'Tis the season...

...to have a faux dressed-out reindeer hung from a pole in your front yard in Bedford, IN. I guess I would've figured they would've waited until after Thanksgiving, like Macy's, but with something this festive, I can understand why the neighbors wanted to get it up as soon as possible (note the red lights "dripping" from the reindeer).

Locale aside, things are going pretty well with the renovation. We finished out the second bedroom and trimmed it out. Our delivery of stored goods came and we put it in the master, which covers up the cracks from the foundation settling and puts us at ease with an "out-of-sight/out-of-mind" sort of mentality, but means we have a lot more unpacking, and ultimately downsizing, coming.

In the last few weeks a lot has happened, which is why we have not updated the blog. Beyond the delivery of the rest of our earthly possessions from storage and my best-friend from Indy getting married (I was in the wedding), Tiffany's Mom passed-on. I had a hard time figuring out whether or not to write about that in the Blog, but I realize that it was such a huge event that it cannot be brushed past. Joanne Roman was an angel on earth and we will miss her dearly. She was a great mother and wife and I realize that she will lend us strength, even now, as we continue on our great quest to make this house into a home.

The second bedroom came together quickly once we finsihed out the painting and got the trim in place. With our stuff getting delivered from storage, we were able to outfit the room (that we once referred to as the "Scary Doll" room because of the scary doll on the wall paper border) to be our first guest room. Because of the blue-gray paint color and our plans to put my Notre Dame Football prints in the room, we are now calling it the Four Horseman Suite.

In other good news, we had a structural engineer visit our home to give us the goods on what was going on with our foundation. He determined that our settling was caused by soil dessication, which was caused by tree roots. In many cases tree roots cause issues with foundations with positive pressure against the structure. In our case, it is negative pressure. The tree roots are removing nutrients and water (density) from the soil, causing the foundation to drop. In his professional opinion, the structure is in good shape and by stopping the movement by cutting down the tree. As long as we remove the tree, we can patch the cracks, have the exterior tuckpointed (chinks replaced between the limestone blocks) and we are in solid shape.

On the docket for this weekend? Leaf removal, As you can see by the picture to the left, the maple causing the dessication plus our tulip tree have mercilessly dropped their bounty upon us. We have been out of town the last few weekends so we are "those neighbors" and we need to take care of it. After the leaves are gone? A nice low mow and some overseeding...Ah...the joys of home ownership.







Next projects? Organize possessions. Paint, floor and trim the office. Organize possessions. Fix up the master. Organize possessions. It's like we live in one of those game thingies where you move the squares around to create a picture or a number sequence (patriotic version of slidy thingy shown left).

"They're China's problem now..."

So it's been a while since we posted. A lot has happened...as per usual before we post again. We've enjoyed a few ND games, been working hard on our work for our careers and doing a bit of work on the house.

A few weeks ago we reailzed that the walls in the master bedroom were cracking a lot. Actually, Tiffany did, I insisted that the cracks weren't getting bigger...until they were about a 32nd to an 8th of an inch thick. What can you do?

So we have had some bad news, overall. Despite the fact we searched for a house with "good bones" that we could just do some interior work to, that we could handle, it seems that we may have bit off more than we could chew. The cracks are big in the master, and are happening because of some sort of tortion on the concrete block walls. It's caused by either a sinking footer (hence, they're China's problem now...ala the Simpson's Movie) below the foundation or hydraulic pressure from the improperly installed retaining wall. We pray it's the second because a sinking footer is a mess...Google it, you'll cry for us.

That being said, we've found some little things to do (besides celebrating Irish near losses). In the last few weeks, we have done little things to make the house feel like a home.

This is our old metal cabinet-ed and soffit-ed kitchen. Please note the worst drapes in the world and the track lights that are hanging. The most left one, by the time we had moved in, was hanging down on wires...good super glue job former owner! (The picture on the right shows the light hanging down, but with the new blinds in the background).

At any rate, over the last week, we have made some good progress in the space. We removed the old dusty, nasty, cheap plastic blinds and installed some new ones from a home center. After we added the blinds, the falling down light seemed out-of place, so we re-did the track lighting with a new set from Home Depot.

All in all, it is the little things that sometimes make a big difference. Despite the watermelon wallpaper border at the top of the picture, the kitchen feels more like home...especially with the non-80's track lighting being replaced. It almost feels like a home. Given that it is in an area of the home that isn't sinking to China, we think it was a good investment!

Week 7? You kind-of lose track with all that is going on...(another Ben post)

I guess "behind schedule, but optomistic" is the best way to describe where we are right now. There's always something to do and working on the house is tough to fit in at times. A guy at work, when told that we were living in the house that we were renovating, asked if my wife had a good sense of humor. The answer was a definitive yes. Note to all readers, renovation would be much easier if we weren't moved into the space (for the most part anyway) and if we maybe had double the space. It would also be helpful to have a pool of cheap, quality labor or maybe children of the age where they can do the really crappy work to "build character"...by the end of this, Tiffany and I will have built enough character for a lifetime. In reno work you spend a lot less time doing the cool stuff (running saws, using nail guns, etc.) and spend a lot more time with the tedious (spraying stuff that requires a mask, sanding, scraping and hitting one's thumb).

That all being said, I think that the way that we're living AND renovating and not living TO renovate has been key in our survival. Between the visit to South Bend for Tiff's Mom's b-day, the visit to Chicago to see Lucas and a trip to the first ND game of the season; we haven't really been punching the clock super hard lately in terms of work. But we have had some great successes in the last week that are putting us ahead.

With touchups being done on the, now non-hubba bubba room (grey guest room), we were ready to tackle trim. We had bought a simpler profile baseboard to use in the bedrooms to give them a bit of a premium feel and provide a good contrast to the colors we chose. The only challenge? The outlets on the window walls were low...and I do mean low. Less than six inches off the deck and these were going to interfere with the trim. To solve the problem I called on a couple of topic experts for their two cents. I first spoke with Greg Burnett of Manor Redevlopment in Chicago, IL and then to Gary Katz from the Katz Roadshow and JLC fame. Being mildly competent with tools and building and being able to ask some of the best in the industry questions is a great combo if you are doing this sort of stuff yourself. For these low outlets, they suggested custom built-out plinth blocks that would set the outlets a bit further from the wall but created an intended interference in the trim (as opposed to just cutting out pieces of the trim like the guy that owned the house before us did to deal with these sorts of things). The results? FANTASTIC! The block with the extended outlet is visible in the photo above next to the leg of the ironing board on the left side. Better pic to come, this one was from my Blackberry.

Some people might be wondering what the ironing board is doing in the room...the simple answer is that it is the one room that we have closet bars installed in and thusly contains all of our ironables. So this is the most natural place for the board, though the juxtaposition of it next to an air nailer might say something about the duality in man of the need to build and the need for order or maybe the breakdown of traditional gender roles in the modern household. You can categorize it how you want artistically, for us it's just the logical place to keep the ironing board. You come to a lot of strange conclusions and compromises with stuff like this during renovation.

This weekend's ND/Mich game will put the brakes on a bit, once again, on some reno work, but we would like to get a lot more of the trim done. A word to the wise, when running trim in an old plastered house, inevitably you will find that your trim job would've gone better if the dude that made the walls in the 50's had made them straight and that picking the straightest molding at the home center doesn't mean squat when you get to using the nailer. Neither do the most accurate mitres, scarf joints, etc. Hopefully room two will go a bit faster now that I am learned in some of the traps of trim carpentry.

Keep wishing us luck and we'll keep you posted on progress.

Week 5: Cars, Babies, and Carpets, oh my!

Sorry for our delay in our blog! We apologize for letting two weeks go by without an update. Ben did sit down to write last week, but forgot the password to the blog, so he quickly gave up and went back to working on the house. I had hoped Ben would write the blog last week since he did most of the work. During week four of the renovations, I had to finish up my work for summer school. My mac died unexpectedly and once I got over the trauma of losing my work from the past two years, I hurried off to IU where I found myself at the computer for 14 hours a day for seven days straight. Ben, in the meantime, put forth all of his energy into the house, painting an entire bedroom on his own. I helped with priming the walls, prior to my computer crashing, but Ben did everything else. He turned the pink and green room (also known as Hubba Bubba) into a beautiful light gray sanctuary. He painted the trim and even developed a patented process fix cracking plaster walls (it's a three step process that is complicated, but produces amazing results). At the end of week four, we were moving onto the scary doll room but with reluctance as the room had a crack in the ceiling that we decided to fix. In addition to fixing the ceiling crack and painting the ceiling, Ben also repaired a large crack that ran floor to ceiling in one of the corners. Of course, painting a ceiling involves removing a fan, so that came down. Instead of a white fan, I convinced Ben we should put in something a little more modern.

As week five arrived, I was once again able to help out with the house as my summer school class ended. Ben was able to paint the trim in the second bedroom and spackle the cracks with his patented process, so I set about priming the room on my own. Although it took me all day long, I turned the scary doll room into a peaceful work space. Ben added to each room by installing the new fans that he purchased at Home Depot and filled the gaps in the closet door frame. The carpets were originally scheduled to be installed on Thursday, but that wasn't going to happen, so we pushed it back until Friday...then Monday.

As the days passed by quickly, we didn't get around to painting the second bedroom or removing carpeting until after the weekend. We went to visit Mark and Carin and little Lucas (our new Nephew) over the weekend and a stop at IKEA on Sunday for some fixtures slowed our progress back to Bedford. Got a start on the work that was absolutely necessary when we got home around nine in the evening. At 3:30 on Monday morning we pulled final pieces of carpet out of most of the rooms except the one that had freshly been painted. Ben finished that Monday after he woke up before going to work! Such goes renovation! Visiting Lucas, Mark and Carin was worth the effort on the backside of it all.

Week 3 - Tales of Wild Bush, 2nd Anniversary and some side notes on Bedford (an entry by Ben)

There are so many things to say...where do I start? Looking at today, it was probably one of the most productive days we have had since the start. This week, in general, was OK. Only one pair of vise-grips with slightly melted ends (closet light install) and the visit from the Roto-rooter guy that marked the second anniversary of our wedding marred our enormous progress during the course of the week.

The Anniversary

Our Anniversary was this week and it is always wonderful to celebrate in style. Instead of a fancy restaurant, however, we chose to spend it with our more than friendly Roto-Rooter service man, or more precisely the house chose that for us. It's not that we were missing much of a scene here in Bedford as when Tiffany had asked the cashier at Wal-Mart where one goes to celebrate an anniversary in these parts, she was a little more than shocked at the response...the Golden Corral. According to the cashier, you can order off a menu. The bright side, in my thinking, is that there isn't a dress code. We're still getting used to our small town. Back to Mr. Roto-rooter.

A nice enough man who informed us that our pipes were clay and that he wouldn't warranty the service because it is obviously going to be an issue again (why this wasn't on the disclosure statement when we purchased the house is a mystery to me...curious and maybe a good topic for a later blog post pending our further investigations). He also gave us the bad news about what it takes to replace stuff like that, which we are trying to figure out if it needs to be done. While I was not the one to discover the back-up in the front yard while weeding, I can tell you that it was probably an unpleasant experience for Tiffany that we should try to avoid in the future. For the record, we hope this is the last "crappy" anniversary we celebrate.

Wild Bush!

Boy is that going to get our blog some hits in the web-sphere. Talk about a key phrase for search engine optimization...of course, the people using that web search may not be looking for our blog, but maybe they'll stick around for awhile and become fans. We don't judge you for how you got here. Actually, Wild Bush refers to the landscaping that was once well thought out and probably the envy of the block that is in front of our picture window. There is some particularly aggressive bushes out there that had done their best to displace every other living thing (except for snails, earthworms and wasps) within that once glorious realm. With Black & Decker hedge trimmer in-hand, Tiffany and I descended into the wild with vigor.
What we thought was one big overgrown bush actually had three distinct root systems (one of which we unfortunately deprived of all branches and will have to come out). Six bags of thick bush pieces later, we had something that looked fairly groomed out front. I say this like it was a quick and non-painful session, but let's talk about the time frame here. We worked about four hours at least on it and got sunburned, were attacked by a crazy wasp once and after we tackled that we still had to mow the lawn, weed-eat the edges of the grass, etc. To top it off, we cleaned the back porch area and have a nice relaxing outdoor habitat for the two of us to grill happily away. We've also added many lawn things to our list of needs like a rake, leaf blower and an axe (useful for removing roots and fending off zombie attacks, if need be.)

Other improvements of note:

On other high-notes we finally got all of the base-trim out in our Hubba Bubba watermelon green and pink colored room, primed it and installed a new light in the closet. Tiffany and I both regret, every day, the decisions that the prior owner made to let his children choose the color schemes of their rooms...otherwise we would just have gotten new carpets and called it a day. Though if he had not been so loving, what would we have to blog about right?

Bedford, IN:

Living in this small town we have had some great experiences that we wanted to share with everyone...so you get a better picture of the metropolis in which we have put our roots down.

Conversation: When Tiffany called me about the mess in the front yard, my first stop on the way home was at the local hardware store...maybe I could rent a Roto-Rooter. I said that I thought I needed a snake. The guy in the front yelled to the guy in back that I had a snake problem, to which he replied "Does he need one for his pipes or does he have a snake that he needs to get rid of?" I reflect on this statement now and think...what kind of snakes might there be around that I need to get rid of? I'm not googling it. Ignorance is bliss.

Beer: Every renovation goes better with a few frosty suds at the end of a hard day...or during if painting because painting sucks. This town, however, does not know beer. Being so close to Bloomington, home of Upland and Bloomington Brew Co., you would think that maybe even a sixer of one of those two might be available on shelves. Turns out that at the Jay-C (local Kroger affiliate) and Wal-Mart, they have a most excellent selection of Smirnoff ice productsm Natty Ice and stuff like Sparks. Probably popular with the teenagers, but not really doing it for Tiffany and myself. We're not really beer snobs, but we got used to having the good stuff available. I guess you can't expect much from a Wal-Mart that doesn't have Boboli pizza crusts either. Our beacon of light in the beer world is the local package store, but that comes at a price!

More Bedford stores to come soon I am sure.

Week two - Moving, a new car (perhaps), and reno updates

Well, another week has gone by and more work was done. This week was CRAZY as we had the movers come to Bloomington on Tuesday morning at 8 a.m., much to our surprise as the arrival time wasn't clarified well by the moving company. On Tuesday, half of our stuff went into storage. On Wednesday, the other half of the house was packed and on Thursday, it was delivered to Bedford. There was a frantic race to keep one step ahead of the movers. Before they could drop off our stuff, we had to finish cleaning the garage and the kitchen. When they were packing, Tiff had to make quick decisions about what would stay and go. Sadly, the air guns were packed away, which means Ben can't shoot at the stray cat that likes to visit our back patio. Also, the cookie sheets were taken unexpectedly, but it's o.k. We'll live.

The movers were great, but they weren't in charge of moving Ben out of Jasper, so he had to do that by himself. Ben and I cleaned the house in Bloomington and were free and clear of our other two residences by Friday. On Saturday, Ben and I put the house on hold for a second and focused on taking advantage of the government again by participating in the cash for clunkers program. The Landy and Passat are old and tired and it's time to downsize from three cars (two of which aren't reliable) to two reliable cars. We didn't leave the dealership with a new car on Saturday because the salesman wouldn't lower the purchase price to what we wanted, so we are working with a new dealership in Jasper. The owner's son is a ND grad who sold Ben's boss a Toyota Camry and works deals for ND grads. We would have gone to that dealership in the first place, but couldn't make it there in time on Saturday. Hopefully, we'll have this wrapped up this week. We're trying to get a 4 cylinder all wheel drive Rav4, which Consumer Reports ranks as the number 1 small SUV in their testing. It gets 28 mpg on the highway, which is great, and retails for a bit more than we want to spend, with 4,500 off for the Landy (the clunker) and trade-in Tiff's Passat ($1300) we should be able to make a deal. If we have kids, the car will be a good for baby toting as well, so it's an investment in the future (and can also cart every piece of wood that Ben buys at the home center).

NOW for some updates on the house. During the evenings and on Friday, we've done the following:

1. The water heater was replaced and now we have an AMAZING device that delivers more hot water than we could possibly need. It's outstanding.
2. The fridge was delivered on Friday and Ben hooked up the water supply. The fridge, though awesome, takes up a SERIOUS portion of the kitchen. The kitchen redesign will be such a challenge given the size of the fridge, but we can handle it.
   
3. Ben installed the following:
   

• Shower head
• Shower rod (the old one was too narrow, so we bought a curved one instead)
• Garbage disposal
• New faucet for the kitchen sink (as our old one had threads that were totally decayed, making it impossible to use the portable dishwasher)
• A new light fixture for the bathroom vanity
• A new backboard to Ben's Ikea dresser (as it had totally fallen off after three moves).
  

As Ben installed stuff, Tiff would help hold/align things and calm Ben down if he was cussing. Tiff lined all of the house cabinets (which takes longer than you think!) and put away all the stuff in the kitchen and bath. Ben thinks that Tiffany is obsessed with organization, and he's right. Everything has its place, as Tiffany learned from her mother.

What else. . . The yard still needs to be finished and we have to get the bedrooms painted asap. Somehow we'll have to celebrate our anniversary (it's tomorrow), but who knows. . . . we may be at the car dealership instead! We'll keep you posted.

Thanks for reading our little blog and I will post pictures once the camera is located (as Ben placed it somewhere and Tiff can't find it).

Love,

Tiff (and Ben)

P.S. -- Ben also removed the baseboards from one of the bedrooms last night and shocked himself when he removed one of the switch plates. PLEASE keep us in your prayers so the house doesn't light on fire during the renovation process.

And it begins!

Welcome to Ben and Tiffany's house renovation blog. We will be updating this blog as often as we can, hopefully on a bi-weekly basis to keep you informed on our house transformation process. So far, in the course of three days, we've done the following:

1. Ben (and Karl) installed a screw drive garage door opener, with remote entry. It's fantastic.
   
2. Tiff and Karl removed Ivy, weeds, trimmed bushes. . . 4 bag loads done, with at least 10 more to go.
3. Tiff cleaned both the full and half bath, including baseboards TWICE to ensure cleanliness.
   
4. Ben, Tiff, and Karl made a mega trip to Lowe's = 2 hrs. of shopping with three carts. (Round 1 of 2)
   
5. Purchased a used Craftsman self-propelled mower for $50 in Indy. Love Craigslist.
6. Ben mowed the yard with the new mower. Yay!
7. Water heater is to be replaced on Monday by our awesome plumber Mike.
   
8. Ben installed a programmable thermostat
9. Tiff vacuumed all vents in the house and all baseboards/ceiling areas.
   
10. Karl & Tiff took down heavy 8 ft sliding closet doors in all three bedrooms.
11. A fridge was ordered and will arrive on Friday. Carpets will come in two weeks.
    
12. All three of us tackled the wall paper, which was removed in the small bedroom, living room, and half finished in the hall (Karl had removal down to a science).
    
13. Tiff took down all window treatments in two bedrooms and the living room.
14. All paint colors for the house were picked out and purchased. Now we need to paint.
    

SO, we've been busy and we're getting to be sore, but it's a good feeling. We'll be posting before and after pictures of the rooms and the progress as we go, but we wanted to get the blog started so please come back and check it out regularly!

Love,

Ben and Tiff