HOUSE!!! Update...

Well, I am exhausted!
We closed on the house on Feb. 23rd. Since then we have had done:

Electrical Work - throughout...groundings, running new lines, etc.
Hardwood floors - downstairs, and the 2nd floor.


We (including HUGE help from family) have done:

New locks front & back doors.
Living room - patched and painted (25 x 12ish) - including trim and ceiling. The walls were a mess...this was a lot of patching! Fixed around the built in A/C & removed cover to spray paint.
Stairs - were refinished, but also sanded & primed the banister, rebuilt & patched a hole in the swoop above.
Kitchen - patched, painted - 2 coats of primer, 3 coats of wall color. Ceiling, trim, primed radiator...primed & first coat on the outside door, purchased knobs, new fittings for the stove.
Hallways - demo floor! Thank goodness...they are now refinished & beautiful.
Office - demo floor for refinish.
Bedroom - demo floor, demo 1 wall (wood panel), demo drop ceiling. Put up Sheetrock, put up plywood on ceiling, order tin ceiling. Patch, prime, paint room and trim. Started sanding windowsills...remove old closet doors.
Bathroom - clean walls, remove/re-caulk tub. Sand down door. Prime all, some patching (needs more), paint first coat. Purchased new door knob.


That's all I can think of right now...we had to wait for the electric to be done b/4 we could start on a lot of things, and we had 4 days where we could not work in the house b/c of the floors, so we've gotten a lot done I think!


Here are some before & afters of the hardwood floors:

Before all the floors looked like this:

But with a sanding & finish, they are RED! - Red Pine:

Before Bedroom Floors:

AFTER! Gorgeous! So exciting - same floors:

Before - downstairs:

Downstairs floors AFTER:

Hallway before (wow ugly):

Hallway AFTER! :)

Stairs before - lots of water/wear stains:

Stairs AFTER! Cleaned up well:

Rug Fix for 1201

So, moving out of 1201 means that we need to fix some stuff around the apartment. I read about a rug fix online & then tried it!

Step 1: Remove damaged rug part:
This I did with a snap-blade. Rugs are a pain in the butt to cut!

Step 2: Cut out a clean piece of rug of the same size from a back corner in the closet. I had to be careful to align it correctly so the pattern matched up.

Step 3: Secure patch!

The only thing is that the back corner of the closet has never been walked on, and the top of the stairs are walked on all the time! Ah, well, maybe we can tamp it down & dirty it up before the month is over. Looks better than before, anyway!

Why it hurts to eat.

So, I think I figured out why it hurts my whole body when I eat. I have illustrated this below:
**Sorry the scan stinks!**




In other news - we have heat after a week of the gas being shut off in the house!

Now for the electrical work...got an estimate...now we have to wait over a week for the work to be done! Friday all day will be electric day (not tomorrow - 8 days)!

2 Days in and...

I am already stressing out about having a house and we are not even living there yet!

I talked to a plumber tonight (found him on Angie's List) and he is worried about the pipes freezing (since the gas was shut off in the house & there is no heat). He was worried enough to make us his top priority and move everything else back. Yay. Now I am worried about the pipes freezing too!

He is planning on coming out tomorrow, except that it is snowing outside, and if we get 10" of snow he will not be able to get to the house!

Each day the house sits w/o heat, the temp drops and it is more dangerous. At least it is not a corner or stand alone house. We get some insullation from the houses next to us.

BUT...If it continues to snow through to Saturday, then we will have to wait yet another day. Grrrrrrr...

I am trying to keep the big picture in mind, and to know that whatever happens it will be fine & we will get through it.

I am hoping that by the time it is the summer, we will have:
a) fixed all or almost all of the major issues with the house
b) be able to just work on cosmetic things
c) have a garden :)
d) be at least one barbeque in...
...and I am also sure that we will:
e) be very very very broke.

306 things to fix in a house...

So, we are homeowners! Yay! As of yesterday, "306" belongs to us :)

There are also about 306 things that we need to fix :( BUT, I think the house will really feel like ours because we have so much work to do. **How's that for a positive outlook!**

Last night, after signing and signing documents - which I am happily surprised to say I understood all of - we started on Job #1 - change the locks. This is OUR house, suckers. No one can get in unless we give them a key (or they break in, I guess). Back door replaced by yours truely ^^. Front door hole need to be bigger...hmmm...well, this shall be probably tomorrow night's project. Found a good link here: http://www.naturalhandyman.com/iip/infxtra/infloc.html#2. Luckily, we are pretty handy, so this should be do-able.

Sooo...we also had the PGW (that's Phila Gas Works for all you non-Philly folk) come out this morning. Turns out there are about 500 gas leaks in our house - weeeeeeeee! So, he actually had to turn the gas OFF. Niiiice. Oh, and we also need a new stove b/c it leaks gas as well. Ergo, today I will investigate plumbers and electricians on Angie's List and see if we can find a decent one. The PGW dude actually asked if we had had the house inspected. When I told him "Yes" (twice actually - one by us and one by HUD b/c we have an FHA loan) he was a APPALLED. Wow. He actually said that the house was very dangerous b/c of all of the gas leaks. I'm just glad S & I did not blow ourselves up last night! Well, at least the gas is shut off. If the house blows up now, it will probably be electrical...

(Yep, there is also a TON of electrical work that needs to be done...um...immediately.)

Another thing that we realized last night as we walked in is that the side roof leaks. We could hear the dripping onto the built in a/c unit. It was raining pretty hard & we've had lots of snow. It's to be expected.

Ah, the joys of buying a house!
At least if we replace the washer, dryer, house heater, stove we get to pick the ones we want.

Advice if you are considering buying a house that is not new: Have at least $20G in the bank for immediate repairs/appliances. Also, really love the house you buy. Mostly that - love the house you buy. I'm glad we still love our house. Give us a year and it will really really be our house - feel like our house.

Idea for a Guest Room...

So, how fun would it be to do a wall of famed, but mushed together travel photos? What?? Boring, you say?? No, no - good ones, beautiful ones! Here are thumbnail ideas...

Now what say you??

Two!

A link to the 2nd one that I've stitched on...a photo, not a scan. It is a much better representation: http://www.flickr.com/photos/allabelle/4312851820/

#1 Finished!

This is a scan of a print I stitched on. The print I made in MS's screenprinting class (and a few extra sessions b/c I missed some classes & work slowly).

The quality of the scan isn't great, but you get the idea. The image is remininscent of out Thailand trip. The hotel in Bangkok was amazing & they had a tree in the open courtyard. Off of the tree there were birdcages hung which had plants in them! I LOVED it!

House spaces...ideas?

So, the house we are buying has a weird pass-through space between the kitchen & livingroom. I want to do something fun. This is a very loose idea (scan is a little light), but maybe:


Maybe another idea for the ceiling:

Projects, projects, projects...

This morning I made bread, patched my jeans, and made paper-heart garland. AND, I did it all before noon!

At mom & dad's over the weekend, I cut out all these hearts (old magazines). This morning I sewed them together. It took about 5 minutes to sew them together on the machine! Yay for easy projects! I saw this somewhere, so it is not my idea...craft mag blog??...can't remember. Anyway, it turned out to be super cute & is hanging in our kitchen!

**There are more pics on my flickr.**

We have also bought a house (as I'm SURE everyone knows by now! :). We walked through today for the inspection. Well, all I can say is that it will certainly be a PROJECT!!!

We love the house, though & it has a TON of potential. I'll post pics of ideas at some point...

In other news, I cut myself some bangs before work on Friday. I had a few extra minutes in the morning (ah, idle hands...) and, well, I think it is actually okay. I am getting used to them & kinda like them. I think my face shape looks different, no?

Ties!

Below are 2 of the 8 (?) ties I need to finish.
I screenprinted on old ties & then stitched on them!


(Thank you Mr. Model :)

Now for the close-up:


And the 2nd finished (mostly):

Coat project done! Yay!

FINALLY! I finished re-lining my coat.
This coat was the best 7 cents I've ever spent!

I got this coat at a rummage sale at least 10 years ago. The coat also came with pants (it is a man's tweed pant suit from back in the day). The pants were HUGE and SHORT ! but the coat was/is perfect.

I have been meaning to re-line this coat for...well, since I got it, but finally had to give in this year b/c the sleeve lining was litterally in shreds. I used all fabric & materials I had at home (yes for cheap!) except for the satin binding. Below you can see my process:

Remove lining from coat:

I acutally ended up re-enforcing the seams b/4 I put the coat back together.

Mark the lining up, remove (note the holes & tears - these are the good pieces!). I would then trace the pieces so I could make a new lining! I also saved the tag you see on the right to sew back onto the new inside pocket.

I chose a fleece lining so it would be warmer & I can wear it in the winter. Pink seemed like a good color to make it sufficiently girly:

I added a pocket in the inside made of fabric I had dyed before. I also dyed the binding to match the pocket. The pocket has a separate compartment the perfect size for my IPod.

I also stitched 2 leather hearts & stitched over the edge of the lapel in pink. Yay for details!

Bread is delicious

Yay for homemade bread!

Homemade Bread in 5 minutes a day:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Artisan_Bread_in_Five_Minutes_a_Day/

This actually works! We have used this recipe & it is super easy. We liked it so much we purchased the book which has many variations & have used that too.

Just wanted to share b/c it is easy & delicious. It is also a great way to know exactly what is in the food you consume without the huge time it takes to make bread normally.

And a Calzone we made with the same dough:

Progress Report.

Hello 2010!

So, to go back to the beginning & look at my goals (when I started the blog) & what I am doing, have not done, changed...Since April:

1. Stop eating meat. I did well on this. For the first maybe 5 or 6 months I barely ate any meat. Sometimes it is necessary (like when you are invited to dinner). I am still doing well, but have modified it somewhat. My decisions do not affect just me, so there is a compromise. I eat little meat & when I do, I try to by free-range, etc. I have eatten almost NO red meat since April.
2. Take short showers. I do well on this except when I have the day off!
3. Make our own cleaning products. We do our own laundry & cleaning. We are using bought, but biodegradable dish & shampoo/cond.
4. Recycle. I have to send my #5s away to be recycled, but I have hung onto them. We do well here.
5. Compost. We have not done this. Maybe over the summer when we are eatting a lot more fresh fruit, we will join Bennet Compost...fail.
6. Write & organize. I've done this somewhat, but can do much better (the writing, not the organizing).
7. Stop buying new plastics. This is SO FREAKIN' IMPOSSIBLE. I can do better...
8. Paper instead of styrofoam cups at work...I keep trying, but seem to not be able to accomplish this...
10-12. Buy organic, eat less dairy, pack lunch. I do okay here. Can do better...
13. Powerstrips. We do this well.
15. Buy only used clothing & books. I have bought one new piece of clothing since January of last year (although, I have gotten a few things as gifts). Even gifts I gave of clothing were used clothing (and super cute). I have bought 2 new books...I KNOW, but the library was taking forever to get them, so I gave in.

Overall...B