Day 4 - Even Lighter House Work

First, I will apologize now for forgetting I promised to take photos of paint and carpet samples! 

I did, however, take photos of the clean garage in its “before” state, as well as the front door that neither of us like very much.  I’m fairly certain the door is original to the house which was built in 1973, but it looks like a door style that I would put in the ‘50s, but more of that later; I digress…

Not a whole lot of actual “work” got done today because there really isn’t too much left to do until we line up all the contractors to do the big stuff.  Even though we weren’t working, it was a very busy day full of lots and lots of information.

First came the meeting with the technician from Columbus Handyman.  He spent over 2 hours going through the house with us and discussing every little thing we wanted done.  Even at that, we forgot to mention at least 3 items to him.  We talked about paint, adding bead board, lighting, bathroom vanities… from one room to the next.  We started in the garage and worked our way from room to room with a very long list. 

At one time Hubby and I discussed the possibility of somehow fixing or covering the garage floor.  It’s not really too bad for a 40 year old garage floor, but it is somewhat pitted in the center from salt, and my fear is that it will just keep crumbling away until there is nothing left, unless we do something now to cover it or seal it, or otherwise repair it.  We’ve explored lots of options, and everything we’ve discussed is either too expensive (Nature Stone or those rubberized squares that snap together that they use in fancy car shops), or too time consuming like the DIY Epoxy treatment.   As of now, we’ve decided to stop worrying about the floor.  We do want to have the garage walls painted (not the paneling) – nothing fancy, just decent and durable.  Time wise, that is our first priority, and once that is done, we can put up shelves and start moving some things in from the storage unit.

Here is a "before" pic of the garage.  

We want to change out the ceiling fixture with a 4 tube light instead of the 2 tube fixture that is there now.  We will also put a similar new florescent fixture in the Pantry because the light fixture that is in there now actually overheated and went out the first day we were working in there.    We can’t have that!

A big discussion point with our technician was the front door.  He said that the door we have is no longer considered a standard size, so we may need to have a door custom designed to fit our opening.  Obviously that is going to be more expensive and time-consuming.  We were NOT happy to find this out!  However, neither of us like the doors and we are going to change them to something better.  Just about anything we could choose now would be better.  

Remember my mentioning our dissatisfaction with the customer service at Lowe's, well let's now add Home Depot to the list.  About 4:15 this afternoon, I called to talk to the man who works in the door department (called "millwork" at HD).  Of course, the man I'd talked to before wasn't in today, perhaps I could speak with someone else in that dept?  Oh... well, the other man back there left at 4 today.  Ok, so let me get this straight... it is 4:15 on a Monday afternoon, and you have NO ONE in the "millwork" department who can help me spend hundreds of dollars in your store for a set of new front doors?????  Are you KIDDING me?  AAARRRGGGHHHH!!!!

Here are the "before" pics of the "dated" doors:

While this last photo is right here, I will mention that we finally found a decent mail box to replace this awkward little white one.  (No thanks to either Lowe's or Home Depot - we got this one at Meijer!)  The old one is up so high, that I can’t even get my hand down in it to make sure there isn’t anything small lurking in the bottom.  That is one job Hubby worked on today.  He got the new mailbox ready to hang.

We also had a long discussion with the CH guy about flooring for the entry way.  We are changing out what is there and putting in porcelain tile.  In light of the front door issues, he wanted us to be sure to talk to the flooring guy about how the thickness of the tile would affect the measurement and installation of the door.  Clearly all this door and floor stuff was new to us, and that’s why we are hiring professionals to do it all! 

Discussion proceeded about putting up bead board wainscoting – 1 wall in dining room, 2 walls in living room, 1-2 walls in Hubby’s Man Cave, and 2 walls in my Craft Room.  We are also going to do crown molding in the living and dining rooms. 

Then there are the doors…  This house has dark brown hollow core doors that were very popular in the ‘70s.  We have them in our current house as well.  I INTENSELY DISLIKE THEM – they really “date” the house.  We are switching them all out to 6 panel white doors.  (3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 1 linen closet.)  So, at some point we will pick those up at HD – at least THEY are standard sizes – along with all the doorknobs and hinges for them.  We are also changing out the 4 closet bifold doors – from the dark brown ones to louvers (the ones that look like shutters). 

Then there are the bathrooms.  The hall bathroom doesn’t even have a vanity – it just has a plain sink hanging on the wall – the kind they have in old restaurant restrooms.  BLEH.  So… a new vanity for that bathroom.  We are still discussing the master.  There is a vanity in there, albeit old, but Hubby feels we can get away with just painting that one.  

After the CH guy left, our next door neighbor came over to give us a price quote on just the painting.  It sounds like his schedule is very busy, and I think CH can get us done faster, so that may be a big part of the decision.  We also like the idea of having 1 company coordinate all the construction/painting with the bead board, etc… However, if he can do the garage this week, we may have him just do that much.

Then came the flooring-measure guy from Lowe’s.  He had his computer and his fancy little laser-light-wall-measure thingy.  He wasn’t here long and didn’t say much.  We did have a short discussion about the possibility that there might be asbestos tile under the carpet, and if we rip it out ourselves, we don’t want to disturb it.   This possibility was brought to our attention by our neighbor who has heard stories of many homes in the ‘hood having the asbestos tile put in when the homes were built.  The Lowe’s guy said that Lowe’s will not let their installers touch anything asbestos.  So, now we need to find out more about that.

While all this paint and flooring stuff was happening that the new house, the lawn care crew showed up at the other house to mow.  I saw them go to the front door, so I had to jump in the car and run over there to let them know they were in the right place.  They did both yards in less than an hour - a job that would be an all-day event for Hubby with his push-mower.  I think this lawn care service is going to be well worth the money we pay them!

We got "home" about 5, after being "home" all day.  HA HA!  After doing a few things and watching the news we went out for a nice Chinese meal.  SMASH was on tonight - I couldn't miss that.  It's time for bed!  Tomorrow it is more paint-related stuff!!

Day 3 - Light House Work

Partly because today is Sunday and partly because we are tired and partly because there really isn't that much left to do right now, we didn't do much house work today.

Hubby did a final cleaning on the garage and damp-mopped the Pantry and both bathrooms.  He also replaced a toilet seat.  I didn't do much except unpack the stuff we bought in today's shopping excursion to Meijer - garden hose, toilet seat, vent covers kitchen trash can, more shelf liner and drawer organizers for kitchen - and of course, we had to buy some food while we were there!

I called a friend to come over.  After the grand tour, we had a thorough discussion of paint colors and carpet choices.  That was very helpful!  I love getting input from others.  I think we have nailed down most of our big choices.  Looks like we are going to go with Lowe's carpet after all.... as much as I don't want to...  *sigh*

Tomorrow will be a very busy day.  We've got 3 different people coming to the house to discuss painting and other jobs to be done, and the lawn care people will also be doing both yards!  WHEW!

I'll try to remember to take pics of paint and carpet samples tomorrow, for your viewing pleasure.

Day 2 - House Work

As promised yesterday, here are some photos of the Storage Room which we have named “The Pantry”.  This was one of 3 main selling features that led us to buy this house. 

The shelves are very sturdy, although they are unfinished.  We’ve discussed possibly painting them, but right now that is a fairly low priority since no one will see the room but us.  As long as everything in there is clean and stable, that’s really all we need.  The flooring is very nice ceramic tile.  

The number 1 main selling point of the house was the 3 season room on the back.  It is an add-on to the original home, but it was done very well.  The roof ties in nicely, and the room is very sturdy.  It measures 15.5' wide by 11.6' deep.  The carpet looked blue to me before, but now it looks more green in the daylight.  We expect to use this room a lot.  While it isn't air-conditioned, there is a large ceiling fan, and I think that with that on, and the A/C in the house on, it should stay cool enough out there - especially since it is on the north side of the house so it really doesn't get the direct sun all that much.  There is a heater on the wall which will be helpful in the late fall and early spring.  It is hard to tell how much we will be able to use it in winter.  The windows are sliders, and the right half of each one opens. Here are some photos of "The Porch":

Our plan as of now is to furnish this “Porch” with a table and chairs for meals and games, and then set up a seating area with wicker furniture.  We are considering a loveseat and 2 chairs with a couple of side tables for lamps.  

This is how the porch looks from the back yard:

The 3rd big selling item was the 2-car garage.  Sorry - no photos of that yet.  Picture an empty 2 car garage and you will pretty much have the image in your head.  The front wall of this garage has paneling (like the Pantry), but the side walls are white.  We plan to have those freshly painted.  Then we will either build or put up shelving for storage.  Hubby will also have a work bench at the front.  There is a people door as well that goes out the side of the house, and that needs to be painted as well.  

Today's tasks for me involved continuing work in the kitchen - putting liner in all the drawers and starting to work on the cabinets (until I ran out of liner).  Then I took apart our vacuum cleaner and cleaned it all out.  It had been used by workers in my parent's house, and it was clogged with a fine white powder.  After cleaning it all, I swept the Porch.  While I was working inside, Hubby was cleaning the garage.  He also installed a new deadbolt lock on the front door and fixed the lock on the Porch door which wasn't locking all the way.  

In some ways it doesn't seem like we got much done, but we are taking our time so that we don't burn out.  We had lunch there and then headed to Lowe's for what turned out to be a series of frustrations.  Right now, we are not happy with Lowe's Customer Service - especially in their flooring department.  Today there were 2 clerks there, but they were so busy chatting with each other that they didn't seem to have time to wait on us.  We ended up leaving the department due to their inattention and will probably take our carpet business elsewhere.  I had already scheduled to have the house measured for carpet on Monday afternoon, but we will probably cancel that now.  We ran into something similar in the paint department with 2 employees who were so engrossed in their discussion that it seemed an imposition for them to wait on us.  One clerk was interrupted in talking with Hubby by a phone call, and instead of returning to Hubby's conversation once the interruption ended, he went back to talking with his co-worker.  Likewise we walked away from that department with some of our questions unanswered.  

Somehow we still managed to spend over $200 on miscellany, and we didn't even have the energy to get everything on our list.

My allergies have been driving me crazy for 2 days.  It is hard to tell how much is from the blooming trees and how much is because there was a dog living in the house.  We are not getting the carpets cleaned because we're replacing them all except the Porch.  I may end up getting the Porch carpet cleaned because of the dog.  

More sleep tonight, more work tomorrow....

  

Must See!

If you have not yet had the pleasure of viewing penguins live on your computer screen, you simply MUST visit this website: Penguin Cam  at Sea World in San Diego.

I will warn you - it can be addicting!!!  I believe the cam is on 24/7, but there are times during the day when "the kids" are more active - like when the habitat is being cleaned and they are being fed.

I believe there are 5 species of penguins in this exhibit, and you can read about them on the website.   One of the person who answers questions in the text section said that all of these particular animals were born in the exhibit.

Enjoy!!!!

The Big Day

Today was the big day we’ve been anxiously anticipating since mid-February.  Today was Closing Day for our new house!  Our meeting was at 8:30 am at the title company, and all the papers had been signed before 9 am. 

Our seller is moving to another home in the area, and was also closing on his new home today, so he had signed all our papers yesterday, so he could attend his own signing.  The moving truck was scheduled to arrive at our new house to pick up our seller’s furnishings at about 10 am.  We were told we could go in any time, but we chose to give him his space so he could get moved out without us breathing down his neck.  We took advantage of the delay to have a leisurely breakfast and then make a trip to Home Depot for, among other things, a new garbage can.  So that is the first official new purchase for the new house!

We finally went to the house at 1 pm and entered for the first time as owners!!  It was very exciting to put the key in the door and walk in!  A number of other keys and the garage door remotes were waiting for us on the kitchen counter.  We unloaded the car of our garbage can, some folding chairs and our big shop-vac.  Then we went back to the old house for another load.

After grabbing a light lunch, we returned to the house with a card table, an interior vacuum cleaner and a couple boxes of supplies: paper towels, TP, soap, cleaning supplies, disposable cups and plates, etc…

It wasn’t too long before we were greeted by Betty, our neighbor to the east.  She is a very spry and “with it” 80something widow.  She had actually helped our seller pack and move, and she came in to finish getting the rest of his food from the fridge.  He had left a vacuum cleaner too, but we told her it wasn’t necessary that they clean – we would do it.  She visited for a few minutes.  Both times we’ve met her we’ve been very impressed by her, and I’m sure she is going to be a great neighbor!!!

After Betty left, we got busy on cleaning projects.  Hubby started in the room that we are now calling “The Pantry”.  It is actually a very nice sized storage room with built-in shelves on 2 walls which is accessed through the laundry room.  This is also where the water heater and the fuse box are, and there is a wash-tub sink in there as well.  (Stay tuned for photos tomorrow!) 

I got busy on the kitchen.  After doing a very basic cleaning of the counters, I worked on washing out the fridge/freezer.  While we were working, our neighbor to the west popped in.  His name is Al, and he is a middle-aged fellow who had his dog Wander with him.  Wander is quite elderly and has a nasty looking tumor on her hind leg.  She was very sweet, and greeted us for some “pets”, and then the 2 were on their way.  Al happens to own a painting company, and we told him we would love for him to bid on our interior painting job.

A little later, we were greeted once again – this time by the lawn care people that we are going to hire to take care of the new yard.  The man and his wife came to look at the yard and discuss everything we want done.  They walked around the yard with us and made some suggestions about the landscaping.  They will also be helping with the yard at the old house – it’s just too much for Hubby to do it all.   

Today we worked until about 6 pm, and then we headed back to the old house for dinner.  We were both exhausted and decided to call it a day.  We are going to be very sure that we pace ourselves so that we don’t over-do it. 

We are both very relieved that everything went so well today, and we’re looking forward to more new-house-fun tomorrow.  One of the items on tomorrow’s agenda is cleaning the garage!  WOO HOO!!!

The Baby

One of the big reasons for the purchase of our new house is so that we can finally take in our Baby.  The Baby has been living in a foster home since August of 2010 when we moved it out of my parents' home in preparation for the estate sale.  We simply do not have room for it here.  It will have a prominent spot in the living room at the new house.  This piano has been in my family since 1913.

The story goes that my great-grandparents -named Roehm - had a piano for my grandmother's sister Lucille.  Aunt Lucille was one of those rare and lucky people who could hear a song and sit down and play it without any music.  Well, that first piano was lost in the flood of 1913 that hit Dayton.  One of the first things my great-grandfather bought after the house was cleaned out was another piano - this one.  Someplace in storage I have a little booklet that records his monthly payments to the piano store.  I think the piano cost him $500, and I think he might have paid $5 a month on it.  

So this piano was in their home until they both passed away.  The piano then went to another aunt who didn't play the piano.  I'm not sure why she was the one to get it, but I suspect Aunt Lucille didn't have room either.  Before Aunt Kay had a place to put the piano, it "visited" my grandmother's home.  My mother was a young girl at this time, and she desperately wanted to take piano lessons.  Grandpa couldn't afford lessons for most of the time the piano was there, but then just when they got her signed up for lessons, Aunt Kay took the piano back, leaving my mother with no piano to take lessons on.  She was heartbroken, and she carried that with her all her life.  

When I was about 7, we moved to a house big enough for a piano, and getting me one was very high on my mother's agenda.  My parents bought an old upright from some neighbors who were moving and put it in our family room.  I started taking lessons at age 8 and continued until I was 16 when we moved to a new town.  

Once I moved out on my own, I never had room for a piano.  I bought an electric keyboard, and that worked well for travel because I could take it to visit grandparents for small concerts, but it was a weak substitute.  In 1995, my mother finally inherited the family Chickering from Aunt Kay, so my upright got moved to the basement, and the Chickering got a place of prominence in the family room.  

When my parents passed away, I chose to leave the old upright at their house (the buyers said they wanted it), and I had the Chickering moved to the home of some friends until I could take it.  These friends have been loving foster parents, and their teenage son has loved playing it, but now it will finally take its rightful place in my home after all these years.  

I think we might just have a Welcome Home party for The Baby, but not until I've had a chance to practice first!

Next Blog

Hello Readers!
Do you see that little link at the top of your screen right now that says "Next Blog"?


Have you ever clicked on that?


Well, let me tell you, if you haven't, you should.  Each click has the potential to take you to a new and interesting world.  It is not unlike clicking the channel-changer on your TV remote, only with this, you have no idea what you're going to get.  (Unlike the TV when you can be 95% sure you're going to land on a commercial with a baby or a dog in it.)


Every time I get in the mood to browse the blogs, I find things of interest.  If I chose to "Follow" every interesting one I find, I'd have a follow-list a mile long and no time to actually follow them all, so I've stopped "Following" unless I just can't pass one by.  


In today's browsing, I read about a restaurant someone visited on their trip to France, saw some lovely photos of unique homes in Mexico, learned about some interesting places to visit on my next trip to New England and saw some really interesting artwork.  Best of all, the writing of all of these blogs was lively and fun to read, which totally restores my faith in the English classes of the world!  


So, the next time you have a few minutes to spare, and after you've read MY latest entry, which of course is really why you are here after all, hit "Next Blog" and see where the road takes you!  I guarantee you will enjoy the journey!


Happy Browsing!  

Smooth Sailing after Inspection

The home inspection was completed on Friday, February 17.  While our inspector wasn’t Mike Holmes, he was very thorough.  Gary arrived an hour before we did and completed much of the main inspection, then his assistant continued with some tasks while Gary took us around and talked to us about every little detail.  He spent 2 hours explaining everything – roof, inside and out, foundation, windows and doors, furnace, water heater, fuse box, plumbing. 

As Gary was talking, I was taking pictures and making notes.  I photographed curtain rods, appliances, closets – things I am going to wonder about while we wait for the next 5 weeks to get the keys.  And I measured things.  This task is made much easier by the fact that the new house is the same floor plan as the old house.  Although Hubby says the new house is 1 foot shorter from end to end, we aren’t finding it. 

When we arrived, we got to meet the seller and his agent.  Then during the exterior inspection we met the neighbor to the west.  Just as we were finishing up and about to walk out the door we met the neighbor to the east who came over to bring back the seller’s little dog.   Both neighbors were very friendly and seemed like they will be great neighbors.  

The upshot of the inspection was that everything seems to be in excellent shape.   A few hours later we got a full report as a PDF on email, complete with many photos and details of every little thing. 

I think we like the house even better now than we did the first time we saw it!  On Saturday we ventured out and did some exploratory shopping.    We had a nice discussion with the salesman at Rite Rug about carpeting.  We learned some things, and we found some carpet we both like.  At this time, we aren’t sure if we will go with them or with someone else.  We also visited La Z Boy Gallery and looked at couches.  We learned a bit more about what works for us and what doesn’t.  We found a style and color we both like and got some info. 

Saturday night we brainstormed a wish-list of changes and added some cost estimates beside each one.  One important factor for me in making the initial list was that we not censor ourselves, but really put everything down we could think of or might want to change/fix.  

So, that’s where things stand.  It should be smooth sailing on the house purchase now until closing on March 23.  Then the REAL work begins!

The Adventure Begins

First, some background:

For the last 1.5 years, Hubby and I have been house-hunting. We’ve both actively looked online and watched the papers. We’ve done many drive-bys and attended numerous open houses. The search has been a roller-coaster of emotions. First comes the excitement and uphill climb of finding something that “might be the one” only to suffer the screaming down-hill effect of the realization that there are major deal-breakers that make this house, in fact, NOT “the one”.

The last time we house-hunted was in 2001 when we were preparing to move from Lima to Westerville. We were sort of in a hurry because we just had a summer to get moved before school started, so we weren’t really too picky, and we weren’t thinking in terms of buying a house we’d be in for more than 5 years or so. Our main goal was just to get here. We also didn’t know much at all about the local market, nor about how to buy a house because we’d never done it before. Luckily we had a very good realtor to guide us, and we ended up in a decent house where we’ve been fairly comfortable for almost 11 years.

Since then, we’ve watched way too many hours of shows on TV: everything from This Old House on PBS to the big house shows on HGTV like House Hunters, Holmes on Homes and Holmes Inspection, and lots of shows featuring remodels and renovations. We now know just enough to be dangerous to ourselves and to the real estate market!

Last week, along with another screaming ride down on the roller-coaster of happiness into the valley of despair, came the realization that what we thought we wanted and needed in a dream house really might not be out there – at least not within a comfortable driving distance of school. Not to be deterred by that realization though, and pushed to find a solution by my tearful declaration that I really didn’t want to spend the rest of my life without my piano, Hubby sprang to the challenge and found the perfect end to our house hunt. It was under our very noses! “The house around the corner is for sale,” he proudly declared! So? “So, we buy it!” Um…. Yeah….? “Yeah, and we live in BOTH houses!!!” WHAT? “Seriously, I’ve got it all figured out…” He then proceeded to spend the next half hour reading to me his list of reasons and explaining that this was really a very good idea. He was right! It is a BRILLIANT idea!

We contacted our realtor and said we wanted to see the “House of Interest”, and an appointment was set up. As we walked into this house with our realtor (the same realtor who helped us in 2001), he asked if we were interested in this for comparison purposes. It does, after all, have almost exactly the same floor plan as the house we live in now, so that was a very natural question. Hubby looked at me, and I looked at him as if to say, “it was YOUR idea, YOU tell him”! We explained why we thought it would make sense to buy it – and live in it – and our realtor was amazingly supportive. He could have told us we were nuts – that this just isn’t done – that no one he knows has ever done this! But he didn’t do any of those things. He took it all in stride and was totally non-judgemental.

That was on Thursday night. On Saturday morning, we signed an offer on the house, and by 1:30 pm on Sunday, an agreement had been reached. We close on March 23, just in time to have the keys in ours hands by Spring Break!

And so, the great adventure begins! It is an experiment in dual-house living. It is an experiment in coordination and planning. One priority is to keep this adventure from over-taking our lives to the point where it interferes with our ability to do what we need to do (or to remain sane)! Our skeptics may speculate that we are really splitting up, and this is just a nice way to do that. Not so! If anything we will have to work more closely on this than on anything we’ve ever done in 30 years of marriage. We are looking at it as a “project” that we are embarking on together, and we plan on enjoying every step of the process. This is about enriching our lives by giving ourselves the space we’ve needed. We’ve felt very much “pinched” for the last 11 years – into a house that is really too small to fully meet our needs. We have had to sacrifice some of our interests due to lack of space. No more! We will now have more than 2500 square feet of living space: 6 bedrooms, 2 living rooms, 2 dining rooms and 2 kitchens, a 3 car garage and a glorious, spacious, well-built 3-season room! It isn’t really all that different than having a primary home and a vacation home – ours just happen to be within walking distance of each other.

I intend to blog about the progress of our adventure so that others might share in our joys. Perhaps some readers may realize that this is the perfect solution for them as well. Stay tuned…. The next step is the inspection! Since it probably won’t be Mike Holmes doing the inspecting, we will be looking over his shoulder until he swats us like noisy flies!

Update on the Healing Process

We’ve just passed the 1 month anniversary of the death of my colleague.  His hometown funeral was on the Saturday after his death, and then our town/school had a memorial service on the 2^nd Saturday after.  I think that our local memorial service really marked a turning point in the healing process.  Until then, there was a huge memorial area set up in a prominent showcase in the front lobby of the school, and there was also a make-shift memorial in the hallway outside his room.  All of that was cleared away in preparation for the formal memorial service which was held in a large church near our school. 

The memorial service was attended by hundreds of people.  Most of our building’s staff members and retirees, many district administrators and former admins, many students and former students and some of their parents attended the service.  Some of our colleague’s family members also drove up from his hometown in spite of the snowy/icy conditions. 

The service was lovely and a very appropriate tribute to his life and showed how loved he was by the entire school community.  Several of his closest friends spoke in loving tribute sharing anecdotes, and several other colleagues performed musical selections, and our school’s show choir sang in his honor as well.  The group even learned a song in Spanish since that is what he taught.   The school even took down a bulletin board which had hung in his room to display at the service.  It was covered with memorabilia that he had collected over his years in that room.

I noticed a definite change in the mood at school after that service was over.  I think that once the school community was able to grieve together at this service, they were able to sort of let go and move on.  We continue to collect money for a scholarship fund in his name, and so there are regular references to him on the announcements as fund-raisers are held.  And certainly there is an air of sadness every time his name is mentioned.  I also know that individuals who were particularly close friends of his are still struggling privately with missing him.   Overall, however, it seems that many aspects of our life at school has returned to normal.  Obviously there is no way to know how much his death has impacted the individuals who knew him the best and worked closely with him daily.  I’m sure there are still students of his who struggle with walking into his room every day. 

I’m sure each situation like this is different in the specifics, but it seems to me that the general healing process for a large group of people probably follows a pattern.  I really didn’t know what to expect.   It has been interesting to watch the grieving process from sort of a close-distance.  Perhaps focusing on the larger process was my own way of dealing with this tragedy.  I’m sure that not a day has gone by yet that I have not thought of him at some point.