Racoon Update - Andy

So far the cage Eric has loaned me has been unsuccessful, but according to my dad this is because racoons do not care for left over honey mustard sauce from Portillos. So I baited the cage in the garage with a pork chop which sure enough had this guy waiting for me the next day. I am going to name racoons like hurricanes and start with the beginning of the alphabet and see how far I can get. So here is Andy.

Monday October 27, 2008

This week we have focused mainly on the bedroom we are trying to finish. The rest of the floors have been taken out and some of the floor joists needed to be replaced. Bringing the wall out led to framing the hallway differently also. We got a great buy on some exterior lights and bought 3 of them; 2 for the river side of the house and a matching one for the other side. With all the materials we have been buying fitting them either into the car or onto a trailer for transporting has been a challenge. We have begun insulating the bedrooma and drywalling those areas also. A new door has been hung at the bedroom enterance and we still need to get a door for the closet. Looks like we are onto electrical work so we can close up the walls in this room.

Wednesday October 22, 2008

A nice surprise today, the garbage man took everything. Celeste, here is the picture you requested. I am going to have to arrange a christmas bonus for him for his hard work. He also took the TV antenna which use to be on the roof.

Tuesday October 21, 2008

I know...I am behind on an update.

It has been a busy couple weeks at the house as you can see from the pictures. On the outside we have finished the painting, added a crawlspace vent, fixed the roof leak, and quite a few other small things. With the weather getting colder now we have focused more of our time on the inside. The subfloor is almost complete in the living room, the plumbing for the outside spiket has been moved and a frost free spiket was put on, all the cabinets and blinds have been cleaned. We have moved onto the riverside bedroom to make one room we can move into and removed all the drywall and subfloor. We did the same for the closet that is next to it in the hallway, which we will be attaching to the bedroom for a walk-in closet instead of a hallway closet. The bedroom wall is being moved out into the living room to make the room larger in size. The lower framing on the river side french doors had to be replaced due to moisture rotting the wood and the main support for all the living room floor had to be raised about 1 1/2" to level the floors in the living room. The crawlspace has been completely cleaned... many are thinking this was an easy job but so far this has been the worse. I removed about 15 contractor bags of "trash" including a racoon carcass. Good news is we started garbage service to get on top of all we are throwing out, we will see if he takes the LARGE mound of trash I put out for him though. I think about 40 bags of garbage is going to deserve this guy a christmas bonus this year if he takes it. Work is going to continue on the bedroom now, and I need one more nice day outside to finish trimming the outside windows and caulking. I have had an ad running on craigslist for a week now for a free boat lift to whoever wants to take it out... with alot of responses but the lift is still sitting in the water. Many people say they are coming out this week to get it, I will update you if this trash is taken. Eric loaned me his racoon trap for the garage which is on day 3 now, but I havent caught anything. I think we are all caught up and if there are any picture requests let me know.

Tuesday October 7, 2008

Work has continued this weekend to finish the outside painting and put matching siding on the last side of the house. Previously three sides of the house had cedar siding and one had vinyl siding. One side was yellow, one side was a toupe color, and the other two were white. We have been painting the whole house to match in a light greenish grey color and have been trying to get this done before the weather turns cold. We now have three sides matching in color and the cedar siding has been put up and primed. Now we are just hoping to have one more nice weekend that is warm enough to finish the painting.

Wednesday October 1, 2008

We have been trying to work on the house during the week after work and so far have gotten a lot done. During this week so far all of the hardwood floor in the living room has been taken up and the subfloor which was warped has been taken up also. We will be taking the rest of the week off due to the playoffs....GO CUBS!

Sunday September 28, 2008

This weekend Liz and I took on painting the river side of the house. We are going to try and get the rest of the house painted before it gets too cold. We also started taking up the floor in the living room and some of the drywall in problem areas.

Sunday September 21, 2008

We spent the weekend power washing, moving the bricks from the patio, and general cleaning of the inside. New plumbing has been added to fix the broken pipe issue, and now all the water is working.

Saturday September 20, 2008

Here is a picture of the garage.
This is the house from the river side.
This is the house from the side of the driveway.

We have been doing a lot of work in the last couple weeks so the next post will be to catch this blog up on the progress so far.

Friday September 19, 2008

Well this is where it all starts, a house is bought, a blog is started, and an audience of people want to know about the progress. After Darren's house project it seems almost impossible not to continue the tradition.

We bought our first house today and as excited as we are to own a new house, we are equally excited to start working on it. As many would expect we didn't buy our "dream house" rather a house that needs a lot of work. Here is a quick summary of the condition:

• Plumbing does not work.
• House has been unoccupied for a year since foreclosure of last owner.
• Floors are warped in a few rooms.
• Dirty, Dirty, Dirty.
• Roof and a couple windows are leaking.
• Garage has been taken over by raccoons.
• Yard is in desperate need of landscaping.

This is just a start to the list, hope you all follow the progress and feel free to comment so I know someone is out there checking in on us.