Apologies for not posting anything in FOREVER! Honestly, for a while I just forgot, then Blogger locked me out for whatever reason. Never the less, we're back and I hope to get some more posts on here soon!
We have made a bit of progress over the last year, though not as much as I would like. Last fall we began priming the kitchen cabinets, alas the lack of heat and the cold of winter halted the painting halfway through. Consequently, I been living with a two tone kitchen for a year. Unfortunately, the kitchen floor was also never finished from last year.
We did finally completed some exterior touch-ups over the summer such as trimming up the ridiculously overgrown cedar bushes and repairing the privacy fence, however, two rather expensive vacations drew funds out of the "Home Repair" account, so in the end I feel like I wasted much time this summer as far as renovations go.
In other sour news and returning the conversation to the topic of our disgusting kitchen - after our final vacation in August we set fourth on our fall project of finally finishing the kitchen. As of early September we were on budget for finishing the cabinets, new counter tops, new flooring, a new sink and faucet, texturing and painting of the walls and even a dishwasher (gasp) and snazzy corner booth dining set. About mid September my father came to stay with us for a week to hit the kitchen hard. Jordan and Daddy spent an entire weekend tearing out paneling, ripping up the remaining old flooring, etc. Well, wouldn't you know it, the very day the kitchen tear down was complete we were giving the terrible news that my dear Jordan lost his job as so many others have in this awful economy. Kitchen work HALTED. Now I'll have to live through another long winter with the kichen looking more disgraceful than I ever could have imagined! We have re-scheduled for the first warmth of early spring, but it was a blow to our confidence about ever finishing this house. The bathroom was supposed to be complete in the spring, so now this kitchen disaster pushes that back to summer or early next fall, not to mention the issue of our impending wedding next October. What to do?
On a final and positive note - at the time of my last post in November of '08, I hated this house more than I think I've ever hated anything. I despised it. I felt betrayed that we purchased it to revive it and give it new life and it just kept ruining our lives in return. I wanted to sell it, I wanted out. Buyers remorse? Well, a year later I'm thrilled to announce that I love this house! Nowadays I cannot fathom selling. I adore it. It has grown on me so much and truly feels like home. My new found adoration for my lovely old home give me so much hope to continue the struggle until it's finally finished.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
We have a BATHROOM! And primered cabinets . . .
So, the work is goingly slowly, as usual, but we finally had the plumbing issue in the bathroom fixed, so we can finally shower in the comfort of out own home. No more driving an hour round trip to my parents house every night! All it took was a small excursion into the crawspace, a $20 snake from Lowe's and Jordan's hard work and willingness to get covered in filth. Ha ha.
I also began the kitchen painting process this past weekend. It's taking much longer than I expected - inside and out of every cabinet, self, drawer, nook and cranny, but it already looks 978% better with just the first coat of primer.
I also began the kitchen painting process this past weekend. It's taking much longer than I expected - inside and out of every cabinet, self, drawer, nook and cranny, but it already looks 978% better with just the first coat of primer.
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Living Room Before and After
I'm already wondering about the paint colors. I'm thinking maybe I should have gone with sort of a orange for the living room (sounds gross, I know, but I can't put this idea into words very well). An orange would tie into the lovely "winte wheat" pale yellow of the front and back bedrooms, but the middle bedroom would need to be repainted a sage like color instead of the "royal palm" aquaish color we've already painted it. I dunno. It all just sounds like too much work right now, but I'm just really not into the blue we painted the living room anymore. It's like if we had even one red piece of decore, it would look like Fourth of July threw up all over in here.
These before pictures were taked the day we had our showing, before we ever made an offer on the "money pit."
Also, let me apologize for the "after" pictures. We're still not unpacked from the move and have had to find creative uses for old furniture, ie, the desk flipped on its side function as a tv stand and the sheets for curtains. *Sigh* Hopefully, this place will be put together someday.
These before pictures were taked the day we had our showing, before we ever made an offer on the "money pit."
Also, let me apologize for the "after" pictures. We're still not unpacked from the move and have had to find creative uses for old furniture, ie, the desk flipped on its side function as a tv stand and the sheets for curtains. *Sigh* Hopefully, this place will be put together someday.
Introduction . . .
How we got here . . .
This is my first post here. When reserching our home I discovered a number or bungalow related blogs, so I decided to jump on the bandwagon. Ha ha.
Former renters who grew tired of the "no pets" policies (we have 4 cats and a Bernese Mountain Dog name Wilson), we purchased our home in August of 2008 and moved in on October of 2008. We wanted something a bit bigger, and maybe in a slightly better neighborhood, but there aren't very many options here in northern Oklahoma and I do love old houses, so we decided on our little bungalow would be the perfect opportunity renovate a house into our home. The plan was to have all the work completed in the 2 months between purchase and the move in. Well . . . I guess we're learning that this isn't going to be that easy. In what I like to call a mere "string of bad luck," we discovered that the house needed much more than just cosmetic work and all we've managed to complete thus far is painting the three bedrooms and the living room and backer boarding one wall in the kitchen.
It Started with the paneling . . .
Our first project wa to remove the disgusting, 70's style wood paneling in the living room and bedroom . The paneling was hiding three layers of wallpaper over the original plaster walls, which we spect literally 3 weeks tediously scraping.
The electrical nightmare . . .
Shortly before moving in, we started to remove the old appliances left in the kitchen by the seller. As we attemped to pull out the refirgerator, we noticed a large hole in the plaster and lath behind it. Out of the hole was a strange looking cord made of . . . cloth? Hmmm, turns out that entire wall of the kitchen was powered by old cloth lamp cords cut and tied together! $2,000 later (yes, our entire savings account) with the help of an electrician who agreed to work under the table for us and cut us a huge deal, we now have a new breaker box and 2 brand new outlets. That's right - a whole TWO. Wowie.
The gas nightmage . . .
In the same attempt to remove old kitchen appliances we discovered that there was no valve to shut off gas to the old stove. Therefore, we had to shut off gas to the entire house for quite a few weeks. You see after the electrical nightmare I described above, we didn't have the maybe $50 it would have cost to hire a plumber to install a new valve. With my lovely parents footing the bill the plumbers eventually came to install the valve and also break the news to us the pretty much everything gas related in the house was dangerously not up to code. That eleminated our ability to do our own laundry - the gas line to the dryer was illegal. Hey, but at least we have a stove right? And the hot water? Sure but it's kind of hard to enjoy hot water when you don't have anywhere to shower . . . continue reading . . .
The bathroom nightmare . . .
Being built in 1928 and never having been updated, our poor house only had a bathtub, no shower set up. Actually an easy fix with a diverter spout and a hand shower set up. When "testing" the tub in the past, it had always drained fine, with the exception that water from the sink would back up into it, but then immediately drain back out. Well, I guess our first and only shower at the new house somehow destroyed the tub drain as well. I will not drain at all now. We had to bail out the water. Then we tried chemicals - draino, liquid plumber, liquid pipe snake, commercial strenth, what have you. It seemed to work, but when I ran warm water to rinse the chemicals through (as the lable instructs) it all garggled back out into the tub, bright blue poison and all. Since, the bathroom has been on lockdown for fear that my poor kitties will fall into the tub of poison. We've been showering at my parents house nightly and hopefully the pipe will be snaked this weekend. Fingers crossed we wont find anything else wrong.
The furnace nightmare . . .
In the negotiations, the sellers refused to update the house with central heat and air. The "air" portion is very imprtant here in Oklahoma. Instead, the said they would have a plumber come out and completely fix, inspect, etc. the old floor furnace, which scares the crap out of me, but we agreeed planning on only making it through one winter with the thing until we could afford central heat and air in the spring. It's been getting colder at night here now with lows in the 40's so we had a friend stop by to install out new thermostat so we could fire up the spooky, fire hazard of a furnace for the first time. When it came time for ignition, the boys made their way into the crawlspace, it was discovered that nothing was hooked up correctly to the furnce - gas seeping out everywhere! There wasn't even an ignition switch - it was busted off! Um, yeah, therefore the gas had to be cut to the entire house for a second time, until we could figure out how the stop the flow only the the furnace. Gas has since been restored, not to the furnace though, so here we are - it's now November, and we have no source of heat. Well, except for our two small space heaters, but if you plug in more than one at a time, it blows the breaker and takes out power to half the house. Ah, sighs of frustration.
Where we stand . . .
At this point, we have owned the house since August 2008 and lived in it since October 2008. We have no place for our washer and dryer. We have no place to bathe. We have no heat. We do have a fuctioning kitchen, although it's a bit crowded because it's pretty much the base of operations for all other repairs, so it's littered with tools, paint buckets, etc.
Ridiculous . . . our daily stuggle. Though all of this BS, we are still determined to make this house a home. We may be broke, tired, etc, but where there's a will there's a way, right? Hopefully?
This is my first post here. When reserching our home I discovered a number or bungalow related blogs, so I decided to jump on the bandwagon. Ha ha.
Former renters who grew tired of the "no pets" policies (we have 4 cats and a Bernese Mountain Dog name Wilson), we purchased our home in August of 2008 and moved in on October of 2008. We wanted something a bit bigger, and maybe in a slightly better neighborhood, but there aren't very many options here in northern Oklahoma and I do love old houses, so we decided on our little bungalow would be the perfect opportunity renovate a house into our home. The plan was to have all the work completed in the 2 months between purchase and the move in. Well . . . I guess we're learning that this isn't going to be that easy. In what I like to call a mere "string of bad luck," we discovered that the house needed much more than just cosmetic work and all we've managed to complete thus far is painting the three bedrooms and the living room and backer boarding one wall in the kitchen.
It Started with the paneling . . .
Our first project wa to remove the disgusting, 70's style wood paneling in the living room and bedroom . The paneling was hiding three layers of wallpaper over the original plaster walls, which we spect literally 3 weeks tediously scraping.
The electrical nightmare . . .
Shortly before moving in, we started to remove the old appliances left in the kitchen by the seller. As we attemped to pull out the refirgerator, we noticed a large hole in the plaster and lath behind it. Out of the hole was a strange looking cord made of . . . cloth? Hmmm, turns out that entire wall of the kitchen was powered by old cloth lamp cords cut and tied together! $2,000 later (yes, our entire savings account) with the help of an electrician who agreed to work under the table for us and cut us a huge deal, we now have a new breaker box and 2 brand new outlets. That's right - a whole TWO. Wowie.
The gas nightmage . . .
In the same attempt to remove old kitchen appliances we discovered that there was no valve to shut off gas to the old stove. Therefore, we had to shut off gas to the entire house for quite a few weeks. You see after the electrical nightmare I described above, we didn't have the maybe $50 it would have cost to hire a plumber to install a new valve. With my lovely parents footing the bill the plumbers eventually came to install the valve and also break the news to us the pretty much everything gas related in the house was dangerously not up to code. That eleminated our ability to do our own laundry - the gas line to the dryer was illegal. Hey, but at least we have a stove right? And the hot water? Sure but it's kind of hard to enjoy hot water when you don't have anywhere to shower . . . continue reading . . .
The bathroom nightmare . . .
Being built in 1928 and never having been updated, our poor house only had a bathtub, no shower set up. Actually an easy fix with a diverter spout and a hand shower set up. When "testing" the tub in the past, it had always drained fine, with the exception that water from the sink would back up into it, but then immediately drain back out. Well, I guess our first and only shower at the new house somehow destroyed the tub drain as well. I will not drain at all now. We had to bail out the water. Then we tried chemicals - draino, liquid plumber, liquid pipe snake, commercial strenth, what have you. It seemed to work, but when I ran warm water to rinse the chemicals through (as the lable instructs) it all garggled back out into the tub, bright blue poison and all. Since, the bathroom has been on lockdown for fear that my poor kitties will fall into the tub of poison. We've been showering at my parents house nightly and hopefully the pipe will be snaked this weekend. Fingers crossed we wont find anything else wrong.
The furnace nightmare . . .
In the negotiations, the sellers refused to update the house with central heat and air. The "air" portion is very imprtant here in Oklahoma. Instead, the said they would have a plumber come out and completely fix, inspect, etc. the old floor furnace, which scares the crap out of me, but we agreeed planning on only making it through one winter with the thing until we could afford central heat and air in the spring. It's been getting colder at night here now with lows in the 40's so we had a friend stop by to install out new thermostat so we could fire up the spooky, fire hazard of a furnace for the first time. When it came time for ignition, the boys made their way into the crawlspace, it was discovered that nothing was hooked up correctly to the furnce - gas seeping out everywhere! There wasn't even an ignition switch - it was busted off! Um, yeah, therefore the gas had to be cut to the entire house for a second time, until we could figure out how the stop the flow only the the furnace. Gas has since been restored, not to the furnace though, so here we are - it's now November, and we have no source of heat. Well, except for our two small space heaters, but if you plug in more than one at a time, it blows the breaker and takes out power to half the house. Ah, sighs of frustration.
Where we stand . . .
At this point, we have owned the house since August 2008 and lived in it since October 2008. We have no place for our washer and dryer. We have no place to bathe. We have no heat. We do have a fuctioning kitchen, although it's a bit crowded because it's pretty much the base of operations for all other repairs, so it's littered with tools, paint buckets, etc.
Ridiculous . . . our daily stuggle. Though all of this BS, we are still determined to make this house a home. We may be broke, tired, etc, but where there's a will there's a way, right? Hopefully?
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