Friday, October 7, 2011

Maryland Home and Garden Show - Winner!

The winner is . . .

SFDC!


Please e-mail me ASAP at dcrowhouse@gmail.com to get your tickets!

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Maryland Home and Garden Show - GIVEAWAY

I'm giving away a set of FOUR tickets to the Maryland Home and Garden show. The show is October 14-16 and features things like an IKEA kitchen stage and other interior design! This is a great chance for you to visit with hundreds on contractors in one room!

How to enter:

Leave a comment (make sure you put in your e-mail so I can let you know you won!) by Thursday, October 6th, 2011 at Midnight. I'll annouce the winner on Friday. Good luck!

Monday, October 3, 2011

Meanwhile . . . we added another project

In the midst of working away, in the hot, sun on the deck - another project fell out our feet. Beneath our feet would actually be more accurate. In our rowhouse we have two units, the one we live in (which is the top two floors), and the english basement unit. The term "english basement" is used to describe a unit that is only partially below ground, our basement apartment has full size windows, but the bottom of the window is the ground. We were finally getting to the basement renovation we had been thinking about for years!

Our tenant (who had lived there two years before we moved in) was moving out - and the place was in dire need of a make-over.  We just had no idea how much. In fact, we had only been into the apartment a few times in the entire time we owned the property.  Our tenant was the best you could ever hope for and we never had to fix a thing. The only time we had been in the basement apartment was to turn off the main water main when we renovated the kitchen, and maybe for one or two other small things we needed.

Graciously, our tenant allowed us to tour the apartment a few weeks before he moved out so we could plan for what we would do - we only had 4-5 weeks to do everything we needed to before the next tenant moved in. During the walk through we thought it looks pretty good, but when all the furniture and wall hangings were removed, it told a different story. Here's a picture of the kitchen (I had pulled out the stove right before I took the picture).


We had never noticed the kitchen floor had two separate tile sections. Though we planned on ripping it out - it was more a must now and less of a wish list item. The walls were all stained and dirty around where the picture had been hung and above the electric heat registers. Even a mixture of bleach and soap didn't work to wash it off. So, paint would also be necessary now. We would be using everyday of that 4-5 week period for sure now! But, there was something new and exciting about working on a space where we didn't live. It was going to be a new way of renovating.

This post was supported by: RONA

Injuries Obtained

  • Sprained Toe/Foot: 1
  • Blood Blisters: 2
  • Splinters under fingernail: 1
  • Bird Shit on me: 1
  • Eye Injuries: 3
  • Burns: 0
  • Falls off ladder: 0 (this is because we don't have a ladder yet)
  • Headaches: too many to itemize
  • Broken Bones: 0
  • Bandages Needed: 5
  • Electric Shocks: 2
  • Stiches: 0
  • Bruises: way too many