Living Room Makeover

When I first bought the home, the living room was painted a yellow color. Which was ok, sort of. But there were so many holes in the wall when I removed the nails and screws. And there was a spot that was painted a different yellow.

Since the kitchen was redone, and the living room was right off the kitchen, I figured I might as well keep going.

So on Sunday I gathered two friends and we went to town.

My job was to do the cutting in with the paint. The Shur-line paint edger is a God-send! I want to kick myself for trying to cut in with the paint brush when I was painting my bedroom. This saved so much time and blended in so much nicer with the roller brush.

Kristin was the Roller Queen. Pam took over painting the walls and trim in the little hallway outside the bathroom. You can't see it from the photo, but its the little alcove to the left of the closet door.

It was a long day. Even with three people this was a 4 hour job.

So after a quick walk with the dogs, we went to reward our hard work at Thai Cafe for dinner.  

Color shift

In the midst of all the renovation / moving nonsense, I need just one space where I can close the door and relax. That will be my bedroom.

I took a vacation day to get my room set up. First, paint the trim.

I changed it from a dingy off-white color to a bright white. You can see the drastic difference.

Then I painted the room a lighter color. Even though this photo was taken before I had overhead lights working, you can see the difference.

Any romantic ideas about how nice it will be to paint my entire house went out the window. Painting is a bitch. Mostly because my canvas tarp wasn't large enough to cover the whole floor, so I had to keep sliding it over to the area that I was working on. And that involved moving paint cans, a ladder, various crap. Stepping into flip-flops whenever I stepped on the newly finished floors so as not to get any paint on it. Then checking and wiping off any paint droplets before they dried.

But the result, as I finally laid down on a borrowed air mattress (that did not leak!) was pretty awesome.

Moving Day

I moved my stuff out of my apartment this weekend. After looking at the pictures, there was a lot more stuff than I thought. 

Saturday began with my good friend Jane arriving with her huge SUV to help cart boxes over to the house. If it was in a box or a plastic bin, and we were able to carry it, then we shoved it in her SUV or my car and drove it over. We did two trips. 

Then later in the day, Trosa arrived to take the furniture and anything left over. One hour is all it took for three guys to put stuff in a truck, drive it 20 minutes and unload stuff out of a truck.

By the way, Trosa is great. Wonderful people, professional and courteous. I love them!

The majority of my stuff got crammed in the back bedroom while I still have renovations going on and while I figure out what needs to go where.

Poor Barry is so confused.

Day 19: Kitchen Remodel

I am so close to the end.

I took a vacation day on Tuesday so I can gain some sanity. I was handing over my key to the apartment and still had to clear out the remaining crap. My house was still a shambles and nothing was set up.

The electrician came to finish his piece of the insane remodel puzzle.

Now my lights work and whatever crappy, illegal, hack job wiring that was done in my crawl space was removed and replaced with electrical work that won't set my house on fire. Score one for the electrician.

Today I stopped by to see my countertops being installed!

Day 12: Kitchen Remodel

Did a drive by yesterday and the last of the cabinets pieces are in.

How I feel about it.

The flooring crew kicked out the contractors before they could install the crown molding and kick stops. Getting the floors sanded and finished is the critical element here. 

Day 11: Kitchen Remodel - Cabinets

They're here! They're here!

My lovely Martha Stewart knock-off cabinets are here! And they're getting installed!

When I checked in on the house last night, here's where they left off. I"m loving the glass front wall cabinet in the corner.

Day 11: Kitchen Remodel - Floors!

The critical piece to me moving in my furniture in this Saturday is to get the floors done. Sanded, refinished, dried... done.

The small repair area between the two bedrooms is complete. This once was the location of we think was a floor grate. It might have been something used to pull hot air out of the home. Anyway, the previous patch job sucked and now its gone.

The sanding equipment is in place and phase one can begin.

My bedroom has already been sanded. Looking lovely!

Day 11: Kitchen Remodel - Electrical

It's been a week since I posted about the kitchen. After a few days of inactivity that caused some nervousness, there is a flurry of activity at the house again.

The electricians arrived and started making holes in the walls at proper counter height.

And that crazy old fuse box in the kitchen that still had some knob fuses has been removed.

And all those extra fuses have been relocated to the main breaker box. This was an upcharge. $$. Fail.

I now have a light fixture in the small hallway outside the bathroom.

Things are progressing, but slowly. Turns out the electrician crew did not run the outlet for my electric stove or move a light switch in the living room as requested. Fail again. They'll be back. 

Day Four: Kitchen Remodel

I have floors! Lovely, oak floors that will match the rest of the house. 

Next in, the electrician and the floor guy to sand down the rest of the house and then refinish everything.

A battle against ivy

It's been a few days since the closing and it's only in brief moments where the realization sets in that I bought a house!

I spent the weekend clearing out the overgrowth of ivy and the three years worth of leaves that have built up along the house.

At first glance, those hedges on the right look full and lush. But that would be a lie. It was intertwined with ivy and suffocating underneath. 

There was about 1.5 feet of decaying leaves behind the hedges and thorny tendrils of ivy. 

As I reached my hand among the branches I kept praying that I wouldn't see a face of any creature staring back at me.

After many hours I cleared out all the crap.

All that's left now looks like a barren wasteland. But what is left are branches that are alive and have leaves on them. I'm hoping that they will actually bloom and come back to life.

I even cleared out the side yard of the evil ivy.

Since this area gets full sun, I think I can see some sunflowers planted there.

Here is the result of my hard work. Actually, that's not all of it. I need more bags. And a permit to get my yard waste picked up.

Oh, home ownership. We will have a bi-polar relationship.

My Name is Durham

It's finally all set. I close next week. Sure it's a week later than originally planned, but at least it's happening.

I found this movie clip about Durham. It makes me happy that I'm going to be a part of a community with such history.


This video was taken around 1949, about 8 years before my home was built.

Anorexic piggy bank

I was just about to go into the conference room at work to do some audio recording for a project that I'm working on, but it's occupied. Oh well, time to blog.

Today I meet with my lender to sign the papers and give her a check. All my spreadsheets of 'if I borrow this much then I'll have to pay this each month for 30 years' and W2s and tax returns will be coming with me.

I think I've grown numb to that future monthly housing cost. The mortgage payment will be less than what I'm paying for rent so that's not a big deal. But add on the property taxes, PMI, and home insurance... ugh.

To put it in perspective, when I was paying a mortgage, taxes, and all that crap in New Jersey for my 2 bedroom, 2.5 bath townhouse with a whole 8'x10' plot of grass in the backyard, that was about $1600. But I was also making about $20K more than I do now.

Anorexic piggy bank

Anyway, the point of that little story is that it costs less to live down here. But it doesn't make parting with money any easier.

I think of ways that I can stretch my dollar further. I can kiss my monthly massages goodbye. And hopefully I can reduce my auto costs because I'll be living 2 miles from work as opposed to 17. And I can get rid of cable.

I'm even thinking of the pleasure I'll get from cooking more meals in my BRAND NEW KITCHEN! Maybe I'll even start my own garden.

Oh I have big plans with my little house. I'm being fiscally responsible and already dreaming about the many savings accounts I can have: one for emergency savings, one for vacation, one for home improvements. Because there will be more home improvements!

Have you seen this bathroom?

I see a new vanity and toilet, bead-board wainscoting and most definitely some new paint. And that stained glass window sticker has to go. Maybe that floor, too. But that's on the To Do list. Maybe later this year. 

I've been inspired by this blog site, Our Vintage Home Love. I hope to be able to show you some of my before and afters. 

After I'm able to pay for it. 

Take my money

I got the estimate from the contractor for all the renovation work that needs to be done. Both what is required, and what I want to do with my kitchen.

This just got ten times more real. 

So on Thursday I meet with my lender and sign the loan papers. Good thing that this is all being rolled into my mortgage. 

Kitchen Dreaming

Let's talk kitchens. Because that is the main visible change that I will be doing to the home as part of my renovation.

Currently it's a mess.

There is a lot of unused space. 

The outlets are not properly grounded.

And there is this crazy access to get into the hallway that is practically unusable.

My vision is to add a wall where that access to the hallway is, creating a U-shaped kitchen.


Last week my contractors came to the house with the home inspection report in hand. They went around the property and did their assessment on the 'must fix' items that are going to be required by HUD in order to grant me my loan.

Then we talked about the kitchen. I told them of my ideas. They gave me some measurements and said my homework was to plan it out and get some estimates so I can get a better sense of what my kitchen budget was going to me.

So I went off to Home Depot and Lowes with measurements in hand and ideas in my head.

My original idea of white cabinets and dark countertop to tie in the existing white appliances was changed when I spoke with Brenda, the kitchen designer at Home Depot. She said there were a lot of shades of white, and considering the current appliances were from different manufactures their whites might not be the same shade. So trying to match different white appliances to another white cabinet might not bring the effect I was hoping for.

So that brought to thinking about painted cabinets. They would allow the white appliance to pop without having them try and be matchy-matchy. And if/when I make the upgrade to stainless one day, they will still match the style.

I loved that idea. And since my goal was to create a casual, comfortable kitchen, not a stuffy, pretentious one, color in the cabinets were the way to go.

Here is one option that I liked. Martha Stewart's Ocean Floor cabinets with Juniper Trail quartz counters.

The effect could be something like this...

Or maybe even a sunny yellow?

I'll leave the costs for all this in another post. *Sigh*