns

-A Furnace that looks like it has mold growing on the inside of the humidifier.

-We *think* we have hardwood floors in the kitchen and laundry room--but alas are being teased by the seven layers of vinyl laid by whoever came before us.

-The backyard---which is a whole other post itself.

And much more.

We'll be the first to admit--we're not bad off, renovation wise, but we're not facing a walk in the park either. I think our home inspector summed it up best by saying, "Well...the house isn't in great condition. But it's lasted 84 years. You two appear to be intelligent people, ya'll can probably manage to keep it standing for another 84."

We can only hope.