Basement kitchen, concrete patio, cabinet, and doors

Sorry it's been so long. With Easter, and spring weather, and yards, and bees, I haven't had time to blog much. But we have been working on our house. This is the outside walk-out basement area.

We're going to have a cement patio poured and we want it colored.

We're thinking terra cotta.

From the bottom right of the above chart, go over one, and up one. You'll see a little pencil mark by it. That's the color we're thinking of. What do you think?


And I don't know if you remember this cabinet, but my friend and I found it a few months ago. It was sitting by the road for 75.00, but when Dave went to look at it, the guy was mowing his yard and gave it to him. It's real wood.

So Dave did some reinforcing, and took it apart,

and prepped it for paint.

Then I painted it white.

We put the original hardware back on it because the newer hardware in stores don't fit the holes in this older stuff.

We brought home a few laminate tops to see which one would look best witht he floor.

I went with the lighter colored one. There isn't much counter top left after we cut the sink out anyway.

A farm sink like I have now.


And there you go. It looks done...it isn't. There's plumbing to do.

And this next project....I cannot tell you what a rotten horrible mood I was in doing it! You see, we ORDERED olde mustard simulated milk paint and the bargain price of $19.00 a quart. We thought it might be nice to have some color on the closet doors. Never having used "milk" paint before, be it simulated or not, I started on the inside closet door. Pretty nice. I like it. Kinda looks like stain.

But, by the time I got to the second door, I noticed the paint started getting darker by the bottom of the door. And if it weren't for Dave watching me shake and stir that paint, you would have thought I never stirred it.

This is the front of the closet door, and it's the other side to the first door picture. Quite a HUGE difference. I was NOT HAPPY AT ALL. Splotchy, and crappy brown.

And as you can see, by the time I got to the fourth door, I was livid and didn't care anymore. I slopped the paint on, went home and told Dave it looks like shit! Literally! As a matter of fact, I got a phone call during painting and I did not hold back. (Sorry Anh!)

Then the next day, we went back to the house to check on the doors and look how this paint dried.

GORGEOUS!


I had to touch up from my 'bad attitude' paint job, so you can see a few wet spots, but these doors turned out exactly as we hoped they would. We love them.

Cindy

PS - Patti B...give me a call...you can come out and see the floor now.

Back in the basement!

No, we haven't quit working on the house. It just took awhile to finish up outside. That is my kitchen window. Dave decided to surprise me by putting up a couple of birdfeeders.

Just trying to give the house a homey touch. This is the back porch area.

We did get the garage moved. What a HUGE job!

Those cabinets are heavy. We moved one at a time, one day at a time. HEAVY I tell ya.

My little area in the garage. The bottom half. I'm still trying to talk him into the top half!

The siding is finished on the front porch. We're getting there.....little at a time. Still need to do the porch floors and columns.

But for now...we are back in the basement. This is O.S.B. It's heavy. We hauled in about 15 sheets of it to be put on the walls. We are only using drywall in the living area of the basement. The storage areas, pantry, and mechanical room will be O.S.B.

Which is made in the USA!

Cindy

Enclosed the basement

This is the main level of the house, not the basement. But, by putting up the o.s.b. here, on the main level, we have enclosed the basement. It was too damp down there. And that is a temporary door btw. One we had sitting around for some reason. Who knows why. I certainly don't.

So now our basement is enclosed and there are two dehumidifiers running in it.

And that's the way it's been since July 2, when we started working on the yard. "What do you mean", you ask? Well, we have not worked IN the basement living area... much. A little, but not a lot, which is frustrating. We have worked on things or issues concerning the basement and the living area. Like the yard issue. They left the area of yard around the basement too high, so we have worked in the yard trying to get it leveled out so water would not keep pooling against the house. And yes our neighbor is doing the backhoe work, but he needs help doing certain things. Which takes Dave out of the basement.

And we are working on the mud issue so we don't lose our entire yard in the driveway.
And the dampness issue, which I just discussed.
And the lighting issue. Dave wired the entire basement because there were certain rooms that didn't have power yet, therefore, no lights, and it was frustrating (have I used that word twice in this post?) not being able to see.

We did insulate the pantry, insulate the water pipes, plug a hole in the wall in the basement (don't even ask) and move a doorway that goes into the bathroom, and put up some lighting in the basement, but none of that was done in the living area of the basement. But all of this takes time...lots of time.

And then there's the color issue. blues...greens...I'm tired of green. I have green in the house I live in now. I'm into blues....but not these blues...so I'll keep trying.

In the meantime, the house progress is moving forward...

very s l o w l y.

Cindy

Lake house?

We bought this for the basement kitchen area a couple of months ago.

BUT....one day a couple of weeks ago my friend and I were going to an estate sale, and I noticed this by the curb in a front yard! WHAT? Is it trash? "TURNAROUND!" I shout out!

so she did.

Because that sink was on top of this.....

Which was on top of this!!!

You HAVE to read THIS POST. You just have to. Not even all of it...just the part about the laminate top and how I want this area to look like a lake house.

Could this be something someone doesn't want anymore? Something to furnish a 'lake house' perhaps? Naah, there was a sign on it. $75.00

But, a couple of days later I finally get Dave to stop and look at it. Because $75.00 is still a good deal. When he stopped the owner was mowing and said, "I'm sure tired of mowing around this thing." Dave said, "help me load it in my truck and you won't have to!" He gave it to us!!!!

The laminate top is a blue-green color! Seriously folks...you gotta go back and click on this post.

Take a look inside....I just need to wash it down a bit....

and paint it....or leave it as is now....or paint it.....or leave it.....either way....I'm gettin' a lake house, sort of, by a pond, so is it a pond house????

And the white one has been returned!

Cindy

Two Men, Some Beer, and a Backhoe...

As you can see, Backhoe man was right, but I will never tell him that! He has the hillside smoothed out pretty nice. We'll be planting some grass seed someday soon and some trees/bushes in the fall.


This is one of the trees we took out. The biggest one.

That tree was gonna come down sooner or later, with or without our help.

The 'road' leading from the back of the driveway to the walkout basement. It'll get covered in gravel someday soon.

You can drive up to the walk-out now, which I have to admit is very nice. You can see in this picture, in the upper left corner how long our actual driveway is. This driveway was already here when we bought the land, but it was covered in weeds. We cleared it and had gravel hauled in. Then they tore up the yard when building the house, installing the septic, well, gas line, electric, etc. The grass that was there (that we also cleared and planted when we bought the land) ended up buried under the piles of mud. And when it kept raining and raining, the mud started going into the driveway. then weeds started growing in it, and you couldn't plant grass seed again because it needed smoothed out. It's looking good now.

This is the walkout area. We are going to landscape it eventually. We still need to have that brick moving party in order to landscape this area. My cousin Troy will be home soon, I think we'll have the 'party' then! Anyway, we are going to put old brick down for the patio area which is up by the door, then plant some sort of bushes for a divider line and privacy. See where the 2x6's run parallel to the house. That's where the bushes will go. We'll have other plans in the other raised beds. Herbs, roses, red honeysuckle.....We'll put gravel in for the parking area. The frames that Dave built are to keep the gravel out of the plant area, since we won't be planting anything or building the patio until after we are moved in. We will, however, need the gravel put in before it starts raining again.

It seems everything has to be done NOW, and before this and before that, and it feels we are never going to get moved into that basement. I'm getting discouraged. I do keep reminding myself that we are moving forward.

Cindy

Apex cuteness and Dave's work

This is the cuteness I was talking about yesterday, in the apex or gables.

This is what Dave has been up to, while I've been painting.

Electrical panel for the basement - he put it in, he's an electrician.

He put up this wall in the basement room we've been working on. This is the room we will be storing all of the 'stuff' from the house we live in now, until we are ready to use it or get rid of it.

He's got the lights up in this room.

From the inside of the room looking out.

Cindy