Lotus Flower

The name of the color is Lotus Flower - I think this name was chosen instead of "Pepto Bismol," probably because of the trademarking. Nevertheless, this is the color my step-daughter, Ohara, chose for her new room in our new-old house. That's right - moving back to the Bangor Foursquare at the end of May. Woot! My husband's home in the country finally sold and we're moving back to the city - well, Bangor, at any rate.

Today was the first day of moving a few things over and getting her room ready. I'm happy the Bangor Foursquare will have a child in it again after so many years. This room will give her happy memories - heaven knows it's already seen its share of paint colors.

Could it be? Bangor Foursquare 2.0

I have returned, fair readers! I, the owner of the Bangor Foursquare! And, indeed, I am still the owner. Much has passed since my last posting - including a move to the boondocks (i.e., rural Maine), a new marriage, a new step-daughter, and a new cat - along with some fine individuals to rent out the Bangor Foursquare.

Since all of that transpired, the new fam and I have been trying to decide where to next hang our hats - preferably somewhere closer to work for me, not too far away from work for him, in a neighborhood with other children, and a place with good schools. We looked high and nigh and after many months of doing so, came to the conclusion that the Bangor Foursquare offered the best of many of these worlds. So, yes, my friends, we will be moving back into this house! Even more exciting, we will be doing some fun and sexy improvements on the Bangor Foursquare in the months to come!

Our original plan was to knock out the garage and build a new 2-car attached garage with a new family room connected to the kitchen and a master suite in the second floor. All of this was quite exciting until we got wind that there were some potential city codes that might tell us otherwise. After a depressing visit to the Code Enforcement Division of Bangor, Maine, we learned that we cannot do any of these exciting additions as there is a strict limit on how much of a lot can be developed. We cannot enlarge the footprint of the house. This means we build up and we build down. We have learned a detached garage is okay but we're trying to find out if we can even add a breezeway so we do not have to step foot in the chilly Maine winterscape on the way from the house to the garage. Sigh. Such is the building code.

So, we're waiting to hear from said Code Enforcement Officer about our options before we make our way to an architect, a builder, and - of course - the bank. I'll update with more details soon, including some ideas for the new basement and attic. Anyway, fun updates in the months to come :)

Bangor Foursquare - For Sale

No, I'm not kidding - I'm selling my lovely home. Believe me, this decision is one of the hardest I've ever had to make - I'll miss this wonderful home. You loyal readers know better than anyone how much of myself I have invested in this house. I only hope that the next owner will love it as much as I have.

Why am I selling, you ask? Because I'm in love. Why now? Because the market is stinky. So, love + stinky market = get out while the getting is better than abysmal....I guess that's as good of reason as any.

For those of you who will be sad to see my amazing blogging and home improvement talents go - the good news is that I will continue to work on Tim's house once I move in (lots of home improvement fun awaiting me in the countryside!) and perhaps there will be a new blog coming along with me...

So, if you know of anyone looking for a beautiful, structurally-sound, energy efficient, and eco-friendly renovated home in a lovely neighborhood in Bangor, Maine, please let me know. I hope it will be on the market this week.

In the meantime, all kinds of fun little exhausting things on the punch list - today was scraping and painting the front porch floor and stairs (yes, again). Tomorrow will be removing the wheelchair ramp in the back - you know, the one I couldn't give away... and replacing it with steps. And then some general tidying in the attic, the basement, and maybe a little sprucing up in the back entry. Who knows how we'll fare in this market. I hope it's not too painful. Wish me luck.

Powder Room Reno: Day Whatever Continued

A few more tasks checked off the punch list! I asked Tim to come over and tighten the bolts on the tank (due to my puny hands) and instead he finished installing the whole thing - including hooking up the supply line and putting on the seat. Pretty nice! So, not only is this high quality toilet installed - it even works! Huzzah!

So, today, I touched up the paint on the baseboards and am considering what to do about the wall around the light. One wise soul suggested a lower wattage light bulb (!) but this same wise person suggested a product from Sherwin Williams called Ultra Hide. I trust this wise soul since he runs a contracting company and used to be a taper (thanks, Steve!). So, I might look into it.

Besides that, just a few last things like putting in a new mirror (I'm looking for a small round one) and some kind of shelving and/or cabinet to put above the toilet to store TP and the like. Still on the lookout for the soap dish too.

In other unrelated bathroom news, I did return this afternoon from a work trip to find this beautiful surprise:
That would be the marble threshold in the upstairs bathroom! Hooray! I can finally call that room done, done, and done! Thanks to Tim and Paul for the wonderful surprise!

Powder Room Reno: Day (Whatever)

I've given up counting the days of the renovation because now it is just a minute here and minute there. The last few days have consisted of skim coating and sanding a coat every so often. Today, in the ridiculous heat (well, ridiculous for Maine standards, anyway), I finally put in the light. Pretty easy stuff and I was pretty darn happy with it until...


I turned on the light. Ew. Ick. Yucky. Seriously, what is it about me and skim coating? I get it to what I consider to be pretty smooth and then I paint it and see what the the light of the day has to show me: not smooth. Ish. I'm going to need to work on those walls. Yuck. I guess the reality is that they weren't smooth when I began but the light in there before hid a few more evils than this one obviously does.

So, what's left? I need to finish getting the toilet going, hang up the mirror, perhaps put in some quarter round around the floor and baseboards, paint the baseboards, put up a shelf/cabinet up behind the toilet and I'd still like to find a hanging soap dispenser since there isn't any room for one on the sink itself. So, slowly but surely...

Powder Room Reno: Day #*$

Ever hear of Lamosa toilets? Yeah, me neither. Unfortunately, however, that is the brand of my new toilet. Grrr. In spite of my best intentions, I failed to measure correctly for the new toilet. As you see below, there is some funny architecture in that tiny little bathroom, with a post on the other side of door casing - which I assume to be structural. From that point, it juts out a bit more - and that is where I measured...not in between the casing and the wall. Sigh. You'd think that after 2 years of plotting and scheming that I would have figured this out at some point... yeah, you'd think that.

So, what is to become of my $300 Kohler toilet? Perhaps it heard the nasty things I've said about it and decided to inflate itself so as not to fit... hmm, this is plausible. Luckily for me, it will not continue to sit in the hallway for too long.
Home Depot will graciously let me return it - but, ungraciously, I will need to get it back to Home Depot on my own, despite the fact that I had it delivered to the house. Sigh. That thing weighs a ton.

So, after a brief pout, I went to Home Depot and bought the world's most inexpensive but pleasantly petite toilet. That's right, folks, for a mere $54 you too can be a proud owner of a (...what was it again?...) a Lamosa! I think this thing is probably not long for this world. The good news is that it fits, that it still uses less water than the old thing did, and that I was able to get it in my car and installed all on my own. I will need a hand in getting the nuts tightened, however - I'm not so good at that part. So, there it is: The new potty. Sigh. Off to bed with me. Tomorrow brings more hacksaw action to the grab bar screws (two down, four more to go) and another coat of JC....perhaps some paint, if I'm lucky.

Powder Room Reno: Day 6

Back from the brief hiatus, folks. I had a few days of other projects to which to attend but I have returned for a few items on the reno to-do list. First, was removing the haze from the tile after grouting on Thursday. If you can ignore the dirty baseboards, you can see the result of the work. I went with a gray on the floor grout for the black and white marble tile. I'm pretty pleased with it - I would have liked white grout but I know that's ridiculous to keep clean on a floor:
And basic white on the wall grout with the glass tile:
Cleaning off and buffing each and every single individual tile is no mere task. It took quite a while - but it's done. So, I next started on patching up the holes around what will be the new light and cleaning up the holes in the plaster made by removing the old chair rail:
You'll see, however, that the despicable grab bar is still there. I had a time removing the ones upstairs, too - it seems the only way to get rid of them is to either destroy the wall (which I did upstairs) or to cut out the screws with a hacksaw. Neither option is terribly fun nor clean. Ugh. I think I may attempt some more work on it later as I wait for the JC to dry around the light and the outlet/switch. Next will be to install the toilet but I'm a little nervous to attempt it myself given the fact that it's a one-piece and quite heavy. Nevertheless, there isn't much room to maneuver for more than one person. We'll see what I can manage. Back to work tomorrow (the kind for which I get paid) so things will slow down a bit here. Wish me luck finishing up this puppy!