the details....

It's funny, since we've been in the house, the projects are smaller, and, so much less to create a post about. I hardly find scrubbing the baseboard radiators to remove the plaster mess left behind, or trying to find in the barn (a.k.a wood workshop/salvage storage) the pieces of radiator gone MIA a fascinating blog post! :)
However, these are the details we are down to, and the ones making an amazing difference to having the house feel "finished". (but do not expect a "before & after" series of this event!) lol!

I did finally tackle 1 of our 2 closets...that being it was storing our paint/tools, shop vac, etc....we had hid in it, time has come to make it into a clothes closet, so emptied it got, and painting began....our clothes are temporarily in the guest room hanging everywhere....I said my mother would call this a "gyp joint"!! (no offense to the gypsys out there, this is an term I grew up hearing and until I said it out loud to Scott yesterday I never thought of its orgin!) 

We're taking a break today to for a bit of fun & food & education to head up to Portland with Doug to the Maine Restaurant & Lodging Expo should be fun!  Doug promises we can "eat our way thru the expo!"

Dining in!

We had committed to a dinner party last week, which then seemed like a great idea.  Then, after feeling sick on Sunday & having a hectic day on Monday, it was the last thing I wanted to do!

However, we scrambled a bit in the couple hours before guests arrived, and got the house "pulled together" a bit more- much needed, so it prompted that, which was a bonus!  & when everyone arrived, it was so fun & wonderful to have good friends & family share our new home, and listen to all the praise on the success of our hard work, I immediately felt pleased everyone was there! 

We sat at our dining table for the very first time, & it proved to be perfect!  Scott made us a wonderful meal, which Nancy declared was, "better than going to a restaurant"! We enjoyed potato leek kale soup, then our entree was a moose &/or beef roast which Scott marinated 2 days before and slow cooked all day, root vegetables, and his almost famous (& Doug & my favorite!) twice baked potatoes!

Scott is really enjoying our new range/oven and having a large, functional cooking space....(still a challenge sometimes to find everything in the drawers, but that will come!)

I had to snap this shot, it was like walking into a commercial kitchen watching Scott plate up 6 meals! (his twice baked potatoes are featured here!) & of course our colorful fiesta ware make every meal beautiful!

Yesterday morning, I was feeling a bit better (struggled w/ a horrible sore throat on Sunday....how a sore throat can take me down like nothing else!- it is always my "Achilles heel"!)

So Mon a.m, going to tackle some of these "to dos" on our house list....first, for the last few days there is 1.5-3" of standing water in our new part of basement...(we have a busy sump pump in our old part of basement, but new part needs its own due to design).  Off to Biddeford, we hit Home Depot (thinking, we'll go to a big box store for this investment, and save some money & have more options....) Well, options we had & hadn't - seems like a lot of folks must have wet basements as many models were sold out. We finally selected what we thought seemed the best available option and headed home. 

We arrived home, quickly opened box, ready to get this show on the road...and it seems our NEW sump pump was someone ELSE's first!  Yes, instruction manual folded open to page 3, w/water stains on it, no bags or packing material, and as we pulled pump out sand fell out of it....(a lot!)
We were frustrated & fuming...but we NEED a pump!  & Biddeford is about 20 min away!  UGH!  We decide to get as much sand out as we can & see if we can use it for a day at least, then bring it back- we set it up, plug it in....nada! (It all became very clear- they bought it, used it, broke it, repackaged it & returned it), then someone processed it & put it back on the shelf for us to buy!

I returned to HD w/ rage in my eyes both at man kind & at the lack of quality control in this store!  When the poor customer service employee asked me, "what do we have," boy did he get an answer!
Of course to complicate the situation, there is no more of this particular pump available -sold out!  Great, 'cause it took us 30 minutes to pick it out the first time!

Two employees scrambling, and I fuming pickout a new pump....which now needed 2 pkgs of 25'lengths of flexible hose, and 2 small parts to connect hoses together....excellent- more complicated! :)
They give me $50 off, which worked out as this pump was less expensive & to make up for now buying flexible hose which I did not need w/first pump! ("time & gas is expensive we understand." - I will say they handled the mad customer very well, including accepting responsibility & apologizing for having it on the shelf to begin with)

Got home, assembled with my small bit of patience (assembling is not one of my strong skills) and successfully got this thing running....hose out the basement window- and away from house. About 2 hours later, something in my brain clicked & I realized gravity was allowing the back flow of water from the hose back into the hole and causing the pump to run all too often- (almost immediately trigger the float), so pulled the hose BACK into the basement thru the window, and ran it at the slightest downward pitch which exists into the old basement into the pump hole over there....finally BETTER! not running quite as much & no more back flow it seemed. (I'm not convinced this battle w/ the water is over.)

Now that 3/4 of the day had been used up on project #1....it was time to hurry up & clean up- as we were having our first "official dinner party" at #64! (I believe I may have sat in the corner for just a minute & rocked in the fetal position) :)

Meet Frannie!

Everyone meet Frannie:

Hello!

My adorable droopy ears get wet when I eat & drink! (I'll grow into my bowl one day!)

Scott is in love, quite obviously.....& Frannie looks pretty pleased too!

I love sleeping with my big sister, Sadie, she is being wonderful with me, but I have learned to stay away from her food when she is eating! 

We're in!

 Well we're in!  I'm exhausted & Scott & I have had more temper tantrums than we perhaps had in the last 6 months total in the last 4 days!  Today I spent a half hour on the phone getting tech support, a trip to the devil's workshop (WalMart), and then 3.5 hours on the phone again w/ folks which english is not their first language we'll say...and finally after thinking I totally messed up Scott's computer BIG TIME- we have all systems a go- and wireless internet! OMG how can something so small be so hard!


Scott has been feeling the pain of "hanging things up" Oh, I remember when I thought painting was fun...(yeah, on the first room!) how quickly that dies!  Well, as I mentioned in a previous post, he was all anxious to get things "up on the walls"....now he dreads everytime I say, "can you help me for a minute"...(he knows what's coming!)  (fyi...real plaster walls are an animal all their own - as we've learned- and a simple nail does not go into them....there is an art to hanging things in this house!

Our first night was a bit rough- our friends Randy & Kristen joined us for some pizza as our oven was still not operable....we had fun- a bit too much fun maybe (due to that champagne Kristen was so kind to bring over), we both spent Monday moving around a bit slowly till noon...I went to yoga at 8:30 & was a bit in a fog deciding which was my left & right foot at times! :) our mattress was hard as a rock, "firm" I guess you could call it....so we improved on 2nd night, by "drying out" and adding our LLBean feather bed on top of the mattress....ahhh, much better!

The electricians just left now, after 2 very busy days, we almost have everything working in the house...a few outlets & dryer/washer still to go- we're getting there.....for sure!  We no longer have extension cords to trip on in the middle of the night! Thank God!

I'll post a lot more in the next week or so, sorry to all who have been missing my foolish posts- lack of internet and making the most of every moment has been critical- but I will make up for it all pics too- promise! 

Oh my what a busy, busy day!

We knew we intended to tile the backsplash between the island counter tops, and behind the range.  I spent countless hours looking at tile, both online & in person...for months now!  I (as commonly happens to me) got paralyzed by too many choices & my anxiety about making "just the right choice"....in the end, I just finally drove to Home Depot and made myself choose something! 

Day 1...."the planning"



Scott & our friend, Randy, who helped throughout this entire process- (Thank you Randy!), and my Dad...supervising the very early planning stages.




Scheming the layout for the island tile.  These tiles I bought are on mesh backing, so they come in a particular pattern, but there is room for creative genius as well! 



Day 2...The Real Deal

 before any tile

 on goes the thin-set

 first tile is up!

 & off they go a tilin'!

 Scott was self proclaimed, "Randy's helper"...they both worked tirelessly for 9 hours!  Food & beer helped! :) (I was in charge of that, if I've learned anything over the years...if you want the men to keep "working" gotta feed 'em!)

 Complete....(minus the grout!) we love it!!

Note: Work started at 10am...by 10:15 Sadie was tucked under Randy's jacket...fast asleep,
where she resided most of the day! LOL!

 Behind range area...before

before tiling could start in this area, there was a wire that needed to be "fished" up to a higher hole inside range hood...seemed simple enough in the "planning" day 1 stage...however, when the guys went to do it, they quickly realized the thorough job that Up-Country did "blocking" the wall to support the range hood led to a very nearly impossible fishing experience (kind of like ice fishing for those that are familiar!) :)

So in the end, the hood needed to be removed & Scott had to stick his monkey hand inside the big vent hole and grab the lower wire... (thanks Jeff for the help!)

 After replacing the hood, tiling began, thin-set on...

& more, & more....

Like frosting a cake!

Here Scott is setting the first of our "accent strip"....this was an after thought of Scott's, when he realized we would have "extra tiles" from the island project....we all agree this was an awesome addition, & ties the 2 spaces together nicely.

 Any excuse for Scott to stand on the counter, he finds it! :)

 ta da...complete....(excluding grout)

We are thrilled with the results, the blues/greens soften the orange down just a bit, and add a level of character to an already awesome kitchen!  We also are please Randy was kind enough to help us for a long day, it is such an honor & pleasure to have so many talented hands & minds of those we love involved in our project!

Back to work, work for a few days....

Oh! 1 more addition to the kitchen: (this one's for you Doug!)

 This is the original sign on the outside of the building for the first 25yrs of business...it had since been retired & was hanging inside the SD barn on the employee side....we thought we'd give it an honorable spot on our kitchen wall- I love this sign, the wear and age it shows....and all that it stands for.



Jumping thru hoops....

2 individuals:

• excellent credit scores
• excellent payment history
• have both owned homes (1 in the last 3 years, excellent payment history on properties)
• employed
• employed @ same employment for 5 & 15 yrs respectively
• monies in investments
• liquid monies in bank accounts
• own a home of which has increased from 110K to 265K in real value (debt far below real value)

& how many more hoops shall we have to jump thru to get a refinance to repay our private lender?

If anyone out there is wondering why the economy has stalled....or why the housing market is not recovering, hopefully this has provided a bit of "real" insight. 

Scott & I just got done signing the same EXACT paperwork (20 pages each), that we signed Jan 20th so it would reflect a new date on it. 

6 months later, the house undeniably looks amazing, could be resold for 265K today, have made 6 timely payments to private lender....and it looks like more red tape to untangle, and lots more hoops before the folks that deserve a loan can get one.....

I can't imagine what opportunity people who are less fortunate than us will ever have to own their own home....the great American Dream...right?