A Quick Update

Just got done turning an old sideboard into a double sink console...pics to come! I'm painting the bathroom today and we'll move it in there this evening when husband comes home from work.

Baby girl has her 1st birthday in 16 days AND she's trying to walk. Love watching her grow- hate how fast it's happening. We're having a joint birthday/father's day bbq to mark the occasion. For dessert, we're combing her two favorite things on earth; cupcakes and ice cream. Will definitely take pictures of the mess I know that's going to be!

And, hit 30 weeks pregnant with our 2nd today! Our munchkin should be weighing in at about 3 pounds right now. Getting so close.  On a side note, the hormones are kicking my butt. I cried TWICE for no apparent reason yesterday and I do NOT cry. Or bleed when I get cut :)

Anyway, bathroom pics to come soon!

Exterior Doors Cost How Much?!

Our 3 exterior doors needed varying degrees of help. The basement door we replaced- there were just too many dents in the steel. We considered replacing the back and front doors, as well, but that would have been ultra expensive. The cheapest door we found that we both thought looked decent was 300 bucks. The ones we actually liked ranged from between 500-1500. We looked at the local salvage yard; while we found some really great doors, salvage is "in" up here, so by the time we bought them and gave them a face lift, we wouldn't have saved any money. So, we decided to work with what we had.

Here's the inside of our front door. I slathered wood putty into all of its dents and dings:

Then sanded and taped:

And applied our trim color, Olympic Ebony, which is really more of a midnight blue, but I suppose it looks black if you squint at it long enough :)

Bad lighting, but you get the idea...

And gave the other side the same treatment:

1 door saved and at least 300 bucks trimmed from our construction budget!





New Back Porch and Walkup: Completed

It's done! And we had just enough deck stain for the whole thing, which made my cheapskate self really happy.

Before:

And After:



Quite a few neighbors have come over to compliment it...with the exception of one who asked what we were thinking when we picked the stain color. :( I'm in love with it, though. It's so solidly built and it's going to look amazing with a little bit of lanscaping...

New Walkup and Breakfast Area: Work in Progress

Due to city re- routing, our back door now serves as our primary entrance. The existing walkup was a bit of an after-thought; though serviceable, it didn't really make the kind of impression we wanted.

Our walkup, complete with dirty dog beds.

We decided to expand the footprint and create a small area for us to enjoy our morning coffee in, since we get great morning sun on this side of the house. So, out came the old staircase. We found quite a bit of rotten wood, so I guess it's lucky we decided to tackle it when we did.

The husband, with one of our many Porter Cable implements of destruction

The old staircase.

Then came the platform and stairs:

I love it so far...it really is the perfect place to enjoy our morning coffee. I stained the cedar last night with the our Rosewood stain- we had about a half gallon left over from the fence. It actually looks like rosewood when it's applied to cedar. The railing is going up right at this moment. It would be done, but I asked husband to add more slats, so that it would be baby-proof. It's supposed to rain all day today and tomorrow, but as soon as I get the railing stained, I'll put the pics up.

The fence is stained (and looks like a million bucks)!

We orginally planned to fence in the whole property. But, contractors up here are a bit pricey. To the tune of $7500 for about 300 linear feet of fence. Um, no. Husband and Dad-in-law built this fence for the dogs in 2 days, for just a couple hundred bucks, during some of the nastiest weather. But, the weather finally warmed up, and the wood dried out, so I waddled out and stained it.

Before

After

 We used Lowe's Olympic Maximum deck stain and had it tinted to Rosewood. It only took 1 coat! I'm really pleased with the way my fence turned out. Yup, it's my fence now, despite the fact that I didn't build it and it really belongs to the pups.

French Doors: Before and After

Feels great to mark this project off of the list. Went a lot slower than expected, what with the weather and the fact that it took forever for the million coats of stain to dry. Oh, and the fact that old walls are always fun. Remember this?

It looks like this now:

We stained the doors with Minwax Bombay Mahogany, Satin finish. Love this- has the polyurethane added into the stain.

And here they are:

They took forever, but it was so worth it. I love the contrast of the dark stain against the stark white oil-base trim. And it is wonderful to see the light come through the panes into our bedroom every morning.

Free Quart of Glidden Paint!

All you have to do is go here:

http://www.glidden.com/color/color-visualizer.do?promo=true

You can pick your paint color out and they'll ship it right to your door, absolutely free. I got a slate-grey that I'm thinking of trying on our entry doors...what did you get?

Our Anniversary!

Two years ago today, I married my best friend. And here's what we woke up to this morning... 5:30 a.m, alarm goes off. Ugh. 2 of our three dogs had accidents some time during the night. Our dogs never, ever have accidents, but I guess they wanted us to have an extra-special present.

Well, ok. Awesome husband dealt with that while I made the ultra-necessary coffee. Then, just as husband drove off for work, the baby had a poo to end all poos. It came out of her diaper. It was gross. You could tell she was totally proud of herself, too. So, today has been triple-y poopy. But, at least I have my favorite person in the world to share it with :)

Anyway, I'm finally finishing up the staining on our French doors, so we should have some really pretty pictures up by tomorrow.

Shade Bed...Done!

This was the flower bed to the left of the front with a camellia that the previous owner SEVERELY butchered. We'd transplanted two ferns from elsewhere in the yard a while back, but never finished it.

But, we got some awesome Pacific Northwest weather this weekend, so we put in 2 different types of hosta: Minute Man (variegated) and Guacamole. A few more ferns, an unknown shrub we scrounged, and 7 bags of mulch later, we were done! It definitely needs some time to fill in and I think it could use a bird bath or a boulder or something, but it's one more item off the to-do list. Well, as soon as we edge it, but really that's just a detail.

Certainly not perfect, but so much better than it was.

4 Out Of 5 Babies Prefer Porter Cable

Hamming it up at Lowe's

The Utah Method?

You'll rarely find the men in our family working on anything without a beer in hand. In truth, I'm not sure the husband would remember how to do construction without a cold one. This particular ritual was dubbed the "Utah Method," by family members who renovated and sold a fixer-upper in that state.

The Utah Method has it's place, but when something absolutely, positively has to get built:

There's only one way to go :)

Exterior Paint Colors

Toying with the idea of painting the outside of the house. Here are a few options we really like. The green and purple is pretty, and fairly commonplace up here, but we're worried it might be a bit too outlandish. We LOVE the gunmetal and red, but maybe it's a tad too modern?

You can vote on your choice...poll is located just to the right. Sorry about the image quality of the first two paint chips; was the best I could get, unfortunately. But do let us know what you think! We need help!

The "Battleship" Option:

The "green and grape":

Green and Cream:

Gunmetal and Red:

Quick Update:

The weather sucks! It's scheduled to rain all weekend, which is going to severely curtail progress. I know I shouldn't complain- we moved from a state with virtually no rain to one where moss is a damn noxious weed.

Paint and stain are taking 24+ hours to dry, so pictorial evidence of our industry will be slow, but I'll get them up as soon as possible.

French Doors

When we bought the house, the door to our bedroom was a grievously wounded hollow core. So, we used this for a while:

Ever tried waddling over a baby gate with a 20 pound kid attached to your hip, whilst 6 months pregnant? Yeah, it's fun. So, we went to Lowe's just to look. Just looking turned into calling a very, very good friend with a truck. Said friend will remain nameless, because, admit it, you'd want to borrow his truck, too.

But, the French doors were a tad bit wider than the existing space:

Incidentally, the husband hit an actual 2x4, kiln dried, that melted the saw blade. This is what the inside of 90-something year old wall looks like:

Lots of wood and concrete. Actually, that used to be the outside wall where you see the thick shingles. Our suite was a later addition.

2 days later, the doors are up! Still need to stain them, add trim, and put the rest of the hardware up, but here's what we've got so far:

Pics of finished product to follow!