Rehabber’s Rehab

We’d been pretty unhappy with the electrician, from his constant complaining, scratching up our newly refinished floors, and leaving messes around, he has been one of our least favorite contractors (although I am sure he has not liked this project either as he is deathly allergic to cats, and has been miserable the whole time).  But when I mentioned my biggest pet peeve to him, that the two plugs in the bathroom above the sink were not level with one another, I was told that it would be “no problem” to fix it.

So when I came home from work tonight, and went in the bathroom and saw the GIANT hole in the wall indicating he had fixed it, I figured it was no problem, no big deal.  I said “so…I guess the electrician was here.”  Thor had been home for a couple of hours at the time and replied “yup, he was just finishing up a couple of things.”  Thor seemed happy with having our electrical work done. I asked Thor if the electrician was done, and he repplied in the affirmative, everthing looked good.  I asked Thor if the two electrical boxes were level now, and he said “huh?  The electrical boxes?”

He then went into the bathroom.

“*Fudge! Gosh Darn it!  Gosh darn child of an un kind woman! What the fudge!  What the fudge was he thinking.  That fudging incompetent unmentionable…” and so on.  And on.

Meanwhile I am in the kitchen wondering what just happened.  I ask him if he’s hurt.  Because if this was about the hole in the wall, how had he managed to miss it the previous two hours while he was home.  To which Thor replied “*Fracking butt eater.  He put a giant hole in the wall.  In my newly dry-walled forking wall!”

I guess he hadn’t noticed.

Our countertops were installed today.  We now have SURFACES.  Places on which to put things.  A covering that keeps the dirt out of the drawers.  And the sinks are installed.  We have to get the plumber back to get running water to them, but in terms of appearances, we are starting to get there.

The bathroom and kitchen look like what they’re supposed to be now, and I know that we are so close to utilizing them for their actual purpose.  In a few days I can (or Thor can) wash dishes in the dishwasher and not the tub.  The countertops in addition to the microwave that Thor and Matt installed last weekend are turning the room into a usable space. The microwave was a bit more trouble than we thought it would be because the electrician put the plug a little too high and at first we thought a part was missing.  All the worry was for nothing and eventually it went in.  This increased our quality of life also because we were able to move the old microwave out of the office and are able to start to use that space for its true purpose.

I think I am most pleased with the bathroom.  It is a remnant that we choose in the middle of a snowstorm on a Friday afternoon.  All of the slabs of granite were frozen together and it took 6 guys to pull them apart so that we could look at this piece.  It looks awsome with cabinets and the slate we already have in there.  There was definitely a moment of worry when we chose it because we didn’t have any samples with us to make sure it matched, so I was doubly thrilled to see how good it looked.

The kitchen is thrilling too.  We were finally able to settle the debate over whether the countertops were black or not.  They are not.  They are green with black, gold, and white flecks.  After this weekend it will work like how it’s supposed to too.  As I type, Thor is in the kitchen installing the tambour (appliance garage) in the kitchen corner.

In the past months things have been happening that have lifted my spirits and made my life better.  The shower is wonderful, and I love looking at the tile I painstakingly cleaned off for hours.  I don’t think anyone else will ever enjoy that bath as much as I do.  Then I wander into the kitchen where I have CABINETS with stuff in them.  Tuesday night was spent joyfully, finally unwrapping our wedding presents and getting to put everything in its proper place.  We just kept everything stored in their boxes waiting for the day we would have a place to put it all in.  It was like Christmas all over again.

In honor of this wonderful progress, we finally updated our Projects sidebar.  The backyard got an extra percent because one of the horrible pine bushes we were going to take down fell on its own under all of the snow this winter.  We argued about the rest of them, Thor wanted to represent everything as a little more done, but I say that he doesn’t factor in the details enough.  I am afraid this is a sign that they will never get done because they don’t “count”.

It is freezing cold here in Chi-town, so Thor spent the evening trying to insulate the attic a little more.  I am huddled under a mound of blankets as I write this because it is 59 degrees in our house.  Our ancient heater just can’t seem to keep up with the -11 degree temperatures outside.  We just hope it makes it through the winter and gives us a little more breathing room before having to buy another big ticket item.  The new windows are doing great, though, at helping to keep the cold out.  The main chinks in our armor are the uninsulated area where the new back door is supposed to go, the entryway to the basement, and the attic door.  I do think this will help me win the argument about tiling the sunroom with a heated floor.  The floor right now is enough to freeze your toes off.  We will see.

This holiday season was filled with fun and sadness, and between the two, and the house, I am worn out. However, we have started to turn a corner. It had seemed like everything that had happened until now was progressively making my life worse and worse. Everything was dirty all of the time, the dust had spiraled completely out of control. We lost electricity in half of the house, there was no shower, the only toilet was in the stinky make-shirt bathroom in the basement. To top it all off, it was cold. Really, really, cold. all of the insulation had been removed from the back of the house in re-doing the sunroom, and it was making winter in Chicago pretty unbearable.

So we retreated to my mom’s for a month, but now we’re back.  The cabinets in the kitchen and bathroom are in, the floors look awsome, and there is consistent electricity, including overhead lighting in the living room (a rarity in Oak Park), and now, we finally have the refrigerator actually in the kitchen.

This past weekend was spent on a few miscellaneous projects.  We got the the window trim all put back up, in the dining room and main bedroom and it looks great.  The new continuous window sil blends in beautifully with the rest of the original trim.  Matt and Thor also got the refridgerator put into it’s built-in cabinet.  And it works, too.  Probably the biggest task was getting the giant bathroom linen closet cabinet in.  A good 2 hours was spent with Thor and Matt locked in the bathroom as they tried to lift the cabinet in and maneuver it into place with about a 2 in area of wiggle room.  They got it in, and trimmed out.  We just need to finish drywalling in the top area around it.  Meanwhile I worked on stripping the door to the basement in hopes that putting that back up will help keep the house warm.  We will get there.

We passed our insulation inspection with flying colors and now have permission to cover up the walls with drywall. We originally planned to drywalling ourselves, but then looked into seeing if our mudder knew anybody. He came back with a price we couldn’t beat. So on Saturday morning Francisco and his buddy came by. A few short hours later the entire project was drywalled.

I’ve never seen anybody move so fast. These guys were actually running around the house while working. All we needed to do was finish a couple of framing things and try to keep them supplied with drywall.

On Sunday we took the day off after doing some cleaning and Francisco started mudding the walls to make them smooth. Mudding is an art that it just doesn’t pay to do yourself. You can never be as good as a professional. You can never be as fast, and its cheap work ($500). Unless there is a hole that needs to be patched you will never catch me mudding and sanding.

By the end of the weekend the rooms had finally come together to look like actual living space. The bathroom had walls, the windows were surrounded by drwall, you could no longer see through to the outside, and a huge plus or plumber returned to install our new upstairs toilet.

With Liz finishing the painstaking cleaning of the slate tile we had a functional bathroom after five weeks of using the nasty and scary basement toilet.

By the middle of the week we could finally move back in, although we remained at Liz’s mom house because of the regular traveling for the holidays and the funeral in Galveston, TX.