New Windows!!

Things have been moving along at the Pitt. Dad's back from the old country, Bob's taken vacation, the weather is cooling. Perfect time for windows.

We were not ignorant to the fact that the windows, along with everything else in the house would be a lot of hard work. It's not just a matter of popping the old windows out and putting in the new ones - it would never be that easy at the Pitt. Instead, we take out the old window, take moment to express our disgust for how terribly unmaintained this house is, and then start re-building the infrastructure underneath. This may come as a shock, but everything under the windows is rotting, on its way to rotting, or we are totally surprised that it is still supporting the house. But no worries, we have Superman, my dad and The Boy Wonder, Bob, to take care of the situation. (Hopefully dad doesn't up the grand kid count for these).

The first window we started on was the one right next to the garage, in the kitchen. After multiple trips to the Home Depot (can these guys please give us a discount for mentioning their name so many times??) some replacing of old two by fours and foam, the window was in. It only took 11 hours. At this rate, we are replacing these suckers at one window a day. Slow and steady wins the race I guess.



So far there have been 4 successful installs. The kitchen window over the sink was 1 foot too wide - so we're back to the Depot to reorder (womp, womp). This is actually a blessing in disguise. After we ordered the window, our good friend suggested we put a bay window in so I could have vases and such on the window sill. The idea was brilliant, but we didn't want to re-order. Since we now have to reorder, we're going to get a bay window.

There have been a couple of nights where we've had no windows, but no worries, dad found a solution:



Also, replacing the windows has forced us to start stripping the siding. Although we no longer have the giant dumpster in the front lawn, we still manage to be the ghettoest house on the block. The neighbors have been doing very slow drive-byes. I guess you would too if the house looked like this.



Stay tuned for "after" pictures.

What's next after windows? Siding. And we're thinking white. What do you think?

Ramblings

Things have been pretty quiet at the Pitt. Dad's been on vacation and other than some small things that nobody else will notice, not much has been going on. Bob successfully sealed the bathroom tiles, I have successfully baked and cooked in the oven and we hosted our first official gathering of friends.

My birthday was earlier this month and my parents surprised me with a patio set. A patio set that they hid in my basement and expected that I would never find before my birthday (which i did). The patio set is super huge and sits a bunch of people. I heart it. See below:



And a picture of my first pie of the season using local rhubarb and strawberries:



We also had a basement adventure. Actually, Bob and my dad had a basement adventure. As they were wiring the stove they found a box in the rafters of the basement. The box looked seemingly innocent:

Clock Radio Telephone. What could be wrong with that? Upon closer inspection the box was filled with old VHS tapes. Pornographic VHS tapes. How do we know this? Well they are labeled, "Star Virgin", "19 an Ready", "Meatball" - we're just taking an educated guess. We are a little bit petrified that they were recorded in the house. Sigh. I guess this is one of the pluses of the Pitt - it's always filled with surprises.

Finally, bathroom counters.

The day has finally come at the Pitt where one can eliminate, shower and wash their hands all in the same room. Our friends over at the installer place stopped by to install our Corian countertops with sinks. It was good that dad was on hand because he had to go back to home depot 4 times to get the right plumbing lines to hook all the water up. But it works. We can finally see a teeny tiny light at the end of the tunnel. Here are the changes:

Curved shower rod, installed hooks on door, door painted, door knob.



Light fixtures (Yes.The middle bulb went out as soon as we installed it. Menards is really far, so it'll be a while before we replace them.) Mirrors, not yet hung, but in the room! Countertop, sink & facuets.


Another view of the counters with the floor tile:


These things are still left:

• tile backsplash
• grout sealing
• hardware on cabinets
• hanging mirrors
• attaching light switch plates
• final caulking

What do you think so far?

Kitchen!!

So the idea of installing the perfectly good stove has been placed in my head by my mother. Since my dad is doing all the work, I feel that it is unfair to pressure him into doing any one thing. I mean we did share what the kitchen facilities looked like before, but I have the electric skillet, everything was OK. Apparently, mom nagged dad enough that he finally gave in. He cut out the old stove, counter top and all (we are not planning to remove the existing counter anytime soon) and we ran into problem #1.

You see the existing range was a gas range and this is the gas line protruding 6" out of the wall. The new electric stove will not fit into this space with the gas line sticking out. Dad looks at me and says, "I don't do gas. You're going to have to call someone to do this." I call someone, they come out for 5 minutes & cut this line down. Another $55. Sigh.

Problem #2:

The electrical to support the oven does not exist. We had to buy the 6-3 wire and wire it into the fuse box. And by we, I mean my dad and Bob. Dad did most of the work, Bob pitched in here and there. The results are marvelous, and have encouraged me to make some appliance changes in the kitchen.

See how pretty it all is together? Yes. That is a double oven that you see! Some of the classics are still around:

• Picture of dad with incredible amount of food on the microwave
• Orsi's Olive Oil
• Cereal Dispenser from work
• Tea kettle

Things that don't work yet:

• Dishwasher. Yeah it's dirty, but apparently it also sucks!
• The water dispenser in the fridge
• The window on the right hand side
• The lazy susan

Things that are still incredibly disgusting:

The exhaust hood fan used without a grease filter for YEARS!. It's only vented to somewhere in the attic, so it's really not that useful anyway.

Landscaping...

So Bear and I are not the gardening, lawn mowing type of people. In fact, we have outsourced our lawn mowing, which makes our marriage a happier union. How do we maintain the exterior of The Pitt? I have a co-worker and friend that loves gardening; loves it so much that she has volunteered to come over and garden. Garden the 2 acre Pitt. She made an appearance this weekend with her Subaru and a Pickaxe. We had to remove the bushes right next to the house so we can install the new windows, replace the rotting framing, and change the siding. I didn't like the way they looked anyway, so I'm not to upset about it.

So you can truly appreciate the amount of work we put in, check out the before picture:


See all the bushes? This weekend they are GONE! FOREVER!

Step One: The Subaru



Step Two: Pull




Step Three: Pickaxe

Step Four: No more bushes!!




We weren't the only ones exhausted in this process. These guys ate dinner and went right to bed:

Looks Can be Deceiving

As many of you know I love to cook, bake, and generally spend a good amount of time in the kitchen. So what's the kitchen like in The Pitt? Well it leaves a lot to be desired. Let's focus on the appliances:


This is where looks can be deceiving. The dishwasher? Not hooked up. Now many have pointed out to me that the dishwasher is probably one of the cleanest places in the house. I mean, it's only used for washing, right? I just don't trust it. It looks OK on the inside, but take a look at the range below. Would you trust anything that came from a house where the range looked like this?



They were using this to cook food on people. FOOD! FOOD THAT WAS MEANT FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION!!! OF COURSE I DON'T TRUST THE DISHWASHER!! I have to admit that I have been considering it. Did you see the clean dishes above the dishwasher? We do a lot of dish washing and it's getting old.

I don't have an oven, so baking is out. Although I did briefly experiment with crock pot baking, I decided that waiting for the real oven may be worth it. Let me introduce you to my kitchen cooking tools:

The Cuisinart Electric Skillet. This is the BEST thing ever if you don't have a real kitchen. It's an extra burner - the only one I have right now that really works. I make a lot of potatoes here. Roasted potatoes, onion potatoes, slightly boiled potatoes, potatoes and cauliflower. This is my #1 recommended cooking appliance for those of you without a kitchen.

The hot plate. UL approved. This means that my house shouldn't blow up if I use it properly. It also means that it takes this thing 45 MINUTES TO BOIL WATER!! Those sweet potatoes? They've been on there for 1 hour. SWEET POTATOES?!?!? Sigh. I try to avoid the hotplate as much as possible, or if necessary I'll pre-heat for 30 minutes.

The good news is that if we can successfully cut out the nasty range, remove cabinetry from underneath, run the correct 6-3 wire to the kitchen, and situate the oven - I may have one sooner than later. Maybe the Kitchen Aids will make an appearance again!

Let there be a Toilet

Today is truly a happy day. My friends, today I have a toilet in the same room as the shower. This means that in the middle of the night, or right before bed, I will no longer have to travel four miles to the other side of the house to do my business. The days of contemplating squatting in the shower are over, and peeing before showering in the morning is once again a reality all because of this glorious toilet.

Toilet Before Installation

See how pretty it is? See how it shines? Yes. I know. It's the most beautiful thing we've ever seen too.