Home Maid Simple

Tag: remodeling

  • Pantry Remodel and Termites?!

    Pantry Remodel and Termites?!

    Yeah you read that right! We’re redoing the “pantry” and turning it into a real pantry with lots of shelves and doors! 
    Oh the second part? Yeah you read that right too! We found termites, and turns out we’ll be getting a whole new dining room, not just a pantry!!  I’m pooped, and exhausted so enjoy the pics. 

    Original “pantry”, before demolition.
    Beginning demolition, with Daddy’s little helper.

    Old pantry removed, ready to start on the wall.

    Termites found, construction came to a quick halt.

  • Kitchen Faucet Upgrade

    Back in April, on one of the first nights in our new home, I came across a great giveaway! Hosted by Krista at Heavenly Savings, she was giving away a Pfister Faucet.  We didn’t particularly like our current faucet, and so I entered. Never in a million years did I believe I would actually win that giveaway! So about a week later, when our faucet sprung an unfixable leak, we went ahead and upgraded.  Shortly after that, Krista sent me an email letting me know I had won the Pfister Faucet!  I was beyond shocked, and figured it had to be Murphy’s Law, since we already got a pretty nice faucet.
    It was close to Mothers Day, and I decided the Pfister Faucet would make the perfect gift for my mom. See last summer (2010) I was caring for my grandma at my parents while they went on a month long vacation. While they were gone, their faucet sprung a leak, but it was fixable. Unfortunately I, nor my parents neighbor, were the best fix it people to call. We did manage to fix the leak, but at the expense of switching the hot and cold, and losing part of the faucet (not important, but it looked kind of ugly). Take note of the picture below, by the faucet’s handle.

    I was pretty sad, and felt that I “broke”, my parents faucet. So when I had the chance to give them a new faucet (yes they continued to use this one for the next year after it’s uglification), I could hardly contain my excitement.  I waited, and waited and waited some more. When no faucet showed up, I contacted Krista at Heavenly Savings to see if there was a problem with the shipment.  She was sad to hear I had not yet received the faucet and got to work on it immediately! After months of back and forth between myself and Krista, and Krista and Pfister, I finally received the beautiful new faucet a couple weeks ago! I am so grateful to Krista for not giving up, and making sure her sponsor fulfilled their end of the deal. She truly knows what it takes to be a good blogger, and how to connect with her readers.
    OH you, want to see the new faucet?  I gave my parents the faucet as a very late mothers day and fathers day gift. An on time birthday gift for my dad, and an early Christmas gift for the house.

    Please, go check out Heavenly Savings for all her current giveaways, and the many deals she is always posting! Let’s show an amazing blogger some blogging love!
    (and thanks Krista, winning this faucet addicted me just a tad to blog giveaways for good! Turns out even the simplest of us have a chance of winning some amazing prizes.)
  • Basement Reveal

    Basement Reveal

    It’s done, it’s done, I can’t believe it’s done!!! (well ok, almost. But I don’t count the small little holes Mark still needs to fill. It’s liveable).

    The main living space. This used to be a cold storage/unfinished room.

    Under the Stairs Puppet Theater (or haunted house as the Princess’ have been calling it)

    The “entry” to the basement.
    Isn’t that floor gorgeous?  It’s still a little dusty. I need to go find my microfiber cloths to get it all up. As you can see we’ve even begun moving some items down (hello tv).  The only things left to do down here is decorate! Since it is the Princess’ play room as well as laundry room, my main goal is to dampen the echo. The washer suddenly got a lot louder.
  • Basement Remodel Caused Domestication

    Basement Remodel Caused Domestication

    I just love the way our basement is looking! We got the painting done over the weekend, and then yesterday the old vinyl was pulled up. 

    Sadly, the color is not exactly what we chose. We were going for this color called serenity, but to save a little money, we had the paint guys at Lowe’s try and create the same color in a cheaper bucket of paint. The result, a minty green, instead of calming green/blue. Awe well, the things we learn.

    spot for stacked washer and dryer
    There has been a downside to our basement remodel. I am so excited with how it is looking, but with the many different processes, we had to remove our washer and dryer. Which left us no way to wash clothes last week, or this week. So what did I do? I recalled our ancestors, and I filled the sink with hot soapy water and kids clothes. 
    Using my Pampered Chef Mix and Stir, I felt I got an adequate agitation going on.  So I let them soak, agitated them, soak some more, and agitated more. Then I used the other sink to rinse them. Rinsing was probably the hardest part. “Was I getting all the soap out?” was a constant question in my head. This morning though, after drying all night in the bathroom, I think I must have adequately done it. The clothes smelled nice, and were good and stiff. 
    Thankfully a good friend (whose basement also flooded this summer) saw my plight on facebook, and picked up a load of clothes for me today. I am so very grateful to her, and I’m sure my kids will be too, when they have clean clothes again! 
  • Basement Remodel – Sheetrock

    Basement Remodel – Sheetrock

    Hooray! The sheetrock is up!

    This was all finished up yesterday. This morning they started taping and mudding. It should be ready for paint next Wednesday! I am so stoked with the way this is turning out!
  • Basement Remodel – framing and kids puppet theatre

    Basement Remodel – framing and kids puppet theatre

    Mark and a good friend spent the morning of labor day framing the rest of our basement, and getting the electrical all set up. We now have a lightswitch, and two working outlets.

    Mark then created this amazing space under the stairs. Hello Puppet Theatre!

    The Princesses are in love with the space and don’t like waiting for the rest of the basement to be finished. My plan once we have flooring and walls is to add a red curtain to the window, and paint the front with chalkboard paint. That way they can “Present” their shows.
  • Asbestos testing

    Asbestos testing

    We just had a very exciting and crazy 2 days! Our insurance adjuster came by last night to check out the flood damage. We showed her where the pipe broke, the replaced carpet, the torn up vinyl, the knocked down wall, and the insulation that might have asbestos.
    Asbestos? You heard that right. Apparently you can put some asbestos in front of a blow torch and it won’t get through. Pretty cool! Not so cool if that stuff gets in your lungs though.  The adjuster was very friendly and got right on top of everything. Since there was a possibility of asbestos she sent us to a hotel, and dinner.  We packed up some things for overnight, and headed out. The Princess’ had a lot of fun “going on vacation”.
    Waiting to check in.

    more waiting.

    Not sure why it got blurry, but we’re still waiting.

    Once we got a room Princess R thought the drawers were the coolest place ever! I debated having her sleep in one! Of course I didn’t let her, the hotel had a decent pack n play we used.

    Mmm, breakfast! I just love those faces, lol. It was really a great breakfast! Fruit loops, muffins and juice for the kids. Bagel with cream cheese, and a strawberry danish for me. I should learn how to make danish’s they are morning goodness!
    This morning I woke up after Mark had left for work. I was a little upset because I like to be up when he leaves, and I couldn’t find our bag with my clothes in it. I thought he took it with him.  After some accusations on my part, I found the bag in the bathroom, whoops. My apologies were accepted with laughter and a comment that he knows how to make me crazy.
    In truth, I was getting close to some kind of panic attack. My phone was dead because I left the charger at home, and I didn’t really know what I was supposed to do today. I felt out of the loop, and slightly abandoned. I packed the kids up and drove home to get my charger, and of course grabbed the wrong charger, grrr! So I gave them a bit more down time before we packed up again, and got the right charger. We then went to the mall and Target to get some lunch and new coloring books and crayons. That kept them well entertained until my phone was charged.
    Mark called after lunch to let me know we DID NOT have asbestos! Thank goodness, but now what? Since the hotel was paid for for a week, I left our things there and headed home so Princess R could actually take a nap (it just wasn’t working out in the hotel). We’ve now met with a contracted Restoration company and feel like we’re on the path to home living again. I feel like our basement is more a house then a home right now. Tools everywhere, with no place to really comfortably live. By next week we should know the costs to us, and what the insurance is covering. Then it’s off to construction and a nice finished basement! I can’t wait.
  • Day 1 – Basement Remodel

    Day 1 – Basement Remodel

    I’ve mentioned our basement remodeling ideas before, shown some pictures of tearing out the cold storage that was there. We have finally commenced on the actual remodeling part! Mark decided to take a day off from school prep, and work on the basement instead.

    This is what it used to look like:
    Here is what it looked like throughout the day yesterday:
     Wall torn down
     Door removed
    And finally, the framing has begun!
    This is going to be a long process. We are on a budget (who isn’t) and so will be doing a little each month. We had originally thought we would wait for tax season, but with the impending arrival of a new little one, we really wanted this project completed and out of the way. Plus, we are going to be rearranging bedrooms, and we didn’t want the Princess’ sleeping downstairs by such a mess (although they both ended up on our floor last night anyways!).

  • Wordless Wednesday – New Carpet

    Wordless Wednesday – New Carpet

    The new carpet has been installed and we’ve begun living again!
  • Downside of Being a Homeowner

    Downside of Being a Homeowner

    I love being a homeowner! The mere fact that this house is OURS, just rocks! There are times though, that I do actually miss renting.  Times like this last week particularly.
    I would like to apologize to you, my wonderful readers. I have not been on here lately.  Life decided it was time for our first Homeowners curve-ball. You may recall my letter to my oven.  It had died on us, and I was very sad.  Before leaving on our Yellowstone Vacation, we bought a new one, and had it scheduled to be delivered and installed the Monday after we got back (this last Monday).  So Monday rolls around, and we start getting ready for the men to deliver our oven. First though we had to run a gas line to our kitchen. See, Mark and I, we like gas ovens. The beauty of them, is you can still cook on them if you’re power goes out. Not that I foresee that happening a lot, but I like to be prepared.  So we bought a gas oven at Lowe’s.  While the plumber was here  running the gas line, he informed us that the insulation from our Cold Storage Room, probably had asbestos in it. He obviously didn’t test for it, but he strongly suggested getting it out sooner than later. Great, I thought! I went into research mode on the insulation, and scared myself a bit. Then the oven arrived!

    Isn’t it beautiful? 5 ranges! Count them…5!!
    While this beauty was being installed, we took the Princess’ outside to wash the cars and play in the wading pool.  We had not used our front hose faucet until Monday. The water pressure was really weak through the hose, so we ran it longer than we normally would have.  Once we had the oven installed, and the cars washed, I asked Mark if he would get started on cleaning up the vermiculite. A few minutes later he was back upstairs telling me I needed to come look.  The floor was flooded. We thought it was just a backed up drain. We were wrong. The basement was flooded from the hose faucet.

    It started in the master closet

    and seeped into the cold storage.  
    We tried to save the carpet in the closet, and master room, but we couldn’t. We couldn’t get anyone from our insurance to look at it until Thursday. At that point, the smell told us it wasn’t worth saving. So for the past couple days we’ve ripped out all the carpet, and have been sleeping on our pullout couch.

     We carpet pad

    Turns out vinyl was laid under the carpet in the master room.
    See how wet that is?! 
    Pulling out the carpet pads
    The master closet without carpet. 
    Our current bed, in it’s couch form. And since we aren’t sleeping downstairs at the moment, I didn’t want Princess R down there all alone. So we put her in the pack n play in Princess C’s room, and I turned Princess R’s room into the laundry room.
    Sit Relax and Read
    Make sure to join me at Sentimental Sundays over on Sit Relax and Read.
    This week I’m feeling sentimental about renting. Although owning a home is our dream come true, there were some obvious benefits to renting. I will always look back fondly on the repairmen we didn’t have to pay, or the heartache of dying appliances.  Welcome to home ownership!