This House Is Almost a Home

This weekend I actually spent Saturday at the house without Mom! Of course, I had my trusty animal companions but even they were fickle and refused to go outside with me given the rain. But I felt accomplished! My goals that day were to lay down the underlayment in the Middle Bedroom and start work on the crawlspace fencing.

For the middle room, Mom had already pulled up the carpet and prepped the floor for the next stage. Unfortunately, that next stage of laying the actual floors will have to wait for my budget to catch up. So, as a temporary solution, Mom came up with the idea to put down the underlayment to help block incoming moisture, which is a lot on a raised house, and then we'd cover it with rugs to protect said underlayment. That way the room is still usable and the floors are protected.

Again with the 'I shouldn't be allowed to do any of this work by myself.' I very nearly ruined the underlayment but was able to salvage my mistake in the end. But I won't tell you what I did so no one will ever know! So, I had half a roll of underlayment left over from flooring the Master Bedroom and Mom purchased a new roll. With those two I was able to completely underlay the Middle Bedroom with barely anything leftover! Perfect.

Since I did the underlayment on Saturday, we were able to lay down some rugs on Sunday. We also used a bit of extra fancy-fancy underlayment along the entry wall as A) the rugs didn't cover the whole room and B) the daybed is going on this wall so don't need to use up nice rug space underneath it. All I have to do is make sure there are good feet protectors under anything on that blue stuff to make sure it doesn't get punctured.

It's nice and cozy in here now!

My other goal was to start working on the crawlspace fencing. I needed something more secure than the vinyl siding that was placed along the crawlspace. So after extensive Home Depot researching, I found this green garden fencing which is a perfect cheap, short/mid-term solution which will be held in place by metal garden stakes. It may not be glamorous, but it's effective. I was able to get the driveway crawlspace covered. You barely notice it! Just a few tweaks to the end product are needed but I like it.

HDX Green Multi-Purpose Fence

My other hair-brained idea for Saturday was to start digging a trench along my driveway to redirect the water coming from the downspouts. The driveway tends to flood in just one area but that water eventually creeps under the house so I need a solution to stop that from happening. The only problem with my idea of doing this on Saturday was that it was dark already, raining quite heavily, and I couldn't see the red-ant pile that I disturbed in my grass hacking. Note to all: multiple red-ant bites on your feet is torture and should be avoided at all costs.

Fortunately for me, some people are much smarter than me. I sent Twin-Sis and Mom an email with a whole bunch of edging options to figure a way to channel the water along the driveway to the street where the drains are. Twin-sis sends me back a rebuttal: use corrugated pipe! So I got to thinking, if I can connect the downspouts to the corrugated pipe and run it to the back of the yard where there's a culvert, I can significantly reduce the amount of water pooling on the driveway. Mom thinks I should still send it to the street but there's a fence gate in the way, otherwise I would. Will have to look at the fence to see if there are any options to go around it.

The Solution!

Sunday I was not alone! (Whew!) The three of us started the day by going pick up a free sofa! One of Mom's job's clients was replacing his sofa and so, knowing I was moving, offered to me if we could come get it. I was really afraid she'd gotten me some hideous 1990's style flowers and stripes thing. But not so! This is a really nice sofa! We had a bit of fun getting to the house though.... Note to all: mid-size SUV's do not have the same loading capabilities of old school Expeditions. That said, somehow we managed to shove a 30" x 42" x 90" sofa into Dad's Jeep. I think we were all impressed!

Baby got back...

After a bit of finagling and rearranging at the house, we got the sofa in and set up. I even had Dad test it out, for scientific purposes, to see at what height the TV should go as I have two different level stands. Fortunately, it seems my intended stand will be perfect. As soon as we got it cushioned, we could just feel the change in the house. For the first time the house felt like a home! That sofa is so comfy and inviting. It's actually the perfect color that I was looking for and, although I wanted an exposed wood frame, this style is just right for me and the space. I am soooo happy with this sofa and cannot wait to enjoy many many years with it.

I may cover it with vinyl to protect my nice sofa!

A few more notable things happened on Sunday! Dad reinstalled the front porch light that was damaged! He and Mom fixed it for me which was a lot cheaper than trying to replace it! The light looks good!

The left light is the "new" & improved fixture.

Dad also rehung (rehanged?) the bathroom closet doors! They were sticking in a few places and the screws for the decorative hinges were not strong enough to hold the heavy plywood doors. So Dad got there and sanded down the right spots and reinstalled the hinges with appropriate screws. Then I reinstalled the inside door catches. Looks so much better with the doors back up (and functioning!)!

If I didn't like the handles so much I'd totally go for some fun latches!

So, the house is really starting to come together. It's feeling more like a home. Now I need to decide how I'm going to move all my stuff over!

Cheers!
Megan

Moving Closer

We had a great turnout for my first Halloween at the new house! The dogs were very curious about all the kids; Ma D even snuck herself out of the front door to do sniff everyone down!

Elvis didn't care for the experience but Ma D was curious!

My first Halloween!

We didn't spend much time at the house on Saturday as we had two parties to attend that night. But I was able to bring some returns back to Home Depot before going over; anything to get some money back in my account! Since we were short on time, I tried tackling a small project in the bathroom: caulking the upper tub surround. "Tried" being the operative word. In truth, I am terrible at caulking. I'd managed to mangle the job up so bad that Mom had to come behind me and wipe it all off to be started anew by her. What does that mean? That mean I loss my caulking job, one of the smaller jobs I probably should have been just fine doing on my own, lol!

What I lacked on Saturday, hopefully I made up for on Sunday. All three of us were back even with more rainy weather in place. Dad worked on getting the bedroom closet doors hung back up while Mom worked on some finishing touches and painting the trim in the bathroom.

Doors are up!

And I started at the interior of a kitchen cabinet for far too long. Why? Mostly because my brain refused to work. But otherwise, it was because I needed to clean up and line the cabinet under the sink and in the dishwasher space. Because the back of the cabinets are the original printed project panel type stuff, we (as in Mom) determined that it needed to be covered somehow. At first I was just going to paint the stuff but Mom convinced me that it would be better to use contact paper. I was like, alright, so I found this stuff. It looked nice and would compliment the global scheme I was going for.

Duck Brand Adhesive Peel and Stick Laminate, Grey Quatrefoil

It took me a few hours and a few peel-and-restarts but I finally got these two cabinets covered!

Boy, makes a huge difference! I did the under sink bottom first as it made sense in my head. I had to fill in a few holes from previous plumbing work but then this laid out pretty easily. I was really disappointed at first because the color of the wood was coming through the white of the contact paper and turned it blue, which was definitely not in my color scheme. But there was nothing I could do short of ripping it all out so I decided a blueish tinge was fine... The backs were not very easy to do since I had multiple cuts to make. I think I was able to line them up pretty well though. And I had the bright idea to use extra flooring cuts from the bedroom floor to make a base in the dishwasher part! This will probably be my trash can spot until I do get a dishwasher so it kinda finishes off the space.

The goal is to continue laying this contact paper on the backs of the cabinets and I'll use a non-stick, non-skid liner for the cabinet shelves. Perhaps after painting the shelves; I haven't decided. They definitely need some work but I can do that after I move in.

Speaking of moving in, that's going to happen soon! I'm hoping before Thanksgiving but I've also been hoping to move in before the end of September or before Halloween. So at this rate it'll happen when it happens!

Cheers!
~M