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
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
Monday, August 20, 2012
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"!
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
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
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
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!
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
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
Monday, August 13, 2012
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.
I then proceeded to lay out the tile in an acceptable pattern on the living room 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!
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
 |
| 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
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
More Bathroom Floors
Wow! Matty and Travis were able to work on the bathroom floor yesterday and it looks a thousand times better!
It's all ready for the vinyl tile, which hopefully I'll be able to do myself after class tonight, then I'll be able to have a toilet again! Yippee! :P
-Megan
 |
| Eerie shot of light coming up from under the crawlspace |
 |
| All fixed up with new plywood! |
It's all ready for the vinyl tile, which hopefully I'll be able to do myself after class tonight, then I'll be able to have a toilet again! Yippee! :P
-Megan
Monday, August 6, 2012
Officially Moved In!
Tuesday was my first night in the house! It was so quiet...I'm so used to all these noises, like the neighbors above me dropping something or walking around in high heels, passersby yelling or laughing, or even the streetcar going by my old building. It was definitely an adjustment...I used the white noise app on my phone so I could listen to something as I was falling asleep! Kahlua is slowly adjusting but still spends most of her time in my room under the bed :)
My friend noticed a couple of weeks ago that the water heater was off, and I thought that was weird but I didn't really need hot water yet so I put it off. I asked the guys who were working on the floor leveling if they turned the gas off for any reason but they denied it. Well, I took Friday off so the gas company could come by and do a (free!) inspection and sure enough, they said someone turned off the gas from the meter, but it wasn't them. Anywho, they turned it back on for me, re-lit the pilot light on the water heater, showed me how the furnace worked, and just gave me a lot of information so it was a good thing to do. With the gas turned on, I was able to do laundry for the first time this weekend! I have only ever lived with laundry in-unit once in my life, for about 9 months, so this is a huge deal for me :) I'm never going to have to buy rolls of quarters at the bank again!! And where have I been showering without hot water you ask? Mainly at the gym after I've worked out, or sometimes at Stan's place. But even with the hot water now turned on I still haven't showered at the house for reasons that will soon become clear...
Saturday was a super busy day, so no work on the house was done, but yesterday my friend Matty came over to help rehaul the bathroom. "Oy" is all I can say. Before we even started anything, I opened the box to the vanity that I had ordered online and it was broken. A piece of wood where the door hinge connects was splintered off and therefore the door was working on one hinge. So I ended up returning that obviously! Well, I could do without a sink in the bathroom for a while because the kitchen sink still functions, so we proceeded to rip everything out anyways. First, the vanity was not attached to the wall, and the sink wasn't even attached to the vanity cabinet! Oy. Then the toilet, which was just disgusting and looked like it had never been cleaned. Oy. THEN the vinyl floor...we started ripping it up and unfortunately ran into rotting floor boards underneath :( See, the floor had been rotting it looked like for some time, but the seller just put more plywood on top of the rotting floor and ugly vinyl on top of that, then didn't even caulk between the vinyl and bathtub, which resulted in even more rot. Oy! Thankfully, Matty and my other friend Travis have offered to replace the floor so I won't fall through, although it might take another day or two. So I am bathroomless for the time being!
After returning the vanity, I ended up deciding on a pedestal sink. I know that will translate to less storage, but at least there's a medicine cabinet and I can put pretty baskets on the floor next to the sink or even shelves above the toilet for things. I didn't have any in-bathroom storage at the apartment either so it won't be a huge adjustment! Going with a pedestal sink also allowed me to go with the only vinyl tile flooring I liked that wasn't special order from Lowe's! It's kind of a dark rust color, and I was afraid it would be too close to the color of the vanity cabinet so I was kind of at a loss for what flooring to choose, but having the vanity arrive broken was kind of a blessing in disguise I guess! I get to go with the flooring that I originally wanted (that doesn't cost an arm and a leg) plus I'm saving a TON on the sink now, it's like 60% less!
I don't know how much energy I'll have to tackle anything else until the bathroom is useable again, but I do have quite a few boxes I could go through in the meantime!
-Megan
My friend noticed a couple of weeks ago that the water heater was off, and I thought that was weird but I didn't really need hot water yet so I put it off. I asked the guys who were working on the floor leveling if they turned the gas off for any reason but they denied it. Well, I took Friday off so the gas company could come by and do a (free!) inspection and sure enough, they said someone turned off the gas from the meter, but it wasn't them. Anywho, they turned it back on for me, re-lit the pilot light on the water heater, showed me how the furnace worked, and just gave me a lot of information so it was a good thing to do. With the gas turned on, I was able to do laundry for the first time this weekend! I have only ever lived with laundry in-unit once in my life, for about 9 months, so this is a huge deal for me :) I'm never going to have to buy rolls of quarters at the bank again!! And where have I been showering without hot water you ask? Mainly at the gym after I've worked out, or sometimes at Stan's place. But even with the hot water now turned on I still haven't showered at the house for reasons that will soon become clear...
Saturday was a super busy day, so no work on the house was done, but yesterday my friend Matty came over to help rehaul the bathroom. "Oy" is all I can say. Before we even started anything, I opened the box to the vanity that I had ordered online and it was broken. A piece of wood where the door hinge connects was splintered off and therefore the door was working on one hinge. So I ended up returning that obviously! Well, I could do without a sink in the bathroom for a while because the kitchen sink still functions, so we proceeded to rip everything out anyways. First, the vanity was not attached to the wall, and the sink wasn't even attached to the vanity cabinet! Oy. Then the toilet, which was just disgusting and looked like it had never been cleaned. Oy. THEN the vinyl floor...we started ripping it up and unfortunately ran into rotting floor boards underneath :( See, the floor had been rotting it looked like for some time, but the seller just put more plywood on top of the rotting floor and ugly vinyl on top of that, then didn't even caulk between the vinyl and bathtub, which resulted in even more rot. Oy! Thankfully, Matty and my other friend Travis have offered to replace the floor so I won't fall through, although it might take another day or two. So I am bathroomless for the time being!
 |
| Matty removing the vanity |
 |
| The scary looking rotting floor :-/ |
After returning the vanity, I ended up deciding on a pedestal sink. I know that will translate to less storage, but at least there's a medicine cabinet and I can put pretty baskets on the floor next to the sink or even shelves above the toilet for things. I didn't have any in-bathroom storage at the apartment either so it won't be a huge adjustment! Going with a pedestal sink also allowed me to go with the only vinyl tile flooring I liked that wasn't special order from Lowe's! It's kind of a dark rust color, and I was afraid it would be too close to the color of the vanity cabinet so I was kind of at a loss for what flooring to choose, but having the vanity arrive broken was kind of a blessing in disguise I guess! I get to go with the flooring that I originally wanted (that doesn't cost an arm and a leg) plus I'm saving a TON on the sink now, it's like 60% less!
I don't know how much energy I'll have to tackle anything else until the bathroom is useable again, but I do have quite a few boxes I could go through in the meantime!
-Megan
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)