And now... in other news

After 3 straight weekends at the Lakehouse, I've managed to accomplish a lot. None of this was really on the agenda, but it got accomplished in good spirits anyway:

- Removed 2 of the 4 hornet/wasp nests on the property (need more spray)
- Cut down 99% of the "white trash weed hill/goose throne"
- Patched and skimcoated 1/2 of the dining room wall (and discovered a leak behind the other half, ugh)
- tore down part of the chair rail to remove wallpaper in the dining room and discovered that the scale of the chair rail is much brighter, more open without that piece
- removed the dangerous metal transition piece that jabbed at people's socks between the hall and dining room
- discovered umpteen leaks in the basement (now to find a way to get the plumber to call me back)
- installed new outdoor lighting along the driveway since the low-levels seem to have conked out
- installed the blue property line markers so that when the first snow hits, everyone will be able to tell what's yard and what's driveway
- weeded 1 regular sized and 1 humongously oversized plant beds
- transplanted my grandmother's memorial tree and other plants my mom gave me

Sorry

I am the worst. I went off and fixed up a whole other house and haven't been keeping up with the upkeep. So here are pics:

I bought a lakehouse. Inside, it looked like this:

But, outside?


This is what sold me:


There were a lot of things that needed to be addressed right away:

Nasty vinyl and carpet in the kitchen/dining area:


WHY?:


The kitchen sink drain sprung a major leak:


Well, the faucet was atrocious anyway:


Same with the bathroom faucet - they just stuck the handle on and called it a day (missing several pieces and held together with krazy glue of all things)


This toilet seat was a breeding ground for bacteria - it had to go:


I bought some cute knobs for cheap!:


Already looking better by adding more white to the orangey oak cabinets and replacing the brass hardware:


The vanity was missing the door pull completely, so I picked up a sleek brass one (again for cheap). So simple, yet functional:
I forgot that I also had to fix a leak beneath the sink here, which turned out to be a job for professionals. They had to cut into the wall to fit the proper pipes and vents and while they were at it I REPLACED THE VANITY TOP WITH PURE WHITE (formerly a cream color).

The suite (the more white I can add in there, the better):

Not only did I have to replace the broken kitchen faucet, I had to replace the sink itself because the DRAIN WOULD NOT COME OFF THE SINK. I even got my strong neighbor to try his hand at it and it would not budge. So the whole thing had to come out, but the good news it was replaced with this beauty:

Ever the multi-tasker, when I got to a point where I could get no further with plumbing, I tackled the many forms of wallpaper in the house:


In the pantry:

In the dining room:


Along the borders of the great room (made the room feel so short!):




And the master bedroom border of tacky roses:


Then I fixed up the master bedroom for a calming retreat (not my color choice, but it will have to do for now):


Excuse the photo quality - my camera broke at one point and all I had was my phone:

I installed a plate rack in the dining room:


I ripped up the carpet (filthy, disgusting, FLEA-RIDDEN carpet) in the dining room and went to town prepping the subfloor for paint (to seal in the stains, odors, gunk that was living in there until I can afford hardwood):


A dirty job, as evidenced by SOCKS:


The nasty (held down with PEANUT BUTTER?!?) blue vinyl in the kitchen came up and the subfloor was prepped for a nice, bright (CLEAN) white:




Camera phone view (most recent) trying to work with the navy blue countertops and still brighten up the kitchen:


The finished dining room floor, painted with chocolate brown floor paint to flow with the dark wood veneers in the rest of the great room (otherwise if I painted the dining room white, it would chop the great room in half visually):


The workshop in the basement:


My first foray into woodworking, with the help of my stepdad:

If you can believe it, this is the only thing between you and iminent death at the bottom of the basement steps (sharply steep and hard concrete at the bottom) and the previous owners had not screwed this into a stud!

Also? Gotta have birdfeeders:

Between the 3 homes, I barely have enough time and money to eat, but those birds are not gonna starve on my watch!

Little extras:

Someplace to put towels and tp: Someplace to sit:


Something to watch (Ikea TV Stand, put together by myself in a matter of minutes):

In truth, there's so much more to tell, so much more to see, but I felt bad neglecting to update and this is what you get. A tease. Hopefully I will find sometime to truly update and explain some of the step by step that went into each improvement. Also? Hopefully I will have 1 less houses and 2 really nice HOMES by the end of this year.

Picture Update - Bathroom

I just figured out how to "Blog This!" on Picasa2, sue me.

Yes, those are rocks in the concrete subfloor. Yes, the tiles were grouted directly to it like bricks and mortar. Yes, there were sparks flying while I chiseled away at it.



Then I decided to peel off the dumb-ass paint that was slopped on the door, but never adhered to the layer below it. Rather than strip the entire door, this one layer peels off like glue from fingertips....