Custom or IKEA?

I've long admired all these DIY bloggers I follow. Many of them aren't afraid to roll up their sleeves and custom build themselves something they long for. In theory, I'm not either. I can roll up plans and measurements with the best of them. But executing those plans is another story. I'm strangled by fear of screwing up and wasting tons of money. I'm also hampered by the cost of getting someone else to build my plans professionally. Suddenly, this morning I cast my thoughts to a post I've been enamored with by Kenz over at IBK.

Why not take something with the bones you want and make it into what you need?

And wouldn't you know there's an IKEA just over the state line in Atlanta, Georgia? :-)

Now, this is a lucky turn of events for us. It would cost us about $60 in gas to drive my dad's truck there and back. Why is that lucky? Because shipping to our house would cost twice as much as the actual product! Try a minimum of $199 the last time I calculated. However, despite the savings I definitely don't want to make the trip more than once, so I'm measuring and plotting and planning exactly what I'll need.

There will be seams where all the pieces fit together. That can't really be avoided. And I hate the idea of all those little holes running down the insides for "adjustable" shelving. Before we spend any big bucks, I'm going to get a few brands of white filler putty and see how well they cover and how much it'll take. Then, of course, I'll have to run moulding around the crown and base to give the pieces a more solid look.

I've actually already figured out that I can build a five-cabinet media and book shelf over our couch for about $150. Not too shabby, eh? I think the kitchen "bar" project is going to cost quite a bit more, probably around $400. I know that sounds like a lot (it is!), but it would easily cost three times that to pay someone to build it and only slightly less than that were I to do it myself.

Here's some of the products I'm thinking of mixing and matching:

Of course, I'm still looking through their vast catalog. There's so many sizes and shapes to choose from to make exactly what I need. Have you ever done an IKEA hack? Have you ever taken a piece of furniture and turned it into something else?

Air Conditioning Woes

I've always maintained that Alabama was meant for plants, not people. Between the rain, the heat, and the bugs there's no way man was intended to live here.

Yesterday our air conditioner broke. Yes, our brand new, two week old air conditioner.

In the morning we noticed it was a little warm, but we keep the thermostat high to save power. However, when I was in the kitchen I could feel that there was hardly any air coming out of the vent. With a little investigation we discovered that the last three vents on the duct line were not blowing even though the registers were wide open.

At first we assumed that meant something was knocked loose under the house. After all, the first five vents were working fine. We turned on a few fans to compensate and figured I'd make a warranty call in the morning. But as the day went on it became painfully obvious that something was wrong with the air conditioner itself. The house was getting hotter despite our best efforts. John stuck his fermentation thermometer over a working vent. Even blowing as hard as it could the air was reading at 87F degrees, the same temperature as outside. This trend continued into the night, which is the only thing that made it bearable in that the external temp dropped to 72F. Running constantly, the A/C unit and available registers were able to cool the whole house to 78F by 6AM. Of course, it was back to 82 by 10AM.

As soon as was seemly, I called the company we bought the house from to see what they'd do and how fast. I know they're sick of hearing from me about all the million little things that I think aren't being done fast enough or aren't being done right, but I assure you that it isn't nearly as sick as I am of calling them. Don't get me wrong. They're great people who bent over backwards to help us get a nice home at an affordable price, but my socialization skills and patience are wearing thin.

By 11:30AM they'd sent out a heating and cooling guy. Turns out, there wasn't enough Freon in the system. He said it's pretty rare, like getting a half-charged battery in a pack, but that sometimes they systems that come pre-put-together for homes like ours don't get the "charge" they need before leaving the factory. He checked everywhere inside and out for leaks just to make sure and topped us off.

As far as the vents went, he said he saw some ice collecting, and that because of the way the ducts have to bend under the house, if a clump of ice was blocking it it would cut off the air flow. I was a little incredulous as to how ice could get in our ducts on a 90 degree day, but apparently it's a legitimate thing. The coils freeze up, condensation builds up in the duct bend, that freezes up, and before you know it the whole thing stops working. He fixed it, though. By noon the ice was beginning to melt, the air pressure was slowly but surely increasing and the cats were much, MUCH happier.

The gentleman that came out was kind enough to take me around and show me what all the pipes do and how to tell if it's freezing up again. I like learning all this stuff about our house. I may not can fix it, but at least I can tell someone what's wrong next time!

Welcome Home

It's been a busy few weeks. Heck, it's been a busy few months. August is here and we're very nearly completely moved in. I'm still decorating, of course. And most of the furniture for the man cave hasn't made its way over yet since John's hand is stitched up. He's out of commission when it comes to furniture for another month. However, we are living here full time and have even been entertaining guests.

The project for today really completed things. Apparently the postmaster had a word with my dad about the fact that we still didn't have our mailbox up. Oops. So, that's what we did this morning. Many thanks to John's dad for digging through all that gravel! We weren't overly sure what the regulations were, so we haven't cemented it into place just yet. Once we're sure this is where it's going to stay, we'll make it more permanent and I'll plant some lovely climbing flowers around the base. Suggestions for plants are welcome in the comments section.

Speaking of plants, I also intend to plant a river birch between the front door and the master bedroom windows, opposite the cedar tree. My hope is that, much like at my parents house, the tree will quickly shoot up and shade the front porch. Our house faces west and in the evenings the front door becomes burning-hot -- not something pleasant to come home to. I'm doubly excited because river birches are one of my favorite types of trees. Much better than pine trees. :-)

Hospitals and Hospitality

We're all a little preoccupied at the moment, so there may be no new updates for a few days. John's in pre-op now for carpal tunnel surgery. It's outpatient, but the healing time puts the kibosh on any two-person projects for a while.

Also, our very first niece was born last night. Seven pounds, nineteen inches! It's very exciting. Though I have been informed that she has been given tons of Disney Princess stuff already. :-P

And finally, my "older sister" is staying with us for a few nights. She just got back from two weeks in Thailand with our aunt and uncle and their family. I'm sure we'll have tons of catching up to do once she recovers from jet lag.

Tiny, less exciting updates about the house include: The skirting has been put on, but it's the wrong color. I had specifically requested dark brown or black, but I came home to blinding white. Luckily I plan to plant fast growing bushes around the perimeter. And if I get really sick of it, there's a paint for that. There's also a few interior problems with the house that they're going to have to come out and fix (like the fact that the bathroom door won't latch), but for the most part it's live-in ready. We did discover that the washing machine no longer works after its stint in the barn, so we're having to cart clothes back and forth to my parents' house. Now comes the decision about whether to buy a new one or pay to have it fixed.

All in all, it has been and is going to continue being a busy week. I'll update when I have something more substantial -- preferrably with pictures.

This Is Just To Say

William Carlos Williams is my second favorite poet of all time. His words are often simple, but they stir evocative imagery. One of his most famous poems is "This Is Just To Say," a sweet and good-humored piece of found poetry one might imagine he wrote to his wife Florence. Despite the playful nature of the poem, I have always associated it with theft. Any time I hear of something being stolen, the opening lines run through my head.

The air conditioning guys showed up this morning while we were trying to move some furniture before work. They went into the master bedroom, came back out, checked every room, went back into the master bedroom, and cursed.

"What's wrong?"
"There's a box that has all our copper tubing and wires in your bedroom there."
"Okay...."
"It's empty."

This is just to say

I have eaten

the plums

that were in

the icebox

Luckily, the company we bought the house from isn't going to charge us for new copper. I've tried my hardest to keep an eye on things, but with so many people going in an out over the last week, there's no telling what happened. I'd like to believe they just accidentally put an empty box in the house, but I'm not that naive.

The head air conditioning guy ran into town to get some more from the hardware store on the housing company's dime, while the other guy started setting everything up. Soon we should have A/C. Now if only we had clean water.

Quick Update

There isn't a lot to report and even fewer pictures. The rain has been pretty bad and it's pushed some things back. We do have siding, and as of today the inside has been trimmed out to join up all the pieces of the house. The trim guy even vacuumed the house for me. Isn't he sweet?

Monday night we were all excited about moving in Wednesday (today). We even had a picnic. We put down a blanket, stole some fake flowers from my mother, and ate take-out Chinese off our fine china while drinking WalMart wine from our wedding crystal... While watching Star Trek on the laptop perched atop a few boxes. The latter was merely to test the strength and stability of our new internet connection, I assure you. >.>

The new timeline dictates that we should have clean water and air conditioning by the end of the week. The problem is that we both work two jobs each on Fridays and 12 hour shifts on Saturdays. It looks like we'll be moving in at the beginning of next week. In the meantime, I'll be making small runs of things as I can, just to have that much less stuff when the big move happens.

Stay tuned!

Power Up

At about 6:45 this morning our local electrical cooperative showed up with their trucks and a pole. At 8:00 I'm going to call the electrician and see when he can get out here. This is so exciting! At this rate we can probably move in by Wednesday.

They are coming off my parent's pole and running the lines down to our house. Here's a terrible shot of them working from my dad's office door. As a reference for those of you that attended our wedding, this is the tree that many of the reception tables were under with the fairy lights. They also had to cut down yet another sassafras tree. Man, those things are everywhere! But I still don't hate them as much as pine trees.

We had seen a water authority truck out by the road last week and stupidly I assumed that meant they were putting in the water meter LIKE THEY SAID THEY WOULD. I mean, come on guys. I paid you nearly $1500 a month ago. When I called them week before last they said they'd be out Monday. When I called them Wednesday they said they'd be out later that day. What little patience I was struggling to scrape together is GONE. Not only is there no water hook-up, but because I assumed that there was without going to inspect whether an actual hole had been dug, I scheduled Mr. Jones to come back out and put out my water lines. So, there's a few more phone calls I have to make.

And apparently our home didn't actually come with cable outlets, so I have to call the provider back and tell them to let their boys know to bring out extra parts this afternoon. I hope they don't charge me for that. At this point, the amount of money we've paid out for the "little things" is beyond ridiculous.

UPDATE:  The electricians have come and gone. They were really fast, didn't track mud everywhere, and most importantly didn't mind explaining things to me as I took lots of pictures. That last picture is the hole in the fuse box where the main wiring was threaded up from the crawl space.

The water authority also came out immediately after I told them I'd be getting our lawyer involved if I didn't see progress today. It's been a month already, and there were only three houses ahead of us. The installation process itself only takes 3-4 hours. I understand that it's been raining, but there's been more than enough sunny days to make this timeline unacceptable.

When they got here I noticed that they were just sitting in the ditch not doing anything. I went out and talked to one guy and he said that the telephone people were supposed to have come out and marked where the lines were so that the backhoe didn't clip them. He said, "They should have been out here by now. We called them two weeks ago." I looked him dead in the eye and said, "Yes, sir. I understand. I paid you guys FOUR weeks ago and I still don't have water."

The short of it is that half an hour later the telephone guy was spray painting the grass and the backhoe is now happily digging up our neighbor's yard. Looks like I'm baking a lot of cakes this month!

Together At Last

About an hour ago the guys left for the last time. Yes, all the pieces of our house are together at last.

First they finished shoring up the foundation with a combination of cement bricks, wood blocks, and steel beams. This house isn't going anywhere. Then they hooked up all my "black" water lines to the septic tank. Mr. Jones will have to come back out next week and dig a trench from the meter to the house and then lay pipe to hook up my "fresh" county water.

We're still waiting on a power pole. Once that's in place, the electrician said he would move around whatever he had to to come out immediately and hook us up. Between that, the fact that he called to check on us this morning, and him being the only person willing to give me an estimate on labor and price-per-foot, means that out of a two page list of numbers the power company gave me he gets my money. That's how you do business in a small town.

In the meantime, someone that the crew ambiguously referred to as "the trim guy" is supposed to come out and finish everything off. The north and south sides need siding, a few doors and screens need to be put in place, and the seams where the pieces of the house meet need to be fully joined and finished off. He'll also be the one installing our A/C. Rainy or not, south Alabama can creep upward of 90F in July and August. They say he could come as soon as this afternoon or as late as Monday, and it could take him up to two days to complete everything.

There may be no new updates for a few days (well, maybe a recipe) so here's a sneak peek shot of the interior to hold you over. See you soon!

Installation Day!

Today's the day! Yesterday evening our mover (who is also installing our foundation) dropped off his tractor after finishing another job a few miles away. On his way to work this morning, John called me and said, "Honey, I think part of our house just drove past me!" Sure enough, 20 minutes later the crew showed up. I'm going to have to bake cookies for our neighbors because pieces of our house were in other people's ditches and chilling in the parking lot of the gas station at the end of the street.

It took about two hours for them to spread out and tamp down the foundational clay. I'm sure their tractor is first rate, but it made me miss the backhoe from yesterday. It probably could have taken out that dirt in half the time. :-/

As soon as the foundation was laid and everything was leveled to spec, the moving process began. Meet Snuffy the Freightliner. He brought each piece in one at a time.

What can only be described as a giant jack with bulldozer wheels then came out and was slid under the first piece to move it precisely into place.

When planning where your house will sit, there are a number of things that you have to take into consideration. First, there needs to be 16-foot wide clearance to haul most pre-manufactured pieces into place. That's why we had to cut down the leyland cypress trees flanking the driveway. While the pieces themselves are only 13-foot wide and the driveway is 14-foot, the trees made the clearance unacceptable. Once they started pulling in I could see why. The truck beds were shadowing the trunk stumps.

Another thing you have to consider is where all your utilities will be coming from. The back/front/side/whatever of your house must be at least 5 feet from the edge of the septic tank. Also, depending on your local code, you may have to be a certain number of feet from your electrical pole. Our pole isn't in yet, but the engineer has already come out to look at how he needs to run wires around trees and existing poles. He staubbed off where he wanted to put the pole with a wooden stake and a white ribbon. That means the crew not only has to be about 5 feet from the staub, but they have to account for the inches radius of the pole as well. The mover told me a story about being just one inch off of a septic tank and having to either pay the septic installer $300 to move the tank or losing $2000 in work for his guys to move the whole house.

Once you have your first piece in place, they roll out a moisture barrier on top of the foundation. Then they begin to build up the footers with different sizes of cement block and wooden shims.

After a break for lunch, the crew got back to work moving in the rest. Installation won't be finished today, but they promised to be back out "first thing in the morning" to assemble everything else. It's exciting! Now that it's here I'm no longer freaking out that everything's going to explode. Now I'm freaking out because it's not happening fast enough. Can you imagine how miserable I'm going to be staring at a house that has no power or water all weekend?

All About Septic

Well, the house was not installed today. We still don't have water, or even a foundation, but by god we have septic! It was actually a pretty fascinating process to watch.

First he was kind enough to take out a few sassafras trees with his backhoe. It was like watching someone flick over the candle on a cupcake. John called shortly after this display and refused to bow to my pleas that I NEED a backhoe.

Next he dug a hole for the box.

Then they lifted the septic tank in. It's a giant concrete rectangle, somewhat like a mausoleum. This is funny because Mr. Jones also does "vault" work. Staring down into the six-foot hole with the multi-ton concrete box dangling over it, I felt a little sick. I've never had a particular fear of being buried, but what coursed through my veins could only be described as terror. I told John when he got home that he could gift me, he could sell me, he could even set me on fire, but he could NOT bury me in the ground. *shudders*

This will hold about 1,000 gallons of waste and water.

Once the tank was in place, it was time to dig the trenches for the fill line. Because of the angle and length of our lot, they had to do two runs. Something to keep in mind when planning your septic system is that (at least in Alabama) you must stay at least 5 feet from all property lines.

The really cool thing about the fill lines is.... everything. The middle piece is the actual pipe to the septic tank. It's just a piece of accordianed plastic, but the ends are specially molded so that they each snap together both effortlessly and tightly. The stuff surrounding the pipe and filling the two "logs" on either side is: Ba-ba-bum! Packing peanuts.

Yes, they've finally found a use for styrofoam that doesn't end up in a landfill or an ocean. Because styrofoam is non-biodegradable, lightweight-yet-sturdy, and shaped to allow airflow, it makes the perfect fill material. Years ago they used varying grades of gravel to achieve the same filtering effect. This makes the job go much faster, though. Just lay out the "logs" and go.

Between the concrete of the tank and the peanuts in the fill, our system is rated for 200 years!

Once everything is in place, they used the backhoe to fill the gaps and spread out the excess dirt as evenly as possible. The only thing left was a tiny corner of the tank and a pipe to connect to the house. Ignore all the roots. They are one of the major reasons I hate pine trees so much. The roots can go deeper than you'd think and they spread out unbelievable distances, and they're almost impossible to get rid of.

All in all, it took two guys about 2 1/2 hours of steady work. Now if only the rest of the process could have been this easy.

Wednesday Catch-Up

Is it really only Wednesday?

My schedule has been blown to hell and back, and it's so early in the morning that I'm not sure what will happen today.

We still don't have water. Septic was delayed by a funeral and will, in theory, happen this morning. Power has been a nightmare of different people giving me different schedules. One truck full of foundation dirt arrived Monday night without warning. The other two showed up Tuesday morning during breakfast. No one has yet come to turn the big red piles of Alabama clay into a foundation.

And the house is supposed to arrive at some point today.

If the house arrives while the septic is being put in, a stand-off is going to happen because the septic guys won't be able to get their equipment back out from behind the house. If the house arrives before whomever is setting our foundation does his job there will be nowhere to put it. Supposedly, all the people that are doing these jobs work together pretty consistently. Supposedly, when I get off work, it will all be done and ready for final assembly (power, cable, water, etc). All I can say for certain is that I'm really glad John bought a bottle of Jack Daniels on the way home yesterday.

I'll update you tonight when I get home.

The Cloudy Day Game Plan

It's been raining. Sometimes it feels like it's always raining. I'm sure the farmers disagree with me -- you can hear them down at the market grumbling amongst themselves about drought. But summertime in Alabama often feels like monsoon season, especially when you have weather-sensitive timelines falling apart.

This week, however, Mother Nature has decided to bestow a few "partly cloudy" days in a row on our little plot of land. Finally, we have a game plan.

Monday or Tuesday: Septic, Water & Foundation
Wednesday and Thursday: House Installation
Friday: Cable, Possibly Power

We're having issues with the power. I was told two weeks ago that when I had a delivery date I could call and 3-4 business days after my call they would have my pole, meter, and transformer installed. Today, after I'd paid them more than $300, they informed me that I needed to call back the day the house was delivered. From that point it would be 3 - 5 business days, "But probably next Wednesday."

I may have lost it a little at that point. I called the engineer I originally spoke to and did what Southern women do best: Raised hell as politely as I could. It's bad enough that every single electrician I call won't even give me a job estimate until everything is in place. We can't move in until the whole set up is inspected, and the inspector can't come out until the job is done. Hopefully my hissy fit will get us power on Friday. Of course, that's when the rain is supposed to start back. Cross your fingers for us!

The Perc Test

I know we were supposed to be installed and ready to go by the end of last week, but things didn't work out.

For one, we learned we had to have ALL our utilities installed and ready to hook up so that the house itself could be installed and inspected for completion. As if that nightmare of money hemorraging wasn't enough, it's been raining so hard that they can't get into the pit to access the dirt for our foundation. Fabulous.

Today it finally stopped raining long enough that the engineer could come out and do the perc (percolation) test. He dug a series of holes 60-inches deep and noted the soil type as it came out. He had a really cool book with color swatches across two pages. These swatches were matched up with each batch of dirt and then notated. Once the holes were all dug to the proper depth, his assistant poured water about three feet up the holes. The water was then timed for absorption into the surrounding soil.

Good news: We passed! And it's of sufficient leach quality that the septic system won't cost any more than the original estimate. The gentleman installing our septic system said he would file the paperwork for a permit today. Weather allowing, he should be back out to install the system Monday. He even said he'd use his backhoe to take out a few sassafrass trees for me. :)

On a related note, I went by the county water authority to check on our progress up the waiting list. They said that if the rain holds off they would have us hooked up and a meter installed the beginning of next week. Whew! It's finally happening. With a quick check in on power and cable, we've tentatively set delivery date for next Thursday.

A Bee to the Face!

Note to Self:  Don't wear floral deodorant while working with plants.

Additional Note to Self:  Bees can smell fear.

Today we (mostly) finished clearing out the lot that our new house will sit on. In all, seven trees had to come down and two root systems had to be dug up. I'm not sad about the pine trees. We are deadly enemies and I eradicate them with prejudice. The leyland cypress trees, on the other hand, did make me shed a few tears. These majestic beauties flanked what will now be our driveway, but they were just too close together for the truck to come in with all the pieces of our little home. There were also two sassafras trees lost to the massacre, so now our entire lot smells like a nauseating combination of Christmas trees and root beer.

While it's much easier to imagine everything in place with the various shrubberies gone, I must admit that it makes me feel a little exposed. I like my privacy (she said while speaking candidly to the world wide web), so the first thing to be done when it's installed is to plant new ones. NOT pine trees, though. I don't care if it is the state tree.

Once again I forgot my camera, but rest assured that once everything is in place you'll be flooded with pictures. Until then, I'm going to go find more ice for my cheek.

So It Begins

Last week we bought a house. It was not the house we originally tried to buy. In fact, it's over 100 square feet smaller. However, after careful consideration, we decided it was the best option out of our limited pool. Rather than let disappointment and dissatisfaction ruminate in my bones, though, I've decided to turn this into one of my infamous "projects."

The house itself is pre-manufactured with many of the style issues you might expect. There are battens wedged between vinyl wallboards. Trim is pretty much nonexistent. The ceilings are textured and the fixtures are fluorescent. Still, the layout is good, the colors are decent, and the place is well insulated. Also, it's brand new, which is a major plus.

We have a long list of things we want to do. Pull up all the carpet and lay wood flooring throughout -- with the exception of tile in the bathrooms and laundry area, of course. Rip out all the battens, fill, tape, mud, paint, and trim all the walls. Replace the light fixtures. Upgrade the appliances. Replace the kitchen window. De-popcorn the ceilings. Et cetera, et cetera. I'm sure you get the point.

Today we began site prep for installation. There are a number of small trees and bushes that have to come down. It's a lot more work than we thought it would be, and the weather isn't cooperating. Tomorrow we have to finish the job, including grinding the stumps down. Then a gentleman will come lay down a pad for the house to rest on, and by the end of the week installation will be complete.

There's just a few little catches. Aren't there always?

The county can't hook up water for another couple of weeks. And then because of unforeseen expenses, we probably won't be able to have a septic tank installed until the next pay period after that. Luckily, both of us get paid every two weeks. But, that means that we're paying a mortgage on property we can't live in.

Luckily, the land we're moving to is literally next door to where we're staying now. With a little luck, a few extension cords, and some elbow grease, I feel we can use the weeks ahead to make a good start on our renovations.

Follow John and I as we begin our adventure in home ownership, where there's no one to call when the dishwasher fills the kitchen with bubbles.