running water is a luxury...

So we finally have running water in the first floor bath, kitchen, laundry room, and outside hose. The other two baths are a work in progress. That means we can start refinishing the wood floors, and move in soon after.

main floor...

second floor...

basement bath...

plumbing update

Sorry, the only thing on my mind right now is work, and the house. I feel so out of touch.
So apparently, "smiley faced pipes" is a term plumbers use for pipes that have busted, from freezing during the cold winter months. This is what they look like. Our plumber told us to keep these as souvenirs. Expensive little suckers! Unfortunately, there are more where these came from.


When the water was turned on for the first floor, there was water fountaining out of the dining room light. Of course I was horrified, yet secretly happy that we have to rip out that light fixture soon.


Do I know when we're moving? No idea. In the mean time, we are back and forth, living in a box filled apartment. Thank God it's summer in Chicago!

We removed the kitchen cabinet doors, cleaned and sanded them.They are ready to be primed & painted. Need to shop for new hardware for the cupboards... that's the update.

**FYI... we are using copper pipes, as PVC is banned in Chicago. PVC is less expensive, but is a potential health hazard, fire hazard, safety issue, and not eco-friendly. Check out this article and this article for a summary.
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Happy 4th!

Hope everyone had a great holiday weekend.
Any free time we had, outside of work, was spent working on our floor project. We ripped out all of the old carpet, along with a gagillion little staples and nails. Check out the photos below. We will someday get to call these the "before" pictures.


Our wonderful plumber/MacGuyver guy spent a lot of time repairing & replacing pipes. The plumbing situation is a nightmare. All three bathrooms are "out of order" at the moment. However, the kitchen sink, laundry sink, and outdoor hose are working.

BTW, my new favorite store is Menard's! There is a new one in the area and it's so freakin' awesome.
Gotta go, my hands are hurting. Need ice packs....
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the water is on (sort of)

It's one week after closing on the house, and we finally have water. Hallelujah! The Licensed Chicago plumber got it done in 15 minutes for 175 bucks. There was a leak, so our 'MacGuyver' handman is coming to do any necessary repairs before everything is turned on inside the house.
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Congrats to Al Franken! yay!

I'm sure my family & friends in Minnesota are ecstatic that it is finally over!
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Still no water...

Well, I spent the day at the Chicago water department to try and find out why we don't have running water in the house yet. We have called '311' several times, spoke on the phone to many different water department employees. Faxed them stuff. Emailed stuff. Still no answers. We keep getting the run around. Everyone has a different answer for the same question. It's really frustrating, as we cannot begin working on the floors until the water is on. At this point, we have NO idea when we can move in.
That's all the news for now, I'll keep you posted.
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UPDATE:
- Apparently older Chicago homes do not have water meters. They are only required on new constructions.

- You must pay a "Chicago Licensed Plumber" to turn the water on. The valve is located in a "buffalo box", located near the property line. From the city website...
"The emergency shut off valve can only be operated by a Department of Water Management employee or a Chicago Licensed Plumber. This valve is owned by the Department of Water Management. If any unauthorized person manipulates this valve they will be held responsible for all damages occurred".

- From my understanding, we need to hire one of these city approved plumbers. So we have one of these guys coming out tomorrow to turn on the water. Hopefully, this will go smoothly. *fingers crossed*

A HUGE thank you to our family and friends for all of the help, advice, moral support, etc. We REALLY appreciate it, you have no idea. I'll let you know how everything goes tomorrow.

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Free paint!

Go to Glidden.com for a free quart of paint. Hurry, its for a short time only!
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house stuff, if anyone is interested...

We closed on the house this week. It's officially ours! Yay!

Right now we do not have running water. We had a plumber come out today for minor repairs and to de-winterize the home. We're waiting for news from the city to see what's going on. It only took them 12 hours to respond to our emergency 311 call (about midnight tonight). Last week when I spoke to a woman from the water department, she told me that according to her computer, the water had not been shut off by the city.

Under our carpeting, we have hardwood floors. We need to take care of the floors before we move-in. But we can't start the floors until we know the plumbing is in working order.
So, the moving date has been delayed. Big surprise! When it comes to fixing things, it always seems to take twice as long! Actually it will be a bit of a relief to not have to rush things to move in. Plus, it's so flipping humid here, I don't want to move. Our landlord is being super cool about everything, so that's a relief.

Scott doesn't like the white floor idea. He says it's a little too "Stanley Kubrich". So, we decided to have the wood floors redone in the LR, DR. Then do carpeting in the upstairs bedrooms. Right now, I like the idea of a walnut colored stain.

So that's what's going on with the house for anyone interested. Of course, almost everything is packed, and all of our rooms are full of boxes. Our refrigerator has a brita water pitcher and condiments. I must order some groceries.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!
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update... well, it seems like we may have water by Tuesday (2 business days). which in 'Chicago government agency time', could be a lot longer.

the day after the water goes on, the floors are getting redone. the man doing them came highly recommended! he does very nice work and is really affordable. he's actually going to do the two upstairs bedrooms as well. it will be less $ than carpeting. Scott & I have to rip out the carpet before they do the floors. I did a little bit today. it's not fun. we will have to put new carpeting on the stairs going up, according to the floor guy. he said it would be better. he also thought that going with a dark stain would be a good idea.

we purchased a refurbished refrigerator & stove for 300 bucks, plus free delivery. they look identical to the appliances in our current place. they will do the job until we can really rehab the kitchen.

oh, apparently the lawn was cut. it looks like a psychopath did it with a machete. the backyard is such a hot mess. it makes me lose my mind looking at it.

after spending more time in the kitchen, i really just want to rip out the cabinets(and tile) and replace them. there are like a gagillion layers of contact paper inside all of the cupboards. it just feels sort of "ick". if we replace the cabinets and counter top, then we could get a dishwasher. :) i see people DIY their kitchens on tv decorating shows all the time. they save a fortune! of course they make it look so easy. we'll see... i know Scott will not like that idea at all. maybe we can go on a home improvement reality show and get it done for free.

ok, that's all the news for now.

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Happy Father's Day Dad!

Love you & miss you! xoxo

* Since our photos are all packed, I'm using a photo I posted before. One of my favs! Circa early 1970s. PS I wonder if that plane would fly through thunder storms.
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omg & wth???

will explain later. just know this weekend didn't go according to plan, due to the weather. errrr... totally bummed.
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here we go...

little things i'm thinking about before the big move:

* thinking about doing this... check out Living Without Cable on NPR. Update- not going to happen.

* in between anxiety attacks, i'm enjoying looking at photos of cool backyard spaces. check out these at apartment therapy. LOVE this cheap-o patio makeover over at this This Young House. if you have any great links, please do share.

* wondering about this Woven Willow fencing to cover the chain link fence. it would be an ez fix for now. would it be smarter to just go ahead with hardwood fencing in the backyard? i need to do some price investigating. there are some cool ideas for covering chain link fencing at Making it lovely.

(photo found via apartment therapy)

* Scott loves this outdoor push lawnmower, or similar. not sure if this is going to work on the current yard situation- see pics here. but isn't it cool ? it's super inexpensive, eco-friendly, plus you get more of a workout.


* thinking about doing something like this using the clothesline in the backyard...


* Do you want to know what tax credits you can get for fixing up your home? Click here and here. Click here to find out more about the $8000 taxcredit for purchasing a home.

* DIY decals for ceramics. this may be an idea for some of our ugly tile. plus, here is a link on painting grout. it just may work for our bathroom.

* found a couple more cool design blogs...Simply Grove and casapinka. great inspiration.

* not sure if i mentioned this idea before, but here is a DIY for painting over vinyl flooring. it may be a quick fix for our kitchen floor.

* also, wondering what color to paint the front porch...any ideas? perhaps just a fresh coat of a white paint? or go for more color? right now it is off-white and maroon (not a huge fan of maroon/burgundy). we're planning on losing the lattice. * the front is fire-red brick, white trim, and a maroon/white painted porch. * Update- now i want to paint it black.

* thinking about a backyard firepit. there are tons of DIY projects, plus many affordable for purchase.
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Is mercury in retrograde?

It sure seems like it! But I'm pretty sure it ended a week ago. It's just been one thing after another.
I'm physically & mentally spent, and in pain. On Monday there was an incident involving me, a labrador, our teeth smacking into each other, me ending up with fractured teeth(only noticeable up close), sore face, jaw, head & neck pain. Went to the Doctor, and now need to go to the dentist for a little work. errrr. Of course insurance is taking it's sweet old time approving things. In the mean time, it hurts to talk, my teeth hurt, I can't bite into anything, no metal silverware(!), and chewing hurts my jaw. It totally sucks.

Other than that, we're getting ready to close on the house...busy packing and preparing to move. I just want to go to sleep...wake me up when we get to the new house.

Hope everyone is well. xo

ps On June 30th, we will be offline for a couple of weeks, but will be available via text or cell phone. Any recommendations for an internet provider (besides Comcast)?

UPDATE: Ok, apparently I dislocated my jaw, but it popped back into place. Teeth are going to be fine. Just very sore. Dr, and Scott, think I'm extra sore because of this and this. I'm fine though. Just dealing with the pain, and being extra cynical.

Also- hope i don't get into trouble for saying this- but Scott & I are going to be an aunt & uncle. yay! it's a little girl! awww. don't want to give out too many details online, but we're very excited. :)

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Do Division street fest

The 'Do Division' street fair is today and tomorrow!
The vendors are setting up, as I type, right outside of our front door. We had a great time last year! I'm very excited to catch up with friends. Oh how I love Chicago in the summertime!

* note to self: girl, don't you be going crazy buying from the vendors!!! remember you have a house to rehab!
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ugh, packing begins...

Hope everyone had a lovely holiday weekend!

We were lucky enough to be invited to a couple of bbqs. We ate insane amounts of outstanding food! Need to get biking to burn off some pounds.

The weather was a little manic, but manageable & tolerable.

Today was back to the real world. Back to business.

I decided to get started on packing. We've been here for 4 years, so have accumulated a lot of stuff. Every closet is packed.
Remember on 'Friends' when Monica had her dirty little secret closet? That's totally me. Except I have 3 closets to deal with.

To not end up in a mental hospital, I am going to try and pack one room a week (maybe more if I'm feeling ambitious). Must try to downgrade and organize while packing.
* this is only one room- major yikees!

before...




after...(just need to pack up the computer)



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more home ideas...

i really really really want to paint the hardwood a highgloss white!
we have had highgloss painted floors before, and loved them. so easy to clean!
the only negative is that the paint took forever to dry.




photo by living etc, found via Door Sixteen.

love this all white kitchen...

photo found at apartment therapy- click here to see more.

here is our kitchen 'before' the makeover.
our plan to 'make it work'...
- paint the cabinets white
- new hardware(or possible spray paint the current hardware)
- paint the backsplash white
- stove and fridge
- not sure about the floor treatment yet
- would love new countertops and sink, but that will have to wait.
- also, i really really want a dishwasher. not sure where it should go(?).

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blog links...

- i got a tip about this fantastic DIY home makeover blog called, This Young House. there are tons of how- to projects, and the before & after of their home is absolutely amazing.

- i'm loving this blog- How about Orange. lots of cool tutorials and inspiring decorating ideas.

- just found the adorable blog called doe-c-doe. love these gift tags, and the vintage embroidery patterns.

- lots of cool interior design inspiration photos here, at Ninainvorm.

- check out the wallpaper and decals at poppytalk. some interesting ideas.

- tons of cool craft ideas here at Craftzine. i want to try making a top from a pillowcase, tutorial here.
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I'm going to miss our neighbood...

goodbye Wicker Park-Ukranian village.
i'm so sad to leave, but it's time for us to move on and seek out new places to love. here are a bunch of places we will miss.

- Letizias- good strong coffee and a sinfully delicious bakery. they use real butter- no margarine. love the giant cookies and cupcakes.

-Thai Village- great potstickers.

- Small Bar- excellent beer selection and great bar food. they have great taste in music. lOVe the buffalo springrolls and the poutine.

- Adobo- great margaritas and guacamole. love the chicken enchiladas with mole.

- Picante- good fast food mexican.

- D & D- great liquor store with a nice selection of wine and micro- brew beers.

- Sushi. actually there are 3 sushi restaurants on our block.

- Gelato- delicious & indulgent.

- Aveda

- Paper Dolls- great shop for cards, papers, and gifts.

- Smoke daddy- great bbq and music.

- Moonshine- great food, plus they have a microbrewery.

- Sultan's Market- love the falafels.

- Janik's- the nicest family owns & runs this restaurant. love their sandwiches and smoothies. this is where we usually purchase our coffee beans.

- Happy Village outdoor beer garden. this is where we hung out with friends after we got married. :) Scott will miss the ping pong table.

- Renegade Handmade- a shop with cool hip handmade items(and some vintage items).

- The Beachwood- best jukebox ever!

- Bite. great food. plus it's a byob restaurant.
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we had the home inspection

first off, we still are waiting to close. so hopefully i'm not jinxing the deal while sharing...

- the new house is bordering between Humboldt Park and Logan Square neighborhoods.

some home improvements, that we need asap and make me a wee bit nervous, and will most likely not be DIY projects, include...
- how to install a sump pump. ok, we will definitly need some help with this project. we already have the hole in the floor. we just need the contraption, and plumbing to go outside- it's really all jibber jabber to me.
plus, i would love to build a cabinet around it, to disquise it.
* Dad, I need your ideas on that.

- we need to change some of the electical outlets from the regular style, to the type that has a 'reset' and 'test' button (forget what they are called).

- again with jibber jabber...apparently we need some sort of gas hook up in the basement for a dryer. who does that? i do know that it's NOT the gas company.

- we need some of this fun foam insulation in the attic to make it more energy efficient. any supplier recommendations?

- house photos here.

other more cosmetic fix-ups include...
- ripping out carpet.

- refinishing the hardwood floors. should we leave them natural, make them a dark walnut, or paint them? i would love to paint them all white (with white walls), but i'm sure that would not be in favor of the resale value. suggestions?

- we plan on buying a stove, refridgerator, washer & dryer. there are a couple of resale places in the neighborhood with great deals. we've purchased from them before. the appliances are used, but seem to be in nice condition.

- we will be painting everything we can!

- oh, any ideas with what to do with the main floor banister??? i would love to paint white all over!

- must replace the dining room light fixture. but that will depend on the dining set we find. of course we will be looking in second hand stores for something unique.

- any ideas about what to do with the unfortunate bathroom tile?

- what should we do about the kitchen floors? it needs to be low budget. plus, i'm not a fan of hardwood floors in the kitchen. perhaps ceramic tile? or some new cool linoleum. any ideas?

- the front porch needs to be stripped and given a fresh coat of paint. i would LOVE any paint color ideas!

- we're shopping around for an old fashioned push lawnmower. any suggestions?

- really, we have a gagillion weekend projects ahead of us. i'm excited! finally an opportunity to utilize skills learned from years of watching 'Trading Spaces', and all of the HGTV home improvement shows.

ok, that's enough brainstorming for now. we would LOVe to hear any ideas, suggestions, and recommendations.
anyway, have a happy holiday weekend! :)
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we bought a house

House photos HERE!
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home improvement links...brainstorming...

Home improvement blogs (there are many more to the right, under links)...
- Charles & Hudson- a DIY home improvement blog
- Check out the DIY City Guide Chicago Edition
- Making it Lovely- a home improvement blog about a Chicago bungalow
- Retro Renovation

Dealing with bad tile:
-tile decals at Mibo, Enna and Sign Chick 1.
- painting tile- someone recommended this
- painting over ceramic tile, here and here

Flooring:
- how to paint your linoleum floor white- here
- fusion flooring
- white floors at Door Sixteen- here
- painting hardwood floors- here and here
- how to refinish hardwood floors- here

Kitchens:
- white kitchen before & after- here
- how to paint laminate countertops- here
- beautiful kitchens at SFGirl by bay
- white kitchens on flickr- here

Walls:
- how to paint paneling, here
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Free art here at Feed Your Soul: the free art project! The project was started by the writer behind Indie Fixx.

Happy Mother's Day!

Love you Mom! K xoxo

hello!

Still house hunting... it's like being in purgatory! I've been instructed by our realtor, and loan guy, to not make any big purchases, travel, to not spend any money, to not have any fun, etc.

If anyone gets a crazy facebook message from me about viagra & cialis, I'm so sorry. Not sure what happened...something about "a friend's page getting hacked".
Also, I haven't figured out the new facebook layout. Hate it. Why do they have to change it all the time? I would just delete my account, but don't want to lose my contacts.
UPDATE: my facebook page is deleted.

Just wanted to give a quick house update and explain the FB spam.
K xo

Happy Birthday Barbie!

I just found out. So sorry if this is a belated birthday wish.
My barbie dolls are not yet 50, but they are looking pretty wrecked. Here are some funny 'Barbie turns 50' things sent to me from my Mom and a friend.
Barbies were my life as a kid! I had 'Barbie's country camper' and the airplane. I think my Brother's GI Joe, Spiderman, and some Star War's action figures, hijacked and destroyed the plane.

Happy Birthday Barbie- Cheers!

Get well Fridge!

William 'The Refrigerator' Perry is in the hospital with Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyneuropathy-CIDP. You can read more about it HERE and HERE. I read earlier that he had Guillian-Barre, but haven't heard any details yet.
In any case, he's in our thoughts & prayers.

house news

We had the inspection on the house, and unfortunately it wasn't good news. We can deal with 'ugly', but apparently the home has too many problems to deal with...mold, water issues/leakage, ventilation issues, electrical issues...
It seems like the previous owners did the home improvements themselves, which were not up to code, and could potentially cause health problems and safety issues, etc.
Disappointing? Yes. But it's ok, we will keep looking. Fortunately we live in a big city with lots of houses for sale. Plus we have a really wonderful Realtor who works extremely hard, is knowledgeable, experienced, very calm & patient.
I'm trying to look at this as a learning experience, since I knew nothing about buying real estate before we started this adventure. In this case, I realized how important the inspection is when buying a house. Definitly worth every penny! Also learned that some places are a good deal for a reason.
So that's that. We will keep calm and carry on. :)

Happy Easter!

I had to post a copy of the front page of the special Easter Williams Sonoma catalog.
Check out how the baskets say "Matthew" and "Kristin" (me and my brother). I think it's some sort of sign... time for a visit. :)

Hope everyone has a nice holiday weekend!

We will be moving forward with our 'new home project', finishing up filing our taxes, and basically working a lot. It's going to be a lovely weekend (can you hear the sarcasm?).

*hugs & kisses*

some house hunting news

ok, we put an offer on a house. it's not a done deal. the offer still needs to be accepted and pass inspection.
you can see pics here. it's definitly a fixer upper!

i'll try and describe the place a little better (even though it's probably bad luck to talk about it already).

- first floor has a living room, dining room, kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, little side room(?),and a back enclosed porch.

- second floor is open and loft like. apparently it was a space for extended family...living space, kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, deck. it's not "technically" a second apartment(zoning).it doesn't have a separate entrance.

- basement has a two part bathroom and two bedrooms.

- the garage is actually in great condition. good reason to buy a car. Scott thinks it's a great space for a ping pong table.

- the back yard needs help!

- the front porch needs to be replaced asap.

We welcome any advice, comments, ideas, etc. Sorry about the bad punctuation/grammer- I'm so very tired.

adventures in house hunting...

This house is in our budget. Isn't it amazing? We're not seriously thinking about it as it needs a ton of work. Plus, we would have to kick out the squatters. It makes me think of the movies The Money Pit and The War of the Roses. It sure is beautiful though.


We're finding great deals on new,or rehabbed, single family homes. They look nice on the outside...


...then the inside will be completely stripped of everything...copper wires, sinks, appliances, hardware, fixtures.


We have a huge list of homes we're interested in, but need to really start narrowing it down. It's fun looking at the homes and imagining the potential.