I Love my Handyman

So, my aunts are coming to my place for the Christmas holidays, which I'm super stoked about! And bonus - it's giving me a kick in the pants to do a little more on the house before they get here. I called up the handyman company I hired a few months ago to come in and knock out a few more little projects. If you're in the Portland area and need some stuff done, I highly recommend In Your Home!

• Baseboards

I've been staring at this in the kitchen for the past 2+ years:

Ick.

Previously, there was that rubber cove base stuff that you see, for instance, in commercial restrooms. I promptly peeled that stuff up, and once the new floor was down and the walls were painted, I was ready to install some real base moulding! It only took me forever to do it :P But look how pretty it turned out!

Yay!

It gives the kitchen that nice polished feel :) And while we're still in the kitchen...

• Pantry Area

Remember this?

I always forget to take good before pictures - oops!

I had planned originally on knocking out that little wall to the right of the shelving unit, but never got around to it. I had resigned myself to leaving it there and somehow finishing off the edge, but when the handyman arrived, we talked it over and he was able to remove the whole deal (including the little soffit above the closet that used to be there)!

All gone!

Finished up and primed

He was able to cobble together the remainder of the floor tiles I had in the garage to finish off that corner too. Now I need to somehow match the paint and it will be like that closet was never there! I had originally planned to get a larger shelving unit to put there, so now I need to decide if I'll do that, or do something different entirely with the space? Decisions, decisions!

• Bathroom Window

I'm not really surprised at this, but the guy who used to own the house used the absolute wrong material on the bathroom windowsill. As you can see below, he used a pressboard product which expanded when it got wet - who knew that a bathroom window that is on the wall next to a shower would get wet?!?!?

Extreme closeup!

Sorry that's so gross...but I'm short and it was above my sightline! :P Well, not only did the handyman fix the damaged stuff, he even made the window trim prettier! :)

Much better!

Nice and clean and new

Even though I can't really see it, I'm glad it's all fixed up :) Oh! And one more thing - remember that strip of base moulding I installed in the bathroom? Which I royally screwed up with nails? 

This thing? (Wow, I forgot how yellow that paint was...)

Well luckily there was some extra base moulding from the kitchen so he replaced that too, yay!

While there's still some other things I'd like to get done before my aunts come to visit, I think I need to concentrate on painting. Lots and lots of painting. I think I will make a promise to myself to not do any other improvements until I've painted all the doors and base trim throughout the house. Oof, what am I getting myself into!

-Megan

2 BIG Projects Done!

I'm not sure why I haven't posted about these yet, but over the summer I knocked out two really big projects that I wanted to get done on the house.

Project #1 - The Roof!

Way way back during the inspection, I was told that a new roof would be needed within a few years of purchasing the house. That didn't really scare me off, so my realtor offered to get a quote on a new roof for me to use during negotiations. I'm not sure how he chose the particular company, but they came in, checked it out, and gave me a dollar figure to haggle with. (It worked, by the way - woohoo!)

Fast forward to 2 years later (and a small leak in the ceiling, yikes), and I was able to check this project off my list! For simplicity's sake, I just decided to go with that same company, so I got in touch with them for an updated quote. As it turns out, I found out a coworker at my new job is semi-related to the guy who runs the roofing company - small world! So at least I knew that he was a reputable guy who wouldn't rip me off ;)

A few phone calls and a couple weeks later, I had a shiny new roof!

Before

After!

Say hello to 30 years of (hopefully) not having to deal with this again :) All told, I never actually met my roofers in person, but they did a great job and I would recommend them! I was in touch with a gutter guy who my roofers recommended, but that ultimately didn't work out. I would like to replace the gutters at some point though!

Project #2 - The Fence!

Okay, this was actually kind of a nightmare :( I searched for fence companies on Angie's List since I didn't have any friends or acquaintances that knew of anyone reputable, and found a few that had good reviews that I was interested in getting quotes from.  Only one of those companies was very responsive, so I had them come out and give me a quote. I liked the guy, and what we discussed, but I really wasn't in any rush to get anything done and had fully planned on getting more quotes from other companies.

But then, laziness kicked in, and honestly, I didn't want to have to take more time off work to meet with other companies! On Angie's List reviews, customers are able to post the price of the work they had done, and after extensive research of other companies' comparable reviews, I deemed the pricing to be just fine.

So I called them up, and they came out to install the fence. Step one of install was full on removal of all of the HUGELY overgrown plants.

Here's a reminder of what it looked like back there...

There was also a chain link fence along the West and North of the property, cleverly hidden behind all the greenery. Well, once all that was gone, they put up the framing, and I came home to this:

Yeah!

And then the day after that:

I love it!

It looks great, right? Well, a pretty huge miscommunication happened, and what should have looked like this:

(Taken from the company's website)

Ended up looking like this:

Not the prettiest...

I was lead to believe that the overlapping wood would look more like the first photo, but it ended up looking like more of an afterthought, which you can see in the second photo. And because I wasn't there to supervise, that's what I got. Hrmph.

All in all, obviously it's way better than what was there previously, but I wasn't entirely happy with the company (as well as their lack of removing materials after the job was finished...I don't want to get into it). I'm glad it's done, and that I now have more privacy back there!

As of right now, the back yard is a complete blank slate. I'm interested in putting some sort of deck or patio out there, and I'd like to eventually incorporate foliage that *won't* overtake the yard (I'm looking at you, blackberries). I'd love to eventually have a garden, maybe even chickens (!), but most importantly, I'd just like it to be functional! I don't think I've spent more than a few minutes out there at a time when I wasn't doing yard work. I'd like to actually enjoy relaxing out there! I think I see hammocks in my future...

Megan

Before & Afters

What! I'm updating this blog!? I know, it's hard to believe it myself, but I got a bee in my bonnet to start doing more updates on the house and I figured I should share with you lovely folks :)

My aunt Chris offered to get me a new front door as my housewarming gift, and now, over 2 years later, I've made good on her contribution :) It makes the HUGEST difference! Of course, with a new front door comes new locks (which I know Chris is excited about more than anything else, haha!) and for continuity's sake, I got new knobs for all the doors in the house!

New door from the exterior!

New door from the interior - such a big difference!

New knobs throughout (this is the bathroom door)

And speaking of the bathroom door - just adjacent to it is the spare bedroom door - which was a solid slab hollow core door, which did not match either the bathroom or "master" bedroom doors. Luckily, when my friends helped me knock down the wall between the kitchen and living room, we saved the door that used to be there. That door *did* match the other doors in the house, so I had the handyman install the saved kitchen door to the spare bedroom! Yay for matching doors!

Old vs. new - much better!

The spot where the kitchen door used to be had a hole in the hardwood flooring where the door frame used to come out of, so I also had that filled with wood and stained to try and match. Please ignore the missing base moulding....that's next on the list!

All patched up!

Another VERY exciting change for me was having the pony wall between the kitchen and living room capped off! You can kind of see in the top left photo the exposed 2x4 that has been there since we knocked down that part of the wall (I forgot to take a good before photo), but you can see the new decorative cap built up and then primed! I really love how it turned out!

Soooo polished looking!

Also, not pictured, but the handyman smoothed over the ceiling directly above the pony wall where we patched it up and put mud and tape on it...in which I did a very bad job and it was so sloppy looking haha. Now it's a smooth transition!

Okay, last but not least - the bars on the windows are GONE! They really made the house look ghetto haha. I think it makes the house seem more friendly and inviting!

No more jail bars!

I feel like I got quite a big chunk of stuff knocked off my to do list! And I really liked the company and in particular the handyman that did all this work. I'm definitely planning on hiring them again!

-Megan

Checking In

Well hello everyone! This has been a nice summer filled with nice weather and lots of house/dogsitting opportunities :) I'm currently house/dogsitting for my friends who are getting married in New York! Exciting! Unfortunately for you, that means I haven't had a thing to update on this here blog. Oh also and football season started, and you know what that means :P

Just wanted to check in and let you all know that I haven't abandoned you. Once the weather takes a turn, I'll have plenty of forced indoor time which will hopefully lead to more projects and more blog updates with substance! I hope I'll have something new for you soon...

-Megan

Dogsitting

Well hello there! I may sound like a broken record, but nothing has been done on the house since the vent fan install. As I said before, it cost more than I anticipated, which is a big factor, but I've also been housesitting/dogsitting this past week at a friends' place. Isn't she sooooo cuuuute?

Fluffy!

I'm really happy with the vent fan so far. After purchasing the one I wanted, I read reviews which weren't the best, but I decided to go with it anyways, and I'm glad I did! I can leave the door open when I shower and the smoke alarm won't go off! The mirror isn't foggy anymore, the walls aren't damp anymore, and I don't feel like I'm still in a sauna when I'm toweling off. I'm really happy I got it done when I did, because come wintertime, I won't have to leave the bathroom window open all damn day!

I have a fairly busy weekend coming up (woohoo, volleyball tournament!) but the next couple aren't booked up yet so hopefully I'll be able to force myself to do *something* on the house. I haven't even put up any pictures/art on the walls...I need to remedy that!

-Megan

It's Electric!

Yesterday I took a half day off work so I could get a vent fan installed in my bathroom! Woo! There was never any sort of venting in the bathroom, besides the small window, and it would get crazy steamy in there every time I'd shower. The very first time I showered in there, it was so bad that the smoke alarm in the adjacent hallway went off! Ever since, I've had to shower with the door closed, and leave it closed for a good 30 minutes after I got out to let the steam dissipate. Well no longer! I went with a combo light/vent fan and it looks really pretty (in my opinion) and matches the style and finish of the other fixtures I have in there.

While the guys were working, I decided to mow my lawn since I've been too busy to for the past couple of weekends. Since I have an electric plug-in mower, and since there were no exterior plugs anywhere on the house, I've been running the extension cord from the living room out under the front door...it was kinda ghetto :P Annnywho, I decided to ask how hard it would be to install an exterior plug and they said not too hard at all! (Mind you, I didn't factor in the extra cost that this ended up being...ooof.) But, I'm pretty happy with all the work that was done, and it's one (two!) more things I can check off my to-do list!

The housing for the vent fan 

They had to install the vent fan housing slightly off-center and it bugs the crap out of me! However, they were restricted by the ceiling joists, so I'm just going to have to deal with it. That little hole you see to the right of the housing was an "accident"....grr! Not a big deal, I can just patch it up, but annoying nonetheless!

Ahhh pretty vent fan/light...and quiet too!

I tested out the fan this morning and it works great! It wasn't completely un-steamy when I got out of the shower, but I also didn't go too high on the CFM's for cost and noise reasons. I got an 80 CFM fan, which is double what I need for my 45 sq ft bathroom...I could have gone as high as 200+ but that would have been overkill!

The hole drilled for the external plug

All finished up with waterproof box and cover!

I'm excited to mow the lawn and trim the bushes via the new outlet plug! That makes me weird...doesn't it? I'll also be able to plug Christmas lights into this puppy when the time comes! Yeehaw! Unfortunately this stuff cost a bit more than I was expecting, so I'll have to put some other projects on hold for the time being. I really need to just paint the hallway and spare bedroom since I have all of the supplies already!

-Megan

Yardwork

It seems as though I've spent as much time on the yard in these past couple of months as I've spent on the entire house interior in the past year! One of the reasons I decided on a house over a condo was so I could have a yard - for growing vegetables, raising chickens (!!), maybe having a backyard bbq or two - but man, it is a TON of work to keep up with! I think it's especially hard for me, since I didn't grow up having any sort of yard to speak of...we had a slab of concrete in front of the apartment I grew up in, and dad was the gardener in the family. I remember having tomatoes, basil, and cactus fruit (yum!). There was also a time where we grew some HUGE sunflowers and eating the seeds was fun although not as tasty as the salty ones you buy at the store :P. Oh and we had grapes growing over an arbor, which was very cool in my opinion :)

But no lawn to speak of. And the few bushes that were street adjacent were taken care of by the landlord. Point is, I'm not used to any of this stuff, but it's something I've always (kind of) wanted. Enter my very own lawn...by estimations, I have 3000 sq feet of the stuff. Most of it is grass, but in the back yard there are a couple of small, funky looking trees, some bushes (some pretty, some not so much), and tons of invasive bamboo and blackberry bushes. I think I've got the front lawn mowing down...I go in a square spiral from the edges inward...not sure if it's the most efficient but it works for me! As I mentioned in this post, the back yard was left untouched for far too long, so long in fact that I had to hire someone to just get it down to manageable for me. I've since been keeping up with the mowing, but the ground is uneven in many places, and my mower inevitably ends up grinding down mounds of dirt, which go all up in my nostrils and I end up with black boogers (sorry, tmi!). I've also purchased a string trimmer for the places the mower can't get to, and it doubles as an edger (although I'm not too steady with it yet so I've made some janky looking edges, woops). And my newest yard related purchase is an electric hedge trimmer, which is actually really fun to use! I've pared down quite a few overgrown bushes with that puppy.

The only trouble I'm running into is that I basically fill up my compost/yard wast bin super quick, so I can really only do so much each week. I know there are those big paper bags you can buy for extra yard waste, but you have to pay the disposal company extra per each bag they pick up too. Well anyways, I know that I'm going to need help removing the bamboo and blackberry bushes...those suckers are apparently impossible to get rid of. I've actually contacted a couple of brush clearing companies to get quotes on how much it will cost to just level the back yard. And I mean get rid of everything...all I want is dirt back there so I can start with a clean slate. Of course though once that happens, the next thing I'll need to do is put in a fence. It's almost completely obscured now, but I know there's a chain link fence on 2 sides of the yard (the other side is just a hedge), which I definitely want to replace with wood for privacy. But how many thousands of dollars will that all cost?? Oof. Definitely a project for another time. So for now, I'll continue to mow and trim and compost one week at a time!

My pretty yard tools

Wooo tomato plant! You can see some green ones in there if you search carefully!

I trimmed down the bushes at the front of the house - you can
sort of see how overgrown these were in  the picture below

See? Off to the left? So bushy!

I have also been enjoying cooking more and more on my sexy range. Below is a one-pot creamy sausage pasta that I've made at least a hundred times lately :P

Nom nom!

Well, busy weekend ahead (Wendy and Adam *finally* getting hitched!), but hopefully I'll have the gumption to do more interior work in the coming weeks. I NEED to paint! Somebody kick my butt into gear so I don't put it off any longer!

-Megan