Troseph

Kristin just took Ruby to the vet.. I guess she has a condition with her skin and such. They gave her a shot and sent her on her way with some meds. I hope she’s ok. :’(

What has been done:

• Removed all carpet from the house
• prep floors for laminate and carpet install
• Replace water damaged sub-floor in kitchen
• Removed kitchen counters and cabinets
• Sanitize both bathrooms
• Cut down trees in the garden (10x)

Projects in progress:

• Fix rotten floor in bedroom
• Prep for painting

Projects not started:

• Clear out the attic
• Paint
• Install Ikea Laminate
• New Carpet
• New baseboards

So I am a fan of a few things:

• Cleanliness
• Technology
• Modernization
• Completeness

This new old house represents NONE of these. Its not been well kept, it was built in 1924, and I am replacing a floor that looks like it’s been half-done since the 1960’s. We’re re-doing the joists and laying new subfloor to level the back room. When we pulled up the old slumped floor we found not one, but two dead cats. One looked recently deceased, as maggots had just gotten into it. The other would be difficult to guage the time of death as it is completely and utterly mummified. (I know, its awesome) And that was only 1/10 of the floor. God only knows what is under the rest. I’ll get some pictures up soon of this horrific mess I call a room. I’m off to bed.

Cheers,

Troy

I don’t have much time to blog lately, but I figure I’ll post an update on the progress of my remodel. We’ve made insane progress. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.

The kitchen before:

Note the casino style carpet. You stay classy 1975.

piles and piles of junk...

Kitchen In progress:

We set this up to scare Gail or Waldo. heh

(Under the sink) This is going to be FUN to fix.

Living room before:

Crazy cat house -- MEOW!

Frannies couches Super-Gs squalor.

Living room in progress:

Waldos chair and the new laminate flooring!

So… It’s mine. And it’s going to be fun. This is my task list for the house.

1. Clean out the tenant’s (Robert “Super-G” Hines) stuff. [complete]
2. Clean out my uncles’ stuff. [7/8 complete]
3. Remove old carpet. [complete]
4. Scrub/Dust/Vacuum/Sanitize entire house. [1/2 complete]
5. Prep floors for Laminate installation [complete]
6. Prep work for painting wood paneling. [started]
7. Prime all of the older parts of the house. [incomplete]
8. Install new carpet [incomplete]
9. New bathroom floors. [incomplete]
10. Install Laminate flooring. [incomplete]
11. Some lite demolition. [incomplete]
12. Weather seal all windows and doors. [incomplete]
13. Run some new electric wires. [incomplete]
14. Relocate Washer/Dryer. [incomplete]
15. Frame basement. [incomplete]
16. Hang Drywall. [incomplete]

My closing date for my mortgage is coming up quickly! I’ll be moving in mid November if all goes as planned. I need to go measure the house up to see how much our floors are going to be, and so I can make an effective plan for the house. I can’t wait!

I just got through the headache and trauma of my first mortgage, and I’d like to share with you some tips.

* Don’t use a real estate agent. Why? Because they will end up bringing your cost WAY up. Be your own agent, and do some research.

* Find a mortgage advisor. If you’re from Utah, I recommend Delta Financial Group, they do the hard work for you, it’s great having someone who knows what they are doing to answer any of your questions. Delta has been very professional and proficient in getting me squared away, and filling me in on mortgage and legal lingo.

* Be prepared to furnish the following documentation: 2 years W-2 forms, 30 days pay stubs, the dreaded “Real Estate Purchase Contract” — 6 pages of awesome, a proposed budget (they want to see you have planned how you’re going to afford this house), and current bank statements.

* Be patient, underwriting will always throw a wrench in your gears. I personally think they like to make you suffer and they get off on it. But keep optimistic, your mortgage advisor will give you the strait dope, because if they deal isn’t going to work out, they aren’t going to get paid, so you’ll know.

* Talk to an insurance agent to get home owner’s insurance setup, and give them the contact information for your mortgage advisor. You have to have this insurance established in order to get the loan. A useful tip is to ask the seller who their insurance company is for the house, if they are comfortable telling you, it will make your life easier because they will know what’s up with your house, and save you a lot of paperwork if you choose to go with the same insurance agency.

* In your Real Estate Purchase Contract try your hardest to make the seller responsible for existing damages to the house. This might be a deal breaker, so don’t push too hard. Be flexible.

I login after a backports update to Compiz and my window decoration isn’t working! I found that gtk-window-decorator was failing to load, so the work-around I found was to go to System>Preferences>Sessions, and add a new entry for:

gtk-window-decorator

Now my close maximize and minimize buttons are there again… Odd..

Ubuntu needs beauty work, they admit, it will be the focus of the next release. However, I would like to salute Mark S.’s poor taste in design with WillWill’s GDM Concept. Sadly and in all likelihood it will not work it’s way into Intrepid. Every one of Will’s works has been amazing, yet all get shot down by those who prefer to use every tone of poop brown or puke orange they can document off the floor of a nursery or dance club.

So here it is, the artwork I am wishing would be considered for Ubuntu’s next release. The artwork that inspires Elementary’s upcoming release.