Second Snowiest Winter on Record

We've officially surpassed almost all other winters in terms of snowfall. The "official" snowfall for Milwaukee this year (recorded at the airport) is 96.9 inches, with 12.9 inches falling on Friday the 21st (yep--C's birthday party).

Luckily we had gotten some bare spots and the roads and sidewalks were bare before this snowfall. We still had banks built up, though. I can't imagine what it would have been like if we'd not had any settling...
We're several miles north of the airport, and closer to the lake and we got at LEAST 14 inches. You can see it piled up on the wishing well below:
But since it was such heavy, wet snow, it was perfect snow for making snow bunnies:
or snowmen in the neighbors' yard:
Temps hit 50 on Saturday and (unfortunately) both the bunny and the snowman lost their heads...

OK, I'm perfectly happy being second snowiest--we can be done now. No, seriously!

A Flooded Road

This has been, far and away, the strangest winter I can remember.

We were planning to go on a "mini-vacation" to a local water park (just a half hour's drive away) and woke up to the road in front of our house flooded:It had been raining most of the night which, on top of the melting snow, caused quite a back-up:
Add in the fact that certain workers did not do an exceptional job clearing the storm sewer drains, and you get flooded streets. We called the village, and they said, "we've got people on it".

After another hour, G. and I went out and got soaked and sore, but shoveled and chipped out our storm sewer drains. By the time we actually left on vacation, our side of the road was "dry".
But our sidewalks are still under water.

Blechhh...

Will this winter ever end?

Yesterday we had yet another big snow storm. This one had been predicted pretty well and almost all local schools (including the kids' and G's) were closed, as well as malls, libraries, museums and almost anywhere you'd want to be!

Unfortunately, the snow didn't come right away--it started with slushy, rainy stuff, which then froze under the snow. Up to 20 inches were predicted--officially we only got 12.5 inches, but I beg to differ.

And then the wind came, causing all sorts of drifting. G. and I were out shoveling at least three times and it just kept coming.

Here's some pictures from today--after the clean-up. Look at the snow on the roof:
Snow banks so high that we can't get car doors open unless we park far on the side of the driveway:
Snow in the yard is up about two feet and that's ice on the sidewalks under the snow:
This one is out our kitchen window at the neighbor's Arbor Vitae "fence" between our properties. Tons of heavy, wet snow is bending the bushes in half:
And record-breaking cold and wind-chills are forecasted for the weekend. This winter has been the worst that I can remember.

The Remodel: Passing Final Inspection

I don't remember how much of the electrical saga I've shared, but on our final inspection (back in June), the inspector found two "small" things that needed to be fixed with the electrical system. One was that an outlet was set in too far and the other was that a wire needed to be secured on the box downstairs. I didn't fully understand what needed to be done, so I asked the inspector to call the electrician. Snipping a lot of details, it took almost six months for the inspector to reach the electrician (including numerous reminder calls from me). The electrician came on December 27th, and the building inspector came today and we're DONE! We'll officially have our project "off the books".

One of the annoying things about having the final inspection *not* completed is that we wanted to add a light over the mirror. The only lights in the bathroom are one over the shower stall, and one in the middle of the bathroom, in the same fixture as the fan. Needless to say, things like putting on makeup were impossible! We had purchased (almost 6 months ago) a $42 light to mount over the medicine cabinet, but since we were going to put it in, and not the electrician, we had to wait for the inspection to be done. When the electrician was here last week, I mentioned something about how awful the light from the fan fixture was and he said, "and you can't put a light over your sink because of code". Here's a picture of the ceiling, with the slanty wall/ceiling, due to the roof:
Unfortunately, the 90 days had passed for returning the $42 light fixture to Home Depot with our receipt. We tried bringing it back without a receipt and it had been marked down to $34 (bummer, but not as bad as I'd feared). Then we went to look for a lamp that could sit on the floor but aim light at the mirror.

We'd almost given up when we were walking past the track lighting in Home Depot and saw a floor lamp that matched some track lighting. It was a $60 lamp, clearanced for $17! We grabbed it, and some insanely expensive light bulbs for it, and went to check out. The lamp rang up at $0.01!!! I was no longer so annoyed with not getting the full $42 back on the light fixture.

It's not perfect, but it looks okay in the bathroom, and it works GREAT!

In case you were missing all those posts about the remodeling hell...

We've had essentially four days of non-stop rain here. Sometimes it's just drizzling, but oftentimes it's POURING. Our sump pump has been running non-stop, our yard is under water, and the siding on the outside of the house (which had dried so nicely all summer in preparation for paint) is now soaking wet.

Today my friend Nicole came over to see the addition. As I was showing her the upstairs, I looked at the hallway along the stairwell and saw:


If you can't tell, those are watermarks because water is getting into the new roof and running down an inside wall. Because it hadn't rained here since the big mold disaster, we didn't know that such a leak existed.

G. climbed up on the roof and said that the flashing around the chimney had not been properly sealed. He sealed it and promises that it's fixed now.

I wish I could stop myself from wondering "what next?"

"But I NEVER win anything!"

There's this cool new little store at the mall, called Moroccan Imports. We found a neat woodcarving for G's dad for Father's Day, and while we were there, we signed up for their mailing list/drawing to be held in the months of June, July and August. Well, I won the drawing for June! And I never win anything! The prize was a $45 lamp. Here it is, lit up:

A close-up of the jumping person:

The lamp has a metal base, and is made of goatskin, which, when wet, is stretched over the metal. It shrinks as it dries, and then they paint it with henna (mehndi). I like the idea, but I'm not really sold on the lamp itself... Wish I could have picked out anything I wanted from the store--their woodcarvings are SO cool!

More free or low-cost remodeling

Since we've spent all of our home equity money (and then some), any additional work on the house has to be done with the materials we have on hand. I did a lot of that this week.

First, with C. gone for the week, and a new second bathroom, I decided to tackle the first floor tub/shower. Trust me when I say that it is a good thing I did NOT take a "before" picture!

I pulled out the yucky caulk from all around the tub. G. took down the shower door. I dabbed straight bleach on all the grout (three times!) and used the steam cleaner as well. I let it dry thoroughly for several days. I used Kaboom, and soft scrub, and finally straight bleach on the tub itself. I re-caulked the tile-to-tub seam (and filled the tub with water for weight and let it sit overnight). I sealed the grout. I cleaned the shower doors (and hardware) and scraped soap scum off of them. I Rain-X'ed the inside of the shower doors. I took down the showerhead and soaked it in vinegar. G. put the doors back up. I re-caulked around them. And now it looks like this:
And I've been working on the basement bathroom for a LONG time. There used to be shelf-liner on the drywall behind the mirror. Not only that, the drywall was hung backwards (paper out) so it all ripped when I peeled the shelf-liner off. So as lousy as I am at mudding drywall, I had to mud the ENTIRE area behind the sink! While I was at it, I also mudded the seams that had been taped but never mudded (can you believe it?). And then I primed the entire room with textured paint (lousy drywaller's best friend!) and painted it with OOPS! paint we'd found at Home Depot (Behr brand) for $5 a gallon. It's a really cool green color (not sure it comes through well in pictures). Then G. found a new faucet (old one was leaking) for $9 and put that in. I stained a piece of trim to match, and G. attached that to the front of the vanity to give it a more "finished" look. I also sanded some paint off, and then used the Restor-A-Finish to touch up the vanity. We still have to hang a big mirror (we have some--just not sure how to hang them!) over the vanity and need to get some baseboard trim (that'll be real money), but the basement bathroom's looking pretty good, I think. Check it out:



We had some paint left over, so we filled in the holes on the closet doors across from the bathroom and painted them to match the bathroom:

G's got a piece of trim to put on top of those, too.

I swear, it's such an addiction to fix up the house! In some ways, it's almost more fun to have no money and try to do it anyway...

Restor-A-Finish really DOES work!

This post is for Suzee...

She had told me that Restor-A-Finish was a miracle product, but it didn't perform miracles for me! I decided to give it a shot on our beat-up end table:

Hey! Look at that:
I have a bunch of things that I want to try it on, but I don't know whether to do it or not ;) I will say one thing--when it works, it really works! :)

Remodel: The finances

As I sit here, at the beginning of a summer that I thought would be full of "extra money" and I'm now worried about making it through the summer, I thought I should actually take stock of where all that money went. (Scroll down for the grand total in red--the list is for my notekeeping)

Besides the basic remodel money, paid to the contractor, here's where money went since January (for the house, of course)

Title Company fees: $200

Plat of Survey: $300

Drywall in grandma's room: $150

Phone jack and wireless adapter for computer (no phoneline in grandma's room) and cordless phone with extra handset: $134

Track lighting and bulbs: $42

Extra smoke detector in grandma's room: $60

Threshold between bathroom and existing room: $7

Additional amt. for double shower: $200

Custom-made shower door: $720

Rug and towels and bathmat for new bath: $30

Medicine cabinet: $58

Hardware for bathroom (towel racks, toilet paper holder for new bath and back of bedroom door, toilet brush, drawer knobs in silver): $64

Materials for shelves in bathroom: $37

Accessories for bathroom (soap dispenser, toothbrush holder, garbage can, clock): $22

Overage for marble tile plus grout sealant: $85

Sheets, pillowcases, throw pillow, comforter, bedskirt, pillow (our room): $150

Accessories for bedroom (candle holders, photo): $66

Closet organizer: $90

Mounting hardware for TV and satellite: $80

Carpet overage (our room): $325

New air purifier: $60

Corner shelf for bedroom: $28

Upgrade to ceiling fan and switch: $43

Doorknobs (6 total) and doorstops: $66

Insulation and weather stripping for both attic doors: $31

Materials to run strings for lights in attics: $4

Comforters and shams for girls' room: $105

Accessories for girls' bedroom (letters): $16

Carpet (girls' room): $460

Materials for T's comforter: $12

New toilet, seat, and installation materials (downstairs): $418

New vanity, medicine cabinet and over-toilet shelf (downstairs): $346

New sink, sidesplash, faucet and plumbing supplies (downstairs): $237

New shower curtain (downstairs): $20

Blinds (kitchen): $25

New baseboard trim (kitchen): $10

New doormat in kitchen (trashed by water): $7

New light fixtures (outside bathroom and kitchen downstairs, top of stairs going up): $33

Curtain rods (our room, girls' room; T's room): $76

Curtains (our room, girls' room, T's room, valances for kitchen): $116

Shades (our room and girls' room and top of stairs) plus mounting hardware and handles: $70

Furniture (dressers for our room, C's lingerie chest, bedside tables, new couch): $942

Storage totes (big for storage areas; small for kids' rooms/closets): $40

Paint (drywall primer; gray paint; pink paint for girls' room; green paint for basement; white paint for stairwell; off-white to re-paint all ceilings) and supplies: $400

Stain, varnish, restor-a-finish: $50

TWO filters for wet-dry vac (changed after getting moldy vermiculite out): $30

Replacement prybar that disappeared when the drywallers were working: $8

For a grand total of just under $6500

That is not counting miscellaneous extra money spent on eating out and/or convenience foods because we had no time or ability to use our kitchen or because food was tossed out due to water damage--an unknown amount, but probably a couple hundred

And we still have to buy:

Paint and supplies to repaint rest of exterior of house: $200(?)

Gutters and downspouts to match new paint: $350(?)

Now the portion of these items that related ONLY to the upstairs remodel comes in at about $4140--without the things we still have to buy. That's amazingly close (when you add those things in) to the theory of expecting a 10% overage.

AND if you would have asked me beforehand, I'd have thought that several things were included in the price of the remodel. Things like doorknobs and bathroom hardware and a medicine cabinet seem to be part of the whole package, but what do I know?

At any rate, I guess I'd say that, if you're going to remodel, make sure you have at least 10% buffer, and you might not want to do any additional projects until you're sure the entire remodel is complete. (just my humble opinion!)

Remodel: New Living Room Windows

Wow... can you believe it? We got our living room windows today! Only 5 months after we were promised them, and not exactly what we were promised (slide-by's instead of casement), but they're in, and they're nice! They allow us to get a breeze in the living room, and they are (supposed to be) more energy efficient!!!

One "before" picture:
Oh, wait--here's a funnier "before" picture, taken in February:



Here's the "after" pics:

And while I was taking pics, I thought I'd do an update on my impatiens, shown here in their infancy. They're growing!

Kitchen cabinets and Restor-A-Finish

Overall, I love my kitchen. Someday when we have extra money (ok, so like in 15 years when the home equity loan for the addition is paid off?), we'll re-do the countertops and put in a tile floor. But we love our cabinets, which are a beautiful cherry:

However, the cabinets that get direct sunlight have started to fade--quite a bit--in the 20+ years since they were installed:
Here you can see the parts covered by the doors/drawers that are NOT sun-faded:
So i was complaining about them on an email list and my dear friend Suzee suggested a product called Restor-A-Finish. She swears by it, saying that it saved her a ton of money refinishing woodwork.

OK, I'm sold!

Our Home Depot only carried it in an oak finish, so it took awhile before I could locate it in cherry. I finally found some last week and was excited to begin.

From what I understand, this stuff is a special stain that can make its way through the varnish to fix faded/watermarked/otherwise damaged wood. Awesome!

Unfortunately, here's what happened when I tried it:

Polka dots! ugh....

As near as I can tell, whatever my cabinets were varnished with is tough as nails! Each of those little dots is an area where the cabinet was bumped or dented, or had a natural pit in the wood--so areas that the Restor-A-Finish was allowed through the varnish.

waaaahhhhh!

We even tried steel wool, hoping it would pit up the varnish enough to let the Restor-A-Finish through all over.

nope...

Any ideas? We're debating whether using super fine sandpaper would be a good or bad idea...

Remodel: The MEGA Bulletin Board

One of the few remaining items to be finished upstairs was the spot that used to be a closet door:

(the closet attached to what is currently Grandma's room was used to make our bedroom bigger)

The contractor said that they had to special order the paneling, since that particular pattern is not made anymore. I got a lot of mixed messages from him, and the carpenter--things like "they messed up the order" and "his credit card was denied" and "they forgot to order it" and "I paid for it--I'll settle up with him" but at some point, G. said that he didn't think patching the paneling would work well anyway (how could the stain possibly match, and there'd be trim edging), and why didn't we just turn it into a big bulletin board? The contractor agreed, saying he'd pay us for the materials, and G. went to work.

He attached panels of OSB to the studs already there, and then covered the OSB with cork panels (we couldn't find big sheets of cork). Then he stained and varnished some trim and put it around the cork. Voila! One GIANT bulletin board in the office:


My plan is to use it to display all my (semi-inflamatory) political and parenting buttons and bumper stickers. I have seen SO many wonderful bumperstickers that I've wanted to buy, but not had the guts to put on my van, and I NEVER wear pins.

So if you have any cool bumper stickers or pins (left-leaning and/or APing only, please!), feel free to pass them along! (and if you're looking for a gift for me in the future, try Northern Sun)

T's Star Wars Room

When C. and T. were sharing a room (and M. was still in with G & I), I found a great "bed in a bag" Harry Potter set on clearance. This was something that would work for both kids, so I bought two for their bunk beds.

We painted the walls blue to match (the carpet was already blue) and I made curtains and a wall hanging from fabric found at Wal-fart.

But T's over that--and into Star Wars in a BIG way! We re-did the girls' room completely after G and I moved upstairs, but there wasn't really a need (or a budget) to re-do T's room. But as G. was cleaning out his closet, he found a lot of Star Wars toys and posters, and as I was cleaning out the linen closet, I found some Star Wars pillow cases that we'd bought when C. was little.

I went to Wal-fart and found some fabric to make curtains (4 yards x $4/yard) and a fleece panel ($5) and solid black sheet ($3). Here's everything put together:
I sewed the fleece panel onto the twin sheet, and then cut down an old black and white comforter and wrapped the sheet around the edges and sewed it down.

I took some of the leftover curtain fabric and sewed it onto an old solid black toss pillow.



It's so cool how this poster matches the pillow cases:


The only thing is that I don't think I like the blue walls with this stuff, and the blue walls got stained from the leaky roof and we have no more paint to touch up, so..... what color would you paint the walls?

Remodel: Final Inspection

The Building Inspector came this morning to do the final inspection. He found a few small electrical things (wants the new wires better secured to the box downstairs; some of the outlet boxes are set in too deep to the wall), but otherwise we're fine and the sign can come out of the living room window!

This weekend I picked up a wrought iron candle sconce for the bedroom. I think it matches the curtain rods nicely:
And here you can see where it is in relation to the photo (on either side of the middle window):
We still need something BIG to hang on the wall over the bed, and maybe a funky big, black phone (to hide all the electrical cords hanging from the TV), but most of the decorating is done!