The rain stopped

It has been raining here for a few days now and looks to continue until next week. The rain stopped and look who ran out to the garden. I have a happy wife.

Dinner

Tonight my bride made salmon, homemade bread and greens, topped with baby raddishes from the garden. I use to see guys who were married to women who did this sort of thing and wanted to drop a few words towards them to let them know how rare a woman like that is. Now I am one of those guys! Thank you God! :)

Look food growing

The garden this morning. It seems like everything is doubling in size each day. We have been fighting the nesting birds. They take our plants right out of the ground and fly away with them, so cups have been placed on the smaller plants. Someone asked the other day where we got all those rocks and bricks? They come right out of the ground, that we are working. I have no idea why someone would bury good bricks, but I am glad they did.

1st iris of the season

So the 1st iris of the season appeared today just as the last tulips were picked for the table.

Treasure

Today I was digging a few holes for grapes vines to go into the ground. Here is a small sample of the treasure that we found.

Boo Boo lives up to his name

Yesterday my Bride and I were walking around the garden and I thought I would show her what the back porch looks like in real life since she hasn't been back there because it is sealed off currently from the rest of the house. So I opened up the door and before we know it Boo Boo runs in like he always has. He had no idea the floor was missing. Before he could stop he went right through the joist landing spread eagle and froze there. I thought he was hurt but he was just scared stiff. We picked him up and dusted him off and he was no worse for the wear. He probably would like to forget the whole event but we laughed so much about it I just had to blog about it.

Lasagna Gardening

Friday Night we went to the book store to browse and have coffee. I found this book called Lasagna Gardening in which a person doesn't need to remove the sod, sift through the soil for rocks, spark plugs, glass, tin cans, roofing shingles, nails, coat hangers and all the other things one finds in the soil down here. (what...your soil doesn't have these things?) Anyway today, I soaked a bunch of newspaper in a trash can full of water and then laid the paper out on the ground. I then put down 1/2" of Peat Moss followed by 4" of good compost & manure mix. Another 1/2" of peat moss, follwed by 2" of grass clipping. Another layer of 1/2" peat moss followed by 2" of chopped leaves. Another 1/2" of peat moss followed by wood ashes and the rest of the peat moss. Now we can grow squash, pumpkins, melons and what not right on top of this mix today. We are going to wait two weeks before planting however. From what I read I will not have to weed or mess with this bed again.

Floor Joist

Yesterday I woke up, made my way to the Home Depot, to purchase the lumber, to build the floor, in the back bedroom, that use to be a back porch, in the house that we are spending our Summer Vacation remodeling in. ( I don't think that sounds like a good nursery rhyme book)

My wife also did this drawing of our garden so we know where everything is. If we are here for a while we will know next Spring where we planted everything for crop rotation. You can click on the picture and see the drawing enlarged.

Before and After

The backyard in May 2007 and today April 2009.

The Garden is planted

Today we just about finished getting the garden in. We made the beds last year and made compost from leaves, grass and kitchen scraps all last year. We are hoping that the garden will do well because of it. I moved the compost bin under a Walnut tree as I am told only grass can grow there anyways. We have two types of tomatoes, (44 plants in the ground), Basil, onions, shallots, potatoes, peppers, beans, peas, melons, squash, spinach, lettuces, radishes, garlic, carrots, a bunch of diffrent kinds of flowers,sweet corn and two all beef patties on a sesame seed bun. lol Here are the North and South views. I have been hacking at the stump you see there. Which is where alot of the rocks have come from. I hope to have the stump out by the end of this summer vacation. You must pardon the back porch with the spattering of white paint and bare wood. I am in the process of turning this into a bedroom.

From old cabinets to basement windows

The first thing to go in the back porch was the cabinets shown here. Our basement windows needed some help as well. So today I took the old cabinets and turned them into basement windows. We had an old sheet of plexiglass that was sort of on one of the windows. So the pictures show, the cabinets, the old basement windows, in the middle of fixing the basement windows and the primer basement windows ready to accept the exterior paint. The best part of today's project was the cost. $0.00. Everything was already here.

No Floor

I was able to get all the floor boards up. The joist are all bad. Back in 1920 I guess there wasn't a building code or a way to know how to build, so I think a person just did whatever they thought would work. Which is why there is no sill plates on the wall. The floor board came off pretty good however. I think they will make my wife a nice desk which is something I am going to do tomorrow. I need to think about the porch for a day or so.

Look Ma, no lath!

Well today the lath is all gone. It's actually all piled up over an old tree stump that we have been burning out. The first clam night we will light up the bon fire. It goes pretty quick as the stuff has been drying since 1927 at least. Today I am ripping out the floor. The floor boards are 3/4" Douglas Fir #1. I think they will make excellent furniture. The first project being studio desk and such. I have been using the old moldings from this house for my framing table and desk. My wife would also like a desk in the kitchen, so I will build her one out of these floor boards. The floor joist are not any good. I have to rebuild the floor. The floor use to bounce when a person or even Boo Boo would walk in there. So a solid floor would be nice. Opening up the walls is always an adventure. It's like you plan it to cost $1000 and it doubles because of the surprises you find.

Bye Bye Plaster

So the plaster came off the walls yesterday. Which is always fun. The lath is coming down today. Here it is today. Would anyone like to sleep in our guest bedroom today?

The back bedroom begins

Today I have started the back bedroom. Here it is! Ahhhhh! We did find this news paper under the particle board sub floor. The paper says Sunday March 2oish 1927. Here is also an ad for some items at a local store. (click on it to make it larger)

Spring Tulips

Last Fall when we made the garden spots we dumped about 80 tulips in the ground. Here they are now on the kitchen table.

Kitchen today before & after

click on the to make them bigger

Window Seeds

Yesterday we installed a few custom cut pieces of glass to make a herb garden in the kitchen window. What you are seeing is Tomatoes and peppers however, waiting in the nursery to go into the ground on April 21st. We figure if we are not done with the house we will have food in the garden. If we are done with the house there will be food in the garden for the new owners. We also installed baseboard trim in half the house.

The old back yard

Here is a shot of the beautifully landscaped backyard before we got our hands on it.

Before & After

Just looking through old pictures this morning and wanted to show a few before and afters.

Sleeping in the Bedroom

So we now have a closet in the bedroom and get this...a bed in the bedroom. In some countries people actually sleep in their bedrooms (not the living room) and they keep their clothing in a closet in the bedroom. Wow we are really living large now. For Christmas we got a down comforter and the nice sheets so this is all icing on a pretty good cake.

Bedroom Flooring, Paint and switch plate covers too!

Today we finished the painting in the bedroom, started the flooring and hope to move in there on Monday night.

Hall is done..well sort of.

Today we finished up the hall between the bath and bedroom. We were going to put carpeting down on the floor there, but having someone install it and dealing with workmen is not my idea of a good time so I ripped up the flooring from the kitchen back and reinstalled it having the wood go into the hall way and now it will seamlessly go into the bedroom as well. The trim still needs to be put up in the entire house. The final coat of mud will be put on the bedroom tonight. At least I hope it is the final coat. After the bedroom is painted and the wood floor goes in we will do the trim in the house saving the back porch into a bedroom transformation for last.

No Built in

We thought it best to leave the built in out of the project as the cost we may not recoup in the selling process. So I put a sheet of dry wall up there. Also today I finished framing up the closet in the bedroom. It will only be 60" wide, but the second bedroom will also have a closet. I ripped up all the bad flooring and patched it with new wood. Today I set new plywood on the bedroom floor. Things are really cooking now. I thought it would take about two weeks to complete this bedroom. It has been almost a month since I started the tear out to get to this point. I sure hope the final room of the house goes faster. I guess if a guy doesn't have to rip out a bathroom before he builds a bedroom maybe it goes faster.

Directions

So here is where everything sits this morning. It will be so nice to get the porch done into the 2nd bedroom. We are use to the redneck wind sock hanging in the door way however. The back room has no insulation at all so the pink blanket puffs up depending which way the wind blows. Last summer it was like an oven in there, so we hung the blanket to keep the cold out this winter.

Bathroom lights are in

So after a time of ordering lights and not getting them we finally found these lights and they arrived yesterday. I put them right in away as it makes getting ready easier in the morning if you can see.

First Coat of Mud on the walls

Today I was able to finally get the first coat of mud on the walls in the bedroom. Kristine's birthday was Saturday so we went bike riding and took the dog for a walk. I was going to fly her to Paris for the day but we decided to put the money into the house. ;) Hopefully I will be posting a painted bedroom this weekend.

Redneck Central Vacuum Cleaner System

The Redneck central vacuum cleaner system. Call now and you to can be one of the first to own this new invention. Why mess with dust pans when you can just sweep everything into your new redneck central vacuum system. Easy to install. Just send me $500 and I will get your install sometime in the future. Call today!

Bye Bye Plumbing Wall

So the dry wall is almost complete in the bedroom. The plumbing wall is behind all that showing. The bedroom is wired up and have just a few more sheets of dry wall to hang. Then it's off to mudding the walls, ceiling and installing a 1-4 sub floor over all the floor. Then find a carpet, install it and move the bedroom in there so we will have living room. So now when guest come over we do not have to make the bed. :)
The other day my wife made this meal. Just a regular meal for her. It looked so nice I just had to photograph it.

You hate to brag

Because I didn't have anything to do with the weather but look at the next 4 days. We are going for a walk!

61° F | 43° F


67° F | 52° F


68° F | 49° F


63° F | 49° F

The Bedroom door is in

Today I built a wall and put the bedroom door in. Now all I have to do is build out the walls ceiling and drywall them.

This reminds me so much of my wife.

Click here and watch this little movie.

She is so beautiful

How to cut a hole in the wall

It is in, we are through the other side.

Remember when you were a kid

My wife has to work today and yesterday it took me a lot longer than expected to get a light hung in the studio, so I never was able to knock a hole in the wall. Well today with my bride working away I decided to draw a bit on the walls. Now I know taking a marker and drawing on the walls isn't something you are suppose to do but I wanted you to see which way things are in relation to the dining room. Plus all you kids out there while Mom & Dad are away let your creative juices flow and draw a bit on the walls. Perhaps copy what I did, or make a sign that points to your bedroom, because when you are finished you will be spending a bit of time there I imagine. :)

One of those before and after shots