Rehabber’s Rehab

Thursday

On my lunch break I took a trip to Costco to stock up for the soon arriving horde (the Martin’s, Matt, my Dad and Granddad), the main essentials being snacks (dips, crackers), bottled water (even though the tap water in Chicago is very good), and most importantly Gatorade. Gotta keep the workers happy, otherwise they are running out every five minutes to pick this stuff up. After work it was off to the paint store. Thor and I were determined not to repeat our earlier mistake of just buying paint and putting it up, so we bought about 7 samples of paint for the living room. It’s actually pretty nice that our Benjamin Moore store sells tiny samples that you can put up and try out for only about 3 dollars. I wanted blues, he wanted greens, and we wanted to paint one wall a neutral color. I figured we’d put them up and duke it out. (more…)

OK I might leave the dramatic reveal to Liz’s post about work weekend 1.1, but the front half of the house is looking about 80% done.

Once I took off my cranky pants on Sunday after a frustrating start, a surprise call into work, and having to re-stain some trim that didn’t turn out, the Martin crew was able to wrap up the trim, crown molding, baseboards, and shoe for all of the doors and rooms in the front half of the house.

I was so happy with the way everything turned out and how much we got done.  I am so grateful to my family for all the work they did and the fun that they had doing it.  Sometimes rehabbing can become overwhelming because there is so much to be done just to start doing additional work.  Couple that with an unforeseeable completion and trying to live through the repeated cleanings and messings, cleaning and messings and your life quickly becomes on the verge of breakdown everyday. (more…)

Thor, Matt and I spent the week dry-walling in the living room where the half wall was removed, cleaning gooped up paint off the walls and cleaning up the disgusting mess created by the insulation that rained down when we took off the kitchen ceiling.  This stuff was so foul that Thor even broke down and wore a face mask.

Friday:

We were trying to clean up because Thor was hoping to move in over the weekend.  The goal was to have things cleared out at home to move them and to have the sanding done and things clean so we can bring things in on Saturday.  I was at home cleaning when Thor called me in despair.  The spackle wasn’t drying, there was no way to finish sanding and things were a wreck.  An adjustment to our plans needed to be made, and it’s hard to admit the goals you set are a little too ambitioius.  Fortunately help was on the way. (more…)