This will look MUCH better!

Painting Progress in the Kitchen Downstairs

Hopefully this won't make the color mismatch between the counter and floor look horrible.  

I think the white looks WAY better than the wood.

See December 22 for a look at the glory of the full on Rose coloured kitchen

I threw some paint on the beautiful rose colored "backsplash" area just to see 

how it would look.   Right now it is plastic that we have to take 

down, but it will look much better in the antique white 

or the beigey/tan that we're going to put on the walls.

Ugly wood paneling? No Problem, just paint over it!

Perhaps the most retarded idea so far in this house is the second floor walls. See, this house has rock-solid plaster- and-lathing for most of it's walls.



















It's very durable, and there are houses that are over 200 years old where the original walls are still there. Now when this type of wall gets holes or scratches, all you need to do is take a $1 drywall spatula, and a $5 bucket of mud, and smear it over the affected area, then smooth it with the spatula. Usually, you don't even need to sand, but you can if you want it to be perfect. Then you can paint over it, or wallpaper.

Well, in this house, they apparently must have felt that having walls that were hard as rock reminded them of living in a cave or something, so they covered the plaster up with El Cheapo wood paneling (remember back in the 1960's when people thought that wood paneling was classy?). Who knows how long it was just the brown wood paneling with it's artificial veneer finish, covering all the walls of the hallway.
Hallway? Usually, you would put that kind of paneling in a study or den. They paneled the whole hallway, but none of the rooms. Then someone, probably a later owner, decided to paint the paneled walls, rather than remove them and have nice smooth plaster walls to paint on. They must have wanted just that little extra touch of class, so they used high-gloss paint. They didn't use just any high-gloss paint, either. They used high-gloss pale ORANGE paint.

It is much orangey-er than the photos depict.

The results were a super fantastic classy hallway -- if "classy", to you, means a woman with a visible tatoo of a flower right above her butt-crack.

As I say, "classy" is a relative term.

Weekly Recap

If nothing else I will hopefully do a weekly recap

Here's where we're at on 12/29/08

• I think about 1/3 of Dave's apartment has come over, about 1/10th of mine. Lots of books, knickknacks and cooking stuff.
  
• Yesterday we put the bedframe together, but had to return the mattress pad since it was a full. It said queen. That's Marshall's for ya! They had no queen size mattress pads so we got a bazillion thread count - egyptian cotton - super lofty one at Kohl's instead. But we haven't stayed over yet. Maybe Thursday. We don't really have furniture over yet. A dresser, nightstand and bed is about it.
  
• I have almost completed the downstairs kitchen cabinets. Should be putting the doors back on tonight.
• We have investigated, and found hardwood under the laminate floor in the front room second floor. Yay!
  
• I have removed fixture covers and patched almost every hole on the first floor walls.
• About 1/4 of the first floor is primed, too. Front room could be ready to paint after tonight. Have to bring over a drop cloth.
  
• We will sadly have to tear down some mighty real old plaster walls to open up the second floor and that is going to be a pain.
• Birds live in the bathroom exhaust fan on the first floor.
  
• There is less than 2 feet of counter workspace in MY kitchen(!) right now.
  

Going UP!

Lovely Third floor stairs

the room on the left (music room)

One Day, One Mouse

How many must die in this endeavor?
(I mean mice here)

Tuesday night we went and picked up a Craigslist furniture item then went to do a little work in the house.

We took the doors and hardware off the cabinets in the kitchen downstairs and sanded them down for painting. In the picture I haven't done the lower cabinets and drawer fronts yet. With white cabinets and a beigey wall color this kitchen should look much better. We're debating about new counter top. Might not need it after the paint, not sure if we can upgrade the whole place to the point where a really nice counter will get us any more $$

READ COMMENTS FOR DAVE's follow up!

Whoo Hoo!

Signed and Sealed!

We finally signed everything and this is officially Our House!

I have to work, Dave is changing the locks (hopefully right now!)

Then finding the home in here begins.

This picture is from Sunday, December 21, 

when we did our walkthrough.

It was snowing all day, when we got there Ken, 

our realtor was shoveling the driveway!

The heat was on and the electric was on, 

nothing was frozen AND all of the appliances 

that had been an issue were there! So after 

all that hassle they didn't take any of the appliances!

The works begins today!

here's a taste of some of the beautiful stuff inside

First Floor Kitchen - 

The first floor will be the rental unit, we'll live on 2 and 3

who wouldn't JUMP to have this lovely kitchen?

Rosey red counters and peachy red tile!

Yes, these are BEFORE pics.

We won't be doing an overhaul here for a while, 

we need a tenant asap

but this kitchen will get a neutral beige-y paint job, 

white cabinets (stove is bone/black, fridge is white)

and possibly a faux concrete countertop for now.

It should be really cute when it's done.

Ignore the last few optimistic entries

Because we are NOT closing tomorrow!

I am flippin' livid here!

Pretty sure the seller is stalling because they haven't moved out. 

Meanwhile their short sale approvals expire Tuesday, 

so we have to close Monday, or not at all.  

Or start all over from the send P & S to the seller's bank.

And, of course, I have a really rough Holiday deadline Monday, 

(as in it is one of my busiest days of the year)

Our current goal is to get all paperwork emailed to 

us over the weekend so we can read it, 

Walk through the house 8AM Monday, 

get check 9AM Monday on the dot, 

run over to lawyer's by 9:15AM and get everything signed by 10AM.

I just wanna puke.

24

With less than 24 to go, my day really does seem to be moving in odd one hour episodes. Returning calls and chasing down Christmas ads is the "action".  

When I am using the computer is commercials.

There's no blood or explosions yet, we'll save those for tomorrow I guess.

photo snagged from someone else's blog

Obstacles

Obstacles we may face this week before we actually have a house

1)Weather - Old Man winter promised a storm on Friday ...yay.

2)Illness - I now have the head cold that's going around.  

Dave was totally down for 3 days.  

I have to work Wednesday and Thursday to get Christmas ads done.

I will probably be dead sick on Friday.

One week from NOW

I truly believe that one week from this moment

I will be cleaning up someone else's mess and LOVING IT!!!



'Nuff said.

Yeah, I was pretty darned wrong on this call!

AND ON THE EIGHTH DAY

We'll have a house!

ICE, ICE BABY

Because frigde, fridge, baby just wasn't doing it.
As late as yesterday we were still clarifying the fridge situation.
Now it's done. Whew.
How can no fridge = move in condition?
Right, it can't.
We're getting the fridges as initially promised, then sneakily written out.


back to the Woot off, 3rd day in a row and I still have nothing.

Wallpaper musings

Wallpaper inspirations from Flavor Paper
They have a lot of groovy graphics.


Above: I just think this one is hilarious. It is called moustachio!
It could work in a different color. It is highly appropriate as well.

Also for dining room stylings...

Above: I think more a bathroom kinda thing. If you saw the toilet seat we have - you'd understand. I'll find that and post it later. I love this paper although it has no real place in this house.


Above: More dining room type. Ten speed...

Above: More potential for the dining room. Sassy.

I Love this one--Chinatown

This is the one that started it all. City Park.
I saw this on (probably) NotCot and it really started me thinking about wallpaper.

11 day countdown

While we're counting the days to closing...
[that's 11, or 8 work days(!)]

I figure I'll fill space with some randomy goodness.

So what's going on around here?

Not that you knew they were missing but...I still haven't found the Camera Cable, or it's friends the Other Camera Cable and Camera Cable III.
Yes, photos previously promised are still conspicuously absent.
The cables in question apparently left together sometime after I attended an awesome cookout/band gig.
I have pictures from that event downloaded, so I know I had the cables then.
But now? Who knows.
With the flurry of packing and moving stuff to parent's house for storage they have gone.
Since they have been away for a few weeks I thought I'd bite the bullet (or whatever) and buy a new one. Sadly, it is a special teeny plug from the camera out and no one seems to have them.
The Geek from Best Buy claimed it was old and they don't make them anymore and it is a propreitary Panasonic only cable. If any of that baloney was true I'd have had only one cable this size. But I had 3-one from that camera, one from another camera of mine (Canon) and not sure where #3 came from.
Also, this is my new camera that we're talking about here. I got it in the summer. Not an old model either. So I figure I have to go direct to panasonic online.
Grr--Trying to navigate the panasonic website is _______?
Right, akin to nothing else, so fill in the blank with your choice of foul situations. Hopefully I will get a human on the phone when I have 3 hours to spare and end this.

other stuff

Old Crumply...since we slid into that car a few weeks back, I have personally been thinking of Dave's car as Old Crumply. One thing I did notice about Old Crumply's look is that a wrecked up front end makes any driver who can see you just a smidge more careful and courteous.
When people ask what happened to the car and we've taken to playing it up as intentional.
This car is PIMPed out!
No one messes with a car that looks like this, (yo)!
This is the look that makes other driver's get outta da way! (really)

Old Crumply's bad weekend

Saturday morning Old Crumply was actin' strange. Very sluggish, no git up 'n' go. On the way from band practice to "The Secret Gig" the check engine light went on. I hypothesized tranny fluid was low and the car just wasn't shiftin' right. We couldn't open the hood cuz it had been smashed in and was way stuck and it was freezin' and dark by the time we left South Boston. Sunday Dave got the hood open, added trans fluid and windshield washer. This mornin' she was like a new girl. Dave's guess was that the gas cap was loose and the fuel mix was bad because the check engine light was off, without a mechanic turning it off. In the owner's manual for his car it says check your gas cap when the check engine light goes on because this might be why.
So things were looking good for Old Crumply.
Dave gave me a ride home this morning and on his way home...disaster.
Old Crumply lost her grip...hood flew open and cracked the windshield in the meantime.
So now Old Crumply must go into the shop before we close on this house for sure.
AND it's gonna cost one windshield more than before.

AND

Today I found the paper signed by the seller that said All Appliances included!
It was not on a listing sheet, it was on our first offer. I just sent copies out to realtors and lawyer to see what they say.

While I still have a tooth left to grind

I think I have one tooth left to grind!

I just got a call from the #$@^%$! seller's realtor.

This woman has repeatedly been reminded that the house has to be delivered vacant, empty, con zero personas...since August, even.

So why did she call?
She just got a call from the lawyer for the short sale. The second lender finally approved.
He told her we are closing the 19th - she should know this it is on the P&S.
He asked her if the house was empty - it should be, it is a requirement on the P&S
She called me because the house isn't empty and "these people have no place to go".
She also acted like she had no idea at all hat we were going to close so soon.
I mean, heck, we made the first offer on August 21st, what's the rush?

I wish I could make $16,000 doing nothing.
She barely walked us through half of the house the first time we saw it.
I truly believe that since we aren't Hispanic/Latino/Central American(what term do I go to here?) she really wasn't going to put any effort into getting us to buy it.

I really believe that most of the holdups are related to her questionable decision making "skills".

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