VIB Chronicles

November/December Chalkboard

i tried to go light on this one (no need to overburden ourselves) and hopefully we will be able to cross that top thing off of our list pretty quickly.

also, we decided to leave the fireplace for the summer, as of right now the chimney sweeps won’t be able to show up before december and really I don’t have any faith in that pledge, so I am just not going to deal with having a hole in my dining room for 2 cold months.… Read the rest

October is not our month

well, we got a few things done. and the things we didn’t, well they aren’t that visible here.

i think between the dryer (nope still don’t have one) and the fireplace (yep still waiting for that estimate in the mail) we deserve a bit of a break. besides, we have been doing lots and lots of measuring as we start thinking about the kitchen lay out. so, I am not going to do a recount (let’s just say chalk board wins this one).… Read the rest

Dryer Saga

documenting our little adventure with the dryers at least gives some sort of satisfaction/closure in the process. we are down to one – we returned the broken electrical one to sears yesterday, still ahve the gas one sitting in out house, since we lost the receipt (yea, not cool, but what are you going to do).

sears didn’t have the one to match our washer in stock. so we came home without one.… Read the rest

Noooooooo

So I did my research on electric dryers. Found the one that actually matches our laundry machine. Found it on sale. purchased the dryer online. no delivery. boooo. off to sears in woodbridge,va we went.

Here we were 40 minutes outside DC on Sunday morning:

(via stereojam)

Pull up to appliance pick up, wait for 40 minutes, the guy can’t find our dryer because our confirmation email doesn’t have the name/picture of the dryer (are you for reals sears????!!!).… Read the rest

in limbo

why did we have to stop work on the drywall?

well, we had another fireplace estimate for work necessary to get our fireplace in the dining room working. it went well.the guy told us we may have to take apart part of the wall on second floor where the chimney is to do the necessary work. so we stopped the drywall project.

and now we are waiting, and waiting, and waiting for an estimate.… Read the rest

Measure twice, attach once

This is pretty much a Sergey project, since it required major building and drilling action. The first part also took a good part of the weekend.

As I mentioned, we did a lot of research before going for it. As a visual person, this guy helped me lots. Also, DIYdiva provides excellent, detailed overview of putting up drywall here.

 

first up, we took the opportunity to add some insulation surrounding the gap of the AC duct work.… Read the rest

Here we go

Part II of the A/C project is covering up the duct work. We were quoted around $1k. Obviously I though that we could at least try to do it ourselves. The worst that happens is we spend a bunch of money on materials. I don’t necessarily think that our time would be wasted per se, as learning what is involved in the job would at least allow us to talk to contractors intelligently (and maybe convince me that we should hire people to do this professionally).… Read the rest

The Kitchen Cure

We have had our wheels spinning a bit between the fireplace and the damn dryer that may never get its (gas) hook up.

so, naturally, we thought to hell with it all, we’ll just redo the kitchen. we are sort of serious. we are going to be coming into obama money (the $8k homebuyers credit) which could help us quite a bit with that. my imaginations wheels are in high gear, although right now i am overwhelmed with all the options and considerations.… Read the rest

A tip of the hat

First let me just say that PoP, a DC blog about DC, is awesome for taking questions from readers. We have submitted two, and both times recieved awesome feedback from his readers.

Now, to the matter at hand. As per suggestion from PoP readers, I was able to get in touch with Sergio, the chimney/ fireplace expert. He has a top hat!!! i just can’t get over how awesome/knowledgeable he was and he has a top hat!… Read the rest