I guarantee I'll mod my toaster the minute Briney finishes BFE.

-b0b
(...thinks that could be awhile.)

Yeah, Briney organizes his files about as often as Wes's Mom bathes, which is to say... never.

Meredith and I finally closed on the house yesterday, and we've got writer's cramp from signing so freakin' many documents.  It was absolutely crazy.

We've already started the monumental task of cleaning the house.  We need to clean and paint virtually every wall, replace nearly every light fixture, and steam-clean every carpet about six times.  There isn't a wall, ceiling, floor, or surface that doesn't need to be scrubbed.  Blech!

We've already started taking our "before" pictures, so I'll get some posted later tonight if I get a chance.

-b0b
(...makes no promises!)

There is no possible way we can have a LAN tomorrow.  The refrigerator won't arrive until sometime next week, so we'd have no place to chill the Dew/Jolt/Bawls/Red Bull.

No Dew, no LAN!

-b0b
(...mmm, Dew!)

It's been a couple of years since I've seen it, but you can still find it occasionally at random gas stations.

-b0b
(...also notes that Spencer's used to sell it back in the day.)

Since Corey used one of his bimonthly posts on that submission (0.02 per day!), you know it must be true!

Mere and I only had a few hours to work on the house this weekend, but we managed to get quite a bit done.  We've torn down all of the incredibly ugly window dressings, moved and installed the stove (thanks Spanky!), replaced the door knobs/locks, and done a fair amount of cleaning.  Honestly, house work isn't that bad when its your own house!

I've also started replacing the light switches and electrical outlets throughout the house.  The light switches have integrated dimmers that I really like, and all of the electrical outlets are surge-protected.  They're a bit of a pain in the butt to install, but built-in surge protectors is simply a geekly must-have. 

So far, I've replaced two light switches and one receptacle and only managed to zap myself once.  How's that for a track record?  I only have ~20 more light switches and ~25 more receptacles to go, which is 15 more zaps if my current rate holds steady.

Of course, I've found a couple of issues that I'm not sure how to correct.  Some of the outlets in the living room are from 1924(-ish) and have only two prongs.  Since they don't have a ground, I'll have to pull a grounding wire to them from the basement.  That will be practically impossible since the basement has a drywall ceiling, preventing me from fishing a ground wire up the wall from downstairs.

Meredith has all the pictures on her camera and she's been stuck at her mother's house dog-sitting for most of the weekend, so I'll try to get some pictures posted tomorrow night.

-b0b
(...just realized he posts 236 times more often than Corey.)

So do you still plan on moving in on Friday?

X

Picture Time!

Meredith and I have been busting our butts all week trying to get the house into livable condition.  By far, our biggest project has been the master bathroom on the ground level.  The bathroom had the ugliest, dirtiest wallpaper you've ever seen.  In addition, the carpet was completely ruined (which is why you never put carpet in a bathroom in the first place).  Both need to be removed before we can paint and put down new vinyl flooring.

Here's the butt-ugly wallpaper before we got started.


As you can see, the wallpaper was absolutely hideous.  This "nook" is for the washer and dryer hookups.  You can see how badly the carpet and wall was damaged by years of abuse.


Removing the wallpaper is a two-step process.  First, I had to tear down all of the wallpaper by hand, one piece at a time.  It took about four hours to get this first part done.


Once all of the wallpaper was down, we moved on to phase two.  We borrowed a steamer and started removing the nasty glue/paper combo that was left behind when the wallpaper was removed.  If you look closely in this picture, you'll see the seam on the wall where the old wallpaper used to be.  We've spent a combined four hours on this so far, and probably have another 6-10 to go.  SUXOR.

After the glue/paper remnants are removed, we'll have to scrub the walls to remove any remaining debris.  Then, the walls will be primed at least once with Kilz, and then painted.  After the paint is dry, we'll pull up the old carpet, clean and prime the old wood floor beneath it,  remove the toilet, and start laying vinyl tile.  That should be interesting...

-b0b
(...has never pulled a toilet or laid a floor before.)