Home Improvement

Its spring so that means major house cleaning right?  We'll I took it as major house changes.  For those who don't know, I have a new roommate.  He moved in a month and a half ago.  The day he started to bring his stuff over, he decided that instead of moving the queen bed out of the second bedroom on the main floor, he would just move upstairs.  My upstairs wasn't exactly the nicest of places to live.  I went up there an average of once a month for the two years I've lived here.  Needless to say it was used for storage and a place to kick the ball for my dog during the winter since it was carpeted.  I was surprised yet happy that I was able to keep my guest room (not that I have a ton of guest come over, but its nice to have the option).  Once basketball was over we started the renovation.  It took me four color samples to find the color of "cup of cocoa" for the upstairs.  The lady at the paint desk at Homedepot mentioned how had never seen a guy care so much about a color.  I don't know if that was a compliment or not....  It took 3 days to paint (due to work and edging, which I HATE) and then another week before the carpet was installed.  But its done and I really like it.  So does Bo.  You can see some comparison pics below.

These are just two additional photos because I like the way it looks :)

Not long after the upstairs was complete I had my first major issue with my house.  Bo called me on a Saturday night and said there was a pipe leaking in the basement.  Of course I was concerned, but wouldn't be home for another few hours.  When I got home, I couldn't find it so I wasn't worried.  Two days later I was doing dishes and ran down stairs to change out my laundry and noticed there was a steady drip coming from the floor right above the laundry basin.  Oh crap.  I ran back upstairs and figured out that the drain pipe from my sink had a hole in it.  I though it was a small hole, but as you can see from the picture, the hole was large and had been there for a while.  I was fortunate to find a guy who charged $35/hr who came over and fixed it in two hours.  He was awesome and I'm extremely grateful that I randomly found him.  There was some minor damage to the cabinets since we had to saw thru the back of them to access the pipe, but he made very clean cuts and it will be a good challenge for me to fix it. 

 

There are more home improvement projects on the way.  Phase 1 of the back yard should happen this summer and I'll likely begin phase 1 on the basement during the winter.  Oh boy, home improvement :).

Blessings,

Jon