Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Demo

The demolition started immediately thanks to Kieth. As soon as the truck was unloaded he started pulling up the hideous, filthy, green carpet. I have few pictures of it because the carpet was gone before I got home from work. Throughout this process Cody's plants travelled throughout the house keeping the "homeyness" to the sub-floor, primer look.




Below is the view from the office/3rd bedroom just to the left of the front door as you walk into the house. The living room is straight ahead and the front door is to the right from this view.


This is a view of the master bath from the master bedroom. I don't know if you can see it very well but there is 1 1/2" of various flooring stacked on top of each other in the master bath. It will be the next "project". By project I mean we are going to have to strip it down to the studs and first layer of sub-floor. It should be awesome.


Here is the lovely fan that was located in the master bedroom.

And the cute mallard duck theme that was going on in Morgan's room.
And here is the view from the living room into the office/3rd bedroom.
Another view of the living room from the doorway of the office.

And here is the 30' dumpster after about 3 days of demo...
We found a great deal on Baseboard on Craigslist. We weren't planning on replacing the baseboard except that the original baseboard was actually casing and was incompatible with the flooring we were installing.
There were trash cans overflowing and dustpans of various sizes in every room for the first two weeks.
And this was the point where the tiny dog started to get uncomfortable.
The doors had to be washed and repainted so they lived in the front yard for a week or so. The furniture is currently still in the same place.
After the carpet the ceiling fans had to be removed. All 5 of them. The grey sheen is a combination of 15 years of dust, tobacco tar, and general grime.
I am such a cruel mother! Here is Morgan demonstrating the hall bath as it had to be left intact until the last moment so we could remain living in the house.
And here is the kitchen. As you can see Critter is not too worried about all the ruckus. We were worried about him but he just loved the mice being readily viewable, as they were located right next to his litter box in the basement.
Next bit of demo was the removal of the popcorn ceilings.
I found this task very difficult as I really needed a ladder. Luckily Cody was the perfect height to complete this task in one day.
He was a bit tired though! (He's so good!!!)
We kept looking at the fireplace. Painted several times, we saw potential for a beautiful centerpiece in the living room.
Unfortunately we tried several paint strippers over several days (including a 12 hour soak with Naval Jelly) with only this result.
So Cody called his buddy Mike for some special equipment, got suited up...
Set-up screens throughout the house...
and he proceeded to sand blast the heck out of the fireplace. This was the end result of day 1.
And after two days (did I mention how good he is?) this is the result! We are very pleased, though this project set back the move-up (from the basement) date a week.
The tiny dog was extremely worried at this point.
He often adopted this pose, sitting on the landing to the basement and resting his head on the step into the kitchen.
At this point I will mention the backyard. It hadn't been touched in over 15 years. I can't even begin to explain how the trees and bushes were overgrown. All I can say is that this was about the view from anywhere on the patio or yard.
This was the view from the Master Bedroom window.
There were some beautiful mushrooms located under the Cypress tangles though!
And Morgan was quite the trooper through the whole ordeal. She was very helpful and was always disappointed if she didn't have a job to do. She pulled lots of staples, sanded and washed walls, scrubbed the fireplace, swept, and stayed up very late most nights.
And of course Cody was amazing! He has done 90% of the work to the house unaided and had few if any complaints. So I fed him roasted chicken.
And we will see you in the next installment... paint!

The Move

It started with a truck. Fortunately for me I had to work through the whole weekend and so Cody and several friends made two trips with a 36' U-Haul. This is the second trip... all the important stuff: airplanes, houseplants, and litter boxes.

And here are the two main workers: Cody and Kieth. Kieth is my new favorite person! He is more than happy to come help us and most importantly keeps Cody and me motivated!

"Critter" (the cat) was less than thrilled with this ordeal. He has since forgiven us as the mice and birds accompanied us.

Below are the mice and birds in the hallway of the apartment building.

Cody stacking and re-arranging in the hallway.
Here is Cody's collection of park fliers in front of his friend Graham's apartment.
The view from the old apartment into the hallway on day 2.
The tiny dog handled this part of the adventure quite well.
Here are the two cars parked in front of the new (heavily overgrown) house!
And here is Cody looking over our temporary sleeping quarters in the basement. Why are we in the basement???
Because of the GREEN DOUBLE PADDED CARPET that stayed only long enough to get this picture of Brigs.


Stay tuned for the next chapter... the remodel!!!

Friday, September 12, 2008

Chaos Abounds

Still no sign of the computer. I better find it quickly as the camera is almost full of photos!

So far:

Ceiling has been stripped of popcorn and re-textured.
Carpet and baseboards have been removed.
Painted fireplace brick has been sandblasted clean.
Ceilings and trim painted.
Main wall colors have been painted.
Cody bought another breeding group of mice.
I did all the laundry.
Morgan/I inherited a 30 gallon fish tank with guppies from Cody's dad.
Annie has eaten three stalls and is now in fully chew proof stalls.
Brigs has toured the neighborhood countless times and we now know all the neighbors who return him on a regular basis. (He is not fond of the construction noise and can sense an open front door within milliseconds.)
Critter (the cat) is totally enthralled with his new digs and is so glad that we got him a backyard.

Another thing of note is that fall is here and the weather has been getting cold regularly. Annie is now the pampered princess at Marie's place (my boss) and gets brought into the barn at the slightest sign of bad weather. Marie loves her and she loves Marie and all the huge draft horses. Sweetie Pie and Jade are two horses I drive now and Annie is best buds with both of them. I am also working with Marie to get her newest horse Pippin out and working. He is a totally adorable Suffolk Punch gelding who is short and wide, and cherry red in color with a bright orange mane. He is super quiet and should be out working downtown soon.

Well, I am at the library again typing this and my session is timing out. I will try to find the computer this weekend so I can post photos of all the house shenanigans. Wish me luck!

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Moving!

No photos this week because my computer is in some box buried in our  new garage.  Yes, we have finally moved into our house!  We are currently living in the basement along with the snakes, mice, cat, and dog as we have had to pull the carpet.  We are also replacing the baseboards, and scraping the popcorn ceilings before we borrow a friend's paint sprayer and coat the entirety of the first floor in new paint.  We discovered that the window in the kiddo's room is cracked and leaking so that will be replaced this week also.  

Cody has been hanging in like a trooper, especially considering I was working all weekend and I have school and work this week, but we have been a little edgy.  Cody seems to be better now that I did all the laundry last night and he got the snakes all set up on timed lights.  

Another cold front has rolled in also and Annie is blanketed again.  It is supposed to be no warmer than mid seventies this week and my boss informed me that I should "pull out my winter gear" for work.  Good thing I have bought a few things already!  The kiddo was very happy when I brought her home a scarf, lambswool hat, back-up jacket, and a microfiber bathrobe last night.  

Morgy has been exceptionally helpful with the house.  Cody lets her do most anything. She has been pulling staples from the sub-floor, hammering nails, and is very excited about wetting down the popcorn ceiling so Cody can scrape it tonight.  She is also one heck of a cleaner! When we left the apartment she cleaned all the cabinets and the fridge in the kitchen and they looked freshly painted when she was done.  It is so nice that she is growing up!  

Well, I will update with photos and such once I find my computer.  Lol!  Until then, we miss you all and hope all is well in your world!  =)