Wednesday, October 4 (Did I say paint?)

I get a call from Kevin -- "um, what's the water situation at the house?" Hmmm, good question. We had water last week... The painters were supposed to start today; on their agenda was to scrape and power wash. Surprisingly, you need water for that.

Somehow I managed to forget to transfer the water to our name, and the city turned off our water. I called the water department, and they said they'd turn the water on the next day. The previous owner hadn't paid the water bill since June, so until we send them a letter from our electric company stating that we didn't turn on our power until mid-September, we're going to be back-billed for the extra months. It's less than $35 in back-pay that's owed, and I'm debating whether it's worth the trouble to call the electric company, get the letter, fax it back to the water department, follow-up on the reimbursement, yadda, yadda, yadda. I'll probably do it just on principle. It's good to know that you can not pay your water bill for four months before they turn it off, though.

$80 in paint samples later (at $5/sample), I've decided to go with Bunglehouse Grey for the body of the house. A color I didn't even get a sample of (it's the color of our last house). I HATE picking colors when I have a particular shade in mind and just can't find it. So, I'm playing it safe and going with a color I know I love. I'm using new trim/accents shades with it, though - Royal Vellum for the trim and Roycroft Copper Red for the accent color.

I still need to find a tiler. The tile bid from Martin came in too high, though our builder said he'd talk to Martin and see if he could encourage him to go lower. In an effort to cut costs, I've decided not to tile the walls in the bathroom. Originally there was faux tile on all walls going up about 5 ft up the wall, and I was going to replace it with new, white subway tile. Instead, I'm going to have beadboard wainscoting installed, which will save us hundreds just on the tile cost alone. Though it's not a look I personally like, I think it goes well with the cottage bungalow feel of the house.