House in Progress Diary

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Two Long Years

Saturday marked the two year anniversary of our purchase of this house. Like the first year, we didn't accomplish as much as we would have hoped. Reviewing our first year anniversary write-up, we hit about half of what we said we hoped to do in year two. Yeah, that sounds about right...

The nice thing is that this year's improvements are a bit more visible from out front.

May 29, 2003	May 29, 2005

But like last year, more took place inside than than out.

Progress Made

• We now have wonderful looking brick-laid front steps.
  
• We were blessed with the wonders of central air conditioning. It has, of course, remained unseasonably mild ever since.
  
• Aaron had a flurry of activity to install high tech structured wiring for multimedia access throughout the house, but after pulling most of the cable that's been on hold for a while now.
  
• In the ongoing spirit of "camping with a mortgage" we did whatever we could to keep things going, including J disassembling and fixing the dryer!
  
• We installed a few new light fixtures: here and here.
  
• When not repairing large appliances, Jeannie spent a bazillion hours stripping, repairing and reglazing the crusty old windows.
  
• We embarked on the full renovation of our second floor, which included ambitious plans for two bedrooms and the master bath. Plans were drawn, countless weekends were spent removing the damaged plaster and lathe. Eventually, the new design began to take shape as ventilation, insulation, skylights and walls were added one by one. We really hoped we'd be done by now, but at least we're getting close.
  
• A major part of the work upstairs has involved our plans for the mater bathroom. It's like putting together a puzzle, except the pieces are stuff like a clawfoot tub, beadboard wainscoting, built-in cabinets, and a custom shower.
  
• As a reminder that it's the little things that count we've gotten plenty of joy from our mostly-finished laundry chute.
  
• Finally, under the category of 'marginally related' we launched houseblogs.net, a side-project to our side-project that helps us keep up reading about other people's side projects!

Ups and Downs Along the Way

• We were shocked to find out that the readers of our houseblog included the Chicago host of NPR's Morning Edition, who ended up doing a radio feature about our adventures.
  
• Aaron's sister Kjerstin got married.
  
• Even after we thought we'd found everything left behind by the PO, stuff kept on falling out of the walls.
  
• We continued to unload the stuff left behind. Lots went to charity, but some ended up on a movie set!
  
• J went through a tough period with her health, but got through it with lots of courage, supportive words from readers of this site, and help from a wonderful Mom. Thankfully she's feeling better now.

What next? Year Three...

• Finishing the second floor! (Oh please, dear God...)
  
• Returning to the world of the normal and clean, with an upstairs oasis from all the dust and mess that will certainly continue down below.
  
• Installing our recently acquired front door.
  
• Wrap up stripping the sunroom woodwork that Jeannie has worked on tirelessly over the past several months.
  
• Finishing the structured wiring project, so I can be the only person on the block with an ethernet Internet port in my master bathroom. (Yes, I'm a geek.)
  
• Conducting a cosmetic makeover of the kitchen to get us through what will certainly be a few more long years.
  
• Paint the exterior trim. Like the kitchen, this is a necessary interim fix as we aren't ready for a full-out paint job but the existing wood is being damaged from exposure.
  
• Maybe doing something about the fireplace...already a hold-over from last year's list. We'll see.

Seem like we're being too ambitious? Stick around to find out! :-)

Posted by aaron on May 31, 2005 at 8:17 AM (10)

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