My Handy Men

In the past couple of weeks since I bought my house I have gotten a huge amount of help from some very wonderful people. My mom came into town the week after I closed to help pack up my old house while I was at work which was a gigantic help considering I was spending most of my evenings after work at the new house trying to paint. Because of her help we had the entire kitchen and then some moved into the new house before the day I was even supposed to pick up the U-Haul. Way to go Mom!!

But I realize that this post is called My Handy Men and not My Awesome Mom (which she is by the way) so let's get down to meeting the awesome guys in my life who helped make my move bearable because let's face it--moving sucks!







Erik tearing up some concrete

In my last post I mentioned that in order to do some of the exterior painting on the house I needed to address a few repair items, one of which being my sinking front stoop. In the home inspector's report, the inspector noted that the stoop had settled in one corner creating an unlevel floor which needed to be re-filled and re-covered with concrete. I decided that if my house was going to get a fresh new coat of paint I didn't want to go through the hassle of painting the stoop and then having to re-paint later when I decided to fix the concrete. Enter my first Knight in Shining Armor--my boyfriend Erik. Erik works with concrete on a daily basis building and renovating pools and also worked with his dad as a general contractor. Believe me when I say he can do anything--he is just amazing like that. So the Sunday after I closed he comes over with his work truck, 700 pounds of concrete, and a jackhammer. He got to work tearing up the old stoop and we quickly realized that the reason the stoop was sinking was that there was a huge hole that had opened up underneath and you could literally see into the crawl space below the house. Erik patched up the hole using a 2x4 and I helped him cart away some of the larger broken pieces of concrete (yes--I helped!). He began mixing the new concrete and pouring the new floor while I got to work prepping the inside of the house for painting. By that evening I had a newly (and perfectly) poured front stoop. Fantastic!

The second Handy Man who I completely adore is my good friend Heather's husband Edward. As a Christmas gift Heather and Edward had promised to help me paint once I got into the new house. I never realized what a huge gift this was until I decided to paint my entire house before I moved in--ceilings and trim included. As I said in my last post, I realized this was very ambitious and I am not too proud to admit that I probably wouldn't have been able to get it done without Edward's help. He drove an hour up to Atlanta on his day off from work to spend most of the day painting at my house. And he was fast! In just a day he painted both bedrooms and their ceilings, the bathroom, my living room ceiling, and finished up where I had left off in my kitchen AND he did an awesome job! Like I said BEST CHRISTMAS PRESENT EVER! Thanks Edward (and Heather too for letting me borrow your husband)!



Shelving built by Andrew



The third Handy Man who I could not live without is my wonderful brother. Not only is the boy a master with cars (he helped me save a boatload of cash this past year when I needed new oxygen sensors, spark plugs, brakes, and rotors on my car) but he can also build some nice shelving! One of the biggest issues for me in this new house is storage. I have closets but they are tiny and have virtually no shelf space. Apparently in 1941 a family of four didn't have nearly the amount of crap that I have--shocking, I know. The closet in my office had absolutely nothing--not even a bar to hang coats on. So my brother--being the wonderful guy he is--offered to build me custom shelving. He took the measurements, bought the wood, built the shelves, and installed them for me within a couple of days. They look great and are super sturdy. Freakin' awesome bro!



These are really just a few things that these guys did to help me as I moved into my new house. Erik installed my new dishwasher and over-the-range microwave as well as help me paint. Edward came up on moving day to help my brother and his roommate Alex (another Handy Man shout-out to you Alex--you rock!) move furniture and the rest of the boxes from my old place. And Andrew, my brother, installed blinds in the bedrooms, shelving in my laundry room, and sanded down my back door (which was giving everyone splinters because it had never been sealed).

All of my guys worked so hard for me and I am so appreciative of all their help. Can I say what a lucky girl I am??? Oh and that Handy Men are totally sexy. Can't forget to mention that.