Oh...oh...oh...so very, very close. The move in is practically upon us, people! We can smell it, taste it and reallllly really hope that the next few days are jam packed with making it happen.
That said, I do want to make sure everyone understands the difference between the house being "liveable" and the house being "finished". There are many, many things that still need to be "finished" but are not essential to us being able to live there.
The Basics:
1. Heat
2. Running Water
3. Electricity
4. A place to make the foods
Heat, we have. Word!
Our friend who has been doing the electrical is spending most of the day tomorrow installing the remaining outlets, switches and lighting fixtures. Electricity is flowing to the house, but it needs to be available throughout the house.
RJ is finishing up the walls in the kitchen and installing the most essential cabinet skeleton (frames that have shelves, but not yet doors or drawers). He will then get the sink and dishwasher in place so that our plumber can come in and hook everything up to water and gas--the kitchen, upstairs bath and washing machine/dryer. And another friend of RJ who is a tile expert will make sure we have tile on the countertops.
All this should happen in the next several days. The internet folks are coming to hook stuff up/transfer service Tuesday, with Direct TV doing the same on Thursday. So, between now and then, in theory, we will be in. I've been slowly packing and moving boxes from the cabin to our house. And on Monday, we drove up to the Denver area, rented a moving truck and took a whole shipment of furniture and appliances back down to Creede, narrowly escaping death on 285 South.
Many things could go wrong. We've already had a bitch of a day today. RJ's fuel pump died and he couldn't get started at the house until early afternoon because he spent most of the morning replacing said fuel pump. The plumber knows we need him to come in the next few days...hopefully he will...as he's a busy guy.
I am so, so excited and also still tearing my hair out. Every whisper of a hiccup sounds like a scream. But, I went through a bunch of boxes yesterday determining whether they needed to stay in storage or be dispersed around the house. I realized that, at the end of the day, I didn't want to leave! I wanted to stay in this house. MY house. OUR house, that we have created together. It's pretty damn cool.
But...back to the list of major things that will not be finished until later due to time and/or money:
1. Downstairs bathroom
2. Guest bedroom and closet
3. Bar dividing kitchen and dining area
4. Trim windows/doorways downstairs and baseboard everywhere that's been polyurethaned (except the bedroom, which is done).
5. Cedar siding on the addition/prime and paint it. (Spring project!)
6. Finish Stairs (they are functional, just not yet pretty).
7. Shelves
The Main Thing: RJ has to go back to work. For actual money. All of these things I can work on during the day or we can attempt in the evening, but we gots to eat. Thankfully he has a job in town to go back to, but we are pretty paralyzed with brokeness at the moment. Not that we've every had a lot, but we don't even have just a little.
You may have noticed there are no pictures on this particular blog post...I'm saving those for the next one in which I hope I will be writing FROM the house. But I will say this so you can use your imagination: we have couches, some desks, my childhood dresser, RJ's childhood dining room table and a lot of stuff to be put away in various places coming soon. But it is happening. IT'S HAPPENING.
Okay, I must go and await more anxiety-ridden dreams.
Until the next one, friends!
Friday, December 13, 2013
Tuesday, December 3, 2013
And From the Ashes...
I've got to say, having heat in the house REALLY helps morale. I mean, shit. Working in barely 40 degrees as opposed to 55-60 is like you're outside without the fresh air or mountains to look at. You have a constant chill and life just looks a little bit more bleak.
BUT, after a little tweak to the furnace (it's a few years old and had a fan that wouldn't shut off), our house is getting nice and toasty. Even though it's set around the same temp as the log cabin we currently live in, it already feels much warmer--at least less drafty and chilled.
And today...was quite productive. We finished the miserable job of insulating under the house, that we started last night. RJ did most of the grunt work but I got him anything he needed. It's the least I can do after insulating the entire house! Though doing it in a crawl space is a special level of hell. Though we can already feel a huge difference.
I also got another wall primed. Then...it was on to a lot of small but mighty things: I moved the rest of the flooring (which will go in the addition downstairs in a couple days) out of the elements from the front yard into the garage. It was wrapped in plastic, but we're supposed to get dumped on with snow between tonight and tomorrow night, so better safe than sorry.
We raised the back door up about a half inch or so. We hadn't taken into account the thickness of the flooring that will be installed and though a pain in the ass to have to move the entire structure, the door will now open smoothly. We also put the doors in for the downstairs bath and bedroom. Those will be the rooms we finish after we move in, so having a barrier from the unfinishedness is a super duper. Plus, all this makes it feel like a real ass house.
I also prepped the upstairs for polyurethane tomorrow. Meaning...I spent over an hour dusting. All the sanding of the main floor downstairs created SO much dust everywhere (including upstairs), it took well over an hour to get it all up.
Tomorrow is the big poly day for me (I probably won't need that drink after work) while RJ possibly/hopefully goes to build some of the cabinets and counters for the kitchen in a shop outside of town. Again, a lovely perk of Creede being Creede is that a friend can order you cabinet supplies at cost!
It's happening people!
****I also want to give a sincere thank you to all the folks who sent me nice notes and comments about my last post. I was in a bad way, and this blog has been a great way for me to let off steam. Thanks for all the kind words and support. I love you, friends.
The journey continues. (With the help of a daily adult beverage.)
BUT, after a little tweak to the furnace (it's a few years old and had a fan that wouldn't shut off), our house is getting nice and toasty. Even though it's set around the same temp as the log cabin we currently live in, it already feels much warmer--at least less drafty and chilled.
And today...was quite productive. We finished the miserable job of insulating under the house, that we started last night. RJ did most of the grunt work but I got him anything he needed. It's the least I can do after insulating the entire house! Though doing it in a crawl space is a special level of hell. Though we can already feel a huge difference.
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| The Access Hole in the closet of the guest bedroom. (Pervy jokes about access hole commencing in 3...) |
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| Unda tha houuuuuse! |
I also got another wall primed. Then...it was on to a lot of small but mighty things: I moved the rest of the flooring (which will go in the addition downstairs in a couple days) out of the elements from the front yard into the garage. It was wrapped in plastic, but we're supposed to get dumped on with snow between tonight and tomorrow night, so better safe than sorry.
We raised the back door up about a half inch or so. We hadn't taken into account the thickness of the flooring that will be installed and though a pain in the ass to have to move the entire structure, the door will now open smoothly. We also put the doors in for the downstairs bath and bedroom. Those will be the rooms we finish after we move in, so having a barrier from the unfinishedness is a super duper. Plus, all this makes it feel like a real ass house.
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| Doooooooooor. |
Tomorrow is the big poly day for me (I probably won't need that drink after work) while RJ possibly/hopefully goes to build some of the cabinets and counters for the kitchen in a shop outside of town. Again, a lovely perk of Creede being Creede is that a friend can order you cabinet supplies at cost!
It's happening people!
****I also want to give a sincere thank you to all the folks who sent me nice notes and comments about my last post. I was in a bad way, and this blog has been a great way for me to let off steam. Thanks for all the kind words and support. I love you, friends.
The journey continues. (With the help of a daily adult beverage.)
Friday, November 29, 2013
Shit Gets Real: You're Not Supposed to Talk About Money
I've always been told it's not polite to talk about money and I've mostly ignored that sentiment in my life and have been comfortable doing so. When I was younger, I often thought this "rule" only applied to rich people so others didn't know how much they "had". But now I realize it was also probably to save people from the knowledge of how little they had. Regardless of either reason, I'm REALLY going to talk about it. Like, right now:
This house, this house thishousethishouse. It is getting so close to being liveable. So close. And we are...so broke. The problem with being pretty poor in the first place and buying a house is that you have to find a house that's affordable. And in this case, what was affordable was also...a completely unlivable dump. Hence the construction loan. We will be OK, we really will. RJ has work for the entire winter but hasn't been able to work on the project because he's the main builder for our house. And all he gets from that is sweat equity. We have had SO many people helping, and continue to have help. Creede is great for that. But most days it's just him and me. And I do what I can but sometimes, I just don't have the skill to help. Also, shit happens--the flooring nailer breaks so you have to postpone a certain project. There's a snowstorm and the plumber can't make it. RJ has told me many times, when I've asked for a time frame, that he just can't give me one. There's an approximate goal but it is dependent on so many things working the way they are supposed to and they rarely do. And when you've got one to two people working, this basically fucks up your entire day.
And then, there's me. I'm paying all the bills right now. Alllllllll of them. A little background: Career-wise, I've been lucky over the past three years. Scarily lucky because I have had acting work for 75% or more of the year for three CONSECUTIVE years, which is AHMazing. In theatre, a dream gig is somewhere like Oregon Shakespeare Festival, which pays really well (for theatre) and is, at best, 10 months of employment out of the year. While not (yet!) working at OSF, I have had the privilege to either have jobs that have had co-productions that have extended my contracts. Or, I have had work that all but overlapped. For example, earlier this year I had a job that ended on a Sunday and a new one that started the following Tuesday. Baller!
As an actor, you can start to get comfortable with this sort of thing. And I have made an effort to be so grateful for the work, and to not take it for granted or expect anything. But there is a truly dark and desperate side to this profession. And that is, in the back of your mind--ALWAYS--is the thought (no, the worry) that the jobs will run out and you'll be in a spot where you're not working for a while. For many reasons I have little to no control over, I have currently hit that lovely place called a dry spell. For instance, I'm union and smaller theatres will often take an equally good non-union person over you, or they just don't have the money for the contracts in the first place*. Also, sometimes you're just not right for a role or a season. I've done a couple on-camera jobs lately (awesome) but those don't necessarily bring you lots of cash. RJ told me the other day that when he was a kid, he thought that everyone on tv was a millionaire. He now knows that that is rarely true.
All this leads me to the emotional stress of being truly broke for the first time in a loooooong time. When I say broke, I mean almost no savings, no cash, and I'm using my one, low interest credit card for lots of things, which I HATE doing. That thing is for emergencies, not for living.
I'm realizing that one of the reasons I started this blog is to give people a taste of building a house when you have little to no money. And what that is like. What do you have to be creative about to make it work (as Tim Gunn would say). It makes me think about the housing crash a few years ago when people were getting loans with unfixed interest rates that they actually couldn't afford. And the day came when they were utterly screwed, just to get a piece of comfort--a home. We made a huge effort not to fall into that and honestly, in the long run, this house is an incredible investment. The house will be worth more than 3 times what we paid for it and we have a fixed 15 year mortgage that, if we had our normal income, would be quite a reasonable monthly payment.
Now is the fucking hard part. This is the part that causes me to spontaneously cry in the middle of my almost done house. That makes me argue with my partner about time and money and crave the day when I can just. be. comfortable. When I can get up in the morning with my pets and my sleeping husband and have a nice cup of coffee and maybe buy a nice table cloth for the dining room table. I am so tired right now. Tired of knowing that I have $196.87 in my SAVINGS account. Tired of getting up and staining flooring. Tired of trying to be a cheerleader on the job that never seems to end. You think that these projects are going to be so invigorating and exciting. And that they sometimes are. But I can't help fantasizing how this process would be different if I had chosen a career (or a husband with a career) that actually made an average, comfortable living. This has mainly been buffered by the artistic work I've been lucky enough to be paid to do. A lot can be said for the impact emotional and creative riches have on your state of mind. But when you don't have that, life can seem pretty grim sometimes. And I (we) will be okay. It's looking good that I will be back at Creede Rep for the summer/fall next year. And who knows what opportunities will pop up before then. But moving into the holiday season of family and commercialism and giving and receiving, I struggle with my self-worth, my abilities, my...life. This is what it meant, when adults told you as a kid, that being a grownup is hard.
So...send good thoughts, friends. It'll be okay. But being someone trained to live "in the moment," all I want to do right now is scream.
(Update: Today is a better day and I'm back to being pretty excited about things and all that jazz. Plus, I've had lots of kind words from many of you and it's so good to hear. :D ALSO: The plumber is coming this afternoon to hook up the furnace and hopefully the upstairs bathroom. Comfortable pooping commencing soon!)
(Update #2: My husband just texted me, "The furnace is a go!!!" Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!)
*Drop my union card, you might say. For many reasons this is a terrible
idea at this time in my life and I'll explain another time.
This house, this house thishousethishouse. It is getting so close to being liveable. So close. And we are...so broke. The problem with being pretty poor in the first place and buying a house is that you have to find a house that's affordable. And in this case, what was affordable was also...a completely unlivable dump. Hence the construction loan. We will be OK, we really will. RJ has work for the entire winter but hasn't been able to work on the project because he's the main builder for our house. And all he gets from that is sweat equity. We have had SO many people helping, and continue to have help. Creede is great for that. But most days it's just him and me. And I do what I can but sometimes, I just don't have the skill to help. Also, shit happens--the flooring nailer breaks so you have to postpone a certain project. There's a snowstorm and the plumber can't make it. RJ has told me many times, when I've asked for a time frame, that he just can't give me one. There's an approximate goal but it is dependent on so many things working the way they are supposed to and they rarely do. And when you've got one to two people working, this basically fucks up your entire day.
And then, there's me. I'm paying all the bills right now. Alllllllll of them. A little background: Career-wise, I've been lucky over the past three years. Scarily lucky because I have had acting work for 75% or more of the year for three CONSECUTIVE years, which is AHMazing. In theatre, a dream gig is somewhere like Oregon Shakespeare Festival, which pays really well (for theatre) and is, at best, 10 months of employment out of the year. While not (yet!) working at OSF, I have had the privilege to either have jobs that have had co-productions that have extended my contracts. Or, I have had work that all but overlapped. For example, earlier this year I had a job that ended on a Sunday and a new one that started the following Tuesday. Baller!
As an actor, you can start to get comfortable with this sort of thing. And I have made an effort to be so grateful for the work, and to not take it for granted or expect anything. But there is a truly dark and desperate side to this profession. And that is, in the back of your mind--ALWAYS--is the thought (no, the worry) that the jobs will run out and you'll be in a spot where you're not working for a while. For many reasons I have little to no control over, I have currently hit that lovely place called a dry spell. For instance, I'm union and smaller theatres will often take an equally good non-union person over you, or they just don't have the money for the contracts in the first place*. Also, sometimes you're just not right for a role or a season. I've done a couple on-camera jobs lately (awesome) but those don't necessarily bring you lots of cash. RJ told me the other day that when he was a kid, he thought that everyone on tv was a millionaire. He now knows that that is rarely true.
All this leads me to the emotional stress of being truly broke for the first time in a loooooong time. When I say broke, I mean almost no savings, no cash, and I'm using my one, low interest credit card for lots of things, which I HATE doing. That thing is for emergencies, not for living.
I'm realizing that one of the reasons I started this blog is to give people a taste of building a house when you have little to no money. And what that is like. What do you have to be creative about to make it work (as Tim Gunn would say). It makes me think about the housing crash a few years ago when people were getting loans with unfixed interest rates that they actually couldn't afford. And the day came when they were utterly screwed, just to get a piece of comfort--a home. We made a huge effort not to fall into that and honestly, in the long run, this house is an incredible investment. The house will be worth more than 3 times what we paid for it and we have a fixed 15 year mortgage that, if we had our normal income, would be quite a reasonable monthly payment.
Now is the fucking hard part. This is the part that causes me to spontaneously cry in the middle of my almost done house. That makes me argue with my partner about time and money and crave the day when I can just. be. comfortable. When I can get up in the morning with my pets and my sleeping husband and have a nice cup of coffee and maybe buy a nice table cloth for the dining room table. I am so tired right now. Tired of knowing that I have $196.87 in my SAVINGS account. Tired of getting up and staining flooring. Tired of trying to be a cheerleader on the job that never seems to end. You think that these projects are going to be so invigorating and exciting. And that they sometimes are. But I can't help fantasizing how this process would be different if I had chosen a career (or a husband with a career) that actually made an average, comfortable living. This has mainly been buffered by the artistic work I've been lucky enough to be paid to do. A lot can be said for the impact emotional and creative riches have on your state of mind. But when you don't have that, life can seem pretty grim sometimes. And I (we) will be okay. It's looking good that I will be back at Creede Rep for the summer/fall next year. And who knows what opportunities will pop up before then. But moving into the holiday season of family and commercialism and giving and receiving, I struggle with my self-worth, my abilities, my...life. This is what it meant, when adults told you as a kid, that being a grownup is hard.
So...send good thoughts, friends. It'll be okay. But being someone trained to live "in the moment," all I want to do right now is scream.
(Update: Today is a better day and I'm back to being pretty excited about things and all that jazz. Plus, I've had lots of kind words from many of you and it's so good to hear. :D ALSO: The plumber is coming this afternoon to hook up the furnace and hopefully the upstairs bathroom. Comfortable pooping commencing soon!)
(Update #2: My husband just texted me, "The furnace is a go!!!" Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!)
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| Talk to the hand, Life! |
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| I see the light. Sort of. It has paint on it. |
Sunday, November 24, 2013
Pro.Gress.
I noticed today that my toenails were long. Longer than I'd ever had them. I hadn't noticed it. The majority of my days consist of getting up, taking the dog out, making breakfast, heading to the house to work, coming back home for dinner, zoning in front of the computer, reading (maybe) and falling asleep. Sometimes a good hour or two before RJ comes up. I can't actually remember most of the time, I'm too tired.
Today represented the best and worst of the overall progress. First...The Best: We started painting. Most of it can probably be finished in the next few days. One of the processes you go through for just plain, painted walls is: 1) drywall 2) drywall tape the seams 3) 2-3 layers of mud, which you sand smooth after it drys so you have a smooth wall. A reason why a lot of houses have textured walls is because it's easier to hide the imperfections of this process. 4) prime 5) paint. Some of the walls need some touching up with the mud (which has to dry and be sanded) before I can prime and paint them. BUT. Our ceiling downstairs is pretty much done except for a quick second coat. And it's a glorious color called brandywine (kind of a jewel color of red and purple). We had an early idea to wallpaper the ceiling but good/cool wallpaper is around $30 a roll. And a single roll doesn't go very far so it just wasn't in the budget. A colorful wall is a great and cheap way to mix things up.
The Worst: The downstairs wood flooring. It's different from the upstairs blue stained pine that I was sanding and staining. RJ got it from a friend of his who had been sitting on it for many years and decided to let us use it. It is very narrow and it took 2-3 guys about 3 1/2 hours to get not even 5 feet across. It'll look great but it'll take days to put it all down and our house isn't even that big. And we most likely won't have three people working on it either. Dammit to hell. And once it's all laid down it has to be sanded, stained and polyurethaned.
Woah...could it be Sunday already? I actually fell asleep before finishing this blog post. That's how I roll lately folks. And now...it's the Broncos game and I'm a wee drunk. Here's some pictures. PEACE!
Today represented the best and worst of the overall progress. First...The Best: We started painting. Most of it can probably be finished in the next few days. One of the processes you go through for just plain, painted walls is: 1) drywall 2) drywall tape the seams 3) 2-3 layers of mud, which you sand smooth after it drys so you have a smooth wall. A reason why a lot of houses have textured walls is because it's easier to hide the imperfections of this process. 4) prime 5) paint. Some of the walls need some touching up with the mud (which has to dry and be sanded) before I can prime and paint them. BUT. Our ceiling downstairs is pretty much done except for a quick second coat. And it's a glorious color called brandywine (kind of a jewel color of red and purple). We had an early idea to wallpaper the ceiling but good/cool wallpaper is around $30 a roll. And a single roll doesn't go very far so it just wasn't in the budget. A colorful wall is a great and cheap way to mix things up.
The Worst: The downstairs wood flooring. It's different from the upstairs blue stained pine that I was sanding and staining. RJ got it from a friend of his who had been sitting on it for many years and decided to let us use it. It is very narrow and it took 2-3 guys about 3 1/2 hours to get not even 5 feet across. It'll look great but it'll take days to put it all down and our house isn't even that big. And we most likely won't have three people working on it either. Dammit to hell. And once it's all laid down it has to be sanded, stained and polyurethaned.
Woah...could it be Sunday already? I actually fell asleep before finishing this blog post. That's how I roll lately folks. And now...it's the Broncos game and I'm a wee drunk. Here's some pictures. PEACE!
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| See you guys, I do actually do stuff. |
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| Beginnings of the downstairs floor. |
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| The crazy ceiling color. It looks way more pink in this photo. |
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| Work it. |
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| FLOOR! |
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| Someday my furniture will come... |
Sunday, November 17, 2013
It's the Little Things
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| The upstairs is beginning to come together. |
Things that happened this week that may or may not be exciting to you in any way: Flooring went in upstairs in the bedroom and closet area and today I put polyurethane on most of the bedroom plus a second coat in the bathroom. (I won't mention the lovely buzz I got from the fumes, oh crap I just did. I'm totally fine, Mom.) It's pretty cold in the house since the furnace isn't quite hooked up yet, though I'm happy to report that the house does not lose heat overnight which is a HUGE improvement over the cabin we currently live in. So, due to the fact that it's right around 45 degrees in the house consistently, the polyurethane was the consistency of honey. So it was like putting down a double coat in just one! Craptastically, I still have about a 4'x10' rectangle to go. With it being Sunday, the hardware won't be open until tomorrow to restock. So I must wait for the completion. Daaaaah, completion!
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| Ready for polyurethane! |
This weekend RJ worked on the flooring and trim while I cleaned, sanded and stained, and put in some random insulation. But I'm a pro now, so it ain't no thing. I moved some things around in the tiny garage (aka the work shed) and semi-organized--well, I just made room to put more crap into it. I cleaned out the shell of the guest bedroom downstairs and decided that, yes, it's going to be a nice, cozy little place to rest your weary head.
Other adult crap that made me gizz in my pants a little: I ordered some brand new sheets and towels. We only have a couple of old sets of sheets so I thought treating ourselves to a nice new set would be...nice. I also bought us half a dozen towels. When I actually thought about how many of the towels in the cabin are actually ours, I realized that out of about a dozen...it's maybe three. New house, new towels. And I don't actually have the money to buy these luxury items but dammit, I've been living in itchy, dusty, dirty clothes and hiding my unwashed hair in my large fuzzy hat, so I can have some plushy towels if I damn well want them!
Oh, but there's more! I never thought I would like shopping for lighting and plumbing fixtures, but I DO. It's yet another way, that's much more satisfying than Pinterest because it's not a fantasy, to actually visualize what everything is going to look like. My email is filling up with order notifications from Faucet Direct and Home Depot.
And while we speak, I just won a five piece set of used Le Creuset cookware for less than $100 with shipping! Le Creuset is an incredible French cookware company that makes delicious looking pots and pans that are also VERY expensive. So getting a five piece set for a third of the price of a single pot is pretty baller.
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| My badass husband made these crooked walls look so fine. |
(Update: the pictures are up!)
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| The bathroom is going to be awwwwesome. |
In closing and off topic, this is Coco.
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| Coco Vovant (Josh Lamon) |
And one of the funniest 10 minutes I've spent in a while. Enjoy.
Tuesday, November 5, 2013
An Element of Design
The upstairs is getting close, so close! This week is all about trim and flooring as I attempt to keep RJ supplied with sanded, stained wood. I should specify that a particular part of the upstairs is taking FOREVER. It's the master bedroom--also the area that has wonky-ass, crooked shit ALL over the dang place. So each piece of trim has to be custom cut, placed, and manipulated so it looks...not crooked.
RJ is on his third day of this sodding trim and I'm about to pull my hair out. Not because he's slow, (and it looks SO COOL), but because it takes a ridiculous amount of time to get everything placed right so that you fool the eye into thinking you see a straight line. I am getting to the point where I have to see progress and if I don't, I have a mild panic attack. BUT, I have been assured that the downstairs--being all right angles--and even the upstairs addition, will go extremely quickly. And the great news is that other than a few pieces of trim and baseboard in the upstairs bathroom, it is pretty much done and ready for the plumber to come in and hook everything up. We are also painting the main part of the claw foot tub black. OMG, an actual stylistic element!
This above picture is of a Manhattan apartment complete with $300 rug. Ha.
Hahahahaha. Anyway, we'd originally wanted to go with some subway tile
in the upstairs bath, but ultimately decided (and going with what supplies we already had--something RJ is brills at doing) on painted tongue and groove on the
walls, a wall of cedar to back the tub, blue stained pine on the ceiling, and dark
stained wood flooring.
I don't even want to start on the downstairs. It's got most of the drywall up, but is mainly just a workspace for cutting, sanding and staining. And once again, that will be the easy part...once we get to it.
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| Detail. |
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| This is looking up. There will be four angles that look like this, meeting at the top. |
RJ is on his third day of this sodding trim and I'm about to pull my hair out. Not because he's slow, (and it looks SO COOL), but because it takes a ridiculous amount of time to get everything placed right so that you fool the eye into thinking you see a straight line. I am getting to the point where I have to see progress and if I don't, I have a mild panic attack. BUT, I have been assured that the downstairs--being all right angles--and even the upstairs addition, will go extremely quickly. And the great news is that other than a few pieces of trim and baseboard in the upstairs bathroom, it is pretty much done and ready for the plumber to come in and hook everything up. We are also painting the main part of the claw foot tub black. OMG, an actual stylistic element!
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| Another Pinterest Inspiration. (Photo by: Brittany Ambridge) |
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| The painting of the tub. |
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| The Claw Feet! They kinda look like busts of a lady up close. |
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| The floor of the bathroom, the cedar siding used the wall behind the tub. |
And now: Angry Crutches Game Face: Sanding Edition!
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| For those who don't know, Angry Crutches Game Face started last year after I got my hip surgery and was starting on my PT and damn sick of my crutches. This type of selfie has come to represent: "things that are sucky, but by god you're gonna get that shit done!" |
Saturday, October 26, 2013
It's Crunch Time, Folks.
If I'm reading a theatre review, I tend to dislike it when the reviewer gives a "synopsis" of the play. Instead of writing about the play, how it made them feel, etc., they give a run down of the plot. Snooooooooore. But...this is not a play. It's my house. And a lot has happened, so I feel like some of what I have to say is, a "synopsis," but by god I will try to make it entertaining. And throw some of my thoughts in there too. SO:
I returned to Creede yesterday after a few days in the big city of Denver. I went up primarily for some auditions, but it ended up being a nice "escape from THE PROJECT". We have now moved into the home stretch. Our optimistic end of October move in deadline is not happening, but we are confident that not too long after that, we'll be moved in. Some major developments in the last couple of weeks:
Last week my stepfather, Gerry, spent six straight days helping us. RJ's father, Roger Sr., came in for a few days later in the week as well. Their help was invaluable. While I cleaned, sanded, primed and insulated, Roger tinkered with the furnace vents, and RJ and Gerry put up drywall upstairs, downstairs and on the ceiling (that actually required 3-4 hearty gentleman to accomplish).
We had the tankless water heater hooked up, got a blue tag from the inspector (the blue tag story is longer and not terribly interesting, but VERY IMPORTANT), and Monte Vista Co-op hooked up the gas line from the propane tank to the house. We ordered flooring, a storm door, one entire extra package of roof shingles though we unfortunately only needed a few to finish the job. While in Denver, I bought us a refrigerator and gas range. And my mother and step-father have graciously gifted us a dishwasher.
Now I have to rave about Sears Outlet. I may eat my words if the stuff ends up being crap, but it's a pretty awesome feeling to acquire a new stove that is 50% off simply because a contractor installed it in a house, the owner didn't like it because it wasn't self cleaning, then had it removed so they could exchange it. You can't sell something full price once it's been installed so who benefits? WE DO! The fridge was the same deal. Brand new, but returned. Slight dents on the bottom sides that no one will see anyway--at a third of the regular price. Winning!
So...A LOT is happening and we're seeing our construction loan balance get lower and lower, which is terrifying. When you initially apply for a construction escrow (or loan) you have to create a budget ahead of time to include in your application. When you are working on the house in reality, certain things gain higher importance, others become an after thought. For example, plumbing has been WAY more expensive than we originally thought because RJ thought he might be able to do a lot of the plumbing himself. But because it's not an area he's particularly skilled in, we decided to hire a plumber, got the best products we could and in the long run, it'll be great. However, it's going to end up being more than 20% of our ENTIRE budget. Also, the amount of insulation in that house continues to be staggering (YOU'RE WELCOME). But we'll hopefully save in the long run because the house will be nice and toasty.
The goal by the end of the week is to have the upstairs (master bedroom and tv room) pretty much completed. RJ is tackling the bathroom and today, I donned my painters cap and put color on the stuff I primed last week--a white with a slight blue tint to it to bring out the blue stained pine and in the barn wood we used. I bought a shop vac at Home Depot on my way out of Denver so I can FINALLY clean how I wanna clean.
I'm not gonna lie. This project, especially the last couple of weeks, has been one of the hardest things I've ever done. I'm tired. I'm pissed. I don't want to do it anymore and I wish it was just fucking DONE. Trying to keep up morale when you both feel like it's never going to get finished is really hard. Drywall helps a lot because you can actually start to see the shape of things. That said, drywall dust is a whole new level of hell. Not that it's dangerous, it's just messy and hard to clean up without something like a shop vac. It occurs when you apply "mud," to cover up the seams between sheets of drywall and then sand it so looks smooth. And in some places, even out some non-straight surfaces. The fine, white dust from what you've sanded just sits on the ground as well as on you and makes you look as though a shipment of cocaine exploded in your face. It also tends to clog up the shop vac if you don't have a bag. (I did NOT find that out from experience. Ahem.)
But...it will get finished. Things slowly but surely come together. I have to remind myself that, on average, there are only two people working on this house. Many times, less. We have had some awesome help from friends and family--the thanks are endless. But I was gone for almost all of last week so RJ was mostly on his own. Luckily, my trip left me somewhat refreshed, or at least refocused, and I started off today with a lot of vacuuming.
And in a shameless act of begging: if you are in the area and want some hang out time while you do something with your hands, come on over! We can't provide much more than food, adult beverage and gratitude, but, as it is said, someplace by someone, "it takes a village."
ONWARD!
I returned to Creede yesterday after a few days in the big city of Denver. I went up primarily for some auditions, but it ended up being a nice "escape from THE PROJECT". We have now moved into the home stretch. Our optimistic end of October move in deadline is not happening, but we are confident that not too long after that, we'll be moved in. Some major developments in the last couple of weeks:
Last week my stepfather, Gerry, spent six straight days helping us. RJ's father, Roger Sr., came in for a few days later in the week as well. Their help was invaluable. While I cleaned, sanded, primed and insulated, Roger tinkered with the furnace vents, and RJ and Gerry put up drywall upstairs, downstairs and on the ceiling (that actually required 3-4 hearty gentleman to accomplish).
 |
| Lots of hands. |
 | ||
| Behold, The Gloriousness. Especially for propane, the extra initial expense means that we will end up using way less propane since it heats the water as it goes through the heater. It doesn't store it, like traditional water heaters. |
 |
| Fancy schmantz fridge |
The goal by the end of the week is to have the upstairs (master bedroom and tv room) pretty much completed. RJ is tackling the bathroom and today, I donned my painters cap and put color on the stuff I primed last week--a white with a slight blue tint to it to bring out the blue stained pine and in the barn wood we used. I bought a shop vac at Home Depot on my way out of Denver so I can FINALLY clean how I wanna clean.
I'm not gonna lie. This project, especially the last couple of weeks, has been one of the hardest things I've ever done. I'm tired. I'm pissed. I don't want to do it anymore and I wish it was just fucking DONE. Trying to keep up morale when you both feel like it's never going to get finished is really hard. Drywall helps a lot because you can actually start to see the shape of things. That said, drywall dust is a whole new level of hell. Not that it's dangerous, it's just messy and hard to clean up without something like a shop vac. It occurs when you apply "mud," to cover up the seams between sheets of drywall and then sand it so looks smooth. And in some places, even out some non-straight surfaces. The fine, white dust from what you've sanded just sits on the ground as well as on you and makes you look as though a shipment of cocaine exploded in your face. It also tends to clog up the shop vac if you don't have a bag. (I did NOT find that out from experience. Ahem.)
But...it will get finished. Things slowly but surely come together. I have to remind myself that, on average, there are only two people working on this house. Many times, less. We have had some awesome help from friends and family--the thanks are endless. But I was gone for almost all of last week so RJ was mostly on his own. Luckily, my trip left me somewhat refreshed, or at least refocused, and I started off today with a lot of vacuuming.
And in a shameless act of begging: if you are in the area and want some hang out time while you do something with your hands, come on over! We can't provide much more than food, adult beverage and gratitude, but, as it is said, someplace by someone, "it takes a village."
ONWARD!
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