Dry wall in kitchen!!!!

Took this last wknd and there yada been MAJOR progress from last wknd! 

Plus, Tom's father, David, is coming to help wed-Fri too!  I think I might be able to put in an entire wknd of working.on the house too! 

More photos to come after this wknd. :)

PROGRESS!!

Mickey, the immediately NEXT door neighbor is at our house RIGHT NOW installing dry-wall in our kitchen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mickey looks like carrot top

Tom happened to talk to Mickey one day two weeks ago while Tom was working outside and Mickey was walking his dog.  For a living, Mickey renovates houses for a local 'urbanization' man.  Mickey does everything in the renovation process - and he renovates places for Joe - whom we met 1 year ago when looking for a place to rent.  Joe's business is called Wylie Holdings, named after his dog).  At any rate, Tom and I are baffled by the fact that we JUST met Mickey - because we've been renovating for 4 months and he lives next door and does this for a living.  Mickey is young, but good and a hard worker.  I have a feeling he will be at our house much more often.  Ya can't beat that commute!!!

Seriously, progress is being made and it FEELS REALLY GOOD!!            Finally!

Only bummer is, Tom's good friend is in town this weekend and Tom isn't able to spend much time with them (I am typing with MA sleeps, and they explore Pittsburgh)

So, because they are in town we all made a trip to Noble today, to show our friends the house and see Daddy while he was working.  Mary picked up her gloves and a hammer right away!  She likes to work real hard, 'like my Daddy'.

This week we decided we are going to make our own range hood over the oven - well, the covering that is, not the actual fan unit.  I don't like stainless steel hoods -  just too much stainless for me.  Plus where the range hood is going in our house it will be a wall of tile and will be very much highlighted.  Anything else other than stainless, pre-made, would just be too damn expensive (of course, I like copper, but that's just too much moola!!!)

Something neat I found on the internet.  Does take time, but Tom can totally build something like this!

Again, another DIY someone did - I found on the net.  Kinda cool!  (unfinished of course)

However, only bummer part this was a propellant to a MAJOR fight between Tom and I the other night.  :/  It was just the straw... we've just been so stressed about everything and we don't see each other much (even when we do, we only talk about business... I mean, the house... pretty much).  It sucked, but is over now and we are stronger because of it.

I will promise to post more often... I've been slacking but you all understand why :)

GO BUCKS!!!

A drop-by from the previous owners - AND VIDEO!!

?!?!?!

Can you believe... that people that owned the place in 1954 stopped by?  Well, the son that lived there.

He actually lives in Florida now and they were in town visiting.  He was born in 54 and grew up his whole life (till 18 of course) in the house.  Too bad I wasn't there, but Rick took him for a good tour of the house.  He gave us his parents contact info too.  We heard that the prior owners used to own the Shop n Saves in Pittsburgh - its true!

AND - THAT BLUE CARPET HAS BEEN THERE SINCE 1954!!!

60 years!!!  HOLY #$@^!!!  I still can't believe that.  All considering, it was in great shape before we removed it (it just had cat piss stains all over it)

In case you forgot what that blue carpet looked like.  Its all gone now!

Updates:

• Electricians, Ernie and Tom, are doing some serious work.  Kitchen is all wired!  Other than I found out they are smoking in the house, things are going well.
• Kitchen to be dry walled this weekend.
• ALL carpet removed
• Staining started, looking great!
• Tom has ~2 weeks left of going to Ohio.  His 14 hour work days are about to be over!!!  I can't imagine the progress we would have had, if he had worked even just a 10 hour day close to home.  He will be able to get there around 4:30 every day now.  AWESOME!!
• Had HVAC units checked out.  BOTH air conditioning units are dead.  GOOD THING we have a home warranty!!

Okay, here is the video we took on Sept. 16.  I will load another video very soon to compare!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ps5hdKiYEOs

Happy Early Friday ya'll!!

Stressed to the MAX

Tom has been working from 5:30am-7pm, roughly 5 days a week for 4 months.  In the past month I've worked A TON, and traveled to Boston and Atlanta/ Auburn for work (and had surgery, etc.).  Its hard to keep up with normal things, let along make significant progress on the house.

To add to that, we have had the house for 4 months now.  Wowzers, that was fast.

STILL, not a SINGLE thing finished.  HOW does that happen?  Especially with 3 guys there during the week, Tom's crazy hours there on the weekend, and us hiring a bit of the labor out?  (Had some masonry work done, plumbing work done, drywaller to come this wknd)

Yes, we have decided there is no way in he!! we would strip the woodwork again, ever.  (maybe just the living, dining and foyer)

Did I share - WE FIRED OUR ELECTRICIAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  And, we have a new one - he started on Wednesday and actually showed up when he said he would!!!!!!  YAHOO!!!  Praise the lord for that!  Couldn't have came at a better time.

So, I really wanted to do a huge update on the blog this past weekend since I didn't have Mary Alice, but I ended up doing 10 loads of laundry and helped Tom a bit at the house (since, when he is there by himself, he gets pretty lonely).  I also bought almost $600 of paint & stain.  My guess is I will eventually need more.

At least we are learning a lot in this process, right?!? :)

I know... you just wanna see pics.  Here goes it:

The living room, BEFORE the carpet was removed the other day!  Yes, that is the lunch table.

Front foyger.  Woodwork is looking GREAT!  Can't wait to see the stain :)

Stairs have been sanded since this photo - but they are looking great as well! 

Dining room.  Its all a mess!  Those cabinets are going in the kitchen, with that white tile as the backsplash.  I can't wait to get it all in!! 

Saving the best for last... Master bedroom, carpet removed and all!  Apparently, the dark spots on the hardwood are cat piss and will sand right up.  Can't believe how much paint is on these floors!  Such a shame people did that!

So, I took some shots while I was helping Tom.  It got pretty dark out - we were there late!  (can't wait until all our electrical work is done!!!)

Took apart the door - trying as hard as can be to get it back together!

STILL can't get it back together - it was a B#&*^%!!!

Wish I took a before shot.  These are solid brass locks.  They are beautiful - but were all covered in soot and blackened before we did this!

Putting the doors back in

One stained, one just sanded.  Seriously can't wait to show this next to the final picture!!

Tom is on his way to Noble as I type.  Guys are there staining as I type, and the electrician is ALSO THERE!  AHHH!!!  I can't wait to see what progress has been made this week!

Its a long road... but we're on it!!

Tom worked a VERY long day yesterday, got home at 8pm.

He is working again today for Kokosing in Ohio.  Blech.  He is bummed but hopefully, maybe, in another month or so his project there will be done and he can have a shorter commute and not work 4x 10 hr days + 1 normal 'salary' Friday.  Its just been a very long summer for him - funny that it was timed perfectly with us buying this house.

Updates on the house:

• Fired our electrician Monday!  Still looking for one - let us know if you know of one, please!
• Josh, Rick, and Dave have been working diligently on the house.  The woodwork is 95% done.  They finished the 2nd floor, and finished the dining room yesterday.  I can't wait to see it!
• Got $5k worth of plumbing done - that was a cost we didn't know we would have!  It looks great, glad that Matt Mertz Plumbing came in and GOT IT DONE!!  Now, we need an electrician to do that!
• Got custom stain from Sherwin Williams.  Kept working on it.  Still not exactly what we want, so I think we are going to customize the custom stain!! :)

Finding the right stain - quite a bit of work!!

So, I found this a while ago on one of our demo days.... It is proudly displayed on our mantle right now.

Can you tell what this says?  I feel bad painting over it... but, I mean... um, yeah.  The kids in this house last, their names were Dean and Stormy.  I actually got some mail the other day for Stormy.  (yes, I am hiding my true feelings)

...

Oh, and on a side note - the melanoma is all gone!  :)  Yahoo!  But, I have a chunk missing from my arm and a 2 inch scar!!  :/

And, the baby is developing well!!  15 weeks today :)  A little afraid this one may be bigger than the other one :)

Here's to a weekend of productivity!! :)  Have a great day.

Busy days

Well, STILL, all we are doing is woodwork.  Really.

If we could go back in time, I don't think we would have decided to refinish all this woodwork.  It is a cost we will never recoup in the house.  Probably going to end up costing us between 7-10k.  Really.  (all labor cost)

We sold our gas cooktop to a guy who is also renovating a house, a house built in 1845.  He was amazed at the woodwork restoration - and said he would NEVER do it!  Ha!

The woodwork in the master bedroom

Mary's room woodwork

They are moving and groovin!  Each window takes a day to strip, roughly, and probably at least a couple hours to sand.  Then you have to go through the nooks and crannies and get the paint out.  Seriously tedious process.

Baseboards and door plinths.  This house was SOUNDLY built.

Josh taking the paint off one out of FOUR french doors that go to this patio.  It took Tom one whole day by himself to do this (while the paint on the flat, large surface of wood was already removed).

Tom and Josh tackling the paint.  I respect them both very much for working so diligently on all this!!

Seems like 6am is the only time I have to update this thing!  Wish I could update more.  But, now off to buy some clearance items from Lowe's.

Happy beautiful Monday ya'll!!  

3 months later... an update on where we are

Life gets in the way, always, right?  (this post may be more about life than the house...)

I have 4 doctors appointments this week.

I am pregnant! :)

I have been diagnosed with skin cancer :(

I am going to be okay.  We caught it really early - I am very fortunate and feel very blessed.  But, I do have outpatient surgery this week - and usually that's no big deal to me, but... I'm pregnant so I worry.  (PSA:  I did do some indoor tanning when I was young and dumb.  DON'T do it.  You are 87% more likely to develop melanoma if you do it before the age of 35).  

Baby should be here in mid-March! :)  We are 12 weeks along.

So, as far as the house...

We have owned it for 3 months now.  Plumbers coming next week.  Our electrician is still not showing up.... :/  We have hired 2 more people along with Josh.  They all worked last week, and made TONS of progress.  I think almost all the paint is stripped.  This week, on to sanding it all.  They made great progress with sanding last week too!  

I took a door with the original wood color to Sherwin-Williams last week.  I'm going to buy gallons of stain this week! :)  I promise to take more pictures this coming week.

The door I took to Sherwin Williams.  I mean really, who takes a door with them somewhere?

Isn't that a pretty color?  Those two doors are our only examples of what the original woodwork looked like.

  

Spent my Friday with this beautiful little girl!

Tio Marco.  We went to Columbus on Fri/Sat. to see some good friends.

 

Mary and her cousin Jacob enjoying some ice cream.  Went to his 2nd birthday party on Saturday.  What a fun little guy!

Happy early Monday ya'll!!!