Home Renovation
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Picture Window Preparation
Monday morning, Gavin got a call from Mark, our window man. After nearly two months working around the weather & his health problems, he said Wednesday was the day. That meant Monday night was time to bust the glass block out. Gavin started in the top right corner using his hammer drill between the blocks, breaking up the mortar. It didn’t come easy because the top row was glued to the wood frame. He drilled harder, leaning into it as the 10 foot ladder he was standing on fidgeted back & forth. I couldn’t watch. Dust plumed into the air as I closed the door & went downstairs to the…
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Bathroom Demo
Last Saturday, we decided to fix the sink. It had been clogged for a few days & it was time to get it done. As Gavin inched his way into the vanity, he realized we had a much bigger job on our hands than we thought. One bump of his shoulder & the corroded, copper line snapped off. This was just the beginning. . . After two trips to Lowe’s & one to Home Depot, we finally got what we needed. By now, we decided to remove the vanity to have more room to work. After that went, I have to say I got a little excited because I could…
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Middle Garage Pt. 2
Back to the…middle garage where it’s cold & progress feels slow every night until BAM! We have peg board folks! It’s a game changer I must say. All of the days spent cleaning it out in there, I never dreamed I’d see it like this. But, before I get ahead of myself, let’s begin back where we left off from the first post. Please refer to Middle Garage Pt. 1 to see with your own eyes the horrors that dwelt among there. Gavin & I spent our nights cleaning, listening to 90’s country (thank you Garth Brooks for your contribution) and drinking Octoberfest – keys to success, let me tell you. So, it was quite the…
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Middle Garage Pt. 1
Ah, the space between the laundry room and the ‘new garage.’ We call this the middle garage. This room was the first addition that my grandparents added to the house after they moved in. When family would visit, this is the way we came in because there is an outside door that leads through to the inside of the house. As a child, I wasn’t particularly fond of being in there. It felt like a scary, dark tunnel you had to muster up the courage to walk through in order to reach Narnia. Stacks of boxes & various items towered above, reaching into the rafters. The following pictures illustrate how…
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Bedroom Progression
We began cleaning out ‘The Christmas Tree Room’ in early summer of 2017. I give my mom all of the credit for her ceaseless wrapping of every dish & fragile item that was found. Virtually everything in this room was kept & stored away by her efforts. At this time, there was little talk of Gavin & me ever moving in. The goal was simply to clean out the house. But ‘simply’ was never a word that came to mind as we began this pursuit. “You can do this, start with the items in the doorway & work your way in. It is possible.” Those heartening words from my parent’s…
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Medallion Restoration
The medallion on the ceiling in the upstairs hallway was one project I looked forward to with a lot of anticipation. Because of the intricacy & age of the piece (we believe it to be original to the house circa 1800’s) I felt it a privilege to be able to work on it. During the time period when it was created, plaster medallions were of high popularity & served as a symbol of wealth for the middle & upper class society. It also illustrated the homeowner’s personal style, aesthetics & architecture of the house itself. Medallions would be placed on the ceiling where guests would be most apt to see…
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Living Room Pt. 3: The Floor
After the necessary cleaning & painting of the room, it was time to tackle the floor. And it was here in this room that Gavin spent most every day of his Christmas break, 2017 on his hands & knees pounding in nails, sanding & then sanding some more. Because of the condition of the floor, it was especially challenging to remove every last bit of that dreaded red paint. However, the end result proves well worth all of the backbreaking work to get there. Detailed below is the progressive process of restoring the 210 year old poplar wood planks back to its natural, beautiful state. STEP 1: PREP WORK To…
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Living Room Pt. 2: Repairs & Painting
I began deciding on the wall color of this room at the start of October, 2017. I remember the afternoon walk I took through the quaint little town where I lived at the time, how crisp & cool the air was beginning to feel. I was searching for some color in nature that would be both comfortable & relaxing to suit the purpose of that space. By then, leaves had begun to make their decent to the ground & it was there I found my inspiration; a simple oak leaf with soft, beige tones. Though it wouldn’t be until winter that we’d have paint on those walls. Virtually every project…
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Living Room Pt. 1: The Hoard
This room served as my grandmother’s bedroom when my grandparents lived in the home. We began dehoarding this room with the help of my cousins, Emily and David plus my mom in May of 2017. The primary contents of this room included piles & piles of clothes which were gone through one by one in order to save, donate or discard. Unfortunately much of the clothing was covered in animal droppings & urine so they were then bagged & hauled to the dumpster. While cleaning out one of the armoires, my mom reached down inside & saw something moving under the clothes. Much to her surprise, an entire family of…
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Dining Room Progression
It’s easy to forget the very beginning. Each room offering its own challenges and variety of items to go through. Every single thing, picked up, assessed and carried to its resulting place, either to be stored, donated or disposed of. With the help of my mom and cousins, Emily & David, we embarked on cleaning out this room in May of 2017. Serving as the room off the kitchen, it was decided that we’d make it into a dining room one day. Although not fully finished quite yet, this room has been dehoarded, cleaned with the help of Gavin’s grandma, Rita, furniture rearranged (including my husband & brother moving a…
