Some Good, Some Bad

 

My gargoyle made the trip to his new home today.

 

Just when Terry and I were lamenting doing everything by ourselves, Lucas called and asked if we needed any help.

 

He helped to remove the GIANT mirror from over the fireplace.

 

That old paint is going to require a couple of coats of KILZ.

 

There he is. He's very happy. Thank you Lucas, for the heavy lifting...

 

Lucas also helped out in the yard today. Took out the old yucky pine shrubs from the front and helped to remove some scrub trees gone wild. This yard is going to be an endless project.

 

Now, for the bad news, Terry has finally waved the White flag on kitchen plumbing. The drain has backed up again and it keeps leaking, so I will be calling a plumber in.

 

One step forward, two steps back...

 

I will also be calling the service tech for the refrigerator. It is cold and making ice, but the touch pad controls do not work, and they are doing crazy things. I have been listening to it beep and change functions at random, but with a dead screen. Ugh.

 

Tomorrow, I need to call the cable company for hook-up, the appliance repair tech, the plumber, U-Haul, my friendly realtor (Dave), and hope that all of these people plan on working 4th of July weekend.

 

Yeah, I can already see how this is gonna go...

Help !!!

 

Today was a bad, bad day. It started out okay, but turned on us as the day went on. First thing this morning, I painted around the front picture window, and hung some beautiful new drapes. They are perfect. Rich looking, sheer, so you can see out, but no one can see in. Thank you Wal-Mart. I can't believe some of the bargains that I have got from that store. Comforters, drapes, and anything for the home is always an amazing price, ships fast and free, and ends up being good quality.

 

Behind the fridge shot. Terry is hooking up the water supply lines.

 

Here he is in the basement trying to hook the line into the plumbing. Things started to get ugly here. Everything in this house seems to fight off modern changes with a vengeance. There was some swearing and a couple of things were thrown, but in the end Terry won (and check out his new shoes, he gets a new pair every year, whether he needs them or not).

 

Too bad, when it was all hooked up, and we turned on the fridge, the touch pad features were acting as though they were controlled by aliens. This new fridge is much like the one in my old house. It has a modern touch screen that lets you control temperature and other settings on the front of the door, so I felt comfortable with how the controls work. But, it was not comfortable with me !!! It was reading Fahrenheit and Celsius at the same time, the light was turning on and off by itself, and when I asked for water, it switched over to ice cubes in the middle of a glass. I will have to call the Frigidaire people on Monday...

 

Sewed my own curtains last night. Instead of spending a fortune for a special size curtain, I bought from the bargain bin and hemmed them myself. It looks great, so proud !!!

( I am not a sewing person).

 

I was determined to hang this light fixture by myself, but of course, Terry had to save me.

 

I worked on the fireplace instead. I actually held raccoon poop in my hands. Yes I did. This is the sickest thing I've dealt with in this house since we had to scrape the dead raccoon off of the floor in the basement. The fireplace was full of raccoon hair and poop, and it actually had little raccoon handprints all over the glass doors, like a raccoon was trapped in there trying to get into the house. This job really sucked the life out of me, but the silver lining is the beautiful cast iron log crib that was hiding in there.

 

There he is, saving me once again. He got the light hooked up...

 

Love it. It's not really Gold, it's Brown, and when the light hits it, you can see highlighted leaf patterns. I did learn some things from Terry about light installation, so I might try to install the new light upstairs... We'll see...

 

I mowed the lawn, could not get the mower started (Terry helps me again).

We tried to take the giant mirror down from over the fireplace. ( I couldn't handle the weight, so there it sits).

The kitchen sink clogged up...again.

The basement is a leaking mess.

I think the house has fleas.

The weeds and scrub trees are growing taller than the house.

We still need a gas line.

Our backs are broken.

 

But this old house will not break us.

 

Homestretch

 

Look at that... the dishwasher is in, and the garbage disposal is ready for action.

It's kind of hard to see in the picture but on the left side of the dishwasher is an eight inch space.

Terry is going to create a storage space there for me, with shelves for foil and saran wrap and such. Awesome use of space !!!

Tomorrow he will work on the refrigerator and water connections for the ice maker. 

 

I tied up a lot of loose ends today. The bathroom needed a lot of caulking; the sink, toilet and tub all needed attention.

 I put sealer on my mosaic tile art in the bathroom and on the kitchen backsplash.

Touched up paint in the stairwell (left from the carpet layers).

Gave the vestibule tile and grout a good bleaching. I might even be able to live with it for a while now that it's clean.

 

While we were at the house tonight it stormed pretty good, and we were able to find the exact leaks in the basement. Not what we wanted to find down there, but helpful to fix this problem in the future.

 

Important weekend of work coming up. If we want to move in a week, we have to hit it hard!

 

 

Dirty Revenge???

 

Strange activities at the project house. We walked up the back sidewalk and found a trail of dirt clumps leading up to the porch. The back porch was covered in black dirt, and so was the lawn chair.

 

Upon further inspection, we found a top soil bag thrown up against the garage.

 

So... some meek, but malicious person carried a bag of top soil into the backyard and scattered it around the porch...

 

Perhaps the garbage men are sick of our large loads going out every week?

 

Perhaps the ladies at the garden club are sending us a message?

 

Perhaps the family members of the dead raccoon in our basement were getting their revenge?

 

The great top soil mystery may never be known...

 

Carry on.

Getting Closer

 

Ahh, the little moments. We spread out a meager picnic on top of the dishwasher installation instructions. A tiny sized bottle of wine, some salami, cheese, and crackers, and oh yes, some mini Snickers bars. We laughed, we talked, and I shared my Italian word of the day, "amore mio", which means my love.

 

Back to work. Nothing about this house has been "standard". Terry is working on the garbage disposal and dishwasher installation. The two go hand-in-hand, and this old house has never seen these modern conveniences. Good thing, Terry knows how to work magic, and good thing we have brother Bob on speed dial at all times.

 

Doesn't look like much, but it is a clothing rod in the closet...

 

I yanked Terry away from his kitchen work to install the clothing rods in the two kid's bedrooms. This was the final job that absolutely completed these two rooms. Yeah!

 

I finished painting this large closet upstairs, and I finished painting the living room.

 

I am the painter. That is what I do. I go from room to room, and I paint things. I should probably consider doing this for a living. Paint, paint, paint...

 

Last task of the day, finish my duplicate address sign. No matter how blasé' I try to be about it, I still have that OCD perfectionist problem. I'll grout it in the morning.

 

Can't wait to move.

Hard Stuff, Easy Stuff

 

He's looking at his Bible. He has carried this darn book around since I've known him. This silly, thirty year old book seems to have the answer for any building question; wiring, plumbing, heating, and quite possibly the answer for how to keep a woman happy...

 

I've never looked in the book, but I believe it has some secret information in it.

 

After he does some studying, he will magically install a garbage disposal and a dishwasher for me, in a house that certainly wasn't designed for these modern conveniences.

 

 

I finally got to work on the living room. I painted the ceiling, and then started on the walls.

 

Tonight, I started on my replacement address sign. I am speed mosaic tiling for this one. My heart just isn't in it to do a proper job, but the artist in me will not settle for a cheapo sign on the front of the house. I occasionally drive by my previous homes and my address signs still grace the porches, so when I sell this house, it will have a proper "Made by Robin" sign on the front. 

 

Tomorrow, I will probably do some more living room painting, and finish this stupid address sign, while Terry does the difficult stuff.

 

Carry on.

 

Moving In... Moving Out

 

This isn't just about moving in to project house... it's also about moving out of old house. My motto is, "Take a load every time you go". If you take something every time you go to the new house, the actual move will be much easier.

 

Every day, the old house gets a little bit emptier. It's kind of fun to watch the kids try to figure out what's missing. I'm sure, an alarm will go off when they're sitting in a chair, in an empty room. 

 

The long, long hallway is now devoid of pictures, and mirrors, and rugs.

 

The laundry room is still full of crap, and getting worse. Towels, rugs, pillows, and drapes; all need a wash before they leave for the new house.

 

 

Other things seem to come up... My most favorite, and best, address sign was losing some tiles (due to weather), and when we took it down for some repairs, it crumbled. Now, I have to make a new address sign for the old house.

 

Not to worry, I will make a new sign, fit for the sale of this old house.

 

 

The floor still looks great (should help in the resale). Note to people everywhere... Never get laminate flooring wet... ever !!! A damp rag is all that is needed. If you can put up with smears and marks, the floor will retain it's luster.

 

Final note: I hate it, and I hate smeary, marked up floors. I will never do laminate again. If you're a real clean freak, spend the money and get real hardwood.

 

Special Note to Mom...

Sorry, the day got away from me. I'll call you tomorrow...

 

 

Closets and Bathrooms

 

Perfectly executed shoe molding.

 

Built shelves, redid the molding, and painted the closet. After the paint dries, we will hang the clothing rod, and this bedroom is officially done !

 

Once again; built shelves, redid the molding, and painted the closet. After the paint dries, we will hang the clothing rod, and bedroom two is officially done !

 

 

This mess is a whole different story, that may never be finished. This bathroom is a nightmare. Everything about it has been difficult. There was a built-in medicine cabinet here, and they carved out the tile to insert it into the wall. I am trying to restore the tile, and all I could find was White, so I am going to have to paint it with special ceramic paint. I am so pissed off right now because I am one tile short, so now I have to go back to Lowes for one stinking tile. Argh!!!

 

The upstairs half bath is going much better. I applied this awesome stone and glass tile border, one foot down from the ceiling. Painted Blue below, and White above. It looks really cool.

 

Still need a vanity, mirror, and lighting. TERRY !!!!!!!

 

Jobs, Jobs, and More Jobs

 

The new stove and refrigerator came this morning. Sandy was perplexed about where they should go.

 

In the end, we changed them to opposite sides of the kitchen. Sandy is now exclaiming, "We need some more cabinets !!!"

 

 

New garbage disposal.

 

Terry has a lot to do... garbage disposal, install dishwasher, run gas line for stove, install water lines for refrigerator. His jobs never end.

 

When he's done with those jobs, he gets to hang some more lighting.

 

Gotta love him. 

 

Lots of Paint & Molding

 

I am so done painting this massive bookcase. My hands feel like they are 110 years old.

 

This thing is giant. I will not complain about storage space though !

 

I painted the ceiling in the little half bath upstairs.

 

Terry got busy with his brand new miter saw.

 

What the hell is this doing in here ???

 

Caught him re-using nails...

 

This is what he was working on. He took the molding out of the closets in order to perfectly match the molding we needed to fill radiator holes...

 

So, we had to buy new molding for the closets (more painting).

 

See that? You can't even tell there was a giant radiator hole in that wall. All the bedrooms need now is shoe molding...

 

And here it is. Painted and ready to install.

 

Tomorrow morning they are delivering the new refrigerator and the replacement stove (the one they brought had a big dent in the side).

 

Nighty Night.