Sweet Suite Cleanup

So we are in the process of freshening up our suite. Our tenant of 6+ years has moved out and we are painting, fixing, replacing and in general making the place look a whole lot better then it did. We inherited the place as it was when we purchased the property and had done nothing but repairs as needed since then. Now that the place is empty we have discovered how truly thrown together it was and figured now was a good time to throw some elbow grease at it before someone new moves in.

So here is a before of the kitchen.

I don't think this is what they mean by green living!

Littlest PK helping prep the cupboards to be painted.

The kitchen as it looks today.

Work in Progress

So the bathroom is almost complete. We have some touch ups to do around the countertop due to new backsplash not at same height as old backsplash. Sounds like maybe a new mirror going in - yeah! And then finally using the beautiful wrought iron towel racks, etc that we were given for Christmas several years ago.

Before

After

And a look at the project that has been going on in the front yard the last couple of days.

Littlest PK telling those guys to get back to work. Anyone need a pint sized supervisor?

I am very excited about our new block wall - it is already making the entrance to our property look a million times better.

Reno time again

So now that the upstairs bathroom is complete (almost)

we decided to do a partial reno on the downstairs bathroom.

New paint, new countertop, sink and faucet.

So here are the boys hard at work on the bathroom.

Yes, we are plumbers

And mudders

A bit of handyman

Sanding till it's smooth

And this afternoon we were even painters!

But I'll save that picture until after the second coat.

A View out the Office Window

As I wrote the last post I was glancing out the window at the current project being worked on by Andy. He has his buddy over helping. They are both on their winter time off and every year have been helping each other out with projects. It's great catch up time for them as they barely see each other the rest of the year and it sure does make the projects more enjoyable for them.

So here is what they are working on.

Yes indeed, the barn is getting a new roof. The guys are putting on the trim right now. We looked at pictures last night of the barn as it looked when we bought this place. It was a two tone grey and now is this lovely deep green with white trim and now a black roof - so excting.

Shit Happens

and flows everywhere when one's pump stops working.

We recently had to replace the septic pump for our shop as it burst it's seal and was not fixable. The guys had to tear up and then re-lay the pavers at the front of the shop. It gave Andy the perfect excuse for finishing off the other side though and now we know the tank is empty again so we should be good for a couple of years.

Spraying the dirt and mud off the pavers.

Always happy if it involves being outside and soaking wet.

And this is what I found in our crawl space. Littlest dude has this habit of wandering into the pantry and throwing things down the hole beside the hot water tank. Luckily only the pop cans had leaked. Amazingly no shattered glass bottles and not a drop of syrup oozing out of the blackberry syrup jar. I have re-stuffed the hole in hopes that will prevent him from doing it again....time will tell.

Shop in progress

This past weekend was satisfying and enjoyable but extremely tiring. We have started the process of painting the shop. We had hoped that with a large work party we would get it done in a weekend (as we had the house) but alas that was not the case. It looks like it is going to take a whole weekend again of painting to finish it up. The upside is that we can see how great it is going to look when done. A huge improvement upon the dreary grey it was.

I spent the weekend preparing meals, mixing paint (we had to darken the paint - good lesson to learn - always paint a large chunk before ordering up an entire house worth of paint - we added 1.5 cups of black stain to every gallon of green stain) and painting what I could manage. Emotionally I was a bucket of guilt - going between feeling like I wasn't working hard enough and doing my share to feeling like I shouldn't be doing any of the painting as it could be hurting piglet. Grrrrr... don't like it at all....but piglet has been kicking up a storm the last two days so I can't have done too much damage...I think...I hope..poor kid...such a naughty momma.

So here are some before and afters...what do you think?


The Dreary Grey


Bold and Beautiful Green

I am in the process of prime and painting the shutters to go on the upper windows - they will be cloud white - very cute - just loving it!

Thank you, thank you, thank you to Keith, Sandra, Krista, Darren, Carla and Todd for all the numerous hard hours of painting you put in..I only hope I can repay it someday.

Weekend projects

This weekend the boys decided to remove the chimney and work on finishing the siding on the shop so we would be ready for painting weekend. They had a little incident with a chimney that ran away from them and ended up landing an inch - no joking - away from Todd's 1960's chevelle which he had just insured that very morning. I was inside the shop when the crash occurred.

And this is what I was doing.....shutter making in progress. I have cut all the boards to make shutters for 6 windows on the shop. We are going to pre-paint then so we can throw them up after we paint the shop. Very exciting! I also cut some of the scraps into bird houses as we went to Andy's grandparents wedding anniversary party last night and needed a little something to take with us. I'll have to take a pic of one of the birdhouses sometime soon.

Front view

Some pictures of our newly installed front garden. We have never liked the shape of the front bed, not only did it suck for mowing but it just didn't look right. So a couple weekend's ago we decided enough was enough and reshaped, planted and bark mulched. It looks so much better.

Shaping the bed also known as turf tossing (Before)

After

Before

After

Before

After

Boy toys

I thought I'd show a couple of the recent projects worked on from the view of how handy some of the "boy toys" have been. Definately saved on time by having the big truck and tractor around.


Fencing materials - all in one load

Hedge trees - all 50 of them

Moving the trees the easy way

Our Straw House

Well this last weekend was a blur of activity but I think the results speak for themselves. To the left is a picture of our house as it looked on friday morning. At the end of my writing is a picture of our house as it looked Sunday evening.

I am absolutely in love with my new "straw" house. (That is the name of the colour we painted it - we thought we should rename it something more romantic - Tuscan Sunrise is the most recent suggestion.) I think it makes such a huge difference. It is so much more cheerful and I think it also looks newer and even maybe a tad higher quality if that is possible.

It is hard to tell from the final photo but there is black on the frame around the glass on the front door. Our next project is to buy new lights for the exterior of the house - they will be black as well. I am going to spray the bracket for the hanging basket black and I think I will pick up some large black pots for either side of the garage door.

We still haven't decided on the garage door. I saw a house recently that had painted the block insets on their garage door the same colour as the house. Made it kind of fade into the house a bit more. I want the focus to be on the front entrance not on the garage door. Always a work in progress.