Happy Holidays!

I hope everyone had a great Christmas! I went home to California for a few days and my awesome friend Sarah watched over the house (and my kitty) while I was gone. I got quite a few house related gifts and Home Depot gift cards, yay! I received some really cool storage shelves for the garage, so I'm excited to get started on organizing! I do have to tackle the decoration take-down though, which I'm not really looking forward to. Maybe I can convince Stan to help again ;) Or I could be one of those awesome people who leaves their Christmas lights up all year long because they're too lazy to take them down!

Oh yes, yesterday marked my 6 month anniversary of home ownership! It doesn't really feel that long ago that I got the keys and started this crazy project. I feel like I've done a lot, but then again not much at all. And honestly, I couldn't have done any of it without the help of my friends, so THANK YOU to all!! I heart you mucho.

Well, most likely I won't do anything until after the New Year, but I'll try to take some updated bedroom/living room pictures to show off my new layouts and furniture pieces to tide you all over :) Besides the garage organizing, I *really* need to prime the walls and ceiling of the kitchen so I can move forward with finishing it off!

-Megan

*breathe*

Well, it has been just over 2 weeks since my kitchen and bathroom has been fully functional! It is great, let me tell you :) So far, I've cooked a few big meals, had some friends over for a "soft opening" of sorts, and I've enjoyed brushing my teeth in the bathroom for a change! And can I just say how much I love my dishwasher?! Who knew that a dishwasher was the one great thing that was missing from my life? :P While I definitely still have a ton to do, I feel like I have just been catching my breath for the last couple of weeks. It felt like for a while, every day was a stressful push toward functionality, and now I'm just relaxing and leaving the aesthetic stuff for later! :) Also, not to mention, all of that work in such a short time definitely cost a TON and I'm trying to lay off on the spending for a while so I can catch up.

I did clear out the spare room and sort of "staged" it for when I had people over, but now the garage is a mess of boxes! I think my next big project will be organizing the garage...fun!

I'm off to California for a few days so obviously I won't make any house progress this week, but I'll post some pictures when I get back! I hope everyone has some happy holidays and a great new year!! :)

-Megan

Running Water!!

Yesterday I had a plumber come in (recommended by my friend John from the gym!) and he pretty much wrapped up all the loose ends and now I feel like I have a fully functioning house! He installed the kitchen sink, faucet, and dishwasher, and also installed the bathroom sink and faucet, and switched out the shower knob...which opened up a whole new can of worms *sigh* But! The important thing is I can COOK! And wash those dishes after I cook! And I don't have to go into the garage to wash my hands after I do my business! :)

Sink, faucet, & dishwasher

Other side of the kitchen with the fridge in its rightful place

Spice drawer!!

And now for the bathroom sink:

Yippeee!

I didn't really have any groceries at home so I haven't had a chance to break the kitchen in yet, but tonight I will make my very first home-cooked meal! I also haven't tried running the dishwasher yet...I need to read the manual! I've only ever lived with a dishwasher once for less than a year so I'm not entirely sure how they work :P I just know that it will make my life easier!

Okay, up ahead: prime, paint, backsplash and open shelving for the kitchen. I also think I'm going to re-paint my bedroom soon...lately it just seems too dark and heavy.

-Megan

P.S. Thanks to Wendy for taking the photos!

Cabinets and Holiday Decorating!

Yay finally! The cabinets are installed! The bad news: I need to get a plumber in to actually adhere the sink to the cabinets as well as hook up the pipes and such, grrrr. So I have a range, refrigerator, cabinets and countertops, but still no running water and no dishwasher (yet). Someday I'll be able to use the kitchen! Well, a girl can hope :P They only sent one guy to do the assembly and installation, and he was at my place for 10 hours yesterday and got this far:

Lookin' alright so far!

I wasn't told it would take almost 2 entire days to do this, so I had to scramble and take all but 2 hours off work today, which I didn't want to do but oh well! Today he finished up, and it looks super nice! The cabinets are actually a white-washed birch, but they look plain white in the pictures...

The finished product with countertops and door handles

You can also see the toe-kick grate peeking out under the left side cabinet...that's where the re-routed heating duct comes out now. I have heat in the kitchen, woohoo!

This weekend Stan helped decorate for the holidays! You can see the tree in the background of the above picture, but here's a close up:

Sparkly!

This is my first "real" tree since I've lived on my own! I got my fake mini tree I think 9 years ago? And before that I pretty much lived in the dorms, so no trees there. Anyways, I'm really excited about it :) And I had accumulated so many ornaments over the years that it's not sparsely decorated at all!

The other big thing: I have lights on my house!!! I started putting them up but after a while I couldn't really reach the gutter because of my short t-rex arms, so I recruited Stan to help :)

My hero!

Pretty!

So far, I'm the only one on my block with lights...apparently I'm the only awesome person that lives there! Well, I'm not sure when I'll be able to get someone in to hook up the sink and dishwasher, but hopefully within the next couple of weeks...I'm dying over here! I need to cook!!

I still need to do quite a bit with the kitchen unfortunately...I still need to patch some of the cracked areas on the walls and ceiling, put in the baseboards, deal with the whole wall behind the sink, and much more :-/ While it feels good to have the cabinets in, it just kind of highlights how much *more* needs to be done! Oh well...it will all get done...eventually!

-Megan

Heating Duct Re-route

So I mentioned a couple posts back about setting up a re-route for the heating duct that was being obstructed by the range and one of the cabinets. Well, last Friday I called to confirm the tentative appointment for Saturday morning, only to find out that they couldn't actually do it after all. Thanks for wasting a week of my time, guys! Naturally, I panicked. I ended up calling another place that I just found via google and right off the bat they were incredibly nice and helpful! They had an opening at my lunch hour for a guy to come out and give a quote. So I busted my butt to get home and met the guy just in time! He was super nice, and actually the owner of the company. He said I reminded him of his daughter because she's around the same age and just bought her first home too! After discussing what I needed done, he told me the price, but I talked him down a bit, woohoo! And then we set up a time for one of his guys to come in on Monday (yesterday) while I was at work. I've been nervous to have anyone in the house without me there, but after meeting with him and finding out he does background checks and drug testing with his employees, I felt pretty good about it. So yeah, I think I lucked out because this was a good company that did good work and happened to have the time to fit me in exactly when I needed it on short notice (this needed to be done before the cabinet installation which is next Monday!)

So yes, all of that went smoothly, and I came home to this last night:

That's an inappropriate looking hole in my floor...

The air no longer comes out of where the grate is, so I could either take out the grate and patch the wall, or just leave it (which is easier...and free). The cabinet that goes directly on top of the new air pathway will get a grate in the toe kick, and I'll officially still have working heat in the kitchen, yay!

So I'm not sure what I'll get done this weekend...I do have Thanksgiving day off, but will be cooking and watching football all day at my friends' place (thanks Nick & Leslie!), and then I have to work on Friday, boo. Saturday is the Civil War (my school's rival football game, for those of you who don't know) and Sunday - weather permitting - I plan on putting up my very first Christmas lights ever!! :) Well, on the outside of my dwelling :) I got gutter clips and a couple of strands of colored outdoor LED bulbs. I'm very excited! I'm still debating whether or not to get a real tree this year, or just keep using my mini fake one. Thoughts?

-Megan

Range is Installed!!!

Oh man, SOOOO happy! The range has finally been installed, yay! It's only been sitting in a box in my living room for about 3 and a half months! Wow...when I think about how long I've been putting this off it's kind of unsettling haha! Anyways, I ended up having to take all of yesterday off of work, but pretty much everything got done! The city inspector came at about 9:15 and it was a quick 5 minute approval. I was slightly nervous that they wouldn't approve it because I don't have a range hood (yet) but the guy didn't even mention that at all...the only thing he was concerned about was if I ever added another line (for a gas fireplace or outdoor barbecue or something) and that might be too much for what my little house could handle. Anyways, after the inspector came, the gas plumbing guys came back and installed the range! It's so dang pretty! And I'm not sure if you can tell,  but the left front burner is like a "super burner" that can boil water in 60 seconds or something crazy like that. I *cannot* wait to start cooking!! There is still the problem of not having a sink to wash dishes or countertops to prepare food on though... :P

I'm in love!

The electrician also came in to run a line for the dishwasher, and it ended up being more simple and taking less time than he thought it would, so I asked if he wouldn't mind also hooking up my new light fixture! Yay, one less thing for me to do...which is good since I don't know how to do that haha.

Wee!

The scale of the light looks a little off, but I could always add more track to it and more light heads as well. It's a heck of a lot better than what was there before though:

Kinda far away...I forgot to take a good pic before he started taking them down!

I was a little concerned that the little bulbs wouldn't be bright enough but they are plenty bright and I like how the light is directed where I want it instead of having the big weirdness that was there before :)

While all that work was being done, I concentrated on the bathroom! I replaced the shower curtain, curtain rod and rings, and painted the medicine cabinet white to match the rest of the trim (it was light wood before):

I plan on replacing the light fixture at some point...

And I added a towel bar, for which I had to buy my very first drill so I could install it! :) I also replaced the dingy heat grate and got a little tiny door stopper...it's so cute!

*sigh* The nail heads in that trim are killing me!

And not pictured: I replaced the toilet paper holder because it was gross and the edges were still caked in the old yellow paint, and I caulked around the base of the tub and the base of the toilet. Even though I still don't have a sink, the bathroom actually feels complete haha. At least now that the bathroom is pretty much fully done (for what I can do, anyways!) I can move on to the spare room or the living room while the kitchen is still being finished. Yay progress!

Oh! And also, I've gotten compliments on the kitchen floor from all 6 of the guys that came in to do work over the last few days! They all couldn't believe it was vinyl tile, and they all asked how I did it and where I got the stuff. Awesome!! :D

-Megan

Mmmm....Gas!

I had yesterday off for Veteran's Day, but some people were still working! The gas plumbers came in (albeit waaaaay later than they were supposed to, harumph) yesterday and ran a gas line from my furnace up through the kitchen floor, woo! I also took today off of work because the city inspector was going to come in, sign off on the plumbing, and then the guys would come back and hook up the range. BUT I got a call this morning from the gas plumbing company saying that the city inspectors needed to push me back to tomorrow (Wednesday). UGG!

I also had the cabinet delivery set up for this morning (9am - 1pm window) and also an electrician was supposed to come in between 12 and 1 to set up electrical for the dishwasher. As luck would have it, the electrician called saying that their morning job was going to take longer than they thought, and asked if they could come by tomorrow. So I said sure, why not, I have to be at home tomorrow now, so might as well!

Anywho, so as I was waiting for the cabinet delivery I painted the ceiling and trim in the bathroom (white), and then put another coat on the walls (grey), so tomorrow while I'm waiting for everyone to do their stuff I'm going to install the new curtain rod, curtain, towel rod, and toilet paper holder. I also still need to caulk around the base of the tub and toilet. So with that, the bathroom will be all done....except for the sink that is :)

The yellow line is brand spankin' new!

The line coming up through the floor in the kitchen

So anyways, I ended up coming in to work for a half day...I should save these vacation hours because something will inevitably be pushed back or go wrong again! Oh and another thing, I had quite the freak out because of the heat register in the kitchen that is all sorts of in the way of things. I called and a ductwork company is going to come out early Saturday morning to do some re-routing and eventually it will vent through one of the toekick's of a cabinet. Ugg, so much stuff! Here's hoping tomorrow run smoothly!

-Megan

Grout!

Oy, am I exhausted! I finished grouting the kitchen floor tile last night, woohoo! I will say it was more work than I expected...it just looks so much easier on TV! :P My hand started to hurt because I had to really *push* the grout into the lines...I figured it would be smoother. Maybe it's because I used sanded grout? It was pre-mixed, so at least I didn't have to deal with that part of it! And also, rather than breaking out the kneepads, I crouched or bent over from standing to do most of it, so my legs are feeling it too. It wouldn't have been such a big deal but the kitchen is about 150 sq ft so it was a lot of ground to cover! After grouting, I used a grout sponge and some clean water to remove the excess, then removed the water with an old dry cotton shirt. I need to wait 24-48 hours and then I can remove the haze with some windex and paper towels, and then the floor will officially be finished! Well, not counting the little alcove that still needs some work :P

Pre-grouting...you can see the old vinyl between the new tiles

Post-grouting!

The whole enchilada!

I went with a grey grout because there was no way I was going to deal with cleaning white grout in a kitchen...haha! I think it turned out really great! I was afraid that the grout color would be too similar to the tile color, but it actually looks really nice (better in person!). Plus, I think with the grout in there, the tiles almost look like real stone! Anyways, I'm super glad that this is finished! I have the guys coming in to run a gas line for the range on Monday (it's a holiday, woo) and then I'm also taking Tuesday off so the inspector can come in, and then the guys will come back and actually hook up the range. So I could possibly be able to cook something on Tuesday night!! Maybe Stan will let me bring all my dirty dishes over to his place? :P Ugg, and can I just say that I'm sick of having sticky stuff on my hands! That grout stuff is *still* all over my hands today after scrubbing them last night, this morning, and again here at work...annoying!!

Annnnnyways, I also ordered my cabinets and countertop this past Tuesday night! I went with Ikea...kind of hard to beat for the price! I also set up the installation for the earliest date they had available...Nov 26th. I ultimately decided to go with their installation service because after doing research, it probably would have taken me a good 30 hours of assembly and installation, PLUS I don't really have all the tools to do that kind of work. I also didn't want to mess it up, so there's that too :P Oh and also this Tuesday I have an electrician coming to set up the electric for the dishwasher. I'm going to have to figure out how to plumb for the dishwasher too...initial internet searching makes me think it won't be *too* hard but I don't think I'll do it myself. Maybe one of my lovely friends has experience doing this and will help me? (looks at Justin)...I think what I'm most confused about is if the water needs to be plumbed behind the wall or just can be done through the cabinets? I really have no clue! Why is everything so confusing?!

Well I think that may be it for now! I'm going to try to do wall and ceiling prep on Sunday...fun times!

-Megan

Halloween & Kitchen Floor

Oh hi there! My first Halloween in my very first house was a success! All told, I only got about 25 trick-or-treaters, but I also got a surprise visit from Sarah, Brian and Brenden! I left work a little early to get the place ready...I wasn't sure how early the little kids would be coming by. I decided to rake the front lawn so no one slipped on all the wet leaves but about 60 seconds into it, my brand new rake snapped!

I guess I don't know my own strength!

I should probably splurge on a sturdier one anyways! Here's another pic of my front door decorations:

I think the spookiest thing is the gross screen door

I will say that I'm excited to get all these big projects out of the way so I can decorate a little better next year :) But I'm also VERY excited to decorate for Christmas! I'll need to decide if I want to go for white lights or multi-colored lights...so many decisions! :)

As per my kitchen renovation schedule, Stan helped me start laying down the vinyl tile on the kitchen floor yesterday! It started slow but we quickly got into a rhythm and got it almost all done:

Here we gooooo!

Mostly finished!

The most annoying part was that my fingers got sticky because of the strength of the adhesive on the backs of the tiles! It was hard to put down the spacers without them sticking to my hands, so Stan helped a lot with that part. He also pulled the backing off each tile for me because it was hard to do one-handed! I still need to finish all the tiles that need to be cut around the edges, plus a couple more rows on the other end of the kitchen (not pictured). I plan on doing that tonight & tomorrow night...hopefully all tonight but I know how frustrated I'll get :) And then at the very latest I'll grout the tiles on Wednesday night! I'm trying to set up the gas range conversion/hookup hopefully for late this week or early next week, and then I'll be cooking with gas! ;)

One last pic to share...Stan snapped this while Kahlua was keeping an eye on the neighbors:

Guard kitty!

Until next time!

-Megan

Kitchen Renovation Schedule

Okay. Stan made me do this, and I'm glad he did! He pointed out that I'm such a planner, yet I haven't actually planned how the kitchen renovation is all going to flesh out. I mean, I had it in my head, but having actual deadlines and having it written out is really the key to getting things done. So here's my little spreadsheet:

Yes, there are quite a few items that don't have completion dates, but they are really dependent upon when I can get people to come out and do them for me! :) So anyways, feel free to call me or text me or come show up at my house to make sure I'm sticking to this schedule! I'll update it when I'm able to schedule dates for the big stuff (cabinet installation, gas plumbing & inspection, sink plumbing & DW hookup). I know I keep pushing my total completion date back, but the end of November is what I'm hoping for now. Hopefully this schedule will make that happen!

-Megan

Finally Starting on the Kitchen Floor

With some much needed prodding and help from Stan, I started on the kitchen floor this weekend! After moving the refrigerator into the living room, this is what we had to work with:

Barfy!

After ripping up all the curled ends of the existing vinyl, we added some floor filler to even out the ragged edges:

Slightly less barfy?

There was one particularly nasty corner that we had to use putty on as well:

Now that just plain looks like barf.

I won't lie, I was having a hard time with this...I got very frustrated because it wasn't doing exactly what I wanted it to do...but I guess that's normal with stuff like this right!? Thanks to Travis though, I learned how to use a trowel properly, so it wasn't a complete disaster! That floor stuff had to cure for 24 hours before I could put the tile down, so we didn't go any farther than that this weekend. I may try to start laying down the tile this week (as opposed to waiting for the weekend) but I have a busy week ahead so we'll see how that goes :)

In other news, I'm really excited for Halloween!! This will be my first time ever living in a house during Halloween, which I hope means lots of trick-or-treaters will come knocking at my door! I'm all stocked up with candy, and I'm going to try to get off work early to make sure I'm home early enough for the tiny kids coming by. Yay!

-Megan

I'm Baaaaaack!

That's right, back from Disneyland! I had way too much fun, sometimes I wonder why I don't just pack up and move down there! Oh that's right, because I bought my project house :P Well after being gone last weekend, and being under the weather this weekend, of course nothing got done on the house. Although, I did put up some Halloween decorations! I have to say, I'm VERY excited to get trick-or-treaters! I live about a block away from an elementary school, so I'm hoping that means I'll get TONS of them! :) I have yet to ask a neighbor about the usual volume of kids, but I'm sure I'll be buying way too much candy anyways :)

And the spider lights up!

I suppose I should mow the lawn before the big night, and maybe rake all of the leaves (that means I need to buy a rake!) I'll need to replace that ratty doormat before Halloween too :) Oh and it turns out the grout I need to use for the kitchen floor (or at least the one that is recommended) is only a special-order item from Home Depot, so that will need to happen this week. I hope to have more updates for you all soon!

-Megan

No Kitchen Floor Yet

Okay, unfortunately I didn't do anything with the kitchen floor this weekend :-/ Football, kickball, baby birthdays, and vacation prep took over! I did officially decide to grout the vinyl tile though. So I will need to get those supplies and set aside probably a whole weekend for that. I'm thinking the 20th/21st?

Not much else to say...I leave early Friday morning for Disneyland (yaaaay!) and will be back late Tuesday night, so don't expect a house update next week :) My new goal for completing the kitchen is now Thanksgiving...here's hoping!

-Megan

Cabinet Demo & Clean Garage!

Made a lot of progress this weekend! The drop box was dropped off on Friday while I was at work, and I came home to this beauty in my driveway:

Dumpster chic!

On Saturday a bunch of friends came over to help clean up all the crap that Todd demo'd in the garage, and knock down all of the kitchen cabinets! It's so weird (and awesome) to have all that gross rotten cabinetry gone. And the barfy sink! Yay!

Before (sans doors)

After (sans everything! :P)

I'm not sure if I'm going to rip out all the flooring or just that part that was under the cabinetry before I put down the new vinyl tile that arrived Friday. I hope I hope I hope I get the floor finished before I leave for Disneyland (less than 2 weeks!!) but I'm not going to do a crappy job trying to rush it. I'm also still undecided on whether to grout it or not. It's "grout-able" vinyl tile, so if I so choose I can do that to make it look a little higher end, and also ensure no moisture can get between the tiles. But, especially if I leave the existing vinyl underneath, that won't really be an issue that I'll have to worry about. Either way, I will be using an additional adhesive underneath, even though the tile is already self-adhesive. The bathroom tile that I used is also self-stick vinyl but I didn't use any additional adhesive and there are a couple of tiles that are kind of peeling up at the edge...it's not that big of a deal, you just step on it and it goes back to flat. I think I may be making it sound worse than it is haha!

Annnnnnyways! The garage is all nice and VERY clean and I'm VERY happy with it!!

Yaaaaay!

Before picture for reference:

Booooo!

I can actually walk around in it now! And I can start putting boxes in there! Although there are a lot of spiders and creepy crawlies that I don't want to crawl around in my stuff :( Time to invest in some more plastic tubs for storage!

Oh, and the one thing the seller left that I'm not mad about is this little guy:

Punkin'!

Ain't he cute!? I think I'll name him Jerry. And then carve him up for Halloween! Mwahaha!

Well, I still don't have a bathroom sink BUT I do have a utility sink in the garage that I forgot about! So even though it's not the most cosy, I can brush my teeth and stuff in the garage until the bathroom is complete :) I'm going to try my hardest to get the kitchen floor done this coming weekend. I'll need to move the refrigerator, scrub the existing floor, score it, then apply the additional adhesive before I can put the tile down, but that seems like it could be done, right? If I decide to grout the tile it will definitely affect the time it will take though. Eh, we'll see!

-Megan

Not much to say...

Hey all! Nothing happened this week on the house...busy busy with other fun stuff. But I did order the vinyl tile that will soon be the kitchen floor! It will arrive on Friday, yippee! And also, I ordered a drop box for this weekend because I'm ripping out the kitchen cabinets! Well, I'm getting help with that from some of my awesome friends :) So, if anyone wants to come over and rip stuff out, that'll be happening on Saturday! I'll also be getting rid of all the wood from the "bonus room" that's still in the garage and that I have to step over and around to get to the washer/dryer...I will definitely be glad to see that go. That also means that I'll be able to move boxes into the garage to free up space in the spare bedroom. Things are happening!! :)

-Megan

Paint!

So, I didn't do anything house-related this weekend really. Wendy came up for the Race for the Cure, and we just had fun the rest of the time instead of me making her help me with the house :) I did, however, paint the bathroom last week! Stan helped with the primer and partial painting, then I finished the paint on my own. I do have to put a second coat on, and hopefully I'll get to that this week!

Yay!

It's a warm grey color (as if you couldn't tell from the picture...). It fits well with the tub surround and I think it bounces off the floor nicely. Matty wasn't able to get in to install the sink this past week but hopefully he can do that soon! I also picked up a few things to finish off the bathroom: a new towel rod (there were 2 short mis-matched rods there previously), a new shower curtain rod (brushed nickel instead of white), and a new shower curtain that goes well with the new colors in the room. I'll take pics once those are all installed!

-Megan

Bathroom Floor - FINISHED!

Wow, this project took WAY too long for how simple it ended up being. I started putting the last tiles in on Tuesday night, got frustrated, but finished it up yesterday! The tool that Travis let me borrow was a huge help, but it was still slow going on those funky pieces...trying to fit it, cutting off a bit, trying to fit it, cutting off a bit, over and over until each piece finally fit!

All the tiles are finally down!

Next was installing the new baseboards to cover up that grossness that you see above.

Putting on the adhesive

I used a corner block in the only corner of the bathroom because I didn't want to deal with mitering the baseboards, but it's behind the toilet so it doesn't look too terrible (at least I think!)

Don't worry, I'll paint the corner block to match!

And now, we have the other side of the bathroom...where the wall (I think??) is crooked. The baseboard did NOT want to stick with only the adhesive. It kept bowing out in the middle so Stan and I would push on it and then the sides would bow out. I tried using these little nails that I had to keep it stuck but they weren't long enough, so I ended up pounding in these huge nails left over from when Matty and Travis fixed the rotted floor. End result: ugliness :( I was planning on just painting over it, but now I may just rip the whole thing out and install a new piece of baseboard...grr, it wasn't the cheapest though.

Totally awesome

Well, I don't know how I'm going to handle that just yet, but hopefully Matty will be able to help me install the sink sometime this week (yay!) and I may need to recruit Wendy and Adam for painting when they're in town this weekend :D It's coming together slowly but surely!

-Megan

Happy September!

As promised, nothing got done on the house this past week :) I think this was my last fully booked weekend of the summer though, so things should (hopefully) start happening again!

The floor levelling is finally FINALLY finished! There is still one little "hump" in the living room floor, but it's not that noticeable and to fix it would cost more than I'm willing to spend. Plus, it's very possible that it's just the memory of the floor beam that's keeping it this way and it will settle over time. That's what I'm hoping for! Because they took their sweet time finalizing the project, I'm going to take my sweet time paying them...I worked out a payment plan so they don't get all my money at once! Mwahaha!

I got confirmation from my academic advisor that taking a term off won't negatively affect me, so my school hiatus is official. I also have my Disneyland trip coming up in about 5 weeks, so I'm hoping that with less committments and a deadline looming, I'll actually make a dent in my to-do list! I woke up in the middle of the night last night freaking out about getting the kitchen finished in a timely manner...like I mentioned before, I'm really seriously considering hiring some stuff out, and that's just getting more and more likely at this point. If only this were my full time job instead of being the office monkey that I am! :P

Anywho, I promise a picture post by next Monday, maybe sooner! I'll make progress on the place this week if it kills me!

-Megan

Lazy Days

So, yes - I'm still alive. No - I haven't done anything house-related in the last week and a half :-/ Stan and I watched The Money Pit, which was unsettling haha. I've been very busy with all sorts of stuff, and I decided to take a fun day break Sunday because I feel like I haven't really done that in a long while, and it was great! I did get a nice visit from my real estate agent on Friday! Carl and Jeff came over and brought me a little housewarming gift of a book about raising chickens! That was so sweet of them :) Hopefully by next summer I'll be brave enough to tackle the back yard and build a chicken coop so I can have delicious fresh eggs and a few more cute pets :)

I got that flooring tool that Travis let me borrow, but haven't put it to use yet...soon though! My class this term just ended last night, and I've been very seriously considering taking a break this fall. I really feel like I need to put as much energy as possible toward getting at least the kitchen functional, and by freeing up an entire evening per week, plus the fact that I won't have to study or meet up with project partners or anything like that, will just be really beneficial. And anyways, the class I'm signed up for is "Intro to Building Systems", AKA, boring required class that doesn't have anything to do with being creative. I'm just waiting to hear back from my academic advisor to confirm that taking a break this term won't negatively affect me as a student.

I'm almost getting to the point where I want to start hiring some of this stuff out, just so it gets done in a timely manner. I'm still figuring out the cost/benefit analysis of doing things myself :P

Well, I have another busy weekend ahead so I'm not sure how much, if anything I'll get done on the house. I hope I have some updates to show you all soon!

-Megan

Bye-bye "bonus room"

When I saw this house listed online, it purported to have a "bonus room". Cool, I thought. When I went and actually viewed the house, I found out the "bonus room" was in fact a small room built into a corner of the garage with a mini closet and half a window. The previous seller was using it for storage but, as I mentioned in the last post, I found out from my neighbor that the original owners didn't have a car and therefore decided to build this extra little room in there. One creepy thing: there was a lock on the *outside* of the door...maybe they used it for kidnapping victims? Hahah :P

Well, I hadn't planned on tackling this for a while because it's really not that urgent, but this weekend my friend Todd asked if I wanted to tear it down since he wasn't busy and the weather wasn't too gross and hot. I said sure! He came over Saturday afternoon with his tools and preceeded to knock the sucker down! I will say, it was more sturdy than I thought by just looking at it...it actually had studs and the whole deal. I felt kind of bad because I wasn't really doing anything haha...I just tried to bend all the exposed nails on the discarded wood with a hammer so it would be easier to handle once I take it to the dump. Well, a couple of hours later, it was all gone! The garage looks so much more open and bright now. I can't wait to get all the debris out so I can start moving storage boxes in there and access the laundry without being squished between the washer/dryer and the "room"!

Before

During

After!

Yay! Well, even though this awesome thing got completed, I didn't even touch the bathroom floor :( Travis said he has a tool that will help me cut out the special notches in the tiles with ease, so I'll be borrowing that this week sometime :) I WILL get it done by the end of the week! I promise! :)

-Megan

No More Carport!

Another big thing that happened this weekend...I got rid of that eyesore of a carport! I offered it to my boss because 1. I just wanted it gone, 2. I didn't want to deal with removing it myself or having someone I didn't know remove it, and 3. he's been very lenient and generous with time off when it came to dealing with the house.

Him and his son came by on Saturday to remove it and it just looks so much better without it! I met 2 new neighbors on Saturday who said the carport had been there for about 14 years and it was just weird to see the house without it. They also informed me that the "bonus room" in the garage was built there by the 1st owners of the house because they didn't have a car so they built this room to utilize the garage for other things I guess. When the seller I bought the house from moved in, he just put up the carport instead of removing the "bonus room". I plan on doing that too, but probably not until the kitchen is all taken care of!

Before

After!

And probably the *best* part is that spiders won't be able to weave their webs between the metal poles anymore! Take that, nature!

-Megan

Bathroom floors...yet again!

Last Thursday, Matty was able to come in and put this floor leveler stuff over the plywood to make it even with the non-rotted plywood leftover from the original floor so it would be ready for the vinyl tile.

Smoooooooth

I then proceeded to lay out the tile in an acceptable pattern on the living room floor...

Dance floor!

And after measuring where I should start the tiles, I started to apply them to the bathroom floor:

I didn't get the whole thing done :( I went as far as the edges that needed straight cuts, but when I got to my first notched cut I screwed it up and then gave up :P I did put the tiles down that go underneath the toilet though, and Matty came back to install that for me! What a gem!

I have a toilet again!!

It's so pretty, and flushes so well! All told, I was without a toilet from last Sunday afternoon through this past Saturday afternoon. I dealt with it by being away from the house as much as possible, holding it through the night until I got to work in the morning, and then as a last resort...bucket. I'm not proud of that but what are you gonna do? :P

I got so frustrated with cutting the special notches out of some of those tiles that the floor is still unfinished, but I'm making it a point to finish that this week! Once the floor is fully finished, I still need to caulk around the toilet and where the tile meets the base of the tub, then I'll get some new base trim and install that. And hopefully Matty will be able to come back and install my new sink! For now, teeth brushing happens in the kitchen :P I was also able to take my first shower at home this morning, after 2 weeks of living in the place! I definitely need to replace the showerhead, and eventually the whole apparatus because turning the water on and off is really difficult. Oh yes, and I should finish priming/painting the walls...the pee yellow color is really getting to me!

-Megan