Category: Home Renovations

Sunday – painting

Yesterday while Ryan did some work I got out in the sweltering weather with the pups.  They had free reign on the front porch (Fitz stayed inside mostly but Buddy loved watching people walk by).  While they did their thing, I painted!  I got the second coat of green on after I caulked the frieze board.  Once the green was dry I got the first coat of yellow on the trim (finished it up just as it was getting dark).  It takes  a while to cut in the yellow around the siding but we love the effect so it’s worth it.

Front - almost done!
Just to get an idea what the panels will look like with the green, what's white will be yellow.

Today Fitz is at daycare and Buddy came to work with me again.  Tomorrow they’ll both be home all day (probably a short day since Buddy can’t hold ‘it’ for 10 hours likes Fitz can).  I’m hoping Fitz will be tired out from daycare (hah) and Buddy will be more comfortable alone now that he has been for short periods (plus I’ll put up the camera so I can watch them).

Demolition

I took the day off today, my friend Sarah came up and we spent the day chatting and stitching.  While I was doing that however Ryan was hard at work around the house.  He continued to remove the ceiling of the porch and started putting in some supports for a hammock 🙂

Front of the porch, the ceiling is all gone.
Just a little bit of ceiling left and some new supports.

I’m looking forward to painting tomorrow but for now – back to stitching!

Mid-Summer Slump

We could not motivate ourselves to do much this weekend unfortunately. Saturday morning was good, Ryan removed some more of the porch ceiling then we went to the lumber yard to get the rest of the wood for the window panels. After that we spent most of the day down at Kimball’s for my work summer outing which was a lot of fun.
Back home Saturday night all we did was a long walk and watch some more Castle.
Sunday wasn’t much better, no motivation at all. We did put up the frieze board (planed the wood first) and I got it primed at least. So the front is ‘done’ and ready to be fully painted. I still want to caulk the frieze board though before I do the second coat of paint.

Frieze board up

Today it’s just a short day at work and then down to my sisters to hang out with her and my nephew! I can’t wait! Then back to regularly scheduled programming.

4th of July weekend

We had a wonderful long weekend with family. We drove out to Lake Pleasant Friday, getting there in time for a quick boat ride and a late dinner. Saturday the rest of Ryan’s family showed up and we spent the day on the boat, it was very relaxing. Sunday it rained on and off all day so we mostly stayed inside and Monday we drove home. It was a great weekend and since I took Tuesday off to get stuff done around the house it felt productive too.

Tuesday I got the cars vacuumed, the laundry finished up, the dog cleaned up and the front of the house painted!

First coat on!

I also got to enjoy the gardens quite a bit…

 

Red roses in bloom!

 

 

Raspberries and Lilies!

 

 

Daisies!

I have two different clumps of daisies that sprang up from last year, they  are blooming now, the ones I bought this year were earlier bloomers and are already gone but these yellow ones are quite a treat too!

 

Siding and Painting!

Another busy weekend working on the house.  Saturday we got up nice and early and started working on the siding.  First up we had to make the window/door caps.  Each piece had to be made and installed then primed.  By lunch we had the windowcaps done.

Window cap on!
Door cap!
Cap on the cupola started.

After a break for lunch we got to work on the siding, it started with some really tough pieces that had to be cut around the window caps, luckily Ryan is really good at that.  We got the siding installed all the way up.  All that’s left for the front section is the frieze board which we don’t have the wood for yet (and the lumber yard was closed).  So I ended the night by caulking the front section.

Caulked and sanded!

This afternoon I got set up on the porch and got the siding sanded and ready to be primed.  There was a little bit left that had to be stripped as well but once that was all done I got the whole front primed!

Primed!

Next week we’re away so it will be like this for a little while but it’s SO much better than it was all winter!  I also started working on stripping the left side of the house so I can refinish that eventually.  I think with a few weekends in July we’ll have the front all buttoned up!

Awesome Weekend

What a great weekend.  Friday night Ryan had plans so I spent the evening quilting and finished up the baby quilts for my nephew!  Perfect timing since we went down to see him on Saturday.

We spent the day at my sister’s house feeding, burping, changing and holding little jason!  Couldn’t have been better, he’s getting so much bigger and he stayed awake for most of the day so we took TONS of pictures.

Today we drove home – with Fitz (he spent the week at my parent’s since I was in CA) – and took him for a nice long walk while Ryan mowed the lawn.  Then we worked on windows panels for a few hours and made some good progress.

Window panel progress
Panels close up

We’ve got 2 of 5 sides done (below the window caps).  Next weekend we’ll switch to finishing the window caps so we can finish the siding on the front part.  They go slow but faster than when we started this project last year.

A little siding, a little sewing

Busy weekend with work (traveling monday) and my cousin’s graduation all day sunday.  But we did manage to do some more siding on the front, we went as high as we could without putting the caps on the windows/door. (which we have to make still.

Siding progress!

Then I spent the evening saturday finishing up my nephew’s quilt!  One of his quilts anyway, the other I got all the pieces for applique ready and i can bring it to CA for with me 🙂

Crib quilt finished!

Off to the graduation – and little Fitzy is going to his grandparent’s house for the week – quite an adventure!

 

Siding – on the front

What a great weekend, we made a lot of progress on the siding this weekend.  It started friday night, we got to work on the window panels on the cupola, the goal was to get the left side window done so we had something to butt the siding up to on the front.

We did a bit more than we ‘had’ to, pretty much sticking to window panels and prep work friday night and saturday.  Sunday we then proceeded to install the siding on the front, and a block for the mailbox we plan to build.  We got about halfway up and we’re very excited by the progress!

Window panels on the left of the cupola
A few boards we continued, including the start of the window cap around the cupola
On the back side we cleaned up the existing board and primed it, we didn't finish all the way around yet though.
Finishing up the removal of the old siding so we could put up tar paper in prep for siding.
Started the cap on the front door
Ryan made a new base piece by planing down a piece of 5/4 and then putting an angle on it, then I primed it.
We couldn't resist putting one of the window panel pieces in, just looks better that way.
A close up of the siding on the right, with the new backplate we put in for a mailbox
The siding - halway done on the front!

That was our weekend, not bad for sleeping in late each day.  Hopefully the weather is good next weekend and we can continue the siding on saturday!

Memorial Day weekend

It’s been a crazy couple days but finally I can post with some pictures from this weekend.  Friday night Ryan sanded and caulked the exterior window panels around the diningroom windows that have been half finished since last fall.  Once the caulk was dry I primed them so they are more protected.  At some point we need to actually finish them still …

Window panels primed.

Saturday we went down to my sister’s house to visit with family for the weekend.  I got to see my little nephew again – he’s still in the NICU but he’s growing steadily!  Sunday we had a BBQ with all the family coming down and it was very relaxing.  We had a great time.

Monday we spent the day around the house, ryan’s back was bothering him so he relaxed but I worked in the gardens.  I finally got them cleaned up, planted my veggies I started from seed 6 weeks ago and planted a few new plants I got before mulching.  Every year the plants look more robust, the ones my mom gave me 2 years ago are really full now.

Annual under the front tree (impatiens and coleus)
Mint (from mom) and baloon flower along the driveway, hoping the mint will spread to fill this area in the future.
Veg garden from last year still has the original oregano, I planted sweet basil (on the right) and the rest is carrots this year.
The rest of the veggies got planted in front of the roses this year, squash, cucumber, beans and pees.
The lilies were getting overwhelmed by the raspberries so I moved them over to the side and the blueberry pushes were planted in front of them.
Perrenial garden is really doign great, new additions include daisies on the right and some smaller colored daisy like plant to the left of them.
The mountain bluet, chives and dark geranium are all flowering beautifully! (All from mom 2 years ago)

We’re home this coming weekend, hoping to work on the house, unfortunately Ryan’s back is still bothering him so he’s got to take it easy.  I hope to get some stuff done myself though even if he’s not up for it.  I’m feeling overwhelmed by the passing spring, need to get more of the summer projects started already 🙂