Kitchen Counter

Sold the daybed for $40! Up to $115.



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Kitchen Counter

I found this free "fundraising thermometer" online, so I thought I'd keep track of how much I have saved for the makeover. As you can see, not much so far... just $75. Hey, it's a start.



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The Roomba is Gone

I sold our Roomba, which I haven't used since we left Indiana, for $50. A guy in Erie, PA bought it. He is a marching band coordinator, and used to be a member of the Cavaliers! I grew up watching the Cavaliers in our home town July 4 parades every year. They're incredible. So I feel good that my Roomba has gone to a good music-loving home.

Estimate?!?!?!

OK. So the estimate came back from the guys who did the inspection. $450 to clear off and tarp the roof. $1500 to take out a 4' x 13' piece of ceiling and put a temporary fan and dehumidifier up there to dry it out. No mention of putting the ceiling back, just leaving a giant hole. W. T. F. Sounds suspiciously close to our $2000 deductible to me.  Hell, I can take out a 4' x 13' piece of ceiling and put  a fan and dehumidifier up there for nothing. I'm of a good mind to take a sledgehammer and start right now. 

Jonathan called our insurance company to see what the deal is. They're getting back to us. 

Yesterday Jonathan called our insurance company to see if we're covered for ice dams. We are. But we have a $2000 deductible, so it's going to cost money any way we look at it. The insurance company recommended some guys from Brahler's Cleaning and Restoration. So two guys came out yesterday to look at the ceiling and roof. Fine, great. Come on over and look. No problem, right? 

Right. The first thing was that they called five minutes before showing up to warn me that they were on their way. I'm usually OK with that, but I was working with one of my new voice students, and couldn't follow them around they house while they inspected and took pictures. So they were telling me stuff that I already knew, about ceiling stuff having to be replaced, a hole cut open to dry it out, the snow cleared off the roof and a tarp put down. But an estimate? When are they coming back? Are they going to call?  I don't know. Did he tell me that he was going to go back and write something up and then get back to me? I have no idea, because I was working with a student, trying to keep my dog from jumping all over everyone, and trying to make sure no one made too much noise so that Vivian wouldn't wake up from her much-needed nap. 

So when Jonathan asked me last night what the guys did/said, I had no idea. And then he asked me again this morning, which is perfectly fine and normal, since he's working on a show and not getting home until 1 a.m. and has his mind on other things. But I was my usual overly demonstrative self, saying "I don't know... voice student... guys wandering around... estimate?... blah, blah, blah." I'm sorry, honey. I didn't mean to snap. I just honestly can't remember what they said. I hope they call back. 

On Our Way

So far I've sold a light fixture on Craigslist for $25. Later today I think someone is going to buy the daybed for $40, and someone wants my Roomba for $50. So that's $115 toward my kitchen remodel, if all goes well (I had to double check the numbers... my math-teacher mom will tell you I'm not the best with math).

The thing that makes me really mad about this leaky ceiling is that I can tell it has happened before. If I look closely, I can see places on the ceiling that have been patched, sanded, and repainted.  So the previous owners had this problem, but didn't really fix it. What's more, they knew about it and didn't say anything. I think that to really fix the problem, the roof needs to be extended. Who knows how much that will cost.

So the ceiling and all the other stuff that needs to be fixed in this house have me thinking a lot about money, which I don't have a lot of. I mean, we're doing fine. But we have debt and other bills to pay. I teach part time at the university, and an adjunct's salary is, well, not good (I'm holding back several bad words here regarding how much adjuncts are paid  at this university). My husband is a professor, but he's only in his second year, so his salary is commensurate. So we basically live paycheck to paycheck, and it's hard to put money away. We don't have $50k to spend on a house remodel (where do those people on HGTV get all that money to do those massive remodels, anyway)?

There must be millions of people out there who are in my position, who need or want to do things with their homes, but who have no money.  There are things that NEED to be done in my house. The leak NEEDS to be taken care of. There are some issues in the basement, with some rotting studs behind the paneling. That NEEDS to be dealt with. And I'm afraid of it. And then there are the things I want to do, like rip out the entire kitchen and remodel it, rip out the carpet in the den, rip out the stone planter that gets no natural light, rip out the peach-colored bathtub and linoleum that's attached to the floor with staples in the upstairs bath...  How do we all do these things without any money? Someone out there must have done it. Someone must be clever enough. If you've done it, let me know how you did it.

On a happier note, today Vivian is 2 1/2. The potty training experiment yesterday was successful, if you consider success to be some big puddles of pee on the floor and a few drops of pee in the potty. She has to be potty trained by September, when she starts preschool. That gives me about six months. If you've done that, let me know how you did it.

Leaks of All Sorts

The leak is back.


And since we're dealing with leaks today, why not try some potty training.

 

The Leak Has Stopped... For Now

The massive leak in the kitchen has stopped, at least for now. Take a look.

Selling More Stuff

I bought this daybed from a used furniture store when I lived in Indiana. It now sits in our basement, unused. I've had a few nibbles; let's see if someone bites.

Stocking Stuffers

The dripping continues. So I'm trying ice melt sausages. I've used them before with mixed results, but since I have nothing to lose, I might as well. Basically I took two old socks and filled them with chemical ice melt, sealed the ends closed with hook and loop ties, and looped strings over the ends.

The idea is to throw them up on the ice dam so they create a channel for the water to drip out. It's hard to see here, but if you look at the top of the gutter you can see the ice dam.

Selling Our Stuff

I've decided to sell as much stuff on Craigslist as possible to raise money for our makeover. We're starting with this art deco armoire that belongs to my husband. It doesn't really fit anywhere in the house, and doesn't suit our aesthetic anyway. I'll take the money we raise and put it in an online savings account to generate some interest.

Ice. Damn.

About six months ago we bought a fantastic midcentury modern split-level house in northeast Ohio. We had leased it for a year, and then our mortgage finally came through. Hooray! We love the house. It's close to the university where my husband and I teach, there's an elementary school right behind our house (something I'll appreciate in a few years when our daughter is ready to go to kindergarten), and it's bigger and more open than our previous house in Indiana. Plus it has an awesome midcentury vibe.

But now that I have lived in this house for about a year and a half, I'm starting to notice the problems inherent in this house. Too numerous and frustrating to list here. I'll list them all in a separate post. For now, let's start with the kitchen.

This kitchen is WAY bigger, with WAY more counter space than my old built-in-1925-Indiana house. So that's good. The problem is that the kitchen is laid out in such an inconvenient way. To get from the sink to the wall oven (which is a teeny oven that can't fit a whole cookie sheet), I have to walk around an island in the middle. I also have to walk around the island to get to the refrigerator (only the smallest size would fit in the nook provided) and the microwave. The dishwasher is in a weird spot that makes it inconvenient to unload (I can't open a cabinet door in the island when it's open). The dishwasher is also just about the cheapest model available. The counters, though spacious and white, are acrylic with seams that collect dirt and grime and who knows what else.

The kitchen itself is really dark. It has one window above the sink, and the cabinets are a very

dark wood. The floor is a dingy '80s brownish yellowish mottled tile, and the backsplash... don't get me started. UGLY off white and brown tiles with dark brown grout and "natural" looking leaf patterns in the accent tiles. Under cabinet lighting is fluorescent. I replaced the old stained-glass light fixture with something simpler and brighter, but it still doesn't provide enough light.

Then there's the ceiling. It's low. The rest of our main floor has lovely vaulted ceilings with beams (OK, so they're cosmetic, but they're nice). Walking into the kitchen is oppressive.

And now, the kicker. This is northeast Ohio. It snows. And we get ice dams. And our roof leaks in the kitchen. Right now I'm listening to the rhythm of water dripping from my kitchen ceiling into two buckets. We can't get the roof fixed until the snow is gone, and that's going to be some

time, according to the groundhog. So until then, drip, drip, drip.

So. Here we are. Great house. Problems. Blog. I'm going to

make over this midcentury house one room at a time on a very tight budget, starting with this kitchen. IKEA, here I come. My first step is to raise the money to do the remodel. I'll be selling a bunch of stuff on Craigslist and eBay, teaching extra voice lessons, selling veggies on the side of the road, whatever. I'm good with DIY... I tiled our Indiana bathroom while I was 8 months pregnant, built a patio (also while pregnant), refinished a wood floor, and I've done more painting than I care to say. We'll see how much of this we can do ourselves.