31 Sherman

A tree falls in Huntington

2009-07-08T11:11:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, July 7th started off like any other day. We got up and took Amy to the train. We arrived back at the house about 5 min. later. I pulled in to the driveway and and took Jake out of the car. I happened to glance over in to the front yard and there it was - our 30 foot apple tree had fallen while we were out. It landed in a perfect spot nowhere near the house and away from any power lines. Talk about luck. It was actually leaning towards the street but still, no damage except to the small area of grass surrounding the trunk - the roots became uprooted and pulled it up.

A few months earlier we had gotten an estimate to take the tree down from some tree guys working at our neighbors. It was great price but we didn't schedule just then as it wasn't a priority at the time. We knew the trunk was rotted and it would need to come down soon but the tree decided to force the issue. Turns out woodpeckers had also their way with it as the trunk was riddled with holes. It was also covered in fungus - it was ready to go.

So we called up the tree company and they arrived first thing in the morning the next day. The whole job - cutting, hauling and stump grinding took all of 40 minutes. They did a fine job and didn't destroy the lawn. We're left with a large mound of mulch for now.

Amy would like to plant another tree. She likes birch. I'm in favor of just grading the area and planting grass. We'll see who wins.

Please enjoy the pics of the carnage and carting below.

APPLE TREE DOWN!

Once vertical, now horizontal.

Thankfully no damage.

Cutting up the carcass.

Grinding the stump.

Remains.

Not much happening lately, 'cept our neighbors cutting down trees.

2009-06-30T19:45:00.000-07:00

Well, we have not done a whole lot to the house lately. We've done some more clearing around the yard and I finally cut the grass after about two weeks due to the rain. We got an outdoor set so we can utilize our deck. We've also finally taken the next step towards getting some much-needed electrical work done. We picked a company and after some revisions to the original estimate (read - more $$) we're ready to sign the contract and get things started. And oh, I still need to install the air conditioners - can't believe it's July 1st and we haven't needed them yet.

Our neighbors have been busy though - in the last month or so they've removed two very large trees from their yard. There was one in the front that was wreaking havoc with their driveway - the roots were buckling the pavement. The trunk was also right in the way of a low retaining wall they had planned so out it came. That particular one looked to be at least 75 years old. The second one straddled their backyard and the neighbors behind them. This one looked like it may have even been older than the one in the front. Frankly it was quite sad to see these trees go, almost made no sense. We have all decided jointly to clean out out the space between our garage and their proposed retaining wall which is currently overrun with thick brush and weeds. Can't wait for that! See pics below.

In other news, I am now 'working'. What this means is that I go into the shop on Saturdays from 8 to 1 and on Tuesdays for most of the day. After some initial stumbles and an ensuing crisis of confidence, I've finally started to feel a little more comfortable. I hope to be getting more responsibility in the coming weeks as I get more time under my belt. Truthfully I have never really had to climb out of any sort of hole and make something work like I have when I decided to change careers. Hopefully I can continue on an upward arc and start making some money. I guess when I'm able to bring my tool box in is when I know I'll have achieved my goal.

Hope to have more updates in the coming weeks as the electrical stuff gets done. Though it will not really alter the appearance of the house, it will be a big upgrade and should ultimately increase the value of it down the road. Hooray home improvement!

Neighbor's tree - front 1.

Neighbor's tree - front 2.

Neighbor's tree - front 3.

Neighbor's tree - front 4.

Neighbor's tree - back 1.

Neighbor's tree - back 2.

Neighbor's tree - back 3.

Neighbor's tree - back 4.

More yard work and tree trimming

2009-06-01T09:45:00.000-07:00

Amy and I have been doing yard work steadily the last few weekends. We're trying to get things to a 'baseline' where we know what's what and how it grows. We're still cleaning everything up too, there's just not enough time to do it all in one shot. We have a lot of yard to cover but we're making progress.

This weekend's adventure in landscaping mostly involved tree trimming. We finally removed the large, overgrown shrub from the front of the house and cut down the branches to a short stump. Our neighbor lent us his sawzall and it got plenty of use.

We also trimmed a bunch of the low-hanging branches on our pear tree in the front yard. We've debated whether or not to get rid of this tree since it's grown all sorts of willy-nilly - the trunks are growing in all different directions and there's still some branches hanging over the roof. Once again our neighbor Dan came through and loaned us a medieval-looking tool to trim branches while remaining on the ground. It's a curved saw blade that looks like a scythe. It's on the end of a long pole. You reach up over the top of the branch you want to cut and start sawing. It works real well, I was able to cut some pretty thick branches that would normally have been out of reach. The long handle flexes and allows for a fluid motion. Cool!

Now that we've removed some of the more unsightly and overgrown vegetation, we've come to the conclusion that we may need to spruce up the outside of the house. The brick is dirty and covered in bird crap and the shingle siding is looking dated. The old landscaping has had it too and could use some serious updating. The azaleas have bare spots and are looking pretty scraggly. The trash alcove looks like and afterthought too. We may look into some new siding and we're likely going to need some new roof trim and definitely a new walk. We'd also like to frame the edge of the yard where it meets the street with some sort of stone perimeter. Perhaps this will all get rolling when the large electrical pole comes down off the peak of the roof. Add it to the list.

As per usual, here are a few pics of the action.

Limbs Be Gone!

It's raining pear tree branches.

Into the belly of the beast.

Ye Conqueror of Tree Limbs!

Bloomin' rhododendron

This bud's for you

Bloomin' dogwood

Cleaned out the garage

2009-05-22T19:55:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday, our friend Erin came out to babysit Jake for us. This allowed me some time for myself. I made the best of the rare opportunity of free time sans baby and took the first step towards the completion of my garage mahal/man cave - I cleaned everything up. There wasn't too much in there per se, but it was becoming a black hole of disorganization. Things were being set down wherever, tools and other stuff were taken out and never put back etc., etc. The whole thing was starting to become a mess so I made sure that it didn't get away from me.

I basically moved everything out into the driveway, swept all the old leaves and dirt up, then shot some water down along with some cleaner/degreaser. I scrubbed with a stiff broom and pushed it all down the driveway. Once dry, everything made it's way back inside in an orderly fashion.

It's nowhere near any sort of completion at this time. The plan for now is that whoever does eventually re-wire our house, the panel will likely go in the garage. I will have it wired up at that time as well so it doesn't make sense to do too much right now before the wiring goes in. It is giving me something to look forward to though.

Currently, I am debating on whether or not to coat the floor. The images of these products make everything look so clean and sanitary but there's a certain charm to a rough concrete floor. One of the previous owners actually cared enough to put down what looks like some sort of rubberized coating, but it's chipped up pretty bad. There's also a slight downward slope towards the back of the garage which would surely end up in large cracks in the coating. Plus there's many long and large cracks to be filled before anything gets put on top of it. I'm thinking I'd rather be wrenching on the Dart rather than sanding a concrete floor. Floor coatings are also pretty expensive. I suppose as long as the rough floor is relatively clean it should be livable. I have a vision of the ultimate garage and it definitely includes an epoxy-coated floor. We'll see!

All up in your grill

2009-05-07T08:04:00.000-07:00

We've purchased a new grill here at 31 Sherman, a Weber Spirit 3 burner. It's killer. Cooks evenly and is a breeze to use. Nice construction and simple controls. Amy also got us some grill tools - a fish/vegetable basket, scraper and a cover to keep it dry. Hopefully it will last a good long time.

My birthday was Saturday May, 2. We had some friends over for a low-key affair. Spag and Myk helped me put the grill together. Well, Myk ended up doing most of it. Took a little under an hour. The kids played in the box afterwords.

Pics below.

Removing parts from box. Master builder Myk on your right, back to camera.

Proud Papa

Birthday crew, first backyard BBQ at 31 Sherman.

Spag needs a timeout

Happy mowing

2009-04-30T14:27:00.000-07:00

Well, I've come full circle. I have not cut the grass for a LONG time, probably somewhere around 13-15 years. Funny how you miss things like that when you live in the city. It was something I'd have to do weekly basically from the time I was about 8 until I moved in my 20's.

I never minded it all that much, there's a certain zen aspect to it. I definitely appreciate a well cared for lawn. We never really had one growing up, it was a never a priority in our house. My mom and dad didn't spend a whole lot of time beautifying the yard since they didn't really like being around each other much. I guess maybe that's where I found I could do my part. Leave it to my parents who couldn't care less about yard work to somehow foster in me a sense of pride about my grass.

The lawn at our house will be a work in progress. It appears to have been mildly neglected over the years. It's really not all that bad but it needed to be cleaned up and needs some turfbuilder. It was difficult to get all the old debris and dead grass up. I did what I could with a rake, but I'm not happy with the results. I wanted to get a motorized de-thatcher to get rid of all that stuff but I never got to it. It seems to be growing OK though. The first mow was a little off the top, just to trim down the new growth. You don't want to go too low the first few times. Hopefully i can ghet some Scotts down before the end of the week.

Funny thing about the picture here. jake had been giving me a hard time all day with eating - he's basically refusing to eat what's being offered to him while thropwing tantrums and making a huge mess. Typicall one-year old stuff, but not what I want to be doing with myself all day. It was making me mniserable. Unfortunately, I took it out on Amy when she got home. We had a spat and she sent me away to go walk around or something. I decided it was time to mow. About halfway through, I catch a glimpse of her leaning out the office window taking pictures of me. She kind of made me laugh, but I was still pouting. She yelled something at me like "I saw you smile you jerk". Guess she got me.

Nothing like a good mow to get yer ya ya's out.

Yard work and electrical estimates

2009-04-23T19:57:00.000-07:00

Not much going on at the homestead recently. Just doing some clean up work around the yard as the weather allows. The previous owner was an elderly lady who must have had a hard time keeping up with yard maintenance. We did learn from neighbors she was outside doing stuff and that she had landscapers come every now and again but most everything is overgrown and unkempt. The beds look like there are a few years of leaves in them, the bushes and shrubs were out of control and the fence between the front and back yard needs some serious help. We've already described the ivy removal in detail in a previous post.

I raked the lawn as best I could to try and get some of the dead grass and debris up to aerate the soil. We need to get some fertilizer and seed down to thicken and green it up. The lawn's actually not too bad but could be better. When I look at our neighbor's yards, I get a little sad since theirs are all so suburban-lawn perfect.What I'd really like to do is put that spreader that we haggled over at the house closing to use one of these days...

I'm also sorry to say there are no pics. Didn't think to break out the camera for such mundane activities and there's really no discernible difference in the appearance of the yard at this point.

In other news, we have now obtained three estimates for electrical work. We have been advised by my dad to get a fourth one since there was such disparity between all of them. Hopefully we can get all this ironed out soon so I can start fixing up the garage.

Hang in there for the next update, hopefully that one will be a little more exciting.

Hole in the ceiling

2009-04-07T19:58:00.000-07:00

The day after the tank abandonment was March 28. We had a big one-year-old birthday party for Jake. All our friends came by and we had a regular rip roar.

Beforehand though, I needed to remedy the large-hole-in-the-ceiling-situation before guests began arriving. I managed to finish it up with a little help from Amy. We basically recycled an older fixture we had from our apartment in Brooklyn which we took with us when we moved. It's from Ikea but definitely fits our mid-century style well with it's perforated edge and diffused light.

Note final result below.

Oil Tank abandonment

2009-03-30T12:49:00.000-07:00

Out here in the suburbs, we have to deal with all manner of irritating and costly renovations. When we bought our house, our inspector had informed us that we would be inheriting a 1,000 gallon in-ground oil tank. Now, this normally wouldn't be an issue (I could give a rat's ass where the tank is myself) except when the EPA reaches their greasy little paws into your business. If and when we decide to sell the house, the future owners may opt to have the soil around the tank tested by the EPA for contamination due to a leaky tank. If the soil is found to be contaminated, all the tainted dirt surrounding the tank will be dug up, put into 55 gallon drums and trucked off somewhere down south. Once there, apparently there's an environmental plant that burns the contaminants out of the soil. Then, the dirt is put BACK IN to the drums, trucked back to your house and put right back where it came from. Whoever is the current owner of the house (namely US) will incur ANY AND ALL COSTS associated with such an operation which can be upwards of $75-100,000 when all is said and done. No thanks!

An oil tank abandonment is basically just that - you're abandoning your in-ground tank for a new one either above ground or in your basement which by doing so basically absolves you from any future testing. During the negotiations to purchase the house, we were able to obtain a credit on the final price since we knew this was something that we were going to have to do. We could have asked for the soil to be tested, but we took the credit instead and went ahead and did the abandonment. We now also have a certificate of abandonment to show anyone who asks. They'd really only have to look in the basement at the new tank to figure it out, but it's cheap insurance against the enviro-nazis

Basically what happens is this: a crew comes to your house. They find your tank's filler tube and dig until they hit the top of the tank. Then, they cut the top off of it and fill it with sand. The old, now sand-filled tank is resealed and the dirt is back filled. The last step is to locate and install a new tank and hook it up to your current heating system. The whole thing took about 5-6 hours, almost two of which were spent waiting for the sand truck to arrive.

The crew that came to do the job were swell enough to allow me to take some pictures while it was all going on. They must have thought I was a little kooky until I explained to the head guy what I was doing. He seemed to understand, which made me feel a little less awkward.

If you've never seen what a tank abandonment looks like or had no idea that this type of thing is even done, today is your lucky day. I've provided a bunch of photos of the process to once again enlighten and entertain our readers. Cheers.

Removing remaining oil in original tank.

Digging around the filler neck. Bye bye Packasandra.

Locating and drilling hole in block for new filler tube.

Thar She blows!

Filling the old girl full of sand.

Action shot of sand filling. Note depth and scope of hole.

Brand-new 275 gallon tank in our basement, plumbed and ready for years of service. Note old, inaccurate fuel level gauge on the wall above the tank, now just for show.

New Additions

2009-03-24T07:58:00.000-07:00

After being a staging area for painting supplies and equipment, the living room is finally taking shape. Last week our fancy modern furniture arrived by truck. The table came at 6:30 am. I was still in bed when the doorbell rang, I was all groggy and half-awake and here comes our table. I had never experienced anything like that before, very strange to get a delivery of anything so early in the morning. The couch is covered in plastic right now in an attempt to ward off our scratch-happy cats. I'd like to keep it claw-mark free for a few days at least though the cover will have to come off at some point. We hope they don't tear it to shreds.

But anyway, who knew I'd become such a design/furniture nerd? It's in my blood somehow, probably handed down by my parents. I grew up with a Knoll/Saarinen table and tulip chairs and all sorts of modern furniture in our house. I never gave it a second thought until a few years ago. Mostly, I just like the way it looks as opposed to things you get from your generic home furnishing stores like Pottery Barn etc. But I do enjoy reading about it and learning about where the ideas come from and the impact it had on design as a whole. Definitely fits with my idea of re-thinking basic items and giving them a unique twist. Plus, modern design is just plain cool when you take the time to think about it.

Thankfully, Amy and I seem to like the same types of things, so she is willing to go along with my design-snob ideas.

You'll also notice that she put away a good portion of her books into the glass cabinets, a fairly large and time-consuming undertaking in itself. I think she did a great job.

Anyway, here it is.

Out with the old

2009-03-07T19:02:00.000-08:00

We are continuing to remove all the remnants of old-lady accouterments. The fireplace used to be home to a fugly, pseudo-baroque mantel piece that neither Amy nor I liked in any way, shape or form. We planned to get rid of it early on and we've gotten to getting to it. We needed to take care of it because we need to finish up painting. The plan was to re-paint the fireplace so down it came and went out with the next day's trash.

The fireplace is also getting a new treatment. Whoever painted the house last must have really got a good deal on the antique white paint because everything including the fireplace was coated with this paint. The brick wasn't actually 'painted' per se, more like washed over. Not sure if it was a lame attempt at some sort of style or just a half-assed job but in any event it looked like crap. Covering up the hack job required a coat of primer and two coats of semi-gloss white.

After two months, the painting is finally nearing completion. Really, there's only the dining room, doors and the trim in the office left to do. There's also the two bathrooms but we haven't taken down the wallpaper in there so they don't count just yet. I'm too lazy to take on the office right now, I can only hope it gets done sometime this year. The dining room should be finished relatively soon.

Enjoy the photos of the fireplace transformation below.

Ye olde 'before' shot

Fugly mantelpiece

4 screws and it's gone

The Great 31 Sherman Cover-Up 0f 2009

Best looking painter ever

Ivy menace

2009-03-02T18:19:00.000-08:00

It's still the dead of winter but Amy and I decided that we needed to begin tackling some of our outdoor 'issues'. Amy's parents were in town and her dad brought his power warsher (Pittsburghese) so we could clean up the dirty brick. Unfortunately we never got to it because of the cold but we did manage to eradicate the ivy menace from the outside of the house.

Since we don't live at Wrigley field, we're still scratching our heads as to why someone actually planted ivy behind the house because it basically had overgrown everything within it's reach. Ivy is evil, hardy and strong. The roots were everywhere - all along the foundation, up the brick (stuck to it like glue), under the siding, up under the roof overhang and probably into the attic. The downright evil weed was choking the azaleas. Worst of all it was covering up our living room window. There was also a bunch growing up the front of the house too. Ridiculous.

So we had at it. We tore it up from the ground, cut, pulled, ripped and hacked it all to bits. We filled 11 contractor bags with all the stuff we yanked out. It took hours and we just finished before dark. See the pics below.

Am I Evil? Yes I Am!

Weeds B. Gone!

Room With A View

Room With A Better View

I've seen the light

2009-02-22T20:53:00.000-08:00

... and it's ugly.

We have begun to tackle the lighting in the house. I removed the hallway light fixture to reveal a large, gaping hole. Whoever installed the previous fixture had cut a very large opening around the electrical box and covered it with the base of the fixture, a kind of non-descript brass n' glass thing from the cheap rack at Ye Olde Big Box Home Store.

So now I get to make a trip back to said Big Box Home Store to get materials to patch the hole and install our modern Ikea fixture we took from our apartment.

I would like to get a set of the Cove from Satellite Modern Lighting, but cost may put them on hold for a bit until we're more flush with cash.

Cove

Original crappy hall fixture.

Hole left by original crappy fixtue

Painting continues

2009-02-22T20:46:00.000-08:00

We have decided on Valspar Woodlawn Silver brook for our main color throughout a good portion of the house. It's not quite silver in the traditional sense, but has more of a blue tint to it. It's a lovely hue. It will be complemented on the opposite wall by another Valspar color called Nostalgia, a kind of slate blue.

Here I am painting the back wall of the living room. Yes, I am wearing rubber gloves and yes, I used tape to mark the edges so I get a nice crisp line.

The Great Ought Nine Grease Fire or I Almost burned the house down

2009-02-22T20:15:00.000-08:00

Like everyone else who runs a blog, I'm going to apologize for the lack of updates. No, I haven't been away nor have I been too busy. No excuse really, just lack of motivation/interest.

Anyway, last Saturday I almost burned the house down. My brother, sister in law and nephew were over for brunch and I was cooking bacon. We had bought Plumorse brand thick cut which created a ton of grease. Really, like more grease than I've ever had to contend with.

In typical fashion, I'm going to blame the fire on something other than myself. See it's the electric stove we've inherited. Turns out I don't really know how to regulate it so well. It seems to get cumulatively hotter and hotter the longer it stays on, even on lower temps. I was on the second batch of bacon strips when the grease overwhelmed the side of the shallow pan like water coming over a 9th Ward levee. The grease hit the hot burner and immediately caught fire. I tried to dump some of the excess into a soup can I got from the recycling bin but the drippings were making things worse. I kind of quietly asked Amy to come in from the other room and help. She saw the flames and started yelling something about baking soda and running around opening cabinets. I reached down into the cabinet under the stove and got the fire extinguisher. Now, this thing is old but thankfully it still worked. I kind of blanked for a minute about what to do, so I'm standing there trying to figure out my next step. Amy was yelling something at me, but I couldn't really make out what she was saying. Meanwhile the flames are inching up closer to the hood. It finally came to me a few seconds later - I undid the latch holding the trigger, pointed and shot the base of the fire. It went out immediately but the force of the pressurized shot sprayed the grease all over the place. The ammonia nitrate powder from the extinguisher was all over the counter too, we had to dump everything I had out to cook - 10 eggs, bread, bagels etc. It took 3 dishwasher loads to clean everything up. What a mess. We went to the diner which was much better anyway.

Pics of the wreckage below.

The Great Grease Fire of '09 - Aftermath

The Great Grease Fire of '09 - Aftermath 2

Winter Wonderland

2009-01-25T18:35:00.001-08:00

Just thought I'd throw up a picture of our house fresh after a snowfall. Lovely, ain't it?

Miserable jobs

2009-01-25T18:08:00.001-08:00

When we first had the house inspected, our inspector informed us the insulation in the attic was lacking. It was old, not doing much of anything as far as holding heat in and had been chewed up by squirrels. In the inspection report, it was recommended that we put down new insulation right on top of the old stuff. This would reduce our heating bills significantly and help to keep our house warmer. So I did it.

Let me tell you, this was a miserable job. Our attic is basically a crawl space, there really isn't any room to stand up in there. The old insulation must have been original to the house because it was basically disintegrated. It was really musty and dirty up there. Thankfully I did this during the winter so it was somewhat comfortable. I sprung for a cartridge respirator and I'm glad I did - who knows what was in the old insulation. As soon as you would touch the stuff it would turn into a cloud of dust. I was pretty filthy when I was finished, I think I looked like a miner emerging from the hole.

The previous owners had also boarded up the attic vent to keep the rodents out. The vents are supposed to remain unobstructed so air can circulate. You'd think this was really for summer to keep things from getting too hot, but it also applies in winter. Apparently, the attic vent keeps the air circulating enough so things don't freeze. Once things get frozen, they trap moisture and you get rot. Not good!

So I found the squirrels nest behind the boarded-up vent and cleaned it out. Thankfully I did not have to contend with any furry interlopers. I do have to have to make some repairs to one of the attic vents though - they had climbed up the side of the house and chewed their way through the particle board around the vent. The nest in the vent was made of twigs, leaves and dirt. There was another nest much farther into the attic but it was not as complete as the vent one. Both are cleaned up now, hopefully the squirrels don't find their way back in there before I get my lazy ass back up there to repair the holes.

I ordered enough insulation to do the garage as well, hence the skid delivery you see in the photos. That will be much easier to do, it's all open. I just stand on a ladder and staple it up. need to get these baffle things that allow air to circulate under the insulation. That's a project for another day, but hopefully soon.

See the pics below.

Skid delivery.

Furry Yellow Sea

Money Pit

2009-01-08T10:27:00.000-08:00

Well, it's been an eventful first few days in the house. As mentioned before, we found out our dishwasher spouts water like Niagra Falls which comes down in sheets onto the basement floor. I also found that the toilet will get clogged and back up. Not to be gross, but I found this out with a bowl full of crap.

And suddenly this morning, (Thursday, Jan 8) there was no hot water. Now, our oil-fired hot water heater is not terribly old and should have many years left of service. The issue stemmed from a clogged oil line. The previous owner had gotten an oil delivery in mid-December but not a whole lot. It must have been running low and the pump line to the oil burner on the heater picked up some sludge and prevented it from getting oil. When the oil tank is full, the sludge tends to stay on the sides of the tank but when it gets lower, it obviously drains down to the bottom and can clog the pickup. All is well though after a visit from our friendly local plumbing and heating guy.

Oil-fired water heater service - unclogging the line to the burner, filter and fitting change.

We got an oil delivery this morning too, our first as homeowners - $401.60 for 200 gallons. Not too bad, but the price of heating oil went up a few cents the day we put the order in.

The tally for the plumber was $108.75. That's $510 for one day. Hope the rest of the week is quiet...

First meal

2009-01-08T08:31:00.000-08:00

Just an image to commemorate our first meal in our new house. Yer average spaghetti dinner with a side of broccoli. We've recently and thankfully made the switch back to normal pasta from whole wheat.

Suburbia

2009-01-05T19:43:00.000-08:00

We moved. Man, what an adventure. We were literally packing things up and putting them in the truck. Our friends were troopers, they survived the ordeal and did it with a smile. We vowed never to move ourselves again but we saved a heluva lot of money and 'had fun' doing it.

We're now residents of Long Island - the suburbs. It's quiet and dark here at night. You can make a right on red. You drive to the giant supermarket at the shopping center. I always thought I was more of a suburban person but it's taking a little getting used to after living in the city for 12 years. I'm just happy to have my garage and yard.

We're finding out the house has a few 'quirks'. Here's a few.

The kitchen has some very odd features such as the island that's too low and positioned too close to the wall for anyone to sit comfortably at. The crappy old dishwasher leaks like crazy and has caused damage to the surrounding floor; water streams down into the basement like a waterfall.
The full bathroom is even more strange - the tub/shower is situated in a corner and has very little room to get in and out of it. Plus there's no linen closet.
The family room is freezing and feels closed-off from the rest of the house, probably because it used to be a garage.
There is not a good place to put the littler boxes for our cats, we're stepping over them right now since they're in the landing between the kitchen and family room.
There's a large, white post sticking up from the peak of the roof where the electricity comes from the street. I guess this is what's meant by the joys of home ownership.

All in all though, we feel comfortable here and have already put our stamp on the place. Things will happen slowly if Amy can help it. If it were me, I'd have probably torn the kitchen and bathrooms out already. I must exercise restraint here though it is hard. I'm looking forward to the day when we can start correcting some of the blemishes and make it really nice.

Cut and dry

2009-01-01T20:12:00.000-08:00

Painting is coming along slowly. I never remember it taking so long to do a 125 sq. ft room, seems like hours go by and I'm still cutting in. Probably feels like it's taking forever because it is; I've had to give everything a second coat. The ceilings took almost three days to do. Now I'm priming the walls before the color goes on. It's like painting the house twice. I'm nowhere near finished and we move in two days from now. I still have to prime over 50% of the living area and then put the color on. Then I have to do all the trim in the house, as well as measure, cut and re-install all the shoe moldings. Might not be finished until February at this rate.

I also want to mention that it's kinda lonely and slightly creepy being in an empty house all day. There's no one to talk to, none of my things are around and I'm still getting used to all the creaks and noises the house makes. Since it gets dark early nowadays and being there are not a lot of lights yet the house gets very dark. I'm not terribly fond of going down into the basement after dark to wash my brushes and rollers. The slop sink faces the wall in a far corner away from the stairs, I feel a little vulnerable standing there under the shop light facing the wall. Seriously!

All in all though, it's starting to come together nicely. The color is really going to liven things up and lift the dingyness from the place. I feel like it's a new start for the house as well as us. More to come in the next few days.

Don't get old

2008-12-28T20:12:00.000-08:00

Man, who knew that painting is hard labor? About 7-8 years ago, I was actually painting for a living for a short period of time. I never felt sore afterwords and I'd paint almost an apartment a day. My arms are killing me now though and I've only managed to paint a few rooms. I suppose that being totally inactive for the last year is probably why I'm so beat. I did manage to get at least one coat on all the ceilings in every room so it's a good start.

Turns out the ceilings required two coats. When I came back this morning I saw streaks, poor coverage and under color showing through. Guess I should have figured on this though I was hoping that I could get away with one. You'd figure white on white should be straightforward but the old paint had a purple tint and the Behr ceiling paint I bought was more bright white and on the yellow side of the spectrum. One step forward, two steps back. We now have the whitest ceilings on Long Island. Looks like I'm also going to have to prime the walls now too or I'm going to be painting into 2010. I have my bucket of Kilz at the ready.

Though I do have a few days between now and our move-in date, I don't expect to be finished with everything at that point. I imagine I'll be doing trim while we unpack. I also have to get some quarter-round shoe molding to replace what was pulled out to do the floors. Guess I'm gonna become quite handy with a radial chop saw and ye olde coping saw. I forsee MANY trips to the Home Depot in the next few months. Maybe we should open an account...

Spackle n' paint

2008-12-26T19:44:00.000-08:00

Let the spackling begin. Went to the Home Depot today and picked up all the paint supplies needed to do the house; rollers, brushes, buckets, drop cloths, rags, hand cleaner, spackle, paint etc. We're not doing the kitchen or bathrooms at this point. The wallpaper in those rooms will have to come down first which from what I understand is a job in itself. They're all self-contained rooms so they can be done one-at-a-time. The three bedrooms, living room, family room, dining area, hallway and all the trim are getting a fresh coat of paint.

As of Friday evening Dec. 26th, the bulk of the spackling has been done. Naturally, there's still a few more spots to do and some I may have to re-do. Glad I started on a Friday night though as I have the rest of the weekend to get the job done. I've never worked with spackle that dried overnight, I'm hoping it will be much easier to work with. I had to build up the areas where some larger cracks were so I used compound. Hope it turns out OK. I'm sure every time the light hits a certain spot just right I'll notice my fixes and curse.

As I move around the house filling cracks, all of the old-lady curtains and fixtures will be coming down. Feels great to yank down her dingy old drapes - they were drawn tight the three times we came to the place before we bought it. It's actually really nice when the sun shines in. Now we just have to get the ivy off the side of the house which will unblock the main window in the living room.

The floors are finished and look all right. There's a few places where you can see the swirl marks from the machinery and a few heavy spots where the poly was laid down a little too thick. The poly acts like a stain and tends to make the wood a little darker. I imagine it might lighten up over time as it really dries out. I'm also hoping some of the blemishes will go away as we walk over it. All in all though it looks great though and smells like a new car.

We're starting to break down our apartment now too as D-Day is just about a week away. I'll be handling the painting while Amy gets to stay behind and pack our things. We're both kind of bummed that we're missing out on doing the painting together. It seems like a rite-of-passage for first-time homebuyers. Our situation dictates this can't happen though so we'll have to go our separate ways and meet up later.

Hope to have pictures of the painted rooms as they're completed, perhaps over the next few days. Adding some color over the drab antique white is really gonna wake things up. Stay tuned.

We move fast

2008-12-22T19:09:00.000-08:00

We don't screw around. We closed on the house today and in less than 2 hours the first project had already begun. The hardwood floors are being refinished by family friends Bob and Calvin who graciously came all the way down from Briarcliff Manor and Catskill respectively to do the job. We'll leave the natural color and polyurethane it to give it a lasting sheen. Looking forward to a clean slate so our bare feet will not have to pad over Terry the Terrier's feces paw prints.

Some areas of the floor are somewhat shabbily patched together. In the dining area, it looked like there may have been a hutch or closet in one corner which is no longer there. The spot was filled in with shorter lengths of floor boards to fill in the space up to the wall. You can see the seams in the drywall where the structure once was. House detectives see everything. We'll fix it one day.

Naturally there's gaps all over the place, especially under the base molding. We decided to remove the quarter-round shoe molding since it wasn't present in all areas and removing it would give us an overall better outcome when sanding. We'll put it back in to cover the gaps when the job is done and we're ready to paint.

Of course, here's a few pics of the action.

Calvin, peering in to the abyss.

Bob, creating dust.

Machines at rest.

Old People Talk Loud

2008-12-20T19:12:00.000-08:00

I'm Greg. My wife Amy, son Jake and I have just purchased a house out on Long Island. It's a smaller, ranch-style home, built in 1940. It's on a quiet residential street. This is our first house. This is our blog about it.

The house itself is about 1,500 or so square feet. It's brick and wood construction, painted red and white on the outside. There's three bedrooms, one and a half bathrooms that are actually butted up against each other, a 'living room' or 'family room' as we've agreed to call it, a real living room with a fire place, a formal dining area and a small kitchen. For me, I'm absolutely beside myself to finally have a garage to work on my cars. There's also a "Florida Room" or what's otherwise known as a screened-in porch. I think we may be out there every single night as soon as the temperature rises above 70º. The yard is one of the larger ones on the block at .37 of an acre. There's grass, a few nice trees and a fence that separates the front and back yards.

We're buying the house from an elderly woman named Victoria who has lived there for about 10 years. Victoria it turns out, really likes antique white as just about everything in the house is painted this color. She also likes to keep all the blinds drawn because I think she might be some sort of vampire. In any event, we plan to change a few things when we move in. Nothing drastic mind you but we do plan to exercise our retro-hipster muscles and get the mid-century modern theme going throughout the house.

We are set to close on Monday, December 22nd, 2008. We will receive the keys at that point and plan to go to work right then. Our initial projects include re-surfacing the hardwood floors throughout the house, paint and cleaning and necessary upgrades for safety and efficiency; 200 amp breaker box, insulate the attic that sort of thing. We'll be busy for months trying to make the place spiffy. We're looking forward to this adventure and to a new chapter in our lives.

Please see the images below for a peek into what the house looks like now. I took these images with this blog in mind. I was thinking of an absolute beginning point before we put our stamp on the house. We will try to post all of our projects as we do them. We hope you enjoy watching us transform our old house into the killer crib we imagine it to be in our minds.

Kitchen, obviously.

Florida Room

Living room, fireplace to the left.

Large bathroom, complete with tile accents.

Terry the Terrier in a cage while Victoria talks loudly with Amy.
Fireplace to the left.

Dining room. We'll be getting a new light fixture.
View of the family room through the doorway.

Master bedroom, obviously where the magic happens.

Like the old tonight show segue.... more to come!