fix up my house

The house needs to be tented for termites. Right now it’s scheduled for Nov. 6th through the 8th. This week we’ll be preparing for that. So many things have to be removed from the house, including the contents of the refrigerator and freezer!

Also, the kitchen cabinets are being painted and new contact paper put down. This will take a while since it has to be done while we are using the kitchen.

The electrician bowed out on me. He felt the work would take a lot longer than two days and he couldn’t do it without disrupting the power. So the electrical stuff is still pending.

There has been process this goal! I cannot take the credit for it (Thanks Johnny!). Almost all the windows now have plywood shutters. The plywood is ready for the others. The kitchen only needs painting but that really should wait until after the termite tenting. The remaining “tiles” in the kitchen ceiling were replaced.

Yes, the house has termites. The tenting was scheduled for September but the schedule didn’t work for me, so we moved it to November (the next date they had available).

The main bedroom is much less cluttered although it still looks cluttered. A lot of clothes have gone to goodwill and all the wrapping paper is sorted and stored in the utility room. Also, the closet shelving was repaired!

Work has begun on the water damaged walls and ceiling in the livingroom.

The back bedroom looks much better too. It’s ready for Emma’s computer to be set-up and available for her use. The desk is reachable for her homework but there’s no TV in there! (sigh)

This Saturday the electrician will be performing half of the re-wiring work. He says we’ll have power back by 3pm (famous last words!). I’m hoping the other half of the house has power during the work on the first half. If not, we’ll have no AC in July in Miami. Honestly though, I’ll just be happy if I ever get power back!

I met with the electrician. To rewire my entire house and replace all the switches and outlets will cost $1700.00. Apparently, it will take two men, two days to finish the work. Plus because of the oil prices, electrical wire is very expensive. I have two names to get comparative prices. I’m hoping to do that this week, but if all goes well the work will be done on Saturday, July 14th and 21st.

The electrical panels and the outside work is another story for another time. Apparently, because of the age of my house nothing is to standards and the wires are actually a danger. Also there is no disconnect switch outside by the meter. Firefighters don’t turn on the water until they disconnect power. Yikes!

We asked Johnny to lend his energy and drive to finally cleaning Emma’s room (shovel and Hazmat suit required!). Once the room was cleared out and Emma was sorting, he offered to paint the room if she wanted. She’s been wanting that for years but we could never blaze a trail through her room far enough to get to the walls (typical teenage!).

So it’s done! One black wall, three white walls that will be stenciled by her and her sister in the (hopefully near) future. We have curtains to put up yet, but it looks a million times better.

Yay Johnny! Couldn’t have done it without you.

My new stove was delivered about an hour ago! I’ll be trying it out tonight!

I met with the electrician today. The work is quite extensive and will have to be done in two parts. The inside wiring, outlets and switches first. Then the outside work and the new circuit breaker panels and main. Hopefully it will all be done by the end of July.

A bit of bad news though. The house has termites so I’ll be tenting it in August sometime.

We got a lot done in the kitchen this weekend! I have to admit it wouldn’t have happened if Johnny hadn’t provided the inertia. We’re about halfway through cleaning out the cabinets. The new contact paper isn’t necessary, so after we finish cleaning out the cabinets, painting, fixing a few drawers and filling the hole in the ceiling of one cabinet is left.

The carpet in the old playroom was professionally done thanks to my daughter taking the time to meet them at my house (thanks KT!) There are still some boxes in there but they are mostly full of kitchen stuff that is waiting for the cabinets to be redone.

I am calling the electrician today to set an appointment to get a new quote. I got one a few years ago but I have some new ideas now! Hopefully I can get that work done in the next few months so I can replace the appliances in the kitchen.

Johnny and I will be working in the kitchen on Tuesday and over the weekend some. This will entail:

-replacing light bulbs
-replacing the remaining panels of the drop ceiling
-cleaning the fridge coils (wet vac!)
-fixing a couple of drawers (supplies?)
-emptying the cabinets and cleaning them
-filling the hole in the ceiling of the NE corner of the cabinets (supplies?)
-painting (buy)
-putting down new contact paper (buy)

WOW! When this is done, there will be a significant difference in my quality of life! TJ :)

The windows are going to have to wait until next year because I’m trying to do this without going into debt.

I am having the carpet in the kid’s old playroom professionally shampooed in the next two weeks (depending on the scheduling). That will be a big step because then I can put the rest of the book shelves in there and clear out my bedroom some.

So I have the electrical work and the kitchen appliances pending this year. I may add doing some work to the upstairs bathroom to my 2007 list.

I had the plumber in last week to work on the downstairs bathroom. It is a great improvement.

My long range plan calls for both bathroom to be totally renovated but that is still a couple of years away. For now it’s nice to have new fixtures and everything working as it should!