Great Night!

Thanks to Bernadette I was able to get a second coat of paint done on the kitchen, office, spare and master bedrooms! Just the hallway, living room and dining room left now! If all goes well tonight I can get those done. I painted from 4:30 until 10 and then Jill stopped by after studying to pay me a visit! Thanks Jill!

The night was VERY productive and pleasant too!! Pretty good for a Monday night. Tonight I’m going to paint my ass off again so I can move in on Friday and get the place ready for the poker night!

Once I’m in this weekend, I plan on putting my feet up for a day or two and relaxing before I get started on the outside work that needs to be completed before it gets too cold (cement, etc.).

And as an FYI, I AM burning out! So, although the end is near it should be interesting to see if I make it before my brain turns to jello and my body shuts down and gives into every sickness in the book…just ask Jillian, I can barely form proper sentences anymore…although depending on who else you ask, some people might say I had that problem before I even bought the house! Anyhow, just thought I’d mention it for all you poolies out there who are betting on when I have the breakdown (Barber)!

Cheers!
Andrew

Plumbing Emergency!

WOW, almost a really disappointing start to the day ended up being a temporary (but expensive – surprise! surprise!) set back. The story goes like this…way back when I was still destroying the house my plumber asked me if I cared what he put in the washrooms in the way of fixtures. I thought, bah anything chrome is fine so go ahead and do what you gotta do. You see, at that point I hadn’t really figured out what I was going to do with the washroom upstairs (tile wise). Once my tile was installed I thought, wow…some oil rubbed bronze would look perfect! So I bought my MAN CUPBOARD with oil rubbed bronze hardware along with some fixtures thinking “The plumber won’t mind if I get these…”. WELL, I neglected to think of the fact that he had already installed the valve (the piece INSIDE the wall) with the thought that a Moen Kingsley chrome faucet was going to be installed…SHOOT…that meant the faucet I bought wouldn’t fit. Well I got the call, rushed to RONA, returned the one I bought there and searched for a Moen oil rubbed bronze “Kingsley” faucet (trim only, no valve needed)…of course, no luck. Drove to Plumbing Plus also no luck. I called my plumber and no big deal, he could order me one from Moen but it would take 2 weeks before I got it and would cost me about $150 more then the one I bought…but for the time being he’s going to install a temporary head for me! Nice guy…so, long story short no one can see my washroom until the rubbed oil fixture is in…IT’S HIDEOUS! :p

UPDATE on the house…ceilings are painted, appliances are in, carpentry work is finished and my couches come on Saturday…almost time to move!

Cheers!
Andrew

Hump Day (Again)

Well it’s shitty outside, I’m burning out and I have realised that I really have no clue how far in debt I really am…not a bad start to the day! Okay, so the weather will get better…a little sleep will fix me up along with the visits to the gym (glad to be back) and the debt…bah, over time I’ll widdle it back down to nothing (besides the mortgage of course).

Okay, so now that I’ve vented and counselled myself its time to move onto some more interesting topics:

1) Today is my mother’s birthday, so happy birthday MOM!

2) Matt and I FINALLY caught the mouse that has been eating our food and leaving poop all over the place! We felt bad though, the little guy only had one eye and had scarring on his nose and face. This confirmed he was the one that set the traps upstairs off but always managed to escape…which was good. We let him go outside, so he should be back in here pooping all over my desk in a few days!

3) The house looks like it might be ready to be primed this weekend, or at the latest the middle of next week. That means the self imposed end of the month move in date is still in reach.

Well, I guess that’s it…nothing too exciting to report these days.

Cheers!
Andrew

“I hope if dogs ever take over the world, and they choose a king, they don’t just go by size, because I bet there are some Chihuahuas with some good ideas.”

-Jack Handy

Weekend

Well I had a very nice weekend.

Friday night I finished the second coat of urethane on the floors upstairs and then relaxed by playing some poker before I hit the sack.

Saturday morning I went and plunged even furthur into debt by ordering new stainless steel Whirlpool appliances for my kithen (fridge, stove and dishwasher). Went by MC Decor and paid for the last of the tile I ordered from them. Then it was off to the mall with my sister to find a birthday gift for mom. I got home just in time to pay my tile installer for all his hard work and then I went and saw his finished work (the washroom upstairs looks amazing). After that it was time to apply the final coat of urethane to the floors upstairs. After kicking my ass I laid down for a quick nap then it was off to the movies with Jillian to see the Covenant. I didn’t think this was going to be an Oscar worthy flick by any means, but it wasn’t that bad! The acting wasn’t that great and the special effects were okay…all-in-all it was laughable and Jillian and I did pretty much that…laughed while watching it, so that was a good time.

Sunday was a relaxing day. Watched some football, played with the dogs (Russell and Max – Russell is my sister’s toy poodle…she bought him a couple weeks back and him and Max are hilarious together). I also met with a friend of mine who is in the furniture business and I got some information I needed in order to plunge EVEN FURTHUR into debt yet again tonight on my way home from work! I’m not 100% sure I’m getting what I talked to him about, but if I do…OH BABY…anyhow, not going to get too excited yet as there are two BIG obstacles surrounding this purchase:

1) Size, “it” is a tad big but I might be able to make it work.

2) Money, “it” is slightly more then I was looking to spend…then again, that’s never stopped me before so really its all about the size issue I suppose.

Sunday night we had a nice family dinner (BBQ Steaks are the best done on a charcoal BBQ…we came to that conclusion) with some nice wine and ice cream cake.

Well, there you have it. My weekend in a nutshell…well not really a nutshell, more like a large paper bag…but what would a blog from me be if it wasn’t long winded and extremely malformed?!

Cheers!
Andrew

P.S. New Bond trailer is available here and I think it shows that this WILL kick ass! I’ve never been a huge Bond fan, but I have a feeling this is going to be a good one!

Basment is Finished!

The basement is all finished and my tenant (Nick) has moved in! All is well and I’m kicking the crap out of the upstairs again! Here are the newest pics of the basement (the only change made since those pics were taken has been the addition of the railing on the stairs – finally) with “BEFORE” pics linked in each description.

Cheers!
Andrew

Awkward Places

Painting has never been a favorite pastime for me but I must admit that my hatred for it has shrunk to more of a minimal loathing since I bought the house. WIth that being said, just as I thought I was “Okay” with the prospect of having to paint something, I spent 5 hours last night at my house painting the highest ceiling in my place over (of course) the stairs in my back entrance. WHAT A BEOTCH! I wouldn’t have wished that on anyone, so frustrating, so cumbersome and so time-consuming! Got home, showered and was in bed by 11:30 and I am wrote off this morning cause of it.  Oh, and the good news is…I get to do it all over again tonight (stupid second coats).

On the bright side, my real estate agent came over last night and gave me some good news about my house / investment…I’m UP…and not just a tad, so that gave me a reason to keep twisting my neck in order to paint that F’ing stairwell.

Cheers!
Andrew

P.S. Pics coming next week, I promise!!!

House Update

YAY. The apartment is finished. The kitchen has been tiled upstairs and the washroom has been started! The floors have been re-sanded and look brand new. The walls have had a washing to get rid of all the sawdust from sanding.

This weekend I’m going to start staining the hardwood upstairs. SO EXCITED! Believe it or not I’m almost finished the inside. Staining, varnishing floors and baseboards and trim, then it’s on to painting then I move my ass in…then I start the outside! But that will just be a fun workout!

Hot damn, the place looks GOOOOOD. So good in fact the previous owners came by to check it out and said it’s a brand new home and they can’t believe what we’ve done in under 3 months…beat that Mike Holmes!

Oh and for all you smokers out there, I’ve got a little story for you:

The previous owners were HEAVY smokers and had never had the ducts cleaned. So, I figured that after all the sawdust was cleaned out of the house then I would get the ducts cleaned. In order to perform this task, three access holes needed to be cut in the duct work so the pros could get their vacuum inside…OMG, what a disgusting layer of yellowish-brown, nicotine filled, hairy, moldy, fungal mess! It was at least an inch thick on the inside of the ducts. They are now sparkling clean and they’ll never look like that (while I own the house) again…but let me tell you, if you are a smoker and see something like that and don’t quit…well…you’re F*CKING CRAZY!

Cheers!
Andrew

P.S. I’ll try to remember to take a picture of the fungus and in the coming days (next week) I should have “FInished” pics of the apartment online.

Great Weekend!

Great weekend!  Spent Friday night buying tile for the downstairs landing and a few other things for the house.  Saturday morning was sanding at 7am while I waited for the carpenter and window guys to show up.

The carpenter was awesome and got all my doors hung downstairs and trimmed up so-to-speak.  The window guys installed my basement windows and they are AMAZING…get this, they actually close and open with ease and close ALL THE WAY for that matter…crazy I know!

My drop ceiling guy brought the materials he needs to get started but decided to come Monday (tonight) to do the work because there were already too many bodies in the basement (3).

On Sunday Craig and my brother helped do some sanding and overall cleaning of the house and I was really impressed with how much was accomplished this weekend overall.

Saturday and Sunday night my “free time” was spent watching Clerks 2 and Miami Vice…both were OK but not spectacular.

Cheers!
Andrew

Work In Progress

I finally got around to taking some “Work In Progress” shots of the house! Here they are. Its coming along and after this weekend the basement should look quite different. The drop ceiling is going in Friday / Saturday and the doors and some trim will be installed on Saturday too! I’m still a little behind because of the taper but such is life…I was expecting some “bumps” in the road and I guess that’s just one of them.

On the bright side I have a possible tenant already lined up!

UPDATE: Just got a call from Kingston Windows and Doors and they can do my basement windows this weekend!  YESSSSSS!

Cheers!
Andrew

WEIRD

WOW…

I think I’ve been spending a little too much time working on the house. Last night I had a dream I was watching the news and this guy was going to break a world record by inhaling 100 lbs of sawdust while wearing a model home as a hat (the sawdust would fall out of the home). WEIRD! The more disturbing part was that it made me angry because I thought I could beat him by inhaling more!

LOL I guess I’ve done WAY too much sanding as of late…Needless to say I’ll be ECSTATIC when it’s finished…that’s right…ECSTATIC!

Cheers!
Andrew

P.S. Amy also had a dream…her head was a cake and she ate it!