weekend in pictures

In my last post I mentioned Ben and I have parted ways- temporarily of course! He spent the weekend upstate, working on the house and trying to get a few more things done before he started his new job today and I split my weekend between Manhattan for my sister-in-laws fabulous bachelorette bash and Connecticut for the holiday. I've been surrounded by fun people and lots of scheduled events (not to mention I got temporary custody of the dog), but I was afraid Ben would be lonely in Saratoga (and in the house) by himself. But luckily his parents were kind enough to keep him company for much of the weekend- and I've heard they were a huge help with the house as well!

I was afraid much of the progress would go undocumented- even though I have continuously asked Ben to take pictures and write everything down. I even went as far to ask for emailed updates.. no luck. And while I haven't gotten a definite answer as to whether or not he's kept track of it all, at least I know my mother-in-law did. And yesterday she sent me lots of pictures to prove it.

So here is the weekend update- thanks to Cathy!

The Truck
Here's the back story: When Ben was offered his job he was told he'd have to buy a truck. We knew we were going to have to buy a second car, but we were hoping to hold out as long as possible.. the more money we spent elsewhere the less we knew we could spend on the house. Naturally that plan lasted about 20 minutes. And as soon as he was given the news he ran into the kitchen with a smirk on his face, told me he didn't have a choice (I was hoping we could get a station wagon) and then he basically blurted out.. "this is like my dream job!" Meanwhile I was thinking.. in a matter of minutes I lost any chance I had of buying a new sofa and then I started picturing myself going into town on a Saturday night for a nice dinner.. in a pick up. Oh well.. lots of new things to adjust to!

So Ben called his uncle, Eric Nathan- an auctioneer in Manchester, Vermont, and asked if he could help him find a truck. In days, he delivered and suddenly Ben was the proud owner of a very real F150.

On Saturday Ben and his parents went to pick it up..
I'm pretty sure the first stop with the truck was Home Depot.. but I can't be sure. I guess I'll have to get used to this scene in our driveway..

The Yard
This has become a very familiar theme on our blog..
I know you're all thinking "enough with the trees!", but the yard was really a mess and trees had to be cut down.
Many of the trees were way too close to the house and not in very good shape. Meaning any bad wind storm and they'd pretty much be in our Living Room.
They also cleared more from the street end.
Much of the yard on that half of the property was so heavily shaded by overgrown trees that no grass was able to grow and the lawn was really just dirt and mud.
The yard of brush Ben has been complaining about..
He said we have to hire someone with a chipper. I say let's call the neighbors and ask if they need any mulch. If you have your own chipper- it's all yours!

The Sink
This back story is actually pretty short: The kitchen sink was disgusting when we closed on the house- it was old, dirty, scummy.. you name it. The truth is, I didn't want to touch it- especially after working so hard on the bathroom. I just couldn't stomach scrubbing the kitchen sink on the same visit. Not to mention we were kind of up in the air as to when we were going to get rid of the base cabinets in there and if we would even really need a "faux" kitchen before our new cabinets and appliances were installed. And the dirty kitchen sink became a place to clean paint brushes, throw a garbage bag and fill the dogs water bowl.. but that was it.

Once Ben's job was set and it looked like he'd be moving up on his own the existing kitchen kind of had to function. I sent him up with our microwave, a coffee maker and he decided he'd start using the toaster oven. At that point using the sink became more and more of a necessity and that's where my mother-in-law stepped up and saved me from the dreaded kitchen sink!
It's as good as new! Maybe we should skip on buying a new one and save a few pennies!
The Hearth
While those were the only two projects Ben really shared with me, I can tell lots more was accomplished through Cathy's pictures.. and the hearth was included.

The fireplace needs a little work, but as always.. I have big plans for it! We'll definitely paint it, we're going to switch it back to the original wood burning (the previous owners changed it to gas), and we may even replace the mantle. But luckily we never really had to do much to the original marble tiled hearth... except clean it, of course. And it looks like that was taken care of while I was off getting manicures with the bridesmaids!

Motherly Touches
When I was growing up, whenever I left for overnight camp or even college, my mom always made my bed before she dropped me off. It's something about a mother leaving a child behind at a new place or in a new stage at life.. it's almost like they want them to start off on the right foot or they want the child to have the comfort of sleeping in a bed their mother made. I'm guessing Cathy skipped on that part because I had made the bed before we left Saratoga last weekend, but she didn't skimp on anything else! A couple other surprises in her catalog of photos..

Temporary shades in the bedrooms..
Should I be offended she didn't like my beach towel shades duct taped to the window frame?

Our first mum plants..
I know these definitely weren't Ben's doing!

Housewarming basket..
As if cleaning wasn't enough of a gift!

I'm sorry I wasn't able to share in the work, but clearly the house was in good hands. Maybe they can take the ride up next weekend too?!?! Thanks to all of the little elves who worked very hard and didn't get much of a relaxing weekend of their own. xo

demolition days

So we basically spent every minute of last week doing demolition- or as I like to refer to it.. hard labor. Only taking breaks to eat, sleep and make Home Depot runs. Ben had a blast- he started off the week with a chainsaw, cutting his way through the overgrown yard. I, on the other hand, was introduced to the house with a bottle of bleach and some scrub gloves.. not so much fun. In six days we made our way through much of the yard work, were able to strip wallpaper in most of the rooms (there were a few bumps along the way), we filled a dumpster, met with a contractor about the kitchen, a plumber, a wood floor finisher and had our new washer and dryer delivered (hooray!).

Feeling a little overwhelmed at first, I started keeping track of our progress by writing down what we did every day. Most days looked something like this:

Henry is having a hard time adjusting- turns out he only likes being outside if we are constantly by his side. He hasn't really taken to it like we had hoped, but I guess it's still early. He did discover digging holes- something normal suburban dachshunds do from early on but with our lack of yard space in Manhattan his digging instincts were a little delayed.. I guess that's a mothers way of saying he's a slow learner. We took lots of pictures of his bottom in the air..
we were quite proud, though I'm sure we won't be when our yard begins to resemble a slice of swiss cheese.

And as I had mentioned in my brief post last week all of our neighbors were incredibly welcoming. Everyone seemed thrilled that we'd taken on this project, as the house has been vacant for so long- and the truth of the matter is, it was quite an eyesore and it still is.. I'm not going to pretend we did THAT much over those six days, but even the little that we did do has already made a huge difference.

In an effort to give you a little taste of how we spent our week I'll post some projects we started to conquer (or at least tried to) over the next week or so- providing you with "before" and "after before" pictures. I'm referring to them as "after before" shots because the true before and after pictures are months, if not years, away and believe me, none of what I'm going to show you is the final product, Ben and I are way to invested to settle.. so keep that in mind.

In the meantime, I'll start out this week with a little bit about our living conditions.. remember we were there almost an entire week. And just a little bit of info for those of you who don't know me.. I don't really know how to "rough it" if you know what I mean.

The Floors

"before" floors

I opted to just cover the floors with paper. For the most part they were covered with old vinyl tile.. what were they thinking?!?! there are beautiful hardwood floors underneath!! After years of use (and then non-use), the tile was filthy and just not anything that could be cleaned. A mop seemed to just move around the dirt and I just didn't have the time or the energy to work on them. I also knew the floors were being redone this week and didn't want to spend my week cleaning something that was being replaced just days later.

The Bathing Quarters

"before" bathroom

OK, I'll admit it.. I got a little carried away with contact paper. But I'm sorry there's nothing grosser than cleaning/using an old, dirty bathroom. I tried to make it as sanitary as possible, but cleaning has never been my forte, so I discovered early on, that the easiest way to make an old surface clean was by covering it.. so I did a lot of that..

I lined the medicine cabinet..

the linen closet..

I even covered the floor..

Obviously we're planning on replacing everything- the tiles have been ordered and I'm shopping for bath fixtures this week.. but at least we now have a somewhat clean bathroom and hot water- we were without for a couple of days.. gotta love cold sponge baths!

The Eating Quarters
This was a little tricky since we didn't acquire any appliances with the purchase of the house. My mom helped by bringing up a mini refrigerator and a toaster and we also have a grill, but we basically decided day 1 that we would spend most meals out. But that didn't mean we could be without a "kitchen" for a whole week.. we still needed a place to keep drinks, feed the dog- but most importantly we needed a place that would be safe enough for him to stay while we were working on the rest of the house.

Henry hanging out.. waiting for us to finish the days work.. and no, he isn't an Eagles fan- he prefers the Patriots these days

Once the vinyl floor was pulled up (more on floor removal in future posts), I lined the floor with paper..
and covered what cabinets (and work surfaces) I could with- you guessed it, contact paper..
Little side note: notice the candle hanging out by the sink? I literally didn't go a day without lighting at least 6 of those babies throughout the house.. it's going to take a lot to get the musty smell out of there- opening windows helped, but there's still a ways to go.

We were able to find a cute orange desk at Walmart on clearance that serves as our temporary dining table- just love how it works with the white Target folding chairs..

Ben and Henry enjoying a breakfast of toast with Dunkin Donuts.. no coffee maker in this house!

Just fyi, we really don't normally eat breakfast with Henry like this. We just thought it was funny that he was trying to join us and took advantage of this picture perfect moment.

The Sleeping Quarters
With wallpaper in both of the bedrooms, we knew we'd have to be flexible and move around as we made progress on the house. As the nights went on we kind of figured out what was comfortable for us (and Henry too!) but the idea was the same.. air mattress, old sheets and eventually a stiff neck..

night 1

night 3

night 6

he's in there.. I'm not kidding