Hammering Our Way Home

HELLO PEOPLE. Fall is nearly here (i hope) and I couldn’t be happier watching my shoddy curtains whirl about at night from the wind. Are you loving it, too?

Do you want to know why I am ESPECIALLY LURVIN IT? Because I don’t have to shower outside anymore! Yes, can you believe this? I still can’t. Just over two months of showering outback with frigid hose water has never made me appreciate a warm shower more. And just in time for the changing weather, too, as we officially took our first INDOOR shower September 4th. It’s been smooth sailing since. 

I’m holding out on pics, but bear with me. My hair is shining will delight (OK, it’s still pretty messy but whatev) and my legs are once again smooth (seriously, I wish shaving hadn’t been so difficult all damn summer long AKA leg showing season!).

We left the bathroom off like this:

(BACK)

(FRONT)

And let’s not forget our glorious outdoor shower:

And a sneak peak inside:

The day I came home from work and saw what Drew did with all our scrap wood, I was over the moon. This shower exceeded any expectations I had. I mean, it even smelled all dreamy from all the cedar. But like, a month in, it lost its sweet smell, started clogging the outdoor drain (which it was placed over), had spiderwebs hanging in all corners (probably one nestled snuggly within my bath sponge), and slugs just slurping around the floor, which I tried not to step on or even ever touch.

There is one weird thing about the shower. It somehow, SOMETIMES, was warm! Not like the warm shower YOU probably took today, but warm for outdoor-hose-water shower. I was stupified over and thought it was someone looking down and smiling on us. Drew thought it was perhaps from the water being warm underground from the thick city summer heat. Who knows. But it was these days I was able to wash my hair- AND CONDITION! Shaving still was pretty unbearable and mostly took place here-

Drew started to do the shower himself, a bundle of nerves and after extreme research. We planned to tile it all around, including the floor. It would have been a lot easier to just use a shower insert or shower pan (for the floor), but after being so meticulous about all the details leading up to this, we just couldn’t bear the shortcut (even though it would have been pretty smart- and much faster!). 

He did several pre-tile layers in the shower, never feeling quite confident about any of it. He also began refinishing the wood floors at the same time, also feeling unsure. And stressed. And pressured. 

We’ve been pretty pleased with everything we’ve accomplished in the house, but this just wasn’t panning out. The floor was MEH at best. The tar stunk like rotten cheese. And the shower lingered like this for about two weeks, as we worried over what to do next.

AND THEN WE WAVED THE WHITE FLAG. 

We bought this house in December. This happened in the beginning of August, EIGHT months later. Tiresome is a word that comes to mind. Patience had dwindled and we started to feel like some of these mega-projects (shower, flooring) would never get done. And so, we called/begged/screamed for help. Enter Schlichter.

This is a tile & marble company from Bucks County that does PHENOMENAL work. We were really lucky they were able to squeeze us in between doing million dollar tile jobs. Drew’s known them since childhood, and man, it’s good to have friends.

(I just want to note, this wasn’t a favor. We paid to have the work done. But it was a HUGE favor the way they started work immediately for us!)

The first day they came to scope out the bathroom, they ripped all the hours of Drew’s nail-biting preliminary shower work in a mere 5 minutes or so. GULP.

Really, this was great, as they’re the real pros and started from scratch. DIY is great and all, but I’m a firm believer that sometimes things really are just left best to the pros. People that hone their craft and create work that is more resembling of art. Could we have finished the shower? Maybe (probably). Would it have eventually leaked/cracked/etc? Who knows. Probably a fair chance. But what we would have done would not have even BEGUN to compare to what these guys did. 

For starts, they sealed the crap out of the shower (GOODBYE STINKY TAR PAPER) and made it look all smooth and green using a thick rubber type material that gets painted on and promises to keep ALL WATER where it belongs- within the shower and safe from your walls/studs-

But I know, enough of all this PRE stuff, right? Let’s get onto the goods..

This was the tile all neatly piled up outside the bathroom, which I oogled over and petted fondly for the week it sat there, just waiting to be tiled in- 

We opted for the majority of the shower to be a clean, white marble called “Iceburg”, a green marble for a decorative border, and a multi-colored river rock floor. I was over the top for the floor, which I pretended would feel like a small foot massage each time I showered. I admit, it doesn’t quite, but it still feels pretty nifty beneath or toes. And I love how ANTI-SLIPPERY it is, so I’d highly recommend it.

This is a picture from when the tile was just beginning to be laid. The floor was in, but not yet grouted.

AND they surprised us with an AH-MAY-ZING deep-green marble cut for the bench-

I was super excited it was a single piece (much easier cleaning!) and the veins zigging across it were beauts! They also hooked us up with a matching shampoo bar-

For fun, a few ‘in-progress’ photos (because they make me all giggly even still to look at!)

Note the grouted floor-

They also put in some awesome marble trim where the future door will go and window above-

It’s kind of hard to get finished photos due to the shape of the space, so I guess you’re just gonna have to come over and visit to see it for real ;]

But here’s my best attempt at said fotos-

We are literally tickled pink over how it’s turned out. Although, now that it’s said and done, we have to admit, it’s pretty damn cavernous. Our ceilings in the house are extra high, and the shower’s no different, so it feels especially big. SO, we’re planning to accessorize. We’re on the hunt for an in-shower towel rack and any other showeresque stuff. Any ideas? I would LOVE to hear/see them, so please, share!

All the tile was finished mid-August, but we still weren’t showering in it. Womp womp. The water lines were roughed in, but we didn’t have an actual showerhead/handle/RUNNING WATER.

Then I went to the beach for a week and chilled with my family, gloriously taking extra long, extra hot showers the whole time and did rad stuff like go on teeny spinning teacups with my baby niece-

and mischievous stuff like bury baby jojo in the sand (he didn’t lub it)-

and just gazed at the ocean whilst marveling its wonder-

When I got home from the beach, I just couldn’t bear to go out back and shower. I had been spoilt. And so, TWO DAYS LATER (I know, don’t judge!), we caved and decided screw the plumbers, we were tackling this last bit on our own. So we carted ourselves off to Lowe’s and came home with everything we needed to hook our shower up ONCE AND FOR ALL.

Sidenote: we were really disappointed with the in-store offerings at Lowe’s and Home Depot. If you find yourself in the market and have some time to spare, I’d recommend sorting through their for-order catalogues and score yourself a really groovy piece. While glad to be able to buy one on the spot, we don’t LURVE it (my dad taught me you should really love anything you buy [this even allows you to ignore price, sorta, I mean, if it’s TRUE LOVE]), so we’ll probably return it at some point. We’re hoping to find a showerhead with an extended arm (so the water pours down in the center of the shower with a rainwater head. Right now, the bench doesn’t even get wet (I told you this shower is big!). 

BUT HEY, it works!

And as for our outdoor shower? It took Drew a whooping 3 minutes to go from turning on the upstairs shower, to knocking this biznatch over-

It then got chopped into lots of teeny pieces and put out in our front yard until trash day, whence we paid the trash men a lil somethingsomething to haul off all the wood.

BY THE WAY, if you ever go to the beach with my family, be warned. They will trick you into taking home all the boogie boards (that no one even used the entire trip, except my brother Kenny Powers, Dan). Just kidding (except obv not really), loveyou mom& dad, kiss kiss.

Last but not least, I’ve been busy over at XOJANE retelling our lil house story. Here’s links to the most recent stories if you’re interested:

• http://www.xojane.com/issues/i-bought-total-dungheap-house-watch-me-renovate-it-allow-me-reintroduce-myself
• http://www.xojane.com/diy/i-bought-a-total-dungheap-of-a-house-watch-me-renovate-it-construction-chic
• http://www.xojane.com/diy/i-bought-a-total-dungheap-of-a-house-watch-me-renovate-it-goodbye-floors

I can’t believe it’s been almost 3 weeks since my last post, holy polly possum. I’m disappointed in myself, to be honest. But let’s not hang onto the negative, eh? I’ve too much to say for that sorry lot.

I need to waaaaaaaaaay back up for Awesome Cousins Day, which took place in June (I know). But to get all that, let’s revisit what our house’s exterior originally looked like-

Then we did this within about a month of owning our lil’ gem-

And after examining the cornice and realizing it was all rot, we realized we needed even more work than first imagined (per usual around here)-

The original cornice needed to be ripped off and replaced. Enter Awesome Cousins Day. 

This was a TWO day event featuring FOUR different states of cousins coming in from PA, NYC, CT, and ME. All for a little, old cornice. Isn’t that the sweetest?

These beasts of men tackled the cornice mercilessly, shredding and molding it to puuurrfection.

The cornice, though it may seem like an ornate, little detail of a house, is useful because it helps divert water away from the house and also from dumping straight down on top of you the minute you walk outside in a rainstorm. Helpful, no?

“We” made it out of loooong plastic pieces, which are good for the following reasons:

1. won’t rot from water over time
2. animals/insects can’t burrow in it
3. won’t deteriorate
4. doesn’t need to be prepped- sanded, painted, etc

It was a hot, late June weekend and these guys killed it.

What is especially rad about Drew’s cousins coming to help is that it propelled us forward to finally get to the stucco. Our house was doomed to stay a broken, chicken-wired brick mess until the cornice was amended.

I know a lot of people love brick houses- me, too! We would have loved to keep our brick and were originally planning/hoping for that when we tore off the blue veneer. Unfortunately, the brick was in too much disrepair to be saved. Bits of cement and chicken wire (used for the old veneer) clung to the brick. When Drew attempted to sand these bits away ever so carefully, the brick often than not, crumbled.

So we plowed ahead with the plan to stucco. Even still, we would have loved to keep the brick, but we didn’t have the time or money (or knew if it was even possible) to add this huge job to the to-do list. Plus, we live on a city block FULL of brick houses, and in Drew’s word “we’re too rock & roll” and he needed to make a statement. Cue dryvit! (SOOOO rock & roll, right?)

We were talked into the dryvit because of its alleged benefits of adding extra insulation to our home (GREEN DREAMS). Also, water is known to get behind stucco, which dryvit prevents. AND, it claims to have like a 200-year shelf-life. This is what it looks like-

And fully up-

THEN (DRUM ROLL) we at long last got to the stucco -

It’s not the best shot (surprise, surprise) but it gets the point across. We’re really happy with the color and texture. Stucco tends to be a sorta lumpy, not unlike a popcorn ceiling. We made The Stucco Guy promise it would be smooth as a babay’s bottom, and he delivered.

We still need to paint the cornice. We haven’t decided on a color yet, but have pulled samples for pumpkin, eggplant, and some deep blue-greens. Any other suggestions?

And that’s how we got a green house and new cornice. And, cousins rule. So much love and thanks to Ryan, Kyle, Kev, Uncle Billy, and Pop Mac. And to the non-blood players, Steve and Ted. 

And before I go, you can read my latest installment over at XOJANE here-

http://www.xojane.com/issues/i-bought-total-dungheap-house-watch-me-renovate-it-which-we-access-damage

Lemme make this quick. Call me crazy overly enthusiastic about our home renovation, but I’ll actually be REDOING this whole lil’ blog series over at WWW.XOJANE.COM (yeah, I’m squealing). As a teenager who read Sassy magazine and then Jane magazine, I am SUPER pumped to be writing for Jane Pratt’s lastest online publication.

I’m going to continue blogging here, but I’ll be retracing my steps over there with a slightly different vibe. Drew and I REALLY didn’t know what we were getting into when we bought our house. And we’ve tried our damndest to keep our heads facing sunwards while rifling through moldy house trenches, but it’s changed us (for better or worse…). The house has been an incredibly emotional journey, at times elating, at times suffocating. I’m looking to infuse a bit more of that emotional journey into the column.

One thing that’ll be different is that since it’s a national platform (and not my website), I’m keeping Drew’s name off it (D) (yes, even though my full name is now out there, oh irony). I hope you’ll take a peek (and heck, even double follow-along), but I won’t have the same commenting conversation I try to keep up on this site. DON’T BE MAD, OK? I STILL LOVE YOU. And will happily continue all our sweet lil’ nothings over here (seriously, they bring us mega smiles).

With that said, cch-chh-check it out-

http://www.xojane.com/it-happened-me/home-reno

ONE DAY…days before we were due to move in, when the world felt like a crazy, chaotic place because we had a triple and one million things to do, and it was h-o-t, and the house was still more construction-zone-than-home, 

I came to the house after work to find this motely crew loitering the front stoop-

I rushed towards them with that gallon of water and cliff bars, knowing they’d spent the day agonizing over sanding the downstairs wood floors.

I ran to them so swiftly, that I completely overlooked this-

A garden. It makes me feel relaxed just typing that out. Drew threw this stone into the mix, taken from the old rain gutter catch. It’s made of stone (not sure which sort).

Me like.

I admired the garden, then asked how the floors went. They told me they had been gardening ALL DAY. I scratched my head and aimed to politely smile and gush all “gee, whiz, that sure is terrific, misters.” And it was, but I didn’t understand, because these guys don’t mess around. I’m surely a gardener-not, but how had that taken all damn day? I shrugged internally, please either way. 

We stepped into the house, cleaning out whatever trash had accumulated that day, as we were wont to do at the end of each day.

They then both stepped out back. I stayed behind, because I am a perfectly naive fool. And they called me out. And I stretched my neck round the door, looking to where they called, and totally overlooked (AGAIN) this-

I swooned, I leapt. I plucked a leaf from each herb and thrust them into my mouth, oohing and ahhing over the earthly sweetness.

ASIDE: Heather,  mind the plant-name sticks, I REALLY need them! But I think of you each time I see them & chuckle over your imagined outrage and wish to rip them out.

They had made a real, life raised bed chock full of tomatoes, cucumbers, rosemary, cilantro, basil, thai basil, sage, thyme, and CHOCOLATE MINT. Yes, a herb that tastes like chocolate & mint. I KNOW. If only I had an oven to bake something delicious with that herb. For now, I am happy to simply pluck its tiny leaves and pop them into my mouth. 

I’m not sure I’m adequately describing just HOW excited this garden made me. There is almost nothing I love to cook with more than fresh herbs. And the plastic grocery store packs make me cringe. BUT NOW, I have my very own. SWOON.

Drew, ever having an eye for design, had saved some piping leftover from the long-gone radiators for a rainy day (or at least until he had some strike of genius). 

TA-DA !

He wove it through the eight tomato plants and I think it’s JUST LOVELY. I was a complete and utter schoolgirl, all giggly and gushing over these glorious beauts. 

We hope to plant an even larger raised bed along the back wall of the yard-

For now, leftover joists and wood are stored here for future wood-building needs. Beings July is almost over, I’m not sure we’ll have time to really plant anything this year. But I’m sure many of you would know better…puh-lease share your veggie knowledge, if we can’t plant anything til August…is there anything we can plant? I can only think of pumpkins. But I’m like, a dunce with gardening, so please, enlighten me!

To date, we’ve just completed our first harvest.

A single cucumber.

So green and puurrfect, right? Sigh.

The cucumbers have completely taken off actually, and have tons of small, budding, yellow flowers laced in their viney limbs.

You might notice the half-dead, uprooted rosemary. We’re not sure if it’s not doing well because the cucumbers have totally taken over, or if they were getting too much water. I’m going to replant this in a giant pot, and hope it flourishes like Sister Sar’s, (Drew’s sister has the bestest rosemary plant you could ever dream). I don’t have a picture of said plant, but I do have an equally sparkling pic of her-

(Again, happy birthday vato !)

OK, back to greenery. The herbs are buzzing with life, especially the basil and chocolate mint. AND we have a single, green tomato. I haven’t fallen in love as yet, as two years ago we attempted potted tomato plants. They stretched and flowered, but only ONE tiny tomato actually sprouted. We were still overly pleased.  When it finally turned red, we decided to wait just one day more to let it REALLY ripen. And then a snotty-faced neighbor child PLUCKED IT. MY SINGLE TOMATO. GONE.

I have higher hopes for this budding babay. I’m slightly concerned nothing else has grown just yet. We had a lot of yellow flowers, but no tomatoes. Is this normal?

Overall, the beds appear to be getting on swimmingly, all lush and green.

As for the rusted out metal thingys, the drum is from Drew’s trash burning. Not sure what we’ll do with it just yet, but we have a clipping from an exceedingly hearty cactus that may just call that home. And the other piece is actually the interior of the original, blue Crown Boiler furnace. The thing is a complete monster, weighing a compact 300 or so pounds. We had to put it on a dolly and slowly wiggle it outback (with add’t help, thanks again JAY!). It hasn’t been placed so just yet, but we think it’ll look pretty cool amid our gardens someday.

SO, we may be lacking 

1. shower
2. bathroom/kitchen sink
3. kitchen in general
4. 2nd story flooring
5. 1st floor flooring (it’s partially sanded/stained but not finished)

and like, dozens of smaller things. but UM, we have a bursting flower bed and an organic veggie and herb patch. HOLLA!

These two completely rule for skipping a day of floor staining  (bo-ring) and making not one, but TWO, hearty gardens to totally tip me off with delight. They sure know how to make a rae smile. kiss kiss.

WOWE. Excuse our absence, but we’ve been BUSY MOVING IN (!). That’s right, since the clock has run completely out we had to pack ‘er up and move on out, even if, to date, we don’t have a (real) kitchen, (real) shower, etc etc. (AND thank ye thank ye Ma, Bean & Jay for all your supreme lifting skills on that lovely 100 degree day!).

We moved nearly all of our stuff to either a broiling storage unit, or the sidewalk, where it was quickly snatched up (happily).

Our house is still a construction zone, and stuffing it with unnecessary items would be a  mega pain as ‘we’ continue to build.

After getting the most needed items into the house, we made a trip to the store for some new home essentials-

Are these not the top of your new-home-moving-in list? Solar shower (sounds way cooler than it actually is), coals, small propane tanks, lighter fluid… the entire contents of essential gear was located in the camping aisle at Walmart. OH SNAP.

Doesn’t she look like she’s enjoying that (too much)? I was SO pumped to take my first outdoor shower with that plastic bag of heated water, whilst doing my best to remain a lady amongst all my new neighbors.

Just kidding.

BUT GUESS WHAT? It didn’t even matter. I returned that ish unused because Drew is the man. I came home from work on my first real day in the house and he was busy making this:

He took any and all leftover scrap wood and built a real outdoor shower. 

..complete with a floor-

..and shampoo bar AND magnetic light-

The shower is pretty sweet. The first few days at the house I just stood in there and sniffed because most of its made of cedar, which I just lurve.

I know I’m being all rose-tinted about this, so here’s an outer view of it. It’s not so cute from this view, but it still smells just as nice. It was placed in this spot because it’s over a drain. He’s so smart, that Drew.

The outdoor shower is working insanely well for us because we’re mired in a heat wave. The outdoor shower, despite boiling heat wave, is still extremely cold. The water is run from a good ol’ fashioned hose, rigged up and hung with a showeresque facet. I mostly screech a lot while showering and goosebumps make shaving impossible. HIPPIE DAYZ.

We’ve got a toilet & a utility sink hooked up already, along with a mini-fridge, so those essentials are covered.

I don’t love crawling from bed all doe-eyed & sleepy to brush my teeth in the basement every morning, but it does the job besides. I’ve also become extremely attached to Neutrogena face cleaning wipes because after teeth scrubbing I’m pretty much o-v-e-r the morning basement scene.

This is our kitchen-

That is to say, vatos non-existent. We’re awaiting our cupboards to be finished, and as it turns out, cupboards are pretty much a kitchen staple. Instead we have kitchen stations-

And how we cook the wee bits we’re actually able to store in our mini-fridge..

Isn’t he cute? Drew didn’t really think so during this heat wave. So after about a week of crouching down and cursing cooking over this lil’ guy,

we went out and bought this hunk o’ steel- 

It’s made dinner time a lot happier…..

So that’s how we’re getting by. As for the rest of the house, it looks as such:

We’ve made the bedroom as liveable as possible, including buying some super cheap carpet from Home Depot to lay down over the subfloor. Yeah, because our 2nd story is still all subfloor, except the Ma’ble bathroom.

I’ve pretty much shown all the downstairs already, but our beloved jades make it a bit more lovable in here.

And Drew’s record collection made it into the house move because the storage wasn’t climate controlled.

OH, I should probably mention the paper purple floors. Drew started sanding/staining, but had to stop because um, we had to move in. So we covered them with rosin paper to help protect our half done floors. Not sure how/when they’ll finish getting done (it’s a pretty smelly/chemically process and we can’t live there during it).

We are utterly LOVING being in our home, despite it’s half-baked state. I love walking to my new subway stop, the new coffee house a block over, the rad Mexican taco/beer bar dos blocks away, the tasty lunch spot Drew discovered, the Irish bruncherie 4 blocks over and the 360 degree view we got of fireworks from our roof on the 4th as they splattered across the Philadelphia sky. 

The first night we slept there was ALSO our 3 year anniversary. Isn’t that sort of sweet and cosmic seeming?

I’ve got a ton more to tell, like how we stopped in the middle of final moving day to shoot a music video, and how another day I had front yard of shirtless men slaving over the cornice, and how the loveliest Polish man is currently stuccoing the biznatch out of our house, but alas, another day. We JUST got the internet hooked up, so I am hoping to churn all these going ons in the next few days. For now, a girl’s gotta rest XX

To pick up where I left off, about those freshly painted walls, (you know, the ones I lost the pictures of last post)..

Upstairs view-

OK, back to new biz.

We (for basically the first time ever, this ‘we’ is literal) settled on a bathroom floor AND LAID IT.  Pulling some standard moves, we HAD to buy the tile floor, walk out with it in hand, and lay it the next day. As we found out, all the wonderful tile stores lining Washington Ave in South Philly don’t actually stock their tile. Delivery wait time was about a week. NOT COOL.

Then we found a single warehouse that actually stocked their tile and that pretty much did it for us. We went with a white Italian marble. 

So we bought it, brought it home, and prepared to beginning laying it first thing the next morn. We had already laid down hardi backer (cement board) so we were all prepped to just lay down the tile. A quick note about laying down the cement board: smarty pants Drew insisted on laying it down with thinset and THEN screwing it into the subfloor. Apparently, a common corner-cutter is to just screw in the board. Get that shiz double secured !

Neither of us had actually ever laid marble tile before (or cut it). Oopsies. Per usual, I was a delirious fool and Drew, well he knew it was some foolhardy thinking, and yet we carried on, precious marble floor in hand.

We used this behemoth to cut the tile-

Because, not to miss a chance to make things complicated as puurrfect as possible, Drew followed the wise ol’ Italian man’s advice and decided to cut the tiles in halves and lay them in thirds. Ya know, for pretty patternness. So we cut our 12X12 tiles in half (and then in smaller sections to fill in).

Like this:

BUT GUESS WHAT YOU GUYS? I totally rule at tile cutting. Trust. And I lubbed it. I will cut tile for all ya’ll (if you have this nifty machine, we which borrowed from a friend). 

We unthinkingly started tiling from the front of the bathroom, which eventually blocked Drew in. And you can’t step on freshly laid tile, soooo it was on your girl to get to cutting.

Halfway through, we ran out of tile. YEP, we had bought HALF the amount we needed. Luckily, we were able to run back to the tile shop and buy the other half we needed. This is luckier than it sounds, as stone tiles (should) come in lots, and each lot has its own unique variations. In order for ours to all match, we definitely wanted tile taken from the same lot. We had ALMOST bought a sale bundle of marble that was the tail end of a last lot. If we had, we would have been screwed and had to buy another half either mismatching, or all new tile. Glad we avoided that $$ mistake.

So what’s the tile look like all up close and personal?

The lil’ crosses sticking up are 1/16th spacers, which is the ‘proper’ amount to set marble tiles apart. It’s basically a toothpick spacing. Which makes me pumped because I have this thing with grout, and the less we have, the happier I am.

The entire process took us 13 hours. That doesn’t include grout, which we waited a few days to put in. While waiting for some of the first laid tile to dry, we ate our first din at the new house. On the stoop. Looking all weird and creepy.

Complete with wine and some beers (gluten free what what).

A few days later AND

Our floor grew a toilet. har har. Actually it got put in yesterday, because the floor was finally down, grouted, and done. The toilet is GREEN (is this annoying you yet?) in that it’s a dual flush. So you just push 1 rain drop or 2, depending what you’ve got going on. (ew, I’m done, promise xx)

The toilet is a huge flippin deal because it means one no longer has to use this-

DIY PEOPLE. NOT TRES CHIC. (no matter what HGTV tells you.)

Incase you are all “what’d the old bathroom look like again?” allow me to refresh:

Serious nightmares.

We are loving the new floor (and toilet !). It’s polished and museumesque and I don’t know, lushly rich. Which totally isn’t everyone’s style. But all those dark veins zigging through it like skinny tree branches or furious lightening JUST MAKES ME SWOON. 

And, taking a step away from the bathroom, when the plumbers were over to install the toilet, they installed our basement utility sink, which makes us all official for running-water-in-the-house. OH SNAP. 

We’re on a roll. Which is a good thing. Because we are looking to move in THIS WEEKEND! Cue deliriously naive picture. Also, cue super bummed picture. Because we are missing the party of the summer. AUNT KATH, WE LOVE YOU, MISS YOU, AND WILL BE THERE IN SPIRIT. Happy Birthday ! We hope Cape Cod survives the MacD invasion ;]

I don’t even think many words are required. WE HAVE WALLS. (!)

Pre-spackle

Upstairs bedroom..

(mind the covered goof face)

Then it got spackled-

Then Drew pulled a 13 hour day, during which these paintbrush-wieldin’ fools showed up-

AND SLAYED IT. LIKE, THE ENTIRE HOUSE-

This is where it gets sort of anti-climatic. I think I accidentally deleted all my pretty painted wall pictures. OOPS. If you know me, you aren’t terribly surprised.

“We” painted the entire house pure, bright white. We had planned to do this downstairs (remember we are obsessed with maximizing brightness [did you notice the amount of recessed lights?!]). Upstairs we thought we’d do colors, but beings as the clock has gone from ticking to just about bursting our poor lil’ eardrums, paint was bought on a whim. And getting a bunch of all the same color makes it super easy (especially when I’m at work and Drew decides TODAY is paint day, GO).

On the immediate horizon-

1. refinish downstairs floors
2. find/buy/install upstairs wood floors
3. BATHROOM (we just bought flooring tonight, going to start laying it tomorrow!)

Looks like the kitchen will NOT be ready upon move-in. Appears the shower won’t be either (that kind of makes me less confident but alas). I’ve been given the advice to join a gym (what’s up gym showers!)

But whatever, we got walls! And I thought the house guts would just be spilling out forever..

One of the many things on my research list was spray foam insulation. We pretty much decided right off the bat we’d go with this type of insulation, a la our Green Dreams. For us, spray foam insulation was great because it’s toted as being eco-friendly, water-resistant, mold-resistant, and insect/rodent-resistant (if you knew me circa my South Philly days, you know how important rodent-free is to me!). That’s a lot of damn resistance, no? 

We also chose spray foam because our house is old (duh) and this insulation is thought to actually help add support to the existing frame, like say, where we have some crumbly bricks for instance.

Our house had no insulation, other than its plaster walls, which is not a good look for your energy bill. I did a TON of research before we made a decision and on top of that we had 7-8 different companies come out for estimates (everyone uses different products). Then I  researched their products tirelessly. Yeah, Drew totally loved those conversations following a hard day of work ;]

So, what does spray foam insulation look like?

We used a company called Green Life Energy Solutions out of southern New Jersey. They use a product called Foam-Lok.

I was really surprised by the spray foam. I expected a heavy odor or scary chemical warnings or something for a few days following application (it took 3 days total) but there was barely anything. There was a faint odor the following day, but other than that we didn’t notice anything. It pretty much instantly hardens on the walls. It did leave a somewhat sizeable mess-

But its basically weightless, um, FOAM, so it was easy to clean up.

The process wasn’t completely seamless though. I offer this up not to complain, but rather just something we wish we’d known before getting started. The spray foam covers everything, including electrical outlets, wires, etc.

This is Drew cutting out unwanted insulation around his speaker wires

The spray foam didn’t totally cover these things, but in hindsight, we wish we would have had a heads up. We would covered everything we didn’t want spray foam intruding upon, like these guys- 

We spray foamed all walls and the roof. The R value (signifies the resistance of heat to flow through a material) of our 2 inch spray foam is 40. For comparison, 19 would be a typical fiberglass (pink stuff) insulation. The roof spray foam is even thicker and about an R80. Insulation on steroids.

Speaking of which, Drew went ahead and insulated between every room in the house, too-

The only place we didn’t use spray foam was on the ceiling between the first and second floor. We used Roxel insulation there-

It’s otherwise known as ROTTEN COTTON, which I absolutely love. What a perfectly sour name. It’s a pretty impressive product, used for fireproofing and soundproofing. It’s also water repellent. So why the rotten nickname? Apparently it’s a total pain in the arse to work with— it’s made of stone wool. So it’s like, itchy and you get slivers of tiny metal/iron on you as you work with it. FUN. But the product definitely rules (stone wool originates from Hawaii, as a byproduct of volcanic activity, COME ON).

Spray foaming our house was definitely more expensive than most insulation but we’re hoping the energy savings will pay off over the years. We’ve been hit pretty hard every winter heating our homes and are V much looking forward to a break. Hooray for energy efficiency ! And adding another check to making our home more GREEN.

PS. Happy Beeday Big Kev/Pops (you party animal, you!) xo

Generally speaking, Drew’s a quiet guy and meeting him, noise wouldn’t seem like an issue. But I’m sure a poll by past neighbors would tell a different story. There’s likely many people out there who’d like to ask him to can it (though, to my knowledge, none actually ever have, because, despite being loud he’s way too sweet to get mad at).

Boy blares music like a mutha. I’ve learned to read, movie watch, and even sleep through it, so I’ve grown mostly immune. But that doesn’t mean our neighbors have. And our new block is an older crowd (our next door neighbor is 96 !) SO, I’m not sure how much their gonna be down with his merrymaking.

Because we don’t want to be the awful waffle newbies, we’re aiming super hard to make our house as soundproof as possible. It’s important to us that we feel comfortable playing music (loudly) all night AND that our neighbor’s can still get a good nights sleep.

ENTER PROJECT NOISE B GONE

Our house is only connected to one other house, so they’re our primary focus in noise reduction. Especially because since ‘we’ tore down the plaster walls, we can hear them watching tv, talking, etc.— which means they’ve been painfully hearing all of our powertools/demo/etc etc noise.

They have an addition on the back of their house, which is the part connected to our house, WHICH, based on the noise we hear, we’ve assumed is their tv/hangout room. We’ve made that single connecting wall our main focus. 

For starts, Drew hung homasote, which is an environmentally-friendly fiberboard used (among other things) for soundproofing. It’s manufactured just on the other side of the Delaware River (which runs through Philly) and is actually a pretty nifty green company (see their about section if you’re curious). 

The entire house will be spray foam insulated, which will also help reduce noise. That works starts tomorrow. Then, a layer of drywall will top things off.

Drew’ll have his basement studio, which will have its own heavy soundproofing. But, jumping at the opportunity while the house was all opened up, he went and wired EVERY SINGLE ROOM for speakers (using double HDMI cables, CAT5E, and 12AWG speaker wire). It basically means our entire house will be networked for audio and video— think surround sound on steroids. This means something playing downstairs (audio or video) can be sent to any other room in the house via these cables.

Drew’s got 10 of these things hung around the house-

- along with plans for 2 floor standing tower speakers, a subwoofer, and 2 outdoor speakers. This doesn’t include the 8 speakers that’ll be in the studio. 

He’s also hoping to run CAT5E out back (in the future) for a projection screen. Which would rule. Someday…

We have a zillion things to do to get this house livable, but we opted to run this stuff now because it’s WAY easier & cheaper to do while everything is open. We also think it’ll be sweet perk to add to the value of our house (& keep it up to date technologically-speaking), and, most importantly, something that’ll make us really happy.

But realizing how many speakers Drew has plans for, UM, I’m off to go look into ear plug stock. I’m not that sound of a sleeper.

Our house may be far from done-

but, despite missing flooring, walls, a bathroom, kitchen, stucco, running water, and all that other good stuff, we have a full on HVAC system up & roaring (mostly). That’s right. We can pump some serious AC despite, well, missing mostly all the essentials of a house.

The weather is quickly turning warmer (read: humid), so this baby is pretty damn important. We can’t exactly turn it on yet, still have some electrical work to run for it but THEN this pup can purr.

Since we decided a couple months ago to hack the old radiators, part of the HVAC was a new heating system. 

We opted to have a 90% plus high efficiency system (HEY GREEN DREAMS!).

Along with the new HVAC system, we had the same company put in a new hot water heater. We opted for a 94% plus tankless system.

We were both pretty pumped about how much smaller it is than a traditional water heater, so it saves a nice amount of space. The basement is going to be split up as a music/recording studio, laundry  space, and er, a basement (storage). We need to be pretty smart with space since it’s limited limited down there- especially since we got (another) new waste pipe, which bumps out further than we anticipated.

The drywall will need to extend to cover the waste (white) pipes. At least we saved some space with these guys…

As for our current to-do list:

1. electricity
2. plumbing
3. sprayfoam insulation (still need to find someone)
4. drywall
5. flooring (refinishing downstairs floors & installing new floors on 2nd story)

It’s a relief to see things getting crossed off our list since we can hear the clock ticking. The electricians & plumbers have finished (rough-ins) and we passed both inspections (so glad we eventually found ourselves in the good graces of licensing and inspection).

We also avoided a semi-plumbing-crisis. Remember how we had to UNEXPECTEDLY replace the main water line (pipe running from street to house)?

When the plumbers were finishing up, they tested the new pipes and discovered a (drum roll) leak in the sewer line (pipe that runs from our basement, underground, through our entire front lawn, to the street). To replace this, we’d need to dig up the entire front yard (along with the sidewalk) and about 10 feet down. It was bad news, man. BUT THEN, the genius of BUZZ DUZZ discovered a fix to the tune of 100 buckaroos. That’s right, $100, not another couple thousand. Basically (in Rae terms), they were able to shoot a new pipe down through the old pipe (the old pipe was actually 1 inch larger than most pipes, so we had room to spare). OH SNAP.

We’ve got our sprayfoam insulation and drywallers lined up. Sprayfoam starts next week. I am SO excited for walls to go up, like, I can’t almost believe it will actually happen.

This is going to be a real houseee (!) 

Oh yeah, we’ve got scaffolding all up in here. Guess I should prob add stucco as #6 on our to-do list (and then add about 35 other things).

Whatev, we’ve got some fighting spirit in us yet.

Before opening my eyes this morn, my head was already spinning thinking about the house, somewhat startlingly if I’m going to be honest.  (I’ve mentioned before), we are officially on a deadline. The lovely house we’ve been renting has SOLD so we have until its settlement to move out….JUNE 28 (!!), or about 51 days. Fifty-one days to make this-

- a real home. Electricity rough-in is complete (woo-freakin-hoo!) and plumbing started today. All of which was supposed to be DONE 2 months ago but then we got screwed over. Despite losing some money, the biggest upset at this point is probably all the time we’ve lost because of it. Realizing we’d lost our plumber/electrician was only half the issue- we then had to find new ones. Ones that could pull permits in Philly without completely torching our wallet. We did lots of research, had lots of estimates and spent time negotiating with our top picks until we agreed on a company for each job. Which took several weeks to sort.

A word on what’s worked for us hiring different contractors. Generally, word of mouth is usually great; however, we’ve had varying success with these type of recommendations. What I’ve found to be really great…GOOGLE. When searching for a plumber, for example, I visited countless websites and scoured the web for reviews. Red flags, like a couple yelpers voicing similar complaints (even amidst other positive reviews) made me shy away from calling some companies. After putting a list together of companies I’d like to call, their answering/voicemail was another ‘test’. If I got a generic voicemail that didn’t even mention a company name, I didn’t leave a message (& crossed them off my list). If a receptionist put me on hold for 10 minutes as soon as she said “hello” that was a NO, too (we got a deadline people!). Drew fielded all the actual appointments/estimates. Since we had several for each job, we were able to get lots of opinions and pick up on suggestions we hadn’t originally thought of.

Another great thing about getting several estimates is that it gave us a really great ballpark for price. When 2-3 companies give a similar estimate and then the 4th is several thousand higher, it’s easier to see how we could end up overpaying for a job.

Lastly, once we decided on a certain company, we THEN negotiated for a final (lower) price. We’ve been able to get a lower price on every job thus far…so my advice? We consider an estimate a starting bid..NEGOTIATE! 

Our next big steps (in order) are:

1. electricity
2. plumbing
3. sprayfoam insulation (still need to find someone)
4. drywall
5. flooring (refinishing downstairs floors & installing new floors on 2nd story)

AND THEN we can get to all the other needed livable stuff, like a bathroom and kitchen. Having our slick rick electrician/plumber skip out on his contract was such a mega halt and we’re now scrambling to make up the time lost— especially because of our new, quickly approaching deadline. 

Drew’s been super busting his hump over at the house. I should make it clear that while we are hiring people as necessary, Drew’s been over there every single day since the beginning doing a full days work all day er day. But remember how L&I sniffed out our trail? Well that just means we have to do everything SUPER by the book, which means there’s certain stuff “we” can’t do on our own, which happens to include lots of permits (I think we’ve had 4 or 5 pulled at this point {!})…and since only licensed/insured/permitteded peeps can pull those permits in the city SO, we’ve had to hire a lot of different people, all of whom, on top of getting down & dirty himself,

Drew’s had to schedule, organize and coordinate. And they’ve pretty much taken over the street (yeah, they’re all with us…)

But with the countdown on, we’ve got to figure out a way to amp things up even more -well, if we want to have a toilet & stove, for instance, when we move in.

It’s (super) go time.

Remember when our basement looked like this? 

The basement was pretty gosh darn awful. Then we did this:

It’s kinda hard to tell the difference in the photos, but we had all the cement broken up (by hand…) and hauled out, along with another foot of dirt (dug out) (you may recall the bony treat we found, shudder). That said, it didn’t make it any prettier.

At this point, the basement was completely emptied out, including the 2 year old hot water heater and 15 year old furnace, which “we” carried up to the first floor. We’ve since had each replaced.

After that fun lil’ venture, we had stone put back in the basement, which was our first stop in getting things back in order.

At this point, we called in the professionals. We were hoping to do the whole process  ”ourselves” (note: Drew) but in the interest of time we opted otherwise. That said, we were able to save some $$ by already having it dug up & stone laid.

Following stone, rebar was laid down. We opted not to do a layer of plastic. This was just preference. The theory was that water can potentially get trapped between the cement (which loves water) and then hit the plastic and have nowhere to go.

Finally, getting to the good stuff: ACTUAL CEMENT. This sounds boring (I know), but in sum, it means we finally have a real floor !

The water puddles are just from Drew watering the floors the next day after the cement was poured. I know, seems kinda counter-intuitive to put water in your basement, but again, that has to do with cement drinking water. All water has been absorbed by now.

We’re planning to finish the basement along with the rest of the house (drywall, etc), to water is a dealbreaker (!) (hey, liz lemon). Luckily, we had a trial run: it rained for 24 hours last weekend. I was pretty nail bitey about it. If our basement flooded, we’d be in pretty big trouble, or at least our finishing dreams would be. Since half of the basement is supposed to be a music studio (aka loads of electronics) water would be a disaster. BUTTTT, we didn’t even get a drop from all the heavy rain (!) so our finishing dreams live another day…

As for the walls of the basement, we’re planning to sprayfoam (insulation) them along with the rest of the house. One of the great things about sprayfoam is that it’s water resistant (ta-da).

So that’s my riveting basement update. OK, so maybe it’s a lil boring. But it was actually pretty exciting to see a smooth, level floor down there. The little things, right?

AAAAAND we’re back. Since our electric/plumbing misstep (to put it politely), things have started to look back up (thankfully!). For starts, it’s (nearly) Friday, which will undoubtably always put a smile on my face. 

We’ve got a new electrician. Actually, there’s a whole whopping team of them and they are whooping arse. All the cans for lighting have been hung and the walls are chock full o’ wires. And little outlets have been placed all over too.

We’ve also got a new plumbing company on deck & hoping they can start first thing next week.

And because we always like to add extra things in, we had another plumber replace the main water line (copper pipe running from street right into our basement), which was a “fun” little bonus in the ever-evolving home renovation..

Drew sweetly pointed out to me that most houses in Philadelphia, since they are right on the street, require about a 4 foot pipe. Our house, delightfully set back, required a 40 foot pipe, which the replacement price tag reflected (whomp whomp).

So yeah, we’re getting back on track. And I have like a zillion more things to talk about it, but I’m going to save that, mostly because I need to find a new picture editor (bye, picnik :’[ ). 

I hope all ya’ll have been feeling sunshiny good and getting heaps of Vitamin D.  What’s making you show off those pearly whites these days, hmmm?

YAWN. 

We’ve totally been slumbering like babes, eating sugary crumpets til our waists pop and moseying around town like a French couple in love. And getting all crafty with Easter eggs when that get boring. That’s why I haven’t been able to get a hot dang blog posted.

Sike.

The emotional roller coaster ride of home renovation continues on its ever circuitous route. The past few weeks things seemed to start moving really quickly- framing, windows, exterior doors, HVAC. We even added a schmancy motion light to the front of the house to further deter would be thieves from coming back- ha ha!

(pst, the remaining block of wood, which the motion light hangs from is place-holding for a window that’s on order.)

We’ve been pumped about all the activity and seeing the house slowly but surely coming along. Next on the ever-expanding to do list: electric & plumbing.

Per usual, nothing of the original system was left. The precious copper pipes had been previously cut out so we’re starting from scratch. That’s right, there’s been no running water in this who-ha the whole time “we’ve” been working. Ew dirty hands.

We’ve had an electrician/plumber (he claimed to be so handy he was versed in both) lined up for months and paid the obligatory down payment. He did a few small things, like replacing the sewer pipe, installing a new circuit box, and running temporary lights while all the other work has been going on.

Then it was his turn to shine. And I wanted him to sparkle like my favorite egg.

But he didn’t have the same plans. He dropped off. He kept saying he would finish by LAST Friday, but erm, that’s kinda hard to do when you show up at noon and only work a few hours. 

A few hours work is better than nothing though, non? Thursday he didn’t show up. And he didn’t Friday. And he didn’t Monday. And when he finally called yesterday, Drew told him don’t bother coming back. We get it, we’re kinda getting played and we’re just facing facts. He’s holding up the whole house process thingy we’ve got going on and it’s mighty frustrating. Oh, and losing money. That like, triple times a million blows.

I’ve been googling the crap out of local electricians & plumbers to come in and give us estimates for the work. The first guy’s estimate made us laugh, in a nervous breakdown way. Drew’s still recovering from it-

Just as we were starting this process everyone kept saying ‘it always ends up costing double’. Guess what? It’s true!

So the past week and half hasn’t had any major movement aside from estimates for insulation and now electric and plumbing. But next week the ride should pick up- we’re scheduled to have our basement poured, the house stucco’ed, and hopefully we’ll be getting back on track with electricity and plumbing. 

OH yeah, and the house we’re renting (which has been for sale) is under agreement so we’ve got a real live deadline now! Eek. I don’t mind so much, (goodbye daily showings!) but Drew can’t help feeling the pressure. But as some of you know, there’s not much that can put him down so we’re just keeping on..

Funny how you think you know something, and then you realize you don’t know squat about it, ya know?

So we did buy this house with intentions, like, it wasn’t a complete eyes-closed-and-point or the equivalent to a drunk dial (however frightful it may have been).. and one of the things we counted as a bonus was the old radiators. 

We wanted this type of heating, as its preferable for dorky allergy sufferers like me.  Drew had already envisioned them all shiny and candy-coated in a cool 50’s car color.

Then we debated AC. The 1875 house did not, unsurprisingly, have central air. Adding it in now would be a lot cheaper than down the line (since the walls are all open (note: non-existent), but either way, it wasn’t a cheap option. We weren’t pumped to put $$ out for this when we have so many other projects going on. But then we went all oh to hell with it because hot summers equal bad news for Drew. So we sucked it up and brought on the HVAC guy-

And he basically killed it. In two days he had ductwork thrown up all ova

How does this tie in with radiators? Welp, the ductwork run for AC is the same that’d be used for forced hot air heating. We have no ideas when the radiators were last working, or what kind of condition/restoration they might need (or how expen$ive that might be). So, we opted to forgo the glorious, clean heat of radiators for this new system. We’re hoping to just stay mindful of it and have the system cleaned regularly (however often that is..) to avoid dirt/dust/allergen build-up.

Now we just have to figure out how to get rid of six 600 lb radiators without breaking our backs/car/etc. Fun fact, you get .07 CENTS per lb to scrap these, thats  42 whoopin’ big ones for a single radiator, that you gotta lug and unload. Needless to say, we’re trying to find other alternatives. Any takers?

After we cleaned/demo’d every bloody hell inch of the house, we threw out all the windows. They were cracked up from, um, I don’t really know, crackheads maybe? None of them locked, and some were missing half the glass, replaced with thin plastic. It was open access, kinda like a cheap hooker. A squatters dream.

Looking at this picture, I actually feel slight fear. I have no idea what we were thinking, (seriously). This place was so far beyond hot messness when we stumbled upon it on a weening Friday eve. I’m tempted, for politeness, to say something optimistic, like, how we’ve just dug our heels in and gone at it all hardy-like, WHICH we (again, generous ‘we’ [note: Drew]) have, but it’s been hard and almost character testing. I say that mostly lightly, but yeah, there’s this little part of me ready to march up to every neighbor’s door to finally figure out who keeps calling L & I on us, and whyyyyyyyyyy (and then the more sane part realizes it doesn’t matter). 

But right, we’re talking windows here. So we boarded them up all tight-

..which actually caused a slight insurance nightmare (who’da thought). Staying on track..

New windows came. It was glorious.

There’s 8 windows along the side of the house (which I haven’t got a good pic of outside thanks to ‘Beware of Dog’ door), and when they were all in, it was crazy how much light came streaming into the house. It’s been dark in there for so long, and we constantly keep the door closed (hey, nosey L&I lovin’ neighbors!), so having light suddenly flood in was kinda like coming up from a cave all pale-faced & thirsty.

AND getting to look outside while standing inside was refreshing (not so much for Drew who was busy applying “Great Stuff” (it’s really called that).

The windows are energy efficient, and I don’t understand how or why, but the stickers on them said so. We opted for this, which although upfront cost more, should be made up for in heating/cooling costs down the proverbial road. 

So now we’re framed up & windowed out (nearly framed I mean).

We got the new windows in, then boarded then right back up. D’oh. We got a new front door though.

Tryna keep this place as sealed up as a good nun.

Remember how scary the upstairs was? A quick trip down memory lane…

We bought it like this:

One of the bedrooms was so full of crap that we couldn’t even walk in it, and there was mouse poo, all over, and just layers and layers of horrible, awful, soggy stuff (thanks squatters!)

Then we did this:

And voila, all said crap found its way to a local dump, which felt like a huge feat. Until all the old framing came down and made new piles of unwalkable stuff.

Then we (and I say “we” generously because you may have seen my floral toolbelt) ripped out ALL the 2nd story floors and half the joists:

All that wood ended up on the front lawn-

thanks to these buff dudes-

Some wood had to be burned/trashed BUT we saved a ton for future projects (recycling-dreams…). So up to this point, the 2nd floor was basically off limits to me. I wasn’t into hopping joists, especially because I feared a drop would send me straight into the netherworld of the  bony basement. So yeah, I stayed away from that potential disaster.

Then Christmas morning Tuesday after work came, and I crept up the steps 

AND THERE WERE FLOORS!

Like, real, live, walkable ones. I wanted to run, jump, danceeee all over that beautiful (ok, I know that’s a stretch) sub flooring. I settled for walking all over it real slow like and smiling like a toothy fool.

In order to make the flooring flat and level, we had to ‘true up’ all the existing joists (which means they had to be adjusted underneath so they would all be level, and then this could lay level over them). Not only did we have to attend to every single joist (completely replacing 7 of them), but nearly every single roof rafter had to be sistered & leveled out, too. 

The new joists look like this-

They’re so clean and neat and new looking, sigh.

But more stuff happened. Like, serious stuff. I crept upstairs yesterday after work and feasted my eyes on this-

Yep, the whole upstairs is framed out (er, as much as can be done before the HVAC ductwork is put in). It was bliss walking through the ‘doors’ to each bedroom, seeing the closets mapped out, exactly where the shower will go, etc.

This wood pile is the nicest cleanest one I’ve seen yet. I kind of love it.

We choose to go with metal framing (against the brick) because it’s more rigid than wood and doesn’t bow/shift with the weather, it’s pre-drilled for electric to run through it, and its more durable (rot/mold resistant). It’s more expensive than wood (I totally just found this out!), but it goes up a lot faster, so you (hopefully) save money in labor.

We had originally hoped to keep a few walls exposed brick, but our energy-efficiency dreams killed that dead quick, oh, and finding out our neighbor’s drywall was directly over our brick didn’t help either.  They (thankfully) mentioned they could hear talking easily through the walls once our plaster was taken down. I’m sure this means by this point (2 months later) they’re walking around with ear plugs and/or wanting to kill us- not only from chatter, drills, banging, metal cutting, but who knows what tunes are being pumped through this gem all day long-

OK one last thing::::

WINDOWS COME TOMORROW. Goodbye homeless looking house!

I love this view. Our house looks like a little baby next to the towering neighbors. But doesn’t it, albeit boarded up & sorta wimpy, look kind of cute & lovable, a la Fivel?

Yerp, lots of good, dirty stuff going on at the house. One thing that’s made it way easier to tackle this beast of a home is the early spring we’re getting- 

These daffodils popped up (nearly) overnight. It was a pretty cool surprise because since we’re only renting, we didn’t plant them, hence, weren’t expecting them. But they sure are purty. 

But what I’m really lurving is the cherry blossom. It’s covered the entire backyard in it’s tiny pink flowers like a delicate strung rug.

We’re trying to soak up as much Vitamin D au naturale as possible. Drew did that by bricklaying on the roof for ten hours today..

And for a close-up..

He was also busy adding a side “door” to try and stop would-be thieves from coming back (again)-

I think the barbed wire is a nice touch, no? Do you think the “Beware of Dog” sign is believable? Me neither, but here’s hoping it’ll be convincing enough to a scurrying crackhead (our likely thief).

He’s also devised a new way to unload some of this unusable old wood-

Thanks to the drum kings of Camden (seriously, thanks guys!) Drew’s been able to slowly finish off this (HOPEFULLY) last pile of wood by way of fire & steel drum:

As for the rest of the yard, someone went hack crazy with a sledgehammer, AND THE CONCRETE IS ALL GONE, or nearly anyway, in lots of places. Like the entire backyard/future verandah..

And it’s patchy gone in the front too-

It’s admittedly pretty disjointed/ugly, and I don’t know when new concrete will be laid (I’m thinking it’ll be awhile), but, uh, it’s a step, right? I suppose when you compare it to these, then, yeah:

So that’s where we’re standing outside-wise. There’s SO MUCH stuff going on inside (!), too, its gaspable (literally, I’ve gasped the past few days in a row when I make my rounds after work like a little kid on Christmas morning first sighting the presents). But I’ll get to that next time.

Hope you’re getting your own bit of sun!

WELP, the lil’ thief had at it again. Except this time he came through the back “door”. 

We haven’t been keeping anything valuable in the house..

except this one day, when Drew had (another) rant about work ethics and decided he would do some leftover masonry himself-

By day’s end, he was pretty tired and decided to leave the brand-new-in-box shop vac tucked in a corner. He’s previously been dragging it back and forth everyday.

So, of course, that’s the night someone broke in. Lucky rat.

It’s a bummer, but we got over it pretty quickly. There’s nothing that can really be done otherwise, oh, except super-duper bolt the boards up..

I’m (VERY) happy to report windows are on order though, so we’ll be able to actually lock the house up and hopefully be done with these lil’ incidents. 

This makes everyone happy (except said thief)-

ps. HAPPY BIRTHDAY POP!

Our house (admittance: it still feels weird to say that) has been full of surprises, like finding the 2nd bedroom had rotted floors so we had to do this:

and let’s not forget the kitchen ordeal:

and lots of other things I won’t keep saying bye to (like the roof overhang, ship-window, complete bathroom, stone veneer, etc, etc). But really, a lot of these things were more like good riddance. And we’ve pretty much been cool with it all…

But then there was the basement upheaval and there was one lil’ surprise I was really-super hoping against, and hence, 

A-hem, 

PAGING DR. G-

kindly lend your renowned medical expertise to tell us that this-

isn’t human (!).

This was found after the basement concrete was taken up, under another 6+ inches of dirt. Our house is originally from 1875, and I’m not really sure when they started cementing basements, but our guess is that this bone has been under there a looong time. Drew found another ‘connector’ piece, but it got lost amongst debris and we don’t know what happened to it. The good news, (so I’m told…) is that that bone appeared to be a clean slice, which reaffirmed our thought that this was a pig leg or some other meaty treat for a dog, who then buried the remains in his dirt basement afterward for safe keeping. Is that too much of a stretch?

It looks an awful lot like what we’d imagine an elbow bone looks like but from my supreme google skills (har har) I kinda think (read: tearfully hope) that other animals have similar knuckle-ish bones, like horses and pigs, or dogs, or a host of other 4-legged friends?

Dear Dr. G (Ira, I think this really suits you), since you’re the most anatomically-learned man we know, we’ve decided to give you the final say. So, what is it Doc?

A “fun” little fact- a casino was built somewhat nearby (ok, it’s prob within a mile or two of our house!) and there was a hush-hush news leak that an Indian burial ground was discovered on the plot during construction. The casino, not one to be faint of heart, promptly plowed over it and continued to build (does this seem like bad karma to anyone else?). 

This, coupled with my admittedly vivid imagination, gave me super willies. But again, I’m sure Dr. G’s going to agree with sculptor/hunter/woodsman Justin, that this is a leftover animal piece, right,..right?

And even still, what the heck do you do with a bone? Even if it was just a dog’s treat, I feel kinda bad just throwing it away. I mean, it’s lasted all this time…that’s probably silly though.

Oh botherne.