Whether your answer to the question is a resounding “yes”, an absolute “no” (even an “I don’t know” or “I don’t really care!”), you can now use this blog to help you decide for yourselves. Week by week, day by day, our regular readers (all three of you ;o) have read the blog posts about the progress of our house renovation. Although there is the odd picture scattered in here and there, some of you readers  might prefer my witty (?) verbal meanderings. However, to cater for the more visually inclined reader, I wanted to augment the mainly textual blog with a cornucopia of before and after photos. Yay!

A while back, I posted images of the floor plans, in order to give people an overview of the house and our renovations. Over the Memorial weekend, my amazing teccie-geek hubbie pimped the plans with php (say that three times fast).  That is to say, he made the floorplans interactive!

Check ‘em out! If you click on the little camera icon in certain areas of the house floor plan, you are transported to a slideshow of before and after photos. Of course, most of the areas in the house are still in the “before” phase. But you can still a variety of pics of what the house looked like when we bought it to where we are now. We will keep the slideshow updated with “after” pics as we progress with our renovations. 

So, let us know what you think! About the house, the slideshow, and/or about my multi-talented husband.  It amazes me how he found time to do the web coding in addition to completing the lights, dining and door projects over Memorial weekend (of course, it has taken me much longer to upload all the pics to the snazzy interactive floorplan – but hey, we got there in the end).

And of course, any definitive answers to the pictures vs. words debate, let me know! I’d be happy to publish the answer to this elusive philosophical debate, become famous and earn meeellions of dollars (muu haaa haaaa haaa).

Once again you guys and gals came through with flying colors. I tried to make this one a bit tougher, and judging by the increased number of valiant-but-erroneous guesses, I’d say I at least threw a few of you off the scent. But without much further ado … today’s Friday Fun winner was …. (drum roll please) … Brad! Congrats to Brad, not only for his skills of deduction (sneaky working out the image from the file name! ), but also for being a two-time winner of the photo challenge.  Brad now has the right – no, the duty – to go make himself one super-duper homemade foil medallion.

 When we moved in, this dilapidated venetian blind was left behind. Although it was removed the day we closed on the house, we still need to think about treatments for all of our windows. In fact, our priority are window treatments in the master bedroom.  It has been an interesting few months getting ready for bed – Rick has been paranoid that he has been flashing his manly goods to the neighbors everytime he gets undressed (which he probably has – no wonder our neighbors don’t talk to us).  So, some well-placed curtains will stop Rick’s bare butt being the talk of the neighborhood… Can’t get that visual out of your head, now can ya? )

Check back next Friday for some more perceptual guessing games and the coveted home-made trophy. Mental note to self … make sure file name is changed so not to give answer away. As Confucius says, woman who sit on tack get point.

I know you’ve been waiting with baited breath all week for this week’s Friday Fun photo challenge (ok, just pretend you have for my sakes).  Here is another object for you to guess what it is.  Drum roll, please….

I’ve tried to make this one a little harder than the first two games (here and here).  As usual, submit your guesses in the comments section. If you’re the first to correctly post the answer, you become the most popular person in the world, you automatically look 10 lbs slimmer and everyone thinks your jokes are the funniest thing since this Richard Simmons video. 

The correct answer and the winner will be posted later tonight.  Good luck!

As part of our “relocate-dogs-from-the-dingy-dining-room” project, we’ve been planning on installing some French doors between the kitchen and office (you didn’t think we were referring to french kissing our dogs, did you?  Ewwww. We love our dogs, but not like that). 

When we’re out of the house, the new French doors will keep the dogs in the kitchen area and out of the office,  where pee puddles and computer equipment just don’t mix.

About here is when we show the customary before piccie. Beegee and T-Rex were kind enough to act as models in the impromptu doorway photoshoot.

Ok, so here’s a quick rundown of the steps we took to install the new doors.

1. Using a butt marker (yes, that is the correct technical term ), we measured and chiseled out the spots where the three hinges go on the door and the existing door framing.

2. We screwed the hinges to the door framing. 

3. Then, we hung the French door (after having to reposition one of the hinges by 1/8″).

4. Rick installed a stop-lock on top of the door.

5. We repeated steps 1-3 for the second door.

6. Using a door handle template, we drilled a hole for the locking handle.  Then, we screwed a matching closet handle to the other door.

7. Measured and cut trim to go around door (kitchen side) to make the doors only swing open into the office.

8. The final step was to tape off all the windows ready for painting (wow, did that take a  lot of time!). Applied two coats of paint to the door, trim and framing. 

And that’s it! We have new French doors, baby! Or should I say, nous avons de nouvelles portes françaises, bébé!

**Disclaimer: The picture here shows the door after the first coat of paint (with accompanying blue painters tape) and the trim is yet to be painted. It is not representative of the final product. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead is purely coincidental. Void where prohibited. Some assembly required. All major credit cards accepted. All models over 18 years of age. Batteries not included**

First task today was to finish the trench for the landscape lighting cable.  I was relaxing, I mean, supervising Rick from the comforts of our porch on our new rocking chair (another great bargain found on sale at Big Lots), when I spied two visitors just across from our front lawn.

In the first picture, you can just about see two deer on our neighbor’s drive.  Luckily, I had my camera to hand and snapped a couple of photos. Seeing that I needed the telescopic lens, I ran inside, changed the zoom and took the second close-up.  I guess this is one of the joys of country living – having such fab wildlife in your front yard!

 

Anyhoodles, after that little bit of excitement, Rick and I got on with finishing the landscape lighting. Following the steps we outlined here, we now have fully functional and maintainably tuft-free lights.  Now all we have to do is figure out how to get Number Five out of our yard!

 

When Rick and I are out of the house for longer periods of time, we confine the dogs in one area of the house (in order to minimize “puppy presents” scattered throughout the house).  Of course, when I say confine, I don’t mean squeezing all 5 dogs into a 3×3 cell.  In fact, as far as dogs go, they have a pretty cushy life, spending time in our 300+ sq. ft dining room, replete with bedding, toys, food and water.  Since getting our new dining room set, we’ve been meaning to relocate the dogs to a new area and actually use our dining room as, well, a dining room.  Novel idea, huh? )

The problem is that after many-a-day of 5 dogs staying in the dining room while we are both at work, the room has become a little … let’s say, dingy.  Dirty. Smelly. Gross.  All are acceptable adjectives here. 

 

 

 

 

 

So before moving in our lovely brand-spanking-new dining table and chairs, we needed to clean things up a little bit.  Ok, a lot.  We knew the cleaning would need to go beyond simple sweeping/mopping of the floor.  So, in anticipation for this weekend’s project, during the week we bought a gallon of Kilz  to treat the floor. We got the oil-based version, as it is more adept at blocking strong odors and stains than the water-based version.

After Rick had cleared the room of the dog accessories and swept up, I got my first experience of painting a floor. The Kilz went on quickly and easily, covering all of the dubious stains and smells (some made by our dogs, some a left-over from the previous owners.

About an hour later, the paint was dry to the touch and we moved the dining room set in.  And voila! In addition to sealing any residual doggie odor, the white paint has the added bonus of making the room seem so much more airy and light. The painted floor will serve in the interim until we are able to put hardwood flooring in there.  Until then, the dining room is strictly a no-doggie area!

In addition to painting the walls and installing new floor, we’re getting ready to change out that dated chandelier with a modern light fixture.  Stay tuned for the big light switcheroo coming soon….

With the extra long Memorial Day weekend upon us, we have a number of projects planned to complete:

1. Convert dingy dog room into delightful dining room

2. Paint and install French doors between kitchen and office

3. Finish trench for outside landscape lights (and then mow grass!)

4. Grout the downstairs bathroom tile

5. Develop and upload secret photography project to blog

Not sure exactly how many of these projects will get done, but that’s the plan anyway.  Check back to see how we’re progressing and in the meantime, have a great Memorial Day weekend!

Wow. First guess and Brad nails it. Hoist him on your shoulders and let him be a shining orb of inspiration to everyone out there, toiling on the Interweb, dreaming of someday being a Friday Fun Winner! Brad has earned a priceless homemade aluminum trophy, constructed in the privacy of his very own home.  I’m obviously making these pictures way too easy, so next week I promise to make the picture really obscure…

Still unsure what the objects were? They were 1/4″ spacers for laying tile.  We still need to finish off the tiling in the downstairs bathroom renovation, grout the tile, set the toilet, reset the vanity, paint …. ok, you get the idea.  We’re working on it! As always, we’ll keep you posted on the progress…

Check back next Friday for some more perceptual guessing games and the coveted home-made trophy…

It’s that time of the week where you can participate in the Friday Fun guessing game!  Here is another renovation-based object for you to guess what it is…

Submit your guess in the comments section of this post.  If you are the first to correctly answer, you win the glory of making your own homemade aluminum foil trophy. The correct answer and the winner will be posted later tonight.

Can you believe that it has been 3 months since we bought the house and moved in? Over these past short months, Rick and I have worked on a variety of projects around the house. They have ranged from the small (replacing light fixtures, vanity makeover) to the large (3 walls removed in foyer) and everything in between (fence built, bathroom tiled, back & front doors replaced).

It is time to start thinking (and planning) for the larger – and much costlier – projects that will need doing eventually.  Such as replacing the siding, the roof and our 37 windows.  Yes, we said 37.

Last month,  we started the process of replacing the windows by changing  out one of the worst offenders in the dining room. Armed with a $179 custom-sized window ordered from Lowes, Rick’s know-how and my assistant/photography/supervisory skills, the old wooden window was popped out and replaced with a rot-free double casement vinyl baby.

Now, we’re all for saving a buck or two (thousand) by doing most of the labor ourselves (indeed, if we were referring to upgrading Windows on our (almost defunct) computer, then we would be able to do this cheaply and quickly, given Rick is our resident computer geek). But faced with the daunting prospect of replacing 36 more windows, several of which are over three stories high (given the slope of the landscape in certain areas), I have started looking into professional window replacement.

I’ve come across a couple of companies that advertize the cost of window replacement to be $189 per window, including installation.  That’s a great price, seeing as we would pay that anyway getting the windows ordered from the DIY store and installing ourselves.  Always the cynic, I thought there must be a catch to the deal (I’m always reading the fine print!). So I set up a couple of appointments this week.  A representative from Clear Choice came out on Saturday, and a rep from Window World came out on Tuesday, to give us the skinny on the deal. It appears that the offer is legit – no intro offers, no small print – just an honest offer to install and replace windows for about 200 buckaroos each, including tax. Both companies gave us very similar quotes, so it will be difficult to decide between them.  When we are able to afford to replace the windows, at least we now know that there are affordable options out there…