Week 3 - Wasted Week due to Illness

I am the type of person who never goes to the doctor, not because I don't like them but because I never get sick enough to warrant an office visit. Last week, I definately needed to make an office visit!!! Not sure if my body wanted me to slow down or if all this work has taken a toll on me, but I came down with a respiratory infection which shut me down all last week. It wasn't until this past weekend that I could even muster up the energy to do any work and that was only working at about 50%. Despite all that, the seeds have been layed to get that bathroom going. Hopefully within the next ten days I will have a complete funtioning bathroom.

Work to be done on bathroom
1) Build a new header to open up a new doorway from the kitchen into the bathroom and the bedroom.
2) Frame in old doorway into the bedroom.
3) Update electrical in the bathroom
4) Make any necessary plumbing updates
5) Purchase Shower and Vanity unit(s)
6) Drywall/Finish Bathroom walls
7) Fix and Install flooring (linoleum)
8) Install Shower/Toilet/Vanity
9) Finishing Touches

I have kitchen appliance, now I need a kitchen

I went out last weekend and got my major kitchen appliances. I was going to buy everything from Sears since last weekend they were having a 15% off all Kenmore products and my father gets an additional 10% discount. I had looked at all the major retail stores and was set on Sears due to the price break. Before I was going to buy everything, I decide to check out H.H. Gregg and see if they could beat the price of what I had picked out. Well they were able to easily beat out Sears for my business. I was able to get the Frigidaire products shown below. The refrigerator was the big seller since I was able to get it at half the price due to it having a slight ding on the bottom of the door. Now that I have all the appliances, I need to get that kitchen going so I can start using them.

So in recap, so far I have purchased:
Frigidaire Refrigerator, Stove, Microwave, Dishwasher
American Standard Heat Pump and Furnace
Hot Water Heater and new copper piping for the downstairs
New Alarm System monitored by Monitronics

Two Weeks In

I have only had possesion of the house for two weeks now, but my body feels like it has been a month! I'm looking at my hands and it looks like I have fought my way through a thorn bush, not to mention my newly aquired blisters. It sounds like my daily desk job has made me soft.

The house is starting to make some progress, as you can see from the pictures I am posting, the plaster is off the kitchen walls and ceiling. When we took the plaster down we discovered that at one time there was a door from the kitchen area to the bathroom. Additionally, there used to be transom windows above the doors. It can be interesting what lies behind old walls, unfortunately I also discovered that some of the wiring was done very poorly. There are splices not enclosed in a box as well as the newer wiring tied into the old wires. These are all issues that I need to address before I can start putting up drywall and getting real progress. I am still in the process of getting a solid design for the kitchen, but am pretty sure that the kitchen windows will be replace with shorter windows, allowing room for a countertop along that wall. Will I replace the kitchen windows, I will also replace 5 other windows downstairs, only leaving the front windows as originals.


I have also began the demolishion of the bathroom since this project is going hand in hand with the kitchen renovation. I have decided on opening up the wall next too the chimney and have two separate entrances to the downstairs bedroom and bath, rather than having to go through the bedroom to get to the bathroom. The old cast iron bathtube was broken up by sledgehammer and taken out to be replace with a standup shower unit. Hopefully here soon, the flooring can be replaced, wiring fixed, drywall hung and all the necessities installed. Not having a functioning bathroom is keeping me from moving in and living here full time. Here we found the old funky walls when we torn down the existing bathroom walls.

Finally, I have had some great help from some of my parents foreign exchange students. In fact, I have let them go to town on the demolishion and they have gutted the front upstairs bedroom. The have also played a big role in getting that bathroom torn out.

Let The Work Begin

Well, I first put and offer down on the house 44 days ago. 23 days ago was the first scheduled closing date. All that aside, as of this past Monday I am finally own the house. Don't be fooled, CHASE (the evil bank devil) still made everyone at the closing wait a full hour and fifteen minutes in order for their incompetence to fax over a signed document. As you can probably tell, I am fed up with CHASE and they will be seeing what little money I have move elsewhere even if it cost me too much to refinance. Just had to vent.

Well, the work has begun. So far the my mom and sister(s) have been wreaking havoc on wall paper and they have alreadytaken down in the front room and the office. All of the cabinets are out of the kitchen and the funky pantry was torn down last night with the help of my brother-in-law. I have taken up some carpet only to find that finished hardwood only remains in the dining room and front room. The office, downstairs bedroom, and kitchen all have larger plank boards under the existing flooring. This is a slight disappointment, as I was hoping the office would at least have that hardwood flooring already but I guess that is how it goes.
Today and tomorrow I am having a new furnace and heat pump installed. The price was about a thousand dollars more than what I wanted to spend but again, that is how it goes. I am planning on having my stuff moved in this weekend so I can start living upstairs. The bathroom must get put into working order for this to happen. Looks like a busy weekend. Well, thats it for now I will have pictures coming shortly. One last shout out to my college buddy Doyle for asking me why I haven't updated recently, at least I know someone is looking at this so I will keep updating frequently.