A Bedroom With a Toilet But No Window

Good gravy, I'm behind already and it's only the 4th. My mom and grandma have been here for the last couple of days for our belated Christmas celebration, so I've had my hands full with last-minute present-buying, taking mom's car to the shop, wrapping presents, cooking, opening presents, and falling asleep on the couch.

Puck wanted to help wrap presents.

Slippers for everyone!

This is one of the windows in my master bedroom. It was boarded up when I bought the house in April, and the contractor I hired for my bathrooms assured me that he'd order a window for me and install it. I emphasized that I wanted to have a new window in before cold weather hit, because there was an inch of daylight all around the window, and I didn't want to lose all of that heat. My contractor told me he had ordered the window and that it would be in in a couple weeks. Then, a couple months later, he told me that he was getting some quotes for a window. And that was the last I heard. (Needless to say, I would not hire this contractor again... but that is another story for another post.) Then it got cold. (Which is why there are plastic bags stuffed around the window. Nothing but classy solutions for this girl!)

So in mid-November, my mom ordered a window from Lowe's to replace this one. Of course, it's an odd size, so it was a custom-order window. The sales guy came out to the house, measured the opening, and saw the other bedroom window that should match the new window. Mom paid for the window at that time. At the end of November, the installer came and measured the opening, and then he ordered the window. I spent a week after the window came in in mid-December trying to get ahold of the installer--Mom gave the salesperson her cell phone number, and apparently Lowe's can only enter one phone number into their system, so Lowe's would call her and she would call me and everything was getting messed up and even though four people said they put my number into the system, still no one called me. ANYWAY. Fast-forward to today. The installation was scheduled for yesterday, but one of the installers smashed his thumb yesterday and they got off schedule, so they rescheduled for today. The installer shows up, looks at the bedroom, and... tells me that, even though I ordered a double-hung window, the factory sent a window that slides side to side. Sooooo he'll have to have the correct window re-ordered, and we'll have to schedule another installation. Par for the course with this house, but ok, what can I do except wait another month.

About 10 minutes after the installer left, Lowe's Installation Services calls me. The woman is kinda shitty with me and says that the installer just called and said that I wanted a slider window even though I ordered a double-hung so I'd sent him away. I said, no, I ordered and want a double-hung, but the installer said that the factory sent a slider, so it has to be re-ordered. She argues with me and tells me, no, the installed said I want a slider, but my paperwork says that I ordered a double-hung. I get a little testy and say, LISTEN, I haven't seen the window--all I know is what the installer said, and HE said that the window that arrived is a SLIDER, but I ORDERED and WANT a DOUBLE-HUNG. With an attitude like I am jerking her around, she says, well, I'll just have to send the installer back and we'll see what's going on.

Are you fucking kidding me? You're getting shitty with me? You've had two people out to measure and get this window ordered, and you're getting shitty with ME?

I waited 20 minutes without hearing anything, so I called Installed Sales back and spoke to the woman again. This time she was much nicer. Apparently, the installer flip-flopped the measurements when he ordered the window, so the window IS a double hung window... but it's the wrong size. So it could go into the opening but would then open by sliding. So now I'm waiting to hear back from the Installed Sales manager, who is waiting to hear from the installer, who will be responsible for paying for the window and ordering a new one...

So here it is, early January, and I not only have a toilet sitting in my master bedroom but I still have no window! GRUMBLE.

v2012.365

2011 was an unending shitshow of hassles, disappointments, and minor disasters. I hope that 2012 brings happier days, but either way, I'm going to write about it.

I've realized that I tend to tune out of the details of my life when everything seems fine, until suddenly it's not fine anymore, and I discover that I'm lost and I don't know how I got there. I also know that I find my days more interesting and funny when I'm actually paying attention. Maybe that seems pretty obvious, but it's starting to dawn on me how little attention I think I've been paying, and it's scary.

So today I begin my 365 project. Each day of 2012, I will take at least one photo--which shouldn't be hard, given the 4,024 photos that I've taken in the last 11 months--AND I'll also post the photo and write a blog post. I've been telling myself for years that I need to write more, and somehow I never do. I have some time on my hands since I recently lost my job, and I desperately need to find some shades of me that I lost somewhere along the way, so I hope my project will inspire me to reimagine my present and my future.

I built a fire in my fireplace for the first time tonight. It was beautiful for about 5 minutes, until all of the kindling burned up and the wet firewood I'd just purchased burped out a bunch of smoke and fizzled out. Tomorrow, I will try again.

I blinked!

I went to the house last night to see what progress the guys made on Monday, and....

The tub in the guest bathroom is in! They put up cement board around the tub and green board about halfway up the walls--so there's a little more privacy to use the lonely toilet in the master bath. However, they also turned the water off, so please DON'T use the lonely toilet.

They also did something with the drains... apparently they were all full of junk? I don't know.

Thankfully I'm not living in the house--Joe and his crew started at 6 a.m. today. I guess the plan is to get the bathrooms ready for tile TODAY. Holy smokes! I still need to pick out the tile, and then wait for it to come in if it's not in stock, and then... and then they'll finish up the bathrooms. So fast! I can't WAIT.

Tearing down to build back up...

Oooo-eee I have been naughty and lazy about updating! Long story short: I had many contractors come out and give me quotes. Some of the them didn't actually give me quotes until after I chose someone, but! I chose someone!

I took advantage of Lowe's Memorial Day paint sale to save $140 on painting supplies. I still spent $600... and haven't yet purchased paint for 3 bedrooms, either bathroom, or the laundry room. It's insane how quickly the costs add up.

Here are a few of the color choices I tested:

This is the dining room. The paint was still wet here--when it dried, the left sample is a dustier blue, and the right sample is a really light, bright blue. I chose the dusty blue. I'm removing the paneling--which Grandma thinks is really nice, despite the fact that (a) it's not, and (b) it's buckling out from the wall. I'll probably slap up a chair rail.

And now the kitchen choices! By the way, Grandma haaaaates these. "Dark. Dark! So dark! That's really dark. Ew, so dark." I really wanted a charcoal gray, and I chose the bottom sample. The top one was kinda bleh with the light birch cabinets, but the bottom one had some pizazz.

These are the top two choices of the samples I got for the living room. I was worried the top one would be too mustard-y, but the bottom one was too close to baby poo. The paint is still wet in this picture, too--once it dried, there was more of a contrast, and the yellow is even prettier. (I chose the top sample, obvs.)

All ceilings will be a flat white. They're white now, but the paint has some gloss, and it's awful. The trim, doors, and windows will all be the same clean white.

The "fun room" walls will be a medium mushroom-y gray brown, with one accent wall of blue with a touch of green. The hallways will be one shade lighter on the sample strip. At this point, I'm planning on pulling the naaaaasty carpet in the fun room and painting the concrete, rather than putting down laminate and carpet. I ran out of money! So I'll paint the floors a shade darker than the walls, hopefully with a high-gloss finish. Then I plan to pick out some song lyrics that I love and stencil them on the floor, around the room along the edge of the wall. Add the inexpensive but pretty IKEA rug I recently bought, plus some inexpensive carpet-rugs, and that will have to be good enough for now.

The master bedroom will be a light gray, but more of a light dove gray than a brownish-gray, and one accent wall will be a deep, plummy purple. Grandma picked out a light green for her bedroom. From the smudge on top of the can, it looks a little more pastel than I anticipated... so we'll see. Mom still has to pick out a color for her room, but she wants a buttery yellow with brown, sheer curtains.

I may paint the laundry room the blue I did not choose for the dining room. The room gets lot of light, and I think it'd be pretty. I still have to choose paint for the back two bedrooms, too, but I am pondering some ideas. I'm planning to pull the carpets and paint the floors in there for now, too. It's gonna be chilly in the back of the house!

So my contractor, Joe Emmert with Bathrooms by Design, got most of the tear-out done this weekend. Hurrah! But because the dumpster isn't being delivered until today sometime, he had to pile all of the junk in the fun room. Voila:

I may try to salvage the bathroom vanities for the laundry room. Maybe I can slap an inexpensive countertop on them to make a folding table. Yes? Yes.

Here is the guest bathroom, which was already partially torn out. I took the picture from the door. Notice that you can see into the master bath... Using the toilet will be a little tricky for a little while. Peekaboo!

And the master bath, which looks soooo much bigger with the little half wall removed!

I'm really excited about the master bath. It's getting a tiled shower--which is where I was standing when I took this picture--and a glass pivot door and wall and a pretty long vanity with two sinks....

I'm so excited to see some real movement. We've done a lot of cleaning, but it's hard to really see much progress with that, especially when there is still so much to be done. But the back two bedrooms and hallway are nearly ready for paint--I just need to sand one more spackle spot and wipe everything down with a tack cloth, and then paint can go on! Grandma's room is about read for paint, and Mom's is about 3/4 of the way there. I'm hoping to pull the paneling in the dining room (three half walls) and the master bedroom (one whole wall) this weekend and get the walls sanded down. Then I can clean, spackle, sand, and wipe those two rooms, and they'll be ready for paint, too. Mom and Grandma are planning to come down for some good stretches of time, so hopefully the ball will really get rolling now.

I'm packing in the evenings at my apartment.... and I hate packing so. much. Hate.

Oh! Mom talked to the neighbor this weekend, and he found paint cans for the living room and kitchen, which is awesome--there's enough paint for the touch-ups I'll need in the kitchen, and there's a good start for the living room, where I need to re-paint a chocolate brown accent wall. And obviously now I know the formulas, so I can actually get a match on the paint colors. Maybe I'll get that deposit back after all.

Lessons in home ownership/renovation/common sense

I spent about 12 hours at the house today--well, some of that was at lunch and at Lowe's. Whatever.

I learned a few things:

1. Don't dismount a ladder that is near the corner of a windowsill without paying good attention to your surroundings. Take it from me--or from my butt, which now bears an unsightly, oddly shaped bruise--and spare yourself the painful lesson.

2. If you ever need to scrub blood off your textured ceilings, use a spray bottle to spray the ceiling with a TSP mixture before you scrub. I don't know why it took me so long to realize that, but it's GENIUS. I finished the last of the blood today in about 1/5 the time it took me before. Hurrah! Bloodbegone!

3. Drinking beers while you work all day will make you very, very, very sleepy in the afternoon. You might even fall asleep in a chair.

4. I would rather clean someone's blood off the wall than someone's hair from anywhere. Oh man, hair is disgusting.

5. Louvered doors are a fucking bitch to clean. Seriously. Fuck those doors. They can go straight to hell.

6. 93.9 literally, truly, honestly plays the same five songs over and over and over again.

7. I could do without EVER hearing that commercial for the Speedy Beverage Club again. So. So. Bad.

8. I really need a contractor to start working. Like, now. Yesterday. THREE WEEKS AGO.

I also had a really amazing, touching encounter with a dude from Craigslist. (No not THAT DUDE. Hahaaaahahaha.) I hired this guy to pick up a washer and dryer from a friend and deliver it to my place. He charged me $30 (for the 25ish mile one-way trip), and I was planning to give him $10 extra. Then it turned out that my friend added in a patio table and a couple of chairs, and we didn't have any burly help on either end of the trip, so it was just us girls helping the Craigslist guy load/unload the stuff. So, I figured I'd throw in another $10. But then the bank only gave me twenties, so, meh, ok, I'll give him $60. So the guy showed up and was super nice and friendly and helpful. I handed him the cash and thanked him, and he looked at it, and sorta confused, asked, "Do I owe you some change here?" I told him no and thanked him for being so helpful. And he paused for a minute and then said, in a really sincere, totally not obsequious way, "Well, thank you, very much. That's an answer to a prayer. We weren't sure how we were going to make it this week. Thank you." He left just after that, and I went inside and cried. I can't quite verbalize all the reasons why, but it was just really touching. I really appreciated the opportunity to meet and have that encounter with him.

It was a good day today.

Contractor woes, to-do lists, and small victories

CONTRACTOR WOES
As you may remember, I planned to have General Contractor Greg do the remodeling work on my bathrooms. We talked on the phone a few weeks ago, and he said he was in Florida but would be back in a couple days and would call me then. Well, a couple days passed, and he didn't call. On the day after he said he would call, his wife called and said that he'd been really sick in bed, but he asked her to let me know that he hadn't forgotten me and that he'd call me as soon as he got out of bed.

Two weeks later, I still hadn't heard from him. I wasn't sure whether to be worried about him or pissed that he hadn't called me. Plus, I was two weeks behind schedule--I'd hoped to have the bathrooms nearly done at that point! Anyway, I called and left a voicemail for him after two and a half weeks, and I sent him an email, too, because my realtor told me that he thought GC Greg was pretty good about his email. Three days (from the voicemail) passed and I hadn't heard anything, so I got the name of another guy from a partner at work, and I called him.

He responded right away--yay!--and said that he was definitely interested in talking to me about the project and that it sounded right up his alley. BUT.... he also said that his mom had passed away that weekend, so he would need to touch base with me later in the week. I mean, what can you say to that? So I said ok.

And then the next day, GC Greg finally contacted me. Turns out he'd had some melanoma spots return and had to have them removed. But now he's ready to move forward!

So now I'm in a pickle. I guess I'll just get quotes/bids from both guys and go from there. But in the meantime... I STILL DON'T HAVE A CONTRACTOR.

Sigh.

TO-DO LISTS
Anyone who knows me well knows that I like to plan things and make lists. Listmaking is soothing... usually. I've never really had a situation where making a good, detailed list didn't immediately make me feel better, where committing my little falling-asleep-oh-no-i-must-remember-to-do-XYZs to paper didn't make me feel more in control and able to figure out the details of whatever project I was wrestling. But this house... I... I'm overwhelmed with lists. Or, at least, there are so many things to do that I just can't think about all of them or I will go crazy. I have to rock some good, old-fashioned Scarlett O'Hara denial just so I can get through the day. And although that makes me feel better, I also worry that I will forget something major. WHAT IF I FORGET TO BUY A STOVE?! (Oh actually I do need to go do that.) WHAT IF I FORGET TO PACK MY APARTMENT UP? WHAT IF I FORGET TO... whatever.

But I generally know that the cleaning has to be done before painting, and painting comes before new flooring, and ripping up existing flooring comes before new flooring, and getting the bathrooms done comes before new flooring, and kitchen drywall comes before painting the kitchen, and kitchen drywall comes before the kitchen's new flooring, and new flooring comes before kitchen install, and... oh man I have a lot to do before July 1.

SMALL VICTORIES
I will take them where I can get them! I bought a new remote for my garage door opener, because no remote came with the house, and who knows how many there were and who had them. Given the blood-splashing, I don't want to eff around someone maybe still having a remote to my garage and hidden access to my house. So, a new remote!

I crawled up on a ladder to figure out how to make the remote and the opener "talk", opened the cover, and found....

a remote inside the cover. All righty.

Anyway, I managed to get the remote and the opener to "talk" so now I have a working remote! Holla!

Yeah. Like I said, SMALL victories.

Gas line troubles....

I had an insurance walk-through on Monday, during which I opened the exterior furnace closet and noticed that it smelled gassy. I ended up calling the gas company, which sent out a technician right away. He tested a whole bunch of stuff and determined that I had a gas leak somewhere in my house lines... greaaaat. So he turned off the gas.

I called a place that he mentioned--and that's highly rated on Angie's List--and they came out the next day to assess the situation. When they got up in the attic, they pointed out that the addition to the house was essentially built around the second furnace.... so you can't get to some of the fittings unless you, you know, TEAR DOWN THE CEILING AND WALL. Cool. But luckily, they eventually determined that the pipes and fittings were fine, so we didn't need to do that. They re-piped the exterior closet, wrapped the pipe that enters through the brick wall, stuff like that. I didn't really understand it all, but I understand the $625 that I paid them. YEESH. But it needed to be done, and now it's done.

B is town this weekend to help me scrub and pick out paint and what not... she's so wonderful.

So, I still haven't heard back from General Contractor Greg. Either he's realllly sick or I got punked.