Bathroom Faucet found

The other day we found the perfect bathroom faucet. Because the sink we have is an 8" faucet base, the faucets were over $100. So we came across this one well under that price and it will go with the cottage look we are doing. At least that is the hope. As the bathroom progresses we will find out.

Here is our Bedroom or is it our Living room?

While the bathroom and bedroom is being built we have been using the living room as our bedroom. It is a little strange to sit with friends in our living room, but so far no one has complained to much. My wife is such an awesome cook that when people come over they couldn't complain anyways because they have full mouths, enjoying her wonderful food.

To help pay for the remodel.....

I have found these ducks that work for bread crust. They are helping us pay for the work on the house. Here they are in action. Shhhhh, don't tell nobody!

Bathroom colors

Today we found the flooring, tile and paint color for the bathroom. It is a bummer that I cannot get the color right in the photograph but it is white, sorta light green and brown. Also this past weekend my bride was huggin Boo Boo so I just had to share this photograph.

In the last few days the bathroom has grown. First the plumbing, electrical, drywall and the door was put in. On the door you can see the old bedroom door that use to be there. It will be a nice improvement. This is a door that came out of Barry and Renee's old farm house. It matches the style of the house perfectly. If it was 100 years ago can you imagine someone taking a door in a Wisconsin Farm house and trucking it down to Missouri? Wild times we live in. Anyway's I can't believe how fast the bathroom is being put together. Boo Boo was barking at me last night as I hung the door. If it wasn't for him barking I would have totally messed up the install. He is my supervisor. I don't know how he knows construction. I think there is an angel that squeezes him and makes him bark as I am about to mess something up. I know there are messenger and warrior angels but construction angels?

Christmas Tree in MIssouri

Merry Christmas everyone. We were given a tree last Fall to put out on the front porch. We brought it in to use as our Christmas tree and now it is flowering.:)

Also the past couple of days the bathroom has been started. I just finished appling the glue to the drain waste system (so I am high than a kite from the fumes) I hope to have the project done on New Years. I don't know if I can build a bathroom that quick but we will find out. The blue wall behind the studs will be torn out and become part of the bedroom. It could be a second bedorrm for really tall skinny people. lol

Shelving in the kitchen

This past weekend we put shelves up in the kitchen. The wall is plaster over cement so a regular drill and bit didn't cut the mustard. So I got to buy a hammer drill. Just saying the words "Hammer Drill" you can hear guys grunting like Tim Allen on Tool Time. I mean the thing has power...ohhhh arrggg ohhhh. It's a 1/2 inch, Two Speed gear train, Reversible, Double Insulated, mode selecting, lock on feature with the auxiliary handle assembly. A guy can take this drill and place eight 3/16" holes 1 7/8" deep in solid concrete to attach shelving in a matter of minutes. Thus allowing your wife to organize a varitey of jars filled with what not to some how cook these amazing meals to which all that grunting energy is properly restored in the guy. ohhh arrggg ohhhh!

Bathroom Begins

A wall will be built on the blue line (photo below) making the bath 5" x 8" and by knocking down a wall we will have 11' x 11' for a bedroom, which will be great for a few reasons. One we are use to a bed room the is 11" x 8" and two we have one closet in the whole house which is 2' wide 3' deep and 10' high with no way to reach the upper shelves. When we get done we hope to have an 11' long closet in the bedroom.

Yesterday we started the bathroom. You can see the general layout from the photo as well as what the bathroom looked like before we started.

Our Summer Vacation Continues into Fall

We have been doing some work outside the last few weeks. You know how a person should photograph all the progress? Well I haven't done so good on the outside. When we first picked up trash in the yard it filled a 55 Gallon trash can, so you can imagine what it must have been like. In this shot you can see the old mouldings have become a compost bin and we have dug up a few places to garden. We put blueberries, rasberries and strawberries in one row. We put around 80 tulips bulbs for the spring in another row. There was a large weed that looked like a tree, which now is our fire pit as I burn out the stump.

The Refrigerator is in!

So this weekend we purchased a refrigerator that fits the spot I built for it and put the old one out on the front porch so we can look like a real redneck. We are still waiting for the recliner with duct tape . lol. We also were able to purchase the rest of the flooring but I need to finish off the front room before I can install it. Last week I also spent time in the attic tearing out a room that never should have been built up there. I then insulated it as it was only R-11 up there making it real hot in the house during the summer. I can only imagine how cold it would have been this winter or the gas bill. After the front room is finished we are going to move the bedroom there for a time while a bathroom from scratch is built in the old bedroom. Then the old bathroom will be turned into a new bedroom. After that we have a back porch to turn into a 2nd bedroom and new coat of paint on the outside and our Summer Vacation in Missouri will be over.

How my wife saves seeds

I just have to show off my wife and her handy work. She is saving seeds for next year. She put them in a envelope and just so you know what the seeds are she marked it clearly. What a cool woman.

Boo Boo turns 2 & gets a haircut

This past weekend Boo Boo turned two and he got a haircut on the kitchen table. It is the second time I have done the home haircut thing on him. The difference between a good & bad haircut is a few weeks.

The Haircut finished

Here the house finally has the hair cut finished. 3 trees were taken all the way down to the ground and one tree remaining was trimmed up. Next the chainlink fence will be taken down and only be in the backyard. It will make it look less like a prision yard. The trees next door also were trimmed back a bit.

The Trees are getting a haircut.

This past weekend we worked out in the yard and gave the tress a hair cut. We have some work still left to do this coming weekend but the house is now visable adding a little more curb appeal.
Before & During

Flowers my wife planted

Today I found that I could post the weather on the blog, which is a little too late for everyone to see the heat index of summer around here. My wife planted these sunflowers from seed in our garden. She makes everything so nice in the house.

Entry room started

This weekend we have started the entry room. We were going to make a small second bedroom here but it would be 7' x 12' and when I drew the framing marks on the floor my wife showed me how it would be difficult for anyone of size to even come into the house. I thought we could sell the home only to skinny people but no such luck. Now it will be another living room or something like that. Here are the before pictures.

One of those Before & After pictures

Here is a before and after shot, from when we first started until today. Still more to do but it is a far cry from where it was.

New Floor

New Floors this weekend! We found a deal on flooring and put it in. The living room is coming along. We have resurfaced the plaster walls, dropped in a new sub floor, painted, redid the windows and put in a working ceiling fan. Other stuff as well but I don't remember it all. Those pictures will follow shortly.

Started on the living room

So this weekend we started demo on the living room. Check out this window temp however. It will be 101 today but in the sun, in the window it is 115. I wonder if it gets to be 114 actual temp will the thermometer explode in the window. We have remained inside as much as possible during this part of our Missouri Summer Vacation. Here is the living room before the hammer has been swung. We painted the old #1 wood that was down for the sub floor to block the smell from old pet stains. Blitz 123 is the best stuff I found for this problem. Kilz only amplified the stench.

Boo Boo has become my supervisor on this project. He is always right there to lick me in the face whenever I am fixing something close to the ground. His slobber in my face really doesn't help the project but I don't want to tell him that and risk hurting his feelings.

The old moldings are really in bad shape and would take too much effort and time to repair, so next weeks posting will not be featuring them. lol

Counter tops and top trim

The kitchen counter tops are all on now. The 3/4" plywood wrapped in $3.00 Walmart material was nice but the upgrade is nicer. We still have to do above the stove; shelves or cabinets. The one cabinet we have is 48" so it will not fit correctly and I guess we will use that in the mud room. We also trimmed out the top of the half walls, painted them and finished them off with 8-9 layers of wax. It gives them a factory baked finish look, that the fancy cabinet makers have without the need for a walk in oven.

It will be so nice to get the wood floor and base board trim down.

There is Boo Boo in the backgrond and the next room waiting to be started. That will be the living room when we are done. Last weekend we hung the fan & light. We still need to place the fridge in the slot, left of the sink. We must purchase a fridge that is 30" wide as the slot I made and the fridge we found do not match up. Right now the fridge is in the living room. It makes for a big work triangle in the kitchen. lol

This morning

Here we are with a few updates this morning. The kitchen so far. The sink has the counter top in and we are painting so that's why the blue tape. By the stove the counter tops are 3/4 plywood from the old cabinets, wrapped in 3.00 Walmart tabel cloth. It will work unitl we can buy the counter tops. The floor now has 1/4 plywood ready for a real floor but we are very thankful to have plywood vs the old floor. The sun is coming in the windows so you cannot see my beautiful wife handy work with the curtains but trust me they are awesome. I am sorry guys but I do have the best wife in the whole world.

This is the outside of the house this morning along with the temp and our old refrigerator shown next to the new one. The old one is for sale. Now we paid $2.35 for it but now we have learned a thing or two about Missouri and we know this thing is worth $350.00 for sure. See if you went to a store to buy a new fridge you would have to pay $600.00 and this one is only 51 days old. So we will consider offers above $300.00, shipping is extra. It's the old fridge for sale by the way. If we cannot get at least $300.00 we will just keep it. See we are learning the culture down here too! lol

Here we are about two weeks ago, in the kitchen. If you click on it you can see the pictures bigger.

Here we are in April, when we came down for 5 days and we were going to fix the place up and sell it, all in 5 days of course. The first night here I told Kristine, let’s just load up your stuff and abandon this place. Of course this was picture was taken after 3 days of work and many more before I even showed up by Kristine. The above picture there is paneling on the floor to cover OSB that is soaked in old dog urine to cover an old furnace grate. Below the OSB gone and the floor repaired with new boards. The walls were painted too and the kitchen cabinets (if you could call them that) are removed. We were feeling pretty good about the 5 days of work we did here and left for Wisconsin.

1st posting

Well we have been here 51 days now and decided to keep everyone up to date on our progress with the house. We are calling this our Missouri summer vacation that we happen to be remodeling a house. Yesterday the kitchen & dining room walls were repainted (1st coat), a fan/light was installed in the dining room and Kristine made curtains for the windows out of $1.00 a yard fabric we bought at Walmart. With the tension rods each curtain was under $5.00. We also purchased a refrigerator, which we were very excited about. We had been using a cooler and a bag of ice every day. The Salvation Army had the fridge for $65.00. It took all day Saturday to rent a trailer, haul it home and then clean it up. It ran all day as well so our spirits were a bit down as we thought now we have a bad fridge, but it finally adjusted and runs occasionally now. So we have things like cold food, cold drinks and even homemade popsicles to enjoy. Every day we find some new thing to enjoy in this process. Things that the rest of the country probably thinks is standard, we acquire slowly but surely. We went from heating our water on the stove and bathing in the tub to a hot water heater and actually taking a shower in less than two weeks. We were roughing it on our Missouri vacation but now we are starting to up grade and fly first class. Anyhow, since this is my first post and the first time I have used Blogger I will publish this and the photos before telling more of our exciting Missouri Summer Vacation.