Monday Musings
I promise this won’t be the only post this week like it has been the past 2 weeks. Oops. So much has been going on and so many decisions and things swirling around that I have been overwhelmed and when that happens, I just stop. I shut down. I get stuck. Basically exactly the opposite of what needs to happen.
But the past few days I’ve gotten unstuck. Here’s what’s going on:
Foundation work is DONE. We passed inspection and got the certificate of occupancy. The certificate actually has past owners of the house listed instead of us, but, you know, at least it’s progress (I mean, we’ve only owned the house for 11 years…). AND the work came in $2000 under budget. Considering we are hemorrhaging money, the extra $2000 is welcome. Of course we’ve already figured out where we’re going to spend it, but whatever.
We got the painting quote and it’s doable ($13k), so we’re scheduling that. Not sure when though because a lot needs to be done before we get to that point.
The back of our house with the upstairs exterior door and staircase. Should all be gone this week!
We found a carpenter and he came out on Friday to look at walling over the exterior door from the upstairs kitchen and removing the exterior stairs. We liked what he had to say so he started work on Saturday morning. He worked all day Saturday and half the day on Sunday. The door is gone, there is plywood, insulation, and drywall over the door opening, and he has started removing the staircase! We are so excited to see how the back of the house looks without that door and stairs. And very glad we decided to hire this project out.
Door is gone! On the inside, insulation and drywall is up. On Sunday the railings on the staircase started coming down.
Started working on the upstairs shower this weekend and got all the caulk and damaged grout removed and regrouted. Luckily there wasn’t as much damaged grout as we thought there was so it went pretty quickly. What we thought was damage, in most areas was actually paint. We figured out that during the renovation before we moved in, they painted all the tiles, grout, and bathtub. Now we have tons of chipped paint to deal with. So we’ve ordered enamel paint and are going to try to touch it up with that. If it doesn’t work, we’re going to have to repaint the whole thing. I’m posting a lot more on Instagram and Instagram stories so follow us over there at @ournextthing.
As soon as the upstairs shower is functional, we will start on the downstairs bathroom. We have to do the same thing that we did upstairs and remove all the damaged grout (there’s a lot more damage downstairs) and caulk and then regrout and caulk. Also, of course, we’ll be removing the vanity and toilet, ripping up the floor tile, and laying the luxury vinyl tile that we picked out. All of that will start this week!
Currently:
In my spare time - job hunting, and wow is it not fun. The only other time I’ve really had to search for a job was when we moved to the DC area right after college. Chris had a job and I wanted to work as a legal assistant. It took me about 3 weeks and I found a job at an energy law firm near DuPont Circle. I hated the entire experience of job searching and I’ve found that 16 years later, I don’t like it any more.
Sweet Adeline is 5!
Missing - my family. A lot. We had a zoom session with my family last night and wishing my niece, Adeline, a happy 5th birthday instead of being there with her was rough. And how is she 5???This pandemic sucks. Wear a damn mask.
Loving - Shavonda Gardner on Instagram (@sgardnerstyle). I found her a few years ago when she was on Young House Love’s podcast and I just adore her. Her style is incredible and she’s been having the most amazing discussions about race, privilege, religion, and equality on her IG stories. Highly recommend.
Focusing on - the name of the game this week is progress. We want to finish up the upstairs bathroom (besides painting) and start on the downstairs bathroom. I think we’ve also made our pick for the floor in the kitchen so I need to get that ordered. I also need to follow up with the painter, the electrician, and the window people to make sure everything is moving along. Oh, and I’m back to work full time this week. Awesome timing.
Lillie at the start of day #1 with all our tiling supplies.
Planning on - this week, I am bringing you the story, featuring photos and videos, of Lillie and me tiling her kitchen backsplash. Including why I will never see another herringbone tile pattern the same way. And why my mantra of the weekend was “f*cking herringbone.” True story.