Personal My Newest Saga... (Kinda Long, but Kinda Funny)

[candiejayne]

Is life every boring?!? LOL

To start off, we live in a VERY old home. The original structure was built in the early 1800's. Additions have been added on with the latest being in 1990. This house has crooked everythings... The simpliest tasks really end up being a HUGE job.

We are planning on having some family and friends over tonight to kick off spring with a bonfire. We love having these, everyone brings something yummy to snack on and their own drinks and it's just great.

SOOOO.... There is this new couple coming out. Now our house isn't in the greatest of shape, and due to how much it cost to remodel, we have been doing a little at a time. Well, this couple is quite snobby, and we decided we would do a few little things to make the appearance inside a little better. There were a couple tiles in the kitchen that broke, so we easily replaced them. Then, I got the bright idea. The bathroom floor needed tiles, there was old cracked up linoleum in there. So, I said, how much would it cost to get some sticky tile to do the bathroom floor real quick... That was my first mistake, I said real quick... We went to the store and bought 2 boxes of tiles for about $40... not bad at all for a quick fix.

Well, this about about 3pm yesterday. It is now 10am today and my sticky tiles are still in the box... my BF is on his way to the hardware store, and there is a HUGE hole in the bathroom floor. The toilet is sitting in the bathtub.

LOL is nothing ever easy! Luckily we have a 3/4 bath in the laundry room, but we have about 9 hours before people start arriving, I don't think its going to be done.

This definately has reminded me why I shouldn't care what people think. We wanted to quickly fix something so people wouldn't look down at us, and now it's 1. costing more money, 2. looks worse than when we started, and 3. if they don't like it, they don't have to come over again.

I'm not really stressed about it, I'm pretty well use to it in this house, but it's funny, and I thought I would share. OHHH and this morning while my BF was making the hole I heard a wooshhh noise followed by a string of offensive words, I threw my laptop down and went running to the main water shut off, then asked what happened. When prying a piece of wood off, he just hit the quick shut off value and it opened up, we both thought he busted a pipe!

When I went into the bathroom, my smartbutt said..."Well, you always wanted a rainmaker for a shower!" LOL the water was dripping off the ceiling, and he was standing there dumbfounded... That was definately a wish you had a video camera moment!

http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj66/candiejayne/randomreeds003.jpg

I hope everyone has a wonderful Easter weekend!!!

 

[rennea]

Oh goodness Andrea!!! Always look on the bright side, at least you have a home. Really I'm not being smart, my house isn't fancy or big but it's mine!!! I have taken time to put my stamp on it. We can afford it and we are happy here and that's all that matters to us. If it makes you feel better I am very envious that you have an older home with character. I would LOVE to buy an older home and fix it up.

I hope you have lots and lots of fun tonight

 

[raebates]

Oh, Andrea, I spent so many years concerned about the constant state of construction around our house. What I finally decided was that if people were here to see me (and one another, of course) they wouldn't care about the projects in waiting. Those who are too snobby to understand that don't have to come back. Happy Easter. I hope you enjoy your company.

 

[akrebecca]

Isn't home repair fun? We have been living in our house now for 1 1/2 years. The windows & doors do not have trim and there is no trim where the wall meets the floor. The only room with a door is the bathroom (Very Important!, We have great ideas for the Master Suites, but right now, we have a bed in a room filled with boxes. We still have not unpacked But, it is ours.

 

[candiejayne]

This couple that is coming over aren't even friends of ours, but they are friends with most others coming. We didn't really invite them, they sort of invited themselves. I'm not worried about what they think anymore. He is the type to say something stupid, but thats when I'll politely ask him to leave.

We need to do about 60K in renovations, but obviously that isn't possible right now, so I am just happy that we can do little things now to make the house nicer until we can get more money and do total gutting of rooms. We have big plans for this house, and its a great thing that my BF is in the construction field, he knows how to do a lot of things, and he knows a lot of people willing to swap labors. We have a man coming in the next couple of weeks to see what we need to supply material wise to put a cement patio in out back, in exchange for his labor, my BF is going to do some drywalling at his home.

It's also nice that we are financially sound with our two full time jobs at this time, and any extra money that comes in (PC, my indepentent contracting job with a few local goverment offices, and his contracting side work) is able to pay for the remodeling.

OHHH and this past week at work, my boss gave me a $2 an hour raise! It's hard to be depressed or upset with the bathroom when so many good things are happening right now. PLUS I'm still getting the new floor LOL! A much needed, much wanted thing! He's not as thrilled as me, but at the same time he's glad he knows how bad it actually is now so he can fix it before the rotting wood send someone falling through the floor, or the tub or something LOL.

Another funny thing is, he was complaining about whoever installed the bathroom (it wasn't there until the 60's) needed to have their head examined. If you see in the picture, the pipe that runs up is the sink drain, and the sink doesn't drain well... anyways, I said I'll be sure to tell them. He said how are you going to do that. I said because one of my bosses at work, her grandma use to own this house, and she remembers when she was younger, her uncles adding the bathroom here. I said this use to be part of the master bedroom. He says "ahhh thats why megs room is so small..."

LOL I think I'm rambling now. Back to my spring cleaning! It's beautiful out today, I have the windows open and I'm vacuuming out the sills and I'm actually enjoying it! Scary since I much dislike cleaning!

 

[candiejayne]

Isn't home repair fun? We have been living in our house now for 1 1/2 years. The windows & doors do not have trim and there is no trim where the wall meets the floor. The only room with a door is the bathroom (Very Important!, We have great ideas for the Master Suites, but right now, we have a bed in a room filled with boxes. We still have not unpacked But, it is ours.

LOL That pretty much describes most of this house! The only difference is that he's owned it for 6.5 years, and he was unpacked, but when I moved in here about a year ago, there wasn't room for my stuff, so my boxes are all over the place. He says in exchange for the new bathroom floor I have to find a place for my stuff... I think I might have to start throwing stuff away :cry: I'm such a packrat... I like to keep my things LOL! I feel sorry for the garbage man this week...

 

[raebates]

Andrea, I really do understand. Our house is over 135 years old. We don't know exactly how old, because it was built elsewhere and moved here sometime in the mid-1880s. Nothing is straight or square except the addition we built several years ago. We have one doorway that cracks me up. It is literally over 1 1/2 inches shorter on one side than the other.

 

[rennea]

You will have to contine to take photos for us. I love to see before and after.

 

[The_Kitchen_Guy]

Murphy's Law: If anything can possibly go wrong, it will.Manning's Corollary: The likelihood of its occurrence is directly proportional to its undesirability. Murphy's Constant: Matter will be damaged in direct proportion to its value.Murphy's Extended Law: If a series of events can go wrong, they will do so in the worst possible sequence.O'Toole's Commentary on Murphy's Law: Murphy was an optimist.

 

[ChefBeckyD]

Oh, thanks for the laugh today Andrea!I'm glad you are able to have a sense of humor with the whole thing.It made me laugh, because I used to own an old home, and was always in a state of "remodeling". The bathroom was an obvious add-on off the kitchen, so, although the house was built in the late 1800's, I wasn't sure when the bathroom was added on...when we started remodeling, we discovered that the "insulation" in the walls was all newspapers from 1914. We had to stop and do some reading before we could finish the remodel. "If you are coming to see my house, then you might as well just turn around and leave. If you are coming to see me, than come on in and lets have a good time!"

 

[candiejayne]

LOL Rae!!! That is exactly how it is! I said, ya know we shouldn't have gotten the checker patterned floor, I says, there is no way to hide the crooked with squares LOL!

Rennea, I'll do that... I have some already or atleast pics of the progress happening. I'll upload them to photobucket. Then post them in this thread! Might not be right away, I'm suppose to be getting ready for tonight LOL!

 

[candiejayne]

KG- Oh so true!!!!!

Becky- the bathroom is off the kitchen also, it just doesn't have insulation. Too bad it wasn't stuffed with newspapers, I'd love to be able to read them!

 

[The_Kitchen_Guy]

The main structure of our home was built in 1840 (it's log) so I understand what all of you are saying. Every project is an adventure! (But none of our doors are anywhere near as entertaining as Rae's Alice In Wonderland door!)

 

[TammyStar]

Andrea you are a trooper, I don't think I could deal with all that. After reading how old some of the homes are that you guys live in I counted the l last 5 homes I lived in I moved into were new homes. And I complain about installing ceiling fans (homes are pre-wired of course), window coverings and doing something with an empty backyard! I will never complain again about little things.
I did have to replace two panels on the garage door this week since my DS backed my car out of the garage with the door down 3 weeks after I moved in and the door finally collapsed. But my home repairs are usually self inflicted!
Good luck and keep your happy positive attitude, it will get you far in life!

 

[candiejayne]

Tammy, we have a window upstairs in BF's DS's room, somehow a hotwheel JUMPED out of his hand and broke it! LOL Luckily he only got one pane of the double pane window, so we taped it up for now.

I'm working on putting a slide show of projects together now. Some of the pics I'm looking at how horrible the house looks, but oh well, LOL you all can see my messes! We were remodeling after all! LOL

 

[dkitten13]

Rennea, so true to stay positive about having a home. We have (are losing) our home to FC, live in a rented house, just ran out of oil, haven't paid the bill so can't get more, owe for propane for our hot water...need I go on?

However, we have our health and since my son was born with a congenital heart defect and had open heart surgery at 11 days old, this is truly the greatest blessing!

Here's wishing everyone a Blessed Easter!

 

[candiejayne]

I hope this works and I also hope it doesn't go too fast, I'm not too great at these slide shows. I just thought it would be better than posting all the pics in this thread...


http://s269.photobucket.com/albums/jj66/candiejayne/Remodel/?action=view&current=52d9bec6.pbw

If you click on the picture you can go into my photobucket account and view it...

 

[raebates]

(But none of our doors are anywhere near as entertaining as Rae's Alice In Wonderland door!)

We're convinced that what happened was the guy had had a few beers when he cocked his head, looked at the opening, and said, "Looks good to me."

 

[candiejayne]

And the saga continues... after revaluating the situation, and Ryan's dad seeing it for himself, we have decided to completely gut the bathroom. The floor joist are rotting, and its become a safety hazard. Of course we don't have a couple grand to put into it, so his dad has offered to finance the repairs... SOOO... it's time for me to start shopping for pretty much everything new! LOL I better beef up my business so we can make monthly payments to his dad for a while!

BUT!!! YAY!!! I'm getting a new bathroom!

 

[The_Kitchen_Guy]

We're convinced that what happened was the guy had had a few beers when he cocked his head, looked at the opening, and said, "Looks good to me."

I think the same guy restored my '61 TR-3A, too.

 

[raebates]

Another person left live electrical wires simply hanging in a wall. We found them when we redid the entry. It's only by the grace of God that the house didn't burn down years ago.

 

[The_Kitchen_Guy]

Another person left live electrical wires simply hanging in a wall. We found them when we redid the entry. It's only by the grace of God that the house didn't burn down years ago.

http://timstvshowcase.com/newhart2.jpg

"Hi, I'm Larry, this is my brother, Darrel, and this is my other brother, Darrel, and we'll do anything for a buck. How'dja like our carpentry and electrical services?"

 

[candiejayne]

LOL I think those are the guys that did all of the work in the house!

Rae, we have found wires like that up in the attic space... it's scary to think stuff like that was "ok" back then!

Ryan was also very unfortunate to find a hot wire down in the crawl space, it shocked him in the abdomin, and a very sensitive spot was where the current decided to escape his body since it was touching the ground. The crawl space in that area is only about 18 inches tall and you have to belly crawl. He screamed and got super quiet, and I panicked. I was dialing 911 when he finally talked to me.

 

[pcchefjane]

Oh dear! Does not sound good! The previous owners of my DD & SIL's painted all the windows shut in the house! It's crazy! They are really nice big windows too so it would be a great breeze through here. They also sealed up two of the "computer line" plugs so that only one in the whole house works. We are on a "wireless network" between our two computers with that. There is a small room (and I do mean small...probably 6 x 6) that is my PC office. There is a 6-shelf bookcase in there plus a small computer desk. I have been working on that a lot the last few days trying to organize. The walls are not even finished in there or the laundry room. We were having problems with the DSL lines and the tech guy that AT&T sent out was the original owner of the house. He told us all about how the lines had been cut off. My "studio apartment" was once the garage with the laundry room attached. We couldn't figure out how to make grass grow in the backyard because of a huge (probably 20 ft) tree. The guy told us it was impossible, so now we figure we'll just concrete it back there for a good play area. It's amazing the things (and colors) people paint things! We repainted every wall when they moved in. There was a sliding glass door to go out my "apartment" but they took them out and put in cheap french doors with plastic panes. They are very ugly! The hardwood floors are nice though but the bathroom is a tight squeeze with more than one adult in it...next to impossible in fact unless one is in the shower! LOL!

 

[candiejayne]

I hear ya Jane! Not that I'm glad to hear all of your house stories because it means you all have had the headaches too, but it's nice to see that we are not alone LOL!

As the day has come to an end, I can report that NO ONE showed up tonight... bright side is the house is all nice and shiny, with the exception of the bathroom of course LOL.

The bathroom now has a loose piece of plywood for a floor. When Ryan tried to take the piece of plywood up that was laid over some planks, the planks were so rotted they came up too. We will have to be very careful to be sure the kids stay away from there, especially his 3 yo DD. Its only a 3 ft drop into the crawl space, but there are so many nails and rusty pipes, we don't want anyone to get hurt. I've been working on cleaning out the laundry room and storage areas in the laundry room so that we have space in there for more comfortable bathroom use. It's going to be a challenge, but we will survive.

Since tomorrow is Easter and we are doing my parents at noon, and his grandparents at 4, nothing will get done. We are estimating 3-4 weeks until the bathroom is completed.

We spent some time today going through things at his parents house and his brothers house that was left over from their remodels, and we got a lot of the piping and other things needed. I think the only things we will have to actually purchase is a new tub, a new countertop/sink, the ceramic tiles for the floor, and the paint for the walls.

If I play it right with colors, I can raid my fabric stash at my parents house and make my own curtains. I'm starting to get excited, really I am. I love decorating, and I haven't really had a chance to do so here.

I know I've had post in the past that have questioned my BF and my relationship with him, but this is one instance where I just fall more and more in love with him. Although this is his house, he includes me in major decisions. When it came time today to discuss the full remodel of the bathroom, he flat out said I don't want to do anything you don't want me to do, but here is what I am thinking. When he was done talking, I thought about what he said. I agreed with him that we needed to go ahead and completely redo it. I asked lots of questions and he never once got frustrated with them. Some of them were pretty petty too. LOL this makes me sound dumb, but my only request was that he moved the bathroom mirror to the laundry room as it's the only mirror in the house...

I'm rambling again, so that must mean time for bed! Good night all, and Happy Easter!

 

[kcjodih]

NOONE showed up?!?! What the heck? How many did you expect? How rude! Tell me they all at least called..

Thank goodness you DIDN'T bother rushing to finish this job like you originally planned when your BF took off to get floor tile. The snootys never showed and now you can do it slow, but do it right.

Have fun!

 

[raebates]

Rae, we have found wires like that up in the attic space... it's scary to think stuff like that was "ok" back then!

In this case "back then" was about 1985, so it wasn't really okay. The guy who owned the house was just a doofus. LOL!

 

[candiejayne]

Jodi- We were suppose to have 7-10 come, we did have a couple iffies, but the rest were gung ho about it. No actual calls saying no one was coming. We didn't really care, I really am trying to think positive about things, so I'm still saying atleast the house got cleaned really well LOL! Plus, Ryan and I took a break last night and sat and ate dinner and watched a movie together, so it wasn't a loss of a night. It was quite peaceful!

Rae, ya that isn't good. The stuff Ryan found was the old, old stuff...