Moving Day approaches

Oh dear, we've got two more days until the movers come to take us away to the new house. Don't tell Jeff I said this, but we're in OK condition with our packing. That boy would rather do anything else in the world than pack. But thanks to Jenn, we managed to accomplish a lot this week.

Unfortunately, we've had a few setbacks on our renovation projects, so the house won't be completely ready for us on Saturday. I know Tom's got the team working really hard on finishing the bathroom and walls in the bedroom, but it's looking like we won't be able to settle in immediately.

While that kind of bums me out, I really haven't had time to dwell on it too much. Unbelievably, this is midterm week at grad school and I have a crushing amount of work to do for that. I'll be so glad when this year is over it and I'm done my masters. That will probably be the first chance I get to actually unpack some boxes.

More demo and more progress

Grad school and some personal matters kept me away from the house for several days, but I did manage to get out with Jeff to select our remaining bathroom fixtures. We've been trying to incorporate salvage items as we can, both because we like the idea of reusing great, old items and these items work with our budget.

So, we finally resolved the Great Sink Search of '07 and went with the wallmount marble sink from Salvage One. Our friend DJ is a stone restorer, so he's currently cleaning it up for us so hopefully Tom can install it this next weekend. And my friend eBay sold us our new medicine cabinet last night, which will go very nicely with our lovely sconces that are on their way.

I know a lot's going to be happening in the next couple days. Today, the bedroom walls and ceiling are on deck and all the bathroom debris is getting hauled out. Incredibly, we'll be ready for Sam the electrician to position the outlets and switches in the bedroom tomorrow night. And I'm still plugging away at the bloomin' wallpaper. Tom discovered a new crop of the stuff in the kitchen when he took out the old wall oven and microwave. This stuff is actually pretty, in that Dorothy Draper kind of way.

It's rainy again, so the deck will have to wait for weather. It's about half stained now.

Very exciting bathroom choices

While demo and construction is happening in other places in the house, Jeff and I have been trying to finalize our decisions and purchases for the bathroom remodel. I wanted a vintage-style bathroom for this house, complete with beadboard on the walls and a clawfoot tub.

Being the eBay junkie I am, I found a really cool 67" slipper tub and ordered it last Monday. Jeff asked me later in the week what kind of feet I got with the tub and I told him I made casts of his feet when he's let his toenails get really long and gnarly. HA! Wouldn't that be a funny-looking tub?! I'm surprised some post-modern bathroom designer hasn't tried to sell something like that yet.

But seriously, I got chrome feet for the tub. And the tub vendor kitted us out with a complete plumbing and shower enclosure to Jeff's and my very exacting requirements. While I'm super excited about the tub, I'm also way giddy about the 8" rainshower head. Here's a close approximation of what we got, minus the hand-held shower and rainhead.


Our other major purchases came today. After having our first choice tile order get canceled due to the ole' discontinued excuse, Jeff and I found a really nice marble tile at Tile Outlet which is right down the street from our apartment. It's an elegant honed carrara in that classic "log cabin" design. I really don't know if that's the name of the pattern, but it reminds me of that quilting pattern. The best part of this purchase was being able to "cash and carry" it home immediately. If demo can start on the bathroom this week, we may see the floor done very soon.

In the meantime, we still need to decide if we're sold on a sink I found at Salvage One and what kind of medicine cabinet and wall sconces to get. Hopefully that will get checked off this week.

Reinforcements arrive

My wonderful brother-in-law Tom is up from Florida helping us get the house move-in ready. His experience in demolition, salvage and estimating is more than Jeff and I could have hoped for or done on our own. We are so, so thankful to have someone here who's experienced in all these types of projects and working with contractors.

Besides helping us find good, qualified people for us to hire, Tom's really helped Jeff and I figure out how we can make our hopes for the house work. Some of the projects now underway include: enlarging our bedroom, replacing all our horizontal plumbing, building a security wall and door in the basement to restrict tenant access to the laundry room, and giving the deck a much-needed makeover.

The difference in this deck is night and day. For being about 10 years old, this deck was covered in mold and mildew from neglect. As you can see from the "before" pictures, it was practically black in spots. Our local paint store, Paulson's Paints, recommended this remarkable deck cleaner from Pittsburgh Paints that starts to work on contact. Ah, the power of chemicals at work! After borrowing a power washer from my other brother-in-law, Tom made this deck look so good even the neighbors noticed.

We've picked out a honey-colored stain and sealant, which looks great on our test patch. With workmen going in and out through the back door, it may be a little bit before the deck is fully stained. Patience, dear readers, for these "after" photos may take a while.

"Labor" Day

After a whirlwind of parties over the weekend that took us to Indianapolis and back, I woke up early on Labor Day itching to start working on the house. Jeff had some office work to do, so I went to Lowe's, got me the new Wagner Power Steam 905 and started stripping wallpaper.

Then, one thing led to another, and I started demo'ing the bathroom. Really it had to happen since we're going to gut and remodel it, and I just couldn't let the things I didn't like about the bathroom — the nasty plastic tub surround, the cheap wood trim — continue to offend my eyes. When I got the point where I really couldn't do anymore until Jeff arrived with proper tools, I moved onto stripping the breakfast room wallpaper.

This room is really where the Wagner Power Steamer proved its worth. I'm pretty sure I've only stripped wallpaper off two, maybe three rooms in my life, but the memory of that chore left an indelible impression. This steamer ate through three layers of wallpaper easily. I still needed to scrap off the paper, but this task really seems to be going about as fast as you could expect manual work to go.

Later that evening, Jeff arrived and we finished taking apart the bathroom. Apparently our house used to be inhabited by giants, because the bathroom had storage over the bathtub that started at about 7 feet hight and went up to our 10-foot ceiling. I really hope we can figure out how to get more storage down in a more usable place.

The cold reality sets in

8:08am. My cell phone rings. "Hello?" "Hello, Amanda. This is your tenant." He'd received our packet we dropped off the night before and was calling to tell me three things -- 1) he wasn't going to sign our lease, 2) he'd be moved out by October 1, and 3) there's no hot water.

How's that for a wake-up call?! It's not terrible that we have to go find new renters, but we were hoping not to need to do that until after we were moved in ourselves. And I wasn't surprised to hear about the hot water, because all the plumbing is suspect and we'd planned to replace a lot of it before we moved in. But I worried that this new developments might throw our plans off course.

After some heavy prodding, Jeff eventually got up and we drove to the new house to meet my parents and deal with the hot water. My dad had been dying to see the place and I figured this was a good way to show them the house and get my Dad's help with the hot water issue. It was nice to finally show them the property, after talking about it so much for the past two months. But I'm very conscious that the place is really not move-in ready and we've got a lot of work facing us over the next five weeks.

And luckily, the hot water heater simply needed to be relit. That's one down.

We bought it!

Our closing was a breeze. We had heard such horror stories about spending hours at the closing table, and that closing on a Friday, especially on the last day of the month before Labor Day, was just a triple whammy. But Jeff and I were out of there in 90 minutes, and celebrating over IHOP soon after.

Now we are the proud owners of an 1891 Victorian two-flat. We've got grand plans for fixing it up and perhaps eventually occupying the whole house. But until then, we'll be landlords. With that in mind, Jeff and I spent the rest of the day writing up a new tenant packet and lease agreement for the existing renter. It was important to me that we figure out the current renter's situation as quickly as possible, so both of us could have peace of mind about what the other expected. It was late by the time we finished everything and drove over to the new house to drop it off.

Afterwards, we popped open a bottle of champagne saved from our wedding and toasted this new chapter of our life.