The Happy Couple

We've been bad bloggers, but we got married today, so we have been preoccupied with that.


We are having a open house for our friends tomorrow night, so there will be pictures of that soon.

We Are Dumb

We needed to get the pilot light lit. Uhh, we are new homeowners, that's our excuse.

Anyway, for $79.99 (plus the cost of the monthly service plus thingy) we got the whole thing cleaned out. It was super nasty. I also got a great lesson about the furnace and how it works and that we DO have cold air returns. Who knew?

I also got some lectures about how we should install our new windows ourselves and how Pella sucks and how we should be getting Twins tickets.

Whatever. We now have heat.

64 Degrees

It is 64 degrees inside my house.


That is cold, but not unbearable. I'm working from home today while I wait for the gas company to show up. While the main floor is more ergonomically correct for working the upstairs is much warmer, and we have a space heater.

I wish that the gas guy would show up so I could get to work where it is warm.

Where to Start?

Should I start with the neighbor being picked up by the police on our porch last night?

Or should I talk about our "emergency" as the gas company called it?

Or should I talk about the good bid we got for windows today?

Let's just say that the guy (I think the husband of the owner) who is fixing up the townhouse next to us got drunk, got locked out, and got put in a squad car last night. I identified him as someone who does work there, but could smell the alcohol on him outside of the car, with his window up.

Oh, and when our 100 or so year old gravity furnace turns on it fills the first floor with natural gas. The natural gas goes away and it starts to get warm. When I called the gas company to ask about it they made it very clear that they will be sending someone out and we would be getting it looked at before we use it again. I think it had to do with the headaches I admitted we got. I'm working from home tomorrow waiting for them to come and look at.

Oh, and we got another big on windows today. $12,000 for Pella wood windows. Sweet.
The company has a great reputation. I'm excited.

we found us

We aren't sure how old our house is. The paperwork says 1900, but I've wondered if that mightn't be a convenient number to use as an estimate. The seller's realtor made a comment that it could be older than 1900 and our neighbors had a guess that we can't remember.

We checked out a couple antique shops before we made our (new) purchase (see below). One of them has a bunch of old maps of the Twin Cities. Here's one from 1892. The arrow is pointing at our house. Cool.



The pink spots are brick buildings.

We're going to take it to a frame shop tomorrow.

Gotta Love Martha

We bought this today:





It is from Martha Stewart's collection. It will arrive sometime in November.

Another Question For Y'all

Since everyone in houseblogger land has been so awesome answering questions for us, here's another:

How many estimates are enough estimates?

We are now looking at getting four estimates, all on very similar products that we want. Is that enough?

There are plenty more places that have good reputations, with similar products, that we could get to do estimates, so that's not a worry. The worry is extending the work too far into the winter.

So, help!!!

Looking Good

First coat is done.


That's two rooms (almost) painted, 5 more to go plus a hallway, an entry way, all the trim, and a stairway.

Paint in the Dining Room

I got a little accomplished this weekend.

The dining room is primed and trimmed in.


It is going to be a dark color called "Velvet Red."


It was pretty slow going today. I was working by myself and I am just barely tall enough to reach the ceiling with the ladder we have. We will be buying a new ladder soon.

Just the primer made the room look a thousand times better. It really is amazing what a coat of paint can do.

The Shakes

We live one block from a MetroTransit Bus Garage. We also live on a street that has one of the most frequent bus lines in the city.

Most of the buses that leave the garage at the start of their routes drive by our house to get to them. Most buses also drive by our house at the end of their shifts to get back to the garage. At the beginning and end of each rush hour, and the beginning and end of each day, buses drive by every few minutes.

Every time a bus (or large truck) drives by, with any sort of speed, the house shakes. I wonder if I will ever get used to that.

Better Vs. Good

So, I started prepping the dining room for paining. I spackled the big holes and started taping it. I realized that the wall are in pretty awful shape.

First, there is the water damage from the window problems. It is textured and bubbled out from the wall. Some of it has cracked off. It really should be fixed before painting. That would involve A LOT of work, probably taking down the wall and putting up new drywall and all that goes with that.

The other walls aren't much better. They are newish drywall, but it was not done very well. All the spackling in the world isn't going to fix it. They too should be fixed.

Then, there is the baseboards. Some are in pretty bad shape. They have chunks missing. They don't line up in the corners. There is no quarter round on the bottom and there should be, they don't reach the floor.

When I paint it, it won't look great. It will look better, most anything would, but it will be dark paint on crappy walls.

So the question is: Is it worth painting? Is better okay, or should we be waiting until we can make it good?

I just feel like I'm wasting my time by not fixing the problems which will have to be fixed some day, but I can't afford to fix now.

Windows Continued

Who knew windows were so controversial?

Okay, so if you read the houseblogs the thing to do is renovate your windows when you have an old house, not replace them. The theory is that windows were made much better "back then," that you will lose value with new windows, that seals will break after 20 years or less, and that you lose the historic integrity of your house. I think there is more.

This means getting new glass and sashes and doing all kinds of things to your old windows, which you can pay people to do, of course.

Or, you can get new windows.

I appreciate the arguments for restoration. For many things I agree, but I don't want to restore my windows and I don't want to restore my furnace. I want the best so that I can start to move my old ass house into the future, with solar panels and a green room and wind turbines...

There was a question of what was wrong with my windows. I ask, where should I start?

1) They are 106 years old. They are originals.
2) Many do not stay open, they have to be propped up.
3) They are forever dirty, no cleaning will help.
4) Some do not have screens.
5) Some do not have storms, which means water comes into the house and runs down the walls and ruins my kitchen, bedroom, and dining room walls.
6) The wood isn't in good condition for many of the windows.
7) A lot of the hardware needs to be replaced.
8) Some do not open.
9) Some do not open or close easily (I think they are warped.)
10) The metal that currently shows on the outside of the house is much uglier than the brown vinyl would be.
11) Chipping lead paint.
12) Rotting wood.
13) Stickers of old security systems on the windows.
14) They are totally and completely energy inefficient.

So, with all that said, I found out that the window bid did include argon gas and all that in the windows, which is awesome. We are getting more bids, but the bids probably are only going to be on new windows.

Window Questions???

We had an estimate yesterday for replacement windows. Now, we have some huge windows, the ones on the main floor are 6'4" tall. The estimate came in at a great and affordable price, but they are not the argon filled windows (from what we can tell, I'm emailing the guy today to find out for sure.) He said they are Energy Star rated for our area.

So, if we are looking for real good energy efficiency, do we have to go with the argon filled windows, or will we be fine with regular windows, with some sort of glazing, up here in Minneapolis?

Oh, and if you want to see the actual estimate, you can do so here:
Estimate

Dining Room Sweetness

We've made lots of progress on the house. The upstairs is mostly unpacked. The kitchen and dining room are completely unpacked. We just won't talk about the living room and entry way.

But, that's all beside the point. Today, I want to walk you through our dining room.

There are mostly good things in the dining room.

First, it a huge room, with a HUGE window, tall ceilings and hardwood floors.


It also has our only East facing window in the whole house (which is weird.)

We use it for the air conditioner.

There are two floor heating vents, one is super cool, and the other is okay.



Oh, and we have a pocket door. It is soooo cool.



But, like the rest of the house, there are bad things too.

First, it doesn't have the same wood trim that the rest of the house has. The floors are a total mess. And the ceiling needs to be fixed due to cracks and water damage. I didn't really get pictures of these things for some reason.

Also, the overhead light is UGLY, luckily that is a very easy fix.


There are tons of marks on the walls. Some are from furniture rubbing against the walls. Some are from the previous owners habit of "fixing" marks on the walls by painting over the marks with a similar, but not identical paint color. This interesting fix is throughout the house. It drives me crazy.


We have water damage under the window, it isn't so bad.


Like a lot of the house, the room was retrofitted for electricity, and we need a new thermostat.



All and all a pretty good room. We've got some work ahead of us, but the basics will be easy fixes, just a little paint and putty.

One great thing we found today in our kitchen, and I don't know how we missed this before is this:

The trim is actually taped on to the wall to keep it in place. TAPED. With Scotch Tape. Seriously? That is ridiculous.