We've got TV, internet and phone--now it's a real home! ;)

After the fiasco with AT&T, we weren't sure Mom would ever get things straightened out. But after another full day of having AT&T at her house, she has high speed internet service, U-Verse 200 TV service (which is so awesome on her 42" HD TV that I can barely stand it), and a phone (email if you need her home phone number).

With all that time waiting for AT&T, Mom was able to do laundry and set up her bedroom with the new comforter set:
The funniest thing was how comfortable Kit Kat was. You could just tell that she was happy to have people around all day, and the house starting to look like a house.

Mom might try to stay there tomorrow night.

More windows, trim, and paint

We got a lot of stuff done on the house this weekend!

G. put in three more windows--the ones in the living room/dining room area. I forgot to take pictures in the daylight, so here's a (poor) picture of the outside, showing all three replaced:

And here's two of them from the inside (but w/o the frames painted):
G. also spent a bunch of time cutting the new quarter round, nailing it in place, setting the nails, and applying wood putty. Then I went through and painted the patches (and did some trim touch-up).

While I had the paint out, I touched up most of the window sills:
and the door in the bathroom:
Now that Mom's getting around so much better after knee surgery, we'll try to do some shopping tomorrow to pick up all sorts of "finishing" things.

Windows and curtains

G. put in three of the new windows this last weekend. He decided to replace all three in Mom's bedroom. The new, from the outside:

And the inside:
We still have to do some paint touch-up both inside and out, but they are SO much nicer! And we could immediately notice how much quieter the street noise was!

The curtains ordered from Penney's came in, and we hung them in the living room and dining room:
I need to get over there and steam out the wrinkles, but at least they work! :)

This weekend we'll try to get the quarter round on, move furniture back into the living room, and maybe replace a few more of the windows.

Starting to look like a "real" house!

My internet access has been severely limited this week, which cut down on my blogging. Here's bunch of things that were done in the past week.


I installed the curtain rods in the living and dining rooms. We also decided that we did NOT like the curtain's we'd bought for there, so we returned them and ordered some online from JC Penney. (they're not in yet!)
The tilers came on Wednesday and installed tile in the entry way:
and then the carpet installers came yesterday and installed carpet in the living rooom and down the hall:(G. and I bought quarter round to finish the carpeted and bamboo'ed areas; we'll try to get that done this weekend)

And Mom made her first post-surgery trip out to Home Depot to pick up the NINE windows:and to order the cabinets for her kitchen. We're moving right along and the end is in sight!

Electrical done; other little stuff

Artie and his friend came back today and finished up the electrical stuff. He wired all the extra outlets (that G. had cut out boxes for) and then he connected them to the new electrical box:
He moved the 220 outlet for the stove and he mounted a new 220 outlet for the dryer (the old one was corroded from lying on the floor in water):
And put up an outlet for the sump pump (the old one was hanging from the ceiling):
In the last week, there's been a lot of waiting for salespeople and delivery people. Mom's appliances arrived on Tuesday:
And Empire Flooring came and Mom ordered tile for the entryway and carpeting for the living room and hall. The installers came to put in the tile on Thursday. After they put down the underlayment:they opened the boxes of tiles and every one of them was filled with broken tiles. So they'll be back on Thursday to put in the tile, and the carpet will be done on Friday.

The (kitchen) cabinet guy is coming back tomorrow morning to make sure that the cabinet plan we made will work, and to give an estimate on installation. Due to all the amazing sales going on, Home Depot is way behind on scheduling, which means the cabinets haven't been ordered yet, which means it'll be even LONGER until that works out. Luckily Mom's next door, so she really doesn't *need* a kitchen yet.

Computer room is done!

Today we essentially "finished" the computer room:

We installed curtain rods and hung curtains:

And set up the computer desk and the computer:


In addition, Mom picked out carpet and tile for the entryway--the tile will be installed on Thursday and the carpeting next week sometime.

Electrical is moving along

Artie came today to do some electrical. The main thing was to switch the box from 60 to 100:
But he also ran a wire for the (future) garbage disposal:
and moved one of the switch boxes since the stove/microwave is no longer going in the corner:
He connected the switch for the ceiling fan/light (but it's not connected to the box) and installed the GFIC in the bathroom:
He'll be back next weekend to (hopefully) "finish up".


Yesterday we did some little stuff around the house.

G. removed the old bathroom ceiling fan and "installed" the new one (again, see above, it's not functional yet, but is in place).

Mom and I emptied and cleaned one bedroom (the medium-sized one) so we/she can get at least one room "set up" soon. This will be the computer room and her new computer arrived on Friday, so we might be able to set that up soon.
I installed the doorbell and doorbell buttons (which work most of the time):And we found at least a few things that we'll need/want to change on the cabinet layout before ordering on Wednesday.

What FIVE hours at Home Depot can accomplish

We put in a LONG day at Home Depot today. Most of it was spent designing the kitchen.

Here's a sketch looking into the SW corner of the kitchen. Though it isn't obvious, the cabinet on the left is the "island" that will be inserted into the 4 foot wide opening that Felipe put in. The cabinets on the right pretty much have to be angled so that there's room to walk in the kitchen door:
This one is looking at the NE corner of the kitchen. She opted for this really cool corner unit/bread box thing that makes fantastic use of the corner space that is usually lost:Finally, this is looking into the kitchen from the living room--the cabinet in front is the bar/island. The cabinet on the left is only accessible from the living room; the ones on the right from the kitchen or living room:


In addition to figuring out the kitchen layout and picking the cabinet style, we also ordered the remaining nine windows for the house (15% off custom window orders!), found a steal of an over-range microwave oven ($99 since they're no longer carrying Bisque--which is Mom's appliance color!), found three bamboo shades on clearance, and got a few other little things for around the house.

Now Mom has to choose any special cabinet things (pull-out drawers in the cabinets; soft-close; toe-kick drawers, etc.) and then order them by October 8th (when the cabinet sale ends). There are so many choices!

And then there was *hot water*!

The biggest news of the day is that, after literally MONTHS of phonecalls and attempts to get someone out to look at the water heater, a plumber came today and there's hot water!!!
Hopefully now it will stop leaking and the floor will dry up and the dehumidifier will stop running *constantly*.


I also located and installed the last doorknob (this one on the living room closet):
Mom stained the wooden threshold in the kitchen:
And I managed to hang curtains (and install curtain rods) in Mom's bedroom:
While I was drilling, I decided to install a smoke detector in her bedroom:and I plugged the CO detector in the middle bedroom.

Nothing planned for tomorrow; we have an appointment on Friday to meet with the kitchen design guy and get the cabinets ordered!