Our New Old House

First of all, I’d like to thank the members of the Des Moines Rehabbers Club who kindly offered me advice this morning.  I sent a rather panicked email to the mailing list this morning and got some really excellent responses.  It helps so much to have someone to turn to in a crisis like this! 

The flooring company has secured the right color grout, but they didn’t order enough tile for the bathroom.  They will finish the parts under the tub, toilet, and sink and finish the rest when the tiles are in.  They’re going to cut the tile to fit around the pipes in the floor, rather than some other way.  I’m glad of that because it didn’t seem right to have to cut all the pipes down and redo all that plumbing. 

When I talked to Brandon (who’s at the house today while I’m at work) he said they’d laid the subfloor in both the kitchen and the bathroom and were going to get the kitchen done today.  That was earlier this morning, so I hope there’s been some good progress made.

 While the flooring guys were working in the house, Brandon took the ladder out and broke the rotted fascia off the roof and removed as many nails as he could to prepare for new gutters being installed.

 Our quote from the gutter company arrived.  It is over $2000, which for a single story, 1000 square foot bungalow seemed ridiculous.  Our neighbor down the street with a similar house had theirs done for $450 or so.  Will keep looking.

We’re heading out to the Iowa State Fair this afternoon to blow off some steam.  Pictures coming soon of all our adventures!

[tags]gutters, thanks, ceramic tile, bathroom, Des Moines Rehabbers Club, contractors, plumbing, kitchen, flooring[/tags]

The ceiling… duh!

Brandon and my sister’s boyfriend, Ryan, put up drywall in the kitchen last week. Here they are working very hard on one corner. (Truth is, I only took photos of them while they were working on that one spot.)

Beautiful!!! Now I just have to mud it and we’ll be ready for molding and paint!

[tags]drywall, kitchen, ceiling, photos[/tags]

We’re getting started on the major projects in the kitchen and that includes flooring. Here’s how the floor looked when we first moved in:

Brandon started tearing up the old flooring and found some of this old linoleum:

Ironically, we had just picked out this new style of linoleum tile when we found the old stuff:

So we’re continuing the same type of geometric look that was done in the past, but with an updated look and improved durability. I can’t wait to have these floor tiles installed. That’ll be happening in three weeks.

[tags]kitchen, flooring, photos[/tags]

Will the wonders of my kitchen ever cease?  Maybe.  I worry I’ll start to miss the disgusting walls and the gag-me-with-a-spoon froo froo trim.    And then I start pulling it down and the act of destruction solidifies my rage over the tragedy that is the decorating job done to this poor old classic house.  Case in point:

Behold! My kitchen. It sucks. But not for much longer. Here you see the stupid trim (as I’ve taken to calling it these days) on the left and the area where I pulled the stupid trim down on the right.

Some fascinating wallpaper choices. Just fascinating.

Is that strange golden grainy stuff on the wood sap that has oozed out of the wood?

Anyway, trim is coming down and a new drywall ceiling will be going up very soon.

[tags]wallpaper, photos, kitchen, ceiling[/tags]

On the same day my cousins came over and drew graffiti on my bathroom walls, they also let out a little adolescent frustration on the tile in the kitchen. 

And a good time was had by all.

[tags]photos, kitchen[/tags]