Spring is Here....Time to Get Working

Spring is finally here! After getting a final dumping of 33" inches of snow, warmer temperatures have finally arrived, which means it is time to get working once again. As I looked at my last post, I was surprised to see that I have not posted since 2016! I am so sorry! While we did not do a whole lot of work on the house that is able to be shared, we did get quite a few projects done.

First, we installed our picket fence in the front yard.

Unfortunately, our yard is anything but level! We had to step down on the sides - one more than the other - to stay within the four foot high city requirements. This year I am planning on painting the fence white.

Our second big investment, and the reason why a lot was not done on the house last year, was a new steel roof on the garage. The old roof was pretty old and in poor condition when we bought the house in 2011. It finally reached the point where the insurance company put a rider on our policy excluding the garage which meant it was definitely time for an upgrade.

Now that you are caught up on what we accomplished last year, let's review the various projects in store for this year (and which I will be much better about sharing as we go along). This is the year that we are going to really start pushing on many of the projects.

This week, we finished the first of many - upgrading the washer and dryer set. My old set was, well, old. The washer had come with the house and was super-sized. While it worked, it had a few quirks about it. The dryer was a housewarming gift from my mother and had been refurbished. The first few years we used it we kept blowing the thermostat on it. We finally determined that we could dry our clothes so long as we set the temperature setting on medium instead of high. That worked great for a few years, but lately, we had to restart the dryer to get the entire load of clothes dry. So my husband decided it was time to spoil me a few weeks before my birthday.

What a difference! I usually spent most of Sunday doing all the laundry for the week when I am busy working at the local elementary school. I was able to do a week's worth of laundry in about four loads total. And each load only took about 40 minutes to wash (opposed to 50) and 45 minutes to dry (opposed to 60 minutes). And it plays the most charming music when it is done! Happy. Happy. Happy.

We have also started working on the downstairs bathroom. This is going to be a very time consuming project, to say the least. It is a fun one, though, with each  member of the family "helping" me while I glue every single piece down individually.

It took us about four hours to do this small section. We have been saving pennies for a while and were going to wait to start this project when we thought we had enough. I got tired of waiting. I mean, we just do not use cash anymore like we used to with the debit cards and credit cards, so we just did not seem to be saving pennies like we used to. I will have to go to the bank and start purchasing rolls of them to keep working. The bathroom floor has been taken down to the subfloor. We are then gluing each penny down using an extra durable and clear epoxy that works with metal. I have decided to glue each penny down, face up, meaning that we see nothing but heads.

This is a pun for my husband who is a veteran of the Navy....as in going to the head. Ha ha ha.

Each member of the family takes a turn handing me the pennies, tail side up, so that I can dab on a little bit of glue and stick the penny in its spot. The average tolerance level for "helping" has been two rows. We have had some debate about cleaning versus not cleaning, tarnished versus not tarnished, etc. However, since I suffer with my OCD, I decided that the best option was to be completely random and to use each and every penny regardless of condition, as is.

So, how many pennies are in this first section? We estimate approximately 1,404 or $14.04. So this project will take a while and we will be sure to keep you posted. As for the other projects, here is the list for this year:

• Trim the exterior windows and doors on the garage. (We finally bought a compound miter saw so we can start doing this type of stuff. Yeah!!!)
• Repair the wood floor between the office and kitchen.
• Sand, stain, and seal the living room wood floor.
• Install board and batten in living room.
• Install built-in bookcases in living room.
• Install baseboard in living room.
• Install crown molding in living room.
• Replace two living room windows.
• Install surround sound speaker system in living room.
• Install insulation in living room ceiling.
• Repair broken lathe and plaster in living room.
• Paint living room.
• Update light fixture in living room.
• CELEBRATE THAT ONE ROOM IN THE HOUSE WILL BE FINISHED!

We are also planning on finishing the new custom kitchen this year. We already purchased the new appliances: (2) 5-burner gas stoves, undercounter dishwasher, apron front farmhouse sink, and french door refrigerator. All the appliances but the refrigerator are in the dining room. Just saving up the funds for the custom kitchen cabinets, which we hope to do this spring/summer.

Stay tuned for more pictures and works-in-progress.

Catching Up

Wow! I was shocked to see that it has been almost a year since we last posted on the house. We actually did do some things this past year, but not a whole lot house related. I blame it on the pool. This past summer we installed a summer pool and that greatly interfered with any home renovations. We did do some work, but nothing is finished yet. For example:

• We repaired all the nail holes in the exterior. At least, those that were simply holes and not broken stucco. It only took about four tubes of caulk that can be painted over.
  
  
• We learned how to mix masonry in order to repair a leaking basement window sill and started repairing the larger broken chunks of stucco. Unfortunately, the weather was a bit cold early and we had to stop repairs in late September, early October.
• We finally selected the exterior house colors. Yeah! This whole process involved a lot of discussion, research, and looking at different color palettes. We narrowed it down to two and actually posted it to Facebook for votes. Yes, it was that challenging to choose! The winning color scheme was the second one (pictured on the bottom).
  
  
  
  
  
• We were able to fully paint - one coat, that is - one exterior wall as well as half of the front of the house. The results were and were not what we expected.
  
  
  
  
  
• We made some interior improvements too, such as adding a new pot rack and more bookcases.
  
   
• We made a new fire pit using rocks we originally tried to use to frame out flower gardens.

At this point, our house looks like it is infected with some sort of small pox. The caulking is appearing lighter and because the base of the house was once painted blue and the original color was a dark brown, the house appears to be two-toned where we painted. We are debating primer or three coats. It's really a tough decision because the paint is expensive. (It comes with a lifetime warranty.....trust me, we only want to paint the house once!)
So, now that you are caught up with what we did, here is what our plan/wishlist is for this summer:

• Install the perimeter fences: picket fence in the front, privacy fence on the sides, and chain link fence in the garden.
• Install walking paths with some sort of stone in the garden.
• Plant two sweet cherry trees in the front yard.
• Plant a second apple tree in the side yard.
• Plant grape vines along one side of the privacy fence.
• Paint the garage to match the new color of the house. (We are not planting a garden this year, so we are improving the infrastructure for the garden and making repairs to the garage - repairs normally impeded by the garden.)
• Replace garage roof with a steel one.
• Remove two concrete strips from driveway and replace with either a new concrete drive or a gravel one.
• Clean out the garage.
• Transition shed contents to garage.
• Replace shed with a greenhouse. Or at least, once we replace all the windows from the house, use the old windows to make a greenhouse? See, this is on the "wishlist" side of things.

Basically, we are hoping to really start working on the house again. And posting pictures of our journey. I think we worked so hard the first few years that we just sort of reached a "burnout" point. Now we are itching to get back to work. And of course, we will continue to keep you posted.