House Stats

The appraiser came by last week to check out the house and assign a value to all of my toiling. It appears that the hard work has paid off; in addition to having a lovely home, I now have this magic thing called equity. Huzzah! For those of you who care, here are the details.

Date Purchased: Sept 25, 2008

Date Built: 1904

Size: 2300 sqft (plus basement and garage)

Bedrooms: 3

Bathrooms: 2.5

Updates: New electrical, plumbing, HVAC, gyp walls and ceilings, flooring, appliances

Approx. hours of work put into the house: 950 (Please take a moment to mull over the fact that all this work was done over evenings and weekends...ugh.)

Total trips to Home Depot: 87 (based on receipts and the fact that the cashiers know me by name)

Date completed: Aug 30, 2009

I couldn't be more proud to call this place home.

PS. Just in case you wanted to see them...

That's right, ladies - I have a dedicated shoe closet.

The End is Here

Finally, I can see the sweet glow of light at the end of the construction tunnel, and it feels wonderful. I'm 99.9% done with the house. (Only closet organizers and some minor, non-Megan work needs to be completed.)

Needless to say, I'm extremely proud of all that has been accomplished, and I whole-heartedly appreciate the time and effort that my friends and family have dedicated to the project. Thanks especially to Mike Hartmann, who even after thousands of dollars, was still the cheapest general contractor I could find, and Patrick Kelley, who worked only for Pabst and friendly company. (Patrick, you're a freakin' saint.)

Anyway, to illustrate the sheer amount of work that has gone into the house over the past year, there are some side-by-side photos posted below.

Official specs will follow when I get the appraisal numbers back.

Kitchen - Before

Kitchen - After

From Entry to Back Door - Before

From Entry to Back Door - After

Hallway - Before

Hallway - After

Master Bedroom - Before

Master Bedroom - After

So there you have it. After almost an entire year, countless hours of work, numerous splinters, roof leaks, and nervous breakdowns, I have a house. A pretty nice house, at that.

Thanks again to anyone who helped -- no matter how big or small your contribution. Your support has meant the world to me, and I truly couldn't have done it without you.

Progress for the Sake of Progress

I'm not feeling particularly chatty today, so I'll just say that a long Sunday was spent installing baseboards and feeling generally meh.

Pictures:

And...craft room. The craft room had been to this stage for a couple weeks.

Matt helped me put together that awesome carpet-square rug.

The book nook.

And lastly, a working pantry, also with help from Matt.

Stairway to Heaven

First off, many apologies for the lack of posting in the last few months...Mom visited for a month, then another two months of slow progress due to unpacking and a general need to be social. :)

I finally figured out how to tackle the stair issues. It turns out all they needed was time -- 3 months of time to dry, that is. After sitting for so long, the stain had finally cured and was a lot easier to seal (without the color rubbing off!)

Here are some progress shots...


I had to cover the stairs in paper while the stain cured, otherwise they would have gotten mucked up with all the traffic. Also note that the dining room walls have been painted!!


Once they were finally ready (read: once I was finally ready), I put 4 coats of sealer on each tread, making them nice and shiny!


Yesterday, Kirkwood stair came out and installed all the decorative trim and the ballusters! (See the gaps at the top? Yeah, they sent too many short ballusters and not enough long ones...so they'll be coming out to fix that soon.)

I've been so used to the stair being open that I think it will take a while to get used to the ballusters. They definitely change the look and the feel of the steps. The upside to them is that they keep the cats from leaping off the stairs and onto the dining room table.

What do you think?