Sunday, August 16, 2009

Happy Belated One Year Anniversary...

I recently had a conversation with someone and a question came up about how long I’ve been living in my house… I had then realized that I’ve been living in my house for one year. My anniversary date was July 28. The date of me purchasing and moving had passed with no fan fair. I’ve been so busy with work and stuff that I totally over looked it. The thought of my anniversary wasn’t really on my mind. But looking back over the last year, I guess I can say that I’ve over come a lot of ups and downs with this place. The list of downs is pretty extensive, but who is keeping a record… wait, I am…

Anyway, Happy Belated One Year Anniversary…

The show must continue, so I’m still on vacation which will be officially over on Monday (tomorrow). My vacation has been pretty relaxing while I’ve been doing working around the house. Hold on, I don’t know if that makes any sense... Vacations are defined as an intermission and/or an exemption from work...But I still did work around the house… So the question is, was it or was it not a vacation? I guess I can define my vacation as “I took a vacation from one of my many jobs”…Ok that makes no sense… Let me just stop... My head is starting to hurt thinking about it… Sorry for the off track thought.

Anyway, in my last entry, I discussed how I removed the rug in the living room. So I decided to carry that rug removing motivation over to the master bedroom. I guess I should first describe what I’m dealing with. The master bedroom walls are covered with a wall paper that has pink and blue flowers. I’m a big fan of the light switch. The lady shoe light switch certainly defines me and the room (sarcasm)… So I guess the previous owner was attempting to match the wallpaper with a rug that has a color of hot pink. A while back I had place a Gatorade on the floor and accidentally toppled it over it on the rug. The stain was pretty bright within the rug.

Master bedroom with the pink rug


Floor after removing the rug


The bedroom floors are in a much better shape then the living room. I still plan on sanding and staining the floor... But, because I wanted to finish the living room first, I decided to just remove the rug and finish the room later.

I was also able to finally finish the back hallway. I had mentioned the back steps prior to the tenants moved in. The landing and steps were damaged pretty badly. There were nails sticking up and three steps were damaged. So for the landing, I install .25 inch thick plywood then laid new peal and stick flooring.

Back hallway, before

Three damaged steps


Back hallway, with the repaired steps

The landing with the new floor installed


Back hallway completed, painted with new threads

After completing the back hallway, I continued the process of painting the living room. The primer was certainly dried by the time I started to paint the new color. The color that I had selected was called Beach walk. The color is a yellowish brown. I painted the trim with a color called Glow. See it glowing… I painted the trim only with one coat. The reason being is that I still need to install the new windows and new trim work. Then I’ll paint the second coat. Also, I’m kind of stuck on what to do about the brick work. I’m actually thinking of putting a decorative shelf in front. But, I’ll decide on that in next couple days.
Here is a picture of the living room with the new paint

Here is a picture of the living room with the floors cleaned. They also still need to be refinished.

Here is a picture of the brick work...

Here is a picture showing one of the outlets that I plan on replacing


Also, over the pass year, I had a pile of rubbish that accumulated. It was generated from upstairs and my place...Well over the weekend I was finally able to completely remove all of the trash and debris. Now I am able to park my truck in its place and free up another parking space for any visitors.

Here is a picture with the trash removed and my truck in its place.


Things are starting to slowly come around... I still have a lot of things that I want to do to the place. But I guess they can wait for now…Well until next time, happy building…

Sunday, August 9, 2009

Back to the swing of things...

The month of July passed with no added accomplishments done to the house. Basically I was required to leave town for several weeks for work. I was finally able to return home last week. The day that I return from Virginia was the day that I decided to take my vacation. So I’ve planned a week and a half off from work. Well you know what that means… Yup, work around the house.

I’m happy to report that the bathroom is finally finished. The room came out really nice. Thanks you everyone for voting. With your votes, I was able to select two pictures to hang up in the bathroom. Based on everyone’s vote, photo 1 and photo 2 were selected. Here are the results.

On the first day that I started my vacation, I tackled the living room rug. I was tired of looking at the stains. Plus, it was an excuse not to vacuum the rug. Anyway, the rug was extremely easy to remove. The hard part was getting on my hands and knees trying to remove the staples that held the degraded cushion in place. That task was time consuming.

After removing the rug and cleaning the floor, I started to evaluate the windows. Over the winter, I had to install plastic over the windows to keep the cold out. I had a moment where I remembered bone head Bob, the window sales man. Anyway, after a small chuckle, I decided to purchase new windows. So I began to remove the window trim. After measuring the rough window opening, I took a trip to my local super big box hardware store and ordered two windows… By the way, they were about $170 each, still lower than bone head Bob’s quote… (http://redcano.blogspot.com/2008/11/how-much-again.html)
The windows should be delivered in about 2 weeks.

Part of my decision in replacing the windows are due to they are not energy efficient. Plus as you can see within the walls, there is no insulation between the wall and window.


Once that was completed, I started to prime the 1970’s wood paneling walls. The grooves within the panels were too deep that I needed to paint them first with a brush. I had to paint the walls with a second coat of KILLZ, because the panels were to dark. As you can see from the picture, I plan on keeping the fake beams on the ceiling. I think it give the room some character.

While the paint was drying, I decided to replace the back screen door. The door was installed in an awkward way. To get into the house, pneumatic door close was installed at the same level as the main door knobs. So to get into my house I would squeeze my hand between the pneumatic door closer and door knobs to unlock it. Also, the screen was damaged pretty badly. Plus I love the duct tape.


Here is a picture of the new screen door.

The up coming week is going to be a busy one. I certainly have a lot planned before I return to work. It is really too much to say at the moment… But, I promise you will see all of the updates. Anyways, until next time, happy building...

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