bungalowtastic

The last few months in review, part 2, or Fun with old pipes!!

2011-05-11T11:31:00.000-05:00

The other huge issue we've been dealing with over the last 2 months has involved plumbing. Hopefully, as of last night, everything has been resolved, but it took a lot of time, money, and we saw a little more than we'd like to of our plumber. Not to say that he's not a nice guy (he's actually great, and has tons of funny stories) but generally the plumber isn't someone you want to be a frequent guest.

March 26: This entire ordeal began with a really bad clog in the kitchen sink. I noticed it had been backing up frequently, taking forever to drain... finally one day it refused to go down entirely. So Adam and I decided to attempt to fix it by removing the existing corroded old p-trap and rodding it out. Easy enough, right? Haha, nothing is ever easy at Bungalow4865. When trying to loosen a super tight connection on the old trap, Adam ended up cracking the corroded trap on the J part of the p-trap, so it was off to Lowes.

At the hardware store, in addition to a new trap, I also bought one of those big rodding reels that attaches to a power drill. So after some serious rodding out of the pipe going to the drain, we put on the new trap and hoped for the best. Nope, still clogged. Gah! Time to call the plumber.

March 27: Matt the Plumber came the next afternoon and rodded out twice before he got it to clear. Finally! $95 and about an hour's work, not too bad. But not 5 minutes after he left, I happened to go down into the basement and noticed water dripping into the utility sink from directly above:

Apparently when he rodded out the pipes, he knocked all the gunk loose that was apparently plugging yet another leak in a pipe that went down into the basement ceiling and into the main drain. This began my theory that our entire house is held together by Polish cooking grease. I called him and he came right back, and promised to come out the next day. The plan was to create a new set of pipes going down from the kitchen sink to the main drain with PVC, leaving the old iron pipe in the wall (highlighted in red) so we could just leave it or drywall over it.

March 28: $500 later, Matt replaced all of the pipes coming from the kitchen sink, making sure the replacement pipes were properly pitched, which would increase the flow and prevent it from backing up in the future. It was almost back pitched, which probably was the biggest contributor to the backup. He also installed a pseudo-vent under the sink, which should have been vented in the first place. That would stop the drain from gurgling as well. It worked great, and we had no problems, at least for a month.

April 26: I had gone to bed, and Adam was in the basement finishing up some laundry. All of a sudden I hear yelling and the words "Oh no!! Flood!!" In my half-sleep delirium I went downstairs, and saw that the stupid P-trap under the utility sink had come undone. It came undone at the slip nut I had fixed months ago, which I had finally cemented with PVC cement. I had noticed that the laundry room utility sink seemed to be backing up more than usual when we did laundry. The washing machine "out" basically dumps a large quantity of water into the utility sink very quickly, and it must have finally come undone with the weight of the backed-up hot water. I told Adam I'd fix it the next day.

April 27: When I got home from work, I steeled myself to re-cement the stupid P-trap once and for all. Maybe it was the fumes of the cement, maybe it was fate, but something caused me to look over at the area where the PVC coming from the P-trap connected to the iron pipe to the main drain, and it had cracked:

It must have been the heavy weight from the backed-up water sitting in the pipes under the utility sink...now I am regretting not spending the money initially not to just get everything redone. Thankfully, I quickly realized that fixing this was beyond my meager plumbing capabilities. So we called Matt (again) to fix the cracked pipe and rod out whatever was causing the backup, and he came out the next day.

April 28: Matt replaces the pipe under the sink. It was $115, not too shabby. Unfortunately, I was on a conference call and Matt spoke mostly to Adam. Matt thought the sink was draining properly, but I guess he didn't test it with the large quantity of water we get when the washing machine empties into the sink.

(A few days later): I notice the utility sink is still completely backing up when we do laundry, and it's still coming up in both sinks. I call Matt again to see what we need to do to fix it - either put the washing machine "out" its own pipe going directly down to the drain, or modifying the existing pipes so the washing machine / utility sink pipe went directly down into the drain rather than the "T" fitting.

May 10: Finally, to the tune of $300, Matt comes out and gives the washing machine its own dedicated "out" pipe going to the main drain:

While Matt was here, he also fixed slow drains in both bathroom sinks. He also replaced the iron (galvanized steel?) pipes under the basement sink so that it's easier for me to fix on my own if necessary.

So all of this plumbing was quite an ordeal. I sincerely hope we can close the books on this. I just hope the rest of the pipes in the house manage to stay together for awhile... I've REALLY seen enough of Matt the Plumber for awhile.

The last few months in review - part 1

2011-05-10T15:45:00.005-05:00

Since I haven't posted here in eons, here's a brief synopsis of the last few months at Bungalow 4865.

1. Had fancy energy-saving blinds installed in the living room and dining room.

I had been wanting to replace the yucky, yellowed broken blinds for a long time, and ended up getting new blinds in December. We chose Hunter Douglas's Duette Architella honeycomb shades. They definitely weren't cheap, but did qualify for an energy-saving tax credit on my 2010 federal taxes, which was pretty cool. We opted for the top-down, bottom-up lift control system, which gives the blinds a super neat, streamlined look without hardware or cords. As part of the tax credit, they had to be professionally installed, but that was fine with me, since I seem to have issues with the whole "measure twice, cut once" thing.

Since it was a fairly cold winter overall, it has been difficult to measure the actual savings in heating costs. But when Adam measured inside and outside the closed blinds with an infrared thermometer, it was about a 12 degree difference, which is huge. It made sitting by the living room window noticeably much more pleasant - when the wind blows hard in the winter, we could usually feel a pretty nasty draft on the back of our necks. So we're pretty happy with them overall, even though Adam's a little disappointed that I didn't opt for the remote controlled lifting system.

2. Painted in the living room and dining room.

Before the blinds were installed, we painted both rooms and did considerable patching. After much discussion and color sampling, we went with two complimentary beige/taupe/khaki shades from Behr. We also painted all the trim and molding a much brighter white. I'm very happy with how it turned out - especially the way it looks against the crisp white trim.

3. Finished patching the ceiling in the basement bathroom, painted the walls, and added some new hardware.

Drywalling upside down proved to be pretty challenging, but it managed to come out pretty well. We also took the opportunity to paint the ceiling with a couple of coats of mildew-resistant paint. Prior to painting the walls, we also used the same mildew-resistant stuff as a primer. The color was a light brown (heh - sensing a theme here?) and looks really nice with the shower curtain. Yes, the entire bathroom design is based on a shower curtain I purchased from Target that I am sure is no longer in production and will eventually need to be tossed.

The bathroom facelift also gave me the opportunity to try my hand at some electrical work. I purchased the new sconces on either side of the mirrored cabinet and installed them, which involved relocating the holes for the previous fixtures. This was straightforward enough, meaning no one got electrocuted and no major damage was done to the house. Of course, nothing's ever easy at Bungalow 4865 - the walls are not at 90 degree angles so it took some effort to get the sconces to lay flush against the wall. There were also some issues with the walls, which may or may not have involved drilling into conduit in an attempt to hang a towel rack, but we abandoned that and moved it to a new location.

Message in a Bottle

2010-11-20T17:42:00.004-06:00

Time capsule in place
Originally uploaded by sweetlenny

As I've been ignoring the giant gaping hole in the basement bathroom ceiling for nearly 2 months now, Adam finally decided to take matters into his own hands. I'm pretty happy about that, as you can probably imagine. However, I am offering assistance by occasionally holding drywall for him as he screws it into the joists.

But I had this idea to leave a time capsule of sorts, as I found an old whiskey bottle from 1936 in the ceiling when I tore down the moldy drywall a few months ago. It was unfortunately empty, as is the bottle of Maker's I'm putting up there, but I went one step further and wrote a note.

//////////////////////////////////

Hi there!

If you found this, it means you're digging around in the guts of the house probably due to some badness involving a toilet leak, or maybe you're gutting the bathroom. That's how I happened to find an old whiskey bottle that the previous owners, maybe even the original owners, left in the ceiling. The toilet in the bathroom upstairs had a leak and I had to tear out the drywall. When I removed the yucky, moldy drywall, I got up and looked in the ceiling, and found a little bit of treasure. Well, maybe not treasure, but it was pretty cool. The bottle I found was from 1936 - at least I'm pretty sure. I still have it - I tried to sell it on eBay but to no avail. I wonder if eBay will still be around when you find this.

My name is Laura, and my longtime partner is Adam. We bought the house as our first home in 2008. We're 35 and 36, and we love the house and the neighborhood. I work in advertising at Leo Burnett as a User Experience/Interactive Designer, and Adam is an attorney. We don't have kids, but we do have a Jack Russell Terrier named Peanut. We both grew up near Chicago and were thrilled to purchase a Chicago Bungalow. I hope you love the house as much as we do. We're also Cubs fans - I really, really, really hope the Cubs finally win a world series by the time you find this. But as a true Cubs fan, I am used to the disappointment.

Today is November 20, 2010, and Adam is going to finally patch up the drywall, while I supervise. I thought it would be fun to leave a little treasure in for someone to find, or maybe not find, someday. The reason I put this message in a bourbon bottle is because I love Maker's Mark. "Message in a Bottle" is also one of my favorite Police songs. Do people still listen to the Police? We saw them play live at Wrigley Field on July 6, 2007. (See, it all comes together!)

Anyway, good luck with whatever project you're doing that resulted in finding our little time capsule. And please take good care of Bungalow 4865.

Cheers,
Laura, Adam and Peanut

PS - the Maker's Mark has the black and red wax because the Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup earlier this year. Maybe you can sell it on eBay. That way it really all comes together.

What I did while the rest of Chicago was watching football

2010-10-25T14:39:00.004-05:00

Fall yard cleanup
Originally uploaded by sweetlenny

I took advantage of the unseasonably warm weather yesterday to finally raze the overgrown garden plot in back. It was overrun with weeds and mutantly overgrown tomato and mint. From all of the biomass I cleared out of there, I probably could have made a salad to feed 300 people.

Part of the cleanup involved a final mowing that helped clear a bunch of dead leaves out of the front lawn. I seriously hate raking leaves, and have somehow managed to avoid it this fall. Our neighbor to the south has a tree in their front yard with obnoxious super-tiny leaves that get EVERYWHERE, so I doubt it will stay clear for too long. Especially considering they're predicting a huge windstorm tomorrow with 60 mph winds. Ah well, maybe all of the leaves will blow away or back onto my neighbor's lawn.

We also emptied and stored the containers that had dying annuals. I pretty much just gave up on watering them after a certain point and let them die.

I almost didn't raze the back garden, but I'm glad I did, if only to spend a few hours in the beautiful warm weather. It will also mean we don't have to look at the ugly dying garden all winter, and hopefully saved us some work next year. Starting next spring, as part of our massive landscaping project, we're planning to tear up the entire back plot and replace it with 3 or 4 raised beds. I haven't posted all the details about this project yet, but I will soon.

My office, a year and a half later. Or wait... is this thing still on?

2010-10-20T22:25:00.003-05:00

My office
Originally uploaded by sweetlenny

So you know how you can avoid something for so long that it pretty much drops off your mental radar, and it ends up getting filed under "procrastinate indefinitely" and finally goes away? That's pretty much what happened to this blog, at least until tonight. I happened upon the "Blog This" feature in Flickr and was then reminded that I actually still possess a blog...and then realized I might actually miss it after I re-read a few old posts. And lo and behold, just 4 posts down are photos of my newly refinished office from a year and a half ago. Obviously this is before it became a refugee camp for houseplants in various stages of distress. Looking back on the old pics now, my office looked so empty and devoid of life. I guess a year and a half makes a pretty big difference.

For the most part, my blogging avoidance can be attributed to the fact that I felt inadequate as a "house blogger". Inadequate for not completing as many projects on the house that I thought I would, and feeling like I wasn't offering anything of value to anyone reading. But one thing I've come to learn over the last 2 years is that not every home improvement effort can be summed up in a post with perfect before and after pics, detailed DIY instructions, and amusing anecdotes on how I bumbled through it and made mistakes but learned from the experience, yadda yadda yadda.

The reality of DIY and home improvement is that it's messy and frustrating. Or at least that's what MY reality feels like most of the time. Reality is making too many trips back and forth to the hardware store because I don't know exactly what tools I need. Reality is getting paint in my hair, scuffing the walls, and removing the threads from screws. It's having to call my dad to have him explain what seem like very simple concepts that I should inerently just *know*, and then having to call him again after emailing him a picture of my failed attempt. Reality is the giant hole in my bathroom ceiling that I need to patch up but of course my first drywall project involves a ceiling.

But I'm still trying and doing and learning and enjoying, and I guess that's all that matters. I just haven't felt much up to writing about it, because I don't want to just gloss over the bad parts, nor do I want to document every failed effort. Just know that I call my dad a lot. And I'm forever amazed that he knows so much and grateful that he's willing to patiently explain how to do things, sometimes over and over again. And I hope he's proud when I finally send him an "after" pic.

Aside from bumbling through a bunch of random projects that I'll sum up in another post.... The photo I took yesterday morning of my office actually sums up what I've been up to in the last year and a half pretty well. I've been enjoying having the space and time for hobbies and creative pursuits. Plants, terrariums, making jewelry... I've been busy living life, as opposed to constantly trying to make everything better. Stay tuned.

Zdressers have Zarrived, after a bit of Zstress

2009-06-16T19:20:00.002-05:00

New dressers
Originally uploaded by sweetlenny

Finally, the dressers for the master bedroom that I ordered in April from ZGallerie arrived. I was at work when they called and asked if they could swing by a day early and deliver them. Thankfully Adam was home recuperating from surgery. I then got a call a about a half an hour later: "They don't fit up the stairs." Son of a...godd(@*#&@(*&...

I feared this might be an issue when I ordered them and learned that they'd be arriving already assembled. After some cursing, Adam and I decided to tell them to just put them back on the truck. I got on the phone with ZGallerie and began processing the return, grumbling when I learned I had to eat the delivery fee PLUS a 10% restocking fee. But then I got a text message..."Success!! We found a way!!" whew. I promptly cancelled the cancel.

I love them, they're well made and super study, and fit in the space perfectly. I need to push them close together but they're really freaking heavy and I may need assistance from a gentleman caller, as Adam's currently incapacitated for the time being.

We've had the not-fitting issue with various other pieces of furniture before, but I maintain that the delivery people just need to think a little more creatively. I'm sure other bungalow owners have to deal with this a lot, with our narrow stairs and what not. What do you do, just measure, pray, and tip handsomely?

The plot thickens

2009-05-24T12:07:00.003-05:00

Garden plot
Originally uploaded by sweetlenny

We planted more in the vegetable plot on Friday afternoon: cilantro, chives, basil, and finally the asparagus bulbs. To get the flickr photo with notes that explain what everything is, just click the pic.

So there is still about half the plot to fill up - so I'm thinking zucchini and butternut squash? I'm not sure how much room all of this is going to take up. I am probably going to have to spread some of it out once the plants get bigger. And there are the irises coming up in the back of the plot closest to the alley that I am probably going to dig up and relocate, but I'll wait until they bloom and see if it's worth the effort.

Digging in the dirt, part 2

2009-05-16T19:14:00.004-05:00

On Friday, a group of about 200 employees from Big Advertising Agency took a day to volunteer at a homeless shelter in the West Loop. I was assigned to gardening and landscaping duty, which I was pretty excited about, except for the rainy forecast. For about 6-7 hours we weeded, mowed, turned over garden beds, built a sandbox, planted more flowers, mulched, and generally made the yards of the shelter look 100x better. The rain held off until after lunch, so it wasn't too bad all in all. I was pretty dirty by the time I was done, but it was a good dirty.

I must not have gotten enough of a gardening fix, because today I decided to create the flower beds on the side of the fence. This had been my plan for awhile - it was a pretty boring space where there was quite a bit of potential. This is what it looked like before I started:

I went to Lowes (I'm averaging 2 trips a week these days - I probably should invest in the company) and picked up some nice looking perennials, a few bags of topsoil, some trays of annuals, and a bag of mulch. I had two calla lilies and some calla lilly bulbs, along with some canna lilly rhizomes from Adam's mom. I left an area free of mulch where I planted a bunch of wildflower seeds. Hopefully these will grow...soon. Also bought 3 more hanging baskets and hung up the rest of the brackets. All in all it looks really nice.

Office redesign project finished!

2009-05-12T11:34:00.011-05:00

BEFORE:

AFTER:

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. It's so much lighter than with the dark paneling, and my plants are going to love it. No more crappy, worn, dog-peed carpet. And best of all, the whole project cost less than $400 to complete. I learned quite a few things too:

1. Measure everything BEFORE going to the hardware store. I can't emphasize this enough. I made two pretty crucial mistakes that ended up turning out just fine, but both required multiple, unnecessary trips to the hardware store. First, I didn't order the right amount of quarter-round molding, not even realizing I'd need it for all the way around the room. The quarter-round ended up being the wrong finish, but thankfully I had only ordered one piece of it, thinking I'd need it for the stairs. And it was only about $5. Second, I didn't get the right sized shelves, TWICE! I feel like kind of an idiot but I ended up staggering the shelves and really like the effect.

2. Check EVERYTHING before you bring it home from the hardware store. Several pieces of the laminate had little small flaws in the corner where the material had chipped off. If I had looked at this in the store, or had the energy to bring it back, I probably could have gotten a discount or even been able to re-order the damaged boards. As it turned out, I had already started cutting the boards, and didn't want to hold off completing the project any longer, so I'll probably end up repairing the few with a laminate floor patcher and a marker. Thankfully it's really not that noticeable.

3. When in doubt, use a primer. The step leading into the office is concrete, and as my dad explained, I couldn't really put the laminate on the bottom of it or it would stick out and cause the molding to look really funny. So I ended up painting it to match the molding all around the room. Unfortunately, the paint didn't adhere to the concrete very well and has to be touched up:

Not a huge deal, but it would have been nice to just be done with the painting.

Anyway, the project is done, the furniture is moved back, and I'm very happy with it all in all. Now wouldn't it look great with a giant bay garden window?! I'll start saving for that now.

Laminate floor update

2009-05-05T11:15:00.004-05:00

I totally forgot to post about the other project I tackled this weekend - laying the laminate floor in my office. Basically it's about 90% done. It looks pretty good, and other than the prep work being a royal pain in the ass (ripping up the nasty, dog-pee-moistened carpet, disposing of the disintegrating carpet pad, pulling up about a thousand staples and nails from the floor...) it was pretty easy to cut and install the pieces. They locked together with minimal effort.

I did end up making a fundamental rookie mistake in not realizing I would need the quarter-round molding to go around the entire room and cover up where the edges didn't meet perfectly at the wall. You're supposed to use spacers to leave a 1/2" border around the perimeter, to accommodate for the flooring spreading out. Which I did, but my measuring wasn't exactly perfect, so I need the quarter round to cover my not-so-perfect work:

Thankfully (or not), I ordered just one piece of quarter-round when I ordered the flooring, thinking I'd need it for the seam where the stair met the floor. But it came in the wrong color that didn't match the bamboo flooring at all. We went back to Lowes on Sunday and ordered the right amount of what will hopefully be the right material. It's not supposed to arrive for another week and a half, but i hope it comes sooner so I can put my office back together.

Dishwasher - installed!

2009-05-04T12:40:00.003-05:00

So my dad is pretty awesome. He managed to get the dishwasher to fit into the smaller space by cutting away about a half inch to an inch of the plasterboard to the right:

The part that had to be cut out on the right left a bit of a hole, but it should be easy to put a piece of wood there that looks like a cabinet edge.

I *lovelovelove* having a dishwasher! There's nothing like nice warm clean dishes hot out of the dishwasher.

Premature plantulation

2009-04-28T12:36:00.003-05:00

This past weekend it was super nice and I couldn't resist planting a few things in the vegetable plot. It may have been a little early but a few of the sprouts were totally busting out of their little greenhouse and pushing the plastic cover off. So sweet corn, beans, and broccoli got planted.

This morning I saw a robin enjoying the broccoli sprouts. D'oh! Bad bird. I should have sic'ed Peanut on the bird but there was already a Peanut vs bird incident this weekend, and I don't want to encourage such violent behavior.

Plants planted!

2009-04-20T17:42:00.002-05:00

It was a productive weekend all in all around the bungalow - my good friends Robb and Rolando came over to help get the garden going. Adam and I cleaned all the debris out of the vegetable plot and turned over the soil:

Rolando brought a bunch of plants from their place - some day lillies & sunflowers, and planted those among the other perennials emerging from the previous owners. So far we have tulips & rosebushes in the front and back, some blue flowers that I don't remember the name of, and some grass-like plants that don't seem to have any buds just yet:

Best of all, while Rolando and I were planting, Adam and Robb put the grill together, and Adam grilled up some tasty sassages from the Polish deli around the corner:

Dishwasher ordered!

2009-04-20T17:24:00.006-05:00

This bad boy is on the way. Because Whirlpool is one of our clients at work, I get a nice discount. We're going to try to install it on the right side of the sink, where the space available is just shy of an inch too narrow. It would fit perfectly where those drawers are on the left, but then I wouldn't have the drawers anymore, and would lose a ton of essential storage.

Unless it's going to be a ridiculous amount of work, the plan is to cut into the plaster wall to the right and somehow make it fit. I believe I've convinced my father to take this project on. It'll be interesting, stay tuned.

Laminate floor ordered!

2009-04-20T16:54:00.004-05:00

So much for my desire for instant gratification and getting the office makeover done this weekend, but things are definitely moving forward. After reading some reviews of the Costco laminate, I decided to just go with Pergo from Lowes. The savings wasn't really that significant, as this is such a small room. So I picked out Golden Bamboo by Pergo.

Just as an aside, I need to rant about Lowes' website. It's really terrible and quite difficult to find anything using the site's search function. Plus, it's totally confusing as to what is available in the actual store vs. what can be ordered online. I was going to paste a link to the laminate that I selected, but I wasn't in the mood to search through 2,000+ results to find the right product. Typing in "bamboo laminate" brings me to a product page for ceiling planks. I generally really like shopping at Lowes, but their website blows!

Anyway, I didn't realize the flooring had to be special ordered, but that's how it works. It should be in sometime later this week, or early next week. Until then, the office will remain in limbo.

Painting finished

2009-04-14T10:18:00.002-05:00

Last night I did two coats of Bungalow White in my office, and it's looking quite good. A gallon of paint was just barely enough for two coats. I still have some edging to touch up, but I'll do that later tonight. I'm glad I went with the satin finish - it gives a nice subtle sheen that will reflect light but not look glossy. Pics later - it was too gloomy this morning to bother taking a picture.

Tonight we're going shopping to check out the dishwasher in person we picked out at Abt, and to Costco to see what their deal is on the bamboo laminate that I saw there a month or two ago.

The laminate flooring can't get installed soon enough - this morning I found yet another "accident" from Peanut on the office carpet. I hesitate to even call it an accident, because I *know* she realizes she's not supposed to pee on the floor! The plan is to get a few really cheap throw rugs that I can easily toss in the washing machine if (ha, I should just say WHEN) they get dog-soiled.

Sanding and Priming - check

2009-04-11T18:17:00.003-05:00

Friday I sanded, and yesterday I primed the office. Per my dad's advice I'm just going to do one coat of primer, and I hope he's right. I picked out a color - amusingly enough, it's called "Bungalow White". It's basically an off white/vanilla - nice and light but not blindingly white.

Today we'll buy the paint, but I'm not sure if I'll get to the actual painting - we are going out to spend Easter with my folks for the afternoon. I could have been ambitious and gotten up super early this morning, but that didn't happen. That's okay - I can paint Monday or Tuesday after work.

Commence Office Makeover

2009-04-10T15:16:00.005-05:00

So with 3/4 of a long weekend still before me, I am officially starting the office makeover. The plan is to first clear as much as I can out of the room, then begin sanding the wood paneling to prep for painting. I borrowed my dad's orbital sander, and purchased a mini shop vac to clean up the dust. As soon as the sanding is done, I'll start taping and then do hopefully just 2 coats of primer to cover the paneling. My goal is to have it at least primed, if not painted, by the end of the weekend.

As far as flooring, I'm still looking at doing a laminate bamboo. The goal is to get that done next weekend, so the furniture in the room doesn't have to be displaced for longer than a week.

Energy-saving appliance grant NOT granted

2009-04-09T07:52:00.004-05:00

One of the first things I did after moving in last October was to submit my application to the Historic Chicago Bungalow Association to receive their $500 energy-saving appliance voucher, a one-time grant available to those who purchased and certified their Chicago bungalow. I was eagerly awaiting the voucher so we could purchase a dishwasher for the house.

In November I received a letter from the HCBA stating that they were out of funding for the year, but I would be put on a waiting list when funds became available in 2009. After a few attempts to follow up and check the status, I finally heard back. They no longer have funding for the grant, and do not foresee receiving any funding.

I'm pretty bummed, but I'm glad I can finally stop waiting and just buy a dishwasher. We're probably going to take a trip up to Abt over the weekend (ideally on chocolate chip cookie Saturday) to commence the shopping.

I'm still here.

2009-04-01T14:10:00.005-05:00

Nope, this is not an April Fool's joke. So where have I been? Well, suffice it to say that it's been a VERY eventful last few months, but not the good kind of eventful. Without going into all of the rather unpleasant details, we're hoping to put the past 3 months behind and move on to better times. Needless to say, everything house-wise got put completely on hold, but now that spring is looming, we're hoping to get back on track soon with a few projects:

1. Deep spring cleaning. Next week I have a crew coming to do a deep cleaning. I'm going with a place highly rated on Angie's List so hopefully we will be pleased with the results. I was planning on taking off a week from work to do this myself, but it's honestly really something I don't mind spending a few bucks on. Speaking of Angie's List, I've been pretty happy with every vendor I've found on there. It's a very easy way to do research and find prospective contractors and get reviews all in one place. So far I've found it well worth whatever it is that I pay for it.

2. Replace the nasty carpet in my office. Due to some of the whirlwind of events of the last few months, we now have a dog, Peanut. And the cats are enjoying an extended vacation with my parents out in the 'burbs. Peanut is a very enthusiastic and energetic Jack Russell terrier. with LOTS of energy to burn. Unfortunately, as a result of some of the stress the household has been under, she's been having some accidents. Mostly in my office. So it's basically this kind of disgusting den of dog pee right now. I've been cleaning the carpet with carpet shampoo after every incident, but I'm sure it's not good for whatever's beneath the rug. My plan is to rip up the carpet (it was super nasty when we moved in and I've planned on removing it anyway) wand install laminate bamboo flooring in there. She won't pee on the hardwood floors, so my plan is to put some throw rugs that can be easily tossed in the washing machine. I'm still debating if laminate is the right way to go. I like the way it looks, but I also use the room as a sort of greenhouse, so I'm constantly watering plants in there. Getting water on laminate is not good... but I think it will be okay as long as I clean it up right away if there's a spill. Thoughts?

3. Get front porch steps fixed. So our stairs are made out of concrete cinderblocks and the bottom step is totally crumbling and breaking. I'm in the process of getting estimates to either just fix that step or possibly replace the whole thing with non-cinderblocks. I don't really love the way the cinderblocks look, and I don't think they have a particularly long lifespan. Not sure if the bottom stair was just due to break this year, or if it was as a result of the salt we put on the steps. Anyway, they need to be fixed.

Carpet!

2009-01-20T10:33:00.003-06:00

Saturday the carpet was installed upstairs by Empire. Yes, that's who we ended up going with - and I am very pleased with the results and price. Of the 3 quotes I got for the job, Empire came in the lowest by far (WELL under $2,000, which the two other vendors told me would be impossible). The installation itself went smoothly - except it was incredibly noisy, completely freaking out both cats and sending them into deep hiding for the entire afternoon. Check it out:

Clearly I still have to put the molding back up in the master bedroom and it will look much nicer, but I'm waiting until it warms up a little more to haul all of it out to my parents' house to cut it down and restain.

I love what they did with the top of the stairs instead of reusing the gold threshholds:

All in all, I'm thrilled with the results and would definitely recommend Empire. Their installers were all nice guys, and called me up to consult on how they'd do the top of the stairs. I did manage to get some pics of the raw attic floor:

Re-carpeting the upstairs

2009-01-08T10:42:00.004-06:00

So we got our first estimate from Carpet Vendor #1 last night to re-carpet the entire upstairs (the two bedrooms and the stairway landing area in between). I was pleasantly surprised that the estimate fell far below what I was expecting. We selected a polyester carpet that second to the nicest and most expensive polyester they carry, but it was made from recycled materials, so I'm all about supporting the green effort. And apparently the price of carpet has gone down lately due to the price of oil going down. Who knew?

The sales guy said we could easily carpet across and remove the thresholds (side note: for some reason I thought that word had two 'h's but Blogger is telling me otherwise) but keep the existing carpeting carpet on the stairs, which I don't really want to deal with at this point.

So two more quotes from other vendors on Saturday, and then I think we'll be good to go. Then no more fugly red/orange, and we can start thinking more about furniture.

Upstairs bedroom - painted!

2009-01-05T09:12:00.005-06:00

Yesterday we finished painting the upstairs bedroom. All in all it turned out pretty well. Because I had a generous gift certificate from Home Depot from my parents for my recent birthday, we decided to go with Behr paint, and were generally pleased with the results. We used a very very light lavender/purple and did two thorough coats, which seemed to cover pretty well. Unfortunately I don't have any pics yet - I tried taking some last night but the color barely showed up in the room. Hopefully I'll get some good shots soon.

So now it's time to start getting quotes on carpeting the upstairs! I'm excited - it will be a tremendous improvement over the crappy red/orange shag that's currently up there.

In other home improvement updates, the shelves in the bedroom are finally up, thanks to the expertise of my father. Turns out that the hardware that came with the shelves just wasn't enough to hold them up sufficiently against a wall that's not entirely flat. Sometime this week I'll patch up and paint over the unsightly holes beneath the shelf on the right side.

Basically these shelves are in lieu of bulky nightstands that wouldn't fit so well in the space where we have the bed. I kind of like the minimalist thing we have going in the bedroom so far. We got some reading lights to mount to the wall from IKEA and I am quite happy with the results:

Next project - the second bedroom upstairs

2008-12-29T10:14:00.005-06:00

It's been pretty quiet around the Bungalowtastic these days - I haven't been up to too much other than the holidays, at least in terms of working on the house. There was a failed shelf project that I am a little embarassed to even mention, but suffice it to say that it's VERY difficult to hang shelves on a wall that's not entirely flat. I promise to post more about this later, once we figure out a solution and actually hang the shelves.

Anyway, I am excited to get going on my next project, which I decided will be painting the second bedroom upstairs. We are going to get the carpet replaced in both upstairs bedrooms in January, which I have been told is the best time to buy new carpet. Before that, I want to paint the walls, like we did in the master bedroom.

Applying some lessons learned from the last painting project, I'm going to take a lot more care in prepping the walls prior to painting. I really wasn't very happy with the coverage from the Benjamin Moore Aura paint, so I'll either be giving Behr, Glidden, or Valspar a try. I also need to fill in some pretty major drywall cracks on the slanted wall near the window:

I need to do some research on how to best cover the cracks - the photos don't really show scale, but they're pretty big, and I don't think spackle is going to work. I have a few days off this week for New Year's so I am hoping to actually tackle this project this weekend so we can start prepping for new carpet.

Roofs that go bump in the night

2008-12-14T09:54:00.003-06:00

So Friday we had some roofers come out to replace the flashing around the chimney and caulk the leaking gutters on the side of the garage and the side of the house. Well, since I was completely incapacitated at my work holiday party most of the day, and Adam was in court most of the day, I wasn't really sure what they got done on Friday.

I should have called the company yesterday, just to see what they got done and when they were coming back to finish the gutters (which are obviously still leaking)... but I was dealing with a WICKED hangover most of the day. So now there's this bumping, banging noise coming from above that can only be heard from the upstairs bedroom.

This morning I took a look outside, and it seems that our manual TV antenna, which happens to be pretty huge, is not very stable, and is swaying in the wind. I suspect it somehow got loosened by the roofers when they were fixing the flashing, and this is what's causing the noise. Should I have the roofers remove the antenna? Is there any practical use for it? I can't see ever not having cable or some form of digital television.

Plans, derailed

2008-12-08T09:03:00.005-06:00

So in the midst of putting up plastic over our windows yesterday afternoon, we ended up taking one of our cats to the emergency room, which ended up taking 5 hours in total. He's doing well now - it was a recurring incident of the urinary problem he had last week, but we wanted to get it taken care of sooner rather than later. So the rest of the windows may not get done for awhile - it's really hard to do without decent light, and since we aren't usually around together during the day... we probably won't finish this project until the weekend.

And the plastic has already fallen down from the window in the basement bathroom. This is most likely a combination of the humidity and adhering the tape to the glossy bathroom paint. Sigh.

The heat is on, and it's no longer included.

2008-12-07T13:48:00.005-06:00

So my first gas bill came on Friday. I knew it would be a bit of a shock, after living in an apartment with heat included for nearly 6 years...and waking up to toasty, clanky radiators every morning... but I didn't realize just how high it would be. Umm, $281, yikes. As a result, this weekend's projects include: 1) Readjusting the thermostat, 2) Putting up that plastic stuff on the windows.

So far, we have plasticked up 3 windows in the basement, and Adam already says he feels a difference in the bathroom. We're about to install it on the octagonal living room windows, as that has always been the coldest spot in the house. So for about $12 worth of stuff, if our gas bill goes down next month, I'll be very happy.

What do people keep their thermostats at? When I was growing up, and to this day, my parents keep theirs at 74 degrees all day and night. I used to think was normal and got into many an argument over temperature with former roommates, who I decided were just maniacal ice queens. Now that I'm paying to heat a 3 story bungalow, maybe they weren't so crazy after all. I am trying to go a few degrees colder now, keeping it at 68 or 69 during the day and 66 at night.

I will report back on how all this works out.

A public service announcement...

2008-12-03T09:04:00.005-06:00

In the past 2 weeks, two of my very close friends had their homes burglarized. Thankfully no one was hurt in either incident, and no permanent damage was done. They were completely separate occurrences, across the country from one another, but I'm thinking it's no coincidence that times are tough, and these types of incidents may be on the rise. What is notable is that neither incident involved any sign of forcible entry.

So lock your doors and check them twice, and ask the same of anyone who may be in your home visiting, or taking care of your pets, or house-sitting while you're away for the holidays. It behooves all of us to be vigilant and not take our safety and security for granted.

You know you got a good couch...

2008-11-28T11:27:00.005-06:00

...when 3 people are napping on it after Thanksgiving dinner:

Our first attempt at entertaining more than just each other went went better than we could have possibly hoped. Adam and 3 of my friends were able to move the couch out the back door and into the garage. Willie seems to be feeling a little better, even though he took a few naps IN HIS LITTER BOX last night... poor guy... but he seems to be better today. The wine was flowing, the food was delicious, and a good time was had by all.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2008-11-27T11:16:00.000-06:00

One of the cats has a urinary tract infection and now diarrhea, and there's a ginormous couch sitting in our dining room where the food needs to go. There are 11 people coming over for Thanksgiving dinner in less than 4 hours. I'm sure everything will be okay, and it will be lovely, but is it too early to start drinking wine yet?

The frunchroom is really coming together.

2008-11-25T13:17:00.003-06:00

New couch!

The master bedroom is painted.

2008-11-23T17:13:00.003-06:00

Whew - that took basically two days of painting for 6-8 hours each day. I forgot how much work painting was, but I'm glad it's finally done. The Aura paint didn't cover nearly as well as we had hoped in the lighter color, but the darker came out pretty well. Or at least until I have a chance to look at the room in bright daylight tomorrow and find a bunch of areas that need to be retouched. The two colors came out pretty nice together, but the edges where the two colors met were really difficult to get perfect. For a few hours I actually sat there with a tiny eyeshadow brush filling in the gaps. There has to be some better way to get an accurate line in the corners... but here, have a look.

The red-orange carpet is going away as soon as I manage to get an estimate on carpet and get a plush grey up there. I've had more than a few people suggest we have wood floors upstairs, rather than carpet. But the wood floors below are the raw attic floors, which are in pretty bad shape and not worth re-doing. The rest of the house is wood, so I want the upstairs to have a nice soft carpet to put my feet on when I wake up in the morning. Of course, I may change my mind someday, but thankfully I have PLENTY of time to think about what I want before the massive Upstairs Renovation and Master Suite project actually happens, in like 2036 or something.

My dad offered to help me cut down the baseboard molding that I removed, so it's not 6" tall. That way I can re-use it and restain it to a darker color more of my liking. Thankfully Adam had the foresight to number all the pieces so I can remember how they go in the room.

Painting the master bedroom has commenced.

2008-11-22T15:49:00.009-06:00

This morning we went to our local paint store and purchased paint for the master bedroom. We decided to do a medium greyish blue on the lower walls, and a light, airy blue on the slanty walls:

We also got some advice on painting over the wood paneling in my office, and discussed possibly painting with epoxy over the hideous bathroom tile. Turns out that painting over tile is not only a fairly involved process involving sanding and priming...but the epoxy paint itself is super noxious stuff. The paint store guy recommended that the painter wear a respirator (!) and no other humans or pets be at home during the painting (!). So I think that project is going to, uhh, be tabled for awhile.

The paint we chose to use was Benjamin Moore's Aura Paint. It's supposed to be very high quality and very low VOCs, with good coverage. The colors we chose are called "heaven on earth" and "new born's eyes".

Anyway, I'm just about done with all of the prep work, which involved removing the ugly baseboard wood, taking out about 30 nail anchors (ugh), spackling the remaining holes, sanding the spackled holes, and cleaning all of the walls with Soilax. Removing the baseboard molding was a decision I hope I am happy with. I hated the color (a medium golden brown overly lacquered wood that the POs seem very fond of) and they were like 6" tall. I'd much rather get some lower profile molding once we get new carpet.

Looks like we'll be washing dishes by hand for awhile.

2008-11-19T09:04:00.006-06:00

So yesterday I received my letter from the Historic Chicago Bungalow Association that informed me that they have indeed run out of funding for the year, therefore I will not be receiving my $500 energy saving appliance voucher. We were going to use this money for a dishwasher, but looks like that's going to have to wait.

I am a little bummed, but based on a fellow bungalow owner's recent experience, I wasn't at all surprised that I did not get the voucher. I can only hope that next year their funding will be renewed, and that we'll get our voucher reasonably soon. I guess it's tough times for everybody, but I certainly hope that the City of Chicago continues to fund the wonderful HCBA initiative. I really am proud to own a Chicago bungalow - bungalows not only have personal and sentimental value to me, but I also feel like I own an important piece of Chicago and architectural history.

So for now, we'll have to continue to wash dishes by hand. I could just go buy one and install it, but I was so excited about being able to put the appliance voucher toward a dishwasher. There aren't really any other appliances I need or want to replace. Ah well, I can be patient.

New couch, new bed, dead car.

2008-11-17T09:12:00.004-06:00

This week we really didn't do much of anything to the house, but we did manage to stimulate the economy by buying some furniture. In one productive Saturday afternoon in the suburbs, we managed to find not only a king-sized bed (just mattress and box spring - we still need to buy some actual bedroom furniture yet) that will go upstairs, AND a lovely microfiber sectional sofa for the living room.

The sofa is a light tan and is pretty much identical to this:

It will fill up the room quite a bit, and hopefully work really well with the half-octagon wall of windows. I'm hoping microfiber is a good choice for the cats. I know it will collect a good deal of hair, but I think anything else they'd have the potential to destroy. They like to sink their claws into anything textured, like Berber carpeting or anything tweed-like.

The couch and bed are getting delivered Now we have to figure out what to do with the other couch. It's not going to fit in the basement, and I am not super-excited about putting it upstairs, so I may put it on Craigslist and see if I can get a couple hundred bucks for it.

As for the car, well, I'm not exactly sure what is wrong with it at this point. It's most likely something with the clutch, as it's not going into gear. Off to the mechanic it will go this afternoon...and hopefully won't be a super expensive thing to fix, especially as we just got the clutch replaced a few months ago. Ugh. I guess this is part of the joys of homeownership and adulthood - there's always something in need of repair.

Comcast: A rant.

2008-11-10T10:06:00.019-06:00

I want to start by saying that I've been a "loyal" Comcast customer for at least 6 years. That is mostly because I haven't had much of a choice in the matter - they are the only cable company where I live. I could get satellite/DSL, but then I'd have to get a phone line and pay for that as well.

I am really, really upset right now. I'm bracing myself to make yet another phone call and try to be nice, yet firm, with their customer service person. I will not take out my frustration on them - it's not that person's fault I've been dicked around by their company for the past 9 days.

So last Saturday, we had a Comcast tech come out to our new house to install basic cable and cable internet. The cable TV was put in the basement, but the installer said he didn't have "authorization" to put the cable upstairs, even though they specifically asked me how many TVs I wanted hooked up when I made the appointment. He left and said he'd make someone would call us about another appointment.

Later that night, I was about to take a shower and noticed two freshly drilled holes in the shower ceiling tile. WTF? Who else would have done this but the Comcast guy? There clearly weren't any wires needed in the bathroom, and why on earth would he need to do that??! I was livid. We also found a hole in the hardwood floor in the office upstairs...again, the hole seemed to serve no purpose. And we found holes outside in the masonry without any wires going into them. Apparently he didn't need any authorization just to drill a bunch of useless holes in our house. The guy also did a really sloppy job with the wires - they're just loosely hanging from the bricks.

So Adam got on the phone with Comcast and made a damage claim, and also mentioned that the guy left the basement a mess with wires hanging out of the ceiling. We were told that someone would contact us, and another appointment would be made to a) finish the installation and b) assess the damage.

So another appointment was made for the following Saturday, and I also spoke to the company Comcast contracts out to (they are called Matrix Communications) to assess the damage for the claim. Those people were supposed to call me to set up an appointment to view the damage to the house, but of course I'm still waiting for a call back about that.

Along comes Saturday, and no one shows up between 10 and 1. I finally get ahold of someone at Comcast, and they promise to call me back once they've spoken to a dispatcher. Of course there are promises to take care of everything and get someone out there as soon as possible. It does not happen. Then the dispatcher finally calls me, and promises that someone will get in touch with me about coming on Sunday. Of course no one calls me.

I'm just frustrated and tired of dealing with now TWO different companies. Now I'm sitting on hold, going on 10 minutes. I hate Comcast. They've made what was supposed to be a routine installation a big huge pain in my ass.

Prioritizing the Punch List

2008-11-08T19:27:00.002-06:00

There's a lot of stuff I want to do on the house. The problem is, I don't have unlimited funds to do everything at once...who does? So now that we're more settled and some of the immediate work is done, we're trying to sort out what we want to tackle first. This is the pseudo-punch list I'm starting for the time being.

1. Roof. Our inspector suspected the chimney flashing needs to replaced and that could be what caused some slight water damage in the ceiling to the upstairs stairwell. So I called a roofing company today that I found on Angie's List and I'm waiting to hear back. Hopefully this isn't an expensive problem.

2. Leaking garage gutter. While we're at it, we'll have the roofer guy look at the gutter right by the garage door that seems to be leaking.

3. Paint over hideous tile in downstairs bathroom and kitchen. My dad seems to think I can paint over all the ugly tile with epoxy paint, at least the tile on the walls. I'm a little skeptical, but I'm at least going to look into it. The tile bothers me that much, but I'm not going to re-tile at this stage. Painting seems like the perfect solution.

4. Replace toilet in downstairs bathroom. For reasons that I will probably never understand, the POs put a pink toilet in the downstairs bathroom with a white lid. As if there wasn't enough color in the room already. I want a white toilet to match the tub and vanity.

5. Carpeting upstairs. In order for the upstairs to be useable, it needs to be recarpeted. The current carpet is red/orange and just old and gross. I want a nice plush gray carpet.

6. Bed and bedroom furniture. This goes hand in hand with carpeting the upstairs. We don't really have any bedroom furniture to speak of. Adam's using the counter in the laundry room to keep his clothes, and I'm using an old dresser that will stay in the guest room once we get a real set. I'll TRULY feel like an adult once we get actual bedroom furniture (not that the mortgage wasn't enough) .

7. Painting. Oh, the things we can paint. I first want to paint the wood paneling in my office because it's kind of dark and oppressive. Everything else will be painted too eventually. This is a big project but we can do maybe 2 rooms in a weekend or something.

8. Get new living room furniture. This is a major purchase that's probably going to end up getting pushed back for awhile. I also want to get a super nice rug, so maybe we'll do that first. Who knows.

Wow... lots of dollar signs for some of those projects. And that's just the beginning.

Finally, a kitchen we can use

2008-11-08T19:09:00.003-06:00

This afternoon my dad came by and did some more electrical work. We have a good amount of usable counter space, but we also have a healthy amount of appliances. I inherited my appliance-hoarding tendencies from my parents: in their kitchen, in addition to all of the usual appliance suspects, you can find a breadmaker, quesadilla maker, coffee pod maker, and a belgian waffler. I don't have any of those, thankfully, but we did want to have the coffeemakers closer to the sink and the coffee.

So my dad installed a new GFCI outlet, along with the switch to the light above the sink, on the proper side, and the pantry light and two additional outlets on the other side. It's the little things that can make a huge difference. Now all I have to do is clean up the dust from the red tile that seems to have gotten into every single inch of the kitchen.

But wait, there's more - we also put up a spice rack (courtesy of Target) and some shelves to store oils and salts. Somehow we've managed to gather quite a gourmand collection of cooking oils, vinegars, and spices. They barely fit on the shelves, but at least we have a nice way to display them now that doesn't involve taking up the kitchen table like they did at the apartment.

Other accomplishments of the past few days include:

- *finally* setting up my computer and office and and unpacking a few more boxes. My computer would not turn on before the move, but it somehow managed to resuscitate itself and turn on.
- taking a huge amount of recycling to the local recycling center
- unpacking and shelving all of our books
- importing some armchair rockers from my parents. Apparently we're hosting Thanksgiving this year, which is in t-minus 19 days, and I was freaking out a little about where everyone is going to sit. So the chairs are a rather unhappy shade of pink/mauve, but they'll do.
- replacing the futon mattress and cover for the futon in the basement. I've had this thing forever, since college, and it needed a new mattress BADLY, as we're using this as our basement couch.

Slowly but surely. we are getting things done.

What we've accomplished so far

2008-11-04T11:06:00.005-06:00

So it's been a busy, busy last 7 days at the bugalow since we closed and moved in, and I wanted to post a list of all of the work we've managed to get done so far. I'm back in the office now after a week off, so I'm hoping I can still keep some of the momentum going while it's still fun and fresh.

I want to clarify that nearly all of my plans for the house involve aesthetic improvements and minor upgrades to the existing systems, rather than any complete overhauls. We don't plan on doing anything structurally for a long, long time. Eventually I would love to add a bathroom to the second floor, making it a master suite, but this is not something I'm going to have the budget for anytime soon.

So here's a list (and pics) of all we've accomplished in the last week, obviously in addition to moving in and doing a fair amount of cleaning:

1. Removed all of the curtains left by the previous owners (POs).
Every. Single. Window. had either sheer lace curtains or frumpy multicolored ones. The bathrooms had floral curtains that matched the shower curtains. The elderly love their curtains I guess. These all had to go - I boxed them up and gave them to my mom, who wanted them for reasons unbenknownst to me... I'm not going to be thrilled if I see any of these in my parents' house when I go to visit.

2. Replaced dusty sticky blinds in kitchen windows with bamboo blinds.
They look much nicer now and go really well with the wood.

3. Put in GFCI outlets and added a grounded outlet to the office.
My dad did all of this for me! I wish I could do a vulcan mind meld and get all of his home maintenance and repair knowledge downloaded to my brain. Though I am pretty afraid of doing stuff with the electrical - I will leave that to the expert.

4. Put liners in all of the kitchen drawers and shelves.
This was Adam's mom's idea and execution! I never would have thought to do this, but she did a great job of getting everything lined so I could finally put our glassware and dishes away.

5. Acquired a lawn mower and mowed the lawn.
As the previous owners lived in Poland, I'm not sure who they had taking care of the house. So the lawn wasn't in the best shape, but after my dad brought me a spare lawnmower he was able to refurbish (!) I mowed the lawn and it looked tremendously better. We're still going to need to re-seed or sod the back yard, as it's not in good shape and there are apparently grubworms that need to be addressed. I'm hoping not to have to worry about that until spring, but I need to do a little research and see exactly how one gets rid of grubs.

6. Removed ugly floral border from downstairs bathroom, got new shower curtain, replaced wooden toilet seat with white one.
I don't want to totally diss on the POs, because they took such wonderful care of their home, but their decorating style is, umm, really different from mine. Anyway, the downstairs bathroom had a bit too much going on with the floral curtains, border, and bright blue tile, along with the faded bamboo tile on the floor...so I removed the curtains and border to tone it down a bit, and got a more modern looking shower curtain. Thankfully the border peeled right off. The toilet also got a makeover - no more ugly wooden seat!

A home, at last!

2008-11-02T22:16:00.004-06:00

As many of you know, we've been looking for a house for a long, long time. In September, we finally found the place we wanted to call home - a beautiful brick octagon bungalow in Jefferson Park, which is an old Polish neighborhood on the northwest side of Chicago. This is actually the second house that we put an offer on - the first one was last October, and that place was located just a half block away from this house. The sellers did not accept our offer, and we weren't really interested in offering more... so that was that. But I remember last year when I was so incredibly excited to become a homeowner, and therefore a house blogger... that I actually started up this blog before we even put the offer in. I can be pretty superstitious sometimes, so I wasn't even going to touch this with a ten foot pole until we were finally closed.

So, to make a month and a half long story short: after some interesting negotiations with our overseas sellers, and a bit of stress over buying a place in such interesting financial times, to say the least, we closed last week. The move was long and tedious, but is finally, finally over. We're slowly getting settled in, and have already gotten a ton of work done. I had the whole week off, and thanks to the generous help from my parents and Adam's mom, we got a lot accomplished.

So anyway, this blog will detail my plunge into the world of homeownership. This is my first time owning anything, and I'm not exactly what you'd call handy. But I'm excited, and I'm going to learn - and try to keep track of it all here.