A New (Old) Piano

Much to our surprise, we had a Price and Teeple piano from 1910 delivered to our house this Saturday. We got the piano for absolutely no money at all, and didn't even have to pay for the delivery! How did this come about you ask? Erin and I got this prize piece simply through a friend of a friend of a friend that didn't want the antique in their possession anymore. Well, truth be told, the piano wouldn't have fit in their slim style 3 story townhouse and they wanted to give it a good home. So, in our dining room, that is slowly resembling a saloon from the wild west, it sits. We are thrilled to have a new addition to the family, even if it is only slightly out of tune. Now, I should just learn how to play it.

Cross-Country Drive!

We recently drove out to California. Here are some photos from the trip.

Choosing Paint Colors

Paralyzed. This is how I have felt for the past few months when it comes to choosing paint colors. Considering we are basically painting EVERY room in the house except the bathroom, there are a lot of decisions to make. Part of the problem is the sheer number of choices. It seems that some sort of external pressure is helpful in moving the process along. When Andy finally said "We HAVE to paint the bedroom, pleease!", we went down to the store, got 3 samples. The next day we went and bought the paint and we both love the results. (see post below). Now that we are having more houseguests and also considering renting out a room for the Inauguration (Einee I am calling you if this goes bad!!) we need to paint the back guest room. This photo says it perfectly. The room has been primed for awhile now. I have my paint deck out. Andy says, "Do It!"
But...but... OK. How about Benjamin Moore Clinton Brown, with BM Almond Bisque? Well, I hope you like it, because that's what is happening, and if you come to visit, this is where you will stay.

Dining Room/ Kitchen

I love our new dining room table. The bench is my favorite part, plus the table is long and can hold a bunch of stuff and still have room to eat on. The kitchen will not be painted the Benjamin Moore "Blue Spa" color you see in the swatches. But, the cool thing about testing paint is that when you like the color but not the location, you come up with ideas for other rooms. This will end up being the color of our basement.

Our Bedroom

We've been slacking on these posts. Which in a way might be a good thing, because we have been really busy getting stuff together. Check out our before and after photos of our bedroom. It came to us as a really dark purple, the only trace that is left is the radiator. After 2 coats of primer, and 2 coats of paint, we have arrived at a green we both love. The paint color is YOLO Colorhouse Water 02. Also, check out the cool lamp we got from Andy's mom!

floors done!

here are a few photos of the newly refinished georgia pine that erin was alluding to in the last post. it looks great and the smell of polyurethane has finally left, so we can move our stuff back upstairs. also, i have included a blurry snapshot of how we have been living...in the living room! i really included this shot only because it shows off our fabulous new farm-style dining room table, not the pile of clothes behind it.

after a nice 2nd coat of paint on the walls, we should have all the upstairs furniture back in its proper place. fingers crossed!

-andy

 

What goes up must come down...

Just when we got everything upstairs (including the worlds heaviest dresser), we decided that getting the floors sanded and refinished (+ a few repairs) was probably going to be a good idea. The guy we decided to go with said he was looking at getting us on the schedule sometime right before Christmas. Cool. That would give us some time to relax after moving, but not have to turn right around and haul everything back downstairs. Then he calls with some good news. " I can come out 2 days next week and do it." GREAT! Ideally this is much better but for the sake of our sanity we really need to STOP moving furniture. Anyways, heres a few photos of our floors upstairs in their current state. Georgia heart pine is the type of wood, in case anyone was wondering.

Two weeks ago....

And currently:

What I love already! #1

Here's to the things that are already awesome about this house and do not require any further energy from us.

The art of getting estimates, or, gender is a strange thing.

A disproportionate amount of my time this week has been devoted to hanging around the house waiting for men to come out and give me an estimate on how much money it will cost to fix something, that frankly, I don't know much about or how to do myself.

I recently read a book called the $64 Tomato. It was mostly about gardening, but throughout the book there were stories about dealing with contractors. At one point the author tells of his wife screaming at him to, "Go, hide! Quick!" as the contractor pulled up. Apparently having her be the lone woman asking for an estimate had worked to their advantage.

This got me wondering, is there an advantage to the woman being the point person for contractors? (Obviously there are numerous disadvantages), but I am curious to know more about the experiences of the folks who are reading this. Is there a sense of "Well you should just be able to do this yourself," if a man gets the estimate from another man? If the two men (contractor and customer) are of the same age, when do class differences affect the outcome? Can a women get a better quote by her ability to pass as unskilled (even if she knows all about the task)? Will she get a worse quote because they think she's less likely to have any concept? I would also imagine that there is an element of them interviewing/observing you. What items are in your home that convey wealth? What gives them the impression that you can afford to pay top dollar, or will pay top dollar? What makes them identify with you and want to share tips and tell you how to do stuff yourself for free because they don't want to charge you for something they know is totally stupid?

Do any of you have tips or ideas or strategies or stories?

The Adventure Begins...

We inherited an alarm system that was installed with the house. Since the service account was turned off, we were just left with a blinking keypad. There was a "On/Off" button. Andy pushed it. Then the alarm went off. This thing was louder than god. After scrambling around and finally cutting the wire to the ceiling sensor upstairs, we thought it was off. Then it started again. Where the hell was it coming from? The keypad itself. We pulled the power cord out of the wall. The alarm was still going off. HOW CAN AN ALARM STILL GO OFF IF IT'S UNPLUGGED?! And why, why, why is it so loud? Oh yeah. To drive off burglers. Then the folks on the phone from Sloman's say that there must be some sort of power box hidden in the basement. Finally found it, and Andy dismantled it. No more alarm. For now. I still am scared it's going to start beeping again. If I hear that noise again I am afraid one of us will just take a hammer to it.

moved in!

It's funny how you think you don't have a lot of stuff, and then you move and your body starts screaming at you after it's 40th trip up and down the stairs. The new pact between me and Andy..next time we hire movers.But on with the fun stuff. We are IN! We thought it would be cool to take a bunch of pictures of the house without our stuff in it, and have something to compare it to later. Check it out.

I've never blogged before...

...but i figure this is a good place to start. erin and i will attempt to keep a detailed online journal, or blog, of our triumphs and trials with her recently purchased petworth bungalow. please feel free to chime in with any advice, comments, questions, queries to make this blog an interactive place and not just a sterile soapbox for us to parade around on. 

adios. 

-andy