Some pictures I never posted

Here's a few pictures of what things were looking like a month ago. In the I added a few trees, built some planters (the unpainted one has since been painted), dug a second garden bed for planting next year, got a solid lawn going, stained the patio tiles, touched up some exterior paint, planted flowers, and replaced the front door/door trim.

I'm also planning the next project to be finishing the kitchen renovations. I finally came up with a layout in my head that will work without moving around too many fixtures around. Along with that I plan on replacing the current counter top with a marble tiled countertop, tiled back splash, tile the floor, and a breakfast bar style table. I should be able to finish it all up for under $500, but that will probably wait until Christmas break. Kitchen, upstairs bathroom, and a garage are the last three big items on my list--then I can sell and start all over again.

Back for Floor

This past weekend I finally made some time to finish the rest of the hardwood floors that had been waiting for over a year now (all of the upstairs except the largest bedroom). Coincidentally it was also the first time I've had a working camera since May. I'd like to send a big thanks to Erik who spent all Saturday helping me. They came out about as good as I could possibly expect from 100 year old floors. Once I mow the yard then I'll get some pictures of that up too(tomorrow, weather permitting).

The sanded floors looked spectacular for the most part, almost to the point where you think maybe they'd look better a lighter color. However, there were areas, especially right at the top of the stairs, where the boards were pretty damaged from the previous owners' animals. The hardwood is laid directly on the joists with no subfloor, so I wasn't going to take any chances sanding down more than I had to. The dark red dose a great job creating a uniform look throughout. Not to mention I already have half the house with the dark floors and there's no chance I'm going to tackle another refinishing job anytime soon. The three strained muscles in my back now are enough to content for quite some time and I still have the stairs to work on when I'm ready to put myself through all that again.

Not really house related but...

So my camera got a bunch of sand in it on vacation to San Diego and it's out of commission until I fix it. The backyard looks a ton better once things filled in so I'll try to get that up when I can. In the mean time I figured I'd post a little something I worked on for father's day. I found had found an old picture of my dad from his twenties with his German Shorthair, Trouble. I decided to replicate it, foo man chu and all, with my shorthair, Laser. Thanks to my cousin Sarah for helping with the photos. Here's how it turned out.

Got a little sidetracked

So I haven't posted an update in a while. Sorry. I got side tracked with finals, Tara's graduation, and what have you. Regardless work hasn't really stopped (or even slowed down much). I finished off the entrance way (in the process of saving for a new door), trimmed out the new attic window, painted an accent wall in the living room (spice up the blah), and completely landscaped the entire backyard the day after I did the bushes. When I say completely landscaped I'm talking 3 yards of topsoil, a couple trees, grass seed, peat moss, got rid of all the scrap I'd been hoarding... the works. I need a better picture of the yard but here's some pictures of the other stuff and 1 of Laser since he didn't manage to sneak into the regular photos.

$25 never looked so good

With Tara's graduation coming up I decided it was time to get things at least presentable for company. Last night I caught a post on freecycle where someone listed 15 bushes they had dug up and bagged were on the curb and ready to go. Mapquest showed it was 2 miles away and 20 minutes later they were sitting in my back yard. I got home from my final today and planted the bushes. I was thinking about getting one of those black plastic boarders but then remembered the pile of pressure treated wood I still had. I dug a little trench and pounded in 2x6's all the way across. Then I laid down some landscaping felt and topped it off with mulch. All-in-in the whole project only cost $14 for the felt and $11 for the mulch. Still no grass but I'm getting there. Here's a reference picture of what it looked like before I did anything. w00t.

Trapped in the closet, Part V

Today I put down some tile in the entranceway. I already had leftover grout, thinset, and other supplies so it was literally just the cost of the tile. Found some decent tiles for 67 cents a foot, making the grand total of the floor $10 (+$3 for smaller spacers). The walls are still primed and I figured that paint them tomorrow so I can combine the thinset/paint curing/drying wait times and keep this moving along.

Trapped in the closet, Part IV

Today I finished the inside of the closet. It's painted, clothes rod is up, and some shelves are in. I primed the entrance way and the drywall patching I did outside of the closet to. Right now I'm looking at another coat of paint for those, lay some tile in the entrance way, install trim, and paint the trim. Oh and I still need to strip and pain the massive wood door.

Trapped in the closet, Part III

Yesterday I laid some hardwood floor for the closet base, framed it, and drywalled the dividing wall. Also patched up the drywall on the inside of the house. There's a little bit of patching yet to be done in the closet, but not too much. It's already serving as a great place to throw crap. Remaining I still need to mud the joints, paint it, put in shelving/bar/stringers, and repair the threshold.

Trapped in the closet, Part II

After finishing Tom's closet I moved on to creating a closet where there wasn't one on the first floor. When you enter the front door there was a small entrance way, perhaps 3ft deep x 6ft wide. I'm walling up the middle and adding a door to the blocked of area from the inside to create a closet. Placement of the door may be slightly weird, but at most I could have moved it over another 4 inches if I cut through a second stud (where it is now only required cutting one stud). The wall is not load bearing in the sense it's supporting the house, but it is most likely supporting a portion of the porch roof so the less alterations the better. I've got the door in, now I need to lay some new flooring, frame out the wall, and drywall things up.

Spring is here!

This weekend was the first nice weekend of spring. I decided to take full advantage and work on some of the curb appeal plans I've had brewing all winter. I started off by priming the porch railing white. I decided that the white looked so good that I'd go white will all my accent colors. I primed the formally red stairs white to match. Then today I picked up a couple sets of white shutters, mounted those, and gave everything a coat of white paint. It's looking good so far but plenty more to come. Hopefully I can get that atrocious attic window replaced in the not too distant future.