Trash Removal
Do you remember the trash pile?
It sat at the end of our driveway growing ever larger with the intention of being removed someday, sometime. This was the beginning of the summer and it grew larger by the end but really, who takes photos of mounds of trash?
Well the radiator guys came Wed and after 3 hours of horribly back-breaking labor, Valentine was excited to come the next day and pick up the pile of trash.
Pick it up he did. They loaded it all, swept, raked, and hauled it all off. I don’t know if there is a single before/after that I am more excited about than this trash removal. I guess the walls were also exciting but not tripping over splitered boards full of nails all the time is a luxury I had sorely missed.
Thanks Valentine. I appreciate it!
Sarah
Radiator Removal
We were checking the entire past week for professional removal companies in order to remove the old (nonfunctional) radiators we got with the house to make some extra space. The small group came at 3 on Wednesday. There were three guys and it took them only 2 hours to remove the seven radiators, the old cast iron tub, and carry the claw-foot tub up to the third floor. If your home is not as warm as you would like then there are specialist insulation companies that can help a great deal.
They were such pretty radiators but I’m glad to be rid of them.
Don’t be fooled by them setting lightly against the tree. These things are HEAVY. So heavy it takes all of me and Stefan’s force just to slide them. The guys had a couple of tools to help them. One was this dolly with 2 pairs of different sized wheels:
I’m not sure how they got them up into the truck.
The house is practically floating now that all that weight is gone! It’s so nice to have recovered that space and Morei indicated that most of them were cracked which validates 100% our choice to get rid of them and go with forced hot air heating.
Sarah
Hardwood Floors, Bed, and Mattress
If you haven’t taken a look at round 1 of the hardware floor reveal, check out my earlier posts: Sanding and Poly and the one before that: Patching the Hardwood Floors.
I mentioned in my Florida Post that last week was a whirlwind. The floor guy came at about 10am on Monday. He buffed, vacuumed, and put the final coat of Polyurathane down. Tuesday evening, after a day in bed, I felt well enough to move the bed into the room and Wednesday we had a mattress delivered:
It’s a foam mattress so we let is breathe for a night and Thursday, I got to decorate my very first room in the new house!




The drapes are sheers from Ikea that I cut to size and hung on the centers of the old roller shades that were in the room. The hangers from the shades were already there so I figured I might as well use them!
The green fabric on the throw pillows is what I’m planning on using for the drapes around the large window to make it fill out the wall behind the bed.
Notice that there is electricity in the room. Stefan knocked that out Thursday evening while I was sewing pillow cases and curtains. The bedding is Lauren by Ralph Lauren that I’ve had since before we bought the house. I love the colors.
The bed side table we bought for $10 at an estate sale a few weeks ago and I painted it with leftover cream porch paint.
The chair is a craigslist find in Houston ages ago. I have 3 more just like it!
The room is hardly finished. It’s still a bit sterile for my tastes and when you lay in the bed, you can see what’s missing:
The trim on the door to the bathroom hasn’t been put up and there is a big open spot on the wall for a TV. But, check out this light fixture:

Yep, dangling bare bulb is all the rage there days…right?
If you take a peek in the ajoining office area, you’ll see there’s still work to be done.
But, we’re well on our way to a completed bedroom!
Sarah
P.S. Check out the new Contractors page where you can find info on all the nice people we’ve hired.
A Short Trip to Florida
To celebrate my 5 year old niece’s victory over cancer, we went to Florida with the Family.
It was a great trip and we had tons of fun playing in the waves, building sandcastles, eating: all the things you do on a good Florida vacation. I even caught this crab with a sand bucket and little shovel.
The kids named him Pluto and then it was Pluto-Sandy in case it was a girl. Pluto is a really good crab name. I was impressed. We took a good picture with him before we let him go. All squinty eyes but it’s part of the beach-picture aesthetic.

We got back late late Sunday night and it’s been a whirlwind week. I’ve got tons of posts coming for you. First, Monday we got the final coat on the floors! Tuesday I had a 102 degree fever and don’t remember what all happened except that I was supposed to go to Ikea. Wednesday the mattress was delivered and the radiators removed! Thursday was trash removal, finding fabric for the bedroom curtains, a 45 min(!) run through ikea and a dentist appointment before sewing sheers so we could sleep in our new bedroom. Friday was some library time, some ikea assembly, some curtain sewing, some shelf staging. Phew what a week! I’m still getting over whatever cold/flu/bug I had on Tuesday but I’ve been staying busy. Now I just need to work on catching up the blog to real life! Get ready for a post a day while I fill you in on all the details! And, if you Follow me on Twitter or on Facebook you would have already seen some sneak peeks!
You’ll be hearing from me soon!
Sarah












sheila zimmermann
8/23/2013 | 6:18 pm Permalink
Love the family photo. What a good-looking bunch.