The House Rebels!

It's too bad that I didn't maintain this blog over last summer. My flowers were stunning and the yard was fabulous after the dirt we dealt with during the summer of 2007 while we were under construction. The solution to the water problem we experienced in June was a second sump pump crock in the new part of the basement. Over Christmas we experienced water in the old, finished part of the basement but attributed it to a frozen sump pump. After rerouting the piping outside it seemed our problems were solved. Tuesday night, during the big thaw, we again felt wetness in the finished part of the basement - along the same wall as we did around Christmas. This was just hours after I signed the contract to get a tub surround in the bathroom and rid ourselves of the pink bathtub and get our plumbing updated. Also, in that same afternoon we learned that we really should have another 10 inches of installation put in the attic. All Tuesday evening the wet/dry vac was going and we went to bed hoping that it wouldn't be any worse on Wednesday. Today when we came home from work it was so wet down there that the water was actually dripping into the drain - clear on the other side of the basement.

We have no idea what the problem is but have pulled the carpeting back and are bracing ourselves for the worst possible news. We can't ignore this water/basement problem any longer. There are a few things that we do know:
1. When we finished the basement in 2005 there were no obvious cracks or problems with the walls
2. Our drain tile is half clogged...which is why we had to have part of it replaced during the kitchen addition.
3. There is a corner of the basement that Brian has never liked how the drywall job turned out. I think he secretly is excited/anxious to fix it and prove to himself he has some useful skills. He won't admit to this.
4. Money is going to be flying out of this house at a crazy fast rate!
5. This is why we save money...if you can't afford to have your house rebel against you, maybe you shouldn't own a home.

This project isn't going to be fun. There will be no fixtures to chose from, no samples to show, no progress towards a dream. I suspect I'm going to become increasingly sarcastic about all of this.

We don't have a lot of "crap" in this house. There have been so many times of necessity to purge our house of all unnecessary items that we don't have a lot of "crap." It's been just about two years since the last purge (kitchen). It was two years before that one (basement, 2005). One year before that (built the garage and prepared for the birth of the boys). It's about time for another purge.

How I Spent My Day

1. Stayed home from school because Kevin and Rick were coming out to check out the roof and basement.
2. Called our insurance guy to ask some questions. Ended up adding a large rider to our insurance policy that is specifically called, "Sewer Backup Coverage"
3. Increased our coverage amount to reflect the improvements we've made to the property in the last year (SHAME on us for not doing this sooner, although I swear we did. In any event, now it's done for sure)
4. Felt incredibly sorry for one set of neighbors that the city kicked out of their home. Until a plumber can address the backed up sewer they have been told they need to leave for health reasons.
5. Learned Kevin and Rick are going to install a second sump pump in the near future.
6. Rick sealed up some shingles that weren't "stuck" down properly. When rain comes sideways or up from the ground (it was raining in all directions) water can find any place to enter!
7. Had a lock box, once again, put on the back door.
8. Felt incredibly sorry for all the people on Lake Dalton. If you haven't heard (and some of you readers far away may not have), the large man-made lake in the Wisconsin Dells emptied itself when it created a new river on the side of the dam. Four homes are down river somewhere. This is the same lake we were just on a few weeks ago when we road the Wisconsin Ducks!
9. Felt sorry for really everyone who has had more damage than us. Really, we haven't had much damage. Our problems right now are more preventative measures.
10. Asked Brian if he was a little disappointed when there was no water under the bench in the basement. While it was good there wasn't, I'm baffled as to where one wet spot came from. I'm becoming more and more suspicious that perhaps the boys spilled something during the time they were left unattended while we were cleaning up the mess in the new part of the basement.


In case anyone is keeping track, we are nearing the one year mark of when the hole was dug! Since it's exam time, I have to go to school for the rest of the week. I guess I'll just be surprised when I come home to see if any work was done.

Are We Done Yet? Are We Done Yet?

Really, am I ever going to be done with this project?

In the last week our landscaping has been completed, or as completed as it can right now. We are still missing a few plants but that's because they just aren't available yet. I was able to, with the help of my mom, get almost everything purchased and installed today. We had Hawk's do all the hard work like the service path, prepare the beds, brickwork and re-grate the lawn. Brian and I were left with a huge pile of mulch and to install all the perennials. Here is what everything looked like a week ago and what it looks like now!

Before
After
Before
After
After

I do have to admit, we were a bit surprised to see the re-grating. I guess I thought the yard 10 or so feet from the house would be repaired. That apparently wasn't the case! While this is somewhat an inconvenience for the boys since they can't play in the back yard anymore (hmmm...much like last summer) I know that once the grass grows the yard will be great.

The NARI Home Remodeling Tour is this weekend and our house is almost ready! While the people won't be visiting our house to see the yard, I feel much better about how things look now. It actually looks like we are done!

Accurate Record Keeping of Paint Jobs

Today I painted our bedroom. Since I did it by myself (don't bash Brian, he did most of the prep work and will help tonight with the clean-up) I had a lot of time to think. I mostly thought about how much I hate painting and realized I was standing on a tarp of nothing but painting memories.

There were drips of the green we first painted our bedroom. That painting experience isn't well documented on the tarp because at the time we had carpeting in our bedroom. Brian ended spilling a lot of paint directly on the carpet thus necessitating getting rid of it. We decided not to replace it, but rather added another room to the upcoming floor refinishing project. Since we weren't replacing it we could be as messy as we wanted to be while painting. There were drips of the light purple/gray that ended up being our bedroom color after I decided I couldn't handle the minty green color walls from the first painting experience. Incidentally, I believe that all happened in one day.

There were drips of dark brown which confused me for a little while. Then, I remembered; those were from an old POS entertainment center Brian had in college that we repainted and redesigned. This was around the time Trading Spaces was huge on tv and I believe that's where the inspiration came from.

There were drips from the Alfalfa Sprout living room and hallway, white third bedroom, the quad color scheme of the boy's room (light blue, red, green and dark blue), yellow small bathroom, purple wall in the living room and then all the painting projects from last summer that I did. I was responsible for the living room, hallway and bathroom.

Lots of memories right there on the painting tarp. I'm amazed that for someone who hates to paint as much as I do, I sure have done a lot of it!

The Ranch Goes On Tour

Late last week I got an exciting request. Stephanie, the designer of our beautiful kitchen, asked if they could use our home in the 2008 NARI Spring Remodeling Tour!! It feels so good to live in a space that someone, who doesn't live here, is so proud of they want to show it off.

The tour is going to be the first weekend in May so as soon as it dries up around here I'm going to have A LOT of work to do. The area around our house still looks like a construction zone and who knows what will come up in the flower bed next to the driveway. Not only was it deprived of water most of the summer it had a dumpster sitting practically on top of it too. At least I know there should be lots of pansies and other annuals available the last week in April. We are going to be doing a lot of last minute planting the week before I think.

The same day I committed to Stephanie I signed the contract for landscaping. While there is no guarantee the plantings can be done (really depends on what kind of spring we have) the brick work can be done as soon as all the snow melts. I was encouraged when Judy, the landscape designer, said that the outside work is a reflection of her business and so they will make an effort to get it looking presentable before the tour. I'm starting to stress a little about this!

I've had to submit "before" pictures and next week Stephanie is coming out to take new inside pictures. She took some before Christmas but now that we have the sexy new stove she's going to do new ones. Some of these pictures are going to be published in M Magazine. Stay tuned!

I Think We Are Remodeling Junkies...

There are people who are addicted to plastic surgery. I think we may be addicted to home improvements.

About a week ago Brian contacted Kevin, from OAR, and asked if he had any extra tickets for the NARI Home Improvement Show. Brian and I went today, sans children, and walked through all the exhibits remembering last year when we were still searching for a contractor for our dream kitchen addition. Now twelve months later, we are done but still have a few areas in which we need some professional expertise.

1. Landscaping
2. SolarTubes for bathroom, maybe the hallway and perhaps the dark area of the kitchen
3. bathtub and tile in shower

By the end of the month, we will have a quote on the landscape plan that we got last fall, have two quotes for a couple of bathroom options and hopefully an install date for a SolarTube (which might be June). I know the landscaping is priority but knowing that we are a few thousand dollars away from getting rid of our gross shower and dark bathroom makes me really excited. I don't know if we can stop the home improvements.

We Haven't Stopped Working...

Really, are projects ever "done"?

Today, our new stove was delivered. It's definitely goes better with the new decor than the white one did! Anyone need a white gas stove? Nothing wrong with it...it's just white.

Old stove
New stove...isn't it pretty?

It was pointed out to me months ago that I never posted a picture of the bathroom. If you recall, we had a window in the bathroom that was lost due to the addition. The space where the window was cut into the tile, which is probably 40+ years old, presented a challenge. Since the tile is so old we couldn't find an exact match. The color could be matched almost flawlessly but the size couldn't be found (isn't that strange?). So, Stephanie, the designer, came up with this idea. The new tiles are placed on an angle and go higher than the original tile. Really, you don't even notice that the size is different. I don't feel like we are trying to hide the fact there was a window there so I'm happy. I wasn't sure at first but am glad that we put our trust into Stephanie's design.

We've recently gotten a large area rug for the living room too. I can't believe it took us so long to just do it. I love the way it looks, love that the boy's toys are no longer rolling under all the furniture and I love that I can kneel on the floor and it doesn't hurt my knees. I'm sure you've seen the pictures on the the boys' blog of what it looks like.

And now, a few shots of yesterday's snow storm. It sure is pretty right now, but I sure am sick of snow!

Look at the fence to the left as a point of reference to how deep the drifts are!