craigslist obsessed

To say I am obsessed with craigslist is almost an understatement.  Rarely am I ever really on the interwebs anymore unless it is to scour craigslist.  Occassionally I pore over the ads looking for a specific item such as the vintage turned leg kitchen table I found for $30! 

I am enamored with old wood furniture, specifically anything with turned legs or pedestal bases....sometimes anything that is just real wood.   There is so much particle board furniture that it is refreshing to find an old, heavy piece of wood furniture that has probably been around longer than I have. 

Sometimes I have a flash in the pan thought about something.  Lo and behold I see that "something" on craigslist. 

Just last weekend, I was at my in-laws and was admiring the wood corner hutch in their dining room.  Our dining space has a somewhat awkward layout that makes fitting a dining table as well as a server somewhat cramped.  Corner hutch....you are a dream.  Now whether you can actually fit serving plates in the corner hutch space is something else. 

I was once again browsing on craigslist for nothing in particular when I stumbled upon a spitting image of my in-laws' corner cabinet!  $60 and a truck is all I need to haul this 7 foot monstrosity home with me.  I now wait patiently for the boy to return from his business trip to show him my new treat!!

I have visions for my craigslist scores.  I'll share those shortly.  In the meantime, I am going to go scour the interwebs for a free boat or hot tub.  Those are always listed too!  I have yet to convince the mister that we need either of those right now.  Do you obsess over second hand scores too?  What have you brought home lately?

deceptive paint and a lowes fail

I broke out the plastic drop cloths, rollers, brushes and ladder this weekend.  I got down and dirty with my 2 gallon no name ceiling paint and the 5 gallons of SW accessible beige that I have stored in the basement.  Have I ever mentioned that this house was bathed in a high gloss white? 

I moved the furniture, unscrewed the 1970's curtain hardware, spackled, sanded and got busy.

I went from high gloss white to a somewhat deceptive greige.  What was supposed to be a warm beige tends to look slightly greige instead.  I had to double check my paint can to make sure I actually mixed up the right paint.





Well, I clearly had the right paint.  So maybe it is just the fugly green couch I have that is throwing off the room?  The couch has me dreaming and salivating over slip covers.  That is another issue all together though for a different time.

Once the hardware had come down from the windows,  the mister and I headed to lowes to pick up some wood blinds.  Being totally naive, I just assumed that you pick out your blinds and someone in a blue smock with the word Lowes written on it would then trim them right up.  I was right.  That's pretty much how it all went down. Well, except when we actually got home and hung the blinds.  That was a different story.  What I did not account for was the additional 3 feet in length that my blinds now have.  In fact, they are so heavy from the additional length that they cannot be raised.



please take note of the additional blinds resting on the sill. 

I also failed to consider that we were purchasing white wood blinds that were trimmed and would expose the raw wood.  I guess it wouldn't be terrible if that raw exposed wood was not scorched.

I could do without the scorching, the extra 3 feet of length and the almost $200 price tag for my blinds. 

It took some arm twisting and convincing my husband to take the blinds down and return them to Lowes but I managed.  Those scorched suckers will be making their way back to Lowes this weekend.  I will continue to consider my window treatment options since I am not sure that I love the wood blinds so much.  Does anyone have suggestions?



progress not perfection

It's official.  I have moved.  The move was torture. 

We decided to move ourselves which ended up taking a total of 6 days and was done during the course of a heatwave.  Did I mention that our new dwelling does not boast central air?  Did I mention that my husband did not install window units during the 6 day move?  I know, right?  I said it was torture and that was no exxageration!

The house looked like this when we moved in......we are talking piles and piles of crapola!  I mean I am not even sure what we packed and brought with us. 

Since the house did not come equipped with a dishwasher we ordered one before the move.  It arrived during the 6 day fiasco.  Naturally we had to take a hiatus from the cleaning up the mess we just created because we could not stand to have one more box in our way.  Tears of joy were shed at the arrival!  I scored a stainless steel Kenmore washer for $284 from Sears online.  We purchased a garbage disposal for another $109 when we picked this badboy up in the store.  Our appliance package came to under $400!! 

Once the dishwasher came home we got busy ripping out the corner cabinets.  My husband ran the electric and plumbing lines for the appliances.  We spent about another $100-125 on the electric and plumbing materials.  Still keeping our total under $550!!  

 

 Two days of sweat equity and a few hundred dollars left me with this:

We have since replaced the trim work in the kitchen in case you are wondering.  We have left no gaping holes.  After our dishwashing hiatus we intended to start getting busy unpacking the house BUT my husband's truck got stolen!!!  Right from his parking lot at work! He works in a corporate office with security that patrols the lot!  What the what????  Needless to say, this was an unfortunate event that caused a small setback in our plans.  We could no longer haul drywall and lumber freewheeling through town.  We also had to start to re-think the house budget if we had to include the purchase of a new car into our expenses.  Gah!

I am pleased as punch to report that his car was recovered already.  The tires and wheels were removed and placed in the back of the truck.  Why?  I have no idea.  They also stole one, not two, but one concert ticket,  a frisbee and some trash.  I am just happy that our large and in charge truck will be coming home eventually and that we can resume the remodel. 

As for now we have made some small progress. We are getting ready to paint downstairs and are unloading some furniture that tagged along for the move that we don't need.  Rooms are clearing out and we are actually able to walk through them.  By the way, did you see the amazing job my husband did re-storing the floors????

wood floor restore. check.

The initial estimate of both time and money spent to refinish our floors has doubled.  We went from a re-finish to a full on balls to the wall restoration.  It took 4 weeks of non-stop labor and about $1000 give or take to re-store the floors.  It took two weeks to rip out carpet, tile, staples and more, another 5-6 days sanding and another 5-6 days sealing the floors.  It was countless hours of manual labor but soooooo worth it.  What we were able to accomplish on our own for pocket change would have cost the price of our first born if we had to hire someone to do what we just did.  Granted, we didn't end up with professionally re-stored floors but heck we ended up with some damn fine good floors in 4 weeks!! Sadly I have no camera because I lost it in the hustle and bustle of feeling homeless and between dwellings in the past 4 weeks. 

That brings me to today though.  Today marks my one day off between projects.  While my floors are curing I am getting geared up to sprint through a packing marathon.  Tomorrow at this time, my furniture will be settling in to my other home.  Needless to say my packing and organizational skills are a bit lacking since I have spent the last month sanding floors.  It's time to get crack-a-lacking and start a-packing!!

floor restoration

So apparently there is a very large difference between refinishing a floor vs restoring a floor...who knew?  Certainly not I.  I spent the last two weeks of my life pulling up tiles, carpet, staples and nails.  Once that was over I thought is was smooth sailing.  I thought Home Depot gave you a sander for the day and voila....24 hours later you had nice smooth floors. 

Boy was I ever loving wrong.  I should have been tipped off when I heard we needed a drum sander and not an orbital.  Apparently the orbital wouldn't take care of the damage that the drum sander would.  What?  There's damage?  I didn't realize that the splintered floor boards in the middle of the dining room or running down the length of the hallway posed an issue.  I certainly didn't realize that the 50 or 60 year old paint covering large portions of floor boards would be difficult to sand off and would ruin disc after disc after disc.  I also failed to understand that when my husband had to replace damaged floorboards in 5 of the 6 rooms we were refinishing that in fact we weren't refinishing but refurbishing!!  Holy smokes someone should have prepared me. 

By day number 4 of sanding the floorboards, my husband corrected me when I commented on how long the refinishing process took when people assured me it would be relatively easy.  At this point in time, my husband gently informed me that we were restoring the floor to it's origins and not simply refinishing a floor that needed a new coat of poly.  Oh!!  So that's why we are moving into day #5 of sanding and still haven't sealed the boards....now I see. 

It has been a slow and arduous process but one that will pay off in the long run.  I had every intention of documenting with pictures until I misplaced the battery charger for the 100th time and have had no chance to look for it.  I have had thoughts of investing in a video camera to tape the rest of the refinishing and the 95 projects on our to do list ranging from dishwasher installation to laying tile to blowing foam insulation.  Somewhere along the way I am also trying to convince my husband that hot tub installation needs to be bumped to the top 5 on the list.  For the meantime though floor restoration has become my home away from home, my second job, my other love....