One Sixty: Laaaaannnd!

Laaaaannnd!

Now that my horrific freak out of terror is over, I can get back to business. Can't believe it's been nearly a week since I updated you guys. Ok, here we go.

Friday Nick Mitchell was over to grade, loam, and hydroseed. That night, Mike and I had a bday party in Providence to go to, so I didn't even get to see the yard until Saturday. But when I did, boy was I impressed! It looks beautiful! I can already tell that once the grass comes up, it'll be like living in one of those Cape Cod Life "Most Gorgeous Lawns" articles. How novel!

Here is the front lawn. And It looks pretty much the same, since we had it graded when we did the house lifting.

Of course, to keep the whole thing watered, we've got el crazy sprinkler chain going on. Lucky for us, our neighbor let us borrow a couple of sprinkler heads and some hose. We already had two 50 footers, but bought 2 more plus 4 sprinkler heads. Our other neighbor even contributed an additional head because we were short just one.

You would think that all those would keep every inch of the lawn moist and happy - no way. There's still a couple missed areas that we have to hit with a hose & sprayer. I hate to go around purchasing a million dollars worth of watering equipment, but you know - I would hate even more for my $2400 grass not to grow.

The back yard is the most spectacular transformation. On the right side is Trogdor, the Oil Burninator. (aka, our old oil tank that we turned into an enclosed burn pit for brush and branches - see the handle on the front? It opens upward.)

Anyway, behind Trogdor used to be a hugeoungous pile of stumps. And I'm not exaggerating here - we had probably 10 REALLY big knarly stumps piled there.

Thursday night, when we knew Nick was coming, we loaded all the stumps into Mike's truck. I should have gotten a picture because it looked so weird - the dodge bed, overflowing with knarly snarly stumps. Saturday we took 'em to the dump - and finally got a dump sticker... geez, only been three freakin' years. (In our town, since we have trash pickup, we can take stuff like stumps to the dump for free with a sticker - too cool! We were previously paying to get rid of stuff like that.)

I have never - ever - seen that corner of the backyard look so nice and flat and nice.... That's been the worst looking part of the entire yard! That and the way back section next to the camper - that's normally where we park our trailer, skid steere, lawn tractor, and racing lawn tractor - yes yes, I know. Racing lawn tractor. That's another story. I'm so glad I told Mike to move all that junk. I figured - as long as the guys are here, we should have them do as much as they can. And I am soooo happy with the result.

Here's the other side of the backyard. Looking good. Now I'm all antsy to get the privacy fence that I want to separate the gravel driveway (seen here just a little in the lower left) from the backyard. I can't wait.

Here's the side of the garage, newly primed. And there's the gravel.

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.