House Update

I just had a thought. Maybe Todd and I should start a new, joint blog (cause we’re so good at keeping up with our own) called “Drowning in My New Life Out Here”.

Whadya think?

The house is in “an unsettled” state. How’s that for putting in mildly?

We are 90% unpacked. Most of the things that aren't unpacked need to go into/onto things that go on the walls, but we can't hang stuff on the walls until after the electricians finish.

Because the electricians started the rewire yesterday. They tell us they’ll be done by Friday. They better be. The windows should be going in either later this week or next week, and it will be none too soon. You can’t even see out the windows now in the morning – there’s so much condensation on them. Old, old, old.

The new tub shower system arrived today. It’s a clawfoot tub shower ring, with the original clawfoot fixtures and attached shower. The current fixtures are just stupid. They’re mounted to the wall, as is the shower head, and they simply “loom” above the tub. When I tried to run a bath last week, the wall behind the tub and the floor got soaked (and there was no hot water coming out of the faucet, which is a whole ‘nother issue). The faucet is up way too high, so the water just splashes everywhere. This set up was obviously never used. Someone probably thought, “Oh, these fixtures are pretty, and they should go about, eh, here, and that’s just fine.”

Well, it’s not at all functional. So we got a whole new system.

And then we had the fridge moved to the other side of the kitchen, because it was crammed right up against the stove, which is 1) not functional, 2) bad feng shui, 3) not energy efficient and 4) just stupid. Now we have a big empty area, so we’re putting in cabinets up above and a
matching countertop and cabinets below that will house the trash and recycling. But (there's always a but!) the manufacturer of the existing cabinets has since gone out of business, so we are forced to either buy cabinets that almost kinda sorta match or go with something completely different that we aspire to have one day down the road. We went with almost kinda sorta match. Which, initially, will make my head explode every time I walk into the kitchen, but eventually, will be just fine.

Please don’t point this out to me if you ever come over. Just tell me how beautiful the kitchen is. Please?

And then there’s the downstairs, which is just about completely finished. There was no tub surround in the bathroom (more proof that these “upgrades” were never actually put into use) so we had one installed, and that took cutting drywall out because this nifty, new, non-cheap surround actually bolts into the studs. No gluing and caulking here. No sir. They bolted that baby in. So the muddin’ happened, and the primin’ happened, and now it’s painted and looks like it should have when we bought the place.

And Tyler now has a wall and a door, and I believe the last of the painting there will be this afternoon. And then we can call that area done!

As annoyed as I am with all these things, the house really is fantastic. And it’s good for me and Todd to make this one our own. The neighborhood is just wonderful and lively and full of little kids. Our neighbors have decorated for Halloween and boy howdy, they go all out. It’s great being so close to West Seattle Bridge; it cuts 15 minutes off of my commute.

Yes, if we can just make it to November 4. Then we quit with all this house stuff and start the real fun!