Sunday, May 15, 2011

Random update-Travis edition

Along with a little bit of this this weekend:



Travis got the flu and spent most of it on the couch and in bed!
Rare occurrence for him. Not sure other than a cold it has ever happened in 6+ years

Maybe he is allergic to work? Nah!




Before this--He spent the whole week on the water leak, that  found here last weekend.

After finding this behind the washing machine.....



We lost a week(or gained a few years of life!) Cleaned out the pipes and he replaced the faucets.





 It sure takes alot of tools! Every available surface was covered with tools!

But I mean ----Come on--look at this gunk?! This is why we use a Brita filter for our water consumption!

 And it wasn't enough that we turned off the main water, opening all the faucets, changing out the faucets, turning on the main, closing the faucets, that we find this little itty bitty leak... and start back at the beginning.
No such leaking the 2nd go around (and when I saw we, I did the running & he did the real work)

And then comes the adding of drywall. I think this was less than $5 worth of materials?


Luckily we had all the other tools. Yes more tools!

And then he mudded the area(joint compound I think)
 And the gap behind the left faucet...
 And this takes us to the bedroom...

We have slept in the same room as this gaping hole since we moved in.
Shocking I know! That I never mentioned it before....

It has been quite the sore spot since I realized some time ago WHY it was there at all. We asked the sellers to replace the breaker box, they did... and that was all. Not even bothering to replace the drywall once the job is done! Sigh... other patch in the garage is missing too due to this project.

Looking more closely we notice daylight thru the wall :( No wonder I have battled spiders all this time!!!
And I have to wear socks to bed (or maybe that is because I am a woman?)

Now a few spiders are a small price to pay for the new electrical panel we requested during the inspection. The old one had been recalled back in the 80's but no one ever noticed... And the place did not burn down so all was well...
We got instead of new flooring, a new breaker box! Weeeeee!
Hardly something you brag to your peers about,
but OUR house is not going to burn down around this box!
And everything is labelled which is a dream come true.

(Except for those 4 way switches/front lights and turning off the plugged in lights with a switch upstairs causes the outside front light/plugs to work... Hmmmm...)

 So Travis worked all week, here is an action shot of vacuuming the hole (those nasty spiders!)
 Installing drywall....

After taping...



 Adding mud....

 And the after shot! Now it is time to sand and paint and make it look half way decent. I actually think just not having wiring showing is a huge improvement and we could move on to other tasks!

Do you think a white patch here will detract from the baby blue and pink bedroom?



Here is a sneak peak at what I did this weekend!
They are definitely not NEW...
but clean and fresh and NOT greasy is all I am after.
I would take nicks, dings and knife scrapes over what I had in there before anyway!
Even a mediocre paint job!

I was going to go for a smaller shot like this to just give you a tease:

But I couldn't make the sweet molasses(brown) come out quite right in color so it wouldn't be fair.
I still have to paint the final coat on the accent wall. It is not quite as orange as the pics make it out to be since it is just primer. Not that I mind the color it is now, it is just not in the plan.
Once we paint this--it will NEVER be painted again.
Too many tall corners and straight lines--that I cannot do well.  
As for cupboard, I have some touch ups to do, send off the hinges to a friend, and get those doors & drawers painted!


Thank you Travis for working so hard all week that being sick this weekend didn't even phase us!

Xoxoxox!



9 comments:

  1. So much progress. Gross on the pipes. We've found that if you have access to pipes for a fix, just change as much as you can to new because they get so corroded. Here, it's a lot of hard water build up. Like having rocks form in all the fittings. Hope you sleep better with the new power box (and no spiders).

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  2. Wow, no wonder Travis had some down time...you're really wearing yourselves out with this huge project. The beams, the patio, the plumbing, the drywall, the electrical panel, it never ends. (This coming from a woman who still has doors to stain upstairs 33 years later.)

    My, the gunk in the pipes is frightening...I don't want to see what's in ours. Why do we want to own a home again, exactly? Would be so easy to call someone and say Fix This!

    You have so much to be proud of, the house is really shaping up into a Castle.

    (And I'm the gopher around here too, Carl does all the Important Stuff, I just run and get what he needs.)

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  3. The pipes were so gross... now I am afraid to look at my own pipes.

    I appreciate people who take on BIG PROJECTS.

    I'll be watching.

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  4. So glad to see all the progress! The kitchen cabinets are really coming along. I shouldn't ask this, but -- Are you still living downstairs?

    Hope Travis feels better. Men can be such babies sometimes when they get sick, but Travis is such a hard worker, he deserves the down time.

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  5. Hi Alison--
    Yep--Still downstairs! But as you can see the we are inching closer to finishing upstairs! I can hardly beleive it myself. Maybe another month at most!?!? I cannot even imagine how it will feel.

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  6. Your cabinets look fantastic. Love the color. You can sharpen your paint line in the corner by using a nearly dry brush and dabbing along the line instead of brushing. Also, the line will appear sharper to the eye (even if it isn't) if you paint the lighter color as the last coat, even though that sounds counter-intuitive. I'd also do it bare so you can see the joint. Don't tape it. By the way, I am a better painter than gardener. LOL

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  7. Looking good! I haven't done anything all that productive around here in a long time. I'll be happy if we manage to take down the shed and put up a new one this summer. One little goal, lets hope I can at least manage that!

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  8. He has been busy! After I saw your post about the hoses leaking I checked ours and probably will all the time now that I know what can happen.
    We had our panel changed just a few months ago, probably the same brand as yours, we found out about the recall when my husband had to replace a fuse from the dryer a couple of years ago.
    The kitchen looks like it's really looking good, I love the colors.
    Hope you're both healthy and get to enjoy the sun this week.

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  9. wow, everything looks really nice! You know what? We JUST had someone finish work in our basement - similar stuff that Travis did. Just wrote a check of $1300. Good savings! That pipe is SOOOOOOOOO freaking nasty!! We have had many stinks in our house and when they took the sink off and the pipe was just sticking out of the wall like yours was, we figured out the horrendous smell was coming from the pipe. I wish I could figure out how to clear it all out. Draino? I don't know.

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I always appreciate input, advice, ideas and telling me I'm doing it wrong. So chime in!