Year of the House

Things may start moving fast.

First, I called and harangued the surveyors AGAIN. Well, yes, blah blah blah. At this point, I just want it done. They said they should have it by the end of this week.

I feel like...I don't know. I feel like I'm already in construction hell, and we haven't done anything yet.

But! I talked to our first-choice builder this morning, and, well, things are a little slow right now. So he's going to come over on Thursday afternoon and meet with us and look at our renderings and drawings and such. Frankly, I'm ready to have 'em come and start excavating as soon as the survey is done.

We've also been talking about re-doing the existing bathroom -- it has an acrylic tub enclosure thing that's just a freakin' nightmare. We'd like to rip out the enclosure, tile the walls, and put in a nice new tub. Also, we've looked at and decided on a new vanity top, to match my lovely paint job on the vanity. And since we're going white in that room, a new floor and a new toilet are also indicated.

I know THAT is going to turn into more of a job than we want. I know it. There's a leak someplace that has to be fixed, and where there's a leak, there's rot, so there's some subfloor and maybe even some wall that's going to need replacing, too.

Frankly, if he can get started on the addition now, I'm happy to wait on the bathroom. If he can get started on the bathroom while we're waiting for other stuff to fall into place, well, that would be great, too. But I get the sense that the dizzying spiral is beginning...stay tuned.

Posted by Kerri at 11:08 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

No, the surveyor still hasn't finished. No, we still don't have plans. Yes, I'm getting a bit frustrated.

So, today we were talking about fixtures. I don't quite remember how, but we got to talking about what will be the 'guest' bathroom, and what we wanted to do with it. It's currently got a sheet vinyl floor, and that's going to go, probably replaced with Pergo. It's got a one-piece shower/tub thingus, which is the sort of tub I'm sure they have in HELL. And to top it off, it is BEIGE. And so is the toilet. And so is the sink.

We don't like beige.

The vanity is ugly, too. The top is Formica, sort of a greenish greyish with pinky and bluey flecks. Basically, it looks like something you might see in a bucket the morning after a long night at a frat party. And the base is a sort of honey maple nastiness.

Well, it was. All this discussion got me to thinking about something I could actually do -- so I decided to paint the base of the vanity. We had to go get paint, and of course the GOOD paint store in town isn't open on Sundays, so we went to the Despot to grab a quart of Pot of Cream-colored Behr. Bleh.

I already had the proper primer...like Kilz, but Zinsser or something? I don't remember what it's called, but you paint it on anything -- including finished wood, and then the paint will stick to it and not peel off. I used it on my kitchen cabinet project a few years ago, and it worked great. No peeling or bubbling or anything. Perfect.

This made for a busy day. I made breakfast for the boys, and then we went outside to document the changing of the bulbs. A big event for us. I guess. :-)

Then the trip to the store -- we looked at vanity tops and tubs and tile, too, and got some ideas -- had a Del's, and then I made chicken salad sandwiches.

I just realized this is turning into the most boring entry ever. Oh well.

So, coat of primer, and then I let that dry for an hour while we did some more car bulb photographing. Got the pics all processed, and then it was time for the first coat of paint. It went on fine, and I made very little in the way of mess, surprisingly enough. Pause to dry, so I made dinner (a really nice grass-fed pasture-raised London broil, sliced thin, and stir-fried with fresh organic sugar-snap peas), and then slapped on coat two of the paint. After a short wait, it was time for coat three, and then I declared myself DONE with this project. At least for now. When it's all dry and the door's put back on and the drawers are replaced (oh, did I mention, Rich went through the drawers, threw anything that was old, crappy, or expired, and lined the bottoms of the drawers with contact paper?), I'll take a picture. Don't get too excited, though. It'll just look like a boring white vanity.

And to cap off the busiest day in recent memory, I just played about 90 minutes of Dance Dance Revolution Extreme 2, finishing sections A and B of the Dance Master ladder.

Can you call me a dance MASTER? Yes, yes you can.

Also, now I need a shower. Like ya read about.

Posted by Kerri at 11:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)