Home for the holidays

This weekend we finally got around to disassembling our behemoth of a Christmas tree. If you saw the effort it took to get the thing back in the box you probably would have called the Christmas Tree authorities on me for abuse of an evergreen.  Since it was our first Christmas in the new house I went a little overboard with the faux greenery. On the railings, in the hallways, in the kitchen, dining room... everywhere. We're one year away from being those people with a tree in every room. I'm ok with it if you are.

I thought I would post some photos of our holiday decorations today to help make up for sad nakedness that is our living room now.

After Thanksgiving I put up our old tree. It was 6 foot tall and most of the lights do not work. When I plugged it in I died a little on the inside. I didn't want to spend the money on a taller tree... but after what I'm pretty sure is my closest brush with a craigslist kidnapper, I decided splurging was best for my safety.

We got a decent (I don't really know... I don't shop for large fake trees frequently) deal on a 7.5 foot spruce-ish looking tree.

James was even able to add his touch to our decor! I imagine little woodland creatures decorate their trees... deep in the secrecy of the forest... in a similar fashion. He also got a deer target for Christmas. Here it is "under the tree" where it sat, posed for the mail lady and everyone to see, for a week or so. Finally, after scaring everyone in (and out) of the house daily, she made her way to the basement. Seriously. You just cannot adjust to coming down your stairs every morning and seeing a deer in the living room.

Our old tree was able to find a home at the top of the stairs in a perfect little window nook. Which also looks empty and sad now, without it.

Even the fish got in the spirit! I already have big plans for next year... "Theme Trees"... it's happening.

Back to Life?

It's official! We've moved! The house is not necessarily "finished" just yet, but all of our belongings are in one place now and that is just fine by me. In fact, I never actually finished moving into the last house, so the first thing that moved into this one was whatever was left over in my trunk from move #15 or so...

I have even been able to start putting some personal touches on our very neutral blank canvas. The first thing I did was start filling up the built-in bookshelves. I have been looking forward to this for months now! My previous bookshelves post is still my most frequently repinned and viewed post. I had no idea so many other people cared so much about my crap!

Usually what I do is implement the pottery barn-esque "cluster" theory. I try to use somewhat of a theme for each cluster. For our home, it mostly involves around Louisville, honey and (wait for it...) horses.

 

Our old books come from a few different sources. I inherited some of my great grandfather's books a few years ago and most of them are old German language lesson books. My favorite, which isn't on the shelves is a "see and say" book with pictures and how to pronounce the words. Some of the others are from our friend's house. The home was previously occupied by a teacher who obviously built the mass of his collection in the 40s. I was lucky enough that our friend stock piled them instead of throwing them out and I have found some spectacular books in his supply. The rest are from my own ever-expanding collection.

Another thing I was so excited to get finished was my spray painted chandelier. There will be more pictures to come, but here is a glimpse of what it looks like after a blast of Rustoleum! Pay no heed to my wonky lampshades. I have since been able to straighten them out. I was a little nervous at first since the whole thing is a little bulbous and busy, but after walking past it a few times I am starting to like it. Next time I do this I am going to go with a crazy color... when you can get these things at the Habitat Restore for a few bucks - why not?

We are still waiting on our counter tops to come in. Talk about a stressful decision. And having to make such a decision in under 30 minutes before work one day. You know how the saying goes: there's nothing as permanent as a tattoo or granite counter choices. I have been nervous ever since. We'll see how they look on Tuesday! We also are lacking some additional lights, mirrors in all of the bathrooms and some serious unpacking and organizing motivation. However, every time we need an extra push towards the finish line, we like to look at these....

Homeful & Optimistic

The pieces are starting to dribble into their respective positions. Room by room... or more like square foot by square foot, the house is starting to look like just that: a house. Finally. It may have taken several months (the coldest ever that I remember), but it is about to be complete!

Well, many people say that a home is never truly "finished", and that is sometimes true - but damnit this one will be the exception. We are actually spending this week moving the rest of our things in! Yes... so you may be a week or two behind when reading this. I promise more information will come soon (I am saying that more and more often, I am sure). In fact, as I type this... I am sitting on the remains of our packing, which will soon also be my bed for the night: a sleeping bag, on top of a folded up comforter, on the hardwood floors of our "old" house. I told James that I felt as if I were homeless, when in fact we are just the opposite.

One of the pieces that fell into place was the glorious farmhouse sink. I purchased this from Vintage Tub and have been amazed by it ever since. This is the same place that I bought our bathtub from. It is a beast: weighing in at 105 pounds. We had some extra supports built into the sink base to support it. Think of a shelf underneath to hold it up. I am still not sure how confident I am that once they install the granite overtop of it the whole kitchen won't end up in the basement.

The master bathroom is also getting its finishing touches. As of this moment all it really needs is a nice showerhead. The plumber won't install the "pos" one I got and wants me to buy a Delta. He insists it is because, after all the time he has spent at this house, he doesn't want to come back. And neigh, you don't get any grand reveal pictures just yet. Hold your horsies!

Speaking of plumbers... Tim also got us some toilets! It only took about 4 months of strategically scheduling our supply runs around our bladders to have the damn things put in place and working. I can't wait to write up the "What we would have done differently" post. Guess what my number one piece of advice would be?

We ran into some trouble when installing crown molding in the dining room, but, all thanks to a good friend who had been there, done that - we were able to implement a suggestion. Corner boxes! The decorative little pieces of wood kept us from having to spend hours mitering one corner of the molding at a time. Instead of the 2 hours it took James and the contractor to get one half of one room done, James and Nick were able to take it all back down, re cut it, and re install it in both rooms. It looks grand. They seem to think I am going to paint it at some point.

So, piece by piece, the pictures we have had in our heads for the past few months are beginning to appear before our eyes. I must say that so far, I am pleased. There will forever be a piece of baseboard needing paint here, a knob needing polished there, a window needing trim... but for the most part, things are looking up.

We are nearing the peak of the hill, and yes - it was an uphill battle for a long time. Something about walking into a giant brick box and knowing you spent all of your money on a terrible looking, awful smelling, gross, gutted monstrosity; you can't help but be discouraged at some point. However, with great difficulty lies opportunity...

These piggies went to the potty

One of the main things that James and I had decided from the moment we bought this house was that we needed heated floors in the main bathroom. Needed. We. Have you ever been so cold that the only thing that could warm you up was a hot shower? Then after your shower imagine you step out onto a toasty tile floor. The warmth travels up through your feet and legs, and radiates through the rest of your body. Oh. It’s life changing. But, Bridgette, nobody spends that much time in the bathroom! Yes, they do. Have you seen my hair? Most of it needs dried on a regular basis. This happens in the bathroom for me. Must have toasty tootsies! 

After much research and some youtubing, we landed on Laticrete floor warming systems. Due to their affordability and ease of installation I felt this was the best choice for us. We only needed a small section done - only where you walk - and since we had to tile the bathroom floors anyways, our total cost was minimal. Minimal meaning - I think I spent more money on lightbulbs for the new recessed lights. That’s awesome. About the floors at least. Damn, lightbulbs

Installation was easy peasy. We cleaned the subfloor, unrolled the mat, checked it, attached it to the thermostat wires and fished them through the walls, then poured a self leveling quick set on top of it. Really, that was it. It took all of twenty minutes. The hardest part was trying to get the curled up ends of the mat to stay straight.

This was a short post but there will be another, more detailed post coming soon, because we have really made some progress in the past two weeks! The ironic thing about blogging is that you have to actually do the things you want to blog about. When you are blogging about your home renovations, that leaves very little time to sit and write, much less think about anything else. Remember when we thought we would move in by January 1st?

Invest in area rugs

Last you left off, we were slowly making progress on the floors in our house. That process is still... slowly.. progressing...

Over the weekend we had a mom party at the house and everyone came prepped to paint the walls. Instead of actually being able to paint the walls, though, we were left to sand them (because this is still not completed - when will it end? The horror!). Then we vacuumed. Then we sanded. Then we vacuumed.

By the end of the "Painting weekend", we had accomplished the following:
1. Primer on the dining room walls
2. Primer on the dining room ceiling
3. Ceiling paint on the dining room ceiling.
4. Kitchen ceiling painted
5. Kitchen painted (an actual color, or, at least "neutral" is a color for James and I)
6. Living room finished with primer
7. Hallway half primed

Oh... and we also attempted to paint the ceilings in the upstairs bedrooms. Ugh. HGTV Should've-seen-it-coming Upset #2. (I think #1 was the beer chute?). The ceilings bubbled and peeled and look like they should really go to the doctor and get that siti'ation all checked out. We're still pondering on how to get that all worked out.

We also started on sanding the floors. Here is where I am going to impart on you a lesson. Hear Ye, Hear Ye: Do not use an orbital sander on your 80 year old wood floors! They are DENSE and it will lead to an entire 13 hour day of disappointment. Fortunately, we were able to return the sander to Home Depot, and they rented us a Drum Sander instead. Boom. Done. Everything you spend the entire day before orbital sanding - finished in about 2 hours. Now you know. And you are welcome.

The only problem with the drum sander is that it cannot reach the edges. This means you need to go back around each room with a hand sander. These do a decent job, it is time consuming, but... as you will soon find out... may not be the best option.

We actually were able to put a first coat of stain on the kitchen and dining room floors and they are currently drying with their first or second coats of polyurethane. So far so good, right?! Nope.

Upstairs, the hardwood floors are a little bit different from the first floor. Not really sure why or how. Regardless, the sander took to them a bit differently. There are some deep gouges from where previous homeowners had carpeting removed (beautiful room-length slices in the middle of the floors). There is also a drastic ring around each room upstairs from the hand sander.

James is a little particular. I would like to think of this as a compliment - seeing as we have been dating for so long. Whenever we ran into a small gash in the floors or darker spot "We'll just throw a rug over it". A rough spot on the walls, or lumpy plaster? "I think that's a great spot for a picture!". But upstairs... I don't think they make the kinds of rugs we would need to cover this up.

These are examples of the "good" floors. No pros needed here!

So today and Monday we have *gasp!* a professional coming in to clean up our mess. This means the floors will be finished by Tuesday, though, and that means we can start on installing a bathroom! Finally! Oh, and maybe get a furnace?

Kitchen cabinets will be installed on Sunday (we hope) and the appliances are going to be put into place, as well. Once this is finished the kitchen will be DONE. Mostly. It will probably realistically be finished when the sink we ordered arrives, the counters are measured, cut, and installed, and we pick out some knobs and pulls.

So, the bottom line is - when you come over to the house and think to yourself, "Self, isn't that an odd place for a picture..." You best keep those thoughts to yourself or you can stay in the one part of the house we didn't have to renovate - the garage.

Lockjaw

Thank you all for your love and support after my last post. I want you all to know how much I truly appreciate your empathy.

As I am sure you know, though, the blog must go on. The good news is that the past week or so has been tremendous in terms of house progress. After filling up all of the insulation polka dots in the rooms, we have moved on to drywall mudding, sanding, mudding, sanding, mudding, and sanding. Yes. You have to do it at least three times on each spot. This generally means we have had to go to the house and groundhog day it for the past week.

I have gotten decent at sanding, but other than vacuuming up dust for the past few weeks, my responsibilities mostly consist of being the scapegoat and dancing around, singing 80s songs.  I do what I can.

Let's talk about that vacuum for a minute... Did you know if you accidentally plug the hose into the wrong hole the shopvac actually becomes an industrial strength crap-blower? And then there you are, surrounding by a shit-blizzard of your own doing. Lesson learned.

Anyway, we have several dozen of our holes patched and are almost completely finished patching the first floor. We even painted the PVA (drywall primer) in the kitchen and it looks like an actual room! James and Herber were able to lay the same wood flooring (made by the same company which made the original wood floors - Lanham Hardwood Flooring in Louisville) in the kitchen and match it up to the rest of the house. They replaced the beer chute hole floorboards and any other that were looking a little ragged. Next up is sanding and staining! We still aren't positive which stain color we are going for...

Oh barf! Who would do this?!

I was given the go-ahead to use the primer to start painting over the green trim and mantel in the living room. Hooray! It already looks so much better. It's the little things like white trim that make me feel like we are actually getting closer to being able to move in. Also, all of the wallpaper is removed. It may have taken a sketchy scaffolding/ladder/stepstool combo to reach it, but regardless. the house already feels decades newer.

Next up is staining the floors (when we decide what color we want...), finding foyer and hallway lights (this stresses me out way more than it should), convincing James to build me a window seat ("Are you ever going to actually sit there?"), and *starting* on the bathroom(s). Yes. Although the house is looking better, we are still technically trapped in the mid 1800s, without running water or indoor plumbing.

Also, does anyone know if we can get a group discount on Tetanus shots?

Progress comes in a warm and scratchy pink package

It has been almost three weeks since my last post. I know! I am sorry. Forgive me. I tend to have holiday-related panic attacks around this time of year and that, on top of rebuilding a house, has just about been enough to kill me.

This is what the electrical system of the house looked like.

Needless to say, a lot has happened over this time. Luckily, for you, most of it has been the non-exciting, can't really take pictures of it kind of work. Such as... electrical and plumbing. The good news is we have one room in the house with fully functional electric! The kitchen! It is amazing... you walk in... flip on the light switch... and voila! Everything you expect to happen, happens. Room by room we are hooking switches and outlets up, then patching the giant holes that appeared every 6 foot of wall space.
We also have functional plumbing! There isn't a toilet or a sink to be found, so this is really just an assumption until everything is put in place. Which will be soon!

We have also been able to insulate around the windows and rooms without walls with roll-out insulation. The other exterior walls received some much-needed blow-in insulation. This means; more holes. Unfortunately I was not in town for this adventure, but I have been the assistant on several other insulation projects. It's amusing. James likened it to a pink cotton candy christmas wonderland. I imagine that is exactly what it was.

In the meantime, our windows have finally arrived. All but one is installed. That one fell out of James' truck into the middle of Taylorsville Road, and was run over several hundred times before he found it. In his haste to retrieve the smashed window, he sliced his finger open. By the time he showed up at Home Depot to complain about his window, he had a handful of blood and some seriously tested patience.

This is actually the third time we have spilled blood over the house. The first, being when I ripped my thumbnail back pulling nails. The second, being when I was helping James strip the rubber coating off of our old copper wires. Razor blade to the pinky finger. Double points for difficulty.

Fortunately, we have yet to make it to the emergency room and have a stockpile of camouflage band-aids.

The two of us were able to haul several hundred pounds of scrap to the scrap yard together, and what an adventure that was. If any of you have seen The Brave Little Toaster you know exactly what I am talking about. It was terrifying. At least we were able to make enough cash to pay for the window we broke destroyed, right?

Little by little, ceilings and walls are beginning to go back up. The house is starting to feel more and more like an actual house and not just a shell. Soon enough we will be painting and decorating!

You may have noticed, by now, that I am trying not to post too many whole-room pictures. I am saving these for you. I decided since we won't get to have the big HGTV-style reveal, that someone should. So, I am weening you off of the photos, until we can do some totally badass before and after side-by-sides. Trust me, it will be worth it. At least that is what everyone keeps telling me.

Built like a brick...

For your weekly installment of house updates: This week we tackled the old kitchen door, scavenged a little, and wired some more.

I wrote, earlier, about having to re-wire the electrical panel box in the basement... however, upon the encouragement of our inspector and James' electrician uncle, this project has ballooned to now include re-wiring the entire house. This has meant punching a hole every 6 feet in the walls of every room and we no longer have any ceilings on the first floor. We were able to pull all of the old wiring out (pictures of what that looks like to come soon), and snake the new wire throughout the house. We are currently in the process of "loop to looping" the circuits and switches. Whew. The place is a MESS. It no longer resembles a house and I am bitterly remembering the words "All it needs is some paint" spilling from my lying mouth.

We were only able to do this, though, thanks to the quick action of our chosen brick mason, Bentley Masonry. As much as I dreaded this interaction, it was actually quite rewarding. When we had been working in the house the weekend or two before, it was raining. Inside. Due to the dilapidation of the back porch and the mortar cracking, water was running down the inside of the walls. Thank goodness we had not moved forward with insulation and drywall at this point. We were able to call and have a brick mason come out and estimate the damage that day.

Bentley was the first to respond and the ONLY company we called which would have the job started within two weeks. In fact, he was out there two days later with a load of salvaged bricks. Within 3 days he had gone around and tuck pointed every crack and crevice on the house, bricked in the old kitchen door, filled in the terrariums, and, when he had leftover mortar pre-mixed, re-laid all of our front porch and most of our walkway. It looks fantastic. Being serenaded "A country boy can survive" by four brick masons isn't bad, either. Very strange. But not bad.

Between working, picking at the wallpaper on the house, and sleeping I was actually able to manage to swing by the coolest place ever. I took my lunch break one day and went to Architectural Salvage - in downtown Louisville. An hour was NOT enough time. They have everything. I mean it. Need a spittoon? Got one of those. A million fireplace covers? All of those. I cannot wait to go back when the house has actual walls and start picking things out with James.

I was also able to find the deal of the century on Craigslist. Woo! I had been eyeballing a crystal chandelier for over a month - the first thing I saw that made me decide I needed a chandelier in the bathroom. I finally broke down and texted the ad. Still available, you say? And working? I'll be there tonight.

A short drive and $23 later I had myself a genuine antique crystal chandelier. All it needs is a little cleaning up and hang that baby from the ceiling!

We also broke down and finally placed the order for the everything. THE EVERYTHING. The kitchen cabinets, the lights, the appliances, the tile, the toilets, the vanity, the grout, the windows, etc. Holy shitzkies. Hopefully in 2-6 weeks I am feeling better about it.

Next up: plumbing, drywall, flooring, refinishing, and. more. wallpaper.