EPA Update

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

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

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!

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!

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.

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.

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.