Caulk-aholism, that is. I’m sure I’ve mentioned before that Teague is a caulkaholic. The man can go through a dozen tubes in one day, and continues to sneak little beads in here and there months after any project is over and done with. He can’t help himself. And usually, I just stand back and laugh at his addictive behavior.

But today, oh…….. today it is I who have the problem. You might remember, about a year ago, we “quick fixed” the downstairs bathroom – if not, you can read about it here. I planned to caulk the seams of the bathroom ceiling wallpaper. This wallpaper was intended to cover up the paint-chipped mess of a ceiling that was already there. It’s no ordinary wallpaper – it’s that paintable kind that resembles tin. Note – this was back before we decided to rent out the top floor of the house, and NEVER EVER used the downstairs shower. So… made sense at the time.

Now that we’re using the downstairs shower, the wallpaper & steam don’t play well together. We’ll be installing a bathroom fan for ventilation within the next week or so, but I also read that lightly caulking wallpaper seams in bathrooms keeps them from peeling.

Armed with a caulk gun, I set out to do the seams. Then I started touching up little gaps in the woodwork, around the window, on the base molding….. 2 hours later I emerged with an empty caulk gun and very messy play clothes. I have been enlightened. Caulking is FUN!

On a similar note, it turns out that those Magic Erasers really ARE magic. I try not to fall for every new cleaning product that comes out, since I’ve been on a vinegar/ammonia/bleach kick lately. But my curiousity got the best of me and I bought a box of these the other night. I ended up running around the house squealing about how great they were – they even got rid of some stains that I thought were lost causes. I haven’t been this excited about a cleaning product since I discovered Goo Gone.

Stay tuned, because our new sink got delivered today and Teague’s working on getting it installed. It’s BEAUTIFUL!

When it comes to craft supplies, I’m a packrat. Little bits of string, altoid tins, pretty-colored dryer lint… to me, these things are bursting with potential. Needless to say, my craft stash can get pretty unweildly.

When we had the whole upstairs to fill with useless junk, that didn’t matter much. I was free to save old coffee cans and dried up flowers and stacks upon stacks of magazines. But after we moved ourselves downstairs and my craft room and office merged, I started feeling twitchy about having to stare at all that STUFF in total chaos.

The befores (click for larger):

My basic plan:

• Get rid of the current storage (dressers, cabinet, etc) that wasn’t efficient
• Make my sewing machine easier to access
• Keep supplies where I can see them so I’ll use them
• Put “like with like” so the next time I start a project, I don’t have to dig through 8 different boxes to find what I need

We picked up three Varde wall shelves on our Ikea trip along with a few other organizing goodies. And ever since New Years, I’ve been on a mission to get that room organized.

The afters (click for larger):

The shelves are a godsend – everything is out in the open where I can see it, which keeps me inspired and stops me from buying something I already have “in stock”. We got rid of one dresser and a corner cabinet and still ended up with MORE storage space than before. I pulled additional supplies out of storage to fill it ;)

Most of the work went into sorting and labeling my stuff, which made a huge difference in how quickly I can jump into a craft project. I picked up two cheap towel bars for hanging my bigger cuts of fabrics. And the sewing machine is on a small table that we added casters to. I can roll it out wherever I need it. Big improvement!

But my favorite addition to the room is the buckets-o-markers, another affordable Ikea purchase. It’s cute and very functional.

We have a few ceilings that could really use a facelift, since popcorn ceilings don’t really say “victorian home” to me.

Here’s a step-by-step demonstration of how to get rid of the popcorn look – thought some of you guys might need this also ;)

http://www.jasongraphix.com/archive/2005/08/popcorn_ceiling

If you haven’t started a del.icio.us account yet, get yourself over there pronto. For people like me, with hundreds of bookmarks that used to be stored in 6 different internet browsers in two distant locations, it is a godsend.

With del.icio.us, you can save your bookmarks in one place (no more “crap, that bookmark is on my work computer” frustration) and tag them with one or more keywords. Making them very, very simple to find again. Great, right?

But wait, it gets better. Because del.icio.us is all about SOCIAL bookmarking, so you can see everyone else’s tags and bookmarks too.

Example…
I’ve got House In Progress bookmarked. So do 47 other del.ico.us users. How do I know? They show me, like this:

If you click on the “47 other people” link, you’ll get a list of everyone who’s linking to House in Progress. Then, you can browse THEIR bookmarks. See how this could get addicting??

I’ve started a del.ico.us account specifically for my house links, so you can start exploring by clicking on the image below. And I’ll be adding this button to each page on the site, so you can always find it!

And, after our trip to Ikea to bring home 8-ft long countertops, I had to concede that he was right.

This is Teague’s new baby, replacing the minivan whose days were surely numbered – when shifting from 1st to 2nd gear, it lurched so awkwardly the tires squealed nearly every time. NICE! I gotta give that van credit – it ran very well for a very long time. It’s original owner, my grandfather, would have been proud to see it used as a construction vehicle in it’s twilight years.

It’s great for hauling house stuff, hauling construction stuff, and peeking into everyone else’s cars. I am not excited about the extra gas and maintenance expenses involved with owning a truck, but I have to admit it sure is handy. And just wait till garage sale season…….

I don’t know if it’s the new year, the Ikea trip, or just a chemical imbalance, but I’ve been on an organizing rampage since last weekend and I just can’t stop…..

It started with the pantry. We put shelving in, which meant *YAY* no more overstuffed kitchen cabinets. That got me revved up, so I went to the Dollar Store and picked up about three hundred million storage containers, hooks, baskets, etc. By this point, I’m racing through the aisles to track down every single useful organizing tool there is. I even bought an old-school Dymo labeler, the kind that prints out the cool raised letters. Totally out of control.

Armed with my finds, we spent part of this week finishing up the pantry, my new pride and joy. Check it out:

Notice the 3 matching garbage cans – those are for our recyclables. They’re labeled and everything.

(closeup of the place for all my plastic bags, and one of our TWO lid holders! yeehaw)

We have not one, not two, but 6 of these wire shelf things. God bless the Dollar Store.

We’re going to add more shelving at some point, and hooks for our coffee mugs, but it provides more than enough storage space for now.

After I finished the pantry, I moved on to my craft room. And wow, I had no idea just much craft crap I had crammed into such a small space. No wonder I can never find what I’m looking for. That’s not done yet though, so you’ll have to check back for before/afters.

Oh, and last night, when I found out The Office wasn’t on, I took out all my photos and put them into mini albums, arranged roughly in chronological order and grouped by event. Seriously, someone stop me.

We just leapt into Future-Land! At least, that’s what it feels like. When we moved in, we inherited a somewhat-working dishwasher from the previous owners. Shortly thereafter, that thing crapped out and made for a lovely “microwave stand” until we rented a dumpster and trashed it. No big deal, we thought. There’s just two of us. We’re capable human beings with no severe allergies to dish soap. We can handle this.

Turns out that was delusional. Sure, we *CAN* wash dishes, but did we? Not often. Someone in our house is a little more consistent than someone else about it, but I’m not naming names. Lets just say that the “someone” in question tends to leave giant food-caked messes in the sink sans water or soap until they turn into rock-hard sculptures.

In any case, coming home from work and having to face an overflowing mound of dirty dishes was stressful. Obviously, I need to learn to relax if things like dirty dishes stress me out, but nevertheless…. I was thrilled to get a dishwasher for Christmas (from my lovely parents and grandparents, thanks guys!). Teague ran new plumbing on Sunday, so now right next to the sink…….

WE HAVE A WORKING DISHWASHER! So I am in a state of zen, peeking every so often at our empty sink with overwhelming happiness.

To complete our modern-day kitchen, we also replaced our broken microwave. We’ve been putting it off for about 3 weeks, and it’s amazing how much I missed it. Things as simple as a cup of tea became a major production. Tonight, I’m making popcorn.

Since the day we moved in, we’ve debated the merits of various kitchen countertop materials. We’ve gone back and forth between cement, wood, and tile.

The pros/cons of each were weighed carefully. Tile would be easy to install, and relatively cheap, but the grout would be a pain to clean and it wasn’t a look we loved. Cement countertops are very cool and functional, but would require a lot of extra work, new tools, and lots of testing/research. We (or, I) wasn’t positive that wood was durable enough to bother with, but after doing some research it seemsm it’s no better or worse than our other options. And it’s pretty, and more traditional than cement or tile.

I had a few big freelance paychecks come in all at once, so we took a day trip out to Ikea on New Years Eve day. Our goal was to check out the kitchen goods, and we ended up coming home with 3 8″-long pieces of oak butcherblock countertop. It’s really beautiful wood, and it’s going to make a huge difference in the kitchen.

We also brought home two cans of wood conditioner, because conditioning (and re-conditioning) the wood with a non-toxic mineral oil is essential. We will not be cutting directly on the coutnertop, since knives will leave scratches in the surface. Also, I read that steam from dishwashers may cause wood counters to warp, so it is important to install a vapor barrier on the underside of the counter. Good to know!

Anyone have good tips for maintaining wood countertops?

We’re only a few days away from the new year, so it’s natural to reflect on our successes and failures. Of which we’ve all had many… personal, professional, and of course house-related.

So, in the spirit of new-years-listmaking, I give you our top-tens!

Fixer-Upper’s WORST surprises of 2005

10. Each time you fix a radiator, another one breaks
9. No amount of pink insulation can save us from owing our first-born to the power company
8. Our social lives have become non-existant because we’re so obsessed with getting things done
7. All the PINK!
6. There’s poison ivy in our backyard
5. The room in the back was FILLED with nasty junk
4. A cracked pipe leaking sewage into the basement – mmmmmm
3. Homeowner’s insurance is hard to get when the back of your house is falling off
2. Cat urine comes up out of the hardwood floors on hot, humid summer days
1. Everything costs twice as much and takes three times as long as you think it will

Fixer-Upper’s BEST surprises of 2005

10. When the pressure is on, we can get A LOT accomplished
9. Rewiring electrical isn’t as hard as electricians lead you to believe (though it is awfully time consuming)
8. Jackhammers aren’t as scary as they look
7. Patching giant holes in the wall is easier than it seems
6. I am capable of leveling a floor
5. Salvage yards do exist around us
4. The cupola is very, very cool and mostly intact
3. French doors made the kitchen lovely
2. Teague is so good at this stuff, he turned pro!
1. We truly love spending all of our time, energy, and money to make our house a home

With the holiday madness, home improvement progress has come to a screeching halt. And I’m ok with that.

There’s plenty we accomplished and didn’t blog about, especially during the rush to get Cody’s apartment ready. For starters, we were facing a bit of a dilemna with the stairwell. Cody’s side-entry door opened up into the stairwell, which is nice and convenient. But to make it functional and safe, we needed a landing of some sort. We also needed a way to block this doorway off to keep the downstairs seperate. But since we’re sharing the laundry machines, and they’re on the second floor, we didn’t want to close it off with drywall.

Teague, my hero, built a landing AND a custom door. The door was made out of 2×4’s (cut down) and wood veneer, and is insulated so the sounds don’t echo back and forth. A sliding lock keeps it shut. It’s not the most beautiful thing in the world, but neither is the stairwell or the doorway opening – and it sure is functional! I still can’t believe he whipped up a custom door in just a few hours. He’s one handy guy.

Some visual aids for you:

The stairwell when we moved in. Notice the nice dropoff from the door to the stairs. Super safe!

Stairwell now, with the door open so you can see the new landing.

Stairwell now, with the door closed. Notice the curtain we use to hide it :)

Since we don’t plan on having a tenant forever, the apartment modifications were all designed to be undone without too much effort or waste. Hence, no concern for fancy-schmancy stuff here – just usability!