end of june progress report

so here we are.  the last day of june.  fifteen weeks left until our little bundle of joy is set to join us here at irvington bungalow.  and where are we in the progress of work on this old house?  read on, my friends.

bathroom - we received the tile sample for the floor. 

this is the design and basically the colors. we put white pieces of paper over the gray colored tile the tile guy suggested we use (you can see it in the top row of the whole sample).  the picture on the right shows a hex shaped tile but that is just to portray the actual shade of white that the tile will be (since the paper was a bright, stark white).

in the next couple of days we'll order the tile. so excited and a bit apprehensive as this guy has been taking FOREVER to get back to us about anything.  so annoying.  but i'm trying to be optimistic that once he has a down payment, things will move more smoothly???  maybe???  hopefully!!

air conditioner - did i mention our A/C unit went out a few weeks ago?  yes, it has been a fun challenge to add that huge project to our list completely unexpectedly.  after four quotes, we finally found a wonderful contractor who helped us out and temporarily fixed the problem for us because it turned so hot outside.  we're getting a whole new HVAC system installed within the next week.  so excited.  complete with duct work to the attic and basement which will one day be finished out for living space.

chad poured a new concrete slab where the new unit will go.  he is so proud (and so am i).  it looks great!

and that's about all that has happened since the last time i wrote.  things are moving forward, faster than they probably have up until this point.  from here on out it will be a whirlwind until the baby is due.  here is my wish list, not in the correct order:

walls painted in the whole house

floors refinished in the whole house

nursery finished (new drywall installed and paint)

guest bedroom finished (new drywall installed and paint)

wood blinds purchased and installed in the bedrooms

new HVAC

new bathroom

new plumbing

we can get this done in 15 weeks.  right???  hahahahaha...........

till next time.

off to a good start

what number was "general organization" on our 2009 goal list? i can't remember right now but it was most likely near the bottom. if you live in a fixer-upper then you know organization is often the last thing to occur.

however last weekend i feel like we got off to a good start. one of the items on my christmas list was a shelf for our breakfast nook area. i've been married long enough to know that if i asked for some fancy shelf from PB or something that this wouldn't happen. so i asked for a shelf that could be used again once we remodel the kitchen and it was no longer needed in the breakfast nook. we got a gorilla rack. looks like we specifically have the GR 7304N.

no monkeying around (sorry) this thing is HEAVY-DUTY. dual purpose, too. now it holds our overflow kitchen items and all of my hobby supplies (shameless plug, sorry). one day, post kitchen remodel, it will live in our garage.

i really wish i would've taken a "before" picture of the this area. up until a few days ago this small space housed the dog's food, an old wall mirror we removed from the LR like four years ago, an antique umbrella, the microwave (still there), the dog's food (still there), an air compressor, various tools and boxes of nails, a stool, chairs, a folding table (still there), boxes to recylce, a basket full of old magazines and shoes, and a pile of junk to go to Goodwill. ah. isn't it better now?! for this feat alone i should be able to cross one item off of our goal list.

2009 goals

on the treadmill today my mind started wandering back to this house. as usual. i remember that i had posted a 2008 goal list early last year. so i decided to check our progress on that list.

1. (most important) Fix the attic insulation. As in suck out the old and foam in the new. DONE.

2. Remodel the bathroom. It will be so fun and innovative to be able to flush after every use. Grossed out yet?

3. Fill in our insulation holes in our walls / fix the plaster walls.

4. Paint the walls.

5. Refinish the wood floors.

6. Purge unnecessary items from spare bedrooms and basement. / General organization.

are you serious???!! that is the ONLY thing we accomplished from our list in a year? well. in our defense, i was out of work for one glorious, warm, vacation-taking, book-reading summer. {sigh} of course those carefree days do come at a price. as in no checky check. as in no work on the house. so that's our excuse. but the insulation is a huge timeandmoneysucking item to cross of the to-do list! so that's the silver-lining, fellow DIY-ers.

An item accomplished that was not even on our list was continuing work on the landscaping. We installed landscaping on the south, east and north sides of the house. man. i hate looking at the posts from summer. makes me sad for warm weather.

as usual, i've totally digressed. here's our 2009 goal list (many with carry-overs from last year, i'm sure):

1. have the back door and the entry garage door stripped and prepped for painting

2. weatherize same doors as well as our entry doors

3. work on bedrooms - fix walls and ceilings

4. pick out exterior paint colors

5. fix other walls and paint

6. bathroom remodel

7. refinish floors

8. finish landscaping (front yard, install a small raised bed garden)

9. generally organize

now that's ambition. good luck, irvington bungalow. good luck.