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.