The Litter Box House

Superficial Updates

2008-11-11T18:07:00.009-06:00

Two purchases for the Litter Box that have made it just that much nicer to live in.

Last winter, when our electrical guy was bringing his gear into the house, his ladder hit a wonderful beveled mirror that Jason had modified for hanging on the wall. Jason tried to fix it, but it looked rather cagey. Early this spring, CRASH! Down it came.

We visited an architectural salvage shop in Madison and found these great ceiling tins that had been modified to include a mirror. Most had been painted for a "cleaner" look. I decided that the rustier one was best for us. It never hurts to have a mirror at the front door for that last minute spinach between the teeth check before you open the door to a guest.

When we got little Kaiser this spring (he's 10 months old now!), we purchased a cheap shag rug for our living room. It has always nagged at me because an all brown rug combined with an all brown couch is never a smart decorating choice. I would have been totally thrown out of Top Design. But we couldn't find a nice rug within our price range. The brown rug is now in Ellie's room upstairs.

Just last month we went on our yearly trip to a cabin up north. We stay for about 5 days in a cabin on a lake with Jason's parents, brothers, their wives and children. Basically a ton of people. For the first time after years of staying at this cabin, my MIL decided that us women should take a trip into town to visit the shops. Especially since there was rumored to be a yarn shop and all of the females (4 adults, two teens) were into knitting. My mind was focused on visiting the yarn shop, but everyone else wanted to hit the other stores as well. And strangely enough, I found the perfect rug! 100% wool with all our colors: brown, green, tan, blue... gorgeous. And only $400. Talk about a crazy purchase when you are supposed to be hanging out at a cabin!

I love this rug. It totally ties the first floor together. You'd swear that we decorated using this rug as a baseline.

Other more major things are happening at the Litter Box. Last weekend Jason installed a new kitchen faucet, which I'll post about later. We also put on a request for baseboard materials at a local lumber yard (mmmm baseboards). And we ordered hallway lights for the first and second floor from Rejuvenation. The electrician visited today to give us an estimate for installing the 3 lights (one new one) and a coat closet light. Oh I'm so excited...

Floor grates update: Um yeah. Totally not worth it to strip myself. They are definitely going to get blasted clean at some shop. Where still needs to be determined!

Mudroom Finis!

2008-10-11T13:17:00.005-05:00

I am so excited and pleased to announce: the mudroom is completed! Yippee!

Somehow I got the idea this year to beg Jason to install the mudroom shelf as my birthday gift (Oct 2). I slyly kept mentioning that "It's all I want for my birthday..." And I was completely serious! I just couldn't stand the thought of that gorgeous shelf sitting in the basement any longer. It had been languishing down there for two years.

One small reason why I loved this house was opportunity for a mudroom. Granted, it's just a tiny area off the side door that enters the kitchen, but it had potential in my eyes. I'd always wanted a mudroom for all the junk that is a part of daily life. It could provide a place to set the mail, hang the keys, leave my bag, store my dirty shoes, hang the dog leash and gardening hat, plus store my library books. And now I am fortunate enough to say that I have that type of space.

The first thing Jason created for the mudroom was a bench for putting on our shoes. Next came my big idea for a key rack which Jason and I created together. Then Kaiser moved in with us, so I provided the idea for a small leash rack to hold his leash, harness, treat bag, and paw towel. The only thing missing from our mudroom was a shelf to hang our raincoats and store library books.

The color for the mudroom had been a bit of a challenge for me. The first time I painted the mudroom, I used our dining room color of Sweet n' Sour. But earlier this year I changed it to the same color we used in our bedrooms. The space was just too small for pumpkin colored walls. I'm much happier with this tan color. And yeah, you can still see that pumpkin on the weird trim area above the mudroom window.

Jason was hesitant to install the rack because he made it out of oak. The stud placement was awkward and he was worried it wouldn't hold the heavy shelf. He also was delayed because the hooks we had originally purchased for the rack had been too long. It wasn't until this spring, when we visited my parents in Minneapolis that he finally found the perfect hooks at an antique/garden shop. But they were rusty hooks, so they got stored away in the basement with the unfinished shelf. Two weekends ago, Jason used a dremel with a wire brush to clean off the hooks and install them on the shelf.

This summer Jason found a wooden mailbox at an antique store in town. The weekend before my birthday Jason took the time to hang up the mailbox and the shelf. It was the best birthday present ever.

We eventually have plans to completely change the mudroom as a part of the kitchen/pantry remodel. We plan to tear out the wall between the mudroom and the pantry (that's the wall with the shelf). Then we'll close off the doorway between the pantry and the kitchen. This will create space for a small half bath that will open into a larger mudroom. Nobody wants a bathroom that opens into a kitchen. I still remember my mother-in-law mentioning how no one likes a kitchen that smells like crap. Unfortunately I don't see that remodel happening for at least 2-3 years.

Of course, the horrid stairs aren't forgotten. I just got sidetracked by my new dog and my knitting obsession. Jason reinvigorated my house mojo by installing the mudroom shelf, so I started stripping our floor grates. There will be a post about that later. But my next big goal before winter hits is to finally install baseboards on the first floor. I refuse to go another winter staring at those scary cracks. And maybe we'll also install new picture rails on the second floor...

A Photo Tour - 2nd Floor Office

2008-05-07T06:48:00.004-05:00

Our office originally contained two desks and two bookcases. The first three photos show the original setup. A bookcase on the south wall for Jason's books - plus a bunch of his crap piled in a corner. One desk on the east wall for Jason's laptop and research, plus a tall bookcase for my books. And the north wall held my desk with my desktop computer. A few weeks ago, my tall bookcase was moved to the living room and the laptop was moved to the dining room for first floor quick web access.

Now that Jason's thesis was finished, I was very excited to reorganize our upstairs office into an office/sewing room. At Christmas I had received a sewing machine from my grandmother and had excitedly taken up the hobby of sewing (discussed on my sewing/knitting blog). Unfortunately, the only place for me to sew was in Ellie's bedroom.

For the last few months, I have been using Ellie's tiny desk for my sewing machine and storing fabrics & patterns in her dresser. Since Ellie is coming back for the summer in June, I knew I had to find a new solution. The only thing we were still waiting on was the sewing machine table from Jason's grandmother. I was lucky enough that Jason's parents personally delivered it to us at the end of April.

What with Jason no longer needing to cover his desk with thesis research, we could now use his desk for my desktop computer. Which would then free up my desk as a cutting table for sewing! So we moved things around to create two work new areas. See the last two photos.

Only three things had to be purchased for the transformation to be complete. The first item was a plastic office floor mat for my sewing area. I can't believe it cost $40. For a measly sheet of plastic! Clearly I am still shocked at the cost. The second item was to hold my yarn stash.

At first I had planned to store my yarn by reusing an old CD rack that Jason had built. I wasn't especially happy with it for two reasons. One, I was worried that the yarn would collect dust since the yarn sits in the open. Two, I was afraid Kaiser will grab a skein and destroy it with crazy puppy glee. So this past weekend, we went to Target to find a rack for the computer printer and I looked at storage options. At first, I wasn't very happy with what I saw. They looked pretty cheap, weren't in the shape I needed (a tall skinny storage area), but I liked the concept of using storage cubes to store my yarn. As I wandered away from the closet storage area, I came across the bathroom area and the angels started singing... I found this spa style shelving system for $90. And the squares are just the right size for purple and cream storage cubes ($5.99 each). The shelving unit was the perfect width and depth to fit the awkward space. I hadn't planned to spend so much money on a solution, but I'm very happy with the result, so it was worth it. The final purchase was a wood topped microwave cart ($40) to hold the printer and computer tower. It's hidden in the corner to the right of Jason's desk in the last photo. It wasn't exactly at the level of the desk, so Jason sawed off sections of the metal legs to make it look more seamless.

Within the next month, we are talking about purchasing, staining and installing picture rails in the office and bedrooms. Then I'd get to hang some of my Japanese prints in the office!

And how could I forget? With the heavy rains a couple weeks ago, our basement had a flooding problem. I'm so grateful to Jason for dealing with the clean up. I was emotionally traumatized by the whole mess that I didn't even think to take photos. But due to Jason's forethought, nothing in the basement was damaged because everything is raised off the concrete floor. The washer & dryer were the only things that he hadn't raised (due to my concern that they might rock off their stands) and he completed that project on Sunday. The sump pump also kept things at a manageable level. But talk about noisy! I see a new sump pump in our future...

FYI: the walls are the same color in both sets of photos. Again, it is just a matter of different levels of daylight.

Sick = Painting Time!

2008-04-22T12:18:00.014-05:00

I don't know what it is, but every time I end up sick, towards the end of my illness I get the bug to paint. That happens about once a year.

In November of 2006, I had painted the upstairs hallway in a color I did not like: Benjamin Moore's St. Martin Sand. The pink undertones killed me every time I walked through the hall. I DO NOT LIKE PINK! At least not in my house...

With the nice weather and an end to my walking pneumonia, I decided to celebrate by painting the upstairs hallway a shade darker than the upstairs bedrooms: Benjamin Moore's Hidden Oaks (1129). Once again I used the Eco-Spec, a low-VOC paint, because I love the lack of fumes. The second photo is a comparison of the old rose color with the new tan color.

Painting walls is the easiest thing to do ever. I don't bother with taping since in this old house the multi-coated trim is bumpy and won't hold the tape well. I'm lucky that I have a firm hand when painting around trim. The first coat went on Saturday and the second coat was put up Sunday morning. Unfortunately, my problem was painting the top of the stairwell. Clearly, there was no way to reach it with just a ladder. I had horrible images of Jason falling if he rigged something up, so I called in our trusty friend and handyman Fritz. Using a ladder, a small step stool and 2 old waterbed boards, and a ton of bravery, Fritz worked his magic. For an hour's work ($40) he finished the hard-to-reach areas and my upstairs hallway was done!

But I had purchased 2 gallons of paint because the first paint job had required 2 gallons ($84) - and of course the paint store is across town so I thought I'd save myself time by purchasing 2 gallons immediately. For some reason this paint job didn't even finish up the 1st gallon. Ugh - $42 wasted. But *ding ding ding*!!! I remembered just how much I disliked the mudroom color.

In October 2006, I had painted the mudroom with leftover paint from the dining room and downstairs hallway. I love the color in those bigger rooms, but in the tiny mudroom with the bright sun, the room was completely overwhelmed by the orange.

So Sunday night I tackled the mudroom. I've got one more coat to do later this week. I'm still debating on whether to keep that trim portion orange or paint it with the Hidden Oaks. What do you think? Keep the orange or cover it up?

And now that Jason's thesis is finished, I got him to continue working on the mudroom shelf. He got it patched, sanded and stained. Unfortunately he hit a stopping point when he discovered that the hooks we wanted to use did not fit the board properly. Hopefully this weekend it will get new hooks and be installed on the mudroom wall. I am so ready to be done with that mudroom!

Next project: Install picture rails in the upstairs bedroom & office. But if the weather is nice, we will scrape up the mat of crab grass, till the backyard to remove the hills & dales, and plant new grass.

The Ugly Corner

2008-04-12T22:57:00.007-05:00

Wow, I can't believe it has been over a month since I've posted. I guess getting a puppy and dealing with walking pneumonia sort of takes it all out of me. And yes, I'm still dealing with both of them...

Well, as many house owners are doing, Jason and I debated on how to use our federal tax returns. One option that was to the forefront of my mind was totally superficial: get rid of that UGLY TV STAND! I've hated the NE corner of our living room ever since we moved into this house.

The first photo shows what we started with. A Pier One TV stand and a plant that our Realtor gave us upon closing on the Litter Box. I've always hated the stand and the clunky TV. Jason despised the plant.

Considering the fact that we had a nice little chunk of money coming in, I started to think about the TV stand replacement that I've been drooling over for many months. It's actually a Pottery Barn console table, but I thought it would work great as a TV stand. I reminded Jason of this table that we had visited a few months ago and he was game as long as I got rid of the plant. But first he wanted to check it out a second time before making such a large purchase. The 2nd look resulted in a change of mind. But at the cost of 700 dineros, I didn't want to get something he wouldn't be totally happy with.

So I thought I would have to live with my ugly corner for at least a few more months until we could find a suitable replacement. But a few nights later, I came home from my knitting group (the KnitWits) and discovered that Jason had played some musical bookcases while I was gone. And thus our ugly corner has been reborn! Later this spring, we will be reorganizing the upstairs office to make me a sewing space, so we needed to find a new home for one of the bookcases. I'm actually quite happy with the corner now, so I don't see a new stand in the near future. In fact I'd much rather get a flat screened TV with a bigger screen than we have now (hint, hint).

But honestly, I don't see a new TV on the horizon either. Instead, I see baseboards being installed on the first floor, replacing the rotted living room window, repainting the second floor hallway and stairwell, repairing the drywall hole in the living room ceiling (you can see it in this last photo - it's from the fan installation) and installing picture rails in the upstairs bedrooms and office...

FYI: The living room wall color hasn't changed. They just look different in the photos due to time of day lighting.

Leash Rack

2008-03-02T17:29:00.004-06:00

It's less than two weeks until we get Kaiser, so this weekend we pressed forward on preparing the house for a puppy.

One major item on our agenda was to create a leash rack for the mudroom. I don't want to pile things up on the floor or the mudroom bench (to the left of the window), so Jason and I designed a leash rack. First we picked a stain that would be similar to the key rack that hangs above the leash rack. Jason cut and stained a piece of oak, screwed in the hooks (courtesy of Menards), then he screwed the rack into the drywall.

There's a hook for 4 different items: a leash, a harness, a treat bag (since we will be doing MAJOR positive reinforcement training), and most importantly a paw towel. I can't stand the idea of dirty wet paws tracking crap throughout the house, so a towel by the door will do the trick. Granted, I'm thinking we may need to move the treat bag to a safer location, but we will see if this works.

The other house project this weekend (not dog related) involved replacing some items in the bathroom. Since we aren't finished, I'll create a post with photos when were done. And I'm STILL waiting for Jason to finish the mudroom coat rack. I'll definitely be putting the screws in him to get it finished this summer!

A Cushy Living Room

2008-02-24T17:47:00.003-06:00

Last week I realized that our house really isn't cozy enough for playing with a new puppy. The only rug in our house is up in the office and that's white/cream/tan. Definitely not something to play on when a puppy isn't completely in control of his bowels or kidneys.

Jason and I would love to get a gorgeous patterned rug for the living room, but we can't afford anything like that - probably for quite a few years. But I figured I could find a decent rug at a sale price that would work for us. Thus the Target special - a 5' X 8' brown shag rug for $80. It was the best deal I could find on the internet for that size of a rug. Jason & I were rather surprised at how much we like it. Granted, it's chocolate brown like our couch, but since it's a shag rug, it has good texture contrast. Plus the brown won't show the puppy potty accidents like a lighter color might.

Just under 3 weeks until Kaiser comes home with us!

Excuses...

2008-02-17T13:08:00.002-06:00

If you go to my other blog, you will see something very exciting...

I'm sure it will keep me from more house repairs for at least a couple months!

A Warm & Toasty Home

2008-01-28T15:50:00.000-06:00

Now that the electrical work is finished, Jason and I were able to get into the attic to take care of the insulation. Since we already had some cellulose bagged up in the attic, we decided to continue using cellulose. Especially since it is considered environmentally friendly (85% recycled content plus it takes less energy to make vs other insulation choices).

Reminder: we have had ZERO insulation in the attic since this summer. The old bathroom fan used to vent into the attic, which caused some of the cellulose insulation to rot - good job P.O. Jason bagged up all the crummy insulation, plus some nasty trash to throw out (wood chunks, dehydrated squirrel, crumbling wallet, an old bank statement...). But there was a lot of good insulation left, which Jason also bagged up and stored around the edges of the attic. Honestly, I'm glad he did it. I believe it was this time-intensive act that allowed our electrician to figure out how to get new Romex up into the attic without cutting holes in our plaster walls. It was just unfortunate that it took our electrician TWO winter months to get into our house to get that job done.

On Saturday we started by patching up any cracks or holes in the attic floor. The goal is to prevent any moisture or heat from accessing the attic from the rest of the house. Some of the holes were freshly made by our electrician, so we plugged them with perfectly sized wood dowel chunks and gorilla glue. We also used Great Stuff Insulating Foam Sealant for the cracks. You can also see that we stapled orange plastic tape to the roof to mark the locations of the bedroom fans and the stairwell light.

But I need to be perfectly clear - the attic doesn't really have a "floor". Just joists with plaster & lath between the beams. I would feel this terrible vertigo every time I went into the attic because I had to balance on the beams the whole time we worked...if we stepped on the plaster/lath, we may break through the ceiling. Talk about stressful.

Once the hole patching was done, we had to lay plastic sheeting as a moisture barrier. Jason found this awesome 15' wide clear plastic sheeting which meant we only had to cut 2 large sections and two smaller sections to cover our whole attic. We started at the north side of the house, laying the plastic from east to west. You staple down the edge, then dip the plastic down between the joists (so it lays directly on the plaster/lath) then allow it to rise over the next joist. We stapled the plastic along the joists with heavy duty staple guns to hold it in place. The plastic is laid over all the electrical wiring. This part of the project took the most time, but it helped that we each had a staple gun. Once we laid down one section of plastic, we started dumping Jason's bagged insulation onto the plastic at a good depth. We used a rake to even things out.

Partway through the process of laying that northern portion of attic insulation, we had to take a break to rent the blower. We rented a cellulose insulation blower from a major tool rental company in town. It was the same place we rented the floor sanders when we first purchased the house. The blower only cost $45/day, plus $8 for insurance. It came with a 50' hose, but since were weren't "quite" sure that it would be long enough, we also paid $10 for an extra 50' hose (which we never needed). What worked to our benefit was that the company was closed on Sundays, so we could pick up the blower on Sat afternoon and not have to return it until Mon morning. And we only had to pay for one day - woo hoo!

On Sunday we worked on the south side of the house laying the other large chunk of plastic and dumping more bagged insulation. As expected, we didn't have enough insulation saved from Jason's bagging, so we planned to take care of the rest of the attic by using the blower and fresh new cellulose insulation. Once the rest of the plastic was laid and stapled, I went downstairs to work the blowing machine. Jason stayed in the attic to direct the hose.

The machine was quite big: 44" high and 33" in diameter (it's a circular blower - see 2nd photo). Plus it was monster heavy: 165 lbs. Thus there was no way we could take it upstairs into the attic. We also don't have a outside attic wall vent to blow insulation in from the outside. That meant we had to haul the blower into the mudroom to allow the hose to go up the stairs, into the attic. We taped off most of the doorway between the mudroom and the kitchen to keep things as clean as possible.

This was definitely a dirty project. I still laugh to think about the drawings on the insulation bags. They show a smiling woman running the blower in a short sleeved shirt - no mask, no goggles, and no gloves. I would have been a wheezing, red-eyed mess without that extra gear. My job was to shove a square chunk of insulation into a circular blower. Next, press the agitator switch for the blades at the bottom of the blower to start breaking up the insulation into smaller pieces, then press the blower switch to start blowing the insulation through the hose. By the way, there wasn't a lid on the machine. Talk about messy! Jason had purchased 6 cubes of Green Fiber Cocoon Insulation (cellulose) and it was just right for the leftover space. The insulation, foam sealant, plus the plastic cost about $100.

Insulating your attic: $163.00.
A warm bedroom and bathroom: Priceless.

Sunday night we were amazed at the immediate difference in the house. On the first floor I no longer HAD to use a blanket when laying on the couch. We no longer HAD to run a small floor heater in our bedroom right before going to bed to warm up the room & bedsheets. I also no longer had to dread stripping down to take a shower. I am in love, love, love with our warm and toasty house.

Next weekend we plan to take care of our drafty mudroom door and installing a deadbolt lock or chain...

Rest in Peace Katze...

2008-01-25T15:38:00.000-06:00

I'm devastated to say that we had to put Katze down on January 17th. I still can't believe it. I love her so much. Everywhere I look I think of her.

Right before we went to MN for the holidays and Jason's grandmother's funeral, Katze wasn't eating much. She had done this once before, but the vet had told us last time she just needed to find the right food. So we thought it was the same thing again and bought a ton of different foods before leaving town. Our friend and cat watcher came twice a day to give her different foods, but she wasn't eating and we couldn't leave MN because of the funeral. Right after we got back I was shocked to see her so skinny and I took her to the vet.

She had lost 2 lbs. That was one quarter of her weight since her last vet trip the previous year. He said she was dehydrated and he wanted to do blood tests. But the next day was New Year's so results would come until Wed. He said I could put her in a pet hospital for 2 days or take care of her myself. I couldn't stand the thought of her being away from me after missing her for a week, so he taught me what to do. Subcutaneous fluids twice a day, then force feeding 3 times a day. Horrible but I did it. On New Year's Day, Jason noticed that Katze's paw was swollen - the vet hadn't noticed.

On January 3rd, the vet called me at work to say Katze's kidney's were failing, she was anemic and her thyroid levels were high. That she was dying. I broke down.

Later that day I called again to see what I should do and to mention the paw. They said she may get better if she could get hydrated and she might start eating again. I took her in for the paw and they said it was infected. The claw fell out when they worked on it, but they were positive because Katze really fought against them. They thought it was a good sign and that the infection may have been what was causing her to stop eating. Over the weekend she seemed to get a little better but not much. She was so tired and weak. Then I took her in again for bandage removal and the vet said the swelling hadn't gone down and he thought it was a tumor. That it was all bad...She just got weaker. Finally on Thursday, at 4:15 pm, Jason & I put her down. I can't get the image of her on the vet table out of my mind. I didn't want to leave her behind. I miss her so bad.

We got Katze from a farmer in northern Maine. Her mom was a surprisingly tiny farm cat and she was tiny herself - she used to fit in the palm of Jason's hand. Or curl herself into a tiny ball at our necks when we laid in bed and read, purring like crazy. She always had this uncanny knowledge that you were just about to get up and she would come and sit on your lap or lay on your chest - trapping you... If I lay on a bed reading a magazine, she would come, lay on that magazine and squirm to get my attention. She was a tease to our human friends. Acting so sweet and lovey to try to get them to pet her, then she would hiss and claw at them. Crazy cat - I don't think she ever got used to other people since she had been isolated with just Jason & I for so many years. She never got used to Ellie. Sometimes her tongue would poke out when she was really relaxed - it always made me laugh. When Jason would pour himself a bowl of cereal, she would come flying into the kitchen and beg for milk - it was a different cry from all the others. Then just like a dog, she would always greet us at the door when we came home - talk to us, then walk to the kitchen counter to beg for treats.

Now she's gone. I haven't functioned very well without her. I feel so empty. She was my constant companion. I miss you terribly Katze...

You Light Up My Life...

2008-01-12T13:01:00.000-06:00

I can't believe it, but it's true. The electrician finished all the updates yesterday and he did a great job!

I am in heaven today. It's amazing how certain unfinished projects in your home can drive you crazy daily. At least they drove me crazy. So this is what we got out of our electrician:

1. In the three upstairs bedrooms, he replaced 3 frosted ceiling lights with ceiling fans. He also installed wall sconces and closet lights with wall switches. All fans are activated by a pull chain. This is a link to old photos of Ellie's room. I forgot to post about our bedroom in the tour I was providing over a year ago, but I'll do old and new photos of our bedroom at a later date. No office photos yet. I'll do an update after we install picture rails. Ellie's room (2nd photo) also shows the bookshelf that Jason built for her last year.

2. In the bathroom, the electrician installed our super duper quiet ceiling light/fan. Our old bathroom ceiling fan did not vent to the exterior, plus it was crazy noisy. It infuriated me that if you used the ceiling light you had to listen to the noisy fan. Our new fan/light has two switches - one for the fan and one for the light. But the fan is so quiet that you barely hear it. We were totally amazed. Not to mention it has a "nightlight" aspect which means that when you initially turn it on, the light is dim. After a few minutes it gets brighter. Thus when we pee at night or wake early in the morning to shower, our eyes aren't blasted out of our heads with normal lighting. We are given time to adjust...ahhhhh.... And the super exciting fact is that the fan is now vented to the exterior thanks to our handyman friend Fritz. It's unbelievable that the old fan had never been vented to the exterior, it was only vented into the attic. Thus no surprise that some of the cellulose insulation was rotting (which Jason removed). PLUS our electrician installed an outlet next to the bathroom mirror, thus resulting in my no longer having to use an extension cord to blow dry my hair. Woo hoo! Such tiny pleasures. No new bathroom photos since these are rather dull looking updates.

3. On the first floor he removed that junky chandelier in the dining room and replaced it with a new ceiling fan with a light kit (3rd photo). It's such an incredible improvement.

4. He also installed the ceiling fan in the living room (4th photo). Now this room never had a ceiling light, so he had to break new ground to do it. He had warned me that he might have to make multiple holes in our ceiling to lay the romex, but he only made one small hole. Yippee!

5. Finally he installed two new outlets in our basement for the washer and dryer. I had actually only asked for one new outlet, but it's too late and an extra outlet is always good.

It took him Monday - Friday to do the job and he had to do it all alone. He had just fired his assistant, so he was going solo. I was impressed because one of the jobs was to fish new romex from the basement to the attic to replace the knob & tube splices with romex that was originally used for the 2nd floor ceiling lights. We picked this electrician because he was the only one who said he would do everything he could to fish that wire without making holes on the first & second floor walls -- something that every other electrician said wasn't possible. And he did it! He chased a heating vent and was successful.

So even though he drove me crazy for months, chasing him for estimates, he ultimately came through and did an amazing job on our house. I'm really pleased and happy. Thanks Mark! But now that our rooms look so great with sconces and ceiling fans, I'm obsessing on the other tiny unfinished projects:

1. Installing new picture rails in the 3 upstairs bedrooms.
2. Repaint the upstairs hallway.
3. Install new baseboard in the 1st floor hallway, living room and dining room.
4. Sew curtains for Ellie's bedroom closet.
5. Finish that damn stairwell.
6. Install insulation in the attic! This is probably happening tomorrow.

I definitely have a lot to do before next winter, but I think it will all be possible with the help of Jason. Hey, I just realized that it was exactly a month ago that I was screaming about getting that electrician into my house...

Can you hear me screaming?

2007-12-12T12:38:00.000-06:00

Warning: Plenty of cursing ahead.

Why is it so fucking difficult to get a goddamn electrician into my house? Huh? Why?

The guy looked at our house on November 4th and claimed "I'll send you the estimate on Sunday. I'm sure we can get into your house this Thursday to do the work."

1st estimate received after tons of phone calls: November 20th via email

I send him corrections to the estimate: November 20th via email

Today is December 12th and I STILL HAVE NOT RECEIVED THE 2ND FREAKIN' ESTIMATE!!!! AAAARGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am about to have a mental breakdown. I call him multiple times a week. I even called him last week to say this:

Me: "Let's be clear right now. Do you want this electrical job? If you don't want this job, that's fine. Just let me know and I will stop bugging you and find a different electrician."

Him: "We want the job, we've just been really busy right now. In fact, we just finished a big job today and we'll be available real soon. I'll send you the 2nd estimate tonight."

Nothing. I've received NOTHING. Day after day after day he claims "I'll send you the estimate when I get home tonight at 5pm." And he keeps saying that he sent it, but for some reason I'm not receiving it. Even though I've given him TWO email addresses and I've checked my spam in both accounts. Still: NO EMAIL.

Honestly, if he can't get to us until January. Fine! No problem. But let's schedule this so I don't go crazy chasing him every freakin' day! Our 2nd floor is freezing due to a lack of insulation and ice dams are building up on our heated roof due to heavy snows. I either want this done soon or I'm gonna put in insulation again and put off the electrical work until spring!

I can't take this any more. I'm ready to kill this guy.

It's hard to believe that two weeks ago I got the bathroom & dryer vents installed by a friend. Yesterday the gas guy came to install the basement gas hookup for the dryer. This Sunday the washer & dryer are going to be delivered. But the electrician, which I scheduled first, over 1.5 months ago, is still yanking my chain. If I don't get this taken care of soon, I'll be in the madhouse for the holidays...

Photo from here.

P.S. Minutes after posting this, I finally got the 2nd estimate. Woo hoo! Of course they added another $100 to the estimate, but the write-up was almost perfect (still can't get it that they will use the existing switches for the bedrooms' sconces). We'll sign it and send it back today. Now if we can just schedule a date!

Greetings Housebloggers!

2007-11-12T16:17:00.000-06:00

Welcome to the Litter Box House!

You may have been directed to my blog from the Houseblogs feature article on How to Strip...Your House. I'm very honored to have been included in the article and I hope that you find my house posts informative yet a bit naughty ;-) Feel free to comment and ask questions. I do my best to answer all comments.

Enjoy the blog!

Electrical Update

2007-11-05T12:27:00.000-06:00

Once upon a time, Andrea mentioned that the electrical work was moving to the top of the Litter Box to-do list. Today was finally the day that we got an electrician in. I'm quite grateful considering the fact that our attic is insulation-free and thus it is starting to get a bit cold for us on the second floor. Here's a list of the work that we are getting an estimate for:

1. Install 3 ceiling fans upstairs, a ceiling fan in living room, and a light/ceiling fan in the dining room.
2. Install a wall sconce in each of the 3 upstairs rooms (to replace the overhead light).
3. Install closet lights with light switches in the 3 upstairs rooms.
4. Install electrical outlet near bathroom mirror (thus I would no longer need an extension cord to use my hair drier).
5. Install new ceiling vent/light in upstairs bathroom (with a switch for each action)
6. Install electrical outlet in basement for a washer & dryer.

I really don't want the electrical work to break the bank for us. As it stands now we've already owned and paid off all of the objects (fans/sconces) for over 6 months, so the major cost is the electricians fees and purchasing a washer or dryer. I really don't want all of this to be too expensive since I really want us to start work on fixing all the windows and trim next spring.

Do you realize I said "purchase a washer OR a dryer"? A huge and exciting piece of news is that my parents have offered to purchase a washer or dryer as an Xmas gift to us this year! Woo hoo! THANKS Mom & Dad!!!!! Not having the ability to do laundry in my own house truly sucks. In fact, I haven't ever owned a washer and dryer. Ever since I left my parents' home in 1993, I've lived in apartments and used laundry mats or even dragged my laundry home when visiting my family. Yeah, and I'm in my 30's!

When we bought the house there was a nasty, greasy washing machine in the corner of the basement. No dryer and no hookups or vents for a dryer. We had the POs remove that piece of junk before we moved in. Now, over 2 years after moving into the Litter Box, we will finally get our own laundry facility. My only concern is how long it will take for us to get gas/water hookups and a vent. I don't want this project to drag on (unlike the stairs, the baseboards, the picture rail, the hallway painting, the mudroom...). Jason won't be much help because he's making a big push on finishing his thesis so he can get his grad degree in December. I may just jump into it all by my lonesome to force the project through to the big finish. After all, when Jason got his new job in the summer, I promised myself that I would not take my clothes to the laundromat after the first snow.

Finally, remember that stair project? I checked my dates and realized I said I was taking a break as of October 7. Um.. err.. well, it's now the beginning of November and I finally picked up my tools again this weekend. It was so nice not to have a mess in the stairwell for a month, but it will be even nicer when the stairs don't mock me with their half finished railings every time I use them. I really need to push on this project since I gave myself a deadline of finishing by the end of fall (December 23). That's only 7 weekends away! Now where's that ventilator? Time's a-wastin'!

Review - "Blue Vinyl"

2007-10-08T17:56:00.000-05:00

I was very lucky yesterday to attend a free showing of "Blue Vinyl" at Sundance 608 in Madison, WI. Not only was it free, but the filmmaker, Judith Helfand, was there to talk about it.

The documentary starts with Judy learning that her parents intend to strip their family home of it's original wood and replace it with blue colored vinyl. She was shocked and tried to block the decision, but of course it wasn't her house. Despite the fact that her parents install the vinyl, she made it her quest to learn everything she could about Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) - from its creation to use to its destruction. This lesson lasts 5 years and takes her from her family home in Long Island, NY to a major PVC factory in Louisiana, to a manslaughter hearing for the executives of a PVC plant in Venice, Italy, to learning about siding alternatives in Marin County, California. She interviews widows, men who used to work in PVC plants, a scientist who determined that PVC production causes cancer, and a lawyer who created the largest PVC document library in the world.

I absolutely love this documentary. It makes an environmental subject extremely personal. Every time I hear that someone is thinking about vinyl siding, I ask that person to take 90 minutes of their time to watch this documentary. You can make a difference too by watching this film and recommending it to friends. I'm still proud of House on the Corner changing their minds about a new vinyl exterior after watching this film due to my recommendation. Wow, that sounds incredibly arrogant...

Small Updates

2007-10-07T19:16:00.000-05:00

The first small update is the living room. As per an earlier post, I am totally sick of the painting that hung over the couch. I purchased the painting on Etsy and it looked beautiful via the web. But up close the painting didn't have enough depth. It was lacking something.

Last weekend Jason and I were heading to the co-op and we noticed a new store in the neighborhood. It's so new that the store doesn't even have a name yet. Let's call it The Old Curiosity Shop. It's full of fascinating curiosities from multiple countries - Nepal and Mexico are only two of them. One item caught my eye and I pushed for us to buy it. It's a hand wrought iron railing made in the late 1800's in Mexico. It looks great above the couch. A big improvement from the painting.

The other update involves the bathroom. Yesterday Jason and I took a little road trip to Lake Geneva. On the way we stopped at an antique store and found this great little item. It goes with our old postcard travel theme on the other wall. The three postcards were picked up at a little shop in Madison.

I'm hoping to collect more cards for the bathroom. I definitely plan to travel to each country on those cards. Of course I won't be able to get there using the Imperial Airlines! FYI: The walls aren't avocado green, it's just the camera. The walls are still the same color as the living room.

And here's a last photo of the stair railing. Clearly I still have work to do. But after a week of working on the stairs every single night (including work days!) I'm going to take some time off from this project. And I'm not gonna feel one bit guilty about it!

How to Strip Like a Professional

2007-09-25T17:42:00.000-05:00

Has anybody else read Old House Journal's "Old House Living: Confessions of a Stripper" yet? The Sept/Oct issue. I was loitering at Border's a few weekends ago and was completely excited to find this article in the new Old House Journal. Since I'm cheap, I plopped down and read the article in the store. Apparently Christina Kozma has her own site and links to a PDF of the article (which may take a long time to download).

One sentence within the third paragraph made me feel like I hit the goldmine. She mentions the tons of testing she did on stripping products until she hit upon the perfect product to strip the wainscoting in her Colonial Revival home. I swear I was bouncing in my seat like a 2 year old. Then %!!*CRASH DOWN TO EARTH*#&!$ ... nothing! She doesn't mention the name of "the perfect product"! I went absolutely insane and my cursing embarrased my friends who were with me at the bookstore. How dare she tease me and leave me with nothing? What kind of stripper is she? I know I'm not supposed to touch, but at the very least she can tell me how she does her job, right? I was absolutely and completely disappointed. I should add that one of the photos mentions using a waxy paper to rip away the product, so I'm guessing that she used Peel Away. Anybody else have a clue? I should also give Christina a break - maybe the magazine wouldn't let her name the product...

What was most horrible about this tease was the fact that I had just spent many hours stripping with a heat gun, resulting in a blister on my thumb, and I come to the conclusion that until I found some curved scrapers, I could move no further on my project. But I was especially frustrated because Jason had already scoured the Home Depot, Menards and Dorn Hardwares and he couldn't find anything to help me. I was really hoping that her confessions would lead to more than just learning that she used some old dental tools that she got off eBay. But by mentioning dental tools she did make me realize that I had to think "out of the box" when it comes to finding the right tools to strip the tiny details.

Ultimately, reading that article led me to two things. First, I'm going to document everything that I'm using on my stripping project. Right down the the greatest detail! But you'll have to wait until I'm done with my stair project to get all the extreme details. So far what I'm doing is this:

1. Heat Gun using Red Devil flexible putty tool (flat areas) and pottery sticks from Michaels for the curves and sharp corners.
2. Citristrip with 3M Heavy Duty stripping pads (like dish scrubbies)

And second, I'll even share what's going on in my mind as I painstakingly strip my wood... One of my "When I Grow Up" dream jobs was to restore paintings or murals (which my cousin does in Russia on Russian Orthodox murals). So to pass the time, I envision myself in this really cool movie (a la Indiana Jones) as a dedicated restorer of old buildings. For some reason this dorky vision of myself, combined with an iPod blasting a random mix of music helps me get through hours of BORING, tedious stripping.

The second photo is a big source of inspiration for me. The lower left shows the railing after heat gunning. The upper right shows the railing after heat gunning, followed by using Citristrip and stripping pads. Doesn't it look good? I'm so excited for this project now that I have the details figured out. I'm actually working on the stairs every night after work this week - I'm hosting a baby shower and have to get the stairs at least a little decent! And yeah, that's me in the first photo demonstrating "Stripping in Action." I'm a real dirty, sweaty girl in that photo ;-)

Living Room Update

2007-09-04T18:14:00.000-05:00

There has always been two things about my living room that has dissatisfied me. The first photo shows my living room at the end of last summer. FYI: The picture over the couch in the first photo has been moved to the dining room.

The first area that I've been bothered by is the TV area (not pictured because it is so hideous). The TV stand is too tiny and doesn't fit it's area properly. Plus I hate my old TV. I've wanted a nice new TV stand and a flat screen TV for quite some time. A nice BIG TV because I love to watch movies at home during winter while I'm snuggled on my gigantic cushy brown couch. Unfortunately those two items cost a lot of money and I will have to wait to purchase them, but the second area is something that I can afford to work on.

To maximize the space in our awkwardly shaped room, last summer we purchased a sectional couch and designed it in an L-shape. The truly awkward aspect of this couch occurred when sitting in the corner of that couch. Which is really the favorite location for many members of this family. But the only place to put a drink was on the coffee table, which was way too far to reach when you're really all snuggled in. And the other problem was the lack of a light for reading.

My big idea was to place a narrow sofa table between the sofa and the wall. As anyone who has read this site can guess, Jason was really against the idea. So I took the usual route and bought a sofa table to see what it would be like. A cheap sofa table. One day we can afford to spend over a thousand dollars on a solid oak Mission table. But for now, a $100 table from Target would work until that day comes. And JC Penny was having a half-price lighting sale 2 weeks ago, which led to the discovery of a great plain art glass lamp for $110 dollars. The orange pillows are curtusy of a big sale Pier One had last year. I think I got them for only $6 each.

And thus the end of one awkward area in my living room. But after looking at these pictures, I'm not so sure that I like the painting over the couch. I purchased it from Etsy last fall.

Eventually, the living room will get some wall art over the sofa table, a new coffee table (the current one was made by Jason), new shades and a floor rug. But now we are back to focusing on the bones of the house. I'm doing tons of stripping.

FYI: We're still working on the mudroom, but it is slow going...

Building a Backyard Fire Pit

2007-08-30T21:17:00.000-05:00

Usually I'm the person who gets her monthly magazine and blows through it within hours. This past month I've been slowly dying waiting for my new This Old House magazine to come in the mail (the last one was a July/August issue). When it finally came this month, I've been taking my time with it.

Last night I was extremely excited to come across an article on how to build a backyard fire pit. Seeing this article makes me drool at the thought of building our own fire pit. As it stands now, Jason and I use a portable metal fire pit we found last summer after someone had abandoned it on the street. It works well, but every time we use it, it leaves a dead grass spot for a few weeks. I've even tried soaking the grass before starting the fire, but it didn't do one bit of good.

I must admit that I've been very hesitant about any permanent structures in our backyard. Occassionally Jason will mention the idea of creating a stone or brick patio, but I always sidestep him. Who knows if one day we'd like to set up a badminton net or have a slip-n-slide? Why not use our porch (to be built in the future - we're currently using an ugly front deck) if we want solid footing for outdoor dining? So we probably won't build the fire pit since I like the flexibility with our current backyard.

And what is funny is that it looks like Hi-Fi Bungalow is also thinking about their backyard. Their post led me to the Sunset web site which has a photo of exactly how I want our flagstone paths to look like. The photo is buried within instructions on how to lay a path. I can't wait until I get to set up our paths.

I've also wanted to build stone pillar planters on our property. The idea came from the April 2007 This Old House magazine (no links available on their site). I've even sketched the layout of our property...

The Attic

2007-08-29T18:14:00.000-05:00

I am so desperately ready to get moving on the electrical work for our house. But there is one thing holding me up: Jason.

Earlier this spring, when I told him that I was planning to put in the upstairs ceiling fans (by myself), he insisted on going into the attic to "make things more accessible." Granted, I had never been up there and didn't know what it was like. Attics and basements creep me out.

He learned a few things. One, there aren't any floorboards covering the joists. Thus one wrong step may lead to a foot breaking through the 2nd floor plaster and lath ceiling. Plus he finds some cool little things like this photo of two men (I'm positive that it isn't our house in the photo). He also discovered that the insulation is loose and thick between the joists. It was difficult to see the electrical work leading to the ceiling light fixtures because it was buried under loose insulation. I said it would be great if he could clear a small area around each light fixture and get some large hunks of plywood so that I can create a path to each light fixture. Up he went into the attic and didn't reappear for hours.

This is what he was doing: He was bagging up all the insulation in an effort to clean out the attic. What? So you're telling me that I can't access the attic until you've cleaned out the WHOLE attic? Yep. That's what it meant. No crying or raging (well, I didn't cry but I did rage) would keep him from his goal. I was deeply frustrated.

In the process of cleaning out one of the light fixture areas, he learned that it was knob & tube wiring that attached to the light fixtures. Honestly, I didn't want to deal with that so I decided that we would hire an electrician once we had the money to do so. And if we were hiring an electrician, then he could install those new ceiling fans (5), wall sconces (3), and a new bathroom vent/light that have been sitting in our basement for the last 2 years. But hiring an electrician would have to wait until Jason cleared out the WHOLE attic. Ergh. Cleaning it out would take multiple days in the attic - and only days where the sky is cloudy since the attic turns into a furnace when the sun hits the roof. So as of today, the attic still isn't cleaned out. Now that Jason has a good job, we can finally afford that electrician but I'm still forced to wait.

I love my Jason, but I swear that I often feel blocked in working on our house. I can't force him into the attic on cloudy days. All I can do is feel the frustration building as time passes.

I'm just grateful that he has a cold, hard deadline for clearing that attic. After all, we can't go into winter without an insulated attic. Right? Right? Jason?

Mudroom Coat Hanger

2007-08-21T18:49:00.000-05:00

Leave it to Martha to give me a bright idea for a temporary coat solution in our mudroom. Instead of using the cottagy-looking white wood with posts in the photo, I'll stain some wood boards and put mission style coat hooks on them (like the next photo). I do like the idea that a double line of hooks would allow coats to hang along the top line and scarves, hats, umbrellas or small bags to hang along the bottom line. But I'm positive Jason would only allow one line of hooks...Plus the double line probably wouldn't work so well since we have a bench at the base of the wall. Oh well.

Granted, this coat rack still doesn't solve my problem with the piles of books on the mudroom bench that are awaiting return to the library - yep, my fault. But the Target item wouldn't have helped either since the shelf is only 5" deep! Clearly I didn't realize that when I wrote the earlier post. A paperback book would barely fit on that shelf! Maybe a floating wood shelf would work just as well. Especially if I'm only allowed one row of hooks. I've got some research ahead of me!

I Wanna Finish My Mudroom!

2007-08-20T06:54:00.000-05:00

Now my dreams for the mudroom...

Samantha Entryway Bench & Shelf (mahogany on sale for $549, other colors cheaper). Jason has made us a beautiful bench which currently doesn't show the detail that makes it so beautiful. But once we reconfigure the mudroom/1st floor bath, the bench will look great.

Here's the oak shelf rack that Jason made last summer (it's waiting on stain, hooks and some repairs), but he refuses to finish it and hang it. At least he claims that he will finish it once the mudroom is rebuilt (2009!). He says that once the rack's up on the wall it can't come down or be moved because he plans to drill it to the wall with super strong screws (all that oak is REALLY heavy).

So he's given me the go ahead to create or purchase an interim item since I insist on some hooks and a shelf for this upcoming winter. I seriously can't wait two more years when I've already been waiting 2 years for this item. So I'm leaning towards the Target Mission Wall Hook ($50). God how generic...And what the heck is "rubberboard with an oak finish"?

But something I don't have is this amazing recharge station/whiteboard ($129, bottom left corner, WAY expensive in my opinion) plus I love the letter bin ($39, bottom right corner) and it all comes in a lovely mahogany color. But I'm wondering if Jason can make the same things for us for less money and tweek the design to match my homemade key rack. He does have more time now that he doesn't need to work on his thesis, but for some reason it is difficult to get him to finish his projects. So honestly, if I want these items, I'm gonna have to buy them...where's that credit card?

Pottery Barn Dreamland...

2007-08-19T13:23:00.000-05:00

I know, I know, it isn't antique and it isn't as solid as old timey stuff, but it's time to admit to the world that I've been sucked into Pottery Barn Dreamland.

It all started with some innocent lurking at two personal houseblogs: Making it Lovely and Becoming Home. Slowly the desire built to work on the surface design of my own home. The girls at those blogs make designing their homes look so effortless (at least their Photoshop technique looks effortless). Granted, their style isn't the same as mine, but they've led me to think more about the surface of my house. And now that we have more funds rolling in, I should be focusing on the bones (windows, electrical, etc) of our house. But let's have a short jaunt into dreamville...

Yesterday, Jason & I took Ellie out for a full day of new school clothes shopping. Most readers probably don't know this, but I normally avoid the mall like the plague. Crowds and oppressive materialism make me dizzy and I start to freak out. But I was a good girl and stayed patient because I treated myself with a quick pop into PB to look at lamp shades (future post on living room update). But as we were checking out at the PB counter, there lay the mother lode: The September 2007 Catalogue. Hear the choir singing? By 10am the next morning, my catalogue is full of tabs. Here's what I like:

Rhys Large TV Stand for the living room ($1100, ouch!): This was the first photo posted.

Logan Modular Wall Suite for the dining room ($5012 as pictured, but the portion I want is only two 24" base draws $1098 plus two 24" glass hutches $1118 = $2196, eek!):

Valencia Rectangular Bedside Table for the bedroom ($229, but we would need 2 = $458, ergh!):

Hollman Entertaining Shelves for the dining room (bottle shelf $75, glass shelf $85, sale price for a set of 2 one of each $150, better!):

Malta Lanterns for our porch, which we still need to build (medium $39, would need 3 = $117, now I'm drooling and considering pulling out my credit card):

The question is: Will she eventually buy something or go back to focusing on the bones of her house?

We've Been Violated!

2007-08-15T14:12:00.000-05:00

It feels terrible when your property has been violated by a stranger. It makes me so mad and part of it is because it is our own damn fault.

The big issue that Jason & I have been in disagreement about is locking the car at night. Our neighbor had her car window smashed earlier this summer when someone saw a purse in her car. He thinks if we leave the car open, we won't have to get a window fixed. I say that we never leave anything of value in the car to tempt anyone to smash the window. Plus we installed the motion sensor which would scare anyone off or at least they wouldn't linger long enough to smash a window. I still insisted on locking the car all the time. Normally I lock the car when I see it open and wouldn't have to think about it again until the weekend because we both commuted to work via bike or bus and would only touch the car on weekends. Unfortunately Jason's new job leads him to use the car for daily transportation.

On Thursday night, August 9th, I mowed the lawn and saw that Jason hadn't locked the car. Normally I would just go ahead and lock the car, but then I thought: This is Jason's responsibility and if anything happens, it's his problem. Guess what happened?

At 7am the next morning, I got back from my 8 mile run (I'm training for the Chicago Marathon, Oct 7) and saw our cassette adapter and cigarette plug charger sitting on our front lawn. Boy was I pissed. I knew they came from our car. Sure enough, the glove box was wide open. The few crappy cassettes we keep in the car were dumped on a seat and clothes were strewn about the car (they were originally in bags to take to the local thrift store).

I'm positive that the light made the thief nervous because s/he never found the change in the ashtray, nor Jason's house keys sitting in the door handle. YES, HIS HOUSE KEYS! Oh my God was I angry when I learned that fact. The thief could have walked right into our house that night. Since we use window air units, we never would have heard a thing. How incredibly scary....

When I told Jason, he looked angry and could only say "Motherfucker." I think he may now agree with me to keep the car doors locked. At least I hope so...

The Horrid Stairs - Part 2

2007-08-07T19:37:00.000-05:00

So every weekend I've been taking time to work on our stairs. Weekdays are typically a bust because I'm just too tired to make any attempts after a full work/workout day. I'm already sad that I have to skip working on it this weekend because I'm visiting my parents in Minneapolis (Mom, don't get upset. I'm still excited to see you guys!). But I'm taking tomorrow off from work to go to Ikea with Ellie and my friend who introduced me to the big box for the first time a couple weeks ago. I'm hoping to get back home at a decent time to do some more stripping.

The first photo shows my progress since my first post. So far I've finished the balusters and started heat gunning the newel posts and the rest of the trim. At first I didn't understand why some areas were so much easier to strip than others. Then I realized someone must have decided to strip the balusters in the past. This included some bad sanding. Unfortunately they must have given up on the process and decided to give the whole shebang a new paint job without any type of sealant on the wood. So the paint is really sticking to those sanded pieces. The places where they didn't strip/sand, the stripping is a breeze and the stairs start to look real good. See the close up of the closed string portion. Such pretty warm wood right? I'm hoping to stain the other stripped pieces to match this wood.

One fun discover was that the newel posts and railings had been painted this incredibly horrid aqua green. Woo hoo. Sort of goes with the bits of bright orange we found in some of the upstairs bedrooms, eh?

Oh and I can't help but include a photo of the dangers of heat gunning. This photo is about 2 weeks after the initial injury. It's about the size of a quarter. I was really concerned that it would trash part of my tattoo. As anyone who heat guns can guess, I accidentally bumped my wrist with the EXTREMELY hot metal portion of the heat gun. Ouchie...

The Kitchen Pimp

2007-08-02T17:00:00.000-05:00

Yes, I am totally kitchen obsessed (TKO). No, it doesn't make any sense since I can't remodel my kitchen until 2009, but I need something to look forward too...

Lately I've been looking everywhere on the Internet for kitchen design photos. In my explorations, I found a site called IKEAFANS. Within one of these posts I discovered the goldmine:

Tons of photos of Ikea kitchens in the Netherlands.

Yep, serious eye candy for anyone who is TKO. People are posting their Ikea kitchen photos in the hopes of winning a large Ikea gift card. The site may seem intimidating since it isn't in English, but it's worth the effort. Some tips:

1. Go here. Click on "Keukens Kijken" on the top of the site - stands for kitchens look.
2. On the bottom left click on "zoeken."
3. On the left side appears a list of some kitchens.
4. Click on "kijk" within one of the kitchens to view that kitchen.
5. Below each kitchen is 1-3 additional photos of that same kitchen. Click on the photos to make them bigger.
6. When you're ready to look at the next kitchen, just click on "volgende" (next) in the top right corner.

Feels like porn eh? Just call me the Kitchen Pimp...

Flip on Flipping Out!

2007-08-01T17:07:00.000-05:00

I adore Flipping Out! Last night was the first episode of this reality series.

Normally I can't stand to watch flipping shows since many people do absolute crap work in the interest of making an easy buck. But this show...Crazy. Jeff drops tons of money on extreme renovations. He also has 5 psychics and goes to a healer who makes him do primal screams into a rolled up towel. Did I mention that his cat gets acupuncture? Now do you see the potential in this show?

Disclaimer: I don't agree with all of Tony's renovation decisions. For example, I was a bit upset when he changed the arched doorways in a Spanish style house to regular boxed doorways. Bad Jeff! But otherwise his places look pretty good. And I should also mention that he doesn't do the grunt work himself, all the dirty stuff is done by others. In fact one employee (Jenni's husband Chris) is called Trash Guy. But it's entertaining to watch Jeff obsess about moving a table 6 inches to the right or left, over and over and over again. I've been there man.

So did I say that Jeff is a bit psycho? Well let me redeem him by saying that it is understandable at most times. He's got a lot going on and he needs his employees to step up and be responsible. Everything needs to be done HIS way or he goes off the deep end (sounds like me...ooohhh scary). Granted, I'm a bit confused as to why he freaked out and fired one of his assistants, but the guy did seem unhappy with his job.

As for Jenni, I'm in love with her. Such a funny girl that completely reminds everyone of Seinfeld's Elaine. When Jeff goes crazy, her eyes just widen and she totally lets it all roll off her back. I should TOTT (think on these things) and learn to do the same. BTW she pops out new acronyms left and right... like TOTT. And she does the occasional booty call dance to make Jeff laugh. Who wouldn't love Jenni?

So be sure to watch Flipping Out on Bravo, Tuesday nights! After all, what else would you do? Work on your house? Why bother? After all, the work never ends, right?

The Shape of our Kitchen

2007-07-31T20:12:00.000-05:00

I'm debating on how to shape our kitchen. Right now it's a perfect square, but kind of funky with four doorways and only one wall of counter space. As some may remember, immediately after taking ownership of the house, we tore out the doorless first floor bathroom that was right off the kitchen. We were originally planning to turn it into a pantry. But now that we've lived in the house for a while, I've decided against the pantry. Instead I desperately need a half bath its original location. Especially since we enjoy inviting friends over to hang out in the backyard. I'd rather they not track stuff through the house when they need to use the toilet. Plus I love the idea of making our upstairs more private. But here are the important changes for our new kitchen/bath/mudroom: close up the original bathroom entryway, demolish the wall between the mudroom and the future bathroom, place a new wall/door between the half bath and the larger mudroom.

So I have two ideas for the new kitchen shape. The first photo (from This Old House) creates a U shape - the peninsula would have seating on the opposite side. I'm often not done cooking when guests arrive for dinner, so it's important to have some seating in the kitchen.

The other idea is an L-shaped counter area with an island and stools in the center of the room (photo from This Old House). A cool small table would work well too (plus be cheaper) but I would lose out on extra storage space.

I've also decided that I need a small area for a kitchen office. As time passes, I've realized that I don't like to use the upstairs bedroom as an office. It's too much like being at work. So I need to be able to utilize a small portion of the kitchen for a flat computer monitor and filing purposes.

I've mocked up some plans using Ikea's kitchen program and prefer the island idea. But the minute you stand in our kitchen, it seems way too small for an island. Too awkward to maneuver around. I think the peninsula idea is going to win out...Which is a bummer since the L-shape would allow me to move the fridge to a more logical location.

I'll try to post some Ikea floor plans later this week.

The Horrid Stairs - Part I

2007-07-25T20:42:00.000-05:00

For the past 2 years I've complained about my stairs. Every time I go up or down our stairs I'm reminded of just how gross they are. Well I've had it. No more complaining, time for action!

Sunday I started stripping the baluster posts using a heat gun and wearing a ventilator. Of course J.B. then tells me that unless I have an air tank attached the to ventilator, the mask won't do a bit of good. Great. But I do set up fans in the front door and the kitchen window, so I get plenty of air flow. On some sides of the balusters the paint is coming off pretty easy. But on the other sides a lot of paint residue is left. I'm hoping sanding will help. Or am I wrong?

Here's the plan for the whole project:

1. Strip paint off the hand railings using a heat gun.
2. Scrape off the poly'd carpet fibers, nails, and staples on the stair steps.
3. Call a stair repairman - take care of gaps in the winder steps, also some of the creaking in the lower steps. I've read books on how to repair squeaks, but for some reason I'm scared to do the work myself...I may try fixing one step and see how it goes.
4. Strip the stairs - try sanding, but figure I'll need to use 3M's Safest Stripper. Unless anyone has a better product?
5. Sand railings and stairs.
6. Poly the whole shebang!

My goal for this project is to finish by the end of fall. I plan on spending some evenings and most weekends working on this project. This Saturday I'm hoping to put in a big chunk of time while Jason and Ellie volunteer at the neighborhood festival. Wish me luck!

BTW, we've decided to push the electrical work to the head of our project list. I forgot that Jason pulled out most of the attic insulation so I could get to the ceiling lights to install the ceiling fans. We learned that there aren't any ceiling boxes for the lights, it's just wire going through a hole in the ceiling. We also learned that there is modern wire spliced to nob & tube. Not something I want to deal with, so we need an electrician to come in before winter if we want to stay warm!

Security Lighting - Part II

2007-07-24T22:26:00.000-05:00

Ok , now that I have Home Despot off my back (BTW, they sent me a $10 gift card after I emailed my complaint) it's time to get down to the security lighting installation.

So on that same Saturday morning I came home with the security light fixture (180 Degree Heath/Zenith Motion Sensor Light for $21) and 120 watt flood light bulbs. But I had a bit of gardening to do before I started installing the lights. During that time, our neighborhood old timer (J.B.) showed up with his white poodle, Katie. I love J.B. - he's gotta be in his 80's. The first day I met him, J.B. walked into my back yard and proceeded to help me hack at the telephone pole with an axe. Of course J.B. was eager and ready to work on the security light with me. He just had to drop Katie off and pick up his electrical bag. I was happy for the help since my electrical class (with a drunk teacher) didn't include any hands-on work.

First we determined the location of the future light. There happened to be a brace on the inside that we could support the insides. We attached the inside plastic box to a piece of wood. Then I drilled two holes in the garage to attach the light fixture and for the wires to come in. I stapled the romex in a neat path to the outlet. Unfortunately the outlet box was too small to allow for the new wires. Thus J.B. came up with the idea of installing an old fuse box, a new outlet box, and turning the old outlet box into a junction box. Personally, had I been alone, I would have just purchased and installed a deeper outlet box, but J.B. was so excited about his idea that I couldn't say no.

So say hello to our new motion sensor light and the fuse box that can turn off all the power to the garage. The whole project took three 3-4 hour days over the space of 2 weeks. At least I got cool old fuse box out of the project.

Open Sesame

2007-07-23T22:36:00.000-05:00

At the beginning of April, I worked on a few house projects while I was in the process of unsuccessfully potty training the cat. I forgot about this post languishing as a draft. All it was waiting for was a photo. So finally, here's the post:

On Friday I removed two plastic wall plugs from the upstairs hallway where the old fire alarm was located. I also removed the telephone outlet box from the 1st floor entryway - the wire went through the wall into the basement stairwell and I could see that it had been cut by some PO. Next I pulled out two painted over nails from above the kitchen sink - this PObrainfart has been mocking me every time I did the dishes. Then of course I had to fill in all the above discussed holes. Finally, I tackled the kitchen window.

This window has bugged me from the first day we owned the house. It was painted shut and had never successfully opened in the time that we've lived at the Litter Box. Friday I was determined to get it open or hire someone to do it for me. I still can't get over the fact that we have lived here for 18 months and never made more than a cursory attempt at opening this window. It's strange the number of irritating things homeowners will ignore and avoid as time passes. But before making my first serious attempt, I watched a This Old House, Tom Silva video. I knew that I would never feel comfortable removing the sash trim, so I was hoping my putty knife would be good enough. Of course it wasn't.

Since I was determined to get that window open, I called a local old house window man to get an estimate. At worst it would cost up to $100 for the one window, but if I had more bad windows, 5 windows would only cost $300 to fix. Yes I have other bad windows, but I knew I had to speak to Jason before bringing in an expert. And of course I got a resounding no from him. He wanted to try to open it himself before we tossed money at some stranger. I was fine with that as long as I eventually got an open kitchen window. So after he got home from work, he made his first serious attempt.

Since the putty knife on the inside didn't work for him either, he decided to tackle it from the outside. After opening the storm window, he could see the paint sealing the window from the outside. He scraped through that as best he could. But it was still stuck. Since there was a 1/4 inch gap between the window sash and the base of the window, he thought that hitting at the
window with a hammer might loosen it up. I was nervous, but willing to try. Every time he banged on the window trim, the wall shook and the dishes rattled. But it worked! I now have a functioning kitchen window! I measured the storm window and got a screen made by my local screen guys. Yeah! Now I can feel a lovely spring breeze when I wash the dishes....

Major Activity Coming Soon!

2007-07-20T19:05:00.000-05:00

We have incredible good news at the Litter Box House:

Jason got a full-time job with benefits! That means we will finally be able to afford major improvements on the house! Can you tell I'm excited?!?!?!

Jason started historic preservation grad school 4 years ago. He's been working on his thesis for the past 2 years and a few weeks ago he turned in his thesis for review. He is set to graduate this December. He finished the class requirements 2 years ago but couldn't find a full benefits job in his field in our city. There are plenty of positions in his field within the U.S. if we were willing to move. But every other part of our puzzle fits together perfectly (the house, friends, neighborhood, my job, the great city) so we decided to hold on and stay where we were. We had to wait for that last piece to fall into place and it has been very stressful. For the last 2 years, he had been working in 2 temp positions in his field (which equals one full-time position) but with no benefits and barely a living wage. It was really emotionally draining for him to work as hard as his full-time coworkers, but at less than half of what they received. But now he has a great, full benefits job in historic preservation! We're so excited.

So with a new job on the horizon, OF COURSE my eyes immediately turn to the Litter Box. There have been so many projects we've dreamed of doing, but couldn't afford. And now we can! Or at least we can soon! First we need to determine the order of the major work, but as I see it now, it will probably go as follows:

1. repair windows and rotted sills
2. remove exterior asbestos shingles and repair original wood exterior
3. interior electrical work (take care of nob & tube, install ceiling fans and wall sconces)
4. remodel kitchen/1st floor bath/ mudroom
5. build porch
6. create granny drive, build plant pilasters, and stone wall
7. tear down old garage and build new garage with bedroom/bath above garage

There will also be tons of smaller projects that will occur in the middle of the major ones (install picture rails/baseboards, stair stripping, etc). I'm hoping to move through 1-4 within the next 2 years, but I may be asking too much.

And I swear that the minute winter hits, I will finally get my first clothes washer and dryer (front-loading). I promise to no longer schlep my dirty clothes through the snow to the laundromat! If anyone has recommendations (or horror stories) for front-loading washer/dryers, I'd appreciate it.

The CLaW Neighborhood Watch is Born

2007-07-10T19:53:00.000-05:00

Two weeks ago created a notice for my immediate neighbors to attend our first Neighborhood Watch (NW) meeting. Out of 12 houses invited, 7 showed up. Not too bad of a turnout in my opinion. Since everyone didn't completely know each other, people had a chance to get friendly.

The woman who runs the NW program came to the meeting wielding tons of brochures and plenty of advice, but I'm sure that will be the last time we see her. It's all up to us to make this work. The materials recommended that we designate a Neighborhood Captain and lower officials that meet once a month. Yep, that ain't ever gonna happen. Instead we put together a list of names, addresses, email addresses, and phone numbers to pass out to everyone in the NW. If we hear of something occurring in the neighborhood or notice suspicious activities, it is communicated to the group through email. We will also tell the NW when we are out of town so they can keep an eye on the house.

After the meeting, I offered to hold on to all the excess NW materials for when new families join the neighborhood. I also offered to create the contact list after the meeting. When creating the list, I decided that we had to have a name and I thougth the La Follette Neighborhood Watch (the street name for most of the people in the group) would be good enough. But Jason said that excluded some people and he wanted to call it the Corry- La Follette - Waubesa Neighborhood Watch. It's no surprise that his idea got a loud NO from my direction. I told him to come up with an acronym and I'd go with that. Thus we became the CLaW Neighborhood Watch.

Now we just need to create some street signs and stickers for our windows:

Watched by the CLaW - don't fuck with us!

Security Lighting - Part I

2007-06-25T20:07:00.000-05:00

This weekend I finally got to work on a desperately needed project: security lights for our driveway. With all of the past excitement in our neighborhood and now that I took an electrical class, I was finally ready to step up and do something that will have a big effect on our home. But first a bit of back story:

Last Friday I learned that Home Despot was going to have a Saturday class on Security Solutions for Your Home. Perfect! I planned to drop by and see if I could learn something new and get a few questions answered. I got there at 9:50am and class was to start at 10am. I go to the returns counter to find out where the class was supposed to occur. The guy looked blank - not a good sign. He made a call and explained to me that this store isn't so good with organization. He showed me the classes sign in the entryway still indicated a class on Tue for Holiday Lighting. He mentions that "Scotty" teaches the class and he's very good. Worth the wait.

A few minutes later a call goes over the intercom that the security lighting class was to start around 10:05 in the electrical area. I wander into the electrical area and check out security lights while I wait. No one shows at 10:05. I wait another 5 minutes while I flip through a wiring book. A HD employee walks by and decides to try and help find the teacher. Another 5 minutes pass. Then another HD employee tries to help. I was ready to give up, but this woman wouldn't let me go. She tells me she transferred from another store and that this store really sucked. Next thing I know it's 10:30 and she says the manager had given a guy the paperwork but he got sidetracked. I was infuriated at this point. She drags me to some aisle to find the guy with the paperwork. When he finally finishes with a customer she tells him who I am. He turns to me and says "How can I help you?" WHAT THE HELL! Um, how about where the heck were you when class was supposed to start? Where's the freaking paperwork? He takes me to another area to show me his paperwork and says "Um there's some info on dishwashers." MY GOD! No buddy, this was for security issues! (By the way, this wasn't some green 19 year old I was dealing with, he had to be in his 40's). So I light into him, "If there was no one to teach the class, someone should have said so and not wasted 40 minutes of my time!" I stomp off to the security lighting area to figure it out myself.

I'm looking at all the gear, I've grabbed a wiring book and had just about decided on a light when "Scotty" shows up. Apparently this is the guy who teaches the security classes. And this is another guy in his 40's or 50's. It is now 10:40am. He asks how he can help me. I say (surprise) "What happened to the security lighting class?" With a completely unapologetic look in his face he says "Sorry I didn't know. I was on lunch break." What? Home Depot has a list of classes for a particular time. I don't even work at HD and I knew what time the class was supposed to occur. You don't take a break during that time! He gets this obnoxious look on his face and says "I'm sorry ma'am." Straight to his face I say "No, don't say sorry because you don't even mean it. If you really want to help me, just answer some questions and I'll get out of your hair." He then answered a few questions and I was out of there with my purchases.

Retards. I'm definitely writing a letter to Home Despot. I better get something out of that freakin' ordeal!

Next up: The installation.

Neighborhood Nazis

2007-06-21T19:00:00.000-05:00

On our small block this summer, we have had a rash of illegal activities. It's been rather shocking for me. I guess I'm still naive even though I experienced a huge gun drawn drug bust at my parents house in Minneapolis when I was in college. I still live in a city, but Madison feels so small. A little, big town. So here's the stories:

The first victim was our next door neighbor who had her car broken into. The window was smashed and her work purse was stolen from the front seat (yes, it was stupid of her to leave a purse in her car). She only kept a sweater, some change and a work ID in the bag, so it wasn't a major loss. Repairing the window was the greater expense. What was strange was that no one heard the smashing window. The car was parked in the largish gravel lot that combines our driveway with her driveway. The window was right next to one of her first floor windows (she has renters on the first floor). We all woke the next morning to find broken glass on the drive.

Barely a week later, I witnessed a drug deal. I was talking to my other neighbor who lives across the street. I've sweetly nicknamed her the Neighborhood Nazi (yes, we are still friends). She was saying that she had already seen some drug deals this summer in our neighborhood. I believed her, but I hadn't seen any. I walk across the street to work on my front yard gardens and I SWEAR, barely five minutes later I witness my first drug deal. It was so blatant that I was frozen on the sidewalk staring at them while the Nazi called the cops with her cell phone. One guy was walking his dog and a car drives up from the other direction. The dog walker yells (yes, yells) "You buying?" The driver eagerly answers the affirmative and stops the car in the MIDDLE of a three-way intersection. The walker opens the passenger door and leans in for the exchange. There was NO attempt at secrecy. As they did the exchange some cars pull up to the intersection, but are blocked by the drug deal. Absolutely crazy. I just stood there with my mouth hanging open.

Another week later, my neighbor on the other side of my house sees three teenagers standing on the doorstep of another neighbor who lives across the street. We all know the guy who lives in that house lives alone and works away from home during the weekday. School is also still in session. She doesn't think much and drives away. Then another neighbor (by the way, we always thought this neighbor was shady, guess we were wrong) from around corner drives by and sees 2 kids on the doorstep and one walking away. He drives on since he was going to lunch at a local bar with his girlfriend, but couldn't get it out of his mind. He drives back and sees the 2 kids keeping watch while the third is between two houses trying to pry the screen off a window. He chases the kids with his car but they escape on the bike path.

Last summer, the woman who first saw the kids on the porch experienced her own break in. Think she would have learned something, right? They had just moved into the neighborhood and had come home late after drinking at a local bar (their baseball team had lost so they were drowning their sorrows). At about 3am her husband wakes up to take a leak and sees a light on in the other bedroom. He walks into the room and sees a guy trying to disconnect their computer. He yells at the would-be thief, the thief points a finger at him, then runs out the door. Now the clincher: the husband goes back to bed without calling the police. The wife was freaked and stayed awake all night. They call the cops in the "morning." Idiots. They think they might have left their door unlocked because they were drunk.

And last summer that same wife was home and saw police cars pull into our street, jump out of the car with guns and chase a guy down the street. They ran across our lawns.

We are so fed up, it's time to take action. Jason and I don't have any security lights so we've been leaving our porch light on at night to highlight our car. This weekend I plan to install a security light on the garage. We've bought wooden sticks to wedge into our old first-floor windows to keep them from being pushed up from the outside. We moved all our CDs to the basement since we don't use them anyways (love that iPod). During the day, we keep the blinds down on the side of the house that allows easy views into the first floor. When we took our trip to Florida two weeks ago, we left our only car in the driveway rather than park it at the airport. We also track strange cars that park on our block (the owner walks to some other part of the neighborhood - why not park in front of where they're going?). Now I'm talking to the neighbors to pick a date for our neighborhood police officer to visit so we can set up a neighborhood watch.

Wish us luck. This has gotta change...

P.S. Regarding the lack of posts in the last month: Most of my house work has taken the form of gardening, but I keep forgetting to post any garden photos and updates. I'm planning to start work on the indoor stairs next week, so that will be new fodder for this blog.

Operation CitiKitty - Failure!

2007-05-18T09:32:00.000-05:00

It's over. Actually, it's been over for a week. I am so disappointed...

She continued to pee in the toilet, but she refused to poop in the toilet after we popped out half of the 3rd ring. Three times we found a gigantic pile of stinking poop next to the toilet. I felt so bad for her because when she used her litter box, we would only find tiny 1-2 inch long turds. Clearly the huge piles indicate that she was holding it until she could stand it no more. After the 3rd steaming pile I decided to give up and return the litter box to the basement. What a bummer. But I've got to admit that a small part of me is glad to stop sharing the toilet:

1. The hassle of the training process is a drag. Sweeping the bathroom floor daily wasn't a pleasure. Midnight trips to the bathroom were rather difficult when so sleepy.

2. Now I won't have guests discovering poop or pee in the toilet and thinking Jason and I grew up in a barn. "Didn't their moms teach them to flush?"

So part of me is sad and part is relieved. If we had two toilets, the process would have been much easier. I also think it might have been successful if she were younger. As it is, Katze is 10 years old. I also wonder if she stopped pooping in the toilet because she started drinking out of the toilet once the hole got big enough to put her head through (but not when there was pee in it). I really wish I had gotten a photo of that. Hilarious! She looked like an ostrich with her head in the sand. The first time I saw it I was in shock. The hole was still small enough that she really had to push to get her head in & out. The first time I saw it I kept pulling her head out while I was laughing. I'm wondering if the pooping in the same place she drank turned her off more than peeing in the same place. Thus forcing her to poop next to the toilet, but it was ok to pee in the toilet. Cats...who knows what they are thinking?

And with this failure, I no longer need to consider changing the name of this blog. We will now and forever be: The Litter Box House.

FYI: I haven't been posting lately because all spare time has been spent gardening. In the near future I will post about all the yard changes!

Operation CitiKitty - Phase 3

2007-04-19T17:00:00.000-05:00

Ok, the first half of the first hole has now been popped out and we replaced all the litter with flushable litter. See the darker spot in the center of the training seat? Tonight I'll pop out the 2nd half of the first hole. CitiKitty recommended this extra slow 1st & 2nd step if you are nervous about your cat's reaction. Katze is still using the toilet, which is a good thing, but there was one problem this past weekend. First the back story...

Every time we use the toilet we need to take the training seat out of the toilet. A real hassle, but completely necessary since it is the only toilet in the house. Remember the hole in the training seat? Litter easily falls through the hole when it is moved. It's fine if the litter falls in the toilet since it is flushable litter, but I don't like litter on my bathroom floor. So I had the bright idea of placing the training seat on a cardboard box lid when it wasn't in the toilet.

Sunday night I had a late night potty trip and placed the training seat on the box. I was tired and didn't bother turning on the light. I returned the training seat to the toilet and went to bed. I felt too clumsy to dump any litter back into the training seat in the dark, so I felt it could wait until morning. A few hours later, at 5:30am, Jason and I wake up to the extremely loud (echoing) sound of kitty litter scratching - very unusual. But we were sleepy and thought "Oh, that's just Katze using the training seat." But the noise continued...scratch scratch...pause...scratch scratch...pause...scratch scratch... I couldn't stand the curiosity any longer. Was she scratching all the litter into the toilet through the tiny hole? I went into the bathroom and flipped on the light to see...

Katze standing on the box trying to cover a HUGE pile of stinky poop with the tablespoon of litter that I had left on the box. The loud noise wasn't the litter, it was her nails on the cardboard box. Argh. I felt so stupid. I never imagined that she would see the box in the old litter box spot - with a TINY bit of litter in it - and assume that it was where she should take an early morning crap. Yep, I'm a moron.

Thank goodness Jason only laughed when I told him what happened, because I was worried he would stop this whole experiment. So the box is now in the trash and I've replaced it with a plastic pail. Any excess litter that falls through the hole when I set aside the training seat will fall into the pail and can be easily (IMMEDIATELY) dumped back into the training seat. See photo.

Approximately five more weeks of potty training entertainment to go! This weekend I will pop out the 2nd ring...

Historic House Plans

2007-04-18T19:24:00.000-05:00

I've found a couple of great sites lately that I feel compelled to share.

Cornell University has a great site called Hearth (Home Economics Archive: Research Tradition and History). Some of the titles are hilarious:

I go a-marketing (1900)
Eating to live: with some advice to the gouty, the rheumatic, and the diabetic (1907)
The plumber and sanitary houses: a practical treatise on the principles of internal plumbing work : or the best means for effectually excluding noxious gases from our houses (1884)
The house that Jill built, after Jack's had proved a failure: a book on home architecture (1896)

If you "Browse" Hearth, you can look at all the books they have from each decade. It starts at 1820 and ends at 1979. This site led me to the 1903 "Radford American Homes: 100 House Plans." Inside I found Plan 506, which has a layout very similar to the Litter Box House. Apparently our house only cost $850-$1000 to build! I also enjoyed the 1897 "How to Build, Furnish and Decorate" by the Co-Operative Building Plan Association which includes tons of old house plans.

Then there is Antique Home which has 21 scanned books of house plans available online: Sears, Alladin, Radford, etc. It even includes drawings of 1940's bathrooms, millwork from the 1920's (doors, windows, etc), color plans, plus tons of other things...

Bye Bye PMI

2007-04-10T19:43:00.000-05:00

As of today, we no longer need to pay PMI! For 1 year & 6 months, we spent $82/mth as a promise to our credit union that we will cover our mortgage payments. The hidden meaning: we threw about $1500 in the toilet.

Granted, we were lucky enough to find a credit union that requires only 10% down to avoid PMI, but we still didn't quite have that 10% upon purchase of our first house. As all homeowners know, every month most of the mortgage payment goes towards the interest on the mortgage. This really hindered us from reaching that 10% goal.

Every year, our city reassesses houses and last year (the first year of owning the house) the value only increased by $100 above what we had paid for the house. But this year, our house increased in value by $6,600! More than enough to put us over that 10% goal.

Some people may be shocked to know that the PMIagency/bank/credit union doesn't immediately drop PMI the second you have reached this 10% goal (or 20% for most lenders). YOU have to pay attention and call them up when you've reached that goal. If your home isn't reassessed by your city as often as ours (which honestly sucks when it comes to property taxes), you can always pay approximately $300 to get it reassessed by the bank.

Bye bye PMI!!! I hope I never see you again!

Operation CitiKitty - Phase 2

2007-04-07T13:48:00.000-05:00

Success! Early this morning, Katze used the toilet for the first time. I am so elated!

Ten days ago I moved her litter box from the basement to the second floor bathroom, next to the toilet. Over the following week, I raised the box twice to reach the height of the toilet. During this time, I am also supposed to keep the toilet lid raised for her to get used to an open toilet. See the black tape in the photo, that's to train Jason and I to stop putting down the toilet lid. And now that I'm forced to keep it open, she started "drinking" from the toilet again. Ick. And I couldn't tell her "no" because I need her to feel comfortable in the bathroom, around the toilet. So I started to put the training seat (containing litter) on the toilet to keep her from drinking the toilet water. Part of me hoped that she would try using it before I removed her litter box, but that never happened.

Side story:
One morning as I was sitting on the toilet (sorry, no picture available), Katze came in, jumped up to the litter box and started peeing. I was really surprised. In the almost 10 years that we've had Katze, she's seen me pee thousands of times - she likes to do circles around the toilet when people are using it (yes she's weird). But I've never seen her pee once! I was glad that she was comfortable enough to do this near me since I'm hoping that it means she won't get scared off the toilet if someone accidentally walks in on her while she's doing her business. And yes, I plan to warn my guests that I have a toilet trained cat :) Back to the main story...

So last night I took away her litter box, leaving only the litter filled toilet training seat. I brought Katze into the bathroom and placed her on the toilet. She looked around for a second then jumped down. I pulled out some treats and she immediately jumped back up onto the seat. I placed some treats around the toilet seat so she would get used to wandering around the seat. Plus I occasionally scratched in the clean litter to emphasize that it was litter. Later that night, as Jason & I watched a movie in the living room, Katze wandered back and forth between the basement and the upstairs bathroom. I know she was looking for the litter box and wasn't finding it. Jason got increasingly nervous that she would just pick a corner, but I had more hope. I decided to block the cat door to the basement so that I wouldn't have to make a huge effort to find the location of any alternative spot she may decide to use. By bedtime, she still hadn't used the training seat.

FYI: CitiKitty warns that it may take up to 24 hours for the cat to use the toilet seat.

Then around 6 am, Jason woke up and thought he heard Katze using the toilet. Yippee! I went in and gave her a treat to reinforce a job well done. Since the training seat is pretty small and shallow, I cleaned it out immediately for her future use. Jason had been worried about Katze over shooting, but her aim was true.

So now I will wait a week before taking the next step: popping out the first half of Ring 1. After that, we have about 6 more weeks to go in the process. Wish me luck! I'm so excited for the end result. The idea of no longer having to buy or clean up litter elates me. I feel so environmentally responsible - can you see my chest puffed up with pride? I also feel that this is a cleaner solution for our cat - I always felt a little gross about cats walking through litter...

Say no to moldy caulk!

2007-04-05T23:27:00.000-05:00

Say the title of this post out loud and you just might get a good laugh...But only if you like dirty jokes.

Finances are tight, so I'm trying to focus on projects that will require little or no cash output. Eventually we plan to redesign and remodel our funky bathroom, but that project is way low on a list of expensive priorities:

1. redesign kitchen & 1st floor bathroom
2. rip off asbestos exterior and install/fix/paint wood siding
3. fix/paint rotting cracked windows
4. build porch
And the list continues into infinity...

But just because we will eventually get a new bathroom, I don't have to live with a gross shower in the meantime. Since we already had some caulk in the basement (Red Devil Kitchen & Bath mildew resistant caulk), this past weekend Jason and I tackled the shower.

I used three tools to scrape out the moldy caulk. Because of all the weird angles in the shower, I seriously don't think any one tool would have done it all, despite what the advertisers might say. I used Caulk Away, a Red Devil caulk scraper (cannot find this on their site for some reason), and a metal chisel. It took me 2 hours to scrape out 120" of caulk and vacumn up the tiny pieces. Since a little water had been hiding behind the caulk (thus the moldy caulk) I decided to let the shower sit overnight to dry out.

The next morning, I got out the caulk gun and talked with Jason about how he wanted the caulk to look. He was very particular, so I let him do the caulking. The first line of caulk was put on without any tape. Big mistake - but we are caulking newbies, so the error is understandable - the caulk line didn't look as neat and smooth as he wanted. So he taped the rest of the shower joints, squirted in the caulk, then used a gloved finger to smooth the caulk line. The actual caulking took less than a half hour.

The caulk needed 24 hours to cure, so it wasn't until the next day that we were able to remove the tape. That took 2 minutes. So a 2hr 32min project was stretched out over 48 hours. And you know what that really means...I didn't get a shower for two days! Yep, I was a dirty girl by the time I got to climb into a clean, mold-free shower.

Sniff sniff... Compost?

2007-04-04T20:48:00.000-05:00

My lovely friend Jennifer gave me her composter this winter. She said she never uses it, so I'm the lucky bugger who gets to own it! I installed it two weekends ago. It's an Earth Machine.

My first decision was about it's location. Initially I thought to place it completely out of sight, behind the garage. But then I thought about my neighbors who have a backyard patio 10 feet from this potential location. I know that compost isn't supposed to smell if you take care of it properly, but I would hate for them to ever have to bring it up in a conversation.

So the next thought was to put it in front of the garage next to the trash can and recycling container. This seemed the best idea since I plan to dump food scraps into the composter every night and this location would mean closer access from the house. Which is a bonus in the winter months when we get the occasional monster snow storm. After convincing Jason that I would take care of any bad smells and that this was a good location, I set up the bin after he leveled out the ground.

I put some sticks and dry plant cuttings in the bottom center of the bin to allow air circulation. Then I added some grass clippings and dirt. The dirt is a surprise to me, but was recommended by Earth Machine. Since then I've been adding household vegetable/fruit scraps. But how to store the scraps until I take it to the composter? Bring in my ever resourceful husband Jason. He bought this great 6 liter simplehuman trash container that seals up tight so I don't smell or see any of the scraps sitting on the counter. Every night I take out the inner bucket, dump the contents in the composter and rinse the bucket before replacing it. Simple! Occasionally I mix the stuff in the compost bin and spray it with some water. Eventually I expect to use the home-made compost in my gardens. I'm quite excited for that day to come!

By the way, Madison and Sun Prairie has a compost bin sale on May 12th. These are Earth Machine Compost Bins for $39 plus tax. Normally they sell for $75-90, so this is a great deal. I'm sure these types of city sales goes on around the country, so check your city web site to see if there's one near you.

Operation CitiKitty

2007-03-27T21:02:00.000-05:00

Is this subject house related? Hmmm...I should say: Yes it is! After all it may result in one less stinky thing in this lovely house of mine.

A couple weeks ago I was dying to take in a sweet rescue dog named Lilah. She's a friendly little Staffordshire Bull Terrier that my neighbors are currently fostering. Unfortunately Jason immediately vetoed the idea because he can't stand to take on another responsibility at this time in his life. Maybe once he's finished his thesis or gets a new job - both of which he is working on very hard right now. Just the idea of taking the dog out to poop would send him to the loony bin. FYI: one of Jason's current responsibilities is to empty the basement cat litter box every 2 days.

After telling this story to one of my girlfriends, she joked that if I could teach our cat to piss/poop in the toilet (a la Meet the Parents), then there is no way Jason could deny Lilah entry into our home. Thus was born "Operation CitiKitty".

CitiKitty is a toilet training kit for your cat. Supposedly cats up to 12 years old can be taught to do this - maybe even older, but the oldest positive comment on their site is about a 12 year old cat. For $30 (plus shipping) they send you a pamphlet with detailed training instructions, plus a plastic CitiKitty training seat for your toilet. Over the space of 8 weeks (this may vary depending on the intelligence of your cat) you slowly increase the hole size in the training seat, thus training the cat to start using the toilet seat for greater support. Hopefully one day we can expect this to happen.

Step 1 started this evening - I moved the litter box into the bathroom next to the toilet. All this week I will slowly raise the height of the box until it reaches the level of the toilet.

Jason is hesitant about whether this process will work. Personally, I say "What could happen? At best we will never ever need to empty a stinky/dirty litter box or buy litter (saving us $130/year). At worst we go back to using a litter box." Either way it's no big deal.

But if I succeed in Operation CitiKitty, does that mean I will need to change the name of my blog?

Flip that dang switch!

2007-03-26T20:28:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago I completed an intense home electrical course...Erm it was actually only a 6 hour class taught by a drunk over the course of two days, but now I know that electricity isn't magic! I'm quite excited to try to do a few projects around the house this summer, but my first project was something that has bothered me for many months.

Last summer we had some electricians come in to upgrade our amps from 60 to 200. They were also supposed to install 3 sconces upstairs plus ceiling fans in the kitchen, living room, 2 bedrooms, and the office. They told us there were two ways they could do the fans/sconces. One, they would need to rip through one of our walls on the first floor to lay wire to the second floor. The second option involved trail electrical wires from the basement to the 2nd floor on the exterior of our house. Since we weren't ready to do any wall repairs and I refuse to allow electrical wires to trail along the exterior of the house, we decided to wait. But one thing they did during their visit was modify the light switch in our kitchen which turns on the basement light. Before leaving, they proceded to replace the light switch incorrectly. Thus the light switch looked on, but the light is off. Or the light switch looks off, but the light is on. Totally irritating.

I'm proud to say that this weekend I finally fixed this annoying problem. I'll be honest, before the class I was afraid to do more than replace an outlet cover or a switch plate cover. Now I knew what I had to do to fix the switch. No brain surgery required, but it was a major accomplishment for me.

Since I'm the careful type, I made sure electricity to the switch was off by flipping the breaker in the basement. It isn't necessary to turn off the power (per my hallowed teacher), but I knew that turning off the breaker wouldn't be a bad thing. After removing the switch plate:

1. I unscrewed the mounting screws to remove switch from the wall. See in the photo where the screw driver is actively unscrewing? That's one of the mounting screws.
2. After removing both screws, I pulled the switch out.
3. Then I flipped it over.
4. Then I pushed the switch back in and replaced the mounting screws & the switch cover plate.

Tah dah! Electrical work 101. Except it can never be that easy, right? Jason wanted to examine the interior of the switch box and as a result broke one of the hot wires. But we stripped the wire and I reattached it. So tah dah! Now we have an appropriately working light switch. I'm so glad it's finally done. For months it had been driving me crazy that Jason kept forgetting to turn off the light after he was done in the basement. Of course, later that night I noticed that the light was on and he was nowhere near the basement. Now I realize he just needs to remember to flip that dang switch! :)

Film Festival Time - "Cut: Teens and Self-Injury"

2007-03-01T19:00:00.000-06:00

Oh my goodness, I've been so busy I haven't even touched my blog in over a month! And honestly, I don't see myself posting much this month either. I've done a few things around the house, but don't have the time to post it.

I start that home electrical class this week and later this month I start some drawing classes. Plus I'm busy volunteering for my friend & neighbor Wendy. She filmed a documentary (Cut: Teens and Self Injury) and needed some help applying to film festivals around the world. Since I didn't have any money to donate towards filming and promoting the documentary, I took on the job. It's a great film and I am sure she will do well on the film circuit. It's premiering at the Wisconsin Film Festival which I've attended for the past 5 years. Ellie even has a small part in the film - she tells a story of what her school did to a girl that they heard was cutting. The school actually suspended her! Talk about people not knowing how to deal with this issue! And hey, if you have some spare dollars lying around that you aren't using on YOUR house (yeah right!), feel free to donate it to Wendy through PayPal. Her site has a link.

Don't worry, I'm not abandoning this blog. But posts will be sporatic for a while!

A Photo Tour - 2nd floor Bedroom (Ellie's)

2007-01-23T16:04:00.000-06:00

Warning: The first few paragraphs are a bit sappy (yet also house related), so if you can't handle emotions, you might want to just look at the photos and jump to the 5th paragraph!

This first photo was taken while looking into Ellie's room from the doorway. This room is very important to me. Ellie, my stepdaughter, lived with us every other weekend for many years. It wasn't until we moved into this house that she could decorate her own bedroom in a way that she chose. In the past, our apartment's second bedroom always needed to include Jason's desk and we weren't allowed to paint the walls. Once we bought our own home, I wanted to let her have free reign to make it her own space. No more having dad's things in her closet or sharing his desk. This is Ellie's space.

So the first thing we had to do was to decide on the color of her room. Growing up, I had never painted my bedroom (granted, I never thought about it - I was immersed in my books), but I felt like this would be a great way for her to express herself. Ellie had this beautiful necklace with green and purple sanded glass beads - I think it used to belong to her mom or was given to her by her mom. Normally this isn't quite a color combination I'd think would go well together. But the tones of each color seemed perfect. It was my idea to go to an extreme and paint everything above the picture rail purple, including the ceiling.

The green is Sherwin-Williams Baize Green (#6429) and the purple is Mautz's Heather Ashes (#5181). We wanted to support more local companies so we went to Mautz (FYI, they could also make SW colors). Funny thing though, Mautz is no longer a Wisconsin company. And the only low VOC paints they had were Sherwin Williams Harmony. After using SW Harmony, I'd say that I didn't like it as much as Benjamin Moore - I felt like the Mautz/SW paint had more fumes. So I'll always stick with BM's low VOC paint in the future.

Of course it took a bit to convince Jason (as usual) but he let us have at it. Ellie, Jason and I painted the room together. To finish the room, we hunted quilts and pillows and got lucky with finding these items on sale. The posters are also her choice. The only thing that saddens me is that her room is usually empty now that she's moved to a different state with her mother. Now we have her for Xmas break, a cabin trip in the fall, and the whole summer - it isn't the same as seeing her every other weekend. But when she's here, it makes me truly happy to see Ellie in her own room. And you can bet that when she's here, the room doesn't look as nice as these photos. It is completely messy with a jumble of clothes, flip flops, books and an unmade bed - the life of a teenager.

The second photo was taken while standing at Ellie's bed. We found the desk on the street and the dresser was given to us by a friend who was purchasing all new bedroom furniture.

The third photo is while standing at the head of her bed looking towards the hallway. This photo also shows some additional work that needs to be done for the room. When we moved in, the closet did not have a door and Jason ripped out some nasty carpet from the closet floor. Eventually we will find a new door and replace the flooring with wood. The black tape on the wall marks where we will be placing a wall sconce once we get the electricians in this summer. Jason is also in the process of building a bookcase to fill the space below the lightswitch. Ellie loves to read. Each room upstairs (bedrooms and office) will also have a ceiling fan installed.

Next: Our bedroom.

Apartment Therapy - Week 5

2007-01-21T16:54:00.000-06:00

I have no idea why it took me over two weeks to finish Week 4. After all, I had very little to accomplish in Week 4.

Week 4 Recap:
1. The living room is always organized since I neaten it every night before going up to bed.
2. Decluttering books didn't take much time since we had just gone through our books a couple months ago when we purchased our lovely matching antique bookcases. Since I consider my iPod "media" I'm also organizing my iPod. I need to create better playlists since I've got so much on my iPod. Randomly playing all songs while cooking in a mellow mood can lead to being smacked in the head by some jarring songs.
3. Cancel catalogs - an ongoing experience.
4. The colors in our rooms are just right except for two places. The flippin' kitchen has to wait for remodelling and the upstairs hallway will get a repainting once I get the cash/time to do it.
5. As for softness, I already knew that I need an area rug for the living room and smaller rugs for cold feet in our bedroom and Ellie's bedroom. Oh, and I can't forget that I need a plusher brown rug to replace the ugly green rug in the bathroom (especially since the bathroom walls were painted green after the purchase of the old bathroom rug).

But now that I refer to the book to write up plans for Week 5, I know EXACTLY why I've been subconsciously procrastinating. Week 5 focuses on the home "office." Ack. This room is my Achilles' heel. As Jason would eagerly tell you, I have a problem with deciding how to file my paperwork and how often I need to go thru those files to purge old paperwork. Since I'm at a standstill on making a decision regarding organization, my desk has become a hidden disaster area. But it looks nice, right? Unfortunately the picture is deceptive and hiding true evil (and I'm not talking about the currently missing picture rail). See that brown box on my filing cabinet to the left of my monitor? It was purchased last month as a catch-all of current undecided filing stuff. And inside the filing cabinet? Don't ask. I should just be grateful that there are only two drawers that I need to deal with!

Week 5 Schedule -
1. Clean office area and related closets - Monday
2. Vacuum, dust and mop house - Yesterday and today (Sunday).
3. Declutter files - Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.
4. Tackle cord octopus - Thursday.
5. One day media fast - Next Sunday.
6. Go to bed early and read before sleep - Every night. I already tend to do this.
7. Buy flowers - Last week's are still thriving and I need to pinch a few pennies (or more like $5 worth of pennies since that is my flower allowance).
8. Eat at home Sunday through Thursday.

Five Things

2007-01-16T20:12:00.000-06:00

I'm it! StuccoHouse tagged me in a popular Houseblogs game (I don't even remember who started it originally!). So here are five things about me that most people who read my house blog probably don't know about me. Especially since they aren't house-related things and I try to only post house-related posts!

1. I swam with sharks on a trip to Hawaii when I was in the 6th grade. I wanted to study Great White sharks when I grew up (inspired by Jaws). I still want to do a cage dive with great whites in Australia.

2. I lived alone in a van in Key West for a couple of months right after graduating from college. I showered at the public beach and worked as a waitress in an open air steak house that had live blues every night.

3. I swore that before I died I would need to travel alone internationally. So I travelled completely alone to Peru for two weeks (no tour group). Getting off that plane in Peru was the scariest thing I'd done in my entire life even though I had experience travelling to other countries independently (but with Jason or friends) - France, Turkey, Mexico (twice), and Egypt. Egypt is by far my favorite experience since it was a place I had sworn to visit b4 I died. During that trip I was a tour guide for a photographer. In the future, I would love to travel through China, Tibet, and India for many months. I've dreamed of starting a business on teaching people how to travel independently. Either that or giving tours would be perfect!

4. I was an archaeologist (aka shovel bum) for 6 years. I worked in Minnesota, South Dakota (Black Hills), Northern California, Wisconsin and Maine. Becoming an archaeologist was a dream job for me since I'd wanted to be one ever since watching Indiana Jones as a kid. Granted, after becoming an archaeologist, I'd wouldn't call Indiana an archaeologist, I'd call him a pot hunter (a slur, not a compliment). But I still love re-watching the Indiana films! And Jurassic Park still brings on dreams of becoming a paleontologist in my later years...

5. I also wanted to be a spy when I grew up (influenced by Nancy Drew & James Bond). Since the CIA or FBI still hasn't grabbed me up (or APO) , I'm assuming that career is just a dream and will never come true. But I still try to learn new and fun things to build up my spy resume - snowboarding, martial arts, endure long distance training (Ironman), and scuba diving. As yet, I have many things to learn: fly a plane/helicopter, drive a motorcycle, jump from a plane, become fluent in multiple foreign languages (I've studied 5 but am fluent in none: French, Spanish, Arabic, Mandarin, Hindi)...but of course I cannot divulge my full list of things I need to do to become a spy. Maybe becoming a stunt double would be just as fun and a more realistic pursuit? After all, I love making my dreams come true.

Clearly I am highly influenced by movies and books (probably because I'm an only child). I am very driven to "do ___ before I die" and I've been pretty successful so far! I've become more serious about my spy training after listening to Public Radio's "This American Life" story called "Superpowers" (2/23/01, Episode 178). Act Two was called Wonder Woman..."the story of Zora, a self-made superhero. From the time she was five, Zora had recurring dreams in which she was a 6'5" warrior queen who could fly and shoot lightning from her hands. She made a list of all the skills she would need to master if she wanted to actually become the superhero she dreamed of being. Sample items: martial arts, evasive driving and bomb diffusion. She actually checked off most things on the list... and then had a run-in with the CIA." Now my dream doesn't seem so strange. Or does it?

It should now be obvious why I don't have much time to work on my house since I'm so busy reading, watching movies, travelling, and training to be a spy!

So many people have already been tagged, I'm not sure I can find 5 people who haven't been tagged! But I'll try, so I'm tagging: American Four-Square Renewal, Life in the Prairie Box, One Woman's Cottage Life, Plain's Text and 5611 House on the Corner.

Apartment Therapy - Week 4

2007-01-04T21:50:00.000-06:00

Life is starting to get back to normal after the holidays. I had to give myself some extra time to finish up some leftover Week 2 & 3's assignments. One of those projects was to finally tackle the portion of the pantry that was driving me crazy: the broom closet.

The pantry was originally the bathroom that we ripped out upon purchasing the house. I've been using the old shower section to store cleaning supplies (brooms, mops, bucket, etc), but it wasn't organized since it isn't meant to be a permanent location for these items. Not knowing how long I'll have to wait, I've decided to organize it anyway. Jason didn't want me to put nails in the walls to hang up the brooms, but I pressed and now I have an organized broom closet! Since I was also finishing Week 3's cleaning of the entryway closet, I decided to move some items to the more logical area of the broom closet (vacumn cleaner & laundry soap). I've read that if your cleaning items aren't easily accessible, you will hate cleaning up. The vacumn used to be incredibly awkward to grab because of the coats hanging in the space. This new location is much nicer.

I'm quite proud of this photo, even though it may look strange to an outsider - after all, it is clearly an unfinished area. The old look of the pantry broke my heart.

Week 4 Schedule:

1. Clean up living room (no related closet) - Today
2. Declutter books & media (includes the dining room library!) - Today or tomorrow.
3. Cancel catalogs - I need to cancel as they come in. None were asked for, it's junk mail!
4. Confirm that you need to increase or decrease color in each room.
5. Identify what you need to increase or decrease softness in each room.
6. Cook 3 meals - No problem!
7. Send out invitations - Not gonna happen.

I need to explain the lack of invitations for my AT. As part of the incentive to keep with the program, AT recommends that I invite my friends over to my home at the end of the 8 week program. But I often invite multiple friends to my house every week. Since they've seen AT in progress over the weeks, I wouldn't really have a final "show" to put on for them. Plus I'm mostly doing the program for my own satisfaction. To make "me" more comfortable with our home that's always seems to be in a repair stage.

Finally, I was quite excited to see that I have inspired Life in the Prairie Box to do some Apartment Therapy. It's nice to watch someone else go through the same process and see how they interpret and implement the AT ideas.

A Photo Tour - 2nd floor Bathroom

2006-12-30T20:22:00.000-06:00

This first photo is of the upstairs hallway from the stairwell. Looking straight ahead is Ellie's room and to the right of that is the doorway to our bedroom. But first let's turn left into the bathroom.

We eventually plan to redesign this Menard's special of a bathroom. It was originally yellow (anyone surprised?) so I repainted it BM's Aganthus Green (Classic Color #472). The room is an awkward L shape.

The shower was a huge problem when we first moved in. The first time I used it (clearly the house inspector forgot to test the shower), water started spraying out the wall where the shower head is located. So no more showers (only baths) for a few weeks until we could get a plumber in. The plumber had to saw a hole into the wall behind the shower head (third photo). We decided not to repair the hole since we will be redesigning the bathroom down the road and instead "frame" the hole. Sort of similar to what the PO did to the lower part of the wall to allow access to the bath plumbing guts (see fourth photo). By the way, Jason had to install the latch on this bath door to keep it closed. It normally gaped open and would allow our cat a funky hiding place. Jason still needs to create the "door" to cover up the shower fixture.

From the second photo you may be able to see two things (of a long list) that annoy me about this bathroom. The first is that the only outlet near the sink is located in the light fixture above the mirror. We all know how that doesn't work for bulky blow dryer plugs. The second issue is that there are hugely visible shims under the sink cabinet (at least visible to me!). ARGH.

The fifth photo shows the extremely narrow portion of our bathroom - the bathroom sink and toilet. This photo doesn't really show just how narrow this area is. Basically, if someone is standing at the sink, another person cannot go behind them to reach the toilet area (or escape the toilet area).

Can someone tell me why anyone would place the toilet with the bowl facing a wall? Why not have the bowl facing into the room? I can't tell you how many times I've knocked my head into the wall after a night-time trip to the toilet. After all, my knees are only an inch from the wall. I bet my taller visitors have to sit at an angle because of that close wall... Sorry Dad. And the original toilet was so cheap it plugged up any time you did anything other than pee. I kept imagining a friend experiencing the horror and embarrassment of an overflowing toilet. So we installed a better one before our housewarming party last year.

We also decided to replace the sink faucet fixtures since the original ones forced you to jam your hands into the wall of the sink bowl to wash them.

The fourth photo also shows the strange location of the towel rack. One third of the rack is over the sink counter making that portion useless for a hand towel. I think the gigantic sink cabinet was installed after the towel rack.

This last photo is of the wall across from the shower. We installed the towel rack, but the linen closet was created by the PO.

What ultimately frustrates me about the bathroom is that there is no heat source. NO HEAT SOURCE! IN A BATHROOM IN A WISCONSIN HOME! So so dumb. I know for a fact that there is a heat register in this wall directly below on the first floor. Why not spend a little money to create a heat source at the bottom of the linen closet and just make the closet shorter? Plus the bathroom vent/fan dumps steam into our attic. Not to the outdoors. Oh my god! Talk about dumb! I swear that they built this bathroom last minute before we bought the house.

Clearly this bathroom needs to be completely redesigned. Unfortunately the bathroom overhaul will probably be way in the future since everything "works." Heavy emphasis on the quotes. This bathroom is second-to-last on the list of repairs/remodelling: just before tearing down and rebuilding the garage (which I think is completely unnecessary - but Jason thinks is critical to our property value).

Next: Ellie's bedroom.

Apartment Therapy - Week 3

2006-12-21T08:55:00.000-06:00

So I've entered week 3 of the Cure and these are the new flowers for the kitchen. Week 1's flowers are still livin' large in the dining room. If cut flowers keep living longer than one week, I'll be able to purchase flowers every other week (warms my penny pinching heart). The first batch of flowers came from our co-op's flower fridge. This week's flowers came from our local flower shop. It felt so good to make another connection to my neighborhood's independent businesses. The idea of getting to know the shopkeepers makes me feel happy. On a related note, our neighborhood is coming up in the world. This is apparent in the increase in independent businesses and housing prices. No corporations in my neighborhood! We have restaurants (Laotian, Himalayan, American Diner, Tex-Mex, Pizza, Mediterranean), an old theater for concerts, a frame shop, a used music store, a chocolatier (new to the neighborhood), a couple churches, a coffee shop, a martial arts studio, multiple art galleries, a window/glass shop, a bike repair shop, an upholstery shop, a small grocery, a consignment shop... All within a few blocks of each other. We are so lucky with our neighborhood. The only blight is that my favorite indie video rental store just moved to another neighborhood. But I should only think about the good things...

This week's focus is the Landing Strip. That's the area(s) where you enter and depart your home. For our house, that's the main entryway and the mudroom. Since the holidays are coming up, I'm giving myself more than a week to finish up week 3's to-do list. I've also got a couple of tiny things to finish up from Week 2 -- she's typing this quietly because she's embarrassed to admit it. Week 2 focused on the kitchen, which in my opinion is a difficult room to finish in one week (aka her big fat excuse - wait a moment! it was a Nip/Tuck and Survivor finale week! give her a little break!).

Leftover Week 2
*Organize & clean faux pantry - Thursday
*Fondle the walls - During vacation

Week 3
*Vacuum, dust and mop the whole home - Friday
*Clean and declutter entrance and related closets (entryway & mudroom) - During vacation
*Clean out dining room magazine holder - Friday
*Create landing strip - already done, just needs neatening.
*Have all repairs taken care of - NOT POSSIBLE! This is an old home. It will take years and tons of money to accomplish all repairs.
*Cook two meals - planned 4 meals (I love to cook).

A Photo Tour - Stairwell

2006-12-20T19:45:00.000-06:00

We had some sun this weekend, so I am finally able post some photos of our stairwell.

The first photo was taken looking up from the bottom of the stairs while standing near the front door. There are two paint colors in the stairwell that will eventually be divided by a wood picture rail (to hide the obvious line). From the bottom to halfway up (which is the ceiling line for the entryway) is the familiar Benjamin Moore Sweet 'n Sour (Classic Colors, 103). The upper half of the wall, which also includes the upstairs hallway, is Benjamin Moore Saint Martin Sand (Color Preview, 2164-50). I plan to change this color in January 2007. Unfortunately, it looks a bit pink in certain lights and pink just don't work for this gal. I ragged about this problem a month ago. The future color will be Benjamin Moore Hidden Oaks (Classic Colors, 1129). Hidden Oaks is a shade darker than our bedroom and office color.

I love this view of the iron candle sconce at the top of the stairs. When we have guests at night, the candles light their way to the bathroom. It's very cool! As usual, it took a bit to convince Jason that we should keep it, but now he loves it. I wish it were a couple of inches lower on the wall, but Jason refuses to allow me to move it. As long as I get to keep it on the wall I guess I'll have to live with where it is...

This second photo was taken from the top of the stairs looking down to the entryway. You can sort of see the pinkness in this photo. The picture hanging above the stairwell was something Jason pulled from a magazine (of the Virgin Mary) and placed in a rough wood frame. I'm starting to wonder if people have noticed the religious artwork that outnumbers other works in this house. To explain: Jason and I do like religious pieces that are basic and beautiful, but we are atheists (and that's a whole story that won't appear on this house blog). When we travel to a new country we like to collect prayer beads as mementos (this collection can be seen in the living room - second photo). Eventually I'm hoping to collect retablo ex votos for our kitchen on future travels to Central America.

The third photo was taken while standing in the upstairs hallway. To the left is my Beth Bojarski wall. I adore her disturbing pieces and was lucky enough to meet her about a month ago. She shares a gallery with other artists in Milwaukee. Her original pieces are a bit expensive for me right now (damn those repairs), but I was lucky enough to buy 3 small prints that she had cut and framed herself. In the future I hope to purchase one of her originals for our living room (fourth photo). I have a big blank spot right above the couch awaiting her touch. "What Lies Beneath" would be perfect in this spot (look at the picture closely to see what is floating under the surface)! Hint, hint to anyone with tons of money who wants to make me squeal like a little child at Xmas...I like this hallway location for Beth's small prints since they deserve close appreciation. Any guest that heads upstairs to use our bathroom will be able to see these wonderful pieces and take some time to look at them.

The fifth photo is a closeup of the upstairs newel and the floor of upstairs hallway. The first problem with this photo is the top of the newel. It doesn't match the one at the bottom of the stairs. It looks like the original top was ripped off and replaced with a square piece of board that was painted white. AARGH - I may be guilty of PO murder in the near future! I might find a replacement (is there any such thing?), but a bigger problem is that there isn't a handrail for the top set of stairs. Going up the stairs isn't a problem, but going down can be a nerve wracking experience for some people (I'm used to it now). Jason doesn't want to put a handrail on the wall. The wall with the iron candle sconce. And I don't know of other options. Would it be completely dumb to install a tall post that people can hold as they turn down the stairwell? I'll have to look into this. The other issue is the gross vision to the left of the post. I think the PO had wrapped carpet over the edge and the next PO ripped off the carpet and left gunk behind. I think some sort of wood trim is needed...

The last photo is a closeup of the carpet goo on the wall string - the white part of the stairs. Plus you can see some of the varnished crap on the tread. By the way, Stairplan has a great site with pictures and stair terminology. But back to my stairwell issues... I can't seem to let the ugly stair issue go (what normal human could), but I also can't seem to get motivated enough to work on it! Hopefully I can make some headway during my holiday break but that will have to be after sweet Ellie leaves.

Ellie is my amazing and wonderful stepdaughter. She is coming home for the holidays this Friday. I miss her tons and am still trying to get used to the fact that she now lives with her mom in a far-away state. I miss seeing her every other weekend...

Next: the upstairs hallway and bathroom.

A Photo Tour - Pending Weather Improvement

2006-12-16T22:21:00.000-06:00

I would love to continue my photo tour, but the weather isn't cooperating this weekend - at least not yet. Maybe I'll get lucky and the sun will come out tomorrow. I just can't stand taking photos using artificial light. Natural light is so much nicer. But I'll definitely take time to post an Apartment Therapy update...

A Photo Tour - 1st floor Entryway

2006-12-11T23:46:00.000-06:00

Our entryway is painted the same color as the dining room (Sweet 'n Sour - Benjamin Moore Classic Color #103).

This first photo is taken while looking into the entryway from the kitchen. See that horrible door. Metal with plastic windows. So sad. I would love to buy a gorgeous wood door and install a screen door for the summers. Jason thinks we need to wait to buy/install a new door until we build a porch. Do you agree? He thinks it would get too weathered. I think that's what doors are made for - plus I don't want to wait a couple of years (impatient girl rears her head).

The second photo is taken while standing at the front door looking toward the kitchen. My industrial shoe mat is happily sitting there waiting for guests. I love the little mission table that we found at a salvage store in IA this summer.

On the stair wall to the right is a typesetter letter drawer (third photo is a closeup)that Jason found in a flea market. We place little found objects in the squares. To the left is our hall closet with a junky accordion door. We'll replace it at some point. I don't know if this is apparent, but if you look closely at the closet trim, you will see that the wall paint bled onto the trim.

Listen up new old house owners. Don't just slap up blue painter's tape and think that your trim will be fine. If your trim was previously painted and is bumpy, painter's tape won't work. Ours bled under the gaps (fourth photo). It would have been much smarter to not tape and just paint a little slower and more carefully. At some point I need to strip the closet trim. We will also remove the baseboards and a junky heating vent (fifth photo).

The last photo is the start of our stairwell. Good ole Martha Stewart gave me the idea of creating a slipper basket for guests. In the Midwest in winter, every good guest removes their shoes without being asked. Now they have some slippers to pop on to keep their toes warm on our hardwood floors. On the wall are two shelves of travel mementos - every trip we take, we collect some dirt or sand and place in a stoppered glass jar. There is red sand from New Mexico, limestone dust from Egypt, shells from Screaming Woman's Beach in Maine...

As for the stairwell, that is going to take major work. Jason wants to strip the handrail while I need to scrape, strip, sand and refinish the steps. The PO ripped out carpet (revealing glue on the white sideboards) but didn't remove all of the staples, nails or carpet chunks. Instead they decided to varnish all over that junk and make it look shiny. No one will notice right? This stairwell grosses me out every time I use it - and that's every day! Even worse is the sick feeling I get every time guests go upstairs to use our only bathroom. I really need to get moving on this project to drop a major source of cleanliness anxiety. The top few stairs also need repairing, but I'll have to find someone to do that for us.

Next: the upstairs hallway.

Apartment Therapy - Week Two

2006-12-11T22:39:00.000-06:00

I'm quite proud of myself for finishing Week One on time. It didn't go exactly as previously scheduled, but I did accomplish everything on my list. One aspect of AT that I am deeply enjoying is having fresh flowers in our home every week - see photo. I never had fresh flowers as I was growing up (remember our yard was lava rocks), so this seems quite decadent. But they are so beautiful and surprisingly inexpensive. The flowers brighten up our horrible kitchen and gives me a smile daily. They also led me to toss the sad bamboo plants that were originally in this location. Our cat loved to chew on the bamboo, so they never looked good. She is chomping on these leaves, but since they are temporary flowers, I don't worry about it.

The photo also shows that I finally got the matting recut for the print (Diego Rivera - Vendedor de Flores) on the wall. Previously you couldn't see the woman in the print. One habit AT seems to instill in me is taking care of the little things that I've been putting off. The little things were unsettling to me, yet I've avoided spending the small amount of money it would take to fix them.

This past weekend, I created an Excel spreadsheet with a list of all the repairs needed in the house. These had always been floating in my head causing mild anxiety, so listing them in a computer file has led to some mental relief. I even pulled out the house inspection report and included them in the list (I'm horrified to admit that I haven't looked at this since we purchased the house in Oct '05).

Week Two Schedule:

*Fix one thing myself - remove old hallway fire alarm
*Clean kitchen - Tuesday or Wednesday
*Buy water filter - Already purchase bulk purified water from co-op
*Run hands over every wall - Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday
*Buy flowers - Purchased late last week (Thursday) so will wait until next week's grocery shopping (Sunday)
*Determine style - Completed the first week

Apartment Therapy - Anyone? Anyone?

2006-12-07T00:00:00.000-06:00

It's time for me to admit that I absolutely love to read books, articles, or basically anything about organizing. My heart beats just a little bit faster every time I find a new and interesting one. Well, my current favorite is Apartment Therapy - the eight-step home cure by Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan. I heard about it on Scrappy-girl's blog (she's another Houseblogger). I've also glimpsed signs of My Marrakesh on the Apartment Therapy (AT) site and Nola Ranch has hinted at AT on her personal site as well.

The book is intended for people with apartments, but I think it can be easily applied to a house (I'm giving birth to House Therapy right here and now). There are two options to choose from as you go through the Cure: Deep Treatment or the One Room Remedy. But you can do both at the same time if you have the stamina. Since I'm working with a house, I'm just focusing on the Deep Treatment. After that I will probably do the One Room Remedy when I'm ready to tackle the kitchen remodel.

Max believes there are 4 parts to the home:
Bones - The basic structure of your home - walls, doors, etc.
Breath - How your home is arranged affects the flow of the rooms.
Heart - How your home expresses your sense of style in the form of decoration.
Head - The purpose for each of your rooms.

This past Sunday, I took the home health test and learned that my home is "Healthy." But it isn't in "Excellent Health" thus I have some things to work on. The clearest problem in my home is that I'm not taking care of the bones. I subconsciously already knew this, but I had been ignoring it since I'm not much of a naturally "handy" woman and neither is Jason. After all, I grew up in a trailer with a yard of lava rocks for goodness sake! I never even mowed a lawn until we bought this house last year. But I am very willing to learn and HouseBlogs has tons of helpful ideas and people willing to give advice. But I'm digressing...

The first week of the Cure requires looking at the bones of my house and determining all the necessary repairs. This will also mean looking at the booklet our home inspector created right before we purchased our home. I had always intended to create a spreadsheet of all his recommended repairs, but I've been putting it off. These necessary bone repairs have been nagging at me (just a bit of arthritis), so I'm excited to get out of my apartment mentality (the landlord will do it) and figure this all out.

Week One Schedule:
*Walkthrough to record repairs - Sunday & Wednesday
*Clean floors in whole house - Thursday
*Remove one item from your home and give it away - already happens quite often
*Buy flowers - Thursday
*Sit for 10 minutes in a room I never sit in - Thursday
*Look into Earth-friendly products - already in use in our home

Let me know if there is anyone else out there trying to apply AT to their home. Now it's time for me to stop bloggin' and get to work on recording those repairs!

No...more...repairs...please....

2006-12-06T20:06:00.000-06:00

Since I don't like night photos and it gets dark before I leave work, I'll have to leave future posts on the Photo Tour for the weekend.

As for bills and repairs, doesn't it all seem to crash down on you at once? Last week, Stuccohouse posted about her repairs sucking up extra funds that she would rather use for decorating. I totally sympathized with her because on the same day the radiator in our car gave up the ghost. We didn't have any car problems in many years. We only own one car and use city buses & bikes for most of our daily transportation needs. But this year we hit the jackpot with three necessary car repairs: first a new muffler/exhaust system, then the brakes, and this month it was the radiator.

And now we are hit with ANOTHER unexpected expense. Two days ago we started noticing that the interior of the fridge seemed a bit warm, but the freezer was pumping away just fine. We thought "maybe the door hadn't been completely shut" so we would pay more attention to see if this was the problem. This morning I opened the fridge and was hit with a heavy dose of cheese smell. Ick. Clearly there's a problem.

I had to get to work, but I knew if I didn't deal with it immediately, I would only obsess about it at work. Thank goodness Jason keeps the owner manuals in a logical spot, but then I had to hunt down the receipt (my responsibility). I've been in a dither determining an organizing strategy for my paperwork, so my receipt locations were varied. But luck was with me and I found it after a 10 minute search. And as luck would have it, my one year warranty expired 3 months ago. But (thank the lord for buts) I've got a warranty on major parts for 2-5 years. I make the call and after talking to three different people at three different companies, I learn that the soonest the warranty people could get someone to visit us is tomorrow. When? At any time. I would only get a 45 minute warning for their arrival time. So now I have to take all of tomorrow off. Argh. Just watch, they won't show up until after I would normally get off work...

A Photo Tour - 1st floor Kitchen

2006-12-06T01:34:00.000-06:00

Now it is time for our scary kitchen. I still haven't figured out what the kitchen originally looked like - there is tons of empty space. If not for one corner of the room, I would completely despise this room. The kitchen is in the NE corner of the house and it still has the PO's paint job. I took these photos at night, so the lovely (voice dripping with sarcasm) paint job may not be so obvious. The 5th photo down is the best option for seeing this incredible paint job. It goes all the way up the wall and onto the ceiling. Yep, I'm just shaking my head too. The yellow walls is a pee colored yellow. So refreshing in a kitchen... Have I ever said that I can't stand yellow walls after moving into this house? Oh, and I can't forget to mention that the ceiling is full of cracks from the PO putting up the wrong kind of paint.

The first photo was shot while standing in the doorway to the dining room. On the left side is the entrance to the future pantry while on the right side is the entrance to the mudroom. Since we lacked counter space, we shoved our cutting table from the old apartment next to the stove. When I look at the center wall with the stove, all I can imagine is that it's begging for a peninsula with a stove, a large cutting area and a raised breakfast bar.

The second and third photos are closeups of the future pantry. I've mocked up a temporary pantry, but clearly it is a sad thing. The "pantry" used to be a full bathroom, but there was no door. I'm not kidding, no door. Instead there was a shower curtain rod with a curtain that went halfway down the wall. Attached to the bottom with buttons was another half curtain. There were gaps between the curtain halves. Talk about totally gross. Within the first month of owning the house, Jason ripped out the bathroom. The one thing left to rip out is the mirrored bathroom cabinet (it's hiding behind the shelving unit).

The fourth photo was shot while standing in the doorway to the pantry looking toward the SW corner of the kitchen. This is the only part of the kitchen I love - our bar table. When we moved in, this corner was completely empty. I enjoy cooking for our friends (family lives in another state), but it was always so awkward with everyone standing around with no place to relax. I found this gem in August and immediately knew it would solve my guest problem. I'm so glad I found it.

The fifth photo is from standing in the doorway to the entryway. Before we took ownership of the house, we had the owner rip out the previous refrigerator. I swear they pulled a crappy smelly refrigerator from the street just to say the house had a fridge when they put it up for sale. I wish I had a photo of it. This fridge is quite large and was Jason's dream fridge. Putting it in this spot required tearing out some cabinets (see the cabinet ghost next to the fridge). These cabinets are cheap and not original to the house. It makes me sad to think of what was once there and has now disappeared. Because these grungy ones can't be saved with any amount of scrubbin'!

This sixth photo is a money shot. It is a closeup of the area above the sink and below the windowsill in the 5th photo. See the two painted over nails? This is another "what the hell were they thinking" PO gem.

The seventh photo comes from looking down from where I'm standing (the doorway to the entryway) I see lovely grungy gaps between the junky kitchen linoleum and the entryway wood floors. Will the horror ever end?

Next: the mudroom...

Did someone say "Home Electrical Repair Class?"

2006-12-05T17:30:00.000-06:00

We must interrupt the Photo Tour with the following message:

I am so excited, I just might hurt someone with all my jumping up & down and arm swinging. I have officially signed up for a Home Electrical Repair class at the local university. They offer many minicourses and I just found out that HER (a sweet and accurate acronym eh?) is one of them. I signed up immediately. Granted, the class is only two classes that are each 3 hours long, but it promises the following:

"You don't have to pay someone $100 to get a new outlet in your basement! Learn how to troubleshoot the most common home electrical problems and do simple electrical installations. You can replace that switch, fix that overhead light, and install that new basement outlet yourself! Includes tips to help you know when to take on the job yourself (and save some money) versus when it is best to hire a professional (and save yourself a headache). We will also look at considerations when buying a new home or hiring an electrical contractor for building or remodeling. Learn how to plan for your electrical needs, how to speak a contractor's language, and how to evaluate their work. Includes safety rules to make sure you will not hurt yourself or others."

I must admit that I am a bit of a fraidy cat regarding electrical work. I'm still trying to understand the concept of how electricity works. It just seems so magical! But I want to be a big girl with a big tool belt, so I signed up for this class. Now I just have to wait until March 2007 for the class to start. Why so long a wait? I want to go NOW! ***Everyone who reads this blog knows about my lack of patience by now, right?***

Now we go back to our previous program. A Photo Tour...

A Photo Tour - 1st floor Dining Room

2006-12-05T01:02:00.000-06:00

Now for our dining room. The dining room is located in the northwest corner of the house. I think of it as our dining room/library. The wall color is Sweet 'n Sour (Benjamin Moore Classic Color #103).

This first photo is looking from the living room into the dining room. I really like the two new bookcases against the far wall. We bought them from the Restoration Warehouse in Dubuque, IA. We need to add latches to both doors. We also purchased two plant stands from that store, but they are located in other rooms.

I especially love the dining room chair cushions. I got them at an extremely discounted price a couple of months ago. The color pops - Indian Teal. It wasn't until I put them in the room that I realized the color is also located in the painting on the wall (the right one). I bought the oil painting from a display of paintings by an artist in an alley in Cuzco, Peru. The subject is a bit mesmerizing and disturbing - thus it spoke to me. The watercolor on the left is also from Cuzco, Peru.

This second photo is facing south toward the living room. The chair in the right corner (under the display plate) was purchased by Jason in a yard sale ($20 for 4 - only 2 were salvagable). I would eventually like to reupolster it in Indian Teal since it currently blends with the wall.

The final photo is a closeup of my pet peeve. The crappy chandelier. I can't wait until we can install our new ceiling fan/light fixture. Maybe we can afford the electrical work this summer...

Next: the scary kitchen!

A Photo Tour - 1st floor Living Room

2006-12-03T01:59:00.000-06:00

The living room is in the southwest corner of our box house. It is painted Aganthus Green (Benjamin Moore Classic Color #472).

First photo: This view is of the living room while standing in the dining room. In the corner you see the new chocolate colored couch that is a guilty pleasure of mine. Jason really wanted a leather couch, but I thought leather was too cold and unyielding to sit on for long periods of time (like when watching a movie). Plus our cat would probably puncture it in a short period of time (she has all her claws). My final argument was that we needed to maximize seating space by designing our own couch shape (it seats 4 comfortably). Since he was so insistent about not putting anything but the cat stand in front of the main window, he knew I was right about maximizing the space. Clearly the couch isn't Mission style (our goal style for the rest of the house) but my lord it's comfy. I'm so happy he agreed with my choice. My butt is so happy...

Second photo: When sitting in the far corner of the couch, I took pictures of the rest of the living room. I shot from right to left. This photo is looking toward the entryway and stairwell. This is Jason's reading chair - he purchased this without any input of mine back when we were living in the apartment. This major purchase without my input was also part of my strategy for getting the couch I really wanted (see photo 1). This second photo shows a pet peeve of mine. See where the wall joins the floor? Notice something missing? Yep, no baseboards. The PO ripped out the originals (seen in the background in the entryway) and put up 1x4 stained pine boards. No shoe, no cap moulding. Ever so ugly. Jason ripped them out when we sanded the floor before moving into the house. Clearly, over a year later, we still haven't gotten around to putting in new ones. I swear the lack of baseboards is driving me crazy.

Third photo: Turning a little to the left I see the TV stand. Ignore the thermostat above the TV. This is an old photo. The thermostat is now above the reading chair which you see in the second photo. This corner of the living room needs some interior design work. But just typing the words "entertainment center" makes me cringe.

Fourth photo: This shot looks into the dining room. This shows another major peeve of mine. See the bare looking chandelier? See the box on the floor with the picture of a ceiling fan? This horrible chandelier came with the house. It was so ugly and cheap (rectangles of tacky glass hung from multiple hooks) that we removed the "decorative" part of the fixture with the intent that in the near future we would install a ceiling fan with a cool light fixture. Unfortunately we can't install the fan/light (which bought right before we moved into the house) because we need new wiring for the 1st and second floor. This is another reference to a future blog entry on the electrical issue that I avoiding writing about. Instead, let's focus on the pretty table lamp to the left side of the photo!

Next: The dining room.

Gutter Woes Part II

2006-12-01T11:09:00.000-06:00

Around the middle of October I was painting the walls in our home office when someone walked by the window. This freaked me out for a second (after all I'm on the second floor of our house), but then I realized that it was the guys repairing my Gutter Woes. I was quite excited since 2 weeks had passed since I had spoken with the contractor. As they banged on the wall to the office (to remove the rotted board the gutters were attached to) I had this deep feeling of satisfaction. It's a feeling that comes over me when a project goes into overtime (not minutes, but days or weeks later) and it is finally about to come to completion. Fact about Andrea: SHE CAN'T STAND HAVING PROJECTS UNCOMPLETED. I want things done asap - I hate delay (not a good trait when owning an old home). So when some project has been hanging on to the edge of my thoughts for too long and it is about to be done, I feel so good...Anybody else love that feeling? It's like an adrenaline high that I get from finishing a marathon or a long triathlon.

About 30 minutes later the banging stops. And doesn't start again. Hmmmm. I look out the front window and see them driving away. What? They've only replaced one fascia board out of four! Then I start thinking that maybe they had to go get a longer ladder since the one they replaced was accessible by standing on the mudroom/pantry roof. The other 3 required a really long ladder. So I wait a few hours until the sun starts to go down and I realize: they aren't coming back. Argh. My sense of satisfaction quickly turns to one of pissiness. Of course I call the contractor to get the story--

Me: Hey there. Are the guys coming back to replace the other 3 fascia boards?

Contractor: They finished their work. They replaced the one rotted board.

Me: But two weeks ago the gutter guy said all four boards are rotted, thus 3 more need replacement. I was on the phone with you and passed this information to you right after he told me.

Contractor: Clearly there is some miscommunication here. The gutter guy told me only one needed replacement. If you think the other 3 need replacement we will come out. It isn't like it is a problem for me since you are paying for the replacement.

Me: (absolutely pissed at his freakin' laziness) If you looked at the boards you would see they are rotted. I'll talk with my husband about this and get back to you.

Which was stupid of me - I should have just had him come and fix it. But I was starting to doubt myself and the gutter guy's original story. I wanted to look at the boards myself, but we don't have a ladder that tall and it was getting dark. J insisted on going to buy a new big ladder. He's wanted one since we've moved into the house. I wanted him to "just borrow one from our friends." I think he was secretly happy that he had another reason to buy a big ladder.

The next day J determines that only 2 boards really need replacement, but he doesn't want to call the guy back to fix them. And he didn't want me to call either. He just wants to do it himself, down the road, when we start to work on removing our lovely asbestos exterior shingles. He felt responsible for the lack of communication between us and the contractor. He wanted to drop the issue.

Of course this decision left me jumpin' mad. It was just like when the electricians came (another story I have yet to share). I didn't want ANOTHER partially unfinished project ricocheting around my brain. I repeated multiple time: "It's the contractor's fault that we keep having to call him back, not ours." If the contractor had gotten his a** over to our house IN PERSON, he would have seen that it was originally 3 boards, not just 1 board that needed replacement. AND the fascia replacement should have occured BEFORE he sent out the guys to install the gutters. It's all the contractor's fault, not ours. So this turned into a big rippin' fight which I eventually gave up to keep us from filing for divorce.

So we now have beautiful new gutters attached to 1 new, 1 halfway decent, and 2 rotted fascia boards. ARGH.

Time to get blogging!

2006-11-30T10:34:00.000-06:00

I can't believe it is the end of November and I have posted only twice (not including this one)! I'm such a lazy bloggin' bum. What I'm learning about myself is that I've been doing things for the house, but I haven't been posting the results. Two major things I want to do on this blog is post photos of all the rooms and future plans for those rooms. Tonight! I'll start tonight! Um, but after watching Survivor...

This weekend I'm considering repainting the upstairs hallway. It's time for the pink undertones to go away. Or what about buying, staining and installing the replacement picture rail for the bedroom and office. Or maybe I can push Jason on finishing up that new shelf/coat rack for our mudroom. Apparently it needs some major tweeking before I can stain and poly it. Not to mention I still need to purchase some nice hooks for it. I so desperately want that mudroom finished.

Some house items (and umm some personal items - after all, the house doesn't need new tights!) that I've been drooling over lately can be seen at Stylehive. I'm so glad I heard about Stylehive from Jeanne. It's such an excellent way of tracking things that you like. Much better than creating tons of bookmarks on your web browser!

A mouse? At work? In my house? No way!

2006-11-13T16:02:00.000-06:00

Two weeks ago I came to work the Monday after the famous Madison "Freakfest" to discover some little guys had their own Freakfest in my office. I had left (stupidly) a caramel covered apple lollipop on my desk but it was in it's wrapper and unopened. As I pushed open my office door I noticed some green confetti on my desk, which had me puzzled. After hanging up my winter gear, I got closer and realized someone went crazy tearing into my lollipop. And in all the excitement they left tons of mouse turds all over my desk. Even on my keyboard! This was extremely disturbing since I had just switched offices and never had a problem in my old office (not that far away). Since I can't stand to kill things, I borrowed someone's live mouse trap and set it. For the next four days I caught mice. Four days! I determined that they get in under my office door. A co-worker has seen them access closed offices this way. So I went and bought a double draft dodger (pictured above). It was the perfect length and has solved my office mouse problem.

Now for the house mouse...Early that same week, Jason and I woke up in the morning to find that some of the books on the lower shelves of our first floor bookcases were knocked on the floor. Strange. We'd lived there for 1 full year and Katze (our cat) had never done that. Jason joked that maybe she was following a mouse. But no mouse turds were present, so maybe we were wrong. Friday morning I went to work and Jason later sent me an email with only these words: "Katze killed a mouse." But that's crazy. We've seen her chase tiny animals, but never attack (birds, squirrels, etc) thank goodness. In our old apartment she found a mouse entrance and held her post. She never killed it but she also never let it leave it's hiding area to enter the rest of the apartment. The landlord closed the hole and we had no future problems...Anyways... I was sure she wouldn't kill any little animals, so this dead mouse surprised me.

But I have to admit that I am so grateful to her prowess and her discretion. Katze left the poor little body in front of the hallway coat closet - I'm glad she didn't bring it to our bedroom upstairs. Or hide it somewhere. I don't want her to kill animals, but if the animal is in my house, go for it Katze. I was going to take a photo (it was a clean kill - no blood or guts to be seen) but decided that it was still too gruesome.

Oh and a few days later Katze had an episode of OCD. She'd wander to her food bowl and take a bite, then walk into the mudroom and crawl over the shoes under the bench, then step through her cat door into the basement and wander the basement for a while. She did this over and over. It was rather funny to watch. Until Jason told me that it might be a sign that we have another mouse...Crap.

Painting Pfiasco

2006-11-02T10:58:00.000-06:00

In the middle of October I took the time to paint two upstairs rooms (our bedroom and office) and the hallway. I love the room colors, but the hallway color ended up looking too pinkish. When I originally picked the hallway color I thought it looked a tiny bit pink, but the other colors on the paint chip strip didn't show any pink, so I thought it was all in my head. Since I always buy low VOC Benjamin Moore paint, I'm forced to buy a full gallon (they don't have low VOC paint in smaller sizes). Then Jason saw the halfway finished product and said "um it looks a little pink." "Of course not" I almost scream back. But deep inside I feared it was true. The next morning Shooter came over and confirmed my fears. "Oh it's pink." ARGH. I was crushed. I should have paid attention to that tiny fearful voice before I paid for the 2nd can to finish the hallway.

Mentally I think of all that upstairs painting as one project. Since I need to repaint the hallway it feels unfinished. And since I'm still kicking myself for picking a bad color and wasting two days painting, I still haven't gotten up the gumption to redo the hallway. Or post about the other painted rooms (I even have a bedroom photo waiting to be posted). Maybe this weekend I'll repaint...or next weekend...and I still need to replace the picture rail in those two upstairs rooms...and buy picture rail hooks and cord...and what about that mudroom shelf...ACK. Calgon, take me away.

Key rack is finally finished...

2006-10-17T20:30:00.000-05:00

This project took forever. It started so simple as directed by Martha Stewart (see earlier blog about key rack) but of course it didn't go so simple for me. The biggest delay was the key hooks. I ordered some from Richlieu and it took 2 weeks to arrive! And the size was too big! The rack sat on our dining room table as I debated about using these "too large" hooks. They would work fine, but to my critical eye they were too big. And my friend, Shooter, said "Andrea, you know that if you use those hooks, every time someone comments on your rack you will point out the only defect that bugs the hell out of you -- too large hooks." So it sat and sat. Then today, as I was on the hunt down for a cheap picture frame and to return a rug, there they were! I never thought to check Target, but I'm glad I did. So now the rack is finally done and I'm completely happy.

A week before I painted the mudroom (Sweet 'n Sour by Benjamin Moore) to match our hallway. Yesterday I found the greatest rug (aka utility runner) from cheapo Target and a tough boot tray from Bed, Bath and Beyond. I'm still surprised that it is so hard to find something as simple as a tough boot tray. The ones from last year were thin, hard plastic that cracked if accidentally stepped on. This new one from mohawk home is thick rubber that will never crack. I see it lasting for many years (yippee). All that is left is for Jason to finish sanding the mudroom shelf/coat hanger and for me to stain/varnish it. And then the mudroom will be done! I'll post pictures when it is finished. I'm completely excited now that winter is coming on and the mudroom will finally be totally ready for it!

P.S. Where did all the exclamation points come from?!?!

Move that thermostat!

2006-09-30T18:20:00.000-05:00

The original location of our thermostat was just above and behind the TV (see the first photo). Not a great location since when you look at the TV, you are also looking at that ugly thermostat. Plus it wasn't easy to access to change the temperature. Since J wanted to replace the old thermostat with a digital one (to save some money on the heating bills), we decided now was the time to move the thermostat. That should just take a few hours right? Of course not.

First we had to determine a location. This process took more than one day to figure out since we had different ideas of where to put the damn thing. We also had to consider the fact that we have vents that go up to the second floor through many of our interior walls. This limits location. Plus we knew from our electrical experience (a subject of a future blog) that there were horizontal firebreaks between the studs in our walls. Thus dropping a wire down to the basement furnace would not be a quick or simple process. The location we finally agreed on was still in the living room, but not in a location that friends or family would be looking at so often. Plus a floor lamp and an awesome wooden coat rack that J saved from the trash bins at the university would help to draw away attention.

Our first physical step was for J to drill a hole in the wall for the thermostat cable. By utilizing a nearby vent, J located a way to get the the cable down to the basement. But we had to get the hole up above connected to the hole to the basement. By pulling out the vent a bit, he was able to reach into the wall to a direct point below the hole above. Then he proceeded to drill a hole through one of those frustrating firebreaks. Since he couldn't actually see what he was doing, I was worried he would drill through the wall or some electrical cord that we didn't know about. My solution when J decides to do something dangerous and won't listen to my concerns is to hide in a different room. But the drilling was successful and he needed me for the next part.

This next part took 20 frustrating minutes. I'm sure there is some other faster, safer, and easier way to do this, but J and I had no clue what that was so he had to MacGuyver a solution. Since the hole drilled in the firebreak isn't large, we would have to fish up a straightened coat hanger from the floor, through the firebreak, up to the hole in the wall. He bent a small portion of that hanger into the shape an "L". I had to put a different coat hanger portion straight through the hole in the wall above. That way, when he swung the other long hanger within the wall (think of the swinging portion of a metronome), we would know when his coat hanger was near the hole. The clink told me when he hit mine and I had to grab the tip of his hanger with a large pair of tweezers to pull it through my hole (very difficult through a small hole). Then we attached the thermostat cable to the coat hanger and he pulled the cable+coat hanger down to the basement. In another hour he hooked up the thermostat cable and attached the thermostat box to the wall.

It took another week to find the time to patch up the old thermostat holes and paint them. But now it is done and I am much happier with the new location. But as usual, a few hour project took about 2 weeks to complete! I wish I could buy patience at Ebay.

Gutter Woes

2006-09-29T09:13:00.000-05:00

Oh our crappy leaky gutters.

The gutters that were on the Litter Box were so leaky that it seemed like we didn't even have gutters. So J hires a company to do the gutters and includes in the proposal that they will replace any rotted or delaminated wood fascia in the process. We knew the fascia on the 2nd floor was probably all rotted and we don't have a ladder that tall to do anything ourselves. But we trusted the company because they were recommended by a friend that works at the Historical Society.

Due to an emailed offer for free plants in my neighborhood, I left work early on Thursday. I'm always up for free plants! I rush home to find the guys working on the house (they were supposed to do the work the day before). The gutters were almost all installed, but guess what! None of the fascia had been replaced. They nailed beautiful new gutters to rotted wood. So of course I ask about it and learned that these guys were contracted by the guy we hired (I didn't know Jason had hired a contractor, I thought he hired a gutter company). And they don't do fascia replacement. He hadn't heard that there was an agreement about the fascia and said the contractor should have come before them to replace any rotted wood.

So I call the contractor (hiding the bitchiness in my voice - or did I?) and discover that he completely forgot about this part of the proposal (which we have in writing). Then he tries to tell me to ask the guys to remove the upper gutters and the board. He will have someone else come and replace the fascia and replace the gutters. But I look at the sky and laugh. Rain is forecast for that night and the next two days. I tell him "Sorry, but there's no way I'm going to bare my house to storms and damaging more wood when you don't know when you will get in to fix this problem." He agrees with me (did he really think I was that stupid?) and says he will come to measure the board and put together an estimate. Of course I say "but I won't pay for your time to remove and replace the gutters again." I assumed he meant he would come that evening to look at the house, but of course that didn't happen.

After I got off the phone with him I started freaking out that the proposal didn't include "prime and paint the new board" since that would seem obvious. But clearly the "obvious" may not be obvious since he ignored one major part of our proposal. I called a friend who is a contractor and he was shocked at the situation. He even knows the guy we hired and says he normally does good work. And apparently the guy we hired is on the city "contractor ethics" committee with my friend. ARGH.

So that is where I'm at right now. I already have an estimate for the hourly price to replace the fascia, so if that increases, I'll have a cow on his doorstep. If I had known J was going to hire a contractor, I would have just asked our friend to do it. I'm so sick of monitoring the people we hire. We had some problems with our electrical work about a month ago, but that's a story for another blog entry...

She's an Ironman!

2006-09-23T17:50:00.000-05:00

How could I forget to post the fact that I am now officially an IRONMAN!

Ironman Wisconsin on September 10, 2006 was a cold (50's temp with wind chill), windy and rainy day. The rain was completely unexpected and resulted in many people getting hypothermia, flat tires, or crashing on the bike course. My friends and family, plus tons of volunteers and spectators helped cheer me to the finish line. They are so tough to hang out on the sidelines in the cold and rain for so many hours. I couldn't have done it without them. I love them dearly.

I'm still shocked that I finished faster in these crappy conditions than I had estimated that I would do in perfect conditions. The total time it took was 13 hours and 40 minutes to finish. If you break it out, my marathon split was 4 hours and 39 minutes. That's faster than when I just run a marathon! My last marathon was 5 hours and in perfect weather. I'm so incredibly happy that I reached my goal and finished because I'm never going to do that again! 2.4 miles swimming, 112 miles biking, followed by 26.2 miles running is just too much. But it was an incredible day and I don't regret any part of the 2 years of training that it took me to get to that day. Because now I am an IRONMAN!

A New Key Rack

2006-09-23T16:40:00.000-05:00

I'm back home and ready to get going on some new house projects. My first tiny one is to build a key rack. Over the space of a week, I looked at a ton of stores and all over the internet and couldn't find a decent simple key rack. At least not in a style that I prefer. When we vacationed at a cabin up north after Ironman, I found the idea for making a key rack in a Martha Stewart (MS) Magazine that was laying on one of the counters. This was the first MS magazine I've ever looked at. I am so NOT crafty. And there is this tomboy part of me that is embarrassed to be found reading a MS magazine. But I've gotta say that I'm grateful that I found it because I've hated the key racks that are for sale.

The instructions are on her web site. All I needed was some homasote fiberboard, a picture frame (but we are building a frame to the size we want - long and narrow), label holders, cup hooks (for the keys to hand on) and some linen. Since we had some "found" wood in the garage, J built the frame. I wanted a 2 across, 3 down key hook arrangement to fit the available space precisely. I learned that you can find homasote fiberboard at Menards. I thought this fiberboard was some craft kind of material that I'd find at a craft store. No luck. Thank goodness This Old House talked about it in this month's edition. Apparently it is sometimes used when putting down carpet. The hooks and the label holders are another "hard to find" story. The key hooks are called cup hooks. All the ones at craft and hardware stores are pretty cheap looking. Not as nice as the one in Martha's photo. And I couldn't find one label holder at the craft stores. ACK! So I spent two hours on the Internet looking and finally found them. I think what ticks me off the most is that I have to pay shipping for each product (since they are at different sites) and the shipping is as much as the product! But J keeps telling me that if I want it to look cheap, then don't spend the money. FINE! I'll spend the damn money. But isn't doing it yourself supposed to be cheaper? ARGH. I just hope they come soon because my ultimate goal was to finish the product this weekend. But as usual, a project always takes longer than planned. It's been a year in this house and I still haven't learned that lesson. I'll post a photo of my key rack once I've finished the final product.

And if you don't like the above rack, Martha has another version on her site.

Ironman Wisconsin

2006-09-06T09:33:00.000-05:00

Ironman Wisconsin is less than 4 days away - Sunday, 10 September 2006. I'm gearing up for the big race and getting ready for friends and family to arrive and cheer me on. Following the race on Sunday, I'm leaving town for a week of vacation time, but after that I will be back and ready to jump into those house improvements feet first. And of course I'll be creating more blog entries...

Wish me luck!

Little Shop of Horrors

2006-09-01T16:30:00.000-05:00

Solve this mystery for me. Is this a weed or a plant? One picture is a full-size image, while the other is a close up of a cluster of seed/flower pods(?) at the end of each branch. Granted, there are native plants that have beautiful flowers and some people still call them weeds. I just don't want something to take over my new gardens (sad gardens, but better than what was originally here - a rock pit). I was lucky and got into some free plant exchanges with co-workers, so I'm not sure if this monstrosity is one of them. I didn't notice it until it was as tall as I am (5'8"!). J insists it's a weed and wants to yank the poor thing out. I sort of find it's enormous size entertaining.
At least until it eats someone...

Friday Night Light Switch

2006-08-31T22:40:00.000-05:00

One quick superficial pick-me-up for the house was to replace the cheap plastic electrical outlets and light switch plates with cool tin ones from Mexico.

House of Sand and Dirt

2006-08-29T22:37:00.000-05:00

So what was on our list of things to accomplish before moving in?

Clean the house. I swear this place was coated with a thick layer of crap. Not crap crap, but a layer of grease and dirt crap. Thus the name The Litter Box House.
Sand the living room, dining room, hallway and 3 upstair bedrooms. The POs had thrown down a thick coat of varnish with plenty of dirt and long hairs preserved for our viewing pleasure.
Paint some of the first floor walls. The other rooms would have to wait since I barely convinced Jason to do 3 rooms.

Unfortunately time was limited. Our apartment lease was up at the end of the month and I had to leave town for a marathon. This only left two weeks to accomplish everything before the weekend we would move.

Cleaning this house was something I don't want to remember. I still feel like the kitchen is disgusting. It probably won't feel clean until we rip out those cheap cabinets and nasty flooring. I dream of that day coming...

As for refinishing the floors, you may ask: did you hire someone to do it? Of course not! Had we ever sanded floors before? Of course not! Were we gonna try to save money and do it ourselves? Of course we were! Lucky for us we had friends who had just bought a farmette and were willing to exchange sweat equity. Thus we had a little help sanding and cleaning. So we begged, borrowed and rented the sanders and got started. I put up test colors in the dining room and entryway (Benjamin Moore's Sweet n' Sour) and living room (BM's Aganthus Green) before we started so that I could see how I felt about them while we sanded.

The colors were a whole other story. The dining room and hallway were pee-yellow up to an invisible line on the wall, then the rest of the wall and ceiling were white. The living room was all blah white. You can see it if you look real close at the above photo (I'm sanding between the living room and dining room). I've heard that a common thread among serial killers was that they had yellow walls in their childhood (I believe it). Jason wanted white walls, but I wasn't about to let that happen! The tall ceilings and white walls would leave me frozen during the winters. I pushed for some color in our lives and it's been worth the fight. Oh yeah, we had a fight about paint colors.

It was only last week that we figured out why J blew up in BM store the day we went to purchase interior paint (remember, the visit occured back in September 2005). Apparently it drives J insane to pick out colors. He's overwhelmed by the slightly varied options and can't make a decision. We discovered this last week when I started pushing him to help me pick exterior colors (we aren't painting the exterior soon, we were deciding on gutter colors - I'll write about that some other time). For the past year he was determined to monitor the color choices. Now he's realized that it's just something he has to let go of. After all he's loved my choices so far. It's helped that his mom was all for some color (he's a good boy and trusts his mom's advice).

At the end of the sanding, J's mom (Sandie) came all the way from Minnesota to help us clean up the dust and dirt, varnish the floors AND paint. She's a saint. I love Sandie.

So that's the story of the Litter Box's pre-move in activities. I'll add some more photos of the after results this weekend.

Oh! How could I forget one other PO headache that we have only half taken care of. The original baseboards in the dining room, living room, downstairs and upstairs hallway had been removed and replaced...drum roll please...with stained rough 1X4 pine boards. No joke. And no cap or shoe mouldings. Unfortunately J decided to rip them off so we are still living without baseboards. Hopefully replacing them will happen this fall or winter. Living without baseboards in an old house is a little creepy and gross looking. I'm sure I can't be the only one that feels that way...

We are experiencing technical difficulties

2006-08-28T21:28:00.000-05:00

My excitement is still high, but I've got a lot to learn. And FAST. I'm currently in a fistfight with blogger to get a thumbnail of the house to show up on the sidebar. I will spare you the blow-by-blow details.

My next post will hopefully have before-and-after photos photos when I figure out J's digital camera and Flick'r (or Picasa). And I'm sure there will be some "I wish this really weren't true, but it is and we haven't changed it yet" photos. I would like to have an online photo-hosting web site for photo storage so I can organize photos by subject. Got any opinions?

Andrea

Welcome to the Litter Box

2006-08-27T16:29:00.000-05:00

I'm so excited that I finally have the time to create my own houseblog! I've been lurking (and drooling) over houseblogs.net for about a month but I've been too busy with training for my first (and last!) Ironman triathlon to create one. Now that I am tapering for the big race and have spare time, here it is!

The Litter Box House

The story of obtaining the Litter Box is not unlike many other house stories...We were poor. I had a full-time job, but my husband was a grad student. All the houses in the neighborhoods that we would like to live in were too expensive. Or if they were in our price range (and thus not in the right neighborhoods), they were absolute dumps without character. Unless you call a lake in the basement character. And of course we found the perfect house that had been on the market for MONTHS, but the next day as we were about to put together an offer we find out the owner accepted an offer the night before! Everybody knows this story...So you just get too depressed - the thought of spending any more vacation time to look at a port-a-potty (oops, I mean house) would lead me to suicide.

But the day I decide to give up looking, I find "the" house. In truth, I had seen it on the web a few days before and thought it too good to be true so I ignored it. Then a friend at work dropped the MLS sheet on my desk and said: What about this house? It was the same house. Of course I ignored it and called our realtor (my training partner and friend) to say...I need to take a break from househunting. She totally understood, but before we ended the conversation I couldn't help but mention "the" house. She was immediately determined to make this the last house I look at before I take a break. She says, "A house at that price in that neighborhood! The owner has no idea of what they are giving away!" So the next morning we went to the house. J didn't even come with us because he couldn't handle another sad house. But when I pulled up to it, I knew this was it! This would be our first house!

It was a very simplified foursquare house (also known as a box house) built in 1907 in what was then an industrial working-class neighborhood. It had a garage, a big backyard bordered by garages so very private, two full stories, plenty of tall windows, 3 bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs, and a full dining room/living room/kitchen/bathroom/and mudroom on the first floor. The basement didn't completely scare me (unlike all the other basements I had spelunked through). None of the neighboring houses were close by so our neighbors couldn't peep into our windows (unlike most houses in these prime neighborhoods). It didn't have the front porch I dreamed of, but at least it had a deck we could use temporarily until we could build a real porch. Clearly the house needed some work and there was plenty of PO (previous owner) crap done to the house (thus earning the name The Litter Box), but we could handle it with time (such brave words). The price was completely in our range; it was in one of the three neighborhoods we wanted to live in; we could ride our bikes to school and work...The list went on... This was it! The next morning, after J toured the house and we put together an offer, the owner accepted our offer!

And thus the Litter Box became our home in September 2005...