Ain't life grand?
Just when you need time to do other things ebay just about stops. I know, I know, I haven't been listing new items lately. But I have been super busy trying to demo the house I'm trying to fix and get on the market. So as the saying goes, "you reap what you sow". I haven't done any new listings so I don't get to reap the benefits. Just look at it this way. No sales mean no complaints! ?? Well not really.
I recently sold a book titled "Complete Natural Medicine" in Spanish. It was one of those books that you sign up for and you get laminated, glossy pages every month for a small fee. This book was about 1/3 finished and I stated that in my listing. I get a message after he had received the book saying, "not what I expected, pages missing". Now the smart ass in me wants to point out that if you had read the listing you would know that it wasn't complete, but the business part of me politely pointed out that the title was "Complete Natural Medicine" and that didn't mean the book was complete. Holy smoke if you had a book of complete natural medicine who knows how big it would be. My first thing to do was to call ebay. They agreed with me that I wasn't at fault. Now I'm waiting the five days before I can close the case. Hopefully I will win, fingers crossed.
Progress on the house is slow. Getting a new roof in 3-4 weeks. Bye bye skylight. The roofer is busy but worth waiting for.
I have ripped out drywall, a soaker tub, a shower stall, bathroom double sinks, and cabinets. You can now sit on the sofa in the living and see all the way to the end of the house and the master toilet.
That very far wall, at the back, on the right is now gone and you can see the toilet. Even from this far away you can tell the tub was a lovely peach color. The wall of studs in the foreground will be removed also. I just have to move the wall sockets wiring. The space from the stud wall to about where the bookcase is, on the left, will be added to the living room. The rest of the space will be a walk in closet in the master bedroom with the arch becoming the location of the closet door.
There was a bar type thing in the kitchen that I always thought was, well, stupid looking. The bar was too tall and thick to sit at unless you were on a ladder. Kids couldn't sit there comfortably. And it had blue laminate on the top. Ugly blue laminate. All it did was collect stuff.
But boy was that sucker screwed down tight. I had planned to take the cabinets and countertop and put them in the garage to make a work area. I couldn't get the screws out without breaking the frame. So I used my new favorite toy, a sawsall, and cut that bad boy to bits and hauled it off to the compactor. Bye bye ugly blue laminate.
The white section of drywall behind the cabinets will be going bye bye also. The new cabinets will be installed along the center line of the house. That will make a nice wide kitchen with new L shaped base cabinets where the old bar was. There is a small pantry on the other side of the fridge. Only 18" wide and very deep. No roll out drawers, just four shelves. Very inconvenient. Like sticking your hand into a black hole.
I am planning a new pantry down at the end of the kitchen. Where the oval coffee table is turned on its end. Much better lighting down there and easier to see what is stored. The old pantry will become regular base and wall cabinets. The spot where the new pantry will be was a "breakfast nook". It was about 4'x4' with a shiny gold chandelier. Bye bye chandelier.
There is a window at the end of the kitchen cabinets on the right. I wish I could take it out and close up the space. It looks out to the covered deck on the back of the house. Very dark space. (The tiny shiny chandelier was useless for lighting up the space. (I have old/new Restore lights for the kitchen that are shaped like a aluminum mixing bowl.) If I closed up the window I don't have enough vinyl siding to match to fill in the hole. Of course I could add painting the vinyl siding to my budget. We will see if my back holds out long enough to get to that point.
SweetiePie goes with me three days a week to watch the demolition. He has a tv, comfy chair and a maid to wait on him (me) so he has been doing fine. He doesn't like the sawsall, too much noise. But I try to keep it to a minimum so he doesn't get upset. So far so good.
I wish I could just gut the thing and work from one end to the other but I have to think about having a bathroom and somewhere to cook for SweetiePie. So I'll work on the master bath and bedroom and then move to the kitchen and save the living and dining room for last. The other end of the house doesn't have as much to do. I started on the tough end.
I hope I don't bore everyone with the renovation but I'm excited to get the work done. I helps me keep my mind occupied on something other than SweetiePie's problems.
