The appliances arrive

Today was the day that James was supposed to come back and install the new outside box, which should give me both hot water and AC. James was working over at George's house all day and came over after 7 to tell us he would finish the job on Monday. As we are not currently living in the house, this works. James will also now run a water line for the ice maker in the fridge and run hot and cold water lines for my washer (more on this below...).

Today began with only one goal: paint the laundry room BEFORE Jeff Lynch arrived with the appliances. We didn't really get started painting until about noon, taping off took longer and actually used more tape that I had expected. Oops. When we got ready to paint, we discovered that somehow the paint roller we had bought at Home Depot the other day had not ended up at our house, so it was off to Lowes quick to buy a new roller.

We did the one coat of paint on and realized that it would have been best if we had primed the walls first, as the strange wallboard in there did not paint super smoothly. We will try to fill in with a second coat in some areas tomorrow.

My appliances did finally arrive, along with two really nice delivery guys. Of course, there were problems... One of the bins fell out of the fridge while it was being rolled in to the house and cracked (we will pick a new one up on Monday at the store) and that wasn't a big deal. But, no washer hookup yet, as the drain is there but the hot and cold water pipes must have been stolen, and guess what... the sellers' work crew didn't replace them. So, those would need to be replaced. The dryer woudn't have been a problem, except to stretch to the outlet, we need an 8 foot cord and Jeff Lynch, Home Depot and Lowes only carry 4 & 6 foot cords. There is a place that carries 8 foot cords, but they aren't open on Saturday. So, currently I'm 0-2 on appliances. I had prepaid to have Jeff Lynch tap my water line to run a line in for the icemaker in my fridge. But, they can only tap copper and all the pipe under my house is now CPVC. Need to get a plumber to do that (James can fix both that and the hot and cold water to the washer and add it to my ever growing bill...). So, the fridge DOES work, just not the icemaker and water dispenser. It does have a filter on the water part, which I hadn't even noticed before, but that is nice.

Freshly painted laundry room with washer & dryer awaiting help to work.

I had been so depressed earlier in the day that we called our friend Audrie to come over, just to get someone else to look at the house. She and her sister Terri arrived and both liked the house and really liked our big kitchen and bedrooms. They both said they were surprised at how nice it was for what we paid for it and that all we really had was cosmetic changes (well and our major plumbing and electrical issues...). Terri also helped me identify some plants in the yard. I have poison ivy on one tree and also behind the shack in the back. Need to get Roundup to take care of it. I also have honeysuckle choking my nandina by the front porch. Terri showed me how to remove it and said to try to trace the honeysuckle back to its source. Also, most of the trees on the left side of the house are some sort of junk tree so I can whack on them freely and should pull out some of the smaller ones, but leave others to provide a privacy screen.

Then, I made the mistake of trying to get the front door deadbolt and lock on. What a disaster. Luckily Terri saved the day and we know have new locks on front and side door. Don't know why the front door has been such a production when the side door was so easy...

After getting so upset trying to deal with the locks, I went outside to take out my aggression on the honeysuckle choking the nandina. After a while of work, the nandina looks much better and most of the honeysuckle is cut back to a few inches above the ground. I will go look at it again in a few weeks. I also took most of the branches off the little junk tree next to the nandina and will remove that tree when I have some help.
This nandina is much happier now.

I then went back into what I think of as "the tunnel" and cut down a few of the lowest hanging limbs in there to open it up just a little bit. Also cut back some limbs on a few of the junk trees by the AC unit and water heater. Finally removed all the branches from another little tree volunteer that I want to remove completely. I plan to plant the flying dragon in its place. Found gardening to be theraputic. Terri did say not to do any digging as I don't know what I might disturb. Looks like I have flag irises coming up by the side door. I do know along one fence it looks like it might have been a bed at one point so I won't dig there, but I want to plant the beautyberries at either end along that fenceline. Hopefully I won't get into anything good doing that. Still can't figure out where to put the rose of Sharon, the camellia and the hydranga. Yes, I am thinking I overbought right now. Oops. And, no pickup truck so I still can't go get the stuff. Hum... problems problems.

The tunnel... you can see the new AC on the left and some of the construction debris from the AC and water heater installations.

We were packing up to leave for the day when James came over to tell us he would come and finish the work on Monday.

Tomorrow we will go back and prime mom's room. She got the rest of the wallpaper off and spackled it all today. Also might try giving the laundry room a second coat of paint. I am also thinking of trying to add two little pieces of the bead board, some baseboard and chair rail to make the area where the water heater used to be look like the rest of the kitchen. That would involve buying a handsaw and a miter box and trying to make miter cuts. I may want to buy a piece of scrap trim too to practice on... We'll see how brave I feel tomorrow.

Can I fix this corner up with baseboard and wainscotting, or will I just paint it?????

Things Get Worse...

Old, dead water heater. This had been in the kitchen and leaked on the wall and floor.

The day didn't start out half bad, did start out at Home Depot, which is no surprise. Got the foamular (pinkboard) for the water heater house and got a very nice (and kind of cute) guy to cut it roughly to size for me so that it fit in my car. I also know have enough pinkboard the insulate my attic pop up door.

The water heater got installed up on its little concrete blocks, with its CPVC pipes coming out if it. They did find a small leak initially, but fixed it and retested and all was well. Then the water heater got wrapped in its blanket and all the pipes got wrapped.

Sometime after this, James and Norman (the workmen- Norman is my neighbor) decided to break for lunch and mom and I went to K-Mart to try to find cheap shoes to paint in. The original plan for the day had been to paint the laundry room and start painting the kitchen.

On the way back home, we were swinging by Home Depot to pick up some plywood to put down as subfloor where the water heater had been in the kitchen and called to see if they needed anything else and discovered that Bobbie had dropped by to help me paint. ARGHHH!!!!! Did see the same cute guy from this AM and he remember me. Probably either married or 10 years younger than me!

I mostly managed to avoid any negativity from Bobbie but she was at my mom again that we should have bought one of the new slapped together builder homes (not seeming to grasp that 1) they are crap and 2) they cost MINIMUM $100 more per month in rent payment than my house).

At some point during the afternoon Duke Energy showed up to turn on my yard light. Of course, there was something wrong with it. In this case, it was just a fixture up there, no bulb and no cover. Luckily the guy on the truck had a bulb, just no cover, so he did get the light working. He also had to cut the branchs of Norman's chestnut tree that had over grown the line, so I now have a large amout of yard waste to be picked up by the trash collectors.

Water heater house

Building the house for the water heater took most of the afternoon and during this time I stripped some more on my window and I can't even remember what else I did. I did test the water and had no hot water after about 1 hour of being hooked up. Again after about 2 hours, no hot water. During this time I did successfully install the lock set on my back door, looks great and works great too!

At 3 hours and no hot water, they went to check.

DISASTER

What they found:

1) The wire that had been leading to the old hot water heater, which the hooked up to the new hot water heater, was not a current hot wire.

2) The wire that was supposed to run to the hot water heater had been stolen along with the copper pipe probably (wire was not there).

3) The junction box that the hot water heater wire had been in was now being used for the AC wiring.

4) The inside being used as an outside box (knew about this from the inspection) does not have enough room in it to add another breaker for the hot water heater.

So, it is either choose between hot water or heat and air... or pay to have it repaired.

During this time I also was attempting to install the front door lock (identical to the back door lock) on the front door (identical to the back door) and having NO LUCK. Finally got the old front deadbolt back in and will fight that battle again tomorrow.

So, on deck for tomorrow for James and Norman:

1) Running new wire from my water heater to the outside box
2) Replacing the outside box
3) Fixing the non-working outlet in the kitchen (also knew about this from the home inspection)

Hopefully they will be able to put in the plywood subfloor in the little area in the kitchen and maybe even stick down the vinyl tiles I bought for the area.

Adding to the fun, tomorrow Jeff Lynch will deliver my washer, dryer and fridge. I also prepaid to have Jeff Lynch's person put in a little water line from my main water line up through the kitchen floor for the icemaker on my fridge. God I hope the water for the washer works, if it doesn't then I guess I will just have a dryer and have to wash my clothes at the laudramat until I can afford plumbing repairs.

Guess I will also be painting the laundry room AROUND the washer and dryer, as that was on our to do list today and most definately did NOT get done. Other tasks we did not get done include calling the trash and water to get them switched over into our names, so hope the water doesn't get turned off.

Today I am really regretting purchasing my house.

Not Making Much Progress

Started out the day waiting for Piedmont Natural Gas to get my gas turned on and find out if the furnace works. While I was waiting, I took a few pictures of the house in the early morning, then spackled some and stripped some more wallpaper.

When the gas was turned on, everything was fine until we went inside and tried to get the heater to come on. Not dice. I was about to totally start crying. Chris, the most wonderful gas company employee ever, crawled under the house to check out the furnance, which he said WAS working and that it seemed to be a wiring issue. So, at this point I was VERY relieved that the furnace DID work, but a tad concerned about hiring an HVAC person to work on the wiring.

Back upstairs to the thermostat. Chris tried a few things by connecting the circuits through the screws themselves and we heard the furnace come on. So, the thermostat COULD control the furnace, there was just a wiring issue inside the thermostat. Unfortunately, there were also no directions for the thermostat (they just left the oven directions). The thermostat had 2 places the white wire could connect to, at the time it was in #1. Chris moved it to #2 and the problem was solved! I know have BOTH heat and air in my house! I also called Piedmont Natural Gas to tell them what a great employee they have.

Then off to Home Depot to buy supplies to build the water heater house. After purchasing the supplies and having to rent the Home Depot truck AGAIN to get them home, my workmen went off to install 2 lights in my neighbor's house. This was maybe 12:30- 1 PM.

I waited and stripped some wallpaper, then stripped some paint, then wallpaper, then paint... No workmen. It started to rain and I ran to bring in all the supplies except the concrete blocks, OSB, pressure treated lumber and CPVC pipe. Strippped paint, stripped wallpaper....

At one point during this time, I had a knock at the door I thought might be the workmen. No, it was my friend Bobbie coming to yell at me that I was doing everything wrong and spending too much money and that it was impossible to have a water heater outside. She also claimed it would be getting down to 5 degrees in a few weeks, which is also CRAZY. She reduced me to tears two times and I have to say I was glad to see her go. She has been against the house since the very beginning and still wants me to do it all her way.

I think if I have to replace the water heater and I eventually want to put a dishwasher (which the house has never had before) in where the water heater is now, that is makes sense to go ahead and move the water heater NOW. And, I don't think a dishwasher is really a MAJOR luxury item in the 21st century.



New home of the water heater. It will go in front of the vent on the left.




Finally at 5 PM I called my mom at work to tell her to come to the house as I was still there, but she had already left. Was considering going out for pizza when I saw my workman on the porch of my neighbor's house. Then my mom came and a short time later the workman came again and said they had gotten tied up all day at the neighbors and they would do the water heater tomorrow.

Back to Home Depot to see about getting some pink board to put on the inside of the water heater house for better insulation. I will have to go back AGAIN tomorrow and they will cut it to size for me once I know how big the enclosure will be. I did purchase something that hopefully will work in the cracks around the windows in the front two rooms. Then finally home to the apartment and the first food I'd had since 7:30 AM since I hadn't wanted to leave all day in case my workmen came. Next time I'm definately ordering pizza.

Water Heater Trauma

Well, today did not get off on a great start as I found out that my water heater indeed does not work. So, it was off to Home Depot for a new water heater, and my neighbor's workmen (including my next door neighbor) will be able to install the new water heater outside.

I also got a vanity for the bathroom that they will install tomorrow. I'm probably paying a little more than I need to to install the vanity, which should be a do it yourself project, but I'm exhausted, and mom has to work tomorrow and sometimes you just need to take the easy way out.

I continued working on stripping the one front window today, and have decided I will not try to get it back to bare wood to stain. I basically have all the paint off the outside, so I guess I'll let it dry a bit from the stripper, then prime it and hopefully paint it in the next few weeks (still need to strip the other front window and prime the rest of the windows).

I did test windows today and the kitchen and laundry room windows open, so they will just need to be primed and painted from the outside.

The two front windows and the laundry room windows need new putty, so I'll check for that at Sherwin Williams.

Both my neighbor and the workman Mr Johnson (who also grew up in the area) LOVED the historic wavy glass windows and are big fans of old houses and buildings. They were both still upset about a train depot that was demolished and said that our town has focused too much on historic HOUSES and allowed other historic buildings to be torn down.

Next time I'm at Barnes & Noble I'm going to pick up a copy of American Bungalow for my neighbors.

The big surprise of the day came when I saw my trash being picked up. I thought trash day was Thursday, which it is. Talking to the trash men, it turns out my across the street neighbor (got to remember his name!) had told the trash people to come pick up my trash. Can't beat that for a neighbor.

I spent the evening working a little in the yard trying to pick up the trash and debris in the yard and get some of the broken glass up. Still have all the plastic out by the AC unit, but I'll tackle that next week...

In the process, of trying to clean up the broken glass out by the side door, I discovered that I have a little brick walkway leading up to the door. I'm not sure how long it is, but I've uncovered 6 rows of bricks so far. I also seem to have quite a weed problem in that area, but also really good looking soil.

I am considering planting one of my shrubs next to the door, but there is something growing up that looks to me like it might be bulbs?? So, I'll wait until that is identified.

I did find out that the big tree in my back yard is a pecan tree. I think I've already found some of the pecans. So, I've got chestnuts from my neighbor's tree falling in my yard and pecans from my own tree. I think "nut patrol" will be a seasonal part of my gardening.

Also did a little work stripping wallpaper when I was bagging up what we had stripped off to leave out for the garbagemen.

Long, pretty stressful day today... I did get a few pictures but the camera is back at the house.

The Story So Far...

My mother and I and our two salukis decided we needed a home of our own after 11 years of apartment living. With a limited budget, we knew we would be looking at a smaller, older house. I decided I wanted a bungalow and wanted to make it an Arts and Crafts Bunglow.

Enter the Mill Village Bungalow...

our bungalow before the front door was replaced by the seller

We found a house in our price range that was a bungalow. It is located in an old mill village in Upstate South Carolina. Officially, the house is listed as being built in 1955, but the wavy glass front windows lead us to believe the house is older than that (the appraisal estimated it had been built in the 1940s). We are now attempting to introduce some Arts and Crafts style to our bungalow and turn back the clock in some ways to what the house may have been.

We finally closed on the house this afternoon and this evening started in working on it. The original plan for this evening had been to remove a few mirrors and other odds and ends from the walls and spackle in the holes in preparation for painting.

That changed when we decided we should sand down the edges of the holes first. Instead, my mom got started trying to remove the wallpaper from the walls, which is actually pulling off fairly easily. Our first surprise, under the wallpaper is unprimed wallboard. So, add primer to the shopping list.

The big SHOCKER is that we currently have no hot water. We don't know if the hot water heater doesn't work, isn't hooked up or connected or what. Luckily, our across the street neighbor is sending one of his workmen over tomorrow AM to check it out for us.

Also today I started in on trying to strip the wavy glass windows. I bought some citristrip in a spray can, figuring it wouldn't work all that well. After only leaving it on about 30 minutes, it got off essentially all the sticky white paint that had been painted on the windows recently. I left it on longer on the inside of the windows and I can now see dark stained wood coming through.

More paint stripping to come tomorrow and hopefully some answers on the water heater. Also on tap, more photographing and measuring in the yard to get ready for planting my shrubs.