Carpet Schmarpet

We had a 'Before Party'  to show all of our friends and family the house in it's 'as is' purchase state. Apparently everyone was too busy eating chili and having fun to take pictures, because not a one evolved from the evening.  
The next day we went straight to work - I couldn't WAIT to tear up that shag carpet to reveal the gorgeous  heart pine flooring. 

Using the 'Wonder Bar' Lorie gave me - thanks Lorie!

Mike uncovers asbestos tile on the mid level and steps

Wood glorious wood!

I did a little research on the wood species commonly used in the time period our house was built: 
In the 1950s, we grew our pine trees bigger… the centers got very hard as the tree aged, and we were able to use this center — it was called “heart pine” – for cabinets and other applications where we wanted hard, dense wood. It still looked knotty. Today, we do not grow our pine trees as big, so the wood never never gets as hard. So, much of the 1950s knotty pine really is a particular sub-category called heart pine. heart pine resource
So bigger IS better

Read more: Vintage heart pine vs. today’s knotty pine — Retro Renovation 

And like a good neighbor, the Taheri's are there!

Our new neighbors and old friends (we'll Cyrus is old, but Caroline is youthful and we've been friends with her for awhile) stopped by to see our progress:

Mike and Janet working in 'the library'

Side effects of asbestos and lead poisoning

Carpet on carpet... and WHY all the staples???

 We promptly put them to work:

The stair masters: Caroline and Janet

Mike and Cyrus finish the job (we loosened it!)

I don't think they'll be dropping by again.....):

Condemnation (and other funny furnace stories)

Being the responsible new (old) home owner and having just received a groupon for 73% off we made an appointment with a heating and cooling company to do a 15 point check up to the furnace and A/C unit. Let me say first - we've been using the heat now for 3 weeks, probably 3-8 hours at a time. Worked like a charm. I met Ricky about 6 minutes before the end of the 3:00-7:00 window and he checked on most everything. I say most everything because he couldn't do a full inspection since I had turned on the heat 15 minutes before he got there and the furnace was too hot to fully deconstruct. Apparently not an issue with furnaces built during my life time - not the case for those made when my mother was a toddler. Besides needing to replace the filter we seemed to be in good shape.15 minutes after he left I was pulling up staples on the stairs and smelled burning. PANIC! I turned off the heat then rain around the house looking for fire - none. I was particularly afraid to check out the furnace in the crawl space - I secured my dinky dust mask and brought my beer in case I needed to disperse flames  (1st sign of CO2 poisoning...brain not functioning) and busted in only to find nothing out of the ordinary. I called Ricky back and even though he was 5 minutes from rendezvousing with his honey at Chilis he hauled back and told me 'boss man said I have to wait for the unit to cool and fully inspect'. I went back to working on the stairs and 30 mins later Ricky came back to show me a big red sticker with a skull and crossbones on it titled 'CONDEMNED' that he was going to affix to the furnace of death. 

He took me down to see the probe camera he used to detect rust, creases, and (kiss of condemnation) a hole in the heat exchanger. He had to 'shut er down' and left me with a $4,000 quote to replace the furnace. THANKS GROUPON! Where's my 73% off THAT???
For those of you who have visited the house before - not to worry, you did not suffer CO2 poisoning. We did a CO2 test before we bought the house. Apparently the below freezing temperatures we had this week caused the heat exchanger to crack. I, on the other hand, am thankful to be alive! 
What else you got for me house?! Bring it on, I ain't scairt!

“Wife: ‘This is my house, too. I want to help.’ 
Husband: ‘Do you have a gun?’”

—	Money Pit (1986)

We House

Our house, is a very very very fine house! Introducing our ‘we’ home. Mike and I have 4 homes combined, but this is ‘our’ house….can you see the potential?!? No? Stay tuned.