My latest project

It's no secret that I haven't been blogging - but here's where I've been....I've been moonlighting as a general contractor.  It's pretty awesome work - lots of logistics and money.

I have to say I think I'm pretty good at it - but you can see for yourself.

Here's a few pre-pix of the awesome house we bought.  We bought it as is - because, well, the price was right!!  Though it was a  year of losing to all cash offers placed at 35-50k more than asking price - despite appearances - I didn't settle for this.  This was the first house where I felt immediately at home in the layout.  It had a dining room, which, amazingly, many models here don't.  It was also in the exact part of town I was hoping to buy...but hadn't seen much on the market. 

And, even after over a month of work it still feels perfect.

Of course, the green color had to go...mostly because there was lots of exposed wood around the house...many of you know me and colors....I could have put this off indefinitely.  Choosing a color to paint the house was one of the few decisions that kept me up at night.  But I imagine many of you are already supporting painting over the green.  The photos actually show the new roof - that was the first of the many jobs becuase the rains were coming....and despite the current drought, the roof job was actually delayed for rain in early October.

Since they were already up there, I went ahead and added new gutters - it just seemed easier to start fresh.  (oh and take note of the gravel sidewalk..a little foreshadowing for the next job)

This is a picture from our walkthrough - the home has original hardwood - with lots of wear and scratches.  I was crossing my fingers that we could work with it - but nothing was certain.

Here's the kitchen - look at all that counter space!!!!  If you ever visited my old pad, that little teeny spot between the sink and the stove was all I had to prepare food...I may not be a chef at heart, but the lack of space in the old place was really discouraging.  And you can see here there's plenty of room for Lulu's dance moves - very important

More dancing to be had in the living room below.  It was a beautiful red wall, but I'm just not sure my kids need that sort of color influence right now - we're pretty high energy and bickery these days...more painting in my future.

Here's a random floor shot, mostly just to show that a lot of the finishing work was missing - random baseboard absence throughout the house, weird holes and cords - but whatever - details details

 ahh...details.  Here's where maybe we get to the big stuff.  The master bath shower hadn't been used in a long time and there was some mold.  Also some in the garage from the leaky roof.  The garage was a fairly quick repair, but the bathroom is a remodel.  However, the owners were very straightforward with all the damage that they were aware of - turns out the wife was my boss's choir director in church...that has to help with the honesty factor right?!?

So the bathroom remodel is underway right now - have no fear all the mold was managed before we moved in - and we are starting fresh and clean!

Here's one of the first jobs - while Lulu was in school Little Brother and I went to buy a garage door.  It's a pretty awesome showroom - the office was inside, but behind a garage door - so Little Brother got to open the door inside...once or 500 times while we were there.  Also - I wanted to get it in before the rains to prevent leaking, and before the driveway went in.  I thought the city would let us keep the gravel for a while...since the neighbors said it had been 2 or three years already...but no such luck.

Here's the kiddos doing what they do :)

Here's another one of the early jobs - the floor.  I found a great floor fellow who assured me the floors could be salvaged.  Phew.  BUT...hardwood floors are a long long long job...and I had a month...and waaay more than floors to do!  But we worked around the individual stages and made it happen.

I opted to add wood in the dining room - so here he is cutting out the old linoleum - and a shot of the flooring going in.

Below is the sanded hallway and living room - all three bedrooms have the hardwood floors, with linoleum in both bathrooms.  From the hall shot below, Little Brother is on the left, first room, then linen closet, then LuLu in the corner.  Full bath at the end, and my room just off to the right.  And thats it!  A cozy little place with just the room we need!  Love it!

So....after the sanding, but before the sealant the popcorn ceilings were removed because they tested positive for asbestos (as most will)....aaannnddd since we had to texture the ceilings I thought we might as well whip the rest of the house into shape....I got the quote..... talked him down...decided against it...and then on the day of the job he gave me an offer I coudln't refuse - SO the whole house (except bathrooms) is textured.  Here's what it looked like during that process - dining room first then living room:

Of course the full house of texture, which I hadn't planned for - necessitated a full house of paint -YEEKS - more sleepless nights.  And, to keep our move in on time and scheduled - that meant painting over Thanksgiving.  I had originally planned to do it myself slowly  until I died...but things probably worked out for the best....The outdoor painter happened to be available for the job - phew, again - and all I had to do was pick a color.  Mr Sherwin and his hired hand Williams helped me by giving me a list of their top 25 sellers of the year...I figured that was probably a good place to start.  

I ended up with Interactive Cream (?!?  seriously)  and Coffee trim (which actually looks white - again w/ the paint colors?!?!)

Here's the living room

and this is the kids' closet - they're both the same - full shelving - wahoo! 

After the painting the wood flooring was sealed - heres a shot of the finished product - it all sanded out so nicely!!  I was and am still amazed.

Here's a shot of the outside paint- it's a light grey with the same Coffee 

(whiteish) trim and the new roof and gutters.

 The old aluminum windows were replaced too - of course?!  Why not...right?!

With Lulu's allergies I really wanted to replace the old mold-prone windows.

Here's a shot of the slider off the living room - it had a nice new one when we bought the house - except that the new window was about an inch all around too small for the hole ...so it was oddly retrofitted and spackled and just had to go - no more leaking no more mold - I couldn't risk it.

And here's the new slider and a few shots of the outside of the house where you can see the paint and the new windows as well.

So - I took the move in stages this time...having just moved three months ago - it was all too fresh to do again in one day.  I took the day off of work and emptied the storage unit into the garage.  

Yes.  It was dumb and crazy and I'll never to it again.  Ever.  There are too many college kids around here that would be happy to do it for less than it probably cost my body....

So the story about the driveway - apparently two years ago the sewer line needed repairs because of tree roots.  I'm deathly afraid of tree roots and sewer line repairs.  Thankfully the pevious owners had handled the sewer line repairs.  But they left the tree ?!  Odd choice.  See the little circle where the sewer line is?  The big hole next to it had a tree - YEEKS. Gone.  I love trees as much as the next person...but that tree was bound to cost me LOTS of money in a decade or two.  A good friend's husband yanked it out and chopped it up for me!

Which helped make room for the next project - the driveway!  Of course putting a driveway in in November is a little risky and though we didn't get much rain, it got too cold to pour.  So of all the projects this one had the most delays...but it didn't matter.  We had street parking and no other job was dependent on the driveway.

And here it its all done - ta daaaaaaa

There's still a long list of things for the inside - and I don't seem to have master bath remodel pix ready yet, but those will come.  Right now we're all moved in and feeling right at home.  And hoping to keep better in touch with all the other life we are back at living!