A lot of little things

Today C and I spent most of the day on the house. He moved the small tv out of the living room and set up the larger one. We cleaned and used the shop vac to pick up some of the ubiquitous white construction dust. We moved some remodel-related stuff out to the garage, which freed up space in the house. We cleaned and shop vacuumed out the garage, which made a big difference. We also moved a little bit more of our stuff inside.

All of this had a really noticeable effect on our quality of life. So, it was not a fun Saturday, but it was a rewarding one.

Washer and Dryer today!

Today was a really great day - the washer and dryer was deliverd on time, with no problems! I spent this evening doing wash at home instead of at the laundromat.

Here is the washer sitting in the street before the crew brought it in.


Here is they are in place! The kitchen is shaping up!

Small but important change today

I got the third piece of plywood down in the master bedroom. The contractor is going to show me how to cut the last few pieces next week and then the whole floor will be covered.


The contractor was here and raised a cabinet for me so we can get the washer and dryer delivered. I am so excited about this!


I had to start boxes for miscellaneous parts and papers that have accumulated. Every single thing that comes into the house had paperwork and parts with it.

A little bit of a lot of things

Today was a busy day, but there is nothing to show for it. I got a little bit done on a lot of different things. This seems to be the best way to work right now. It helps balance multiple priorities and make the tedious tasks easier to handle.

No Sunday day of rest

Today we got our bed moved and used our new shop vac to clean up some of the ever-present white construction dust. It made a big difference - previously, our bed was in the smallest bedroom along with a hanging rack, makeshift desk, bookshelves holding clothes, and everything else we needed to live. It is nice actually being able to walk all the way around the bed without stepping on or over anything.

A Terrible Saturday

Today was about the worst Saturday I could imagine. We went for a "quick" trip to Home Depot (as if that exists. Maybe I'd see a unicorn if I'm ever able to make a quick trip to Home Depot). It was a nightmare. First, they didn't have a single person working in the tool corral. We were there for over 20 minutes, and there was not one orange apron to be seen. The place was jam packed and nobody was working in tools. Finally, someone showed up. He knew nothing about the grinders we asked about, and when we asked him where shop vacs were, he didn't know what one was! I don't expect the average person to know that, but come on, the guy works at Home Depot! (BTW - a shop vac is a heavy duty vacuum cleaner for use on constructions sites and in shops).

We finally managed to outrun someone who worked there and find the shop vacs. The display was horrible. The models were mounted overhead so there was no way to handle them and see how heavy and cumbersome they were. That made it really difficult to decide which one to get. It was also impossible to match the display models with the boxes, and the signage was not helpful at all. To top it off, two little kids were playing hide and seek in the shop vac section. Their mom left them there and took off for about half an hour, and yes they were small enough to be abducted easily! It made me furious to see such carelessness, and Home Depot is not exactly a safe place for unattended small children to play. It made our shopping a lot more difficult.

We again got lucky enough to flag someone down, and he said "I don't work in this department, that guy does." He then points out the guy who doesn't know what a shop vac is! I asked him a quick question to get rid of him, and we decided to drive to Loews, which is an hour away. We got everything accomplished we wanted to, and even with the hour drive each way it was easier. This Loews is way out in the suburbs so they have fewer customers than our local Home Depot. They also have friendly, helpful, knowlegeable staff that, gasp, actually approach you as you shop to see if they can assist you. If only there was one nearer I'd never go to Home Depot again.

On the way home, we stopped off to buy sheets to cover our windows with. C is getting tired of the taped up newspapers. We started the day wanting to move our bed to a different, larger bedroom which is now ready for us to use. We didn't get to it even though we put in more than 6 hours of work today.

not much house stuff today

Today I didn't get much done around the house. There was a lot of running around to do away from home. Our information for the concrete countertops is on the way.

Here is a shot of our current trash pile. We've had one for many months. We fill our trash bins each week, but there is always more trash. We could get a dumpster, but it seems like a waste to pay to remove trash when we have empty space in out bins each week. Also, most of this stuff is recyclable, so we make sure to separate it.


We had the ficus trees trimmed last month (exactly one month ago). They were trimmed pretty severely since they hadn't been done in years. They are growing back quickly, and seem to be really sprouting now that I am watering them.

a productive day

We made a lot of progress today! I got the supplies ordered to do our concrete countertop samples from www.concreteexchange.com. I ended up ordering the instructional books and dvd from Amazon to save shipping.

The plumber was here today, and the heater is ready to go except for the thermostat. They also installed the bathtub drain for the third time - hope it works for more than three baths this time! The drain we have got broken or was defective the first time it was installed. After the second time, I called Kohler and the sent a kit out with everything that could possibly be wrong free of charge. So far, the drain seems to be working fine, and it is really nice not having to stop up the drain with a dish towel! We still cannot shower because the tile has not been sealed.


The washer and dryer is in at the dealer, but we can't have it installed yet because the contractor needs to move a cabinet. The W/D is bigger than we thought (and the appliance salesperson didn't bother to check when he suggested an alternate brand that was "the same" as the one we wanted), so the cabinet over the W/D needs to be moved up. I did some general straightening and picking up. You wouldn't believe how many loose, odd things end up all over the place. I was reluctant to spend any time straightening up because it would just become a mess again, but a little bit of time every day makes a big difference in our quality of life.

I dragged out the hose and watered the ficus trees we recently had trimmed. The trees are really greening up quickly, especially with the regular watering. My brand new hose is already leaking though (after less than 10 uses), so I am going to try to return it to Home Depot. I also spent some time finishing the windows, the project that never seems to get any closer to being done. It's very tedious and progress is slow, so I've learned to work on this a little bit every day rather than try to tackle big chunks.

One of our more annoying problem is dog and cat poop! Yes, really, I'm serious. We have a lot of dogs in our neighborhood, and it seems that many of the dog owners have decided that our front yard is the best place for doggie to go because they don't have to pick it up! Isn't that nice for them! Seriously, it is really gross. In one two-day period, 4 separate piles were left, and one was in the middle of the front lawn - not even near the edge. We get it worse than some people because our yard looks bad. But these slobs leave their dog poop all over. Our neighbor (with a nicely landscaped front yard) even put up a sign saying "PLEASE, my baby plays here! Pick up after your dog" and they left the piles there anyway. I really can't believe some people! We've decided to put a fence around our front yard and pave the median strip between the sidewalk and street in response to this. How sad to have to design your landscaping around inconsiderate people. (BTW - we love dogs and hope to have our own soon, but we hate inconsiderate dog owners!)

There are also three outdoor cats in the neighborhood who have decided that our backyard makes a perfect litter box for them! It smells gross - like a zoo. We regularly check the yard and chase them off, and I even sprayed one with water and orange oil (they supposedly hate orange scents) and they still come back. In addition to the gross factor, this is a health issue. The father of a friend of ours spent two weeks in the hospital after laying a brick driveway near cat poop. It carries a disease that is harmful to humans. We're hoping to get a cat-hating dog very soon!

I installed the second piece of plywood in the master bedroom, and managed to move the stack to a more convenient location (although it's not so convenient when I have to get to my dresser, on which the sheets are leaning). It is surprisingly strenuous - after moving all the stuff out of the way and moving the plywood into place, you have to wiggle it around to get it just right. It isn't easy to move a 4' x8' piece of wood a fraction of an inch, so I usually end up moving it a bunch of times. Then it has to be screwed in on the joists, every foot or so. For each screw, I have to get on top of the drill and really press down. It's a lot of work, but the results are immediate which is great for my morale!


One thing that made a surprisingly big impact was installing the grills in the ceiling opening for the heating system. It made the place look a lot more like a home and less like a construction zone. Visible at the top of the picture is the attic hatch, which now has a cover and wood trim. We may eventually paint this the ceiling color to make it more invisible. We relocated the attic access to the hallway - it was in the bathroom before, which seems like an inconvenient place for it. In the old layout, it was right over the toilet. Had we left it in place, it would have been right over the sink.

long time at Home Depot

Another huge challenge we are facing is what to do with the backyard. I didn't feel at all intimidated to take on the entire house, but the backyard has us going in circles. There are so many issues - the yard slopes up from left to right and from front to back. There are large ficus trees with roots near the surface, so any grading cannot go below the root level or we loose the trees. Water pools near both the house and garage. There are local ordinances about handling runoff that need to be figured out. On top of all this, our long term plan is to relocate the garage, so we don't want to spend a lot on anything we do but we do want it to be nice and user friendly in the meantime. Whew, everytime we try to figure it out we get stuck. I went to Home Depot today to look at the stone/masonry books to try to figure out if we could make this a DIY project. I spent about two hours looking at books, and left even more confused. This may be a good sign though - I finally know enough to know what I don't know. For anyone looking to do a DIY project, Home Depot publishes a series of excellent hardcover books covering all sorts of topics. They have loads of pictures, step by step instructions, materials lists, tool lists, etc.

The contractor was here beginning to patch the stucco around the windows that was chipped out during the window replacement. This is an exciting step because once the patching is done, we can work on getting it painted. This will significantly reduce the junkyard look!

Here is the stucco being mixed:

Here is a window partially patched:


Each window was surrounded by this metal lath so the stucco would stick to it.

Here is a blob of stucco sticking to the metal lath:

Long time, no post

It's been a while since I posted, and that's been because there just hasn't been much activity going on. I continue to work on finishing the windows and trim (we're using shellac), and that is an unbelievably slow job. They are really turning out beautifully though. I can only imagine it would cost a fortune to have them done professionally - it's all labor. It takes me roughly 5 1/2 hours to do one coat, which is sanding the prior coat with steel wool, buffing anything that has had three coats with old denim, blowing all the sanding debris away with an air compressor, taping anything new that needs to be taped, applying the shellac, and making notes on the progress of each window. Each window has to be done in 4 or more sections, and each section needs three coats plus a final buffing. It's not hard to do - the sections I've completed are beautiful to look at and they feel nice too. It is really tedious and slow though.

One of the main sticking points at this time is the kitchen countertop. We were planning on having concrete done by our contractor, but when we finally got a price it was just more than we wanted to spend. We've been frantically searching for options. You wouldn't believe how expensive anything but laminate is. We've finally arrived at what I think our final answer will be. We found a website for DIY (do it yourself) concrete countertops at www.concreteechange.com. One of the biggest challenges of DIY projects is finding the materials - i.e. where to find them and which brand to buy. This website has everything a DIY'er needs and is geared toward them. The designer who owns the site is very enthusiastic about DIY projects and has created a "foolproof" mix for the concrete. I'm excited to try it, and it will be fun to tackle this project together. C has become quite enthusiastic about DIY projects so that has been fun too.

I am having some drama with my building permit though. I need to have an inspection by Nov 30 to keep it active, and it is going to be a real stretch to get ready for one by then, namely because of the countertops. We are at a stage where we only need final inspections, and the countertop has to be in for all of them. I hope I can make something work by then.

I got the first piece of plywood in the master bedroom. There were linoleum tiles in here that contained asbestos which we had professionally removed. The crew took up everything down to the subfloor, so this area of the floor is lower than the rest of the house which has hardwood flooring over the subfloor. In order to make the floor level, we are laying plywood in here that is equal in thickness to the existing hardwood floor. This way, we can lay our new flooring over all of it with no demolition. We explored restoring the hardwood floor, but it is just too beat up to make it worth it.

Here is the first piece of plywood:

Electrical work today

The electrician worked this whole Labor Day weekend trying to get us ready to final inspection. You don't realize what you take for granted until you don't have it - like lights in the bathroom. While he was working, I did some more work on the kitchen installing the interior fittings and trying to bring a few boxes in from the garage. We only expected to be living out of suitcases for a few weeks, so a lot of our stuff is still in boxes. We went out on Friday night, and were the most casually dressed of the group because we don't have access to most of our clothes. So, each box we can bring in helps. I am more or less randomly placing kitchen items in the cabinets because without having all of the kitchen stuff in front of me it is hard to figure out what to put where. I also don't have use of all the cabinets yet, so even if I have an idea about where things go I may not be able to put them there.

Here is the appliance area. As you can see, I designed it to have large pullout baskets underneath so appliances like the slow cooker, rice cooker, toaster, etc can be pulled out easily and used on the counter above.


The entire kitchen has recessed lighting. I really like the clean, contemporary look and like the openess that having no fixture gives. It was great to see my choices installed, and I am so glad I like what I choose!


This is a heated towel bar for the bathroom. Our immediate area seems to be really humid - towels won't dry between showers and mildew is a problem. Even the contractor had to make allowances because the drywall mud takes many times longer to dry than usual. This will help with both drying the towels and the mildes, and the towel is slightly warm when you go to use it. It only uses about as much electricity as a lightbulb, and it can be put on a timer for even more energy savings.


This is one of the smaller "task" lights I put in the kitchen. It has a reflective surface inside which makes it even brighter. They are over the sink, cooktop and laundry areas.


Here is our new porch light. What a treat to not come home in the dark!