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Thanks for stopping by!
We are two house-loving DIYers now onto our second house. One of us has vision...and one has actual skills.
Design and working on our home are our major hobbies, whenever we have a few moments of free time not devoted to our daughter or jobs. We are hoping to share our ideas, triumphs and mistakes to help other DIYers and get new ideas from all of you!

Thursday, August 11, 2016

Things that have happened so far and - what to name this house?

Even though I have had to work every day this week, Brent and I managed a lunch date Wednesday - with a pad of paper and pen to work on our master list of projects. So far, choose-your-own-adventure and working on anything has been great, because there is so much to do, but I feel that concentrating our efforts in a direction will, hopefully, start to make things feel a little more productive.

We started by making the list of all the work that has been done so far - owning the house for 6 weeks before moving in allowed us to rewire the place and tackle a couple of the other more messy jobs. Owning two houses was...CRAZY - especially when there were projects happening at each (buyer wanted some asbestos remediated at our old house as a term of the sale).

So...here's the list of what has happened so far at House #2
(Feel free to suggest names for the house in the comments section...it has been suggested the house needs a name. I am fine with it as long as it doesn't sound hoity-toity. Because that's just obnoxious. I do admit though, that House #2 lacks a certain charm.  My only idea so far is The Old Lady...but that feels unkind.):
  • Rewired entire house, adding a few outlets and overhead lights to most rooms, where none existed before (it took a crew of 6 guys 5.5 weeks, and was every bit as expensive as you might have guessed).  We also added hardwired smoke detectors, and ran some cable/internet to various rooms. The knob-and-tube was literally everywhere.
  • Had a painter patch the 270 holes made by above electrical work.  This was something we had envisioned Brent doing over time, but the dust/mess was too much to move into, so we hired it out.  
  • Brent single-handedly removed the basement ceiling - hundreds of pounds of lathe and plaster. 
  • He also removed the floor from the original laundry room in the basement. It was badly damaged and felt like...a trampoline.
  • Brent removed the ceilings in the mudroom and 2nd floor bath.  Both had water damage. Both had several layers of heavy lathe and paster. We have yet to replace them. 
  • We also ended up keeping the painter on for a few days to help get T's room and the master stripped of wallpaper, primed, and painted with one coat on (we did the second after the industrial cleaning).  
  • The painters/Brent were also able to get most of the ceilings on the first and second floor patched/primed/painted before we moved in - this was key.  Not only are we only dealing with walls now, but the calcimine primer reeks, and needed time to air out before we were living here...VOC's everywhere.
  • I stripped the wallpaper out of what is affectionately being called "The Closet Room."  I have taken over the bedroom behind the master as my giant closet.  The walls still need to be washed and patched before painting can happen.
  • Just for fun, the water main decided to go during the electrical work. At least we caught it and replacing it is now off the list.  While the backhoe was here, Brent took liberty with removing the rail ties and hedges in the front yard...and all the grass.  We now affectionately call our front yard the dust bowl. (Go BC!)
  • Brent removed the junky-looking built-ins in the Study.  Next to all of the original moldings and pocket doors they looked...sad. Someday Brent will put in some floor to ceiling library shelves himself. 
  • We had the gas fireplace insert with its moldy logs removed from the living room fireplace and the line properly capped off.  It was ugly and a source of anxiety. Now you can see the beautiful tile much better.  Any thoughts as to what we should put in there now?

  • Brent cleaned and installed a new gasket on the SUPER stinky washing machine.  I was ready to give up and get a new one...thank goodness for my stubborn hubby. It has been never properly cleaned/taken care of, and there was a leak due to a tear in the gasket.  So gross. 
  • We had the locks changed. That counts as a thing, right?
  • Brent repaired the bathroom window in the guest bath on the second floor so it is now operable.
  • We installed towel hooks in both 2nd floor bathrooms.  Where did these people put their towels when they were showering? Also, two new soft-close toilet seats on the second floor. 
  • Removed the nasty stair carpet pieces going down to the basement and replaced them with new ones.
  • Brent has started venting the bathroom fan on the 2nd floor so we can put the ceiling back up.  I have a feeling the ceiling will probably get farmed out to a professional. 
  • The tree-guys, who showed up unannounced at 6:30am last Friday morning, removed the cedar in front and several trees along the back fence. It initially made me sad, but I will admit that Brent was right and it looks a million times better. (See honey? It's in print now.)
  • Curtains are up in the Master, Guest Room and Tessa's room.  Will post pics later...
  • We bought our new bed and mattress yesterday! Super excited to be going to a king.  I love the balance of masculine and feminine in the bed.

So there we have it! I'm sure we forgot a couple of things...but that's a good start.  This list took 1.3 pages of the mini writing pad. The list of projects to be done took up...10 pages. Onward and upward! I'm noticing that Brent's name is up there about 200 times..and I...stripped one room of wallpaper. Thus is the reality of being the 2.5 year old's current favorite parent. Don't forget to post house name suggestions below. Thanks for reading!

8/23 edit - I cannot believe I left off that Brent and Trevor repaired and cleaned the hot tub (that I had assumed was dumpster-filler) in the backyard.  I will also admit that I enjoy it way more than I thought I would.

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