One Sixty: Pictures! Pictures!

Pictures! Pictures!

Finally - I remembered to take some picktures for all 'yalls. Ok. First off, check out my glass blockage. Now, I know I'm not a mason... or a tilest. But I'm really happy with this. Look how nicely the blocks fill in those tiny holes left by the smaller beams. (The big beam holes were where we put the basement windows seen in the wide shot) And you should see the beautiful light they let into the basement. How it comes through the glass is just beautiful. I love it.

Now onto last night's drywall. Our neighbors Dana and Rich were over and boy did they do an awesome job! Mike finally got to see some professionals in action and I think he learned a lot helping them. Which is great, because the drywall was so frustrating when we first did it. Rich was saying that he and Dana started in 1964. Too cool! Mike on the other hand started in 2005.

The whole thing brings back memories of our first drywalling experience - which was terrible. We hired some people who were... well, unprofessional at best. I'll leave it at that. We ended up having to re-mud and re-sand every room. It was horrible. Anyway, all that's over now.

So everywhere you see patched in the pictures formerly had cracks. The small patches are where new screws were added or old ones were re-patched. (Because you could see some of them.) The bedroom was really hit the hardest. The bedroom and the kitchen. The upstairs as a whole was never done right in the first place - so believe me I'm glad to have professionals helping us now!

The guys will be back in on Thursday to finish up. At that point it'll be me and the paint again. Joy. But all I have to remember is how good it's going to look. That otta keep me going. Maybe I'll even get eggshell this time instead of flat... Now that the drywall is fixed. Do I dare?

Blog Story

My now husband Mike and I purchased this quaint home back in spring of 2004 - our first home - and, being the handy folks we are, expected to have the entire thing renovated in about a year or so.

And here we still are... renovating away.

This house needed a complete overhaul. Its plaster walls were uninsulated, its attic floor covered in 2" of bat guano, its basement - dirt and snakes, its exterior - asbestos siding, and lead paint windows in every room. The electric had not been updated and light sockets hung bare from the ceiling. Plumbing featured cast iron radiators - and only one for the entire upstairs.

We began by gutting almost the entire house from top to bottom. (sans bathroom - we needed to pee) We rebuilt the entire upstairs, with a new floor (not new carpet or wood - the once unstable framing underneath) and turned 3 small rooms into two. We reinvented the downstairs by turning a closet into a hallway and eliminating interior exterior windows and doors from old half-assed additions.

New insulation, windows, electrical wiring (including phone and CAT-5 internet), plumbing and baseboards, and drywall were all added.

We purchased kitchen cabinets from a yard sale. (None existed previously.) Our families helped us replace and purchase new appliances including the once also missing washer & dryer.

Then we had the entire house lifted - straight into the air - dug out the dirt, and had a real basement foundation poured. We updated our oil tank and burner and created heating zones.

Outside, we took down trees and planted grass. We dug out an awkward hill to create a 2nd part to the driveway and used the rocks our house once sat on as a retaining wall. We electrified and repainted the garage.

And of course, we spent many an hour on finish work like paint, trim, closet doors, lighting fixtures, hardwood floors, curtain rods, dimmer switches, and many other things everyone else takes for granted. We are still working to complete all this final finishing, but happy to report that we are FINALLY nearing completion of all little things in all rooms!

In 2008 we began overhauling the exterior by creating a new french door entryway and building a farmer's porch and garage addition. We replaced our roof and then stripped off our siding and replaced with new clapboards. We then planted two new flowering trees and a maple in the front yard - our first major landscape purchases. I'm happy to report that here in 2011, the porch is nearing completion and the back yard is on the road to recovery with some new loam and grass. More plantings soon to come!

In 2012 we plan to attack the last MAJOR (emphasis on major) job in the house - the dreaded BATHROOM! We plan to first add a second bathroom in the basement. Then, demolish our current bathroom and rebuild it, adding a second bathroom on top for the upstairs.

And that pretty much brings you up to date. The battle continues day to day as we try and complete everything.