Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Slow News Day

Sorry to report, but the updates have been scarce as of late. We are lackluster home owners. Only surpassed in our failure as home owners by our failure as home renovators.

We have been pricing window replacements.
 
We have 18 to 19 windows in total. For sure, 15 to 16 need replaced.

Of the total, 18 to 19 windows in the house...

2 Won’t open at all

Of the windows that do open…    

4 actually have a screen and can be left open

11 Stay open without intervention (tho open w/o a screen = ghost Bubbs) 

Conversely - those that open but will not stay open
 

 And my personal fave, the window that won't close.

Often it seems a window was purchased and made to fit an entirely different, non-fitting window opening by using a bunch of junk to wedge.
Admittedly trashy, but overall a can-do attitude to home renovation I can actually appreciate. Done is done people.

Anyone wondering how the total no. of windows can be a range? I mean, we either have 18 OR 19 windows, right? Recall the whack brick wall erected over ½ the patio door.
 
Think about it. A person that would do something that weird doesn't stop there. The inappropriate covering of natural lite sources would extend thru the home. 
Tho qualifying as weird, ignore the cat. This single window is in fact a double. A side-by-side made into an off-center side-by-hide. You can make out the outline of what once was. From the outside, what was once window is covered by siding. 

At least P-HO allowed for some variety in her materials choices. 

So, our current 18 windows will be returned to the original 19. Kind of. Lots of the windows have been altered throughout the years. What were once giant windows are now normal to smallish sized. We’ve had two companies out for quotes and a third coming tomorrow. I’ve quickly learned that giant windows equals giant prices. I consider myself to be a reasonable person. My windows need not be giant but they do need to open, stay open and then close again. In South Philly, this makes me an elitist.

e.

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Day of Togetherness

They call me The Finisher. They being me. And now possibly, though not very likely, you. But forest thru the trees people. So, why am I known the world round as The Finisher? Cuz I get things done.

I’ve been assisting the Notorious in the bathroom re-do the past couple of days. And not to toot my own horn but the bathroom has never looked more like a bathroom.


Toot. Toot.  

I’ve admitted to having little to no home reno skills. That much hasn’t changed. Outside of being The Finisher, my role in assisting the Notorious is hard to qualify. Wait, no it’s not. I hand him things. Totally critical things tho.


See that yellow screw gun. And that green one. You’re welcome Sugar.

I also hold and carry dry wall. Build Ikea cabinetry. Question his approach and execution. And train the cats to assist as well. A Finisher is nothing without a good team backing her up.  

My Our Ikea vanity.  


Bubbs-Cheetah dry run on retrieving tools on command.

Her position on the team is probationary. She’s doing surprisingly poorly. Her lack of interest in helping complete the wall surrounding the tub was disappointing.  
 
While I know she enjoyed getting inside the floors, done is done Bubbs. Team Finisher finishes.

Wanna know what the Notorious does while I finish this blog post?



Mama gets things done.





(Tee hee. He doesn't know I did that.) 

(Yet.)

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Day(s) Off

Heh-heh-heh-looo friends. Sorry to disappoint, but am posting absolutely no progress house-wise today. I do have several good excuses. 

Or two.

First and foremost:

The happiest 10-days known to man take precedence over most things. Work. House. Sleep. Liver. Tho think my liver might actually be asleep cuz it sure ain’t working anymore. Ba-dump-bump.

Second, the one and only brother of the Notorious was in Philly over the weekend. Bro-No got the full Philly treatment.


He also brought some stuff the Notorious had left behind in Indy when we moved. Items the Notorious had apparently really thought about and made a list of so Bro-no could bring along. A safe. A vacuum. And the thing that scares me to even take a picture of.  
The only one that really makes sense to me is the vacuum. We have a small one now and sweeping with a shop vac is getting tiresome.

We have received our home purchase credit. Which I realize isn’t an excuse for not making progress. But hooray! And, to be fair, we just received it. Ok, so it was direct deposited on Thursday but I didn’t realize it until today. Beer Week.

Our My first stimulus purchase.  

Really, really needed. 

I got my hairCUT (!!). If it were Halloween, I could win for best Hillary Swank in “Boys Don’t Cry” costume. But with the hairspray I can make it stand straight up. Then it’s Jake Ryan from “Sweet Sixteen” like a mutha.



(Jak)e.

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Summer Day

Wow. It has been really hot lately. Like end of the world hot. Well, end of my world anyway. I don’t tolerate heat well. Or at all. Not even in the I’m-so-hot-all-I-can-do-is-complain sense of intolerance. Like physiologically I cannot take it. Though I do complain a lot when in the throes of a hot spell. I find repeating “Oh my god it’s so hot” kinda takes the edge off.   

So, we here at 1512 have been making summer related purchases. And by we I mean me. Friends, when it is 92 degrees outside it is 920 degrees inside and I escape to Ikea. And Lowe’s. And anywhere that is not here. I have purchased another window A/C unit. We like to think we’re riding that wave of zone cooling. And I also purchased some patio furniture, tho god knows I’m not sitting outside at it. B/C “Oh my god it’s so hot.”

The Notorious assembled our super fabulous housewarming gift from the Q’s. Who might now be blog known as the Weber’s.
But before all of this, I attempted to clean up the patio space. Each summer I have to re-learn how much I hate the heat. Quick lesson this year.

It was seriously like a jungle out there.  
 
I mean, this is our rose “bush”.

It blooms with the most regrettable color of flower.  

Other fun things to pick out in the pics:  
  • The random collection of old lumber courtesy of the p-ho.
  • The side wall falling in.  
  • The area directly in front of the rose BUSH(!) is a low point where dirt collects, weeds grow in the dirt, and the catfaces roll in the dirt.
  • And for those with a super keen eye, the bricks/blocks in front of the gate – see that one on the right that looks exactly like a bag of concrete got wet and then formed,well, it’s a bag of concrete that got wet and then formed. 
Here’s a reverse shot of “the glass was too clear” egress. Also a nice shot of how badly our brick needs pointing. 
 
And a shot of some Philadelphia wildlife.
While I was taking this pic, thinking how I’ll cleverly make some reference to Philadelphia wildlife, something caught my eye.
 
That’s our second floor roof, and that’s our cat on the roof. Man, I wish the roof was tin….

As previously noted, it’s been stupid hot. And this was before A/C unit 2 purchase. We’d been trying to deal with open windows. We’re not irresponsible pet owners. Well, except for allowing them to live in a construction zone and occasionally become trapped in the walls. But this window had a box fan covering most of it and a cat blocking piece of something blocking the rest. Bubbs-cheetah is the Jurassic Park of cats. She’ll systematically test the perimeter until she finds a way out. Honestly, I can’t blame her. It’s really hot inside.  

The Notorious has been working on the plumbing for the still unfinished bathroom. In his defense, plumbing is new for him. But really, at some point you no longer care why something isn’t finished, just that it’s not finished. For those who do still care, soldering has been the issue.
 He asked me today if I wanted to learn how to solder. Turns out he wasn’t kidding and actually expected a response. I responded, “No. Do you want to learn how to shop vac?” Everyone’s got a niche I suppose.

Alas, water.
Slightly more gray than one would hope, but at this point, beggars, choosers, meh.

When the Notorious was previewing the pics for this very blog post with me, he wanted to know what I was going to say about some of the them.


Notorious: "What are you going to say about this one? " 

e: "Not done."

 
Notorious: "What are you going to say about that one?"

e: "Not done." 

 
Notorious: "I should have you take a picture of me taking a bath in this so I can say that you can’t say it’s not done." 

Textbook Notorious. Makes the kind of sense that doesn’t.


e.