Trees please

Our house is looking a little... exposed lately.

Outdoor Update

We've been making a lot of interior progress - pipes! Wires! Boxes! More insulation floating from the attic! - but lately the outside things have been a little more photogenic. 

The Mr. bought himself a new toy. Because he was going to cut down the branch using just the pole? In the dark? With me and the Kid to help? Or something more deceptively logical yet equally implausible.

So of course Casey came over and was dying to try it. His kid helped the Mr. hold the rope and they managed to get that branch down. It was completely hollow in the middle, of course. Unfortunately (?) the tree hasn't toppled over yet so we're still applying for permits and such to get it taken down. 

Casey really came over to work on the inside of the house. There goes the water heater. 

We don't have a lot of trees at our old house (85% of the reason we need to move) so the Kid has only experienced leaf piles at Grandpa's house. Which he LOOOOOOOVES. Total win that we could make one happen in the front yard. 

You would think with all the Pinterest research that I do, I would have realized that two doors = two wreaths. Oh well. It was a fun fall break craft project that the Kid and I whipped out in half an hour or so. I was sober when I took this picture. Seriously.

We had a bit of a challenge in that we have no porch lights (nor any lights except work lights on extension cords for that matter) and it was time for trick or treaters! Our original plan was to create tombstones for the front yard, but our expectations were a little high and there wasn't time to craft them appropriately. 

The Kid and I trawled the Target aisles for weeks trying to figure out what we could do. We ended up going with one large spider web light and a longer, three swag spider web light. The lanterns were end of summer clearance at Target ($4 each, maybe?) and have proven to be super useful in our pioneer lifestyle. We've given notice on the storage unit and the first load of tubs to come over were the Halloween decorations. The fake jack o lantern is from my parents house (I only know that because my mom wrote her name on the bottom... no idea why) but we use the little Target battery tea lights inside. 

We had between 150-200 trick or treaters, so it was well worth the effort! Such a great night, and the Kid had a fantastic time walking around the neighborhood and seeing his friends in their costumes. It was a timely reminder of why we want to live in this house and how these months of hard work and bleeding money are going to pay off. 

Eventually.

Invisible Progress

It's actually somewhat visible progress, but not 'exciting photos' kind of progress. Just today, we:

• Met with the masons to get some interior repairs started on the chimney in the basement
• Had the alarm company 'pre-wire' the alarm system. We'll have them come back out when the dry wall is up and they will finish connecting everything. In the meantime, we have a sign in the front yard. Which is the most important part, right? 
• Had the kitchen window measured for a replacement window with a garden shelf. They have to custom build it so it will be another month or so before it actually goes in. 

Over the past week we had several companies come out and quote the removal for our big tree. They were also concerned that our neighbor's tree in the front yard is in fact infected with Emerald Ash Borers and is dying. Unsalvageable seems to be the consensus. Both of these trees actually belong to the city, but after talking to several city reps, neither one of them is slated to be removed in the next year or even the year after that. 

On Sunday we cut through the headers in the dining room wall to make room for the poo pipe from the upstairs bathroom. Then we attempted to reconnect the toilet. Unfortunately in the course of our plumbing adventures we ended up with a little less floor? Or something? So the bolt holding the toilet down isn't actually bolting to anything. Therefore, the toilet rocks (and not in an awesome way). We think it can be fixed pretty easily with a little plywood support, but haven't had the time to make this happen yet. 

The sink for the upstairs bathroom was delivered. It's pretty sweet, although apparently I have a bias against it's name because it wasn't what I had picked out for months at all. When I see the name all I can think of is Ciara. I'll let you compare for yourself. 

Cierra Pedestal Sink from Signature Hardware. 

Ciara: My Goodies 

No idea how appropriate this is for work. Be forewarned. 

Explosive excitement

Dumpster #5 is gone. Whew. The city came and cut down the dead trees in the park, so they aren't there anymore, but unfortunately the dead tree in front of our house is lost somewhere on their 2 year waiting list. The tree is in such bad shape that it won't hold up for the winter, so we have some tree guys coming to quote removal and replacement. 

The Mr. decided to knock out the fridge nook and frame it. By himself. Unfortunately there was a cool vintage light fixture with a shaped glass shade on the other side of the wall. I said, "Did you take down that light?" He said, "What light?" Needless to say, there is no more light. 

Drains, glorious drains! They are glued together and run from the first floor bathroom, the future utility sink, and the kitchen sink into the basement. Today we worked on cutting out space for the big poop pipe from the upstairs bathroom to the basement. Then we took the garden hose inside the house and ran water through the drains to test them. No leaks! Also, it entertained The Kid for a good 10 minutes! 

Bathroom sink drain and the new door. I don't know why it's tan. It won't be for much longer. At least it fits the hole now. 

This is now connected to the upstairs. It has been quite the project, but we're so close to having a toilet that we can flush with a bucket of water. I remember when the bucket flush felt so pioneer, like we were Little House in the Big Park or something. It now seems wildly luxurious. Using the bathroom! In our own house!

Labor Day is a big day in the park, with a concert and fireworks display. The Kid took this picture from the neighbor's yard. It was so nice to celebrate a holiday with our neighbors and be part of our community. We also had the best family trip to Menards before the fireworks. Seriously. It's the little things. 

This is the internet. Therefore, CATS

We've set up the garage as a painting studio for the various cabinets that are in the process of getting cleaned up. We open both the garage doors for ventilation, and we usually have a number of 'visitors' waiting for us in the alley. The other day we had four kittens. They love the plastic on the floor and frequently end up with paint drips on their fur. Gah. 

The Kid looooooooves cats. He really does. Which is unfortunate, since neither of his parents can tolerate them. We keep tempting him with promises of puppies that play games. He keeps insisting that we can just keep these kittens and he will feed them sticks. (They eat the bark, or something? Clearly missing some of the finer points of feline biology.)

He sits very patiently and waits for the cats to come to him. Then he pets them!

Success!

In other news, I have selected and even purchased paint for the exterior doors. 

The masons are officially finished, although there are some cosmetic items that we will have them come back to finish. They rebuilt this wall at the south side of the porch, which was much easier to photograph than the chimney. Sorry. 

Outside excitement

Kite flying in the park

After at least two months of phone calls, visits, contractors, assistant managers, etc., we have a new door! I say A new door, because naturally they brought a door for the back that was about 4" too short. Despite the fact that we paid them to measure the doors, and special ordered the doors, etc. etc. So they just extended the door jamb to make it fit and are going to reorder the correct size door and reinstall it for free. In four weeks. Of course. They also spent a lot of time on replacing the garage door, but I didn't get a picture of that. Way to go, blue store.  

This is the door on the side of the house. I wanted something with some glass to get some light on the stairs but not so much glass that I would have to put a security door on it. I had about three options in the special order size. I hope this is a workable compromise. I also distinctly remember saying I wanted the nickel hardware, and yet this brass was installed. Oh well. It is a door. A special order, super short door. I want to paint it green. 

After several weeks of absence, our masons have returned and started building this scaffolding in preparation for fixing the chimney. We hope to see some more progress on the masonry soon. 

In less visible news, round one of new electric has been installed, so we have a new line from the pole, a new service, and new circuits for all the mechanicals and the eventual alarm system. 

Minor miracles

Courtesy of the Mr, also known as my hero. God knows what I will do when we have a working bathroom. Swoon, most likely.

The big day

Well our big day has been very big indeed. We finally decided on the paint color for the kids room! Tada!

Just kidding. We did decide on his paint color but that certainly wasn't the biggest action of the day. It's hard to say what the biggest accomplishment was today. Maybe we should have them fight it out. In fact I think we should have a cage match: new gutters vs. no kitchen!

First up, the interior contender, our former kitchen!:

Surprise! We found a chimney!

We have a lot of kitchen cabinets in strange places right now. Like, they are three times bigger in the middle of the room than they seem on the wall. You can still swing if you don't mind getting up close and personal with an ancient mouse nest we discovered in one of them. 

Technical foul! What happens when you have guys coming to destroy stuff and the dumpster doesn't show up until 5:04 (ten minutes after the guys had to leave?) This. This is what happens. It's all gone now, no big deal, and totally on the dumpster people (and perhaps the people ordering the dumpster). 

The challenger: new gutters!

I am sad to see the copper gone. It was so lovely and added such character, but it was literally destroying our house with its complete failure to direct water in appropriate directions. So I will use as much copper as I can reasonably and stylishly afford on the inside. Sorry, house. 

I said a lot of prayers for these guys. At one point the Kid was shaking their ladder. (!) 

I hustled him off to school. 

Our aluminum/copper combo is now all aluminum. Sad face. But a dryer basement! Preserved masonry! 

I hear these are worth big bucks. I also love them and would like to use them for something, but I'm not sure what that would be without causing undue damage. Like, a planter? That I could cut a bigger hole for?

Also, I like money. See: no kitchen or bathrooms

The Kid is the winner! "Hey look at my muscles! I'm a super hero!"

In other news, the electrician is scheduled for next week, the guys are coming to take down ceilings on Friday, and I have a big dilemma in front of me for next week: refinishing floors or painting cabinets? Stay tuned!

This Week, Next Week, We Need, Pending...

In my past endeavors, I have accomplished some fairly impressive feats of organization with some large groups of people. Last week I thought, how did I do that? How did we keep everyone on the same page? And part of the answer was: white boards. I love a white board. It fills my little planning heart with joy. And now we have one, complete with some smiley faces and an extremely grumpy face. I'm calling it 'the job board' so that I can deflect responsibility on to it. We have to do it, the job board said. Also, under "To Buy/We Need": $1,000,000. Guess who added that. 

This week's major project is cleaning all the windows and scraping and painting the trim on the front porch. Just cleaning off the porch helped me feel like we were moving on to the next phase, having bagged up the gajillion pairs of work gloves and safety masks from our demo party and thrown out a bunch of napkins and debris from our recent fast food lifestyle. The major MAJOR difference comes from the clean glass. It's amazing. So much brighter and cleaner. It's like you're not sitting in a dirty aquarium anymore! Priming will take place on Friday, and hopefully we'll get the top coat on soon after. This will eliminate the primary area of concern for lead paint, although we are pretty sure that the paint that could even possibly maybe be lead is under at least one layer of latex already.

Of course, 100% lead is still readily accessible, and when scraping started on this window it was discovered that someone had painted over a fair amount of the lead cames already (that is what they are called I know because I googled it). So we're going to prime and paint all the other trim and come back to this window when we have a better idea of how to handle it. We think some stripper and steel wool will get the paint off the lead, and then we can reglaze this and some of the other original window glazing that came off. The windows here are otherwise in very good shape.

Inside we have been busy as well. This is the current view from the kitchen to the dining room. Notice a few things missing? Unfortunately we're going to be wall-less for quite a while, I'm afraid. Which is fine, since I'm struggling with the wall color in here. The sample that's up now reads much greener in the photo than it does in real life, where it feels too blue. I have a second sample up on the other side that feels too green. ARGH.

This small patch of pine flooring between the pantry and the basement represents four hours of hot, sweaty, frustrating work, and a full day of recovery (at least!) for my neck and shoulder. I am not built for this job. And yet.

I had two guys come through to quote refinishing the floors, so I can make some educated decisions on what to do and when and who will do it. One of them told me that this is the original heart pine floor. I had kind of been hoping that it was circa 1975, although when we got to the part where it joins the oak hardwoods the craftsmanship was a little too good to be seventies era. Believing it's a recent addition makes it less stressful when a sliver comes up with the glue or something gets gouged, so I may choose to believe the 1975 story for awhile.

Speaking of 1975, peace the spork out, grody range. Enjoy your trip to the big metal recycler in the sky. The Mr. took all the pipes and vents in to be recycled today and made a whopping $27 for all the plumbing, venting and chuting we could remove ourselves. We're rich! The stove was hoisted into a truck by some scrappers, who drive around picking up metal to recycle. They were thrilled to get it and we feel happy to have helped them, and thrilled that we didn't have to lift the stove into the van. I had thought we would scrap the dishwasher as well, but when we were trying to get the linoleum out from underneath it, we discovered that it was brand new and had never been used. Whoops. We don't love it still, but the question of it's fate can be decided much farther down the line.

Nasty. 

Lastly, the wet and moldy vanity in the pink and black bathroom got taken out late last week and this is the situation that got left behind. I've had a corner pedestal sink picked out for months (actual, real months) and have been waiting to get a plumber on board before I order it. The last plumber I talked to didn't think it was going to work because of where the plumbing is located in the wall and the sink pedestal is only partially open. So I have a second choice sink picked out in case we have to go flat against the wall, in which case I'm worried that the pipes are too close to the corner. So when we have a plumber I guess we'll see what they say. The Mr. has his spec sheets put together now and we're hoping to have some movement in that direction soon.

Ding dong the pine is dead!

So proud of the Mr, who won his battle with the knotty pine paneling yesterday. We have officially eradicated all the paneling from the basement and the stairwell, which totaled somewhere between 40 and 50 cubic yards of dumpster. We found my new favorite wallpaper under the pine on the basement stairs, which naturally wasn't salvageable. We kept a piece for my little collection.

This is actually even cleaner now that I took all the tools and stuff upstairs. Note the bathroom is completely gone except for the tile floor on the right. Looking east. It is actually painted pink, that is not a lighting trick.

Trash mountain is completely gone, and the mold guys started work today. Hooray!! Progress!! They did chemicals and scrubbing today and are running an 'air scrubber' overnight. They will start painting tomorrow and should be finished by the middle of next week. 

This was once two utility rooms. And a kitchen. 

Kitchen cabinets are all gone. That white pipe was the drain for the sink. 

We've been demolishing through a couple of rain storms with the sump pump disconnected and this is the only part of the entire basement that is getting water, and its only on the wall. The dark spot under the ceiling is actually the original coal chute, which is open to the elements. We'd like to replace it with an egress window so we can use this room (once two separate work rooms) as guest rooms or offices once the plumbing and electrical have been taken care of. The back corner (north east) is an area where we have epic gutter failures, which we hope to have fixed soon. Once those two things are taken care of we are hopeful that all water problems will have been resolved. The perimeter drainage tile seems to be working just fine. 

When the mold guys came in this morning they took a look around and said, "Wow, you guys must be done wore out."

Yes, yes we are.