Have A Heart

Andrew was right.  I hate admitting that because MOST of the time he is right. I guess its the 12 extra years of life that he has lived.  Either way it results in him doing an "i told you so" dance. Obnoxious.

I hate to say it y'all, but we have a raccoon living under our back living room.  Well...we can't exactly confirm that its a raccoon, but something has made themselves a cozy home below.  The rustling at the back door and when I walk down the stairs to do laundry in the basement are the indicators.  Andrew has started talking to it through the vents in the back room - "do you want some nice cold Budweiser"...yeah, I know, we need to get a life.

So the other night I was asking Andrew how we are going to get rid of this raccoon.  My parents and I are not the biggest animal lovers, so I know what we would do.  However, I live with someone who prefers animals over people. Go figure.

In comes the "Have A Heart" trap. Apparently you entice the animal with some food and it goes in this nice little metal trap.  Then you let it go.  Am I the only one who thinks this sounds ridiculous?! These animals are clearly not stupid. Where are they going to go once they are released?! Oh yeah, right back to their "home" under your house!  Unless...you drop them off at a friend's house;)

But in all seriousness, we have to add "get rid of raccoon" to the list of projects.  The list is slowly dwindling for the back living room.

There was SERIOUS progress this past week.  We used Egyptian engineering and installed nice french doors out onto the porch and two new windows.  Sheet rock is completely put up and we are 3/4 of the way done with mudding, taping and sanding. Andrew even put up some primer and 4 paint samples on the wall yesterday before our little house warming party! This part warms my heart as I have been thinking about paint colors for the past month - in fact it is a weekly question to Andrew.

Pre Sheet Rock

Our little helper Fiona

The french doors had to go through the window hole

BEFORE

AFTER

Lots of mudding

FINALLY picking paint colors! 

Option #3 it is - "Morning Fog"

I leave for Nantucket for the summer in 2 days. Andrew will now be left to his own devices to finish up the back room and start on the garage/basement for his new shop.  I am oddly enough not worried about the house - I know that it will look great no matter what he does.  What I am truly worried about is the 3 month old Newfoundland dog that our friend's dad found. I am scared shitless that Andrew will adopt this dog while I am gone.  I do not really want a dog, never mind a 150 pound furball that drools so much he could mop the floors.  To which Andrew says, "Have a heart".

Raccoons and McDonalds

Andrew's living hell is small spaces and lots of people.  The thought of getting coffee from a Starbucks on a Sunday morning or playing in a ball pit at McDonalds sends him into anxiety overload. Fair enough.  The germs in the ball pit send me into germophobia orbit. We all have our things.

So this week we have had to tackle wiring, insulation, and strapping on the ceiling in the back living room.  Its hard to believe that slightly over a week since we moved a big trailer from VA to RI we have accomplished so much on the house, our 2 startup businesses and current work schedules and commitments.  Did I mention that we are working 19 hour days?!?!  Talk about burning the candle at both ends.

 

So back to the question you are all asking...what do raccoons and McDonalds have in common? Well, underneath the back living room is a crawl space.  And in that crawl space is the master wire (I am probably saying it wrong) that was, wait for it, done incorrectly by one of the previous owners.  We have at this point more or less rewired the entire back of the house...and by "we" I mean Andrew.

12 hours of sweating, debating, and bargaining with me about going into the crawl space ensues.  For one because of the anxiety of the small space, but mostly because of the raccoon that Andrew is convinced lives in the crawl space and is going to jump out and give him rabies.


This is literally terrifying to him.


And a total laughing matter to me.  So supportive Maria.

So the whole time Andrew is under there fixing the wires I am chatting to him, telling him the noises he hears is birds and trying to assure him that he will not get rabies.  All the while laughing at the fact that whoever "tried to" insulate the pipes under the back room failed miserably.




     




ADD IT TO THE LIST.

Notice the taped wiring in the upper right hand part of the wall

Did I mention that our fireplace leaks water?  And that the sellers LIED about it?!

So our next challenge is sheet rock, french doors and windows.  Hopefully it won't involve raccoons, but I'm sure we'll have a surprise.

House Love

Thanks Maaike & Harper for the flowers!

It's one of those days.  Rainy with a side of New England chill. Normally this would be the perfect excuse to curl up with a book or spend some time editing photos, but now that we have this house, its construction time ALL the time. In fact slave driver Andrew is hardly giving me the time to write this blog post...I am literally being pulled out the door to the Home Depot as I write.

Since my return to Rhode Island after almost two weeks in Virginia celebrating weddings and engagements whilst packing up my belongings, it is "go" time and I haven't had a spare minute.  In between unpacking the UHaul, putting furniture and boxes in their respective rooms and working on the construction in the back room, I fall asleep without hesitation.  Everything we own needs refinishing, a cleanup or something.  Just add it to the list.  Welcome to home ownership:)

While I was away in Virginia Andrew had a WHOLE lot of time to himself to completely gut the basement. It now really looks like a basement and a space that we could find to function quite well with a laundry room, "shop" for Andrew and toy room (ie paddle board and bikes).

BEFORE

Cheesy nautical wallpaper - so hard to let go...

Andrew found 1970's Playboy magazines and a bag of pills in these rafters...guess it was a crazy era...

AFTER

Lots of future workshop space

Andrew has his work cut out for him in the wiring department

Cheesy wallpaper gone

More and more space

This week our efforts are on the back living room.  I literally feel like Heidi from "Home Improvement" but without looking so cute.   Her character lies.  This construction stuff is HARD WORK!!

The crappy construction from the previous owners that we are finding time and time again. 

In the past three days I have cut nails with a saw zall, learned the difference between an impact driver and a regular screw gun, culled lumber, used a leveler and a chop saw (ie sliding compound miter saw) and pulled nails with a crow bar.  I have my own tool belt and got checked out ("oh hiiii")at my first solo Home Depot run while culling through 2x6 boards for us to create sister joyces to the original beams.  Oh, and how could I forget trimming hedges and the huge hydrangea bush in our front yard - certainly a first for me. Somehow my manicure from this past weekend's party is still intact.

And I wanted to look at paint colors this week.  How naive.

This hydrangea bush will be gorgeous one day. 

My first trimming experience was not so successful...I guess that whole section of the bush will grown back:)

This weekend I get a break and get to go sailing and do some photography shoots. Monday, it's back to the grind.  Insulation, strapping and sheet rock are next.  As much hard work as it is, I am in love with this house.