Making the Outside Shine like the Inside

This weekend, Darrell and I decided to finally attack the front of the house and the yard!   It has been looking very shabby, and not only were we embarrassed by its appearance, we also felt bad that the neighbors had to look at it like this.  When we purchased the house, it was apparent that there had been large bushes or trees in front of the house at some point, although they had all been cut down to the ground.  Out of the stumps, unsightly sprouts were growing:

Close up view of the raggedy yard:

One of these old stumps with its new sprouts:

To take care of this, Darrell first took the weed eater to the stumps and cut down the big sprouts so that he could assess how to move forward with the yard.  Then he mowed the front yard, which cut down the weeds within the lawn, and he took the blower to the leaves, twigs, and dirt (lots of dirt, since its been so dry lately) to clear the drive and front porch so we could proceed with the next tasks.

Of course, Darrell couldn't allow the stumps to remain in the ground, as they'd be in the way of future landscape plantings... so what did he do?  He ripped them from the ground with this bare hands.  Well, his two hands and a gimpy shovel that we swiped from Vassar Street:

That was just the first two bushes... bare hands.... unbelievable. But he didn't stop there, he kept going. (While I took pictures. I know, I'm a giver.)  There were 6 huge stumps that got the D-rail treatment... Including this guy:

The final pile of roots and stumps:

We then tackled cleaning out the gutters and eliminating the little trees growing in the corner:

Darrell got on the ladder and dug out all of the leaves, dirt, and asphalt from the roof shingles.  Clearly it had been a LONG time since anyone had cleaned these things out.  He also carefully removed the gutter plants...

Look, it even stood straight up!  Honestly it's a lot bigger than it looked in the gutter.  Sooooo, let's take a vote...Should we plant them in front of the house?  Yes? No?  Hahahahaha.... just kidding. That ball went straight into the yard waste pile!

Since the gutters were cleaned out, we then moved into pressure washing the house, soffits, and gutters.  I used a long-handled scrubber with soapy solution (I just used Dawn dish soap and water) to wash the dirt off.  Darrell came behind me and rinsed/blasted the dirt to get a sparkly clean finish:

Here is an example of the dirty soffits and gutters:

And here is the same area, cleaned:

When we were finished, the whole house looked it had gotten a fresh coat of white paint under the eaves!  A little cleaning was all the doctor ordered and boy, does it look pretty.  One more thing this house needed that only took a little elbow grease and some TLC.  It makes me feel good that we can do this for the house!

And just when you think, "my goodness, how did they get all of this done in one day?!?" ... we also spread Weed & Feed across the front yard and watered it in:

So that was our Sunday!  The front of the house and the lawn got the TLC it has been longing for, and Darrell and I have sore muscles in places we didn't know existed!  Darrell was whooped, as was Charlie... it was exhausting for Charlie to support us from inside the house! Rough life for a Dachshund.  Thankfully he and Darrell can sympathize with each other:

And for me, tomorrow's going to be rough.  But when I hobble out to my car in the morning, I'll look at that pristine white ceiling of the front porch and remember why it was all worth it!  I'm starting to love this house....

Lesson 1: Homeowners' Insurance is a Racket.

Today we learned a basic lesson of home ownership: Homeowners' Insurance is a Racket.

We were contacted last Thursday by our insurance agent, Tina.  Apparently the photos taken by our Homeowners' Insurance company right after our closing revealed some issues with the condition of our plumbing... see text:

There is damage or unprofessional repairs to the vanity and plumbing under the kitchen sink, a bathroom sink and the area below the washer/dryer hook up.  Underwriting will need the evidence of repairs to continue the coverage.  Please contact the insured and forward the evidence to underwriting within 10 business days for review.

The bottom line is that if we don't fix these issues within the 10 day period, we will get dropped from our coverage.  DROPPED?!?   You, too, will be annoyed/horrified by that possibility when you see how silly these issues are...

The photos  provided by the insurance company:

Jack & Jill Bathroom:

Old (now removed) Kitchen Sink and Plumbing:

Master Bathroom Sink:

Garage/Laundry Hookups:

Okay, first of all... I believe that having a blog is all about honesty and showing things for what they are -- the good, the bad, and the ugly.  Well these count as the Ugly!  Okay, so the Kitchen sink setup was non-functional, and the photo of the Jack & Jill bath makes it look like there are no water valves going to the sink -- it's just that they're on the side now after the re-plumbing job and their photo doesn't show the new valves.  In the garage, apparently the issue was the lack of drywall over the job... I fail to see how that impacts the plumbing quality.  The Master Bathroom sink's issue is the foam insulation.  Now, I'm about as prissy as they come, but the plumbing is functional and totally sealed up, so who cares about the foam?  It's under the cabinet and you can't even see it.  Bottom line, this foreclosure special was a handyman's project investment home for many years.  There may or may not be permits for this stuff, but the home inspector (who was highly recommended as the best in the region) said it was all in great condition, so I put my feelings on permitting aside.

Upon discussion of these situations with our insurance agent, apparently the real issue is the "professionalism" of the work/repairs.  Seriously.  Kitchen sink is a no-brainer, since we had the entire system replaced two weeks ago.  The laundry area is a no-brainer, too, since it just needs drywall.  The Jack & Jill bath just needs caps over the old valve spots and a new photo showing that there are valves attached, no problem!  But we still couldn't figure out what the heck to do to fix the Master Bathroom, so I asked Tina how she suggested we fix the foam issue.  Of course she said we need to dig it all out and replace it with fresh drywall.  In fact, she told us that there could be no foam showing whatsoever under any bathroom sink.  For a house built in '68 and replumbed within the past 10 years, that's a slightly unreasonable request in my opinion.

Anyway, we paid our contractor $270 to do all of these little projects.  It was a requirement for these items to be "professionally repaired" and provide an invoice showing the work, as well as new pictures showing the new condition.  UGH.  Racket!  All over foam and drywall, which has basically nothing to do with the condition of the home's plumbing!

So here are the after shots that we'll be sending to the insurance company:

Jack & Jill Bathroom:

Master Bathroom:

New Kitchen 1:

New Kitchen 2:

Garage/Laundry Area:

So, that's it.  We paid the money, we got some drywall, and we saved our insurance coverage... for now.

Tying up some loose ends!

After the kitchen cabinets went in on Thursday and Friday last week, we had to wait 48 more hours to get our handyman out to the house to install the sink, garbage disposal, faucet, dishwasher and microwave over the range.  But when we did, we realized we had a gem!

Sink:  Swanstone - Composite, single basin, 33" x 22" and 10" deep, color: Tahiti Ivory; Purchased at HomeDepot.com

Faucet: Moen - Harlon model, single-hole/no mount plate, color: Spot Resist stainless steel

Purchased at Lowe's (with our 10% moving discount!)

And our new garbage disposal:

Garbage Disposal:  InSinkErator Evolution Essential, 3/4 HP.

And let's not forget our reinstalled dishwasher and microwave:

So we finally have a functioning kitchen! Well, with one tiny exception.  The range (see photo above) is nothing fancy, but it isn't bad and it appears to be fully functional, as all of the heating elements work great, the timer and dials are all working, etc.  Unfortunately, the oven is missing its oven racks.... Who would want those? So we can't use the oven until we get something to place a dish/pan on!  It appears that we'll have to order a rack from some online parts warehouse, but I'm open to other ideas of where I might pick one up!

On top of these completions, we have also been busy improving things on the home decor front!  We installed new 2 1/2" blinds on the front bay window:

First, please ignore the messy living room.  We're still in move-in mode, so that's going to be my excuse for now!  Also, this picture doesn't do the wall color in the living room justice, presumably because I took this picture at night, so the white blinds look a little washed out with the wall color... there is a nice contrast, I assure you!

We also unrolled the frieze rug that we bought for the family room:

View from the front door:

View from the kitchen:

The giant, obnoxious scratches in the bamboo hardwood floors is actually completely covered by the new rug!  *Happy Dance*

 Oohhhh, ahhhhhh:

Closer view from the front entry hallway... still plenty of room for the future barstools to slide in and out from the bar without running into the rug:

Tonight we also decided to hang a pair of paintings in the living room, as our first touches of decor:

So, decorating this house absolutely terrifies me.  I just don't feel like I have a good eye and it takes me forever to put things together.  I don't know, I guess it just wasn't a gift I was given... so I just do the best I can. In any case, there is a LOT of decorating that needs to be done.  I need money and someone else's keen eye... Any takers? lol  Didn't think so! 

 That's it for tonight.  I'm all decorated out!  I need to sleep now and refresh myself for work tomorrow (guaranteed to be a crazy day). 

Tackling our first major project: Kitchen

One of the big projects we knew we were going to take on when we bought this house was the kitchen.  Our original plan was to replace the counter tops, sink, faucet, garbage disposal, and cabinet hardware.  The countertops had been ruined when someone in the past put something hot down on the counters, causing them to blister. As if the blister wasn't bad enough, someone had tried to fill the blister with black paint or something.  Bottom line, it looked awful.  The sink, faucet and garbage disposal were all completely non-functional from the day we first looked at the house, so we knew that had to be replaced at a minimum, just to get it working again. The cabinets were also in sorry shape, but in my optimistic, DIY mind, I thought we could get another 3-5 years out them by painting them, having them repaired (the doors neither closed all the way, nor hung straight), and replacing the hardware with something more modern.  I didn't think they looked THAT bad, just needed sprucing up.

Before I continue on, let me say that my parents have always told me stories about how "one thing leads to another" when it comes to fixing up your house.  I expected that to a certain degree, but obviously was hoping we could minimize it. 

So, we met with a few handymen and contractors to look at the cabinets and give us an estimate for repairs.  None of them thought keeping the existing cabinets was a good idea.  Apparently if you're going to do that much work on the counters, sink, etc., keeping cabinets that were el-cheapo when they were new, back 20 years ago, just wasn't a good idea.  They all insisted that they were beyond repair and that they just needed replacement.  With that, we had a couple of them give us estimates for new cabinets.  Darrell and I agreed that Dave with World Class Kitchens and Baths gave us not only the cabinets and hardware we wanted, but also a fantastic price.  (We needed a fantastically cheap price, since we weren't planning on putting in a new kitchen in the first place, so if we were going to do it, it needed to be affordable!)

To save a few hundred bucks, we decided to demo the old kitchen ourselves.  Before I begin, here are some BEFORE pictures of the kitchen, taken on our first day in the house, before we painted or fixed anything up...

Let the demo begin!  We started with removing the kitchen sink, faucet, and garbage disposal, and part of the countertop:

Then we started on one of the smaller cabinets, to see how this was going to go...

After successful removal of this cabinet, which was once on the left side of the range, Darrell had a great idea to reuse it out in the garage to create a laundry folding table! I love doing laundry anyway (I know, it's a sickness, so I don't expect anyone to understand!), and this is just about as fabulous and cozy as you can make a garage laundry area:

That small diversion of progress in the garage really helped us feel like all was not lost with our reluctant cabinet project!  

So the demo/cabinet removal continued:

A victory sip after winning a battle against the cabinet:

I took the liberty (and pleasure!) of ripping off the front fascia of this cabinet:

Remember, clean as you go!:

And all that remains are the appliances....

With demo complete, we took the next two days off from our own laboring to let others do it for us!  Dave brought his crew to the house and installed our new cabinets and countertops on Thursday and Friday.  First and foremost, we are amazed by how much these cabinets have changed the look and feel of our house!  I think they look expensive and modern and, well, really amazing!  

Ahh, now our appliances look like poo... haha!  See, "one thing always leads to another!"  :)

In addition to replacing what we had before, we finally have a breakfast bar:

I am so excited about how this looks, I literally jumped up and down with excitement.  :)  Thank goodness this part has all worked out so well!

Next up:  Our handyman is going to come over on Sunday to install the sink, garbage disposal, faucet, microwave over the range, and dishwasher, so we'll have a fully functioning kitchen!  

And now we're off to IKEA to check out some deals.  Happy MLK weekend!