Tag Archives: home renovations

Uncategorized

They were supposed to call.

23 Comments

.

Our stone was delivered last week… on a miserably hot day.

.

.

Since we spent a fortune redoing our driveway last summer, we’ve been extra careful about turning the wheel too sharply when the temperature and the possibility of damaging it are high.

Which is why we told the company delivering the stone to be sure and call when they were on the way so my husband could be standing out there directing them to avoid damage. We insisted on it and made sure the order stipulated calling prior to arrival in BIG BOLD LETTERS.

We waited by the phone all morning, and naturally no one called. At the precise moment I was in the bathroom and my husband walked around to the backyard?

This.

.

.

A giant truck with two pallets of stone and a forklift not only backed into the driveway, but off it at the same time.

.

.

Needless to say the husband was not pleased.

.

.

The driveway was cracked and sunken in on one side.

Words were exchanged.

.

.

And the stone that was supposed to sit close to the house within easy reach of the project was redirected here.

.

.

Which is actually way over there.

.

.

My husband (being my husband), made the driver wait while he mowed that section of lawn.

.

.

After which two pallets of heavier than hell stone was plopped on a tar free surface.

.

.

The stone comes in 3 foot sections and my back is breaking just thinking about how many trips back and forth will have to be made to ferry it when needed.

🥴

.

Uncategorized

Slow progress is still progress…

20 Comments

.

Half the new soffit is up and a support pole was placed.

.

.

Because I don’t want to be forced to paint them every few years, PVC column wraps were purchased, for a ridiculous $200 per.

Were they easy to wrap?

.

.

They were not.

Especially when the sun was mercilessly beating down.

.

.

Trying to escape the heat…

.

.

Cutting was done in the garage.

.

.

One pole wrapped but moulding not yet added, husband moved on to taping off the windows.

.

.

Progress is slow, but it’s progress.

.

Uncategorized

Off it comes.

21 Comments

.

Now that the decking has been laid, it was time to strip the vinyl siding.

.

.

This isn’t as easy as it sounds when the people who put it on decades ago used nails as long as your arm.

.

.

Sometimes finesse is required…

Sometimes brute force.

.

.

After the siding was removed?

.

.

The soffit had to come down.

.

.

That was easier, but still awkward.

.

.

It’s amazing how much dirt gets up under there, especially when you live across the street from a farmer who’s always plowing his fields on windy days .

.

.

White on one side, brown on the other.

.

.

Soffit.

.

.

No soffit.

.

.

I have no idea what this is all about.

It’s not mold, just black spray paint.

🥴

.

Uncategorized

News you can’t use.

23 Comments

.

Still here.

Still useless.

.

.

I’m sorry, but women using their brains more than men isn’t news.

.

.

You know what we found during our home renovations? Rotted wood, dust and a broken pencil.

Boo to that.

.

.

Oh holy hell. Now I have to worry about being attacked by a robotic labradoodle?

Stop the world, I want to get off.

.

.

Have I mentioned how glad I am that gifted Cosmopolitan subscription ran out?

.

.

Take a look around.

It’s not hard to figure out.

.

Uncategorized

Before and after….

34 Comments

.

Our new flooring is (90%) done so I thought you might like to see a few before and afters.

Keep in mind the before shots don’t show how truly terrible and worn out the old Berber carpet really was.

.

.

Before.

.

.

After.

.

.

Before.

.

.

After.

(With a gaping hole on the upper right waiting for the new dining room set to arrive.)

.

.

Before.

.

.

After.

With the same empty space on the left.

.

.

Before.

.

.

After.

.

.

Another after from the empty dining space.

.

.

Some of these after pictures don’t do it justice as the true color is hard to capture. It’s not as dark as it looks in some and has a much warmer tone in person.

.

Uncategorized

A baseboard jigsaw puzzle.

8 Comments

.

After the floor was laid and all the new moulding was stained, it was time to arrange the living room jigsaw puzzle.

.

.

I say that because if you’ve ever stained multiple pieces of 10 foot moulding you’ll know they don’t all turn out the same due to variations in the wood.

.

.

Same moulding. Same stain. Totally different grain.

This makes matching and blending a bit of a challenge.

.

.

It had to match an existing door…

.

.

And this slab under the cabinet.

.

.

It’s not easy. And when you use up all the good pieces?

.

.

You hide the bad ones behind a couch.

.

.

Lord Dudley Mountcatten kept a close eye on the proceedings from his temporary perch on a stick vacuum I bought and then returned. You know what $249 gets you these days? A horrible piece of plastic junk.

Think I’ll have to suck it up… no pun intended… and buy a Dyson.

.

.

Living room flooring – done!

Living room moulding – done!

All that was left was putting the room back together.

.

.

After some serious cleaning that is.

🥴

.

Uncategorized

Home renovations turn the corner. Literally…

10 Comments

.

The living room floor is almost finished and we are turning the corner…

.

.

Trying to save some money and move things along, my husband is staying ahead of the contractor with brute force prep work.

.

.

Ripping out the old carpet…

.

.

As the contractor makes his way into the hall.

.

.

This particular area is two hallways.

.

.

One short.

.

.

One long.

.

.

Both covered in nail ridden carpet strips and those nasty little sharp padding staples.

.

.

When that was done my husband started removing trim…

.

.

Which I really didn’t want him to do.

My guy is great with the rough stuff, but when it comes to careful finish work?

.

.

Not so much. He broke off 4 small pieces and split the trim in 3 spots.

.

.

This is the trim I’m trying to salvage of course. We’re putting all new in the living room but it’s priced by the foot and gets costly quickly.

.

.

My repair skills only go so far.

🥴

.

Uncategorized

It’s starting to look like a floor!

31 Comments

.

Things are starting to come together on the flooring project.

.

.

And I’m almost afraid to say this lest something horrible happen….

.

.

But work is progressing smoothly.

.

.

It’s going to take us a while to get used to this type of floor as we’ve had carpet in here since we moved in, but I’m liking it so far.

.

.

Lord Dudley Mountcatten’s jury is still out.

.

.

Though he does enjoy the work table when our contractor goes out to the man cave/Barn Mahal for lunch.

.

.

Progress!

👍

.

Uncategorized

The major, the minor and the furry inconveniences.

27 Comments

.

This first picture is what I call porn for women.

.

.

A man, using a shop vac to clean.

And boy do we need cleaning.

Dust?

.

.

It’s everywhere.

And since my husband is retired again … (did I mention that? He went back to work for 6 months but decided to call it quits for good this time. Or so he says)… our contractor has put him to work with the time consuming annoying jobs.

.

.

Like pulling out all the little pieces of old carpet trapped under the frame of the brickwork.

.

.

So many little pieces.

.

.

Of that horrible dusty rose crap that’s still in our bedroom.

.

.

Its removal will be the next project we tackle after this one.

.

.

If this one is ever finished that is.

And because you know nothing goes smoothly here…

.

.

See the threshold piece wrapped in plastic on the right? See how it matches the flooring? There should have been 3 tubes of that, we got 1.

.

.

The other 2 tubes looked like this.

Not even close… which means another delay and annoyance while we wait for the store to replace it.

.

.

Furry inconvenience?

.

.

We’ve got that too as Lord Dudley Mountcatten has developed a fascination with power tools.

😉

.

Uncategorized

Peeking behind the walls and some hideous vintage wallpaper…

25 Comments

.

After cleaning and bleaching the black mold off the wallboard, our contractor wanted to make sure there wasn’t a larger problem lurking behind the wall and hauled out his spy camera.

.

.

It’s a wonderfully nonevasive way to take a peek.

.

.

And in a very unexpected turn of good luck in our usually cursed house…

.

.

Everything looked fine.

No water damage, no mold. Yay!

Before the contractor started on something else, I had him remove an old useless thermostat left over from electric baseboard heat that was used in the ‘80’s.

Under that thermostat?

.

.

Some really beautiful vintage wallpaper.

.

.

Not!

But it does have all those wonderful 1970’s colors… olive green, gold and orange.

🤣

.

.

A few more pieces of wood ripped out …

And then the reason our contractor loves charging us by the hour becomes clear.

.

.

My husband, talking.

And talking. And talking. And talking.

Ka-Ching!

💰

.

.

His Lordship?

Sleeping in the sun with a catnip mouse.

I wish my husband would do that, it would be so much cheaper.

.