Where's a Good Crowbar When You Need One?

Found out yesterday that the cabinets above the stove are going to have to come down for the drywall to go up. Then we promptly found out that those cabinets were set in with a row of nails instead of screws. What?? Nails? Oy veh, the other cabinets had screws...this is going to be interesting, as the cabinet is about 6 feet wide & heavy, to say the least. It's also in a pretty awkward place for us to move.

Kitchen Project Is Finally Underway

We have a 46 year old stainless steel stove hood that has never been used. Evidently it was set up above the stove then they figured out that there was no vent or electrical outlet for it. I'll bet if it was plugged in it would probably work! Does anybody know someone who might want it? Maybe someone into retro-kitchens...

Our Favorite Home Project

Without a doubt has been screening in the side porch. It's our favorite room now & the cats love spending the day watching Outdoor-O-Vision. We've feed the birds & squirrels close by & spend hours just hanging out there talking. That project cost about $650 for the supplies & about $600 for the furniture.

One more purchase we've been happy with has been denim-covered furniture. Yes, denim. Yes slip-covered, as in washable.

Ok Ken, any more questions?

Fixing Up The House - Room By Room

Randy & I bought a kind of old house a few years ago. The original owners were in their 60's when they built it & in their mid-90's when we bought it from them. It was in pretty good shape, all things considered, but had never been updated at all. We're talking bullet lamps, sertek ceilings, old wiring that needed updating, etc. It was like walking in to the haunted Brady Bunch home. Kind of cool, kind of creepy.

Here's the list of projects we've done that I can remember:

• re-wired everything
• re-plumbed everything
• worked alot on the yard
• screened in the side porch - it's the best room we've got! I love being out there.
• built a workshop in the basement
• added a bunch of insulation - well worth the investment of time & money
• put in new windows, including a bay window in the living room
• added a storage building
• added a covered parking area
• widened the driveway
• new, better gutters
• took out a wall between two bedrooms to create one bigger bedroom
  
• built a room in the basement for Randy's "stuff"
• built a game room in the basement
  
• added a kick-ass alarm system & camera system

So the house is kind of small by today's mc-mansion standards, just 1200 ft, but we've been able to add the attic as storage & we now have the entire basement being used, so that makes it seem alot bigger to us.

Now we are at the point of being able to start actually updating rooms. The bathroom was the first (needed it the most).

Here's a picture of it as it was:

First of all, why the walls were gray & white with that weird green color porcelain, I simply don't know.

Secondly, the room is tiny. No storage area at all.

Third, the tub is solid porcelain & very heavy

Pipes showing, naked lightbulb, no electrical outlets

Everything was discolored.

In short--yuck!

Here's the end result:


So, what do you think?

I still can't believe that Randy took out a 740 lb tub by himself, and yes, I have pictures to prove it.

For some weird reason the room feels bigger now.

It's nice to have a place to put towels, shampoo, etc.

So I know it's just a bathroom, but it is nice to have this project done.

We freecycled what we could of the old stuff but most of the fixtures were beyond what anybody wanted.

This is the only bathroom in the house so replacing floors, tubs, etc., was tricky! Luckily we have a shower at my office (just down the road at the time), but we had to replace the toilet & get the tile down in a matter of hours.

It was freezing cold too--sub-zero temperatures.

Here's Vena supervising the whole process. She's helpful that way.

I'll have to check with Randy but I believe this whole project cost a little under $1800