One Sixty: Speaking of Feeling the Spring

Speaking of Feeling the Spring

Ironic that I was talking about the closeness of spring just on Friday because Saturday actually felt a little spring-like. Not in the sense that it was warm, oh no. It was freakin freezin.' But, be that as it may, Mike and I decided to do yard work.

Burn season started Jan 15th - and I don't know about you guys, but around our house, we always have stuff to burn. Fallen branches, fallen trees, dead stuff - it tends to really collect given the crappiness of our nearly 1.5 acres. So first thing saturday morning, we went down and got our burn season permit, went home, and started burning.

As you remember, we turned our old oil tank into a burning device. So for most of the day, we just hung out at the picnic table throwing stuff in. I gathered sticks and branches from the front yard in the wheelbarrow while Mike cut up larger branches and trees with the chainsaw. As long as we kept moving or were close enough to the fire, we kept pretty warm.

In our town, the fire has to be out by 4pm - so in the late afternoon, as the fire died down, we took on some more long overdue exterior maintenance. Namely: the trans am. Or, more specifically, MY trans am.

Here's a pic from last spring, when my poor car was evicted from the garage. So - for nearly a year it's been outside and exposed to the elements. (It has been covered, but still.) Late afternoon on Saturday, we put it back in the garage. It does not run yet, so we use our lawn tractor to pull it. (Mike made a bracket for the back of the tractor and put two cinder blocks there to weight down the back, so it can actually pull and push a good amount.)

With the car in the garage, we had to rearrange the motorcycles - we have 4 of them. Plus two quads. (One of those belongs to a friend, at least.) One bike had to go in the basement. (Oh my god, they're starting to take over the house - ahhhh!)

Believe it or not after all that, we still had some daylight left to burn, so I swept the driveway and then raked the entire side yard.

After that I really wanted to start moving the electricals in the mudroom - but by then it was dark and Mike conveniently pointed out, "How are we going to see what we're doing when the power's off?" I could have pressed the issue and held a flashlight for the next couple hours, but I knew it would be aggravating for him. Darn it.

So we were highly productive - but still didn't get any work that I really wanted done, done. Next weekend, perhaps? Oh, and then a boat load of snow came down on Sunday.

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.