December projects

Josh is on winter break from school and has a lot of time off from work (works weekend 12s and has holiday time) so work is picking up in the family room.  I told him it's the only thing I really want for Christmas.  When I say "family room" I really mean play room/classroom.  We still just call it "the downstairs" for now. 

We really were close to finishing this room.  We did work on it during the summer by hanging drywall, ripping up some floor and smoothing the walls. 

Josh leveled the floor where it was just too hard to rip it all up and he had the flooring finished the same night.  We had bought the flooring this summer. I remember this because I was loading about 15 boxes of it into my van on a very hot day in my new dress. 

Notice how all the plastic covering is finally down from the dining room rails!  It was up for almost a year. Seriously, I think Josh put it up on Christmas day last year.  I think my mom has always taken it upon herself to clean my windows.  She cleaned the windows downstairs on the inside and out.  It's one of those things that never seems to be a priority, but still need done.  The kids helped her scrub the brick wall.  I'm still not sure if I like the brick wall.  I feel like it really dates the house, (60's) but I don't totally hate it either.  

Josh putting the final coat of paint on the walls.  The only white walls we have in the house.  Josh said he would enjoy having at least one room in the house white and I agreed since I'm going to cover the walls with colorful things anyway. 

The most recent update was two days ago when he put up the crown molding and window trim.  We are only a few feet short of molding in the corner. 

This handrail that we have going upstairs is...ugly.  It's meant for a porch.  We have always planned on replacing it to match with the railing by our dining room. It's just difficult to work on something that's literally in the middle of the house where you are living. My mom suggested painting it for the time being.  And I honestly had never considered it.  It looks so much better now and it was so satisfying making it look "pretty" again.  Don't look too close, though.  It's still rough but at least it is glossy white now. 

Final work on the family room--- trim on the floors. finishing up the windows with a new sill and paint.  a surface for the top of the brick wall. Lastly, and leastly, pulling already run cable down for internet/tv and 3 recessed lights above the brick wall need wiring finished.  Oh, and the steps need resurfaced. 

I'm totally moving things in before the last three are finished.  Probably as soon as the first two are finished, honestly.  It's difficult not to right now, since this is the closest it's been to a functioning room in years.  I've been collecting things for this room for probably 2 years or so.  I'm sure it will be my favorite room in the house, although I do love my kitchen.  I cannot wait to show you all the finished project very soon!

Summer projects

Who is ready for an update after almost 5 months?   Work always picks up during the summer because Josh doesn't have school.  It was almost impossible to tackle any kind of renovation when he was working full time and going to school full time.  Last semester, he actually has to teach himself a class because the didn't offer it but he needed it for his tool and die certification.  So, he has more time now.

My mom and I have been working on the never ending flower bed situation.  I have yet to plant my 30,000+ seeds.  I had to dig up a lot of rose bushes and other random bushes.  I also got rid of the daffodils and day lilies.  I wanted a clean slate and day lilies get out of hand and are too tall for the front of a flower bed. So we've been weeding and weeding and weeding then adding dirt.  It is such a large area, that we decided to grass the section in front of the garage and just have a flower bed in front of the porch.  Since we still have a million things to do, I've decided not to add flowers this year.  One more thing to maintain when we have other projects to do.  Same with our vegetable garden, next year. Josh also ripped up the giant ugly tree stump in the middle of our front yard on Easter.  Looks like it was never even there.

Josh has been working on turning our dock into a deck.  Last summer the floor of the deck was built, but no stairs or rails.  We used cables instead of balusters for railings.  It's easier to look through to the yard and is a little more modern.  We put a flat board on top to sit drinks and lean against and it's surprising how handy that small feature is.  So, Josh has been working on the cables, stairs, rails and staining.  And we have a 6-seater patio set.  We've only ever had a small set with 2 chairs, so I'm definitely excited about this.  We spend a lot of time outside in the summer, so the deck is becoming one of my favorite parts of the house. He only has a few more cables to add, once the parts he needs are back in stock.  He just needs to build hand rails for the stairs and stain the stairs.

He also built a pretty awesome duck coop.  We have 4 Indian Runner ducks that are about 2 months old now.  I'm so happy to get them out of the garage.  They have a lot more room to move and now can hunt for bugs and worms.  They do love to splash the water onto the ground and play in the mud.  They used to be so clean!  Still trying to get them used to leaving their pen, but they are still too afraid to venture out. We put the ducks next to the house for their protection and our entertainment.  The area we picked was very overgrown and filled with random junk we gutted from the house, so just seeing it cleared out was satisfying in itself.

Another little project was burying a water line.  That was not fun digging through hard clay.  I tried to help, but Josh took pity on me and finished in record time.   

We wanted to start working outside because this is really the first chance we've had since we bought the house 18 months ago.  The laundry room is functional, but not finished and the downstairs bathroom will be the last thing completed. It's still cement everything.  Our basement still gets a lot of water so we need to find a new way to fix that and it's also really annoying because it's a decent size (size of living room, dining and kitchen combined), so that's where I was planning on storing everything, but unless I move everything to a plastic tub, that's not going to happen.  

Yesterday, we started working on the family room and now have all the drywall up.  It's a major accomplishment just to get things cleared out of the way and have the room empty. 

And today Josh has been ripping out some of our inconveniently placed bushes.  So happy to get rid of the giant eye-sore at the end of our driveway. 

Whew, I'll try to update more often then once every 5 months :)

Before and After

So I'm finally getting around to posting some pictures.  I've said before, we are still not totally finished with the upstairs.  Our closet doors still need cut and hung.  The bathroom door is the only one that latches.  Trim in the bathroom and dining room and kitchen in random places.  My gallery wall in the dining room- all need painted brown and pictures updated.  But maybe I should stop pointing out the flaws and let you enjoy the pictures of the kids' rooms, bathroom, dining room and kitchen.  Our bedroom and living room is also completed, but I haven't taken pictures yet.  Something for you to look forward to. :) 

Penelope's Room

Oliver's Room

Upstairs bathroom

Dining Room

Kitchen

 It makes me really proud when I look back at the before pictures.  It also makes me wonder how we could see potential in that dump.  We ran into a lot more problems than we were expecting.  And there was so much more work that I could imagine.  Example--- Each piece of trim and base boards were carefully removed.  Then the nails were pulled out and it was sanded.  Each got probably 3 coats of paint.  Then was measured and tried to match back up to where it came from.  It was cut, and nailed up.  Then nail holes were puttied with wood glue and any other scratched from installation.  Then the wood glue was sanded and it was painted again.  AND THAT'S JUST TRIM!  

I seriously cannot wait until the weather warms up so we can clean up the yard.  During the renovations, it was a low priority but now that we are living here, I want it to look nice, obviously. And in the spring we are going to add about half a dozen feathered friends to the family!   

Hopefully it won't be another month until I update. :) 

Day 357

Things have been. pretty busy around here lately, so I don't have any pictures to post.  Just trying to put out a quick update during naptime.

We moved in on day 340 (Christmas Eve).  It was 7 at night and we were still putting together out dining room table and I had just moved our beds in earlier that day.  I had put a tree up a few days earlier so after we got the kids settled in bed, Santa came and we finished putting together some toys.  It was so nice to spend Christmas morning with just the four of us.

We are still moving in and unpacking and still working on things to fix.  Someone asked us once, "When are you going to be done with the house?"  Josh gave the perfect reply- "Well, since we bought the house, we will never really be done with it."  Every homeowner I know has something they need to update or fix no matter how long they've lived there.

The downstairs portion of the house is not completed.  The family  room/play room, laundry room and second bath are still basically concrete floors and framing/drywall.  Josh did finish the floor in the laundry room with leftover laminate that used to be in the living room.

Just the other night we dropped the kids at their grandparents to finish the front closet and put down the kick-boards in the kitchen.  Nothing pressing needs done upstairs. Besides maybe hooking up my dishwasher.  Just cosmetic things like putting doors on the closets and putting up some random trim.  
Here is a list I made of things that still need done upstairs- hook up dishwasher, finish kitchen corner piece, finish pantry shelves, trim in living room closet, Oliver's closet shelves, hang closet doors, new ceiling fan, bathroom trim, bathroom shelves, baseboards for dining room, shelves for bookshelf and hook up ice maker.  See, minor things.

Penelope already tried to climb up on a towel rack and ripped it out of the wall so Josh was patching drywall today.  Work seems to slow since we've moved it, but I'm sure that's because the kids are around.  I was painting the closet earlier this week and Josh took the kids up to play, but they were still so concerned with where I was and what I was doing.  Then when they came down and I was putting things away, they were IN the closet.  Penelope said she wanted to see what I did. Thankfully, they didn't get paint on themselves.

 So there's your update.  I know it's been forever and I will work on pictures soon.  Penelope is begging me to play Hello Kitty Bingo with her so I really must go.