The Itchies

If you happen to run into either Trent or me in the next few days, warning: we have the itchies and are scratching our arms and legs continuously. Thankfully, it's not contagious. This past weekend we insulated the house. Honestly, it was not the most enjoyable project. However, it is done and that means drywall starts tomorrow (yippee!).

In somewhat related news, we passed all of our inspections this past weekend as well (which is great timing since they all had to be done prior to the insulation and drywall).

If it ain't broke don't fix it

Everything in the project house is new. New and rather costly. Originally, we had planned to put on 2 new garage doors (they were even included in our budget). As we got closer to making that purchase and installation, we both realized that maybe there wasn't a reason to pay the money and use our efforts for this particular item. Trent looked the doors over, deemed them "working", and I went out to purchase a gallon of paint. About 3 hours later we had "new" doors. New, less expensive, and less work-for-me doors.

How long does it take....

How long does it take two fairly intelligent, college educated women to install a door handle on a screen door? 3 hours. (That's 2 hours and 30 minutes longer than it would take anyone else.)

A couple of weeks ago some friends of ours (Ben and Vanessa Sanders) offered to come up and help for an evening on the house. We jumped at their offer so fast that it should have tipped them off. Ben and Trent started the back deck (see photo) while Vanessa and I were given the "girlie" job. Trent had installed the new front screen door the night before, but ran out of time to install the handle. It should have been a quick and easy job - especially given the fact that Vanessa is the most handy girl I know.

We set out all the parts, read through the instructions (well, Vanessa did....I'm more of a "wing it" kind of gal) and grabbed Trent's drill. After 10 minutes of me figuring out how to change the drill bits, we were off and running. The first few holes I drilled seemed to be pretty tough (the door IS metal). Vanessa suggested that I keep the drill running as I try to pull it out of the freshly created hole. She made the suggestion just as I broke the drill bit...and got it stuck in the hole. We then (while laughing hysterically) ran around trying to find a nail to push through the hole to get the drill bit out. Yes, you guessed it....the nail got stuck. That's basically how the entire task went down: mistake, laughter, attempted fix-it, more laughter, 2nd attempted fix-it, laughter until tears, done.

In the end the door handle is complete and looks like a pro did it. And I only owe my husband a few parts for his power tools.

Let there be light, heat, and water

The good news: we officially have lights (throughout the entire house), water, and a furnace. The bad news: we still have no toilets installed. Forget toilets (plural) - I'll just take a toilet. I'm sick of running to McDonald's every hour from all the water and Gatorade I've consumed.
On a more technical and less grumpy note, the plumbing (PEX system) went in like a breeze. I have mentioned before how wonderful this stuff is and let me say it again: easier and cheaper to install. Greatest invention ever.
The heating and cooling is all installed but apparently you don't actually test it out until after the drywall is complete (I'm learning things along the way).
The wiring for the lights is complete and the wiring for the outlets is almost done. Little tidbit we've learned with wiring: whatever amount of wire you think you need for a project, just go ahead and add 30% to it.
Up next: drywall!

It's not easy being green (or cheap)

In an effort to make this project house have the best re-sale value possible, we have had no choice but to try and make various aspects enviro-friendly. Honestly, it's not the first thing I think of - but it's what all the "kids are doing these days". One of the big things we decided to invest in was a tankless hot water heater. They came on the market a few years ago and received less-than-perfect reviews. However, they have come a long way since then and (thankfully) so has the price. While they are still slightly more expensive than the standard hot water heater - it's reasonable. An added bonus is that they are now about the size of a shoe box (we have a 250 sq ft basement....space matters). The unit mounts to the wall (which is kinda' cool) and requires more electrical juice than anything in the house (not clear on how this makes it a green item, but I don't make the rules). According to Trent (Mr. Researcher) this name brand of tankless heaters receive the best reviews and are the cheapest.

My husband....MacGyver

We have been planning on having the yard completely torn up, leveled, re-seeded, and looking beautiful. We knew we would have to hire a portion of it out. We had a dollar figure in mind (which seemed reasonable to us). The work was started this past week. The actual dollar figure started to grow. About 25% of the way into this project we decided we would take care of the rest of it ourselves (even though we had no idea how). I spent the weekend pushing dirt around, cutting old roots, and picking up debris. Yesterday, Trent and I stood looking at the yard (aka: dirt hole) trying to come up with any ideas to get the yard smooth enough to plant grass seed. Leave it to my husband. He pulled out one of our 4-wheelers and attached some chains to the back of it. Then he took what was the back porch, flipped it over, and fastened it to the chains. Viola! Initially, the idea looked ingenious. However, once Trent started cruising around the yard (in circles) with an old porch attached to the back of our 4-wheeler.....well, I wasn't certain whether I wanted to claim my husband or not. Either way, the job is done and grass seed is being planted today.

On track

We are on track for the house progress (at this point). The exterior work is done! The lawn is being completely scraped and re-planted today, so we should have nice, pretty grass within the next few weeks.
As for the interior, I will post more photos this weekend (as we plan on spending most of our holiday weekend working at the house). The framing is all done, the plumbing is started and should be finished by this weekend , and the heating and cooling should be done by next weekend. Woohoo! We are moving along.

Not a mason....but I tried.

This past week we have just about wrapped up the exterior of the project house (whew - it's about time). I spent my time working on repairing/replacing several large holes in the brick foundation. While I don't have the skills of a mason (those guys do some seriously impressive work), I'm a whole lot cheaper. Since, I also painted the foundation (more photos to come on that), the brick work needed to be functional...form didn't matter too much.
I will spend some time this week working on landscaping and getting the outside whipped into shape. Trent is officially starting on the interior work. Of course we'll get the central air hooked up just in time for the weather to change.

Just about done...with the siding

Thanks to my hardworking husband and a couple of friends (Adam Callender and Daryl McMullen...BIG thanks!) the entire siding project is just about finished! In fact, as of tomorrow evening it should be entirely completed. We could not be more pleased about the way it turned out. Sure, it would have been nice if it would have moved a little faster, not been 95 degrees most days, not have had to buy a rather expensive roofing nail gun to get the nails through the existing siding, and if we (okay, it was me) would not have ruined a few pieces of siding by cutting them too short. But honestly, it was all worth it for the end product.
If you are wondering what the ugly, old, crazy tall antenna is still doing next to the house in the last photo....well, I thought we were taking it down. We were taking it down. Then my (engineer) husband says, "I may want to tinker around with a windmill and that would be a perfect spot for one." Great.

Up next: heating and cooling. Or landscaping. Or electrical and plumbing. I'll let you know what we decide.

Safe 'n Secure

The house on Oak Street is now fully locked up. We have both a front and back door (they look identical) with a standard lock and deadbolt on each. We decided to go with the Camber Plank style doors and these will be the same doors that we'll use on the interior. Personally, I'm just thrilled that we have exited the padlock phase. It didn't seem like a great way to secure a property....especially since I could squeeze through a few 2x4's and still get into the house without a key.

To any robbers who might be reading this blog: there is nothing in the house. Nothing, zero, zilch. We take all the fancy tools with us when we're done (which is time consuming but probably worth it to make sure you don't steal them). The only reason we have locked things up is because it's our property and we don't want people in there who haven't been invited.