lisa May 27th, 2003
This weekend, being a long weekend, meant we had an extra day to work on the house. We got a lot done. The biggest accomplishment was the pantry cabinets. Have a look at the photos! They turned out great - of course we still need to build the drawers, doors, and shelves, but that’s not the difficult part.
The sink was a great find on Mark’s part - he found it on Craig’s List, a local bulletin board website that has come in really handy recently (he got our chipper from the same place, and we used the list in our roommate search, too). The sink, which you can buy at Home Depot for $300, was only $45. It’s white, which wasn’t my first choice, but hey - it matches the washer and dryer. (The other appliances are black or stainless, so it won’t match the rest of the kitchen, but that’s okay - we saved $250!)
The other big accomplishment this weekend was that I planted most of my seedlings - tomato, foxglove, cupid’s dart, lavender, and spurge. I didn’t get the cucumbers in - I need to buy a bag of gravel to put in the bottom of the tub I’m using for a planter, first.
Last year I put my tomatoes in on May 25th, too, and didn’t get my first tomato until August 15th. This year I’ve planted Early Girl, which might be ready sooner - time will tell!
lisa May 19th, 2003
We had a very productive weekend. We, and our new roommate Peter, worked on Peter’s bedroom. It used to be the Rose Bedroom because of the wallpaper, but since the wallpaper’s all gone now, I guess we’ll just call it Peter’s room. We stripped the paper and put up wall board on one wall where the plaster was shot, and we repaired the existing walls and put up a new ceiling. Now it just needs to be painted.
We also had the electrician here on Saturday, doing some finish work. We now have a temporary kitchen set up in the mudroom, and we have lights in the great room and kitchen. Mark did a beautiful job on the track lighting in the kitchen and recessed lights in the great room. I was very skeptical about using such modern lighting in this house, but I have to admit, it looks really good.
lisa May 14th, 2003
We got our electricity switched over to the new panel yesterday. What a saga this has been. We got the quote from the electrician last July, and we’re just now switching over. All the wiring has been done for months - we’ve been waiting for NST*R to come connect the weatherhead and they’ve been completely unresponsive. But they finally did the work yesterday.
Now we have working outlets on the second floor and in one room on the first floor. We have a contract with the electrician to do the finish work (outlets, light switches, etc.) but I wish we could back out and do the work ourselves. We might be slow, but at least we’re in control if we do it ourselves. With the electrician, we’re completely at his mercy.
So we have working outlets on the second floor, but none of the wall or ceiling lights are wired up, so we have to improvise with lamps, and we don’t have enough for every room. Plus, the study hasn’t been wired up, and that’s where the computers are, so as of yesterday, I have no working computer at home. I don’t know how long it will take before the study is wired up.
We’ve found a roommate to move in June 1st. The extra money from his rent will really help. And I’m looking forward to having another pair of hands around.
lisa April 29th, 2003
We have walls! The plasterers showed up yesterday and put up all the blueboard. Today and tomorrow they will be doing the skimcoating and then they’re done. It’s a big milestone.
We’re still waiting on the electrician to finish his work, and waiting on the electric company to come and hook us up so we can go live with the new panel. Next project is the kitchen cabinets, but Sunday night at dinner Mark told me that he doesn’t think we’re going to have enough money to buy the lumber. We really need to refinance, but I don’t know if we can get an appraiser to give the house a high enough value without finishing the kitchen, rebuilding the porch, and finishing the bathrooms. I guess we don’t have much choice - we’ll only lose $100 if we get another appraisal and it’s not a high enough figure to do what we need to do.
lisa April 21st, 2003
We worked on the house all weekend, getting ready for the plasterers, who are coming Friday. I will be away all weekend, and when I get back on Sunday there will be walls and ceilings on the first floor! What a milestone. Paying the plasterers and the sprinkler guy (who will finish installing the fire sprinkler system on Monday) will take up the last of our money. From now until we refinance, we will be paying for everything out of pocket. I’m a little nervous - buying the wood for the cabinets is going to be awfully expensive, even if we buy rough-hewn and plane the boards ourselves. But I expect that we’ll muddle through. As long as neither of us gets laid off again.
lisa February 3rd, 2003
We had a fairly productive weekend - did a lot of cleaning and that felt good. It’s really hard to stay on top of it in such a chaotic environment. Plus the living room is full of woodworking tools and table saws and they get used a lot. The plaster dust everywhere doesn’t help. We’re getting a shop-style air filtration system and we’ve got a dust collector and if we used both all the time it would be better.
Anyway, the house is much cleaner today and I even did laundry. We’re running out of money and we still have to pay the plasterers to come in and put up walls. Oh, there’s so much work left to do. But soon, soon, soon - maybe by October? this house will really be livable.
lisa January 29th, 2003
Our upstairs bathroom is nearly done. We finished the shower stall a few weeks ago, which was great because we?d been showering at Mark?s parents? house for more than a month. The new shower is set up exactly the way we want it: it will be white tile with a built-in corner bench. We bought a fantastic showerhead system with a big main showerhead and an adjustable removable hand-held showerhead on a bar. We bought a nice chrome shower caddy and a great fan/overhead light/nightlight, and I found some nice sconces for the mirrored wall. Then we?ll have a custom cabinet with a curved shelf area and plenty of storage, and the floor will have radiant under-floor heating and black and white mosaic tile. We?re leaving the nice wainscoting and painting it gloss white, and the walls will be a shade of periwinkle blue. It?s going to be a fantastic bathroom and it will be cutomized just for us ? such a thrill.
Next will be the walls downstairs. There was some major work going on this week as the guys worked on the transition area between the living and dining room. There were pocket doors there, but they didn?t work and the whole support structure needed to be redone, so we took out the pocket doors and are leaving the area wide open. There?s a nice solid support beam there now and it looks great. The fireplace looks bad, because after we took off the nice wooden mantlepiece we discovered that the brick underneath needs to be completely redone. Mark is pushing to replace the fireplace with a woodstove, and I?ve agreed to do it as long as I still have a mantle around it and it?s not sticking out into the room. I?ve seen some that look pretty nice, like this one. But we won?t be able to afford to do that for a while ? not until we re-finance this summer.
Speaking of re-financing. We?ve figured out how much we need to have the house appraised for in order to re-finance and pay off the home equity line, and we have quite a bit of work to do before I think we?ll get it reappraised. Like put up walls downstairs. And rebuild the porch. And have a kitchen of some kind. Mark?s been aquiring cabinetmaking tools for a while and he?s pretty much ready to start building the cabinets, once we find a decent source for rough wood (so that it?s cheaper). We have all the appliances, just need to build the cabinets and I know that?s going to take a long time and a lot of work.
lisa December 7th, 2002
We?ve been mostly concentrating on finishing off the electrical, putting in the garden window in the scullery, and putting down the sub floor in the kitchen. We got a dishwasher on eBay for $25. Mark?s been buying cabinetmaking tools for making the kitchen cabinets this winter. The insulation guys are coming tomorrow to do the icynene downstairs, which will help keep the house a lot warmer. We finally found a plumber and he starts next week. It was worth it to keep looking for a better deal.
lisa October 27th, 2002
Had a very productive day, today. Got lots done - the front is completely finished now, as far as all the structural work goes. We were going to have the plumbing start this week, but Mark’s talking to another plumber to try to get a better deal, so that’s been pushed back. Electricians should be finished with the rough work this week, then we can get that inspection done and get the insulation in. We’re still trying to get a committment from an insulation contractor - unfortunately, it’s the wrong time of year to be trying to get this done, the contractors are pretty booked up.
lisa October 10th, 2002
We have a new bay window in the back wall of the house ? the window is in the kitchen. It makes a huge difference in the amount of light coming in since the back faces south, and it’s going to be a great place for plants.
We’ve decided to go with tile floor in the kitchen ? either ceramic or porcelain. We were at Lowe’s tonight, and found a good ceramic tile (only $2/sq. ft!) that looks like slate but has less variation than real slate and isn’t as rough. The counters will be black granite ? 3/8ths of an inch thick, so not as expensive as the real thick slabs. Maple cabinets, fairly light stain. It’s going to look nice.
And as for the downstairs bath, we’ve decided to just put in a toilet and sink. We had talked about putting a shower in as well, but it doesn’t make any sense since there’s no bedroom on the first floor, just public space. We’re going to take out the old clawfoot tub upstairs and put in a modern shower, with white tile, rather than those acrylic-walled units. We’re also going to take out the large, original window and put in a smaller vinyl one. The bathroom is actually directly over the kitchen.