What we’ve been up to

Wow! It has been forever since I have updated this blog. It seems like when the weather got cold we just stopped all home renovations and went into hibernation…which in all reality, is partially true.

We did get the rest of the random overhang pulled down (excuse the mass chaos going on with wires and outdoor furniture);

But we still have yet to decide what to do with the exposed rafter ends that were so carelessly chopped off.

From the first photo you can’t really tell, so maybe once they are painted it won’t be so bad. On the other hand though, I really hate to leave things half-way done. Regardless, it is not something that is needing to be done immediately…I have many other projects that are at the forefront of my “to-do list”.

Anyway, I have also been tirelessly trying to strip paint from the wood in the laundry room: first step was the heat gun which got rid of most of the paint; second step was to apply a paint stripper and leave on overnight; third step has been to use steel wool to scrub and scrape remaining paint; and even after all of that I still can’t seem to get it all off.

I have to be honest…I HATE this job! It gives me an all new respect for those of you who have stripped wood in several rooms of your home because believe me, there have been multiple times where I have just wanted to give up and repaint it all; but I haven’t because I know that in the end, I will be happy to have the original wood smiling at me every time I do the laundry.

Here are the before and during (since I haven’t yet finished) photos of that “little” project.

Before (I could shoot myself for not taking a better picture – this was taken before we moved in)

And this is where I am right now (please excuse the mess – working on a laundry room that also has to be fully functioning is a little bit difficult).

 

On a sad note, as you can see from the above photo, the last of the original windows are gone and replaced with those ugly things.

Again, not my choice; but since the previous owners had already replaced 35+ of the windows and thrown the originals away, we felt we had no other choice. We simply ordered the rest of the windows to match those already existing.

Speaking of the laundry room, we also took the hot water heater out of there

and placed a new one in the basement.

Although it is not a huge change right now, I know that once we really go to work on the laundry room, if will be nice to have that additional space.

Outside, Josh has started work on putting in a new waterline. At this point he has only ripped up even more concrete but at least it’s a step in the right direction.

 

Of course now, I just want to rip the rest of it out and have a bigger yard : )