Girl Meets House

trying to get by...

2011-12-08T23:22:00.001-06:00

I don't know how many ever still stumble upon this block

I posted a while back about being sick and some of my faithful readers seemed a little concerned. I am sad to report that after that posting things just got worse. I am in danger of losing my house. I lost my job because I was out sick too much.

Please share this with anyone who might be willing to help out a little. They can remain anonymous.

Thanks everyone, happy holliays.

http://www.wishuponahero.com/wishes/?id=1090891

Getting started on landscaping

2011-06-03T09:17:00.003-05:00

I finally got a couple things to put in the yard. I have a Dwarf North Star cherry tree that will go in the front yard, and some hydrangeas to put out along the side of the garage.

Other plans include putting river rock around the perimeter of the house and figuring out exactly what to do with the little area right in front of the house. I had petunias there last year but I didn't like how they get all gangly as the summer goes on. So if anyone has any suggestions, please post a comment!

Now for pictures.

This is my tree and the hydrangeas waiting to be planted:

This is where the cherry tree will go. The blue outlined area is where the rock will be. Enjoy the bonus artwork!

And this is the part I'm not quite sure what to do. I'm considering Shasta daisies or moss roses.

Be good...

2011-01-25T14:06:00.004-06:00

snow deer is watching.

Storm takes out my fence.

2010-06-26T12:16:00.003-05:00

To be honest I knew it was only a matter of time before this thing fell over, and once they took out the big evergreen tree in preparation for the EPA project in the front of the house all we needed was one good storm. We got it last night.

I guess I know what my next project will be!

A new pet!

2009-10-06T03:41:00.010-05:00

Hey I got a new pet a few days ago. He's got his own little cage. He's not very cute but he's pretty low maintenance.

Hee hee. He's been there a few days now. Actually I'm pretty grossed out about it.

Seriously though, I did get a couple of kittens at the Humane Society a few weeks ago. They were little mates and they are just the cutest little things.

This is the first day I got them. Mixie is on top and Trixie is on the bottom. They were 8 weeks old in that picture. They have already grown so much! Here they are now:

Trixie is on the left, Mixie on the right.

Cherries cherries cherries

2009-06-15T00:50:00.005-05:00

The theme of my kitchen is cherries. Here are close ups of some of my cherry items. You can click on them for a larger picture. These are all pictures from the last month or two. I am too lazy to reset the camera after I charge the battery.

Cherry potholders:

A cherry container:

Cherry hand towels:

I have some other ones, as well as a 50's style apron in the same cherry print as the potholder underneath the other in that picture up there.

Once in a while I get crafty... I embroidered this. Yay!

My mom made me these cool cherry curtains. And I have a little cherry thing that hangs on the window.

My mom also made me a toaster cozy. My toaster is pretty cool though, so it's a toss up whether I should keep it covered or not.

Kitchen Before and After

2009-06-06T11:25:00.003-05:00

First of all, I want to thank everyone so much for the support here in the comments and in email. Right now things are well. I am still on oxygen. My employer dropped my medical insurance, but I have already got that figured out. I am going to get a second opinion on the advice of my home care nurse. I've never done that before, but I guess this is the time if any.

Alright, back to he house. I am starting a new "series" where I am going to post the pictures from the original internet listing and try and take the same picture with what it looks like now. I'm starting off with the kitchen. I will have more specific kitchen pictures shortly, so you can see some of the details.

Basically, I took down the wallpaper and painted, took down the drop ceiling, replaced the light fixture, added curtains and removed the can opener under the counter. This was actually the room that probably needed the least amount of work.

Is this how a gutter is supposed to work?

2009-04-26T09:54:00.004-05:00

Hmmm... I don't think so.

(yes I still have my Christmas lights up, come on, it's only April)

Perhaps it was sabotage (but you have to say it like Shatner).

Kitchen Done

2009-03-27T22:24:00.002-05:00

I finally have everything done in the kitchen that is going to be done for now. Eventually, when I get some other stuff paid off I want to redo the cupboards and stuff in here, but I like how it is. I am still working on before and after pictures, but here is a preview. I posted this picture of the retro clock that hangs above my kitchen sink:

And here is what that area looked like before. Basically it was a nightmare. The first layer of wallpaper came off easily, but then there was another layer under that. I have had no luck removing the first layer of wallpaper in this house. So I went ahead and sanded it down as much as I could, sealed it and skim coated it, primed it, and painted it. You'd never know that there was paper still under there.

more to come... soon (i promise!)

Permits Department surprise

2009-02-11T21:39:00.004-06:00

Argh!! I am so disorganized! I have no idea what I did with the papers I printed out when I went down to the city office. They were only $.25 a piece, so I will just have to go reprint them at some point.

When I got to the office the lady working there showed me where the computer I wanted was. I went and put in my address. The oldest permit I could find was from 1951.. all my paperwork says that my house was built in 1930. I thought maybe the records only went back to 1950 or something, so I decided to look up the other houses on my street. Some of them had permits going back to 1924!

I was very discouraged, thinking that for some reason my permits were just missing. There is a drop down menu on the computer lookup, so I changed it to blank (rather than on building permits) hoping more things might come up, and clicked on something called an index card. That was basically a compilation of all permits issued for my address. The first line on there was an entry about moving the house from 2715 Longfellow Ave!! My house was moved about 10 blocks to my lot in 1951!! I then looked up that address on the computer and was able to find the original permit from when the house was built. Very cool!!

This discovery definitely answers some questions. When I was looking at homes, I noticed how many homes that were older like this one (pre-50s) had crappy basements. The floors were very uneven, they were dark and dreary. Every person (inspectors, plumbers, contractors, etc...) who has seen my basement has commented on how nice it is. The city inspector asked what year it was built and told me that the concrete floor must have been re-poured because it was so flat and even. When my friend was over he was looking and noticed that the walls in the stairway to the basement were sheetrock, and all the walls on the main level are plaster. We thought it was odd, but now we know why.

It's just so weird that someone moved this house! I would love to have seen that! I went to drive by the original location and found that the whole east side of Longfellow is now part of the Warehouse Depot property. It cost $900 to move my house. I'm glad they did, because even though it's only about 10 blocks away, I like the house's current location much better.

Next up, I'm going to go over my abstract, which dates back to 1850 or so, and try and find out about some of the previous land owners.

If you own a home in the city of Minneapolis...

2009-01-31T15:13:00.002-06:00

you have to check this out. I read on another blog that you could get copies of old permits from the city of Minneapolis. I did a little research and found out that to do that you go to the Minneapolis Development Review department. They are located downtown and they do have free parking, as long as you go in the correct lot. I didn't, I ended up in a lot across the street, and ended up paying like $3. No big deal. So, you go up to their office, and they have some computers set up in the middle, where you can search by address. I will post more details about what I found with my property as soon as I get some of the papers I printed out together. It was very interesting. I hope to post this in the next couple of days!

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-25T01:29:00.002-06:00

Front Entry complete!

2008-11-19T10:09:00.005-06:00

My new retro kitchen clock

2008-11-18T15:28:00.003-06:00

I'm trying to do a red and white retro / cherries theme in the kitchen. I had this space up above the sink with an electrical outlet for an old electric clock. I finally found one that I liked on Ebay, and it's arrived!

Random Act of Violence (against my bike)

2008-11-10T17:27:00.003-06:00

Well, it happened. Someone broke into my garage by busting in the side door. They stole my bike and my friend's snow blower. I am so sad about this. My bike was awesome. It was the first bike I'd had since I was a kid. I loved riding it around my neighborhood, singing the first lines of LDN by Lily Allen in my head. And now someone stole that from me. They've also stolen my peace of mind. Now I just worry that they will come back for the things they didn't steal. Maybe next time it'll be the house, instead of the garage. I'm going through a lot of emotions over this. I know it's not personal, but all I can think is why did someone do this to me?

I've got mail.

2008-11-04T15:33:00.004-06:00

This house came with an old mail slot built right into the house.

The mail came into the entry way. The problem is that it was basically a 3"x5" or so hole directly into my house, covered by a little door.

Needless to say this wasn't very efficient for the winter months. So, I decided that I'd get a new mailbox to mount on the house. I put it right over the old door, which was caulked over and will be filled with insulation. The new box has a lock so my mail is secure.

Hardwood floors refinished

2008-10-27T14:07:00.004-05:00

Here are a couple pics of the floor, how it looked before and how it looks now. I have to say I love it! I didn't know how much of a difference I could expect, and I would have been happy with anything better than they were, but they turned out great!

Random old stuff

2008-10-27T13:31:00.003-05:00

Here's a few things from the past I've found around the house. I love the hair dye.

My beautiful bathroom tile

2008-10-26T18:07:00.004-05:00

OMG I love this tile job so much! I am so glad that I went back to doing it this way. If you don't remember what it looked like before, take a look at this post. Here's how it's looking now. Yippee!

I was a little surprised at how few places just carry plain white porcelain tile. Apparently that is not "in" right now. I am trying to do something a little retro looking in there, so the stuff that is popular right now (very stone looking) wouldn't work. Anyway, Tile Shop had nothing that would work for me and the guy there was an asshole anyway, so I ended up just getting this at Home Depot. It was cheaper anyway and it looks just like I want it to.

More done in the living room...

2008-10-15T01:32:00.005-05:00

I think the last major trace of pink is gone from the living room and I couldn't be happier! Yippee! The good news is that the living room is very close to being done and I'm loving how it looks. The bad news is that James and I both wasted a lot of time painting these shutters and then I didn't even end up using them.

The living room had these built in cabinets that ran along the wall with the fireplace. The top 3 shelves were closed up with shutters, and the bottom shelf had a wood door with a big ugly knob on it, which is unfortunately not visible in this picture.

So... I took off all the shutters and James spray painted them. I then took them and did a couple coats of regular paint, and in the end they looked presentable. I went to take off the bottom doors and realized that I'd never get them back on again. I asked James what he thought about leaving the bottom part open. He thought it was a good idea, and I started to think of things I could put down there so I didn't just have a big empty space near the floor.

As we started to attempt to put the shutter doors back on, and realized this wasn't going to be a fun task either, James suggested I just leave ALL the doors off, and have built in bookcases. Great idea! Sometimes it takes 2 brains to figure out the best way to do something. So, here's how it looks now, all painted and finshed and ready to go. I was going to buy a bookshelf anyway, so this saves me space and money!

I'm also just so glad that the sheetrock is all finished. I was so sick of looking at all this insulation, as seen below. I can't even believe that it's been 5 freakin' months since I had that done. Gawd I'm slow!!

On another note, my shower is almost done!! It's all tiled and waiting to be grouted. I can't wait to post some pics!

Who has purple floors?

2008-10-14T23:59:00.000-05:00

This girl, that's who!

Here's my basement, or at least a corner of it.

As you can see, the floor was a sad lookin' piece of work! I knew it needed to be painted but I didn't want to go with a traditional gray cement paint. So I ended up painting it the plummy gray that I was considering (and have now rejected) for the outside of the house. My basement is so pretty now!

Poodles, giraffes, roosters and elephants

2008-10-02T18:08:00.004-05:00

It was a sad day at my house last week when my friend James and I started working on making part of the basement another bedroom. Sad because it meant I had to lose this AWESOME wallpaper. Lucky for me it was put up on boards that were attached to the wood wall behind it, so we were able to save a piece of it. It's in the garage now, I might just have to mount it out there.

I just wish I knew the story behind this. Dancing elephants, alcoholic giraffes, a slutty poodle and a rooster with a top hat and cane, all interspersed with giant cocktails. Who thought this would be a good idea for wallpaper? Who gave it the OK for production? Were there drugs involved? And who buys this stuff? So many questions. Here is my wallpaper in happier times.

Kitchen light

2008-10-02T00:12:00.003-05:00

When I got this house, the previous owner had put a drop ceiling in the kitchen. I couldn't figure out why someone would do this, but when I removed it I saw what was going on, though I'm not sure if it was to cover up the damage or the horrible avocado green paint job. Who knows what happened here.

So, I chipped away what I could and got out my trusty joint compound and fixed it up as well as I could. I did get a bigger light that would cover some of the damaged area since I couldn't get it perfect, but I think it looks pretty good!

New Stuff!

2008-09-19T18:33:00.002-05:00

I totally had one of those OMG new homeowner moments a couple days ago when I brought home my brand new washer and dryer (and water heater). I just looked at them and smiled and thought "these are MY washer and dryer". I've never owned a washer and dryer before. Pretty fun! I am getting these three appliances and a new single laundry tub put in on Tuesday. Yay!

Front Entry

2008-09-17T10:57:00.006-05:00

This isn't even totally done but I'm kind of in the middle of projects right now and don't have much to show. The entryway was, like everything else, coated in this horrible Pepto pink. Who does this? Anyway, I went with this kind of mushroomy brown color. I think it looks nice against the white trim. It looked like chocolate cake batter in the can, and it looked delicious.

You can see the roll of vinyl flooring that is going in there too. I'm just waiting until the hardwood floors are refinished to put it down.

Living Room ceiling lights

2008-08-27T01:19:00.004-05:00

I went back and forth between at least 3 different lighting options for the living room. One was too small for the space. Another got lost in the ceiling. I love the look of the ones we put up, my only complaint is that they are halogen bulbs. First a picture of what was up there when I bought the house, and then the new lights. Ignore that wire hanging down on the right side, that will be cut off when I decide for sure how far down I want the lights to hang.

Stinky and green

2008-08-26T13:45:00.004-05:00

The hydro-seeding was done yesterday. It stinks and it looks weird., but I should have grass shortly. Woo hoo.

Here's the yard all filled back up with new, safe dirt:

And after it was hydro-seeded:

Apparently the hydro-seeding apparatus isn't very precise.
Now it just has to be watered daily. The EPA is going to water through the end of the month, rather than the 2 weeks they were suppose to, but after that they are not working for a week because of the RNC. I guess they need to be ready to go at a moment's notice should we have some kind of biological or environment issue. *sigh*

Goodbye stumpy.

2008-08-21T17:06:00.003-05:00

Yeah! The stump is gone. The stump is gone!!

I went on Craig's List and found a guy who could do the stump today. I was a little nervous, not knowing what to expect, but Ken, the guy I called, was awesome! He was really nice, he was quick and he did a good job. If you are in the Minneapolis area and need a stump grinder, shoot me an email and I'll give you his information!

Here's Ken grinding it out, followed by the absence of stump. :)

The saga of the stump.

2008-08-21T10:40:00.004-05:00

Well, the EPA doesn't want to pay to have my stump ground down any further. As it sits right now if they don't do anything there will be jagged pieces of stump sticking up into the yard when this is done. So, I've had them stop their work for now and I'm going to have the stump ground on my own. I just know I will not be happy the way they were planning on leaving it and if I'm going to go through all this I want to make sure I'll be happy with my yard in the end! I am meeting with a guy in about a half an hour, hopefully he can get it out of there today or tomorrow and the EPA can finish up their work.

EPA clean up - Day one

2008-08-20T00:42:00.009-05:00

Everything went well, they have made a lot of progress. I did have an odd moment today when I was in the house and they had put the plastic over the dirt for the evening. Seeing the white ground outside the window made me feel like it was the middle of winter for a split second and actually made me a little disoriented. haha. Anyway, here are some pics of what's going on back there.
The only thing I am concerned about is the stump, you can see it near the chain link fence. I hope they are able to get it further down than it is right now!

3 more days of weeds...

2008-08-16T13:54:00.003-05:00

and then in 2 more I'll have a newly hydroseeded (back) yard!! I am so excited! I met with my contact person at the EPA yesterday and she told me what needs to happen and when it needs to happen.

My first step is to go through my back yard and write down everything that is there, plant-wise. How many, what types, etc... My uncle, who went to school for forestry, used to be a landscaper and actually knows what kind of plants they are, will be helping me out with that today.

Then tomorrow I get to take my list to Gerten's and figure out just how much it would cost if I wanted to replace everything that is currently there. Gerten's sounds great, I appreciate they aren't making me go to Flip's Discount Plant Shack and Taqueria to price things out.

Once I've done this (by Monday evening) I send it to my EPA lady, we hopefully agree on the amount, she cuts me a check, and then on Tuesday they show up, remove part of my fence, and start taking out the yard, and then replacing it with new soil. This is going to take a couple of days. Then if all goes well, by Thursday the landscaper will come by, hydroseed the soil, and then come back and water it daily for two weeks. And I should have a glorious, green, plain (back) yard!!

Then, hopefully next year, we get to do the whole thing over in the front.

EPA meeting tomorrow!

2008-08-14T15:14:00.003-05:00

I got an email from my contact person at the EPA, she is in town and they are ready to roll on the clean up project. We are meeting tomorrow at 1pm. I assume this is when she will let me know exactly what will happen and when, and hopefully she will take the inventory of all the plants in my backyard. I guess this is when I get to negotiate and make sure that they remove all that I want removed. I hope this goes well and that my yard will be dug up in no time! Keep your fingers crossed.

More progress made, dining room completed!

2008-08-05T23:49:00.002-05:00

Yay! Thanks to my awesome mom, the dining room has been wallpapered and is looking great. I couldn't be happier with the way it looks. Check it out. It's come a long way from this:

To this:

Weeds galore!

2008-08-04T12:58:00.007-05:00

Here are some pictures of my back yard that I mentioned in my last post. This yard is a mess. I'm more of a minimalist when it comes to landscaping, so I'm very excited to get rid of a lot of this stuff.

Here's a close up on the south corner of my yard. There is so much crap growing here I have no idea what is supposed to be there and what is not. There appear to be raspberries, but they aren't edible due to the arsenic in the soil. You can see some of the ferns in the bottom right that I've already managed to kill. I don't have a green thumb, that's for sure!

Here's the north side of the back yard. Those bushes back there are in some sort of depression, the yard goes down about 8 inches out there, where the grass is greener. You can also see the huge stump in the upper middle right. My neighbor said the EPA will negotiate and I should be able to get them to grind it down 12 inches when they removed the top foot of soil. The stump was on her side of the fence as well but they did grind down her side, so I hope they will do the same for me.

EPA Update

2008-07-28T11:36:00.004-05:00

I guess I shouldn't be surprised that the EPA arsenic clean up project has been delayed, I'm sure that is standard when dealing with a federal government agency. So what was supposed to start in June is now scheduled to start "by August 15th". Who knows when they will get to my property, but I do hope it's soon.

I have basically done nothing with the garden area in the backyard because I know it's going to be ripped out. Part of it is that I don't want to put in too much effort since it's being taken out, and part of it is that I don't want to rip out anything that is actually supposed to be there. I'll be getting a check to replace any plants that are there. Unfortunately I don't know the difference between a weed and a plant for the most part, so my garden just looks like a mess. It's half overgrown and about 1/4 dead, since I've managed to kill about half the ferns. Not that I even want the ferns anyway, but I want to get credit for them from the EPA!! I'll take some pictures today and add them to this post. It's pretty ridiculous.

Green walls finished

2008-07-28T11:27:00.003-05:00

I've finally finished painting the 2 walls in the living room green. At first I was a little scared of the color, the first coat was very yellow and streaky, but after I finished a few coats it looked much better.

The next thing I'm working on is the entry way. I've already painted the ceiling, changed the light fixture, and painted the trim. I'll be painting the walls tomorrow but I'll have to wait on the new vinyl floor until after the hardwood in the adjoining room is refinished.

Dining Room Built In

2008-06-23T03:04:00.006-05:00

I'll start by saying that I've had some problems with tendinitis in my shoulder, wrist and hand on my right arm, and since I'm right handed and need my hands to work, I've been laying off the house stuff for now because I need to give this time to heal. It's a bummer and it's actually got me a little worried about my livelihood, so I guess it's better to have the house take a bit longer to keep being able to go to work and make a living. So I guess I'll take this time to try and get caught up on posting some of my progress since the last update.

I got the dining room built in painted and added new hardware.

To the right you can also see the little door that opens up to the little telephone cubby.

First I took off the door and the wood frame. Please excuse the mess, this was one of the only horizontal surfaces to place things for a while, so it became kind of a catchall. Since I have only one phone jack, you can see I already had an electrical outlet placed in this area so I can put in a cordless phone.

I stripped the door and frame, primed, painted, added a new knob and put it all back together:

Living Room ceiling done!

2008-05-16T03:29:00.003-05:00

Many thanks to my cheap labor and good friend James for his 40-some hours of work sanding, caulking, priming and painting my living room ceiling. I have been criticized by some people for not keeping the wood stained, but it wasn't that nice in the first place and that's so not my taste anyway. It looks so much better now, it really opens up the room. It looked a ski lodge before, and that's fine for some people, but it's not what I am going for here at all. Now I just need to get the new lights up to see if they work in the space, and I can get started on the rest of this room.

No more ugly wall!

2008-05-16T03:18:00.004-05:00

I'm finally making some progress on the dining room. You might remember the before picture:

Since then I've repaired the plaster above the window, skim coated some of the bigger spots where the first layer of wallpaper actually came off, and painted over it with an oil based primer. All that's left is to prime and paint the trim, paint the window and put up the new wallpaper! Here's how it looks so far. Already a huge improvement.

My contaminated yard.

2008-05-10T02:57:00.004-05:00

This was supposed to be the "second of all" in my last post, but I didn't have time to finish.

Yesterday I was talking with my neighbor about her yard and she told me that the EPA had replaced her whole yard because it was contaminated with arsenic. I did some checking around the internet and found out that mine is too! In fact, she and I are 2 of only 3 lots on our block that had levels of arsenic that were too high. I do wonder why this was not disclosed to me in the buying process. The good news is that I should be getting a new yard. The back yard should be done this year. The bad news is the front yard could take up 5 years to be done. I'll keep you updated on this story! Here's some links to read about what is going on.

US EPA website
The Deets

Bedroom almost there.

2008-05-09T15:25:00.004-05:00

First of all, I am almost done with the bedroom. There is a built in armoire type thing that I had to paint and fix up, and I love it. It looks so cute now! All I have left in the bedroom is the refinish the doors.

One room almost done!

2008-04-24T17:00:00.003-05:00

I've been getting overwhelmed at everything that needs to be done so I've been trying to focus on one room, the bedroom. You can see how scary it was before, I think it's come a long way and I'm pretty proud of myself, I did this all on my own!
There is a little cove area where I plan on putting my computer.
The before picture:

After! The color here is not quite right, the next pic is more accurate.

And here are my new sconces. I am kicking myself for not taking a before picture, you should have seen the things that were up there before. The were candle sconces, off white with pink, green and blue flowers, with an orangy-red bulb. Scary.

Painting

2008-04-13T17:31:00.004-05:00

Let me start off by saying that I never knew what a huge pain in the ass painting is. The prep work really sucks. I have so much wood with built ins and trim and doors, etc.. that I don't know if I'll ever get it done! One step at a time. I do have a helper. One of the main issues was the living room and the vaulted ceiling. I had hired a painter and they guy flaked out on me, never showed up or called. So my friend James is helping me for free (well, maybe for some pizza and White Castles). You can see the way it started out, with the wood stained black(ish) and pink painted in between. I'm going to be boring and do all white for the ceiling. Originally I wanted to put the color the walls will be (light lime green) on the pink area between the white beams, but that would just be so much more work. Too much taping, too much detail, too much to drive me even further insane than I already am from this!! Sorry for the crappy quality of this pic, I forgot my camera and had to use my cell phone.

A cool find

2008-04-04T11:21:00.004-05:00

I'm in the midst of another disaster (don't I make this whole owning a home thing sound so fun?!) involving a permit (or rather lack there of) but I did manage to find something good in the mean time. As we tore out the wall above the fireplace we found a bunch of old newspaper that was used as insulation. It's enclosed in this bag, which has preserved it pretty well. It's not quite in full sheets, but there is definitely enough to read. The papers are all dated between Feb and June of 1929 so far. I've taken a few pictures. I'll take some more as I go through them.

Another unexpected problem

2008-04-01T16:42:00.005-05:00

OK, so my living room had some ugly wood paneling that I had just planned on painting. Here's what we started with.

So my friend James talks me into removing it. We take off the first panel and everything is looking good. We get to the third panel and find out the real reason this paneling was put up.

That's actually a little worse that it was, we had torn some of the plaster down ourselves at that point. The problem with this house is that it's had some moisture damage. The good news is that the source of the moisture has been fixed, but they just covered up the interior damage. So, we decided to go ahead and tear down all the plaster down to the lathe. I guess I shouldn't have used the flash when there was so much dust in the air.

Now we have to put up some drywall, hopefully this Thursday. From what I've been told it's fairly easy, so we'll see how this turns out. People at work have given me tutorials. We have decided to tear down the lathe and put in some insulation before we put the drywall up. We also have some caulking to do along the chimney on the outside, seeing as how once we tore down the plaster we could see light coming in where it met the house, so I guess after everything this was a good thing.

Up next: Tomorrow I am having another electrician out to put in another outlet in the bedroom and rewire the sconces in the living room so they are on a switch. Thursday I am having the ceiling and beams painted, and on Friday I am have having the tub re-tiled. Next week the hardwood floors are being re-finished. Then that's about it for the major stuff. All that's left are the things I can work on myself!!

Small progress

2008-04-01T04:31:00.002-05:00

I'm in the midst of another unexpected problem that I'll post about later, but I wanted to put up one small thing. I took down the old celiing light in the bedroom and replaced it with one that will match the sconces I plan on putting on the wall. You can see the ugly green wall in the background a bit. Painting that and the bedroom ceiling are next on my list.

New windows

2008-03-27T15:20:00.004-05:00

The windows are finally done and it's a pretty big step in feeling like I am actually making some progress. The first picture is before, the second is after the windows were installed and the final one is after the outside was wrapped in PVC. It's nice that now I don't have to worry about the wood frame rotting or paint peeling.

Right now it looks a little random, but after I finish the rest of the exterior stuff I plan on doing it should look great. I'm going to remove the other awning over the front door. I may replace it with another one at some point, not sure yet. I'll be painting all the rest of the trim white, as well as the front storm door, and then I'll actually be painting the house another color, possibly a light plummy gray or a light sage green color. That should look better with the white trim.

Waving the white flag

2008-03-14T16:15:00.006-05:00

So, while the bathroom waits to be finished I started to focus on the dining room, thinking it would be one of the easier rooms to get done. Thought I could strip down the wallpaper, slap some paint on it and be good to go. But as I learn through this process, nothing is ever easy. Here's how the wall looked when I started:

Here's what I found under that wallpaper:

Uh. Ok. For more of my nightmare, check out this picture.
The area above the window had to be filled in with plaster. I believe the green stuff is some ancient skim coating that was done before the original wallpaper was put up. Add to that a couple areas where some water damage from an old (now fixed) roof leak was fixed and the pink joint compound I've spread on to fix some areas where the original paper actually did come off, and this is one scary mofo picture!

Anyway, this wall is pretty much f'ed for paint, as I don't have the time or frankly the patience to do the amount of skimcoating that would have to be done to make this paintable. So, I guess I'm going to have to put more wallpaper up! I know I was so against it, I just don't think I have a choice here, if for nothing else, for the sake of my sanity! There is actually some pretty cool wallpaper out there, this is from a book called Simple Space, and here is what I've chosen.

I'm only going to re-paper the 2 walls that had it before, the others will be painted a color that I'll match from the paper. This brings me back to my original color scheme for the living room, black and white with lime green accents. I had switched to a purplish-gray accents, but since the living room really flows into the dining room and I couldn't find any paper that would have worked with that, I'm back to plan A.

OT: On a sad note

2008-03-14T00:25:00.005-05:00

Yesterday I had to put my cat Chanel a/k/a Chippie to sleep. I had her half my life, and I'm no spring chicken here. I miss her so much. Here's a picture of her, she was so little and cute. It's from my old cell phone so not the best quality and you can't see her beautiful blue eyes, but you get the idea. I loved her a lot.

I hope she is able to join my baby boy kitty Xavier who I lost 3 years ago up in kitty heaven. RIP both of you. You brought me so much happiness and joy.

Bathroom Update

2008-03-13T22:08:00.001-05:00

Here are some pictures of the bathroom, or specifially the shower area. The first one was after the plaster was torn down, the second is the one with most of the Durock cement board installed. I guess I took that picture before the guy was done. Now I just have to get it tiled and I'll be ready to paint and finish up the work in the bathroom. I met with one tiler today and I have another appointment tomorrow, I'm getting 4 bids in all. So far the first bid is for about $750 just for the labor. We'll see how the others stack up.

Money money money.... money

2008-03-04T18:20:00.003-06:00

I've never been a big spender, but I knew when I bought a house that would be changing. I'm having new replacement windows installed. It's an expense, but it should really help my heating costs. Right now the windows are possibly the original ones. They are single pane glass, most of them don't even have locks on them! You can feel a breeze near some of them when they are shut! Not good. So it's really a long term investment.

Tomorrow I'm getting an estimate on having all the hardwood floors refinished. I had thought about doing it myself to save some money, I've heard it's about 50% less when you do it on your own, but it really sounds like a HUGE hassle, so it's probably worth it to have someone come in. It's not essential and could probably wait, but I think it will make more sense to get it down now, before I'm living there and have all my stuff moved in. It's a messy job.

I did finally talk to a guy who owns a construction comany today. He came over and took a look at the shower. He's going to rip down the plaster, lathe and tiles and put up some Durock. Then it's up to me to tile it the way I want it. Sounds like a fun project for now, maybe in a few weeks I'll be back here banging my head. We'll see. :) He's also going to install my new vanity, sink, faucet and toilet, and everything is going to be just under $1000. Not bad at all.

Just say NO! to wallpaper!

2008-03-02T18:02:00.003-06:00

This buying and owning a house thing is definitely a learning experience. The first lesson I've leaned is to not buy a house with wallpaper in it. Wallpaper can hide lots of things. That's not to say that it's been done on purpose, but that's always a possibility. My dreams of nice, paint-ready walls underneath the wallpaper were just that.

As for the bathroom, I've decided to call in a contractor to get an opinion. My neighborhood association has a list of contractors that they have "approved" or whatever so I'm going to start there. I am pretty sure that we are going to tear out the plaster and tile in the shower area, put up some special sheetrock and then I will re-tile it myself to try and save a little money. Hopefully this fix will be somewhat simple and effective. And hopefully this will be the only major thing that pops up as I prepare my house to move in!!

My first disaster

2008-02-28T17:50:00.006-06:00

The first room I decided to tackle in the house was the bathroom. There is lots of wallpaper to be removed. Things were going fine as far as the walls were concerned. It was tedious work, but it was going. Then I got to the ceiling. In the shower. Yes, it was wallpapered. I noticed that a corner was unstuck already so I grabbed it and started to pull. A few pieces of plaster plunked down and I hope it was just damaged in that corner. I continued to pull and realized about half the ceiling was coming down with it. I thought about stopping but what would I do with a half on half off piece of ugly wallpaper in my shower? What was done was done and I had to keep going. Here are some pictures of the aftermath. I've put in a post on my go-to DIY messageboard to see about what I should be doing with this, and whether or not I can in fact DIM or if it's time to call in the professionals.

Closing Day!!

2008-02-25T14:05:00.001-06:00

Well, this is it!! I just purchased my first home. As I started to ponder all the work that was going to go into this I decided that I just might have finally found something to blog about!!

When I moved back to Minneapolis from Los Angeles last year, one of my main motivations was that I wanted to own a house. I am so excited that this dream is coming true!! I decided to pair this topic with the topic of me being a single girl simply because so many people are shocked that a single girl is buying her own home, and one that needs a little work done. I thought maybe there might be others out there who are like me and who would be interested. If not, at least I'll have this record for myself. :)

My new house is a little one story, one bedroom, one bath single family home with a full basement and stucco exterior, in the Midtown area of the city of Minneapolis. It needs some redecorating, and a few repairs here and there. So off we go!!