still with the bathroom

i'm not sure how we ended up here, living in this house. but i'm glad. it was worth all the frustration, worry and time consuming work. moving sucked because moving sucks - but it was fantastic all the same! we own this place. we can be loud. we can be messy. we can tear down "permanent" things and replace them with other permanent things. wierd!

still struggling w/ the bathroom tile. the grout sealer i used didn't work. but it was "green". it was odorless & didn't hurt my skin. we've moved on to some serious shit - we have to wear respirators just to breathe while applying it. really gross stuff. but at this point, as long as it works, i'll get over it. we need to be able to shower. dan's been hitting the gym in the mornings & i'm washing up in the sink. pretty exciting stuff. shaving the legs will have to wait a little longer.

started out the day w/ some mouse death. i woke up when one trap snapped last night & i was fairly sure i heard something still moving around after the snap. too afraid to go into the kitchen this morning, i convinced dan to check it out. we had not one but 2 mice in the traps. 1 was dead, the other caught a little flap of skin & fur on his back in the trap & was totally alive. super suck. i didn't know what to do. take it outside & let it go? (is it even possible to open the trap w/ a mouse in it?) dan was curageous & did the deed even though he didn't want to. strange and awful to start the day by killing an animal. why is it ok? i mean, i have zero interest in having rodents running around & shitting all over our kitchen. GROSS. but killing them feels so awful. i was so sure we'd found & plugged the holes the night before we moved in. maybe we did & we just sealed in some of the critters - or maybe we didn't... i wish they would just move out so they don't get killed.

it really is that bad

that's right. we at mcdonald's for dinner tonight. that's about the size of it around here.

our bathroom is trying to kill us

recent highlights:

• snow storm & snow day spent working on the house together
  
• meeting our neighbors while shoveling the walks
• kindness of strangers in the snow
  
• a christmas card from some of our neighbors (& it was really cute too)
• reassurance that we kinda know what we're doing. after 24 hours of panic about out-of-plumb-ness of our bathtub walls & the impending horrible tile job, we realize we were crazy yesterday & all is well.
  
• helpful advice from someone at work
• our house no longer smells like mold & nastiness
• finding a door in the attic. our bathroom will have some actual privacy!
• katie's back in b'more!
• gin & tonic before bed.
• cuddling up in our cold bed. (we did finally close the window but it's still insanely cold in here.)
  

low lights:

• hauling debris = expensive
• trips to home depot = expensive
• plumbing leak due to my interest in recycling/reusing our copper pipes = probably expensive
  
• the 24 hour period when we thought we had to tear down the bathtub walls & start over
• writing a crap ton of recommendations for folks i've supervised.
  
• writing a recommendation for myself for something my boss was too busy to take care of.
• our apartment. after a hard night's work, we took showers when we got home - as usual. i'd just lathered up when someone else (or multiple folks) decided to use the water. the shower went dry. no water. can't wait to leave here!
  

burst of fish

the week off has been pretty fantastic so far. spent the first few days working on the house - prepped for radiator modifications, worked on some annoying framing details, got some saw horses & other miscellaneous tools. dropped dan off at the airport for his band reunion/family Thanksgiving in STL. had a wonderful Thanksgiving at Caretaker Farm w/ katie & anna. i survived 9 hours of driving by myself - something i didn't think i would be able to do. i got lost a few times which extended the drive by 2 hours. oh windy country roads, your poor signage & fog were frustrating! i had a wonderful time chatting, hiking, cooking, eating, sitting by the fire & hanging out with girls. i miss spending time with girl friends. oh my, it was fun! i'm so looking forward to the maunz's return to the b'more region & the future success of their farm. (they're looking for farm names - so if you think of any GOOD ones, send them my way.)

the remainder of this weekend will be spent resolving all remaining bathroom issues - choosing fixures & finishing some framing details. the fixture choosing is stressing me out a bit. of course we want the bathroom to look nice & we want to like it a lot. but i also feel strongly that we should reuse existing things. i'm not yet sure how to balance my interest in being environmentally friendly/not wasteful & our interest in having a great bathroom. i'm not bold enough to try recycling a bunch of junky old tile into a fancy mosaic - though that would be cool, not my forte. i've been going back & forth about what to do w/ the bathroom floor. should we leave the old subfloor down and re-tile or should we pull it up in the hopes of finding hardwood floor underneath? (i'm pretty sure it's hiding under there somewhere...) i'm leaning towards hardwood exploration. probably a similar amount of work to salvage the floor but we wouldn't be purchasing new materials.

can't forget about the bathroom before, during & after pics. this was a few weeks ago. we've since removed the plumbing stack (thank you youtube & home depot tool rental), built a new wall & moved the doorway.






and a photo of the front for Mom Maunz (taken by the previous owner, Lino):

knockin' it all down

we've been homeowners for about 9 days now. it's exciting & nerve-wracking. anxiety kicks in when we're tearing things out & i realize the full extent of the work we need to do. thank god we bought a small house! so the above photo represents the state of our bathroom yesterday. i'm having some trouble w/ the camera - otherwise i'd post the after photo. we've torn out the entire bathroom - removed all the fixtures, tile, trim, one whole wall... lots of work. the demo reminded me how much i hate plaster. it sucks. it's a pain to tear off & a pain to clean up - so heavy! ugh. my shoulder was feeling fantastic until i sledged a few studs outta the way. i'm always amazed at the quality of 50+ year old carpentry. the studs are actual 2x4s, some with the bark still on. i have no idea what size the framing nails are but they're probably 4" long. crazy! i can't believe people used to drive those by hand. the carpenters must've suffered from some serious arthritis & joint problems.

what else? dan scooped water out of the toilet w/ a shot glass (haven't purchased a shop vac yet) & showered in the wacky basement shower. our bathroom has been reduced to a bucket that i seem to visit often... kinda glad we're not living there just yet. we also met a really nice neighbor who's a wood worker.

spent this past week in talladega, alabama w/ my supervisees. it was SOOO nice to get out of here, away from work, our smelly-ass apartment & this crazy house we now own. i lucked out & got a room to myself (unheard of), had amazing water pressure & plenty of hot water. um... 3 square meals a day that i didn't have to prepare. some lame & less lame workshops. it was pretty good. got back Friday afternoon. my work's supposed to be moving to our new building at the end of the week... ugh. i'm imagining a stressful week. but looking forward to coming home & having lots of projects to work on, which i think might help me turn off the work stress.

wondering if we'll take on floor refinishing...

we got the permit!

the beat goes on

we finally heard back from the sellers after 2+ weeks wait to hear if they would help w/ the cost of replacing the entire sewer line. wasn't expecting anything but lo & behold, they'll kick in $2k. pretty cool. we're rolling right along. still waiting to hear back from the city about the driveway. hoping for word by next Tuesday at the latest, though at this point, my resolve is crumbling because (a) i'm tired of living in this apartment (b) i think this is the right house for us & i like it a lot. i'm thinking more along the lines of, "we'll have 5 years to argue w/ the city about a driveway". our realtor contacted us yesterday to let us know the termite inspection took place last Friday & evidence of termites was found in several different locations. YUCK! why can't anything be easy with this place?! it seems like we should run screaming in the other direction. i met a structural engineer there after work to check out the damage. the only place we found termite damage looked pretty terrible to me. he checked it out & stabbed the visible area all over with a sharp pointy tool to see if it was more than superficial, which it wasn't. he advised that it was not a big deal & should not be a deal breaker because old lumber is much denser than what is currently available & the joist was in very good shape. i paid him $110 for his time & breathed a sigh of relief.

every time i go in there, the place seems smaller. i think that happens when people remove furniture though. can't wait to be done w/ this house buying crap. seriously. & done with our realtor. one of the contractors i called today about the termites was very confused that i (the buyer) was calling and not our realtor. the first time someone said that was when i contacted our title company. "Oh, we usually work with the realtor." huh.

i blew my nose on my shirt a little while ago. tired of using up all of our toilet paper for nose-blowing. t'is the season for colds & crap & we've both been sick.

i think this is day 2 of freshish air in our apartment. it's fantastic! i slept so well last night, i still can't believe it. i hope to sleep similarly well tonight. don't know what's gotten into our neighbor - nicotine patches?? whatever it is, i appreciate these short breaks we have in the smoky air. i never realized how much air quality affects me. but i can say that smoky air makes me angry & grumbly & if dan's around, i become pretty much of a whiner about the whole thing. it's pretty pathetic.

going out of town for work the first week of November w/ my supervisees - all 14 of them. should be interesting. 12 of them are under 25 & the other 2 are over 50. i so look forward to hanging with the 50+ crowd.

can't believe settlement is scheduled for next Friday. it's starting to seem all to real & it's freaking me out a little bit. i never thought we'd actually buy a house. but i guess we've still got a little over a week to wait. maybe we won't buy it... have to wait & see.