Closet Project

This weekend!!!

We are going to be repairing ds' closet. Dh ripped it apart in October to "See what it needed" & there it has been sitting. I am trying to get organized & the poor boy has no closet!

The closet is tucked under the stairway to the apartments. It was set up weird, dh actually wants to at some point take over the closet & my linen closet & install a 2nd bath, except then we lose 2 closets??? Not sure if the gain is worth the sacrifice. Well anyways, when the wind blows it will actually push open the closet door. Since we ARE NOT going to insulate the stair landing we need to insulate the closet. I am hoping that it will cut down on the smoke coming in as well. We do not smoke, but the tenants do & on the landing in bad weather, so it just rolls in. I can't stand that our son goes to school smelling like a cigarette, when none of us smokes. Not to mention the obvious health concerns (2nd hand smoke, he could be allergic, we don't know yet.)

I'll let you know how it goes. It was like pulling teeth to get dh to do it my way. He actually wanted to rip out the existing wall, repair the floor behind it, then insulate & fix the wall. Call me lazy, say it's too cold out to be ripping out a wall, say I just didn't want to spend an extra $100 on plywood, I didn't want to disrupt whatever animal has decided to call the holes under the floor (not even a crawl space) home...I just didn't want to do it THAT way! We are going to stuff insulation alongside the exposed stair tred. Then put insul-board up, I'm not sure what he bought to go over that, we discussed luan, but who knows what our store actually had.

I'll try & snap some pics before & after!!!

Wish us luck.

Christmas @ the money pit

We need a bigger tree!!! That is what I get when I look at the picture of it's skinny little self standing in the corner of the living room. It was on sale & we were desperate!!! What can I say...

Well we have decided to finish the kitchen soon, now that we have a plan that might work for us. Of course we should start with jacking up the floor where the fridge used to be. We moved it to the other side of the room when we realized the floor was sagging. Now I have a counter along that wall. I'd like to get that side finished, but I'm waiting for a level floor.........

Well, anyways, the elves were happy & we are hosting our last fete tonight with dh's friends, so I need to go get some groceries!!!

The Kitchen Ceiling

Ok, so we began with ripping out the MOST UGLY BERBER CARPET EVER TO BE PLACED IN A KITCHEN. Anything was better, the stains were awful. It was said to be stain resistant, but it obviously wasn't, I have 2 small children & I am an avid baker/chef. so the kitchen gets messy, like sweep & mop messy, not vacuum messy. The carpet came out one day in a fit of rage, after the baby knocked her bowl of carrots on the carpet. I decided that I didn't care if it was plywood anything would be better. So I pulled up a corner & found the most gorgeous hard wood floors EVER. Grrrr, oh well, the previous owners loss I guess considering we were told exposing the floors added instant value to the home... So BONUS, the kitchen has great floors, out went the ugly carpet & I'm doing the happy dance... THEN...

Not too much longer after the floor we started getting a wet spot on the ceiling, ok, what's going on with that.... Turns out that the front apartments toilet is leaking, WHY you ask, well because somebody set it on rotten plywood & the bolts never actually grabbed any wood (this was obvious, don't ask me how, just was). So this is what we had

So we had to rip down the ceiling, thankfully the home owners covered the repair, because we had to replace the ceiling. We were able to insulate as well, making the kitchen a little warmer & quieter.

The worst part about replacing the ceiling was that the grid of firring strips & 2x4s were installed improperly & un level. So the 2x4 actually rested on top of all the door trims. We couldn't get the ceiling tiles to go in between. We actually have a corner that the ceiling comes down about 2" into the window trim......... WHY??? Now how do we finish it off, where are we supposed to put the trim? GRRRRR.

So we replace the entire ceiling, and then we get...WATER. NOW WHAT????? OK, another tenant had moved in (very briefly) they didn't have a shower curtain HELLO, DUH. Of course that didn't stop them from taking showers....

So we pulled down the section that was damaged & replaced it, we still have some leftover, it had better not happen again......

So now why is the floor wet in the kitchen hun? WHAT???? Ok, new tenants, with kids, apparently if you move the shower head too far & unscrew it it leaks.....

So, we left it open for quite a while...thankfully because it leaked again (this is what, the 4th time????) Now we have it so the ceiling tiles directly under the pipes can be easily removed & replaced without disrupting the rest of my NEW ceiling.

Have I mentioned just how much I hate dropped ceilings, the people who installed them in MY house & the mice that had made it home...

Welcome to our home!

Ok, so these pics are a little old, like 3 years old! But, I'm not running out there today to snap new pics, brrrrrrrr.





We have done very little to the outside so far.




The front porch is no longer yellow. It is now 3 lovely shades of green. We have removed the sad looking pines & planted some wisteria which are growing up the main colums & across the front. I'll have to take new pics before I just confuse everyone!!!

We have lived in the house for 3 years now, we live on the first floor, the 2nd floor is 2 apartments (currently occupied by a "family" of 5). I can tell you that we believe it was built in 1867, was originally part of a large dairy farm & converted to apartments sometime in the late 40's early 50s. The original staircase is gone. They left enough showing above a dropped ceiling (grid) to make me cry uncontrollably. There may be pieces of it in the attic, but I can say I have only been up there twice.

So far we have improved the kitchen, it isn't done by any means, but it is better...

The room has goregous built in pass through cabnetry








The front room facing the street has 2 of these windows.






There are 2 of these windows in my bedroom.






There are 5 foot oak panels on the wall in the "Dinning Room" we use it as our living room right now.







So now that you have seen what sold us on the house I can begin to tell you of our long journey to turn this house into a home.......