Rehabber’s Rehab

Thor and I made our final cabinetry decision tonight. After getting quotes in the cheap and the super custom, we decided to go with midrange KraftMaid. The brand is pretty highly rated, and seemed to give us a lot of choices. We knew for sure from looking around that we wanted cherry. We figured that out after every cabinet we picked out that we liked was in this wood. Our final choice was:

The runner up in the color we chose

Thor had already spent 4 hours at the Home Depot agonizingly watching the sales associate slowly click on the computer and figure out which cabinets we would put in the space. Then I got to waltz in tonight and make the final decisions. The moment of truth and final decision occurred when we were deciding what cabinet to put in the last corner. The corner is shortened since the edge of the short wall is there, and so a typical corner cabinet does not fit. Unfortunately Kraftmaid doesn’t have any cabinets that would fit (something I learned after much discussion). I really wanted that extra 12″ of space. It drove me crazy to think about the space being wasted, and I wanted it.

I “suggested” switching to a different cabinet company that might have a solution for our corner problem. Thor told me that if I wanted to sit and watch that woman dawdle on the computer for another 3 hours while she redesigned the kitchen in another cabinet brand, I was welcome to, but he was done. I decided that perhaps a compromise and keeping Thor happy was more important that those 12 inches and caved. Besides, the idea of watching her mess around on the computer any longer than necessary made me wanted to knock myself over the head with one of the granite samples.

We picked out the bathroom too, a plan light brown maple cabinet that should go nicely with the tile.

You might have noticed our site was hacked.  They got in through our photo gallery.  It’s a WordPress plugin that I have really enjoyed, NexGen Gallery.  I am still figuring out how to make it more secure in the future but still get it to run. Things were looking fine yesterday, and today it’s just exploded.   I’ve gotten a billion messages from my web hostinging service.  I guess it’s good to know they care.

Some folks are pretty on top of things, I’ve gotten several e-mails and comments as well.  I’m only moderately technically savvy – enough to keep things barely running normally.  Looks like some wachovia thing.  No wonder those guys got bought up.

Why, why, why would someone attack our poor innocent little house blog?  Sometimes people suck.

I have been feeling oppressed by my house lately.  This has been coming on for about a week or two now.  If you have noticed a lack of posts, it is in direct correlation with (what feels like) a lack of work.  When we are busy working on projects, walls are coming down, windows are going up, I feel good.  Although the situation is not ideal, we are making progress that gets us closer to the end.  Lately, through, it seems that I have been living with 2×4 studs and dirty floors forever.  Instead of coming home from work and having a wave of relaxation and relief wash over me as I sit on the couch and take my shoes off, I just look at the dirty floor and insulation flecks on the couch and feel my skin start to crawl. 

I can barely stand to take a shower any more.  The bathroom is so disgusting and dirty, and cold.  It is impossible to keep warm with the draft that blows in between the plastic sheets.  It used to be that my shower is what got me going in the morning.  Now it is a thing I dread getting out of bed for.

Thor tells me I am a trooper, and to keep it up, and I just sigh.  I don’t even feel up to telling him where to shove it anymore.

Things are happening at the house.  The plumber was there all last week.  But the things he is doing are largely imperceptible.  Sure, a new copper pipe appears out of the wall every once in a while, but it hasn’t changed my life any.  The water pressure is still as bad as ever.

But, real change is happening today.  As I type, Randy, Thor and Matt are ripping off the roof of the sunroom and putting a new one on.  I only hope they have it back up when I get home, because it is supposed to be 28 degrees outside tonight.

As of today we have one working sink, one shower and one toilet, and they are all in different rooms of the house.  Pictures coming soon.

Here’s how it works.  You can take a shower upstairs, but there’s only 3 walls in the bathroom with the fourth covered in plastic.  Needless to say, it’s a bit drafty.  You can go to the bathroom, but you have to go to the basement, steer clear of the mess, and wearing shoes is a must, and the toilet is in a room Liz refers to as the dungeon.  Then you can wash your hands, do your dishes rinse your face, and clean out your painting tools in the utility sink.  One stop shopping, if you can find the basement light, which Liz still has no idea where it is.  I just leave it on all the time for her.

The plumber arrived and started taking out the old cobbled together lead pipes and backed up drains.  Not only were we adding new plumbing for the new shower, second vanity sink, kitchen sink and gas range, but we were also taking the opportunity to do some cleanup and upgrading.  (more…)

Project of this weekend was dressing up the windows we had installed last weekend.  We ordered the windows in wood unpainted or stained so we could do it our selves and make sure the stain matched the rest of the house.

First step was taping off the window edges, during which I have perfected my taping technique to a perfect art.  We are talking edges that meet perfectly in the corner with no gaps in-between.  This is opposed to my usual modus operandi of ripping of hundreds of tiny bits off to have the tape meet and overlap exactly in the corners, and ending up with messy pieces that fall off and are stuck everywhere.  The trick, I found, is to lay the tape  along the edge and up to the corner.  Then placing a putty knife in the corner cutting it into an oblique angle, you can rip the tape along the edge.  You should rip from the corner inward.

The weather is unseasonably warm right now, so we knew this was a project we needed to get done as soon as possible.  We removed the windows from the frames, and stained them to match all of the trim.  It was a bit of a rush job since the windows needed to be put back in before we went to bed, so the stain didn’t get to set as long as it should before we applied the polyurethane, but it worked out.

Taking the tape off, we started out using cotton rounds and alcohol to remove the left behind tape gunk, but then I switched to nail polish remover (acetone), which worked quicker with a lot less elbow grease.

There was one mishap taking one of the double hungs out and the catch on the tension cord that lets the window go up and down was broken.  No word yet on if there is a warranty or replacement part.  We are completely bummed because they are brand new and it is the one in our bedroom.

Either way they are looking really great and add a lot of character to the house.

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