Rehabber’s Rehab

So I started my new assignment at work which requires me to work nights 5p-5a.  It is an awesome new assignment that puts me right into the mix of criminal investigations, interviewing suspects, taking statements, putting away bad guys, and letting the innocent go.  It also allowed me to have a lot of time to work at the house during the day.

The biggest thing we were up to this week was taking bids from plumbers and electricians.  Matt sent out the plans last week and set up the interviews and I stuck around the house to meet with the bidders.  I saw two plumbers including a new company we haven’t worked with before and our trusted electrician from the Rice house.

While I was waiting around I painted the trim in the office (white) and covered up the hideous pink in the office closet with white.  It took two coats, but everything looks real sharp and now the office is well along to being finished.  All it needs is the quarter-round around the base board.  Liz is turning the closet into an a craft corner for her sewing machine and jewelry making.  We might also move in a chair and bookshelves to make a nice little library for reading. (more…)

After half-heartedly finishing the painting in the office Tuesday before, and whole heartedly taking Wednesday night off, our plan was to go appliance shopping and paint the front bedroom. It quickly became apparent that only the appliance shopping was going to happen when once we arrived at the store we became paralyzed by indecision.  It felt like buying a car sans test drive. Laying down that large sum of money on something that you are then basically stuck with for the next (hopefully) 10 years and hoping it works out was a little bit stressful.

We knew we wanted stainless - these days it seems like you pretty much have to if you ever want to re-sell your house.  But the idea of just laying down thousands of dollars just like that was kind of nerve wracking.  After some sniping we decided to go with our original choice of a standard sized side by side fridge stainless.  Although the bottom freezers are more energy efficient, they are just so much more expensive.  The main reason I liked the one we chose is the ice bin is in the door and takes up less room, leaving more shelf space.

Picking a dishwasher was pretty easy.  Right price, and right look.  We liked having the controls on top and out of the way.  It makes for a cleaner look.

The biggest debate was slide-in range vs. cooktop and oven.  The two turned out to be about the same price, so cook top and oven won.  I think it looks a little bit nicer.

After all the trials of appliance shopping, we were done.  No painting, just resting and looking forward to moving.  My condition for Thor was that even though we don’t have a kitchen, we at least had to have a refridgerator.  It’s being delivered on Monday, so next week we’re finally going to start sleeping at the house.

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…)