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Dishwasher Disaster
Gather around friends, it’s time for another weird house story! The dishwasher was already ‘old’ when we bought this place nine years ago. But other than the fact that not all the buttons lit up properly, it worked just fine. So, we left it alone since there were other and more pressing house matters to attend to first. Until last year, when our old dishwasher started dying a slow death. With falling apart rusted racks, buttons that didn’t activate the first press, and a dish tab holder that wouldn’t always pop open during the wash cycle, requiring us to run it a second time, we decided it was…
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Parkside Twin: 9 Years and Counting
Happy almost May everyone! Between the pandemic and parenting, renovation things here have been paused or put in slow-mo for the past couple of years. But we’re still here and still kicking! We’ve deliberately put on hold anything that would take more than a day or two, as well as the things we felt couldn’t be delayed any further. (I’ll tell you all about our dishwasher experience from H-E-double hockey sticks later.) Here’s a quick rundown of our project list from the last two years We bought a new light for our dining room from Wayfair. Our previous fixture – which I swore I had a picture of but after…
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The Big 6: Reflections on another year of home ownership
Happy Wednesday everyone! Hard to believe it’s May already but I hope you all had a lovely Mother’s Day weekend. I’ve had the privilege to be a stepmom to a fantastic kid for the last 3 years, but this year it was especially sweet since I celebrated with my little one who arrived in February. Enough about me and the baby though. It feels so good to dust off the keyboard and (attempt to) get back into the rhythm of blogging, or at least as much of a rhythm as it can be with a new baby. When I’m not completely sleep-deprived, I’m planning out the laundry list of projects…
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The New Nursery!
Happy Sunday to you all! Hard to believe we’re already through the first month of 2020. December came and we hit the ground running (or waddling in my case.) Our construction project was finished that first week, but between getting everything cleaned and back into place, the holidays, visiting family, the last two months have been more than a little crazy. We’re still in a bit of an “organize and prep mode” especially since baby will be here before we know it! Finding times to take pictures, then sit down and write when I’m not utterly exhausted comes few and farther in between so I’ll be showing off our remodel…
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We Have Walls: More news from the construction front
We hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! This is the first year in a few that we’ve spent at home due to the construction. It was worth it though, not only for the quiet holiday (although we missed family and friends) but also because so much is happening around here and each day it looks a little more complete. They’re shooting to be finished early next week (since we had a delayed start, they’re trying to get things finished up as efficiently as possible so as to try and stay within the original 3-week project timeline as well as get us back to having livable spaces again.) Our new lights…
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Under Construction: IT’S HAPPENING!
It is well into week 2 of our construction project and things more than a bit hectic around here. Unfortunately, this project hasn’t been without its hiccups. The downsides of owning a house over 100 years old are that you’re bound to run into some sort of issue once you start opening the walls. The hubby and I have found that out the hard way on multiple occasions. Once the drop tiles were out and the aging plaster ceiling down, they found a couple of weak beams that needed to be “sistered” which means they’re adding additional beams next to them to support and strengthen. Between the beams, finding a…
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Under Construction …. Almost
It’s finally here! This week marked the start of our HUGE remodel project for which I am equal parts anxious and excited. The control freak DIY-er in me is loathing the fact that I can’t do this myself but trying to work on the house construction whilst pregnant is probably not a great idea. (I may have a small penchant for getting injured when I work on the house. Just maybe…) On the other hand, I am relieved someone else is doing all the heavy lifting and there are things we can have done now that neither myself or the husband would attempt on our own. But before I get…
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Hiring a Contractor: Our Tips and Tricks
While the husband and I are both DIYers, sometimes it’s good to know when we’ve reached our limits, when it’s time to put down the paintbrush and hammer and call in a professional. Tackling drywall and paint is no issue and while hanging trim isn’t my strong suit, I can still do that with some degree of comfort. But neither of us are trained or licensed in plumbing or electrical work beyond the occasional outlet swap or tightening a joint on a leaky pipe, nor would either of us attempt to add onto our house on our own. Often hiring contractors is due to time constraints. For us, the turning point…
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The Living Room: Finally Finished
We finished the living room with barely 2 days to spare before my family arrived. Of course, finished is a relative term since there was still so much to do. The room was painted of course with the not-as-overwhelming-as-I-first-thought blue, but baseboard and crown molding needed to be purchased and hung yet, and the light fixture I had ordered 2-day shipping was, of course, delayed. Panic started to set in but I kept reminding myself to keep pushing through as I channeled my inner Dory from Finding Nemo singing ‘Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming’ as I worked. We did manage to get the baseboard hung and caulked the day…
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The Living Room: Pushing Through
So, there we were – in the living room where we bit off more than we could chew – with new floors and a renewed drive to finish the work we had started (at that point in time) over a year and a half ago. Of course, we should have realized then that our plans never seem to pan out in the time span we hope or expect them to. (I guess we’re slow learners?) The floors may have been finished but there was still SO. MUCH. WORK. left for us to do. In the meantime, we learned how to attach and mud over corner beading, layering spackle on…
