Trailer Living

I rarely post any photos taken in the trailer, and for good reason too. It's a place I can't wait to get rid of! The beginning of February marks our sixth month being trapped in 320 sq. ft. with no bathroom and a pathetic excuse for a kitchen. So far, we've made it. (There are days -- that are starting to happen more frequently -- where I think I might lose it though.)

The house is nowhere near inhabitable yet. Trevor's still working on small bits of framing (small things, like around where the fridge is going, and the arch in the bathroom), and plumbing and electrical are starting to take shape.

The grand move-in date has been moved to June (originally was Christmas, then March). Who knows how realistic that is.

Washing machines in the mist

Sounds poetic, doesn't it? Well it sure doesn't look it. This is the view from one (of three) windows in the TEMPORARY trailer. Trevor had enough of the three washing machines left behind (one came filled with dark water and a sock floating in it, lucky for us it wasn't broken and we were able to drain it) so he just opened the side door of the mudroom and tossed them out.

In a normal house I would have a problem with this...

...but seeing as there's larger problems that dwarf that, I'm not overly concerned.

Kitchen of horrors

Remember the last shot of the kitchen? Yes, lets hope you haven't eaten anything within 30 minutes of seeing this picture again:

You're lucky this photo isn't scratch-n-sniff. Take it from me, I've been there, and it's bad -- in a dry heave-y way.

Onwards and upwards, right?

Another beauty shot of the kitchen showing off it's fly tape and impeccable organization. Everything a modern family could possibly want. HA.

We decided to put on our big boy and big girl pants and bring the kitchen down (note to self: buy bigger big pants):

There was a noticeable decrease in the number of winged friends buzzing in drunken dirty kitchen swarms once we started to take the cupboards down.

(Small pause here: The two older guys who were frolicking through our yard-o-crap took these cupboards. I hope they took them far, far away. Crazy old guys nonetheless.)

Once the cast iron sink was taken out (and our spines readjusted) we discovered the mouse hotel under the lower cabinets and up into the wall.

EVICTION NOTICE! Well, not quite as dramatic as that, but we were glad to see that no one was home at the time. The mouse hotel was engineered using insulation and plastic bread bags.

Excuse me for a moment while I get a little sidetracked:

THESE PEOPLE CLEARLY WERE NEVER ON THE ATKINS DIET. The sheer volume of bread, tortillas, wraps, pitas, buns, flatbread that we're discovering must have cost a small fortune. We have 3 FULL SIZE freezers left behind, and every single one of them is full of bread. Two of them are outside, and one is down in the basement. When you wander around the yard you stumble across plastic bread bags and those plastic ties used to close them. I mowed the lawn (whole other story there, if I go off on another tangent this post will never end) and mowed up 3 bread bags hidden in tall grass and weeds. It makes the mower sound like a category 3 hurricane.

Sidetracking over (for now, you're lucky).

To add to the mouse hotel, we noticed an ant inn (trying to make a theme work here):

And I now know where the inspiration for Edvard Munch's 'The Scream' came from. The resemblance is uncanny:

I think my face did the exact same thing at that moment.

Then we noticed the shoddy electrical work:

Yup, that's duck tape. Doubt THAT meets code. Good thing we had already decided to bring down all of the drywall in the house anyways.

So that leaves us with a parting shot of the scene we're uncovering. Another ant party was found in the far corner, but we couldn't find any ant inns around there. That might mean there's another problem on the second level. Hopefully not, but if there is, we'll deal with it -- and I'm going to buy a 36-ton pack of caulk and cover the exterior of the house in it.

Welcome to the moulding circus

This what my stairwell looks like this morning.  It's officially the most dreaded, and worst remaining  job in the house.  But here it is, all set up and ready for a couple of people (not me!) to get up there and nail up moulding (or...swing from a trapeze?).  The original plan was an 8am start, but Trevor got called into work for a bit this morning.

  

A nice mistake

I put the camera down in the yard and accidentally took a shot, and I think it looks lovely.  A fresh and green (and yes, it has been mowed since!).  

Lack of posts last week, much of the time here was spent attempting to put much of the house back together.  The main floor bathroom has been put back together and the laundry room has been finished.  The kitchen is still in a state of flux (but it's almost there!).  Far too much time was spent taping, filling, sanding, painting, painting again, and removing said tape from moulding in the stairwells -- not something I want to repeat anytime soon, but it looks all fresh and bright now.  Photos to come this week, of course, providing that I can clean up all the stray tools and garbage bags.

A test in patience

Moulding is lovely.  Intricate and detailed moulding is even lovelier.  Having someone else fill, caulk, sand, tape, and paint is would be the loveliest.  I keep on telling myself that it's all worth it, or even that there's something zen and monk-like about doing all this work (and keeping sane).  Maybe I will reach moulding nirvana once it's all done...

(Oh, and in the next house I dream of hardwood stairs with a carpet runner...)

Welcome to my new master bathroom

*Cue the biggest, loudest, dreamy-est music, please*

Yes, you are not looking at a heavily Photoshopped image -- the bathroom is really, truly FINISHED.  I am so pleased and excited to know that we can put this room to rest and start finishing up other areas of the house.  (And we won't bring up the fact that we blew past our original -- and laughable -- goal of February 1st...a ha ha ha haaaa...reality strikes again!)

Just so we can all look back on what the bathroom was...

And what it is now...

And the little details...I have to go and take in all of it's wonderful-ness in person now...

Four days of reno's...

We took an extra long weekend to really kick ourselves into getting the final reno's on the house started, finished and arriving in the middle.  I'll have some posts this week outlining what we worked on (with eye candy to boot!).

Three trips to Home Depot...wait, or is that four?

Roller rage: defined as having one of those rollers that has an endless amount of lint bits when you use it (no matter what you do to prevent it).  

Current state of the living room

This is what we're living with right now.  Everything has been pulled out of the front entry way closet and dumped here.  Tomorrow there's more work to be done on the master bathroom (Trevor's tiling the shower, I'm repairing the wall and touching up paint) and the entry way closet will be put back together -- new and improved!