A Festival! A Festival!

What an amazing day of non-stop live music! We saw some brilliant local bands, ate some delicious grub, and had an all-around fantastic time at the Ithaca Festival!

Back from the British Isles

Tonight, David returned from a week of North Sea training in Scotland, where he had to do lots of scary safety exercises like this. Yikes!

He brought back some souvenirs, respectively...

      

a liter of single malt duty free Glenmorangie for him, and a year's supply of UK Cadbury's for me. Does that man know me, or WHAT? I put my sunglasses next to the giant chocolate bar so you could see the size - each one of those things weighs over two pounds!

Anyway, tomorrow we're going to the last day of the 2009 Ithaca Festival to hear live local music in Stewart park, and have some much needed fun. And on Monday, as Tony Kushner said, "The Great Work Begins..." (although, if memory serves, I'm pretty sure he was referring to work that's far more profound than installing flooring...)

Finally - A Name I Can Remember!

Not much to report... David's in Scotland this week, and I've been packing and bringing stuff over to the house little by little. Before he left, David downloaded this really cool free software onto our computers & cell phones. I have a tendency to make up nicknames for computer-related things because I can never remember what they're called (just ask my former students, who came to realize that whenever they saw me frantically pacing the classroom, muttering "Where's my Doodad? Who's got the Doodad? Has ANYONE seen my DOODAD?!?" it was their cue to look around for my Flash Drive). So when David installed this software, I rejoiced when I learned its name: GIZMO.

Gizmo is a free full-service communication interface for macs, pc's, and cell phones, that allows you to connect to someone easily in many different ways. It's similar to Skype, but I believe it has more features. You can make free phone calls & web cam calls over the internet using a computer OR phone, plus it consolidates all your IM accounts into one place. This "Gizmo" has been terribly useful for us, as it allows David to contact me for free, or cheap, in a variety of different ways whenever he can get a WiFi connection on his cell phone or laptop. So Scotland doesn't seem so far away :(

Sometimes the connection is great, sometimes it's only ok. Sometimes a video connection takes a few tries. It kinda depends on the quality of internet he's getting out there. And he's on an old laptop. It's not a perfect system, but I think I actually figured out how to use it right away, which is a big plus.

Anyway, if you travel internationally or have a loved one who lives or travels overseas, and you need a one-stop shop interface for all your communication needs, check this puppy out... I mean, check this GIZMO out...

Second Coat's The Best

Hooray! The painting party is officially OVER so... pack it up and grab your party favors, people! It's time to greet the daylight...

We did touch-ups and detailing in the loft today, and finished second coats in the master bedroom & bathroom. We did the bedroom in two colors: Limelight with an English Ivy accent wall.

We chose a lovely shade for our bathroom called Palm Frond! I love it! We got ourselves a bedroom in the Cotswolds, and a bathroom in Hawaii! 

While on a Lowes supply-run yesterday, David picked up some gorgeous classic light fixtures and matching cabinet door pulls for the bathroom. (The man has impeccable taste for a hetero! One of the many reasons I love him...)                

   

Lastly, with the drips left in the paint trays, we decided to embrace our inner adolescents and put some sappy private graffiti on our floorboards before we start laying the hardwood. This is right underneath where our bed will be. Awwww....... 

David goes back to work tomorrow - he'll be in Scotland for a week doing some North Sea training for his supercool new job. While he's away, I'll be finishing the paint touch-ups and detailing, opening the flooring boxes and sorting out the planks by size, and pulling up stray staples. I'll also be packing and bringing a bunch of our stuff over to the house to get a head start on the moving process. Our pneumatic nailer will be arriving any day now, and when David gets back, we'll have exactly two weeks to get the floors done and finish moving by mid-June. Till then, we'll be staying busy, staying positive, and dreaming of a dream house with actual dream floors...!

Greening Our World

Today we really got busy with the paint. We finished a 2nd coat in the loft, and 1st coats in the master bedroom & bathroom. We left covered in green speckles from head to toe, and only slightly worse for the wear...

   

Paint Party Begins!

I picked David up at the airport this afternoon, and we drove straight to the house and got to work. We finished sanding, prepping, and priming every last bit of the master bed & bath. We also painted the first coat of the loft! It's called Denver Grass. Whaddya think? 

Primed Real Estate

We got a LOT done yesterday, thanks in great part to our friends Ali & John who came over to help us. THANK YOU ALI & JOHN!!! Best. Neighbors. Ever. 

We ripped up more of the kitchen floors, and prepped and primed all the walls that we're going to paint (master bedroom, master bathroom, and loft). We left after 10pm, exhausted and hurtin' once again, but at least we accomplished a TON of work!

David flew back to LA today to do some work training, but he'll be back on wednesday afternoon, thank goodness! After dropping him at the airport, I went back to the house to clean up yesterday's messes, and pull up a bunch of staples in the master bedroom. When David's back, it's time to finish the painting, and start sorting the wood to lay the floors...

5000 Pounds of OW! MY BACK!

The wood arrived today. IT LOOKS BEAUTIFUL!!! This is just some of it. In total, we had about 70 boxes of flooring delivered, and at about 80 lbs a box, getting this stuff upstairs to the great room (where it has to sit and acclimate to the room's humidity for a few days) was no easy feat!

Luckily, the delivery guy was kind enough to bring about half the boxes up by himself. He was a huge ox of a man, who thought nothing of hoisting an 80 lb. box onto his shoulders 35 times in a row. Needless to say, we tipped him well. I helped David with the remainder of the boxes until I felt like my body was about to break, but luckily our friend John came over to relieve me just in the nick of time! He helped David with the majority of the boxes & we could not have done it without him. THANK YOU JOHN!  You are a life (and back) saver!

After the wood delivery, we got back to work on pulling up the layer cake that is our kitchen, but we were both so physically wiped out, that we didn't get much done before we were both passing out from pain and exhaustion. 

Tomorrow, we plan to start painting. And of course, David will keep working on those kitchen floors... (only two layers left...)

Creeping Along

David's flying home tomorrow! He'll be home for the weekend, then he goes back to Louisiana on Monday for another few days...

Since he's been out of town, I've managed to pull up all the remaining carpet padding and ALL the staples in the loft, and I've sprinkled lovely wildflower seeds in the front yard area, by the driveway. Tom Petty says, "You belong among the wildflowers...," and you know what? I think he's right.

While David is home this weekend, we are pulling up the rest of the flooring in the kitchen, receiving our hardwood delivery on saturday, doing all the rest of the flooring prep work, AND doing all the painting. That's a busy weekend. Oy.

Then at the end of next week, David will be home for another few days and we'll lay those floors...

We're Hurtin'

After pulling up floors for days and days, it's totally healthy to start creating superhero personas for yourself...

Woah!

Let me start by saying that yesterday was a rough one. We got a lot done, but came home exhausted and aching. As I mentioned yesterday, we've discovered that for reasons we may never understand, the kitchen floor was made up of many layers, like a cake. A huge, miserable, nailed-together cake. 

The layers, from top to bottom, go like this:

1. linoleum - glued down
2. plywood (luan) - nailed down REALLY well
3. more linoleum
4. more plywood
5. actual floor of house

Depending on where you're standing in our kitchen at this

point, you may see any one of these five layers.

Here's David showing Linoleum Layer # 1 who's boss...

And heeeere's what it looked like as we began to peel up Linoleum Layer #2, to unearth the bottom layer of plywood...

The house is still in total disarray, and David will be out of town for work all week, so we'll see what kind of progress I can make by myself. Anyone wanna come over for a staple-pulling party? 

Yeah, I didn't think so.

Halfway Done...

We got through about half of the "floor removal" yesterday. When we got the grey carpet up, there was a green underlay of carpet padding which was, incidentally, a much nicer color than the grey carpet. But unfortunately, it was made out of recycled foam and plastic, and, I think, bunnies. So we pulled that up, too.  This is me doing the "Private England" in our bedroom, but instead of cruelly mocking and torturing an Iraqui prisoner, I'm humiliating this roll of carpet into submission... GO USA!

The green stuff is stapled down, so part of today's fun is going to involve us pulling up thousands of staples. Hooray! FUN!

Here's our bedroom with the green stuff all gone... 

And the hallway...

And here's David pulling up the molding...

Unfortunately, as we moved from the back of the house to the front of the house, we started to discover an annoying trend:  In certain parts of the house, under the flooring, we found an extra layer of linoleum laid underneath an extra layer of PLYWOOD! Why? A quick fix to make the house level. David does not approve of such "band-aids." See?

We found this type of half-assery in the master bedroom and the kitchen. It lead us to believe that the people who laid the original floors for this house were... how can we put it nicely... "under deadline." Yeah, they did a shoddy, rushed job. Don't believe me? Check THIS out:  When pulling up the carpet in the great room, we found four little blades - used for slicing the carpet to size - sitting prettily underneath the carpet padding. It was like a little time capsule left for us by some lazy-assed folks 27 years ago.

Can't wait to see what we're going to uncover today! Maybe a fossil or two?

Hey Kids, Let's Go Pull Up The Linoleum!

We're headed over to The House today to pull up some linoleum and a whole ton of grey and mauve carpeting! 

Jealous???

I know you are! 

:) 

Happy Mothers Day shoutout to Momma Herzog and Crabby Campione!!!

WE BOUGHT 'EM!!!

We went to Syracuse and ordered our FLOOOOOORS today!!!!

We chose the Builder's Pride full hardwood Brazilian Walnut. This wood comes from tree farms, and NOT the rainforest. Nothing endangered, nothing un-holy. Just some kick-ass floors at an amazing price!

We are taking advantage of their six-months free financing offer, so now I have a Lumber Liquidators credit card. (Just what I always wanted.) 

Burnout

We've made a decision on our floors. Finally. 

But unfortunately, due to decorating burnout, we were physically unable to do anything today but see the new Star Trek movie at the mall. 

Consensus? It was really good! And this is coming from someone who has literally never seen a single minute of Star Trek...! 

It's Raining Paint Samples! Hallelujah!

I am currently living in a world of green. A hundred and eighty different shades of green, to be exact. 

We're deciding on colors for the master bedroom, master bathroom, and the loft. This is what our master bedroom looks like right now.

And this is David, taking a nap while I paste things into my scrapbook...

And then he awoke, and started messing with the stairs, and getting ideas for his "Stair-Nose Plan Of Attack" (stair noses are 'spensive, so we're gonna fabricate our own using half rounds...)

Bouncing Off The Floors

Oy vey. We're still locked in dizzying negotiations for our floor choice. I know, how can two people take this long to decide on flooring? You got me. 

In other news, we went to Lowes and Home Depot (a.k.a Blows and Home Despot) today, to look for the right hinges, and also apparently to make things more confusing for ourselves in the hardware department. 

Now we're deciding between "Wrought Iron Dark," "Oil-Rubbed Bronze" (a.k.a. Tuscan Bronze), and "Flat Black." Huh. Those sound like porn star names.

The confusion started when we saw this faucet, and fell in puppy love....

Here's David professing his love for another Tuscan beauty:

(...and this is all despite his unhealthy aversion to the word "Tuscan," developed illogically after viewing a particularly annoying episode of House Hunters International.)

Feeling Knobby?

Earlier this week, whilst scouring a myriad of local flooring / home decor stores for flooring, we came across a place called Class Act. And boy, are they ever! Their floors are beautiful and high-quality, but overpriced (much like all the other local flooring options). HOWEVER... they have a seemingly never-ending selection of things like knobs, counters, tiles, and all the other goodies one would hope to find in an interior-decorating superstore. 

We like their knobs. 

Well, their door pulls to be exact. 

Our house was built amazingly well. It's young, it's in beautiful shape, but it's teeming with ugly little cosmetic anomalies, like mauve/grey carpets and ugly gold-brass pulls and knobs on every single cabinet & door. We have made it our mission to replace all the hardware, toot-sweet. It's a relatively inexpensive fix, and one that will make a huge difference.

This might be our favorite choice for all the cabinetry... and they're only $1.50 a piece! Yes, it's true ladies and gentlemen - this specialty store has more affordable stuff than LOWES. Hooray!

Now, we're on a mission to match our cabinet hinges (which are all visible, unfortunately) with this "flat black" color, and we're finding that the exact hinge we need is no longer made, so we're gonna have to get a little creative. I'll keep you posted...

I know.... this hinge-talk is thrilling stuff... how dare I leave you in a cliffhanger, right? 

FLOORS!

Too Many Choices!!!

Up until this point in our lives, we did not know it was possible to spend an entire day staring at chunks of wood on a floor. Now, we know.

We keep going back and forth with our decision. We've found a few different options that we love, and the prices really vary. Logic tells us to just get the most affordable one and be done with it, but then were not giving our business to the community, which is a big deal for us. To be fair, the local stores gave us the best quotes they could, even lowering their prices by about $1.00 a square foot since we're buying over 1000 square feet, and that really adds up! 

Our desire to buy local cannot, however, surpass our need to save thousands of dollars. Even at their best prices, the local joints can't match the Lumber Liquidators prices for the floors we like. And ironically, our cheapest option is a perfect match in tone and color, AND it's the only option that is 100% hardwood (not engineered). 

I think it's a no brainer at this point. We know what we need to do. Now we just have to get our measurements in order, and get into a "money-spending" (a.k.a. credit-applying) state of mind. 

So Much Wood, So Little Sanity

For the past few months, we've been checking out the wood floor collections at the nearby Lowes and Home Depot stores. We've found the quality, service, and prices all to be severely lacking. No need to shop there. So, after buying our Washer & Dryer yesterday, we went to some local flooring and house decor stores in downtown Ithaca. We found some beautiful, quality engineered hardwood floors, but they were all pretty expensive. We took some large samples back to the house and after staring at them for hours, we figured out what we liked the most. 

We've committed to trying to buy from local businesses as much as possible because it's the right thing to do. Only problem is, doing the "right thing" in this situation could cost thousands of dollars extra...

Anyway, so today we took our 2nd trip out to Lumber Liquidators in Syracuse (about an hour away). The first time we visited was months ago - right after our offer was accepted on the house. We had taken home some samples with us back then, but without a house to view them in, it's impossible to know what's what.

So this time, we brought one of our cabinet doors with us on our field trip to Syracuse, in an attempt to find floors that would compliment the oak that our house is already filled with. This resulted in our spending most of the day staring at our lone cabinet lying in repose amongst the same three wood samples......

See?

Anyway, we left there still slightly bewildered by the vastness of our options, but essentially confident that we're going to be going with a very inexpensive full hardwood option (the brazillian walnut you see in the top right corner of these pics) from Lumber Liquidators. Unfortunately, this doesn't satisfy our goal of buying from small local businesses only, but for $3.89 a square foot, how can we pass up REAL hardwood floors that are this beautiful? 

P.S. - Our flooring overload left us hungry, so at the suggestion of our awesome Lumber Liquidators salesguy, we stopped for some victuals at a famous joint only minutes away, called Dinosaur's Bar-B-Que. It was absolutely outstanding. We feasted on some of the best BBQ meats this side of the Mason-Dixon line, and we weren't alone - the place was packed to the rafters at 4pm on a Sunday! 

The walls are all carved up there, so we were encouraged to leave our mark, too.  We Were Floored in Syracuse... by the food AND the hardwood!

Clean Clothes! Clean Clothes!

We bought a washer & dryer today.

We chose the Frigidaire Affinity line, and we happily gave our business to a local appliance store instead of a big megachain.

Our set is digital, it's energy star rated, and the washer is a high-efficiency front loader so we'll save a ton on water costs. And for the dryer, we decided to buy a gorgeous, never-used floor model instead of a new one, saving almost $400 in the process! That money is going towards paint for the master bedroom and loft, and new hardware for the kitchen and bathrooms... 

Oh, yeah!

WE'VE CLOSED!!!

HELLO friends & family! 

Welcome to our brand new blog! After months of house-hunting (starting in October of 2008, and finally finding THE ONE in March of 2009) and even more months of being entrenched in "The Closing Process" we have finally CLOSED on our dream house!

Woohoo!!!

We've chosen to start with some renovations. Before we move in (five weeks from now) we'll be making some major changes. By the time we move, the interior of our house will no longer look like THIS. (And that's not just because the scary furniture is gone...)

As first time homeowners, we've found that we're totally obsessed and enthralled with every teensy bit of this renovation process. Interior decorating is like a party! A huge, insanely expensive party that requires financing! So, if you find yourself feeling like joining our little House Party, we've started this blog so you can experience the progress along with us!

Here we are, entering our beloved home for the first time...

And here we are, meeting a few of our new neighbors...

Okay, that's all for now. Tomorrow we're buying our washer/dryer, and then we start the arduous but exciting process of choosing our wood flooring... Yippeeeee!!!