Happy Updates!

The Top 10 Greatest Things About Our House:

#10: Free water!

There's no visual for this one, but we just got our first water/sewage bill and there's a magical $282.63 credit on our account. Based on our usage thus far, this means we won't be paying WSSC until about 2012. Finally - a clerical error in our favor!

#9: New cabinets in our dining room!

Our overhead cabinets were removed from the right side of our kitchen to make room for the fridge. But apparently they thought we'd like to keep the shelving? Since haul-away seems to be pretty low on our contractor's to-do list (oh I really need to take a picture of the landfill in our backyard), I've been making daily trips to the MoCo dump (errr... Transfer Station) to get rid of the debris.

(Despite the lack of storage space, it is pretty cool having our refrigerator where it belongs.)

#8: New kitchen door!

Seriously, there's no latching part to the knob - it only closes using the deadbolt. It's an easy fix, and we have the new hardware, but to avoid replacing it again when the contractor is done, we don't want to re-install until the work is complete.

Super double bonus: Since Erik and I never in our wildest dreams expected the reno to take this long, we never made me a front door key - instead, I had a key to the back door. That worked out just fine until they replaced it... and I was locked out of the house for two hours while Erik picked up a friend at the airport.

#7: Sharpie everywhere!

Erik and I were expecting friends one Friday night when all of a sudden three men showed up to tear out our front steps. The original plan was to fully reconstruct them in concrete, but our darling Ms. Marcella did not show up with the needed additional cement. (Surprise!) Due to all the action, we had to greet our guests via the kitchen door. Luckily, the guy in charge of the steps project spoke my language (literally and figuratively) and wrote us this helpful note on a plank by the front door. (That sounded facetious, but I mean it: I love notes in Sharpie.)

#6: Grown-up appliances! (...droooool...)

I am so flipping materialistic. In fact, when I came home one day to find spackle splattered across the top of my beautiful babies, I got so mad that I scrawled a big mean nasty note (yes, you guessed it - in Sharpie!) on a box that I then used to house the machines. It says something like, "Don't you DARE move this box! If you move this box I will charge you $$$!!" (Because "$" seems bridge the language gap?)

#5: No more roofing tiles!

Instead of roofing tiles, we've been stuck with ...well... that. Not the biggest improvement in the world, huh? Erik's favorite part is how the first step is (uneven and) 1" off the ground, the next step is (uneven and) 3" up from that one, and then you have to leap about 8" to reach the porch. Our contractor told us three weeks ago that this wouldn't be the finished product. But, umm... I'm starting to think it is.

#4: We're totally wired!

Erik and I spent about two months without internet or phone service. (GASP! I know!) Amazingly, we survived. When it came time to install our low-speed, bare-bones connection, Erik first had to figure out how to tackle the multitude of wires in our house.

Luckily, he's a lot more patient than I am.

#3: Concrete basement = summer energy savings!

"We" finally started tearing up tile in the basement to make way for the couches (gorgeous! pictures to come...). Unfortunately, any amount of squatting/kneeling makes me a mite uncomfortable and maybe even a little mean, so Erik's had to handle the vast majority of this project. Due to all the damp, the tile glue is super-sticky and hard to remove, but we hope (read: dream) that we'll have our floating laminate installed in time for the baby.

Some down, TONS to go!

#2: New neighbors!

We knew when we moved in that there was a slight bug problem. (Big hint: finding ~50 dead bees and wasps upstairs.) So we weren't hugely surprised when the hot weather hit and we started finding more wasps inside the nursery. Turns out, we had a colony of little neighbors living in our hood's exhaust vent. The wasps were then entering our home courtesy of the gaps in our 60-yr-old windows (nope, our new ones STILL haven't been installed). Erik gassed these hives and knocked them out, but apparently it's harder than that to get rid of wasps - they've now taken up residence under our back stairs and in the dining room window frame.

#1: Knowing we're going through all this for a reason.

Yikes - 32 weeks! (Dear Universe: I apologize for wearing a dress and sandals yesterday despite having neglected my legs and toenails for such a long time. I simply couldn't reach. Love, Amy.)

When it rains, it pours.

It did literally pour a couple weeks ago, for about three days straight. On the second day, Erik and I began hearing that characteristic, wet "plick" that drives every homeowner to the brink of insanity. Our first thought was that the pipe to the bathroom sink had started leaking again (after mysteriously stopping in early March). Nope. Was it the kitchen faucet? Not that, either. Had we installed the new shower head incorrectly? Still no. (Is it horribly disheartening how many semi-broken things we had to check off of our list for possible leaks? Yes.)

Then we realized [I am clenching my teeth even as I type this, 15 days later] that the drips [you're seriously not going to believe this] were coming. from. the. ceiling. As in: the dining room ceiling, which had just been replaced. And which was now supposed to be safely tucked away under a BRAND NEW ROOF. Not only that, but the water was also dripping down the side of our newly-plastered dining room wall. We checked the nursery window box and our suspicions were confirmed: the water was somehow getting in through the dormer, just as it had before the roof was replaced.

Here is the e-mail I sent to our contractor on 3/15 (and cc'ed our consultant, since he needs to start earning his pay on this one):

Hi Jim and Marcella,

Two major problems:
1) Our roof is leaking in the same place it used to – in the dining room ceiling and down the wall. It appears that this problem is originating on the side of the left dormer window because there was NO FLASHING INSTALLED against the siding. We are also sorely disappointed with the overuse of caulk on the roof and that the shingles are already curling at the edges of the roof. Simply put: it looks like crap and functions like crap.
2) The electrical heavy-up was not done to code. The box is missing four screws (only held to the wall by two) and there is a #10 wire going to a 40A breaker. Either the breaker needs to be downgraded to a 30A, or the wire needs to be upgraded to #8.
We need immediate assistance on both of these issues.

We require paperwork on the following items:
- Furnace (warranty promised by Marcella)
- Roof (warranty promised by Marcella)
- Copy of permit for electrical heavy-up

Thank you,
Amy

And here is what she wrote back:
i will have the roof over there asap. i will also get the electrician in to check the panel. both of these item will be addressed immediately. the gutter will be instaslled on wednesday but we will look at the roof before they are installed. i will be there tomorrow to investigated

Then we heard nothing from her for a week. On 3/22, she came by to install the gutters (nope, not the flashing - why would she do that?!). And brought with her a copy of the permit for the electrical heavy-up. Guess what date she applied for it? 3/17, two days after I'd requested it... and about two MONTHS after the work had been done.

Even though the flashing has yet to be installed, replacing the wall in the dining room (the ceiling wasn't damaged enough to require repair) helped us win one other small battle. You see, our very stupid contractor had decided to skirt building code and 203k requirements and originally put up the wall without any insulation. After not seeing any insulation laying around the house (and believe me: all the construction materials and tools are just laying around our house waiting to be used), I called her out on this in mid-Feb. She insisted that she herself had dropped off the insulation and that it had been put in. Well, Erik just so happened to be home when the workers were re-replacing the wall and guess what? No insulation. It's since been properly installed.

And the moral of the story is: NEVER hire Ionita "Marcella" Rutherford.

[holding my tongue]

Instead of getting sucked into the negatives (namely: no work done on the house since 2/22; unresponsive contractor; lack of reimbursement for appliances; dino-sized bump-out in basement drywall due to shoddy work; falling ceiling lights thanks to the use of wood screws in sheetrock; subpar flashing on roof; missing gutters), I'm going to keep this post short and happy!

Nothing says "happy" like a king-sized bed full of kitties.

After realizing that we only have three more months to spend money on ourselves without feeling as though we're stealing from our son's college fund (eek eek eek!), we ran out and splurged on this beauty! We traded out our full-sized, twice-preowned mattress set for this heavenly Sealy Posturpedic. I've never slept better. [Sober.] (Seriously, though - why is it that when I was younger I could justify a $100 bar tab but choked when I thought about spending anything more than twice that much on a bed?)

28 weeks

A positive even though it means I can no longer see my feet: our son is growing a little more everyday! According to the baby books, he's now just over two pounds. According to my scale, he's MUCH MUCH more. (Surely I haven't gained 20 lbs from a near-perfect diet of refined carbs and chocolate?)

La piece de resistance!

I've saved the best for last: Yes, it's ridiculously early for us to have ordered and assembled a crib. No, we haven't yet moved our mini-couch and television out of the nursery. Yes, this means my hormones are officially running the show. No, I could not have possibly found a more patient and loving husband. (Dig the Ikea leaf? Finally having an excuse to install one of those things was probably #4 on my list of Why I Want a Baby... just after "for all the awesome diaper bag pockets.") Thank you honey!!

Baby Break! (and Baby Steps...)

Enough with the house for a moment... let's talk baby! We're at about 25 weeks (that magical point where survival out-of-utero is possible - think Duggar baby Josie) and the little guy is getting stronger every day, thanks to his daily regimen of bladder punches and rib kicks. Here's how things are shaping up on the outside:

20 weeks

24 weeks

And here's how they're looking on the inside:

The tech labeled this "FACE." I only see "Skeletor."

Requisite adorable profile (awwww...)

Showing off his guns for the camera (our first clue that he was a he).

And finally: our boy in all his spread-eagled glory! (I promise to take this page down before he's internet-savvy.)

We haven't been able to do any work on the nursery yet, as we're still using that room as our primary living space, but do have some ideas about the decor... more to come!

Now for a few house updates - and I do just mean "a few." The infamous snowpocalypse set us about two weeks behind "schedule" (in quotes, since we've been entirely unsuccessful in EVER getting our contractor to mention a single flipping date), so we still don't have some of our high-priority items such as windows and gutters. We do, however, have lots and lots of bare sheetrock where exposed beams used to be, so I'm not completely disappointed.

Dining room ceiling

Dining room wall

Final installation of breaker box and replacement of surrounding wall

The combination of the two basement bedrooms, which will soon be our family room.

A panorama of the basement family room. (Sofas and TV will be to the right; sitting/toy area to the left.)

And finally: Each day we come home to a new, and not necessarily improved, environment. Sometimes it's just an empty pizza box in the corner of our kitchen; yesterday it was muddy boot tracks on our new bathroom rug; a week ago it was the thermostat set seven degrees higher than we keep it. (Once it was an air compressor, which sat at the house for almost a full month before being spirited away one Sunday morning. We still don't know what they ever used it for, or why they left it for so long.) We're not usually thrilled by these changes, so we have to find the humor where we can.

Like on this napkin. Just when you thought everyone had already heard about the internet...

The Joys of Home Ownership (Part 2)

Since we don't yet have cable/internet/phone, work closures due to weather have put me very behind on posts - however, not much has happened to the house, since the snow stormS (ugh, yes, plural) stopped virtually all travel and thereby halted any progress. Here's what's been going on in the interim:

Most importantly: Our new furnace was installed on 2/4. We now have heat and a warranty, but it cost about $2800. Since we didn't allocate any magic mortgage money towards this purchase, we have officially dipped into our "contingency funds" - the 10% that all 203k lenders (wisely) build into rehab projects. This extra pot allows for the repair of the unforeseen problems that will inevitably come up during construction. (For those of you playing at home, that means we have a grand total of $200 left for mistakes. Eek.)

Upper left: New thermostat - no more old school dial!
Center: A message to our less-than-considerate construction workers.

I've had to leave a few other similar notes around the house - such as this one in the basement, which I wrote when they had begun to re-drywall the partition that was slated for demo.

In less important, but slightly more exciting news: We got our fridge! It's a Whirlpool french door refrigerator with bottom freezer. As you can see, it is a bit too big for our kitchen (we'll need to tear out the top and side cabinets as well as remove some of the counter in order to hook it up to the water supply)... but this was our dream fridge, so we decided it was well-worth designing around.

We also had our amazing new oven delivered - a Maytag Gemini. It got horrible reviews because the height of the bottom oven apparently makes it very hard to lift out heavy items, but this is probably the closest I'll ever get to a true double-oven, so we splurged and are hoping for the best. Unfortunately, the lovely people at Whirlpool neglected to mention that we'd require any sort of additional hardware to hook up the appliance and their warehouse has been closed/unresponsive for the past week due to weather. After ten days with just a microwave, electric griddle, and toaster oven, we were getting a little fed up with pizza and pasta. But after a few trips to Lowe's for supplies, Erik was able to install the stove on Valentine's Day - Best. Present. Ever. (And yes, that means that my darling Floridian shoveled 27" of snow, changed a car battery, and hooked up a gas line all in one week! He is becoming a handyman before my eyes.)


The dishwasher and front-load dryer were dropped off as well, but both remain in boxes until we have places to put them. We're still waiting on a re-delivery of the washing machine, which was damaged in transit and had to be returned.

We were able to afford all these amazing new appliances thanks to our allotted rehab funds as well as an Employee Purchase Program through my work, which fetched us 30% off retail on all five pieces. (My momma taught me well!)

As is probably obvious by now, we have officially moved into the house. Since our office is storage, the living and dining rooms are construction zones, and the basement is still off-limits, our actual living space is limited to the upstairs rooms - our bedroom and the soon-to-be nursery.

Here's what they looked like before:

And here are the messy afters:

Boxes make great nightstands.

Left side of the "nursery" - TV and storage.

Right side of the nursery - sofa and ...you guessed it!... more storage.

Since our contractor has been incommunicado for a little over a week, we don't have any updates on when work will resume. We're hoping for little-to-no accumulation from today's predicted snow storm so that we can at least get the main floor up and running sometime in the near future.

The Joys of Home Ownership (Part 1)

Keeping my streak of horrible moving-day weather alive, Erik and I (along with a great deal of help from Mom, Dad, and van) transferred all of our wordly possessions from apartment to house over a very cold, very snowy weekend. There are no pictures of the move because, quite honestly, I don't want to remember it. (There were tears. There was shouting. There were monumental dips in blood sugar. In a nutshell: not fun.)

And to clarify: We moved our things. We were not able to move in because our furnace died.

Luckily, Erik had already taken out some of his frustrations on the slapdash wall job surrounding the HVAC appliances. This allowed us (and repairmen) a better view of the bohemoth - and after three service trips, our 1994 furnace was officially/finally declared kaput.

Furnace room, pre-demo.

Et voila - the bane of our existence!

But it wasn't all bad news: Since our house was below freezing, the leaky pipe in our upstairs bathroom wasn't able to cause much damage - instead, we just had a nice 1/4"-thick coating of ice all across the tile floor. (Ditto on the lack of pictures - I was too fed up to document the process of shoveling ice into the bathtub and using our soft, pristine towels [we were saving them for the new house!] to sop up the remaining mess.)

And so, after scrubbing out the apartment and wrangling two disgruntled cats into the car, we said a last goodbye to Hyattsville House (oh, the mem'ries):

The parking lot where Erik and I had our first goodnight kiss...

... the circle in which I almost assaulted an elderly gentleman for insinuating (while I was carrying moving boxes down to my car, no less) that I was fat, not pregnant, and rude for choosing to park my car there...

... and the 2"x6" mailbox in which many a Netflix disc was cracked by our jaded postal worker.

We'd be spending the next few days camping out in my parents' basement, waiting for the installation of a new furnace, delivery of our kitchen appliances, and an estimated project completion timeline from our contractor.

Crunch Time

Erik and I are moving into the house this weekend. I'm getting increasingly nervous about this for many, many reasons:

1. Construction equipment has taken up seemingly-permanent residence in our soon-to-be living room
2. Potential for cats escaping
3. Workers have been urinating in our upstairs shower (No, I didn't mean to say "bathroom" or "toilet." They're pissing in our fucking shower.)
4. Furnace (which was "fixed" last week) is blowing out cold air
5. Water is not yet on
6. Appliances, including fridge, will not be delivered until Tuesday (though I guess leaving out perishables becomes less of an issue if our furnace isn't up and running soon)
7. Anxiety about being oven-less for any period of time
8. Workers are smoking cigarettes in the house
9. Disgusting filth of house + futility of cleaning efforts until work is complete
10. Ummm... and because no progress has been made this week.

Oh wait, I lied:

It's our new, energy-efficient tankless (AKA "pass-through") water heater. Hope you're impressed, because it was the only. thing. that. got. done. this. week.

I guess they also finished our electrical upgrade, from 110 to 220V. That's the good news.

The bad news is that to do the heavy-up, they tore out more wall and broke (as in "smashed") through the basement window! Just before more rain! Yay!

Hopefully our contractor will have some good news for us in response to my e-mail (I tried to keep things simple for her):

Hi Marcella,

Erik and I are moving into the house this weekend.
We visited last night and the furnace was only blowing out cold air – this is a huge problem. Please advise.
The upstairs bedrooms and bathroom and the main floor back bedroom will now be off limits to workers, unless they need to be there for construction reasons. We will need a detailed timeline of when these rooms will need to be accessed.
We’ve found several cigarette butts in the house – as I’m pregnant, smoking in the house needs to stop immediately.
I look forward to seeing your Friday update, including a timeline of when:
- Dining room will be complete
- Windows will be installed
- Fans will be installed in bathrooms
Our priority is to finish work on the main/upper floors so that Erik and I have a space to live. The basement can wait.

Thanks,
amy