Craigslist>Free (Part 6)

We finally got our schedules coordinated (from the posting mentioned here), and Sandra and I picked up the dressers today.



The funny thing is that they were the dressers from Ikea that I was thinking of getting! The two smaller ones fit perfectly on the sides of the bed.


The other one was the smaller one that I wanted to place a mirror above.

Moving the Coaxial Cable

For some reason, the coaxial cables for the cable are all coming out of the floor boards.


I had this bright idea to cut a hole in the wall, drill a hole in the floor, then move the cable into the wall, so it's got a socket! Great idea, right!? Well while cutting the hole in the wall, I cut a power cord. Time to call Harry!

Put Up the New Chandelier

That old, ugly, 70's, hanging chandelier was getting on my nerves. The new one had been painted and was ready to put up. We picked up the $4 mounting kit from Home Depot, and we were ready to go! Taking down the old one was really easy; figuring out how the new one has to get mounted wasn't so easy. Thanks to Sandra and her shoulder muscles, we got this thing up and secured. It looks great, don't you think!?

The old one's hanging in the middle back there:


Here's the new one, without the lights on:


And with the lights on:

WTF!!!!???

Long story short, after I had told Michelle NOT to allow her contractors access to my place, I walked in today to find that they had cut holes in my ceiling to avoid cutting holes in her floor. This is such a pain in the ass! I spoke to her contractor to make sure he understood that if he should ever need to do anything in my place, he needs to contact me first, otherwise, it is not ok.

He used a dirty towel to cover the stove. The same towel I had been using to wipe plaster off my hands and clothing. Nothing was used to cover the fridge, microwave, or dishwasher. Tape had been removed from the stove for some reason, and there was sawdust inside the stove. There was drywall dust all over the top of the stove, making me think they didn't even cover it till after they had finished. The fridge was also covered with drywall dust. This was annoying as hell. Why would they even think they can walk into my place and cut holes in my ceiling?! In doing so, why wouldn't they even cover anything!? This shit's frustrating as hell. I had mopped and cleaned the kitchen the day the appliances got delivered, and they left it a fucking mess. They told her that they cleaned everything up, and everything was covered - NOT. Pics below.

Bad Switches!

The switches that are in most of the rooms right now are these really old school tap to dim switches. They're so old, they're pretty much broken. The lights fade in and out on their own, and it makes the place look haunted. It's not fun. I used the two switches from the living room and replaced the switches in the dining room and kitchen. Easily done, no electrocution this time...

Kitchen:


Dining Room:

Dimmer Switches for the Living Room!

Having the recessed lights in the living room is cool. Having them on two separate switches is cool as well. Being able to dim them would be infinitely more cool! So, Sandra and I went to Lowe's and picked out the best looking dimmer. The ones at Home Depot were full of fail. These had sliding dimmer switches, plus an On/Off button on the bottom. Single Pole - Check. HAHAHAHA!

Here's the current wiring configuration of the switches.


I basically connected the two dimmers to each other to match that configuration, then connected them to the power, put them up, and voila!


I'm not going to lie; it wasn't perfect. I couldn't find a faceplate to cover all three switches with this configuration, so I had to buy one of those make your own faceplate dealies. It actually worked, and it'd be perfect if the wall was level!

Also, the two dimmer switches had a lot of metal along the edges that kept them from fitting in the box together. I used a pair of pliers and bent the edges backwards to get it to fit cleanly. You really can't tell.

All lights on:


Rear light dim, fireplace lights on:

Trip to Ikea

I emailed a post on Craigslist>Free about some dressers. The guy emailed me back and said that someone else had emailed before me, and that he was giving them to him. I responded with a thank you for letting me know, and if the other person falls through, I'll be more than happy to take them off his hands. Fast forward to the weekend: Emily's home, and she accompanies me to Ikea to look at dressers.

The dressers came down in price. Here's what they had:
Black and White:


Different shades of fake wood:


I liked the lightest fake wood; Emily said I should get either black or white. It would've been white. She talks some sense into me (how do I know how many dressers to get, if I don't know how much room I have?) We end up getting a cinnamon roll instead of furniture.



We get back from Ikea, thinking about how good that cinnamon roll was, explaining how we didn't pick up any furniture, and I received an email from the guy saying the other person fell through! I immediately called him back to let him know I was definitely interested in picking up the dressers!

Craigslist>Free (Part 5)

Here's an odd one. I saw a posting on Craigslist a few weeks ago for an Ikea bed frame. I responded to the posting since it looked really clean, but I got no response. The same images got reposted to Craigslist>Free this week, and I responded again. This time, I asked Sandra to respond as well. She emailed the poster after I did, but she received the response! Kind of creepy, huh? We're wondering why he'd respond to a girl, and not a guy? That, plus his emails all ended with ellipses, and he seemed kind of a creeper.

Anywho, we did go pick it up. It's clean, nice, and best of all - FREE!

The Appliances Are Here!

More to follow...

Closing Up The Walls (2)

Waiting for the appliances to be delivered. I already mopped the kitchen floor, removed the old dishwasher, and ate breakfast. Time to start mixing some plaster to patch up more of the holes in the walls!

I got to one of the ceiling holes. I'm really cramming in the plaster to get more of it past the lathe, so I get a good "lock." I ended up using way more plaster than I'd imagined, and it's not even a filled hole! About 45 minutes, and I've done one!

Before:

After:

Craigslist>Free (Part 4)

Today, I really came up on some nice lamps! Michelle was getting rid of them for unknown reasons, and she even put bulbs in the lamps! They work great!





I also picked up a small night stand. It's pretty old school. I don't know if I'm going to keep it yet.