New water heater...wooo

So this is a VERY basic thing that most of us don't think about very often.  

Hot Water.

It's a commodity that we use EVERY day, that in parts of the world is a luxury or very uncommon.

We are very grateful to have hot water. 

We had a water heater.  It was big and was heating the water just fine.  However, it was quite old as far as water heaters go.  (I think it was early to mid 90's or thereabouts) In any case, out inspector Aaron and our good friend Jeff (The Christmas Craftsman and Electricity Guru) suggested that we replace it before it became an issue.   So we shopped around and of course we bought one from Home Depot (We love Orange, what can we say).  So Jeff and Daniel were uninstalling the old one and putting in the new one.  The old one wouldn't drain properly so they had to wheel it over to the door and dump it outside. It was pretty exciting.  So I filmed it. 

Well that's about it.  I think I need to get Daniel to write about some of his experiences, because he knows more about the details of projects like this one. 

 I wasn't super helpful with this and many other projects concerning electrical and gas.  My role was much more design oriented. However, all of these nitty gritty things are the unseen important things that we don't think about very often and I am very glad that they are all in working order!!

UPDATE from Daniel: Here are the details about this one: 1. Thank you, Jeff! 2. Well worth the $400 or so for the water heater and hookups. 3. Scary! The reason it wouldn't drain is because it was clogged with sediment of some kind (yuck...) - that meant that we had to move a full tank across the basement and over the basement threshold on a handtruck. The sketchy part was it was on a 4 leg, 1 foot riser, so we used a piece of plywood to actually fit it onto the surface of the dolly. It was a delicate balancing act to put it lightly. So, we successfully wheeled it to the doorway where it finally crossed the bar, so to speak. 

Home Depot let us put it on the 24 month deferred interest card along with A LOT of other stuff because some awesome saint of the orange cloth had mercy on our idea of a "single renovation project," including countertops, water heater, flooring, paint and supplies, and a laundry list of things I can't even recall. 

While I'm on the subject of Home Depot... Know that all Home Depots are not created equal. I don't want to single out any specific store, but don't give up on the place if you have a bad experience at one. That is all. 

love,

Sarah

"Clean it up Cinderella"

While no one was ordered around while cleaning the house, I am pretty sure that all of us, or rather, all of the females at one point felt like Cinderella.  No, not in the princess-y way, in the "I am so sick of cleaning someone else's mess" way.

When we bought our home it was pretty disgusting.  We didn't buy it because of what we saw, we bought it because of the potential we saw.

A little background about our house:  It was a reverse mortgage.  This means it was bank owned, but not because the previous owner couldn't pay, because they owned the house outright and asked to start getting money out of the house.  So basically, the bank paid her and when she moved on (we aren't sure if she died or went to a nursing home) the bank owned the house.  So like a foreclosure the house was managed by a group that was paid by the bank to cut the grass and make sure there weren't squatters, but they didn't really clean at all.

Ok, so we needed to do that before anything else could happen.

The first couple of days it was magical and wonderful.  Then we noticed how nasty everything was.  When you'd turn a light on your fingers would feel sticky and gross.  YUCK.  So, Cinderella got to work.  You can't see the tar on this light switch but, you'll just have to trust me.

I can't tell you how many hours and days we spent cleaning.  I forgot.  I blocked it out.  I don't want to know actual numbers.  I do know it was hard work.  For me, this was the most grueling part.  It was the part that we had to do before anything else upstairs could be done.  While this was hard work, we had amazing help from our families!  Both of our Moms scrubbed things down and made sure we weren't going to miss any spots.  Especially the windows.  It seemed like my Mother-in-love was endlessly cleaning windows.

Here they are working side by side, sorry for the dark photos, it was SO sunny out!

They got every window frame and the outside!  The frames were hosed off and wiped down. 

Even though we ripped out the carpet (eventually), I think we vacuumed it.  We left the windows open so that we could get air circulation.  At this point we hadn't turned the AC on yet.  It was August in GA and it was HOT and HUMID but we were only there for 4 or 5 hours a day so it seemed wasteful to cool the whole house. 

Daniel and Joseph helped clean too! (There were others who shall go un-pictured but who also helped us so very much!)

We washed the walls with a vinegar and water mixture or dish soap for tough grime, but more on that later.   Sorry this post is so boring but I am saving my major Soap Box to sit on next post.  It's a doozy.  This was a major process though.  It took a lot of time and effort.  It was good to get to know all the nooks and crannies of the house.  I think we would have cleaned any house we bought, but definitely not this intensely.  If you don't already know why we cleaned so much, you should know I am holding on to that secret, but next post I'll share it!  Stay tuned. ;-)

until next time,

Sarah

The Concrete Staining Saga: Part 2

Today I am going to share the actual staining process with you!  This was definitely the easier of the two steps.  So if you didn't catch the last post and want to catch up on the stain prep part check that out here.

*Before I start I want to say that we had some fabulous help on this project.  Joseph, Daniel's mom and Jeff were all a HUGE help on this.  Also, this is a wonderful marriage builder, especially if you are quite particular or hangry.  You know your Mother-in-love loves you when she can stand to hear you fighting with her son about the way stain is applied to the floor.  She is a wonderful woman.  You'll see more of her in my next post! While I'm at it, all of our friends and family were so supportive and helpful with all of our house projects! We owe them so much thanks!*

Alright, on to the concrete stain,

First, we prepped the walls by taping up some brown kraft paper on the lower part of the wall.  Sorry for the horrible picture below, but I think you can still see the paper taped to the wall!

Next, you mix up the acid stain. We just followed the instructions on the bottle.  With something so specific, I wouldn't play with the proportions.  Some might not even need water added, but ours did. We put it in this sprayer we bought.  This is almost exactly the one we have, might be a different brand.  It was really easy to use though.  The color we used is called coca-cola.  We got it at JR Industries in Woodstock, GA.  There is likely an equally wonderful place near you that sells concrete stain.    

As you can see, this was a two person gig for us.  I don't think you need two people, but it definitely made it easier.  Daniel pumped it and made sure the pressure was high enough that the sprayer worked properly.  I used the sprayer to get an even coat.  I was quite liberal with the application, I didn't want to miss any spots.  *Make sure you plan your starting spot with your exit!  Don't back yourself into a corner!  We choose to start near the far corner almost opposite the stairs, then worked our way along the back wall.  After finishing one "row" we went back and filled in some holes.  We were nervous that there were some oil spots that didn't come clean during the grinding process and they were kind of beading up instead of accepting the stain.  I just put more stain on those areas, but this probably wasn't necessary because the way the stain set in wasn't a solid color anyway so it was barely noticeable when completed.  I didn't fill in the holes everywhere because we were worried that we would run out of stain and we wanted to finish this project that night!

If you look closely, you can see that the stain almost looks green in one spot.  Well, that's because it is!  When it reacts to the (air, cement, water?) it bubbles and turns green then turns the red-ish orange that it's supposed to be.  Not sure why it does that [I wish I did, sounds like a cool science experiment] but it turns out looking quite lovely!  

This is what it looked like right after we finished.  You can see the thinner spots dried quickly and then other spots looked like little lakes.  

We left it for a couple of hours to dry.  And in fact, we left it 24 hrs, because we didn't do the final step until the next day.  

The final step Daniel did solo.  This reduced the amount of feet that could leave permanent marks in our new floor.  In the last step Daniel sealed the floor with a clear sealer we also got at JR Industries.  This was an easy roll-in-on process.  He did two coats.  The floor now has a nice matte shine to it.  It isn't glossy and slippery but it still has some sheen. :) 

^Daniel hard at work ^

A view of the matte finish. 

Waiting on the floor to dry.  The view of our "completed" basement. 

I use air quotes because everyone tells us (and I know this to be true) a house is never done. 

But for now, this is a great start! 

We are very happy with the results! What do you think? Would you try something like this? Do you think it would have looked better in a solid opaque paint? Should I have used glitter? ;) 

Tell me what YOU think! 

Thanks for reading!

Love,

Sarah

Welcome to Life at the Foster House!

Hey there! I'm Sarah.  I've been wanting to start a blog for months and months.  I just never knew how to start.  I don't really have any idea today either, but you've got to start somewhere.  

Right?

So figuring out what to call the blog was pretty tough.  There were several different options and maybe one of them would be catchier but I thought that if I want to write about my life that I should start with that.  First of all, NO I did not come from foster care or have any foster children.  I have friends in both categories and have the highest respect for them.  No Foster is my married name.  There is a "punny" joke that my family likes to tell about me.  My maiden name is Beach (yes, I know it's pretty awesome!)  So the [dad]Joke goes: "You moved from the Beach house to the Foster house, kind of a downgrade don't you think Sarah?" Har, Har, Har.  :) 

I am starting this blog for two reasons. 

Reason 1. I love reading fashion/lifestyle blogs.  Some of them I want to steal ideas from, some of them I don't.  Some of them spend way more money on clothes and such than I would ever dream and others inspire me to invest more in my look.  Yeah, sometimes it's a catch 22, but that's just the way it goes.  It's a fun challenge to find that balance!

Outfit I wore to work last summer!

From National Shoe Lovers day
(you'll learn how much I love shoes eventually)

   

    

Shopping at Loft with my Momma

                                                      

 Reason 2.  My husband and I bought a house back at the end of August.  It was (yes mostly that is past tense term) a total wreck, but had incredible potential and great bones.  We have almost 7 months sprucing up our house and making it ours.  Aaaannnd, we are still at it!  We only JUST put our oven and dishwasher in two weeks ago!  We had to wait so long because that is when we put our kitchen floor in!  Man, we waited SO long for that! I would have liked to start blogging at the beginning of our home renovations, but we were working non-stop.  My husband and I both have full-time jobs and so now that things are settling down a little I hope to be able to go back and share all of our renovation stories with you!! 

I was so excited to take pictures of the house!
(I'll share more of those later!)

Our obligatory house keys picture in front of our door

....and one more of this cutie, because I love him!! 

 There are so many things I am excited to share with you!  I look forward to sharing my heart and improving my writing/blogging skills and hopefully learning about myself (and YOU!) in the process.  I hear if you are good at this blogging thing you end up making friends with your readers, well at this point if you read this today (the birthday of Life at the Foster House) I am probably already friends with you, so THANKS for reading my dear friends and I hope to see more of you!!  

Love, Sarah