I Didn't Lose Interest!

I assure you I didn't lose interest in the blog, I have been very busy at work with my new position and just haven't thought about it. Lawrence has been very busy as well, but he only needed to remind me about the blog and I would have written something. So there!  :-)

I'll just follow up on what Lawrence wrote. The house is coming along nicely, and no, we have NOT moved in yet. Looks like it will be close to one year from when we bought it before we do. We bought it in February, if you remember.

So much has been done it's hard to remember all the changes. Yes, we have repainted a couple of the rooms for a couple of reasons. Originally we painted all the walls with a satin-finish paint that looked great, but it had a shiny look to it, and we didn't like it on the darker colored rooms. We repainted those rooms with the same color, but in a flat finish. It looks a lot better! On the lighter color rooms we kept the original paint since it's not nearly as noticeable.

A family friend named Doug came over a few weeks ago and helped redo the main water piping into the house and put in a new type of main water valve that doesn't require a lot of turning to turn it on and off...just a quick flip up or down does the trick. It came in handy this past weekend when a certain someone (not me) decided to loosen a new sink faucet that this certain someone (not me) installed instead of tightening it. The water to the house was on and the new faucet went flying across the room and a tremendous amount of water filled the bathroom floor. When it happened, I was in the other room and heard this certain someone (not me) screaming to "turn off the water!". No harm done, but we sure have a nice, clean floor now. Oh, and this certain someone (not me) got soaked during the ordeal.

I can't remember what all Lawrence talked about in his eloquent post, so I'll just list a few things we have done with the chance of repeating something:

1. The old garage door opener, which a certain someone (not me) destroyed by trying to open the door with the door locked, was removed and the new one installed. Very nicely done by Mr. Fabulous (not me). I helped a little.

2. We have amazing new lights on either side of the garage and in the front entrance to the house, and they come on automatically when it gets dark, dim and brighten as needed with movement near the house, and they are quite the talking point of the neighborhood.

3. We bought and installed a nice new stainless LG microwave oven in the kitchen. We haven't used it yet, but the clock looks nice.

4. Lawrence built some temporary shelving in the garage to hold assorted bits of lumber up and out of the way. It beats having all that lumber all over the living room floor and getting under foot.

5. Both of us...Yes, BOTH of us, finally started working on the two bathrooms and removed the old countertops with their attached sinks and faucets, all of which were awful, then removed the cabinetry. Those old cabinets are now in the garage and fit perfectly along one wall to support Lawrence's new workbench he will build on top of them.

6. We ran some new wire from the outside telephone box to the study where our AT&T U-Verse wireless internet system is located. The old wire was in very bad shape and we were surprised when we took it out just how bad it was! I was surprised we had any signal at all through that beat-up old wire. The new insulated Cat-6 wire gives us amazing speed now.

7. We purchased a new television antenna and assembled it in the living room, then promptly put it away in another room. We will install it in the attic when we are ready for it...namely when we buy that new TV we are eying. We have a 40-inch LCD television in the apartment now, and that will go either in the master bedroom in the house, or in the study. The new living room will easily accommodate our new 65-inch LED television when mounted on the wall. I wanted an 80-inch television, but at $5000....it's a no-go. The measly 65-incher will have to suffice. Oh, and at the same time we bought the new antenna, we also bought the new wall-mount for the TV. It was installed in the middle of that huge wall, but we don't have a TV to put on it yet. We kinda do things in weird order in case you haven't noticed. The mounting of that contraption was quite the ordeal. We measured the wall top to bottom, then left to right to find the perfect center spot. We then got out the fancy laser-level device and got the level correct, and wouldn't you know it, the placement of the studs behind the wall don't match the center of the wall. We had to end up shifting the mount a little left-of-center, but it will work.

8. Lawrence bought a bunch of new plants for the backyard, and planted them. It looks great out there, and we have barely started on the outside.

A couple of weeks ago, we invited some of the neighbors over to see the inside of the house. They have seen us going in and out of the house, heard loud banging and numerous saws cutting, as well as everything else it takes to rehab a house, and they were quite shocked with what they saw.

Let me back up a second and let you know that all the houses in the neighborhood were built by the same builder, using the same awful light fixtures, ceiling fans, sinks, faucets, burglar bars, and all the other cheap crap they installed in our house. When the neighbors walked in and saw the beautiful colors, amazing light fixtures, cool ceiling fans, crown moulding, base moulding, and everything else we have done so far, one of them said "you're going to raise our property taxes!". And that's before we did anything with the bathrooms, no new carpet yet, no new tile, no new countertops, no new appliances, no window blinds, and the place was a mess. Wait until they see it all finished when we have our open house. I should have a video camera running by the front door when they walk in.

I know there is a lot more to talk about, but it's late and I have to go to work tomorrow. I think you get a general idea of how things are going, and we couldn't be happier. We are anxious to move in, but we want to make sure it's just right before we do, and it will be.

I'll try and be more attentive to the blog from now on. This story is far from over, and now that we have you hooked, we can't leave you hanging with suspense.

It will be a happy ending.

Resurrection

Since Bill no longer seems interested in blogging about the house, I'll try to pick up where he left off way, way back in July sometime. How naive we were to think we would finish it by late fall. Currently the thinking is the house will be done, when its done, no time frame, no pressure. I still try to go to the house every day, rain or shine, holiday or no holiday, and do something. It doesnt matter if its a small task or a large task, just always doing something makes me feel better. Back in July, we had painted 2 of the bedrooms, and since then both bedrooms have again been re-painted. But in our defense, they really do look much nicer than the first try. I could show you a photo of the new colors, but back in July, we had the old doors, and I think it was August when we decided that since we have a couple of interior doors to replace, why not replace all the interior doors while were at it. We had decided on getting 6 panel doors, and I spent a couple weeks replacing the 16 doors, all which involved cutting new hinges on the new doors before attaching them to the old frames which were fine. Of special note was the door on the A/C-Furnace, which I had to custom size, by cutting about 6-8 inches off the top and bottom of the door, and rework the door frame to its new length of 5 feet tall. I've included the photo of the A/C - Furnace door. Every door had to be replaced, if not, then it would give the feeling like "they replaced the doors" When you come into the house, since every door is a 6 panel door now, it doesnt stick out that its been changed, which is what I want. I want the changes to look as if thats the way the house was origionally done if at all possible. You know what I mean? All the doors are painted white, the photo taken was before it was painted, and by the way, Mr. Bill had painted every interior door, and did a good job of it, as with all the painting done in the house, it was done by hand.

This next photo is what the doors look like, the only thing different with this room is that it has 2 doors, origionally it was 2 - 24" doors, but if you only leave 1 open, its a narrow opening, and the other door if left open, then you need to leave 24" on both walls so the doors can be fully open. so instead of that, I installed one 30" door, and one 18" door on the other end, leaving a wider passage to use for single door useage, and if you want the space fully open, then you only need to leave 18" open on the one side, and the other wall always had plenty of space as it was. I did make a custom wood part so that the doors joined properly and while I could have bought the wood part for $30 something dollars at home depot, I made it myself and spent about 6 dollars in wood, and 30 minutes of time on the table saw. It actually is a better part than what you could buy if I do say so....lol. The red bedroom is on the right, I need to take a photo of the green bedroom.

Thats all for now, we have several other things to share soon. I need to take some photos if I'm going to share more stories with ya.