The medicine cabinet adventure was on my first weekend in the house. The second weekend, I wasn’t in the house – I went to DC for Carson’s birthday (youngest nephew – he’s now 3!). It was awesome, but when I returned, I had this nagging feeling that I was behind. So during the week, I finally ordered the part to fix the stove handle, and installed it when it arrived. I bought more paint. I plotted and planned, but didn’t have time to actually do anything, because of two all-day photo shoots that had me leaving the house at 5:30 am and returning to it at 9:00pm. And then it was Friday, the long-awaited day. This day was IKEA day. Continue reading →

Really, I have this shining ideal in my head, where I do a home improvement project, post about it, and then move on to the next. but until I attain that ideal, this is what you get – a big massive update in a series of huge posts, because I’m having to backtrack to cover everything I’ve done so far, and I know I’m leaving things out. But anyway: here goes.

One of the things I wasn’t looking forward to about this house was the location of the washer and dryer. The hookups for them are literally UNDER the basement stairs. You all know me, I’m tall. There’s technically enough space to stand there, but I really didn’t like the idea of standing under the stairs to do my laundry. So when I bought my washer and dryer, I started asking about shifting them, not a lot, just 4 feet or so to the right – enough that they’re not under the stairs. And it turns out it’s not even that far, just about 2 feet for the washer, and then maybe 4 for the dryer. This meant that I got the machines delivered, but not installed, because I knew I’d need to use a longer dryer vent, washer hoses, drain, and power cords to be able to put them where I wanted. I got the cords and all in advance, and then waited for the machines.

They got delivered in the middle of the day last Wednesday, and when I finally had time on Friday to start installing, I discovered that the standard hookups for the washer worked fine – hot water hose to the red-handled spicket, cold to the blue one, drain into standpipe, cord into wall outlet – and all I’d need was a longer dryer vent. Off I went to return the other cords and acquire the vent. Of course, I didn’t actually open the provided dryer cord to confirm that it was long enough, so on Saturday when I got around to installing the dryer, I discovered that the standard cord is 4 feet long. It was maybe 3 inches too short to let me put the dryer where I wanted. So I went back to the store and re-acquired a 6 foot dryer cord, which then allowed me to install the dryer properly.

And then I went upstairs to grab my basket of dirty laundry and realized that I didn’t have any detergent. And decided that maybe painting my bedroom was more important than doing laundry right that moment.

On Monday, I finally bought detergent, and triumphantly started my washing machine for the first time. No leaks, everything sounded good, and I was happy. Until I took my first load of clothes out to move them to the dryer, and they were awfully… warm. I’d washed them on cold, as I always do, and yet… warm. A quick test of the basement sink and some tracing of pipes leads me to discover – that blue-handled spicket? Definitely the hot water pipe. Cursing at the previous inhabitants of the house for labeling things so wrongly, I grab my pliers and unscrew the hose – about half a turn, which is when I realize the spicket is still on, and now there’s water spraying me and the wall and the outlet that’s about 4 inches from the hose, and I manage to drop the pliers (metal on concrete floor is LOUD), but get the spicket turned off, and go find a bucket to set under the hoses while I switch them, which works fine, and then the hoses are right, and I make yet another mental note about the house: check which pipes are which before you connect stuff to them. Even if they’re labeled.

After church, I armed myself with measurements of the space, the knowledge that I was going to have to cut drywall, and as always, my credit card, and ventured to Lowe’s. Where, from across the aisle of bathroom fixtures, I spied the cabinet of my dreams – sized to go between 16″ studs, bronzish edged, metal box with glass shelves, all for less than $100. After a minor frustration finding an actual boxed one that was the oil-rubbed bronze instead of stainless, I heaved it into my cart (carefully!), and headed to the tool department, where a helpful guy introduced me to my new favorite tool: the drywall saw. This was the way to expand the space in the wall to allow my lovely new cabinet to fit. Best of all, it’s actually a cheap tool despite its massive usefulness. Continue reading →

After almost two weeks of rain delay, my roof happened from Wednesday to Friday, my moving day. They were pretty great, despite that I had to meet them every morning to give them access to the house so they’d have power, which forced me to wake up early every day – not my favorite thing. But they worked fast, did a really great job, and cleaned up after themselves so that I didn’t have nails or bits of roof all over the place. The big project was the skylight, which took a bit longer than a day – cutting the hole in the roof, building the shaft for it, roofing around it, and framing it out so it looks nice from the inside. It is amazing how much more light my studio now has – my house is really very shaded by trees, which is great, but makes for a general dimness of the indoors. The studio is now the brightest room in the house, which makes me want to be in there a lot more – unfortunately, I’m still getting quotes on the sliding door to the backyard, and there’s no point in setting up that room if it’ll soon be covered in brick dust.

I did have to paint the inside of the skylight, which is way higher than my ceilings – the ceilings are a standard 8 feet, but the highest point of the skylight is more like 12 feet, so figuring out how to get a ladder that’d fit under the ceiling but get me high up enough to actually paint the whole area was a bit of challenge. Luckily, my dad has an old wooden ladder that’s almost exactly 8 feet tall, so we brought it in and set it up very carefully. The inside of a skylight chase is a fun thing to paint – it’s just 2 feet wide, so only slightly wider than my shoulders, by about 3.75 feet the other direction, and then 4 feet tall. Every time I’d turn to paint a new side, I’d brush one of the already-painted sections with my elbow, or shoulder, or hair – there is at least one piece of hair embedded in the paint for all eternity, because I didn’t see it ’til the paint had dried over it. Anyway, here’s how it looks, and the view through it as well.

When last I wrote, I hadn’t even moved into my house yet. And now I have to catch up on three weeks (!) of move-in, furniture rearranging, and acquisition of stuff. So brace yourself, this is going to be a slew of new posts all at once. And bracing is highly appropriate, since at this very moment there are two guys in my basement making very loud noises as they install the braces on the south wall, which will keep it from falling in. YAY!

I didn’t post that I actually didn’t get my house on the 13th, but rather actually closed on it on September 11th. Great omen, there, after all the issues with closing. But anyway, I have a house, now. And I have refinished floors of awesomeness too – it is amazing how much better they look now that they’ve been refinished. I did a very undignified happy dance when they sanded a chunk of floor and let me pick colors – I went with Early American, which is a lovely reddish-brown tone, a bit darker than what was there before. It is ridiculously awesome and I loves it, my precious, I do.

My roofer just called, too. He was supposed to start my roof last Tuesday. But it rained. And then it continued to rain for the rest of the week. But it looks like he’ll maybe be able to do my roof this week, assuming the weather holds out. Which will be REALLY EXCITING. Because it will be beautiful, but also partially because I really hope the mosquito invasion is because the gutters suck, and he’s replacing the gutters as well as the roof (current bugbite count = only two, because I remembered the bug spray. Bite count the first time I hung out on my porch for fifteen minutes = 25. At least.). YAY.

I’m also painting and getting carpet in the bedrooms this week. All of which will bring this house closer to what I know it can be. Oh, right, and I’m moving in on Friday, too, so at that point, all these projects won’t require me to remember which place my toolbox is, or cause me to carry my vacuum (wow that thing is heavy) across town because floor refinishing produces sawdust like that was the actual goal.

This house thing is giving my dad projects too – like fixing the front step so it’s level, and adding a layer of brick on top so it’s not an incredibly low step followed by a big step. And figuring out what the heck is up with the northeast corner of my basement, which is never actually wet with puddles, but is constantly damp. I am not certain that I would’ve been willing to take on this level of fixer-upper of a house if I lived somewhere further from my parents – having him to obsess about certain details leaves me free to obsess about different details, and yet they all get handled.