This and that

Sorry that I've not posted pictures of the basement yet. We've been trying to avoid it since the concrete isn't cured yet and it is terribly dirty from all of the jackhammering. I will try to go down there tonight and get some pictures of our lovely new concrete, and our beautiful new sump pit. Isn't it funny the things that make a houseblogger happy?

In other news, it's bulk trash week, so the Mr. and I spent a lot of time yesterday driving around and casing the trash. This sounds like something out of Sanford and Son, but LOTS of our fellow townspeople do it (the streets were crowded with cars casing the piles), even our neighbors and friends. We bought a 1920's era sideboard at an antique store on Saturday (the price was right but the veneer is not in ideal condition- more "character" right?), so we set out the old desk, and an ugly picture that was replaced by a really cool 20th century (no additional markings) clock that we picked up from the same dealer. I kept telling the Mr. (who was very reluctant to purchase) that the clock looked like it went with the house and we HAD to have it. He finally relented, but then spent the next two days trying to get the clock to actually work. Some gears or something were stuck, but now it keeps good time and even chimes correctly. Anway, our neighbor was super excited to get both the old desk and the ugly picture, which made me happy. It's nice to know that someone is going to get good use out of the stuff that you don't want anymore, especially if it's someone that you know. We picked up a cool old sewing machine table from a house across the street and down a bit. I'll take pictures to show it's restoration to you. I don't know much about it, but the bottom is all wrought iron and it says "Davis" on one side. I hope to clean it up, replace the top and use it as a side table. We almost had a big stainless steel sink for the laundry room, but we didn't get back around the block to it in time! Oh well! There are always tonight's treasures to examine. We have noticed that, contrary to what we would have thought, the streets with the super-expensive homes don't throw much out. I even checked the alleys in case they throw trash back there, but nothing! Hmmmm... maybe they're just slower- have to get Jeeves to take it out to the curb or whatever...

We hadn't heard anything else from the floor refinishers, and it had been about 2 weeks, so I called this morning, and they have no record of ever meeting with us! (It's a good thing that I called.) Subsequently, we couldn't get the refinishing scheduled for the same week as our beach trip, but we are on the schedule for after Labor Day, which I guess will work out fine. The office manager was going on vacation until Friday, but she said that she'd mail the proposal on Friday or Monday and I should have it mid next week. Has anyone ever done this before? We're worried about the dogs being in the house with the smells from the refinishing fumes. We're thinking about just leaving them in the yard while the floors are being stained and sealed. Or should we board them at the kennel? Any advice would be appreciated.

We heard back from all the gutter people, and the first guy was the cheapest. He was right (he would know, I guess), it was more for the half round white aluminum gutters, but I really want to stay true to the architecture of the house, and I'm willing to pay the extra money. So, as soon as we find out from him how to schedule to get the trim painted between old gutters off and new gutters on, we'll schedule that. Fortunately, the hurricane-remnant torrential downpours have slacked off, so the gutters haven't been so much of a problem lately.

The highly recommended porch carpenter left us a voice mail that we should have his estimate today. I'm a little worried about the overall cost of this estimate, because he said that using pine instead of the mahogany that he recommended didn't make a big difference in the overall cost estimate, due to the extent of the job. Yikes! I'll know it's bad if my mailbox is shooting flames when I get home.

Last one- the highly recommended painter (he does great work- we're following the advice of watching the rehab down the street and talking to the people who seem to do good work) says that he can scrape and paint our windows for one price, but we'll have to do it every year, but for three times more, he could strip them with the heat gun and repaint them, and then we'd just have to paint them normally. My dad pointed out that we're to the point of new windows if we pay this much to save them, but I have no intention of ripping out our beautiful old windows and putting in vinyl replacement ones (dad thinks that I'm crazy, I think that he's crazy). What do you think? The good fix or the temp fix? I DO NOT want to strip the windows b/c I'm terrified that I will break the glass and I HATE stripping paint.

That's all for now! Pictures soon of things that I've promised.