Update on things

There has been A LOT going on right now... I mean, seriously, plate is full.

But God only gives us what we can handle.  Right?  We can handle it :)

At any rate, I've been going to quite a few doctor appts lately and still more to go next month.  I will definitely share whats going on, on here - but need to make sure the most important people in our life are updated first!  (of course, we are going to see most of them this wknd)

My sister is in town from Texas.  Wahoo!  Love spending time with her.

But, all this means no time for blogging :/

QUICK update though:

- Been getting plumbing quotes.  Holy moly!  Think, thousands more than you would originally have thought.  Sucks.

- Hired another 'Hired Help' - a friend's husband who is laid off and will be working part-time with us.  

- Josh has still been working very hard on the house.  We would have given up on the woodwork by now if it weren't for him.

- Hired Jonathan Moran to custom build some baseboards and window casing.  Even went to the Allegheny Mill Works (BIG place) and they didn't have what we are looking for.  Jonathan is a pretty cool guy - found him at the strip district one morning.  His wife sells unique and beautiful cutting boards and small items there on the wknds.  Tom got to see his shop the other day - pretty cool stuff!

- Had a hearing set up to appeal property taxes.  The assesor postponed it.  They originally had our house documented as 8 bedrooms and 13 rooms total.  Its only 4 bedrooms and 7 rooms total (+kitchen, living & dining).  So, that was changed, but the # of baths was not.  They  have like 5 - it is only 3.5.  Also, they have 4,000 sq. ft and it is only 3,000 - since now we took apart the finished basement.  At any rate, its all wrong.  This will save us thousands.  But, I was getting prepared for this then they pulled the cord!  Sucks!!  But, what a pain in my ass.  Calling the county once a week.  Going to the county buildings to get documents, judge to sign things, etc.  Phew.  Will be glad once this is over!

- Oh yeah.  Electrician is not showing up.  #@@(#*&$^&*^!!!!!  I am still leaving this to Tom.  Funny thing though, Tom mentioned who we were working with (he does everything, not just electrical) to Jonathan and Jonathan's response:  "That's the coolest mother f$#cker in Pittsburgh!".   And of course, he's already offered to give us tickets to the Steelers game (he's got season tix) - AND 4 for the Bengals game.  I will believe that when I see it!

Happy productivity in the AM (before everyone else is awake)!!!!

Decision... MADE!

Any of you homeowners know that if you are designing your own kitchen, bathrooms, etc - there are a lot of choices to be made!!

I'm moving on. 

I'm going to do the 1st floor powder room in Navy Blue and white.  We bought a hot white pedestal sink and it will look AWESOME in front of a navy blue wall.  The two walls perpendicular to it - I wanted to do wall paper.  Well, I was looking for wall paper that was very specific - and it took FOREVER to find!  So, I don't know how I came up with doing a wall stencil, but that's what we are going to do.

So, for the past month I've been scouring the internet for a stencil.  I've used etsy before and I really liked what I got - so I'm going to try it again.  I just ordered this, what do you think?  You can click on the picture and it should take you to the website.

Also, on the four awesomely huge doors we have in our master - the ones for the closet.... they had this pretty medallion in the center.  Well, we took it off while stripping the paint and guess what?  Its plastic!!  Ha!  Since we are going to stain the woodwork to show off the natural, original beauty of this house - we had to pitch it.  

Then, another decision had to be made.  What to replace it with?  Would you know that lumbar specialty stores in pittsburgh don't have much a selection of this?  

On that note, I'm disappointed overall with pittsburgh's selection of stores for home remodeling 'stuff''.  They are all prim and proper and have pretty displays, etc.  I cannot find what we had in Georgia!  A run down place, with clearance or cheap discontinued stuff in corners of the store - that isn't all fancy and nice looking!  Maybe I just don't know where to shop.  But these stores were easy to find in GA... not here!

Sorry for rambling... but that is what blogs are for, right?

Here is the replacement.  What do you think?

Oh - and here are the four doors this is going on to:

We do have to hire a plumber.  The guy we really like isn't available for 1.5 weeks to come out and give us a quote.  

The dent in the fridge has been a nightmare.  Speaking of which there is something I STILL have to do for that!   

And, I need to appear in court to appeal the property taxes on this house (the taxes are based off a 'value' of the house that is about 3 times what we bought it for)

Okay, yeah, I really need to get back to work.  

Happy weekend of working!! :)

Last week's progress

Why is it so hard to find time to update a blog?!?!  Really?!?!

This week and last, we all have had numerous doctors appointments.  Eck.

At any rate, last Friday I was able to help Tom for the day.  I was only able to come to the house at noon since I had plenty of things to do at home until then!?!

Really, I can't wait until this project is over and we can 'resume' somewhat of a normal life!  Of course, this would all be easier if we just paid someone to do it, and paid someone to figure it out.

But, again, back to the reason for this post... 

Friday, Tom and I were able to map out the kitchen appropriately.  We also mapped out exactly where the electric work needs to be done (where pendant lights should be, which switches should be where and turn on what, and where outlets should be).  

Can you see the black chalk lines?  Those are the cabinets.  The blue is the lighting. At least we realized we CANNOT put the fridge next to the lazy susan - SO glad we figured that out.

Better shot of the chalk lines 

Um, yes, that is a steel beam in the middle of the house.  Between the 1st and 2nd floor.  Really, who puts steel beams in houses anymore?  Seriously, at least we know this house was WELL built.  We are finding it has GREAT bones, its just the electrical and plumbing that are messes!  Ugh!

Shot from below.  This is the floor between the 1st and 2nd level.  Yes, that is 4" of concrete folks.  SERIOUSLY.  Well built house!  Yay for us!

Closer shot of the concrete.  

 Well, my two year old left me alone for this long... but now is bugging me! :) 

Ciao for now!

SCRAP run!!

The story of our life right now... Trying to do TOO much with TOO little time!

But, we made it to the scrap yard today!  Mary and I went.  

How much do you think this all would be worth?!?!  

....





???



Yup - $150 bucks baby!!! :)  

Gotta run, cya!

Its a long road...

Up at 5am... thinking about this damn house!!

The shittiest part of this remodel is that I cannot be there to help Tom that much... so, what do you do when you're at home with a 2 year old all day?!?  POTTY TRAINING.  Anyways, that's what we've been up to.  But, I hired a babysitter for tomorrow and for a few hours on Saturday - so progress pictures to come (Tom's not so good with that, all he wants to do is get to work! Ha!)

At any rate, we've been working on some things at home in the evenings - it seems there's always a million things to talk about and discuss.  Last night, we drew up the plan for tomorrow.  Tomorrow I'm going to Allegheny Mill Works - the wood work we have is beautiful and thick and all of that is missing in the 3rd bedroom so I need to get something that matches (you should see it - they put standard builder grade trim up while remodeling the 2nd bedroom and it just looks wrong).  And, tomorrow, I'll be taking the red truck so we can fill it up and load off some trash at the dump.

So, we bought that bunch of cabinets from KraftMaid warehouse, remember?  

About a week or two ago, we went through the cabinets and measured everything and inventoried what we had - gave each cabinet a number (1-32).  Then, we took those measurements and started playing tetris with our kitchen drawing.  Trying to fit them in where we can.  Its actually working out pretty well.  AND, we have two 'appliance garages!'

We've changed around SO many things in the kitchen.  The fridge used to be by the back door entrance, now its almost on the opposite corner.  The cooktop was going to be in the island, but the island is just not big enough for that and to have chairs, so now we are going to buy a stove/oven unit instead of use what we have.  (we also had a JennAir wall oven with a wall microwave - the microwave was just HUGE!)  I wanted a 'breakfast nook' where the range is now located, but it just didn't seem like we had enough room.  AND, we are going to make a really cool tile wall behind the stove, and the stove will have a hood over it.

Whew, this just makes me think about ALL the work that I need to do!  (picking out the tile, hood, etc.)

We are exactly 2 months into this project.  Haven't started 'finishing' much of anything... supposedly finishing takes the longest.

We originally wanted to move in Sept 1st.  Now, we are definitely thinking Oct. 1st.  Who knows, maybe we will have to even push that back... ughsjp@#$^@%$%^$!!!

Happy Thursday everyone!