Frustration Is Other People

Before I launch into this tirade, a quick progress report: Ben says the plumbers are about two-thirds done with the plumbing, and will start on the heating system tomorrow. As I understand it, we are getting (or now have?) some special type of water heater that continuously circulates hot water throughout the house, rather than storing the hot water in a tank. It's fancy stuff. I think it means you don't have to wait for your water to heat up after you turn on the tap. It might also provide other benefits, but someone else would have to explain them to you.

Now onto the rant. There are actually two frustrating things going on with the house right now. First is a situation with our FHA inspector, BJ, who -- to be honest -- has not been on my good side since Day 1. Apparently Ben and Sam have been trying to contact BJ to set up our first draw inspection -- a requirement of our loan, if Ben wants to get paid for any of the work he's done or any of the materials he's bought so far. However, BJ hasn't been returning e-mails or phone calls all week, with no indication as to why. No voicemail recording explaining his absence, no email auto-reply. This is clearly no way to run a business.

So Ben called our bank contact, Patty, to apprise her of the situation, as we need to get a draw inspection done soon. Patty contacted another inspector to do our inspection, and also put out a call to BJ. Lo and behold, BJ miraculously reappeared, returning Patty's call immediately. According to BJ, he's just been on vacation, and doesn't understand why we went and tattled on him. So now BJ's all bent out of shape because we went to the bank; hopefully, this will not somehow affect his inspection.

Now, it's certainly understandable that a man would want to go on vacation every once in a while. But to disappear with no warning and not tell anyone why you're gone and when you'll be back? Not cool.

I mentioned that I haven't like BJ from Day 1. I'll give you the short version of that story: He's SEXIST.

Here's the longer version: BJ showed up to do an inspection before we closed on the house (another loan requirement). And even though Sam and I were very clearly introduced as co-buyers, BJ only saw fit to talk to Sam. From the get go. Before he could possibly have had any indication that Sam was the go-to person for this conversation (which he was not, in any case). In fact, BJ wouldn't even look at me the whole time he was there, except when he had questions about the kitchen. And then he'd turn to me to find out if I was going to have a dishwasher in MY kitchen, or to find out what kind of stove I wanted. Because the kitchen is the only place a woman's opinion matters, right? Man, I've never wanted to shove someone's head in an oven so badly....

I definitely was not imagining things, as Sam and his parents noticed this dynamic as well. I was especially frustrated, as I had already gone through this experience twice before. At Homestreet Bank, our loan officer addressed all his comments and questions to Sam, even though I was sitting right there as well. And our pest inspector acted the same way for most of the time he was there, though he did start talking to me eventually (maybe for the last 10 minutes of his visit).

Okay, now on to Frustration Number Two. This one has to do with Seattle Public Utilities, and with being expected to pay for services not requested nor delivered.

Sam and I got our first water bill in the mail the other day, and were shocked to see that we owed about $160, even though we don't even live in the house yet. We looked over the charges, and saw that over $100 of the bill was for solid waste service on two 32-gallon trash bins. Wait a minute, we thought, we haven't been getting any trash service, and we don't have a trash can, much less two of them.

So yesterday I called up Seattle Public Utilities, who issued the bill, to protest the charges. This is basically how the conversation went:

Me: Why are we being charged for trash service when we're not getting trash service and don't even have trash cans?
SPU: You're a new homeowner? Your trash service automatically starts when you close on the house. If you don't want to be charged for the trash service, you have to call to cancel it.
Me: How was I supposed to know that? I didn't even know we were signed up for trash service since we don't have any trash cans.
SPU: We would've told you about this when you called to turn on the water.
Me: But I never called to turn on the water.
SPU: Yes you did. We have it in our records that Cynthia called to turn on the water back in July.
Me: I did nothing of the sort.
(Rustling paper.)
SPU: Oh, you're right, it was someone named Sharon who works for Wells Fargo.
Me: Okay, so I'll ask you again. How was I supposed to know to call and cancel service on our non-existent trash cans?
SPU: The person who started your water service should've told you.
Me: But we didn't deal with Wells Fargo. Wells Fargo worked for the seller, not us.
SPU: Well Sharon should've told you.
Me: But she didn't. So why do I have to pay for this service when we didn't order it and didn't even know about it?
SPU: Because your trash service starts automatically when you close on the house and call to start up the water.
Me: Again, how was I supposed to know this?

This circular conversation went on for a while, until we eventually got on a different track....

Me: Also, why am I getting charged for two trash cans?
SPU: You don't want service on two trash cans?
Me: No, I don't even want service on one. We don't live there yet.
SPU: It's because the previous tenants had two trash cans.
Me: Well, even when we move I don't want two.
SPU: Okay, then figure out which of your current trash cans you don't want, and we'll come pick it up.
Me: I already told you that we don't have any trash cans.
SPU: You don't have ANY?
Me: That is correct. We don't have any trash cans on our property, nor have there been any on our property since before we closed on the house.
SPU: So you want to order some trash cans?
Me: Eventually, yes, when we move, we'll need a trash can.
SPU: And you want us to deliver two 32-gallon trash cans?
Me: No. I said we want just one trash can.
SPU: Then just decide which one of your two trash cans you don't want so we can take the other one away.

This circular conversation also went on for a while before I was finally transferred to the guy's supervisor.

Supervisor: I understand you have two 60-gallon trash cans and only want service on one?
Me: No! We currently have zero trash cans. We want one. A normal sized trash can. 32 gallons. But right now I'm more concerned about the fact that you're asking us to pay for a service we haven't been receiving and had no way of knowing we were signed up for.
Supervisor: There's nothing we can do.

There was obviously more to the conversation with the supervisor, but you get the general idea. When I reported this all to Sam, he said I wasn't being forceful enough, and would probably have gotten better results had I gone completely ape shit on them. I told Sam he was welcome to try.

So today, Sam called up SPU to try to sort out the situation. However, he was told that SPU couldn't talk to him about the account since it was under my name. Which, of course, raises some questions: If SPU can't even talk to Sam about my account, how was some person named Sharon -- whom I don't even know -- able to set up an account in name? How was she able to promise on my behalf that I would pay for SPU's services? And if she was clever enough to get all that done, WHY THE FUCK COULDN'T SHE PICK UP THE PHONE AND TELL ME THAT I NEEDED TO CANCEL MY GARBAGE SERVICE?

So anyways, Sam and I need to call in to SPU together so that I can give them the okay to talk to him. Sam says they're now a public company, and can therefore be reported to the Better Business Bureau. If this crap keeps up, this may be what happens. Though to be honest, I have little faith that we will win this battle in the end. It's just unfortunate that we don't really have any options but to deal with Seattle Public Utilities. (Or do we? Anyone know if there's a competing service that provides water and trash services in Seattle?)

Dining Room Update

I guess I'll just keep updating my way from the front to the back of the house, which brings us to the dining room. There's not much to say here, except to post a picture of the monstrous hornets' nest Patrick discovered while tearing out the walls and ceiling. (You can read his post about it here.) Marvel.

I think Ben has a little bit of framing to do in this room, to create a more clear separation between the living and dining rooms. But that's all coming later, as it's not necessary for the sub-contractors' work (until it's time for the sheetrockers).

Bonus Room Update

I had no part in tearing apart the bonus room, and after seeing the filthy insulation that came out of that room, I'm glad that's how it worked out. The picture at right shows some of the bonus room debris that was blocking the stairs during the initial stages of our demolition. I'm not really sure how Sam got back downstairs after that, but it all seems to have worked out.





The second picture shows about the state the bonus room was in when we decided to leave it as an open loft. After seeing how much bigger the living room looked when the bonus room was all opened out like that, it wasn't a very tough decision.

After building the stairs, Ben spent the next few days framing out the loft. The picture at right looks through the loft, out toward the living room. Sam is standing in a little alcove, where we hope to build in some bookcases. A better view of the alcove is given in the next picture, which is from the vantage point of the stairs. If you're wondering why it looks so fuzzy, it's because we had just swept up the whole house in preparation for the plumbers, so there was quite a bit of dust in the air.

The last picture looks into the back of the bonus room. As Sam mentioned, we've been running into some minor space issues as the framing progresses, particularly when it comes to storage. We wandered about the house a bit yesterday looking for a place to put an extra closet, and decided that the best place was at the back of the bonus room, on either side of the back window. So we'd probably have two closets up there, separated by a bench seat under the window.

Now if only we could find solutions to these other minor issues:

• The way the half bathroom is configured, we need to find a very narrow sink in order to avoid obstructing the doorway. Very narrow. Like, one foot deep.
  
• Today we were trying to think of where to put a towel rack in the master bathroom. I imagine it will be pretty easy to put in a towel rack for the tub, but there's really not a great space for towels for the shower. We may need to put them on the shower door, or perhaps on the bathroom door.

Some minor issues

The past couple days - particularly today - have seen some minor issues crop up to cause some consternation. The plumbers, originally scheduled for last week and pushed out by Ben so that we could prepare more, bailed out on Monday and only ended up working a half day today. Ben thinks we should still be set for our first draw inspection either this Friday or Monday of next week, which will include most of the plumbing, most (if not all) of the framing, and half of the demolition/debris removal.

With the arrival of the plumbers we were able to start getting into the nitty-gritty of how everything is going to go together... which, of course, is where the real headaches begin. Apparently, it is illegal to have your house's hot air from the water heater ejected directly at knee height of anyone walking by. So, it looks like the original dual water heaters called for in the plans aren't going to work. Instead we will get one heater for the whole house. This, however, has the domino effect of causing us to have less room in our laundry room closet, because we now need to put the heater there. Other minor modifications for air ducts and the like have trimmed down other closet space as well. In addition, as we wandered through the house today with Ben to review the progress, Cindy noted that the master bathroom doesn't currently have a place for a mirror above the sink (we are going with one instead of two now to increase counter space and cabinet area), which will need to be figured out.

Excepting those slight catches and inconveniences, everything seems to be coming together, and Ben said that the plumbers all mentioned they really liked the house.

Master Bathroom Update

The master bathroom was one of the last rooms we took apart, as it was the only functioning bathroom for a while. We now use the basement bathroom, even though it has no walls. I guess we're all friends here, right?

The top picture shows the demo in progress, looking into the bathroom from the dining room (facing north).

The bottom picture shows the bathroom at the end of today. It's a little hard to tell what's going on in the picture: You're looking into the bathroom through the closet in the master bedroom. You'll enter the bathroom through the closet, with the door in the middle of the wall. The lighter colored wood is the new framing that Ben put in today. To the left of that wood will be a jetted tub, which will be the first thing you see when you enter the bathroom. On the other side of the wood will be a 3'x3' tiled shower. The toilet will face the shower, while the north wall (on the left in the picture) will have two sinks.

Living Room Update

Ben's next task was to build out the stairs leading from the living room to the bonus room. But first, here are some pictures showing the living room during various stages of demolition.

The first step was to get rid of the carpet...













... and the tile. Sam tells me he had a hell of a time trying to chip the tile out manually before Ben finally let him use a power tool.





Next we started pulling off the drywall, exposing the insulation beneath. In case you're wondering, insulation is some nasty stuff. It'll make your nose bleed if you let it.

I think this was the scariest stage for me, as the house kept looking worse rather than better.

Now, after pulling out the insulation and getting all the extra bits of drywall and nails off the studs, it looks like the mess at least has a purpose.




By the way, we have Patrick to thank for ripping off a lot of the hard-to-reach drywall. I'm so glad I didn't have to get up on that ladder. Plus I'm glad I wasn't the one who had to discover all the wasps' nests hidden behind the walls (don't worry, they weren't live, but if you know me at all you know I would've freaked out and probably fallen off the ladder anyways).







And finally, the stairs, which are awesome. As I mentioned in an earlier post, we were afraid we'd lose one of our windows, depending on how the stairs fell. But as you can see, that didn't end up being an issue.

Fortunately, Ben didn't have to do any other framing to finish out the living room. So for now, that room is done (until it's time to do the electrical).

Half Bath Update

Ben's first framing task was to extend the bonus room platform into the living room a bit. This essentially created a frame for the half bath, which will sit under the stairs.













You will enter the half bathroom from a hallway off the dining room. Turn right at the hallway for the bathroom, or turn left for the master bedroom. This picture looks into the half bath from the hallway. The toilet will be at the back of the room, and the sink will be on the left as you walk in.

The Great Sweep of 2009

We worked hard this weekend to get the house clean and obstacle-free enough for the plumbers. Liz and Sean pitched in again yesterday for some clean-up, which I imagine was not quite as satisfying as tearing down walls, but was very helpful nonetheless. Sam and I continued demo and clean-up today, while Ben continued framing out the house, patching holes and reinforcing the floors (apparently there was nothing holding up the bonus room floor except some nails - yikes).

Sam had to crawl under the house today to remove a large vent. He offered to let me help, but I didn't want to detract from his fun. He looked a little woozy after he emerged; Sam says it's because he was breathing in too much CO2, but I think it's because his spelunking expedition was just so exciting. See what a great girlfriend I am?

Sam, Ben and I ended today by sweeping the entire main floor. Despite my dust mask, I'm pretty sure I inhaled about a bucket of dirt, which I plan to cough up over the course of the next week. Good times, good times.

Room-by-room picture updates coming up.

Apology and Quick Updates

First, the apology. Sorry I have been lax on the posting; I feel especially bad because things are really moving along on the house, and I have yet to put up any progress pictures. I'm going to blame my poor Internet connection here at my apartment. Perhaps sometime this weekend I will grab a connection at a coffee shop and update this properly.

Now, the quick updates:
-- Ben's got a lot of the framing done upstairs, in anticipation of the arrival of the first sub-contractors (plumbing and heating) on Monday.
-- Sam, Ben and I went to Home Depot last night to discuss options for the master bathroom. Although we were originally considering a pre-made shower surround, we're now planning on doing a nicer, tiled shower (despite the extra cost).

Gah, I was going to write a little more, but have to run. 'Til later.

Calm Before the Storm?

Demo's basically done now, but to pull a bunch of nails out of the studs. Ben finished filling our fourth rented dumpster today, and has headed home to Bellingham to spend a well-deserved night in a bed not surrounded by all the aforementioned horrors of The Bagley Project. I'll update with pictures soon (perhaps tomorrow), including pictures of the lofted bonus room, which Ben spent the last few days framing out. It really looks much bigger now that the bonus room opens out into the living room.

Exciting things are afoot.

No. 41

Seattle Magazine recently published their annual ranking of Seattle-area neighborhoods, based on affordability, return on investment, good schools, parks, crime rates and commute. Our new neighborhood, Wallingford, came in at #41 out of 60, between Fremont and West Seattle (Central). This seems a bit low to me, but of course I'm biased -- and to be fair, there are a lot of other great neighborhoods on the list (Queen Anne ranked #1, Leschi #60).

I imagine Wallingford loses out mostly on affordability and crime rates (thievery). However, Wallingford has one of the most desirable elementary schools in Seattle (John Stanford International School), is home to Gas Works Park plus a number of smaller neighborhood parks, and has easy bus access to downtown and other fun neighborhoods (e.g. Fremont, Ballard, Greenlake and the University District). Plus, there's tons to do in Wallingford itself -- shops, lots of different types of food, movies, coffee -- all in easy walking distance. You can't really say that about, say, Crown Hill, which ranked #32.

Here's what Seattle Magazine had to say about Wallingford: "This central granola-centric, family-oriented neighborhood with Craftsman homes has it all: movie theaters, shops, casual restaurants and fine dining along 45th."

The magazine also gave the following Wallingford stats:
-- Median Home Price: $492,000
-- % Change in Median, 2007-08: -6%
-- Number of Bedrooms/Baths: 3 Bed/2.0 Bath
-- Crimes Per 1000 Residents: 61
-- % of Fourth Graders Passing WASL: 68%
-- Park Acreage: 122
-- Commute to Downtown Seattle (Min.): 10
-- Commute to Redmond (Min.): 21
-- Population Estimates: 11,362

You can see the full rankings here.

MIL Bathroom - Original

Finally, we're to the last room of the house. That means you can expect some pictures showing actual progress soon.

The downstairs bathroom, like the rest of the house, was very dirty when we found it. We were hoping to save all of the fixtures from this room, but the toilet was too stained to clean and the bathtub had a large hole in it that couldn't be worked around. The pedestal sink seems to be okay, though we will probably move it to the half bathroom upstairs eventually, replacing it with a model that has some storage space underneath.

This is the room that has seen the most progress so far, as Ben needed to make sure there would be a working bathroom when the subcontractors came through. Right now, this is the only working bathroom in the house. The walls have come down (along with all of the other walls in the house), but Ben has put some sheets up around the bathroom for modesty's sake. Luckily, Ben's really the only one who has to worry about it for now. Here's hoping there will be another bathroom ready by the time Sam and I move in!

MIL Bedroom - Original

There is currently one large bedroom in the basement, but this will be split into two smaller bedrooms. Like the second bedroom upstairs, the MIL bedrooms won't be huge, but should fit everything they ought to fit. Right now, the bathroom is accessible from both the bedroom and living room, but with two bedrooms it will make more sense to put the access through the living room only.

The current bedroom is pretty nondescript, unless you count the weird Latin scrawlings on all of the walls. If you know Latin, please translate for us, as I'm sure Sam and Dean Winchester will want to know what they're up against when we call them. What's been conjured? Ghost? Demon? Bubba Ho Tep?
-- MORITORI TE SALUTANT
-- PRIMA NOCTICE INFERNO
-- LO QUE IPSO EUNT

I think the picture at right is the closest you'll get to experiencing the smell for yourself. That's Craig, before we started tearing out walls and airing the place out. That's pretty much how he toured the entire house.

MIL Kitchen - Original

We were originally going to leave this kitchen relatively untouched, just moving a couple of cabinets and doing a deep clean. Ben has decided, however, that the walls need to be torn out (something to do with the plumbing, I think), though we'll still try to save the floors and cabinets.

The kitchen has hookups for a stackable washer/dryer in the corner. We'll need to buy those, as well as a refrigerator. Hopefully the stove can be sufficiently cleaned to keep.

Sam and I are hoping we can add some more cabinet space, perhaps on the wall you see in the bottom picture. Technically they would be in the dining area rather than the kitchen, but I think the extra storage space will be well worth it.

MIL Living Room - Original

Now we come to the most frightening -- and most foul smelling -- part of the house: the basement. Ben has bravely volunteered to sleep down here while working on the house, despite the ghost cats, rat feces and stale urine aroma.

As mentioned some posts ago, the basement is actually accessed from street level. It looks like it was originally a one-car garage, which the previous owner dug out further but never finished. The basement consists of a long, narrow common area, a kitchen (at the back of the apartment), a large bedroom (at the front) and a full bathroom (between kitchen and bedroom).

As you can see from the pictures, the walls were mostly sheetrocked when we found them, but this has all been torn out now. Apparently there was something wrong with the way the electrical was done, which could be seen where the sheetrock was coming off near the chimney. So, goodbye walls.

We're not going to change much about the living room, other than to change the access points to the bedrooms (there will be two bedrooms) and bathroom and, obviously, to clean and finish everything. It will remain a long, narrow room. I imagine the back should be used as a dining area, as it sits right next to the kitchen; this would relegate the sitting/TV area to the front of the room.

The only thing I really want changed is the window at the entrance (right next to the front door). It's made of glass blocks and, for some reason, reminds me of Saved by the Bell. Not that I have anything against the Bayside gang, but let's be honest: no one wants a house that screams Zack Attack.

The Big Stairs - Original

These are the stairs that join the main and basement levels. The picture at right looks up the stairs from the basement; the door pictured leads to the backyard. I had big dreams for bookshelves lining the south wall (the left side in the picture), but Ben's going to have to noodle that for a while to see if it's possible and/or advisable.

Not much more to say about the stairs, I guess.

Second Bedroom, Main Floor - Original

Another room, another series of questionable construction and decorating decisions. In fact, pretty much everything about this room is off.

For one, the walls stop a couple feet short of the ceiling. Perhaps the room -- which was not part of the original house -- was built as an office or some other room that doesn't beg for privacy, though the large clothes closet indicates otherwise.

Additionally, there's a clear skylight that looks directly into the window of one of the townhomes next door. I'm sure the skylight was just fine back when this room was added, but now that there are towering structures next door, it's decidedly weird. We thought about replacing the skylight with a frosted version, but demolition revealed an additional window frame on the north side of the room -- so the skylight may not be necessary at all.

But perhaps the worst part is the "artistic" paint job that the previous occupants left behind: red with what looks to be gold sponge paint. The pictures don't do it justice. People take note: sponge paint is almost never a good decision. Especially if you're too lazy to do it consistently throughout the room.

The room is pretty big right now, but we're going to steal some of that square footage to add a bathroom (accessible only through the bedroom, so it will be another bed-bath suite) and to add a laundry room. As a result, the bedroom won't be huge, but it should still fit everything a bedroom needs to fit.

A Step Forward

I'm excited to report that we've moved out the demolition and into the construction phase of The Bagley Project. Kind of. There's actually still a lot of demo to do, but Ben's been building us a new staircase and, says Sam, has been making good progress. In other good news, it looks like the stairs will fall in such a way that we will not lose the north window in our living room. Huzzah!

I feel bad that I'm still playing catch-up with this blog. Here we are, making actual progress on the house, and we haven't even managed to get all of our 'before' pictures up. But I'm taking a week-long vacation from work, effective immediately, so perhaps I will catch up sooner rather than later. In fact, I'm going to work on some more updates right now, before heading up to Bellingham to spend some time with Sam's clan.

Bonus Room - Original

This is the half-story bonus room, which Ben says was not part of the original house. (Don't know when it was added.) As you can see, it is far from a finished room, with random pipes sticking out everywhere (including many pipes that aren't attached to anything) and cardboard rather than sheetrock adorning the ceiling/walls.

There is a large window at the back of the room, which lets out onto the roof. This could be handy come Fourth of July; the neighbors in the townhomes next door insist that the best view of the Lake Union fireworks is from our roof.

The front of the room faces out to the living room. Although this is currently a closed-off room, we're planning on turning it into an open loft (my aforementioned epiphany), lining the front of the room with rails that echo the banister, rather than full walls.

Part of the bonus room will be cut off in the final version, where the roof meets the room's floor. On the other hand, Ben is currently in the process of extending the platform at the top of the stairs a little more into the living room. This will enable us to fit a half-bath under the stairs, and will also add some square footage upstairs.

All in all, the room is quite large. It includes a second window that is nestled into the south wall (on the left if you're walking up the stairs). Ben says we can cut back the wood surrounding this window to create a little alcove, perhaps for a desk or a little sitting area. We can't do the same on the other side (pictured above). I still don't really get why, but I assume it's a good reason. I think we were originally planning on sticking a water heater in that corner, but those plans may have changed when we decided to do an open loft.

Master Bathroom - Original

Okay, things are moving again on the house, so I'm going to try to post the rest of the 'before' pictures as fast as possible (shaky Internet connection willing). Here you see the first-floor bathroom, which is currently accessed through a hallway off the dining room but will eventually become part of the master suite, accessed via walk-through closet.

I don't know what the previous occupants were thinking with those lights, which look like they would be better suited outdoors or, say, in a landfill.

As you can see, the bathroom was really dirty, and also sported some ... interesting ... wax art. It kind of looked like a peace sign, but given that the culprit was likely the same one who spray painted demon chants on the basement walls (those pictures to come), I'm going to guess that they were going for something else. Maybe an anarchy symbol, or something else that conjures up dark alleys and broken promises rather than rainbows shots with unicorn chasers.

We're hoping to salvage the tub from this bathroom, moving it into the second full bathroom on the main floor. Ben has already moved the toilet into the downstairs bathroom. As of today, Ben has also gotten rid of most of the bathroom walls in order to start building new stairs leading from the living room up to our bonus room/loft.

Ben thinks we'll be able to fit a tub, shower, toilet and two sinks into the finished master bathroom. I guess we'll see....

Master Bedroom - Original

While I'm waiting for this day to get going, I may as well get some more pictures up (while I have the time). I don't have a lot of pictures of the original master bedroom, but it can pretty much be summed up with one word: green. Dark green linoleum floors, medium green closet doors, light green walls. Green, green, green. (Sam and I went to see Catch Me If You Can at Seattle's musical theater last night; I bet all this green would've been considered excessive even in Frank Abagnale Jr's time.)

The room is about 14'x10', or maybe bigger. I'm no good at estimating and don't have the plans with me right now. It has a window that faces north to the townhomes next door. This is one of the few windows in the house that actually opens. Right now, the bedroom is down the hall from the bathroom, but those will be combined into a master suite, with a walk-through closet separating bed and bath. I imagine this will make the bedroom itself a little smaller, but there's room to spare in there.

Kitchen - Original

We haven't touched the house since Tuesday, mostly due to the heat. But Ben is coming back to Seattle this morning, and we're all going to do a little work before heading down to Portland for an overnight trip. The lumber was delivered into our driveway yesterday, so we need to move that all to the back to make room for another dumpster.

Since there's not more progress to report, for now I'll just walk you through another room of the house, as it was when we found it. Pictured at right is the kitchen, taken from the vantage point of the dining room. The door you see in the picture leads to the stairs, second bedroom and backyard (and will lead to the laundry room as well, once we put that in, yay!).

As you can see, it's not a huge kitchen, but it's not tiny either. Although I had originally hoped for a separate dining room, I've grown fond of the house's open layout, flowing from living room to dining room to kitchen without any pesky doorways in between. Every time I do laundry at my current apartment, I am reminded that doorways are the bane of my existence, as I have to navigate out a door, down two flights of stairs, around parked cars and through two more doors -- one of which is always locked -- all while carrying a basket full of clothes. (Did I already say 'yay' to having a laundry room in-house?) Ben may build a little lip of wall between the living and dining rooms, just so the spaces are more defined, but we're going to keep it pretty open.

The kitchen has good light, both from a window above the sink and from a window in the dining room. The fluorescent lights you see in the picture are awful, and will be replaced with something less institutional. The "original" floor was also awful, consisting of layers and layers of linoleum. I put "original" in quotation marks because the floors we saw when we first walked into the house were obviously not the original floors; the much linoluem must be inflicted over time. Weeks ago, Ben and Sam tried to remove all of the linoleum but with little luck -- this is one matrushka doll that can't be opened -- so it looks like we'll just be laying new tile or wood flooring on top.

We've already ripped out all of the cabinets, which will be replaced and augmented for more storage space. The sink will still be under the window, but we're moving the oven and range to the other side of the kitchen (you can see the current hood on the left in the picture) so we can put a dishwasher next to the sink. We'll also move the fridge out to the end of the counters (toward the dining room).

Unfortunately, I neglected to take a picture of the original dining area, but there's not much to see there anyways. On the south side of the room (left in the picture) is a bay window. On the opposite wall is a doorway that currently leads to the master bedroom and to the floor's only bathroom.