Comments (7) Calico Kitty has been visiting a lot. I love seeing her in the yard! Today she came very close to the house!!!
Then Data happened to come down the stairs and they had words!
Then she ran off.
This will probably be the most exciting thing that happens for me today. Ha!
Errr…
Make that, it will totally be ready for a guest – by the end of the day.
A few times this week, I’ve said to people, “my house is a disaster, and I have a house guest this weekend!” And everyone responds, “she’s a friend, she won’t care!” Ha. Nah, she won’t care. But I care that the rooms are actually usable!
We have to have our entire dining room/kitchen ceiling painted because of blending issues with the old ceiling paint, and our painter couldn’t come until today. Nothing like leaving things until the last minute! Eek!
Steven’s “You really want me to put holes in this freshly painted wall?!” face.
Well, here’s what’s left of the pond.
Or shall we call it what is really is – a puddle?
As a reminder, here is what it looked like a month ago:
And in May:
So strange.
Really, this gives us an opportunity to let it dry out then do some landscaping. Although after the big project we just finished, I am in the mood for smaller projects for a bit.
The saddest part about all of this is that we have less wildlife in the yard now. The ducks hadn’t been by for practically a month, when they flew in to the yard rapidly on Saturday!
I was so excited! I quickly ran to the garage to get food for them (yeah, I haven’t been putting food out since we were so busy with the house, and that doesn’t help the wildlife situation either). I put it out, only to have them called back to their home with a duck call. That was the first time we ever heard them called back! And that would explain why I had a dream last night that I was buying a duck call at a sports store. Hmm…
We live upstairs again! Yay! I’ve fallen in love with our house all over again!
We need to update our master bedroom sheets and bedskirt!
After a month of work – ripping out the second floor ceilings (and some parts of walls), installing new ductwork and lighting, then getting new ceilings and having the walls repainted – it’s all complete. Ahh.
And the best part? It doesn’t smell like animals on the second floor anymore.
We’d like to buy or make a headboard for the guest bedroom.
That’s why we did this entire project – when the FHA 203k contractor took out the existing attic insulation in April, we found that the ceiling was covered in animal droppings. Flying squirrels lived up there while the house was vacant and they WENT TO TOWN. Hardly any surface was untouched. Because of this, it already sort of smelled upstairs, but with the insulation gone, and it heating up in the house (yay, summer!), you noticed the smell even more.
The contractors just wanted to cover all that in Kilz paint, but that’s gross – when the ceiling is soaked through (and not to mention, scratched through), maybe just replace it? Painting it would just seal all that nasty stuff in and keep it in the house!
Eventually we’ll redo our bathroom – replace the drywall and tile shower with a mostly glass one, get a double sink, and new tile.
So we told the contractors not to put insulation in, and our plan was to do all this work in the fall. But, when we had our inspection to pay out the rest of the FHA 203k streamlined work, the inspector didn’t approve that the insulation was never installed. Makes sense – it’s definitely something a house needs.
The problem is that we were at the end of our six-month period to get all the work done when we found out we didn’t pass inspection (our mortgage was sold twice since we got it, and I had a REALLY difficult/frustrating time figuring out which bank would do the inspection/pay the contractors – so this inspection was delayed months that we could have been working, grrrrr). So we had to get an extension then move fast to get it done!
Looking from the master bedroom door, down the hallway toward the bathroom and guest room.
Which is why we spent all of August working on this (truthfully, whenever we did this, it hopefully would have gone at this pace, because I can’t imagine leaving the upstairs of the house such a mess, and living on another floor, for much longer). We had our inspection yesterday, and I’m positive we’ll pass this time.
Most importantly, Data seems happy!
And just so I have it all in one spot, here’s a compiled list of posts about our work, and what the contractors did.
Posts about the work we did:
Click here to see our work list through August 24
The work contractors did:
We actually do have a few things left to do related to this project – install new linen closet shelves, cover a hole in the basement, etc. But, they’re small things compared to all this!
Happy nine year wedding anniversary to Steven!
Last year we spent the evening of our wedding anniversary packing up the bookshelves in our office (and we went out for dinner). It was the first place we started to pack up to get the townhome ready to put on the market.
Now, a year later, we’ve gone through two moves AND LOTS of home renovations (at both the townhome and our forever home). It’s been a busy year! And it’s been a stressful year that could have really “rocked the boat,” but it actually made our relationship stronger, because we’ve had the same goal, and have been working together to achieve it. It feels good to work so hard on what is best for us.
And that’s one of the great reassurances about being in a partnership – that the other person always has your back, and your best interest in mind. That they’re there for you to lean on and take the lead (from time to time, or a lot of the time, in my instance!). That their strengths complement your weaknesses, or, if it’s a weakness you both have, you’ll work on getting better, together.
I feel very grateful to have such a driven, take charge partner, with a “I can figure anything out” attitude. Those are NOT my strong qualities, but it doesn’t matter because my partner has them and I have 100% confidence in him.
Awww.
(By the way, those boxes we packed up on our anniversary last year are STILL in storage. Ha! Everything else we’ve brought to the house, we’ve unpacked, but our books, a few kitchen things, and a lot of garage stuff remain in storage. Winter project?!)
… I’m really digging the new paint color in the master bedroom!
It’s “Sidewalk Gray” from Benjamin Moore. Did you know Sherwin Williams has Benjamin Moore paints programmed in to their computers (and probably vice versa)? Our painter uses Sherwin Williams and we were working off of a Benjamin Moore paint deck. I thought we’d have to match colors at the store, but nope – they just pulled them right up at Sherwin Williams, making it super easy for us!
This is the first room we’ve (had) painted a new color in the house – it makes it feel more “us”! And I can’t wait to see the room with our bed and furniture in it!
Here’s our “inspiration” photo:
We have a headboard similar to that, and actually, some old cabinets from who knows when that are that color. Our night stands are dark though. Eventually, we might put our night stands in the guest bedroom, when we can afford all new cabinets for our bedroom. Someday!
And someday, we’ll also replace our living room furniture. That is WAY down the road, but we have an inspiration picture for that, too! I might as well post it here in case it gets lost. Or to laugh at how different our preferences are in a few years when we actually can do it!
Granted, I would have liked to spend the entire weekend sitting on the couch, doing nothing, but a couple of hours Saturday and Sunday night was nice (and it was nice to get to workout both mornings!).
Since August 4, our living room has looked like this:
We spent some time moving things around on Saturday so we could actually sit on the couch (gasp!) and turn on the TV (double gasp!!!):
We’re in the final steps of getting ready to move back upstairs. On Friday we ordered new mattresses for both bedrooms (so we won’t be carrying the old ones back up there!). On Saturday we bought all the lighting trim kits and vent covers, as well as wall and floor trim (to replace damaged and missing pieces), and paint!
Then on Sunday, we prepped the rooms to be painted – took off hardware, face plates, etc., and got all the trim pieces ready to be installed. That took all afternoon. Blah.
A contractor is painting all week, then we can start moving back upstairs Friday night. I can’t wait!
Can you believe we haven’t come up with a name for her yet?!
She was a little easier to find this time.
This is definitely the most exciting animal or thing we’ve found outside the house. Even more exciting (for me) than those urns (which yes, my dad confirmed when he was here – one does have a bag of ashes in them).
Yeah, work that catwalk, Data!
And cross that off the list!
After three weeks, we’ve completed all of the major attic/ceiling work. Yay!
On Monday, Steven installed new lights and power (each light base has one power receptacle). It was important he do this first, because the drywall ceilings went up Monday, and we no longer had daylight in the attic!
On Wednesday, we finished the north side of the cat walk (see south side construction here). We already had the side boards up there, and just needed to cut out notches for them to fit around the conduit,
I laid the boards down next to the platform, and marked the holes that needed to be cut to fit around the conduit
then Steven cut them
screw them in,
then cut some shorter pieces to fit at the end, and over some ductwork. I also vacuumed up all the sawdust we created. Might as well have it clean before the insulation goes in, right?
All finished!
And spent!
It’s so warm up there. I think we should do our next attic project in the winter. Ha.
It feels good to be done with the majority of the really hard stuff! We still have a few things to do:
And our contractor has been working all week:
Remember this spot?
The contractors should be done today! Then we have someone painting all next week, then we can move back upstairs next weekend. YAY!
Hi! I'm Kim, a 34-year-old living in Chicagoland with my husband, Steven, and our cats, Khali, Apollo, and Starbuck. I work in the design industry (architecture), follow a vegan lifestyle, am addicted to running, and am an ACE certified personal trainer (working at Essential Fitness, LLC ("Efit"))! I write about a variety of topics, and consider this a "life" blog - a place I can share anything that's on my mind. Please visit the "About" page to get a better idea of who I am! :-)
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