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Ok, I'm going to warn you upfront, this is going to be a long one. But it was a long (long looooong LONG) time coming, and a really big deal, so please bear with me.
:)

I have spent an awful lot of time over the past several months in my front yard. On the front of the house there's a little 'entryway' that sticks out from the rest of the house, and in the decades since it was built, it has been supported on two 4x4 angled wood beams set into little pockets in the foundation. Not smart. The beams (I now know) were pretty rotten, and the entryway had sagged significantly over time.

So, to keep this little slice of square footage from falling off the side of my house entirely, it was necessary to fix the problem (it also had to be done before a number of other projects - like painting and patching holes in the walls inside - since jacking it up was likely to cause more damage anyway).

So here we go. First came the digging of the giant holes, into which the concrete forms would be placed. Fortunately, with the new house being built next door, I was able to take advantage of the excavation crew working there, and didn't have to dig these by hand(!):

(two holes, each four feet deep, and at least two feet around)

Once these were dug, I couldn't use my front door anymore because the excavators had to remove the deck/stair supports in order to dig the holes.

Next, I placed the forms (bigfoots and sonotubes) in the holes, and with the generous help of the builders/neighbours next door, shovelled the dirt back in around them. Unfortunately, a few days later and before I could get the concrete into the forms, we had a huge rainstorm that moved them, which meant digging the whole thing out again(!), re-positioning them, and shovelling all that dirt back in. Is it any wonder this entire process took a few months??

Anyway, I don't really want to think about all that (ever again!) so here they are after the concrete was finally mixed and poured:

(notice those old angled beams I mentioned - the white and the navy ones,
not that random board leaning against the wall)

Anyway, then the jacking to correct the sag began. It was determined that we couldn't do it all in one shot, but had to do it over a couple of weeks (makes sense when you think about it - the floor probably took 50+ years to get to where it was).

And (Hallelujah), at long last, this past weekend the jacking was completed and the permanent posts were put in place. Check it out:

I know, gorgeous, right? :) While I'd much rather have spent the past couple months decorating the interior, this was important stuff. I now have a safe structure - and this paved the way for me to get going on all that inside stuff I've been thinking about all summer!

Oh yeah, and as an added bonus - I can now use my front door again! This stairway/deck is temporary - just to get me through the winter. I figure I can use that time to figure out exactly what I want to do to the front of the house next summer - what size deck to build, whether or not to move the door around to the front, etc. So we reused the old stair framework, but made it nice and sturdy with new deck boards and supports:


Oh, do me a favour and please just ignore that ghetto extension cord draped across the front of my house - the neighbours need power for a few days and I don't have an outside outlet. A little electricity's the least I can offer in return for all the hours they spent shovelling dirt into those giant holes!

And one last thing. Dad, there is NO way I could have done this without your help. Through every step of this process, you were there. 'Thank you' does not seem sufficient. But thank you.

Detail-Oriented

Maybe I've lost sight of the big picture. Or maybe I'm just a little overwhelmed by all the work still on my 'to do' list. In any case, just about every room in my house is still beige and bland and waiting to be decorated, but check this out:


As it turns out, I forgot to take a 'before' shot of this one, but let me paint you a picture: a couple days ago my cold air return was a faded and paint-splattered dark brown and just downright dingy. I planned to replace it, but then thought 'why?' - it was still perfectly functional, just not very nice to look at. And given that those little 'hot air' vents cost $6 and up to replace, I can only imagine what this big one would've cost. As noted in (several!) previous posts, I much prefer the cost of a can of spray paint.
I chose this espresso brown in a satin finish, et voila! The pic doesn't really do it justice, but trust me - it looks brand new again. I also used the same colour to do the hot air vent in the same area (top right of the above pic), so that they match perfectly.

Oh, and here's a tip: while I had the grate out, I cut some black window screen (sold by the foot at my local hardware store) and stapled it over the opening in the floor. The duct cleaning guy suggested doing this so that I can simply vacuum the vent and any stray lint/dirt isn't automatically being sucked down into my ductwork and clogging it up. At about $3, it was a simple way to reduce the need for expensive duct cleaning. Works for me!

Stand Tall

Since my 'big' projects don't seem to be coming together as quickly as I might like them to lately, it's time to take a look at one of the little details.

Did you happen to notice these in my dressing room project?


I just wanted to share a thrifty tip for helping tall boots keep their shape:

I took a simple plastic placemat (2 for $1 at my local dollar store), rolled it up, put it in the boot all the way down to the heel, and then zipped the boot back up.

Presto! The placemat unrolls in the boot just enough to fill out the calf and keep the boot upright.

Note to Vote

So I figure I need to do whatever I can to supplement my budget for all the work I still need/want to do on the house. Since I don't happen to have any spare organs I can sell(!), I've entered my living room in the Style at Home Makeover Contest. Hey, it's worth a shot - curb shopping can only take my decor so far!

The top prize is a $2,000 Home Depot gift card (and boy would that come in handy!!)

Here's the thing. It's partially a popularity contest, so I'd love it if you would take a minute to go here to VOTE (and comment. Take the opportunity to let me know your thoughts on what I should do with the space!). You may have to register to vote first, but it only takes a second, I promise!

As an added bonus: (1) my contest entry includes a sneak peak pic of my (currently rather shameful and as yet un-posted) living room. I'm nowhere near ready to post pics of it here, so get a glimpse there - just don't judge the sorry state it's in! :)
and (2) just for voting you're eligible to win a $50 gift card from Home Depot. Yay!

And hey, you can even vote once a day, if you're feeling generous.

Take a Number

The originals that came with the house:

But now that I've got a ladder (thanks, Kijiji!)...

I was finally able to put up my fab new house numbers! They're floating numbers, but (thanks to some awesome cutting and drilling help from a friend) I mounted them on a piece of reclaimed (aka garbage) acrylic which I frosted up just for the occasion.

LOVE them! They're just the first step in overhauling the look of the front of the house (remember this post?), so stay tuned!

Wonder Why?

Despite statistics that show that 'everybody's doing it', people often seem to suggest that it's strange that I, as a single woman, have chosen to buy a house on my own. The most 'puzzling' question I've been asked so far in my four-plus months as a homeowner was simply 'Why?' As in "You live here alone? But WHY??!" (with an underlying tone of 'Are you crazy?!')

How do I answer that?
- I hated wasting money on rent?
- I suddenly found myself without a place to live, and had to quickly decide to 'jump' into the housing market, ready or not?
- I was approaching 30 and it seemed like the next logical step?
- the time was right (low interest rates, slow economy, etc.)?
- because I believe that owning real estate is an important step toward financial security?
- I'm tired of dealing with landlords?

It's funny, but the question caught me off guard and really made me think, because, although the answer is all of these reasons and more, the truth is I don't care why anymore - I'm just so very glad I'm here.

Is it scary, lonely, overwhelming, exhausting to do this on my own? Yes, yes, and yes. But also empowering, exciting, and more personally gratifying than I even imagined, and I wouldn't trade this experience for the world.

Anyone else want to tell me they think I'm crazy? :)


(oh, and 10 points to anyone who caught the title's reference to the old ATV/CTV educational show with Richard Zurawski!)

Neighbourly

So I've been here for a few months now, and it wasn't until a couple days ago that I finally met some of my neighbours. It's not that I'm anti-social, but my house is set back from the street a bit, and there are no other houses in sight, so...

Anyway, last week I met some lovely neighbours named Judy and Gordie as they were out for a walk and stopped to look at the house being built next door, and we got to chatting. Then tonight, when I was out in the yard (still shovelling dirt!), they stopped by with a very kind 'welcome to the neighbourhood':


Wasn't that sweet of them? It made my day!

oh the glamour

It's been a busy weekend! In addition to the never-ending dirt shovelling and concrete mixing going on in the front yard (ok, I lie, the end is finally in sight with that one! I'll post when it's complete), today I swapped out my old, inefficient, construction adhesive-marred, frequently running toilet for a new 'low-flow' model.

out with the old:

and in with the new!:

Do try to ignore the floor (like I do!) - it's damaged and needs to go, but I want to finish up all these 'energy' improvements first. Once I get all those rebate dollars back I can move on to 'prettier' projects like tiling the bathroom floor.

All that painting and stuff will still be lots of work, I know, but it's definitely not like today's job. Because we all know about toilets, right? Gross.

Fall-ish

Remember these? (originally posted here)

Look what they turned into!

Now where am I going to find a reeeeally tall ladder?
(the trees are a little overgrown!)

Feelin' the Heat

Another big day in the life of my house, another major chunk of my house budget gone. *Sigh*.

I'm sure I'll be glad I made this decision when the winter winds are howling around outside and my house is snug and warm, but that wasn't really my thought today. I'm usually pretty practical, but today I could only think of how many other great (and pretty!) projects I could do with the amount I spent on this latest purchase.

Anyway, without further 'ado', here's the before (visually documented in order to impart the 'significance' of this purchase (read: to convince myself), not because the pics are particularly interesting!):


In the words of the installers of the new one, she was a 'dinosaur'. Their estimate of her age was '40+ years' (when the average lifespan of a furnace is 20-25). Well, that dinosaur is now extinct, replaced by this darling:


She's sleeker, shinier, cleaner, more efficient, more powerful (while using less power!) and just an all-around much better beast. So yes, a smart choice.

One drawback that emerged today: while removing the old one the installers noted that my duct work is in DESPERATE need of a good cleaning. Just another item to add to my 'to do' list - and my dwindling budget! Don't worry, I won't be posting pics of THAT process, I had a glimpse of what's in there today and it was pretty disgusting.