We are totally buying a new bed.
OMG.
I <3 IKEA.
* Note: if you happen to click on the image to read more about it. It’s important to note that the bed FRAME is $200 — but that doesn’t include the slats or the mattress. Altogether it comes to right around $500-600 for a Queen Size bed, including mattress. Very affordable, and SOOOOOOO comfortable. IKEA is AWESOME.
Attic, 26 July 2006
When we bought this house, it was originally advertised as having “3 Bedrooms.” Any of you familiar with reading real estate listings probably know that this really means “2 bedrooms and a large closet” or “1 bedroom with a large basement.”
In our case, it was 2 bedrooms with a large, partially finished, attic.
The attic is mostly floored (3/4″ floor boards), mostly drywalled (it still needs finished), and mostly wired (three outlets, two light sockets).
But it’s not a bedroom. Continue reading
The kitchen is nearly done.
After about 2 weeks of using dirty dishes, eating off of paper plates, and washing cups in the bathroom sink, we now have a functioning sink, dishwasher, and garbage disposal — and LOTS of counterspace! yay!These pics of the stove and refrigerator are both digitally altered. The stove and fridge won’t be moved into place until after we paint, which I think we may do tomorrow.
Tonight was a minor victory because I was able to load up our DISHWASHER (!!) with all the dirty dishes in the house and let IT do the washing. I can hear it humming 2 rooms over right now. We ran into a couple small SNAFU’s: The countertops came in yesterday, and they were installing them in the morning, while I was at work. Melissa was here and was sitting on the couch reading a book. Apparently “the guy” that cut the countertops made a slight mistake on the measurement for part of the L, and forgot to put the laminate on one of the standalone base cabinets! When Hank (the countertop installer) came out to tell Melissa, the exchange went something like this:
I had been tearing up the kitchen floor to prep for this. The night before Jerry came over and he and I stripped down the walls and KILZ-primed them. That stuff smells nasty! Good thing we had the fan in the window! The kitchen already started to look better with that ugly wood paneling off the walls and the Red and Blue getting covered up. There were lots of divots in the plaster, which was unfortunate. I tried spackling some of them, but I didn’t have enough spackle so I settled for spackling the ones that would be visible above the countertop. The parquet-floor in the hallway had suffered a similar fate, but was on hold for the time being until we could get the kitchen to the point it needed to be.
Melissa and I woke up bright and unfortunately early at about quarter after 7am. We hadn’t slept very well the night before because Bowie and Frank kept antagonizing one another. Frank was making this weird “mooing” sound at Bowie, to express his discontent, and Bowie was compulsively pacing back and forth between both bedrooms. Continue reading
No pictures this time, unfortunately. The computers are still packed up and we just got the Internets at our new house today.
Day 4: (Saturday) Painting & Parquet
Paint, paint, and more paint. Today we had a little help. Jon Hale and Bob Hunter came over to help out with moving. We got a LOT of stuff moved. The living room is all but empty now — only the TV, couch, and small writing desk remain. It was really hot outside, and I was pouring sweat. My shirt was 100% cotton; When we were done moving, it was 50% sweat as well. The Gill came over and helped out with some painting, and with the parquet floor. We were able to get about half of the floor ripped up. Not having power tools makes for sore hands! Satya came over later on and helped out with the spackling around the ceiling of the M/BR. She and Melissa left around 9 or so, because Melissa was exhausted. I took over priming the Living Room, and at about quarter after midnight, I finished. My friend Vernon came over while I was painting primer, and I showed him around. He offered to give us a working Dishwasher for free! Awesomeness!
Day 5: (Sunday) Appliances
The majority of today was spent getting our appliances. Melissa’s brother, Matt, works at Lowe’s in Noblesville. We drove out there that morning at around 10am after clearing out an area in the Dining Room to set them. We visited Matt’s house, and then went up to Lowe’s to pick up the appliances. We got a brand new Whirlpool 25.3 cu.ft. side-by-side refrigerator, and a brand-new GE flat-top stove. The price was ridiculously low. Thanks Matt! We loaded them onto the truck, saran wrapped them since it was rainy, then we were off! We grabbed some Skyline Chili and headed home.
I called Jon Meade on the way back, he said he’d come over and help out with the move-in. When we got to the house, Jon, Dave, AND The Gill were all there! Good thing too, as the fridge needed to have the doors removed in order to get it into the house! Getting it up the stairs was a hassle as well. Once it was indoors, and re-assembled, we plugged it in and loaded it up with the bottled water we had bought the day before. Awesome! I’ll get pictures of it up here soon. The rest of the evening we decided to take off. We were both really cranky and tired from working all week. I don’t think either of us had it in us to do any more!
Day 6: (Monday) Painting & Kitchen Renovation
Yesterday, we met up with a fireman I had been speaking with, Steve Brown. He had told me that he and another Fireman do kitchens on the side. I think I had mentioned him in a previous blog…maybe not. Anyways, Melissa and I went over to a house he did to see his work — It was great work! The cabinets aren’t perfect, but they do look really good, and the price is right. All of the plumbing and everything was all really well done as well.
He came back to the house and we planned out the kitchen. I moved the old fridge out of there using the orange Dolly that Melissa’s Dad left behind. The kitchen is going to take some somewhat radical re-arranging (including replacing a window and re-wiring / re-plumbing the whole kitchen) but it’ll be great when it’s done. It’s not a very large kitchen, but it’ll at least have counter space, a nice sink, and storage space. And it shouldn’t be terribly cramped.
In order to prep the kitchen, though, we need to paint KILZ primer all over the walls to cover up those ugly colors, and we’ve decided to tear up the Vinyl flooring as well. I started in on that while Melissa started painting the living room. I alternated between painting the ceiling and ripping up flooring. Melissa’s Dad had left us some tools that made the floor stripping a bit easier. I was able to get the paneling and vinyl floor up, but it looked like there was some previous tiling BELOW that, that had been glued directly to the hardwood floor! 
We’re probably going to have to either sand it down, or get creative with how to get it stripped up. Either way, it’s going to need some serious refinishing. When it’s done, it should be nice though.
The deadline of the end of the month is rapidly approaching. I have class tonight and tomorrow night. It’s going to make it really difficult to finish this moving business by then! If anyone can help, we could really use the assistance! We’re going to acquire a truck or a large moving van / trailer to try and load everything up and move it all at once. We have a few pieces of large furniture, and lots of smaller things that need moved. On top of that, we need to get painting and things done in the other rooms so that furniture can be moved INTO them. The Living Room is pretty much done. It just needs some really minor touch-up work around the edges, where we couldn’t fit the roller, and along the ceiling, where Melissa couldn’t reach. Easy enough.
If you think you can help, call Melissa or I, or email us!