Combining blogs for a while

The Navy has decided that they don't care where we go, but we can't stay here. We aren't selling or renting the house, I don't trust anyone... so much like the house, this blog is going to sit dormant for goodness knows how long. In light of that, I have decided to temporarily combine THIS blog with our personal blog. This afternoon I imported all of the posts and comments to there and placed them all in the "Home and Grown" category. At the end of the month I will be putting this blog on private until such a time as we are back at home and ready to get on with our renovations. I post decor and DIY projects on our family blog all the time, so if you want to check it out over there, feel free!

Bargain Vent Hood

One thing that we didn't even begin to get work done on was the stove top and vent hood area. Hell, that section of cabinets are even installed yet! I thought I was going to be stuff with some flimsy, shitty looking vent hood because I can't see myself paying hundreds and hundreds of dollars for one. We went to the Habitat for humanity restore and they had a large heavy wooden one for $50 but it didn't have any of the insides. We bought it, and then bought one of the flimsy ones for $30 at Lowe's to use for the parts. It hasn't been put together yet or anything, but I wanted to show the photo of it. I think once it's painted white it will go great with the farmhouse-y look of the kitchen.

Random Images

Below are a few random images that I took during the three weeks we were renovating and that I wanted to share.

Bad Wallpaper Museum

I just had to share some of the horrible wallpapers we have found during this round of renovation!

Can you imagine living in a kitchen completely covered in THIS!?

My New Sink, Water Filter & Faucet

If you remember, I posted about my new kitchen sink and faucet a while back. When hubby was here he installed the sink, faucet and the water filter we bought. His brother installed the drain lines and the new Pex plumbing TO the sink from the water supply in the basement. I have to say I love both the sink and the faucet! I have already used the sink to wash my Brooni! The wells are so deep it's amazing, I just wish the kitchen were all finished so I could take prettier pictures of it! Ugh, Someday!

My New Dishwasher

I picked out my own dishwasher at Lowe's and I didn't even have to pay full price! lol. They were having a sale for 20% off of energy star appliances over $380. This dishwasher was in the $450 range. They gave me my 20% off, PLUS my military discount and another discount! The dishwasher ended up being approx $320 with tax if I remember right. SO, it was actually about the same or a little less than the cheapest one they had when you added tax. My husband installed it all by himself and it works like a dream!

Removing Counters, Cabinets & Floors...

then having to put it all back!

We have old old hand made cabinets and cupboards in our house. They are solid wood and custom made for the house (there is handwriting on the backsides of the boards even!). They are VERY heavy, large and bulky and were made into solid pieces. We have managed to get them apart without completely destroying them, however, it did make a rather large mess in my kitchen space once all the pieces and trim and everything were piled in there (above).



Currently I only have ONE section of the cabinets in place, the other pieces are upstairs (above). The cupboards are in the hallway. We were going to do white ceramic tile counters, but decided to wait for some new products to come out. They are making such strides in this area I'd hate to lock myself in to tile right now. Once I paid for it, I'd feel like I had to keep it! lol. We are temporarily reusing the Formica counters that were on the cabinets already and also purchased an additional piece (hahah of blue!) at the restore for $7 to fill in the spots where we are going to have more counter space than we do cabinets like over the dishwasher, the corner, etc.

These are going to be striped and painted white one day, lol just not today or tomorrow.

When we removed the cabinets in the kitchen, we discovered that the floor didn't go all the way under them (above). I mean we had sub floor, but the pretty wood didn't go that far. What we did was to pull up some of the boards that WERE here to even the empty space up with the wall. We cut and laid a piece of plywood over the sub floor. We have decided that since this is right in front of the oven and will probably be a heavy spill area, we will fill this gap with the white marble tiles from Lowe's that will match the back splash. The rest of the floor will be sanded, stained dark brown and polyed. It's really amazing to me that these boards are about an inch thick and solid wood, not veneered sort of or layered wood like floors now-a-days.

I am feeling like these things will be some of the last finished in this area because they are mostly cosmetic.

My New Oven

As many of you will recall, I got a brand new wall oven at a thrift store about a year ago for $75. The whole time I've been here I haven't had a working oven. When hubby came to visit my oven FINALLY got installed and is working GREAT! The first thing cooked in it was chicken breast stuffed with tomatoes, asparagus and herbed cheese. It was delicious! ANYway, We decided to recess it into the wall where the china cabinet/dining room closet was. We saw no reason to have a clothes closet in the dining room, plus if it was removed and the wall sealed I'd have a great space for a sideboard! I like the china cabinet, and we intend to reuse it in the breakfast nook area someday, but it was taking up valuable space at the time.



Hubby built out the wall where the oven was going to go about 10 inches and his dad put drywall on the front and cut the hole for the oven front. He did cut the hole too big though so we will have to trim it out or something but at least it's in! Hubby built the stand for it and his brother put the sides on the cabinet after Trab had to go back to the Navy. Hubby ran the electric and connected it tot he box himself! I am so proud of him for not blowing the house up in the process. I've been using the oven for a month now and am very pleased with it! Definitely some of the best $75 I ever spent!

My Kitchen Window

As you can see this window is far too low for me to put any cabinets on this wall. Since this is where I want my cabinets to go I had to remove this window. I like being able to look out when I do dishes (everywhere else we've lived) so I wanted there to still be a window here and this is where I want my kitchen sink to go. The only windows in the house short enough to fit here were the two in the library that we removed and replaced with one large window. We removed those two to put them over here.

During the reglazing process a few of the panes got broken out and it has taken me until NOW to find a local place that will cut MY old glass to fit so that the panes match. Also another problem has been the glaze, which was supposed to take a max of 2 weeks to cure, but which is now going close on 2 MONTHS and still is as gooey as the day we put it on. I have had a suggestion to use a brand called Aqua Glaze, which I will try, but I have to find and order it off the Internet because it's not to be found around here. I have to admit that hubby did a better job than even I did reglazing the windows, lol I'm artistic so thought I'd be able to do it, hahahah but he had to come behind me and clean up my mess.



The most labor intensive part of replacing this window was cutting a hole for the second part. I had an opening big enough for one window, but it's a two window set so the other one needed to be opened up. We had to cut through plaster, lath, studs, outer wood and the original wood siding. The metal siding and insulation also had to be removed. My dad did most of the inside work and Trab did the outside stuff.



The above and below images are of the hole I started with and the one I am left with. The hole is now covered with plastic, plywood and sealed with great stuff foam. I plan to have my window in and trimmed out within the next two months hopefully! We did augment the existing studs and raised the bottom beam (not sure what it's called) under the windows so that the wall is properly supported.



So at the moment this is where I stand with my kitchen windows! lol. When they are completed I will post the images to this entry.

Gutters

Even though these are projects that aren't yet finished, I thought I would at least post them up as far as I've got them. Last month when hubby was here he got his friends and brother and my dad to help him take down our nasty old rusted gutters (left) and put up new ones. We also replaced some of the missing soffit pieces. This job isn't finished yet, the gutters on the front have yet to be put up and none of the downspouts really are attached. (I think this is why my basement is always wet! lol) For the sides and back we rented a high lift. It ended up not working very well and they had to bring us a replacement, that didn't really work good either, but worked enough, then they tried to overcharge us by over $300. We finally did get the money back, and I can't tell you how glad I am we don't have to have that thing anymore. Hubby was really good at driving it around though, lol... He is terrified of heights so I am SO proud of him for getting up there at the top of the house and doing the work.

Trab and his friend Dusty (below) had fun I think, even though it was raining and the entire length of gutter all the way around the house was welded together so that it was just one long piece! lol. His friends Isaiah, Aaron, his brother and even my dad took turns getting up there and hanging some of the new ones. It took a while because of the malfunctioning lifts and the fact that it was raining half the time.



Disregard the awful siding for a minute, lol, These are the NEW gutters on the house! A big improvement I think! We have both sides and the back complete like I said. When we finish the front I will take a pic of that and post it on this entry too.

Basil did his share of helping as well, He is an expert boom lift operator!