Teague made out like a bandit this year. Even though most of his presents were work-related and not very “fun”, I think he’s a happy camper. Because, sadly, things like new ladders have become fun to us. We’re such grown-ups. Further proof – for Christmas, we’re DYING to get ourselves a dishwasher. DYING, I tell you. If you saw our sink on any given day, you’d understand our pain.

The ladder I got him is the Werner 22′ Multi-Use ladder from Lowes. (At least, I think it’s that one. The price is MUCH higher on the website so I might be confused.)

Other gifts that might interest you fixer-uppers included a pair of Dickies
insulated bibbed-overalls and matching jacket, plus a pair of super-cozy fleece lined jeans to keep him warm during outdoor projects. Given that he becomes a never-nude and wears long underwear religiously from September – May, good cold-weather gear is a must for him.

Today, this handsome guy turns 25 – so if you see him, wish him a Happy Birthday!

(In other news, since our blog was part of my gift to him last year, Fixer-Upper has turned 1!)

The problem:

We’re paying out the nose to heat twice as much house as we need. We bought a big house (~2,200 sq. ft.) because we know we want a family someday, and we don’t want to have to skip from house to house as our family grows. There was some strategy to the decision. But right now it’s just the two of us, and I sometimes feel like complaining about our heat bills is a bit like a Hummer driver whining about gas prices. (Though not exactly the same because we’re saving something beautiful instead of building a McMansion… right?)

Meanwhile, we’re running out of money for renovations. With the new, doubled utility bill and a load of debt on our Home Depot card, we’ve called a moratorium on home fix-it purchases until we can catch up.

The solution:

Get a roomate!

Ok, not exactly a roomate. But our house has been split into two apartments in the past, and this could easily be done again. There’s a small kitchen upstairs (we call it the “craft room”), and a seperate side entryway for a renter. We aren’t planning to open our house to some stranger off the street, though. My younger brother, Cody, is currently living in an apartment that’s even more ghastly to heat then our house. He could use a new apartment, and we could use a reliable renter who won’t mind us barging in every now and then to do some fix-it work. It’s a match made in heaven, no?

We talked it over with him last night, and I think it’s a go. So, the kitchen has taken a backseat. We’re now on a quest to make the upstairs cozy without getting too much further in debt. I spent the last week removing hideous, nicotine-stained vinyl wallpaper from the future kitchen. This was an incredibly tedious job, since any useful tool ended up making holes and scratches in the surface below it. The only “tool” that worked was hot, soapy water and my fingertips. After a full week of peeling paper, I developed some type of dry rot that caused my fingertips to crack and bleed! Excellent.

This weekend we skim coated those walls and then sanded/primed them, so it’s looking better in there:

It definitely needs a good coat of paint, though.

Teague got to work fixing a hallway wall where I had torn down the crumbling plaster. We also removed a (very ugly) hollow sliding door that had been installed at the top of the staircase. With the door gone, it’s possible that Cody could fit his massive projection-screen tv up the stairs ;)

We’ve been having unseasonably warm weather for the past week. Yesterday, it was once again 65 and sunny. As I scraped away at wallpaper upstairs (my motivation is back with a vengeance), I remember thinking “we’re going to pay for all this nice weather”. I really wish I had been wrong about that.

At about 5:30pm, I heard the wind suddenly pick up and looked out the window, surprised to see the neighbor’s garbage cans flying down the street. I dropped what I was doing and hurried downstairs. The lights were all off and it was pitch dark. As I came down the stairs, I heard glass shatter. Wind was ripping through the house – both the french doors AND the side door in the kitchen had blown open. The floor was covered with 1/2 an inch of water and little piles of hail. I quickly got the side door closed and locked, then struggled with the french doors. A pane of glass had broken – when they flung open, that side had hit an exterior light and shattered it to pieces. We had two deadbolts on the doors, but both had ripped out of the wood! I had to stand there holding the doors shut (with a number of power tools plugged in and soaking in the standing water on the floor) until the wind died down, which luckily only took a few minutes. The storm left as fast as it had come in.

http://www.syracuse.com/news/poststandard/index.ssf?/base/news-0/1115282302117471.xml&coll=1

Oooooh. Ahhhhh.

I’m pretty sure our french doors are the prettiest part of the house right now. I spend a whole lot of time admiring them. And now, with some embellishment, they’re even better.

We had two leftover exterior brackets (from tearing off the old porch)that needed a purpose in life. Long ago we planned to use them for a shelf over the doorway, and now it’s finally up. And, in a stroke of genius, Teague thought to drill very discreet holes in them so we can hang double curtain rods over the doors. (One set of curtains for keeping the cold out and one set just for looks)

Don’t mind the sloppy paint job – we’re not done yet ;)

We’ve all heard the frightening news reports about rising gas prices, and how we should plan on a 30-50% increase in our bills this winter. We knew it was coming. A week ago, I got a letter warning us that our “Budget Plan” (and certainly, that term deserves to be in quotations!) utility bill was going to rise.

So why was I so blown away when the new bill came? Because they’ve raised our monthly payment by over 50%. ALL YEAR. I guess they’re covering their own butts and making sure they’ll get enough money out of us, but who the hell can afford such a crazy raise in bills? Especially because, if you heard what we already pay to heat this place, you’d gag.

Little do they know the lengths we’ll go to save a buck. We’ve shut off radiators in rooms we don’t use (which, given how big the house is, are numerous). We’re keeping the temperature low, bundling up in sweats, and putting hideous (but thick) curtains on most of our windows. We insulated the heck out of everything we can get to, and our war against drafts will no doubt continue until next spring.

But sadly, if our bills actually go up as high as they say they will, our monthly Home Depot spending money will go straight to National Grid. Which means we’ll be stuck tackling strictly cheap fixes, like scraping wallpaper. NO FAIR!

Hmmph. I think the two weeks of rain, combined with the super-big-push to get stuff done before our house party, topped off with a freezing cold house (to keep our bills low) has taken away every ounce of motivation I once had.

Since last I posted, we’ve done next to nothing house-related. I raked the lawn yesterday, and picked out some curtains to keep our french doors insulated, but other than that – ZIP. Teague’s been busy with work, and I’ve been busy warming the couch.

The same piece of molding has been sitting on our kitchen floor for about a week now, surrounded by sawdust. And you know what? I don’t care! I’m sure my motivation will come back sometime soon, but until then I’m enjoying being lazy.

Take a look at our state-of-the-art dustbag for the mitre saw. Why spend all that money on fancy attachments when you can just wrap some masking tape and paper towels into a makeshift pouch? This, my friends, is Wagner ingenuity at it’s finest. On par with another of our budget-friendly solutions, the homemade scaffolding.

Why are we playing with tools on our new kitchen floor? Because we’re adding crown molding. And let me tell you – the money spent on molding is totally worth it. Teague put a few pieces up last night, and our ragged, uneven looking cabinets look much nicer now. See for yourself:

For all those who wanted my recipe for Caramel Apple Crisp (and anyone fond of sweet desserts), here it is:

8 large apples, thinly sliced (about 8 cups)
1 14oz bag of caramels
4 tbsp. milk
2 cups Nilla wafers (crushed)
2/3 cup instant oats
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 stick of butter, melted

Put 1/2 the apples in the bottom of a baking dish and top with 1/2 the caramels. Repeat the layers. Pour milk over the top layer.

In a big bowl, mix the wafer crumbs, oats, and brown sugar. Cut in the butter until you get coarse crumbs. Sprinkle this mixture over the apples/caramel. Bake for about 30 minutes, until the apples are tender.

Our open house was a smashing success – thanks to everyone who stopped by and humored us ;)

It was great to finally share our progress with so many friends and family members. We’ve been in the house for nearly a year, and this was the first time I wasn’t mortified to have guests spend time downstairs. (The upstairs is still quite awful, but at least it’s out of sight)

You would not believe believe how many tasks we accomplished in the week before the party, including….. (drumroll please)….. our new, beautiful, porcelain tile kitchen floor!

(more details after the cut)
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