The End. Of This Chapter. Three Parts.

First:  Memorial Day weekend offered all of us a three day weekend.  However, I can't not post the importance of why our three day weekend came to fruition.  Hero's.  American Hero's that put their lives on the lines, have sacrificed their lives and time and families to ensure that us here, on the mainland, stay safe and continue to exercise our freedoms.  Thank you. 


Second:  *Disclaimer* *The wellbeing of my family is never second.  Never.  Just wanted to clear that up.*  I want to wish my amazingly-awesome sauce-somewhat-broken-sister-in-law, Marilyn, a get well soon.  Dudes, her thumb is bad ass and broken.  Surgery, broken.  Pins in two spots, broken.  Her SCUBA tank kicked her thumbs ass (if her thumb had an ass).  I will spare you the picture she sent me.  Owwwww-ch.  Love you, Mar!!  


Third:  Look at our kitchen...now.  I killed it.  Ok, I didn't kill it, I simply was doing it a favor by giving it a makeover - What Not To Wear Style.  I have to give creds where creds are due.  Thanks to Adam, Dad and Ed for their help, burgers, dogs, and delicious beers.  Doesn't it already look a billion times better??  Wait till you see our new pretties... 

 The last pic is just a silly add on.  Ed's trying to fix the new bathtub.  It's goin' well ... as you can see. 

New stuff comin' soon.  Fun!! 

Sweat Equity. Literally.

A lot has happened at Red House Nine since the last time we spoke and there is progress!  I've been a really bad blogger and haven't been around much, but there is a LOT going on (seriously, it's not an excuse, I still love you all and don't think any of you smell, promise).  Ed's little red GTI died last week - the day of the Rapture. It was a causality of the rapture, and when I say died, I mean it - D.E.D., dead.  We are faced with having to purchase another car on top of everything else that is going on.  Wonderful, right?  Who needs cabinets and a stove when we could have another car.  Ah-boo.  Anyway, I digress and didn't mean to turn this into a bitch session .... but really? REALLY?!  ugh. 

This long weekend has held a lot of surprises for us in terms of discoveries (including the 85 degree + heat).  We found that the sub-floor in the bathroom around the tub and toilet was made of marshmallows.  Ok, well not literally, but the amount of water damage around those two areas made the sub floor mush. So much so that if we (read Dad and Ed) hadn't taken the time (an entire day of aggravating work) to replace it, the next person to use the toilet would have ended up in the basement.  Yay Dad and Ed!  So, you may be asking what I was doing while Dad and Ed were fixing the marshmallow floor.  Well, you may have guessed I was slacking off working on my tan or frolicking in the sand under the broken pool, but no! I was not!  I was wrecking the kitchen and disassembling the cabinets, psychedelic tile, and dance party USA ceiling.  There were a LOT of surprises in the ghetto-kinda-fixed-but-not-really kitchen. Wanna see a couple?  

Yes, what you're looking at are ancient hornets/bees nests that are directly built on the insulation and wall boards.  I bet you're wondering how they got in there.  Well, see that rectangular "window"?  That was a vent that was at one time hooked up to a vent that went to a range hood which then vented outside.  That was hidden behind the cabinets not sealed off and stuffed with insulation.  So, we took out the vent and fixed up the non-window window the correct way from the inside and the out and moved on.  Next, we found the tiles came off with ease...pop, pop, pop... and that's not a good thing.  We wanted a challenge and if it were tiled right in the first place, it would have.  What? I love using a wrecking bar!  The plumbers have so far found 28 (!) breaks in the heating/domestic system.  This is a far cry from the 7 we were originally told by the sellers.  Some souvenirs and a 85% gut kitchen:

So, those are a few of the surprises we have found so far.  Yea, that's right, I said so far.  This house has all of us saying multiple times a day "this place never ceases to amaze us" and that isn't being said in the optimistic butterflies and rainbows way. No, it's being in said in a "are you even freakin' kiddin' me?!" skulls and crossbones kinda way.  We are diligently working on putting the bathroom back together and we hope it will be as awesome in real life as it looks in our visions.  Stay tuned, kiddies.  The good stuff is ahead!

Wreckin' The Place.

Who doesn't love some good ol' fashioned demolition?  I know I do!  My brother, Adam, made a really clever suggestion to us come the Saturday after closing - his first visit to our new humble abode.  After scoping the place out, he mentioned how the front closet missing one door could be removed, thus opening up the entire entryway.  What's that you say?  A plain, unobstructed view to my future lime green door and or new and improved kitchen?  Ok!  Sold!  So, with that decision made, my dad began disassembling the front closet.  Not too long after, however, he found that the closet was built like Fort Knox leading him to believe that it could be potentially load bearing.  Psych!  It wasn't (well the wall to the very far right lining the staircase is, but the rest is not) and the rest of the closet will be magically transformed into ... I'm not telling. 

 

While the closet destruction was taking place, Ed and I began demolition on the mold-riddled bathroom upstairs and IT. WAS. FUN!  The amount of mold surprised us, but not on a 'holy crap that's a ton of mold' scale, but more of a 'that's it?' scale.  The mold was 95% around the tub and the remaining 5% on the floor - honestly, I was expecting to see it EVERYWHERE.  So, Ed and I to got swingin' our sledge hammers and pounding on the crowbars and took that bathroom down.  Kel & Ed: 1, Moldy Bathroom: 0.

When too may cooks were in the umm, bathroom, Ed, Adam and Dad all went down to the kitchen to see what disaster they could stir up.  Well, lo-and-behold, a disaster was waiting to be found, and found it those men did.  Remember the full frontal of our giant fridge and the UGLY white cabinets that surrounded them?  They are gone. Hasta la bye-bye. Adios.  Ed took his new toy, the sawzall, and wrecked 'um (wrecked 'um? damn near killed 'um!).  What discoveries were made behind the monster fridge and not-attached-to-anything cabinets??? MOLD!!!  wah-wah.  Also, we found that the lazy-ass geniuses that put this 'kitchen' together decided to tile AROUND the cabinets and fridge.  They also shimmed the countertop to 'attach' it to the cabinets.  So, honestly, Ed and I have decided that the entire kitchen is going to be replaced.  Hear that screaming?  Yea, that's our wallet saying uncle.  

So what were Ed, Adam, Dad, and myself left to do?  Hey!  Don't judge.  It was a long (albeit saddening) day.  Well, for some of us. 

Video Bid-ness.

While Ed was changing locks at the house today, I decided to shoot you all a video tour of Red House Nine.  Excited?! I bet.  It's almost as exciting as winning the lotto ... or maybe just finding a heads up penny on the ground .... or going to the dentist.

Plan on a revisit when the place is transformed into awesomeness. Ok, maybe not awesomeness, but definitely more awesome than a visit to the dentist.

P.S. sorry for the lame-o commentary and my over usage of the words hot and awesome.

Red Hizzouse #9 and the Tale of How It Belongs To Us!

And my friends ...... we have a house!!!!  

Ok, so there's no tale, really. We closed yesterday and got the key today!!  Ed and I are more excited than you know (no really, we are).  However, I can't sit behind this computer screen and tell you that we aren't just a little bit terrified.  I know, I know, it's a 'good' terrified, and we both truly believe it.  This is a one MILLION percent upgrade from the 12550 address we used to have.  Yea, our 'old hood' is now riddled with gang and drug busts weekly by the FBI (yea, breaking out the big guns - literally). Compared to that, this terrified feeling is most welcome.  So all-in-all we are looking forward to all of the renovations, aggravation, guests, cookouts and family gatherings.  And yes, if you must know, the fact that #9 is an odd number drives me crazy.  I'm just happy it's not prime and it has a square root. 

Oh! P.S. Our Real Estate agent gifted us this: 

Yep, she's amazing!! Give it up - whaaaat-whaaaaatttt!! 

Morphing Fugly Into Fabulous! Won't You Join the Obsession?

The rain won't stop and I can't finish a project I wanted to show you all because New York State has now turned into the Amazon Rainforest without the heat. So...


The beautiful thing about this house is once we actually get the keys (and someone -*cough* town of Lagrange *cough*- stops dragging their feet on the appraisal for the last two loooong weeks) the contractors and mold busters (oh another side note...do you think the mold busters wear capes over their tyvek suits? Think I can special request them to??) will be in the house that same week cleaning and fixing and making the broke like new again. So, with that being said, the house will be a like-new blank slate ready for shiny new design and a sort of resurrection.  Ed and Cman are the destroyers; I, on the other hand, am left the task of design. Oh, sweet home design, how I love thee.  In my quest for all things gorgeous and inspirational, I have recently fell upon a splendid and quite addicting website called: Pinterest.com.  What is Pinterest you ask? Well, I'll tell you, BUT there is a disclaimer involved. 


*All subjects this chick points in the direction/usage of Pinterest must not hold her liable for drooling, excessive drooling, blindness or convulsions due to 24-7 computer usage searching for the perfect space, decrease in wallet worth, OCD behaviors, loss of computer memory due to JPEG storage, and drooling, etc.* 

*all images courtesy of pinterest.com*

I'm guessing because you all are very fart smellers, you figured out what Pinterest is. I could. spend. hours. on this site. I have become a member against my better judgment and I also have a folder full of oh! I'm going to do that! and Hey, Ed! Look! Oooooohh. Aren't those pictures gorgeous?? It will take us time to decide what exactly we are going to do in each room, but man, I want to do it all! A lime green door (inside only, of course)? yes, please! A set of gray painted cabinets with a white farmhouse sink? Por Favor! Seriously, that teal laundry room with the chandelier will probably make me want to do laundry everyday; and I might! So, while our new diggs may stay relatively humble on the outside for the time being, I expect anything but on the inside. We are down to the wire now in terms of 100000% proudly owning (read: becoming voluntary slaves to) this Red House #9.  

Oh, For The Love of Cohesion and All Things Stainless.

Ed and I maaaaaay have a slight addiction to the world of stainless steel and its gleaming personality. We also maaaaay have to keep ourselves in check when it comes to all things shiny and gray. We regularly have to remind ourselves to have a little fun with punches of color; the world isn’t drab and either are our personalities. Our house already has stainless appliances, but the rest of the kitchen leaves a lot left to be desired.  You see, the kitchen is by far our most favorite room in the house. We love to cook and entertain. We love create and congregate and don’t mind spending time in said beloved room, but we also don’t want the focal point of our home to be u.g.l.y (its mama ain’t got no alibi, its ugly).  When you walk into our house the first thing that catches ones eye is the kitchen at the end of the long hallway. Right now, as our alibi-less u.g.l.y. kitchen stands, it is covered in a green/blue and pale yellow tile pattern, evergreen colored countertop, a rusty red tile floor, and *cringe* non-matching cabinet doors.  Color cohesion? Hell, any cohesion?  I think not.  More like Christmas colors exploded while Jerry Garcia interpreted his psychedelic feelings in tile (oh, and yes, what you’re seeing is in fact wood flooring on the ceiling. And no, [not so] sorry to say, it’s not staying. No more crazy dance parties on that ceiling!!).

 Yea, I get dizzy just looking at it; you do too, right?  So, what are a couple of modern-loving sleek minimalists to do with such an u.g.l.y. duckling when working with a small budget?  Find the most expensive kitchen, fall in love with it, and try to replicate its gorgeousness of course. Sound impossible?  It kinda will be, but I have faith in us (and our handy helpers) that we can totally pull this off. Sharing the kitchen that is fueling our inspiration will not happen in this post, but let me assure you none of you will be disappointed.  Ok, maybe I’ll give you a little glimpse in to our crazy-we-can-do-anything-we’re-superhero’s-after-all train of thought because I’m a real sweetheart like that (stop rolling your eyes).  

Ohhhh, can’t you picture it now?? The gleaming gray, the shiny black, and cohesion.  No you can’t?  Why not?  Oh, right, because I’m being a tease. In addition to massive amounts of cohesion and less amounts of stainless, we plan on building in some major portions and also taking out some major portions.  Oh, and don’t worry, we have a really nice stove (as you can see above its missing) on our radar as well and yes, it’s stainless.