Beware of smell and alert the neighbors

A couple of weeks ago, I left town for a girls weekend.  While I was away, Chris slaved away over the hutch that we (ok he with a little help from me) started this summer.  I was really surprised when I got home because not only did he build the doors and the shelves but he finished the sanding and added detail and trim.  The idea behind the hutch is to have it match the diy dining room table. Chris started staining the hutch this past week (pictures to follow).  Each piece requires two coats of stain and at least one coat of polyeurethane for the finish.  The stain and finish smell REALLY strong and even cause some light headedness so Chris opened a couple of windows in the basement and we went out to walk the dog.

Diy Hutch in progress

When we returned from our walk, we noticed a fire truck on our street.  I looked at Chris and said, "that's never a good sign..."  and before I could finish my sentence I noticed some neighbors gathered on our lawn and a group of fire fighters walking out our front door.  As it turns out, our neighbors who are attached to us smelled a strong smell in their house and thought it was a gas leak.  She had noticed me come home but had not seen us leave with the dog.  When she knocked on our door, she could see my purse and phone and with no answer, feared that I was in the house passed out from the "gas".  She called 9-1-1 and the fire fighters came, broke in through the opened basement window, and toured our house.  They knew the smell immediately and even complimented Chris on the hutch.  Luckily, no one was hurt, our house is still standing, and no charges were laid.  We have taken a break on the staining though so you'll have to wait to see the finished product.

Happy 100th!

We got a letter in the mail this week from Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC).  It showed us what our house/property was assessed at in Jan. 2008 and a few other important details.  The most exciting detail was that we finally have confirmation of the year our house was built.  We knew that our house was definitely built in the first half of the 20th century but now we know that it was built in 1910.  Our house is in its 100th year! That really does amaze me.

Roof -Before and After

Before

 As you can see from the picture, we went with black shingles for our roof.  I don't think you can tell from the picture but we decided to go with the architectural shingles. Our attached neighbors had told us to pick a shingle we liked, when they were ready to have their roof redone, they would use the same design .  We consulted them on our final decision for the black architectural look and asked whether they would be interested in having the roofers re-shingle their side of the peaked roof.  I am glad that they agreed because it really adds curb appeal now that both sides are uniform.



After



In the back of our house we have an area of roof that is flat.  The flat roof needed to be stripped and redone as the old roof was rotting away.  This seemed to be ALOT of work as it took one guy several days to complete the area.

All in all we are really happy with the work that was done. If you are looking to have your roof redone, please leave a comment and I would be happy to recommend the crew!

Roof Update

Well... our roof is finally complete!  It took a gang of roofers almost a week to complete but we are REALLY happy with the results.  I haven't been able to take pictures in the day light so I will post the before and after pictures next week.  For now, I would just like to say that the roofing company we hired were a staff of diligent, efficient, hard working individuals.