Comments (127)

By Steve Jones, June 20, 2009 8:30 pm

Today was date night. Both of the kids were out of town and Emily and I agreed to a much-needed date night. The plan was for me to swing by and pick her up at 6:00 for dinner and a movie. Do you think it happened? Look at the title of this entry and think again. She called me at 3:00 and asked me to swing by and pick up some furniture she bought on Craigslist. When I got home, Emily mentioned that someone else in our neighborhood was having a yard sale the next day and suggested we have one as well. Long story short, by 9:00 pm she finally convinced me to have a yard sale to be kicked off in 11 hours. We made $300 (er, I mean $20 if you are the IRS) and got ride of a ton of stuff – all by 11:00 am. What we didn’t sell went straight to Goodwill. Well, we tried to take it to Goodwill, but they wanted us to sort everything, so we ended up taking it to a charity thrift store down the road.

The only things we kept are shown below. We ended up spending 110% of the money by the end of the day stuff for www.thisughlyhouse.com.

Comments (120)

By Steve Jones, June 18, 2009 6:50 pm

We met an amazing painter last night and hired him on the spot.  What makes him so amazing, you ask?  Good question!  He’s super nice, does excellent work and gave us a very fair price.  Check out his work below.

This evening we finally finished grouting the kitchen floor.  Emily fixed the trim in our bedroom and it looks like a professional did it.  She IS for hire.  Tomorrow, we’ll start on the trim in the 3 bedrooms, remove all the door stops and hinges that don’t belong and fill all the holes with wood filler.  It’s been a good first half of the week.

Comments (87)

By Steve Jones, June 15, 2009 10:47 pm

Maybe.  But, whatever it was I had the energy to tape off, cut in and prime Addison’s room this evening after work.  It probably won’t be to Emily’s standards (not a dig, just saying she has high standards), but it should give her a nice head start.

Comments (70)

By Steve Jones, June 11, 2009 8:27 am

We’re painting our daughter’s room this week using the colors from this bedspread.  Any suggestions?

Comments (5)

By Steve Jones, June 7, 2009 11:16 am

. . . and a ghost in our electrical box. More about the ghost in a later post, but for now who wants a bat?

Standing over the kitchen sink our very first morning in the new house, Emily looked up and saw a bat hissing at her. She jetted out of the house with a very serious look on her face and said calmly, yet sternly, “There’s a bat in our kitchen!” As she took the phone out of my hands, I asked, “Where’s my camera?” While she’s calling 911, I’m sneaking in slowly as to not scare the creature. I snapped a few shots and found Emily on the front porch where she told me that Animal Control had been dispatched. The officer was excited to capture the bat and took him home to release it in his yard.

The rest of the morning was dedicated to assuring Em that there were no more bats in the house or attic. We also think we found the point of entry where a contractor had left a window open that didn’t have a screen.

Comments (97)

By Steve Jones, June 6, 2009 5:02 pm

We both agreed that our first night was like camping – in our own house. Emily reached up to close the blinds and pulled them right off the wall.  We both laughed, not at the blinds falling off the window, but because we knew that if our neighbors were watching that they’d get an eyeful!  We couldn’t find our slippers, let alone pajamas; hadn’t connected any lamps and were standing (almost) naked in front of the windows.  What would you have done?

The only thing not closely related to camping was the green water in the toilet. There’s just something strange about yellow pee in a blue toilet. The blue toilet has got to go! Nothing against blue toilets if you have one in your house, but they’re not for us. Of course, that’s item 72 on our list of things to do to thisuglyhouse.com.

Comments (72)

By Steve Jones, June 5, 2009 8:51 pm

We moved on the wettest, rainiest day of the year, but the movers were great and kept us laughing all day. Moving was relatively uneventful (except for the rain). We packed all the breakables, the dogs and our clothes and headed to the new house. Speaking of dogs, I have to give Emily credit for scheduling the dogs to get groomed while we moved. Great idea, sexy!

Comments (114)

By Steve Jones, June 4, 2009 9:57 pm

We’re about to disconnect the computer and will be without Internet until Monday, 6/8/09 (Verizon screw up).  Check back on Monday for an update and more pictures.

Also, let us know what you want to see in terms of posts, pictures, polls, videos, etc.  You can comment directly on this post.  Just click the “comments” link at the top right section of this page.

Comments (267)

By Steve Jones, June 3, 2009 8:23 pm

As the story goes, Emily and I work full-time jobs, all of the work we do will be weekends and evenings.  After working a full day today, Scott and I worked until nearly midnight grouting the tile and installing the final two marble thresholds.  It’s amazing what a little redbull can do to keep ya going.  Em and I like the grout, but we it may be a little  too pink for our tastes.  Our builder cautioned us about this.  We’ll have to wait and see how it looks after it is dried and cleaned.

Precision Floors finished applying topcoat on Tuesday.  After the finish dried we found a couple of areas that needed to be touched up.  The owner came out the very next morning to make it perfect and it looks absolutely amazing!  We’ll be able to take more pictures tomorrow as we weren’t able to walk on it this evening.  Let’s hope the movers are careful.

We have yet to completely finish one area, so no real before and after pictures are shown – just progress pics.   Please leave comments here if there is anything in particular you want to see.

Only 2 more days until move in – and so much work still to go.

Tomorrow:  Drywallers are sanding, Emily is painting and we get to walk on the hardwood floors.

Comments (164)

By Steve Jones, June 1, 2009 11:38 pm

Today was another long day at the new house, but working with Scott, our builder, is an absolute pleasure.  Scott is responsible for all the work you see in the pictures so far.  Steve is just helping out by keeping the work area clean, making a few cuts every now and then and picking up supplies.  

Scott finished laying the tile in the kitchen, office and laundry room today.  It looks absolutely amazing!  The tile is being grouted Tuesday evening.

Addison had a picnic in the backyard while we finished the tile in the laundry room.  She then helped us by placing the final tile.  Oh, and check out the new threshold.  I never knew I’d be so happy to install a threshold, but this one is beautiful.  Actually, Scott installed it.  I just cut it.  After 3 days on the wet saw, I’m finally getting the hang of it.

Finally, the hardwood floor company finished sanding and put down sealant.  Tomorrow they are placing 3 more top coats and we’ll be able to walk on it Wednesday.  

As we complete certain areas we’ll reveal more before and after pictures.  Right now we’re just showing the whirlwind first 10 days.  

Tomorrow, the hardwood floors will be completed, all tile will be grouted and 2 more thresholds installed.  Yay!