Gettin’ dirty

Since the rest of my yard is already torn up due to the hubby’s desire to add a new water line and a sprinkler system and because we have had to rip out part of the concrete patio, we have decided to go ahead and rip the rest of it out as well…it was rather awkward anyway. However, that decision has left us without a place to put a table and chairs and since we love to be outdoors during the warmer months, the lack of such a place simply would not do. Therefore, I started a whole other project: install an old brick patio.

Step one: outline where the new patio will go.

Step two: begin taking out the grass and excess dirt. Step three: after removing all of the grass, roughly level out circle.

Diggin’ it

The perks of being married to a plumber whose dad owns a backhoe: That’s right, now that the weather is nice we can come out of hibernation and start working on the house again. We left off last fall with the beginnings of breaking away concrete for a new water line. Yesterday and today, we (by we, I actually mean the hubby, his cousin and his uncle) have been digging the trench for said water line. He has torn up both the back and front yards but assures me that this is necessary …we’ll see.

While we’re at it, we will also be leveling off our front yard, installing a sprinkler system and adding Fescue (our 2 huge pecan trees are blocking all of the sun from our front yard and nothing else seems to grow).

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 : )

Now what?!

We began taking down the add-on overhang that was to serve as a covered patio for previous owners. It was unattractive, leaking, and ultimately falling down anyway. I really thought this would be a fairly simple project (why? - I don't know...nothing about this house has been "simple" yet). Excuse the photo. This was taken pre-roof, pre-central heat and air, pre-move-in.

So, in keeping with true "money pit" form, the removal project has exposed more PO remuddling boo-boos.

When attaching said overhang to the house, POs decided to chop off parts of the original exposed rafter ends.

How do I fix this? My husband claims no one else will notice once it is painted. I notice though, and I hate it! There has to be something I can do. I have thought maybe a pergola that attaches to the ruined rafters might look okay. But again, I am at a loss...a loss for words and a loss for ideas.

One down

I can now mark "new roof" off of my project list! Actually, I could have marked it off a little over a week ago but I have been neglectful when it comes to this blog...my sincerest apologies.

Anyway, I guess I owe my husband all of the credit because the roof really does look lovely; although, with the nice new roof my house looks even more desperate for a paint job. Oh well, maybe next year. For right now though, I am going to revel in the fact that I no longer have to worry about leaking roofs, insurance woes, or indecisiveness (at least where roof shingles are concerned...paint colors are a whole different story).

Here is the before:

And here is the after:

For those of you who follow along, we did not add the porch at this time because we discovered more evidence of a previous spotted problem -

Oh, how I love termites! So apparently, our previous "spot treatment" did not work as we had hoped it would and now we are left with paying the more expensive company to come out and treat the entire house.

What in the world?!?!

So there are a lot, and I do mean a lot, of projects going on around the house right now. The major one is the roof; which is looking fabulous, if I do say so myself. However, in keeping with the "tradition" of the way things go around here, we have taken one step forward and two steps back yet again.

Remember that 1970s hot water heater vent thingy I mentioned earlier? You know, the one that we were going to get rid of?

Not to worry, it is gone and looks oh so much better, at least from the outside.

However, along with the vent thingy disappearing, so too did half of my upstairs shower.

That's right ladies and gentlemen, one of the POs put a shower through the roof! So that hot water heater vent thingy wasn't a vent thingy at all. It was a "hat," if you will, for the shower. Have you ever seen such a thing?!

We were planning on remodeling that bathroom anyway...although, it WAS a project for down the road.

I love my house. I love my house. I love my house...

Progress report

The dumpster arrived yesterday and today (before the butt-crack-of dawn, I might add) they got to work on the roof. They claim they will be finished tomorrow but from where I am standing, even if they started cleaning the mess tomorrow, they wouldn't be finished...so we'll see. I am just so happy that progress is being made.
In the picture below, the after will reveal that we are in fact getting rid of the very ugly 1970's water-heater vent thingy (excuse the non-technical terminology) and the add-on overhang. And if you look closely enough, you will see the original shaker style shingles (yes, they were merely covered up).

Man: 1, woman: too many to count

My husband won. Since I have made every other decision regarding the house I decided to let him have this one. Plus, if I went with any other choice it would be next spring before they could start on it...and I just don't think I can wait any longer.

We have decided to go with this shingle.

I only hope it looks more like thisand less like this.