The Game Plan

Evan, our 5 year old, asked us this weekend:
"Do you know what my favorite part of pre-school is?"

Us: "What?"

Evan: "Leaving."

Good stuff....  What does this have to do with this blog post?  Nothing.  Absolutely nothing. 

On with it!

We now have a foyer.  Hallelujah!  You can come to our house and walk in more than one step and not have to worry about taking a swan dive down the basement stairs.  Life is good.

I'll admit that I've struggled with this room as to what to do.  Do we texture, paint the walls, throw down some tile and call it good?  After all, it's just a foyer where dirt, backpacks and smelly shoes gather.  Or, do we go ape sh*! and have fun with it?

Well, I'd hate to disappoint you......

Another admission by yours truly: I have totally jumped on the re-purpose, old barn wood,
get-a-tetanus-shot-before-you-hang-that-thing-on-your-wall bandwagon.

Look, I even have my own bandwagon!

Well, part of one, anyways.  Remember my little preview from my earlier post? Click here if you need a refresher.

This is what became of it.  For those of you who are still wondering 'what in the hell is it?', this is a buckboard aka the seat of a wagon.  We bought it and repurposed it into a bench for the foyer.  Super hubby added the wood to the bottom and wah-lah!  I would also like to add a horse to it.  Hubby won't let me though. Dag nab-it.

The inspiration.  That's what we will call this.  This was the inspiration for the "theme" of the new foyer.  I'm all about themes.  Themes are FUN!  I love themes.

Let me ask you this... Have you ever taped and textured?  Have you ever taped and textured while under the influence?  Well let me tell you, it doesn't matter what your answer is to either of these questions because regardless, IT SUCKS! 

So, the less that we can do of it, the better.  Covering up things is kinda fun so we're gonna run with that.  We're gonna cover up the ceiling with tile and cover up the biggest wall with wood.  The latter hasn't actually happened yet and for me to state in a roundabout way that it's easier than taping and texturing is premature but I'm pretty confident in the fact that I'm wrong a lot and admitting that, is the first step.  Wait.  What are we talking about, again?

 Starting with the floor.... what to do... Tile or wood?  Wood or tile?  Tile.  No, wood!!  Ok, wood.  What kind of wood?  Isn't it strange how when you look at a word for a long time it starts to look weird and wrong?  I digress.  Hickory.  No, Maple.  No, Walnut.  How about oak?  Ugh.  Compromise.  Pick two.  Ok - Maple and Oak.  Natural Maple and Midnight Oak to be exact.  I totally just had an argument with myself.

 

We're gonna do what I will call "pinstriping" the floor by alternating the 2 different types of wood every 2 rows: 2 rows maple-2 rows oak-2 rows maple-2 rows oak now bow to your partner, promenade.

 

Next up, the ceiling. 

Remember this?

Le faux tin ceiling.

  We're gonna do this again but try a copper color this time.  And I may just ruin it when I try to do a dark color distress over the top of it.  We'll see what happens. 

I'm sure I'll swear you'll hear, all about it.

 

 

Built-in lockers for all of our crap.....

 

 

Annnnd, a wood wall.

Wood you?

Could you?

I like to paint,

I do for sure!

But I can't,

I won't,

I refuse,

TO TEXTURE!

We got ourselves a big ol' pile of barn wood and we're gonna cover this baby with it.

 

 

And while we're at it, let's throw in a chandelier. 

Why the hell not, weez all classy folk..... Right?  

 

 

Oh yes, and let's not forget:

Any guesses yet as to what's gonna go in these 3 perfectly framed out spaces???

 

 

Hint:

Yeah, that's not a hint.

My wine is kicking in and I'm all of a sudden in a very giving mood.

 

 

Ready.... Set..... Go!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Miss us?

We've missed you too....

We're back at it again. The house that, is.

See?!?!

Oh, and look at this!!

And this!
                                      

And....... Oh-Em-Gee.  Is that carpet I see?!?

Landscape and carpet and barn wood, oh my!

We have so much to talk about!

But not right now.... SOON!

Stay tuned!

The Greenhouse

Grandpa George

Grandpa George owned a glass store, O & K Glass.  He and Grandma also loved to garden as I mentioned in previous posts.  They built themselves a little greenhouse..

Isn't it cute?

He used leftover store-front glass to build it.  Back in the good ol' days, there were no such things as malls and all of the stores had glass store fronts along the streets.  Hence the term, window shopping for those reading this that were born after 1985.

After having this for a few years, they decided to add on to it and attach it to the house.  They replaced the kitchen window with patio doors and you would walk into The Greenhouse.

View from the outside: You can see behind Grandma Gwen's wig, er, I mean head, the entrance from The Greenhouse into the house. 

BTW, that really is Grandma Gwen (on the left) and she really was my Grandma.  She was Grandma Margie's neighbor on Walnut Street and how this aaaallllllll got started!  She once was chased by an elephant that got loose at the circus because she had peanuts in her pocket and it smelled them so she ran and locked herself in a car and the elephant attacked the car and that's why she never got a drivers license... True story.  Or so I am told.  I digress.  Sorry bout that.

Anyways... back to The Greenhouse.

So The Greenhouse was the coolest thing ever.  Ney, hottest thing ever.  That sucker would heat up like a kiln in the dead of summer.  They used it for their plants in the spring time (no, they did not grow pot in there much to manys dismay.... bahahaha.  Just kidding.  Maybe.) and used it to store wood for the wood stove burner in the winter time. 

The Greenhouse had a good run but after about 25+ years, it was time to bid farewell.  The wood was rotting, the glass brittle and breaking and frankly, it had become a hazard.

Goodbye dear Greenhouse.... It was, to say the least, a bittersweet event.  I will always miss watching thunderstorms and drinking a beer in there with some pretty awesome ghosts ;)

This is where I would insert the video of the footage I took of the guys (The Husband, The Dustin, Ross (Ryan's bro) and Neighbor Kevin) removing the 8 million footings and all of the re bar but my iPad decided to take a crap and I lost it.

But thankfully, I still have a photo of the tractor.  Whew.

The after...

A deck and big ol' slab of colored cement and dog named Patsy who insists on being in almost every photo that I take.

 

 

We designed the deck ourselves online... Handy Dandy.

And then we gave the plans to our builder and he built the deck.. Handier Dandier!

 

 

 

UPDATE! 

I already have an update for you!  This past summer we decided to re-stain the deck... BLACK!  We left the spindles the brown color but stained the floor and the top of the railing black and it turned out awesome!  And what's even more awesome is that it turned out awesome and not awful like Husband thought it was going to while he was having a panic attack mid-way through staining it.

(He's gonna love me for that one) 

 

 

As we talked about before, when it comes to home improvements, one thing always leads to another and in this instance, it lead to landscaping.  A butt load of it.  So much, that it deserves it's own blog post.  And zip code.

 

To be continued...

and continued.

 

and continued.

 

 

 

 

Mudroom - Take 2

I'm pretty sure every time Husband and I delve into a new project, or continue our efforts on one of our many never-ending projects, Grandma and Grandpa watch us from above. 

And laugh their asses off at us. 

I know that many, if not all, of our "hurdles" with remodeling were not put there on purpose.  Yet, we've come to realize that we are not capable of tackling any task - large or small - and not have some form of a bump in the road, issue, pain in the ass, problem, hurdle, obstacle... Call it what you may.  I bet you can figure out what we call them.  Anyways, why am I bantering about this?  I have no idea.  I did have a point when I started typing but I'm watching The Sandlot movie simultaneously and lost my train of thought.  It happens.  Can you blame me?  Smalls, you're killin' me.

Once upon a time, we decided to add on a new foyer and garage.  Our original mudroom (you can read about it here) is now becoming an enclosed closet.  You would think that this wouldn't be THAT big of a project, and I guess it really isn't compared to some of the others, but of course, nothing can ever be easy.

A coupla before pics:

Here comes the pain in the butt issue... We had to rip out the sub flooring to make the floor level with the rest of the new area

 

And what to do we find.....

More vermiculite :(

 
For those of you not familiar with what that is, it's a form of insulation in the same category as asbestos.  Think of Vermiculite as Asbestos's sister and they're both cancer-causing bitches.

So on with the masks and off with their heads, so to speak.

 

That's better.

 

 

Oh!  And look!  The cover to the cistern aka Al Capone's Vault.

Neat-O.

 

Gonna knock down some walls now

Oh hi, Evan. 

Evan recently lost his fingernail while riding under the shopping cart and sticking his hand under the wheel at Lowe's while shopping for supplies for the blessed foyer.

 

See?  Gross.

I'm glad it didn't happen to a different finger....... You know, like his thumb.

 

 

The mudroom will now be converted into a closet and will have a door on it.

 

View from our new front entrance

 

View from my dirty kitchen

 

 

New patio doors leading to the backyard...Another post in the making...

 

View from mudroom.  The door to the garage on the left and a framed out closet to the right.

 

And to the right of the closet.....

A fun little project that will be happening... Who can tell me what this is?!?!?!

 

One more guessing game....

What do you think this little area with the 3 squares is gonna be used for?  If you've been reading my blog, you should be able to figure it out ;)

 

To be continued.........

 

 

 

 

 

 

Playboys, Pepsi and all kindza UPDATES!

One would hope that with all of the demo and remodeling we've done to this house, we'd find some sort of hidden treasure or a roll of cash stashed somewhere. I'm sad to report that's not the case for us.  Relics we have uncovered are an empty pull-tab Pepsi can and a Playboy from 1970 with the cover ripped off and the corners chewed by mice that we found in the walls of our now living room. Hopefully it was mice that chewed the corners...... Which reminds me of a time when I left the door to the house open when I was running in and out of it and a gopher decided to help himself to our basement. He's dead now.

 

I regret to inform you that I do not have a photo of the Playboy to show you but I do have this lovely picture that Evan made for me that I will graciously share.

It's a "hockey thing" he told me.  Of course it is.  It totally looks like a hockey thing.

 

 

***UPDATES ***

It's been a while so thought I'd give a few updates as to some of the projects we have been forever working on.

 

Basement:

The basement has been on hold since Spring finally decided to make an appearance.  It's ALMOST done... Like every other project we have running, of course.  But here's a few shots to bring you up to speed:

 

We added a few doors

Remember Al Capone's Vault?  He now has a door.  Super Husband made it.  Welded the track, made the door from some old tongue and groove wood he found... I told ya he's talented.

 

Closet doors.  Also made by Super H.  We couldn't find any closet doors that we really liked, so...

He welded some frames together, bought some wood, attached with carriage bolts and there ya go.

Boom.  Closet doors.

Don't forget to admire the stain job.  That was my part :)

There is a little more progress than what I've showed BUT, I don't want to steal my own thunder for later when I show you the FINISHED photos.  Yes, I used the word finished.

 

 

Garage/Addition updates

Oh boy, hasn't this been a long time coming after the nasty winter we had.

 

Lo and Behold!  A frickin' garage! 

 

And a driveway!  Or what we like to call our Sea-ment.

 

And a sidewalk!

In case you're wondering about the siding, it's not supposed to be there.  Exposed Tyvek wrap is the new thing.

 

One more update

The Foyer

I have decided that The Foyer deserves it's own post but here's a preview:

As of today:

This archway is where the door to the house used to be.

 

 

Other side, door to the garage.

Here's a tip for you that we learned the hard way:  The nice beautiful expensive door that you see there that leads from the foyer into the garage is not up to code.  Those doors can not have glass or windows in them.  Even if it's cute glass.  Dammit.