April 27, 2011
First, Happy Birthday (yesterday) to Alok who's present was to take a day off of the house (as well as some guitar stuff, video games, CD's, movies, and a trip to Tiramasu).
Anyway, no news on the house, but I thought that this blog post from the Local Q was very relevant to the one living creature who current resides in our house: the bat. Plus, we all know that Alok encounters these furry flying creatures on nearly a daily basis when he dares to stay in the house after dark (They have also lead us to completely avoid the attic since we currently have no electrical turned on).
Click here to read:
Next up to bat....
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Monday, April 25, 2011
FAQ's
April 25, 2011
I figured I would take a minute to answer some of the questions that we get asked on a daily basis.
Did you know you were getting into a gut rehab?
NO!! We figured we would strip wallpaper, refinish floors, and be on our way. Little did we know that peeling off wallpaper would lead to finding mold, mold would lead to ripping out walls, ripping out walls would lead to finding places where our house wasn't supported properly at all.... I think you get the picture.
Who is doing all the work?
Alok for the most part. He's apparently an attorney turned contractor (don't worry, he's still an attorney by day).
Did you get a good deal?
No. Absolutely not. Now, we would have had an OK deal if it didn't need to be gut rehabbed. We way overpaid. I don't think they issue refunds though, so there isn't much you can do about. Now, that being said, even with the price that we paid and the amount that we are putting into it, it is still cheaper than our 2 bed 1 bath condo was in Chicago.
Didn't you have it inspected?
Of course we had it inspected. Besides the general inspection, we had a termite inspection (and still have termites), we had the heating cooling system/water heater inspected, as well as other things that I can't even recall right now. Point being, we had about a zillion inspections and they were mainly worthless.
Can't you do anything about the inspectors?
No. Now, something they could not have seen without tearing out walls. Somethings should not have been missed that were.
Would you have bought the house, knowing what you know now.
No. We are asked this everyday. I don't think that people are going to be willing to buy it for a good price in it's current condition, so I can safely say that whether or not we like the house and are glad we bought it, we do own it.
When will you live there?
I have no idea. Seriously. We thought by the end of last summer, then September, then February, now we have given up the idea of living there. OK, well not completely, but it will be awhile.
Why do you keep tearing things up?
To get rid of allergens and to make sure our house isn't going to fall down. Seriously.
Why don't you move in to part and then continue working?
This was our plan. Unfortunately, that part was found to contain mold and termites. If you walk into our house and see the amount of debris floating around, this may clarify things.
Any other questions?
Jessica
I figured I would take a minute to answer some of the questions that we get asked on a daily basis.
Did you know you were getting into a gut rehab?
NO!! We figured we would strip wallpaper, refinish floors, and be on our way. Little did we know that peeling off wallpaper would lead to finding mold, mold would lead to ripping out walls, ripping out walls would lead to finding places where our house wasn't supported properly at all.... I think you get the picture.
Who is doing all the work?
Alok for the most part. He's apparently an attorney turned contractor (don't worry, he's still an attorney by day).
Did you get a good deal?
No. Absolutely not. Now, we would have had an OK deal if it didn't need to be gut rehabbed. We way overpaid. I don't think they issue refunds though, so there isn't much you can do about. Now, that being said, even with the price that we paid and the amount that we are putting into it, it is still cheaper than our 2 bed 1 bath condo was in Chicago.
Didn't you have it inspected?
Of course we had it inspected. Besides the general inspection, we had a termite inspection (and still have termites), we had the heating cooling system/water heater inspected, as well as other things that I can't even recall right now. Point being, we had about a zillion inspections and they were mainly worthless.
Can't you do anything about the inspectors?
No. Now, something they could not have seen without tearing out walls. Somethings should not have been missed that were.
Would you have bought the house, knowing what you know now.
No. We are asked this everyday. I don't think that people are going to be willing to buy it for a good price in it's current condition, so I can safely say that whether or not we like the house and are glad we bought it, we do own it.
When will you live there?
I have no idea. Seriously. We thought by the end of last summer, then September, then February, now we have given up the idea of living there. OK, well not completely, but it will be awhile.
Why do you keep tearing things up?
To get rid of allergens and to make sure our house isn't going to fall down. Seriously.
Why don't you move in to part and then continue working?
This was our plan. Unfortunately, that part was found to contain mold and termites. If you walk into our house and see the amount of debris floating around, this may clarify things.
Any other questions?
Jessica
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Happy Easter!
April 24, 2011
Happy Easter everyone! Alok and I had a lovely Saturday night last night. We celebrated our Easter Eve with a very long trip to Lowes. We're talking about standing in an aisle for an hour discussing things for the house, leaving to go get food with the hopes that the nourishment would help (ok, really, we thought a margarita may help), and then back to Lowes for about 4 more hours. That is the longest that I have ever spent in that store in my life.
Anyway, prior to going to Lowes, we went over to the house to check things out. No yard elves had magically mowed our lawn, so it is even more ridiculous. Attn neighbors: We should be getting a mower for this house this week, so hopefully it will look better later in the week. As for the multi-colored house and constant pounding sound, there is no hope for those things. Here is the lawn now:
These pictures don't really do it justice, so here is a close up to try to illustrate how tall the grass is and how weird this grass looks:
Moving on inside, Alok has been working hard on tearing it out. I was only in the house long enough to take pics, and I proceeded to cough the rest of the night. And people wonder why we are taking out everything before we move in. Here is the upstairs:
Hallway with the yellow bedroom ahead and laundry room to the right
Ceiling/hallway upstairs
Ceiling/hallway upstairs.... the door to the right is the hallway bath and the door to the left is my office area
Alok wondering what I'm doing, with my office in the background (yes, my office currently has a washer and dryer in it)
Floor of the hallway bathroom. Apparently, this board is loose and someone almost went through the floor here. Oops. We may want to repair that. And we also may want to have anyone who enters the house sign a waiver.
Here are some other happenings in the house:
This was hidden in a downstairs closet, which is now a big hallway. You can still see about 4 types of wallpaper on it.
Random doorway in the middle of the house. I'm not sure where it came from.
Last time we had a dumpster, Alok filled it with 8 tons of plaster. Here is our new one:
Anyone want to take a guess on how much this will weigh?
Notice the toilet in the dumpster? On our trip to Lowes last night, we ended up getting a new toilet that was on clearance. (Yes, we know that we don't have any plumbing right now, but it was a good deal, we also got a sink). Who would have guessed that toilets were so expensive and we'll need to buy 6 of them total. Alok said that we should have kept the old ones, but being that they were all very nasty, leaking, and many had to be chipped out because of the way that the floors were installed, he realized that buying new ones may not be too bad.
We also looked at bath stuff at Lowes. I picked out the tub for the master bath.
Seriously. Of course, it is one of the most expensive ones there, but when we get to the point where we can live in this lovely house, I think we should have one nice one :-) Needless to say, we aren't buying it now. Although, we may want to move some of these things in prior to drywalling in case it can't make it through the door openings.
Our other debate of the day was whether to install a ceiling light in the middle of a living room ceiling. I said yes and Alok acted like I had lost my mind. After dinner, he said that if I could show him 1 living room pic with a light in the middle, he would go for it. Luckily, the design book at Lowes had lights in the middle of about every living room. Debate over.
The debate that isn't over is what to do about the kitchen. Here it is now (or a few months ago... the only difference now is that there is about 6 more inches of dust)
Our plan is to integrate them all into one big room. The is going to require the removal of 2 load bearing walls. Here's the debate: 1) Do we leave this now, which means not really finishing the butler's pantry or anything now (kinda leaving it destroyed) until we have $$$ to do the kitchen, which will be a while. or 2) Do we suck it up and do it now, knowing that we may not be able to finish it, but we'll at least get the walls out (aka we won't have that dust flying later) and we can always re-install these crappy appliances and replace the appliances as we get $$$. So, we'd move the walls, plan it out now and then slowly finish it.
Thoughts? We keep going back and forth. We really never intended to do it now, but I'm not sure how my crappy lungs will hold up if I live there while we do the kitchen.
Sigh. Anyone know an arsonist? JUST KIDDING!!! We're sure the house will be nice eventually. Or that's what we repeatedly tell ourselves.
Jessica
Happy Easter everyone! Alok and I had a lovely Saturday night last night. We celebrated our Easter Eve with a very long trip to Lowes. We're talking about standing in an aisle for an hour discussing things for the house, leaving to go get food with the hopes that the nourishment would help (ok, really, we thought a margarita may help), and then back to Lowes for about 4 more hours. That is the longest that I have ever spent in that store in my life.
Anyway, prior to going to Lowes, we went over to the house to check things out. No yard elves had magically mowed our lawn, so it is even more ridiculous. Attn neighbors: We should be getting a mower for this house this week, so hopefully it will look better later in the week. As for the multi-colored house and constant pounding sound, there is no hope for those things. Here is the lawn now:
These pictures don't really do it justice, so here is a close up to try to illustrate how tall the grass is and how weird this grass looks:
Moving on inside, Alok has been working hard on tearing it out. I was only in the house long enough to take pics, and I proceeded to cough the rest of the night. And people wonder why we are taking out everything before we move in. Here is the upstairs:
Hallway with the yellow bedroom ahead and laundry room to the right
Ceiling/hallway upstairs
Ceiling/hallway upstairs.... the door to the right is the hallway bath and the door to the left is my office area
Alok wondering what I'm doing, with my office in the background (yes, my office currently has a washer and dryer in it)
Floor of the hallway bathroom. Apparently, this board is loose and someone almost went through the floor here. Oops. We may want to repair that. And we also may want to have anyone who enters the house sign a waiver.
Here are some other happenings in the house:
This was hidden in a downstairs closet, which is now a big hallway. You can still see about 4 types of wallpaper on it.
Random doorway in the middle of the house. I'm not sure where it came from.
Last time we had a dumpster, Alok filled it with 8 tons of plaster. Here is our new one:
Anyone want to take a guess on how much this will weigh?
Notice the toilet in the dumpster? On our trip to Lowes last night, we ended up getting a new toilet that was on clearance. (Yes, we know that we don't have any plumbing right now, but it was a good deal, we also got a sink). Who would have guessed that toilets were so expensive and we'll need to buy 6 of them total. Alok said that we should have kept the old ones, but being that they were all very nasty, leaking, and many had to be chipped out because of the way that the floors were installed, he realized that buying new ones may not be too bad.
We also looked at bath stuff at Lowes. I picked out the tub for the master bath.
Seriously. Of course, it is one of the most expensive ones there, but when we get to the point where we can live in this lovely house, I think we should have one nice one :-) Needless to say, we aren't buying it now. Although, we may want to move some of these things in prior to drywalling in case it can't make it through the door openings.
Our other debate of the day was whether to install a ceiling light in the middle of a living room ceiling. I said yes and Alok acted like I had lost my mind. After dinner, he said that if I could show him 1 living room pic with a light in the middle, he would go for it. Luckily, the design book at Lowes had lights in the middle of about every living room. Debate over.
The debate that isn't over is what to do about the kitchen. Here it is now (or a few months ago... the only difference now is that there is about 6 more inches of dust)
Our plan is to integrate them all into one big room. The is going to require the removal of 2 load bearing walls. Here's the debate: 1) Do we leave this now, which means not really finishing the butler's pantry or anything now (kinda leaving it destroyed) until we have $$$ to do the kitchen, which will be a while. or 2) Do we suck it up and do it now, knowing that we may not be able to finish it, but we'll at least get the walls out (aka we won't have that dust flying later) and we can always re-install these crappy appliances and replace the appliances as we get $$$. So, we'd move the walls, plan it out now and then slowly finish it.
Thoughts? We keep going back and forth. We really never intended to do it now, but I'm not sure how my crappy lungs will hold up if I live there while we do the kitchen.
Sigh. Anyone know an arsonist? JUST KIDDING!!! We're sure the house will be nice eventually. Or that's what we repeatedly tell ourselves.
Jessica
Sunday, April 17, 2011
It's definitely from the 80's...
The question is, is this painting more 1980's or 1880's:
The proud owner
Another close up
Let's just say, when I use the word "mauve" to describe something, it's not usually something that I want in the house.
Needless to say, Alok has become a bit addicted to buying random paintings for the house. Maybe we should start with some walls to hang those paintings on first.
The proud owner
Another close up
Let's just say, when I use the word "mauve" to describe something, it's not usually something that I want in the house.
Needless to say, Alok has become a bit addicted to buying random paintings for the house. Maybe we should start with some walls to hang those paintings on first.
Welcome to the Jungle
April 17, 2011
Today I ventured over to the house (briefly) to see the work that Alok has been doing. He said our front yard needed mowing and he wasn't lying. Welcome to the jungle that is our house:
Random afros of grass
Oh good. The ivy is back!!
We have a nice new lawn mover that we bought, but it is at my mom's house (where we are living). Alok had a lovely van that he could use to transport the van back and forth, but it's most recent malfunction is that the front drivers side door won't close. Needless to say, that is necessary for it's operation. We have a lovely rusted lawn mower that someone left in our back yard at the Hampshire House, but it doesn't work. So, in the meantime, this is what it looks like. I'm sure our new neighbors were happy that we bought the house so that it would be "kept up" and now they have a weeded yard and a multi-colored house in the neighborhood. Ah, fun times.
Alok has been busy on the inside of the house, continuing to destroy it. As you can see in the foyer, random bathroom fixtures are now kept here:
As for the upstairs, well, it is being ripped out. Due to my lovely horrible lungs, there is no way that I can live in this house when we are creating this amount of dust. So, we made the decision to literally tear out the entire house before fixing anything. Here it is now:
View from the upstairs hallway into the laundry room
The upstairs hallway (near the attic door- on the right)- I'm standing in the yellow bedroom
The laundry room. Part of this was already torn out, but you can now see directly into the other bedroom.
View from the laundry room into the hallway (that door ahead is the attic door)
View into the hallway upstairs
Upstairs hallway door
More of the upstairs hallway
No, this is not the laundry room. It's this room:
Which will be my office
Other pics of that room:
View from that room into the hallway bathroom
For those of you who don't mind horrible quality video, here it is for your enjoyment.
We also ventured into the attic, despite the bats. We don't have electricity up there and my cell phone died, so I wasn't able to take pics. We think we figured out where we are putting a bathroom up there. Why add a bath when we'll have 4.5 already? Well, this will be the party room and we can do it fairly easily, so why not? We have plenty of room. The only debate is a half or full bath. That debate may be decided by what can fit up those attic stairs.
That's all for now.
Jessica
Today I ventured over to the house (briefly) to see the work that Alok has been doing. He said our front yard needed mowing and he wasn't lying. Welcome to the jungle that is our house:
Random afros of grass
Oh good. The ivy is back!!
We have a nice new lawn mover that we bought, but it is at my mom's house (where we are living). Alok had a lovely van that he could use to transport the van back and forth, but it's most recent malfunction is that the front drivers side door won't close. Needless to say, that is necessary for it's operation. We have a lovely rusted lawn mower that someone left in our back yard at the Hampshire House, but it doesn't work. So, in the meantime, this is what it looks like. I'm sure our new neighbors were happy that we bought the house so that it would be "kept up" and now they have a weeded yard and a multi-colored house in the neighborhood. Ah, fun times.
Alok has been busy on the inside of the house, continuing to destroy it. As you can see in the foyer, random bathroom fixtures are now kept here:
As for the upstairs, well, it is being ripped out. Due to my lovely horrible lungs, there is no way that I can live in this house when we are creating this amount of dust. So, we made the decision to literally tear out the entire house before fixing anything. Here it is now:
View from the upstairs hallway into the laundry room
The upstairs hallway (near the attic door- on the right)- I'm standing in the yellow bedroom
The laundry room. Part of this was already torn out, but you can now see directly into the other bedroom.
View from the laundry room into the hallway (that door ahead is the attic door)
View into the hallway upstairs
Upstairs hallway door
More of the upstairs hallway
No, this is not the laundry room. It's this room:
Which will be my office
Other pics of that room:
View from that room into the hallway bathroom
For those of you who don't mind horrible quality video, here it is for your enjoyment.
We also ventured into the attic, despite the bats. We don't have electricity up there and my cell phone died, so I wasn't able to take pics. We think we figured out where we are putting a bathroom up there. Why add a bath when we'll have 4.5 already? Well, this will be the party room and we can do it fairly easily, so why not? We have plenty of room. The only debate is a half or full bath. That debate may be decided by what can fit up those attic stairs.
That's all for now.
Jessica
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