The Green House Project: Week 8

January 13-15, 2023

This week was pretty challenging. After sustaining an injury last week, I was doubtful I’d get much done. After returning to Coralville last Sunday, I did a self-check and was pretty sure I’d given myself a hernia. That may or may not be the case, but I was able to power through and get a huge chunk of stuff done.

Friday, January 13

I had been driving around with an 8-foot piece of baseboard and four 8-foot lengths of quarter round pretty much all week, ready for me to take back to Ottumwa.

I made myself a doctor appointment for Friday afternoon. After packing the car with as much as I possibly could, I took off of work early and headed up to Cedar Rapids to have this pain in my groin checked out.

The doctor told me to turn my head and cough but was unsure if it was indeed a hernia. He ordered a urine test to check for blood to rule out kidney stones (no blood in my urine) and ordered an ultrasound to check for a hernia.

Once I was done there, I headed straight to Ottumwa. I arrived there at about 4:30, went to the grocery store and got a few things before heading to the house.

I backed into the garage and unloaded all of the boxes I’d loaded from Coralville, then took in the trim I’d been driving around with all week. I didn’t get much done that night as I needed some supplies from Menard’s but the pain was so bad, I couldn’t do it. I took some melatonin and called it a night pretty quickly.

Saturday, January 14

I woke up at about 12:30 Saturday morning with some pretty significant back pain. I got up, took some ibuprofen, sat in the living room until it started to kick in, then went back to bed. I slept until about 6:30 am, which is way later than I thought I would.

I got up, made myself some coffee, breakfast and then headed to Menard’s to get a new blade for my multitool and some other odds and ends.

Once back at the house, I was able to finish the baseboard trim in the living room and started hanging the shiplap. I started above the windows, working my way about halfway around the room before Craig showed up. He had made some custom transition strips for the kitchen and bedrooms and they look absolutely FANTASTIC. He was able to perfectly match the aesthetic of the vinyl flooring and they cover the gaps between the floors perfectly. We worked on putting those in and turned our attention back to the shiplap. We continued on from where I’d left off and burned through all 12 boards I’d bought two weeks prior.

With nothing much left to do, Craig left. I finished up the quarter round trim in the kitchen then headed back to Menard’s to buy the rest of the shiplap we’d need- 22 more boards for a total of 34, at about $13 a piece… ugh.

I went back to the house, poured myself a drink and sat on a video call with Brandy for the rest of the night until bedtime.

Sunday, January 15

I woke up Sunday morning at my more normal time of about 5:30. I made some coffee and got our makeshift workshop set up on the deck right outside the living room where we were working. Craig showed up before too long and we immediately got to work. We unloaded the shiplap that had sat in the car overnight and started making cuts, pulling trim, nailing up shiplap, figuring angles…

As the day went on, I realized in the early afternoon that the pain I’d been experiencing in my back and groin was all but gone. I was moving, bending, walking, and sitting as if I never even had the injury to begin with. I wondered if it really was just a pulled muscle or something that healed up Friday/Saturday.

Anyway, Craig and I worked hard and steady until about 1:30 before I told him that I had to head back to Coralville. He left, I kinda picked up (not to the level I did before I left last week) and headed home.

Weekly Wrap-Up

While this post being so short might imply that not a lot got done, we actually did get quite a lot accomplished this weekend. By Sunday afternoon, I:

• Finished the baseboard in the living room
• Got almost all of the quarter round down in the kitchen (just have to wait for the baseboard to get put back up to finish that out)
• Installed three (out of four) transition strips
• Put up shiplap through most of the living room

Pics from this weekend can be found on my Photo Diary.

What’s Next

This weekend, I will once more be returning to Ottumwa alone. I will pack up the car with as much as I can and head out Friday after work. I plan on finishing the shiplap and the trim, and hanging the blinds in the living room. I don’t think I will be able to get all of that done before the end of the day Sunday so Brandy and I agreed that I will stay there until it is done. I will take my work computer and work from there for however many days as it takes to get that room finished up, then I will be doing a full-on cleaning (more like clutter-removal) in preparation for the final move-in next weekend.I don’t expect to be there much past Tuesday or Wednesday, but that will take time out of being able to finish backing in Coralville so I will have to make the most of my time in this house before I head out Friday after work.

Craig and Sue will be able to take most of their stuff back home, I think, as by this point, I have pretty much all of my tools in Ottumwa.

To-Do List

Here is the remaining to-do list, unchanged from last week:

• Prep for painting
  • Filling holes
  • Priming three walls
• Painting
  • Master bedroom
  • Spare bedroom
  • Bathroom
  • Hallway
  • Dining Room
  • Brandy’s Office
  • Kitchen
• Install new showerhead
• Take down shower doors
• Finish hardwood floors
• Install flooring
  • Hallway
  • Bathroom
  • Dining Room
  • Brandy’s Office
  • Kitchen
• Replace five six ceiling fans
  • Master bedroom
  • Spare bedroom
  • Bathroom
  • Kitchen
  • Living Room
  • Dining room (just added!)
• Replace hallway light fixture
• Replace front and back porch lights
• Replace house numbers
• Replace front doorknob
  • Replace front door? (for later)
• Replace mailbox
• Adjust entry door to garage
• Carpeting Living Room and stairs to basement (hiring out)
• Replacing all light switches, outlets and plates
• Put up shiplap in living room (just added!)
• Hang new blinds

I would like to point out that this is not a finite list of all the work we are going to be doing on this house. This is just what we are going to get done before the official move-in. The Green House Project will be a project in perpetuity. Just beyond the list above, we need to renovate the basement, work on the front and back decks, power wash and re-stain the decks, power wash the siding, move the back fence… there is always something that’s going to need to be worked on in the house beyond the day-to-day maintenance.

This is it, folks. We’re coming down to the wire. Movers will be here the morning of next Friday, the 27th, to load up our U-Haul then other movers will be to the Green House to unload that afternoon. After that, we will have a couple of return trips to Ottumwa [late edit: Coralville. Not Ottumwa] , 1) to clean then list the house for sublease, and 2) to sell our current washer and dryer (the new house has a wonderful set of front-loaders that were included with the sale of the house.

We will be residents of Ottumwa before you know it.

Stay tuned for next week’s update. Until then, as always, thanks for stopping by. I appreciate you!

-Phil