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.

How do we DIY with a KID?

It's definitely been a completely different experience moving and starting to try to work on a house with a child. I've been reading some of my favorite blogs of parent DIY-ers..(Making It Lovely, Young House Love etc.) but still feel like we haven't quite figured it out.  Our 2.5 year old always wants to "help" and has strong opinions about what each of us should be doing at any given moment on the weekends.  Oh, she also doesn't like loud noises...as in the vacuum, ANY of daddy's tools etc. Do you see the cards stacking up against all of my glorious DIY plans?

Brent has taken some time off this week to dedicate some chunks of time to getting more settled and work on the house.  His priorities are all things that make me want to snore, though I know they are all super practical, important, and great ideas to do first:

1. Organize the basement/find and set up his tools - clearly this is important for every future project.

2. Go get the rest of our stuff out of storage - no need to throw more money away now that we have a giant basement and several currently-unused rooms on the third floor.

3. Something else boring that I can't remember.

4. Ready the butler's pantry for the marble countertop I insisted we buy before we even moved in (always planning ahead....). This involves building up the cabinet so that the counter will be higher than the original sink and removing a board on the wall.

5. Something about the TV's/cable thingies.

What did I want to work on this week? Only things with visible results, of course!

1. The Powder Room - Walls (bead board, paint, stencil perhaps?), find replacement sink and toilet. I will live with the floor for now.

How freeing to have more than one bathroom in this house...

2. Finish the first phase of the Master Bath - thorough cleaning, navy bath mats, patch, prime, paint, floating shelves/baskets for storage, possible medicine cabinet swap out. 

3. Keep scraping wallpaper in the living and dining rooms.

I was supposed to be off this week too...but that's not really the case any more, so we shall see what gets done.  I will say, the sound of him in the basement right now doing something with a power tool is making me feel nostalgic and excited about what's to come. I promise in the next post to cover what has already happened - it'll be a good reminder after making the giant to-do list.

Going from Home back to a House

Well, we kind of got bored once our projects were done at House #1.  It seemed like the things we wanted to add or explore didn't quite fit with our first home's size, and we were tiring of our neighborhood's many motor cycle enthusiasts, so we had our eyes out for the past year for our next house to transform.  During the search, we tried to consider some more modern houses that were mostly "done," but...neither of us could get excited about any of them, and the lack of untapped potential left us feeling...blah.

Enter...House #2...a 1906 Colonial Revival that had sat on the market thanks to terrible marketing and being completely overpriced. After it's last price drop, I went first to check out an open house there solo, and then made an appointment to see it with Brent...my first thoughts - WOW the woodwork! Eeeeeew - almost every surface needs something. Do these people ever clean?  BUT it's not falling down and has crazy potential - not to mention a ton of space to utilize while redoing different spaces. TWO staircases! Actual closets for a house of this era! What a porch (I just hope I don't step through it in some spots)! Pocket doors! More than one bathroom! Could we maybe afford to make this work?? Over...many years?

And, it was in one of our two favorite neighborhoods  in town- this one with the plus of being closer to the center of town with all the restaurants, diners, and the library nearby.  If you're going to live in a little city - might as well be near the city part, especially with the benefit of being on a street that is rarely traveled, and thus feels more secluded than it actually is.

So...months of buying and selling drama behind us, a complete rewiring of the new house (thank you, knob-and-tube) plus moving, I type this in the Study of our next adventure...with a list of projects too long to enumerate.  I hope to capture some of our adventures here, as I did the first go around, though now with a two-year-old, this seems more daunting of a task :)  I look forward to the transformation from feeling like I'm staying at someone's bed and breakfast to the feeling that this is our family's home.

Welcome to our new house!