Wonderful view of the rats
Jul. 25th, 2015 04:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vicarzSo this is a house post, which I've been meaning to write for some time, but I've been busy and after Veronica took me to zoobrew I've um...can a hangover last 2 days? I didn't even know you could get too drunk off of beer. I'm still sick.
Per my last post move-in theoretically is in 52 days or so. Things are definitely moving - not just construction, but I've been making decisions. I've made several "emergency" run out to the house after work...in hundred degree heat. I've been getting home from work, where I start at 7, at 8 or 9 or later at night. Somehow I still keep up the gym, but barely and not that well. Diet and sleep - they matter.
Things done:
Laundry - decided to move the wall back. I felt bad - which is fucking ridiculous - but he said it was no problem. The top depth was only 30", as opposed to maybe 31-32" at the door, but that was going to make it really difficult to noosh a machine in there. He (admitted?) they made the space for the stacked cheapo unit I had there, whereas I want a new set of front-loading stackables. The downside is it pushes into the master bath a bit, but that issue is diminished because I swapped it to a shower from a tub. I actually don't know if he's charging me (I feel like he shouldn't) or how much (probably not much).
Master bath - I decided to spend the extra 1k to swap the door into a pocket door, which is only possible as we pulled the tub. Also chose to go with a simple glass wall, no hinged door, which keeps costs down. The toilet still hides behind it's little wall. SPEAKING OF the porta potty is gone from the lawn (the poor, poor neighbors must be so relieved) while a temp toilet setup is now in my master...a tankless toilet bowl sits on a wood block over the toilet hole, while a bucket sits beneath a test spigot by the theoretical sinks. Use the toilet, fill the bucket, pour it in the bowl, and let gravity and suction do their thing. Call it it my hipster bathroom.
I chose a stain for the wood floors, then changed my mind. The truth is I don't care much about which shade of yellow-honey wood it is as they look the same, and good, to me. As of today they've stained the top floor.
We've picked where the closets go on the top floor, made a master radiator wall mounted for space saving, and picked tile for the "guest" bathroom. Hell, other than the master bath the top is mostly done.
Paint - decided at 2k for the top 2 floors, or 3 k for the whole place, to have him to the painting. I even checked online and found it was a good price, he knows what he's doing...in fact, pause, he told me what brand of paint to use inside and outside based on his experience.
French fucking door - I'm more excited about that than I expected. Jordan was really excited about it - grab a beer and drag us out into the yard to look at it from outside excited. But it's true - looking at the house from the back with the new egress window in the basement, full french door across the back of the house, and the top floor balcony also mostly window and door? It's a giant glass "don't throw stones" house. The doors are...fun. They have shades inside the glass which easily go up and down, flip open or closed, with one simple control. The first time I looked out I saw a rat in my neighbor's yard. As he transversed the yards, I got to view him from my kitchen. I've spent thousands of dollars to ensure my view of the rats.
I changed my mind about the radiator in the dining room, with help from Scott and Veronica. While symmetry is neat, a radiator behind the dining room table is just a pain in the ass, so it's either being moved back to the window, or being replaced with a wall radiator (tough call - a sexy modern black radiator between 2 old fashioned ones?)
The basement is where most of the excitement is. This really needs pictures, but we found that while upstairs with an exposed brick wall a tub-toilet-sink fit in a row...but as hallways have to be 36" to code, when the basement was framed in we were 6" too short for the configuration. So, without checking in, Jordan built a suitable solution, making the sink and toilet face each other while the tub backed up to the window. However this shrunk the bedroom to about 10x10 while the front was huge; and Scott pointed out there was no room for furniture as there were doors on 2 walls (in and out) and a window on another...so we pondered until Jordan came up with a great plan of nudging the bathroom past the window entirely, making the bedroom 10x12, still making room for 2 closets and a storage bench in the window of the back wall (the 10x12 is AFTER the closets), and using a high-placed glass piece to get light into the bathroom. Basically the whole configuration changed and moved about 4' into the main space...and it looks great. That change will cost me, but I don't know how much. Oh, and we're upping the size of the window so that's another $500 or so.
Visited today and the top floor is stained, the old holes in the basement floor are filled in, while the new pipe holes are cut in. Also, there are utility no parking signs on the road so the utility work is on the way. They've also dug out a lot of the front and back of the house...most of my lawn goes...
Things are moving.
Per my last post move-in theoretically is in 52 days or so. Things are definitely moving - not just construction, but I've been making decisions. I've made several "emergency" run out to the house after work...in hundred degree heat. I've been getting home from work, where I start at 7, at 8 or 9 or later at night. Somehow I still keep up the gym, but barely and not that well. Diet and sleep - they matter.
Things done:
Laundry - decided to move the wall back. I felt bad - which is fucking ridiculous - but he said it was no problem. The top depth was only 30", as opposed to maybe 31-32" at the door, but that was going to make it really difficult to noosh a machine in there. He (admitted?) they made the space for the stacked cheapo unit I had there, whereas I want a new set of front-loading stackables. The downside is it pushes into the master bath a bit, but that issue is diminished because I swapped it to a shower from a tub. I actually don't know if he's charging me (I feel like he shouldn't) or how much (probably not much).
Master bath - I decided to spend the extra 1k to swap the door into a pocket door, which is only possible as we pulled the tub. Also chose to go with a simple glass wall, no hinged door, which keeps costs down. The toilet still hides behind it's little wall. SPEAKING OF the porta potty is gone from the lawn (the poor, poor neighbors must be so relieved) while a temp toilet setup is now in my master...a tankless toilet bowl sits on a wood block over the toilet hole, while a bucket sits beneath a test spigot by the theoretical sinks. Use the toilet, fill the bucket, pour it in the bowl, and let gravity and suction do their thing. Call it it my hipster bathroom.
I chose a stain for the wood floors, then changed my mind. The truth is I don't care much about which shade of yellow-honey wood it is as they look the same, and good, to me. As of today they've stained the top floor.
We've picked where the closets go on the top floor, made a master radiator wall mounted for space saving, and picked tile for the "guest" bathroom. Hell, other than the master bath the top is mostly done.
Paint - decided at 2k for the top 2 floors, or 3 k for the whole place, to have him to the painting. I even checked online and found it was a good price, he knows what he's doing...in fact, pause, he told me what brand of paint to use inside and outside based on his experience.
French fucking door - I'm more excited about that than I expected. Jordan was really excited about it - grab a beer and drag us out into the yard to look at it from outside excited. But it's true - looking at the house from the back with the new egress window in the basement, full french door across the back of the house, and the top floor balcony also mostly window and door? It's a giant glass "don't throw stones" house. The doors are...fun. They have shades inside the glass which easily go up and down, flip open or closed, with one simple control. The first time I looked out I saw a rat in my neighbor's yard. As he transversed the yards, I got to view him from my kitchen. I've spent thousands of dollars to ensure my view of the rats.
I changed my mind about the radiator in the dining room, with help from Scott and Veronica. While symmetry is neat, a radiator behind the dining room table is just a pain in the ass, so it's either being moved back to the window, or being replaced with a wall radiator (tough call - a sexy modern black radiator between 2 old fashioned ones?)
The basement is where most of the excitement is. This really needs pictures, but we found that while upstairs with an exposed brick wall a tub-toilet-sink fit in a row...but as hallways have to be 36" to code, when the basement was framed in we were 6" too short for the configuration. So, without checking in, Jordan built a suitable solution, making the sink and toilet face each other while the tub backed up to the window. However this shrunk the bedroom to about 10x10 while the front was huge; and Scott pointed out there was no room for furniture as there were doors on 2 walls (in and out) and a window on another...so we pondered until Jordan came up with a great plan of nudging the bathroom past the window entirely, making the bedroom 10x12, still making room for 2 closets and a storage bench in the window of the back wall (the 10x12 is AFTER the closets), and using a high-placed glass piece to get light into the bathroom. Basically the whole configuration changed and moved about 4' into the main space...and it looks great. That change will cost me, but I don't know how much. Oh, and we're upping the size of the window so that's another $500 or so.
Visited today and the top floor is stained, the old holes in the basement floor are filled in, while the new pipe holes are cut in. Also, there are utility no parking signs on the road so the utility work is on the way. They've also dug out a lot of the front and back of the house...most of my lawn goes...
Things are moving.
