New Bed

With a little help from Ana White plans and inspiration from Bower Power, Eric successfully constructed his first piece of furniture with my recommendations. We build our own bed and upgraded to a queen size (yes we used to fit two people and two springer spaniels on a full size bed).

We pretty much just followed Ana's plans for the farmhouse queen with a platform option and Bower's glazing suggestions and it turned out fabulous. It was a much better option than the thousand dollar platform beds at the local furniture store. We estimate for all the materials our bed was around 200 bucks. Can't beat it.

What the deck?

About a month ago I came home from work to find that our little deck on the back door had been ripped off (by Eric and Chad). I guess they had decided to take on the deck project without consulting me. So within about two or three weeks the back side of our house that used to look like this:

and now looks like this:

has evolved into this:

With a lot of Chad's help we (Eric and Chad) got the project done with plenty of time for us to enjoy the deck all summer long. Eric chose cedar and it not only looks awesome but smells amazing when it rains. The more we do to this place the more I wish I could just take our house, lot, garden, and new deck and move it to a new state. I love our little corner.

The Garage Project

Long time no blog! Don't I do this every spring? As soon as the weather warms up we are out the door and away from the computer soaking in as much warm sunny weather as possible. This year that has happened WAAAY earlier than the past two years. Thank goodness too or I may not have made it through this winter without some sort of tropical vacation, which really isn't an option right now.

Considering that last year at this time we had a few feet of snow on the ground and more coming. I clearly remember the last big storm hitting at the end of April and dumping at least a foot or so. What a difference this year. We have had 75 and sunny for about a month with mild weather in between those days. Our grass is coming in, flowers are sprouting, we are prepping the garden, watering the yard, and getting out porch furniture before the end of March. It's a North Dakota miracle I tell ya!

So here's what has kept us occupied. We have finally got the ball rolling on our garage project. We started it last fall but have made the most progress in the past month or so and plan to have it done here by June. Keep in mind we have yet to meet a deadline we have set for any of our projects.

We started with a plain single stall garage.

Then we had someone patch the foundation just to be sure it was done correctly.

Then Eric framed out the wall, installed new windows, and build a deck to match the current height of the floor in the house. In this picture we have our ceiling drywall up too.

We had to patch and paint siding as well and trim out the windows. I helped a lot with this part.

We had some condensation issues prior to installing the new venting. It has been a lot warmer than we expected this winter. We put in a gable vent and two roof vents.

Along the way we also had to cut two big holes in the original foundation to run vents from the furnace to the new garage addition.

We just got done framing the bedroom and walk in closet and are preparing for dry wall. Electrical is completed, but I didn't take many pictures of that.

Eric also tackled this lovely entrance to the basement.

Now it looks like this. It is WAAAY more open feeling and makes the space feel so much larger. We aren't sure how we are going to address the kitchen cabinet that sticks out. I love the cabinet in the kitchen, but not how it sticks out into this space.

So that's where we are. since last October until now. I will get more pictures up soon when drywall is complete.

Front Door

The majority of our labor day weekend was spent finishing up some year long projects. We have now completed our window trim from installing our new windows two falls ago. They are primed painted and touched up with the house color and we have put up trim on the front door and finished all of it's painting too. here are some phases the front door has gone through.

How it looked upon purchase
-the storm door is hiding a thin pine door that opened with key that should be in a museum

new door install fall 09
it was like this for a year or so

this summer we painted it red
we recently found out one of our neighbors hates the color because he told us this weekend

Eric's masterpiece- all trimmed out, painted, and complete

Also, since we were outside all weekend Chops was too. Are you wondering what he did for three strait days outside?

Kitchen Reveal

Our kitchen still needs trim and baseboards, but it is about as done as it will be for a while so I am revealing it now. As a reminder of what we had when we bought the place here is the old kitchen (where our new bathroom currently is).

Little counter space in a tiny room of a box and cabinets well over my head (they'd be above the uppers in the picture) did not work well for us. So we took this space:

before

during

 

which contained these two rooms of our house

 

 

and turned the space into our new kitchen. Voila! We ripped out the above two rooms so that everything is open back to the back wall of that hallway. Confused? Yeah I know. It's not easy to explain with pictures and words. I am working  a before and after floorplan so it makes more sense to those of you who read this.

We love our new kitchen. We did drywall recessed lighting, stainles appliances, hickory cabinets. granite tile counters, and travertine floors. We've been cooking up a storm.

please disregard old fridge in this shot

next to that door is a little desk area we decided on last minute



 

Agua Baby!

BIG NEWS: I CAN WASH DISHES AGAIN!

 Today the plumber came to hook up our sink and dishwasher. I can't believe I used to complain about washing dishes in a sink. It is seriously a piece of cake compared to what I've had to do lately. Read more about that here. Today marks the first time since last December that I can wash dishes in a dishwasher and the first time since last May that I can wash them in a sink!

 Here's Eric putting the finishing touches on the dishwasher by attaching the electrical wire. Since we have had our new kitchen space Chops has found many places to sleep. He has a new habit of following you around and laying down to sleep wherever we might be working. Being 10 feet away from us is just too far I guess. Here he is helping Eric wire the dishwasher. He tries to get as close as possible to whatever work space you need.

Very excited about the new plumbing up here. This means that I can actually use dishes to cook food. Just in time for Thanksgiving!

Welcome Back New Old Friends

I HAVE AN OVEN!!!! Appliances came today. We still don't have plumbing in the kitchen (tomorrow pleeeeaase) so cooking is still on hold. It just isn't worth the dirty dishes. Our dishwasher is sitting in the kitchen in a box, but the stove and fridge are plugged in and operational. Check em out.

just joking. here's what we used to have...

and here's what we have now

and now. LOVE LOVE

Literally counting the minutes until our first "oven cooked" meal will be done in the new kitchen. 12 seconds until pizza is ready.

Kitchen Counters

We've started our granite tile counter top. They are a lot of work and time consuming but a HUGE money saver. I refuse REFUSE to put laminate counters in my house. I understand they look OK and are practical and blah blah blah. I won't do it. I just can't and since it is thousands of dollars for any solid surface counter that isn't plain white, tile is the way we went. We purchased the bull nose edge pieces which needed 45 degree cuts on the corners. This was a little tricky to get them perfect, but it worked out after building a jig and renting a better tile saw than what we own. When the corners were matched, we ground the edges so they weren't sharp. We're hoping the granite polishing pads really work because our edges are now dull-to the touch and look. After the edges were secure we made some precise cuts, used 1/16th inch grout spacers and tiled away. Our grout should be here later this week and the progress will continue. Here's how they look. Oh, our granite tile is Baltic brown. I tried to get a shot of it, but it doesn't look great. Take my word for it, it's gorgeous.



Unbelievable.

Throughout part the remodel process we haven't had a kitchen. November marks the beginning of our seventh month with no kitchen. Whenever anyone hears this they say things like "I just can't believe it, how have you survived?" Well, I am here to tell you that we are still here and are surely not malnourished, probably the opposite actually. So here is the answer to "how we've done it" for those of you out there wondering.

Dishes-We started by washing dishes in the bathtub while the new bathroom was being constructed in the old kitchen's place. When the tub got torn out we moved to washing dishes in the front yard with a hose and bucket. I didn't want to make the new bathroom into a make shift kitchen. I could have washed dishes there, but just couldn't bring myself to do it. After it started snowing and getting cold, the yard washing became obsolete. Throughout the process we have used paper plates and slowly decreased the amount of actual dishes we use by decreasing the amount of cooking we do overall. We are down to silverware and a cereal bowl with a box full of dirty dishes sitting in the garage waiting for a dishwasher. Gross yes, convenient yes, clutter managed. A box in the garage is the best place we've found for dirty dishes we don't want to wash. We just don't have many places to store things and the garage is out of sight out of mind. The more things we have "out of mind" the saner we can stay until the kitchen is back.

Cooking- we did a lot of grilling to start and then we found a camp stove and a griddle at rummage sales so we set up a garage kitchen (check it out here). The garage kitchen worked well with the yard dishwasher, but alas cold and clutter took over again. Our garage has been a kitchen, paint station, tool shed, workshop, and storage area. Cooking with no space again posed a problem. We've been cooking in the microwave for the past few weeks. It is horrible and the food we make isn't even enjoyable to eat.

Food-Here is what I am sick of eating in no particular order: microwave burritos, easy mac, microwave udon soup and Asian noodle bowls, yogurt, granola bars, sandwiches, subway, pasta with sauce, brats, hot dogs,  chips and salsa, apples, and bananas. These foods have composed the majority of our diet and don't even taste good anymore. We've tried not to eat out that often and keep it as healthy as possible but with no motivation to cook or eat, even though you feel hungry, it has been a struggle. We've even discussed the first meal we want to make in the new kitchen. Sweet potato hash is in the lead so far.

Any questions? It has been  a long seven months and it hasn't been easy. My advice though is to remodel in summer so you can utilize your outdoor space. That made it WAY easier. I am sure we will look back on the process and wonder how we ever did it. Our cabinets went in today and we are less than a week away from a home cooked meal on a real live stove. Cabinets made my week. It is starting to feel complete.

Transformation begins



before



after

Our kitchen is slowly starting to transform. We are in the middle of painting but you can see our new paint color on the back wall. For reference, there's a picture of what the space of what it looked like two weeks ago and what it looks like with drywall, texture, and paint. The view you have used to be a bathroom, hallway, and closet. It's amazing what knocking down some walls can do. Cabinets Thursday then the finish work begins. This is last view you'll see before I have a real live kitchen again.