A few of our favorite things {Home Edition}

After {almost} 5 years of home renovation, there are some things we have learned make our projects much simpler. 

The first is ear plugs. When you are working with power tools {indoors} it is important to protect your ears. In the early days of having a double-compound miter saw set up in our living room and various power tools {skill saw, drills, nail guns, etc} laying around {and in constant use}, ear protection was a priority {it still is}.

We have several pairs of these Harbor Freight specials {ear muffs} lying around. They are my faves... for some reason, ear plugs don't work well in my ears {they always feel like they are falling out}.

Quick story: In the first year of our renovation, my brother spent a summer with us. One Saturday morning, Daniel and I had been up early working on a project in the living room. We both had on ear muffs which required us to raise our voices {yell} in order to hear each other.

Later that day, my brother pulled me aside and asked if everything was ok. I was confused about his question. He clarified by saying, "You guys have been yelling at each other all morning and I thought you were having a fight!" He had been in his bedroom with the door closed and had no idea we were talking {yelling} about our project... oops.

Daniel prefers these 3M Combat Arms ear plugs, found at Northern Tools. The Green end offers constant protection against noise while the yellow end lets wearer hear clearly with instant protection against sudden loud noises.

Another product we have found use is DAP Painter's Putty {we call it dope}. This stuff is AMAZING for filling holes in trim. It has really made our lives easier.

 

We started out using Elmer's Wood Filler - which is a total pain. It is hard to squeeze out of the tube and you have to go back and sand it. We are so thankful our friend, Benjy, introduced to dope.

Lesson Learned

When we started our home renovation {4.5 years ago}, we never dreamed it would take us this long to finish. We were hopeful that we would be finished by the 3 year mark. Sadly this was not the case.

Now we are being forced to wrap up all of the projects so that we can get our house on the market and get ourselves moved to Chattanooga.

The {most recent} dilemma we have faced is that our flooring is being discontinued. This would be of no consequence to us except for the fact that we did not have the foresight to buy all of our transition strips or stair treads. We have enough transition strips for two doorway thresholds, but we are having trouble getting a hold of transition strips for the others.

Two weeks ago, Daniel tried to purchase the transitions locally, but the store was having trouble getting what we needed {and they were not being up front about it, so we canceled the order}. 

Last week, we tried placing a special order at Lowes Home Improvement - which they evidently failed to place. This would put us in the position of having to wait an additional 2 weeks {from now} to get what we need. This is not really an option as we are attempting to put the house on the market in the next week {or two}. 

And then there was Amazon.com. Before Lowes told us they could order what we needed, Amazon had what we needed. TO SAVE TIME, we went with Lowes and now, to our chagrin, Amazon is sold out... do you feel our pain yet?

So, last night, we made our {daily} trip to Lowes and found some Caribbean Cherry that is a decent match to the Brazilian Cherry that is already installed in our house. It's disappointing that we can't find the exact product, but we don't have time to wait for transitions to be shipped to us {and with our luck, there would be more mess ups with orders}.

As to our stair treads, we opted to stain the original pine. It works and it's cheaper. Not perfect but it adds to the character of our home.

Lesson learned: Buy ALL of your flooring materials when you start. Otherwise four years may go by and you may find yourself pulling your hair out while trying to get what you need.

 

Brazilian Cherry (top) vs. Caribbean Cherry (bottom)

Countdown

We are officially in countdown mode. Daniel will start work two weeks from today. Kind of hard to believe. We are {hoping} to put our house on the market this weekend. Realistically, it may not happen until next week, but it is good to have goals.

Today our friend, Benjy, came over to help with the final projects on the house. They were able to install the vanity in the hall bathroom and measure all of the walls for the baseboard and crown molding that still need to be installed.

Tomorrow will be a big push to install Pergo flooring in the hallway and get baseboard installed.

It is such a relief to already have friends in Chattanooga that Daniel can stay with when he starts work. It would be even more stressful to be trying to finish the house and find a place for him to live.

I Love You Moore than the Details

Things are shaping up. We found out {last week} that Daniel passed his background check. They called me to verify that his unemployment record. They asked questions like "Did I know Daniel" and "When was the last time I had spoken to him?" As his wife, I certainly know him and I had spoken to him that morning.

Tomorrow he heads to Huntsville, AL for a quick overnight trip to get a medical screening and a psych evaluation at the Browns Ferry plant. As long as all goes well, he should be in the clear and officially ready to start on February 1st.

We are working hard to get the house wrapped up and on the market asap. For the very first time, we payed a friend to help us with a project. We decided to tear out the carpet on the stairs and install wooden treads that would be stained to match our pergo.

We {finally} got lucky on a project... we thought we were going to have to rip out all of the trim and stairs and replace them. When Daniel pulled up the {nasty} carpet, he realized that the treads were actually in good shape and could be repurposed. 

Korey helped us out by sanding and staining the treads. We will finish up the project by sealing the treads with poly {3x} and then installing a white laminate on the risers. This project should be wrapped up by Friday. 

For now, we get to deal with 1) the strong smell of stain and 2) having to walk around, outside to get to the basement {our TV room}. It's a hassle, but the stairs look great. I will post some pics when I get a chance.

I Love You Moore, even when our sense of normal isn't normal

So what do you do when you are young and don’t have a clue about renovating? You just dig right in and you don’t look back. This early in the game, you believe it will only take a year or so to finish (even with all of your big plans).

You rip out carpet with a vengeance. You paint walls like you always had mad skills to use a spray gun with oil-based KILZ. You wind up with your eyelashes fused together and scratch your head wondering what got you into this predicament. You tear out walls and tell yourself it will be back to normal soon.

A year later, you thank God that you finally have a working kitchen and wonder when you will have floors installed on every surface (verses exposed plywood sub floor).

Another year passes and you learn to ignore the unfinished things. You start trying to reclaim your life and stop sweating the small stuff. By now you have learned what to waste your time arguing about and what to let go. And your sense of normal has changed significantly.

Another year passes and you complete your master bathroom. Did it really take almost four years to get here? 

Your friends bug you continually about when you will finally throw a big party and let them see all of the progress. You say “soon” and then realize you have been saying “soon” for months (maybe years).

The employees at the local Lowes Home Improvement store think you are contractors. You don’t have the heart to tell them that you are just a husband and wife who are on a journey and that you just finished painting the walls and staining the concrete floors in your basement.

You come away with battle scars (including a scarred leg from a chainsaw, bruises from falling (1) off of a ladder that collapsed under you and (2) through an uncovered vent), but at the end, it is all worth it.

I Love You Moore than our House Renovation

Once upon a time {about 5 years ago} a young couple {Cheree & Daniel} purchased their first home. They had grandiose ideas of renovating. He was an engineer. She was a {graphic} designer. It would be so easy

And it was.

Kind of.

Starting out was easy. They had no idea what they were doing, but they jumped right in. They ripped out carpet. They installed new floors. They painted. They disassembled a kitchen. They tiled. They did a custom master bathroom with a CUSTOM shower. They moved walls. Seriously. They moved walls. They were nuts.

They learned how to argue and disagree about things like what appliances to buy, what would be the best {most complicated} tile pattern to lay and what walls to move. What walls were load bearing and couldn't be moved. What was possible. What was not. What was ridiculous.

He learned that all of her idea generations was just her way of brain storming. She learned that Excel spreadsheets are absolutely necessary to renovate. They worked hard. Through blood {including a chainsaw accident}, sweat and tears they made a home.

And now due to a lay off and subsequent job in a new city, they have to move...

We are on the verge of finishing our house and we will put it on the market soon so that we can move to Chattanooga and start again. Friends and family always ask if we would do it again. And we emphatically shout NO. But truthfully I can see us doing it again. It would be different. Maybe room by room instead of GUTTING an entire house and putting it back together while we lived there.

We always say we would do small things like paint. And put in wood floors. And of course tile. And replacing a kitchen wouldn't be that bad, right? A bathroom renovation? That would be a piece of cake. Staining concrete? Sure.

We would probably hire out dry wall work. Daniel hates drywall.

 In the coming posts I will share pictures and advice of our process. What we did. What we wish we had done. What we would NEVER do again. At times, this project has taken over our lives, but it has taught us so much about ourselves. We gave up hobbies for our house, but the experience we have gained is invaluable. In the future we would work to do a better job of balancing our hobbies and life with our house projects. Being consumed by a never-ending house renovation can be overwhelming. But we are thankful for our experience.