The thing is, it's just boring.

I've gotten a couple comments from friends lately asking what exactly I've been doing, since I keep saying that I'm working on the house, but I'm not updating the blog. I have been working. Thing is...it's boring work.

I'm really trying to get the hallway walls done soon, which involves patching the walls (there were some good sized holes caused by loose plaster, as well as cracks), chipping all the loose paint off the ceiling and then spackling the edges of the remaining paint so you can't see where it came off, removing the paint from the medallion before repainting it (so you can see the detail), and then finally painting the damn thing. And that doesn't even include the work on the stairs, and painting the molding. I've spent the past couple weekends, with some help from friends, thank you!, just getting the walls ready. Another day, and I think the hallway walls themselves will be ready to prime and paint. The ceiling will need more time though. Lots of loose paint there!

I did have to buy one of those 22-in-1 ladders to get at the walls and ceiling over the stairs. That sucker is heavy!!! And just barely fits on the stairs.

In other news, the house is really complaining about the work. In the space of two weeks, the boiler refused to turn on one morning (apparently it just needed to be cleaned and greased), the washer has gone on the fritz (new control board coming up), and the deadbolt actually broke (fixed). Quit it with the little stuff house, I have a hallway to finish!

Pretty pretty floors!

Finally! The living and dining room floors are refinished, and the patch in the living room redone! I went with floor guy C from my flooring post, and he really did a great job. There's still dust everywhere, and I haven't entirely put the living room back together (and the whole house still smells like poly), but they look really great!

So we've gone from this:

From Dining Room

Please note the ugly floors in the above...

To this!


Hooray floor guys!

Why is my paint peeling?

A marvelous question. Why, oh why, IS my paint peeling? At least - some of it. Mostly in the hallway.

On Sun I spent three hours scraping off loose paint, creating an extremely ugly patchwork effect on the upper part of the wall. I was a little unsure what the next step should be - do I have to patch all the spots I scraped, as that would almost be skim coating? Can I just feather the edges? How come it's peeling????

So I applied Google. And discovered that in the absence of a leak, the problem sometimes occurs when the house has several old layers of oil paint and is then covered with a latex paint. Sometimes it's because there was originally calcimine paint used ("Since calcimine is essentially a water-based mixture of chalk and glue binder, in time any modern paint applied over a calcimine base will fail." courtesy of http://www.oldhousejournal.com/cures_for_calcimine_ceilings/magazine/1015).

The question now is - what do I do with the areas where the paint is still firmly adhered? I'm thinking I'll just clean what came down, seal it with a nasty sealer, and then maybe just feather the edges. But that might make a really wavy wall... Anyone dealt with this one?

The tale of three floor men

Last week, in a fit of pique at my hideous floors, I actually did the research, found three floor guys that were well recommended, and called them. Surprisingly (based on my past floor guy experience), all three were responsive and all three came to see the floors and gave me estimates.

Now - which to pick?

Floor guy A - $950. Hard to understand (not so much on the English), and the only guy who didn't point out the difficulty of the repair I was asking for. But cheapest.

Floor guy B - $1300. But dustless. The most professional of the three, judging only by his printed estimate form, and fancy laser measuring tool.

Floor guy C - $650 for the refinishing, then either $200 or $400 depending on the level of repair I ask for. The only guy to give me options. Also the only guy I had to chase to get the estimate. Pretty sure he's dustless as well, but not positive.

Leaning toward C...

New kitchen ideas?

I..am...going...to...get...this...house...under...control.

I am. Going to. Enough already.

On that note, I spent some time with the ideas floated out by all you lovely people about my original kitchen layout, a tape measure, and a mapping program. And I'm a little stuck.

Here's the new layout. Changes you can see - moved the bathroom wall out, knocked down the funny little closet, built a pantry against the wall that used to have the kitchen, swapped a door and a window.


I can't really figure out where to put the fridge and the sink. If I leave them where they are now, the fridge (square with the x) will block light from the door. Which maybe is ok? I don't think I want to move the door more over to make more room from the wall to the doorframe, as then it would be asymmetrical with the spacing of the other windows.

If I leave the sink there, I'll either have to get an under sink dishwasher, which is possible, or put the dishwasher in the island...

So. Thoughts?

Update:
Casey suggested an under-counter refrigerator and freezer. (Idea nixed. Those things are ridiculously expensive!). And yes definitely a dishwasher! While I don't have to move the door, moving it will allow me to create door that exits at floor level (so no two steps up) without dealing with the nightmare that would be redoing the basement exit. Plus it would create more light in the kitchen part.

There's critters in them thar walls.

I think I'd prefer gold in the hills.

Got home from Mom's to the sound of something wandering around in my kitchen chimney. At least, I thought it was in the chimney - until it wandered over the cabinets. And this morning it wandered over to above the bathroom door frame. I know I run a hostel - but for two legged guests, not uninvited four legged ones! So I called the exterminator, who told me that unless I chopped a hole in the wall or found where it got in, there wasn't much they could do. Not amused. If anyone sees Superman, please ask him if I can borrow his xray vision...

On the plus side, my new dining room table and chairs look great, and the gas guy just replaced the meter with one that can be read from outside, so they'll stop wringing my doorbell on random mornings.

Toilet fixed!

After only an additional 10 min or so, some silicon stuff, and more determination to get the nut threaded on straight, the toilet works, isn't leaking (at least at the moment) and the water is back on! Yay!

And thanks to Casey for reassuring me that the gasket would mold to the bowl and it would stop being all weebly.

Adventures in plumbing

Alternate title: only a little person could fix this toilet, and how come universal doesn't mean universal?

Earlier this week, the upstairs toilet began leaking. From the tank, so it was not the gross disaster it could have been, but no fun nonetheless. Interestingly enough, it turned out that that toilet doesn't have a shut off valve of its own, so I had to turn off the cold water to the entire bathroom (given that it was 11pm and I wasn't attempting toilet repair). So, on Wed, I gathered up my "universal" toilet innard replacement kit, some tools, some patience, and set to work.

I thought it would take me a half hour. 1.5 hours later, the bowl and toilet were reunited. But the water is still off. Why? Well - because it is now leaking from joint between the input tube to the water valve. I will buy the magic plumbers paste stuff and try again. But here's the big question - why on earth would you use a fixed length pipe as the input tube instead of the braided steel one that has give and can adjust height easily? Inquiring minds (and sore fingers) want to know.

Things I learned:
1. The "universal" replacement kit contains pieces that are in fact too big for my toilet. Therefore the tank no longer rests snugly on the bowl. Know what? I don't care. As long as it stops leaking.
2. There's also a lot of grease in the tank. How come? No idea. But there's still grease on my hands.
3. Sometimes it's a good thing I'm small. Because I'm pretty sure the plumber that installed it originally was my size or had eyes in his fingers. 'Cause there's not much room for maneuvering to the bolts!

Now, it never actually occurred to me to simply call the plumber to fix the leak. No, I have to try to fix it first (thanks for that, Dad, Mom and Bumpa). But, um, is the time it's taking me to fix it worth the money I saved on the plumber? I dunno. I guess I'll find out if the downstairs toilet starts doing the same thing - hopefully I'll be able to fix it faster next time ;)

Not-so-small small wins

Well, I've owned this house for about a year and 8 months, living in it almost that whole time. And guess what - I finally hung some shelves and the mirror in my bedroom! It's starting to actually look like a room, not just the place where I sleep and change clothes... If nothing else, it's nice to actually have the shelves off the floor.

I also spent several hours on Sat hooking up the actual outlets in the dining room and replacing the light switch. Now, that sounds like (and actually is) a small win in my trend lately of small project completions to make small wins. However, consider the history of that project -
--We created the space for the new outlets and ran the wire in Feb 2008 when we replaced the plaster in that room with drywall.
--R2's electrician dad very kindly hooked up the new wire to the circuit box a couple weeks ago.
--On Sat (with phone assistance from both dads ;) ) I hooked up the new outlets. And replaced the old light switch/outlet with just a switch (the outlet had blown).

So after almost a year and 8 months - no more looking at wires sticking out of my dining room walls! This small win feels pretty big.

Ok, so I failed at the goals.

Oops. I forgot to ban myself from regular hanging out with my friends. And know what? I'm not gonna. Take that, house.

I did rearrange the goals a bit due to a swap in roommates. Wish Erin luck as she tests out life in artist-heavy Bushwick - and welcome R2! Moving Erin's stuff out and keeping some time to repaint her pink room to a normal color also gave a little window of time to finish up some nagging projects in her room. So after working really hard last weekend, I have finished the cabinet Dad started a zillion years ago (until R2 decides she wants shelves), finished the floor where the sink cabinet was, and almost finished the door between our rooms.

In typical Sarah-style, many things were learned. Like - I really shouldn't have worked so hard on patching the nail holes, b/c the wood fill took the stain completely differently from the rest of the wood and now instead of hiding the holes it shouts, "look! There was some patching done here!". So someday I sense that cabinet will be painted...

And I continue the trend of purchasing the wrong things at Lowe's, and Lowe's not having everything I need. Oh well. At least it's right by a nice restaurant.

I also found time to finally spray foam around the basement windows, which will hopefully reduce the number of waterbugs. As of this morning - not much of a reduction. But still I hope. Dad, no comments on my terrible foam job. Apparently I'm not so good at foam aesthetics. Interestingly enough the obnoxious feral cats outside decided to investigate while I was spraying and scared the daylights out of me - why can they not head the bugs off before they come in instead?

Stained cabinet:

From 2009_09_23

Poly'd floor:

From 2009_09_23

Less bugged windows:

From 2009_09_23