Posted by K
Wed, 22 Feb 2006 16:29:00 GMT
Things to not miss about DC:
That stupid D-40ES form that you have to fill out and send in with your DC tax money quarterly when you live in the District and, say, work in Maryland, and whatever entities that exist can’t figure out how to take the actual taxes out of your paycheck.
I am not sure if this is one of those things that is just a sometimes thing or if it is always the case if you live in DC and work in a Real Live State, but I am not looking forward to dealing with it, in any case.
Also: no word on the closing yet. I would be annoyed but I am TOO OVER IT.
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Posted by K
Mon, 20 Feb 2006 06:41:00 GMT
But don’t hold your breath. the latest news is that the court has lost the jacket for the closed estate in the dead files, and that if they can’t find it by Tuesday, they will probably maybe let us close Thursday. I guess this means Round Three of frantic document gathering on our end, and good god, I hope to remember to call USAA about the insurance this time around (last time we didn’t close, it was so last minute the insurance had actually kicked in by the time I remembered to call).
Anyway, I forgot, but I posted some pictures over at Flickr. These are the nice ones. (Ha.) I will post more later, when I get the nerve and we own the house and I can say mean things because I will be crying through my laughter. Or
laughing through my tears, whatever.
The latest in the Contractor Countdown is two bids in, waiting for the final one (since of course the two we have are many many dollars apart from each other).
I also think I spent my kitchen faucet money on a suit. I keep looking at it thinking it could be a faucet. I just don’t know.
Posted in Purchase | no comments | no trackbacks
Posted by K
Tue, 07 Feb 2006 03:17:00 GMT
Right now I am convinced that this house is never going to close, that the contractors are never going to look at it and/or give us bids (we are waiting on one of each of those situations right now), and that we are never going to actually move anywhere.
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Posted by K
Sun, 29 Jan 2006 22:57:00 GMT
Trying to figure out what to do with the bathroom, which is definitely behind the kitchen on my fret list, but still worrisome. Meaning I don’t wake up at 4.30 in the morning worrying about it, but I still think about it a lot. Moreso now that the Kitchen Dilemma is as solved as it is going to be.
The myriad small bathroom dilemmas are these:
Sinks: Vanities are kind of ugly unless you spend a million dollars. Pedestal sinks are okay, but have very little room (I hate being in the process of using a jar or tube of something and having nowhere to put it for a minute).
Tubs/showers: The modern 5 foot long and 30 inch wide bathtub is useless for a real bath if you are tall. However, pedestal/clawfoot tubs are a pain to use for showers. We don’t have enough room for a separate tub/shower setup. I am fearful of eliminating the tub altogether.
Toilets: No real issues here. I like dual-flush toilets because I am a treehugger. One that is easy to clean, ideally.
Things we need to decide on and what I am thinking right now (subject, of course, to veto and debate):
Sink – I kind of like the whole boarding school style of this one, and even though I don’t love the glass shelf, it will be useful. Also, it has some area on top where we can put things. AND, integrated hand towel rack!
Sink faucet – I am not set on anything here. Something along these lines, I guess. I can’t get too crazy over bathroom faucets.
Toilet – I should probably consider other toilets, but am kind of in love with this one. It’s plain, has a dual flush setup, and is made by the best toilet manufacturer, Toto. Not sure how it will look with the sink.
Tub/shower – No idea here. Something cheap, and white, I guess.
Tub/shower faucet – Again, I don’t care much here, although I would like a single lever deal for hot/cold/etc. Can’t get too excited about these, either.
Lighting. No clue. Maybe this or this? I really like this but it is all wrong for everything else in the room. I usually prefer three-light over two or four, and like lights that point up over down, but there are always exceptions.
Oh, and then there is stuff you never think about normally, like towel bars/racks and toilet paper holders. I guess simple is better here, too ( like this, ha. Although if there is too little adornment things WILL end up looking like a boarding school bathroom.
Posted in Remodeling: Bathroom | no comments | no trackbacks
Posted by K
Sat, 28 Jan 2006 17:46:00 GMT
But the RSS feed or the sidebar or something here sucks and it is for some reason not showing the updated version here. I messed around with it and gave it every URL it could possibly want, and it either gives me no list, an old list that is way outdated, or a newer but not correct list. I give up. If you want to know what stuff we have to sort out, click on one of the things there.
And of course once I published this the list is now there and complete albeit not in the order of importance. Oh well.
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Posted by K
Sat, 28 Jan 2006 16:45:00 GMT
So we just got back from a trip to DC to see the house, meet with contractors, and, possibly, actually close on the house but that was once again delayed but should happen in another week or so.
It all went pretty well, other than the moments of abject terror I was having randomly, thinking “what in the hell are we doing” and being convinced that we are insane. Which we probably are, doing all this (all the housebuying things say to not buy a house that needs extensive work as a first time buyer) but most of the time I am okay with the insanity and the vodka I consumed each night helped me be okay with things.
Anyway, there were a lot of good things and some bad.
Good:
- structural elements willing, I solved the kitchen dilemma and know almost exactly what to do there
- The old house numbers on the front transom are still there (yes, it is the small things) and we can restore them
- there is a cool old medicine cabinet that needs to be stripped of about 3853 layers of varnish and paint in the bathroom, but it is probably original and very cool
- the contact paper used on parts of the walls will come off easily (it is contact paper over paint over wallpaper over paint over plaster and it is all just falling right off the plaster)
- the original skylight is there, hidden under the drop ceiling, and appears to be intact and in okay shape except for the green paint
- the second floor floors are in pretty good shape. we don’t know about the first floor because of an overlay that was put on top of them and we are not sure what to do about that (try to restore the overlay, which will be hard, or remove it and hope for the best underneath)
- all the original transoms above the doors are intact
- almost all the stair newels are intact and not even painted over and we can have the three broken ones replaced or remade
- we found a great place (hi, Brass Knob Warehouse!) for fixtures, radiators, and stair newels and there is an adorable kitten who lives there who will play with you while you look around
- the tin ceiling in the bathroom might be salvageable
- the front door which is an unusual width (40”) is solid and can be kept once we do some cosmetic things
- there is a huge window in the kitchen that is hidden behind cabinets we are going to reclaim
Bad:
- there is a huge window in the kitchen that is hidden behind cabinets that we are going to reclaim and it will take up approximately 55 inches of precious wall space horizontally and approximately 32 inches vertically
- the dining room floor where the joists below are sistered poorly looks scary but we knew that already
- oh, the green paint. everywhere. except for the pink in the basement
- all the nice transoms are painted over and I forsee a lot of razor blades and Peel Away in our future
- the tile in the basement might be asbestos but we are not sure. I took a tiny sample (and later found out I need a much bigger sample for testing, sigh)
- the floor in the bathroom (which is, under the linoleum, goregous and messed up circular white tile that I would love to keep but it just can’t happen) feels a little sketchy so the joists under there probably have to be sorted out but we kind of guessed that might be the case
We met with a bunch of contractors who ran the gamut insofar as type, from design firm types to local guys who did contracting work, and they were all interesting and had interesting things to say. There are three front runners right now:
J – has a lot of experience (and prices that reflect that, from what we were told: he used to be cheaper but grew) and does nice work (we saw two places he worked on) and has good references. Very thorough and professional and we have estimates from him already. He could probably do this with his eyes closed, and had no problem with sending us pictures and is email savvy and would do well.
CJ – somewhat less experience but had some good recommendations and seemed thorough and knew what he was talking about. We are waiting on his estimate and need to call some of his references. Also says he can communicate with us via email no problem, etc.
Chips – similar to CJ… less experience but very thorough and meticulous and knew what he was talking about. Recently went off on his own to start doing this kind of work, even though he has been in the business a long time. We met with him and need to give him contact info so he can get back in the house next week and do a thorough walk through and take notes and give us an estimate. Also need to get references so we can talk to some people directly and remember how he felt about email and phone communication.
Then we have heart attacks over the prices, but that is how these things go.
Next: update our to-do list. Post pictures.
Posted in Remodeling: General, Purchase | 2 comments | no trackbacks
Posted by K
Tue, 17 Jan 2006 05:16:00 GMT
So far I have spoken to two contractor-types, a real contractor type and a design firm that is probably not what we want (or, not what we want given we don’t have a ton of money to spend and the guy I talked to already got all kind of snooty about kitchen remodeling costs). Anyway, I talked to them and I didn’t die. It is still terrifying and I have no idea what I am doing, but we are going to meet with some of these people anyway and see what they have to say. We have two right now and a line on a couple more, so we should be able to get a couple of estimates to compare.
I have a million questions about how the contractor stuff works, and about how it can work when we are living across the country, and how we get things like bathtubs delivered. And right now I am not thinking about it at all and watching 24.
It seems like all people, no matter what they have had done and who they are, complain about contractors either costing more than they thought it should have cost or going over time estimates. Or both. I am already ready for both of these things, although I am still secretly hopeful things will go okay.
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Posted by K
Tue, 27 Dec 2005 23:12:00 GMT
A random thing that has me worried about moving away from SF (well, besides the state of food in general, the availability of vegetarian food, and the availability of the wine and cheese I love around here): bread. Even if DC in general puts me that much closer to the best bread ever, the chocolate bread from Balthazar in New York, still, I worry. What about everyday regular bread?
I know that Uptown or Firehook have OK loaf bread in even if Uptown’s retail location in Cleveland Park is closed,
but what about sliced bread? The as-we-call-it “squirrel nut bread” (yes, we are hippies) we eat for breakfast in the morning is what I mean…we keep it frozen in the freezer and then toast it as needed and it is good with peanut butter or even just butter. The Whole Foods (Foodses?) in DC have been pretty dire for decent sliced loaf bread in the past. Yeah, you can get some cardboardy “wheat” bread with an icky crust sliced there, but it is gross. We need Alvarado Street Bakery bread!
Whole Foods in DC needs to get on that. But luckily, in the meantime, Alvarado delivers. I love you, internet. Thank god for the multitude of freezers in the house….
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Posted by K
Mon, 26 Dec 2005 22:07:00 GMT
I got this book for Christmas and it is pretty helpful, even though I have only read parts of it thus far. It’s making kitchen planning a little less scary, is good for reminding you of things you might not consider (leaving room to get around an open dishwasher, not blocking an entryway with a refrigerator) and has real information for making real kitchens. It isn’t just kitchen porn like a lot of “remodeling” books are. And while kitchen porn is all well and good, I am tired of looking at 100,000 dollar 500 square foot kitchens with ugly granite countertops, because they have no meaning for me.
Now, just to find a general contractor. Hopefully all that will be sorted out by the end of the month (we are headed back for a week near the end of the month, so we are going to have to find some people to meet with by then). I forsee a lot of phone calls in the next two weeks.
Posted in Remodeling: Kitchen | 1 comment | no trackbacks
Posted by K
Sun, 18 Dec 2005 17:55:00 GMT
We probably can’t afford to hire a designer, but my head hurts trying to figure out how to get more counter space. Anyway, just so we don’t forget, there are a lot of resources here if we go that route.
These guys, also in DC, got help with their small kitchen and the designers did a good job. I like some of the stuff in it (the backsplash tiles, some of the cabinetry).
I have been poring over websites and magazines and TV shows, but all these people have these enormo-kitchens (and are all whiny about them: “Susan was suffering horribly in her small kitchen that was only 20 by 20 feet, so we knocked out the back wall to make more room for her.”) Anyway, those shows are not that helpful when you are looking at about four feet of useable counter space and trying to think of ways to get more. If that is possible….
Posted in Remodeling: Kitchen | no comments | no trackbacks
