Home sweet home.

Well, we moved in.  Hooray!!!!!!!!!  But we still have tons to do.  The first couple weeks we still didn't have a functioning bathroom.  That doesn't mean we were heading to "CVS" every few hours to relieve ourselves.  We did, however, have to leave through the front door and enter into the former barber-shop-now-storage-room to take a tinkle.  I can't tell you how much fun that was.  Picture a 3am "nature-call"...you stumble out of bed and then have to fumble with your damn keys.

Maybe you all are wondering, "Why in the world would these two crazy kids move into a house without installing a toilet in the bathroom?"  I have one word for you...grout.  We had not yet grout the floor or wall tile.  This delayed the installation of our toilet.  So during the first few weeks we were peeing in the front room, showering in the bathroom, and brushing our teeth in the kitchen.




We have lived in our new home exactly four weeks and we have accomplished quite a bit but as one of our many contractors has said, "It's the finish work that takes the longest."  There are still traces of pink/putty/flesh-tone but it will all be painted over...I promise.




The kitchen is still what I would call "a disaster".  We don't have a stove and are limited in our counter space.  The organization is questionable.  I often find myself buttering toast or making coffee on a counter that is littered with tools.  William Sonoma, Martha Stewart and any one who works at HGTV would be appalled at the state of our kitchen.  With that in mind I always try to time my hardware store errands early in the morning in hopes of being approached by a home-improvement host.


On the way I practice my shock and giddiness while planning which aisle might I find a kitchen make-over show.  Appliances...no, too obvious.  Lighting...nope, way too "I've done it all this is the last of my shopping."  Faucets...perfect!  I already have the perfect faucet which I bought from Overstock.com.  It's exactly what we need right now...I just have to wait to paint over the orange laminate counter.  You know...so it'll look "better".



I kind of have the feeling that the kitchen will get done later.  In the meantime I need to find a stove and some temporary but not atrocious cabinetry to frame the stove and give us some much needed counter space.  I'm not worried about matching it all...because I plan to paint EVERYTHING.

I've mentioned my day job is a Sign Language Interpreter.  This means that everyday I show up with paint ALL OVER my hands, elbows, in my hair and any number of places I can't see.  The teenagers look at me with disdain or that oh-you-poor-thing-you're-still-painting look.  Truly!  One of my favorite kids asks everyday, "Still painting?  Not finished?"  NOPE.  "Volunteer?" I ask her.  She smiles and with her devilish, beautiful smile she declines.




So we are mostly unpacked.  Everything has found its rightful place and we aren't losing things nearly as often.








But I still make coffee amidst the tools and we have yet to install a proper sink of the bathroom.  Organization is a luxury but a hot shower puts every long day into a rightful perspective.  We cook dinner in the toaster oven or on the grill. We've found countless uses for the plug-in skillet.  I'm fearless when it comes to light fixture installment while Jeff can wield almost any power tool known to man.  I have a new affinity for Grant Wood's American Gothic or Bob Vila on PBS' This Old House, to name a few.






Lastly, the only analogy to which home-ownership seems to relate is marriage.  It takes work and maintenance but when you find that perfect balance it is, and will always remain, home.

Did you say free time...what's that?

So between our full time jobs and this home renovation we have very little free time.  We consider all of our "free time" the hours we get to sleep and the moments we remember to eat.  Jeff has lost around 8lbs over the course of this whole process and lack of free time.  I always seem to remember to eat so I haven't lost a single pound.  If the scale ever reads lower than normal on a given day it's probably because I sweat a little more and haven't consumed my weight in water yet. 

Like I said...we've been busy and the busiest of late was the big move last weekend.  I wouldn't say it was a smooth move because we were at the house painting, tiling, cleaning and prepping for the move and then at the apartment packing, cleaning, purging and prepping for the move.  None of it got done completely and I have to say the move was pretty ugly.  I'm very organized, I have to be because I'm so damn forgetful.  So imagine my frustration when NOTHING is packed and what has been packed is literally thrown into a boxed and taped shut...WITHOUT A LABEL.  But why not complicate this whole mess a little more.  Leading up to last Sunday, Monday and Tuesday's mass exodus, I said it was ugly, we made the bold decision to get the floors refinished.  This decision was weighed in every possible direction. 





Option A: Tearing out the original flooring and laying all new pre-stained hardwood.

Option B: Refinishing just the living, dining and den leaving the hall and bedrooms with the old sub-floor (which we would paint and live with until more money came down the pipe...or is it pike?).

Option C: Laying in new hardwood in the hall and bedrooms and refinishing the entire lot.





If you've read the blog at all in the past couple months you know that we tend to GO BIG.  Meaning we don't half-ass our way through the process and take a flying leap in the abyss of home renovation.  That said you might guess that we chose Option C.  Keep in mind that we made this decision with barely three weeks left until we had to move into the house so it was imperative we find a trustworthy company that could to the work with short notice and efficiently.  Never mind that polyurethane requires a certain amount of dry time or that sanding the floors would take a minimum of three days.  After many bids and a number of follow-ups we found our guy...literally...his name is "Guy".

And he was great!  This Guy called a number of times leading up to their proposed start date to give me a revised time-line.  With the economy in the pooper and the housing industry in the pooper it was easy to get a company out within a matter of days to get the work started.

It's important to note the condition of the floors and the choices we were asked to consider.  These floors are potentially 75+ years old.  They are maple and they are in need of repair.  We love the look of a darker stain, it looks rich and warm and sophisticated.  When we mentioned this to Guy he expressed concern.  Maple is a tight fiber meaning it doesn't tend to absorb stain evenly which could lead to a cloudy or uneven appearance.  We stressed our desire for rich, dark floors and Guy said it could be done.  "It will be a challenge but we will do it."  My flooring hero! 

And boy did he deliver!  They sanded a number of times until the floors we smooth and then massaged a conditioner into the grain and then on their hands and knees the stained and polyethylened.  These floors are gorgeous!