Porch Progress!

After finishing the ceiling on Friday (!), we purchased some peel-and-stick "hardwood" tile flooring over the weekend. Why tile and not laminate or hardwood? We were encouraged to stay away from hardwood due to the nature of the porch - full sun, extreme temps, etc. The vinyl tile planks will weather better - not as good as, say, nasty blue carpet, but they sure look better for the short term while we figure something else out.

We peeled up the carpet on Saturday morning. Under the carpet was a thick layer of carpet primer/adhesive. Seeing as nothing in our old house is ever level, some spots had really thick globs of whatever this adhesive is and some spots had almost none of it. Saturday afternoon was spent sanding and scraping down the rough parts of the most obnoxious sections so that we could attempt some sort of leveling before the tiles went down. This included filling large sections of the floor with wood putty, which has to dry for six hours to cure. But...there was a big chunk of floor that didn't need any putty, so we decided to hedge our bets and dive into installation! (Yes, there are pictures of this step-by-step, however they are on my phone which is currently under construction. Sigh.)

These were EASY to install and way under budget, happily. We were looking at about $1500 for hardwood and this project came in under $200. A little sweat equity never hurts! This also makes us feel better about the potential for disaster out there in the elements - if this stuff doesn't weather well, we junk it next summer and go for something else. For now, it looks like wood, and let me tell you - the SMELL is GONE! Something about either the carpet or the ceiling in that room smelled musty and...gross...like when you get a new apartment whose former tenant never once cleaned the fridge, and you open it up and you're like ughhh worst. That's how it smelled and I am so happy to have it GONE!

So I know I've posted this a million times, but here's how it looked on the day we moved in:

And here's how it looks rightnow:

Bit of a difference, eh? Love it love it. Penny loves it too. Actually both she and Leo have been getting their 'floor legs' by running out there and skidding along the floor, forgetting that the carpet is gone. Hours of entertainment for us at their expense. 

So just because I am SO excited to have actually accomplished this, here's another before and after angle:

Before - old stairs, old paint, old porch. 

Approx. ten minutes ago. 

Now the challenge is...what do we DO with it? We sat on said porch and plotted this for quite a while into last night. What we came up is this: (crude but clear)

How awesome would this be. My plan for this space is to transform it from junk-collection to useful hangout. Note the additions for Chris' deep desires (TV and bar). We've asked for the help of Chris' fabulous interior designer cousin Debbe on this project and she thinks that this setup will be challenging at best. It's a weird space - 22x7 - so it might end up looking more like this if she gets her way:

I've been obsessively checking the internets for great accessories and furniture for this room, so hopefully it will be perfectly furnished for next season. I have become entirely obsessed with this rug (thanks to the fine folks at younghouselove) as well so possibly that will make an appearance in our new porch decor.

Can't believe I actually accomplished my summer goal and then some! And with two weeks still to go before school starts...what to tackle next?? Naptime sounds good...

Screen Door Drama

Last winter, you may recall that our screen door blew off across the yard in dramatic fashion. We planned on having it replaced as part of our deck project. However, based on my error and an error on the part of our contractor, it never got done. They were going to charge us $800 for the door and labor, and we said POO POO TO YOU, we can do that ourselves.

Note: My father warned us. He said that the money was well spent because putting up something like a screen door is a P in the A if you will. But no. We didn't listen.

We bought a screen door at Home Depot - it has the coolest screen that slides up and down alongside the glass - it's actually INSIDE the door, so you either have the screen or the glass up, never both. Anderson Windows has online videos that show you how to install it. How hard could this be?

Well, after four days of work (two half-days and two after-work nights), we finally realized that Chris had cut one of the pieces from the wrong end, and that's why the door didn't fit. A quick call to Anderson and a replacement part was on its' way - their 'Oops-proof' warranty is legit! No charge for parts or shipping to us, just an understanding voice on the other side of the phone, letting us know it was all okay.

Part in hand, Chris put the rest of it together. It is impressive that he did it himself, even if it did take a week. He even put up our decorative doorknocker, showing that our deck/door/entry project is finally (mostly) complete!

Mortgage Plot Plan

We waited. and waited. and waited. and paid $150. For this:

Wow. Impressive, huh? Cross your fingers and hope that this is enough for a building permit on Monday morning. A deck for Memorial Day would be perfect!

Deck/Door Update

Last week, we got a new back door! It is awesome. It replaced the old door which was a) a bizarre size, b) uninsulated and therefore permissive to all manner of 'the elements' getting in, and c) warped to the point that opening or closing it took all 125 (fine, 130) pounds of me.

This is phase one of our Summer Deck/Door project. You'll notice I haven't mentioned the deck. Sigh.

This is MY FAULT - I insisted on a building permit for this. Some guy down the street from us got fined a pile of money for not using a permit and I did not want to end up in his shoes. *Chris has a completely different telling of this story that he is insisting on - sucks that he's not the one blogging!

Unfortunately, the people who built the deck 25 years ago did not get a permit. Which means that it never ended up on a plot plan for the city. So the city won't give us a building permit unless we can show them a plot plan including the existing deck, which requires a survey of the house for $1500-2000 -or-  a mortgage plot plan, which we declined at closing. Crap.

Luckily, Christopher married himself a wee winsome wife - I called our closing attorney and was told that we could get a new plot plan for $125. Of course, when push came to shove, it ended up being $150 for 'office time' (his emails were literally 3 word answers to my carefully crafted questions - nice life). But, by the end of this week, we should have a building permit in hand, at which time our contractor can finish the door and get going on ye olde deck demo.

Moral of the story: Not sure. Chris feels that it is NEVER DO WHAT THE MAN TELLS YOU TO DO. I still feel like following the rules is a good thing. I guess we'll see what the week brings.

Summer Construction Plans!

We are currently putting together plans to:

Re-do the entire back entrance and door. You might remember that this door was one of our first homeowner projects - we replaced one of the panes of glass in it on our first day here. The screen door blew off in a blizzard over the summer, and the door has been inconsistent from day one. Inconsistent in that sometimes it locks/closes/keeps out the weather, and sometimes...it doesn't. That and the doorjamb is completely crumbling, so it's got to go.

We're also planning to build a new deck! The existing one is falling apart and needs to go. This is more of an entrance deck - not something we're going to lounge about on - but I'm planning a container garden, etc on it. It should look way more awesome than it does now. Work on these will hopefully start soon...more updates to come!

Finished Stairs!

It's been really busy around here...lots to do! The stairs, however, are finished and beautiful. And silent. Sigh. :)

Stairs are FINISHED (Construction at least!)

Paint starts on Friday! Look at us, we have nice things!

Stairs as of 5:10pm 10/8/10

Argh...so I can't get the pic on the bottom to flip, but you get the idea. They look great! 

Should be done very soon. Look at us! We have nice things!

Stairs as of 4:34pm, 10/1/10

Just heard from the construction crew - NO surprises! No rotten wood, no squirrels living anywhere weird, no problems! We're good to go for wallboard and finish work on Monday...and these guys we have working for us are amazing. They put up a tarp on the temp rail just for Penny! Clearly they know the way to my heart (and my wallet) is through kindness to that silly, toothless dog...

Stairs as of 9:56pm, 9/30/10

The stair project starts tomorrow. Get pumped for big changes. Goodbye, Jed Clampett stairs!

Job Benefits...and a squirrel friend

If you follow us at all, you'll know that I am a teacher. Well, without getting too specific, I'm a teacher in a vocational high school. We had an awesome professional day on Wednesday where we could choose to try out a technical area and see what it was like to perform some different jobs. I hemmed and hawed on this and decided to try my hand at masonry. The freshmen students do a really cool project in there with tile and I was hoping to pick up some tips for that pesky upstairs bath. Well...the best laid plans...

I got in there and was told that we were building a patio. Awesome! Just my luck! And you'd be amazed to know that a patio is on our short list for next summer...so let's do this. 

My teammates and I decided to choose the most difficult pattern for our patio: herrinbone. I was so surprised to see how easy it was once you got going. Now I'm not heading towards anything with a diamond tipped wet saw anytime soon, but this was really straightforward and easy to manage on a small scale. Hopefully Chris and I can figure it out...and if not, at least I'm buddies with the masons at school now!

 I know you're sick of Penny's birthday, but she deserves a birthday-food-eating pic post:

Ben and Jerry's...only the best!

We also misplaced her favorite orange squeaker on her birthday (damn that lawn extention!) so we had to go out and find her a new favorite toy. She now has Squirrel Friend that goes everywhere she does. She loves him and snuggles him and sometimes tries to rip his feet off. That's love. 

BFFL

Our New Backyard!

When we bought our house, the backyard was a small section of the actual yard. It was a nice carved out piece of lawn. However, beyond the lawn, it looked like this:

A freakin' jungle. Ugh. It had puddles of water for mosquitos to breed in, trash and lawn refuse, all sorts of nastiness. The people next door had also been using it as their own personal dumping ground (and continued to do so after we moved in until I had words with them) and it just generally felt like a big chunk of our property that was going to waste. It was on our 5-year plan to have it leveled and filled to make our yard bigger. Then, our other-side neighbor dug out a 3-car garage and was left with a gargantuan pile of fill. Thinking, no time like the present, we began the process of filling and evening out the yard.
Trees needed to come down first - the black cherry and crabapple trees came out to make room and light for the big maples in the back.

Lovely lovely!

And now...it's more even, without the worries of bringing in bad fill. Because it's the same fill that was in our yard already! Just moved over a couple of hundred feet. Awesome.
And this is how it looks today. We're watering like crazy and hoping that this grass all grows. Hopefully in a couple of weeks we should have a really nice yard to go with the possibility of a new deck!

Neighborly Things

I know, two posts in one week? Have I lost my mind, or my job? Neither. Just skipped the gym tonight and figured I'd post some updates.

Many of you wanted more dog pictures. You can find them below. Her belly is still not much better but she is herself, peppy and more energenic than ever. I figure she's fine as long as she's not bleeding and wants to play!

In other news, Frank was here today! And for our troubles, he had his guys do some weeding and mulching around our yard. In his words, it is the 'neighborly thing to do.' Whatever. It looks awesome. I <3>

Anyway, here's pictures of the house. :)

The mulch work is awesome. There's more of it on the other side but the pics came out too dark.

The tree stump came down today - it's being hauled out and all the brush cleared on Frank Wednesday (which could be any Wednesday between now and when snow flies). He claims this Wednesday, but I'm not holding my breath.

Oh and - another project I forgot to mention - the one of the basement windows fell out. These were devastated by termites when the house sat on the market for a year and even after bug eradication they were a bit sketchy. We decided to see how long they would last us and well...about eight months. The funny thing about this one is that it fell into the basement in one whole piece, unscathed, and Chris just popped it back in. Ten minutes later we heard the crash and got out the skil saw. We now have a very classy wooden window that needs pre-wedding fixing and soon. It's on the list, trust me.

Did you know...we made our first offer on this house one year ago this week? So much has changed in the last year that has enhanced and challenged our lives. We are so lucky to be young, employed and in love, with the strength to tackle whatever comes our way. Here's to many more happy years in our cozy little house!

Backyard Business

First of all...my new strawberries!

We've gotten three off this plant so far and they are...delicious.

As I said before, we've had big plans for our backyard since we bought this house. Our land is a full third of an acre, which may seem small to some, but it is HUGE in the city where we live. This whole neighborhood was built on apple orchards, and our house was the original farmhouse dating back to 1812. It's a great lot with some scrubby forest in the back, but we didn't plan to do anything with it for a few years down the road. That was until our neighbor built his underground garage.

Probably not cool of me to post pics of his project, so I won't. Just suffice to say that he's got a mountain of beautiful, rich orchard topsoil ripped up in his backyard doing nothing. It was actually going to cost him money to truck it out so he offered some to us. Our friendly neighborhood landscaper, Frankie, offered to spread it for us in the Lonely part of our backyard as well as take down some of the scrubbier trees. This is where we were this time last week - Frank's got his check, the dirt is screened and ready, and the trees are marked. Backyard part deux, go!

Backyard as of July 2009

Backyard as of May 2010...a bit tidier. Not by much.

You have to squint, but the big black cherry tree is down. Thankfully. It was a nasty old tree that was blocking the sun to my buddileas.

Tree down view 2...

Aaaand that's where we are for now. We're pretty much frozen in time until Frank comes back, cleans up the brush, takes down the remaining trees, clears out the wood, and THEN lays two layers of topsoil. It should look amazing when done. It just might take all summer. But we're going to be here for a looong time...we can wait. :)

Other than that, we've been busy with family and wedding. My sister graduated last week from UNH (yes, my alma mater as well) and we had a great time celebrating with her. She's now moving on to her own house project that we can't wait to help with!

Sister and Penny love.

Also, my two best friends and bridesmaids Joanna and Ashley helped me make these awesome program fans for the wedding. They do amazing things with some paper and glue! We are going to have such a classy, breezy wedding! :) Thanks girls!