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!!