Cleaning out a drain
Having our gutters replaced was an exciting prospect, made more interesting by suspense filled discovery of which gutter drains would or would not actually drain. Turns out all but the front drain which has been thoroughly consumed by the oak tree roots and was only made of clay to start with will probably work.
This drain out back (just inside the neighbor’s fence), however, looked so nice and white and plastic but was filled to the brim with leaves/dirt etc. Suggestions were made to call expensive people like plumbers but I decided that my arm fit in there fine and I went and got some kitchen goves, a bar-b-q fork, some tongs and started jamming my hand in there digging away.
Here’s the view of what was sticking my hand into (got in there down to my armpit eventually):
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And after doing this for a while I grasped something that felt strange and then another thing and then another. For a second I wondered what I’d do if I pulled up a human hand, or an alligator attached to me, but no, it was treasure left for me by kind passers by:
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Yes, that’s right. 2 shingles from shutters and a BEER BOTTLE. Ironically we should be glad that a helpful pubgoer decided to drop his beer bottle down there however many months or years ago because that and the shingles probably formed a damn and stopped up the drain with the ensuing leaves and dirt to that when I finally got my arm all the way down there to where it bent towards the city drains, it was totally clear. Here’s hoping I don’t have to do that again soon.
Read MoreStill gouging and working inside
The pictures below are as of about 3 weeks ago (sorry – catching up). As these things do, the inside painting job ended up taking almost a month longer than we initially expected, and we continued to make the same joke over and over again from The Money Pit “How long will it be?” “‘Bout Two Weeks!” hahahaha, sigh.
But despite the time running longer than we’d like and it now being mid-February and we’re still not moved in, the work the guys did on the inside was really top notch. They continued to take the plaster down to the lathe in big gouges and because I didn’t get any good pictures the first time around I made sure to get a few when they went to town on the dining room and the downstairs parlors.
You can see the full view of the dining room destruction below. Note the crazy green and red colors. This will be the last time you see them.
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Here’s the foyer which is pretty much finished being painted. The gorgeous strange hanging angel light is still bagged and there’s still ladders and plaster dust everywhere, but the much calmer cream and champagne colors are now in place. We graduated the color from cream to very light cream at the first picture rail and took that all the way up to the second floor hall to white on the ceiling (or technically the color was called “Mayonnaise” but we don’t like to think about that).
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The second parlor walls have been finished in a nice lavender/maroon with a darker maroon picture rail. At this point unfortunately the strange green gradation is still seen above the picture rail – I was still having trouble believing in this room as this just looks odd. This is the only room we’ll be able to save the ceiling artwork though, and I was still hoping that we had chosen well on the walls to bring the ceiling artwork out but not be too crazy (or too LSU Purple)
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And the front parlor ceiling looks so much better now I think in clean creamy off-white. This will be the last room to have wallpaper as it is on back order still.
We are done painting the outside!
The exterior is finally done. I have waited to post pictures until they were really done, and that included a colossal disaster with a very incompetent gutter company that then had to be redone by a second company… but at last, we have the exterior finished.
We went with an historic color: Litchfield Grey*. It ended up looking a bit pink in the end, but it’s interesting because it depends on the sun/shade or how close you are to it and what else you’re looking at. It can sometimes look more creamy, more tan and sometimes more pink. Regardless of what color you think it is, people seem to agree that it is a massive improvement, so we’re very happy.
*Yes, for those of you (you know who you are) who would find it amusing, I have been making endless Northrend/Wow expansion 3 jokes about the name of the color of my house…
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