Decisions, Decisions, Decisions...

So many different decisions to make when working on a house. Luckily for me, most are easily solved with thinking 'easiest, cheapest, yet nice looking' theory. After all, if I was working on this house for myself, I'd work on it and do it the way I want. But since it's going on the market and hopefully I won't have anything to do with it very soon (fingers crossed), I just wanna get it done however I can as long as it looks good enough to sell - I'll let someone else deal with it then. :)

I got some of the primer on the kitchen nook walls. Decided there is really no point in completely painting it (unless we did it white); this gives whoever buys it a chance to decorate it however they choose. Plus, with the primer on the walls that gives me the opportunity to see what parts of the walls still need to be touched up with joint compound and alike.

Spent the morning working on the kitchen drywalling, mainly filling in the joints that the previous renters didn't get around to completing. While that dries, I decided I'd figure out what kind of tiling job I wanted to do on the east wall above the counters, where I just put in some new drywall (see previous entries). Since there isn't enough tile to just complete it in white, I'm mixing some black tile in but the question then becomes what kind of design to do. Here are three possible ideas (of roughly the size it would be): the top one actually the first idea that came to my mine when I just started laying them out, a two white/black/white/black repeating pattern; one is a two white/two black/white/black repeating pattern; and the bottom one is simply an alternating white/black. I also have like 6 red tiles, but I think sticking to just the white/black would fit better. The tile probably won't go in until next week, and hopefully the kitchen will be just about finished in the next two weeks as well.

The north second story floor is just about finished with its new face-lift. I've got the green paint still to do, then some of the high trim pieces to redo. The bigger question had been how I was going to paint the rest of the second floor, but luck was on my side as I discovered some family friends had some scaffolding which they're sweet enough to let me borrow in the coming weeks to finish the house makeover. I probably won't get the paint finished until late next week most likely - with the 4th of July coming, I'm leaving in a day or two for Branson to meet up with the parents and my sister, who is coming up from Dallas for the holiday. As much as I love Sterling's 4th of July celebrations and would like to stay and enjoy them, I must say I'm really looking forward to some time off and an actual resting vacation!

The Day's Lesson

Needless to say, if you don't remember the window ever opening, don't try and open it 20 years down the line...

Slowly but Surely...

It's definitely a race for the tortoise; little by little the house is getting there. For the majority, the first floor is now painted and ready to go for the next 15 years :) Honestly, I'll admit it hasn't been too bad getting up bright and early to work outside, especially since the last fews days have been in the triple digits. But the mosquitoes, the bloodly mosquitos! They are EVERYWHERE!!! We get 8" of rain a week and a half ago and the whole world's population of mosquitoes descend to our little town in the middle of almost nowhere! And they're relentless! I spray all over with Off! and they still keep comin'! They even attack me in the middle of broad daylight when it's 100 degrees outside!

But beside the killer mosquitoes, the house is coming along. Most of the weeds have been pulled from the backyard and I'm trying to contemplate what to do with the pond in the backyard. I think it would help the house sell if I could find a way to get it to hold water. it's not on the priority list of things to do, but I do think it would add to the landscaping of the house.


I've been working on the kitchen and this morning after working outside I can in to start work on more drywalling. I thought at first I'd just re-plaster part of the wall that was starting to look a little rough, but instead it just seemed easier to take it off and put up new sheetrock, so that's what I ended up doing before lunch. After all, Dad always said if you're gonna do something, you might as well do it right. (We'll just ignore the fact that it can take years for it to get finished...must be that McCoy curse again).

So now that lunch is finished, hopefully the joint compound is drying so tomorrow I can sand it down and then figure out where to go from there.

I'd Forgotten...

It's been a while since I've done any kind of drywalling, and I'd forgotten how messy it all gets when you sand it down! Worked on the kitchen and breakfast nook this afternoon, once I'd gotten the two door frames blocked off - since I just shampooed the carpets, I'm not about to let snow fall on it. Armed with a dust mask and safety glasses, I let the dust fly to see what damage I could do. I'll let the pictures show how much fun I had being messy! :) Hopefully I'll have most of the sanding and joint compounding done by the end of the week so I can get some paint on the walls, just to help make it a little more homey.

Paint = 1; Jen = 0

Well, just as the rain begins to hold off, here comes the heat advisory warnings! This week central Kansas will finally see the triple digits, with 102 scheduled to be the high on Wednesday this week, due to heat indices it will feel more like 105-108 degrees. All the more reason for me to get up just as the sun's rising to work outside...

So far, I've managed to get the first floor north side painted, all except the porch and the railing. After a quick run to Hutchinson on Friday for the cream colored paint, I began to finish the north side, only to realize the cream paint for some reason or another was thinner than the other paint I'd been using, thus it likes to splatter everywhere, everywhere, and EVERYWHERE!!! (thus Paint = 1; Jen = 0. I guess it could be more Paint = 1; Jen = 1 since I did get it finished, but I think I walked away with more paint on me than on the house). I've already begun painting on the west side and a little on the east this morning - however, when the sun hit the east wall I decided to work on the west wall only to be ravaged by mosquitoes (another problem with 8 inches of water).

As for the inside of the house, I'm started a little work. The kitchen and breakfast nook will be the first to get a makeover, mainly paint and a few new sections of drywall, particularly in the kitchen. Because we're cheap and don't wanna buy new paint for a house we're trying to sell, I'm just going to try and decorate it using the paint the previous renters bought (though some of the colors are interesting to say the very least). I've got an idea in my little head, but if it will actually workout, that is the question...

Amazing how time flies when one's having fun...

Okay, it's only day two of early wake-up calls and let me tell ya, I was not ready to roll out of bed at my 5:30 or my 5:35 alarm.

However, due to my determination, I did manage to roll out of bed and get going. Overall, the whole bottom floor has now been scrapped and is ready for a fresh coat of paint in the AM. After an afternoon run to Hutch for painting supplies, the morning's plan was to start painting this evening. However, our wonderful neighbors rented a carpet cleaner for their carpets and since it didn't need to be back until tomorrow morning, she surprised me with the offer to use it on our carpets, which really needed it. It worked well since the plan was to rent a carpet cleaner eventually, so the evening was spent cleaning carpets, half the staircase, the furniture, in addition to mowing some of the weeds in the backyard.

Good news from last night - I have a water heater back!!! After making some makeshift sandbags out of dirt and Walmart plastic bags, I hoped I could keep the incoming water from rising too high and knocking out the pilot light (which did happen). Fortunately, the water table seems to be going down a bit - the sump pump hasn't been kicking on constantly - so I was able to get the heater lit again and I gotta say, the hot shower this morning was wonderful! I did go ahead and get some sandbags at Home Depot today; however they don't seem to keep the water out any better than my makeshift sandbags did.

Painting, here I come!

Today was fairly successful - started on the north side of the second floor this morning at 6am, and got all the lose paint off as far as I could reach. I also discovered an additional problem with our already leaking porch roof - a pothole! Apparently, the poor design of the northeast flat roof over the front door eventually caused a concave pothole, most likely due to the poor drainage during heavy rains. Lucky for me, the flat roof was already on the agenda to fix this summer - I've just gotta figure out how to fix the roof.

The weather has caused havoc on everyone here - it's harvest season for spring/summer wheat, and guess what? With all the rain and flash flooding, no harvesting is going on and prolly won't be for the next few weeks. After talking with an old school friend this afternoon, I discovered the water table has been up for over a year and some people in the low areas have been pumping water out of their basements all that time. Both the Arkansas River and Cow Creek around Sterling are up several feet, and hopefully the predictions of them cresting tomorrow then falling throughout the week will be right. Let's keep our fingers crossed.

Let the Kansas Summer Begin

Did we pick the best weekend to begin summer work on the house, or what? Thunderstorms and flash flood warnings have caused this first weekend of home construction to go slightly slow. Though we don't have more than an inch of water in the basement (seeping in through the cracked foundation due to the high water table), the water heater itself is located in a small dip of the foundation, so there's about an inch of water surrounding the water heater - just enough to keep the pilot light from wanting to stay lit. Fortunately, the sump pump has been working like a trooper. I attempted to block the water by using makeshift sandbags out of dirt and Walmart plastic bags, though they really didn't help much.

As for the housework itself, the majority of the first part will be the repainting of the exterior. The four colors of the house will remain the same, keeping in league with the Victorian color style of the period when the house was built (back in 1875). In addition, stupid little weeds growing in the sidewalk will be pulled, the backyard grass killed off for future replanting, and more than likely the privacy fence will get a fresh coat of paint as well.

Tomorrow the early mornings start - the plan is to be working by 6am until lunch time, since working during hot summer heat isn't fun, then after an afternoon off, work in the evenings again. So we'll see. Keep coming back for future posts on how the mansion make-over is going :)