Photo Updates!

The marble countertop tile for the kitchen. There are varying shades in the coloring, which will be gorgeous, I think.


Panoramic view of the kitchen


Inside the pantry closet is the pecs system plumbing for hot and cold lines in the upstairs bathrooms. I love all the pretty colors! You can also see the new heating duct for the back room as well.


The back room (bedroom for now and future office).



The bathroom.


The hall and closet.

You got to ac-cent-uate the positive and e-lim-i-nate the negative....

I had good news and bad news on the house today, but the bad news doesn't really shock me anymore. Nothing can shock me after that foundation horror.

The plumber was hooking up the drains for the house, and when he dug down to the sewer line, he found five holes in the main sewer line as big around as my entire hand. Even better, the landlady who'd owned the house when it was an apartment building knew about the holes, because they'd been covered with loose pieces of tin and then dirt was thrown back over the pipes. As opposed to ACTUALLY FIXING SOMETHING! Yeah, I'm not really surprised. Honestly though, if that old lady weren't dead, I'd have found a way to kill her by now. Anyway, we have to dig a trench along the entire length of the sewerline to where it ties onto the city sewer, and most of it will very likely have to be replaced. Another thousand dollars or so we didn't forsee. Lovely.

Moreover, as I'd suspected would happen, the building inspector came to take a look at the progress and saw that scary ceiling in the upstairs back bedroom. It has to come down. The roof above it has to come down. Without doing that, he won't approve the work. I knew it, and told Dad that before, but the news had to come from the inspector before he believed me. Not that I was given credit for being right (nor did I say "I told you so!"), but my suspicions were correct nonetheless. That's a problem that will wait until the summer, but that means we can't do any more work in that space until the roof and ceiling are rebuilt. The UPSIDE of this information is that now we can get nine foot ceilings in that area as well so that all of the rooms upstairs are the same height. As is, the room is only seven and a half feet high, which feels claustrophobic. So not only will it be safer, it will also be more aesthetically pleasing. Therefore, I guess this is a good thing, taken from that angle (which I'm choosing to use, since that's the angle that makes me not want to holler).

The other GOOD NEWS is that the drains are set for the upstairs bathroom toilets and showers, and supply lines have been run upstairs from the basement. The downstairs bathroom is also not part of the sewer problem because it has a separate drain that runs to another part of the yard. So I will still be able to have a working bathroom. Unfortunately though, the kitchen and laundry room drain to the broken pipe. Suck. However, it is going to be fixed--hopefully within the next week or so.

Sigh. I'm going to go look at my lovely tile again and think how great my kitchen will be. :)

(Crossposted on my regular blog)

Such a Deal!!!!

This evening, I went with Mom and Dad to Home Depot to buy outlets and light switches and more vapor barrier plastic, and Dad had the idea to look at the cost of 12 inch marble tile for the bake center countertop. We can't afford to use marble or granite countertops, but he thought perhaps using the tile might produce a similar effect for much less money. I am so glad he did!!!

They were running a special price on jade green marble tile (which is really varied in color, with veins of pink, grey, and cream--fabulous!) for $1.49 per 12 inch square tile! That meant that for the bake center, which is 4 ft. long and 2 ft. deep, we'd need 8 tiles, which meant $15 for the whole countertop, including grout and mortar! When I heard that, I said, "Well, how much would it cost to do all of the countertops, except for the island, which is chopping block?" Dad did some figuring, and it was 45 square feet for the entire kitchen, which means that if we use the marble for the back splashes as well as all of the counterspace, it's $95 for all of the tile! Wahoo! That's less than anything else we could do, including making our own stuck down formica!

It took me about three seconds to blink hard, swallow, and say, "Put it in the cart."

I got the sink, two garbage disposals, the dishwasher, oven, and microwave for $250 used. The huge side-by-side refrigerator with ice and water dispensor in the door was $750, originally $1200 but marked down at the outlet store. The stove is yet to be bought, but thanks to my Aunt Mary, we can get a $750 one for $550 at a place she knows about in KC.

So now I'll have marble countertops with custom made cherry wood cabinets and counter edging and black appliances, plus an island with 6 ft. long maple chopping block top and breakfast bar overhang (which Dad got for less than $50 in a closeout sale). How dazzlingly gorgeous is that!?! And so cheap, I can hardly believe it!

All I have left to do is buy a small sink for the island (which will use the second garbage disposal) and then pick out the flooring, and we may do new oak flooring throughout the entire downstairs. Home Depot has a deal on that too! I want to pass out from happiness!

(Crossposted on my regular blog)