Prepping the dining room

Beastly hot here, making us feel not quite so motivated. However, we're anticipating the installation of the new doors and moving the old windows soon, so it's time to clear out the dining room to make way.



First, the dry bar in the corner goes. Lucky for us, it wasn't attached in any way at all, save for the Romex simply poking out of a hole in the wall, through another hole in the wall of the bar, and into a (non-attached, of course) junction/outlet box inside. Grr. Oh well -- the circuit's exactly where we'll want a wall outlet, so it'll be easy to repurpose. The cabinets against the wall were pretty easy to remove, too, and the blank wall is ready for its new window.



Best of all, our friend Brigid (another Weatherby Laker in fact) has a great use for the bar, and reports it works very well where she installed it after picking it up this morning. We love to give things a new life instead of throwing them out.

Speaking of repurposing, the new grading in the backyard left an enormous step down from the deck without a use. So I cut it into two pieces, which I attached at a right angle to each other. Then I took the leftovers cut off from the top of the front-porch support posts to create new legs -- and we have a really swell new bench on the back deck, which will give us great party seating. Best of all was the cost: Sweat and sweat alone. Even the screws were leftovers from another project.



And speaking of the back deck, the portland cement dried and I filled in that nasty window well. All you see now is as it should have always been: Heavy clay left over from digging out the posts on the front porch.




Back to the dining room for a moment: I'd measured when we moved in and determined the china cabinet wouldn't fit under the soffit on the east wall -- the most logical position for the furniture in the room. So instead, we'd planned on parking it on the west wall, where it would work, but wouldn't be the most elegant solution. Well, after some exploratory drywall chopping revealed the bad news that we couldn't get rid of the soffit (darned ductwork in the way), Jeff asked me to measure again, because he thought the cabinet would fit underneath.



I was wrong. He was right. It fits and actually looks great (and will be much better post-popcorn).

Tomorrow night the library upstairs gets cleared out and perhaps the beginnings of de-popcorning.

Oh, and here's a picture of Tequila being weird.

Wow

Just wow.



The guys got a lot more done today.



It's looking like a real house now, huh? A whole house.

Lots of progress...

and few blog updates. We've been too busy and tired to do much.

Let's see -- what happened? That new berm is keeping water away from the house much better than before. However, that was all a moot point when we had an ENORMOUS flash flood July 2, which gave us our second instance of water in the basement. 4 3/4 inches of rain in 90 minutes, according to some estimates.

Judging by the fact that the carpet we removed from the basement when we got the house had definitely not been wet before, this must have been its second flood ever. At least Jeff had everything picked up off the floor, so we didn't have any troubles with our stuff getting ruined.

Even more infuriating, a spot leaked into the bathroom ceiling. One of three ceilings in the entire house that were finished. Now with a big water spot and peeled drywall tape. So angry that I can't really even write about it any more, much less share a picture. I may even just hire someone to fix it to keep from having to think about it.

Anyhow. That stupid window well is now history. Hired a mason to block it closed.



Then today I had to coat the exterior with a heavy layer of portland cement to create a moisture barrier from outside. In the 96-degree heat, I had to lie down in the mud UNDERNEATH the deck -- a space of no more than maybe 14 inches tall -- while I troweled the cement on. Absolutely hands down, this was the most difficult task I've had to do in the house thus far. I could hardly believe how taxing it was. However, I feel better about closing in the window after spending time under the deck. Even if there were a fire, nobody would ever be able to escape from the basement underneath there. We'll have a proper egress window installed later in the north wall, where it will actually make sense.



Tomorrow I'll fill the hole in with dirt, and the possibility of flooding will be history. Two layers thick of cinder block and an inch of portland is more impervious than the concrete foundation itself.

At least I got to mow the lawn as soon as I was finished with the cementing. Joy.

Anyhow, this all sounds a little dour. Which isn't very representative of our mood, because this is what we returned to after our little four-day vacation to New York this weekend.



Yes, there's actually a porch on the front of our house now. I can hardly believe how much they got done so quickly.

The guys at KC Deck Builders got to work last week digging the holes for the piers.



We had a little worry when we tried to get the building permit, as there's a required 50-foot setback from the front of the lot for any construction, and ours apparently didn't quite qualify according to the boundaries of our lot. However, we are a good 57 feet from the street, and the building inspector was a really nice guy who agreed to let us go for it without a variance hearing. That would have been an incredibly awful experience for something that will so greatly improve the looks of the house and the whole neighborhood.

We're building this porch like a deck structurally, so we decided to go with Azek composite decking material. It's sort of like Trex, but has no wood products in it and seems to be impervious to the blotching and mold problems. And the coolest part: For a small upgrade fee, the builders are using the screw-hiding option, which pops a tiny matching plug into the screw holes, completely obscuring them for a seamless surface.



They're even taking the time to match the grain in the plugs to the boards, if you can believe it. These guys are very conscientious.



Which also goes for their concrete skills. Look at how finely this walkway is finished. They'll come back after it hardens to cut in expansion joints.



Later this week, we'll get the handrails installed. We're still waiting on the doors to be delivered, so we may have a bit of a lag while that happens. No big deal, since we have three rooms to clear out before we can let the guys put them in anyway.

Oh, and I also got the rest of the floor in the hallway upstairs done, so we have all nice, clean hardwood and rubber tiles to do our laundry on.



These boards demanded some major figuring and finagling on the top step, so I had to mill my own nose piece from an existing stair tread. It came out well, I must admit.



Much more to do, of course, but this is a major leap forward. Let's hope this heat breaks. It's pretty fatiguing.

But after that mow earlier today, I got to take my little PVC raft across the street and jump in the lake for a nice 45-minute swim. That puts things in perspective.

I almost forgot

Other things happened recently too.

Like late this afternoon, when we were in the kitchen. We heard a series of little pops, followed by a HUGE cracking sound.

"Fireworks," I thought. "Those are supposed to be illegal here."

Well, not fireworks so much. Instead, it was a humungous tree on Sharon and Kathy's wooded lot next door, which decided it had had enough of this standing-upright stuff. So it chose to fall down in our yard.

I went outside to investigate, and heard Kathy yell from across the lot: "What are you two doing over there?" with a laugh.



Anyhow, they're going to have their tree guy out to get rid of the junk. And luckily that was where we already had a busted-up fence after another part of it fall last winter.

When Kathy was over, we showed her our new berm/swale. We're hoping this will keep most of the water out of the window well from now on. D&B Landscaping to the rescue again.

Bedroom

All that needs to be said.



The bedroom is done. And the weather is absolutely amazing.

So happy.

Catching up to do

OK, OK, so we haven't been as diligent lately about updates. That's partially because there's been so much going on, and not all of it is incredibly visual.

First and foremost, there is a mulberry tree right on the edge of our lot, near the wooded lot owned by Kathy and Sharon next door. That means lots of delicious fruit, but in a place where it doesn't become a nuisance underfoot. And that meant time to harvest a big ol' batch...



...and make a mulberry clafouti.



This is about as bucolic as it gets -- at least inside the city limits.

After bucolic, though, came flood. Not to get into the gnarly details, but we had a flash flood. The window well filled up, and we took on a LOT of water in the basement.



Crisis. 'Tis OK -- we have a plan to re-landscape part of the back to make sure this won't happen again. Plus, part of the problem was that the window well had no bubble cover on it. That's taken care of now too.

Eventually, we'll block this window up and put a new one in the north side of the basement. It was really a very, very stupid place to put one in the first place, though the original owner planned to expand the house to the north -- leaving the east the only "logical" place for the window. Being a relative term, of course.

Jeff took the next day off to raise everything up off the floor, just in case this happens again. Unlikely, but he has us safeguarded.



After this view on the night of...



...it's nice to get to this one.



That's right. Hardwoods are in the process of going down upstairs!

Because of the layout of the hallway, it was necessary to start outside the bathroom door and at the back wall of the bedroom simultaneously. Difficult. Advanced, in fact. So that required a careful dry-fitting of the boards before installation began.



We actually got it wrong the first time, so a readjustment was necessary. The second try was absolutely perfect -- not even a millimeter off. We couldn't possibly be happier with how it ended up working out.

And once the floors are in, it's possible to install the doors. First time I've done this in many years, so it took a bit of trial and error. After a major bout with semi-obstructive perfectionism (Jeff didn't think it was really needed), I am just about as happy with the result as I could possibly be.

Both bedroom doorways are now done.



We love the closet doors.



Next, the bathroom gets its door. Then the bifolds on the laundry room (which we may investigate hiring out).

Then the trim goes in, and everything gets painted. Then knobs.

What next, we haven't quite decided. But we bought a bed from Crate and Barrel, which will be delivered this coming Saturday. And we got nightstands from Pier One.

Then it'll be time to load in all the furniture and go to sleep in our actual bedroom for the first time.

That'll be quite something, right?

Blue walls and Pinot greenio

It's amazing that now we're finished with the bathroom and laundry room, everything else seems like a total cakewalk. Sanding, smoothing and painting? Child's play!

OK, so we're pretty picky -- and that means this takes us a while. But at least it's something that really has a huge impact quickly. We love that.

This weekend was a heavy dose of painting. The bedroom is all touched up and just needs its trim to get a final coat. The blue is very relaxing.



We trimmed out the whole-house attic fan just to make it look more appealing and less utilitarian. I routed out the back underside of it to make sure the tabs that hold the off-season cover in place would be able to slide.



Then Jeff set about getting the first coat of white on the ceiling and walls of the upstairs hallway. They, like literally every other painted wall in this house, were an almond color. Taking them to pure white is almost unbelievably different and refreshing. It looks so great already, even though it needs another coating or two.



I also sanded the old walnut finish off the handrail going upstairs. It's just a simple piece of pine, but it isn't ugly (and in fact its simplicity is nice). And because it was installed in place before the walls went up, the only option if we didn't like it would be to cut it apart and add another railing in pieces -- because it's too long to get out of the house in one piece any more.



Tonight the very hot day gave way to a cool and relaxing night, so we grilled mahi-mahi and ate outside. Jeff got creative with the neon food coloring in our Pinot grigio.



We love it here more every single day -- because that day has gotten us closer to the beautiful home we know is hiding under the beige paint and dirty subfloors.