Packing the Apartment

Last night we packed! Our landlord insisted on having an open house from 6-8pm, and let me tell you, it was really awkward to have 6 other people with us in this 600 square foot apartment.  

It reminds me of my instagram from when we moved in:

The floors are officially finished. Out of all the projects we’ve taken on, having the floors professionally sanded and refinished is one I’m most excited about and I can’t wait to see them tonight.

We’re meeting electrician #3 at 6pm. Third time is a charm. 

Sunday is the big day!

Last Weekend to Hang Cabinets

This weekend was do or die with the cabinets because we’re moving in next weekend. The floors are getting sanded all of next week, this has been our last opportunity to finish projects. We have been feeling the pressure of what needs done in order to make this place functional. And I’m happy to report, it’s ready!

We began Friday night by painting the kitchen.

Saturday we ran 6 miles, ordered a dishwasher, disconnected the broken gas stove, had our dumped construction material hauled away by College Hunks Who Haul Junk.

Nick came over and taught us how to hang cabinets:

Jeremy came over and helped me finish painting the dining room:

In order to prepare for the floors getting refinished, we had to store our kitchen appliances in odd places. For instance, our new stove resides in the bathroom, the refrigerator is on the front porch hiding under a canvas, and our dining table is on the back porch.

All that’s left is before move-in is the flooring and the cleaning crew!

How to Discard Trash in DC

The plumber/gas fitter unhooked our old broken gas stove. Now I’m calling up DC public to haul it away, and though the service is free, it takes 7-10 days. Whatevs. It’s not like we use our garage anyway; we haven’t yet sanitized it.

I’m still trying to figure out how to make our trash go away. Someone dumped a bunch of wood/construction materials in our garage and DC public isn’t picking it up. They’re also not picking up our regular household trash. When I called, the woman seemed completely confused and told me she had to ask her manager. I’ve never heard back. It’s been more difficult than I anticipated to find trash removal people in DC, but I did find and schedule an estimate with College Hunks Hauling Junk. Don’t judge. They’re coming out tomorrow to provide an estimate.

Tonight we will finish painting the kitchen so that tomorrow we’ll hang cabinets!

#HomeOwnerProblems

Our oil is somehow running low again. We must have a really inefficient system. I didn’t like the last woman we dealt with (“Do you know any men? You might try asking one of them; they usually know about this kind of stuff’.) I tried a company in DC and definitely got the “DC customer service experience.” However, $770 later, the tank is full and hopefully will last throughout the rest of winter. We have to figure out how to insulate our house before next winter, because $800/month for heat is just not going to fly.

Ben’s taking off work to be at the house for the stove delivery, and I got a text from him at 2pm that read as follows:

“#homeownerproblems I came home to find the pipe in the Cookie Monster bathroom (see picture) is completely removed from the faucet and spitting out water full speed into the bathroom. There’s a looooot of water, but I think we’re ok. It all leaked out the floor into the ground outside, and then into the basement through the door. There’s about an inch of water in the basement, but fortunately our floor is sloped so much it’s all held right by the door haha”

The cookie monster bathroom= bright blue

The pipe disconnected

“The good news is we have the plumber coming out tomorrow morning and we have a new, sweet gas stove!”

New stove! In the living room.

Meet Electrician #2

Tonight we met the 2^nd electrician for an estimate. He was much more professional, but insisted that we need to completely rewire the entire house and replace the existing electric box. We almost fell over when he quoted us $14K, especially because the ex-convict quoted us $1800. I guess we’ll schedule a third estimate; there has to be middle ground here.

After meeting with the electrician, we sanded and cleaned the kitchen. We need to be finished painting by this weekend so that we can hang kitchen cabinets. Ahh, starting to feel the time crunch. We’re moving in next weekend.

Tonight we also found out that we need permits for electrical work and that a licensed gas person needs to come unhook our old gas stove. So Best Buy is delivering a new gas stove tomorrow, but they are not going to be able to carry away our old one unless we can get a gas fitter.  Awesome.

Work Weekend with the Fam

We bought a Smart Cart, which is Ace Hardware’s version of a wheelbarrow. Laura and I continued and moved onto taping and edging the dining room.

Laura Taping

I began painting the dining room a color called Misty Surf.

The first paint stroke!

Troy and Ben took out the new circular saw and cut kitchen counter tops. Our electric posed a significant problem—there was not enough of it.

I know this is not a “best practice,” but it came to the point of me standing in the basement flipping on the switch every time the breaker blew. I think we should look into another electrician sooner rather than later.

Ben & Troy cutting the kitchen countertops

I really cannot believe how much we got done this weekend!! It was so fun and such a blessing to have Troy and Laura come.

The Fireplace Works!

We woke up up, met the chimney inspector at 8am, and found out that our fireplace has never been used and is in perfect shape! We celebrated by making a fire with a Duralog. That’s right, one log. Technology is moving so fast these days.

Post-chimney inspection we ran 10 miles, then met Troy and Laura back at the house. Ben and Troy made another trip to Home Depot and bought all of our cabinets while Laura and I sanded & cleaned the walls in the kitchen and dining room.

That night we went to Bombay Club, an upscale Indian restaurant. I don’t know much about Indian food, but that stuff was spicy as anything. It was so fun camping out with them. 

First Night in the New House

Tonight Ben and I experienced a small miracle with the amount of stuff we fit into the car from Target. After that, we are spending our first night in the house. 

See those Valentine's Day flowers?

Happy Valentine's Day! Electrician Estimate.

Happy Valentine’s Day! The heat & AC service came and fixed the boiler. Thank God. The woman on the phone was a little unhelpful. “They said you had no oil, so they topped off the tank and got it started for you.” “I have 100 gallons of oil, and my tank holds 250. So when you say you “topped it off,” what exactly do you mean?” She didn’t know.  All I know is that it’s working again.

Tonight we met with the most bizarre electrician. He told us so many inappropriate things about his life, including details on his wife’s new boyfriend, his 10 years in jail, the two times someone has tried to murder him, and personal financial details. He was openly making racist and sexist comments (ie. “all women are cheap except when it comes to jewelry and diamond rings”) and neither Ben nor I felt comfortable hiring him. Onto electrician estimate #2. 

Oil Delivery: Still No Heat

The oil was delivered and $400 later the boiler still isn’t working. I’m starting to get nervous for this upcoming weekend since Troy and Laura are coming. It’s really freaking cold & I don’t want them to freeze to death.  Nor do I want our pipes to freeze to death.

No More Asbestos! Air Quality Testing

Air Quality testing came through and we’re in the clear! No asbestos. I’m so glad we went with Peter; his level of professionalism was outstanding and his pricing saved us a few thousand dollars.

The Boiler Stopped Working: No More Heat

Today I fixed all of the crack in the living room and dining room walls. It was so fun! Jeremy & John came over with Ben after breakfast to see the house for the first time.

Our heat stopped working this afternoon and we don’t know anything about boilers. I guess I’ll order 100 gallons of oil and see if that helps.

14 Furniture Stores, Home Depot & IKEA

Good thing we went to all 14 furniture stores a few weeks ago, because now it’s time to buy a dining room table and we know exactly which one we want. It’s a Lancaster farmers table at Miss Pixie’s, a shop on 14^th street that buys furniture at auctions.

They delivered it in a hot pink truck.  And now we have a table! It’s so suiting that this is our first purchase because we dream of all the entertaining we will now have the space for. Permanent chairs will be for another day, but for now Mike Davis lent us his old metal folding chairs.

We spent the rest of today at IKEA and Home Depot buying all kinds of random stuff in preparation for Troy and Laura coming to visit next weekend. When we got home, I spent another couple hundred bucks on Amazon getting all the things we forgot at Home Depot. 

Finding the Time

We have had something every single night this week. Being in grad school, leading small group at church, being on the planning committee for an upcoming panel discussion, training for a half marathon, and buying a fixer upper all at the same time is no joke.

However. Asbestos: Gone. Air Quality testing: completed. We should have the results by Monday.

Asbestos, Photography, Flooring, Margaritas

Peter is indeed awesome. SO friendly, SO professional, SO good at explaining what he does. He came out on last minute notice and already gave us a quote. It’s less than half of the other one, plus he told me that we can do the radiators and mold ourselves.

I didn’t need the heat gun, it turns out. All we needed was a crowbar and some elbow grease to tear up all 3 layers of tile in the kitchen. It.was.so.gratifying.

Today Alex came and took pictures. They looked awesome on her iPad. I can’t wait to have them in real life.

White Oak Flooring also came out to give us an on-the-spot estimate to have the hard wood floors refinished. I keep getting excited because everyone who sees our floors – which are incredibly dirty and pretty gross looking—says what great shape they’re in. They just need a total facelift.  The estimate came in several hundred dollars lower than we expected. #win

Troy and Laura came to visit with the boys and took us out to a new Mexi restaurant a few blocks away. The margaritas were awesome and the staff was friendly. This place might be our new jam!

Asbestos Testing, Quote #1

Today I met asbestos remover (“remediation services”) #1 for some testing on the linoleum kitchen floor and the pipes in the basement. Once he was on the scene, he also noted that we have tile in the basement that should be tested. Sure thing.

The results are in, and so is our quote. No asbestos in the kitchen, but there is asbestos in the flooring adhesive (mastic, as the professionals call it) and in the pipe insulation. Both need to be removed, in addition to the lead paint that’s chipping on all of the radiators and the moldy drywall in the basement. I should note that he wouldn’t let me come near his sampling areas because I could get “contaminated,” he was pretty abrasive, and he didn’t explain himself very well. His fear tactics weren’t cutting it and neither was his unreasonably high quote. Time for a second opinion.

I signed up for Angie’s List. It’s my new favorite thing. I found a new remediation services guy named Peter. People cannot say enough good things about this man. Scheduled a time for an estimate.