Adventures at The Bunny Manse

The summer has gotten away from us. We planned to be PRODUCTIVE! and finish the playhouse for the girls and swingset by the end of June. Then we realized that the back fence area needed to be dealt with by our adjoining property owner, which destroyed the fence, making putting girls in that space a very bad idea. We're still waiting to hear from the church about whether or when they are taking down the huge tree that's leaning over their building since that impacts us fixing the fence. And then there's the flooding at the little house. We replaced ducts in early July to have them wash away and damage the unit in a massive storm. We're waiting for insurance (WE HAVE FLOOD INSURANCE) to tell us how much they will pay then we're moving hvac to the attic. And then putting on a new roof as well. It's going to be great. Our property taxes on the house tripled as well, so this year, the house is just a loss for us. Overall we're in the black, but we've owned ...

12-13 weeks until baby _________ Renee Carpenter arrives. Names currently in the running Margot Frances Matilda Joyce Eleanor Ruth and probably several others I'm currently forgetting. Harris and Madeline have also probably already nixed some of those ideas and I've forgotten that as well. Our asbestos is abated, now just have to have the air test performed to make sure they got it all. Electrical work will start on the 27th. We're upgrading the service from the street to 400 amp and will also fix a couple of random things that were...strange choices someone else made at some point in time. Plaster continues apace. The living room and entryway/staircase should be finished by the end of next week. The downstairs bath - we're waiting for tile to arrive then have to find someone to install it. The living room floor still has to be addressed, but that can't happen until all of the plaster work is fiinshed in there. Ben is working on fixing he orig...

The exterior of the house...on the south and west elevations you can see how the porches will be reopened into a sunroom and entrance on the first floor and a bank of windows on the second floor. We're also planning to add a decklet to the second floor area. And the interior! Sara moved the bathroom around a bit to keep all the plumbing in one central area where it's already piped through the ceiling.

The Elizabeth St house and lot closed on Friday! HOORAY! So...PROGRESS WILL BE MADE! 1. Asbestos 2. Electrical 3. Bathroom (with tub) 4. Living room 5. Plaster work in hallway, entry, living room, and hopefully at least one other bedroom upstairs 6. Misc plumbing work for bathrooms upstairs 7. Misc carpentry all over the place We might actually have doubled our living space and or completed stage 2 of the house work by the time our daughter arrives in September. Phase 3 = Roof + Painting Phase 4 = Sunroom + Master suite porch conversion

In 2013 we.... Bought the Bunny Manse Cleaned out the house Finished 95% of the interior demolition Completed the plans for what the inside will look like one day (Thank you Madam Sara! for getting us on the same page about so many small details that will make our house a home) Repaired the plaster in two rooms and two hallways Replaced the floor in one room, sanded & sealed the floor in two other rooms and a hallway Installed our dream kitchen (to 95%) which one day will be even more amazing with a butler, laundry, and sunroom all accessible right there too. Paid off the loan to my parents - THANK YOU! They loaned us the cash to purchase the vacant lot next door - our South Lawn - and we finish paying off that loan this week. So far we're at 190k spent on the house, the lot, and the repairs.  We're halfway there! In 2014 we hope we will... finish the downstairs  (bulter, bathroom, laundry, living room, hall/entry, closets) finish the upstairs (4 b...

Dad was asking about the budget and how we're doing so far. Initially we had a total budget of about $350k for the house. As we negotiated the purchase price up and found more information about what the house needed that budget went to a maximum of about $415k. As of today, we anticipate spending around $400k or ~$111/sqft. As a comparison, Oakwood cost us $90/sqft and we sold for $106/sqft and the new owners are doing all kinds of neat stuff we dreamed about doing. So far we're under budget in a couple of areas, within budget but ahead of schedule in some (which can also be read as over budget...) and just going to be way over in a couple of key areas. Our original plan including making a temporary kitchen that we could live with, but would be massively overhauled within a year or two. Instead we decided to do it right the first time and enjoy it the entire time. To this end, our temp budget for cabs, appliances, and counters, was initally $5,600. However, that's g...

  We drove down to Ikea on Saturday to finalize our kitchen order. Alice was awesome, figured out cabinet placement and told Harris what extra to build and how to hack the kitchen. Because of their current promotion, we're getting the side cabinet and the microwave basically for free.  Spend $3500 get 10% off, spend $4500 get 20% off. So if you're already at 3500, anything else you add is free.  Math is fun.     All of this is getting delivered on Saturday, so we should be good to get it installed after the floors are finished.

We have, at most, 21 days to get the house ready for us to live in. To this end.... Thursday : Accent Hardwood did the rough sand in suite and kitchen. Here is Madeline feeling the floor in the suite Laid 70% of new dining room floor. Madeline being a silly monster ballet girl Then David Glick, Rob, and Alvin prepped, primed, and painted the remaining two wood rooms we found downstairs. While wandering around I saw this little bit of graffiti. Wonder who Black Chicken Billy (or perhaps Boy) was/is. Today, Friday Accent Hardwood is there finishing the floor in the dining room. Century Slate is there fixing the flat roof leak and patching the two remaining holes in the slate roof at the ridge. On Saturday Harris will be laying the subfloor in that giant hole in the kitchen while I take Madeline to the Farmer's Market and Cameron's birthday party. While she's at the party, I'm going to sears to pick up the applianc...

Interior Plans from the amazing Sara at 4/1! We've been talking, dreaming, and kvetching with/to Sara since the day we closed, trying to figure out what's important to each of us and how to make our family home in this huge beautiful house. We're so super close now it's amazing. Very small, if any changes from here on out we think... The first floor which will have sunroom, living, dining, and kitchen. There's also a room that could one day be a first floor master or suite if we need it.  We're changing the small closet we found into both a coat closet and linen closet. Such luxury!  I've secretly wanted a coat closet since my first winter at Little House in the Ghetto and now I'm going to get it! (Eventually...) On the second floor there are four bedrooms and three baths. Each side room gets a bathroom that is accessible from the hall and the bedroom; this gives you privacy within a shared space. Having grown up as the youngest sibling, I fully ...