Chimney Flashing Replaced!

When we bought this house, we really didn't take into consideration the roof line.  Granted, we aren't on the roof all that much, but had we bought a ranch or cape, it would be a little easier for James to take care of some simple things.  A few weeks ago, I noticed a water spot in our attic.  Then walking, I noticed a shingle is missing from our roof.  A single shingle.  When we bought this place 3 years ago, the inspector told us that our chimney flashing needed to be replaced.  So today, James went up there and replaced it.  He also scoped out the missing shingle (by the way, they sell replacement shingles in sheets of 3).  

James stole a harness from work so he used it.  Safety first at our house!

 There is James shimmying down the roof.  

 I was nice and held the ladder as he was climbing down.

Ben thought it was cool that Daddy went on the roof.  

So James was able to fix the flashing, but he said the angle that the missing shingle is at is hard to replace because the hip roof and the lack of anything to hold onto.  He said he might try to go up the other side to get at it in a different angle.  Or we might call a roofer.  I don't even know if roofers come out for little, stupid jobs like "replace a shingle".  I guess we might find out.  

In other news, we are really trying to finish this porch up.  We were going to hire our plasterer to plaster it, but with James laid off, we're just trying to finish it off ourselves for now.  We figure, we have all the materials needed so it's not costing us anything but time and if it looks really bad, we'll call the plasterer next year when James is working again.  My goal is to have this done by Christmas so we'll see.  

Landscaping....

Well, I've "landscaped" half of the front yard.  I neglected to take a picture of the "full" aspect because the rest of the yard still looks like butt.  I'm dealing with the root of an old bush on the other side of the stairs - which is killing me.

This side took me probably about 5 hours in total, if not more.  I cut out about 40-50 roots with a sawsall.  I planted about 150 bulbs & 2 trees.  Then I threw some mulch down (I'm probably the only fool in New England who bought mulch in October).  

I'm hoping to get the rest of the place done before winter really hits - James doesn't understand my rush - but men just don't get Christmas decorations.  I love decorations and I NEED it to look decent for Christmas!  We have a door decorating contest in our town that I need to win!  Why does he not understand this??!

Front Hallway - Tiling Has Begun!

James tiled the floor yesterday.  We now just have to wait 24 hours and then he can put the grout down.  We just continued the kitchen tiles into the hallway.  We bought a bunch of them what, like 2 years ago when we tiled the kitchen.  We finally put them to use.

I also painted the kitchen green a few days ago.  Here I am in my homemaker apparel to show it off.  I need to organize the kitchen some before I "show it off" more.  Plus, it doesn't help that there is the front hallway radiator just sitting in the middle of the kitchen.  I really like it though.  We used the same green as we did in the dining room and it is definitely more of what we had in mind as far as a "finished" kitchen than that awful blue.  The blue wasn't a bad color by itself - it was just bad in our kitchen.  I even painted our backdoor green!  I think it looks great.  Since it's raining today and Ben's camp got cancelled, maybe I can actually organize this place.  I am probably jinxing myself.

Tile That Floor James!

While we were away in CT for the weekend, James got bored.  He ripped up the flooring in our front hallway.  We came home to this:

It brought back flashbacks from living in our un-done kitchen back in 2008.  Since this, James laid down some plywood, cement board and has all the tiles cut to put down.  We're just waiting for this weekend when he should have enough time off in a row to actually lay the tiles.  We're just continuing the tiles we put down in our kitchen 2 years ago.

Home Improvements are always more fun with a 2 year-old helping you!

Porch and Other Updates!

We haven't really done anything too major to the house recently.  Just a lot of little odds and ends.  We finally put blinds and a curtain up in our downstairs bathroom!  Woohoo!  It only took us 2 1/2 years - so apologies to any of our neighbors who enjoyed peeping at us in the past.

The dining room built-in is completely done with handles attached.  I just have to concentrate on keeping it clean now!

James finished up some oddball stuff in the kitchen.  We tried some paint samples because the blue isn't working for us.  We thought having a brown in there might do the trick, but after a couple random "browns" on the wall - we have decided that we don't like it.  Since we have almost a full gallon of our green paint from the dining room, we're thinking we'll just go ahead and paint it the same color as the dining room since we love that color so much.  Our motto:  You can never have too much green in a house!

The outside of the house is killing us.  Just because we really have zero idea what to do with it.  We have random bushes and trees all over.  We'll probably just kill them all off.  We did manage to put up our mailbox and house numbers!  Woohoo!

We also threw down a rock walkway for now.  We're not sure what we're going to do with it permanently, but this will do for now (it will probably still be like this 20 years from now knowing us....)

We have thrown down a bunch a grass seed a while ago to get the front yard looking good - but our front yard was always very shaddy due to a neighbor's tree.  But Whoa!  This past Tuesday, our neighbors had their huge, dying tree cut down!  Now we have sun in our front yard all day long!  Now maybe our grass seed will grow with some more dedication to watering it.

We had an electrician come in and throw in the outside light and a bunch of outlets in the porch.  He did this Saturday.  The electrical inspector is suppose to come Thursday or Friday and if we get the okay from him, the electrician can finish up the job.  We think we're just going to go ahead and sheet rock it.  We've been going back and forth about putting up wood walls/dry wall - but dry wall just seems easier.

That is it for now!  Maybe with Tommy's birthday party coming up, we'll get remotivated to do some stuff.  Parties always motivate me to do stuff on the house.  I don't know why.

Landscaping and Paint

I've been working like a mad lady the last few days.  James believes I recently became addicted to Speed, but I haven't. 

I started our "landscaping".  The following picture shows 5 hours worth of work.  It's really hard to move grass.  But now, James just needs to level the ground and throw down a walkway.

I've also been painting stuff.  I have more painting to do and touch ups around the house.  But I got the bathroom mouldings painted, half of the door and the dining room done.

This is a bad picture - but the mouldings are done.  Now I can finally throw up a blind and a curtain.

The built-in area is done!  Now I just have to clean it and have James install the pulls.  I scored some on clearance a while back - they are just longing to be put to good use!

The Porch Is "Done"!

Our contractor guys came back today to put up the siding and demand their last payment.  They are officially done - but the work is just getting started for us.  We have to landscape the front yard and do some detail work (like put numbers and a new mailbox on our house - as well as painting the stairs)

Here's the result:

Looking at the final picture makes me realize just how much work we have to do.  I have no idea how we are going to do it - but I'm confident James will figure it out somehow or other. 

Woodwork is Done!

Our woodworking brothers came over and did a bunch of stuff.  They finished off our cabinet tops, sides and some mouldings on the floor.  They finished the mouldings in the bathroom.  They finished the dining room built-in with the original wood from the original built-in.  They finished in 4 hours and did a great job - but now we just have to get back in the home improvement spirit to caulk and paint!

Built-In Before

Built-In After

Bathroom Window Before

Bathroom Window After

Cabinets Before

Cabinets After

Cabinets Before

Cabinets After

I was so very happy with their work - fast and good!  If anyone around here needs woodwork done - give me a call and I'll give you these brothers number to you.  They were outstanding!

Waiting & Woodwork

So, yeah, the siding for our house is behind on the shipping front.  Or maybe that's just what the contractor told me to stall coming back.  Either way, I don't really care - because once it's done, we'll have to worry about tackling that front yard.  Don't get me wrong, I'm excited to have a better looking front yard than the disaster that is out there now, but I really don't want to do any of the work to get to that point.  The siding should be in June 1st and they'll be over after that. 

In my spare time, I've been scraping the lead paint off the ceiling of the porch.  We're not in too much of a rush to finish it, but it will be nice when it's done inside.

On the flip side, we're excited that the wood guys are coming Saturday.  They are going to finish up our kitchen cabinets, our half bath moulding and some mouldings in the dining room.  Hopefully that will make a big difference and after some painting - it will be safe to say that everything on the first floor besides the front hall way will be "done".  And yeah, we're getting rid of the blue in the kitchen because it just isn't for us.  We're going to try a light brown.  We'll see how that turns out.

Stairs Are Almost Done

So even though the guys said they weren't coming back today, Mother Nature decided to plop some rain on us tomorrow, so they swung by today to do a lot of the steps to stay ahead.  They were only here for 4 hours, but got a lot of the stairway knocked out.

Part of the way we tried to "save" money is to have them not finish off the inside of the porch.  We'll get to that whenever we can.  We have our work cut out for us:

A Door and Some Wood...

The men were back today to do some more stuff.  Apparently there was a little confusion with our porch - they thought we wanted the whole thing sided, but we really wanted white wood all around the windows.  Well I honestly didn't really care, but that's what James wanted.  So I fought for my husband (I actually just told the guys that we wanted it to look different than originally planned....).  So we had to shell out a little more money for "fancy" wood but in the long run, it will be fine.  On the flip side, when we got an estimate for the porch, we told them not to include a new door - but today, a door was delivered!  So I say it sort of evens itself out with the door and the wood.  Here are the latest updated pictures:

Since they can probably finish the stairs and the siding in one day, they probably won't be back until the siding is in (earliest would be Friday - unless we get lucky).  They've said they have had the siding come in earlier than expected, right on time, or even a few weeks late.  So honestly, who knows when they'll be back.  I know they will be back though - I still owe them money! 

The Windows Are In!

The porch guys were back this morning to get to work.  A good surprise happened:  The windows came in today (they were suppose to come in next Friday).  So the guys got them in.  They also started the staircase.  They are taking the weekend off and will be back Monday morning to finish up almost everything but the siding.  Here's what the porch looks like now after today's work:

Porch Update

The guys came back to do more work on the porch today.  They were successful in digging 4 ft. holes according to our town's building inspector.  That's good to know.  They poured the concrete yesterday so that was pretty boring.  Today they started framing in the porch and got rid of our walk way - which has made me realize that we will have a lot of landscaping to do once all is said and done.  Here are today's pictures:

Here are the guys jackhammering the walkway away.

Framing has started and they took away the supports.

They'll be back tomorrow to finish up the framing and start the stairs.  They went to get the siding today - but didn't realize how "old" it was and had to special order it.  That won't be in for 2 weeks so once the framing is done, we'll have to wait a week or 2 for the windows and siding to be put on.  Maybe James can throw in the outside light during that time since that is suppose to be done before the final inspection.

New Front Porch - Day 1

The contractor guys came today.  I could have sworn they said they would be here at 8 - but they were here at 6:30.  They got the front porch torn apart and started building the floor to the new one.  Tomorrow, some inspector guy has to come and measure some holes to make sure they are to code - so the guys won't be back until Wednesday or Thursday.  They said they should be done (for the most part) on Friday or Monday - but unfortunately, the windows won't be in until next Friday - so it will be about 2 weeks until everything is complete. 

Here's some pictures of the work they did so far:

Here's our old porch in the dumpster.

One angle.

Ooohhhh....

Ahhhh....

Front Porch Preparations!

We are very excited - the first "major" home improvement that we hired someone to do is starting this coming Monday.  The new front porch!  We decided to go with an enclosed front porch since we could really use some extra space to store shoes, coats and toys.  Even though we really like the open porch - we aren't really "sit on out there and drink lemonade in our rocking chair people."  So enclosed it is. 

I'm really freaking out about the aesthetics of this project.  This project could totally change the look of the house and I really don't want it to look all ghetto.  So we surprisingly didn't go the "cheapest" route with some things.  My "big" issue with this porch is the windows.  I want real windows.  James wants the door to line up with the real door - and I personally wanted the porch door centered.  I let James win that fight.  He in turn supports my need for flower boxes some day. 

These are my last "pre-construction" photos:

Oh - and then I let out a little aggression with the Sawsall...I told the contractor he could just get rid of that big bush.  He said "no problem - they'll cut it first thing and throw it in the dumpster."  I couldn't pass up the opportunity to Sawsall anything:

One thing I will miss about the new porch:  It won't be held up by tree trunks.  That is really keeping it old school, but I think current building law says that concrete is stronger than tree trunks these days:

Under the current porch.

A close up of one of the beloved tree trunks.

I'll take pictures during construction because I'm gay like that.  I'm excited.  I just hope I stay that way after the finish product is unveiled. 

Plaster Time!

The other day, we had a plasterer come by to finally finish off the Dining Room and some misc. holes we had around the house.  Here are some pictures:

He said for the best outcome, wait at least a week to paint.  That's okay - we'll wait a week because we have to do the mouldings.  Actually - we're very excited because the plasterer we found knows some cabinet brothers.  They came on by and gave us a great estimate to finish off our cabinets and other misc. wood work around the house.  We only justify hiring these people by this simple rule:  If James works a Saturday (at the present time, he works every Saturday...), it's time being away from home and spent on home improvements.  So for every Saturday he works (there have been MANY)...we justify it in our head that as long as the job costs less than what he gets paid for a Saturday, the person or persons are hired!  This is a great mentality we have developed...

Updates...

In case you haven't noticed, we haven't done much on the house lately.  It's cold, James works odd hours, and excuse, excuse, excuse! 

We are getting excited though - we scrimped and saved and hired a contractor!  It's like a miracle!  Our front porch is really getting to a point where it needs to be rebuilt before it causes actual damage to the house - so we hired someone to come on in and rebuild it.  Since we live on a kind of busy road and never just "sit out there to think about life" - we decided to spend a little more to get it enclosed so we can have a mudroom of sorts.  I'm really freaked out by this because it might completely change the look of the house - and quite honestly, James and I both like the look of our house as is.  The only thing that we were really anal on was that the windows had to be regular windows - and even though the contractor told us that it would be more for the "real windows" - we didn't care.  I just wanted windows with the white panes in them to make the porch look more "part of the house" like. 

Construction is suppose to begin in 2-3 weeks.  Hopefully that doesn't fall through....That will be fun to take pictures of.

My "big" project I'm taking on this spring/summer is painting the shutters.  Currently, we have a light blue/grayish house with, I guess, Country Blue-ish shutters.  It's just too much blue.  I'm making James take down the shutters and I'm going to paint them a cranberry red.  I'm excited to get going on this - but I'm not going to do it until the porch is done. 

And that is all....

More Storage!

I've been telling James that I wish I could find containers that would fit under the couch so I can "hide" some of the boys' toys.  Unfortunately, the gap between our couch and floor is only about 4 inches.  The smallest bins I can find are 6 inches.  So James went to the basement, scoped out his scrap wood pile, went to work on his table saw and came up with this:

So we put this wonderful new drawer in the living room and told the boys to put all their Hot Wheels in it.

Now all their cars can live under the couch.  Amazing!