Nothing is ever easy...

A few years ago, we bought a  filtered water dispenser for our fridge. It's slightly bigger than a pitcher, but you still have to fill it with water from the sink. When we bought the dispenser we got a great deal on filters and bought a bunch. Fast forward to last March 2009 when we moved into our house. Everything was packed up for the move. Fast forward to today, we can't find any of the filters. We refuse to buy new ones, because we know we own like 3 of them!! So it seemed like the perfect opportunity to finally hook up the water dispenser on the fridge. Easy, no problem, right?

Well the first sign of trouble was the empty filter cartridge that looked like it was broken on the end. Suspicious?  Yes, but it did not stop us from moving forward! The plumbing was done fairly quickly and then we decided to shoot over to Sears to get a new filter. That when we realized we had a problem. The filter had burst inside the fridge and we had to pull it out piece by piece. This was the hard part. On the left you'll see the cartridge housing, on the right the guts. Taking these pieces out almost took 4 hours. 

Once they were out, we were excited to hook up the water and experience filtered water at its greatest. Well, not only did we, but our entire kitchen floor enjoy the water. Not only had the filter burst, but much of the plumbing in the back of the fridge. It was time to call in the professionals (Blue Crew). Yet another project at the Pitt that was way harder than it needed to be.

So when I was a wee youth back in Owosso, MI. Elizabeth and I always used to dream of the day when we would have a fridge with a dispenser on the door. Because a fridge with a dispenser was classy.

Well Elizabeth as I look at my fridge with the dispenser now intact, in the Pitt, the first thought that comes to mind is always, classy.

The Deck Part 3: Putting it Back Together

This actually happened back in November, but Bob's lazy and didn't bother writing about it until now. Bob's excuse is that Orsi already hijacked the blog, so why didn't she update it?

As described previously, the deck was attached to the house (right through the siding) which caused leaking and rotting problems. So we removed some boards against the house, dug new postholes, attached the deck to the new posts, and cut it away from the house. Thus, the deck was now freestanding. The next step was to put in the new sliding door and the siding over the deck. With that done, we could finally put the deck back together.

To put things back together, we put a new board across the end against the house. This was positioned very close to the house. This was a little tricky since there was no way to get a hammer or screwdriver between the house and the board to attach it to the ends of the boards. The solution was simple: we used some short scrap boards to attach to the end of the boards perpendicular to the house, and then attached to the parallel board through those, so the screws were going towards the house instead of away:

The upper part of the deck (shown above) has boards that run parallel to the house, so putting those boards back in was simple (although we ended up replacing one of them). The lower part of the deck has boards at an angle. To avoid pulling the entire deck apart, we made a cut parallel to the house, resulting in several short diagonal pieces that had to be put back. To reattach them, we put short pieces parallel to the house in between the perpendicular pieces. These were positioned halfway out of the ends that were still there, and then the old pieces were replaced. Thus, the ends of the boards where they were cut is supported and nothing is just hanging in the air:

We ended up replacing a couple of these pieces, too. Here's what the deck looks like now (the replaced pieces are clearly visible):

 

The next steps are to power wash the deck to remove the existing paint and stain it. Also, the railing is in really bad shape, so we'll replace that, too. Ultimately we'd like to replace the deck entirely, but that's going to be a big expensive project, so I expect that to be many years away (we'd be happy if we could get 10 more years out of this deck).

Moving Along

It's been a bit inactive here at the Pitt. There's been a lot of last minute touch ups to get ready for the reappraisal.

• Priming exposed drywall
• "Finishing" the back bathroom
• Final organization of the storage room
• Replacing all the broken tile

My new task is to stage the house in some way. We really don't have enough furniture to go around. We came from 750 square feet into 3,085 and there's just the two of us. We basically live in the master, the living room and the kitchen. These areas are all well furnished. But we've still got three bedrooms, the giant dining room (or baby grand piano room, which is what it'll be),  the living area by the kitchen, the storage room and the space goes on and on.

I've secured a couple of beds, which we really needed for the extra bedrooms. The good news here is, the rooms look much more finished and when you visit us, you'll actually have a bed, not futon, to sleep on! The dining room will remain empty. It's actually kind of nice to have the big empty space, it gives the dogs plenty of room to run.

So we're still here, working away, living the life of luxury at the Pitt.

In case you were wondering...

I am no longer in pain. Moving around seems natural again. In fact with the momentary warm weather, we did some yard work today!

Flooring and Pain in the Master Bedroon

Pain. So much pain....For the re-appraisal of the Pitt, we needed some cheap flooring in the master to replace the white painted plywood that we've been living on. We were back and forth on whether or not we would actually put in floors, but Lowe's had a sale on laminate wood floors for 58 cents a square foot and we were sold. We bought the underlay at the Habitat for Humanity Restore, and we were ready to go.  Dad stopped by on Saturday to put some finishing touches on the house. He thought putting flooring in was a waste of time, but he couldn't resist watching us do it. So while Bob was at Tae Kwon Do, I began the process.

To begin, I rolled out the first row of the underlayment and put up the first row of the laminate. It was tricky figuring out how to anchor the floating  floor, but I got the hang of if. Initially, dad hung out in the master putting on the pocket door hardware (yeah!) and giving me advice. By the time Bob came home I already had the groove down and was a third of the way done with the floor.

Since I already knew what I was doing, Bob became my lackey. He got me my pieces laminate, vacuumed cleaned, while I laid the floor and sawed the pieces. (Yes folks, they trust me with power tools!!)
That crouching position you see? That was the position I was in for 12 hours. 12 straight hours with one break for a veggie burger.  But I was determined to get the job done. When we reached the difficult areas like the door, Dad stepped in to help.

Notice folks, I am still in the crouching position with like 6 inches of underwear showing. This was late into the evening and it was not pretty.  Dad finally left around 7 and we only had a couple of more rows to go. We finished by 9 and I couldn't wait to get in the shower to wash off the saw dust. But it's done. the floor is done, and for what it is, it looks great!

As a reward for a job well done we went out to dinner at Sidetracks at 10:00 pm. We were so pathetic. Bob was falling asleep at the table and I couldn't stop eating everything in sight.

Well this morning I woke up and I could barely move. My thighs and butt hurt so much from crouching, that I may never move again. And let me tell you folks, day to day tasks that you take advantage of like, sitting on the toilet, become really difficult. I can hardly walk stairs, get into my car, or sit and stand up. I'm am a sad human being right now. But my friends, the flooring is complete and I was the one who did it!

This is me crouched over in pain. Somehow with all the exercise from yesterday, my roll is still prevalent. Sigh.

Curtain

The master closet has a window in it. This is thanks to Bob's suggestion that we should have natural daylight to save on energy costs. The window was installed, it all looked great, except for one tiny thing. There was no window covering. Granted the master closet window faces the backyard, where there are woods, no neighbors, but still, it was always a big creepy if I caught myself without my shirt on in there. So the obvious choice was for me to sew a curtain for the room. I presented this idea to Bob and his response was, "You know honey, this is the master closet, and I think your curtains were fine in our apartments, but we should have something a little nicer in here, don't you think?" Well it was on? Me sew inferior curtains? I don't think so. Granted my last curtain attempt resulted in 4 curtains, all different sizes, but they were adequate and did the job. So I set off to find fabric to make the curtain extravaganza happen.

Step 1: Buy fabric. Bob says, "Shouldn't you call Reenie and see how to do
this right?"

Step 2: Take fabric and measure it to the window.

Step 3: Realize that I should have measured window before purchasing fabric.

Step 4: Return fabric. Bob calls Reenie himself to try to get me help.

Step 5: Buy new fabric in measured amount.

Step 6: Cut out fabric and bicker with Bob that I am not doing this correctly and clearly I need to call in a professional (Reenie) to help with the situation.

Step 7: Iron fabric

Step 8: Set up sewing machine I have not used in 3 years since last curtain making attempt. Bob still convincing me that I need to consult with Reenie.

Step 9: Begin sewing along ironed seams.

Step 10: Have the bobbin (what the heck is that again?) get stuck and a good piece of the material gets ripped.

Step 11: Proceed on. I mean there was plenty of extra material cut, right?

Step 12: Finish curtain and hang it on the window.

Step 13: Realize that the curtain is 5 inches too short. 5 inches!?!?!? How does that happen?

Step 14: Realize that the fabric was wide enough to cut another window panel.

Step 15: Start from beginning and repeat Steps 7 and 9.

Step 16: Finish curtain. Finally. It fits. I swear - because I am a master of sewing. In fact I am a sewing genius.

Step 17: Pack up sewing machine for another 3 years of storage.

Reenie or Mama B, can we please get together for sewing lessons soon?

Siding Complete!

The siding is finally complete. It took a lot longer than we thought, because dad was MIA for about 4 weeks. Once he was back, the house really started to come together. Everyday the house was looking a bit more put together. Cars driving down the street, would often slow down to get a second look at the Pitt. Friends coming over, will often drive by the house because they can't recognize it. As you can see from the pictures below, we ended up going with a white siding and sandstone trim. Now were' on to putting on the finishing touches before the appraisal; finish flooring in the kitchen, prime a couple of walls, put up fixtures etc.

House Before:

 

After:

One of our Christmas gifts which we love: