Benny & Tom's Ever Changing Home

More new lights!

2012-01-12T16:56:00.001-08:00

Yup. We changed our kitchen again. It was james' idea, not mine. I like it though.

Laminate Flooring is Down In Porch!

2012-01-03T05:20:00.000-08:00

Yey to James for putting down the floor in the porch! We wanted to wait until the moldings were up and the place was painted - but we had the time so we figured we'd just pump it out.

We inherited Squanto's bench! I think it was motivation to get something done!

James laying the plastic protection stuff (since the porch isn't heated or anything - it protects the floor from moisture.)

The starting process!

Pretty much done! He has to just pop in the last few pieces but it was getting late last night and he was tired. I don't blame him. I think it looks great so far!

More Porch Demo

2011-11-11T18:22:00.001-08:00

The wood guy convinced us to rip off the vinyl that was around the windows and door and just have him build wood frames for them. Sure! Why not? So James demoed that today.

Since you probably have no idea what I'm talking about, here is the crap we pulled off the windows (and then some).

Porch Progress

2011-11-01T05:40:00.001-07:00

Painted yet another coat of paint on the ceiling (4th coat - this wood is soaking it up!). Will do another coat today. I also sanded and prepped for another (and hopefully last) coat of joint compound. The wood guys are coming tonight for an estimate to finish it off and we might have it ready to paint next week.

The Front Porch

2011-10-31T03:08:00.001-07:00

How incredibly shameful is it to admit that we got our front porch rebuild in May 2010 and it's still not done?

Yesterday, we threw another layer o joint compound on it and I'm hoping to pump out one more today. Then, it should be good. I think were going to bite the bullet and have our carpentry guys come and throw up the moldings. They did some random stuff for us last year and were really fast and good. I'll admit. I really only have one motivating factor to get this done: Christmas! I think I said that last year too though...

The Kitchen is DONE!

2011-07-29T12:51:00.000-07:00

Our kitchen was finished a few months ago - and I never showed off James' great work!

And here....a quick 22 picture glimpse of how we got from "then" to "now"...Great work Jimmy!

Garden Crap 2011

2011-04-19T07:50:00.000-07:00

My seedlings have been transplanted! I'm just going to throw garden stuff on this blog. I can't do anything in life without documenting it on the computer in some way, shape or form.

Tomatoes!

Jalapenos!

My dining room greenhouse. Only about 4 more weeks of this! I love watching the plants grow though. I know, I'm weird.

Front Porch Time

2011-03-14T16:44:00.000-07:00

James has been putzing around the front porch. Hard to work on it when it's cold, but the weather is sometimes promising.

James & Joint Compound

Someday we'll get it done.

Problems with my Whirlpool Stove

2011-02-28T15:18:00.000-08:00

I'm really only writing about this in the hopes that others who have had issues with their Whirlpool ovens do a Google search and find this post. So to help this post pop up on searches, here are a few phrases: "My whirlpool oven sucks" "My Whirlpool oven is broken" "F2 code on Whirlpool oven" "Whirlpool oven overheating" "Whirlpool logo melts off stove". Okay. Now here is the dramatic story of our craptastic oven:

We bought this stove in August of 2008. We didn't buy any extended warranty or anything. Why? Most everything we own works fine. Plus, as you can see, this isn't some super dooper fancy stove. We weren't ready to install it until April of 2009. It sat in our Dining Room for those 9 months (climate controlled - no damage or anything). Here's a picture of it:

Upon being installed in April 2009, it worked fine. I honestly didn't cook much back in those days. Having two really young kids - I just wasn't really into baking stuff. Then winter came. Around December 2009, I started using the oven more and on occassion, the oven would "short out" and the code "F2" would appear on the electrical panel. The only way to get it to shut off was to go to the basement and flip the breaker. Apparently the "F2" code means the circuit board is malfunctioning and the repair guy said it's mostly do to overheating. It does get VERY hot in the rear of the stove when the oven is on - but the internal temperature is always what it's suppose to be. So we're obviously confused.

We lived crossing our fingers that the F2 code wouldn't come on every time we turned on the oven. There was a 1 in 4 chance back then it would come on. Not that bad. Summer came and again, I didn't do much baking because it was the summer. Then Fall 2010, I started firing up the oven more often. F2 was making it's appearance more and more. We discovered that if we had the vent fan on from the microwave, it sometimes wouldn't "F2" us. Then comes the December 2010/January 2011. Everytime we turn this oven on, it would "F2" us - even with our vent fan on.

So I call Whirlpool. Now granted, I probably should have done this a year ago when it would happen occassionally, but it was just one of those things that wasn't "that bad" - until it started happening everytime the stove was on. In January, the safety department at Whirlpool told me it was a safety issue and that they would send a repair man out and that we would have to pay for parts but they would cover the labor. This oven was either $399 or $429 at Lowe's.

The repair man came and without even turning on the oven told us that we needed to replace the electrical control panel. That's $96. He didn't have the part so he ordered it and it was delivered to us about 4 days later. He was scheduled to come about 2 days after that, but we had a snow storm and cancelled (I cancelled it - there was like 2 1/2 feet of snow and I wasn't going to be able to shovel it all out before he got here). I called and he came back about 10 days after. No big deal.

He replaced this $96 part mid February (about 10 days ago). He heated up the oven and about 9 minutes into the pre-heat cycle, it "F2"ed us. So he replaced the sensor (an $80 part). It worked.

I didn't cook for two days in it and the Whirlpool lady called and I said "so far, everything is good." Then I tried to use it. It "F2"ed me. Then we pulled it out from the wall and thought maybe it wasn't venting properly. But nope. It's just gotten worse and worse.

A week since the two major "problems" got replaced, the thing won't even get through the pre-heating cycle without shorting out. It used to short out at about the 9-11 minute mark of heating up. Now, it shorts out at around the 3-4 minute mark - so the oven won't even hit the temperature (usually 350). Every time it shorts out, the only way to turn it off is to hit the breaker.

There is also weird things about our oven:

Underneath the electrical panel - there used to be a Whirlpool logo. It MELTED OFF this past fall. That isn't normal, right?

And see that "grime" under the vent? That isn't grime. We've tried and tried again to clean it and it's like burnt paint. This stove has only been up and going for 1 year 10 months - and has been like this for the past 6 months. I don't think stoves that are under 2 years old should have this much wear to them.

Then this I just noticed two days ago - the metal Warning sticker inside the oven is starting to "burn off". Again, I don't think this is normal.

So I'm just here writing this because I'm waiting for a call back. Whirlpool seems to be great once you get them on the phone - but actually getting them on the phone is a nightmare. It took four attempts 3 weeks ago to actually get to talk to the person I needed to talk to. I called today around 3 pm and was told someone would call me back "soon" - it's now past 6 pm and they go home at 6:45 pm EST.

If you are a friend or family member who is reading this - sorry. You probably don't care about this stuff. Again - I'm just wondering what is going on with ventilation of this stove and if it's going to burn our house down. Just a note: Once the oven is on, the internal temperature is fine. It's just venting or something of that nature that seems to be the major issue.

I've made 4 separate trips to Lowe's/Home Depot and have talked up the appliance salesmen that looked like they knew a thing or two about appliances. All 4 of them said Whirlpool is the best and has the least complaints. None of them ever heard of anything like our situation. All of them apologized (not sure why - they weren't the dummies who waited a year to actually call and complain about this situation).

Also - we've only ever bought Whirlpool appliances. If we're told "sorry, you're out of luck with your crappy less-than-2-year-old stove and your recent purchase of parts that didn't do a darn thing" - then there is no way I'm buying another Whirlpool. What's another good stove brand?

This stove fiasco pretty much sucks. The end.

***UPDATE! 4/19/2011*** After about 2 months of having reported the problem, about 1/2 dozen visits from the repair man and about $1500 in parts and service, our oven in fixed! The man replaced virtually everything on the stove. After that, he added some insulation - and voila - it works fine now! My husband is mad we had to drop $96 on a part we really didn't need - but the fact that we only paid $96 out of $1500 isn't too shabby. It also saves us $500+ on buying a new stove. So if your Whirlpool stove F2s on you - save the time and aggrevation by just getting more insulation put in under the control panel.***

Kitchen, of course!

2011-02-26T05:30:00.000-08:00

Today is Day 12 or 13 of our spur of the moment kitchen re-do. The end seems near, but we said that on like Day 3 as well. Along the way, we've just hit lots of glitches and bumps - as we do with most projects we attempt. Let's highlight two of the "good ones".

- We rented a tile saw from Home Depot. We had everything cut. James went and returned the saw. He returned home and all the tiles were layed out where they were suppose to go. He picked most of them up to start sanding the backerboard - but left the ones down that weren't near his sanding area at the time - and crash. A tile fell to the floor. Luckily, we had some extras and there is a small tile shop up the street that cut a replacement tile. That took up about 3 hours though of swearing, measuring a new tile, calling the tile shop, actually going to the tile shop and coming back.

- When we measured the hole for the stove originally, we left 30 1/4" for the stove ("ideal" for most stoves). 30" is the normal stove width. After taking off the laminate, we laid plywood, then cement board, and then tile. We didn't have the tile when started - so James figured the tile width to be 1/4" - but it was 3/8". Before starting to attach the tile, we realized that our stove would not be fitting in the hole if we chose to continue. So we modified it a bit and sanded down the cement board on both sides. Here's hoping it was enough. This took a good portion of one day.

So where are we at this morning? All of the backsplash is attached to the wall. All except for about 8 pieces of the sides of the countertop are attached. James will throw on the last 8 this morning and we will be able to grout tomorrow. Here's some pictures.

For the most part, it looks pretty good for "do-it-youselfers" - but I guess with it taking 2 weeks, it better look good!

The 30" came out pretty good. I'll let you in with a couple of our secrets to make this backsplash work. On newer houses - it would be easy to throw up this stuff because things are more "accurate" and "not settled" - when your house is 90 years old - things just aren't the way they used to be.

Happily - this 30" area was pretty level and pretty straight - but upon putting up the tiles, we needed about 1/8" - 1/4" more space on top (we started at the bottom to install them). Now if we were "professionals", we would have put the whole height up first and just moved the tiles some to make them work - but then we wouldn't be sure of an even grout line (and if you know James, you know this wouldn't fly). So we put up all but the top row. Now we never worked with glass tile before. We had two options - cut the tiles or sand the cabinets. We have a handheld tile nipper - but it really doesn't give us great results. We tried a Rotozip tip - which provided worse results than the nippers. So James took out his Dremel and started sanding the bottom of the top cabinet. It worked great and provided just enough room to fit that last row of tiles in. Thank goodness. By the way, you can barely see the top row - unless you are bending over and actually looking for it - a whole lot of time spent on something that will barely get seen. That's a lot of what we do.

My job in this whole backsplash thing was to cut the tile sheets (they came 12 X 12) and have them line up as good as possible. I started from all the noticable ends and figured we'd work the corner the best we could. When doing it though, when it came to the end of the window, I had about 1/2" above the ledge there (the individual tiles are just under an inch). And that little inlet of the window was just over 2 1/2 inches. So we hand cut the tiles for the corner there (which came out pretty good - but it was only 10 tiles that needed to be cut). For the edge, we weren't sure what we were going to do since we knew if we cut the tiles, one edge would be jagged. Easy to hide in corners - but not for exposed areas. A quick trip to Lowe's solved this dilemma. We found 1/2" wide, 6" long pieces that matched our tile. We picked up a few of them and ended the tile here with that. That was a blessing.

This long stretch of backsplash also provided some challenges for us. When we installed the cabinets, we made sure they were level. So when we put up all but the top row of tiles on this side, we had about 3/4" left on the portion near the door. But it gradually increased to about 1 1/4" by the time we got to the corner. So full tiles would fit a little past the stove, but we weren't sure how to do the smaller section. The part under the microwave was easy because we didn't have cabinets in our way. James made a trip to the basement and found leftover wood from our cabinet install that was exactly 3/4" wide. So we cut pieces that would fit under two cabinets that filled the gap great. Once those two cabinet areas were filled with wood - the tiles would fit the rest of the way as whole tiles. Great solution!

Here's another picture of our "quick" fix. It's barely noticable and ties in really great. As far as the corner, I was lucky enough to have a whole tile go to the corner on window side wall. Unfortually, for the stove side, we needed about half a tile. Again, we just nipped the 18 tiles needed and put the jagged edge in the corner. The grout should cover up any weird looking cuts - but we cut a bunch of them and picked the best ones. Unless you're actually leaning into our countertops and studing the backsplash, I don't think it will be too noticable.

We spent pretty much a whole day trying to solve these little dilemmas. Maybe that's why this is taking so long. It's fun though. Kind of.

My Ego's Got The Best Of Me

2011-02-23T13:07:00.000-08:00

This backsplash project is fun!

Becky Does Some Work

2011-02-23T10:46:00.000-08:00

James is still fartsing around with the countertop so I got the task of starting to lay out and cut the backsplash tile. I never knew I was so able bodied in the art of glass mosaic tile.

The Tiles Are All Cut!

2011-02-22T06:04:00.000-08:00

Day 9 of "kitchen re-do #2" and I'm pretty sure James will be ready to affix the tiles to the countertops today. Once again, we have been sort of "surprised" at how long it takes to do things - but we don't really care. He's having fun doing this.

So this is what our kitchen looks like this morning:

The corner area.

The 9" cabinet.

The 30" cabinet!

We're coming along nicely now. I'm not sure what exactly is in store for us today. I think just attaching the tiles and maybe attaching the backsplash. Then we'll have to grout and seal it - then we should be good to go and it will be on to the next project...

Kitchen Update

2011-02-20T07:09:00.000-08:00

All of the cement board has been put on the countertops - so now it's almost tile time! We got our marble tiles yesterday and have started to place them where they'll go. We're only leaving an 1/16" gap between the tiles to give "the illusion" of a solid surface. It's like a ghettotastic way to try to look classy.

Hopefully we'll have more to report in the coming days!

Hallway is Done!

2011-02-18T06:30:00.000-08:00

So I took on the task of re-painting the downstairs hallways/staircase/upstairs hallway. I finished a few days ago and I'm pretty happy with the results. I painted the ceiling too - I hate painting textured paint. But what can you do?

View from the kids' room. Next project - work on the floors.

The pictures are up!

I still have to paint some mouldings and the doors - but that shall come later.

James' backsplash project turned into a "new countertops & backsplash" project. We bought really pretty glass mosaic tiles for the backsplash and will be picking out beige marble tiles for the countertops. This better "complete" the kitchen...only took us 3 years, 1 month to do. We're on day 5 now with no kitchen sink and I've been in really good spirits about it. We went 6 days with no kitchen sink on our first "kitchen re-do" 2 1/2 years ago and I went nuts. I must have better hormones flowing through my body now than I did back then. I don't want James to rush - if this is "it" - then I want him to take his time to make sure everything is good. Hopefully we'll have some completed pictures of this soon!

We're Back At It!

2011-02-15T05:32:00.000-08:00

Winter sucks. It's cold, it's snowy and it's not even almost over. I'm also in that stircrazy mode. I like change. I like to move. We've been here for over 3 years now and I need some excitement! So I finally got off my lazy butt and decided to do something about it: Paint the hallway/stairway/upstairs hallway.

We painted this about 2 1/2 years ago. Unfortunately, the color I picked out then, which seemed nice on the card, came out "old lady pink". This time around, we went with some "oat gold" color. Tan/Beige if you will. This is so far (my battery died when I took this so it didn't come out too good).

So far, much better than "old lady pink".

James took on a project too - but I will wait until he's all done to post the pictures...I like leaving people in suspense.

Chimney Flashing Replaced!

2010-12-03T04:52:00.000-08:00

When we bought this house, we really didn't take into consideration the roof line. Granted, we aren't on the roof all that much, but had we bought a ranch or cape, it would be a little easier for James to take care of some simple things. A few weeks ago, I noticed a water spot in our attic. Then walking, I noticed a shingle is missing from our roof. A single shingle. When we bought this place 3 years ago, the inspector told us that our chimney flashing needed to be replaced. So today, James went up there and replaced it. He also scoped out the missing shingle (by the way, they sell replacement shingles in sheets of 3).

James stole a harness from work so he used it. Safety first at our house!

There is James shimmying down the roof.

I was nice and held the ladder as he was climbing down.

Ben thought it was cool that Daddy went on the roof.

So James was able to fix the flashing, but he said the angle that the missing shingle is at is hard to replace because the hip roof and the lack of anything to hold onto. He said he might try to go up the other side to get at it in a different angle. Or we might call a roofer. I don't even know if roofers come out for little, stupid jobs like "replace a shingle". I guess we might find out.

In other news, we are really trying to finish this porch up. We were going to hire our plasterer to plaster it, but with James laid off, we're just trying to finish it off ourselves for now. We figure, we have all the materials needed so it's not costing us anything but time and if it looks really bad, we'll call the plasterer next year when James is working again. My goal is to have this done by Christmas so we'll see.

Landscaping....

2010-10-13T17:49:00.000-07:00

Well, I've "landscaped" half of the front yard. I neglected to take a picture of the "full" aspect because the rest of the yard still looks like butt. I'm dealing with the root of an old bush on the other side of the stairs - which is killing me.

This side took me probably about 5 hours in total, if not more. I cut out about 40-50 roots with a sawsall. I planted about 150 bulbs & 2 trees. Then I threw some mulch down (I'm probably the only fool in New England who bought mulch in October).

I'm hoping to get the rest of the place done before winter really hits - James doesn't understand my rush - but men just don't get Christmas decorations. I love decorations and I NEED it to look decent for Christmas! We have a door decorating contest in our town that I need to win! Why does he not understand this??!

Front Hallway - Tiling Has Begun!

2010-08-23T06:22:00.000-07:00

James tiled the floor yesterday. We now just have to wait 24 hours and then he can put the grout down. We just continued the kitchen tiles into the hallway. We bought a bunch of them what, like 2 years ago when we tiled the kitchen. We finally put them to use.

I also painted the kitchen green a few days ago. Here I am in my homemaker apparel to show it off. I need to organize the kitchen some before I "show it off" more. Plus, it doesn't help that there is the front hallway radiator just sitting in the middle of the kitchen. I really like it though. We used the same green as we did in the dining room and it is definitely more of what we had in mind as far as a "finished" kitchen than that awful blue. The blue wasn't a bad color by itself - it was just bad in our kitchen. I even painted our backdoor green! I think it looks great. Since it's raining today and Ben's camp got cancelled, maybe I can actually organize this place. I am probably jinxing myself.

Tile That Floor James!

2010-08-19T05:43:00.000-07:00

While we were away in CT for the weekend, James got bored. He ripped up the flooring in our front hallway. We came home to this:

It brought back flashbacks from living in our un-done kitchen back in 2008. Since this, James laid down some plywood, cement board and has all the tiles cut to put down. We're just waiting for this weekend when he should have enough time off in a row to actually lay the tiles. We're just continuing the tiles we put down in our kitchen 2 years ago.

Home Improvements are always more fun with a 2 year-old helping you!

Porch and Other Updates!

2010-08-02T05:42:00.000-07:00

We haven't really done anything too major to the house recently. Just a lot of little odds and ends. We finally put blinds and a curtain up in our downstairs bathroom! Woohoo! It only took us 2 1/2 years - so apologies to any of our neighbors who enjoyed peeping at us in the past.

The dining room built-in is completely done with handles attached. I just have to concentrate on keeping it clean now!

James finished up some oddball stuff in the kitchen. We tried some paint samples because the blue isn't working for us. We thought having a brown in there might do the trick, but after a couple random "browns" on the wall - we have decided that we don't like it. Since we have almost a full gallon of our green paint from the dining room, we're thinking we'll just go ahead and paint it the same color as the dining room since we love that color so much. Our motto: You can never have too much green in a house!

The outside of the house is killing us. Just because we really have zero idea what to do with it. We have random bushes and trees all over. We'll probably just kill them all off. We did manage to put up our mailbox and house numbers! Woohoo!

We also threw down a rock walkway for now. We're not sure what we're going to do with it permanently, but this will do for now (it will probably still be like this 20 years from now knowing us....)

We have thrown down a bunch a grass seed a while ago to get the front yard looking good - but our front yard was always very shaddy due to a neighbor's tree. But Whoa! This past Tuesday, our neighbors had their huge, dying tree cut down! Now we have sun in our front yard all day long! Now maybe our grass seed will grow with some more dedication to watering it.

We had an electrician come in and throw in the outside light and a bunch of outlets in the porch. He did this Saturday. The electrical inspector is suppose to come Thursday or Friday and if we get the okay from him, the electrician can finish up the job. We think we're just going to go ahead and sheet rock it. We've been going back and forth about putting up wood walls/dry wall - but dry wall just seems easier.

That is it for now! Maybe with Tommy's birthday party coming up, we'll get remotivated to do some stuff. Parties always motivate me to do stuff on the house. I don't know why.

Landscaping and Paint

2010-06-08T04:28:00.000-07:00

I've been working like a mad lady the last few days. James believes I recently became addicted to Speed, but I haven't.

I started our "landscaping". The following picture shows 5 hours worth of work. It's really hard to move grass. But now, James just needs to level the ground and throw down a walkway.

I've also been painting stuff. I have more painting to do and touch ups around the house. But I got the bathroom mouldings painted, half of the door and the dining room done.

This is a bad picture - but the mouldings are done. Now I can finally throw up a blind and a curtain.

The built-in area is done! Now I just have to clean it and have James install the pulls. I scored some on clearance a while back - they are just longing to be put to good use!

The Porch Is "Done"!

2010-06-04T11:57:00.000-07:00

Our contractor guys came back today to put up the siding and demand their last payment. They are officially done - but the work is just getting started for us. We have to landscape the front yard and do some detail work (like put numbers and a new mailbox on our house - as well as painting the stairs)

Here's the result:

Looking at the final picture makes me realize just how much work we have to do. I have no idea how we are going to do it - but I'm confident James will figure it out somehow or other.

Woodwork is Done!

2010-05-30T06:34:00.000-07:00

Our woodworking brothers came over and did a bunch of stuff. They finished off our cabinet tops, sides and some mouldings on the floor. They finished the mouldings in the bathroom. They finished the dining room built-in with the original wood from the original built-in. They finished in 4 hours and did a great job - but now we just have to get back in the home improvement spirit to caulk and paint!

Built-In Before

Built-In After

Bathroom Window Before

Bathroom Window After

Cabinets Before

Cabinets After

Cabinets Before

Cabinets After

I was so very happy with their work - fast and good! If anyone around here needs woodwork done - give me a call and I'll give you these brothers number to you. They were outstanding!

Waiting & Woodwork

2010-05-27T08:38:00.000-07:00

So, yeah, the siding for our house is behind on the shipping front. Or maybe that's just what the contractor told me to stall coming back. Either way, I don't really care - because once it's done, we'll have to worry about tackling that front yard. Don't get me wrong, I'm excited to have a better looking front yard than the disaster that is out there now, but I really don't want to do any of the work to get to that point. The siding should be in June 1st and they'll be over after that.

In my spare time, I've been scraping the lead paint off the ceiling of the porch. We're not in too much of a rush to finish it, but it will be nice when it's done inside.

On the flip side, we're excited that the wood guys are coming Saturday. They are going to finish up our kitchen cabinets, our half bath moulding and some mouldings in the dining room. Hopefully that will make a big difference and after some painting - it will be safe to say that everything on the first floor besides the front hall way will be "done". And yeah, we're getting rid of the blue in the kitchen because it just isn't for us. We're going to try a light brown. We'll see how that turns out.

Stairs Are Almost Done

2010-05-18T09:02:00.000-07:00

So even though the guys said they weren't coming back today, Mother Nature decided to plop some rain on us tomorrow, so they swung by today to do a lot of the steps to stay ahead. They were only here for 4 hours, but got a lot of the stairway knocked out.

Part of the way we tried to "save" money is to have them not finish off the inside of the porch. We'll get to that whenever we can. We have our work cut out for us:

A Door and Some Wood...

2010-05-17T14:40:00.000-07:00

The men were back today to do some more stuff. Apparently there was a little confusion with our porch - they thought we wanted the whole thing sided, but we really wanted white wood all around the windows. Well I honestly didn't really care, but that's what James wanted. So I fought for my husband (I actually just told the guys that we wanted it to look different than originally planned....). So we had to shell out a little more money for "fancy" wood but in the long run, it will be fine. On the flip side, when we got an estimate for the porch, we told them not to include a new door - but today, a door was delivered! So I say it sort of evens itself out with the door and the wood. Here are the latest updated pictures:

Since they can probably finish the stairs and the siding in one day, they probably won't be back until the siding is in (earliest would be Friday - unless we get lucky). They've said they have had the siding come in earlier than expected, right on time, or even a few weeks late. So honestly, who knows when they'll be back. I know they will be back though - I still owe them money!

The Windows Are In!

2010-05-14T13:13:00.000-07:00

The porch guys were back this morning to get to work. A good surprise happened: The windows came in today (they were suppose to come in next Friday). So the guys got them in. They also started the staircase. They are taking the weekend off and will be back Monday morning to finish up almost everything but the siding. Here's what the porch looks like now after today's work:

Porch Update

2010-05-13T13:01:00.000-07:00

The guys came back to do more work on the porch today. They were successful in digging 4 ft. holes according to our town's building inspector. That's good to know. They poured the concrete yesterday so that was pretty boring. Today they started framing in the porch and got rid of our walk way - which has made me realize that we will have a lot of landscaping to do once all is said and done. Here are today's pictures:

Here are the guys jackhammering the walkway away.

Framing has started and they took away the supports.

They'll be back tomorrow to finish up the framing and start the stairs. They went to get the siding today - but didn't realize how "old" it was and had to special order it. That won't be in for 2 weeks so once the framing is done, we'll have to wait a week or 2 for the windows and siding to be put on. Maybe James can throw in the outside light during that time since that is suppose to be done before the final inspection.

New Front Porch - Day 1

2010-05-10T12:22:00.000-07:00

The contractor guys came today. I could have sworn they said they would be here at 8 - but they were here at 6:30. They got the front porch torn apart and started building the floor to the new one. Tomorrow, some inspector guy has to come and measure some holes to make sure they are to code - so the guys won't be back until Wednesday or Thursday. They said they should be done (for the most part) on Friday or Monday - but unfortunately, the windows won't be in until next Friday - so it will be about 2 weeks until everything is complete.

Here's some pictures of the work they did so far:

Here's our old porch in the dumpster.

One angle.

Ooohhhh....

Ahhhh....

Front Porch Preparations!

2010-05-07T17:03:00.000-07:00

We are very excited - the first "major" home improvement that we hired someone to do is starting this coming Monday. The new front porch! We decided to go with an enclosed front porch since we could really use some extra space to store shoes, coats and toys. Even though we really like the open porch - we aren't really "sit on out there and drink lemonade in our rocking chair people." So enclosed it is.

I'm really freaking out about the aesthetics of this project. This project could totally change the look of the house and I really don't want it to look all ghetto. So we surprisingly didn't go the "cheapest" route with some things. My "big" issue with this porch is the windows. I want real windows. James wants the door to line up with the real door - and I personally wanted the porch door centered. I let James win that fight. He in turn supports my need for flower boxes some day.

These are my last "pre-construction" photos:

Oh - and then I let out a little aggression with the Sawsall...I told the contractor he could just get rid of that big bush. He said "no problem - they'll cut it first thing and throw it in the dumpster." I couldn't pass up the opportunity to Sawsall anything:

One thing I will miss about the new porch: It won't be held up by tree trunks. That is really keeping it old school, but I think current building law says that concrete is stronger than tree trunks these days:

Under the current porch.

A close up of one of the beloved tree trunks.

I'll take pictures during construction because I'm gay like that. I'm excited. I just hope I stay that way after the finish product is unveiled.

Plaster Time!

2010-05-07T16:50:00.000-07:00

The other day, we had a plasterer come by to finally finish off the Dining Room and some misc. holes we had around the house. Here are some pictures:

He said for the best outcome, wait at least a week to paint. That's okay - we'll wait a week because we have to do the mouldings. Actually - we're very excited because the plasterer we found knows some cabinet brothers. They came on by and gave us a great estimate to finish off our cabinets and other misc. wood work around the house. We only justify hiring these people by this simple rule: If James works a Saturday (at the present time, he works every Saturday...), it's time being away from home and spent on home improvements. So for every Saturday he works (there have been MANY)...we justify it in our head that as long as the job costs less than what he gets paid for a Saturday, the person or persons are hired! This is a great mentality we have developed...

Updates...

2010-04-19T05:46:00.000-07:00

In case you haven't noticed, we haven't done much on the house lately. It's cold, James works odd hours, and excuse, excuse, excuse!

We are getting excited though - we scrimped and saved and hired a contractor! It's like a miracle! Our front porch is really getting to a point where it needs to be rebuilt before it causes actual damage to the house - so we hired someone to come on in and rebuild it. Since we live on a kind of busy road and never just "sit out there to think about life" - we decided to spend a little more to get it enclosed so we can have a mudroom of sorts. I'm really freaked out by this because it might completely change the look of the house - and quite honestly, James and I both like the look of our house as is. The only thing that we were really anal on was that the windows had to be regular windows - and even though the contractor told us that it would be more for the "real windows" - we didn't care. I just wanted windows with the white panes in them to make the porch look more "part of the house" like.

Construction is suppose to begin in 2-3 weeks. Hopefully that doesn't fall through....That will be fun to take pictures of.

My "big" project I'm taking on this spring/summer is painting the shutters. Currently, we have a light blue/grayish house with, I guess, Country Blue-ish shutters. It's just too much blue. I'm making James take down the shutters and I'm going to paint them a cranberry red. I'm excited to get going on this - but I'm not going to do it until the porch is done.

And that is all....

More Storage!

2010-01-05T15:54:00.000-08:00

I've been telling James that I wish I could find containers that would fit under the couch so I can "hide" some of the boys' toys. Unfortunately, the gap between our couch and floor is only about 4 inches. The smallest bins I can find are 6 inches. So James went to the basement, scoped out his scrap wood pile, went to work on his table saw and came up with this:

So we put this wonderful new drawer in the living room and told the boys to put all their Hot Wheels in it.

Now all their cars can live under the couch. Amazing!

Unemployment = Progress!

2009-12-07T14:26:00.000-08:00

Now that James has had a few days off, he's back into the swing of things with home improvements! We're gearing up to have our plasterer guy come next week to plaster around the built-in. Then we can finish that up. But we are sticking small. We have lots of little things to do - and a lot of projects that are "almost done".

Today's "big" progress was James finished putting in the baseboard in the downstairs bathroom. I guess he's adding a little more moulding to it - but since he had to go to class tonight, he finished up for the day.

Ooooh....

Ahhh....

The toilet seems to be leaking now too. Always something. I guess James noticed it a little while ago - but just thought it was Ben peeing on the side of the toilet. It is not though. He'll have to look at that this week. It's not a lot, but still something...

He is also attempting to add the last of our classy backsplash...

Good-bye unfinished area above the sink! You won't be missed. Updates tomorrow since we have tons of time to work these days.

The Built-In: Some Success!

2009-10-13T06:02:00.000-07:00

We've made some success with the built-in! It's almost there! I have to call the plasterer today to see if he can come and plaster up that wall really quick. I don't think it will be more than $200 - so better spend the husband's paycheck while he still has one! Once that is done, we can throw up the other moulding and paint. I think James still has to put an outlet in there - but that shouldn't take long. Hopefully it will still look like it is original to the house. We tried to reuse a lot of the wood and stuff. We did have to replace some stuff - but that is expected with 88 year old wood.

Of course Daddy had a few helpers!

Touching Up Some Odds & Ends in the Kitchen

2009-09-02T10:46:00.000-07:00

I've been busy in the kitchen - fixing up some odds and ends that most people don't even notice. But living here, I notice them and they bother me.

Before: No chair rail and beadboard not painted.

After: Chair rail installed and I painted it with the beadboard.

Before: I didn't paint a straight line to the ceiling because we were going to put up mouldings. But it's taking a long time to get that point and we're no where near doing that. So I threw up painting tape around the kitchen and made as best attempt as I could to make it look "normal" (the wall where it meets the ceiling is not in the best of shape. Unless you are staring at it though, you can't really tell).

After: A straight line of paint!

After Again: I did paint that beadboard too - it just gives the kitchen a more finished look.

Next Step: Putting the cabinet mouldings up. Nothing fancy. Just wood that matches the cabinets that have to be cut to fit. We might see how much it would cost someone else to do it. It might be worth it to just have someone else do this since James doesn't feel very comfortable with this task.

A New Refridgerator!

2009-08-30T10:11:00.000-07:00

About a year ago, we went on an appliance shopping spree - a new stove, dishwasher, microwave and washer. We thought we were lucky since the refridgerator the previous owners left was pretty new and working fine. Well fast forward to this past week. The refridgerator started to not work. James took it all apart and figured parts would run us about $300 and we weren't even sure if that would fix the problem. So we figured we'd help the economy and just buy a new one.

"Old" refridgerator

New refridgerator!

We splurged on one with a water fountain thingy on it. It was $150 more than the one that we would have bought, but this one had a handy dandy $50 Energy Star rebate from our electric company on it. Plus, Crazy Cousin Tom hooked us up with a little discount. It justified the purchase...plus, having cold water at our disposable will hopefully make us more healthy. I'll just add the "hook the refridgerator up to the water pipes" onto James' extremely long list of things still to do.

Mouldings & Stairs

2009-08-20T12:12:00.000-07:00

A long while ago, James installed the crown mouldings in the living room. I took a few pictures - but this is the best one!!! I don't know what I was thinking when I was snapping these shots!!!

Poor James isn't even in this picture! I must have been focusing on Ben.

Here are the mouldings - FINALLY painted! Thanks to me!

The furniture has been all in disarray with my painting. It's been so hot here. I put tape all around the mouldings and I can't begin to tell you how much sweat this generated from my body. I shouldn't do this kind of stuff in this crazy heat - but I can't help myself.

I started painting the balusters and the rest of the stairs. There are so many nooks and cranies on this staircase. It's crazy.

The Slackers Get Back To It

2009-08-18T05:06:00.000-07:00

With James working so much lately, home improvements have taken a back seat a lot. Our big problem with everything is that we have literally started every project imaginable but haven't finished many. Oops. At least we are aware of our wrong doings.

James installed the toe kicks for the cabinets. Little details that take way too much time.

James is staring to work on the built in in the dining room.

Well there is some wood up. We debated about drywalling it or doing all wood. We went with all wood. It seemed easier. We'll see come the finished product...whenever that may be! ha ha!

We Have A New Electrical Service!

2009-06-22T07:12:00.000-07:00

Well the day finally came on Friday to get a new electrical service! Most of it is done - the electrician was going to come back today to fix up some stuff - but I think he's holding off since we have some guys installing new gutters today. Gutter installer guys are pretty crazy.

Here's a friendly reminder of how we lived for the past year. We had 1 outlet in the kitchen (and it was hanging by a cord, resting on the radiator. Nice, huh?) Other rooms had either 1 or 2 outlets. Now, every room has 5 outlets and the kitchen has a whopping 8. I'm tempted to find 16 things to plug in the kitchen - but I honestly don't think we have 16 things that plug in.

Here's James' fancy wiring job. Dave the electrician thought he did a great job and told me if James is ever looking for work to have him call him. Many a hours were spent running these wires. I'm sure if you added up all the numbers of hours James spent on electric work it would be a good couple weeks, if not a month or two, of time spent on it.

Here's our new panel. Wow. Fancy. It has 40 slots in it. We currently have 22 filled. I asked James why needed such a big one. He said if we ever have plans like getting an addition, a hot tub or adding power to the shed we'd need extra slots. I like his future plans!

Wow! Lights!

I'm actually really happy with how the kitchen looks. We used these small recessed lights (they were on clearance at Lowe's) - James was mad at his position of them after he installed them. I thought they wouldn't provide enough light. But now that we actually have the means to turn them on, they actually look really nice. Unfortunately, they are so bright, I'm going to actually have to keep the kitchen clean now. Oh man!

Good-Bye Big Tree!

2009-06-15T12:07:00.000-07:00

We got our tree removed today. Here I am to document it...

The tree in the winter.

The tree in the Summer.

Hello Mr. Policeman! You got some good money standing in front of my house for 4 hours.

Hello Mr. Tree Cutter Downer Guy. My little boys enjoyed watching you for 2 1/2 hours!

My front yard with tree debris all over.

Now with the tree gone, you can see our extreme lack of landscaping. Next week? New Gutters. Then we'll officially be poor. That's why I have my other blog. And yes, there is a piece of tree that grew around the wire there. I'm suppose to call that company to have them remove it. I think it's the phone company but I have to wait for the husband to come home to verify this.

The Boys' Bedroom - Before & Afters!

2009-05-30T17:38:00.000-07:00

So. I finally finished the mouldings in the boys' room. I got the furniture in there. Well, for the most part. Here are some before and afters...

What the room looked like from the door when we looked at the house:

What the room looks like from the door now:

A corner of the room before:

The same corner now:

And just a bonus picture for fun! Woohooo!

Kitchen Mouldings Continue!

2009-05-26T04:48:00.000-07:00

James has been really good at putting up the chair rail and baseboard in the kitchen. I think it looks really good. Unfortunately, we really don't like the blue and how it all comes together. I have to buy more paint for the dining room once the built-in is rebuilt - so we might just take the leftover paint and paint the kitchen the same color as the dining room. I told James I wasn't going to paint it again until everything is done in there. Which means I won't even consider painting again until about 2011.

Look how good those mouldings look!

Here's the back corner with the mouldings done. I'm just surprised at how much more the kitchen looks put together with this stuff done. We still have more to do and we think we'll tackle the living room crown moulding next. With those $10/$50 coupons Lowe's put out last week, we're in heaven!

Starting The Fine Details!

2009-05-24T04:02:00.000-07:00

James had to work yesterday. Blah. It's Memorial Day Weekend! But he came home around 3 and we went up to Lowe's - we're going to try to knock out some of the small details left in the house. For instance, the chair rail in the kitchen and the crown mouldings in the living room and possibly dining room. See up there! He put the chair rail up last night!

Speaking of dining room, Here is our latest addition to our dining room. James and I have had many a talk about this. Last weekend, we found these 3 beautiful pieces at the clearance center at Jordan's. We decided to buy the chest and the "bigger" dresser (it's 6 inches bigger than the "regular" dresser we recently found out.) So the delivery guys came Thursday and it wouldn't fit up the stairs. I actually went back to Jordan's on Friday night - and luckily they still had 2 of the smaller dressers left (the chest was gone). So I bought it, but managed to smooth talk the salesman to waive the delivery fee. He was very nice. Joe at the Avon Jordan's. I give him 3 thumbs up.

Oh. So James is mad because he wanted to shimmy this piece up the house and bring it in through a window. I want to throw up a wall where the china cabinet was and just put it there. This is our compromise. It surprisingly fits really well in that little popped out area of the dining room. The only problem is that it looks so nice, it REALLY makes our table look really ghetto. I mean, I knew it looked ghetto before, but now it looks super ghetto. Good thing they make table cloths!

The Boys Room So Far...

2009-05-15T09:29:00.000-07:00

So the walls are painted in the boys room. I have to do the mouldings and touch up a few areas. I still can't decide whether I like it or not. I liked the color on the sample. I liked the color of the wet paint and then it went up. I don't know. It's one of those shades that changes a lot with the light. When it's dark in the room, it's a really gross, pukey green. When it's light, it's very pretty.

Here's kind of a dark, gross picture.

Here's another view that I like a lot. The paint shade is very pretty with so much light on it.

So far, all we put back are the beds because I want to knock out the mouldings in the next few days. Both boys got extremely excited when I put the beds so close like this. Ben goes "So I get to sleep right next to Tommy?" We'll play around with it some after all is said and done.

Paint Prep In The Boys' Room!

2009-05-12T06:28:00.000-07:00

The day has come to paint the boys' room! We said that we were going to let Ben pick out the color - but we've since changed that. Over the past few weeks he has mentioned a few colors -which we all boycotted. In a book, he picked out "Habanero Red" - which was a deep, fire truck like red. No. Then he was set on purple. No. Orange. No. We went to Lowe's and he picked a brown. Not a nice brown. A pupu brown. No. So I told him it had to be a green or blue. We agreed on a "Moss" color. Sort of a deeper green than what's in our dining room. I'm sure it will change by the time we actually go buy the paint.

We cleared out their room and did some prep work - fill in holes and cracks with joint compound. I'm hoping to whip out the ceiling here today or tomorrow and possibly start on the walls.

Our New Ghetto Fence and Sporty New Grill!

2009-05-12T05:51:00.000-07:00

James finished our child entrapment device. Also known as our new ghetto fence made of 2 concrete blocks, some concrete, 2X4s and plastic net stuff. Pretty? No. Gets the job done? Yes. Not bad for under $100! We also got a new grill. Ooooooh! Ahhhhhh!

Building A Fence!

2009-05-05T04:32:00.000-07:00

James has a new mission he's trying to complete - building a fence to keep the rugrats in the backyard. A certain little red head likes to run down the driveway - a lot. So to save us energy and aggrevation of chasing him all the time, we realized it would just be easier to build some sort of mini-jail for him. Here's what it looks like so far. It should be finished this week.

Back Bedroom - Before & Afters!

2009-04-23T14:12:00.000-07:00

Okay. So I took some pictures of the back bedroom done. It's pretty much done. I guess I should hang some pictures or something and clean up the computer area. I'll get to that someday...

Here's what the back bedroom looked like from the doorway when we looked at the house and agreed to buy it:

BEFORE

Here's what it looks like now:

AFTER

Here we're looking at the closet door:

BEFORE

AFTER

Here's looking at the wall by the door:

BEFORE

AFTER

I'm happy with it. I think this is a good shot for people who need help envisioning a house when trying to buy. Sure, a house or room might look a little "not right" - but with some decluttering, cleaning, a new light fixture and some paint - it looks like a totally different room! I should work for HGTV!

Recent Updates!

2009-04-23T13:04:00.000-07:00

Even though I have been bad at posting, we've still be hard at work. Here are a few things we've accomplished over the past few weeks!

James finished the patio! He had to cut bricks for the side and back. He did that then filled the cracks with sand. It is done. Also! This is our bargain patio! James "acquired" all the bricks and cobblestones from a job site last fall. And really - it looks better in real life. BARGAINTASTIC!

I did paint the faces of the stairs. I still have to figure out how I'm going to refinish the tops, paint the things that hold the banister up and a few other things. It just seems so hard and I'm not motivated these days.

This is the back, spare room. I painted it Sunbeam (same color as the downstairs bathroom). I did the mouldings too and the bed and computer are back in place. I'll take a picture of the finished product here soon.

I also painted the upstairs hallway. It's the same color as the downstairs hallway and staircase. You can't really tell in this picture. I did half the mouldings and have to knock out the rest of the mouldings here soon.

We're still waiting on getting our electrical system upgraded. Now that the nice weather is here, it should happen soon (hopefully!). James has finished up some other outlets and wiring for things like the garbage disposal and outside outlets. If all goes well, almost everything will be good to go once the master is updated. I think he still has to wire up the microwave that's above the stove.

We got a quote to remove the tree in the front yard. It's not too bad. Unfortunately, the same day I got the tree quote, I was informed by our gutter cleaning people that our gutters are just too rough for them to clean - they want us to replace them. So we'll be getting quotes on that here in the next few weeks and see what that brings. Hopefully we can still swing the tree removal with the gutters. I know James really hates that tree in front of our house.

Let There Be Gas!

2009-04-07T15:18:00.001-07:00

Our friend Dan the Plumber came by today. He hooked up the dishwasher, garbage disposal and stove. What a great plumber!

Work being done!

Let there be gas! Now I don't really have an excuse to not cook - only that I'm horrible at it. Oh well.

Flowers In The Attic!

2009-03-22T05:57:00.000-07:00

For some reason, I got this motivation to clean out the attic today. The boys helped me. Our mission? To create a space to put all their toys! I'm sick of looking at toys (that's probably not very motherly to say). Now you probably didn't see what this looked like before - but my mother has and she can attest to how messy our attic once was. Honestly, I have no idea where I put everything! So now it's more of a livable space. It's like I instantly created 400 sq ft extra in our house! I'm working on it some more tomorrow. I'm too good.

The Stairs Are Transforming!

2009-03-13T03:58:00.000-07:00

I'm trying to clean up the stairs the a bit. I just got the motivation. I pulled up the pink carpet in the summer (gee! That's almost a year ago!) and sort of just left them alone - hoping a magical fairy would come in the middle of the night and fix them up. The fairy has not come. Now in our defense, this wasn't a project that we wanted to be taking on right now. The previous owners had a nice dark pink carpet down on the stairs and upstairs hallway. It was less than 2 years old. Besides the color, we didn't mind it much. However, our late kitty cat Kiki decided to pee on a couple spots when she was sick last summer. Thus began our stair renovation.

I must have pulled out hundreds of carpet staples. Therefore, wood filler became my best friend.

I sanded, cleaned and taped up in preparation for prime.

And I primed! As you might notice, I still haven't painted the downstairs mouldings. Well I painted some. Since I'll have the paint out to do the stair faces, I'm hoping to finish the mouldings up as well. I really like painting mouldings - but it's hard to paint with the wee little ones running around. So I must wait for them to sleep and usually by then, I'm trying to do other things or just sleep myself.

Our Bedroom Is Pretty Much Done!

2009-03-10T05:43:00.000-07:00

We're pretty much there with our bedroom! I just have to put the mirror back up over my dresser, hang curtains, put the door hardware back on the closet (yes, I even painted our doors!), hang some pictures, and keep it clean! Take a look!

This is what "our bedroom" looked like when we looked at the house - the previous owners used it as a sewing room.

Now here is our bedroom with the same view as that previous picture was taken!

Another view!

Our dressers!

And yet another view! No more fluorescent light!

Painting the Bedroom!

2009-03-04T04:01:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, I set a goal to paint the ceiling of our bedroom. So since James had class after work and he wouldn't be home until about 10, I got both kids to sleep by 7, put on some coffee and got to work! I painted the ceiling and do not ever want to paint with textured paint again. But since the caffeine got to me, I went ahead and did the first coat of the walls too.

It's like a mustard explosion! But I like it!

I have to do a second coat and the mouldings. We desperately want our bedroom back so that is my current motivation! It's also kind of sad that the only painting I have left to do is the 2 other bedrooms and the upstairs hallway. I like painting!

Upstairs Lights & Getting Our Bedroom Done!

2009-03-02T05:42:00.000-08:00

James got to work yesterday to put lights in our upstairs hallway! We are suppose to get our new service the next "good weather" Sunday. Our electrician friend came by last week to see what was up and was surprised at how much we had done - but he didn't go upstairs since Tom was sleeping. He probably thought every thing was done upstairs too - but oops. It's not. So now it's crunch time...

James running the electrical wire - he's such an expert at it now!

Voila! Lights! Nothing fancy but we ain't fancy people.

I'm getting to our bedroom!!! I have to just wash off the rest of the wallpaper goo on the walls. I primed the ceiling last night and we're going to paint it with *sigh* textured paint! If you saw it, you would know why! If you want to see extreme ceiling action - click on the picture and it will become all big - and you can see why we can't just paint it! All the other bedrooms have textured paint to their ceilings so we figured "why not!"

I bought the paint for our bedroom too. Once again, James got sick of talking to me about different shades of this and that. So he told me to just go to Lowe's and pick a color. I respond "Are you sure? Are you really sure??" His answer, "yes." So I went out on a limb and picked Carolina Inn Crossroads Gold. Whoa! That's a mouthful. It's kind of a deep goldish yellow. I thought it would be good to match virtually any bedding we may throw on the bed (because every knows how interior decorating is my specialty!). I guess a more practical person would say "Becky, if you want something that will match everything, why don't you just paint it white?" Well for some odd reason, we have a fear of white.

Painting & Electrical

2009-02-22T13:24:00.001-08:00

It's been a productive weekend so far! I finally finished up painting the downstairs hallway and stairway. That's good. James says it looks old lady-ish but I like it!

Oooh! It's so pretty I can hardly contain myself! The mouldings shall come another day!

This is James slaving away in the basement. He's stapling wires along beams in the hopes of having a new electrical service one of these days!

President's Day Weekend - Day 3!

2009-02-16T05:04:00.000-08:00

Most of the day was spent plumbing the bathroom sink. When we demolished the old bathroom, we had to remove all the plumbing. The sink is also in a new location (the old location is now part of the kitchen!) so many hours were spent running the new pipes.

James got the sink in! Now he's working on the toilet!

Here's James cleaning the old wax off the poop pipe! Ewww!

Look! A magical little elf is hiding under the sink!

Voila! It is done! We have some minor stuff to do - hang a mirror and cabinet, caulk the toilet, finish the baseboard, etc. All in all, a good day! We can now use this bathroom! I also want to point out on what a bargain this bathroom was for us! We reused the toilet the old owners had in their bathroom (it was purchased in 2006! Why get a new one?). I found the vanity and sink on FREECYCLE - so that vanity was FREE!!!! WOOOHOOOO!!!! It was pretty much brand new, but someone who just bought a condo conversion wanted a more trendy sink so they were giving this away! A big score for us! Even the soap dispenser was practically free thanks to a JC Penney coupon I had! There is a little bit of Bargain Becky in Becky the Builder!

President's Day Weekend - Day 2!

2009-02-15T06:31:00.000-08:00

James got much work accomplished today. Here is what he did:

Grouted the bathroom!

This is what is behind the hutch in the dining room. A big hole in the wall. There was a built-in cabinet there, but we had to demolish it to make the kitchen bigger. We hope to rebuild it in the future. We're running the plumbing through the wall since we can.

And the plumbing is all set up and ready to go tomorrow!

President's Day Weekend - Day 1

2009-02-14T08:03:00.000-08:00

James spent today tiling the half bath floor. Thankfully it was kind of nice outside and most of the snow is melted away, so he was able to cut the tile out there in the driveway.

Of course he had his little helper with him for a short while.

Ben even came with his slight plumber's crack!

Slaving away!

And it is done! We're waiting for it to dry so we can grout it tomorrow. We'll see how much of this bathroom we can finish this weekend!

Painting Away!

2009-02-12T15:35:00.000-08:00

All I've been doing is priming ceilings, painting ceilings, priming walls, painting walls, thinking of painting mouldings. It will never stop.

Here's the hallway and staircase so far. It's still the first coat and I have decided that since I need to buy another gallon anyways, I'm going to buy the satin finish and use that as my second coat. Duh.

Here is our bathroom! James told me to pick out a yellow. I went to Lowe's with Ben and Tom. It is not easy to pick out a color with two toddlers running around. Plus, staring at the 109 different shades of yellow made me slightly delusional. So I went to some "Inspiration" display where they had the "trendier" colors. There is was - Sunbeam! It was our bathroom color to be (mostly due to the fact that I was very ready to get out of the store). So now, whenever you use our downstairs bathroom, it will be like rays of sun are shining down at you.

Again, this is still the first coat and I wasn't ready yet to do the detail near the ceiling. Maybe tonight once both boys are sleeping.

Let There Be Walls!

2009-02-10T10:10:00.001-08:00

Just this morning, this is what our downstairs bathroom looked like:

Four miraculous hours later, this is what it looks like:

There are walls in there! Like actual walls that we'll be able to paint and stuff. It's like it's a real room again. Many thanks to our Irish Plasterer who did superb work once again! It's honestly amazing how he was able to do this in under 4 hours. If we tried to do this, it would take 4 days, not look as good and I'm sure either James or myself would have wound up dead.

If you are on the south shore in Massachusetts and need a plasterer, let me know - this guy is awesome!

Updates Part 2!

2009-02-09T17:06:00.000-08:00

Well just shortly after I posted my last post, we got the wire from the basement to the attic in record time! Wowzers! By far the easiest wire to run and most challenging! Irishman called during this to say his client rescheduled his Tuesday appointment - so he's hoping to come over tomorrow to take care of the bathroom! Yey! Things are finally going faster than expected here at our happy home!

Updates!

2009-02-09T16:24:00.000-08:00

We successfully have about 7 projects going on right now. ADD I tell you. Our Irish Plasterer should be coming on Wednesday to put up walls and a ceiling in our downstairs bathroom! Yippee! James already got the confirmation that he'll have Saturday, Sunday AND Monday off this coming weekend so we're hoping that I can pump out the painting either Thursday or Friday and James should be able to get the toilet and sink up and going! Oh my goodness! Of course, most of our plans never go as planned. But we'll see!

Here (our bedroom - the one in the front of the house) I took down all the drop down ceiling by myself and am removing the wallpaper (ugh! I can't believe there was MORE wallpaper in this house! This room will be more challenging than I thought, but I can do it! Since it's mostly cosmetics, it's my job.

James' current mission is to snake the electrical snake from the corner of our attic here all the way down to the basement. This is of course so we can have power to the attic once the new service is up and running. He's working on this as I type this so I better go help him. I'm such a nice wifey!

I'm still painting the front hallway and stairway too. Projects projects everywhere!

Starting The Front Hallway!

2009-02-09T03:55:00.000-08:00

It was a successful day in our minds yesterday! First, James finished up the prep work in the downstairs bathroom so I can call the plasterer guy today and have him come over to put walls up in there! Woohoo! I started priming and painting the downstairs entryway and stairs.

My lovely ceiling paint job! It's my fouth ceiling I've painted so I should be good at it by now!

I primed in the morning and started painting after dinner. I did around some mouldings and around the staircase. I want to do the second coat very soon so we can get the radiator hooked back up. This top picture makes it look very beigey but it's not.

I'm in sort of a dilemma. Now I've bought about 12 gallons of paint since we've moved here. Probably about 20 in my life. I use a Satin finish to paint walls. I know this. So for whatever reason, I asked Dan the paint guy to give me Tagsdale Linen in Flat. Why? I don't know. I didn't even realize I bought Flat until James pointed it out after I started painting. So I'm not sure if I should just stick with the Flat or maybe buy a Satin to use as my second coat? We're using this color throughout the entire downstairs entryway, stair case and the upstairs hallways - so we'll def. need a second gallon. I'll have to think about it.

The Hallway Is Plastered - Onto the Bathroom!

2009-02-02T06:21:00.000-08:00

Ou Irish Plasterer friend came and did our hallway the other day. I am happy but now I have to get to priming and a painting. Blah.

Now we are onto the Half Bath downstairs. Irishman plasterer gave us a quote to do the work that we couldn't refuse! So we're doing some prep work so he can hang the drywall and plaster.

James removed all the floor. Well I removed some of the stray tiles (that was fun!). But he cut out the original hardwoods and some linoleum from the 40s. We have to lay plywood and cement board for the tile we'll lay down.

I removed the last of the plaster on the walls! Messy, but worth it! Now we just have to run one wire (pretty easy), lay the new plywood, and add one more stud so Mr. Irishman can come back and get our bathroom looking good!

James Got His Wish - A Year Later!

2009-01-29T16:53:00.000-08:00

We've been scoping out TVs for over a year now. I can pretty much tell you any price of a 32 inch LCD out there. I can also tell you that TVs have come down A LOT in price over the past year. This is a great week to buy because many are on sale because of the Super Bowl. James did a lot of research on what TVs are good and whatnot. Well after a year of scoping out 32 inch prices, we found a great deal on a 37 incher. I felt very guilty buying this TV because we didn't need a new TV. We just wanted one. With the good sales and our taxes coming back relatively soon, we splurged. And James did all the hard work to get it mounted above the fireplace.

Of course Ben had to be Daddy's little helper!

James measuring and leveling.

It's up in record time!

I've cleaned up the mantle a bit and threw up some pictures. I want to get 2 little trees to flank the TV. Fake ones. Not real ones. James thinks this is "gay." It's my small attempt to be more Martha Stewart like. We're finally starting to venture into the 21st century, yet I still can't help feeling a little yuppie like - even though most everyone we know has a big old TV like this. Most are bigger!

Plastering Away!

2009-01-28T06:27:00.000-08:00

I'm stuck upstairs with the kids this morning because our Irish friend is over plastering away our front hallway. I'm so excited to have this done so I can prime and paint away!

He gave us a great quote on hanging drywall and plastering the downstairs bathroom so we think we're going to go ahead and have him do that too. We just have some prep work to do before he can do that. Hopefully we can pump that out in the next couple weekends to be able to have him help us finish the downstairs bathroom!

Happy 1 Year Anniversary!

2009-01-26T09:49:00.001-08:00

I should have remembered to write a post - but we obtained ownership of our lovely home 1 year ago on January 22nd! We're still slaving away at it (but enjoying it - at least I am! James not so much!).

Sometimes we wonder what we are going to do with all of our freetime once we are "done." I guess by then, the boys will both be in little league! That will occupy our Saturday afternoons!

Venturing Upstairs!

2009-01-26T09:42:00.000-08:00

I don't understand why some basic cleaning is so hard for me most days, yet taking on big projects is so easy for me! This morning, the boys and I cleaned out my bedroom and then I started taking down the drop down ceiling! James is going to be so happy! I really want to get the front hallway and stairs done, but we have to wait for our Irishman to plaster away. So I had to find something else to fill my time. This was it.

Try not to get too excited looking at these pictures of our bedroom ceiling!!! I think James and I will be sleeping in our spare bedroom until we can get this room cleaned up a bit. He still has to wire up the outlets and install the overhead light in here. Oh, and judging by the ceilings (and all the cracks in it), we will probably have to throw up some drywall - or see what our Irishman can do to fix it!

The Kitchen Mouldings are DONE!

2009-01-20T04:06:00.000-08:00

Over the weekend, I finished painting the kitchen mouldings. I took a bunch of pictures, but this is the only one that came out okay.

Which leaves me to my next nemisis: The stairs! I have to do some repair work, pick out little bits of carpet which are still attached to some, sand, fill in holes and eventually paint the faces white, sand them and finish them. Can I do this? Yes I can!

The Snow Is Making Us Work!

2009-01-18T09:42:00.000-08:00

We are getting a lot of snow here in the great Commonwealth of Massachusetts so James and I are hard at work to get this house done!

Here, James sanded down the window ledge and installed it. I'm repairing a few dings and it should be ready to prime and paint here soon!

I finally ironed on the edges of the countertops! I'll have to trim them and sand them down.

Of course a day of work wouldn't be complete without more electrical work! We're hoping to finish up all the outlets in the kitchen today. There are 4 more we have to do. For those of you who do not know how this is done, here's a quick summary. We cut the hole for the future outlet or switch. We have a 64 inch drill bit (I think it's 64 inches) and we drill a hole through all the supports or whatnot from the basement to the hole. Then we jam this wire thing through the hole hoping to get it from the basement out of the hole we cut. Then we attach the electrical wire to it and pull it so the wire comes on through. It sounds simple, but it's not and it takes forever.

After we are done with the kitchen, we will have all the feeds done - except for the attic. Running a wire from the bottom corner of the basement to the top of the attic is not going to be fun. We'll have to run it behind the walls of the living room, our bedroom and up to the attic. We'll have to be extremely caffeinated for that one.

Electrical and NO MORE WALLPAPER!

2009-01-13T07:36:00.000-08:00

James had Sunday off from work so he got busy running more electrical wires. It takes a good couple hours to run just a couple wires but it's getting there. He also stapled a bunch of wires in the basement that he's been meaning to do.

James busy with his work.

A couple days ago, I finally finished taking down all the wallpaper! I successfully did the living room, dining room, kitchen and front hallway all by myself! It only took me almost a year, but I did it!

Since James is working so much overtime, we think we're going to hire our Irish plasterer guy to fix up the front hallway. Apparently that single door there into the living room was actually once a big doorway. I think it would look better opened up again but we're not going to do that. Too much work. I told James that I could plaster up the hallway but I don't think he has faith in my plastering abilities. I don't blame him. I don't have faith in my non-existent plastering abilities either. Oh, and I added pictures of random holes in the walls and ceilings that need fixing too.

A Refridgerator in Our Kitchen!

2009-01-06T11:30:00.000-08:00

After months of having our refrigerator in our front hallway, we finally moved it to it's permanent home! Unfortunately, there is an extension cord for it right now (we'll get our electrical upgraded someday!). But it's much better! I almost forgot how nice it was to have a refrigerator in the kitchen! ha ha!

James does such great work!

Unfortunately, I have have a new nemesis! Removing the wallpaper from the front hallway! Once this is over, there will be no more wallpaper in this home of ours and I will be happy. I have most of it removed as I type this, but this was a very challenging spot. This wallpaper does not want to come off!!

The Kitchen Is Painted!

2009-01-04T09:38:00.001-08:00

I finally got to painting the kitchen! I was freaking out during this adventure because I really liked the "wet" color - but as it was drying I didn't like it. James assured me yet again (I always freak out when painting) that when it's all dry, it will look fine. He was right. I like it. Not too gray, not too ocean blue. I like how it looks with the dining room green in the background.

And a friendly reminder of what this wall once looked like:

And what this back corner once looked like:

Prime Time!

2009-01-03T07:44:00.000-08:00

I've been slaving away fixing dents, holes & cracks in the kitchen. The time finally came when I decided to prime the kitchen. I actually did two coats of prime because I think the kitchen really needed it. Before the prime, our kitchen had 7 colors to it:

1 Yellow

2 Blues

1 Beige

1 Disgust (we're not sure what was over the sink. It was grayish blue.)

1 Drywall White

1 Joint Compound White

Pictures right before I primed!

Pictures after the second coat of prime!

Today, I've been caulking away to fill the gaps between the mouldings and walls. I should have done this in the living room and dining room - but I didn't. Since I have to touch up some paint in the living room, I caulked a little in there too. I had the caulking gun out so why not? I hope James isn't too mad when he gets home from work!

I tried to put the top mouldings back up on the door frames in the back but the nails we have are not long enough. So I'm going to try to truck it up to Lowe's today to buy longer nails and have James put those up tonight. Then I can start to paint away!

You Can All Sleep Tight Now!

2008-12-29T09:51:00.000-08:00

I know everyone who reads this blog was losing sleep over our shortage of cabinet pulls. You can all rest well now knowing that I was able to find them at another Lowe's! I was also able to find clearance winter coats for Ben and Tom for next year. Why? Because this other Lowe's is next to an Old Navy! Yeah!

WooHoo! James Had a Day Off!

2008-12-28T17:01:00.000-08:00

James had today off! It felt like a 2 week vacation! Now that the hustle and bustle of the holidays are over, we are ready to take charge of our home again! We can get this done!

Ben is helping Daddy wire up some electrical switches!

You can't tell in this picture, but half of this wall is in perfect condition and ready for primer and paint. The other half is not. I've been slaving away trying to get the walls in as perfect condition as possible. It's time consuming and there isn't much to show for it!

This was our surprise home improvement of the day! I had a $10 off $50 purchase coupon for Lowe's that expired today. I honestly think of these coupons as cash, because we actually need things at Lowe's. Lots of things. So we dashed on over because I knew I was going to buy a gallon of paint, but what to spend $30 on? Well we found great cabinet pulls on clearance! So we snatched those up. Unfortunately, we both calculated a total of 16 pulls needed, but after installing about 10 at home, we realized we are 2 short. And since there were only 16 left of this particular kind, we can't go back to our Lowe's. So I'll be searching area Lowe's the next few days. If I can't find them, I'll be recruiting friends and family in other parts of the country to look for this particular pull for us! Sometimes it's hard for us to do basic things like count, but James got all the pulls installed in about 20 minutes! Way to go James!

Patching Away!

2008-12-27T05:54:00.000-08:00

James has been working. A lot. Actually, the only day off since the last post (Dec. 4th) was Christmas! The poor guy! The last thing on his mind is fixing the house. So I've been patching and repairing the kitchen walls so I can paint. I'm almost there. I've been stuck up to my elbows in Joint Compound. I kind of understand why there has been panelling and wallpaper on these walls now! But I'm determined to make them look half way decent. I think I'm doing an okay job. I'm hoping to finish the last of the repair work today and prime away the next day or two. Then I can throw up some paint. And take pictures.

More Kitchen Stuff!

2008-12-04T04:42:00.000-08:00

We're putting Wainscoating in the kitchen as a backsplash and also using it to cover up the beadboard. We're just too lazy to try to clean up the beadboard that was original to the house.

Tom getting into mischief.

James working away!

He looks so professional sometimes.

Christmas Time!

2008-11-30T14:13:00.000-08:00

Not Home Improvement stuff really, but it's very time consuming setting up these little Chirstmas houses!

Boring Stuff - but Time Consuming

2008-11-30T14:11:00.000-08:00

I spent a lot of today repairing holes and cracks in the kitchen. Which means tomorrow, I will be sanding away.

James finished putting up all the drywall going into the downstairs bathroom. Now we have to prep that for paint. We're getting there...slowly.

A Microwave Is In!

2008-11-24T07:39:00.000-08:00

Today, James and I installed the microwave in our state of the art kitchen! James also installed the last of the countertop. Tomorrow's mission is to try to get the backsplash in.

Before microwave and countertop...

After!

Hopefully the backsplash will make this area look a little better!

Starting To Look Like A Kitchen!

2008-11-15T08:49:00.000-08:00

The stove and dishwasher don't work quite yet, but they are where they are suppose to be!

Tom asks "What's this Mommy?" I respond, "It's an oven Thomas. Someday, I might use it."

A Light in the Boys Room!

2008-11-11T15:11:00.000-08:00

We spent Veteran's Day in the boys room. James wired up all the outlets and installed this beautiful light fan. The same one will be in the spare room and our room someday.

Finished Cabinet Installation - Finally!

2008-11-02T11:34:00.000-08:00

After about 3 months of starting to install our cabinets, we finally put the last 2 in. The problem with these two were that there were no studs behind them. They are each only 9 inches wide. The studs are 18 inches apart and it was just our luck that these cabinets did not fall in front of a stud. So we had to knock holes in the wall to build supports.

James lining up the cabinet and screwing it to the other one.

Taking off the wall so we can nail in a wooden support.

Ta Da! James did it! We still have to install the countertop but we can do that another time! It's nice to have these finally up and our upstairs hallway cabinet free!

Since James was on a roll, he hooked up the back kitchen light. He drank a lot of coffee today.

Back To Electrical

2008-10-26T15:33:00.000-07:00

We got back to electrical...or I should say James did. I cooked and cleaned and tended to the children.

Here's James wiring up the outdoor light.

We have a hallway light again! Too bad it doesn't work yet.

I'm Like Martha Stewart's Twin

2008-10-24T15:31:00.000-07:00

This has nothing to do with Home Improvement, but I tried to get all Martha Stewart like with my fall decorations. I had to share it with the world.

We Finally Got To Work!

2008-10-14T04:33:00.000-07:00

After a couple weeks of being "lazy" - we got the Columbus Day urge to get stuff done again! Many thanks to all the people who yelled at us the past couple of days to get stuff done. It helped tremendously.

James installed the kitchen recessed lights! They don't work since our electrical service still needs to be updated, but that's okay! It looks prettier now!

He also installed our pennant light that will hopefully be over a small dinette table. It's a little more modern than what we usually go for, but it was the only one we both liked.

Getting ready to grout the floor! This is probably the most clean this floor will ever be!

Get to work James! Mixing the grout and getting to work!

This was what it looked like this morning. We're suppose to wait 24 hours to walk on it. We went with a gray grout for obvious reasons - it hides the dirt.

Hopefully there will be more updates this week!

Please Get On Our Case!

2008-10-07T12:55:00.000-07:00

I have to admit, we've been rather lazy the past couple weeks. Granted, James did finish laying the rest of the kitchen tiles (though we haven't grouted yet) and I did paint the living room, the mouldings and 2 of the radiators - it still seems we've been very lazy.

The next time you see or talk to us, please belittle us and tell us to get cracking. Don't worry - we were both in the Marines so we respond best by people yelling at us. The problem is, no one is and we desperately need people to. Thank you in advance.

Living Room Mouldings

2008-10-02T17:58:00.001-07:00

I finally got off my lazy butt and painted the living room mouldings shortly after Tom's party. I also gave the living room another coat of yellow paint and I think it looks like it has a little more umph. I like it still.

Tiling Away on a Sunday Night!

2008-09-07T19:58:00.001-07:00

All weekend has gone to trying to get this floor done. As always, it has gone slower than we anticipated, but that's okay. Last time I checked, we're in no rush to move out of this place. There's always tomorrow to do more stuff.

James is laying tile. He has never laid tile. He is doing a great job.

James puts his little slave boy, Paul, to work. Paul has been nice enough to help us out with a bunch of our projects. He's shipping off to the good old USMC in a few weeks. We're currently taking applications for our next little slave boy. If you are interested in doing home improvement projects with James without getting compensated, please call him. I provide necessary food.

Our Appliances Got Delivered!

2008-09-05T19:53:00.000-07:00

Like everything else in this Home Improvement life of ours, we had expectations of having our floor done before the 5th. So when we purchased our appliances 3 weeks ago, we thought the 5th would be a grand day to have them delivered. Of course, the floor is not done. So our appliances are hanging out in our dining room for a while.

Our stove got delivered with a dent in the side. It's not a big deal because it will be up against a cabinet. I called Lowe's and they took an extra $50 off for me. That made me happy. We also got a new washer - which washes HOT! I'm very happy about this one. I did not take any pictures of our new washer because it's nothing fancy. And because really, who gets excited over a washer? Who gets excited over any of this stuff?

Good bye plywood floor! We are going to tile over you! First we have to lay Cement Board!

Ben enjoys hanging out in the dishwasher nook. Too bad there will be a dishwasher there soon.

Building a Patio

2008-09-05T07:50:00.001-07:00

I've mentioned before that we are attempting to build a patio. Last weekend, since the weather was so nice, we figured we would try to get it done. We didn't get it done but we got a lot accomplished. I dug dirt. A lot of dirt. About 2 weeks ago. I think I had about 20 wheelbarrels full. So this week, James leveled it all and did the "smart" work.

We laid crushed stone and sand!

Trying to figure out the pattern to do. Everything looks weathered because James is "borrowing" bricks from a job he is working. They're only going to throw them away so we might as well "borrow" them for a while. Who knows how this will turn out. Neither one of us has ever attempted to build a patio before so we're kind of just winging it.

James has been busy running electrical wire. I forgot to put this one up a while ago - but he wired up an outdoor flood light for the back yard. There's a sensor on this one too so the raccoons will get startled at night when they go to eat all the food our kids drop out back.

Oh So Exciting - Light Fixtures

2008-08-25T04:21:00.000-07:00

We put a light fixture in the dining room! I also painted it - even though we didn't re-build the built in yet. We probably won't get to that for another year or 2. I just did like like living in white. It's too boring.

The living room has an overhead light now! Counting down the days until we get our new electrical service!

James is so proud of his $10 clearance outdoor light fixture. He took down the old one before I had time to snap a picture. It was pretty much a piece of rusty old metal with a jelly jar attached. Oh, and a yellow light bulb.

James is always extremely safe when doing home improvements. He's installing flood lights for the driveway. We stepped it up and got sensors so we can catch hooligans trying to break into our cars. He also put a light outback so we can be outside at night without the fear of a rabid raccoon attacking us.

Ceilings, Yard Waste & Paint, Oh My!

2008-08-19T18:30:00.000-07:00

This picture kind of makes our ceiling look disgusting, but believe me, they are all very nice!

I've been busy "pruning" the trees outside. I have acquired a mini addiction to the Sawsall. I love to saw things with it - especially trees! I have a mini forest on the curb because apparently there is some confusion on when Yard Waste actually gets picked up. Half of this has been here since Friday (when garbage gets picked up). Then I added more over the weekend - because a neighbor told me Mondays were yard waste days. Here I am, Tuesday night with all this yard waste still outside. My neighbors must love me.

Do you see it? It's yellow paint! In our living room! I did it today. I think it's perfect. At least for us. We've gone and done good on this color. At least I think so. I hope the other 5 rooms turn out to our liking as well.

Grrr! We Did The Unspeakable!

2008-08-13T16:40:00.000-07:00

We hired someone! Ahhhh!!! We decided we cannot finish off the ceilings. Too hard. I'm sure we could, but it's cheap enough that we can just have someone come in and do it. Tomorrow, John will come to fix our downstairs ceilings! Yey! That means we just have to throw on some paint, have the new electrical service come up (the 30th!) and then we can paint and lay tile! I'm procrastinating on the tile because once the tile is in, the appliances come. I do not want a stove. Too much hassle. I also decided I do not want a dishwasher. I think I'm better at keeping house without one. Before and After Pictures to come!

Iron Away!

2008-08-06T19:58:00.000-07:00

Installing laminate countertop is woman's work - or at least that is what James thought when the directions called for a household iron. I told him I don't even iron my clothes - I'm not going to iron his or the countertop. So poor James was stuck ironing the end caps of this piece of laminate. Great job James!

For Those Of You Stalking Our Kitchen...

2008-08-04T06:07:00.000-07:00

We got the rest of the cabinets in this past weekend. Pappy and James were hard at work. We didn't hit any glitches this time, so it was pretty smooth sailing. We did take a pretty long break to eat lunch and prune the trees outside though.

The men lining up the cabinets.

Leveling something or other.

Ben loves his new cabinets! We have a new naughty corner!

Voila! A refridgerator will be thrown into that space there, but we don't have any power over there right now so we'll have to wait until our new electrical service is up and running - which is scheduled for August 30th!

A friendly reminder of what the kitchen looked like before we destroyed it! I kind of miss the wood paneling.