So, Kim, have you moved into your house yet?
Friends, I know you've stopped asking. What began as a charming occasional inquiry and encouragement to continue working has become an awkward situation of no longer asking to stave off hearing the same answer. What HAS Kim been doing that took this long? Well I'm sure it's not enough to have dragged on this long, sadly the amount of time I could mess with it has been limited. Also there was an entire month in there spent going back and forth with an awful contractor and his even more awful recommendation for a structural engineer who took 4 weeks to eek out the 2-4 hours worth of work necessary for me to get an estimate from said contractor. That fiasco aside, I thought it might be interesting to line up all the things I can think of that have been done.
Outside
window washin', cleaned out and rerouted gutters, cleared out the back gardens, pruned the back trees and cleared out the wilderness that had swallowed the back of the yard in wild grape vines, brush and saplings growing up from under the fence.
Basement (the utility side)
Removed the moldy wall board on the south side, completely removed a dividing wall and the false wall along the north side, revealing back to the outer stone of the basement and scrubbed out the scum on the floors. Disconnected a dangerous gas water-heater setup so the gas company would let me turn on heat to the house :) More recently, the east half of the south wall was removed (the main floor is supported by steal pipes, the wall was "cosmetic") creating a larger opening into the finished side of the basement.
Basement (the finished side)
The horribly moldy carpet was removed, along with the equally awful drop ceiling exposing the floor joists of the house. The north wall into what used to be an old closet/recording studio was removed, opening to the utility side of the basement. The stairs from the basement to the main floor were reversed and rebuilt (so instead of the stairs starting towards the west side of the room, they start towards the east)
Kitchen
Removed all cabinets, removed the doorway for the pantry revealing the original arched refridge nook that used to be there, removed the cracked and sagging kitchen ceiling, removed the plaster rock-lath along two walls that was crumbling, replaced the south wall between the kitchen and the breakfast nook with a cross beam, rewired, reinsulated, resheetrocked, removed 3-4 layers of linoleum on the kitchen floor, then scrubbed off the old tar-paper adhesive from the pine floors (by far the most painful thing I've done on the house), painted all the walls a fresh, slightly creamy white, primed all the cabinets.
The former Breakfast nook thingy, now sitting area
Little more than a glorified closet about 4 feet wide, walls on both sides were removed and the stairs going up to the second floor were rebuilt and flipped around to now open into this area.
Dining Room
Not a whole lot other than the wall between it and the breakfast nook was removed. Now it is one longish corridor (my house isn't really all that big :) from the dining room into the kitchen, slightly punctuated by cross beams in the middle.
Misc
Bathroom walls were primed to get away from the awful pastel pink/white tile with soft blue walls combo that was in there. Now it's just pink and white. The bedroom closet was gutted and is to have it's entry way widened out.
Out of the 798+ photos of my house and grounds (I'm not joking) I have chosen two that I feel encapsulates a little something of all of the above. Bonus question! True or false, are these photos of more or less the same area?
Outside
window washin', cleaned out and rerouted gutters, cleared out the back gardens, pruned the back trees and cleared out the wilderness that had swallowed the back of the yard in wild grape vines, brush and saplings growing up from under the fence.
Basement (the utility side)
Removed the moldy wall board on the south side, completely removed a dividing wall and the false wall along the north side, revealing back to the outer stone of the basement and scrubbed out the scum on the floors. Disconnected a dangerous gas water-heater setup so the gas company would let me turn on heat to the house :) More recently, the east half of the south wall was removed (the main floor is supported by steal pipes, the wall was "cosmetic") creating a larger opening into the finished side of the basement.
Basement (the finished side)
The horribly moldy carpet was removed, along with the equally awful drop ceiling exposing the floor joists of the house. The north wall into what used to be an old closet/recording studio was removed, opening to the utility side of the basement. The stairs from the basement to the main floor were reversed and rebuilt (so instead of the stairs starting towards the west side of the room, they start towards the east)
Kitchen
Removed all cabinets, removed the doorway for the pantry revealing the original arched refridge nook that used to be there, removed the cracked and sagging kitchen ceiling, removed the plaster rock-lath along two walls that was crumbling, replaced the south wall between the kitchen and the breakfast nook with a cross beam, rewired, reinsulated, resheetrocked, removed 3-4 layers of linoleum on the kitchen floor, then scrubbed off the old tar-paper adhesive from the pine floors (by far the most painful thing I've done on the house), painted all the walls a fresh, slightly creamy white, primed all the cabinets.
The former Breakfast nook thingy, now sitting area
Little more than a glorified closet about 4 feet wide, walls on both sides were removed and the stairs going up to the second floor were rebuilt and flipped around to now open into this area.
Dining Room
Not a whole lot other than the wall between it and the breakfast nook was removed. Now it is one longish corridor (my house isn't really all that big :) from the dining room into the kitchen, slightly punctuated by cross beams in the middle.
Misc
Bathroom walls were primed to get away from the awful pastel pink/white tile with soft blue walls combo that was in there. Now it's just pink and white. The bedroom closet was gutted and is to have it's entry way widened out.
Out of the 798+ photos of my house and grounds (I'm not joking) I have chosen two that I feel encapsulates a little something of all of the above. Bonus question! True or false, are these photos of more or less the same area?
posted by Kim at 7:57 PM
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