25_The End Of A Chapter

After working for around 4 months, finally our home was completely livable. There were works that still need to be done such as tidying up the garage, setting up a home gym, building a new shed, etc. However, these works wouldn’t affect our basic needs i.e. eating, sleeping, and bathing. So these works would happen later slowly. At this moment, it was time to end a chapter.

Last Big Cleaning Up

Now that we were done with renovation, we could throw away stuff that was not used. On September 9^th we piled up things that we didn’t want to use further, included a semi permanent gazebo in the back porch. I never liked this gazebo, I thought it was tacky and it blocked the sunlight to the house. I took off all the tarps, and while doing it I found various nests and crawling creatures such as ants, white spider, little cockroach, small lizards, etc. I was glad that we decided to get rid of the gazebo; otherwise it would become bug nests. Later on, my husband disassembled the metal parts. These parts would be given to the scrap metal guys who scavenged our old washer and dryer.

Left: The gazebo and leftovers of construction materials. Right: Only the gazebo's frames remained.

The gazebo blocked the sunlight to the house.

We also separated some things to be donated to ReStore, a social organization that provides affordable housings for people. We would give an old ceiling fan, old sink, and some leftovers of construction materials. But first, we filled our van with things that we wanted to throw away. We worked until the sun set, thinking that we would go to the landfill tomorrow.

Left: The last load to the landfill from the back door. Right: From the front seat.

On the next morning we went to the landfill, only to find out that it was closed on Sundays. So we had to bring back all the junk to the house and waited until Monday morning. It was a challenge in doing it, as the weather was cold, windy and drizzles due to the Irma hurricane effect. The landfill was an open area, it was not easy to walk from one dumpster to another in the rain and windy day; but this was our last trip to the landfill, so it was worth to do. After this, our house became more enjoyable to live in.

Before And After

A lot had changed to the house, especially the living room, kitchen, and the previous dining room. No more walls to separate these three rooms. Here I showed you the before and after pictures of these rooms. It was not easy to recreate the same pictures, as I was limited by walls for the ‘before’ pictures and by furniture in the ‘after’ pictures. But that was the point, presenting the changes. So, just enjoy…

The view from the entrance.

Another view from the entrance.

The living room previously had a folding door.

The living room walls.

The living room.

No more walls and pocket door in the living room.

The view from the hallway towards the kitchen.

Too many walls.

The kitchen.

Kitchen light.

The end of kitchen cabinets.

Another part of the kitchen.

The oven.

The sink and its window.

Kitchen wall, before and after.

The back window and wall.

Ceiling fan. 

Financial Situation

In about 4 months of work, until we went to the landfill last time, we had spent $35,878.44. This included buying the van and its reparation cost, appliances, and plumbing services. The biggest expense was putting new roof, followed by kitchen cabinets and appliances. The roof installment took 22.30% share.

We had not settled all the expenses, and thanks to various credit systems, we had time for two years to settle. Hopefully we would be able to do it on-time.

Future Projects

As I mentioned before, there were some works to do; but they all just small projects, it shouldn’t hurt our financial condition. However, there would be middle-size projects waiting such as bathrooms remodeling. We would put this project on pending until our financial condition recovered. So for now on, we would only work on small projects.  

As for this blog, I would keep updating it with all the works that we do for the house. So please keep checking on it. Meanwhile, just enjoy our gallery from the past projects. See you later!

Living room.

The kitchen.

Family room.

Dining places.

24_Last Piece Of The Puzzle: Having Working Kitchen

We started to live in the new house from August 25^th. However, we kept coming back to the apartment for doing laundry and, sometimes, cooking. When we moved in, we were still waiting for the countertops to finish. We had a guy came to measure the total area for the countertops on the 21^st; after that we had to wait for around 2 weeks to get the countertops done.

Fortunately, we didn’t have to wait for a long time. On the last day of our leasing period, or on August 31^st, the countertops were ready to be installed. This felt like a welcoming present for us.

It took three guys to lift our granite countertops. However, it only took two guys to install them. Apparently, the granite was just cut according to the shape of the kitchen countertops including the sink. It had not been cut for the stove and the vent. So the two guys had to do a cutting job in the kitchen, and it sounded very loud. I had to wear my earplugs to reduce the loudness. They finished the installation in about 6 hours.

It took three guys to install the granite countertops. 

By afternoon, we had new countertops and double sink. This didn’t mean we had a functional kitchen; we still needed to hook up the stove and the vent. In addition, we had to hook up the plumbing for the sink. However, we couldn’t do it right away. We had promised to come to PA for the weekend.

Installation of granite countertops around the sink.

Left: Granite countertops before being cut for the stove and vent. Right: The stove and vent were encapsulated by granite countertops.

The island was covered by granite countertops.

The Stove And The Vent

Once we were back home, we hooked up the stove and the vent; so we could cook. Actually we still needed to work on the vent line: installing the vent pipe towards outside, but at least we could cook; as long as we didn’t cook something that produces too much steam, or fry too much.

The stone and vent were finally working. 

Drain Problem

However, again, we weren’t lucky in plumbing department. My husband tried to hook up the pipes for the sink and the dishwasher, with only browsing on the Internet as a reference. He never had done it before. After several try and errors in cutting the pipes, he managed to build a pipeline between the dishwasher and the sink.

Left: Before the pipes were installed. Right: The pipes were installed. 

But then, problem occurred when he worked on the drain; it blocked L. The water couldn’t get through to the drain. It stayed as puddle in the sink. He cleaned the drainpipe and encountered a lump of waste since, God knows when. He tried to connect the pipes again, but the drain still couldn’t work. In the end, he had to turn off the pipes for the sink and the dishwasher; and we had to call a plumbing company. OMG, we always had problems with plumbing. We had to think it through to redo the plumbing by ourselves. (See also 08_Second House Hunting).

The island was used for working station. 

We called Blanton’s, a plumbing company that we used previously, on September 4^th. However, we couldn’t get its service until the 7^th due to its busy schedule. And when the plumber came, of course he delivered a bad news: we had to replace the whole pipeline that supports the sink and the dishwasher because it was too old and corrosive already. The culmination of the shock, of course, was the price. It costs around $1,500 for the service. O… M… G… the whole house used the same galvanized pipes; if we had to replace them all, I couldn’t imagine the cost that we had to bare.

We didn’t have any other option but to accept the service. However, the plumber couldn’t work alone for a big task like that. So he would start the next day with his colleague.

About The Oven

We had to buy a new oven that could fit into our cabinet. (See also 21_InstallingKitchen Cabinets). At first, we compared different ovens from different websites. We ended up ordering an Empava oven from eBay because it offered cheaper price than other websites for the same oven. It said that the oven would be arrived on August 24^th.

However, on August 24^th, the oven didn’t arrived. We tried to track the package, but didn’t come out. We waited until August 27^th. At this day, we received an email from eBay, asking us to review the oven. I wrote that I couldn’t review the item because we had not received it even after 3 days of the scheduled delivery. At the same time, I contacted eBay to ask about the status of my order. Soon, I got a reply saying that the item was out of stock and eBay refunded our money. What?! That’s funny. They never bothered to check their stock and delivery status until we complained about it…???

Email from eBay, asking us to change the review.

Anyway, we considered the problem was solved. So we ordered another oven, of course not from eBay. However, eBay reached out to us, asked us to change the review for a compensation of an eBay gift card. A representative from eBay called me and waited until I changed the review. She said we would receive the gift card in a few days via email. However, 6 days later, when I wrote this, we had not received anything. Well, I guess you can conclude…

At Last, Everything Came Together

On September 8^th, the plumber came early. He said the job would take almost the whole day. Later on, his colleague came to help him. It really took almost the whole day. They completely replaced the pipeline including the one that was installed by my husband. When they finished, we tested the drain from the sink and the dishwasher, no dripping let alone leaking. Yaaay, no more washing dishes in the main bathroom!

Left: The installed pipes were cut. Right: The plumbers installed new PVC pipes.

The drain finally worked.

Around 30 minutes after the plumbers gone, the oven arrived. Alright, everything started to come together. With these, my husband felt motivated to finish installing the vent pipe. On September 9^th, finally we had functional kitchen, which meant our whole renovation project had completed. Everything worked as expected. We finally could enjoy our home.

Left: Our new oven. Right: The oven was placed above the microwave.

Our kitchen was finally done.

Our new favorite place to hang out was the kitchen.

The finished island.

The view from the island.

23_Finally, Reunited With Our Stuff

The long-awaited moment finally arrived, the time to put our stuff in the new home. We had been separated with our stuff for more than 6 months. Along that time, we had lived in 1 friend’s house, 3 hotels, 1 airbnb, and 1 apartment. Soon, we could close another chapter of being nomads and started a new chapter as settled homeowners.

One day before our stuff arrived, we spent the whole day just to clean the house. We rearranged the garage because some stuff would go there or just being placed there temporarily. Finally, on August 25^th our stuff came in one huge container truck. Unlike in Germany, where only two men worked for 3 days, this time there were six men unloaded the whole things. So by lunchtime, they were finished. Still, it was not easy to supervise them. For example, they just opened a single bed in one room, while actually we didn’t want to unpack it at all. We wanted to give all our single beds to my husband’s family. In the end, most of the big stuff were unpacked and situated as we planned. But we still had unopened boxes to work on; and of course, the house became dusty again.

The moving truck.

Above: Our living room. Below: Our dining room and family room.

Opened boxes were laying around in the living room.

Laundry Room

We spend the next 2.5 days tidying and cleaning up our stuff. Apparently the movers in Germany rearranged the stuff that we had put together. For example, we put all the clothes in some bags; but now I found that some of my clothes, even underwear, were mixed with motorcycle parts in one box! Fortunately, I could find all my stuff; well, at least as far as I remembered them. However, my husband lost a few of his small stuff that were not listed in the manifest; so we couldn’t claim it L

To add things worse, the movers here said that they could pick up the used boxes. So on August 28^th I called them to get the boxes. The receptionist at the moving company said that somebody would call me before coming to the house. But later on, I got a call from the movers, saying that they were already in front of the house while I was out! I couldn’t get back home right away; while from their side, they wouldn’t get paid if they didn’t pick the boxes at that time. So we had to deal with the boxes by ourselves. OMG, what kind of attitude was that; I never received any appointment call, and now they blamed it on me L

The garage was filled with our stuff from Germany and Pennsylvania. 

Again, we had to rearrange our garage including the laundry room inside it. When we bought the house, we got a washer and a dryer. However, we never tried them because we had laundry service in our apartment. So when we looked at them now, they seemed to be old and dirty. The room itself also dirty and damp around the pipes; we didn’t think it was a good place for cleaning anything. So we decided to take the washer and dryer out and replaced with the new ones.

Left: The washer and dryer. Above: The laundr room was dirty and damp. Right: Two studs were cut in half.

When we took out the washer and dryer, we realized that the laundry had been adjusted in order to fit the two appliances side by side. Two of the studs in the room were cut in half! What a careless decision… Now we had to buy new studs and a washer. We decided not to buy a dryer because it consumed so much energy. In addition, North Carolina is a hot weather place; we could dry the laundry naturally.

Above: Previous laundry room with a washer and a dryer. Below: The new washer and studs.