Home Owning Anniversary (one week)

Pat & I got some stuff done through week one ... but we needed some help, both via manhours and professionally!  We had been waiting for a long time (since we bought the house back in August) to see what the costs were going to be to contract out the work that we can't (or don't want to) do ourselves; like the hardwood floors, building the box above the cabinets in the kitchen & repair the ceiling, and putting new tubs in the bathrooms.  Well, Friday finally came, and Pat sure was busy ...

1. The electrician came to do the repair work negotiated in our purchase.
2. The floor contractor came to estimate the repair work to hardwood.
3. Two contractors came to give us estimates on the kitchen and bath work (and some misc. stuff)

And, they all came at once!  The electrician actually came in the morning, but just as the floor guy and one of the contractors showed up to start their estimates, the electrician thought he was done, but then found some of the switches that didn't work properly ... so it was quite hectic!  But, Pat managed to talk with all of them and really ask some great questions so that we find AWESOME contractors.  We've gotten some of the quotes back already, and got some ballpark estimates for others ... so at least we're able to rest a little easier just knowing.  We decided on a floor guy (thanks to the online yellow pages, and some awesome previous work pictures), and also on the general contractor we're going to hire for the rest of the work (big thanks to Steve from northern Kentucky for recommending Rich to us ... he is awesome!).

Termite damage (OLD) that will be fixed ... along with sanding & refinishing all of the wood, and patching/saving the add-on to the floors in both bedrooms!

Pat also managed to strip the border wallpaper in the guest bedroom and part of the back hallway before I got home from work!  Then, we cleaned up our apartment and talked about the contractors while we waited for Patty and Tom to show up (Pat's parents) ... they were in town for the weekend to help us with the house, and they were a big help! 

On Saturday we all got A LOT done ...

1. Pulled up all of the tack board, nails, and staples from the carpet - in ALL of the rooms.
2. Decided to finish stripping ALL of the wallpaper in the den - even the stuff under the paint (not fun, or easy).
3. Stripped the wallpaper in the kitchen, and removed the tiles behind the stove. (this sounds like a lot of work, but this wallpaper came off with just a scrapper and some pulling, and the tiles just popped right off.  It was a gift from the housing gods after we decided to finish stipping the den, which was HORRIBLE work.)
4. Trip to Home Depot to get a sander, sand paper, spackle, more scrappers, etc.
5. Fixed some of the cracks in the walls and got a lesson on how to fix larger cracks in walls/ceilings.
6. Pulled up some of the master bath flooring to see what was under there.  (The hardwood floors run through to there also, but we're not sure that they are even in savable, fixable shape.  We'll ask the floor guy when he comes back out!)
7. Painted the samples of colors on the walls throughout the house. (Pat & I had bought these sample pints earlier in the week and I was super excited to see how the colors were going to look in our house.)
8. FINALLY finished cleaning all of the components and putting the fridge back together! 



 

Tack board + nails + staples = Hand injuries for Patty

It was a VERY productive day!  So, we all rewarded ourselves with a few drinks and a little dinner at our favorite place down here ... Oakwood Club!  It was much deserved, and oh so good!

And, just for fun ... here are the awesome shutters we have for the living and dining room windows!  We found them in our not so awesome basement (shower anyone?)!

So much more to do ... so there will be lots more posts this week ... as long as I have the time!