Were we really crazy?

Wow!  Things have been crazy around here.  We had WONDERFUL house guests last weekend: Ry's bro, Dave, his wife, Renee, and their son, Cayman.  And Ry's sis, Terri and her H, Scott, got to come by Saturday night, too. 

So much fun: talking, laughing, eating, drinking and making merry! And then the Chief's game! oh, yes. (sorry, Renee, but, at least this year someone went home happy!)

As it always seems to happen with house guests, you rush-rush to finish up all those tiny details, which is great, but can be tiresome.  One of mine was to finish up the office (not there yet...but almost!), and in the midst of my getting organized, I ran across a couple of pics from the home inspection report that was done before we bought the house.   Here's the before and afters of the deck and under the deck. I think this gives you a really good taste of where this entire project began.

Here's the upper deck.  The broken railings are obvious, but it's really hard to appreciate the sad state of the wood.  I don't believe the cedar had ever been retreated.  And there was that weird greasy/oil stained area in the lower right of the photo. Oh, and some rotting boards, too.

We repaired the railing, replaced the rotting boards, powerwashed, sanded and stained the deck.

Here she is now.

She'll need another stain job soon!

Here's below the deck. This was great!  That's all gravel and tree-like weeds growing there.  The rotting hot tub was filled with grody water and tadpoles. yummy.

The gravel was contained by the Pavestone blocks.  And the gravel wasn't really thick enough to cover all the mud and dirt, that's why we had so many of those tree-like weeds growing in there.  We cleaned, rebuilt and moved the hot tub, poured some patios, put in a stone path and landscaped under here.

And here's the after.

Man, looking at these before photos make me question our sanity.  I think I have forgotten the level of disrepair this poor house had been left to.  But it also makes me thankful that we have the opportunity to bring her back and really make her ours.

And while we're at it, we are having some windows replaced in our bedroom. I was taking pictures of the workings of the casements for window guy, and got this pic by leaning out the window from our bedroom.

It sure looks pretty from up here! Makes me want to add a door and a deck off the bedroom.  Think Ryan will go for that?

Linked to FIF at Chic on a Shoestring Budget and RemodelAholics!

Rocks, Broken Hot tubs and Backyard Hardscaping

It's so very hot outside right now. I've been watering the container plants twice a day, but that's about all the outside I can stand. I miss hanging out there.

The backyard was an icky mess for starters. It consisted of a small patio, a river rock bed and a broken hot tub. Oh, and lots and lots of weeds. Interestingly enough, the poison ivy appeared to confine itself to the Professional Landscaping in the Front Yard? Go figure. We moved the rock to the side and the front of the house and had two patios and a sidewalk poured.

The first patio is here. It's under the deck and Ry installed an outdoor ceiling fan, which makes a tremendous difference. We also have this great gas firepit from Costco. It's super comfy and runs off of a regular propane tank, which is hidden in the table.



In the area between this new patio and the pre-existing patio, we chose to leave open for landscaping. We installed this stone pathway to link the two areas. Other than the obvious VERY HEAVY rocks, this was pretty simple.



Luckly, since we had already moved the river rock, there was really not a lot but hard, clay dirt to dig up. We dug out the pathway about 4 inches and then installed metal edging to "outline" the path". Next, we put in a thin layer of sand and then laid in our rocks, jigsaw-puzzle-like. That was the hardest part - moving those around to get them to fit just so. Then we filled in the spaces between the rock with pea gravel. Next, we mulched around the path and then pulled up the metal edging, which we reused in other landscaping.



This is the second patio. We poured it for the previouly broken hot tub, which Ryan fixed AND redid all the sides so it looks pretty again. You can see where the older patio ends and the new one begins. One day we may stain or do an overlay, or just wait patiently for it all to naturally color? We shall see...



A view from the other side.



This fall we hope to build an arbor over the hot tub, with a stone wall facing toward the woods.

This is the original patio on the back of the house.



We struggled with the placement of the furniture, as the patio is on the small side. This works really well. Behind the loveseat, the crank out window can still open, and there is plenty of space to walk out the back door between the loveseat and the chair. But it's still all close enough for easy conversation.

And here's a picture where I try to capture it all. There is a slope and lots of trees behind the house, so I can't get a photo that shows the entire project.

But, you can see where we finished off some landscaping around the patios and under the deck. We also placed a water fountain to the right of the firepit group, which is very nice. And we put a heater in it and leave it on in the winter. We've gotten over 20 birds splashing around in it! We also refinished the deck.



The plantings around the decks include:
Hosta, Iris, Peony, Lilies, Vinca (annual), Daffodils, Aster, Chrysanthemum, Chives, Oregeno, Thyme, Solomon's Seal, Yarrow, Fern, Heuchera, Gladiolas, Surprise Lily, Nandinia, Wild Onion, Clematis, Catnip, Geranium, Zinnia, Ferns, some Tropicals, Morning Glory and a variety of stuff in pots.

I am still struggling with getting a handle on the light and moisture around the entire house...Live and Learn!

Harper's Room

Our poor house. She was in a very shabby state when we got her. She had not been loved and well cared for. But even with the shoddy paint jobs, poorly patched holes, bleeding walls, marker-covered cabinets, stained and torn linoleum and general level of filth, the worst room was Harper's. This is NOT a true before.

While you can't really see the stains on the walls, which we think were caused by chewing tobacco spitting (I hope!), you CAN see some of the stains on the carpet, which appear to be caused by poo (I hope not!) but what I failed to capture was a photo of the room BEFORE we cleared it out, which included

1. an unmade bed under the window
2. an endtable from the '70s with gold plastic trim on it
3. a cooler, about 1/3 full of thick brown water
4. a few piles of clothing
5. some old trophies, wire hangers and general odds and ends in the closet
6. a trash can, about half full
But the weirdest thing, to the right is where the Bathroom vanity is and underneath the sink were empty beer bottles and Bacardi bottles lined up neatly, like they are lined up at the Liquor store.

An OCD Alcoholic? Very, Very, Very odd. Kinda Scary Odd. Change the locks on the doors before you move in Odd.

Anyhow...MUCH cleaning and painting later, and this is Harper's room now. She did all the decorating and color choosing herself. Fabulous job!

Half Bath/Powder Room Remodel

The Half Bath was sad and plain.

"Hello TP roll, how are you, today?"

TP roll replies, "I feel used."

So, we move the TP roll to hide it's shame.


"Hello, mirror over the sink! Where did you come from?"

Tiny gold mirror replies, "A few years ago a nice lady got me on sale for $8.98 and brought me here to live, but I feel so small and out of place."

We moved the mirror to a place where it can fit in and replaced it with one that can handle the space.

BTW - in those BEFORE pics, did you notice the toilet scrubber that was left by the previous owners? Just another one of the special suprises we were left with!

Master Bath Remodel

It's hard to know where to begin on the Master Bath. By and large it was the ickiest room in the entire house (after the cleaning -- in fact, our daughter's bedroom wins ickiest BEFORE cleaning...shudder...).

First, it had carpet, which was just gross.

Second, it had wallpaper under two layers of paint, which had never been sealed properly. The most recent coat was a burgundy shade and when the room got steamy, the paint ran. It was like the walls were bleeding.

Third, there's a great jacuzzi tub, which was tiled with black 4x4 tile and a burgundy accent - that with the Grecian columns gave it a '70s porn vibe.

Fourth, the glass block shower had never been sealed properly, thus water had gotten between the tiles and caused the metal outsider corners to rust: leaving rust stains inside the glass block and rusting out the lower corners of the walls on either side of the glass block wall.

Fifth, the counter tops were those precast counter tops and sinks and were in a lovely shade of light pink.

And last, there were lots and lots of mirrors in which to admire everything.

We ripped out the entire shower and rebuilt it, took down all the mirrors, took out all the tile around the tub (but ended up leaving the black tile on the tub deck), took up the carpet and replaced it with tile, left the original cabinets, but got new counter tops, sinks and hardware, had some cabinetry built for above the cabinets and on the tub front, framed new mirrors, hung new lights, added sconces and I think that's it. We were going for a warmer, cleaner, fancy hotel feel.

Here's the before, and I must say that this picture makes the bathroom look FANTASTICALLY better than it did in real life.

This is the After:

Kitchen Remodel

Our first big project when we got the house was the kitchen. The space is really nice; it's open to a good-sized dining and seating area, with plenty of room for our family. I didn't love the layout of the kitchen and cooked many pretend meals to determine the best triangle for every day use.

The old cabinets were...umm...well, let's say they would look FANTASTIC in a garage or workshop. But, the real kicker? Some of the previous owners (we have been told there were five in 12 years) had written inside the cabinet doors in black Sharpie marker things like "Blockbuster 525-0642" and "Pizza Hut 1-800-468-1412".

Really.

So, after multiple drafts on the graph paper, we completed the project. Here's the Before - this is when we were cleaning before we moved in:

And here's the After:

Like all things in my life, it's still not done. We did add a light above the center island (I can't take a new picture because my husband and son have the digital camera with them on a school trip to DC/NY), and I still want to make some kind of curtain for the window. Also, we added a couple of bar stools. The project took 4 months in all from demo to completion, but also included a bar/entertainment center and a redo of the fireplace. And we are so happy with it all!