The Swan (Home Edition)

Well, work has begun on the garage apartment.  The plumbing is almost done and I have to say it's kinda beautiful.  They used all copper piping and the way they have it layed out makes it almost look sculptural.  Our plumbers rock!  We've got a hot water heater, washer and dryer (left by the homeowners), and a utility sink in the garage which is where we'll wash dishes (Suck!).  The electrician is almost done doing his thing.  Then it's time for tile in the bathroom.  We're doing Travertine tiles instead of the marble that's going in the rest of the house.  Eventually this is going to be my husband's "man cave" so I'm trying to pick more masculine things for the room but I'm having a tough time.  Luckily he's been ok with what I've chosen...so far.  Here's some of the things that are going in the room...

The curtains are thermal lined from Target.  These were the only ones that we could agree on.  I think they are nice and neutral and have a masculine-ish look to them.

The light is definitely not masculine but it's the best we could do.  We bought this one for the room and bathroom at Lowe's.  I think it looks kind of period and fits in with the house even though I really don't care too much about preserving the history in the garage.

I wanted to go with a dark masculine color but the room is so dark that we really have to stick with lighter hues.  I let my husband have the color fan deck and he picked out a few really nice blues but they were way too dark so we agreed to use one of these.  The first is Benjamin Moore's Palladian Blue and the second is BM Woodlawn Blue.  I think he's leaning toward the Woodlawn Blue though they are so similar in color that I don't think he would even notice the difference.  Basically this means that I'm just going to choose the one that I like best (hee-hee).

So hopefully I'll be able to take some pictures next week of a completed bathroom.  I think drywall is going up next week so painting may be a bit delayed.  Then there's the floor which needs to be sanded...and the list goes on.  The finish line is barely in sight, but at least we can see it.

Plan B

This is the reason that we bought the house.  We live in a historic district where garages are few and far between.  Let me tell you, this is the mother of all setups.  A driveway AND a three car garage?  Unheard of (if you don't count the 12,000 sq ft school that has been turned into a home which has a porte cochere and a 4 car garage...whatever!)

 Anyway, we're on a deadline.  We have to be out of our other house by the 15th.  Yes, that's the 15th of September.  We've been wondering if we were going to have to rent a place since we still have yet to see any one room done in the house.  Not even a functioning toilet yet to speak of.  My husband was talking with the plumber the other day, and in his infinite brilliance ( the plumber's, not my husband's) he brought up the idea of fixing up the room over the garage as a place to live while the renovations continue on until the end of time.  My first thought?  Why in the hell didn't we think of this?  Duh!  It makes perfect sense.  That is until you go inside.  I haven't been up there since we first got the house and I'd forgotten what a mess it is. Seriously, it looks like a crack house.  No joke.

Here's the stairs leading to our Shangri-la. 

Top of the stairs with lovely shelving to the left.

And here it is folks.  Welcome home!

Plenty of room in that closet, right?

And now to the bathroom.  Or what I like to call the crapper.  I'm not referring to the toilet, but the whole bathroom in general.

I swear I saw a swarm of flies and black goo coming out of the toilet as I distinctly heard a voice say "Get Out!"

So here's where we'll be while the renovations continue.  Don't worry about us.  We'll fix it up a bit so we don't catch some sort of skin infection.  It certainly will be cozy.  Just the three of us and whatever else is living there.  The good news is that we don't have to the decorate for the Halloween party we have every year.  It's all ready done.   Ahhh, home crap home.

My Vacation

I'm on vacation.  Where did I go you ask?  Two blocks down the street to work on the house.   Yep, that's how we roll.  No Europe or Caribbean for us.  I've officially taken off my professional hat and put on my hard hat.  While construction is going on outside my husband and I have been working our butts off inside.  I'm working on the windows and he's working on taking some walls down for the plumbers.  That's right, I said plumbers.  Remember way back when when I said that the plumbing was almost done?  Well we got that work inspected and it didn't pass.  Our new contractor brought in his plumber who agreed with the inspector that the best thing to do would be to rip all the plumbing out and start fresh.  That was fun news.   It took a few minutes to comprehend and then a few days to decompress, but we've moved on and the work is finally getting done properly.  We've really learned a lot from this process, like never buy an old house again.  Ever.  Oh, and apparently you really do get what you pay for.   

 Anyway this week has been in slow motion.  I started the first couple of days taking down wallpaper in the old kitchen.  Then I come to find out that we're going to be hiring someone to finish the walls with a skim-coat.  So that was a big fat waste of time and sweat.  The past few days I've been working on 3 windows.  Yes, days and 3 windows.  I am beyond frustrated.  Imagine a hundred plus years of painting and sloppily repainting the window sills.  It's bumpy and chipped everywhere.  At first I was really gung ho and thought I was going to strip the paint off every window.  Now that I've returned from fantasy land I am thinking that I need to get some really nice curtains to both cover and draw the eye away from the hideousness.  I gave it the old college try though.  I've been a sanding, spackling, caulking fool and they still look like crap.  I'm getting ready to throw some paint on them and call it good.  On to the thousand other windows in the house that are equally as awful.  

On the up side we officially have progress with the new kitchen and porch.  We really are going to have windows but we haven't ordered them yet so for now we've got plywood.  Whatever gets us into the house!

Here's the porch coming along.

This is the old kitchen (and my nemesis...the windows) with the new kitchen opening to the right.

Here's the shell of the new kitchen.

The kitchen looking into the old kitchen which will now be the family room.

So there is progress, but we still need HVAC finished up, new electrical, a bathroom and a kitchen.  

Serenity now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bathtub Sneak Peek and Kitchen Update

Well, here's a sneak peak at what I've been working on in 100 degree weather in a house with no air conditioning. 

 I painted the tub the color that the bathroom is going to be and then did a stencil over it in a couple of shades lighter for contrast.  I'm not going to say that it was easy, especially around the curves.  There were a few times when I was sweating profusely surrounded by what I'm sure was lead dust that I wanted to say f-it and leave it painted without the stencil.  It's not perfect in spots but I think that unless you're really hunting for mistakes it's pretty good.  Now I'm working on the clawfeet which at first I was going to do a gilded silver treatment but then realized that A) I wasn't sure if I'd like it and B) it seemed like a bigger pain in the butt so I'm now going with white feet.  My husband wants me to paint the nails a different color.  Not sure about that but maybe.   The tub color is actually a bit darker than it appears since it is now sitting in the master bedroom which gets a bit more light.  This is more what the actual color of it is:

And just to recap, this is what the tub looked like before.

As you can see, it's a vast improvement.  I had to share my progress with someone since it doesn't look like it's going to its final resting place in the master bath anytime soon.

On a different note, there has been some work on the new kitchen.  The joists and subfloor are down, and the studs are up for one wall.

It's finally starting to look like something.  In the next week the rest of the framing and outer sheathing will go up and we'll have someone come to give a roof estimate.  I knew this was going to be a long process but... wow.  

Progress At Last

Well, we've got a foundation and footing for the new kitchen and porch.  Hooray!  In the next 10 days or so we'll have the floor joists and framing done and it will actually start to look like a room.   The HVAC work should start tomorrow.  They say it will take 2 weeks.  Yet again I'm reminded of "The Money Pit".  Then continuation of the plumbing and new electrical which will also take about 2 weeks.  I'm sensing a theme here.  

We weren't able to sell our house which is a HUGE bummer, but we've rented it to a couple with a son my daughter's age.   They're moving in September 15...gulp.   Hope the house is livable by then!  Still not able to cover the mortgage, but it will be a lot better than paying two whole mortgages.  

I also started working on my clawfoot tub project and let me just say that it has been a giant pain in the arse.  I may have bit off a bit more than I can chew but I've come this far and I'm not about to turn back now.  Seriously, I've spent hours in a house with no air conditioning or power in over 100 degree weather. This thing is getting done!  

Anyway, here's some pics of our latest progress.  Let's hope it continues.

A New Contractor, Hives, And A Birthday- How I Spent My Week

Well in the last week we said see-ya to our old contractor and hired a new, more experienced (and more expensive) contractor.    You know that saying about you get what you pay for?  Yes, it's true.  We're currently in the permit phase which is a time suck.  Every little step of the kitchen addition now has to be inspected.  There's progress but it's soooo sloooow.  I won't bore you with pictures of the trench that was just dug.  

Another highlight of the week was my daughter getting a raging case of hives.  I woke up last Thursday and noticed a couple of pinkish spots on my daughter's cheeks.  It didn't really phase me because she has really sensitive skin and always seems to have some sort of a blemish on her skin.  A couple of hours later her school called me to come pick her up.  From then on it only got worse.  I finally took her to the doctor's office to have them look at it since they're recommendation of Benadryl was not working.  I started looking up hives on the internet only to be scared sh!tless that this might actually last for weeks.  WTF!  Luckily by Monday everything had cleared up and my sanity was restored.  We still don't know what caused it, but she's going for allergy testing to hopefully find out.  

And the cherry on top, I turned 39.  Thirty frickin nine.  I never really fully comprehended my 30th birthday. I'm discovering new wrinkles every day which is awesome.  And, my uterus is shriveling as I'm writing this.  So my birthday is yet another reminder that I've got to make a decision about whether or not to take the plunge and give my little girl a baby brother or sister.  

So obviously last week was a blast.  On a happier note, I did see the last Harry Potter in IMAX 3-D which was magical...pun intended :)

Tales From The Mud Pit

I've been avoiding the house as of late because every time I go over there I just want to scream/cry/kill/run away.  I'm reminded of a scene from "The Money Pit" where someone dropping off Shelly Long asks her, "Are they testing missiles here?" to which she responds, "The house is going to be great".  I find myself saying that a lot lately.  My mouth has been programmed to say it, but my brain is secretly unsure.  Seriously, how would you feel if you came home to this?

It's been raining a lot here lately which is stalling our biggest project which is the kitchen.  A trench needs to be dug so that a footer and foundation can be laid.  Once that's done the framers will come in and then it will start to look like something.  We're still waiting for the sun to come back.

To add insult to injury, our contractor just dropped a bomb on us.  He's getting a divorce, his wife took the kids, and he may be homeless soon.  Great.  So he's completely unfocused.  He's been showing up sporadically, working for 10 minutes, taking a smoke/phone break, then working another 10 minutes and so on.  And, we've become his therapists.  It's a delicate situation.  We really feel for his situation, but he's been dumping a lot of his personal baggage on us and it's gotten to the point where it's downright uncomfortable.  We're going to have to let him go at some point because the projects are almost completely stalled and we're really trying to move in to this house.

The only new thing going on is that we hired a separate plumber and all the plumbing should be done in the next few days.  Phew!  They've put the bathtub back in my daughter's bathroom and another bathtub will be going into the new bathroom downstairs in the bonus room which is going to be split into a butler's pantry on this side

and a full bathroom on this side.

What do you think of this shade?

I'm not sure about it but I was thinking that maybe it would work in the laundry room if I gave it a little love.  I don't know, I'm trying to save some money and reuse as much as I can of what was left in the house (within reason).

Sigh.  Only one word seems to sum up the whole thing.  Nightmare.  But I will go on saying "The house is going to be great" with a question mark until one day in what seems like the unfathomable future it comes true.