Porches, Closets, Clothes and shoes....oh my!

 We are finally working on the house again.  Or I should say, Dave is.  He is trying to get the porches enclosed and finished.

 If he can get them done, four in all, then they will not be open to the outside,

 and critters and birds will not be able to get into our house upstairs.  I tried explaining last winter why it is so cold in the rest of the house and why we can't really use it, but unless you see it, it's hard to understand.

 

This is part of the reason.  These pictures are about as good as it gets to show you.  It is open to the outside, not to mention no walls or insulation.  Anyway, here's what happened.  I pulled up by the garage one day and I heard a loud-kind of screaming-coming from the soffitts.  Then it got quiet and I heard running around.  It was a family of raccoons.  And they were tearing things up, and pooping.  So Dave got started closing the porches.  And we were messing with raccoons right up to our vacation.

I will say it now people, building a house is not for the weak!

We've had to lift each other up with positive comments more than once.

 This is what it looks like now, under the back porch.

 

He still has some trim work and details to finish.  Then we will wash everything down and paint the columns.

 This guy can't figure out what happened to his wood hole (home) he bored through!  It's wrapped with aluminum now.  I wish we were further along with this house, but it is always something and this trim work takes a long time to do.

And yesterday was one of those days I needed lifted up.  I was ready to move back to our old house.  

I went to put on a pair of shoes I haven't worn in awhile. Since last year actually.  I took them out of the closet and noticed they were really dusty.  I started cleaning them off, and they felt damp.  They had green, musty, mold on them.   I pulled out my boots, mold.  All of my shoes, mold.  I felt the floor in the closet, Wet!  So I immediately started dragging all of the shoes and boots out of the closet and put them on the patio in the sun.  

I called Dave at work and told him there was water on the floor in the closet.  We have a double rack in the closet and we both have all of our clothes in it.  So, I pulled out all of my clothes.  Thinking the problem was just on my end and the water was leaking in the wall somehow.  But when Dave got home he did some more investigating and found his side was wet too. 

 

 So he emptied the rest of the clothes and we think the problem is condensation.

Now, you may or may not remember THESE CLOSET DOORS. 

They do not have ventilation.  We are living in a basement.  It's damp.  Basements are damp.  And this did not happen until just recently when I started opening the windows for summer.   We should have put louvered doors in for the closet doors for ventilation and not stuffed the closet so full (embarrassing!)  Apparently when our room starts warming up, and the warm air hits the cold floor, condensation builds up.  And where there is no ventilation, condensation builds.

 So I spent yesterday cleaning shoes and boots.  And now I'm going to have to go through all of my clothes, wash a bunch of them, and put them somewhere else.  I'm thinking the second hand store is a good place for most of them!

Cindy Bee

Doors, lighting and duct work

Ok, so I said we'd talk lights and doors....and even though I'm not really in the mood to talk lights and doors, I'm not really in the mood to talk duct work either!  

This is what you have to think about every time you put a light switch up....

 Which way is the door going to open.  

When you open the door, will it swing in or out.  

If it swings in to the room, will there be anything in the way such as a toilet, or a table or whatev...that the door might bump into.

Then after you figure out the door swing, the light switch will generally go on the side where the door opens, as long as there isn't anything in the way.  If there is, you start over with...which way is the door going to open!

Then, what lights do you want to turn on with this switch?

Do you want them to turn on and off on both doors, if there are two entrances in the room.

If so, what way will the other door swing?

You get the idea.

You just have to THINK about every little detail, including door swings and light switches.

Which makes me understand why housing additions pick about three styles of homes, and build them all the same!

Some other stuff...

When you hire an architect, he generally will put a "chase" in a room where all of the duct work and pvc tubing and such will go.

Our chase "room" isn't big enough.

See there...no more room.

Dave labels everything, which I love.

So, we are going to put the freezer (this is the mudroom by the way) where the coat closet was supposed to be.  The ladder is in the closet at the mo.

 

The closet is now going to go to the right, against that wall, so..more re-doing.  It will hide the chase that way. 

 

Dave also had to lower the ceiling in the master bathroom in order to have room for duct work.

This is the ceiling in the master bathroom.

And this would be me....squeezed in the closet, trying to wrap and seal duct work.  I got to the very last piece and cut my finger.  VERY VERY VERY LAST PIECE!

While Dave was working on duct work he decided I need a bit of heat in the closet.

Back to the bathroom.....Dave did get a linen closet installed. 

We are very anxious to move upstairs.

That's pretty much a wrap.....I've been talking and meeting with people about kitchen stuff.  I'll share with you next time. TOO many choices!  Get ready to share ideas, suggestions, etc. about your favorite kitchen haves and have nots.

Cindy

Changing plans, moving doors, finishing rooms, working hard!

 We have been working on the house so much, and cleaning out rooms, and preparing for Easter that I haven't had time to put pictures up of what we've been doing.  I don't know what my assistants have been doing, but they have not been helpful. Oh wait....I don't have any assistants!

Let me warn you this is probably the longest house post ever.  

First let's talk about when I returned home from FLorida....and I did not get pics...darn it!

 Dave surprised me by closing off the den with drywall and osb, so I would have an idea of what it's going to look like.  But then I've been cleaning out another area and moving furniture and it went in the den and I forgot to get pics before I filled it up.  (sigh)

So here are after pics...

 We call it the den...or the winter room.  The cozy room where the fireplace will be and it's right in front of our bedroom. 

 The den has a door that leads outside onto a porch.  So when I can't sleep at night in the winter, I can come in here and turn on the fireplace and read.  If it's summertime, I'll sit on the porch!

~NEXT~

 The reason the den is full of boxes

 and the closet is full of tubs,

 Is because I have taken all of this stuff that was moved from the other house, and dumped into this room last year, and took it out of cardboard boxes and put it in tubs and moved it out of the way, so we can work in this room.

 BadaBing!

BadaBoom!

Cleaned out - I wish it were that easy!

 Not only is it now cleaned out, but

 

it is completely wired and ready for insulation and then drywall!

 

~NEXT~

OK, let me try to 'splain.  See this door to the left (above)....and see that new looking wood (above)  Well, before Dave put that new wood up, the door would open and hang over the opening of the entry in to the living room.  You can kind of get an idea with the picture below.  It's really something I think an architect should have found.  And if the house were finished by someone else, it would have been one of those things that "we would do different next time".  As it is...we can change these things now. 

So we made the entry way to the living area smaller by a foot, by adding more wall (frame)

and now when the door opens it won't hang over the wall.  I know it's hard to envision without a complete wall there, but in house building you have to visualize alot, of what it will look like when it's finished!

~NEXT!~

(I Know - I told you we've been working hard!)

This is the entry into the kitchen...what?  Doesn't everyone store their bikes in the kitchen?

The original plan was for french doors.  But here's the other thing you have to do when you build your own home.  You have to think...is it convenient?  If I had french doors in the kitchen they would ALWAYS be open. I got the idea for the french doors in the movie It's Complicated.  She had french doors in her kitchen. It's a movie...it's not real life. So I changed it to a dutch door.  French...Dutch...what's the difference?  Kidding.  Big difference.  Dutch door allows the top half to be open and the bottom half to be closed to keep the dog out!

 

So when we made the entryway to the living room smaller (left side of below pic) and the entry way to the kitchen smaller (below pick right side) it provided a nook that would probably have been used for nothing.

 So, we came up with the idea to put a coat closet there.  We already have a coat closet in the foyer to the right of the ladder, but you can never have enough storage.  We can use the 'old' coat closet for blankets, sweeper, etc.

 

and the new coat closet for coats!

 

Closet finished!

~NEXT~

 and I think last....

if you look between the ladder and the door way, on the bottom you will see a new piece of wood.  That is the laundry room and that new piece of wood is where the entry to the laundry room used to be.

 The laundry room is a 'pass-through' room, and has a doorway in the center on the other side.  So, stay with me here....if you have a door way on one side against the left wall, and a doorway on the other side in the center, you have one wall (on the right) where you can put the washer and dryer, and the left side is basically wasted space.  Because when you open the door on the left side

and IF you had a washer and dryer or slop sink there, then you would walk into it.

 

 So Dave moved the doorway in the center so that it matches the other doorway, that way we can use both sides of the wall for appliances and cabinets and such.  Get it?

Jeesh...What do I need to do, draw you a picture?


Now do you get it.  See the bottom picture...You open the door, walk in and "OOOF" walk right into the washing machine.  (and actually the door would open out, not in, but you would still walk right into the washing machine - I'm not drawing another picture!) The top drawing..you open the door, and walk right on through to the master bathroom which leads to the master bedroom, so you can put your clean clothes away....once you get all those tubs out of the closet....sigh....
OK so I think that is it.  Sorry for the long post.  We've had a lot going on besides working on the house.
We moved his Mother again, from one assisted living facility to another.
Dave hurt his foot a few months ago, and after three Dr.'s,  one of them finally did an MRI.  We found out he tore his achille's tendon and has to have surgery.
We had to clean up the mess from the tornado last fall, which I failed to get picture of....I suppose I could get an after pic because I know I have before pics.  And we worked hard to get it cleaned up before having everyone over for Easter!
And people wonder what I do all day.....
Dave told me he plans on being upstairs by next Easter!  It's very exciting seeing this part of the house come together.  It's a lot of thinking ahead and a lot of work, but we're getting there!

Cindy Bee

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.