My New Upstairs Bedroom

This is my new lovely upstairs bedroom! I love the quiet not having the neighbors coming and going from their side door beside my bed! It is quite cozy and of course has zero for closet or clothes storage! This is rather frustrating to say the least. But I do have the door to close for sleeping and that is also a new perk!

I am quite enjoying my new bedroom upstairs and being off the main floor. My summer pillows and my Christmas pillows are of course at the ready!

The Reno is about to begin...

Not a moment too soon either! My October reno is now making it's way into a 2010 kick off! The rewiring will get started on January 8th, 2010! wow seems rather far away...especially since it originally kicked off by packing in September!

The plans have actually changed a tiny bit. A great friend suggested i close off the back door and have it go out thru the back thru the former bedroom. What a great idea. It adds a good three feet of cabinetry and makes the back wall of the kitchen seem bigger! I was really excited about. The next part of the project is making the order for the kitchen, for which i have to create a slightly more accurate plan. The contractor has done the exact meaures, and now the combination of his drawings, my pulled photo samples and ideas, and my sketches should come together as a fabulous exciting kitchen....

One Hundred Days of Doorway photos

OHHHH...and the reno get ready program continues! My kitchen is slowly being emptied, and for a kitchen that has no storage i sure do have a lot o' stuff in it! Wow!!

It seems the get ready process is hampered by logistics...do i tear it all up now? pack up and move up stairs, or do i wait til the electrician comes and gets going on the rewire as i continue the process of moving upstairs??? so many logistical questions. I definitely have much stuff that needs an interim home, and of course we have the lovely new fridge in the middle of the soon to be new kitchen! nice way to live don'tcha think? It is truly making me crazy, and it has yet to begin.

In an attempt to document by photo, and because i miss my photo a day last year, i have started to take photos standing in the main entrance door periodically, and as the reno gets more underway i will take more photos more often! the before and after are going to be brutally shocking!!!!

Fridge Roundup Day!

I could hardly wait to have the big dirty, moldy beast removed from the house! Oh my goodness it was truly disgusting! It was not quite finished defrosting after days of sucking energy and electricity from the power box!

I was told the fellows would be here between ten am and two pm. I got up early to wipe up the last of the water and to get the remains from the frosty unusable freezer pried out...and low and behold it was not quite ready! I put the coffee on, continued to make room for the dirty wet removal, tried some more....to no avail! After carefully weighing the odds, I determined the time frame was lose enough, they could not possibly arrive at the earlier end! Oh sooo wrong, of course since i was not ready the truck could be heard rumbling down the street at nine forty am!

Oh Oh Oh! What is a girl to do??? I said they were realllly early for the time frame, they should work for the cable company! So they come in, and say yep it is not quite done defrosting! One of the requirements is that it be totally defrosted...at least it did not say spotlessly clean! So they wrinkled up their noses, said oh well and worked away at the removal!

Oh what a very very happy day! So excited for the next leg of reno to be on it's way! Nice photos to boot! I have entered the beast in the fridge roundup contest~ the prize is 1500 dollars to a new fridge! I have the new fridge, and wow what a dream it is!

The Energy Audit

This was an interesting experience! I have a bunch of ummmm issues that are desperately in need of repair. The fellow doing the audit got it all set up, and then asked how many windows were still open as he was unable to get a vacuum or a decent read!

Oh my goodness, i said there was a hole in the back addinsky roof, did he want me to cover it? he goes out back to take a look and discovers that the back door does not lock, thanks to lying larry, and the hole is rather large, add to that that the dining room wall of lathe no plaster is gap to the basment, and and and! oh myyyyyyy....

So the end result since it is a beginning point that he is after, is that he has to fudge the numbers a bit! At first he wanted to use the neighbors read, however i kiboshed that since the neighbors house is in much better shape and a whole smaller. He said he would have to adjust them. He also went thru and explained where i needed to add insulation, how much rebate i could entertain getting back if i did the whole nine yards, and all about the new windows and doors and weather stripping. I was surprised to learn that his audit had nothing to do with appliance energy star rating, and keeping the old fridge plugged in would have no effect either!

I also learned this week, just after the energy audit that my fridge is actually not hard wired to the panel in the basement after all! that was kind of surprising. I was told both appliances were hard wired and when dad replaced the stove outlet, he said that both appeared to be the same shoddy connection!

Oh my this house is in such bad bad shape! By Christmas time i have high hopes that i will be decorating the main floor for a full out festive Christmas season...time will tell!

The New Entry to Upstairs

After three years of working midnights, and running outside and upstairs to use the bathroom, i finally got my inside opening in the staircase! oh my what a great relief that was! A friend cut the opening, and the wires dangling, the lath still in tact! it is all good, and on the way to greatness.

No more surprise views for the poor mail delivery staff! i would often come downstairs or be going upstairs after sleep or shower to be at the door, or in between units and find the mailman on the step!

good things come to those who wait!

I sure do love the easy access, rain or shine, winter or summer zip upstairs on the inside!

Entry to upstairs from the inside

I think i will start the reno blog with little projects that have made life easier as i go and get round to different things...before the big redo!

This is a before shot of the dining room west wall, prior to cutting the opening to access the stairwell. I was working midnights for three and a half years, when the bathroom on the main floor was too far gone to use regularly I was forced to go outside and upstairs to shower and use the bathroom!

This was certainly not fun. A friend took out a doorway opening and now i can go up and down the stairs to my computer and my bathroom on the second floor no matter the weather and on the inside!

old east reno first post!

welcome to my blog, the old east reno site. i am about to embark on a huge main floor renovation of my 106 year old house. stay tuned for photos from before, and then of course the 100 days during....and the lovely after!