Work begins on the kitchen including my replacing a wrought iron railing with one made of oak.
o Winter 1997 - Tear old wallpaper off the walls in kitchen and bathrooms. Luckily it comes off in sheets instead of tiny little pieces. A light sanding and repainting does wonders. Downstairs powder room gets complete overhaul: new toilet, sink, vanity, medicine cabinet & lights. First ever linoleum job for me. Gotta remember to remove *all* the old stuff the next time.
o Spring 1998 - Awnings removed from back of house. (Water damage discovered in soffits where awning had been). Kitchen is about done: Bruce flooring, cabinets painted white, new countertop, cooktop range, wall oven and new wallpaper. Oak railing actually looks good.
First lawn mowing with Ward's 42 inch, 12 hp mower. Haven't done this in over 20 years but figure it out. Yard is very wet in the lower left quadrant.
o Summer 1998 - Easter and 4th of July gatherings a big hit with the family. Lots of yard to play in. Major bush removal in front of house and replanting. Flower beds dug up on north and south ends of the house and replanted. Missed a lot of bulbs we later found out. Added rose bushes to south side - bugs found them immediately.
o Fall 1998 - Discovered if I chop up the leaves with the mower first, I can fit a whole lot more of them in the grass catcher. Not so bad after all.
o Winter 1998 -
o Spring 1999 - New driveway!! 30 year old single lane is now two lanes of fresh blacktop.
o Summer 1999 -
o Fall 1999 - Trade Honda Civic in for a 4wd Toyota Tacoma pickup. I should have done this the moment we moved in.
o Winter 1999 - 18 inches of snow!! Two lane driveway doesn't look like such a good idea any more. There is a heck of a lot more to shovel.
o Spring 2000 - Got an estimate from several roofers on replacement costs. Decide instead to buy new refrigerator, washer and dryer.
Family room gets a makeover. Dad and I remove all the old dried out paneling and I assist contractor in putting in new drywall. Baseboard hot water heat proved to be a bit troublesome as those radiator covers are a real PITA to remove. They were pretty much destroyed in the process.
o Summer 2000 - Decided to pressure clean the roof instead of replacing it. Worked pretty well, but cost more than we planned and added a new leak. The yard is starting to resemble a pasture instead of a lawn. Either I need to weed & feed or else chopping up the leaves was not such a hot idea.
Buying the truck was a good idea but appears to cause much more work to be done in yard than before. Have already scratched and dented small area near the back of the cab hauling junk from the gararge.
o First summer vacation away from the house in 3 years! Stayed in Corolla, NC at the north end of Cape Hatteras. Beautiful spot, but an 8 hour drive and traffic jams on the island. Hands were cramping by the time we got there. Also, only one grocery store and one restaraunt nearby.
o Fall 2000 - First serious application of lime to yard - 500 lbs to start. Hopefully it's not too late.
Buy my first snowblower. A used John Deere, 2 stage, 4 horsepower machine. Should be enough for the driveway at least.
Roof leak worse and my attempts at patching haven't worked. Took heavy duty clear plastic and covered suspect area and weighed it down with spare tiles. Seems to have bought us some time.
o Winter 2000 - First snow of the year - time to try the new snowblower. Starts ok, but only throws snow about 2 feet or directly into the operators face. Not good. Must be dumb operator's fault. Second snow of the year. Same results. Looks like I got swindled out of $175.
STORM OF THE CENTURY HEADED UP THE EAST COAST! 10-20 INCHES OF SNOW PREDICTED! Haul snowblower into the driveway to try and figure out what's wrong with it. With help from alt.home.repair and Dad, determine that the throttle is only opening up about 1/3 because the previous owner goofed with it where it connects to the governor. I adjust it and wait for the snow.
Storm is a dud. Not even an inch, so I can't test my fix.
o Spring 2001 - Another cool and wet spring. The wife is talking about a new patio out back. I'm thinking soffit replacement and trim work and maybe new windows. Plastic on the roof is working well - no leaks, except for another area I forgot to cover. Waiting for wasp population to decline before I go up again.
o Summer 2001 - New patio installed out back. Flagstone, with a nice curve design and a planter. Dubya better have more than $600 on the way. A lot more! Roses are gone - even spraying didn't stop the bugs. Still waiting for the guy to look at the soffits. Lawn still looks like a horse pasture and leaf season is right around the corner. Weed and feed cut down on the dandilions but not much else.
o Fall 2001 - Finally got rid of the terra cotta roof and replaced it with asphalt shingles (Timberline 30 year). I have to admit, it looks good. The contractor (Harford Roofing) said they found more bees and birds nests than they had ever seen on a job before. Oh, and the plastic I had put up there last fall? It was completely in tatters except for where it was covered by a tile. Evidently it's biodegradable.
o Winter 2002 - Refinanced the mortgage at 6.0% and decided to go all out with fix ups since we could pull out extra cash at closing. Replaced all the windows, shutters, gutters and downspouts. Also had the soffets and facia covered with aluminum siding. The only thing left is painting which will probably happen this summer.
Got to test the snowblower once this winter during a 4" snowfall. It seemed to work a little better but now it leaves trails of snow to either side of the opening on the front that I either have to go over again or shovel. I must be missing something here.
Leaf season still isn't over yet. The neighbor up the street never did his leaves, so of course they all blew down to our lawn. Hopefully now that someone has moved into the house across the street next to him, he'll get his up before Christmas next year.
o Spring 2002 - Planning a vegetable garden this year. Let's see if I ever drag out the tiller.
o Summer 2002 - Ok, I'm not a total slob. I did get the tiller out this year and plant a small garden. Four tomato plants, two squash and one zuchini. The best performer - CHERRY TOMATOs. I love those things and they breed like crazy. The other tomatos? I made a mistake by buying "heirloom" tomatos. Genetically, not a good move. Squash and Zuc never really produced at all. In fact the squash turned out to be gourds, so now my new name at the wife's office is Gordy!
Siding looks realy bad now compared to the new soffits and windows. Looks like a BIG G to fix it. Paint ain't gonna work.
New snow blower is in the garage!! In-laws moved to NC this summer and dad-in-law sold me his asskicking blower that had cleaned his driveway to bare pavement in past storms. I unloaded the pitiful John Deere for just over $100 at a yard sale along with my favorite end tables.
o Fall 2002 - New bathtub time!! Now that the in-laws stay with us when they visit, the suckiness of our original bathtub is coming to the forefront. Bright yellow with matching tile - all tinged rust color from years of unfiltered well water. Planning on a plain modern tub, we fall in love with cast iron model at a plumbing supply house instead. Expensive and HEAVY. Very, very, very heavy. Never again. But the bathroom does look good now. (see pics elsewhere on this site).
o Winter 02/03 - Snowblower seems to have been a good investment even though it was more than I wanted to spend. Several significant snowfalls this year including a BLIZZARD and it performed perfectly giving us nearly bare pavement in under an hour. At this rate, in a few years, it may pay for itself. My heart is certainly happy.
Been talking about what to do with the outside of the house. I was nearly talked into just trying paint when the wife decides maybe siding might be the way to go (my previous position - arrgh!). Will think about it some more.
Buying seeds this year and starting them inside for the garden. (2/4/03) Let's see if this happens.
o Spring 2003 - We actually did start the seeds inside and had a few plants survive. Problem is we waited way too long before we planted and a lot of them were dying. None of them ever produced anything useful. Neither did many of the plants we bought at the garden stores - the rain was awful this spring & summer and even though the plants grew tremendously, the rain beat them back down and the garden was a mess. We had a a few good tomatos and squash, but that was about it. I think I'll skip the garden next year and buy at roadside stands.
Ended up painting the house and it looks terrific.
o Summer 2003 - More rain. Lots of it. The lawn never stopped growing so I had to mow the entire summer. Week long trip to Corolla, NC was nice though. B had her dad build her a "pirgola" over the patio. I had to spend over $100 for a good jig saw to cut the ends properly.
o Fall 2003 - More rain. Hurricane Isable came and knocked out power for 18 hours. The generator tided us over fairly well but it was LOUD. Two days later, even more rain in a conventional rainstorm flooded the basement with 2 inches of water - the sump pump check valve stuck and kept the pump from doing it's job. So the water backed up in the sump pit into the basement. Didn't notice it until I checked while I was heading out the door for work. Spent the day instead hauling wet junk to the dump. Basement needed cleaning anyway so I wasn't too upset - I just had to laugh.
o Winter 2003 - SNOW. Again! November. Two 6 inch snowfalls - back to back. Snowblower an even better bargain this year. No sweat at all. I love that thing. Started right up like I'd used it yesterday.
o Spring 2004 - For once, a pretty decent & warm spring. No garden this year - we unloaded the tiller on my brother-in-law.
The long troubling blockage in our sewage drain pipe was pinpointed and fixed. Plumbers used a cool video camera on a wire. The fix required digging up the pipe (and yard) and replacing it up to the edge of the patio.
o Summer 2004 - Hot, humid and lots of rain. Dropped a/c unit out of the DR window. B opened the window while we were putting it in when nobody had a hold of it. Still working, but very loud.
Finally broke down and had the sump pump replaced by a professional after yet another flooded basement. Our underground exit pipe was most likely the problem with the old one so I had the plumber install an above ground exit pipe on the north side of the house and hooked it into our downspout drainpipe. Plumber also had a look at our water "system" - looks like that'll be the next to go.