Got our tax credit approval. Yeah! Has been a fun ride and we're finally ready to sell. Thanks for checking in on us.

A few pictures taken towards the end

Study

Family Room

Dining Room

Upstairs Hall

Master with Private Bath Addition

Kitchen Make Over

Congrats husband on a good job rehabbing the kitchen.

Lighting, puts the Spotlight on Great Space

The last two inspections for the addition are tuesday, March 4th. They are plumbing final and building final. I nearly fainted on Wednesday when I called to schedule all the finals and was told that I needed an insulation inspection. WHAT!!! They had already sheetrocked without calling an insulation inspection- so all the sheetrock would have had to come off and be redone, mudded and sanded IF I didn't convince someone that I should be able to pass without an insulation inspection.

I called back after pulling my jaw off the floor and got the nice lady at the permit office. I explained that my addition was on the inside of the house with no walls touching the exterior so there should be no need for an insulation inspection. I didn't mention that had no idea what I was talking about. She agreed with me and said, "I'll just delete that inspection from the system." Holy cow. Whahoo! Thank goodness for the delete button.

Wednesday when the electrician was finishing up his part for the addition, he installed three of the eleven light fixtures that he will eventually install. Those couple of fixtures make such an amazing difference. One could be the biggest lighting fixture difference of all time as the one taken down and to the trash was gold wires simlar to a coat hanger thickness that at one time had fake crystals or something hanging from it- but now just looked ripe to take the eye out of a tall person. Ugh. I'm really excited about a neat little pendant light I picked up at lowes today from the Antique Roadshow collection. There is a breakfast nook that currently doesn't stand out on it's own but is a great little space. I hope this fixture will help highlight the area.

In the kitchen and in the upstairs hall were horid ceiling fans with all the blades pulled out. ?!?! Just weird stuff. Speaking of weird stuff in a foreclosure...I showed David one that had no lie about 100 turds thrown throughout the house. Literally we wiped our feet after leaving. Enough getting sidetracked, we have a lot going on next week.

Here's the rundown of things Owen and I will be keeping an eye on next week: Carpet install in master, granite counter install, rest of lighting fixtures, sink and shower faucet install in master addition...at some point we'll need to bring over all the stainless appliances that are patiently waiting in our garage. We haven't purchased any staging yet, except a rug for the dining room. Did I mention that less than half the house is painted and all exterior door handles need to be exchanged for their new hardware as well as four other interior doors. Speaking of the new interior doors, I got them and the replacement window for the crawl space at a salvage place for $65. The door handles and hinges cost more than the doors. Lastly, Andy will be replacing two rows of tile that he pulled up during demo of the original cabinets and possibly he will do something with a chimney that he opened which had been bricked up.

Painting is slow going as the baseboards started out dark brown, green and blue. This past Wednesday I spent all day putting the second coat of white on the base boards and doorways. Tomorrow, after Abby's 1st soccer game, I'm going to paint something that makes a bigger difference- like the walls of the study, kitchen or maybe the master.

On the more done side of things- the cabinets are installed, the floors are done and beautiful, the roof, exterior paint, landscaping(56 shrubs planted, 110 bags of leaves raked and 15 bales of straw laid), hvac and new deck stairs are done. Also, I got a letter in the mail today stating that we got conditional approval for the Historic tax credit program. This would give us back 30% of rehab money spent in the form of tax credits. The condition is that they approve of the type of doors that we possibly install for the exterior. We no longer have any desire to replace exterior doors so updating the commission on that fact- hopefully will put us in the possition to mail them pictures of all the finished work to our "certification of rehab" document that insures the tax credits.

Lots going on. Tuesday, I meet with a framer to give me a quote for adding a 2nd story to a house that we really like in Belmont. :) So just as I'm within a week or so away from wrapping the current rehab up- our next victum...er rehab might already be in the cross hairs. Below on the left is a picture of the house currently. After we paint and get the counters installed in the kitchen- I'll post some interior pictures. The floors will make you drool.

100 BAGS of LEAVES on the side walk, 100 Bags of leaves

Throw one on, rake some more, 101 bags of leaves on the sidewalk. Whew. I'm 80% done. A section of the last bit needed to be done has 2 pallets of roofing supplies on top of it. Owen and I went to rake today only to be sent to Home Depot to buy some roofing items. Our gorgeous new archetectural shingles will be done by wednesday. I love our roofer and would like to help him grow his business. Andy twisted my arm into doing the roof, but it was a smart decision. ABC Supply had the shingles out first thing. It's a tricky roof to do because of the detail, they are doing it for $60 a square and a square covers a 1ox10 area. Will post a picture towards the end of the week, but here is info on the product, www.owenscorning.com/around/roofing/shingles/detail.asp?prodlinelistid=58 Abc supply sells for $48 a square. Perhaps the next update I'll be able to report having mastered the leaf situation.

ciao- N

window panes, landscaping, roof

Shabbang! So the foundation is no longer 3 shades and the faded white is gone. My landscaping has been delivered but is not planted. It's waiting on me to fill another 40 or so fifty gallon lawn bags with the inches of leaves that have been calling this yard home for years. So far 28 lawn bags have been filled and it's only a third raked. But this is boring....my clawfoot tub had to be sold on craigslist because my plumber decided that he miscalculated and we could not do a seperate tub and shower, but had to do a combo unit. It took me two weeks to discuss it without my blood pressure rising- but alas it is what it is and there is no turning back on adding a bathroom. :) Modern buyers must have a private bath for the master bedroom and we will have one.

Will we be able to list on March 1st? Not if the neighbors have anything to do with it. I love them, the house and the community. One specifically makes a point to come over and tell us how much that neighborhood needs our "young family" to move in and breath energy into it. He is not taking no for an answer and visits every time we are there. I look forward to seeing him. I did get honest and tell him it's looking like we will not move there but on the bright side look how great the house will be with us having owned it. :)

With every single piece of work that we had initally planned on doing being quoted even with a $1000 cushion built in we are $700 under budget. Now husband has been pushing for doing the roof and I am getting a quote this week. I told the guy that if I was going to actually do it, the quote had to be under $3000. This is a company I paid $3500 to do my own roof this summer. So we'll see.

Last thing of remote interest is that the ELEVEN window panes that are cracked will be fixed by the end of the week. I can't tell you what a slacker I feel like talking to these contractors and they are just in shock at what kind of shady person waits until the 11th window cracks to get them fixed. I joked with him that I heard he has a deal where if you buy 10 window panes, the 11th is free. He agreed to knock the 11th pane off his quote which I had already accepted. Goes to show you never know. The Chemlawn guy thought I was crazy asking him to treat the grass. There were so many leaves he didn't see any grass. Once I started raking I found there pretty much was no grass. So I knixed the Chemlawn option.

Ciao- N

We've had a big amount of interest in the house already from a proposal to purchase "as is" during the first few days of ownership to the work crew telling me that five people stopped by this past week to say thank you for working on the house. Andy met a neighbor stopping by to tell him how much he'll love living in the neighborhood that asked if his dad bought him the house. Must be nice to look so young.

We passed inspection for our brand new HVAC this week. Travis Heating and Air did the work and I was pleased with them. The bath addition is framed and my fixtures have all been delivered including a Victorian styled vanity, claw foot tub and a Victorian styled shower faucet featuring massage jets for the separate shower. The painting and carpentry is being done by Foreman's Painting and so far I really like them. They added an pull-down attic stairs as well. Andy is installing cabinets this weekend. In February, we are getting the floors done (using Mr. Sandless), finishing interior paint and landscaping. I can’t wait to see it at the end of next week when it is painted. Granite countertops for kitchen will be installed in the next two weeks. We are tight on our budget but all the estimates are in and we haven't gone over yet. Restoring this old gal is making us want to live in a historic house more than ever!