Week Four, Day Four

I will get to my cliff hanger, but first: this is my bathroom one month ago and today. The drywall was ripped up from someone tearing out all the fixtures before I bought the house. There was a sickening bluish green wallpaper of the walls, which blended well with the vomit I spewed every time I had to climb over the piles of rubble to get to the duct taped toilet. Clearly, this bathroom needed some work.

The repairs to this bathroom were to lay a new floor (vinyl), replace and repair the drywall, paint, purchase three light fixtures, buy a new special-order square toilet seat, and add install the vanity. The floor was around $50 including glue, the drywall was free because we already had it, although we did spend about $30 on various goops and powders needed to fix the walls, paint was $30, the light fixtures were about $50 all together from Walmart, the toilet seat $40, and the vanity free because my dad had it extra, with the plumbing and faucet about $50 all together. So adding this together, the bathroom roughly cost about $250. Add in the little things I'm not remembering right now, and it probably was less than $300 tops.

Although this is a very reasonable price, I would like to set the bar ever-higher and refurbish the upstairs bathroom for a fraction of the cost of the downstairs. This will be quite a feat, as the upstairs bathroom is in shambles even more than the downstairs was. To make the upstairs acceptable, I would need to replace some subflooring where someone left a candle to burn (THROUGH the carpet, THROUGH the padding, and INTO the subfloor...how did the house not burn down?), get a new sink and toilet, do something about the hole-filled paneling on the walls, fence in the outside balcony that opens off the bathroom, and lay a new floor. This is besides the inordinate amount of cleaning that I will need to do to make it passable. Anyway, here is my big idea: I would like to conduct a little experiment to see if I can fix the upstairs bathroom for less than $50. I realize that this might be crazy. But I have the time to give it a try, and magnanimous as Obama is, he did not in fact give me a bottomless pit of money from which to make home repairs. So I plan on scouring the "free" ads over the next few weeks and months to see how this goes...I am anticipating success. Here's some pics of the upstairs:

Week Four, Day Three

Another successful day! I am beginning to overcome my compulsive desire to know how to do (and personally implement) all things "house". This was mainly accomplished as I noticed my total lack of frustration and dread as I entered the house to find my bathroom sink largely installed. I observed in myself that not doing any work is surprisingly relaxing...

Two trips to the hardware store today. Once was a walk-through to buy more rollers (my new secret weapon to painting is avoiding sub-par tools...or at least replace sub-par tools frequently) and to pick out more sample baseboard. This now constitutes a fun after-work activity, so lives do change. The second was a rushed trip with my brother and the generous friend of my mom's who is helping me. We purchased new faucet handles for the clothes washer...exciting. It was rather fulfilling to get the washer working, though.

As my FIRST EVER cupcakes prepared in the new house were fluffing up in the oven, I spent a few minutes edging and painting in the bathroom. I completed one wall and enjoyed myself thoroughly using the most adorable mini-roller of all time. The ridiculousness of using another brush to "paint" the paint onto the roller was even offset by how much fun tiny things are. I find that when painting alone, a girl must take some joy where she can find it.

While painting, I took a moment to develop the following weekend goals:
1. Lay the dining room floor.
2. Finish painting the living room, no matter how tiresome this becomes.
3. Lay the baseboard trim in the sun room.
4. Invite guests over for Sunday dinner!

This thinking-while-painting thing is very effective. One of my greatest ideas in recent days (which is still saying a lot, as I tend to develop many creative ideas each day that are easily strewn aside/given up on/otherwise rejected) is to...

...since it is a great plot device, I will live this cliff hanger until tomorrow.

Week Three, Weekend!

Weekend Update:
This has been a big weekend, definitely not without its emotional ups and downs. My productivity level has skyrocketed in the last few days. Let's hope this lasts a while...

Friday I arrived early to clean up and get ready for painting. I had a small crew of four friends (with one self-appointed foreman...ah, gender stereotypes) help to prep and paint the sunroom and an "accent wall" of the living room. I can state with authority that it is infinitely more satisfying to paint colors than it is to paint primer. And, I would definitely say that it is more fun to paint with friends! We had a good time and got a lot done. Later in the day, I had been planning to continue work on the floor, but I ended up working on more painting (a large cabinet and trim work) and applying plaster, which is a new favorite hobby. I spent the evening out to get my mind of housework, although I must say that I ended up frantically shoving paint chips under my dining partner's nose, demanding to know if the colors "went".

Saturday was the final real moving day. I got my piano, washer, dryer, and other miscellany over to the house. This was real undertaking, and fortunately I functioned as foreman and cheerleader of this operation rather than actual mover. The afternoon was spent moving my brother's furniture up to his new room. More painting ensued. I also took a drive around with the guy who is helping with a variety of handyman jobs, to search for some boring but necessary pipes for the gas stove. This led to a discussion of the comparative costs of gas and electric stoves. Ultimately, I realized that at a $150 plus a day's labor, the old gas stove that I received free from a friend was probably not going to miraculously become a great stove. So, much to the chagrin of the handyman who had already taken measurements, I deemed it appropriate to buy a new stove.

Sunday was an incredibly successful day, as I was both able to purchase bathroom paint (a frothy light green) AND pick out my new stove all in one decidedly un-fell swoop. The stove thrilled me, in particular, because it was originally priced at around $900, and I was able to get it for a mere $400, including free delivery. My love/hate relationship with Lowe's is definitely on an upswing. Thank you to the Lowe's store for a marvelous experience--we'll see if they can maintain a positive or at best neutral stance in the future. Anyway, I also painted the bathroom (as a side note, you'd think with all this practice I would be quite a painter by now, yet to the contrary, I return to already-painted rooms to find even bigger splatters of paint on the floor than before, with little tears of paint sliding down the walls in conspicuous places). I also posted an ad on Craig's list trying to get my miniature horse, Quickie, moved. Surprise of all surprises, I was successful! A lovely family from my native Randolph offered to move him with all his accoutrement for a very reasonable rate. He is now blissfully stowed away in his one-acre pasture. I just await the morning when he demands his breakfast by pressing his oblong head into my dining room window.

Changes are happening quickly. And most importantly, I am finally truly living at the house now that my brother is here to live with me. Thank god for siblings! The saga of the house anxiety is finally over. It's only up from here....