Remodeling

Here is a list of what has been done on the new house since closing on February 13 (minus a few months in Europe over the summer):

• Had entire house rewired, and repaired walls and ceilings throughout
  
• Installed central air conditioning and further repaired walls and ceilings
  
• Had roof repaired
  
• Cleared and fixed cracks in living room
  
• Removed a bit of living room wallpaper
  
• Repainted living room ceilings, walls, and trim (a soothing green)
  
• Removed strangely bricked-over door in front room and replaced with drywall
  
• Repainted front sunroom ceilings and walls (warm vanilla)
  
• Repainted cathedral ceilings in sunroom
  
• Repainted sunroom walls (cheerful yellow--who would paint a sunroom brown like that?)
  
• Painted tongue-and-groove woodwork in sunroom
  
• Ripped out virtually indestructible laundry chute (constructed of solid, thick timbers that ran from the basement to the attic, along with concrete reinforcements and sheet metal
  
• Replaced wall and floor where laundry chute used to be
  
• Cleared out enormous piles of rubble in basement under old laundry chute from destruction
  
• Removed 4-6 layers of vinyl, linoleum, and parquet flooring in kitchen and hallway
  
• Laid down radiant heat pads and installed tile in kitchen and hallway
  
• Cleaned every square millimeter of the tile with a metal toothbrush-sized tool and acid when the "haze" (read: Thick layer of grout) on surface of tile did not simply wash off as promised by tile guy
  
• Removed kitchen wallpaper
  
• Removed upper and lower kitchen cabinets
  
• Redesigned kitchen layout and had new kitchen cabinets and countertops installed
  
• Removed carpet in two upstairs bedrooms


• Laid new carpet in upstairs bedrooms
  
• Removed bizarre dogs-playing-poker-at-a-bar wallpaper border in office


• Removed four layers of wallpaper in master bedroom (including a bottom layer fused to the wall)


• Removed old fiberboard checkered tiles from bedroom ceiling


• Hung new drywall ceiling in bedroom
  
• Cut and hung new crown molding in bedroom
  
• Painted bedroom ceiling and bedroom trim (five times on all those panes in the window trim!)
  
• Painted bedroom walls (calm blue)


• Removed wallpaper from walls--and ceiling--in small bathroom
  
• Repainted small bathroom ceiling, trim and walls (pale orange)
  
• Removed wallpaper in smaller bedroom


• Removed two toilets and two sinks and replaced them with new fixtures in bathrooms


• Removed almost-naked heating element from shower ceiling (I'm serious!) and replastered ceiling


• Removed wallpaper in walls and ceilings of big bathroom
  
• And lastly, discovered enormous hole in wall of big bathroom (solution pending . . . )

Most of the work we've done ourselves (which means Sam has done it himself, especially since we've been back), with a few unforgettably generous assists from family, friends, and a former student. My mom took down the wallpaper in the bedrooms; my dad helped pull up the flooring and hang the new crown molding. Sam's former student spent three days on his hands and knees scrubbing tile . . . similarly, another friend voluntereed several days' worth of her painting skills (the student was paid, and our painter friend bartered help from Sam with a website, but can you really repay those who help you in an hour of need?).


One day, a friend from school stopped by to give a bit of advice on repairing the wall behind the laundry chute, and when he saw how discouraged we were at how little we were getting done, he returned a while later, let himself in, and quietly set about fixing the wall *for* us. Another friend came over after his evening child-care shift at home and worked until 11:00 a couple of nights figuring out how to bolt the pedestal sink into the concrete wall. And on one of those nights, his wife came over with a basket full of dinner for everybody who was working over there. Our pastor helped hook up the kitchen stove.

At this point, what's left is to paint the kitchen and touch up the paint in a few rooms, do some excavation-level cleaning (which we've thankfully started), fix the bathroom wall, and paint in there. Then I move (Sam's stuff is mostly there already, though we're living at my house for now), and we settle in with a big party for all of our friends and benefactors.

The house looked nice--albeit in a 1980's kind of way--when we started. Then it looked really, really bad somewhere in the middle while we were ripping out walls and ceilings for various wires and vents. Now it looks better, and Sam has taken some pics to prove it I've stolen these from his blog, and if there's anyone you don't want to steal Internet-published intellectual property from, it's probably a new media professor--the lectures alone that you'd get! (But then, "what's yours is mine," right, honey?)


Master bedroom, during and after:

Kitchen, during and . . . later during: