Home Renovations – Page 27 – nicole.groudasfamily.com

Cabinet Doors and more

We had a pretty productive weekend, especially considering we also found plenty of time to relax and recoup from a busy week. Friday night Ryan started working on the cabinet doors and now has all of them made up! Here’s a picture of one set of doors, the small ones are still clamped while the glue dries and these Ryan shimmed in so you can see what they will look like.

Here’s a closeup of the door detail before the doors were finished:

The doors came out really great, the center is MDF beadboard but once it’s all painted you won’t be able to tell the difference. We ordered all the hardware for the drawers (10 drawers inside) and hinges and latches this weekend as well.

While Ryan did the cabinet doors I worked on the cabinet for the gym. I made the top out of poplar, attached it and added some trim. Then did a final sanding and primed it.

DSCN1163 — Trim detail added under the top.

Next for the cabinets, once the hardware arrives, Ryan can install the doors with the hinges (they have to be mortised). Then we need to make the drawers and install them. Once that’s all done and everything is sanded and primed, we’ll make a top, install it and start working on the bookcases that go above the cabinets. I’d like to get the bottom part finished so we can even use it before working on the bookcases.

And the gym cabinet just needs 2 coats of paint and a drawer to be made and added (probably). For now I may go without the drawer and see how usable it is without it.

DSCN1190 — And just for fun, here's a new picture of Fitzy boy!

Early weekend progress

Friday night and Saturday morning we got some great progress done on our individual projects this weekend already. I worked one the curtains for Aimee’s nursery (finished them by 11:30 on Saturday!) and Ryan made great progress on the built-ins for the tvroom.

Friday night he made the face frame for the right side cabinet in there, and Saturday morning he attached it and made the face frame for the left side. Then he played with his router bit that he hopes to use for the doors.

DSCN1139 — The built-ins with face frames!

DSCN1138 — The router detail we plan to use on the doors, we just have to pick a type of panel to use, this would be a flat panel option.

After a trip to home depot I headed down to Aimee’s house to see her and my nephew again. He didn’t really wake up much during our visit but he did move around a bit and attempt to open his eyes for split seconds here and there, then fell into a comfy sleep (probably after he filled his diaper).

I’ll post pictures of the curtains tomorrow once they are hanging in the nursery, they don’t look like much all folded up and I can’t wait to see them hanging!

Stitch nights

Wednesday and Thursday night this week I worked on the applique for my nephew’s wall hanging. Here it is Wed night, the giraffe is done (minus the embroidery face) and the elephant body is attached. Thursday night I also attached the sun.

The applique goes so much faster than I remember and now I know why I love applique, it’s just been too long!

Happy Mother’s Day

It’s been a crazy week and a half! First and foremost, my sister is now a mother! 2 months earlier than expected but she and my nephew are both doing well so Happy First Mother’s Day to my sister!

Last weekend while my sister was in the hospital my family all went down to their house to help out by finishing the nursery and of course offering support in any way we could. The nursery really came out great and by the time my dad headed home we had even put in the new rug and moved in the furniture.

2011-05-05_07-31-43_860 — The nursery 'finished' (just waiting for mommy and her baby!)

2011-05-05_07-31-54_934 — The dresser and changing table

This weekend Ryan and I found ourselves unexpectedly home so we spent some time working on the house (what else).

Saturday we got chores done and then made the face frame for the cabinet that goes in the gym and got that attached, as well as some feet.

DSCN1126 — Gym cabinet with face frame added

Ryan also finished the base for the TV room built-ins. Which made it easy to jump into continuing work on the built-ins today. While I sanded the gym cabinet, Ryan got the pieces for the boxes to the built-ins all cut and ready to go. Then we put the boxes together. We can finally get an idea for how they will look!

DSCN1124 — The right side cabinet box in place

Next on that project list is to make the face frames.

One other little project we did today was give Fitz a bath (well a hose shower).

Deck stained

I was in charge of drop off for doggy daycare today, which means I couldn’t leave too early (we drop him off around 8:15). So i had some time to kill this morning and with nice weather forcasted for today and tomorrow I decided to get the deck stained! Wasn’t hard since it was already sanded, just a vacuum, then stain it.

Fitz is at daycare for the day, hopefully getting tired out and a bit more house trained (it’s hard to house train a dog that doesn’t go in our house but does in other people’s houses) 🙂 This is the first week that Fitz had his new schedule, tues and wed he had the dog walker come over to play for an hour and thurs he goes to daycare. Fridays i work from home so he should be good, i can take him out at lunch time to play and every other week his trainer will come over.

Family weekend coming up! I can’t wait to see everyone and have Jovi meet Fitz finally. Going to be interesting 🙂

Vacation Wrap Up

And vacation is over 🙁 However we did end the vacation with a pretty productive weekend which is always good!

Saturday I got the rest of the gym and bathroom touchups painted so they are both done except for doors. Ryan continued to lay decking and got all the way to the post on the other side of the door! Even in the cold! Sarah came up for a stitch and to meet Fitz. He slept while we stitched and chatted 🙂

Around dinner time Ryan called it quits on the deck and after dinner I put together the wall hanging for my sister’s nursery (I have to applique animals still but the top is pieced now!). So very productive.

2011-04-16_frontporch — Decking across the front door now!

Sunday was a beautiful day (very warm), so we did a nice long walk and since it was my birthday we worked on the cabinet/entertainment center I want to build for the gym! We got the box cut and put together! This picture of it is actually upside down because the top will be like a counter made of poplar. We still have to make the front face (stiles/rails) for it and then a drawer and feet. Finally it will be painted. It will hold the receiver, dvd player and have a drawer.

Cabinet for the gym entertainment pieces

After a break we decided to sand the decking and get it ready to stain, of course after sanding it, it started to rain so we covered it with a tarp again until better weather 🙂 We ended our vacation with some P&P on dvd, it was a great birthday!

April Vacation catch up

The week has just flown by! But not without some house progress to show however. Thursday was a day of errands, Ryan had his leadership thing in the morning so I ran errands. At lunch time we went over and picked up more decking now that it was in. Then we took Fitz to the vet (while he seems house broken at our house, he certainly still marks at other places – he peed twice at the vet) 🙂

Then we packed up and headed down to uncle mark’s for a sleepover (with Fitz). He got to meet Buddy and we kept a very close eye on him so he wouldn’t pee in the house (he did lift his leg once the rascal). He was very good however and even the car ride back didn’t seem too scary for him.

Home friday, Ryan got to work laying the new decking!

DSCN1092 — Halfway across the front door.

While he worked on that, I puttered around the house, doing some small drywall patches in the bathroom and gym so those could be really finished. And I finished stripping the first side of the gym door, vacuumed, did laundry etc. At 1pm the trainer came over to discuss our contract and to do some training.

For the first two weeks we are working on sit, stay, come as well as how to walk on a leash properly and some relationship building (humans lead the way out of (and into) the house, he sits for food and basically anything and he only has 15 minutes to eat in the morning and night or else he doesn’t get his food. Also eye contact, we need to build his confidence by making him look at us more. We were working on most of these things already so we have seen some progress and hopefully in 2 weeks we’ll be ready for some more advanced training (sitting while there are distractions around etc), staying for longer, laying down.

The training session was very good and now I know how we should be walking him and I’m more comfortable with our long walks. Speaking of walks, the spoiled boy gets 2 long walks a day during vacation. During the week he’ll have the trainer come by twice a week to walk him as well and one day a week we’ll try out doggie day care. Spoiled! We’ll see how this goes throughout the 12 weeks of training and then re-evaluate his needs.

Anyway, today Ryan is back to the decking, I’m painting touchups and the trim around the gym door (wanted to wait until the treadmill was in). We have company coming today, Sarah is coming up and Uncle Pete is going to stop by with the Georgia to meet Fitz and see the progress. Too bad it’s cold out today 🙁 Well I’m going to run down to the corner store quick before Sarah comes, then finish my painting. I plan to get some stitching time today for sure!

Rainy Day (day 5)

Thank goodness Ryan was feeling better today! And with it being a rainy day we decided to take today as our day off. We slept in (well Fitz gets me up at 6 for a walk and breakfast but he then let us sleep in once he got that). Then we went to Millstores to look for a small entertainment center for the gym. We actually couldn’t find anything I really liked but got the idea to try building something. Should be fun.

After a nice lunch out we came home and set up the gym! There are still some touchups I want to do in the gym and the trim needs a coat of paint around the door (I wanted to wait until we got the treadmill in, just in case we dinged it up). So the gym isn’t completely done but it looks done!

We didn’t do much else today but relax (Fitz got another nice long walk the spoiled dog) 🙂

Here are some pictures of the gym all set up. I also designed out what i want for a small entertainment center and I ordered the wall mount for the tv so I’m looking forward to getting that part in there as well.

DSCN1089 — Weights and bench set up - those small weights on the sides are my new bday gift 🙂

I really like the gym mats we got, they are hard to keep looking clean since they collect dirt but they are very sturdy and will really protect our new floor! The small entertainment center I plan to build will sit in front of the treadmill.

Tomorrow the weather should improve and hopefully we can pick up more decking in the afternoon. Ryan has a leadership class in the morning and I have a dr. appt. Then in the afternoon Fitz has his Vet appt and then we’re going down to dinner with family. Fitz gets to meet Buddy tomorrow night!

Maybe Friday we can put some of the decking down!

Happy Birthday Ryan (day 4)

Poor Ryan woke up coming down with a cold on his birthday 🙁 We still got up early and did some work (finished leveling the porch) while Maribeth and I worked on making a new compost bin that i’ve had planned since last summer. We got the bin part done, just need to make a top for it now.

The porch is all level, we bought some decking but they didn’t have enough when we were at the lumber yard so we’ll have to go back later this week to see if their shipment comes in.

After Mark and Maribeth left, Ryan and I took a little break to watch a movie (ryan’s head was really pounding), so we watched Date Night which was okay.

Fitz was pretty stinky (really he needs his teeth brushed) but we’ve been meaning to give him a bath since we got him so I took him out and washed him (he wasn’t loving it but did okay). Here he is all fluffy and clean (smells like oatmeal!)

Here are some pictures of the porch all leveled out!

DSCN1084 — The side of the porch leveled

DSCN1087 — Look how level that porch is!

I can’t believe the rain has held off this long, we really have had some wonderful weather to start off our vacation. I think it’s going to be raining tomorrow, if ryan is feeling better maybe we’ll do some indoor projects or just relax for the day.

Thursday Fitz goes to the Vet and Friday he has a trainer. So tomorrow is our last completely free day!

April Vacation Day 2 and 3

Sunday was Family day! Mark and Maribeth got here early (I was still out at home depot and the grocery store). And when I got home, work on the porch had already started! The weather was great, so Mark and Ryan started working on getting the porch more leveled out and supporting it all the way across the front.

I got the dog runner set up and as i was doing that and Maribeth was raking, Becca and the girls showed up! The rest of the day centered around the girls! We played with the dog, we ate some lunch, then we went to the Carnival! There was a one week Carnival at Hollman Stadium, no entrance fee, just tickets to purchase and rides to ride. Emily rode every ride she was big enough for and she was worn out after such a long day!

We ended the evening by going out to dinner, then watching some Mary Poppins before bedtime (sleepover!) Morning brought cinnamon buns and then a walk to the park before the girls headed home. The guys got back to work on the porch.

The rest of Monday has been Ryan and Mark continuing to work on the porch (see tons of pictures below) and I finished all the outlets in the gym. The gym is basically done, although I found a few spots I want to touch up now 🙂

And now for the pictures…

And the porch project, no idea what the order is but I have plenty of pictures 🙂

DSCN1067 — Removing the carpenter ant eaten wood

DSCN1075 — And the other side is straight!

Maribeth and I got the backyard and side yard all raked up and after all that work, I ended my day by cooking a late lunch and then baking an apple pie for Maribeth’s bday.

I didn’t have my regular crust mix so I tried out a new recipe for the crust, the first half tasted a bit sweet so I cut back on the sugar for the second half. Hopefully it’s a nice flaky crust.

And now I’m finally putting my feet up for the day and the guys are still hammering out on the front porch 🙂