This Mess is a Place

Spring? Already?

2009-04-26T13:09:00.005-06:00

I guess we've neglected the ol' blog for a while, sorry about the lack of updates... We've been busy, I promise!

Today is the 2nd official day of outdoor cleanup and maintenance. The first mow job of the season was fun, I think I emptied the bag about a dozen times. We had a nice little work day out in the rain on Easter, raking the debris that had collected over the winter. The side of our house is like a wind tunnel that blows all the leafs, garbage, etc. from the neighborhood into our fence. It's crazy all the stuff that collects. I found this business card in a leaf pile.

Front:

Back (click for larger size):

'57? has this been in a leaf pile for 50 years? Where could it have possibly come from?

Doing yard work in the rain is a surprisingly pleasant and cleansing experience. Why do we need to sit in a building to celebrate Easter? Rebirth? Renewal? Return-to-life? Yard work does it for me.

A Few Reasons Why I Love My Job

2009-01-05T22:59:00.002-07:00

I mentioned being busy during November and December -- here are a few highlights, including recital pictures from our after school program, Dance Renaissance, and from The Nutcracker student matinee, when nearly 2,000 kids came to see the ballet for the first time, and the dancers were good enough to come out at Intermission and visit.

White Knuckles and Swedish Fish

2009-01-05T20:47:00.003-07:00

If you had told us six years ago that this weekend we would don our black hoodies, grab some black coffee, load up the black Jeep and drive to Utah in January, we probably would have thought that, six years later, we would somehow have achieved wealth enough to catch the airing of some tragic Indie flick at Sundance.

Alas, we are not as cool as we once were. However, neither are we as quintessentially metro and hipster as the typical masse frequenting IKEA. We aren't skinny enough. :)

We made it safely across the arctic tundra that is Wyoming and Utah to scenic Sandy (Draper) and back. Neither snow nor ice, bitter cold nor gale-force winds (enough to wrap a semi around an overpass) could deter us from remedying our plight of kitchenlessness.

All that to say we got some cabinets (3), among other things. And are home, happy and safe.

Props to Miles for feeding Chevy.

Post-Holiday Recap (Recoup)

2009-01-01T17:53:00.009-07:00

What an eventful couple of months!

We had a wonderful time catching up with Chris and Julie and meeting Ada:

Who spent the majority of her time rocking back and forth on hands and knees and exclaiming, "WOW! WOW! WOW!"

We spent Thanksgiving at Aunt Cherri's house, and for the following five weeks my life was entirely dominated by The Nutcracker. More on that to come.

We did manage to put up our modest little tree. In the old apartment, it took up half our living room.

A sleepy present:

And we hung stockings on the [window] with care...

For Anne, Bren, and Chevy.

Also, we finished tiling the kitchen, and Bren grouted the whole thing.

He also scored us the most amazing range! A discontinued model that had been on display. It was originally $2,000, and we got it for $650 (That's less than the price of the lower-end oven we were saving to buy with Bren's discount). And it sings a little song when it's done preheating and cooking.

ALSO, I decided the whole renovation thing wasn't enough work, and started making a quilt for our bed, and bought silk for curtains in the living, dining, and master bedrooms. Pictures to follow soon.

Christmas came and went really fast, but it was great. Thanks, everybody!

Now, Bren and I are trekking to the nearest IKEA (Draper, UT) on Saturday in the hopes of purchasing some kitchen cabinets. We can't afford to get them all, but it will be a good start. Hopefully the weather will cooperate!

Happy New Year!

The Great Holiday Hurry-Up-And-Get-Things-Done

2008-11-24T21:16:00.010-07:00

In that Halloween post I mentioned that drywall was going up in the kitchen.

It was hard, dusty, chickeny work.

Some of you may remember the "nook" area, which used to look like this:

And shortly thereafter, this:

Turns out putting things back together takes longer than bashing them in with a sledgehammer. But now, things are looking up.

We laid the most awesomest tile floor this weekend, despite the fact that both Bren and I came down with the Black Lung on Friday night. And painted all of the walls a light gray (Misty Raindrop or something) except for that dark one, which is blackboard paint. As of tomorrow it will read: "Welcome, Deulens."

I also started a Hall of Fame upstairs.

Guess you'll have to come over to see who all's up there.

And we hung the chandelier in the dining room.

I can't believe how far we've come!

That's all for now. We're BEAT!

Edit: Anne forgot to mention the finished bookshelf, so here it is.

We've worked really well together on all the projects we've done so far, but I did worry just a bit on the kitchen tiles working as a duo. Maybe it was our shared sickness but I thought it might end up like this:

(Art by Al Jaffee.)
-Bren

Happy Halloween!

2008-10-31T18:02:00.002-06:00

Chevy is in disguise. As El Pollo Loco!

In this one, you can see drywall going up in the kitchen! More on that later.

Now, more candy!

Turf War

2008-10-28T21:42:00.007-06:00

Remember our post-apocalyptic-looking backyard? Or, more properly, post-ridiculously-expensive-sewer-line-replacement?

Well, Bren tilled, seeded, fertilized, and ever-so-tenderly nurtured it back to life.

There are still some patches that didn't get the memo, but it's worlds better looking. Just in time for the first frost.

In his adventures in watching grass grow, Bren came across a homely little squirrel. He thought he was some kind of mutant squirrel, in fact.

Sunday, I swore all morning that I heard a rustling in/around the heating duct in the basement. Then Chevy started acting all weird and looking up at the ductwork. Bren didn't believe either of us until he came down later in the afternoon...only to find Chevy in a tussle with THE MUTANT! (Bum bum BUMMMMM!)

The best documentation I could manage amid the ensuing chaos was this:

He's behind a paint can in the bookshelves that are currently serving as our "garage" in the basement.

Bren and I eventually shooed him out the back door, after several minutes that might have fit well in a Chevy Chase movie. I thought to myself, "Well, he'll never want to do THAT again."

But yesterday, he seemed to think otherwise.

He peered longingly through our kitchen window. We named him Douglas.

We still don't know how he got in. We're taking bets on Chevy vs. Douglas in the event he tries again, though. The staring contests they engage in through the windows are so intense I keep waiting for a tumbleweed to roll by.

"Do you feel lucky, punk?"

Breaking News: The Swedes are Coming!

2008-09-13T10:11:00.002-06:00

IKEA Opening First Colorado Store (Denver Post)

Since they haven't gone through all the red tape for the land yet, and construction takes an estimated 15-18 months, it may be a while. Nevertheless, I'm excited!

In the meantime, we can all take our cues for frugal and fabulous living from my excellent ladyfriends Arwen, Mary, and Carra at Dirt Chic.

Still Life With Pumpkin

2008-09-04T20:02:00.005-06:00

The bookshelves are a work of art, though I do say so myself.

Now I get to dive into a pile of...

Books! Chevy is particularly interested in Nabokov and Vonnegut.

FYI, here's how Real Simple magazine (which I love -- thanks, Mom O!) suggests people with a "lot" of books should display them:

I think we're on the right track! Although, if Real Simple calls this a lot of books, my life is more complicated than I thought.

Allow My Shelf to Introduce...My Shelf

2008-08-25T21:23:00.008-06:00

Those book shelves are coming along. Of course, when neither wall, floor, nor wood are perfectly straight or level, it's not as easy as it looks. There's some shimming here, some planing there, and a lot of wood filler.

Getting the bottom shelf in was the hardest part.

As of tonight, they look like this:

Pardon our mess. There's something pretty to look at in the living room...

Some bling courtesy of IKEA and CB2. The black things are tealight troughs. Now all we need is a dining table.

I also spent some tedious hours meticulously planning out our kitchen (to the inch) on graph paper. Alas, it's just barely too big for our scanner. Maybe I can do it at work.

Incidentally, work is definitely picking up. Just for fun, I'll leave you with a glimpse of what that looks like:

In the Details

2008-07-26T20:51:00.007-06:00

Bren and I came back to town eager to work after Oregon. The problem? A Summer that's shaping up to be Denver's hottest and driest to date. The result? We have turned into sluggish basement-dwellers on an all-popsicle diet.

But we have managed to make some progress despite the heat. First, we put base moulding in the living, dining, and bedrooms:

And register covers. In three places, older and larger holes were covered with odd-sized fixtures that I knew it would be difficult to find. I spray painted them with a metallic paint to match this one, and it actually worked!

In the bedroom, Bren installed a ceiling fan.

We got it on clearance at Home Depot, but the blades were really dark, so I painted them, too.

Incidentally, Bren has begun yanking old wiring out of the attic and replacing it. He's really gotten the hang of it! I'll let him expound, though.

I painted in the hallway between the bedroom and bathroom, and Bren installed a new light fixture (but we saved the original 1920s globe):

I want to cover this hallway in black framed black-and-white photos, so I was looking for a color that would make the pictures stand out and go well with the floors. This one was called "[something] Khaki." I liked the color OK for this purpose, though I normally eschew all things neutral, but I found that I was hesitating because of the name. Khaki...visions of school uniforms and a not-so-flattering Fight Club reference petrified me. Then Bren said that was silly and we bought the stuff.

As it turns out, the color looks more to me like Winnie the Pooh. I don't know what's worse...

In the dining room, the ceiling was the last of my plastering project I needed to finish and paint. It was still showing some ugly texture, but I refused to put up another layer. I hoped a few coats of primer and flat paint would mask it enough, but it was so hot and muggy the paint bubbled up and peeled off of the plaster. So we drywalled the @#%W#&% thing.

Drywalling overhead is ridiculous. But this job is our best so far. Now we've finished and put up double crown moulding:

Nice. I'm excited to start putting up some art. Tomorrow I'll begin work on the built-in bookshelves. 15 boxes of books are roasting in the bonus room.

I think I may have forgotten how to read...

Don't Tread on Me

2008-06-30T22:22:00.008-06:00

Subtitle: Piso Mojado.

So goes the saga of our poor floors. We found them under two layers of disgusting carpet.

And a glued-down faux brick entryway.

I tried my hand at making repairs, with limited success. The bedroom closet area, which was a bathroom in the original construction and therefore had never had hardwoods, was incredibly intimidating. In the end, we called in the experts. They did the dusty and stinky work while we were away. Now they look like this:

The bedroom lace-in and finished product:

So cool! Now we can finish the base moulding up here and some final details, and we can start unpacking some stuff and decorating! Very exciting, and just the push we needed to get energized again. The kitchen awaits.

Sometimes a Great Notion

2008-06-30T22:04:00.006-06:00

We're back from Oregon! It was great to see friends (Cass and Kevin) and family (the parents O and the grandparents Wolfe), and the festival was way cool. Here's a shot of the outdoor theatre where we saw Comedy of Errors adapted as a musical set in the Wild West (It was better than it sounds):

And Bren in Lithia Park:

That was Ashland. The most wonderful thing in Portland is this:

Voodoo donuts, in the Skidmore district. Famous for bacon maple bars, donuts with shots of Pepto Bismol or NyQuil in the center (to cure what ails you), and other frosting concoctions varying from cereal to candy bars to Kool-Aid mix.

We also visited IKEA, of course, and evidence of our looting will follow. Happily, there is also a Trader Joe's in Portland, and we scored several bottles of Two-Buck Chuck. Other scores included an ancient Shakspeare anthology from a used bookstore and a yellow-pink rose bush (Oregon is famous for its roses).

Overall, a nice vacation. But we're never driving 18 hours in one shot ever again. Oh, and gas? The most we paid was $4.29/gal. Sheesh!

Long Overdue...

2008-06-16T22:58:00.009-06:00

It's been a while. Here's what happened. Bren and I sort of killed ourselves trying to get copious amounts of stuff done before a) our year anniversary of homeownership came and went, and b) Grammie came to visit and see the house for the first time.

The year came and went, Grammie came and went. Our last "wind" came and went. We're officially on break until after we get back from our trek to Oregon, but here's the latest scoop:

We put up double crown moulding (not shown) and wainscoting in the master bedroom. I did the wainscoting myself, cutting by hand. It's all finished now, and it looks like it's always been there. This room housed Miles for a few days of late, as he was in between residences, and now serves as Arwen and Brandon's vacation home away from home.

In the bathroom, we're down to the finishing touches:

Now, Bren is not a high-maintenance person, but TP placement is a crucial issue to him. It took some consideration to determine the perfect position.

In the kitchen, we have begun laying the cement board over the subfloor.

Almost ready for tile -- black and white 12X12s. In other kitchen news, we couldn't stand being without an oven anymore. We are cooks, and we miss baking, roasting, broiling, etc. Actually, we miss frozen pizza. So, Bren scored a brand new (if ugly) range on Best Buy's employee auction for $60. It's "biscuit" colored (gag), but by God we had frozen pizza tonight. And it was glorious.

Starting on Thursday, the hardwood floors in the living room, dining room, master bedroom and hallway will be repaired and refinished. We got three quotes, and knew we had the right guy when he walked in, looked at the floor, looked at Bren, and said, "So, what instrument do you play?"

For fun: the quotable quote of the month, courtesy of Adele, Carra and Jesse's beautiful little girl. When Chevy got tired of playing and hid under the table, she said matter-of-factly, "I think there's another happiness kitten upstairs." Incidentally, Chevy is suffering from teen angst and refuses to pose for pictures as "happiness kitten."

Instead, here's Bren:

Kids, this is your brain on Guitar Hero. And yours truly:

In desperate need of vacation. We're off on another nerdy literary adventure as of Saturday. Perhaps we'll still make headway on the house, though -- there's an IKEA in Portland. Shakespeare, bacon donuts and IKEA.

[Angelic choirs]

Mama's in the kitchen (Part Deux)

2008-04-20T22:34:00.008-06:00

We are grouting machines. I don't think I have fingerprints anymore on my right hand, but it's done. I always did want to be a spy.

We sealed, too. And installed the tub filler and knobs. And took baths. Real baths. Spa baths.

The bad news is, we're still waiting on that last box of green tile for the shower. And a screw broke off when Bren put in the tub's hot water knob, so we have to order a replacement part. It's always something, but at least we can while away the time making up for lost hygiene.

There are remaining projects we wanted to tackle while we await these deliveries, like installing crown moulding in the bath, dining and bed rooms, but we're dead broke.

But you know what? Demolition is always free. Remember the hardwoods I discovered under two layers of linoleum in the kitchen, then tried in vain to resuscitate? They used to look like this, overgrown with tar paper even after hours of attention:

We've had these unsightly floors covered with paper and a rug for some time. Last night, though, I decided it was time to start prepping the room for tile and drywall. The floor is creaky and it was necessary to check the status of the subfloor, so all that hardwood had to go.

My late-night second wind afforded me a peek. I woke up early this morning and went to town. This is what it looked like by noon:

It's in much better condition than we thought it would be after removing the hardwoods, but still creaky and there's a bit of water damage on the far left, so it looks like we'll continue with our plan to replace it before we lay cement board and tile.

When he wasn't carting my demolition detritus out to the dumpster, Bren was installing the toilet in the bathroom. We're still missing a few components (like a seat), and we don't have a faucet for the sink, so pictures of a complete bathroom will follow soon.

Chevy was pretty confused by the goings-on, and I think he'll be relieved when I leave for work in the morning.

He likes bags. I don't know.

Sight for sore feet... and back... and knees...

2008-04-14T16:09:00.003-06:00

Some people get to post video of their newborn baby, I get to post this: evidence of our latest D.I.Y. greatness.

There isn't any audio, so don't worry.

I was tempted to jump right in, but I used the hose to fill it up. Brr!

This was the result of completing the last half of the 20amp wire run I did through the basement. All those months of running home-theater wires through strangers homes has finally paid off.
Putting in a new breaker into the box was a bit nerve wracking, but relatively easy.

We're days away from actually using our new bathroom!

Grout Expectations

2008-04-04T21:11:00.007-06:00

I know, I know. I'm a dork.

Well, the Misty Meadow 3/4 rounds we ordered came in, and we finished Bren's pride and joy...the shelf:

That is, just in time to find out that in order to finish the only remaining surfaces wanting tile -- either side of the shower door jamb -- we need approximately 15 more tiles. Of course, that means we have to 1) order a full box and 2) wait for said box.

No, we definitely don't need another shipment of kittens. While we wait, we decided to go ahead and start grouting.

Sort of hard to capture, especially by work light, but it's looking good. It just takes forever. Here's another shot, with social commentary:

We're getting the hang of it, and I think we'll make good progress this weekend. Once we grout and seal the wall tiles, we'll do the same to the floor, and then install the sink and toilet.

...So it can be put to better use than this.

Happy Easter!

2008-03-23T22:01:00.007-06:00

...to all of our Peeps.

Today, we woke up early and worked.

Then, off to Aunt Cherri and Uncle Jim's for much of this:

Thanks for the Warhol plate, Arn! How did you know that "I love Anne day" is my favorite holiday? Heh...there's Hamm on it.

Then back to work. No rest for the full!

I also talked to Grammie.

And there was a little of this:

Now, the ceiling in the living room looks FRICKIN' AMAZING!

Ceiling tiles are installed, caulked, and primed. Eggshell white paint to follow. Moulding is up, despite the fact that nothing in our house is level, and painted in high-gloss.

Now for some quotes on refinishing the hardwood floors.

Hunting Pegasus

2008-03-16T22:05:00.003-06:00

Sunday mornings, Bren and I often treat ourselves to bagels at Einstein's, even though the wait is ridiculous, and we've never gotten our order right when going through the drive-thru (Bren's sausage, egg and cheese sandwich arrived on a cranberry bagel this morning).

After that, we went to Home Depot to check out and price various woods for our forthcoming built-in bookshelves in the living room, only to find that the bathroom sink and toilet series we've been eyeing were on CLEARANCE. What? I know I said we had to pay taxes first, but the likelihood of something we want being IN STOCK at Home Depot -- let alone being ON SALE is slim to none.

We bought the sink immediately, but the toilet was missing in action. But a clearance is a clearance, and we were determined to get these matching items while they were hot. And cheap. Thus began a 5-store trek across the Front Range. At store #4, we finally discovered that HD employees have the ability to check the availability of an item at other stores. Why this service has not been rendered to us in the past, I do not know. Off we went to the newest HD in town, at 470 and Quincy.

We finally found our elusive toilet in the highest back stock. A forklift hoisted the precious cargo to earth, and we joyfully shoved it into my Cavalier (I rode like a kid in a car seat all the way home).

I opened our prizes later that evening, only to find that BOTH the toilet bowl and tank were broken. Bren went promptly back to the store, and luckily our same salesperson was there, because he had stowed the remaining stock in an equally nonsensical place.

I forgot to mention that the brand of toilet/sink is PEGASUS, for whatever reason. The line is called "Structure," which is far less offensive than others. Who, for instance, wants to buy a toilet called "Memoirs?" Are they suggesting that someone who owns that toilet must have led an interesting life, or that that their most interesting moments will take place in the water closet?

Our hard-earned clearance sink and toilet:

Chevy thought it was the best toy we'd ever bought him.

Don't Tread on Me

2008-03-13T21:22:00.005-06:00

After much toil and trouble, the bathroom floor is tiled! With the exception of some edge pieces Bren has to cut. See?

So glam. My fingers, however, are not. I have blisters and mortar dries skin worse than a Colorado Winter.

It makes the room look huge! A pedestal sink and a toilet (coming soon -- gotta pay taxes first), and some towel bars, etc. and we'll be soaking in no time.

Oh, and we have to tile the shower curb. Tomorrow, perhaps. The last of the green tiles we needed to finish the shelf and door jamb came in today, too.

A good day!

Business in the Front, Party in the Back

2008-03-11T21:12:00.005-06:00

Front of house, I tiled the shower floor last night. Hex tiles are surprisingly finicky. You'd think the mesh backing would be helpful, but it's still super tricky. Looks good though, eh?

I'm prepped to do the rest of the floor (all 55 square feet of it -- Agh!) tomorrow night. Bren had to cut a hole for a new heat vent (our tub covers where the original one was) (he went through two saw blades) and install the toilet flange. Whatever that is.

Today in the back yard, an $8,000 extravaganza took place. I wish I had pictures of the process, but unexpected ventures like this one sort of necessitate us going to work on a Tuesday. Here's the end product:

Funny, it's not much worse than before. Except for the demolished fence. A back-hoe will do that.

Those white things are called the "cleanout." So you don't have to take out a toilet if any more subterranean mischance occurs. The concrete used to go to the edge of the house, right before the gate.

I did some checking online and found quotes as low as $3500 for main sewer line replacements. But they said "starting at $3,500...for up to 75 feet." Well, Rescue Rooter had to dig about 100 feet through our yard, and through concrete in two places. And they were available today. I guess that's why it cost so much. It took four guys about 9 hours. I highly doubt those guys are getting $200 an hour, though, even for working in sewage. If it's anything like Bren's position at Best Buy -- he sees about one tenth of what they charge for him to calibrate people's expensive TVs. He did one in a trailer home the other day, by the way.

Pardon me while I try to rationalize spending so much money on something I can't even see, rather than on, say, a KITCHEN. Or...FURNITURE.

Or burritos. We sure love a good burrito.

Revenge of the Stumps

2008-03-10T10:27:00.002-06:00

Well, Mr. Rooter came back by to scope our pipes this morning. Long story short, the main line needs to be replaced. The bill? $8,000.

The good news? At least we didn't get around to tilling up the lawn and laying new sod last year. And we'll get a head start on it for Spring.

Are We Done Yet?

2008-03-05T21:30:00.011-07:00

Ummm...no. In fact, we aren't even remotely close. Not even one room is done, and to be honest, Bren and I are pretty burnt and/or bummed out right now. BUT, my hope is that posting our progress (albeit slow) will rekindle the flame of ridiculous optimism that started this whole thing.

The bathroom is coming along, and it's going to look pretty spiffy. We picked green tiles for the shower to match the paint in the rest of the room. It's called "Misty Meadow."

Cool. We are awaiting an order of 3/4 in. rounded trim pieces to solve the problems of the shelf and door jambs. There were bullnose tiles available, but we sort of negated their usefulness when we decided to go with the diamond pattern.

While waiting for these various shipments of tile, Bren finished the last installment of cement on the shower floor:

Very nice. A dirty job, though. Sure wish we had a shower. See what I mean?

GROSS. This poor green thrift store couch has seen it all. Speaking of dirty boys taking breaks, here's the obligatory spread of cat pictures:

Yes, he climbed up there himself.

Hard at work.

Asleep on the job. What a slacker.

Back to work. Bren and the band played another retreat (or an abbreviated version of it, due to an unexpected snowstorm) and we were able to order the bathroom floor tiles - white hexes and some black ones to make a design. When they arrived, I laid everything out on the living room/dining room floor to plot it out:

It took me forever to figure it out, seeing as how math was involved. But I did, and it looked like this for about one second before Chevy discovered the sport of tile hockey.

We're on a roll, right? Right. Until I went to do laundry a couple of nights ago, and the water heater room flooded. And I needed to pee. I pretty much hated everything right then.

Remember my post about the stumps? And about pulling the 80-year old roots in our yard? Well, I guess in 80 years of growing, trees and weeds need some adventure every once in a while, and they decide to invade plumbing.

So, yeah. We give new meaning to the term "rootered." The plumber said it's not totally uncommon, but our case is uncommonly significant. He reamed out 100 feet of pipe, and hopefully that will do us for another 80 years.

Hopefully.

Smoke and Mirrors

2008-01-21T21:25:00.001-07:00

Those of you who have followed our misadventures faithfully will recall my naive embarking on resurfacing the walls in our living room, dining room, and one wall in the bedroom (formerly the wall of 70s gold-veined mirror tiles). Remember?

That was in October. I thought I could pretty much knock it out while Bren was safely out of my hair playing a two-week gig in Canada. Riiight. Today, I finished sanding that last wall.

Like I said in the previous post, primer covers a multitude of sins. But kids, don't smoke.

Because that's just gross.

I finished priming the walls, but it was so cold that painter's tape wouldn't stick to the windows in order for me to cut them in (it was snowing). Perhaps tomorrow.

Doin' Things is What we Like to Do...YES!

2008-01-14T20:14:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, I painted in the bathroom.

Let me just say that primers are a girl's best friend, contrary to popular belief. I am the first to admit that my joint taping/compounding in the bathroom was less than stellar. Similarly, Bren is not ashamed of the occasional discrepancy in cement board flushness or screw depth. However, I am happy to report that primer and flat paint cover a multitude of sins.

For anyone considering a paint project, I highly recommend BEHR paint (Home Depot). It runs only about $20 a gallon, and a gallon goes a surprisingly long way. The finished product is remarkably similar to the paint chip you get at the store, and you can test colors out for free with their ColorSmart dealy-bob (spelling approved by Arwen), either with stock photos or your own. However, unless you are working with pristine white walls, disregard their assertion that BEHR paint is both primer and paint. Cement board in particular is thirsty stuff, and even after two thick coats of primer I could discern the brand.

Before jet setting off to Minneapolis for work, Bren applied a layer of cement to the shower floor, graded down towards the drain.

After some drying time, we checked on the project, only to find we weren't the only parties interested in it...

Later, "The Inspector" reappeared to weigh in on the drain itself...

Since then, Bren has laid the moisture barrier liner.

By the look of things, he had to consult the masterminds at Wendy's in order to discover how to proceed with this step. After poking his brain with a Q-Tip failed to help. A final layer of sand mix will make this floor tile ready. Miles came over today to help finish cement boarding the rest of the shower:

He's got skillz. And sideburns.

2008 Update

2008-01-08T20:31:00.000-07:00

Happy New Year, everyone! To sum up our holiday season:

-- Chevy is half the man he used to be. But he got a sweet bed for Christmas. No, those aren't our hardwood floors refinished. Aunt and Uncle recently gutted and renovated their kitchen into something from the pages of Gourmet.

-- The Nutcracker and Christmas retail. Enough said.

-- I traveled to Tulsa just before Christmas for Gina and Jamin's wedding, and proceeded to get stuck in a whiteout in Kansas on my way back.

-- The holiday was great, and I was lucky enough to have a week off to get the music out of my head. I channeled the inevitable post-Tulsa homesickness into energy for working on the house.

The living and dining rooms have gotten their respective coats of "Scotch Lassie."

I promise it doesn't look like Astro-Turf (or splotchy for that matter) in real life. The "cove," or the curve at the ceilings, will stay white, and there will be moulding on that fuzzy green line below the curve and the blue tape line above it. That inner moulding will frame these:

The ceiling tiles we started to install, only to be again confronted with the crushing discovery that holding heavy and unwieldy items over one's head for extended periods of time altogether sucks. Our excuse to postpone the torture a little longer? A very welcome onslaught of Christmas gift cards to Lowe's and Home Depot made it possible for me to...start tiling the bathroom! (Angelic choirs)

Look at it! I am a tiling machine. About two minutes into this project I realized that since I wanted the tiles offset, I couldn't use the spacers we bought. Now, I understand that "eyeballing it" isn't a recognized method among true craftsmen, but I have to confess that I have long considered it a talent of mine. Let's take another look at that tub, shall we?

A thing of beauty, no? A soak in this thing will be most welcome, especially since it was at about this point that I literally felt like my somewhat temperamental spine was going to pop out of my back.

Capacity: two humans, or approximately 236 cats.

The opposite wall, where the pedestal sink and toilet will go:

Bren is responsible for the tiles that require the use of the tile saw. He did the corners, and has these cut and ready to apply with thinset. He is also responsible for...

The shower, which is anxiously awaiting it's bottom. The floor needs to be graded with cement towards the drain, and the various moisture barriers installed, before we can tile in here. Then we'll grout and seal everything, install all the knobs, the faucet and shower head, and hopefully be able to take baths before Arwen visits!

The paint is going to be a light sagey green, called "Rejuvenate." How apropos.

We're putting black and white hexagonal subway tiles on the floor, which will require special ordering, and a bit of penny-pinching. Sinks, toilets, and even towel bars are more expensive than you think they are, too. Did you know that you can spend over $300 on a toilet paper holder if you want? The ceiling needs to be drywalled, the vent and light fixtures replaced...It's a long way from done, but it's still better than THIS!

You've come a long way, baby.

I'm in Pieces (Bits and Pieces)

2007-11-20T20:35:00.000-07:00

Think of this next time you turn the hot water knob in your shower or bath...

Two sets of knobs, a shower head and a faucet.

A cool $400 and as many little, tiny parts.

Taking our first shower at home...[will be]...priceless.

Prime Time

2007-11-20T20:17:00.000-07:00

Catching up:

We work a lot. Just not on our house. Bren now does his deliveries and installations alone, and has a big Geek Squad Home Theater Unit truck parked outside the house. Luckily, it masks...said house.

The ballet season started in October with Le Corsaire, a pirate ballet, and then the perennial favorite, Dracula. I had the good fortune to go to an Arts Integration conference for Educators in Oakland, CA, and meet my cousin Scott in San Francisco. He is studying Chinese in Monterey. He is much smarter than me.

I also accepted the position of Director of Education and Outreach at CB. Hence, my project (walls, floors) has progressed little. I did, however, begin priming the fully resurfaced living room walls for paint last weekend.

There's not much to show for it, since it's really just taking the room from kinda white to really white, but my sidekick is pretty cute:

In a French independent film kind of way. Chevy's mom has been hanging around the house lately, to our dismay. Does he know it's her, and that she abandoned him? Do we suffice in her stead?

He must think we're OK, because he helps me with the laundry.

He makes sure I keep the black load black. "Blacker than the blackest black times infinity." If you get the reference, kudos.

I promise we're not going to post cat pictures every time we write from here on out. It's just that he's always...there. And the little extra money that comes in, that was originally intended for home improvement, has gone to the veterinarian's office adjacent PetSmart of late. It's amazing how many shots this guy has to endure!

Rub A Dub Dub...

2007-10-11T22:30:00.000-06:00

Here's a quick update. Miles came over this weekend and we finally got the tub laid into the frame. We put down a thick layer of concrete as a footer to support and secure the tub from shifting. It probably still will shift a bit after a few fill-ups, but hopefully not too much. Pressing the tub down into the concrete was similar to closing the lid on a waffle iron.

I got the drain pipe in too. Joining CVP pipe is way easier than soldering copper pipe.

Post post

2007-10-01T22:29:00.000-06:00

The toughest part about doing all of the remodeling ourselves, is not knowing the order of how things should be done. Trial and error, and problem solving have become my biggest hobbies (that and playing "bite-my-hands" with Chevy [see below for the lowdown on the cat from Anne]). The tub has been the main project for me the last few weeks, and I feel like it could have gone much faster, but most of the time I spent working around decisions and setbacks. I knew I had to build the frame for the tub. How much of a ledge should I put around the rim? How much wood do I need? more than I thought. It was nice that the instructions with the tub gave me the exact measurements for the frame. The tough part for me was how much longer I had to cut the wood to make the ledge. Oops, those eight pieces I just just cut are too short.
Here's me working:

Anyway, I got the frame built finally. At this point we realized that the tub is pretty darn heavy, and when a tub that size is full of water, it is going to be super heavy. Add myself into the mix and we're talking heavy-heavy. All that on the floor of a house that is already pretty old adds up to an achy house.

To ease our minds and to alleviate future worries, I put in a Lally Column to support the joists below the tub. This thing has 16,000 lbs of support.

After that all I had to do was nail in the frame, cut an outlet box, install the outlet for the tub power and cut the rough-in for the tub drain through two inches of real hardwood and sub floor. Can you see why this has taken me forever?

Well here's the progress as of tonight:

The rough-in.

At last, the next step is to drop the tub into the frame. Then there's only about twenty more things left to do before we can bathe!

I Shot A Weed in Denver Just to Watch it Die

2007-10-01T21:07:00.000-06:00

Rewind to our laborious Labor Day weekend. We pretty much killed our lawn. Not only is it all weeds, it's all weeds that have had the run of the place for some time. The same pestilence reigns next door and across the street, as if the weeds existed before the street was paved. Witness exhibit A, a modest example of the offending breed:

The root is like a carrot! Anyway, we have the ugliest lawn on the block now, and that's an accomplishment. I hate it, but we really can't address the outside until we have a few more basic comforts in place. It's cooling off, and still no tub. Bren's working on it (more on that later), but it can't be done soon enough. Last night, I took a nice hot bath...I set the washing machine to the hot setting. Enough said.

The living room walls completely resurfaced, the ceiling has been giving me fits. The cove is finally sanded, after we attempted to devise all manner of curved sanding mechanisms, including attaching a halved length of sandpaper-covered 4" PVC pipe to the electric sander, to no avail. Finally, it ended up being good, old-fashioned elbow grease that did the trick. We are going to put moulding just below the curve, and around those cool ceiling tiles I mentioned before. We'll paint the area between the moulding white. And the tiles.

All this sanding creates a lot of dust. Just ask Chevy, who, as it turns out, is actually a boy.

He looks like a skunk. Chevy, by the way, is an estimated 9 weeks old now. He's gained a pound since we found him, which means he's a whopping...two pounds. An active fellow, he's inspired some unexpected construction around the house:

We took some rope we used to secure our belongings in the moving van and wrapped it around the banister in the bonus room, creating the ultimate scratching/climbing post. You can't really see him, but he's having a blast.

Am I one of those...

NOOOOOOOOOO!

Animal House

2007-09-10T17:58:00.000-06:00

So. Only days after we had to relinquish Goatson to the animal shelter (a traumatic experience to say the least), I was getting ready for work on Saturday when Bren and I heard high-pitched mewing outside the door to the bonus room, which opens onto the driveway. Turns out this scared little girl was lodged in the undercarriage of my car:

She looks like a Laser Cat right here. I guess I need some photography pointers from Andrea or Renee. She looks a little less evil here, safe inside:

We're calling her Chevy. She fits into my cupped hands, so she can't be more than a few weeks old. She eats, but I'm having a hard time getting her to drink. Bren is allergic to cats, of course, so we aren't sure if we can keep her...but neither of us want to go anywhere near the shelter for a while. In the meantime, she's already figured out how to poop in her litter box, which is awesome. She is a scholar.

Since she is currently sitting on my shoulder, purring like a motorboat and licking my neck and ear, I'll let her impart some wisdom:

Sddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd gddddddd,tgedoo ````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````

Deep.

"They say it's raining in Chicago, but it's cold and clear in Denver."

2007-09-06T09:26:00.000-06:00

Denver is awesome. To any of our friends who live in the "Denver metro" area, and not in Denver proper, you are missing out. Denver's city webpage (and their coinciding 3-1-1 info-line) is rife with helpful and interesting information. Garbage-pickup times, building permit info, pet shelter hours, museum events and art exhibits, and anything else you could think of pertaining to city life.

Almost exactly 24 hours ago I filled out a request to have a pot-hole at the end of our driveway filled in. I honestly didn't expect anything to happen. Then, out of the blue this morning, two swarthy and genial guys show up with a truck full of asphalt and "do work" on our driveway.

Thanks Denver!

We Put the Gag in Lolligag

2007-08-30T22:19:00.000-06:00

Another lengthy absence. Sorry. We really have done things, I promise. The thing is, everything happens so slowly that progress is being made on a molecular level, but nothing is done. We have very little to show. The workweek is proving to be completely worthless as far as home improvement goes. We have, however, had time to visit with Tulsa friends Renee and Daniel, go to the dentist, and play poker, as evidenced below:

If you can't tell, Justin is losing. We've also been grilling out a lot:

The feast!

In other news, we finally bought our tub.

We were lucky enough to find one that was 6' long and 36" wide; large enough to accommodate one Bren. He was dismayed, however, upon picking it up, when he saw that the box advertises it as a two person tub. Doh!

Bren also scored a dryer, via the same employee auction system that afforded us our $40 washer, for a whopping $57. We offically have a set for under $100.

We haven't installed the dryer yet, mainly because the previous owner's vent...doesn't vent. It directs the fluff into the water heater closet, instead of out of the house. Thus, we have to punch a hole in the side of our house, which could be rather gratifying. Or disastrous -- we'll let you know.

Work on the walls continues. Special thanks to those of you who donated money and Home Depot gift cards in honor of my birthday, 26 long years ago! The money is going toward, in part, a thermoplastic version of a tin ceiling for the living room. We painstaking taped off the moulding lines in there, and have arrived at the right configuration to deal with the coved ceilings without making the room look smaller. It's going to be SO COOL! Soon, we will be ready to paint. Our choice, called "Scotch Lassie," matches well with our first art print purchase:

It's the second from the left. The print is an Utagawa Hiroshige, circa 1855, called "Navaro Rapids."

Speaking of my birthday -- we received another gift that morning, albeit bittersweet. This girl came running up our drive, practically dying of thirst:

Four days later, no response from our postings in the neighborhood or online. She is definitely a puppy -- so far she has eaten part of the coffee table, part of the trampoline, one bra, two toothbrushes, two rolls of paper towels, 6 rolls of toilet paper, one razor (God knows how she got that), and one light bulb (ditto). We are calling her Goatson because of said eating habits. Although we are falling in love with her, as she crawls in bed with us and licks us to death, unfortunately, she is obviously part Pit Bull. Pit Bulls are banned in Denver -- even mixed dogs who exhibit certain physical traits of the Pit Bull. To that end, we have to take her to the Denver Dumb Friends League in the morning, where I hope she will be carted to another part of the state, and adopted by a farmer or something.

We love you, crazy little Goatson. Be good. We know you'll grow up to be a loyal protector to whomever is lucky enough to find you next.

Sniff.

Mama's Got a Fuse Box, Daddy Never Sleeps at Night

2007-07-22T12:27:00.000-06:00

It's been a while since we last posted, and a lot has happened! Namely, the Aldrich Family Reunion in Estes Park, CO. Although Bren and I only got to go up the mountain once, we were lucky enough to spend some serious quality time carousing with the likes of:

Mom O.!

Dad O.! (Check out the new grill he got us!)

Cory!

Wes...and the fancy lad behind him is Porter!

Porter smells chicken.

Unfortunately, both Wes and Porter were stung by hornet/wasp/bee things (otherwise known as the jerks living in a crack in our porch stairs). Thus...

No, we didn't throw a meringue pie at them. It's insecticide. The directions said to use it at dusk, when the jerks would be "at rest," so we went out at 8PM, thinking it was pretty dusky. Apparently we were a bit early. After we sprayed the crack, one by one, the curious pests began arriving at their former outpost. Bren sprayed each one into the gunk...we stopped at TWENTY FIVE, intent on saving the rest of the spray for a REAL dusk attack tonight.

On to happier happenings on our front porch:

Also with Mom O.'s help, I transplanted our geranium and zinnia. I have terrible luck with plants, so I hope she's right when she says geraniums are "impossible to kill!"

Like I said, we were able to visit the extended family in Estes for one day. We spent the night in my grandad's cabin on the Big Thompson River. While we rested peacefully and safely inside...

Miles slept in a parachute and warded off raccoons. He's so hardcore! Kids, if you wanna be tough like Miles, you have to...

Eat your veggies. (Note that our other, itty-bitty grill has been happily demoted to side dishes.)

Cory, Wes, and Porter stayed with us for a few days in our sumptuous guest quarters.

Now our only tangible reminder of their visit is temporarily immortalized in plaster dust...

How could we get anything done on the house with all this excitement, you ask? Have someone else do it! Yesterday, the electrician came to replace our infamous fuse box. Now it looks like this:

And here's the shiny new one:

An expensive couple of hours of work. So, when the power went out for two hours this morning, I was more than a little concerned. Guess it was just a coincidence. Whew!

Serenity Now

2007-07-04T08:46:00.000-06:00

Two back-to-back, straight through, 24-26 hour drives to and from Vancouver B.C., with 7 days of high-schoolers in between can really take it out of a guy. As a result, only a few light projects have been accomplished on this unexpectedly long weekend.

We grilled outside for the first time. It's been lousy hot, but the advantage of a west-facing house, is that the backyard is nice and shady by 3-4 o'clock.

We spent about the same amount on the grill as we did on the food.

I officially have experience in the world of electricity, bringing my lifetime stats to 1-2. Thats one light installed, two fuses blown (yes our house has a fuse-box, remember?).

Agreed, it's not exactly the most stylish fixture ever, in fact it is an outdoor light. It sort of looks like maybe it belongs on a boat. Anyway, it was $3, and makes our basement bathroom feel a little less dank.

Finally, I was ably to endure the heat long enough to put up:

Thanks Dr. W. Now we can sit back and enjoy "the cool evening breezes of Anytown, USA."

The entertainment factor of a porch swing is easily overlooked. Watching the neighbors set off illegal fireworks from down the street, and scurry inside when the Denver PD comes creeping, is hours of fun. Now I need to figure out how to get our porch light to work again.

My Stumps

2007-07-01T21:40:00.000-06:00

Work on the walls continues.

The wall I began with (on the right) has taken three coats of various plaster-ish products, dried, and is almost completely sanded. There are some tiny air bubble imperfections, but I'm confident that a coat of primer and two coats of paint will take care of those. It's SO much work, but those walls are smooth. The big window wall only has the first coat, and the small window wall has two. Hopefully that will be sufficient after sanding.

The other day, I did a little time on the walls, and went outside to rinse off my taping knives. Ummm...

Our hose was gone. Make that Uncle's hose. I called him to make sure he hadn't come by to get it -- he hadn't. Who steals a garden hose? It's not like anyone nearby actually takes care of their lawns...

Anyway, this theft bumps a privacy fence up on the list of priorities. We hadn't planned on installing that or landscaping the front and/or back yards until next Spring when the house is under control, but what can you do?

There are several things in the way of our prospective fence/garden. Namely, some trees that are growing in and through the existing chain-link fence, and these:

Stump #1 (the background illustrates yet another reason for the aforementioned fence), and...

Stump #2. Frustrated with the tedium of plastering the walls, I was desperate for a project that I could kill (and I mean kill) in a day. A 102 degree day might not have been the best choice, but nonetheless...

I killed Stump #1. Stump #2 was a little trickier. When I got here:

My shovel broke. Ignore the fact that my shadow looks strangely reminiscent of Grimace.

Thumbs down, nine dollar shovel that I bought five hours ago. You have brought shame on your family.

I sanded some more wall while Bren went back to Home Depot to exchange our faulty purchase. He's home safe, by the way. More on that later. Ask him about whales and peace signs.

With shovel #2, I finally dispatched Stump #2.

It even looks like a grave, doesn't it?

On a somewhat poignant note, I couldn't help but reflect while labouring over these stumps that they were once truly great trees, providing shade and shelter to however many generations of families that have lived in this house. It is evident from the wood itself that they were cut down some time ago, and even the bugs that called them home have abandoned them now. It's time to go. And time for Bren and I to plant something new in the rich soil you leave behind. I hope whatever we plant will still be standing in another 80 years.

R. I. P. Stumps #1 and #2. The shovel is definitely living inside for fear of abduction, and now I guess we need a wheelbarrow. It's always something, isn't it? Not sure where we're going to stow that...

Plaster is Officially the Bane of my Existence

2007-06-25T21:55:00.000-06:00

I told you I would let you know. Well...

As you know, I started out covering half a wall with dry plaster that I mixed with water. It set up really quickly, and was almost immediately impossible to spread. I'm sure it didn't have anything to do with the record-breaking hot weather we're having. I sanded it down after it took all evening and night to dry. A wasted day.

The plaster package recommended using pre-mixed all-purpose patching compound for jobs that required more working time, so I went and bought some of that and applied it to the same half wall. It was runny and gloppy. In other words, just as difficult to work with. Another night gone, I sanded THAT layer down. It had bubbled and cracked. By this time, I am really discouraged. I miss Bren, who has no cell service wherever he is in Canada, and I wanted to make a lot of progress in his absence.

I thought, "I thought this would be easier; I've had so much success with the joint compound." BING! The stuff I've been using to seal the seams in the cement board in the bathroom, which is also used with drywall, is the perfect texture for spreading smoothly, and it's totally meant to be sanded and painted. I don't know what the difference is between it and regular plaster, but when I gave it a shot on the other half of the wall, it turned out SO much better (And it's $2 a gallon). So I went out and bought 5 gallons, which I had to roll to the front door, it was so heavy.

I went over the whole wall with the joint compound, and I just need to sand down some of the imperfections before I can call one wall officially done. I have put a thin, hole-filling coat of it on two more walls, and they are ready for the smooth coat. And sanding.

This is a much larger undertaking than I had anticipated. I had really hoped to finish it before Bren came home -- maybe even have it primed.

Not so much.

While the Boys are Away...

2007-06-21T23:02:00.000-06:00

...the girls will...plaster?

Renovation has been on a temporary hiatus this week, with kidney stone recuperation, a visit from Grammie and Al, and now Bren and TVFH are on their way to Vancouver, British Colombia, to provide the soundtrack for a week-long national YoungLife retreat.

With Bren gone, I plan on distracting myself from the eeriness of an ill-lit, relatively unfamiliar, somewhat creaky home by tackling a huge project.

We have plaster walls. They are very porous, and have been patched poorly over the years.

Paint will undoubtedly make these flaws even more obvious, necessitating a "skim coat" of new plaster in the living room, dining room, and on one wall in the Master Bedroom.

In addition to being uneven, the walls are dirty.

Ammonia only goes so far against 80 years of smoke and neglect. At least we don't have to stew about where to hang our pictures.

What you see here may look like a poorly executed 80s faux finish, but it's really a thin coat of plaster in various stages of dryness. I'm applying it with a rubber grout floater, and it's remotely reminiscent of the days when I did this for a living:

Ah, good old Baskin & Robbins. Ladies, all you have to do to lose weight while eating all the ice cream you could ever want is walk a mile to and from work in 115 degree, 85% humidity Oklahoma heat. That, and come home every night smelling like curdled milk. I digress.

When the manufacturer's instructions say this stuff hardens quickly, they mean it. However, it's taking forever to dry on the wall. Hopefully tomorrow after work I can sand down the portion of wall I covered today and see how I did. I'll let you know.

A Small (4mm) Setback

2007-06-14T22:25:00.000-06:00

Yesterday, Bren and I took an unexpected trip to the Emergency Room. No, it had nothing to do with the plethora of power tools or toxic building materials within our grasp, it was...

Bum bum BUUMMMMM...

A kidney stone. The passing of which is equated with childbirth. Luckily, our first born came into the world this morning, and Bren is feeling fine, but tired.

Yes, We Actually Live Here

2007-06-12T22:55:00.001-06:00

So, I know I've posted this picture before, but it's relevant.

Back when I was patching that first hole in the hardwood, I had the fridge and the TV on. I went to activate the shop vac, and shorted out half of the outlets upstairs. Ummm...yeah. This house is wired for 1927.

We've gotten a couple of quotes in the past few days for replacing the fuse box. We knew we were going to do it eventually, we just didn't know how immediate the need was. Now, every project depends on it. Electricians are ridiculously expensive.

At any rate, I found it highly amusing when Bren called me after the first electrician viewed the job, and said "I think he was surprised that we're actually LIVING here."

Yes, many renovations of this magnitude take place while the renovators have respite elsewhere. Not so for us. But we do have something of an escape. The converted garage/bonus room. Before, it looked like this...

...fake brick and all. We kept it as is, so that we could live in it while restoring the rest of the house. Now it looks like this:

The curtain, painstakingly basted this evening and hung on electrical conduit, hides all of our earthly possessions, and Miles' too. What you don't see amounts to about 6 feet more of room, and three more windows which we are glad to sacrifice due to their torturous easterly morning brightness.

The path to/from the bonus room was (surprise!) poorly hewn by the previous owner.

Again with the drywall cornering. As carpet edging? COME ON! The stairs are pretty unlevel, and Bren has to take a good 9 inches off his stature to move through this opening. Oh, well. It's nice to retire to a room that isn't a construction site. Yet.

I also made a curtain for the unsightly water heater/furnace room tonight:

A decent day's work.

Regarding my wonderful sister Cory's comment:

The hanger. Mr. Rivera, previous owner, managed to take every outlet cover in the house, along with every other fixture that may or may not have been worth something, but he left his one hanger. Perfect for hanging Bren's coveralls, since he won't wear them after initially trying them on...

Chest: 48"
Length: Tall

...and a few beers too small in the middle.

The Land Down Under

2007-06-11T23:43:00.000-06:00

Today roll-off dumpster #2 left. So yesterday, I went to town on the basement. I pounded off a roughly 8X8 slab of tile set into the concrete floor, and removed the last remnants of mirror tile and dark wood paneling. Then we swept, vacuumed, and mopped with ammonia. The 70s are officially over in our house.

When I got home from work today, I was determined to bring everything upstairs...downstairs, so that we can refinish the hardwood floors as soon as the master bathroom is done. Since our 15 boxes of books have been packed away for some time, I slid a few of our bookshelves across our bed and down the stairs to the basement. And made:

The ultimate work station out of the corner where the bar used to be. Probably not organized the way Bren would have done it, but it's not going to stay organized anyway. What? Not every 25 year-old woman does this on a Monday night?

At the opposite end of the basement sits our temporary living room:

Have I mentioned that the brand of insulation used down here is "MANVILLE?" I laugh about it often.

We Get By With a LOT of Help From Our Friends

2007-06-10T15:56:00.000-06:00

I finally got all of the layers of linoleum off the bathroom floor, and now Bren is cement boarding the room so that we can tile. It's a laborious task. Luckily, a couple of Good Samaritans have come by to alleviate the workload:

Levi volunteered last weekend to get the project going. Happy Birthday, Levi! This weekend, Miles swung by. Check him out, ladies!

And check out roll-off dumpster #2. That's 20 cubic yards of crap we've yanked, scraped and hauled out of this house. Interestingly, it seems to have inspired the neighbors to clean up. One guy across the street mowed his waist-high lawn, and spray-painted one of the VW Beetles he has hanging out on the side of his house. Sweet!

As the guys hang the cement boards, I go in and tape and slather the seams with joint compound.

I also did some laundry today.

It was actually kind of soothing to be outside hanging our unmentionables, listening to the chatty birds and squirrels and smelling detergent and these:

The tea roses that dot our fence. A nice break from pounding tile off of the concrete slab in the basement.

Finally, I think we have reached "scratch." There's no more linoleum, no more mirror tile. Thank God. It seems that we have done all the demolition we can do. Now on with the overwhelming duty to put it all back together again.

The Barnum Neighborhood Circus

2007-05-31T23:48:00.000-06:00

The neighborhood we ended up in is unique, I think, of the 79 neighborhoods within the Denver city limits.

Sure they all have "character," and "history," but the neighborhood of Barnum is the only neighborhood established by a raving lunatic circus promoter. Thats right, the neighborhood of Barnum is named after none other than P.T. Barnum, who owned seven-hundred plus acres of our neighborhood as his winter respite, yet did very little for the city of Denver other than annex his property to the city. P.T. could be our most notable icon, but as far as Denver fame goes he's no Kerouac or Cassady, but we do have local, celebrities.

Our Neighborhood is bordered by Sheridan blvd. to the west, federal blvd. to the east, 6th Ave to the north, and Alameda ave. to the south. Technically we live in Barnum West, a bit closer to Sheridan, but it's all Barnum. The populace is primarily Hispanic, and the cultural saturation abounds. There are lots of these guys roaming the streets. As with any low-income area Crime
in Barnum is evident, yet not seen personally. We haven't had the chance to visit the carneceria yet.

And there's a lovely garden.

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

2007-05-31T21:54:00.000-06:00

We have yet to post about the basement. It's a complicated subject. When we moved in, it looked like this:

...with the bar area, which you have seen, behind the photographer. The holes in the ceiling are poorly-made attempts at installing speakers. The light switch is a dimmer. The first door on the right is a half finished bathroom/laundry room, and there's a bedroom at the end. It looked like this:

The dark wood paneling went far, far away, as did the mirror tiles that were supposedly there to brighten it up. So did the thin, useless paneling in the main basement room. And every inch of nasty carpet.

As this is Spring in Colorado, shortly after we moved in, we had a [beautiful] torrential rain, with hail. Shortly after that, we had standing water in the basement. Good times. After removing some insulation, we found:

...cracks. Which we will fill. In the meantime, Uncle "Champ" brought a few yards of dirt and spread it around the perimeter of the house, effectively reversing the slope of the driveway and eroded yard away from the house. No seepage since, despite several equally severe storms. Thanks, Uncle!

Eventually, much celebration and big-screen TV watching will occur down here. We just have to re-do everything the previous owner tried to do.

Clean Clothes for Dirty Bodies

2007-05-31T21:24:00.000-06:00

So, there are perks to marrying someone affiliated with the technological conglomerate that is Best Buy. Namely, discounts and employee auctions. The latter afforded us a $200 washer for the winning bid of...$40.

It's bottom-of-the-line, to be sure, but considering that our dryer is a wire in the back yard, it's pretty sweet. And apparently it's as laid back as we are:

...we can choose to wash our clothes in the following temperatures/temperaments: normal, gentle, or...casual? What does that mean? It's only for casual clothes? Or it starts washing them whenever it wants to?

While Bren installed this useful device...

I made a tee pee, fort and campfire ensemble out of the box components and bar remnants. The tee pee has fallen down three times, though. I guess I should stick to Irish lass and relinquish Indian squaw. I could cook potatoes on that campfire without even lighting it. All I need is a beer. Wanna fight about it?

On a related note: we got our first water bill today. We didn't have to pay for water at our apartment, so neither of us had any idea what a normal water bill was. Tip: if you want to lower your water bill, move into a house that has no bathing, laundering or lawn-watering capabilities. The grand total:

That's right. $8.46.

It's Shake 'N' Bake...And I Did It All By Myself

2007-05-26T23:25:00.000-06:00

Finally, both layers of linoleum are removed from the kitchen. Cue the Seraphim...

Unfortunately, we won't be able to rescue the hardwood. Approximately 75% of the room was patched with unfinished, low-quality wood of a different width than the original at some point. So, we're going to scrape this stuff down to the subfloor and install new hardwood. It will be cheaper than tile, and more durable in the long run, if more labor-intensive.

In other hardwood news, I patched a hole in the living room all by myself tonight. Bren and the band had a show, so I whipped out the saw and drill and CONSTRUCTED.

I am prodigiously proud of this patch. I had to drill pilot holes for every nail I drove at a 55 degree angle into the tongue of every plank. Once we sand down the rest of the room(s), it'll be good as new. Or good as old, I guess. Yeah.

Livin' the Dream

2007-05-23T22:52:00.001-06:00

A welcome addition to the family:

Our dream fridge, a floor display at Best Buy on clearance. Aunt and Unc have already filled the bottom-mount freezer with chili and goodies from Schwan's.

In other news:

A combination kitchen sink/vanity offers a myriad of conveniences. Just make sure your washcloth, dishcloth, and linoleum soaking cloth are different colors.

Neighbors

2007-05-22T23:44:00.000-06:00

The crazy lady next door has an old-skool rotor-blade lawnmower, and a lot full of overgrown grass, weeds and plants. She cut [chikchikchikchik] a swath of it the other day, so she could sit in her lawn chair.

On the other side, last year's dump trip was preempted by a blue tarp.

One house further resides our favorite neighbor...

...who stopped by for a piece of cheese last night. She's old enough to wear an illegibly worn-down tag, but she rules the streets. Oooowwwwwww!

We would have loved to take this gangsta in, had she been abandoned. Unfortunately, her lacklustre parents will have to do for now. With the occasional piece of cheese from her friendly neighborhood dog enthusiasts.

Mama's in the Kitchen

2007-05-22T23:27:00.000-06:00

So...I haven't posted for a few days. That's because 1) I took a break from the bathroom floor, inasmuch as it is IMPOSSIBLE to remove, and 2):

Bren went Medieval on the tub. Or, in his case, the footbath. And it takes a couple of days after ripping this crap out to be able to make a fist again.

Last Saturday, I dogsat this Gunter girl:

Afterwards, on a whim, I decided to take a peek and see if the kitchen floors were hardwood too. I found:

Hardwood. Under (again) two layers of linoleum, the oldest of which looks like...you guessed it...the most sensible thing to cover genuine hardwood floors with...fake wood!

To explain the late post...the layers of ancient linoleum are not going gently into that good night. Four days later, this is where I am in the kitchen:

The glued-down tar paper is coming up with a hot soak and a razor, but the glue itself will have to be sanded down, tripling our sandpaper budget. (It clogs the paper very quickly).

I have to keep telling myself how cool it will look when it's done. It will, right? Right?

I Feel Like a Mario Brother

2007-05-22T22:14:00.000-06:00

My main concerns in the house up to now have been: keeping water out of the basement and remodeling our bathroom. The basement walls have a tendency to seep liquid fury into our poorly finished basement when it rains. One of three steps have been taken to dissuade this water torture. First the O'Connor brothers (myself and my brother, who happens to have a ladder and other tools needed) cleared out five or six years of rotten, nasty leaves and dirt from our gutters. Thanks Miles. Step two (dirt grading around the house exterior), and three (hydraulic water-lock cement on the basement walls) are in the works.

The bathroom remodel ranks higher on my list for one simple reason, cleanliness. We have gotten by without any issues so far thanks to the hospitality of family and friends. I made a large advancement in my home improvement repertoire today and we are a large step further towards bathroom bliss. It took me two hours this morning to decide whether or not to call a plumber to get a quote. After two hours of pondering, I finally decided to do it myself. After two trips to two different home depots (the one closest to us is horrible, although we did talk to a very helpful guy who knew a lot about our particular style of hardwood floors on my 3rd trip of the day), I returned home with the kind of thing every boy and man dreams about having:

I found that soldering pipe is not as hard as it seems. There are a lot of steps, and a lot can go wrong, but after a lot of practice I got the hang of it.

This went along swimmingly for a couple of hours, taking each step, double checking myself each time. It's a lot like learning a new song. Follow the sheet music the first couple times, trying without until you forget a step, then go back to the book. The last few times went by easily and know I know how liquid metal can osmoticaly fill the gap of a pipe fitting. Cool stuff. All this information is of course useless when you are standing in a 2ftx7ft space looking up at two pipes, barely within reach, that may or may not (but shouldn't) be filled with pressurized water. All I planned to do this time out was cut and cap the pipes, allowing me to remove the pipes above from the walls. It was nerve wracking, but I got it done. The caps have been holding steady for a few hours now, and all is well.

Why would I cut two perfectly good, old pipes? Here's the simplest way I could think to explain it. I need to move the pipes

Imagination helps.

-Bren

"One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer"

2007-05-18T23:30:00.000-06:00

It's ironic that the single well-executed project in this Prohibition Era house was a bar.

This is in the basement. You can see that the guy who lived here before us was no champion at drywall or carpeting, but he must have put a lot of time into this piece. You can't see them in this picture, but there is a frosted plastic shadowbox overhead containing colored lights. Good Lord.

Bren and Miles got the thing dislodged...

...but it wasn't going anywhere. It's heavy, and the nearest openings are comparatively narrow.

So, I came home from my half-day at work, grabbed my trusty Wonderbar and Sledgehammer, and reduced the bar to this pile of rubble:

Hear me roar. I need a drink.

Doin' the Potty Dance

2007-05-18T23:05:00.000-06:00

The upstairs bathroom saga, part one.

Once upon a time, there was a bathroom...

...that seemed irregularly large for such an old house.

The pink tile was quickly dispatched, only to reveal...

...yet another layer of tile.

That pink and cream tile-look linoleum?

It gave way to ANOTHER layer of black-and-white granite-look linoleum, and HARDWOOD FLOORS.

We suspected early on that this was initially a second bedroom, based on:

This ill-disguised carcass of a window, which roughly corresponds to the master bedroom closet, and the fact that the hardwood floors stop a couple of feet out from said closet. Suspicions confirmed: the closet was a tiny, authentic 1927 bathroom at one point.

And maybe, just maybe, our bathroom will end up looking something like this...

...after about 100 hours of scraping stinky linoleum glue.

Ring of Fire

2007-05-18T18:49:00.000-06:00

I forgot this when I listed stuff in the house that's original:

The old wood or coal-burning furnace. We found it when removing the old, dark paneling (pictures forthcoming). It was kinda creepy, like we were finding something we weren't supposed to. It's very "The 'Burbs." Maybe that's why previous owners tried to brighten it up with a splash of seafoam green?

MEAT!

2007-05-18T18:30:00.000-06:00

Our first night using the hot plate was kind of a let-down, as our macaroni and cheese took FOR EVER. But we're getting the hang of it.

It's really funny going to the deli counter at King Soopers and buying ONE chicken breast. But this guy made a hearty quesadilla for Bren (he ate salad, too, Mom), and there was even some left over for a multi-grain wrap for my lunch today.

Last night, we made a potato, onion, ham, and cheese frittata. It was awesome. Who needs ovens and refrigerators? Psh!

A Fine Vintage

2007-05-16T00:29:00.000-06:00

Some of the original details remaining in our 80-year-old home:

The peep-hole is like a locket -- you raise a lever to open the oval door. There is no glass; the front is a door-knocker.

This vent in the bathroom both looks and sounds reminiscent of an airplane. Yes, it still functions.

The porch light. The Green Lantern. It's green glass...weird. Not a good picture -- guess you'll have to visit!

This light actually belongs to Aunt and Uncle, but it works. Especially near one of the house's many inset nooks for statues or whatever.

Finally, a forthcoming project we need significant help with:

This is where our power hails from. We have to rewire -- at least the kitchen. Bren is pro at wiring low-voltage home theatre stuff through walls, ceilings, and floors, but this is somewhat intimidating.

It's strange to think about what all has happened in the world since this house was built, let alone here specifically. If we could go back...

I would certainly appreciate my vote more.

Bren and I could say we had read The Great Gatsby, and a lot of people wouldn't know what we were talking about.

Allen Ginsberg would have been forming his first words.

We could have heard Louis Armstrong play.

Picasso was between Cubism and Surrealism.

PEZ had been invented, but not sliced bread. I guess that means PEZ is not the best thing since sliced bread. Miles might disagree.

Makes me want to put a finger wave in my hair...

Pillow Talk

2007-05-15T20:22:00.000-06:00

This was the bedroom:

Pink carpet, and gold-veined mirror tiles on two walls. Boom-chicka-wow-woooow...

Aunt Cherri took care of that!

Don't mess with us Gunter girls. Now it looks like this...

...and is the "tool room" until further notice.

I Did It All for the Nook

2007-05-14T22:22:00.000-06:00

The kitchen has been my primary victim over the past 10 days. Anybody need a lath and plaster wall knocked out?

Behold what was the breakfast nook, a space made useless by the archway you see.

A good day's work.

Ah, that's better. Now we can continue the cabinets and counter to the window. Someday we might even get appliances!

On an opposite wall, where all the culinary magic happens:

As you can see, having all the high-end amenities is important to us.

The pantry houses our store of gourmet delicacies, exotic spices, and fine china. Mmm, cuisine.

Time to rest the ol' sledgehammer arm.

Work, Work, Work, Busy Bee

2007-05-14T18:50:00.000-06:00

OK, so here's some of the work we've done:

The very first thing to go was this awful burnt orange carpet. Ew.

Under that, we were surprised to find pee yellow carpet. And a fake brick tile entryway. Double ew.

Finally, under THAT, lay the original hardwood floors, in remarkable condition considering the neglect and abuse they've endured.

Note the sweet entertainment center. With a good sanding and lacquering, these floors are going to be awesome. They continue into the bedroom, as well.

Back to that tile entryway. It was GLUED down to the hardwood. Genius.

5 hours with a razor, and I got all the glue up. People, please don't do ugly things to hardwood floors. For the children.

A Time to Gather Stones Together

2007-05-14T18:38:00.000-06:00

Today is our 3rd wedding anniversary. We are going to The Saucy Noodle, and then we're going to sleep in our new house for the first time! We've done a lot of work on it...more on that later.

Aww.

"Horror has found a new home!"

2007-05-13T20:27:00.000-06:00

Here are some lovely shots of the exterior of our "new" house.

Front porch:

From the alley behind the house:

Homeowners!

2007-05-13T20:05:00.000-06:00

Hi. Welcome to the chronicle of our renovation misadventures. You'll laugh, you'll cry. Well, we will anyway.

Bren and I finally signed on our 1927 Bungalow on Friday, May 4. YAY!

Champagne from a Home Depot bucket. How apropos.