Swab the deck,

and other home maintenance.

We really like the idea of a deck. We just don’t like the deck that came with our house. But, when you’re gutting the inside, you really value any livable space – even with uneven stairs, odd railings and mismatched wood. Given that we’ll need to keep the deck for a couple of years while we make the inside our own, we thought we’d take some steps to maintain it. Really, not a novel thought… but, like so many other things, it never occurred to the former owners.

My family came to town for my cousin’s wedding (congrats Kim and Jay!). Really, the deck and this visit have something in common – just give me a minute.

So my family was in town for the wedding. My mom extended her trip to help us with a project. So many projects and a volunteer – I was beside myself with ideas. Because the weather was nice and because the deck looked so bad, the deck seemed like a good two-day job.

Ha. It took two days just to power wash it. But that’s what my mom and I did while Michael went to work. We worked so hard on it– my mom even power washed her toe – ouch!

Then there was the staining. My mom helped pick the color – mission brown, but she was already safely back in Missouri (bandaged toe and all) by the time we were ready to stain. Even though Michael had thought the deck was a lost cause, even he was excited by how much better it looked clean. Two weeks of after work staining got us to this.

Just in time for winter… Argh!

Smells like Christmas...

…and sounds like power tools.

I know it’s a bit early for Christmas (except for in retail). But, around our house, it smells like Christmas. Michael and I spent the weekend cutting down and trimming evergreen trees. We have a line of trees between our house and our neighbors. They aren’t pretty, but they serve as a natural privacy fence.

Ahh, much better. I guess we all need a trim now and then.

Potential.

We had some family visit a couple of weeks ago. We had a great time hosting, and even though the house wasn’t yet up for visitors, we were. I know people must be horrified (perhaps too strong a word… at least stunned, or surprised) when they walk in the house – walls are half down, you can see through from room to room, wires dangle from walls and the ceiling, everything is mismatched. My uncle, though, saw what we saw when we first walked through the house last October – potential.

Seeing the house through his eyes gave us renewed energy for the project that we have ahead of us. In fact, I think it inspired us to be even more ambitious… if that’s possible.

Thanks, Bill!

If these walls could talk.

Most days Michael and I decide what to do on the house. We have plenty of projects to keep us busy, but the weather plays a part. On a nice day, like today, we wanted to work outside. On rainy days, much better to do work indoors.

But then, there are some days when the house decides. This weekend, our work was dictated by the house. Let me explain:

Thursday night we had wicked storms come through Maryland. There was lots of wind and heavy rain for a quick, but violent, storm. Then the house let us know what we’d do over the weekend by dripping. Between the two additions of the house (between the living room and the dining room), we had a light, but steady drip. We tore out some of the ceiling to be sure the water wouldn’t reach our light fixture (it’s my least favorite light fixture, but…). The little bit that's hanging is what we tore into Thursday night.

So today, Sunday, we took out the ceiling where the two rooms join, and then some more for good measure. It was a mess, but a mess we’ve become accustomed to. There’s nothing like dry wall dust in your eyes, mouth and nose to make you feel like a proud homeowner. Michael said that tearing the wall down was much easier than trying to get the wallpaper off. I guess my work on removing the wallpaper was a bit premature.

I know there was a time that a drip indoors would have really caused concern. I’m sure it would for most people, but Michael and I just figure it’s another opportunity. We really didn’t like the roofline above the room where we had the drip and now we have a reason to explore different options.

Our house keeps asking for lots of big changes… For now, Michael and I are happy to oblige.

Rub a dub dub

Michael and I in a tub.

This was our bathroom. Actually, this was our guest bathroom. We'll both admit that this was the nicest room in the house. But, when you're renovating a house, what's one more bathroom? Plus, we wondered what we would find underneath the pretty exterior. We did find layers of tile, but nothing hair-raising. Unless you count the shoddy plumbing work. But really, it takes a lot to surprise Michael and I anymore.

It seems that the former owners decided to update the bathroom floor before selling. Good idea. I thought the floors looked great – and they did. But the person who put the floors in and reinstalled the toilet didn’t do such a great job. Because the floors were now about a half inch above where they were with the vinyl tile, the contractor/owner/moron needed to install an extension from the toilet to the drain. It’s about a 59-cent piece. Certainly not a budget blower, but essential in the process. Needless to say, the installer saved less than a dollar. Luckily, it was not a high-traffic area and we caught the problem rather early.

At first we thought we’d just install a new subfloor and tiling. Then we decided we should just start from scratch. So, out came the goggles, pry bars and hammers. We were mindful of pipes and electricity and took out the bathroom in a weekend.

Now Michael and I have an on-going debate about installing a bath or a shower. Slowly, he's winning that debate and I think we'll end up with a shower stall. Besides, most guests don't take a bath when they are visiting, right? I even asked my mother to weigh in on the debate. She voted with Michael.

I guess I shouldn't have asked.

What lies beneath

I've heard that a good foundation is the basis for every good relationship.

Our relationship with our house started on rocky (if not soggy) beginnings. But now we’re back in the clear after a bit of work underneath the house. Michael did most of the work. I was a happy and able assistant--I held the flashlight, crawled around measuring, worked with him to find the low and high points of the crawl space--until that fateful day when.... I saw not one, but two snakes. I haven’t been under the house since.

Michael installed the electricity and a sump pump. He took these pictures. He’s invited me back, but I’ve declined. We even had a contractor underneath the house, and he noted how nice the crawl space was – plenty of light, easy to get around. Every man should have a space of his own… and the crawl space is all Michael’s.

Before & after.
Really, there is a difference. It's much more dramatic when you're in there. I'm sure the snakes are much happier with their new environment.
I know I am.

And the walls came crumblin' down...

We keep a nice house, don't we ?
This was our guest room-- it had pink carpet and pink flowered wallpaper. Michael and I had lots of fun tearing down the walls. We had a couple of layers -- wallpaper, paneling and plastic tile. We figure we gained a couple of inches in the room just taking the layers out.

I really like demolition... of course, I'm mindful of electrical wires and plumbing, but there is something so satisfying about pulling down a wall. If it stays in tact, there's a sense of accomplishment. And, if you have to rip it to shreads to get it out, you still get the sense of accomplishment because you worked really hard to get it out. You can't lose.

The square hole in the wall was the medicine cabinet and you can see through to the bathroom. We thought we'd keep that bathroom in tact, but once you decide to gut a place... it's hard to stop. You'll see that demolition in a future entry.

This is what was before.
It's the exact same corner. You can't see the window in the first because we have a piece of paneling up against the wall. Quite a change. I'm looking forward to the day we can post the after pictures, not just the in between shots.

Michael likes to say I just love to smash stuff up. Yep, I do. But I've seen him enjoy it quite a bit, too. Now, I just hope we're as good as putting it all back together... I guess we'll see. But even as is, I still like it better than the pink. One day we'll have guests in here... For now, we have a really great tent.

Here are some of those progress shots:

After the carpet was out, but walls are still up. The pink on the floor is a primer and sealer. Pretty funny that it was also pink!

Beginning stages... the paneling begins to come down.

I always said I wanted an open floor plan, but this is a bit too much. Michael is in our bedroom and I'm taking the picture from the guest room (through the old closet).

It's a zoo out there.

Each county in Maryland has at least one sighting of a coyote, except for Queen Anne's County.
Well, that's what our neighbor told us. Then we had a coyote in our backyard. I ran for a camera to "shoot" it, and our neighbor came out with a gun -- also to shoot it. I got pictures and he, thankfully, didn't even shoot once.



Then there is the story of the turtle and the hare...
but you've probably heard that before. This turtle came by on a rainy day. The rabbits are around all of the time.



One cold December morning I heard fireworks.
I thought it was pretty peculiar -- who shoots off fireworks in the morning? Michael smiled, it was goose season. They seemed to think our backyard was a safe haven. Again, we got the camera, but this time the neighbor didn't reach for his gun. Lucky for them. I guess we'll have another opportunity to "shoot" next season.

And then there's Harry.
He is by far our favorite visitor. He comes by often for a swim, a bite to eat and to relax. I'm not sure the fish and the frogs that live in the pond are as fond of Harry, but the circle of life is alive and well in our backyard. Although there is more than one heron that stops by, they're all "Harry" to us.

Why I now hate carpet.

This is not a good look for me.
When we first moved in, we knew we wanted to make changes. Changes that would make it our home rather than Bob and Mary's home. The blue exterior carpet had to go, the door in the guest room could be closed to hide the pink carpet, but the carpet inside we thought we'd keep. Give it a good cleaning and it was good to go.

How wrong we were.
In the common areas, we had white carpet. Not my first choice (I'm a fan of red wine and I'm clumsy -- not a good combination for white carpet), but we thought we would take a chance. We rented a steamer and got to work on the carpet, it made a difference for about 8 hours, but the stains came back. We soaked, we purchased special cleansers for pets (the previous owners had dogs), we followed the directions closely, but the stains and even the smell came back each and every time. So, we began to remove it. That's when the protective gear was necessary. There was dust, some interesting smells and so many carpet nails and staples.

Before, during and after.

I've seen so many home improvement shows where the owner of the house is pleasantly suprised to find beautiful hardwood floors underneath the carpet. We found more carpet. Really, another layer of carpet and padding. I still had some hope (although a bit diminished) that under the second layer there would be some great surprise. There wasn't. It was the subfloor. The good news is that we don't have to protect the floors as we tear down the walls. We can drop nails, tools, whatever, and we can't hurt the floor.

So what kind of flooring will we have? Wide oak planks in most of the house, tile in the bathrooms and slate of some sort in the kitchen. We have some throw rugs that we'll use, but I never need to see another carpet tack strip or padding.

Our first home.

We moved in December 2005, which is when we took the picture. This is the front of the house. Although Michael and I don't agree on what the "front" is. This is Michael's "front" of the house:











Of course I see his point. This is why we bought the house.

Since moving in, we've been slowly demolishing the inside of the house... but we'll get to those fun pictures in the coming days, weeks and months (years?).

For now, we'll share a new picture of the side that faces the road... We've cut down all of the trees (while cutting down trees sounds awful, the trees were in just terrible shape and downright ugly), torn out the flower beds including tropical plants that had to be moved inside each winter, removed the fake well and painted the door, shutters and street numbers. We have a lot to do still and we'll have to work on that lovely outdoor blue carpet soon. Plus, we'll probably add some plants back in. I know our neighbors would like that.











I guess I can get used to calling this the back of the house... It's just so unfortunate that this is what people see as they drive by. Blue carpet and empty shrub beds. Sorry, new neighbors.