Saturday, October 08, 2011

End of Stage 1

I’ve decided to get a roommate.  There’s nobody in particular yet, but I figured I’d get things ready and put the idea out into the cosmos and see what happens.

Stage 1: Move the office out into the living room.

My house really has only one bedroom, but I have two front rooms, each with it’s own outside door.

This makes one of them real convenient as a rentable second bedroom.  One that I have rented out three times before.  And although it was real nice having a separate room for all my computer stuff, I really want to pay off some debts so I decided to at least get prepared for a roommate.

The living room hasn’t had any electrical outlets for about six years.  I was putting in a new chandelier in the dining room and was working up in the attic when I noticed about ¾ of my wiring in the house was the old knob and tube stuff, dating back to before the 1930’s.  AND, there were a couple of live wires just dangling in the insulation up there.  I immediately disconnected it all from the breaker box and lived with floor lamps and extension cords for a few months while I completely rewired everything in the attic.  The outlets in the living room, on the other hand, had to be accessed from under the house, through a crawl space.  Which is why, until today, everything in the living room was powered from one of the remaining extension cords.  VERY attractive stretched across the floor between the living room and dining room.

It wasn’t too bad hooking up the outlet close to the center of the house. Under the kitchen and breezeway the basement was dug out for the furnace, water heater and water softener.  The outlet at the outside wall will have to wait, I’ll have to actually crawl up under there to feed the wires.  Something I’ve avoided for 6 years now, and probably will for a while longer.

So I moved the TV to the inside wall and moved the computers out there right next to it.  Intrudes into the living and entertaining area, but on the bright side I’ll have to keep it clean instead of just closing the door so nobody can see.

Stage 2 is going to be to clean out the office, find a place for all the crap I’ve crammed in there for storage.  Oh well, I need to get rid of a few things I never use anyhoo….

13 comments:

Lisa Shafer said...

You are a brave man to tackle all that cleaning.....

Alexia said...

You've been working hard! Hope you find someone when you're ready - of course, it'll have to be a cat person :)

darlin said...

I love your house, the rounded archways and the wood trim throughout are beautiful. Is that a brick wall or partition in the last photo? I'm just browsing around I came from Carmi's blog to check your Autumn post, that's winter! lol

21 Wits said...

I think this is the first time I've seen the brothers not next to each other...one on a chair and the other clear across the room lounging on the sofa!...Also, I love your curtains, and the plant...nice touches! Good luck on the room mate!

Max Sartin said...

Lisa - Yeah, well, that cleaning ain't gonna do itself. And you can't rent out a room that's already occupied.
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Alexia - That's one of the benefits of not desperately needing the money, I get to be picky about who I share my house with.
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Darlin - Welcome, welcome. Feel free to browse around all you want. Thanks. Next year the house is going to be 100 years old, as you noticed, it's still got a lot of it's original charm. The brick you see is the chimney going up the middle of the house, I removed the wall between the kitchen and dining room and exposed the brick. You can see before and after pictures here.
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Karen - They have their moments where they get interested in different things. The plant was a gift from the dance company at school for helping them with the lighting and other stage stuff last year. I'm not really good at keeping plants alive inside the house, which is why this is the only one I have. (Once I killed a cactus from lack of watering).

Lisa Shafer said...

Karen,
One of Max's cats likes me and the other one doesn't. So, when I visit, one takes off and the other sings to me in little kitty tunes (and scatters fur to make me sneeze).

Max Sartin said...

Lisa - and ironically, the one that loves you so much is Alan, the one that usually is the least friendly one. Go figure.

Lisa Shafer said...

It's a cat, Max. That explains everything.

21 Wits said...

Lisa is so right, we'll really never be able to understand cats, ever! I hope the boys stay good friends though, because my two boys, Monster and Smoke, are not the best of brothers anymore. Of course the cat named Monster is the tough cat! Go figure right...!

21 Wits said...

Oh I forgot to add, Max you really killed a cactus?!!!! That's too funny!.....unless you over-watered it maybe???...how are you with guppies?

Max Sartin said...

Karen - nope, I under watered it. I first had it on the windowsill in the bathroom and it survived quite well, just from the steam from showers. Then I moved it down to the kitchen and within a couple months it was dead. I've never tried guppies, but I don't know if I dare. :)

Jannx said...

Good Luck with the room renting.

Max Sartin said...

Thanks.