Moving Weekend!

Kahlua's all packed up and ready to go!

This past weekend I had a lot of help moving all my crap to the new place! :) On Saturday I borrowed my boss' truck and my friend Todd met me at the new place and helped me take a load of stuff to the dump. It was mainly the carpet and underlayment that Stan and I ripped up when I first got the keys to the house, but also the sheetrock and studs and other assorted trash items from knocking down that wall. We also took all of the paint cans and garden poisons that the seller left in the garage (because he's such a nice guy) to the hazardous waste place. It was a lot of fun pitching the trash into that big pile of garbage, but man did it stink!

The truck piled high for the dump

When the trip to the dump was finished, Todd, Stan, Leslie and Nick all helped with a couple of trips moving all the big stuff in the truck to the house from the apartment, then Stan helped with a couple more trips in my car for some smaller boxes. I also took yesterday off and did a few trips by myself. I have come to the conclusion that I have too much stuff! :P

Yesterday I also got my appliances delivered! The refrigerator is already up and running, but the range and dishwasher will just be boxed up in the living room until they're ready to install. I also got a quote to install a gas line for my range...man, the expenses keep piling up! Oh yes, and the flooring guys were finally re-pouring the concrete footings too...it was a busy day yesterday at the house!

All shiny and new!

It's like an appliance wharehouse in here

Yesterday I also set up the bedroom so it's nice and ready for me to pass out later tonight :) I took advantage of my last day of TV by watching a lot of Olympics coverage (yay volleyball!) and slowly cleaning the apartment...I hate cleaning, have I ever mentioned that? It kind of came to a point where I was like "screw this" and just did a half-ass job. If they take money out of my deposit to clean it more thoroughly, it will be worth it to me!

Last night was my final night sleeping in the apartment...boy am I going to miss it! I had a lot of good memories there, and I will miss being able to walk pretty much everywhere and having everything I could need within a close distance, but I know homeownership will be worth it...eventually at least! :)

Bye bye cute apartment!

Tonight I have class after work, so I won't be back to the apartment to get the last few things until pretty late. And then I'll have to wake up early tomorrow because I really don't know how the morning commute will go! This should be an interesting rest of the week... :)

-Megan

Wowza

I didn't end up getting any work done on the house last night as planned, boo me, but I did do a little more packing at the apartment so at least it wasn't a total wash :) As I mentioned earlier, I ordered a vanity for the bathroom and I looked at the tracking status yesterday, which said it was set to be delivered on Friday. Well I checked the tracking status again today and it had been updated to say it was delivered yesterday!! I freaked out a little because they just left it outside the front door (that's what the website said) and I don't really know any of my neighbors yet, or exactly how safe the neighborhood is in that sense. So, I panicked and my boss just let me take the work truck this morning to drive over there.

Well thankfully, the workers were there who are leveling the floor. They told me they saw it there yesterday when they arrived and just brought it in the house so that was a big relief! It would have been nice if they would have emailed me or something to give me a heads up but whatever, at least it wasn't stolen :) I also got a look at the progress of the floor/foundation and got to ask some questions about the process. It looks super scary, but here's a pic of the side of the house where they removed the foundation so they could re-pour the footings:

woah!

At least if there's a major earthquake in the area my house will be incredibly sturdy! I'm hoping they finish up by Monday (which was the latest update...) so I won't have to deal with any of this while I'm actually living in the house. I guess we'll see!

-Megan

A Little Help from my Friends

By the way, can I just say I have the best friends in the world?? To everyone who has already helped me, everyone who has offered help, everyone who has given me advice and recommendations, and everyone who has just leant an ear to my stress-induced rants, I couldn't have done any of this without you! When the kitchen is, well, a kitchen again, I'm going to have a great big housewarming party with all of you as the guests of honor! Be ready for an evite in the hopefully not-so-distant future :)

Wall-be-gone

The kitchen wall is officially all the way gone! Travis came over again on Saturday to rip out the studs and patch over the open spaces. Here's a progression of the tear down process:

Apparently I didn't take a normal "before" picture of just that wall...oops!

Minus the sheetrock

Minus the studs and partially patched!

It looks so open! I am super in love with how it turned out! Travis also showed me how to do the mud and tape stuff, which was really fun to learn. It will take me a while to master it but I'm up for the challenge!

Travis putting on the first coat - I sanded and put on the second coat on Sunday

Travis and Courtney's dog Guapo helped :)

While Travis was doing all that dirty work on Saturday, I primed most of the living room walls and ceilings, as well as the walls in the "master" bedroom and started on the bathroom. Here you can see why I need to prime every single surface of this house...I tried to capture the contrast between the primed parts and the non-primed parts of the wall:

That grime was EVERYWHERE on every wall and ceiling!

On Sunday I had an impromptu paint party! Regina, Erin and Matty came over and helped prime the second bedroom and paint the master...it looks really dark in the picture, and it's actually a bit darker than I pictured it would be but if I really hate it I can always paint it again! It's a purple-y mauve color, which I'm a big fan of, so hopefully I'll love it once it dries and I move all of my stuff in :) I figured I'd get my bedroom finished up before this next weekend so that once I'm totally moved in, I'll at least have the bedroom as a calm space in the house. I'll be needing to paint many more walls in the house so if you missed this party and want to help out, there will be plenty of more opportunities! :P

The paint crew!

Wednesday evening I plan on painting the base trim and possibly the window casings so the bedroom will be good to go by this weekend, and then Saturday will be the big moving day! Who wants to help? :D

-Megan

Bathtub

Not surprisingly, like most everything else in the house, the bathtub was incredibly disgusting when I started with it:

I just threw up

Yesterday, I took the day off because an electrician was coming in to re-route those wires in the wall I was knocking down. He also replaced all of the outlets in the entire house with 3-prong outlets, added at least one GFCI outlet in each room, and replaced all of the light switches so they're not all grody :) I took the opportunity to work on the bathtub since I had to wait for the electrician to be finished so I could start polyurethaning the floors! After hours of scrubbing with bleach, using a utility knife to scrape the old caulk out, scrubbing some more with bleach, and finally re-caulking, the tub looks a million times better! By the way, this was my first time using caulk and boy is it stinky and sticky! I was still pulling it off my hands hours later, but the result was totally worth it!

Like new!

Once the electrician left, I went and got the polyurethane and a stain pad that screws onto a telescoping pole. I also got a watering can...I had watched a tutorial online that suggested pouring some poly into the can, and using that to put a little on the floor at a time in a controlled manner, as opposed to dumping it out of the can it came in I guess! It worked super well, and I recommend it to anyone taking on a project like this! I got Minwax water-based poly in a clear semi-gloss finish, because it seemed the best choice based on online reviews and the result I wanted with my floor. I put on one coat, went and killed a couple of hours browsing at Lowe's (my new favorite store), and put on the second coat last night. I plan on putting the third and final coat on tonight so I'm able to start moving stuff in this weekend!

Sneak peek of the poly'd flooring:

Still wet!

I'm not sure if the finish will translate well in pictures, but it looks really cool in person...almost like an old barn floor. The differences in the wood grain and the variation in colors between each plank are really highlighted and it definitely has a rustic feel. I love it so far!!

This weekend Travis is coming back to knock out the studs in that wall so it will be super open which I'm very excited about! I think I'll also prime all of the walls and ceilings, well, at least I hope I'll get all of them done! I'll start moving in non-essential things from my apartment as well, just to cut the load down for the ultra-big moving weekend on the 28th/29th!

-Megan

Very Productive Weekend!

Okay, first thing's first: I got my lawnmower and mowed the lawn for the first time ever! My grandma offered to buy the lawnmower for me as a housewarming gift - awesome! I ended up going with a Greenworks corded electric lawnmower, and it took a little getting used to...I'm not sure if it was better to go the long way or the short way, and it was a little difficult to maneuver but I got it done! I also did what I could of the backyard, but there were a lot of obstacles so it still doesn't look that great!

Ain't she a beauty!

First mowed lawn!

The other big HUGE thing I tackled this weekend was sanding the floors! I rented an orbital floor sander from a local company and man, was it heavy! I think 115 lbs or so. The rental place put it in my trunk but it was an ordeal to get it out once I got to my house :P I had originally rented it through this morning, but it turned out I only needed it for about 5 hours, which saved some money! The sandpaper was actually more costly than the rental itself at ~$6 a sheet!

I used the big floor sander to sand the middle of the floor to about 3 inches from the baseboards and used 3 different, progressively finer grits to get it down to smooth. Then yesterday I used my new (refurbished) palm sander to do the edging right up to the baseboards, as well as go over any stubborn spots like right inside the front door, which wasn't covered with carpet, but was covered with disgusting grime! Trying to get the sander back into my car to go return it was the same comedy of errors as getting it out, but I did it and it's DONE! I also got a shopvac and tack cloths to pick up all the sanding dust which I will be doing shortly. This week, probably Wednesday, I will be putting on the first coat of polyurethane, then hopefully the second coat before the weekend so it has time to cure by Saturday and I'll be able to start moving things in!

Sander and "before" picture of the floors

It was so vibrate-y!

Palm sander for the edging and "after" picture of the sanded floors

Oh yeah, and the last BIG SUPER HUGE thing from this weekend...my friends Courtney and Travis from the gym came over to help knock out that wall between the kitchen and living room! Travis used to be a contractor and has done stuff like this a million times before, plus he has all the tools :) We unfortunately ran into electrical wires so the studs are still there, but I'm having an electrician come in this week to re-route them, and then Travis will come back over to knock out the studs and do finish work on the open parts.

Travis pulling off sheetrock

View from the living room

View from the kitchen (with annoying wires that need to be moved!)

It looks so open now! I can't wait until the studs are gone! Well, the plan for this week is to get the electrician in there, put the finish on the floors, and maybe start tackling the bathroom (did I mention I ordered a new toilet and vanity?) and hopefully be done enough with that other stuff so that this weekend Travis can come back in and knock out the studs, as well as move in all of my furniture!

Oh! I forgot to mention, another friend of mine from the gym, Todd, came over to look at the wiring since he has some experience but deemed it was a bit much for him, BUT he was able to switch out that dryer outlet so now I have a working dryer! Thanks Todd!

Until next time...

-Megan

Weekend

So, I didn't get as much done as I had hoped this weekend, but that's not a big surprise! I am about 5 minutes away from being finished pulling up the tack strips and staples from the floor (I had to get to a prior engagement, otherwise that would have been done by now!)

On Saturday, my boss' son Josh came over to help take all the appliances for scrap. He loaded everything up in the truck and drove all the way to the place, only to find that they closed early on Saturdays :( He decided to bring everything back to my place and just stash them all in the carport until today (Monday). He said he'd come back and pick everything up and try again! In the meantime, my house looks like a junkyard haha! I felt really bad because it looked like a lot of work getting all those huge appliances in and out of the truck, and now he has to do it again...poor guy. Well, here's hoping it all goes well today!

The truck all loaded up with scrap appliances

Oh, when we moved the range and refrigerator, there was a dead mouse under each of them :( Gah, I'm constantly flabbergasted by how disgustingly unclean the seller was! I took a picture of one of the mice, but I'll spare you all that visual :P

Josh also offered to hook up my new-to-me washer and dryer, but wouldn't you know it, the dryer had the wrong outlet for the plug! The outlet for a range and a dryer are very similar, but not the same. Somehow this guy bought a dryer with a range plug attached to it (?) and then had to switch the outlet to make it work I guess. Well, what that means for me is that I now have to switch the outlet back. So many little things to do!! I guess this is what owning a home is all about :P Since I'm nervous about doing any electrical work, my friend's husband is offering to come over and switch that out for me, what a gentleman! I'm going to observe just so I can perhaps tackle stuff like that if I run into it in the future.

I finally remembered to take a front of the house picture, but the neighbor's tree is shading it so it's pretty hard to see. When I get a chance I'll take a full sunlight photo!



Oooo shady! Notice the sexy junk in the carport...

  Next up: Wednesday after work and the gym, I'm planning on finishing that little last bit of the floor, washing the walls to prep for primer, and maybe starting on scraping the disgusting caulk from the tub surround and putting in some new stuff. Wee!

-Megan

Quick Update

I made my first big purchase today - a refrigerator! In case you don't know, all of the appliances in the house are....how do I put this nicely...pieces of shit! :) Like, you would want to wear rubber gloves if you had to touch any part of them. They're gross, old energy hogs and I can't wait to get rid of them! My boss' son is going to come over sometime in the next week or so and take them for scrap, and we'll split the money! Woo! I know that the kitchen in its entirety is going to take a long long time, and I can live without a range for a while (yay microwave) but I'll definitely need a refrigerator for the time being. I'm going to keep it in the garage until the cabinets are installed and I can move it into the kitchen.

In other news, the floor leveling is taking longer than planned...I guess that's normal with contracting out work like that, but it's still frustrating! I will be *really* glad when that's all over, especially because it's holding up some other projects.

On the menu for the weekend: finish pulling out all of the carpet staples and tack strips from the hardwoods, install the used washer and dryer I bought from my friends, and hopefully prime all the walls and ceilings! Wish me luck :)

-Megan

Floors (the pretty part!)

This past weekend, I finally started doing something productive with the house! I ripped up all the gross stinky carpet and underlayment, with some help from Stan. We rolled up all the remnants and put them in the "bonus room" in the garage (really just a plywood room that will be torn down shortly) for the time being until I'm ready to order a dropbox. 

It begins!

This is the very first time I've done anything remotely like this, so it was scary but very exciting at the same time! It was really easy tearing up the carpet and underlayment, but the hard part was just around the corner.


Living room, with the gross kitchen just beyond

See all those little chunks of stuff? Each one was a staple that I had to pull out with pliers. AND those tack strips around the perimeter were no picnic either. I went and bought a pry bar and a rubber mallet to pull up the tack strips. It went like this: pry bar, mallet mallet mallet, snap up small remnant of tack strip, remove nail with claw hammer, repeat. That went on for about 2.5 hours and I only got 3/4 of the living room done (including removing the staples). Man, my hands hurt after all that! Does that mean I'm getting old? The worst part was using the pliers on the staples.


Living room before

Living room after

So here's my progress so far! I also removed the curved brass edging from right next to the front door. I have tomorrow off, so I'm first going to go shopping for appliances and hopefully get some good Independence Day deals, then back to the floors!

-Megan