Day 50: Trimming

Into the sun room:


Windows trimmed and room continuing to take finished shape. Can't wait for the tile!!!!!


*a note... I am nervous about the paint color. Baby bluer than I orig thought, and YES while it is changeable... now that it is painted, it's moved down the list of priorities... like - throughout this process I have been given a lot of ideas as far as "well it would only be a couple hundred bucks more for..." and they are great ideas. BUT, thing is... we are doing work to the kitchen, dining room, office, guestroom, master, sun room, living room, minor bathroom stuff, attic, halls/stairs, closets, outside (siding, three doorways, outside lighting), and eventually yard. There are probably 50 to 100 EASILY thought of things I could do slightly nicer, better, etc for 200-1000$ a piece. But the issue is, can't do them all. Have to pick and choose.
Also, at the end of this, we will be continuing to look for deals on new appliances, a new couch, new arm chair, guest bedroom furnishings, etc. Soooooooooo...it's not my fav color but FINGERS CROSSED it comes together because we certainly have someplace more important to put the $ to redo it.

Mess - one day this will be a dining room not a storage room... excited... they plan to paint it soon! We are going with the old kitchen color. Its like a bisque tan color. The yellow was bright and fun for a while but a little extreme considering most of the rooms have a more historic classic look:


And THANK YOU to MICHAELINE and MOM for providing our touch of Christmas this year! Was a sad year without a tree but I come home to this wreath every day and smile.

Day 24-26: New Siding!

So I know I skip a few days, and it's not that nothing is getting done... it's just that I already probably over chronicallize, and you don't want to see my new fire alarms.









Also, in putting on siding, we had some window casualties. Now although our contractor offered to fix (supposedly for free but who knows how they bury those charges), he also was able to find windows on sale that fit, and so, we decided the best was to replace the three windows:


Check us out in our first snow:

Day 20: Post Holiday Updating As of Dec 2

These updates will be big and fast because while I might have been sitting on my toukas noshing on poultry and pie, these dudes were working hard!

Got up this morning (12/2) and here is where we stand:



Notice anything different?



WINDOWS!!!!!!!!!



The front door (used to be between living room and sun room) is making its way to the front:





Closet doors have been put on our laundry closet:



The kitchen and dining walls have been smoothed and spackled:





The back step is forming:



And well OK fine, spoiler alert... by the end of the day, the front door is actually in place:











And well I may not be able to decorate but check out the neighbor's bling helping my cause:

Demolition Day 2: Around the House

Everything looks fairly normal from this angel, and then...


Check that out! Cool Pics coming soon from the inside...


Window is gone, backdoor finding shape...



Back window/door changes...

Demolition Day 1: Uninsulated, Literally too.

Somehow the window looks so much nicer all exposed like that. I am going to miss it, I mean people pay a lotta money for a sheet of glass like that.



Since lunch time the rooms have started taking on shape and division.









The door to the hall is gone now, yay more openness!



The heat turned off, boo we're cold!

2011 Status Update

So... going into the year I had a meeting with my financial advisor, who felt that given the projects that I wanted done by end of 2013...

-roof
-attic conversion to bedrooms
-siding
-porch
-front door to porch

...that I should look into getting them done sooner than later. Based on reasonable expectations of my future income it seemed plausible. Until it suddenly wasn't. So the thing is, these things STILL need to get done by 2013. While it is very clear it will not be happening this year, it is also very clear to me that I need to remember that nothing is a given, and I need to really save as much as possible to get ready to have this done. Yes I would LOVE kitchen cabinets, or the stairwell to be fixed up, or the bathrooms to be done asap (these will get done this year), or a myriad of other tasks. But the fact is... if I want to have a kid, I need a room for him/her. So this year there is not going to be the kinds of transformations we saw last year. This year is more about functionality. My 2010 New Years Resolution was to become more handy. My 2011 is to become a better hostess. So just a heads up that the general theme of this year will be working more to make my house a more livable home by increasing storage, functionality, and organization.

Anywho. more pics to come soon, finally got some hanging done!!! (I've had some decorations that have been waiting forever to make it to the wall).

Other things to look forward to:
- finishing the bathrooms
- making a walkway to the front of the house
- better tending the garden
- creating an outdoor "hang out" area with table and chairs, and putting in a dog run
- organizing and cleaning out the porch to make it a usable area at least in the warmer days
- window treatments that are not paper blinds

Beautifying Inside & Out

Productivity last weekend!!!!

My friend Pat came with a truck and a chain saw to help us break down the tree debris (and so he could take the wood for his fire pit).


Brendan after loading the truck for the first time.


Pat making sure load 3 "wood" be a full one!


The truck filled with load two, load three mid yard, and hauling away the future mulch on a drop cloth (non-wood tree debris and weeds).


Fake blinds to hide our stuffed porch.


Peekaboo!


My new lamp.


The lamp in high detail.


Up next (hopefully) painting the bathroom!

MEANWHILE...

In my last post I went over March 27th Saturday morning-> evening festivities at the house, meanwhile...

We went SHOPPING! Uncle John got us the Lowes employee discount.








It took some creative thinking getting the crown & base mouldings up to the bedroom. After which we painted them all and put them in Harry Potter's bedroom.






Danny was the typical labourer (drinking beer and goofing off with power tools). Meanwhile Uncle John worked on trying to fit a rectangular door in a trapezoidal opening (didn't work).






End of the day celebrating:






Denville Pizzaria