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Showing posts from 2016

2016 Year End Review and 2017 Preview

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Happy New Year! I've been reading a lot of posts on Facebook about how 2016 was a really tough year for a lot of people. It was tough for me too. I'm still struggling to accept the results of November's election and am scared for my friends and family that will be impacted by the actions and policies of the Trump Administration. Particularly, I'm fearful for immigrants, the LGBT community, women rights (and access to healthcare), and not to mention the impact on our energy, environment, healthcare, and international policies. I won't go as far to say that I'm cautiously optimistic, but I am hoping for the best. With all that said, my year has been busy, hard, rewarding, comical, and full of love. At work, I welcomed two new "bosses" (I have a dual reporting line) all while adjusting to a new routine for Cinderella as she headed off to kindergarten (proud mama). Then there is The Babe doing what The Babe does best (not sleeping, sleeping, waking up ea

We have heat

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Folks, we are feeling mighty fine. We are legit. We live in a house with real heat, because we have a brand new furnace. That's right! Last month, we said "Sayonara" to our 101-year old, original furnace. As much as we are trying to preserve the house, we definitely need to live in a comfortable home and last winter, the space heaters weren't cutting it. In fact, they were tripping all our electrical breakers. Eek! But, how cool that this house has had the same furnace this whole time. They just don't make them like they used to. Here's a pic of the old guy below. Attached on the top is insulation full of asbestos and there were five metal ducts coming out. One duct was completely turned off because it developed a big split in in sometime over the years before we moved in. Another duct was crunched, allegedly by a home inspector when a previous potential buyer came before us. Anyway, here's the big old boy:

When One Door Opens

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I remember a moment when we were walking through the house with our realtor thinking, "a french door really should go where this window is so people in the house can access the backyard." At that time, I had hoped these hypothetical people would be us and we are! We people are the proud owners of a new french door (as of August)! The door is from Home Depot (Orepac is the brand, I believe) and it was not cheap, but it was about 1/2 the price of Andersen which the price of a small car. We had a real handyman/Jesus' sidekick, Ricardo, install it for us. The door is fiberglass and has a real wood grain texture. Since it is in a fairly sunny location, we opted for something that was a little more indestructible than wood. The hardware is also from Home Depot. Now that it's here and we have a glorious view to our outdoor fireplace, I'm dying to put in a deck. That's going to be a project for 2017 and hopefully sooner rather than later. Side no

Most Exciting Update (Part 9)

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I find that one of the most aggravating part of doing any sort of home improvement is that once you spruce up one area, everything else looks a little sad and dingy. Such is the case with our front porch. Our house is looking beautiful but the front porch is a totally Debbie Downer. Wah-wah! At some point in this Pheasant's House's history, the owners painted the red concrete porch red. Probably to match the brick, but it looks so bad. And, the color of the concrete below is pink. There's NO WAY it can look good. The paint has been peeling off over the years and left the porch with a blotchy red look. Like, worse than a teenager's face. It looked even worse once we power washed it.

Most Exciting Update (Part 8)

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So, here's our beloved home between May 1st and Memorial Weekend. This first picture shows the giant hole in our siding that was covered up with sheet metal. We took out a wall a/c unit when we put in the mini-split system. Hence, the hole. Knowing we were going to patch and paint the house anyway, we left it. So ugly. Here's the next phase in the process on this part of the house. Patching the hole! Our new handyman (not to be confused with The Handyman), Ricardo, and Jesus took siding from underneath the double window to match the second story siding. And, here's the patched hole. Viola! As you can see, the back of the house has also been primed, but the trim paint hasn't been put on. Not sure about that smiley face. By mid-May, the back of the house started looking like this. Lots of patching and extra layers of primer. May 16th, front of the house! Shut the front door! Literally, it's yellow and beautiful! A close up of the front porch. T

Most Exciting Update (Part 7)

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Well, hello there, old friend! Yeah, it's me. Totally slacking on updating this blog. Particularly lame because we've had lots of progress with the Most Exciting Update. Yep, the house is finished! Shhh! Don't tell anyone that it's actually been 99% finished since June. There was so much progress in April and May that it doesn't feel right to skip to the end. Gotta prolong the suspense a little longer. In April, we finally got body paint! Still looking like the Coat of Many Colors. At this stage, I am so giddy because the color is just perfect! The house really started to transform on both sides. Here's a close up of the windows.  After scraping and after painting. Huge difference, don't ya think? Here's the same window during different stages of the process. The front of the house started to get some attention too. (Neighbors let out a huge sigh of relief) It already looks so much better, but what about those shutters?  Th

Signs of spring

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Remember the Valentine's Day roses we planted? Well, guess what? Happy Spring, y'all!!!

Most Exciting Update (Part 6)

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PAINT! We have paint, everyone. It's amazing! Last week, my mom and I went to NYC to celebrate a big milestone birthday for one of my most favorite cousins in the whole world. While we were gone, Jesus started painting our trim. The Handyman was so great about sending me pictures so I could see the progress.  Western Wall Front of house House from the street: Doesn't it already look much better even though it still looks like a Calico Cat? I'm so giddy with excitement.

Most Exciting Update (Part 5)

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The alternative title to this post is "Cosmetic Work: Fillers and Plumpers." Remember how I was telling you about all the rain we had at the beginning of March and how there wasn't any work on the exterior paint? Well, things drastically changed over the last two weeks. The weather has been absolutely gorgeous and Jesus has been able to do a lot of cosmetic work. He's filling cracks and holes and plumping up depressed areas. We're going to turn our house from an aging Hollywood Queen to a fresh, young star! Check it out! These pictures are from March 24th through March 30th. The yellowish-beige color is the putty that's filling the cracks.

Most Exciting Update (Part 4)

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If you live in California or have been following our news, its been raining for nearly two weeks straight. That means there's been no progress on the exterior paint until last week and now it's raining again. Booooooo. Well, we need the rain, so Yeah! But, boooo! I want my house to be painted so badly. Anyways... Jesus spent four days at our house last week, working on the back of the house where the laundry room and 1/2 bath is located. Check out the progress! First two days = scraping, scraping and more scraping...