first renovations

We've already dived headfirst into renovations! Well, first we cleaned up a bit - the house has been unlived in since last December and is a bit dusty and musky. Then we took out the carpet in downstairs floor. In the day parlor and living room we found hardwoods. In the bedroom, we found hardwoods covered by a linoleum "rug" in the center of the room. It's probably very old. In the dining room and entryway we found newer but still old linoleum tiles over hardwoods. Unfortunately the tiles and the linoleum probably all have varying concentrations of asbestos, which we're going to have tested to be sure, and then figure out what to do. We'll probably end up having it professionally removed - you don't want that stuff floating around in the spaces you'll be living and breathing in for years and years.

At the same time, we're setting up appointments to have contractors come out to begin work on installing the new electrical system, a couple of beams beneath the house, and a new furnace and HVACC system. It should be a busy couple of weeks, but hopefully not longer than a month or two.

While those projects are taking shape we'll be doing projects of our own with the help of family and friends! Next weekend we're planning on our first work party which will hopefully include a lot of what I wrote about in the last post. We also made a list of things to do in every single room so that we can stay organized. I've decided that beyond tearing out all the carpet like we did, we're going to tackle the house room by room in order to keep the sanity and reduce the likelihood of unfinished projects. I think first we'll start with the front living room, but we'll see!

Here are some pictures for your enjoyment: (I'll have to get better at taking exact "before" and "after" pictures so the changes are really noticeable)

BEFORE:

this is looking at the living room from the day parlor

AFTER:
you can see where there used to be a linoleum "rug" in this room as well as where the fireplace used to be. The hardwoods span from the back of the day parlor all the way to nearly the front of the living room - I'm not sure of the measurement but they are very long boards!

another view:
BEFORE:

AFTER:


BEFORE:
I feel like we might have to call this house the Pink House because of all the pink: carpet, moulding (in a variety of shades!) and wallpaper. The previous homeowner really loved her pink!

AFTER:
A very old linoleum "rug" over painted hardwoods in the rear downstairs bedroom

BEFORE:
The smoker's porch door (on the right) was painted over, I assume for privacy concerns.

AFTER:
the view to the outside and the smoker's porch has been revealed! Until we get some weatherstripping and a doorknob, the door will remain closed (the gaps are currently stuffed with old pantyhose, which you can see peeking out beneath the door lock and missing handle)

I'll be sure to keep the blog updated with construction, projects of our own, and the results of the asbestos testing! And stay tuned for information about an upcoming work party!

big news!

well, the big day is nearly upon us! We've made our appointment to close on the house! It's Wednesday at 9am. I'm pretty much excited beyond belief - and immensely relieved that this is finally over with. We have been on the biggest and longest rollercoaster ever, from first getting pre-approved last September, to putting our first offer on a house in December, walking away from that (they countered our offer very weakly and wouldn't budge), and putting an offer on another house in January. We waited for that one until July, when we gave up and found another. That one has been a rollercoaster as well. It's a rehab loan that has required numerous meetings with contractors and inspectors, delays and requirements by the bank, a nerve-wracking process to get an extension from the sellers (there was a full-price backup offer on the table and they didn't have to give us the extension), but we are finally closing! HORRAY! On September 2nd, we'll be homeowners! woo!!!!

And in that spirit, we're already making plans for what to tear out. I'm sure now that this blog will become entirely devoted to house remodeling, but I'm okay with that. :) The remodel starts with the requirements by the bank: structural supports to replace rotten and bowed beams, installation of brand new electrical and tearing out the knob and tube wiring, and tear out the old furnace and ducts and install new to the downstairs and brand-new to the upstairs. Other things we have to do ourselves include putting a moisture barrier in the crawlspace, tear out and install new porch rails, and replace the roof. There's more, but those are the big ones.

Big decisions come in hand with those big remodels - for example, where to put plug-ins and light switches, what height, what should the switches look like and where/what should we do for ceiling light fixtures? Or, where on the walls and floors is the heat going to come in from, and where can we get the "right" kind of heating registers (I'm thinking cast-iron). Where can we get really cool balusters made?

Right now our list for the first "work party" includes:

• Take off this ugly back porch roof thing that blocks all light into the kitchen.
• Re-roof the garage.
• Take town a lean-to shed.
• Paint the kitchen, and we're going to paint the 70s paneling in the bathroom (as quick fixes).
• Get an oven that isn't vintage avacado green.
• Paint the walls (haven't decided if we are going to take off the wallpaper yet) and then take up the carpet.
• Replace all the locks.
• Trim the fruit trees and trim the trees to the side of the house.
• Talk to the business next door about trimming their trees and what they will do to limit damage to a new fence we plan on installing (it faces their parking lot, and cars have hit the existing fence).
• Replace front porch balusters and posts and upstairs balcony porch.
• Replace some outdoor trim & paint the remainder.

I want the front porch to look just like this:

Cash for Clunkers

My new chair makes working at the computer so much more enjoyable! I don't whack my knees into the table every time I sit down or get up! And, I might be getting the hang of this blog thing, too. At least until school gets started up again. Today I found myself thinking, as I often do on my solitary drive to and from Seattle, and after one particular thought went through my mind, the next thing was, "that could be a blog idea!" ha! This is probably bad that I think of the blog when I'm not really thinking about it, but I'll just go with it for now. At least it's keeping me motivated to update!

At any rate, onto the blog idea. On my way to work this morning, I drove by the Roy Robinson dealership and oogled at the brand new Subaru Foresters. LOVE. My thoughts morphed into thinking about Cash for Clunkers and I smugly reminded myself about how I was immensely surprised yesterday that my 1999 Subaru Forester gets around 28mpg. According to various sources online, my car should get 21 mpg on the streets and 24 mpg on the highway. yeah, that's right, my car is 10 years old and gets better gas mileage than some brand new "fuel efficient" cars. My little car might scream 1999 with its awesome green color, but you can't beat the fact that it's a $7,000 car that is perfect for hauling things from dogs to camping gear to moving boxes to people, shopping bags (lots of those!) and more AND gets great fuel efficiency.

AND, I tend to drive about 70mph on the freeway, which is supposed to be worse for fuel efficiency. Imagine what it would be if I went 60mph. Except that will never happen because I can't bear to go 60. It feels soooooo slooooow.

The quest to discover what my car's mpg average is began when Johnny announced that after months of keeping track of his mpg, his 1995 Honda Accord is consistently getting 32 mpg! Amazing! That car is 14 years old and has 163,760 miles! Knowing that my car would get worse gas mileage, I nonetheless decided to try it out for myself and see what it was getting. I feared it would be 21 or less, but after a couple tests 28 mpg is the magic number! I'm so impressed with my little car all over again. And I bet it would get better gas mileage if I changed the oil, which is quite overdue! So, considering that I don't think either of our cars qualify for Cash for Clunkers, I don't think we could really ask for a pair of better cars!

Now I am going to play frisbee with Harley. And by "playing frisbee with Harley" I mean that I throw the frisbee while encouraging him to chase it, he watches it sail away, and I go get it, and the process repeats. He thinks it's really fun.

want to figure out your car's mpg? This is what you do:

1. Fill your tank.
2. Reset the trip odometer.
3. Drive until it is time to refill again.
4. Look on the fuel pump or on your receipt to see how many gallons it took to fill up your car. Write this number down.
5. Look at your trip odometer to see how many miles you drove.
6. Take the miles driven and divide it by the gallons used. This number will by your MPG for that tank.
7. Make sure to reset the trip odometer again to calculate the next tank and compare.