Deal of the Year!

When coming to the end of a big project like Miss Meadowlawn, it's sometimes hard not to get overwhelmed by all the details that you either overlooked before, or never completed or just plain forgot about. You find yourself making lists to paint one side of a door you missed, and caulk some trim you never got around to, and finish assembling the fan you started working on a week ago. You realize that not one single room is completely done because this one needs a shower door, and the other needs a closet door, and another needs vent covers, and the kitchen needs a garbage disposal etc. But  eventually things come together, and you can walk into a room without seeing anything blatant that you missed. Thats a great feeling.

One of the "details" we had was the shower door upstairs. The tile job the guys did came out so nice I didn't want to get an opaque door that would cover the whole thing. In my imagination, when I planned it out, I'd always pictured it with a modern clear glass door. The problem was, those turned out to be special order (especially the kind that don't have a metal bar running across the top.) We looked at Home Depot and for our 36" opening they were between $300-$400! We kept putting it off, but finally we decided we just needed to get a door and put it in. After checking Home Depot, and Lowes, we went to the dreaded Menards to return a door and take a look. After checking out their selection I was disappointed yet again to not find what I was looking for. I went to find Eduardo and told him the bad news. The clouds converged as I explained our very limited options. He wanted to see them himself, so we headed back over to that section. We passed an end cap on the way, and a re-taped, large box caught my eye. As I looked closer the clouds parted and a bright ray of sunshine shone on the picture on the side of the box. Turns out that it was a special order that was returned, and it was exactly the right size, and it had clear glass, and no bar. And since it was opened and not regular stock we were able to buy it for $160, which is at least $40 less than the ugly cheap one we thought we were going to have to get! WooHOOOO! We really lucked out, and it fit, and it looks amazing! Buying clearanced/discounted items isn't something we have had any luck with otherwise, but I guess the moral of the story is to always take a minute or two to look anyway, because you never know when you will find that one $300 shower door that you need.

Update: Me enjoying our new shower door. LOL. Doesn't he...I mean it look great? :)

This and That

Plotting against the squirrel.

We have officially lost all semblance of a "weekend". In fact I think we put in longer hours on Saturday and Sunday than we do the rest of the week! There has been a lot going on at the house the last few days. We still have the squirrel in the attic despite my ingenious attempt to coax it down using peanut butter and sunflower seeds, some boards and a ladder. Apparently it's not as smart as I am. It's either that or he doesn't want to leave. I hope there are no additional squirrels and no hanky-panky going on up there because I don't want any baby squirrels calling it home. We have spent pretty much most of our lunch breaks trying to figure out how to get it out of there.

The squirrel plotting against us.

In addition, Dad has put up most of the trim and base. And it has taken days to do. The new windows fit in the slots from the old ones, but they are a different thickness, so extra pieces of wood were needed to finish out the inside of the windows before the trim could be put on. Dad figured it all out, and then proceeded to cut them all and piece them together. I probably would have gone through half a forest of boards before I figured out how to get everything together so perfectly. It's a lot of measuring and cutting corners (I mean actually cutting corner pieces, not taking shortcuts;) It's amazing how much it changes the look of things. It looks finished with all the doors and windows trimmed out. 

My job (since painting is mostly done except for a few odds and ends) is to follow behind and fill with spackling all the nail holes used to hang the trim, and then caulk all the seams between the trim/base and whatever it touches (like the wall, or window frame). Then when that is all done I have to paint over it again! It's not hard work, but it is pretty tedious at times. And there are so many doors and windows etc, that I can (and have already) spend days doing nothing but that. But it looks great when it's all done.

We also tackled the furnace room. It was the last place that was untouched from the original house. So Saturday the guys pulled out the water heater and Eduardo pulled out the vinyl floor, and put down the tile. And yesterday I went in and washed all the disgusting dirty pipes and walls and painted everything. It looks a lot better now.

Yesterday I also painted the new front door red, and did a makeover on the "new" garage door, which is the old front door.  I think the latter looks pretty nice, and by using it instead of getting a new one we saved about $100. 

Furnace room: Before

Furnace room: After

Old front door is new garage door!

Patching the old door.

Selfies and Such

My attempt at a non-selfie. My work pants.

I realize that I have been posting a lot of  what are referred to as "selfies" on my blog. (Selfies are photos you take of yourself.) And I apologize for that. I read just the other day an article that claims that taking selfies and posting them on line has officially become a form of mental illness, like schizophrenia and depression. So now I feel compelled to explain my reasons for posting photos of myself, and to assure you that I do not, in fact, require an intervention or therapy.
As it happens I am the photo taker. Not just in remodeling, but all the time. As a result I have noticed that often I am not represented in certain things I've done other than being the photographer. And that would be the case now as well. I have lots of pictures of the guys doing things but I want to have some representation of myself in this experience in addition to all the great shots I got of them. It's probably a little selfish, but I assure you is in no way ego related. I don't particularly enjoy taking photos of myself, and I am not really all that keen on posting tons of them online either. But unfortunately my arms can only reach far enough to qualify any photo I would take as a "selfie", and in that distance, I can't take photos that would show me doing anything other than smiling or perhaps holding up a tool, or wearing a paint brush on my head:) So that's why I take them and post them. Just FYI.

Busy Day

Grout Master Eduardo

05/12/14

We have had a lot going on the last couple of days. Yesterday we preped the tiled floor to grout. This involved inspecting every joint between the tiles and using a utility knife to cut away any high spots in the thin set, creating a space for the grout when it goes in.

I spent a couple hours doing that last night. I have blisters on my fingers from it, which weren't too sore yesterday, but caused a lot of discomfort today. The upside is it's pretty cool to say I have blisters from using a utility knife.It makes me feel kind of badass. But moving on.

We also had some guys out to the house to clean the vents and air returns. We know what we could see of the house, so we could only imagine what lay lurking in the vents after 20 years. They had a huge vacuum and an air compressor that blew all the crap down and then sucked it all out. It cost $200 but it was well worth it to know that all that stuff won't be periodically blown into the house when the heater goes on.

While we were waiting for the vent guys to do their thing Eduardo and I decided to work on assembling the fan for the pink room (which is no longer pink, but that's the name we still use). While trying to unscrew a particularly tight screw from the mounting bracket Eduardo accidentally stabbed himself with a screwdriver. It wasn't a particularly clean screwdriver either. I raced to the grocery store for alcohol (the medicinal kind, not the tasty delicious kind) and hydrogen peroxide and band aids too.

He was feeling a little lightheaded when I got back, and was looking a little pale too. He laid down on the deck for a few minutes. I can't imagine what stabbing myself in the hand with a screwdriver feels like, but I bet would have been crying at that point. I am sure of it.

Anyway, after the duct guys left, Eduardo and I grouted the entire downstairs, with him leading the way and giving me direction. He did the grout (wounded hand and all!) and I went behind him washing the floor.

It was hard work! Just scooting around on the tile floor on my knees was hard enough, but then constantly wringing out the sponge in the bucket, and having my blistery fingers sloshing around in my gloves was...super uncomfortable. I didn't complain seeing as how Eduardo was working with a screwdriver-stabbed hand.

But it get me thinking a lot about my Dad. He's been doing this very thing for years. It's what he did to support our family when I was growing up, and it's what he headed off to do everyday when he left for work. I find that so...I don't even know the right word to use. I feel enormously grateful to know that while I was enjoying life and doing kid stuff, he was going out everyday to do what I just spent the last several hours doing, for me, for us, for our family. My mom had the equally difficult task of taking care of us kids while he was at work, and the house, so it was a joint effort for sure. Being an adult now and understanding  the reality of the situation for both of them, what it meant to be parents, and to have a family and the responsibility of providing for them...shit. That stuff is not for the feint of heart. It honesty blows my mind. 

So now after my singular day of "doing" tile, when technically all I did was scrape a few grout joints and wash a floor, I am exhausted, my fingers are sore and my knees hurt like hell, and I am just so glad to be done and have a hot cup of coffee in my hand. The floors look great though, and I am really excited that I got to help out on it, despite all my complaining;) It was a really good day.

The duct cleaning guys and their hoses

And their giant vacuum

Eduardo resting after receiving his wound

The culprit that stabbed him

Not cow poop. It's grout. Has the same consistency though.

Yes, I was there helping. This is proof.

I must now give up my dream of being a hand model.

Uninvited Guests

A squirrel escape hatch.

One of the (mostly) cool things about owning our own place is that it comes with an entire slew of animals. I can't say much that is pleasant about the roly-poly bugs that are currently amassing what appears to be an extended family reunion inside our house. Nor can I comment in a positive way about the little grayish-white chameleon spiders that seem to find my perfectly white corners of the ceiling the desired country for homesteading.
But we have some exquisite (I might be exaggerating that a little) birds on the property that I've noticed. There is this great woodpecker I will tell you about later on. And from the looks of the back yard we have a very healthy mole population as well. And we have lots of squirrels too. I think they are all (the squirrels I mean) pretty great except for the one that managed to get him/herself stuck up in the eave of our house. I was down at the house by myself the other day and I thought someone was breaking in upstairs. It turns out that was true. But it wasn't a person. It was a super cute, fluffy little (well, kind of big-sh actually) squirrel doing sprints up in our crawl space. Son of a triscuit! So our current theory is that he/she.....OK that is going to get tiring. Lets pretend the squirrel is a he. So my theory is that he got stuck in there, but can't get down. So Dad and I hoisted up the extension ladder, to the opening in the eave, and we are hoping that he will then be able to climb down and move out. If he doesn't, then we are going to have to resort to extraordinary measures. In my imagination these involve a cat, a very loud stereo, and an air compressor. For his sake, I hope he leaves soon....
This afternoon we were also surprised to have two very healthy and beautiful geese stop by the place. All we had to offer was a yard full of dandelions, but that seemed to be just what they were interested in. Lucky us! They didn't seem too afraid, and so I was able to get close. They were definitely a couple. They both looked like dudes to me, but I'm no expert or nor am I homophobic, so they are most certainly welcome back anytime. Especially if they eat dandelions.
Other than that we had a cute little grey field mouse who had an unfortunate run in with a garage door. That made me sad. He was in full rigor mortis by the time we found him, so when Eduardo picked him up by the tail he was stiff as a board. As a side note, Eduardo is particularly adept at heaving small afore mentioned animals great distances. I think he tossed the little guy a solid 40 feet at least, and he might have had a nice spiral on him if I'm not mistaken.
Anyway, I am pretty much loving all the animal-ness that is going on around the house (note that I did not say "in" it). I am beginning to feel a real sense of community with the living things that will soon be my neighbors:)

P.S. Please don't judge me if in two months I've declared all out war with any of these guys. I already hate insects, so it's not implausible that in six to eight weeks I could be feeling very differently than I do now. But why start out with negativity right? They are innocent until proven guilty. let's just start with that and see where it takes us.

Frank and Carl

Or maybe Francene and Carl?

Or Frank and Carlita?...I'm not sure

You Wins Some, You Lose Some

Our big accomplishment today.

Today was an exhausting day so it's strange that I got almost nothing done. I had big plans when I woke up this morning, I even made THREE lists before I left the house. But as the universe would have it, things just did not go my way, and everything went wrong. I guess it's no surprise that these kinds of thing can happen when remodeling a house but it is a whopping coincidence that they all happened in a row, to me, today.

The first thing I did was go to Home Depot to return some tile and buy a sink. Only I forgot the sink part of that. But I did buy six vent covers that I was planning on replacing...only none of them fit when I got back to the house and tried them out. So that was a waste of time and I have to return all of them tomorrow.

I got a new cover for the fan in the bathroom too, but for some reason I can't get it to sit flush against the ceiling. I tried three times, and can't figure out why it won't work. Sigh.

So then I thought I'd track down the special hinges I needed for the doors on the upstairs vanity. After three stores I finally found them. They weren't exactly the same so I had to drill new holes in the door. When I went to attach them to the vanity was when I realized they were way too big and wouldn't work. So now I have to return those also.

Then I decided to paint the inside of the return vents with black spray paint (as dad suggested) and as I was painting the one in the little bedroom the bench I was standing on wiggled, and I accidentally spray painted a black splotch on my beautiful white stripe around the ceiling as well as a bit of the ceiling itself. Perfect.

After I was done with that I decided to work on painting a salvaged light fixture white. It was in the kitchen but we plan to use it in the laundry room. But for some reason the paint is not sticking to it. I don't know if it's because I painted it out in the garage and it was raining and the humidity was high or what.

At that point I was ready to call it a day and head over to the gym for a quick run, but I felt bad that I really hadn't accomplished a damn thing. So instead I went and got the sink I'd forgotten earlier and decided to switch out the last of the brass hinges and rehang the doors that were pulled off and in the way. I tried for over a half hour to get the doors up only to realize that they no longer fit since the tile was installed. The bottoms of them need to be cut off! That was my last straw. I decided it was too late for the gym and time to go back to Dads and make dinner. Before I made it out of town though Eduardo called me and asked if I'd stay and help him hang a ceiling fan. I didn't feel like it, but again, I'd barely gotten anything done all day, so I met him back at the house. We then spent an hour trying to hand the fan, only it doesn't work. We think the light switch is actually the problem, but there were about 10 wires in the electrical box behind the switch and we had no idea what went to what. As you can imagine, the minuscule remnant of patience I had left was worn away and I felt like crying. Instead we decided to try to hang another (easier) light...only to discover that the mount (that is in the ceiling) is too small. That's when I informed Eduardo I was leaving for the day and  I left.

I didn't get back here (to Dad's) until 7:00. Yep. That's right. It more or less took me 11 hours to do nothing of any use besides buy a bathroom sink. And that usefulness is negated by all the time I will have to spend tomorrow returning all the crap I bought today! I literally would have been better off staying here and watching cartoons all day.

You win some and you lose some I guess...

First Time for Everything

I have done a lot of things in my life. I've seen the Eiffel Tower, I've been diving with sharks off the coast of Cuba in the middle of the night.  I've climbed several of the highest peaks in the Sierra Nevada Mountians. I've seen the Leaning Tower of Piza, and been atop the Great Wall of China. I've written a masters thesis on the geochemistry of fifteen million year old rocks, and discovered a new (extinct) species of scallops. I've done lots of cool stuff to be sure. But one thing I haven't done is...mow a lawn!

Yes. Well, that was until today anyway, whereupon I DID mow a lawn, and spent the whole time thinking about how it could possibly be that I've never done it before.

But ever since I left home as a teen, I either lived in an apartment or condo complex, or my house didn't have a yard that required mowing. So here I am, suddenly 34 years old and an honest-to-god lawn mowing virgin.

Over all I think I did OK. I'd give myself an A+ for effort and about a....C...maybe C- for execution. Technically I probably mowed it twice by the time I managed to figure out where I'd been before, and get my lines straight. But I prefer to think of myself as extremely thorough.

I am sure if there was someone watching me though, they would have been wondering what in the hell I was doing, trailblazing as I was and going in multiple circles around the trees. And a further technicality I guess is that I wasn't really mowing much actual grass. It was more a "deflowering" as there was a most surprisingly robust colony of dandelions carpeting the space between the house and the road. But, whatever. It counts to me . Anyway, it got done, I am no longer a lawn-mowing virgin and I enjoyed every minute of it!

Big Day!

I finished painting today! Well, not fully, but what I mean is that I have at east finished painting all of the rooms! There are still touch ups to be done, and some miscellaneous trim to paint, but the majority of it is finito! Woo-Freaking-Whoo!

I would have made a bigger deal of it before I left the house today but the guys are working on tiling the shower in the master bathroom and I didn't want to bother them. But I did take a minute (half hour) to commemorate my great accomplishment. See below.

Speaking of the master bath though, HOLY SHIT! It looks AWESOME!!!!

I think the tile choices we made were good ones, but the real reason it looks so fantabulous is because of how they are installing it. Dad encouraged a random pattern with the floor tile that was a great idea, and then he thought of a clever way to incorporate the floor tiles into the shower by cutting them, and again using a random pattern! Super cool! Eduardo laid the whole thing last night, and I love it! I'll post a seperate blog with photos.

I cannot believe that it is our bathroom though! It's just so amazing the job they are doing. I cannot say enough how much I appreciate all their work on making it looks so wonderful!

Saved by My Nose Hair

Even with a mask on  I get pretty dusty.

05/06/14
Today has been one of those days. Not the step-through-a-vent-in-the-floor-while-on-the phone-with-the-sliding-door-manufacturer kind of day. Not the spill-a-half-a-cup-of-coffee-in-your-purse kind of day either. Those both happened simultaneously last week and are over and done. No, today was just the kind of day where I wake up feeling bedraggled and then continue to decline throughout the course of it. I was tired, and short tempered, and unfocused, and all of that resulted in me feeling annoyed with myself.

I've had these kinds of days before to be sure. But usually I am not in the middle of renovating a house, and so that adds a whole new dimension to it. But at the same time (and I have no idea how it is even possible) I have also found it very enlightening, and right now I am feeling very appreciative.

I am suddenly pretty amazed that Eduardo and Dad never seem to be in such a state, or if they are, never show it. In all the time that we have been working on the house, they have never once dragged their feet, or wandered aimlessly about, or have ever been snippy with me. I think I accomplished all three of those before noon today. And that seems pretty incredible to me at the moment that they never do. I kind of wonder if they just aren't showing it, or if it really doesn't happen to them.

I'm all tired, and sore, and my hands are so dry they look like dusty plastic wrap pulled too tightly across my palms. I was unpacking groceries in the kitchen, and found some meat in the frig I needed to cook, and so threw that on the stove while I was working. As the sun filtered through the front windows I unpacked my grocery bags, and then proceeded to almost have a heart attack because there was smoke coming off my arm, and I thought perhaps I'd accidentally lit my shirt on fire. But then I realized it was only dust from sanding drywall being aggravated as I pulled things out of my bags. I changed my shirt before continuing to cook, but I thought about how dirty I am all the time, and it bothered me a little. Not a lot, and I don't mind getting a little drywall dust in my hair...or in my eyes, but the guys are covered in much worse when they get home, and they never seem to think much of it. The certainly don't complain to me anyway.

On the drive home I got to thinking about my nose hair too. Most people are annoyed by theirs, and that is something I have never really thought one way or another about mine before.But upon further contemplation, and to be completely honest I've been pretty stoked about mine lately. I am so glad that all the stuff I have been picking out of it for days is not creating a ready-to-paint coat of drywall in my lungs. And without going into too much detail, my nose hairs appear to be incredibly efficient at their task.

So even though it wasn't a great day, I feel really lucky to have two guys on my team that can persevere where I fall short, and handle all the things that renovating entails without complaining as much as I do. And a quick shout out to evolution for the advent of nose hair as well.

Tile Day! It's My Favorite Day!

We started the tile today! I am SO excited!!!! Uncle Jack came to help, and so we got everything cleared off all the floors so they could glue the cement board down. Then they got to work, and I went between hovering annoyingly and playing gopher. You know like "go for a hammer" or "go for some tile".
It is so amazing how fast things can move with three guys on the job! Dad and Eduardo laid the floor in the bathroom and the shower, and they even did a few rows of the tile downstairs tonight, and it all looks super great!
I feel that in order to do tile right (especially in an older home) you really need an expert who knows what they are doing. There is just so much that goes into it, and so many things that should be thought of before the first tile is even laid, that I can't imaging a random person jumping into a job without any help.
Lucky for me I have lots of qualified guys on my job!

Cutting cement board

Laying cement board

Thinset the floor first!

Use a notch trowel

Laying the cement board down

Cutting the cement board to fit!

Uncle Jack is an expert!

Lunch time!

View from above

Uncle Jack spreading thinset

Dad getting the shower ready for tile!!!

Eduardo stapling the cement boards down

And mixing thinset

Pretty patterns

Daddy laying the master bath floor!

Eduardo finishing the job

Buttering the tiles

The finished floor woohoo!

Working downstairs on the main floor

Two hard-working guys!

The first 4 rows are in!

Using a straight edge to make sure its straight!

Daddy adjusting the tiles

Our beautiful new floor!!!

And the finished shower floor (minusgrout)

Random pattern for the tiles:)