Day 7

I got home late from Ft. Meyers last night. The only thing I noticed before going straight to bed was a fine layer of dust on everything. The plastic is not doing it's job.

 And I got up this morning to find something missing from the bathroom.

Good thing we have a privacy fence. 

                                            

They arrived early today to work on the floors again. Chiseling, hammering, scraping, repeat. Over and over and over. All day long.
The island is gone. And so is my patience.



Lesson learned: Make sure you get a final estimate on installation BEFORE they break up your existing floor.

Day 5:

We decided since we were killing the evil garden wallpaper, we might as well get rid of kilt on the bathroom walls as well. They were distracting, to say the least. Who puts plaid on a wall?

Fortunately we were unable to save the bathroom mirror. So now we have to redo the entire bathroom. Damn.





                                                                                                 

Keeping it on the Down Lowe's

matt ordered all the supplies he would need to renovate the bathroom in September. (And I suspect a few other things as well based on the credit card statement I just saw). he told Lowe's to keep everything together and deliver all at once when the order was complete. And here we are, almost the third week of October and the order still hasn't arrived. It seems the tile and all the tiling supplies have been lost in a renovator black hole somewhere in the universe.



Lesson 12: Special orders will NOT arrive on time, no matter what they tell you. Don't expect it, don't count on it, don't cry over it. Nothing can be done about it.








And of course, it's the next step in the bathroom renovation process, so nothing else can proceed until the tile comes in. In the mean time, I am forced to share My bathroom with matt. I won't go into it here, suffice it to say that couples should always, always, always have separate bathrooms.

Lesson 13: Keeping a sense of humor is essential.

Weekends are for Working

Working a full time job through the week is no excuse for resting on the weekends. It's Saturday, and I was  up at 6:30 this morning setting up the yard sale. Getting rid of mostly Matt's old tools that he swore he had to replace with shiny new ones. Also selling the lights, switches, ceiling fans we just replaced in the house. Hoping to make back some of the money we just spent on the new stuff.


So I sit here in my garage pricing, haggling, tagging, organizing, praying for customers to come buy our extra stuff. 

Lesson 10: Garage sales are great if you live in the city, not so great if you live in a remote location out in the country.

On the upside, Matt got the new exhaust fan and shower light installed this weekend and is almost done sheet rocking and green boarding the shower walls.

Trash or Treasure?

Funny thing, one of our biggest problems so far is in finding a way to dispose of the construction debris. The wood we can burn in the back yard. But our trash company wont pick up tile, drywall and other debris. Not to mention the rusty 4 foot x 4 foot heavy metal school lockers that were in the work shed.We were going to rent a dumpster, but that cost 600.00. Everyone we talked to suggested taking the stuff to the landfill ourselves. They only charge 27.00 a truckload. But, I think when they say truck load, they mean pick up truck. not uhaul. We would tow it ourselves on a rented low boy, but I don't have a hitch on the back of my Jeep. I think we may have to break it up and hide it in with our regular trash. haha. Lesson #7-know in advance how you are going to dispose of demolition debris.

Tip: Craig's List and yard sales are a great way to dispose of a lot of unwanted items.

I listed the metal lockers on Craig's List and by the end of the day had 3 replies. The next morning they were gone. I imagine this will also work well with toilets, tubs, cabinets, etc. Just be careful for the scammers. There are quite a few on Craig's List

Bathroom or Bucket?

Matt has started deconstruction on the bathroom now. And surprisingly, we are having more problems. lol. He found extensive termite damage to the linen closet. Enough that he will have to replace most of the 2x4s, shelves, and drywall in the closet and tub. We have called orkin to come out and inspect to see if the termites are still there. I can only hope the previous owners took care of the termites, but left the damage for us to fix.

Yesterday Matt removed the faucets and shower head and the wall they were attached to. And for some reason added valves to the pipes in the closet behind it. He says it will be easier to shut the water off at the shower if there is a problem than all the water in the house. It kind of makes sense. But while he was sautering on the new valves he charred the support 2x4s. So now it smells like the house caught on fire. He says that wont be a problem later. And there are nasty char marks on the wood. Lesson #6- Sauter away from wooden structures supports.

Good thing we have two bathrooms, or he would be doing all his business outside. He still may before this is all over with.

Why Renovating Bugs Me

Matt and I have loosely divided responsibilities in the effort. I am responsible for most of the landscaping, curb appeal, and painting and limited assistance in deconstruction and reconstruction. Matt is responsible for plumbing, electrical, drywall, construction, demolition (which he is really good at, lol) and we share in the design ideas. Lesson #2-Dividing the labor helps, but don't expect each other to work at the same pace. We will see how it goes.

Last week, Matt ordered most of the supplies for one of the bathrooms. But in order to do the bathroom, he claimed he needed to clean out and organize the work shed first. Of course this led to him finding rotten wood in the support structure and termites. So before anything else can be done, he replaced the back wall of the work shed. We weren't expecting that! 

Lesson #3 -you will find termite damage in Texas when you see wood. My boss told me there are two kinds of houses in texas, those that have had termites and those that will have termites. uggg.

While he was replacing the damaged back wall, he found the back corner of the roof was rotting away and several shingles needed replacing. And the gutters were hung incorrectly. But it's just a work shed, so those renovations are on hold. Lesson #4-when renovating you will find unexpected problems that will cost you time and money to fix, so Prioritize.

Last weekend, I spent all of my free daylight hours either in lowes or cleaning out the front gardens for replanting. And in doing so, realized the exterior of house has some cracks in the brick that will require sealing and painting and the shutters need to be replaced with something not so black!

As Matt was installing new ceiling fans/lights in the living room and dining room. We took out the gaudy ceiling fan that was centered between the living room and dining room. This of course has left us with a nice square hole in the middle of the ceiling which will have to closed and painted. Which means the entire ceiling will probably have to be painted as well. arrrgggg! Lesson #5-removing one thing will lead to having to fix something else even bigger.