Deck the halls

It's been just two days under a year since we moved into our home.  In that time we have lived in a construction zone, without a kitchen, sometimes without water, many nights without heat.  We have installed a new furnace, a new kitchen, hooked up the washer and dryer, leveled the floor in the upstairs hallway, installed a bathroom, finished the master suite, created a home.

We decorated for Christmas this week.  Last year it was done surrounded by boxes.  This year I had to pack up the pumpkins and harvest themed accouterments in order to decorate for Christmas.  I've replaced our daily ware dishes with Christmas dishes received from my mother.  The sun on the wall replaced by the moon painted as a folklore style Santa Claus.  The pillows on the couch with holiday theme pillows.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.  And our house is certainly looking like a home.

Minor improvements and major snafu's

So since W2 has no time (due to working 7 days a week) and no motivation do to BURN OUT I have been striving to finish the little things that need finishing.  Last week I installed/hung the hand towel ring in our bathroom, but it wobbles.  Yesterday I tried to hang/install the hand towel ring in the guest bathroom but couldn't figure it out and the instructions were virtually non existent.  Today I hung the robe hook in our bathroom and 2 other hooks on the back of our bathroom door.  

I was feeling rather accomplished and proud of myself, until I shut the door.  The fucking wall anchor went through the other side of the door.  So although I now have two beautiful hooks on the back of my door, I have two very UNbeautiful holes on the side that faces out to my bedroom.  I can't wait to hear what kind of recriminations W2 has in regards to this latest adventure.

Now I will try to figure out how I can fix it with spackle? joint compound? and paint.  It can be done right?  What do you think the chances of him not noticing are?

Probably not so good.

Oh well, at least I'm doing something.  Or trying to.

The garden

I had decided now was the time to prepare a spot for next years garden.  I had not done one this past summer because we were planning on doing some major excavation and would be tearing everything up.  I planted in what will be flower beds around the house.  But the excavation didn't happen due to a lack of funds and I want a garden next year so it will just have to be put in a place out of the path of trucks and equipment.

I spoke to the neighbor about borrowing a rototiller and getting some manure from the pigs they kept throughout the summer.  Yesterday dawned bright and warm.  Imagine that in mid November in the Northeast?!  So I mowed, dealt with leaves and decided it was time to tackle the garden project.  J next door had prepared a wheel barrow full of pig shit for me so I was ready to go.  I headed home pushing the wheel barrow only to promptly dump it in the road.  FABULOUS!  Home again home again to get a shovel to deal with it.  With a little help and the suggestion that pulling it might work better, I was on my way.  Then back for the rototiller.  

First let me say that the rototiller was the homeowner type.  Small.  Small rototillers require a lot of work.  A lot of back breaking, muscle aching, teeth jarring work.  But it prevented me from having to rent one.  It's something like holding onto the horns of a bucking bronco and trying to guide it in some sort of a straight line, while pushing down to force the tines into the earth.  And just for the record, I do know that bucking broncos do not have horns, but it is the only description that gets the visual that I was striving for.

Let's just say it was an arduous task.  I am extremely sore.  By the end of the project I was covered in pig shit, dirt, grass and sweat.  But I finished it. and then W2 got home

Apparently I put it in a bad spot.  This wasn't what we agreed to.  I will have to do it all over again.  He did offer to rent me the biggest rototiller available but regardless I feel defeated.  I worked my ass off but it was wrong.

I couldn't remember where we had talked about but put it in a nice bright sunny spot on the edge of our property, leaving room for at least one pass of the lawn mower.  But I was wrong.  I seem to be wrong more often than anything these days.

The weather is warm again today.  The perfect weather to dig in the correct location, but I am too sore.  Tomorrow will start with the coldest weather we have experienced thus far this Fall.  The true beginning of Winter.  My window has closed for prepping for a garden.  

I am sad and frustrated.

It's been even longer

I've been trying to figure out how to use this blog. We've had no activity on the house. We essentially pushed ourselves into oblivion on that last push to finish in time for the housewarming. W2 is burned out. Or shall I say BURNED OUT! He refuses to work on the house. Won't install the lock sets, won't hang the towel bars or toilet paper holders. I've continued to paint the things that need to be painted and fix minor things. But my primary focus is finding a job.

I spend hours a day searching a wide variety of help wanted web sites and applying for copious amounts of jobs. My criteria has become quite simple. A position that will pay me and give me benefits. How's that for widening the job search?!

We have done nothing on the apartment due to lack of funds. That may be changing in the near future (I hope) and we will then be able to finish the stupid thing and get it rented, thus providing income. Wouldn't that be nice? And truly I am most interested in getting it insulated as it seems to suck all of the heat out of the downstairs into it's void.

You would think after insulating all walls that we opened, installing new windows, putting up new siding with the Styrofoam insulation behind it, that we would benefit from a warm and toasty house. But that is SO NOT THE CASE!! Our house is cold. It's extremely frustrating. So my goal is insulation in the apartment. In order to do that we must finish the wiring. In order to do that W2 needs some motivation.

I'm not sure how or when that will happen. He's fairly miserable.

It's been a long time....

So we had the housewarming, we survived it!  We didn't kill each other in the week the preceded it.  And we haven't done a damn thing on the house since then.

We are getting ready for a much earned vacation out to Moab Utah for the land rover National Rally.  W2 is an enthusiast and I have turned into one.

We will start work again once we return.

Stairs on the deck, level hallway and grout on the floor

Much has been accomplished since I last typed.  Last weekend W2 managed to build the stairs to the deck.  We had planned to build a ramp but when we realized it would need to be 16 feet long, which would block the view of the bay window in the dining room, I said NO!  loudly and repeatedly.  W2 was not happy and it was a very long and frustrating day, but the stairs are done and absolutely lovely.  We just have to build the railings and we will be done.

This past weekend, we grouted the tile in the bathroom and leveled the floor in the upstairs hallway.  There was a 2.5" difference across 4'.  It felt like walking on the rolling deck of a ship.  Because not only did it drop, but it dropped to the right, pitching you into the wall of the hallway.  That was corrected on Saturday.  It's not completely level but it is straight.  and straight is a huge improvement.

We grouted Friday night and Saturday saw that there were air bubbles in the grout.  The only option W2 saw was to sledgehammer it out and start over.  I was horrified.  There had to be another way.  So I called the folks in the flooring department at the Evil Orange Box and learned that we could put another layer of grout on, working it into the holes with our fingertips.  So that was my job.  I did that Saturday and again today.  It should be done now.  all we have to do is wait for it to dry before we can apply the sealer.  Once the sealer is done and dry we can install the vanity, then baseboards, then toilet!!!  At that point the bathroom will be done.

Our carpet is ordered and should be in  the 22nd.  We are gaining on it!

bathroom floor

W2 being the master shopper that he is had found the tile I craved for the kitchen floor on clearance at Lowe's in a quantity that would allow us to do our bathroom floor.  Or so we thought.  Until we started laying out the floor on Saturday.  Of course we couldn't lay out the floor until we had ripped up the rotten subfloor, made a trip to the evil orange box, laid new subfloor, laid cement board to go under tile, screw down cement board.  So at 6 pm we are starting to lay out the floor when we realize that we do not have enough tile.

It had been an ugly week for me and Saturday was no different.  Calling myself a bitch was putting it mildly.  I was out of control and could recognize it but had no power to change it.  I felt horrible for W2.  I was sick to death of tripping over stuff no matter I chose to walk, stepping on things that hurt when you stepped on them, and having things fall over onto my feet.  Just over it.  So at 6 pm on Saturday when we don't have enough tile, let's just say it wasn't a good thing.

But off to the Evil Orange Box we went, me for the second time that day, to find tile that would match what we already had and not cost a fortune.  We were successful and went home to figure out how to pattern the three types of tile together.  We agreed on a design and called it quits for the night, opening a bottle of wine...and polishing it off in short order.

Sunday we actually tiled the floor.  Because it is so flippin' humid it probably will not be dry for another week.  Which is a bit of a problem since the room only has one exit, meaning we couldn't tile the entire floor in one shot.  We go 2/3 done and will have to wait for it to dry.  We are both happy with it, and I will post pictures soon.

Tonight we are back to wiring outlets.  I'm actually getting good at it!