Fire!

his morning I went over the house to get some "after" photos. Look at the lovely yellow.

I cant say enough of about how much I like this color.

Now, on the "to do" list Ive added another thing, to get some white trim paint to get that doorway and eventually the window trim painted white.

yellow!

As you can see from this picture, my ceiling fan is missing light bulbs and, since Im quite short, Ialso need to get some chain extensions for the fan and light on the fan. These are items that are on my shopping list, which continues to grow more and more.

Today's project, just like the title said, was fire!

Ive always wanted a fire pit, to get a fire going and roast marshmellows and on cool nights just sit close to it and warm up. Today I finally got one. Dad has a bunch of bricks just piled up at his old house (which they are trying to sell). So I figured he wouldnt mind if I went over and took some. So here is my car load. He has a small amount of several different kinds, so I picked one, and then ran out and selected a second. Not knowing how big or tall I wanted it, we guessed at the amount of bricks we would need. In the end a second trip was required, but I love the finished look a lot.

We ended up building it three times. Mostly to make the two different bricks work together (which they never did), it was an interesting process. At one point I was laying on the ground frustrated because I had thought of a solution and had destroyed a whole side, only it didnt work.

After the second trip and the re-arranging. This is the finished product. I love love love it. The location is great, far enough from the house not to worry me, far from the trees on the side. So needless to say, after all the work, we sat and enjoyed the fire.

The picture below is the title to the house. My mom had called and told me I had a package from the title company. So today when I went over for Easter Dinner I opened it up, and sure enough, there she is. Now to safe keep that in a lock box.

Such an important piece of paper, the reality of me owning a house still has not sunk in all the way, it kind of hits in little spurts.

A long weekend.

Today my great friend Beverly came into town to help me with work on the house. Today's project was painting in the kitchen. So I went to lowes this morning and picked up the needed supplies *plus some extras which I will talk about later

This is our set up, got some big plastic covers for the floor, because we don't want to get paint on the brand new tile. We are painting both the ceiling and the walls.

This is my fancy before photo. I was trying to get both the walls and the ceiling. It doesnt look bad right? well, just wait till tomorrow when I can get some nice and bright photos of the after.

See the difference between the non-painted and the freshly painted white ceiling.

LOVE the brightness!

Here is Bev getting the wall painted. Look at the lovely yellow! its such a happy yellow. I did a happy dance as we started putting the paint up. Seriously I paused several times just to comment on how much I LOVED the color. I am sorry that I dont have after photos, but it was getting dark by the time we finished, and since Im a bit lazy Ive just been taking photos on my phone and not with an actual camera. You will for now, just have to take my word for it that the difference is so amazing.

This is Bev's fiance Dillon. He came over as we were finishing painting and installed the ceiling fan for me. It was hard, mostly because Dad took any working phillips screw drivers he had with him, and left only one with a bunch of screws sticking out of the handle.

Here is the last picture of the day. It doesnt show the paint and fan to its best. But Ill get more pictures later. Promise.

Good Friday

Some times things have a slow start, then before you know it speeds up and more gets done that you ever thought possible.

This weekends projects started with taking down the uuuuglyyyy pink ceiling fan in what will be the kitchen to eventually be able to paint the ceiling and then install the new one I bought a while back. While the fan was done, this little light was installed to keep things illuminated inside.

I also got some spakeling done on the sheet rock under the new windows. Dad's way to teach me how to spakle is to compare it to icing a cake. Think of it that way and it doesnt seem so impossible anymore.

Above is the before picture. And below is the after.

Yard work was main project of Friday. Below is the before picture of the back corner with all the branches piled up on it. There was so much trash mixed in there as well. It was hard work, but the yard is looking better.

By the end, we had at least 5 big piles of leafs, branches and trash that needed to get burned and tossed. We did a medium sized pile. It was fun, I love fire. Seriously I love fire.

Also on Friday we finished the garden. We started it the night before and were missing just a little to get it done. It got finished on Friday, the second layer timbers were screwed in, the top soil laid, and then after our burning frenzy, we plants were placed.

We decided to name our little plants. The watermelons are named after female country stars, the cilantro's last name is Hispanic, the Japanese egg plant is named after a character from Princess Mononoke a Japanesse anime. All of them got named, and eventually I will make little name plates for them.

Jordan and Megan's garden

Garden. Ive never done one before, I have tried to grow things in pots, which then die :(

So this is a first for me. I cant deny that Im quite excited about it. Jordan and I meet up this afternoon, and after about an hour of walking around the yard, looking at different areas, we decided on this lovely garden's location.
The next step was a trip to Lowes for the supplies.

Lowes is always an interesting experience, this time we found everything that was needed and were on our way in no time.

By the time we got started it was like 6:30 and we had some digging to do.

We used the lumber to determine were we needed to dig up that top layer of grass, during the digging process there were a couple of moments were I couldnt help but yell out my disgust with the amount of rocks in the ground. One side of the digging wasnt to bad, and so naturally you think more will get done, well, we started on the second half of it and it had more rocks and ended up taking a while.

But we finally finished enough to start placing the timbers.

This step also resulted in me yelling about how much I hate hammering. See those jumbo spike things? we hammered them into the timbers and then into the ground. (were hoping they stay) but man that took some force.

After we did 8 of those big ones, we had some smaller ones to place a second timber on top of the first. Well, we started the first one and decided that some screws would be a better route, so this meant a return trip to Lowes, and a much needed diner break. (pizza yum!)

This is the picture of what it looks like so far, I laid the weed stopping plastic down to help discourage weeds (yes!) and Jordan's drill didn't have enough battery to power the screws through the wood. It was dark and cold so we called it a night.

Tomorrow the drill should be charged, and so should we. We will probably go ahead and plant once we get all the nice new top soil (and manure!) in the nice square we've built.

Tuesday.

Hello! So dad left yesterday. No big progress has been made on the house. Mostly because Im working, and I only get so much time to work on stuff before it starts getting dark.

Today, I planted a tomato plant. I splurged for the fancy upside down pot. I went ahead and bough a plant instead of starting a seed. Mostly, because I am horrible at growing stuff. So here is to hoping this doesnt end up being a waste of money. I feel like I should name him, what name would go well for a tomato plant?

Now before you start thinking that Im not going to get anything done with out dad. Let me show you I did do some work today. I have photographic evidence.

That is my arm covered in a lovely layer of dust that came off from me sanding the plaster in the bathroom. Man that stuff is fine and messy. I didnt realize just how much was coming off till I notice the piles of dust on the floor (got to use the shop vac to clean that up, big fan of the shop vac!) My arms were covered in it, im pretty sure i breathed quite a bit in, and my hair was also covered in a light layer of the dust.

I now have an idea of what I will look like once I go gray. It adds character right? well, I should have to worry about going gray for many many years.

Here is that corner again. I measure the side of the wall, one measures 14feet and the other measures 8feet. Im thinking of starting out with a triangle just filling in the corner and then go from there. Eventually I will doing a drive way, and I think that concrete will be going in for that, so maybe it can be edged with the stones that will be laid.

can you see the string i put up? tomorrow I will be going to lowes to get the actually supplies i need, also in the plans is to call Dig right and have them come out and mark the water lines so i can work carefully around them.

This last picture really is a bowl of cereal. I dont think I have had cereal at least 6 months. I go through phases when Ill eat cereal for the 3 meals of the day, and then I dont for a long time. I think it has a lot to do with the heat and not wanting to eat something heavy and warm.

The cereal tasted so good that I had to take a picture and share! So go get yourself a bowl and enjoy with me! yum!

This little light of mine...

This is the corner of the house that gets no sun light. And i wish that singing that song would make the grass grow in that corner, but it doesnt. So....

What options do I have? I was thinking a little stone patio corner. This is prevent it from just being a muddy corner.
But,,, there are some things to take into consideration.
1. That gas meter. (insert long pause here. had to stop and call the gas company because i remembered that dad has smelled a small leek near the gas meter. now 1.5 hours later, im getting back to this post.)
2. There are probably water lines under that section as well, since that back wall is the bathroom.
3. water drainage away from the house, there must be an incline away from the house's foundation to keep it from getting wet.

All in all, at some point I will do something. And like I said in the previous post, I want to try and do stuff with out dad. so why not just give it a go!

Thinking and dreaming

and mostly doing reasearch on how to do some upcoming projects so I dont look so stupid when I head out to start looking at materials and talking to dad about it.

Here is a post on another blog about creating a patio/walkway. Im thinking of this specific corner (pictures to come) of the house were absolutely no sun light hits. So there is no hope for grass ever growing there. Plus, it would be nice to have a spot to set my trash can that has a solid surface underneath.
Im thinking this might be something I can start on my own. And then when dad gets back he can tell me what a horrible job I did and probably have me re-do it all with his help. Maybe Ill get some credit for at least trying one of these things on my own. right?

So here is the link to the post that inspired me.
http://www.younghouselove.com/2011/05/can-you-dig-it/

Something had to go wrong at some point. Right?

Up to the point of this picture things has gone on with out a single problem. Really, I was amazed. The floor had been finished. Dad and I had stayed late Friday night to finish it. I had also gone by Lowes and finally picked out a window for the back kitchen wall that was actually going to work.

As we were preparing to clean up and head out. We decided to measure the opening in the wall were the window goes. And--- Dad stepped on the freshly laid tiles. We didnt notice it the first time he stepped on them, and man! it ruined the setting of at least 5 of the tiles. We had been focused on the window and measuring... we should have just gone home and worried about it the next day.

So here we are, loosing day light and trying to re-set these four tiles. It had looked so pretty before, we did the best we could to fix them and just let them set, and all we could do was wait an see what they would look like in the morning.

In the morning. Dad didn't like the way the tiles set. So, we had to take them up. Apparently there isn't any other way to pull up a tile than to break it. So, we broke two of them. The picture above shows one already gone, and the one on top broken and about to be pulled up. Since the tiles only cost .49 each its not that bad. And remember, when buying tile, always buy at least 10 % more than the square footage you are covering. For times like these, or if you happen to crack one somehow, you have some left over to replace it. It goes along the lines of saving your left over paint to do any touch ups.

This how ever was not the end of our problems. Notice anything missing from this picture? Well you may not be able to tell from this angle, but, the kitchen sink was sitting out there on the porch "airing out". Its gone now. Just when I had come to terms with using the old sink instead of buying a new one. Well now I guess I should add that $100 to $150 back into the budget.

On a more positive note: Look at that window! we got both the windows in the kitchen done now. They are 46 inches off the ground which allows for cabinets and appliances to be placed underneath them.

There they both are. Yes, one is slightly bigger than the other. But well, that couldn't be helped. I like how they look, its a lot of detail work setting into the frame and making adjustments.

This is the end of the day picture. Covering the outside with some plywood. This will then get covered with the siding and painted gray.

The siding drives me nuts, and i need to keep reminding myself that once I save up the $$ i will be replacing the ugly, broken, drab siding for some lovely, happy, one. All in good time...

Kitchen: floors and windows!

Today continues the progress in the kitchen. The floor has been started with the whole pieces going in first, then we will add the edges that require cutting. This allows us to do all the cuts at one time and not have to stop and cut every row.

The kitchen (and livingroom) floor is a lovely 13inch brown tile.

Im liking it more and more every day. Its got lovely brown tones, and it contrast with the yellow paint color I picked quite nicely. It looks quite grimy with the mortar dried over it. But dont worry, once its set, a quick mop over it and its good as new.

The door way at the top of the picture is the doorway to what was the closet when this room was a bed room, and what will now be the kitchen pantry. Im still unsure of what I will do with that doorway: leave it open, put a pop of color with a screen door, put a curtain, the pantry has a window in it, so id like for some of that natural light to get through. Im glad I dont have to decide that anytime soon.

Windows in the kitchen. Because the room used to be a bedroom, the windows come down pretty far, which is not the best for putting kitchen cabinets infront of them. So, Im going ahead and putting new windows in. This should raise the bottom of them up higher than the counter top. At least thats what I'm hoping will happen.

On this picture you can see the 2x4 frame that we are placing to set the window into. Its going to need some sheetrock on the inside and siding on the outside. On the inside you wont be able to notice at all. On the outside how ever...

You will be able to notice. If you look closely to the window on the left, you can see were this window was raised up (same thing i'm doing to the big empty space on the right) and the siding has a break in it.

I'm not worried, in my long term plan I'm thinking of re-doing the siding. With some stone or brick accent walls out front. But Ill have to have the funds first.

This last picture shows the widening of the entryway between the kitchen and livingroom. Its not much, but it will make a difference. This will be framed and the front wall will actually get a new layer of sheet rock.

What Im thinking and hoping it will look like.

There really is no way to know what the kitchen will acutally look like. But I spent a good time yesterday working on this rendering of what I have pictured in my mind. I know it wont look exactly like this, but im aiming for as close as i can.
A big thanks to LOWES virtual room designer. It has everything I needed.

Everything at once.

Thats the kitchen sink, which means the old kitchen cabinets have come out. The sink is the only piece im keeping, mostly because its a still in good condition stainless steel. I will be getting a new faucet, but a good cleaning and the sink will look as good as new. There is now empty space in that corner. That room is slowly starting to look like a living room. yay!

Here are the old cabinets, in pieces, junk now.

Here is a picture of the corner where the kitchen cabines used to be. Now just empty and kind of grody looking, its amazing how much dust and grime gets stuck behind the cabinets. A good reminder to work hard on that spring cleaning.

In the room that is slowly becoming the kitchen, the under floor concrete has gone in. And dad will probably start laying the tile tomorrow. which is a lot sooner than anticipated.

And today I stopped by Mill Creek to pick up some of the tile that is going in the kitchen and living room. I had forgotten what it looked like, and when i saw it, I remember why I went ahead and bought it before we even closed on the house. And at .49 cents a square foot, whats not to love about it.