Update Shmupdate

To me, the new house looks the way it did one month ago. Basically, it's completely painted, the kitchen cabinets are installed, and there is one fully functioning and completed bathroom (in which I even hung a shower curtain this week). Hence, there are no pictures in this update. Also, my camera is all packed away in preparation for The Big Move of 2011, so there's that. Supposedly, my kitchen appliances will be delivered tomorrow. They've been rescheduled twice already, so I have little confidence in them actually making an appearance. This also means that I've had to reschedule the countertop measure twice. If I say much more about these delays, I might explode. I want my freaking refrigerator already.

When I'm at the New House ("working"), I keep randomly relocating piles of tools from the living room to a box in our new back hallway. Thus, if you are missing a screw driver, paint brush, drill bit or a tape measure, it is probably in that box. The tools keep getting piled back in the living room, though, because we have fifty million little odds and ends to complete and they all require some of those tools. My OCDish tendencies then require that they get put away. My visits to New House are usually an odd dance...I focus on the task at hand for a little while, and then get distracted by the need to move all the tools into the box. It's therapeutic, the useless cleaning up. Also, the spouse bought me a Dyson, so it's become fun to randomly vacuum things. (Unsolicited Dyson opinion...it's pretty awesome, however the cord is much shorter than I'm used to.)

The doggies have visited the place several times and have had the expected anxiety attacks...panting, whining, frantic sniffing, drooling. They are fine in the gigantic yard. Bones, my most senior dog, has actually participated in running and playing. Typically, he's a moper and a non player. I'm encouraged by the playing and hold onto hope that the move will be good for him. He hates the bamboo floors though, thanks to his reconstructed knee. This necessitated a visit to Ikea (aka ninth circle of hell) on a Sunday afternoon (seriously, don't do this, ever) to acquire various throw rugs. Bones will now be able to Frogger his way through the house. Squirt is happy so long as she has a fresh tennis ball to carry around.

Things I have learned in this renovatory process are many and varied. For instance, our spray foam guy made a mess of epic proportions on our vinyl window frames (even though he covered them in plastic). After much testing of various chemicals (and worrying that the staff of Home Depot would think I was making a bomb at home), it was Goof Off Professional Strength and my elbow grease that got the remnants of the spray foam insulation off. CPM learned that Clorox Wipes should NEVER be flushed down the toilet. (This is why I do all of the house cleaning.) Oh, and if you are our stucco guy (who hails from Ireland), "third" is pronounced "turd," which makes for all sorts of fun when Colin and I discuss how we are paying him his second "turd" for the work he has completed to date.

Thus, the move is scheduled, the Uhaul reserved. I've shifted some stuff up there, and I have more ready to go in small trips. The TV/Internet/phone got installed last weekend (possibly the most painless Comcast install ever) and it works. That's all for now.

Too Early to Make Some Noise?

Typically, CPM and I would make an effort to stay awake and greet the new year's arrival. Unfortunately, due to extreme exhaustion, we both ended up asleep by 10pm last night. While I don't begrudge anyone their festive celebration of the year's end, I do begrudge them the opportunity to torment my dogs. For a good 45 minutes, Bones shook, and howled, and ran around the house whining thanks to the neighborhood fireworks, which began about 20 minutes before midnight. So, yes, we were awake for the New Year, though unintentionally. And right now, at 8am, I really want to go outside and bang on some pots and possibly set a car alarm off so that the idiots that tortured my poor puppies (yes Squirt was also terrified, but she shakes quietly in the corner) can have an early wake up with their post revelry head aches.

Doing Our Part to Stimulate the Economy

Ah, the fun part of the home project. The buying of stuff. This week, I bought a lot of stuff.

First, on Tuesday, I ordered cabinets for the kitchen. I went to a place in South Philly recommended by a friend. I'm glad I did, because, otherwise, I would have ended up at Ikea, paying more money, and still having to assemble my chip board kitchen. At this place, the cabinets they sell are all solid wood, will arrive assembled, and were far less expensive (possibly because they were made by 7 year old children in China). There was a lot of yelling into telephones in Chinese involved during the order process(not by me, by the sales guy). Bottom line...the cabinets will be arriving on New Year's Eve. They look like this, except no glass doors:



On the same day that I broke my bank account on cabinets, CPM and I also proceeded to our local Home Depot, which I seem to visit at least once per day these days anyway, to take advantage of the "use your high rate store credit card and get your appliances interest free if you pay them off in 12 months" deal. Luckily, I was approved for enough to cover the cost of all of the kitchen appliances, plus a set of LG front loading, stackable washer and dryer. (Dear whomever buys my current home: you're welcome...the washer and dryer that I'm leaving behind are awesome, which is why I just bought the same set for my new house).

Fridge


Range


Dishwasher


You're jealous right? They're all stainless steel! I got a double oven! And a french door refrigerator! God, I'm drooling just thinking about these appliances.

In the days leading up to our spendy escapades, CPM was working diligently to install tons of trim. He's no carpenter, but you would never know it from the way things turned out. I played assistant carpenter and got to use the nail guns and wood putty. (Note: it is best to keep your blood sugar up when working as a team to install trim. I may or may not have had a minor foot stampy tantrummy moment during baseboard installation brought upon by attempting to get through the day solely on chocolate chip cookies, Cheez Its, and the contents of a box of Hershey's Pot O Gold chocolates.)

Front Door


Bedroom


The Big Picture

Floors and Finishes

I haven't been doing a good job keeping track of the changes to the new place. When last I typed here, we were installing a fence. Since that time, the fence was completed, a fresh dumpster was delivered (seriously, this is the last dumpster, I swear), the garage got cleaned out, we painted every room and installed the hardwood floors. I only have pictures of the floor installation and living room paint. I neglected to take any photos of any of the other paint colors. Every time I would go to take a picture, there would be a big pile of trash in the way and I would get disgusted and put my camera or phone away, not wanting to share our messy home improvement ways with the world.







The walls in these photos are painted a Martha Stewart Living color, Magnetite, that I had matched by my MAB paint store. (I refuse to purchase paint from Home Depot or Lowe's, and we've always used MAB products in all of our paint projects.) CPM hates the color, but I love it. I keep telling him to wait and see, that the gray will be a great background for whatever colors we want to bring into the mix.

The floors are strand woven bamboo (in tiger) purchased from Ambient Bamboo. We chose the pattern by visiting a local Lumber Liquidators, then I did an internet search to see if I could get a better price on a similar product. Not only was the Ambient product better, but the plank size was much wider. Ambient shipped the product to me via UPS Freight, and I had to help the UPS guy unload the truck. That sucked, since it was cold and windy on the delivery day, and there were 50 boxes that each weighed 50 pounds divided between 2 skids. It got even better when one of the two skids just broke, so the boxes on that skid had to be unloaded from the UPS truck and taken to my front steps individually. Eventually I just gave up, piled the boxes on my lawn, and called CPM so that he could send help (i.e. two of his employees) to me to get the boxes into the house.

We had to rent a special nail gun to install the floors, as the material is an engineered bamboo product, and it is so hard that traditional hardwood nail guns won't work properly. The rental gun jammed approximately 800 times during the process, and CPM said a lot of bad words while unjamming the gun, but in the end, we got it done. I love the floor. CPM plans to form a break dance fight club. (First rule of break dance fight club: no talking about break dance fight club.) I wish I had gotten video of his back spins.

Currently, our mechanic is installing tile in the bathrooms. Yes, people, it is possible that I will have a flushing toilet early next week! I may not have doors, but, by god, I can pee inside! You don't realize what an advantage a guy has until you've had to pee in a port a potty when it's 19 degrees outside.

Outside Work

After I don't know how many beautiful weekends spent working inside the new place, we decided that we should work on installing the fence on the coldest, windiest Saturday of the year so far. At least, that is how it seemed. Add to that the failure of the rental auger, and you have what might be termed an inauspicious start to a home improvement project. But, CPM and his crew are determined. The auger was exchanged for one that worked. The cold breeze was ignored. And a fence was mostly installed this past weekend. (Okay, there are still several panels and the gates to go in. It's 80 percent complete. Close enough.)

Lumberjacks!


Wow, the garage is really messy.


But the fence "look niiiice. I like."


The stucco guy has also been hard at work. Soon the outside will look as nice as the inside.



What's left to do inside the house is mostly finish work: installing wood trim, door jambs, window sills. We also must begin the nitty gritty of selecting tile, installing tile, putting in a REAL FLUSHING TOILET and FUNCTIONING SINK. Dear god, I can almost taste the anti-bacterial hand soap! I cannot wait to banish the porta potty from the drive way. CAN. NOT. WAIT. After that we need to pick a kitchen and some appliances. (Ikea? Maybe?). No biggie, right? This is never ending.

Warm House

Because we did the whole "super high" ceiling thing in the house, we were basically limited to using spray foam insulation in the walls and ceiling. We used closed cell insulation. Hands down, this was the most expensive part of the renovation project. "Everyone" keeps telling us that we will reap benefits in the long run through cheaper utility bills. They better be right.



If you have any interest, the full set of spray foam insulation photos is here.

I will say little here about how the contractor hit us up for additional money on the last day of the job. Perhaps he knew how exhausted we were, and how much we just wanted to be done. My typical go eff yourself atty-tood was nonexistent, and he got what he wanted. He was a nice guy, just not the best business person. Basically, I feel screwed, because he was the low bidder, but ended up costing us the same amount as the highest bidder. What a racket.

A Handy Guide for Contractors

What is it about contractors that makes them operate on their own wave length? Here are the things I want from contractors working for me:

1. A decent response time. Don't make me wait ages for a proposal. If I need to wait ages because you are swamped with work, just tell me you are busy. I will either understand and wait longer or I will seek someone else out. Avoiding any forms of communication with me just pisses me off.

2. An accurate number. Give me your best quote the first time. When I tell you that you lost the job to a competing contractor because your number was too high, it's too late for you to massage your quote to my liking. It just makes me think that you'll cheat me out of something or cut corners on the job to make your profit margin. You aren't getting the job. Be honest and up front in your original proposal.

4. Show up when you say you will, on time, every time. If you tell me you will be at my house between 7 and 7:30, do not show up at 7:40. Leave your house/shop early if you have to, but get to my house on time. I have a job, my husband has a job, and we are putting our lives on hold for you. Show us some consideration and respect. We are paying you after all.

5. Be prepared. Walk through the job after you quote it, and close to your start date. Figure out where your damn equipment will go. Do not call me on the morning that you start and tell me that your truck will not fit near my house and cause a panicked scramble to rearrange things. If you had walked through the job a few days ago, we could have calmly arranged things to suit your needs.

In short, if you are a contractor, treat people the way you would expect to be treated. Do not be an asshole.