Hurricane = House-warming Gift from Nature

So, as you know, we moved into our new house this past weekend, which was just in time for Hurricane Sandy to come through!  In central Pennsylvania, we don't see many hurricanes, so this was a rare occurrence.  I'd like to think of it as our house-warming present from Mother Nature.  She wanted to show us how sturdy the house was as well as show us a few issues...

The rain started on Sunday and was pretty intense by Sunday afternoon.  We noticed the yard was turning a bit swampy; we already knew we needed to plant grass, but Mother Nature wanted to remind us why we want to get that grass planted as soon as all this rain slows down! 

Next, we noticed a wet spot on the floor...  It was actually at the threshold from the kitchen into the first floor bathroom.  The picture on the left shows where (top arrow) the water was dripping from and where (bottom arrow) the water was found (and where we put the bucket, obviously).  The picture on the right shows the actual crack in the door frame that the drips were coming from.  Given that a new roof was just put on and finished about a week before the storm, we were a little upset by this and set out to try to figure out what was going on...


We went up onto the balcony to look at the roof over the bathroom.  I noticed that the downspout from the main roof came down to the addition's roof and the spout ended only about 4 inches onto that roof.  The water was gushing from the main roof's downspout.  As far as I could tell, it looked like it was rushing out so fast that some water was going backwards which would allow it to get under the flashing.  I realized we needed an extension on that downspout and we needed it that minute.  It was just after 3:30pm (on Sunday) at that point and the rain was supposed to be getting really bad around 4pm. 

We made an emergency run to Lowe's...  The manager was just inside the door, asking if he could help so we told him our issue.  He showed us some kind of tubing that would stretch around the downspout to divert the water.  Then he said that the better option was this automatic "Drain-Away" downspout extender; the product was to be attached to the end of the downspout and would "unroll" to let the water out when it rains and roll back up when the rain stopped.  (Enjoy the wonderful photo of Aaron, to the right, showing our purchases as we drove back to the house!  No worries, we were stopped when I took the picture!)

 

Anyway, we got home and Aaron went out onto the roof.  We tied an extension cord around his waist (since we didn't have any rope and something was better than nothing).  The instructions said to put the adhesive strip around the downspout, stretch the extender up past the strip, and then put a wire tie on the extender above the strip.  First issue: the adhesive strip needs to be applied to a dry downspout - it's hard to have a dry downspout during a hurricane (or pre-hurricane storms).  Second issue: the extender isn't so stretchy and the downspout was very tight to the house and roof so it was hard to maneuver something around it.  Aaron (God bless him) tried to get the extender on for several minutes; he had to dry the downspout with a towel and keep another towel over it to keep everything dry.  Even still, it just was not working.  We gave up and I ran down into the yard to get the actual downspout extender (the permanent, made-from-metal kind) off another downspout.  I got that up to Aaron and he got it on - he used the wire tie to try to keep the pieces together.  By the time we were done, we were both soaked!  The "fix" did seem to help but didn't completely stop the dripping.  Aaron called the roofer yesterday and he came out in the afternoon to check it out; he said he'll be back when all the rain stops so he can fully check everything out and see what he can do.

 

The next problem we were enlightened about was the broken latch on the screen door from the kitchen to the patio.  We knew the latch wasn't working properly but hadn't had time to check it out or fix it yet.  The bar part of the latch (on the door frame) would slide into itself rather than stay out so the hook part of the latch (on the door) could "catch".  Without the bar for the hook to "catch", the door can be pushed open without touching the handle.  Unfortunately, this means that the door could just open and shut with the gusts of wind.  After a few loud bangs, we decided to try to see what we could do...  I managed to get the bar out of the latch but the hook would push it back into itself rather than catching.  So the solution was to jam a screwdriver behind the bar.  This kept the bar from being able to move and, therefore, the hook was able to latch properly and the door would stay shut.  This meant removing and replacing the screwdriver each time we wanted to let the dogs out, but that was a small price to pay...

Other than the few issues with the house, we also had to prepare for Hurricane Sandy.  We were projected to lose power and would probably lose water as well (because the pumps wouldn't work and because the water treatment plant would be underwater).  We found all of our candles and kept them out, along with the lighter.  We found all our flashlights and my dad gave us an extra set of flashlights; we kept the flashlights out on the counter with the candles. 

 

Early Monday morning, I went to the grocery store for some basic supplies.  I'm not a crazy person that stocks up on everything, but, having just moved, we had very little food to start with!  Our local Giant grocery store was out of bottled water and almost out of toilet paper, bread, and milk.  I also heard reports that all the local stores were out of D batteries for flashlights...  Anyway, I got a bunch of food that didn't need refrigerated: chips and other snacks, fresh fruit and some canned fruit, SnackPack pudding (which doesn't need refrigerated), beef jerky, cereal, etc.  I also got some milk for the cereal (in case the power didn't go out... but in case it did, I just got a small thing of milk).  At home, I filled up every container we had with water so we'd have drinkable water.  (We also had a case of bottled water on hand.)  If you look at the picture on the right, you'll see I had an entire shelf of water containers in our fridge!  Also, I put everything that could be refrigerated in the fridge (like all the bottles of soda we had, etc.) because the fridge will stay colder for longer if it is full (the cold items will help keep everything else cold).

Finally, I decided that we needed our own hurricane shower... as in clean-yourself-shower rather than the rain-shower going on outside!  I wanted to get clean in case we lost water and I couldn't shower for a few days...  Who wants to shower in dirty, untreated water?  And most likely, you wouldn't even be able to get that for a few days.  A sponge bath with cold water didn't sound like fun, so a preemptive shower sounded smart.  On a side note, I should mention that I wanted to fill the bathtub up with water if the power went out but we couldn't!  The mechanism that plugs the tub doesn't work and we haven't gotten the rubber plug yet.  I was worried about the inability to fill the tub because you need water to flush your toilet... (If there's no water, there's nothing to give the pressure to flush - if you have extra water on hand, you can fill your tank and keep flushing.  Without extra water, I wasn't sure what we would do!  Ewww!)

Anyway, so how did it all go?  Besides the issues I noted above, everything went fine.  Our power was flickering on and off on Monday night, but nothing substantial - we had it go off for about 30 seconds at one point (of course, it was while we were eating dinner) but it came right back on.  In the end, we never lost power.  We also never lost water...  The wind got really nasty around 2am on Tuesday morning.  I got woken up for the first time around 1am but I was wide awake by 2am.  The wind was just whipping against the house.  The wind was so strong that it managed to open the door from the balcony into the master bedroom!!  This is amazing because that door is very hard to open - the carpet pile is too high and the door needs sanded; I have to brace myself and pull hard to open it, so it's incredible that the wind got it open!  Anyway, I ended up giving up on sleep and went downstairs to watch TV for a while...

 

In the morning, I checked around for damage.  The house looked fine and there were no other roof leaks.  The trees nearby were all still standing, but we had a bunch of branches in the yard and tons of twigs and sticks.  I picked up the big stuff and will have to rake the yard once things dry up a bit.  All-in-all, we made out it perfectly fine.  My heart goes out to all those who didn't fare so well...

Moving' On Up... to a House in Carlisle!

This weekend was moving weekend!  On Friday night, Aaron and I finished up the last of the packing.  As a reminder, we had taken over a decent amount of our things already.  On Wednesday, we took the clothes from the closet.  On Thursday, we took almost all the kitchen stuff, the new headboard, and various other bins of things.  On Friday morning, we had taken all of our remaining food (except what we needed for dinner that night), more bins, the rugs, and all the towels and bedding. 

On Friday night, we did the little bit of laundry we had...  We also washed the couch covers so that we could give them to Beth since we told her she could have them with the furniture.  We washed up the dishes (mostly from dinner) and got them packed up. 

We finished with all the packing...  We had to pack up the dogs' things (minus the toys and bowls which waited until the last minute).  We had to pack up all the odds and ends that had made a home on the dining room table.  In the living room, we just had to take the coat rack off the wall and pack up the Blu-ray player.  In the basement, we just had a few odds and ends to pack, as well as few things in the coat closet at the top of the stairs (Aaron's scarves and a few cleaning things).  Upstairs, we just had to pack up a little bit of clothing (my sweatpants, my sweatshirts, the few things that I saved but didn't wear, and all of Aaron's clothes from the dresser, his jeans, etc.).  We did have to pack up our bathroom as we left all the medicine and toiletries until the last minute.  Finally, there were a few towels to grab and some odds and ends in the office.  We brought as much stuff as possible down to the first floor so that it would be easy to get packed the next morning.

On Saturday, the "moving crew" (i.e. my parents) showed up.  Aaron went to pick up the moving truck and picked up my brother, Casey, on the way (his wife would be coming later with my niece and they didn't need to have two cars).  Aaron headed out around 8:30am to pick up Casey and the truck.  My parents arrived around 9:15am and it was just a few minutes later when Casey and Aaron got back with the truck.  We started to get the truck packed up.  We put the dresser into the truck first, then moved onto the TV stand, TV, mattress, and bed frame.  Everything else got packed in around it all.  It was around 10:45am when the truck was filled and it was off to the new house.  (My dad's truck was mostly filled already with a mower and lawn tools, etc.) 

I rode with my parents in their truck and Casey rode with Aaron in the rental truck.  We got a bit of a head start so I could move my car and make room for the rental truck (I had parked my car on the street on Friday night; I parked it so that it would take up as much space as possible so we would have enough room for the rental truck.)  While the men (and Mom) worked on unloading the trucks, I kept all the dogs out in the yard - the fence keeps them in, but I wanted to keep an eye on them (especially Chance, my parent's dog, who likes to eat everything he finds on the ground).  It was just about noon when they had the truck empty; Aaron and Casey headed back to the apartment with the truck to pick up the couch and take that to Beth, then return the truck. 

Around 12:30, I heard someone at the front door and found it was the Comcast guy...  Even though I had scheduled the installation for 2:30-4:30pm.  My parents stayed out in the yard working on getting the vines down from the side fence.  I worked on getting some small stuff unpacked in the living room and kitchen; I didn't want to wander far from the Comcast guy.  He was here for about an hour and then I was able to do a little bit more unpacking before Aaron and Casey got back.  Katelin (my sister-in-law - Casey's wife) and Kendall (my niece) arrived just before Aaron and Casey...  We ordered some pizza to thank our helpers and finally got to sit down to eat around 3pm. 

After we enjoyed some pizza, Casey, Katelin, and Kendall left.  My parents went back to the apartment for the last of the stuff (mainly the grill); when they had unloaded that, they left.  Then it was just unpacking time...  That was the story of the rest of our Saturday and most of Sunday too!  By now we are about 80% unpacked...  A lot of things have been moved to the attic, but that counts!  (It belongs there - it's just still in bins!) 

Wish us luck as we keep getting settled in... And as Hurricane Sandy approaches!

Housework: Day 1

As I mentioned, yesterday I was going over to the house to work on getting it all clean.  My mom and grandma were coming to help.  I brought over my Rubbermaid Reveal mop and my Dyson Ball vacuum.  I had bought various cleaning supplies the other day - I also remembered to bring a toilet bowl brush and a trash can yesterday. 

My mom and I got started on the hardwood floors; I vacuumed everything and she followed behind me with her Shark Steam Mop (she was kind enough to bring it along).  My grandma got started cleaning the kitchen - she cleaned out all the cabinets and appliances, scoured the sink, and wiped down the counter tops.  After my mom and I finished with the floor, we worked on the first floor bathroom.  After that bathroom was clean (except the bathtub which I plan to do later), I went outside to do some yard work and my mom went upstairs to clean the floors up there; she vacuumed everything and used the steam mop in the bathroom.  My mom cleaned the second floor bathroom as well (except the bathtub again because I'm going to do them later).  Outside, I started with the leaves and debris on the front stoop and the sidewalk; I swept everything up and put it into a giant trash bag.  My grandma had finished the kitchen by then and she came out to help; she would sweep and I'd scoop it all into the trash bag. 

Once the front was cleaned up, I took the bag around to the very back to dump it in the parking area - there is essentially a compost pile back there.  I want to get rid of the compost pile at some point, but, for now, I needed a place to put all the leaves!  At that point, my grandma worked on sweeping off the patio outside the kitchen, the walkway around the house, and the back patio.  After I dumped that bag, I got distracted by all the stuff growing on the back fence (I should mention now that the back fence is really just thick, tall chicken wire - I would like to put up a better fence someday). 

Fence "Before"

 It's hard to see all the stuff on the fence (and I apologize because the picture is a bit blurry), but there was stuff growing all through the fence.  There was a lot of little stuff that would weave through and follow the wire - that stuff you can't see from far away because it blends in...  But you can see the massive areas of stuff to the left.  (You can also see the compost bins which are going to be disposed of as well...)  It took me a while but I got almost everything cleared off the fence, which was impressive since I was doing it all with my hands (I did have work gloves on, but no tools)!

Fence "After"

I know it still looks like there is stuff in the fence, but that's the compost pile on the other side of the fence...

Anyway, by the time I cleared off the fence, my mom was done inside; she came outside and started raking.  I worked on getting her piles on leaves into the trash bag and dumping the bag in the compost pile.  We got rid of a bunch of leaves, plenty of sticks, and the few remaining walnuts!  By the time we were done, the inside of the house was almost completely cleaned - the only things that needed cleaned were the two bathtubs and the inside of the fridge and freezer.

Before I left the house, I unpacked our pots and pans and a few other kitchen items.  I also took a bin of shoes up into the closet and unpacked our board games.  The sellers bolted a bookcase to the floor in the attic so that the open area at the top of the stairs, to the right (the left side is the wall) is blocked so no one can fall down the stairs.  It took a little while but I got the bookcase clean (it had been in the attic for a long time) and used that for the boardgames!  At that point, I headed back to the apartment.

I cuddled up on the couch with the puppies for a bit until Aaron got home.  We made ourselves dinner and relaxed for bit...  Around 6:30pm, we headed back to the house with another load of stuff.  We took the dogs this time, but we made sure to take some of their things so they would start to learn that it's their new house (i.e. don't "mark" anything).  Aaron did most of the hauling stuff from the car to the house while I kept an eye on the dogs.  I let them go outside and explore the yard a bit too...  After we got everything in, we started unpacking some stuff.  I added our first bit of decor... :o)

We managed to unpack all of the kitchen things that we brought over.  We had one large bin that we didn't have room for and we didn't have any actual food, but it was still a lot of stuff we got unpacked.  This morning, we took another load of stuff over, including the last bin of kitchen things and all the food (including the stuff in the fridge and freezer). 

Aaron is going to be at the house all day today doing work - he is working on getting the boards for the balcony stained.  The delivery people should be bringing the mattress and boxspring today as well - sometime between 10am and 2pm!  Things are finally coming together and tomorrow will be the rest of the move!  Yay!  :o)

Up-to-the-date!

Hello blog-o-verse! As you can probably already tell, I'm in a good mood today.  First of all, we closed on the house last night and are now officially homeowners!  Second, I will be going over to the house today with my mom and grandma to get cleaning done so we are ready to move this weekend - I'm excited to get to work on the house!  Third, I am not going to my seminar night class tonight (I'm using my one unexcused absence... don't judge me!) which means I won't have to sit through the boring class and I get to go back to the house with Aaron to get stuff done!  Fourth, I saw two adorable dogs on my way into the law school this morning!  (Yes, it is that easy to make me happy - they were awesome!)  Anyway, I figured today was a good day for an update! 

As I already mentioned, we closed on the house yesterday!  We had a walk-through first but that was really quick.  We had some time to kill so we stopped at Sheetz (I got an Iced Pumpkin Spice Latte) before going to the realtor's office.  The lady running the closing was from Secured Land Transfers; she was ready for us so we got started.  Everyone else trickled in: our realtor, the mortgage lady, the sellers' agents (there was two because I think one was still in training), and the sellers' lawyer (who was fashionably late).  When all was said and done, everything was signed and we had our keys by 4:35pm! 

We went back to the house to unload the clothes we packed in the morning.  We brought over all the clothes that hangs in the closet.  I prefer to move clothes by leaving them on their hangers and just lying them on a seat or in the truck.  We got all that clothes into the new bedroom closet and left the house so we could get back to the dogs.  We were planning to head to my parents' house so we could get another coat of primer on the furniture, go to Sam's Club for the bed frame, and get my dad's painting supplies.

When we got to my parents' house, we had enough time before my dad would get home to get the priming done.  Aaron worked on the dresser and I did the chest of drawers.  We just finished cleaning our brushes and getting changed when my dad got home.  We all went to Mid-Town for some dinner.  (If you don't know Mid-Town, they have the best sub rolls!  So, of course, I got a sub - turkey, to be exact!)  After Mid-Town, we headed to Sam's Club to get the bed frame.  Then we went to Home Depot for a variety of supplies: paint for the bedrooms, paint brushes, caulk gun, mop bucket, broom, rake, etc. 

After Home Depot, we headed back to my parents' house and packed everything into my car.  We grabbed the puppies and headed back to the apartment.  If you're paying close attention, you may have noticed that I said we were going to get my dad's painting supplies and that I didn't mention actually getting them...  That's because we forgot all about them!  Oops!  (No worries, my mom is going to bring them with her today!)

Anyway, so that was yesterday!  Today we are going to try to get lots of cleaning done and stuff put away.  My mom and grandma are coming to help for a bit, then I'll go back to the apartment for dinner.  Aaron and I will come back after dinner with another load of stuff...  I'm sure you'll hear more about all that tomorrow! ;o)

Painting... the Bedrooms!

On our very first showing of our house, Aaron and I commented that both bedrooms would need repainted.  Let me remind you why...

The second bedroom is sponge-painted with a pink-tone neutral and a very light beige.  Did I mention that was sponge-paint?  I know, right?  It's still 1995 in that room...  Oh, and don't forget the ivy painted everywhere...  Don't get me wrong, whoever painted the ivy did a good job but I don't need ivy growing out of the air vent...  Finally, the trim is all painted dark brown.  I think they did that to make it still look like wood, but it just looks terrible - it looks like they were trying to make it look like wood...  As in it looks like faux-wood even though it is wood.  Ew!

 

And the master bedroom!  Oh, lookie - more sponge-painting and dark brown trim.  Can you tell what time period it was that they painted the bedrooms?  Too funny... Again, the dark brown trim just looks like they were trying to make it look like wood, even though it is wood.  I'm a big fan of white trim...  Everyone knows it's wood and that it's painted...  Maybe it's just me, but white trim seems to be the way to go.  I can see some fun-colored trim, but just not brown!  (As for fun-colored trim, the entire first floor has blue trim so I better be okay with fun-colored trim there... or else I better be ready to do lots of painting!  Tolerating blue trim seems to be the way to go - at least to me!) 

With that in mind, we went to Home Depot the other day to pick out paint colors!  For the master bedroom, we decided to go with a light gray to match our new bedding set.  Speaking of our bedding... I think I forgot to mention that I bought our new bedding set for the master bedroom!  Our current bedding will go in the second bedroom for now. 

We picked out our bedding set from Walmart; it is by Mainstays and is called the Leaf Toss Bedding Set.  I found it online but I checked and our local store carried it, so I saved myself the shipping and picked it up in the store.  It was only about $45 for the queen set!  What a steal!  That includes the comforter, dust ruffled, sheet set, and two pillow shams!  Anyway, the bedding set is white with touches of gray, green, and black.  The black will tie in the furniture and we wanted to paint the walls gray so this set was just perfect!  I also loved that the comforter wasn't overly thick so we can actually use it without getting over heated!

Anyway, so, off to Home Depot we went!  We took a pillow sham along because it had the gray color in it we wanted to match and isn't as bulky as carrying a comforter.  We intended to use the color match machine...  Unfortunately the machine was broken! :o(  We had to revert to the old-fashioned method of holding up paint swatches to the sham.  My dad has always used Behr paint so I started with their paint swatches but none of them quite matched.  I was looking for something that matched well but was nice and bright - I don't want a dull gray, I want a silvery bright gray!  I moved over to the Glidden area.  It just so happened that the first swatch I grabbed looked like a great match!  We grabbed some more gray options but nothing held up to the first Glidden sample.  We brought that swatch home to check it out in different light.  It still looked good at home and I even checked it out the next day in both direct and indirect sunlight.  I deem it perfect... (but I'll reserve final judgment for when it's too late, i.e. when it's on the walls!)  However, the pictures just don't do it justice!  The picture makes it look lighter and distorts the colors of the bedding because the sham is silky so it photographs funny... You can tell the colors are distorted because the background looks grayish and the background is pure white!  The color is called "Quiet Rain"!

 

After selecting the master bedroom color, we moved on to collecting swatches for the second bedroom.  Because it's a second bedroom and will likely be repainted in the future when it serves another purpose (e.g. a baby's room), we decided to go with a neutral color.  In the event we are out of that house before we have any kids, a nice neutral is a good color for selling because it lets the seller see possibilities, not an offensive paint color.  Anyway, our current bedding which will be in the second bedroom is blue with some neutral-colored stripes (beige, tan, and brown).  I wanted a neutral that had a yellow-tone or a brown-tone to it.  We grabbed a bunch of swatches of colors we liked and took them home.  The next day I grabbed a pillow sham from our current bedding and tested out the swatches in indirect sunlight; I narrowed the options down to four choices.  I then took the sham and remaining four swatches into direct sunlight, into the dining room (under the chandelier for a combination of indirect sunlight and artificial light), and into the bathroom (for pure artificial light).  After all the lighting options were tested, I had a clear favorite!  When Aaron came home that day, I had him look through the swatches too.  He eliminated most of the ones I got rid of in my first run-through but kept a few extras and eliminated one of my final four swatches.  After comparing them a few times and holding them up to the white trim, he picked a favorite...  And it was the same as my favorite!  Yay for another easy pick!  The color is "Whispering Wheat"!

 

 

Now it's just a matter of getting in there and getting it all done!  And trying to keep the paint out of my hair...  No, seriously - I have a knack for getting paint in my hair.  Quite an issue - it doesn't really wash out so easily!

Outdoor To-Do List

When Aaron and I stopped by the house last week to look at the dummy rails, we arrived a bit early and had some time to walk around the exterior while we waited for the realtor.  In general, the exterior is in good shape, but no one has been living there since February so there's a bit of work that needs done.  I decided to take some pictures of some exterior things that we want to deal with.  I didn't take a picture of the yard in general because the roofers had lots of stuff in the yard.  For now, you'll just have to trust me that the yard needs mowed and there are tons of walnuts that need cleaned up (the next door neighbor has a big walnut tree and half the branches extend onto our soon-to-be property).  The outdoor work is going to be a top priority for our time...  (We have other "top" priorities like the HVAC conversion from oil to gas, but that is top priority for money but not our time as I wouldn't have a clue in the world how to do that conversion!)

Starting at the front of the house, we have the front door!  The threshold under the door needs painted.  The paint is chipped and I can see bare wood.  I want to get this fixed before the weather gets into the wood too much and we end up needing to replace the wood.  This is an easy and quick fix - we just need to sand off the old paint, give it a quick coat of primer, and put a few coats of paint on it.  The sellers have the right color paint since they just painted the balcony with it, so this should be easy and pretty much free!

 

Still at the front of the house... We have the wrought iron railings on the front stoop.  The finish is worn off in spots and some rust is showing through.  This is also a fairly quick and easy fix.  We need to take a wire brush or steel wool to the railing to get the finish off.  Then we just go ahead and give it a few coats of paint.  I'd love to use spray paint here but the railings are cemented down and I don't trust that we could keep the spray paint from getting on the concrete stoop or the house.  It's a risk that I don't want to take, so we'll stick with Rust-oleum and a paint brush.

Moving away from the front door, we have the gate to the backyard.  These wrought iron railings are fine - eventually they could use a new coat of paint, but they will be okay for a little while.  However, behind the gate, you can see a flower bed that is pretty barren; the little bit of vegetation there is all weeds!  This little area of space isn't worth planting grass, so we can keep this as a flower bed.  I want to remove the bricks that are along the front edge (near the wrought iron railing).  For now, I just want to get the weeds out and get it cleaned up; in the spring, I can get some things planted there.

Behind the same wrought iron gate and railings, there is a flower bed on the other side of the walkway.  Again, this one is full of weeds!  There is also a random hosta plant in the flower bed...  I suggested (and Aaron concurred) that we take out that flower bed and plant grass so that the strip of land that starts at the railing can be grass the whole way back the yard.  I prefer as much grass as possible since I don't have a green thumb... If you look closely, you can see that there is grass just on the other side of the flower bed.  Also, all the flower beds have little wrought iron fencing (that stuff that is only about 6" high) on the perimeter.  I personally hate that so the plan is to get rid of all that.  The only places we will still have flower beds go from the house to the walkway anyway so we don't need to make a "line" between the flower bed and the grass...

Moving around the side, past the baywindows, and coming to the side patio (which has a door into the kitchen)...  There is another flower bed back here.  This one is going to stay because it seems silly to plant such a small area of grass.  You might be able to see the silly wrought iron tiny fencing stuff a little better here, but it just doesn't show up well.  This one is calling for a bush or two rather than annuals like flowers...  I also pointed out the hose that's still hooked up - that needs to be disconnected before winter comes and it freezes up!  On the bonus, that hose hook-up is a frost-free hook-up!

Same area, just a few inches to the right is the step up onto patio...  The step has settled poorly and is quite crooked now.  This needs fixed so that it isn't a safety hazard.  This one isn't quite as easy of a fix as we will have to bust out that concrete and pour a new step.  I would be lost as to how to do this...  I'm sure a Google search would help, but this project doesn't seem so easy!  Anyway, my dad said he knows what he's doing, so we can tackle that when he's available to help.  I'm not sure how expensive that will be, but it will be cheaper to do ourselves (that I am sure of!).  You can also see all the leaves and a few walnuts.  It will take a while to clean all that up, but it's just labor and time, no money required!  The patio could use a good cleaning as well.  Hopefully I can borrow my dad's power washer to really clean that up. 






Just off the patio, you can see the walkway that leads from the gate that opens up to the front sidewalk around to the patio behind the storage area at the very back of the house.  This walkway is a little uneven and has lots of vegetation growing in it.  I'm not sure exactly how I want to fix this up in the final sense, but for now it needs to be cleaned up and sprayed with vegetation killer.  I would really like to extend the walkway through the entire backyard to the back gate which leads to the parking spaces.  I'd rather walk on a walkway than through mud or wet grass.  However, I have a few reservations.  First, I'm not sure how costly it would be, especially since I think we'd need to redo the entire walkway to make sure it all matches.  Second, I'm not sure if it would affect the resale value of the house negatively; someone could want the backyard to be free of a walkway if they planned on using the backyard to allow their children to run around or play soccer or something in the yard.  A walkway in the yard would be a hard surface to fall on and it could be a tripping hazard.  I guess we'll have to put some more thought into this before we do anything more than clean up what's already there.

Finally, if you follow that walkway all the way around to the very back of the house, you can see the door that leads into the storage area.  At first glance, you might not notice anything, but if you look closely at the bottom, the door is quite deteriorated.  The bottom is almost fraying.  The door itself is beyond repair and we just need to replace it.  I understand exterior doors to be around $100 to $150 dollars.  My dad has hung plenty of doors in his time and I'm sure he'll be willing to help us get that done.  Also, while we're at it, I'm not so certain I want a red door.  I think I'd like it to be white like the trim on the front windows.  The kitchen door is also white I believe.  However, it might get quite dirty, in which case white isn't the way to go...  Anyway, on a related note, I also want to get a sliding lock for the bottom of the new door (one that you can only operate from the inside) as an added safety feature as this seems like one of the most likely spots someone would try to break in.  The extra lock would just be a bit of extra assurance...




On a final note, I also want to have motion lights installed on the back of the house.  There are motion lights on the patio outside the kitchen but I'm not sure they are in working order as we were there at night and they didn't turn on.  If those lights don't work, I want to get them replaced.  I'd like the motion lights for multiple reasons.  First, if we park in the back spaces and have to walk to the kitchen door to get home, I want to have some lights turn on and illuminate my path!  Second, we will take the dogs out at night so it would be nice to have light to keep an eye on them.  And third, it serves as a deterrent for a thief!

Well, that's all for now...  Although I think that's plenty to worry about!  I will get around to the indoor to-do list once I get to do another once-over of the inside...

::thunk::

::thunk::  ::thunk::  ::thunk::

That is the sound of me banging my head into the wall.

So it seems the roof is not done yet.  Please keep in mind that I was told it would be done early last week.  It is now early this week.  That means that the job that I was told would take one week actually took twice that long.  Seriously?!  That's just ridiculous. 

The law student in me is wondering whether I could have some sort of cause of action against a contractor who fails to complete work in a timely manner and causes a delay in the closing of a house.  Unfortunately, I may have "relied" on closing taking place today, but I did not suffer any actual "harm."  Sure, I'm annoyed and delayed in general, but I didn't book a moving truck that I had to cancel and lose some money or anything like that.  The sellers might have a better case because they are paying a little bit each day they own the property (taxes, utilities, etc.) but it probably wouldn't do much good anyway.  The law student in me just wants to do something about it...

Well, anyway!  So Aaron contacted the realtor today and she said that the roof would be finished today.  (I've heard promises regarding the roof being finished already and I'm a little jaded now, but I sure hope her information is correct!)  The home inspector is scheduled to come out to the house tomorrow to inspect the roof.  Closing is now scheduled for this Wednesday; we will be doing a walk-through at 3pm and the actual closing is scheduled for 4pm.  Hopefully nothing else changes!

On a side note, the realtor told us that the sellers won't be at closing.  Apparently, their realtor is out of town this week but their lawyer will be there to sign the papers for them.  This seems a little crazy to me!  We know the sellers are still local as they come out to the house to do things like put up dummy railings.  I also know how much a lawyer costs...  They are talking at least 2-3 hours of the lawyer's time.  Even if they get a flat fee rather than paying for billable hours, it's still likely they are spending a good $500 to not come to closing.  It just makes me wonder why they don't want to come to closing so bad...  Is it us?  Or is it our realtor (remember: she's related to the sellers and used to be their seller's agent)?  Aaron says it's not worth thinking about, but I'm still curious...

That's the latest for now!  I'll keep you updated as things keep moving...

Re-finishing: Priming and Painting

"Prime" Time

Last Tuesday, I started the priming on the furniture!  My parents only had room for about half the furniture in the basement so I started with all the drawers and the two nightstands; it needs to get painted in the basement because it's too cold to do outside these days.  Anyway, this just left the actual frames for the chest of drawers and the dresser for later.  On Tuesday, I had enough time to get one coat of primer on everything. 

We are using Rust-oleum's Painters' Touch Ultra Cover Primer.  Another blogger recommended it and I've generally followed her guidance... 

We are also using the rubber band trick that is all over Pinterest.  Consider this a mini "Pin-tested, Nikki Approved" - you put the rubber band around the can so that you can wipe off your brush easily.  Conclusion: Works like a charm!

This is the collection of all the stuff that we started working on.  This is how it all looked after the first coat of primer.  We are using the gray primer since we are painting the furniture black - any dark colors, it's recommended that you use gray primer.  If you're painting the furniture a light color, you should use the white primer.

The drawer on the left has two coats of primer.  The drawer on the right has only one coat of primer.  If you look, the grain is still visible even through two coats of primer.  Also, you'll note that I didn't go crazy with the primer (nice thin coats) so the coverage on the first coat is a little sparse.  Between coats, check the surface because the primer will raise the grain of the wood so you may need to do a light hand sanding (220 grit or so is fine).


Aaron and I went over to my parents on Friday evening to continue working on the furniture.  We got a second coat of primer on everything.  It went a lot quicker with two of us, but still took a good hour to hour and a half to get it done.  The primer states that it takes two to four hours to cure.  Luckily for us, we had two hours to waste so we waited for the primer dry and then it was time for....



Painting!

We are using Rust-oleum's Painters' Touch Ultra Cover Semi-Gloss Black paint.  Again, the same blogger recommended it.  And I figured that it makes sense to use the same brand of primer and paint.  Both the paint and primer go quite a long ways and the quart cans are only about $8 at our local Home Depot.

(My apologies for the appearance of the can... I didn't take the picture until after we had been painting for a little while.  We are a bit messy...  Thankfully we have lots of drop cloths down on the basement floor to protect it, but the paint can got a wee bit messy!)



Aaron and I were able to get our first coat of black paint on the drawers and nightstands on Friday night.  Again, we are using very thin coats of paint.  You don't need to sand in between these coats unless you notice the grain is being raised again.  (I didn't notice any raising of the grain during the paint steps.)  You can actually see through quite a bit the paint, but that's fine!



We needed to let the paint dry for about two hours between coats.  We were out of time for Friday night so we went home and came back Saturday morning.

Somewhere around the third coat of paint, we were finally starting to have "black" furniture (see the picture on the right)!  The gray primer wasn't nearly so visible.  We were being as careful as possible to do thin, even coats. 

We got three more coats done on Saturday, for a total of four coats.  Aaron thought that was plenty, but I thought we needed one more coat.  My family was all together for my birthday celebration so we gathered some opinions.  The general consensus was that one more coat wouldn't hurt, with some saying it could use it and others saying it could be okay as it was.  I decided that another coat couldn't hurt and would only help, so I wanted to do it....


We went back on Sunday morning to get that final coat done.  We went over early enough so that we could let it dry for a bit and then move it up into the garage and get the other furniture to the basement. 

We were extra careful with the last coat of paint, making sure that our brush strokes were even and followed the grain of the wood.  It's hard to see in this picture but you can actually still see the grain in the wood. 

After coat number five (see the picture to the left), we were quite happy with the results!  It is a deep black and the semi-gloss is just right - matte paint would look cheap like laminate furniture and high-gloss would be too much.  Our painting isn't perfect but unless someone looks really closely, no one will know!  (If you come over and put your nose up to the furniture to see the mistakes, I'm going to get ya!)  There's just little imperfections here and there, but nothing major...

We still have to prime and paint the frames for the chest of drawers and the dresser.  We got them down into the basement so they warm up (they were in the garage which is colder than the basement) and I hope to start the priming on Tuesday.  Obviously I'm not done with the primer and the paint, but we will easily get the priming done before we finish our first can of primer and we might even finish the painting without opening the second can of paint!  So if you're keeping track of of costs, I only paid $125 for the furniture and the paint and primer only cost about $17 for both.  We did buy a can of spray paint for the hardware that was $7 so that puts us at a grand total of $150 for a whole bedroom set!  (Okay, fine, I bought another headboard for $70 and we have to buy a bedframe for about $40, so really it's $260, but stillll!!!)

The Roof, The Roof, The Roof is.... FINISHED (we think)!

Oh, thank goodness!  We have been anxiously watching the progress on the roof.  In fact, I'm prettttty sure I've come off as a crazy person to the roofers...  I had been driving by on my way home from school each day to see if they had started.  It was one week ago that they first started on the roof.  Of course, I had to stop and take a picture (see below)!  The problem was that I decided to get out of the car, cross over to the front of the house, and see if I could get any other pictures.  When I walked across the street, I was surprised to see one of the roofers on the sidewalk (he was hidden by a big truck until I got to the sidewalk).  I had to justify my presence so I told him I was the new homeowner and was just checking the progress.  He gave me a slow nod, still looking at me as if I were a bit odd (okay, fine, I am a bit odd).  I asked if he knew when the work would be done.  Of course, he didn't know and proceeded to call the guy in charge around front.  Now I really felt like a dunce...

The guy in charge, Mike, told me that the work should be done early the next week... which just so happens to be this week (and if you're keeping track, it is definitely not early in the week - it's the end of the week!).  Mike then told me that he had a question about the gutters that were to be put up on the storage area.  He went into a big explanation about why the gutters weren't the right solution - something about the 90-degree turn in the gutter would pull the one side away from the siding.  He said the best option would be to have add an overhang to the side of the roof and to put up a good drip edge.  The drip edge is essentially a piece of metal that will run from the roof surface to several inches down the exterior wall; it will keep water from rolling off the roof and down under the siding.  I deferred to his expertise and said that it would be fine as long as the sellers agreed.

I have driven by pretty much every day since and have taken a picture whenever there was a change to see.  The roofers have gotten to know me... sadly...  Pathetically enough, Mike actually yelled down to me the one day while I was taking my picture, called me by name, and asked if I liked the color of the metal.  Aiye!  Anyway, here are the pictures of the progress:

October 10th

 

October 11th

October 12th 

 

 October 14th

October 19th

 

 

As you can see, the roof is finally done!  Well - it was done in the front.  When I drove by Thursday, the roofers were still there, still working.  This was nerve-wracking because we talked to Jen, the mortgage lady, on Tuesday and she said she put a rush-request in with the appraiser to get our there Tuesday night or Wednesday...  In other words, the appraiser was requested to get out there as early as Tuesday night and, as of Thursday afternoon, I still saw the roofers at work!  Additionally, we were told that the appraiser needed 3-5 days after getting back out there to be ready for closing. 

When I drove by on Friday morning, the roofers were STILL there.  I called Aaron and gave him what was becoming the usual bad news - the roof was still not done.  On Friday afternoon, I got tricked... As I pulled up to the curb across the street, I noticed that the front of the roof was finally finished!  I didn't see the roofers' truck either!  And then I went to drive away... I saw the roofers were at the bay window on the side and that the truck was in the backyard.  So much for being done!  On the bonus, it looked like the entire main roof was done and I assume they were doing the finishing touches on the bay window.  So, I am assuming that by now they are finished.  At least they better be!  So much for "early next week" - more like "barely getting it done by the end of next week".  Lesson learned: never trust a timing estimate by a construction worker!

Anyway, our realtor called us Friday to let us know that closing was post-poned.  At this point, we still don't know when closing will be but she said either Wednesday or Thursday.  We asked for Wednesday but haven't heard anything definite yet. 

Re-Finishing: Sanding is DONE

We finally finished sanding on last Saturday (October 13th)... If you're keeping track, that means it was two weeks of sanding!  It took forever, but we did it right - we got all of the old finish off and the wood is ready for the next step!

However, before we can prime and paint, we need to get the sawdust cleaned off the furniture.  We moved all the furniture into the driveway and we swept out my parents' garage where we were keeping everything; the garage had a film of sawdust from it blowing in.  Once we got that done, we started using my dad's air compressor to blow off the furniture.  For the bigger pieces, we went over it all about three times to get everything off.  For the drawers, we just went over it twice.  We started with the big pieces and moved onto the drawers.  As soon as we got done with each piece, we put it back into the garage and made sure not to blow any sawdust back into the garage.  This whole process only took about 45 minutes or so which is much quicker than vacuuming it all or having to get it all off using rags!

I don't have any pictures of me doing any work, but I swear I helped!  For now, check out the pictures of Aaron demonstrating the air compressor!  Note his awesome protective eyewear!  :o)

 

After we used the air compressor, we took clean rags and wiped everything down.  The oils on our hands get onto the furniture when we are working on it and the sawdust gets stuck in the oils so blowing it off doesn't take care of the whole problem.  It only took us about 15 minutes to wipe everything down.  Next up - priming and painting!  

More Re-finishing Fun...

So I've been slacking in terms of updates on the re-finishing of the bedroom furniture.  My apologies!  I've also failed miserably at taking proper "before" pictures.  As an example, the picture to the right is the "before" picture for the chest of drawers.  If you notice (and how can you not?), I'm missing a drawer...  Ooops!  I may have started working on that drawer before I remembered to take a picture of the furniture.  You can use your imagination and fill in the last drawer - it looks like the one above it!

Here's a few more pictures of the chest of drawers (all taken after one drawer had been removed, of course). 

First, I wanted to take a picture to show the original hardware.  To the left are the single pulls.  To the right are the handles.  If you notice, the upper drawer shown (in the picture on the right/above), you can see the single missing backplate that made me think I had to buy new hardware!  Reminder: the new plan is to not use backplates on the nightstands.  Hopefully that works out because I still love the original hardware.  It has such great charm and you just can't find hardware like that anymore!

I'd just like to point out a bit of the damage to the furniture.  In the first picture, you can see some damage to the corner and a spot of wear on the top of the chest.  You can see other little scratches all over the surface.

There is a lot more damage evident at the bottom of the chest of drawers.  The finish is rubbed off on the trim piece just below the bottom drawer; this damage extends most of the length of the chest.  There is also damage to the finish on the frame and legs at the very bottom.






So let's show the progress...  From left to right: 1) only one drawer completed but you can see the big difference between the natural wood underneath and the finish on top;, 2) three drawers done; 3) the frame is finally done but some drawers aren't picture; 4) the finished top - I just love the wood grain!

 

 

I wanted to show the different steps in sanding down the furniture...

Step 1: Belt Sander

The belt sander is good to start with as it will take off a lot of material in a short period of time.



Step 2: Half-Sheet Sander - 80 Grit
The rough grit will keep things moving but you have more control than with belt sander.


Step 3: Half-sheet Sander (or any of the other sanders) - 150 grit
The finer grit should be used to finish up so that the wood is as smooth as possible.  (I didn't take any pictures here because I was using the same half-sheet sander and you can see the result after the 150 grit in the "after" pictures.)

Step 4: Corner-cut Sander - 120 grit - the corner-cut sander can be used to get into smaller areas and to deal with rounded surfaces.  I used this sander for most of the front face of the pieces (the trim is rounded and there were lots of small areas to get done).  The reason this was 120 grit as opposed to the 150 grit was simply because that was what was available.  The difference between the two grits isn't very much - I couldn't feel much of a difference in the texture of the paper or in the feel of the final product. 

Step 5: Hand sanding - assorted grits - in the end, there is always some places that you can't get with a power sander so you need to do it the old-fashioned way.  I generally started with a piece of 80 grit paper to get it started and finished with a piece of 150 grit paper, just like I did with the half-sheet sander.  In some places though, I just needed the 150 grit paper (places where it was just painted were easy to sand so the 80 grit wasn't needed as compared to the different-to-sand areas with the lacquer finish).



Visual Aid - When to Move to the Next Step

When I worked on the top of the dresser, I decided to do it in a way to show you the difference between the different steps.  I used the belt sander on the entire top.  After I had that done, I used the half-sheet sander with the 80 grit paper on 3/4 of the dresser (the front half and half of the back half).  After that, I used the half-sheet sander with the 150 grit paper on just the front half.  This let me show you the different steps in a clear way.  As you can see, the belt sander takes off a decent amount but it's uneven.  I use the 80 grit paper on the sander to get most of the finish off but then then I bring out the 150 grit to actually finish it.  The 150 grit makes it nice and smooth; the 150 grit is also slower which helps keep the surface even.  I know it's a little hard to see the differences in the first picture here, so I took a close-up as well (see below).

The picture to the right shows the close-up of the different steps.  Each area is labeled; the label corresponds to what I used to get to the stage that is pictured in each section!  So when you are using a belt sander and it looks like the area labeled "Belt Sander" - move on!  When you are using the 80 grit paper and it looks like the area labeled "80 Grit" - move on!  And when using the "150 Grit" and it looks like the area labeled "150 Grit" - you're done!

I hope this helps explain how I did it... I don't proclaim to be an expert, but I think the furniture looks great and I'm happy with the process!