Wednesday, March 22, 2006
New TownHouse Renovation - Day 22 (3.18.06)
Saturday:
Pics: Day 22 Photos
Goals: Buy tile, get the heat on, lay the tile, paint.
We start off Saturday by going to the tile place recommended to us by Rena's mom. It's in North Hollywood so it is not too far. We end up finding tile that we like right away, so we only spend like half an hour there. Which was nice, since we have a metric assload of things to do.
We load up the Jeep Jeep with tile, grab some tasty Arby's for lunch (why is it that every time we go to Arby's...which is really only about once a year...Rena always has to tell me how the roast beef is "made"...uggg) Anyway, we head to the ole' HD to get some grout, icemaker hookup line, and some other sink related junk. We head back to the old place to change, grab some cacti to transport to the new place, and we are on our way. First order of business...hook up the new gas shut off valve we bought. This one actually works...Holy Shit We Have Heat.
We carry our spoils in and I get to work on laying the tile, while Rena helps. Once I find the line where we want to start laying, she gets to work on putting the last coat on the accessible walls in the dining room and living room. Joyce shows up and proceeds to help Rena paint.
I have been doing a lot of thinking about this new house and have a couple of ideas rumbling around in my head about our status. We originally wanted to do as much to the new place BEFORE we move in as possible. Because of Rena's cooking and our desire to live in a civilized world we were forced to take care of the kitchen and the popcorn ceilings straight off the bat. I don't know if I ever explained why we were doing all of this on such a short time schedule. But it is those reasons and the fact that I absolutely cannot stand carpeting that made us do what we did. We only had a month, but it always felt like we could do anything we wanted to the place with no consequences.
I kind of looked at the Townhouse this way...It's like a wild animal you found in your backyard....lets say....ummm a purple striped skunk. It's kind of cute, a little stinky and definitely pretty shoddy looking. But you want to pretty it up, comb its hair, put a bow on it and give it a bit of the Lennie from "Of Mice and Men" treatment. You have good intentions, but your execution might be a bit off. You want your skunk to be the bestest skunky in the whole world, but you are not the best groomer around, so a lot of your technique is good, but some of it involves poking ole Peppy with a sharp stick just to see what it would do. For the most part you do a good job, and Peppy starts to look better, you try new things out on him, those work...but you always, in the back of your mind, know that this is a wild animal and its not like its your real dog or cat. It will probably run away, you really have no bond or allegiance to it…so you can experiment and get a little crazy with it.
That’s kind of how I feel about the house right now. It was a smelly, dingy looking wild place. But we wanted to clean it up, put that bow on it and make it dance like a trained seal. Whatever we did was ok...because it was a wild place, it really wasn't ours, we didn't live there, we always had a semi-cozy place to return to. But not today. We move there in one week. This place is ours now. This wild skunk has to be tamed. Whatever we do to this place, we have to live with it...so I am getting a bit nervous. I don't know if we can live in a skunk...mostly because I don't think we would fit.
Anyway, so Rena paints the spare bedroom/office while I lay tile. Let me just say that I love cutting tile. No sarcasm there. It is really fun. Luckily my bro left his tile cutting saw so I got to use that to do the dirty work. So I lay the tile, and the color starts growing on me. Rena wanted this slate colored stuff (similar to what we got) and I wanted a more polished marble type color. I like the glossy flat look and feel of it. So we compromised with a semi-flat slate looking tile. I finish up laying the tile and join her upstairs, Joyce is gone at this point so we are alone. She is working on the spare bedroom/office still, so I begin to paint the ceilings. Saturday night is kind of non-eventful. We are both dog tired, but we push on. She finished the first coats of the upstairs rooms, and I finish all of the ceilings in the place. DONE.
We decide to call it a night around midnight, head home and pass out.
Tomorrow, we grout, paint and get the dishwasher in position.
Pics: Day 22 Photos
Goals: Buy tile, get the heat on, lay the tile, paint.
We start off Saturday by going to the tile place recommended to us by Rena's mom. It's in North Hollywood so it is not too far. We end up finding tile that we like right away, so we only spend like half an hour there. Which was nice, since we have a metric assload of things to do.
We load up the Jeep Jeep with tile, grab some tasty Arby's for lunch (why is it that every time we go to Arby's...which is really only about once a year...Rena always has to tell me how the roast beef is "made"...uggg) Anyway, we head to the ole' HD to get some grout, icemaker hookup line, and some other sink related junk. We head back to the old place to change, grab some cacti to transport to the new place, and we are on our way. First order of business...hook up the new gas shut off valve we bought. This one actually works...Holy Shit We Have Heat.
We carry our spoils in and I get to work on laying the tile, while Rena helps. Once I find the line where we want to start laying, she gets to work on putting the last coat on the accessible walls in the dining room and living room. Joyce shows up and proceeds to help Rena paint.
I have been doing a lot of thinking about this new house and have a couple of ideas rumbling around in my head about our status. We originally wanted to do as much to the new place BEFORE we move in as possible. Because of Rena's cooking and our desire to live in a civilized world we were forced to take care of the kitchen and the popcorn ceilings straight off the bat. I don't know if I ever explained why we were doing all of this on such a short time schedule. But it is those reasons and the fact that I absolutely cannot stand carpeting that made us do what we did. We only had a month, but it always felt like we could do anything we wanted to the place with no consequences.
I kind of looked at the Townhouse this way...It's like a wild animal you found in your backyard....lets say....ummm a purple striped skunk. It's kind of cute, a little stinky and definitely pretty shoddy looking. But you want to pretty it up, comb its hair, put a bow on it and give it a bit of the Lennie from "Of Mice and Men" treatment. You have good intentions, but your execution might be a bit off. You want your skunk to be the bestest skunky in the whole world, but you are not the best groomer around, so a lot of your technique is good, but some of it involves poking ole Peppy with a sharp stick just to see what it would do. For the most part you do a good job, and Peppy starts to look better, you try new things out on him, those work...but you always, in the back of your mind, know that this is a wild animal and its not like its your real dog or cat. It will probably run away, you really have no bond or allegiance to it…so you can experiment and get a little crazy with it.
That’s kind of how I feel about the house right now. It was a smelly, dingy looking wild place. But we wanted to clean it up, put that bow on it and make it dance like a trained seal. Whatever we did was ok...because it was a wild place, it really wasn't ours, we didn't live there, we always had a semi-cozy place to return to. But not today. We move there in one week. This place is ours now. This wild skunk has to be tamed. Whatever we do to this place, we have to live with it...so I am getting a bit nervous. I don't know if we can live in a skunk...mostly because I don't think we would fit.
Anyway, so Rena paints the spare bedroom/office while I lay tile. Let me just say that I love cutting tile. No sarcasm there. It is really fun. Luckily my bro left his tile cutting saw so I got to use that to do the dirty work. So I lay the tile, and the color starts growing on me. Rena wanted this slate colored stuff (similar to what we got) and I wanted a more polished marble type color. I like the glossy flat look and feel of it. So we compromised with a semi-flat slate looking tile. I finish up laying the tile and join her upstairs, Joyce is gone at this point so we are alone. She is working on the spare bedroom/office still, so I begin to paint the ceilings. Saturday night is kind of non-eventful. We are both dog tired, but we push on. She finished the first coats of the upstairs rooms, and I finish all of the ceilings in the place. DONE.
We decide to call it a night around midnight, head home and pass out.
Tomorrow, we grout, paint and get the dishwasher in position.
# posted by Tony Starr @ 8:41 AM 
