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| bedroom 3 |
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| master bedroom |
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| hallway |
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| living room, sorry about the dust.. I had just finished wet sweeping. |
Rich found a roll of brown paper that worked great to cover the windows and we covered the big sliding doors in the living room with plastic..which kept falling down and scaring the dog...
Friday afternoon we decided to walk around the pond and see the lagoon.. At closing, the seller had to put money into an escrow account to have the septic system brought up to code. When the septic installer finished putting in the new piping and had the lagoon dug, we asked him when he would be back to put up the fence. Part of code is having a fence around the lagoon. He informed us at that time that he didn't do fences and that a fence wasn't part of his bid. We hadn't seen the bid (being the seller's responsibility) so we were surprised. I immediately got hold of our realtor and asked her what to do. She called the sellers realtor who contacted the seller, who said she didn't want to pay for it. HUH? She agreed to bring the septic up to code and the fence is part of the code. Ergo...she needs to pay for the fence.... Finally she agreed to pay for the supplies if WE would install the fence. Uh....no! But I did say that we would find our own installer if she didn't have anyone to do it and they could be paid out of the escrow account. Apparently she didn't want to pay anyone and her realtor took it upon himself to install the fence. I don't think she realizes how lucky she is to have such a nice realtor...although I am sure he did it just to get the paperwork finished and off his desk and done with her...
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| new lagoon with fence |
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| back of the house |
Saturday was also the day that the mess finally got to us... We had designated the future dining room as the shop. This is what it looked like..
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| almost finished |
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| A trip to Walmart for a 6ft table.. |
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| see? I told you. Without even realizing it he has set up a mini-shop with everything laid out just so. |
Wonder where it all went? We now have our very own Mini-Lowes ..located in what will eventually be my sewing room...
nice huh?
We also tackled the lighting in the kitchen. I had picked out 3 hanging pendant lights to use over the open counter top and a matching one for over the kitchen sink. Luckily I hadn't purchased them. Because when we got into the ceiling over the open counter top we realized that using those pendant lights would require 3 separate electrical boxes. Yuk! So off to Menards we went and found these...
The 3 light pendant hangs from a bar and only requires one electric box. And they had a matching single light for over the sink.
So Rich bought a hole saw adaptor for the drill and off we went...
About that ceiling fixture opening... The kitchen had ugly white plastic track lighting. You can see it here..
When you hang track lighting, you have one electrical box and the lights snap onto the bar. Simple, right?
Well, we are finding out that nothing in this house is simple. When he took down the lights this is what we found...
No electrical box. Do you think the builder didn't know? Or didn't care? Or just didn't have one handy? Who knows... But there is one there now..
YIKES!! LOL I took the photo before he put the box in!! How funny... I didn't even realize that until I looked.. Rest assured there IS a blue electrical box in that hole in the ceiling. I promise..
We also replaced some of the drywall in the kitchen... Shall I explain the studs? Those are dead men. Not real dead men, but pieces of 2x4 you cut and use to hold something while it drys. Some of the drywall patches in the ceiling weren't able to be screwed in. There wasn't anything to screw them into. So we used some construction adhesive and dead men and left it there for 24 hours while they dried.
This weekend, we also removed the stove and surrounding cabinets and counter tops. One more thing the builder did was just run the 220v electric wire from the stove through the subfloor and into the basement where it was wired directly into the current. Instead of adding a socket to plug the stove into, the plug had been cut off the stove and wired directly into a box. Really? Of course the stove didn't work but the wires were still live.
I left Sunday morning to go watch the youngest granddaughter. Mom and Dad had Major League Football tickets and stayed to do a bit of Christmas shopping...
More next week...
Nancy
5 comments:
WOW...you've gotten a lot accomplished in spite of the "surprises" along the way. I'm very impressed! I wish I lived close enough to be able to visit and see the before and after in person!
The Mini-Lowes thing just kills me. It's so true :)
Can't believe how much you two accomplish in a weekend. Maybe you should rent yourselves out!!!
I am have such a great time watching your progress. I love your adventure, thanks so much for sharing it with us. Love your Mini Lowes with all of it's depts. Rich's shop is fabulous and your view from the back of the house...amazing!
Lot's of work going on at the new house. I can't believe what a fire trap it was with all those live wires. Question, what's the difference between the lagoon the pond? Uninformed Aussies need to know.
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