8 Day and 8 Nights (Part II)

-- Day 2 (Wednesday): Laura will be teleworking today so that I can head into the office and not feel like a complete degenerate. The floormen continue to work on sanding down the epoxy and layers of paint on the boards and the stairmen begin work on evaluating our stairs. I require Laura to post no less than 300 pictures and send no fewer than 25 text messages every half hour to keep abreast of the work. I drink too much coffee and convince myself that I need to go home to make stair decisions. Laura agrees that this would be best. I make it out of my cube, to the parking lot, and home in about 10 minutes.

We find out that there is no support for the right side of the stairs. Essentially, at some point the base stairs (bottom four) were just built right up to the drywall/plaster but not attached to the drywall. To stick with the letter theme, imagine that each step was like an "F" with the left support being the neck and each stair stretching off of that. We knew the stairs were loose but…

I'm not sure I needed to be there to agree that the stairs had no support, but it's always better to be safe than sorry.

The stairs are being built, as is the frame for another $2500 or so. Ouch.

8 Days and 8 Nights (Part I)

That's how long it took before everything was completed. That's how long we waited before the kittens could come home. That's how long we've been living in a three floor house as if it were a studio apartment. That's how long it took for me to become nervous about money again (something I haven't entirely felt since college). That's how long it took Laura and I to realize that we made the right decision.

Work on the floors began almost two weeks ago on a Tuesday (September 22nd). A rehashing on those past two weeks begets yet another list in our long list of lists (bear with me, this is going to be a lengthy adventure). Here is the first of a series recapping the floor refinishing process. Enjoy...

-- Day 0 (Monday): I telework thinking the refinishing would begin. I am wrong but am still allowed to telework.

-- Day 1 (Tuesday): A combination of two floormen who speak very little English, my inate ability to mumble anything not said on a sporting field, the 100% drop in volume my voice takes on when attempting to speak another language, and a lot of power tools helps me to realize that I will not be talking to anyone other than Marcela (face person for Premier) if I have any questions.

The carpeting is completely gone and, 'YES!', there is plywood not only over a section of the hallway but the nook in the study as well. The plywood covers an area of roughly 100 square feet and must be pulled up and replaced with new planks of pine. This will add about $1200 to the overall cost.

Marcela calls up her business partner who comes over and explains the breadth of the work to me, now that the carpet is up. A few boards will need to be replaced and, more importantly, the stairs really can't be salvaged. His proposal, build the new stairs. My wallet, getting in shape and slimming down.

Houston, We Have Carpet

Laura and I struggled with carpeting over the last few months. First, in deciding what type of carpet we would like to see in the basement, and second, in choosing who we would like to install the carpet. Both of these problems stemmed from the cost of carpeting and the cost of installation. Thankfully, our network of other homeowners yielded a carpeter out in Rockville that agreed to an installation charge of only $150 (this is VERY cheap and on par with some place like Home Depot) and a brand of carpet that fit perfectly in the basement. All in all, the total cost came in roughly $600 under what we had budgeted.

Yet another lucky find in our running list. Perhaps it pays to be atheists after all? I kid.

I Will Walk 5.6 miles...

or maybe it was more like 6.2?

Laura and I have been actively hitting the Craigslist scene again in search of armoires, vanities, and an assortment of other moderately priced items for the house. However, our most recent purchase was a $10 pair of full bed sheets in anticipation of buying a full bed for the spare room. This of course assumes that we'll have guests sometime in the next year. A pick 'em right now according to the Vegas line.

It was a nice day on Friday so I figured, 'hey, why not walk to pick them up.' It has been a few weeks since I last walked the city so I took a deep breath, strapped on my backpack, and hoofed it the 2.9 miles from my office at 441 G street NW to 1536 D street SE. To give you a general idea of what this walked entailed, I went the 8 or 9 blocks south to D street SE and then the 20 or 21 blocks east. Despite sweating profusely the woman still agreed to sell me the sheets. She probably figured that my hygiene could use the cleanliness that comes with new sheets. The joke is on her since the sheets aren't for us.

The walk was so nice that I chose to walk the 15 to 16 blocks back to North Capitol and 19 to 20 blocks north to our house. All of this for $10 sheets...and I suppose a healthy heart.

The sheets look nice but we still have no bed to put them on. We'll keep all of our lovely blog reading fans updated.

I apologize for my recent apathy in posting updates to the blog. Things have been hectic lately and I have not been feeling particularly creative. Perhaps if I start drinking more coffee...