This Old Home

2010-11-13T21:13:00.001-08:00

Time to move on...

2010-08-27T19:38:00.000-07:00

I always knew that it would be incredibly hard to say goodbye to this old house. We have taken it from a state of shambles, a house closer to being torn down than lived in, and turned it in to a beautiful place of warmth and love for us and our four kids. I love this house. I will always love this house. In a way, I don't feel like I owned it. It was around far before I was born, or my parents were born, or their parents. It has seen more time go by than I ever will. We are not the first to love it, nor to shed a tear when they left. We have given it our time, energy and love and now it is time for it to shine for someone else.

As for us, we are taking a step backward, a big step backward, to work on another house in need. This time, we are going back to my roots. Going back home. We will be moving into the house I grew up in. And it needs our help. The house is a old two room house from the late 1800's that had a house built around it. It's a small farmhouse, out in the country, and I can't wait to see it restored to the state it deserves.

Tonight we signed the papers. Tomorrow we start packing the boxes. And very soon we begin a whole new adventure...

For Sale By Owner

2010-08-01T13:31:00.000-07:00

If you are a potential home-buyer, please visit this link (http://www.aplusplussolutions.com/house/ForSale.html) for a quick overview of the house! This blog journals our entire progress from beginning to end. On the right hand side are links to the progress of each individual room. If you have any questions at all, please email me at holly@picturesbyholly.com or call me at 70-317-3341. Thank you!

No More Door to Nowhere!

2010-04-19T12:29:00.000-07:00

It's been forever since I posted, it seems that we are too busy having babies to do a whole lot of anything else lately! Our newest (and last!) baby girl was born February 26th!

Since I last posted, we have managed to finish the back deck, so the dining room no longer has a door leading to nowhere! The kids absolutely love being able to play on the big deck, and I love being able to baby gate off the stairs and let Ivey romp around in the sunshine! Jeff and his dad cut the balusters and, of course, the boys helped. It still needs to be painted, but we are enjoying it immensely!

One Man's Junk...

2009-10-12T21:05:00.000-07:00

Finally, the sign is in the yard. And now... we wait...

Putting the sign up reminded me of something that Asa said the other day. We were working on the house and Jeff had something he wanted to get rid of... so... like usual he put it out in front by the road and got out our big plywood sign that reads "FREE". We live on a fairly busy street... nothing, and I mean NOTHING has lasted more than 2 hours out there. Shower stalls, couches, even fence posts with hunks of concrete on the bottom. It's amazing. Anyway, Asa came running in the house in a total panic, screaming, "MOM!! Daddy's selling the house for FREE!!!!!"

It's never boring with a couple six years olds in the house.

Windows and Balusters

2009-09-30T13:04:00.001-07:00

The windows are painted, the trim is done... all we have left to paint is the two back gables! Jeff and Randy (and Asa) did a fabulous job cutting out the new balusters. They made a huge difference on the upstairs porch!

In Color

2009-09-06T17:12:00.000-07:00

After a long process of pressure washing, scraping and wire brushing the entire house (which was 98% Jeff's doing since I found out I am pregnant again at the beginning of the process), it's paint time! Jeff and Randy went ahead and purchased the scaffolding, which made the job a billion times easier, plus it provided hours of entertainment for the boys.

Jeff, Randy and Asa worked on the balusters for the upstairs porch. The old ones were the pits and had to go. Asa did a great job of sanding! We're hoping to get them painted tomorrow.

I'm glad we had already come to the conclusion that we needed to move closer to family because now that we have a surprise baby #4 on the way (and for those trying to add up the months... our youngest is almost 11 months old right now, so these two will be 17 months apart!) I will need family nearby more than ever. Also, the need for bedrooms has exceeded the speed at which we could finish the attic, so we have even more need to find a wonderful family who will love our home as much as we do.

The Announcement

2009-06-23T17:00:00.000-07:00

We are in the process of painting the exterior of our house. To do so, we much first scrape. We are making lots of progress and hope to paint very soon. With that said, let me explain why we are painting now... because (gasp) we are getting ready to put our house up for sale. Yes, I said it. For Sale. I don't want to think about how much work we have put into it or how much I love it or how great it is looking or what plans we had in store for it... I am trying very hard to concentrate on the move. We are moving to be closer to our families, our kids will be closer to their grandparents and I will hopefully have a little family support as I begin my first year as a homeschool parent.

So, if you know anyone who would like to buy a mostly renovated house and take it to completion, I've got your house!

Growing Panes

2009-06-04T07:48:00.000-07:00

Jeff has finished the top pane of stained glass on the front door! It's not the original design, but I think he did an excellent job. It's hard to believe there is only one pane left to go...

Crossing My Fingers...

2009-03-04T09:48:00.000-08:00

Okay! It appears that all of our submissions to This Old House's Reader Remodels contest have gone through!

They titled out entries:

Kitchen - Working With The Old
Bath - A Period Perfect Tub
Living Room - Family Values
Garage - New Workshop From Old Smokehouse
Bedroom - A Noteworthy Nursery

A Room Fit For Ivey

2009-02-19T06:28:00.000-08:00

I have been working on getting the nursery together for quite some time and figured that I would post some pictures of it. When we started on this room we had no idea it would end up as the bedroom for a beautiful baby girl!

Insulation Blows.

2009-02-05T06:48:00.001-08:00

We blew in cellulose insulation into the back half of the attic a few years ago. It was easy, painless and actually kinda fun. We bought the bags of insulation, which came with free blower rental. Jeff had the end of the hose in the attic and I was on the ground feeding bag after bag into the blower. We had it all finished in about an hour.

This time, we were not so lucky. First off, Jeff went to Home Depot to get the insulation and blower. This took place after work, in January. It was dark and cold. Yuck. We were pretty excited that the one right down the street had it ready to go. Jeff picked it up and we went to work. Uh. Wait. It would turn on, but didn't have enough power to actually move the insulation. Jeff took that one back to the store and picked up the other one that they had. This one didn't even turn on. Ug. The woman at the store asked Jeff if he could get the one from the Loganville branch the next day. Jeff agreed.

After work, Jeff hightailed it to Loganville to get the blower. It seems that there was a mis-communication. The blower was not there. The woman from our branch had come to pick it up. SO... Jeff went to retrieve the wayward blower.

He brought it home and it did, in fact, work. It was cold and dark... needless to say his wife (that would be me) wasn't in the best of moods. The baby was asleep in the swing and the kids were playing Nintendo, and they were all situated so that I could see them as I worked. The baby is sleeping. Good news, right? Not when bedtime is supposed to be only two hours away. The entire time I was out there hauling bags and stuffing them into the blower, I was thinking of how sleepless my night was sure to be.

It took a while, but we got all of the insulation up there. Jeff went to take the blower back and they seemed to have no record of him. They weren't able to cancel his deposit... if he had given it. Good grief.

In the end, it all worked out and we have a nice toasty attic. Well, okay. The attic itself isn't toasty, but the upstairs sure is! I would have been happier if some of the insulation mess hadn't crept down (and continue to creep down) through cracks in the ceiling and cracks between the boards in the hall closet, but in our house, that would be pretty picky of me. So, I vaccuum.

Last weekend, Jeff and Randy picked up the flooring from Colonial Pine Floors in Madison. We were very pleased with the quality of the flooring for such a good price! They put some of the flooring down already. The supports that you see will be taken out and replaced with something else... hopefully the front of our house won't fall off in the process...

Light in the Attic

2009-01-02T10:41:00.000-08:00

No, I'm no Shel Silverstein, but we do indeed have a light in the attic. After the push to finish the living room came to a happy conclusion... with stockings and surround sound speakers hung with care... we have focused our attention upward. The attic has been a project that has seen a little bit of action here and there, but now, I believe it will have its day. This area is going to ROCK. I mean, all the cool kids are going to want to come play video games at our house!

Because it's been a while since this area has been given any thought, I will rehash what will be going on up there. This will be Asa and Addison's final destination. They will each have their own rooms, with a central living area and bathroom with shower. It will be a little funky with the knee walls and lowish ceilings, but it will no doubt be the a space that my inner child will envy! We won't want to put a lot of weight up there, so we're thinking beadboard or other panels for the walls. Like the rest of the house, it will have wood floors (Jeff began that process a while back). I envision a futon in the living area and futon-bunk beds in the rooms. Ikea, here we come!

Flooring - Lumber Liquidators
Tin Ceiling Tiles - TheTinMan.com
Crown Moulding & Marble Tiles - Souther Surplus (Athens, GA)
Built-In Entertainment Center - Custom Cabinets by Design (Monroe, GA)

We have SOUND!

2008-11-24T13:12:00.000-08:00

After the boys' violin recital last weekend, we had lots of help to move furniture around the house. It was a major feat, but we have a complete living room, our bedroom is moved downstairs, and the baby's stuff is out of the upstairs foyer and stacked all over her room-to-be. I have TONS of work to do, but at least now I can go ahead and be stressed trying to get it done as opposed to being stressed about how stressed I will be when I do get to try to get it done.

Jeff and I decided to wait on buying a flat screen tv until the prices come down on them. But, we did end up going ahead and getting a nice new 7.1 surround system for each other for Christmas. Oh, and a DVD Recorder. We may not have that new tv yet, but the old one never sounded so good!

...in with the new...

2008-10-31T13:01:00.000-07:00

Jeff and I haven't bought a whole lot of furniture during our 9 years of marriage. We've actually purchased a couple chairs, a handful of antiques, but no living room set, dining room set, bedroom set, etc. We've managed to make due with hand-me-down-had-since-college furniture that, to be honest, I am sick of. I am 30 now. Surely we can move on the grown up furniture, right?

Well, as we work on finishing the new living room, we are going to say goodbye to the fantasic piece of furniture that we bought 8 years ago. Our t.v. stand was purchased at a GoodWill in Riverdale for $25. To be honest, I will miss it. It has served us well. But, we are going to move on to a grown up entertainment center.

We called the guys to did our cabinets four years ago and asked if they could make a built-in unit for us. We had a good idea of what we wanted, and we knew we could trust these guys to take our ideas and completely rock them out. We knew we could trust these guys and they came through!

Jeff had wired the room with surround sound speakers behind the crown molding. Now, we just need a grown up t.v. and speakers! (Oh, and I guess we need to paint the trim and move the furniture, too!)

Nervous Energy?

2008-10-10T16:35:00.001-07:00

This week, we introduced our new baby girl into the world. Ivey Victoria was born on Tuesday morning at 12:04. By Thursday, Ivey and I came back from the hospital and saw that Jeff had managed to tile the fireplace with our improvised tiles. One more step towards that baby room!

I could not be happier with how they look... and the fact that they were such a steal is just icing on the cake!

If you're crazy, I am too...

2008-10-05T16:06:00.000-07:00

As we work on the living room, we have become frustrated with what to do with the fireplace. The mantle is gorgeous. I finished it and put on a satin polyurethane coat. The brick fireplace needed to be made level... flat... before we could put tile or anything up. Jeff cut concrete board to level it off, which worked very well. But, what did we want to do to finish it?

We knew what we liked, but finding it was a bit hard. We liked the antique Victorian fireplace tiles that were 1.5" x 6". We wanted either green or blue. However, you can't just find tiles of that size at a tile shop, and places online were wanting $2.20+ per tile... plus shipping! What to do. We just hung out for a while, frustrated.

On the way back from dinner tonight, Jeff stopped by Southern Surplus (which is always a dangerous move since we always seem to leave there with a bunch of stuff we never intended to buy... but then really benefited from finding!). He pulled in to look at trim to put up at the bottom of the crown in the room... to hide the gaps caused by the very uneven walls. I sat in the car, counting contractions. I waited, and waited... and finally he came out with a piece of 3 foot long marble in his hand. He couldn't tell if he was being crazy, or if this stuff could be cut into tiles for our fireplace. The marble was a long strip that was 1.75" wide. I liked the look of the marble a lot, and he could cut it with his tile saw into 6" pieces. He couldn't tell if he was nuts or if this was really a good idea. I voted that it was a good idea. So, we left with a trunk load of 3' long marble strips that were intended to be used as thresholds to bathrooms. Ummm... Did I mention that the strips were $2.25? We are getting these tiles for $0.40 each!

So now, Jeff and the boys are in the workshop cutting tiles as I still sit and count contractions. Hopefully, we will have a baby before we have a finished fireplace.

Sandman

2008-09-21T16:53:00.000-07:00

What a productive weekend!

Randy and Jeff finished putting the floor down in the living room... and then Asa and Randy sanded it!

After a lot of sanding and a hormonal meltdown on my part (a clean house, a lot of dust flying, and a 9 month pregnant wife is a bad combo), the floor was ready to be stained. Jeff tried the "roll on" approach to staining this time. It seems to me that it goes on a bit thicker than a brush, and it's hard to blend your stops and starts... but it is a ton quicker. I think rolling on the polyurethane will be easier to do than the stain. But, with my belly setting its the secret time limit, the roll on stain worked good enough for me!

There was some flooring leftover, so Jeff used it for the wall in the Butler's Pantry area... which hasn't had a wall since we gutted the bathroom and put in the pocket door. It has always really bugged me for that little hallway to look so horrible for the past 4 years, but it has just been very low on the priority list. Now, it has a WALL! We are contemplating using that space as our test bed for learning to use the textured paintable wallpaper before attempting it on the living room ceiling. With the wall, the wallpaper, and the antique tin backsplash put in (which wouldn't be that hard to do), I just may pass out from shock!

I know it doesn't look like anything special, but believe me... it's a step in the right direction! It seems I don't have a before picture of how we've lived with it for the past few years, so you'll have to take my word for it!

Oh... and I also started recovering our dining room chairs with a coordinating fabric to our curtains. It has been very theraputic to rip out that nasty old cover that was on it and get rid of it for good!

Revamping the bathroom

2008-09-18T14:47:00.001-07:00

Man, how productive would I be if I had this nesting instinct thing all the time??

Today, I painted the bottom half of the downstairs bathroom to better match the rest of the house's color scheme. I'm pleased!

Relief!

2008-09-16T17:01:00.000-07:00

Thank you, thank you, thank you to Mom for coming to help me with the house Sunday and Monday! Mom came Sunday morning, Waffle House breakfast in tow, and proceeded to work magic on my house. I moved from lying on the couch to lounging in various chairs in various rooms while she worked. At about 11:30 that night, as we were standing in my very unfinished dining room (the sheet rock is in very rough shape, we tore a closet out when we moved in and never patched any of it up, and the door to the one-day-porch has a long gap where the sheet rock doesn't meet the trim... let's face it, when you bought a house with 3 livable rooms and no kitchen, the aesthetics of the dining room are far from a priority!) Mom threw out the idea, "Hey, why don't I just putty what I can, smooth what I can, and throw some paint on these walls!". So, that is what she did. That night, she puttied some holes before bed. The next morning, she dropped the boys off at school and took me to my doctor's appointment.

The midwife checked me out and much to our amazement, I have had no changes since Friday. So.. she lifted my bed rest! I can't "run any marathons", but I can perform normal routine life stuff. This is very good considering I have no idea how I would have made it through the week...

After the good news, Mom and I picked out some curtains, found paint that matched exactly, grabbed some trim for around the door, and headed home. I picked up the boys from school while mom moved all the furniture away from the walls. When I came home, I sat and painted window trim while she edged the room. I managed to do the vast majority of my painting while on my rump... and Mom managed to kick serious butt on the rest of the room. By the time Jeff came home, the extra trim piece was added to the sides of the doorway, the trim was all painted, the corner cabinet that Randy made me in 2001 and I still hadn't painted- was painted, the walls had two coats of paint that the boys said looked just like melted chocolate, the curtains were hung, and the house was clean again.

I have lived here in this house for 4 years. I started out sleeping in the dining room. Every night I had to lie in bed and stare up at the holes and tears and the obnoxious gaping marks that the old closet wall left on the sheet rock. I had to cover up the door to the imaginary porch and the two windows because the trim wasn't finished and the gap down the side required extensive effort to fix. To have this room looking decent is amazing. We aren't saying it is finished... the sheet rock is still bumpy and needs a lot of work, the tacked up trim job I did is far from professional, the floor will have to be pulled up, subfloor laid, and then the planed flooring put back down... all of these things still need to be done. But, in the meantime, I can relax instead of cringe... and finally enjoy eating in a pretty room!

(Paint - Ralph Lauren Old Violin / Curtains from Home Depot)

Hard day of Flooring

2008-09-06T14:53:00.000-07:00

Jeff and Randy have worked all day on putting the flooring in. They didn't make it all the way across the room, but they did make it over halfway!

We (Still) Hate Sheetrock

2008-09-01T13:58:00.000-07:00

After much sanding and mudding and sanding and mudding, Jeff and Randy finished the walls to the future living room. The ceiling, however, is a different story. It is a mess. Looking at it, I don't see how they will be able to manage it. We are scouring our brains for other options.

BUT, as of now, the walls are finished and are painted! We have never seen this room look anything resembling, well, a room. Jeff started trimming the windows and we have purchased the heart pine flooring that we will use. We will use the flooring that was in the room (that there was not enough of for the room) in the upstairs master bath and closet.

Oh, and I cleaned up and stained the mantle with a light stain. I am very pleased with how it looks!

Forward Motion

2008-08-03T13:55:00.000-07:00

Jeff and Randy got the living room cleaned out (which we have never seen before) and sheetrock up on the wall it shares with the foyer (which we have also never seen before). We are starting to see the beginnings of a room...

They taped and put up the first layer of mud yesterday. Jeff is working on another layer today. One problem we have had with this room is that there is not enough of the original flooring to do the entire room. I'm still not sure exactly what we'll do about this... over the years there have been discussions of patching with another wood, getting lucky enough to get heart pine out of an old house that is being torn down, using that wood somewhere else and buying another wood for the room... and now we come to the point where a decision is not far off. Sadly, we just missed the demolition of an old house here in our town.

Foyer- CHECK!

2008-07-14T14:58:00.000-07:00

Well, it took a lot of painting, and possibly contributed to my going to the hospital Saturday night for too many contractions, but...

The foyer is finished!!

It has taken quite a while, but finally, the first room that you see upon entering my house no longer looks like a work in progress. The ceiling is painted, the trim is up, Jeff and Randy actually caulked the gap between each and every board on the walls, and we finished painting the walls this weekend. It looks great! Because we are now beginning construction on the adjoining room, it will no doubt be a while before the rug is on the floor and pictures are on the walls. But, when the day comes, the room is ready!

Addison is taking pictures for me to "put on the website"...

So, now we wait for someone to come and help Jeff move heavy stuff out of the future formal living room, since I really shouldn't do any lifting. The plan is... finish this room off the foyer, move the living room into place, move our bedroom back downstairs into the "green room", and set up the room we are currently in as the nursery. I just don't think I have enough pregnancy left for all this work. I've already pre-apologized for growing inevitably irritable and anxious to set up the baby's room!

The Long Awaited Ceiling

2008-06-09T17:49:00.001-07:00

Due to financial reasons, progress has been very slow lately. However, the impending arrival of our new baby in October has us moving again!

We have been waiting to put up the antique ceiling tiles that we found years ago until we had finished the upstairs bathroom. The plumbing made it a bit of an issue to put up. Now that the bathroom is completed (at least semi-completed... we do need, well, a DOOR), Jeff and Randy started the downstairs foyer ceiling project.

They put the ceiling tiles over wood, using liquid nail and a brad nailer. It worked beautifully. We will be painting the tiles once Jeff finishes putting up the trim. The uneven ceiling and unsquare room makes it a bit of a challenge... as it always does in an old house. The antique light fixture was left with the house (thank you Gial and Ray!!!!) and we are absolutely and totally in love with it!

In order to make room for baby, we will be finishing the downstairs room off the foyer (which will be the formal living room when the 3rd floor is completed or when my kids grow up and move out... whichever comes first).

The baby will get the room that we are now in, upstairs across from the boys' room, which is actually the master.... which will be the master one day far far from now.

Here are some pictures of the formal living room/our next bedroom as of now:

Love my bathroom sink!

2008-03-03T18:50:00.000-08:00

Been a while...

2007-12-31T12:17:00.000-08:00

It has been quite some time since I've posted. It has taken way too long to do it, but we are finally making progress on our upstairs bathroom. Having to wake up in the middle of the night to make the trek down the stairs and across the house to pee hasn't been fun. The tiny half-bath, which seemed so small and "easy" has found itself in the same category as almost every other project this house has had in store: a pain in the @$$. First, we had to find a sink that would fit this small space... that is, fit AND have the door open. I raided my parents' place and took a sink right off the wall. Perfect fit. Oh, but Jeff failed to mention that his under-the-counter water heater wouldn't exactly be attractive under a pedestal sink. Well, we can fix that.

We'll get a little cute set of drawers or storage to sit beside the sink and the water heater can be hidden underneath. Beautiful! We went on yet another antique-scavenger hunt and viola! There is was... a perfect little washstand with a marble top! We loaded it up, brought it home, and to our exhausted dismay it did not exactly fit beside the sink. It was more like an "either/or" situation.

Hmmm... What to do? We cannot return the piece, and my dad will surely kill me if I tell him we cannot use the sink that I stealthily absconded from the bathroom. I had an idea. We'll save the pedestal sink for the 3rd floor bath, get a vessel sink, figure out how to cut a hole in marble, and make our washstand into a sink and cabinet. The idea sunk in, the sink is purchased, the tile floor is in, the walls and caulked and painted, the ceiling is almost complete, the copper vessel sink is ordered, and the toilet actually fit into place (and *may* even work.. I just discovered that Jeff has been stressing about this plumbing situation for months and feared we would be making a bathroom that was only decorative and not useful!)

In other news, we have replaced our fallen oak with two 30 foot tall Bosque Elms. They are beautiful! I am so pleased! Jeff has begun fixing the fence, and we still need to replace the walkway, but I can see our front yard will be great!

Since we've moved upstairs, we have had a real genuine living room! This room was a make-shift kitchen when we bought the house, was the boys' room for a while, then our bedroom, and now it has finally made it. Here are some pictures...

But we can't leave the towels on the floor...

2007-08-02T17:28:00.000-07:00

We are officially upstairs now. I have been a very busy little bee and have accomplished way more in two weeks than I thought I could!

*painted my bedroom furniture
*stained and polyurethane-d the new bedroom floor
*Touched up scratches, scrubbed, and repolyurethane-d the upstairs foyer floor
*painted the upstairs foyer
*convinced Jeff and Randy to move my furniture up those stairs
*moved the living room furniture from the foyer to the actual living room (YAY!)
*polyurethane-d the stairs
*and now I'm in the process of cleaning up the aftermath of the move

We upgraded to a king sized bed (so all four of us can fit without elbowing each other in the face!) and now that we're in a new room with a fireplace and "new"ish furniture, Jeff feels like he's in a hotel room. For the first couple nights up there, we had no curtains. It was a bit odd waking up and seeing moms walking the track and kids riding their bikes in the park across the street... right from bed. It felt a bit like we were sleeping in the park itself- in a tree.

I need to get everything cleaned up, and then we need to trim the upstairs foyer. After seeing both foyers painted we realized that the wood upstairs (that had been exposed) looks great. It probably has 18 coats of paint over the years, but it has filled in the gaps between the boards well and looks really good. The downstairs, and along the stairs, was covered and raw. It needs either some caulk, a few coats of primer, or 100+ years of paint coats on it to looks the same as the upstairs. The work list never ends. I'm sure one day I'll get to it... but for now I've got bigger fish to fry.

We're still getting the living room situated, but I'll hopefully have pictures of it soon. As for now, here are some pictures of our new room (you'll have to imagine the mirror on the mantle!)

Okay, and here's a picture of the foyer... even though it's not as "done" as I'd want it to be!

One Room Down!!

2007-07-26T17:00:00.000-07:00

Wow. We're ready to move in to the upstairs (guest) room. Yes, the boys will still be in the master, but we will be in a B-E-D-R-O-O-M!! I'm hoping to move our stuff up this weekend... we'll see!

Anniversary Trip

2007-06-12T11:37:00.000-07:00

Jeff and I spent our anniversary in Beaufort, SC. We went to check out old homes and get ideas... and we were blown away. The number of fabulous historic homes was unreal... we had hit the jackpot! For those of you old home lovers, I highly recommend spending the day (and night)!

Thank you to the North Street Inn Bed and Breakfast for a wonderful stay. Here's a picture of the Inn. It is a 1910 Queen Anne Victorian.

What's Up Doc?

2007-06-05T21:09:00.000-07:00

I've spent my last 3 years feeling like this:

But, I'm going to REALLY appreciate a shower when we are finally able to get to that point... or when we have a tub that is over 48" long!

Twisted Cistern

2007-05-28T18:16:00.000-07:00

My crazed husband is at it again. This time, he is creating a system for collecting rainwater... for watering our newly planting landscaping and for survival during a terrorist attack to our water/power industries, Y3k, or flu pandemic. It involves collecting every drop that lands on our shiny tin roof into (decorative) barrels. These barrels will then be able to overflow into less attractive barrels hidden underneath the porch- with tops to keep it all nice and clean. At the bottom of these barrels Jeff attached taps. He has drip irrigation hoses attached to the taps, which go to various garden spots.

We now have a barrel in the back yard that has a 1/2" hose shooting down the fenceline... with the ability to cut in and add secondary lines that run to spots in the backyard (including my vegetable garden!).

"You never can tell with bees" -Pooh

2007-05-25T13:16:00.000-07:00

"That buzzing-noise means something. If there's a buzzing noise, somebody's making a buzzing-noise, and the only reason for making a buzzing-noise that I know of is because you're a bee. ....
And the only reason for being a bee that I know of is making honey.....
And the only reason for making honey is so as I can eat it."

Our time to cut down the tree is rapidly approaching, so "Mr. Jeff", as the boys call him, came back to try to get the bees. He made a Bee-vac to suck them into a wire cage housed inside of a wooden box. He tore into the tree (which is indeed rotten) and found a motherload of comb and bees.

Here is a picture that he took of the inside of the tree. There were five sections of comb, which went way back into the tree.

After hacking a little further up the branch, Jeff was able to take pieces of the combs, with bees in tow, and put them in a big huge Tupperware container.

After hours of hard work, he was able to get a bunch of bees... but there are still lots in the tree... along with lots of HONEY! We don't want the bees to become a casualty, so we hope to find another bee-loving crazy man to climb up and take a crack at it! If Jeff (my Jeff) had a bee hat, I guarantee he'd be up there.... Heck, he climbed up to take a look without one! Of course, he didn't get stung. Safely on the ground, I somehow managed to have one buzzing around in my SHIRT! Ouch.

*From this adventure I learned that bee larvae are GROSS.

Bye Bye Bees

2007-05-08T08:38:00.000-07:00

The oak tree right out our front door has seen better days. We knew it was in bad shape, but the city wants to cut it down. I am upset. I know it's rotten and there's nothing I can do about it, but that doesn't mean I'm not going to pout like a little kid. That tree has been here forever. It goes with our house. I'm not happy.

If the tree must go, we want to save the honey bees that live there. Our friends, Jeff and Kierstin, came over and put a bee box in the tree. They put a screen funnel up over the hole to the hive. In theory, the bees can get out, but can't get back in. They put the box up last night and it seems to be working. This morning, there are bees that have gotten out, and cannot find a way back in. A lot of them still haven't figured out a way out yet. Hopefully, tonight they will see the box next to their hive, smell the honey inside, and go make a new home!

Definite improvement over cardboard

2007-05-05T11:02:00.000-07:00

Jeff has finished the four side panels for the front door! What does this mean?? It means that the two pieces of cardboard that were standing in for the glass are no more! No more sitting on the couch on a windy day when out pops a cardboard rectangle and blows across the room! YAY! Now Jeff only has the top and bottom pieces to go!

In other news, Jeff has been looking at low cost options for flooring the garage. One option that interests us both is laying down a brick floor. This would allow water, etc to seep down between the cracks. To brick the entire floor would be costly, so Jeff has been experimenting with making colored paving bricks (yes, he's lost his mind). For the last couple weeks, our backyard has become an ever-growing brick making factory. The thing that could make this very cost effective (although a slow process) is finding broken bags of concrete for dirt cheap at home improvement stores. They practically give it away, you pick up a couple bags, take it home, and make the night's batch of bricks. He bought concrete colorant online, and is making bricks with different colors and shades. So far, they are all shades of red.

After a bit of experimentation with wooden molds, Jeff has found that thick pinkboard works great. He clamps the pieces together and lays the bottomless grid on top of a plastic table. He fills the molds partway with plain concrete.

Then, he shakes the molds with a hand-sander to get the bubbles out...

He then tops the mold with colored concrete (for cost reasons), and lets them dry. Once dry, he pops the molds. Here you can see the bricks he's made, and see the striation.

He's made more molds as he's done along. He's now up to about 30 bricks per session. Who on earth makes his own bricks? I've recently asked him why he doesn't crush the rocks by hand to make the concrete... and grow, pick, and stomp on berries to create the coloring. He wasn't amused.

We have also started to do a little landscaping. We can't do much around the house, because we are going to build the wrap around porch, but we are going to look and see what we can go ahead and do.

Odds and Ends

2007-04-22T09:43:00.000-07:00

We've been putting around lately doing some things here and there... Jeff spent some time building workbenches in the shop and getting "organized".

Now he has a spot to keep all of his stained glass supplies, which is GREAT. He's been working on getting the four side pieces done for the front door.

This weekend, we worked on painting some of the trim in the upstairs bedroom (and there's a LOT of trim!!). We still have a little ways to go, but I think we'll be finished in the next couple days. After the paint, we need to finish the floors and ceiling before we move in.

We have a new purchase. A house with no closets requires lots of wardrobes. Here's our new addition, which will one day live in the master bedroom (even though we WILL have a big walk-in closet!!!)

This weekend, we also did something that we had been wanting to do for a while. Now that we no longer have the goats, we have been using the goat shed to store the lawnmower. We finally rolled up our sleeves and moved the shed to the side of the yard, behind the garage. We moved it Egyptian-style... on PVC pipes. We have moved many crazy things that way, and I swear it is my favorite type of manual labor!

Here's a picture where you can see where the shed used to be...

And now...

What a difference some paint makes

2007-03-24T16:30:00.000-07:00

We only have one coat of paint up, and no paint on the trim, but check out our upstairs room!

Sawdusty Sneeze

2007-02-20T18:06:00.000-08:00

Jeff has been working on getting the panelling up in the bedroom... and it is coming along nicely! All of the wood here is different colors and different woods for the simple reason that we got it all for CHEAP at Southern Surplus. It will all be painted in the end.

Each panel will have trim around the inside.... like this...

*Working-in-the-house-you-live-in Note*

With all of this work comes a ton of sawdust... which one pair of big feet and two pairs of little ones drag, nightly, throughout the house.

Oh, and Jeff flexes his "Daddy muscles" with the miles and miles of leftover scrap from the trim...

Homemade Lincoln Logs

A CLOSET!!!!!

2007-01-27T15:21:00.000-08:00

I have learned to appreciate something over the past 3 years of living here.... CLOSET SPACE. Right now, we have one tiny closet under the stairs and a little closet in the living room (the current location of our bedroom). The boys have a chefrobe and we do, too (although I haven't gotten Jeff motivated enough to put a ROD in it).

The upstairs linen closet is now a reality! The little hallway is shaping up, and the bedroom that we have been working on has WALLS! There have been rooms in this house which we have ripped up just to put back... and this room is not one of those. Like the kitchen, we have never seen this room with walls. or a floor. The upstairs bedroom had gaps where wind would rush in and you heard nature as if you were standing in a tree. No longer! It sounds like a house in there... like a real room... it is quiet(ish)! There is now sheetrock up, although it will be covered when we put up the panels. Here are pics:
View from foyer--

Inside the closet--
From inside the room looking out--

The fireplace shaping up--
And, as promised, I took picture of the attic progress. Here you can see the cellulose insullation that we sprayed in (which we highly recommend), and the flooring that Jeff started to put in.

The Search Awards

2007-01-19T14:06:00.000-08:00

Here is a list of keywords that people have used in search engines to get to this site:

brick laying
home renovation blog
raising a roof
attic work
finishing an attic Victorian home
pictures of hardyplank house
sheetrock gap filling
putting tongue and groove on walls
home marth
tin backsplash
installing "tongue and groove" ceiling
making a foyer seem taller
home attic roof raising
how far should balusters on porch be spaced
"brick laying" decorative house gables
attic finished pictures
laying brick around windows
old spindle porch rails
pictures of scalloped front porch trim
siding sunburst design
old home renovation pictures
2x4 knee walls
pictures of different trim work in bedrooms
brick to an older home
hardyplank siding
finishing an attic gable
home renovation ideas and pictures
decorative post for house porch pictures new construction
brick laying backsplash photos
tongue and groove ceiling
attic finished pictures
laying brick steps
Mr. Muscles
good decking pictures
unfinished fireplace covers for decorative painting
home smokehouse
bulter pantry backsplash
brick laying
laying out a siding sunburst
scalloped siding
Raising the roof
front gable home
stairway trim work pictures
old home renovation
backsplash
front door with sunburst grids
blue jay birds chipping off paint
Drawing eyes
raising a roof
putting scalloped trim on the outside of your home
old plank walls
chickens eating mice
laying brick around window
taking up old floorboards

And the winner of the best search term is.....

CHICKENS EATING MICE!!

Recommended Businesses

2007-01-16T11:45:00.000-08:00

Here is contact information for businesses that we highly recommend:

Southern Surplus

706-369-0800

4175 Atlanta Hwy

Bogart, GA 30622

-surplus building supplies / lumber / doors / windows / flooring / etc.

HIGHLY recommended

Georgia Hardwood

770-932-0640

3061 Verona Ave

Buford, GA 30518

One Stop Antiques

740-374-9193

Steven Wheeler

140 Gross St PMB 302

Marietta, OH 45750

-We went to their Lawrenceville, Georgia shop to find our great new mantle for the upstairs, at a great price!

B&B Antiques, Auctions, and Realty, LLC

1-800-890-5130

P.O. Box 430

Gu-Win, AL 35563

-We found them at the Scott's Anitque Market at the Georgia Exposition Center and got two GREAT pieces at an unbelievable price

Lanthier's Heating and Air

(770) 867-9151

95 Park Ave
Winder, GA 30680

-Great job, very professional... Highly recommend

Custom Cabinets by Design

J.A. Archer

770) 207-9262

460 Vine St
Monroe, GA 30655

-Wonderful job / Beautiful Custom Cabinets / Reasonable Prices

Mike Kozak

404-822-9827

Antiques

We found Mike at The Lakewood Antique Show and we were blown away by the large selection of architectural antiques that he has! He is now a vendor at the Scott's Antique Market at the GA Exposition Center, although he calls Ohio home. We have bought many things from him, including our 48" clawfoot tub.

Hills Ace Hardware, Winder

186 W Athens St
Winder, GA
(770) 867-3925

Art Glass Emporium

64 Mcneal Rd # B
Winder, GA
(770) 867-3939

-This is where Jeff learned to do stained glass, and where we continue to
get the glass to complete our front door. Awsome!!

Great Finds... Empty Wallets

2007-01-13T17:09:00.000-08:00

Well, we went to the Scott's Antique Market at the Atlanta Exposition Center today. We usually go to the Lakewood Antique Show, but since it closed it's doors (sniff, sniff) we decided to venture out to find a fireplace cover for the upstairs... and possible a chefrobe- since we have no closets!

We found more than we were looking for. We did buy a chefrobe and also found a GREAT Hunter's Cabinet that we decided that we couldn't live without. It will go in the formal living room, probably as the coolest liquor cabinet ever... whenever we can get around to getting it finished. Here is the chefrobe...

And here is the Hunter's Cabinet (French, from about 1890):

On our way out, we actually found the fireplace insert, too!!

(Click here to see pics of progress on the room for this insert)

We loved the Lakewood Show. There can't be anything like it at another venue. The Scott's Market was huge, and there were lots of vendors... but we prefered the atmosphere of Lakewood. The best part of Scott's was in the exterior section, where all of the architectural antiques (and many of Lakewood's old vendors) were located. All in all, I am just pleased that there is still a place to go as we try to piece together our house!

The Room of Tomorrow...orrow...orrow

2007-01-07T18:41:00.000-08:00

Okay. So we now are getting a vision for this upstairs bedroom. Jeff sprayed Tiger Foam Insulation to fill the holes and gaps. (Highly Recommended)
We picked out a natural stone for the hearth, which will also be used for the front of the fireplace. In the corners, we found a great decorative tile online... we will put one in each of the four corners (and that's definitely all we could afford!).

We are on a desperate search for a "summer cover", which is a decorative cover made of cast iron or metal that covered the opening of the fireplace when not in use. But, we haven't had any luck so far. Here is an example of one that we liked...

The room has given us some clues into the house's history. In the front wall, there is a double plate. The house is balloon framed... which makes Jeff think that this section of the house used to be a story and a half at one time. It is possible that the house began as two houses that were connected- back before the Victorian porch was added. Of course, we don't have any pictures before the one shown, so who knows! Click here for pictures and more on all of this...

Okay, still no pics of the attic progress... I'll get there....

Been a While...

2006-12-27T18:16:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I've been very slack on posting for the past few months!

First of all, Jeff has made tons of progress in the attic. I will try to get pictures of it up tomorrow, but it's really dark up there tonight and I'd rather not fumble around to find the plug for the construction light! He has blown in the cellulose insulation (which is GREAT, we HIGHLY recommend it) and started putting down the floor. The attic project is exciting because, well, it is pretty much a wide open space that requires no demolition. It is a similar job to anyone else finishing their attic!

Other progress was made a while back on the back deck. Jeff designed the balusters for the deck and one-day-wrap-around-porch. He also came up with a decorative center baluster pair that we will use in the middle of each section. Now, by committing to this, we have committed to hand cutting every baluster for the entire wrap around porch... not a small task. Here is a picture of the finished section- I think he did a GREAT job!

Once Jeff put them up, we stood back and looked at it for a while... Tell me if you see what we see... (Click here)

In other porch news, Jeff and Asa worked together to make our new (much needed) stairs using bricks from the original chimney we took out of the attic.

In the past few weeks, Jeff and Randy have begun work on the upstairs (second floor) bedroom. You can see pictures of the original state of the room here. Just scroll down to "room to the left". As you can see, if needs alot of work to frame in around the chimney. This room has many holes to the outside, creating quite a draft up there when it's windy! We decided that we will box in the chimney and create a faux fireplace. It just so happened that we found a great mantel that fits the house perfectly!

Jeff and Randy have started putting floor down in the room. When you walk into the room, there is a closet area to the left and to the right is a tiny bath (with a shower stall in it at the moment). The plan is to move the door to the room back to create a small hallway, with a linen closet on the left, a door to a half-bath on the right, and the bedroom door straight ahead. This will make that half-bath accessible by the public and make the foyer area seem bigger.

We also took down the fence separating the back yard from the field. We sold the goats (sniff) and expanded the yard. We moved our bedroom into the front room (because the unfinished wall that our head was against in the dining room was FREEZING and there was actual WIND!) So, now, the dining room is actually being used as the dining room... even though it looks pretty bad.

I'm sure we did other things, but I can't think of them at the moment!

A Glimpse

2006-09-29T18:05:00.000-07:00

Okay, the paint is on the garage. Before you look, remember that return the look of that Victorian front porch, the color scheme will make more sense!

A "Pretty Good Deck"

2006-07-20T12:41:00.000-07:00

Jeff has finished putting the decking down on the back deck. Asa walked out last night, knelt next to Daddy, and said, "You done with your deck? You made a pretty good deck".

The posts still need to be trimmed to the same height and there is the whole rail issue to tackle, but we can finally walk out the back door without either falling to our doom or stepping out onto a grid of balancing beams (which you should try with a full bag of garbage that you are trying to take out!).

Here are some more pictures of the deck!

Wow!!

2006-07-04T09:56:00.000-07:00

Jeff and I finished the trim on the front gable of the garage last night! I must say, it looks GREAT! I can't wait to see the whole thing painted... although, I don't really want to be the one to do it...

Click here of more garage pics...

And you can click here to see how my boys make their porch...

Garage Progress

2006-06-25T17:02:00.000-07:00

Okay, so the garage is really shaping up! Jeff and Randy have almost finished the hardyplank siding (the only part left that needs it is the back gable). They installed the windows in the back gable, finished the track for the sliding door, and Jeff put up the scalloped siding on the front gable (which matches the house gables). Now, he is working on a "sunburst" design at the top-- which is going to be GORGEOUS! We just aren't that far from paint... and getting ALL THOSE TOOLS out of the HOUSE!

For pictures of all these things, click here!

We also had some MORE critters drop in out of the sky...

Ophidiophobia

2006-06-04T13:22:00.000-07:00

The other day, I was walking by the front door when I noticed a major racket outside. There were about 15 blue jays in our oak tree, going NUTS! They were screaming and hopping around with their wings spread... and then I saw what the commotion was all about...

2 huge rat snakes came out of a hole in a high branch. They came out and slithered around the tree for a while, and eventually went back in. They didn't seem to mind the birds very much, but the birds sure didn't like them. I tried to estimate their size, but I could only guess that day that they were longer than I am tall. It wasn't until a few days later (when another brave little blue jay got my attention) that I was able to better judge their size, while one was on the ground heading for the tree. They are about 5 1/2 to 6 feet long!

Jeff and the boys have been kicking butt on the back deck. The joists are in, and now they are gearing up to put up the posts and lay the decking!

Eyes are bigger than our... patience?

2006-05-29T08:42:00.000-07:00

We went to Madison, GA for our anniversary. We saw lots of awsome ideas, porches, trim... work. The trip did "inspire" us to start thinking about our porch trim. We have regular run of the mill spindle ballusters now... Jeff would love to have the FAT kind... There is no way I am turning a 3 sided wrap around porch on the lathe... BUT, we did see lots of examples of different types of ballusters in Madison. Jeff has come up with a couple cool designs for some, taking a 1x6 and natching out circles and such... I think it would look fabulous! We also were able to look at porches' top trimming, so we got a good feel for what we would like to have. Here is an example of a cut-out balluster, although we would not be going with something this ornate...

Here is a concept drawing (click for bigger view) :

brick laying...

2006-05-22T10:29:00.000-07:00

We actually paid someone to paint our fence... thank goodness. It looks so much better, and we would have NEVER gotten to it! Oh, and the city park across the street has its gazebo up. It looks great!

You remember those bricks that Jeff chiseled off from the chimney in the attic? We threw them out the 3rd story "window" (then just a hole). I finally got around to chipping off all the old mortar, and then Jeff has kicked butt on laying them for the foundation of our back deck! This will be the first step in the construction of our wrap around porch... Baby steps...

Doors and windows and such...

2006-05-14T17:33:00.000-07:00

Well, I have finally finished the heinous task of stripping the stairs. Each step was painted long long ago with thick brown (probably lead based) paint.... and it took lots of work to get each one stripped "enough". I'm so glad that job is over!

We are actually using a BEDROOM as a BEDROOM!

The boys are now living comfortably in the master bedroom! They had NEVER been up the stairs before (and we've lived here over a year and a half!), so it was a BIG deal to have the baby gate down! They had to go and get all their toys and "move in"! It was a big day. (Addison was standing in his new room with a teddy bear in his hand- they moved each toy up the stairs one at a time- looked around, and said, "Where's my tub?" Ha! The tub's not coming with you, silly!

Jeff has also put in a little round window in the gable of the garage, which he plans to back with stained glass one day. The garage door is up (THANK YOU TIM!) and the siding is "getting there"! I cannot wait until this is DONE so we can evict the table saw, tool benches, etc from the HOUSE! We haven't had the "formal living room" not be a workshop since we bought the house- what an amazing sight that would be!

Been a While

2006-04-08T19:41:00.000-07:00

Okay, so it's been a while since my last update... What can I say? We've been busy.

Since my last post, we have finished painting the trim in the kitchen, but the kitchen ceiling still has not been painted... I want to give it a "white washed" effect... but, we are finding that the ceilings are just an easy thing to put off (see foyer).

We have done a lot of work upstairs, and hopefully we aren't far from moving the boys into their "big boy room", which is actually going to be our master bedroom one day. First and foremost, we had central HEAT AND AIR installed in the second and third floors (yay!). It took a bit of creative thinking to install the ducts in that 3rd floor space, but with a little custom work, it's in!

We have finished the floors in the upstairs foyer and master bedroom, and finished the trim in the master bedroom. I have also ripped up the basboards in the foyer and painted the doorway trim and upstairs porch door. What a difference!

Now that the trim is up in the master bedroom, there is no longer ANY trace of the purple paint job of the past! We also put the origial railing back the stairs... modified slightly for the third floor stairs. Ray (previous owner and fellow glutton for punishment) meticulously labelled each piece, no matter how small, with directional guidleines on how to piece it all back together... If he hadn't, there is no way we could have made it work like it did originally. It needs painting, but pictures of it so far are up!

Jeff and Randy have worked their tails off building our monstrous garage and workshop. It is starting to look like it may actually be completed soon! Randy has built us a custom garage door (that we drew up) that will slide to the side on a motor (in theory!). It isn't up yet, but it is completed... and heavier than 4 men could carry. Hopefully we can succesfully transport it from Fayetteville and hang them soon! The siding is coming along, and the upstairs loft door was made from the piece of old tongue-and-groove ceiling that we cut for the 3rd floor stairway of the house!

We have done a significant amount of work on the 3rd floor, but have slowed down on it lately, with the news that our next baby could be months away. We have framed all the walls, and have installed the windows (okay, so all but one, but the hole is cut... er... yes, we have a window sized open hole in our 3rd floor... it it a wonderful asset when Jeff locks his keys in the house, though.) We are really starting to be able to see how the space up there will shape up. I would have LOVED a room up there when I was a kid! Jeff has also finished the scalloped siding in the other front gable. It will look a lot better when it is all painted. The trim board up there is painted, though! The back gable is still in progress... when it is done we can put that back window in.

Oh, and here is a picture from our top porch of the city park that they are putting in across the street. Looks like is will have a walking track and gazebo, at least.

And now... back to work...

Big Boy Toys

2005-12-21T12:37:00.000-08:00

Well, Bob the Builder would be proud.

Today, Jeff is out grading the land around (and in) the workshop. Yes, the boys are impressed. (But not as impressed as Jeff, I think)

Lots of progress

2005-12-04T13:56:00.000-08:00

It's a while since I've updated, and I'm pleased to say that we have done a lot during that time!

Last weekend, Jeff and Randy finished my kitchen backsplash and (drumroll please...) trimmed up my kitchen windows! I don't have to look at bear sheetrock in there any more! I didn't realize it bugged me so much until I came home and it was finished... and I actually cried!

We have done a lot of work on the garage since my last post. The roof is almost finished, the dormer is in, and the back wall is up! The boys call it Daddy's workshop.

Jeff has taken the chimney out in the attic, down to the floor. We thought it was going to be a major ordeal, but it turns out, the chimney was barely held up with little more than sand., so Jeff was able to tap each brick free (scary stuff!). Taking the chimney out meant that we had LOTS of bricks- 3 floors up. Instead of hauling them down the stairs, we opted to yank the vent off the front gable and toss them out (much better). Of course, this left us with, well, a big gaping hole in the front of the house. But, not anymore! We framed up the hole to put in a window, and put fishscale shingles on the front gable. Today, the window went in, and the trimboards for the top of the roofline went up. It looks awsome! Click here for pics of the exterior!

Jeff is actually up there working on the other front gable as I type...

raising the roof

2005-10-25T17:32:00.000-07:00

In the past week, there has been a lot of progress on the garage. The roof structure is up! Jeff only has 3 more pairs of rafters to go.

history

2005-10-19T21:11:00.000-07:00

The Harris Homestead is located about 2 miles away from us. We have always seen the sign at the mailbox and wondered if they were related to the Sylvester Harris that built our house. I saw a flier for the Heritage Days Festival that the Homestead does once a year, and it had a web address. Sure enough, William Harris was Sylvester's father, so we hopefully they will have some good info about our house.

http://www.harrishomestead.com/

attic: taking shape

2005-10-17T06:49:00.000-07:00

This weekend, Jeff and Randy made some more progress on the garage. Jeff also framed up some more knee-walls in the attic. It's really shaping up, up there! It's so cool to see your plans take shape.

attic work

2005-10-14T19:40:00.000-07:00

Tonight, Jeff put up some more supports along side the rafters in the attic, and cut that one 2x4 that was in the middle of our doorway. Now that this is gone, it feels much more like living-area-to-be instead of just-plain-scary-dirty-attic. It helps me to see how the knee-walls and ceiling will feel.

Here's a picture of the boys helping Jeff with the garage...

mice and chickens and snakes, oh my

2005-10-10T19:55:00.000-07:00

Besides Jeff and Randy ripping a hole and putting in stairs, we hadn't done a whole lot in the attic, until now. In case you haven't seen the critters page, let me fill you in. Owls lived here. The lived up here, eating, having babies, and leaving behind the epidomy of all that is vile. And, I have been given the glamorous job of vacuuming it all up (you haven't lived till you've gotten a mummified mole stuck in the hose of a Shop-Vac). Needless to say, it has taken a while to get moving on that...

Our plan is to put up 4' knee-walls, leaving 8' wide rooms. The attic is shaped like the rest of the house, an L. One side is 45' and the other is 35' long. If the structure cooperates and the gable doesn't fall off the front of the house, we'll have 2 bedrooms, a little living area, and a bathroom up there. But, again, we can't move until the floor is clean.

As of tonight, I am almost finished with this revolting job. I want you to picture us in a dark attic lit with shop lights, with respirators on, cleaning up owl crap. Ugh. There are so many bones and stuff up there it is just unreal. To top it all off, there was the skeleton of a chicken up there. Looks like the owl's eyes were bigger than her stomach. There was also an egg that never hatched. If you want to see pics, click here, but it's not for the faint of heart.

Jeff reinforced the rafters in preparation for taking out the center rafter that will be our doorway/hallway at the top of the stairs.

backsplash almost done!

2005-10-09T18:55:00.000-07:00

Jeff and the boys have finished the front walkway! They were very big helpers, especially at pushing the wheelbarrow.

There has also been a lot of progress on the garage. We have all of the floor joists up, and are putting down the plywood. I learned how to use the nailgun, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

The other piece of progress was made in the kitchen. Jeff and Randy installed the antique tin ceiling tiles as my backsplash. As of now, they have finished the long wall. They also put in some of my crown molding in there, which is VERY nice to have!

rocky road

2005-10-05T20:11:00.000-07:00

Tonight, after we got home from vacationing in Chattanooga, Jeff and the boys finished laying down the rock for our walkway. Here are a couple pictures of their hard work...

breaking ground

2005-09-30T12:06:00.000-07:00

Jeff has really gotten busy working on the garage/workshop! We really have to have that done so that we can move all of the told and stuff out of the house. You can't finish more rooms if they are full of stuff!

The boys really enjoy helping daddy work!

We have also started on the walkway out front. It will be a flat rock walk, with some spacing for plants. We planted some dwarf mondo, but I'm not sure this is what we will actually end up with for the cracks.

the window

2005-07-22T10:59:00.000-07:00

The center piece of the front window is completed and in place!

smokehouse, no more

2005-07-17T18:58:00.000-07:00

This weekend, Jeff and Randy started laying the hardwood floor in the upstairs foyer, and Jeff started trimming up the stairs, as well.

He's also dismantled the smokehouse and took it to the dump!
I've also taken some pictures of my rain chain!

Martha Stewart and Bob the Builder

2005-07-05T12:17:00.000-07:00

Let me explain to you how decisions are made when you are renovating a house. You see, I don't know a whole lot about structure or, well, realism. Jeff isn't an expert on aesthetics. So, when a decision has to be made about where to put a column, a door, etc, this is how it works...

First, Bob the Builder assesses the situation and comes to Martha Stewart for input. Martha let Bob know exactly where she would put it. Bob respects that Martha is the expert on this, but Bob isn't going to let Martha take a wall out and have the house crash down on top of her homemade herd garden centerpieces. Bob expresses concern with the feasability of Martha's request. Martha simply states that this is what Martha would do. If it can work, then it should happen. Bob ponders and thinks... gets out his laptop and calculates some ratio of this to that, and in the end, Martha has a well placed support column in her upstairs foyer.

This was just a little insight for those of you wondering how a marriage could handle a project like this!

leap of faith...

2005-07-02T10:56:00.000-07:00

Progress!

In order for us to lay the hardwood floor in the upstairs foyer, we must first build the stairs to the 3rd floor/attic! Last weekend, Jeff and Randy cut the hole in the upstairs ceiling (allowing 150 years of dust to crash into my home, but we won't go there...), and today we built the frame for the stairs! Jeff came up with the plan and we are executing it!

We also held up the backsplash and got a little idea of what it will look like! I don't know when we'll get to it, but it is going to look great! We are using the same antique (1910) metal ceiling tiles as we will use on the downstairs foyer's ceiling.

Jeff has also been working on the center piece of glass for the front door. Here is a picture inside
his "workshop".

oompa, oompa, oopady doo

2005-06-25T10:55:00.000-07:00

Jeff and Randy have been working to dismantle the smokehouse out back. This has to be removed so that we can begin to build our garage/workshop-- which has to be built to get the workshop out of the room that will be the den! The smokehouse was covered in asbestos siding, which Jeff and Randy to carefully remove. Here are some pictures of the progress, including some of them looking like Oompa-Loompas in their full-body Tyvex suits!

If anyone was wondering how we get things done with 2 toddlers in the house, we have lots of help!

too much on our plate? Nah...

2005-05-10T16:53:00.000-07:00

In the past couple months, we have been working on the upstairs master bedroom, and Jeff has been working on the stained glass for the front door.

Randy and Jeff have supported the floor upstairs, put in the sub-floor, and are now in the process of putting the hardwood floors in the master bedroom! Jeff and I finally were able to paint those purple walls, so it is starting to look like a real room! The boys will be sleeping in it far before we will, but we are all very excited about the possibility of moving upstairs in the not-to-distant-future!

Jeff and I have designed the stained glass pattern for the front door, picked out the colors, and now he has finished 6 of the panes!

spring!

2005-03-12T10:53:00.000-08:00

Spring is near, and it feels like we are making progress once again! Today, there was major progress on the fence! The pickets are up around the front, but we ran out before we could go down the side yard. I painted some more trim, also...

huck finn

2005-03-06T10:51:00.000-08:00

Jeff has been working hard on the fence. He has painted the pickets, and made a lot of progress on the 2x4's. I spent the boys' naptime painting the columns on the porch. I almost finished the bottom ones!

brrrr.....

2005-02-28T16:49:00.000-08:00

In the past couple months, the weather has put a damper on things, but we have worked a little more on putting up the wood for the tin ceiling in the foyer . Jeff and Randy put black plastic under the house (not a glamorous job, but productive nevertheless). The most exciting piece of work Jeff has done is beginning the picket fence that will surround the house. At the moment, we have all the posts up, and the pickets are not primed and ready to go up, too!

trim is for the birds

2004-11-07T10:48:00.000-08:00

We have been working on painting the trim and the gables.

Jeff is also putting up rails on the porches. It'll be a great place for the boys to play!

The guys also came back to finish cutting down the oak tree.

cryin' shame

2004-10-22T10:47:00.000-07:00

Here comes the paint!

Today, we had to have someone come to cut down one of our old oak trees that died. It is so sad, it was an absolutely beautiful old tree. I am trying not to think about it. I think I will plant a magnolia there.

Aesthetics

2004-10-16T10:46:00.000-07:00

Jeff and Randy primed the house! We've been waiting for this--- painting will make it look SO much better!

sardines?

2004-10-01T10:45:00.000-07:00

We moved into the house. For the time being, Jeff and I are sleeping in the dining room (with no door to the kitchen!), the boys are sleeping in the living room, the den/parlor/study/whatever is the workshop (so it is off-limits), and we are using the foyer as our living room! It's tight, but I think we'll be ok. Most of our stuff is upstairs in boxes. Hopefully, it won't be too awfully long before we can expand our space!

priming and painting

2004-09-21T10:44:00.000-07:00

I have painted the stair case and primed the walls in the foyer!

I haven't written much, but it isn't because we haven't done anything-- it's because we're too busy!

strip

2004-09-08T19:26:00.000-07:00

Jeff has made the door casings for the foyer. We found the rosettes and blocks at an antiques show.

I worked on stripping the old paint off of the stairs. I got 3 done!

fixin' it up

2004-09-04T10:42:00.000-07:00

The flooring is down in the kitchen!

I worked on getting the little tub in shape and Jeff put it and the fixtures into the bathroom.

tops

2004-08-13T10:40:00.000-07:00

The countertops and fixtures are in the kitchen!

and the floor goes in

2004-08-07T20:38:00.000-07:00

The bathroom floor is now in! Jeff also put in the pocket door to the bathroom that I wanted so bad, and the wainscoting.

We also started putting the wood floor down in the kitchen. Randy had planed the upstairs boards to get all the old paint off of them.

I worked on getting all the junk off of the bricks in the fireplace. I made a mess, but it looks so much better now!

rub a dub dub

2004-07-31T10:37:00.000-07:00

I have been making progress getting the floor up from the back room. The flooring that I'm working on now will go down the in the kitchen.

The downstairs bathroom is very narrow. We thought we were going to have to put a tub in long ways, but we found a tiny little tub that is about 48" long! We're working hard to get it into shape!

your sledge hammer

2004-07-25T12:35:00.000-07:00

Today, Jeff and Randy took the cast iron pipe out of the bathroom!

Next, Jeff began leveling the VERY uneven floor in there. He put down strips to level it out and the started putting in the floorboards that I pulled up from the upstairs. We found out from a neighbor who lived here in the 1950's that there used to be a coal burning heater right where the bathroom is. You can see the black marks on the ceiling!

reinforcements

2004-07-24T10:34:00.000-07:00

Jeff has been reinforcing the joists in the master bedroom and the upstairs foyer.

Whoah! Insta-Kitchen!

2004-07-19T10:32:00.000-07:00

The kitchen cabinets and the butler's pantry are in!!! They look GREAT! It's starting to feel like a real house! I was worried that the kitchen was going to be way too small, but the cabinets work just fine!

many thanks

2004-07-08T09:52:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Mark and Charles, the downstairs bath (not the walk-thru one, but the one off of the kitchen) has been gutted! Somehow, I managed to talk Jeff into sheet rocking over the door in the kitchen, moving all the plumbing around, and flipping the bathroom so that the door is in what will be the butler's pantry... on the opposite wall! In tearing out a wall, the guys found a HUGE cast iron pipe! I hope to keep it, I like the look! But, it will probably be in the way.

We found some great antique tin ceiling tiles at an antique show! We are going to use them in the foyer, and also for my backsplash in the kitchen and the butler's pantry!

bye bye birdies

2004-07-01T19:32:00.000-07:00

Jeff has made a lot of progress on the foyer wall!

And, today the owls flew the coop!

demolition woman

2004-06-19T21:17:00.000-07:00

I have been in charge of taking up the upstairs floorboards. I am now pulling up the floor boards in the back room... they are full 16ft boards! I have also taken out the wall that separates the back room (future master bath) from the small area that used to be a bath (future closet)!

Jeff has taken the sheetrock out of the rest of the foyer, including the ceiling. (After dropping a board on his face!) We are going to put in tongue and groove walls and either metal ceiling tiles or tongue and groove boards there, too.

mr. muscles

2004-06-12T09:26:00.000-07:00

Today we put in the tongue and groove ceiling in the kitchen!

In sheet rocking the kitchen, it was discovered that the door frame between the kitchen and the foyer had to come out (termite damage to the stud).

Jeff, Randy, and Hal somehow moved the cast iron tub that was in the walk-thru bathroom-- whew!

I went up to check on the owls and they have feathers on their wings!

~~~~~~

We bought an awsome clawfoot tub for the master bath upstairs!

work work work

2004-06-05T19:51:00.000-07:00

Today, Jeff took down the tongue and groove plank wall that separates the foyer from the living room. We are installing a double French door in the center of the wall!

Jeff has also taken the bathroom door frame out in the kitchen. We will be closing this off and making the door to the bathroom in the hallway across from the Butler's Pantry.

I have been taking the floorboards up to put in supports in the floor. Randy is running them through the planer and we are using them in the kitchen. We'll be putting matching hardwood floors throughout the upstairs.

In the process of yanking out the small closet and tub where the Butler's Pantry will be, Jeff uncovered a HUGE squirrel nest. Yes, there were squirrels living under the tub. Unbelievable!

the owls

2004-05-23T23:15:00.000-07:00

The window, that currently is in the walk-thru bathroom, has been sided over. The bathroom will be gone and where the tub is will be a butler's pantry... someday!

The fascia and soffits that were missing or needed replacing are completed along back and most of side. There is a family of owls in the attic, so we have to leave a piece off of the side so the owl can get in to her babies!

Today, I scrubbed all of the bottom floor windows today, in preparation for painting. Some of the sills are in very bad shape. Here is a picture of one of the worst ones. Jeff is using a hardening chemical and filling in the holes.

siding done!

2004-05-19T07:20:00.000-07:00

The siding along back wall is finished! Yay!

The French door is put into the dining room. Trim that was found in the smokehouse out back has also been added to the windows.

we're nuts

2004-05-16T23:17:00.000-07:00

The windows in the dining room are now installed. There will be a French door in between them. This will have a view of the pecan tree and crepe myrtles out back.

The Utility room and upstairs siding is complete.

In the foyer, we found a surprise under that wallpaper! You can tell that, at one point, there were stairs on the left wall... which is just baffling... Check it out!

There are 2 rooms upstairs that still have the original flooring. We are taking that up to use in the downstairs, and then we will have all matching hardwood for the upstairs. Jeff has been taking up floorboards from the upstairs master bedroom.

We have a whole colony of squirrels in this house. Jeff has taken up the floorboards in one of the rooms to find the squirrels ' stash of pecans.

Also today, Jeff has begun grouting around the chimney where there is a big gap between it and the house.

grand ideas

2004-05-11T09:15:00.000-07:00

When we bought the house, there was no siding along the back-- you could see the wiring and everything! We hired help to put up the siding. As of today, the siding was installed along one
section of the upstairs, and siding is going up on the utility room. The plan is to add a deck/porch off of the utility room and wrap all the way around the west side and along the entire front of the house... one day!

Also, a French door and 2 windows are also being added in the dining room.

here we go!

2004-05-08T19:04:00.000-07:00

Here we go! Today was a busy day!

The back porch (off the kitchen) is being framed in and turned into my laundry room and pantry.

Jeff also took down the sheetrock on the front wall of the foyer. On the other walls, there are old planks under the sheetrock. If possible, we hope to put them back up in the foyer instead of sheetrock. In between the sheetrock and the planks, we found old wallpaper. It is actually a fabric instead of paper like we use today. It was also nailed onto the wall in place instead of glue. I read that sometimes they would take the wall "paper" down and take it with them if they moved.

When we bought the house, the room that was to be the kitchen was completely unfinished, with no flooring, ceiling, or sheetrock. The people before us had a make-shift kitchen in the downstairs room that we will be using as the informal living room. Before that, the kitchen was in a section of the house that was torn down due to structural damage. Today, Jeff and Randy have installed utility boxes in the kitchen. The sheetrock is installed put up on the section of the room that will have cabinets and counters!

Also, Jeff has taken the closet out of the dining room. It must have been used as a bedroom in the past.