Front Porch Finally Finished

It only took three years. Baby bear was still a baby! Bear decided he was going to build a porch despite us having a newborn. I wasn't too pleased but nothing was gonna stop him. In hindsight things are easier when babies are younger and I am glad we did it. 

Fast forward three years and we finally hung a new front door. This weekend we completed the project with a new light, mailbox, and house numbers. Things went much faster and it only took one hour. 

We think it looks great!

Now for this dining table redo. 

Kbear's Expanding Table Emporium

I was looking for a pedistal or trestle dining table so I could add a bench for more seating. Our old ikea table had draw leaves and I loved them but I hated the legs on the end. It really limited the number of chairs you could fit around it. We wanted to stay with a square table and I didn't want to spend $1000. This left me scouring cl for a very specific kind of table. I had been finding tables but I must cl wrong or something because I got zero replies. 

Finally someone replied to me! The table wasn't perfect but the size was right. With some paint and stain I could make it work. I promptly sold our ikea table (aka gave it to my sister-in-law). 

This happened on Thursday. The next Monday I was perusing cl for patio chairs and came across an almost identical table with a crummier top but an awesome base. I emailed about it figuring I would get no response but I got a response and am now the proud owner of not one but two expanding trestle base tables, and 4 antique chairs in pretty poor shape. 

Upping my project count to maybe 10? 

I don't think our kitchen can hold two tables. 

Scrambles and butters for the photobomb. 

Hanging a door - harder than you think

We hated our front door. It was a cheap, metal 6-panel door that was dented. The knob always got stuck and the thing never closed right. When the door we wanted at the hd went on sale we bought it and figured we could just install ourselves. How hard could hanging a pre-hung door be? Well, turns out it's not as easy as taking one out and sliding another in.

First we had to figure out how to get the current one out. 

Notice Bman is helping with his hammer. 

It really wasn't too hard once we figured out that the easy way was to take the door off and then pull the frame inward. 

We went to put the new door in and of course the opening wasn't wide enough. The old owners made some weird rig to make the opening smaller for the awesome cheap door they hung. Once we took that off we were all set. We slid the door in, made sure it was straight and plumb, and nailed it in. Success! Until, we went to shut the door. Apparently being plumb isn't enough to close a door. The floor wasn't perfectly level, something that slipped our minds in the 100 degree heat. So we had to cut out the nails, relevel the door, and 4.5 hours after we started the door was in. 

All we had left was to hang the knob and cover all our mistakes with trim and caulk. We were happy to just have a door with a handle that shut. It took the rest of the next day to do the trim and repair all our mistakes (we made a lot more mistakes I won't even go into). The house is still messy but I will call project new-door done. 

One more project off the list, but I now added three more because I want to get a new light, revamp the mailbox, and make a painted plexiglass address plaque for the front. 

From the inside. Ignore the mess. 

From the outside. 

Starting on the floor

After hiring some guys to clean up the drywall and insulation mess, bear started on the floor. He has to basically lay joists like a deck so we can raise the floor to the same level as the rest of the house.

We discovered a few interesting things about the construction of our house. First, the stud in the front corner wasn't touching anything. In fact it seems like none of the studs on the exterior wall were supporting anything. I guess we don't have to worry about load bearing walls.

The second thing we discovered was that you can see outside from the bottom of the wall! You can see in the picture below, which is the light shining through the bottom of the back exterior wall. I guess we solved the mystery of how water was getting into the house. How to fix it? Bear plans on pouring concrete on the outside and also building a French drain.

All the boards are cut so hopefully in a few weeks we can have a raised floor and some new walls. Still in track to beat that six month deadline!

Treasure!

Ebear continued on with demo today and was able to finish up the ceiling.

Surprisingly he found some treasure up in the attic. Well I guess it could be considered treasure if you are a guy who is into 1970's playboys :) Its funny to think that a teen in the 70's went to the corner of the attic to hide his dirty magazines. Now that I think of it I am not sure I even want to touch then (shudders).

We finally decided to finish what scrambles started.

Well we decided to go for it and redo the converted garage that scrambles so graciously decided to start demo on during our kitchen remodel. The plan is to turn the space into a master suite complete with a second bathroom. What is our laundry area will become part bathroom and part walk in closet. The washer and dryer will be in our walk in closet, which I thought might be a little weird, but we have no place for a dedicated laundry. I guess the upside is the ultra convenience of having a washer and dryer in the closet.

Here is the kicker, we decided to do almost the entire project ourselves. We figured it can't possibly take us any longer than the kitchen and we hired a professional to do that. So we are gonna try to do it on our own. We win if we finish in less time than it took for the kitchen, which, by the way, took 6 months.

I think we are on track for a win! The Plummer has already jackhammered through the foundation, tied into the city lines, and fixed the yard up, all in the span of 4 days.

Today E decided to try his hand at demo while I took care of baby bear. He did pretty good and got almost all the drywall off. He just has the ceiling left.

Kitchen Complete!

The kitchen is complete! It actually finished up Around New Years, but our blogging slipped a bit. Here are some pictures of the remodeled kitchen. Although it took some time, about six months to finish, we love the end product and the contractor, crew, and fabricators all did great jobs.