Big House on the Prairie

Busy Day

2009-09-12T18:07:00.000-07:00

We spent the day getting lots of odds and ends done today.

We had put the new vinyl flooring in two weeks ago and I shellac-ed the shoe moulding so it would be ready to go in shortly after. But as usual we left the shoe moulding sit until today. I finally got tired of looking at the pile of wood sitting in the dining room so I started measuring. It was a tricky room since it has an octagon bump-out and built ins I had to go around. But I did get it all done.

Unfortunately the amber shellac didn't match the color exactly. The older trim has been there for 100 years and has aged to a more reddish brown. The new amber shellac is more golden. I am hoping after a few years the dirt and mopping will help the color darken a bit.

I also FINALLY grouted the countertops. We choose an epoxy based grout so it won't stain on the countertops. They turned out very nicely.

And I shellac-ed all the windows, trim, and the hallway floor. They look amazing! I need to get some more shellac as they only have it in quart size (although they did have the clear shellac in gallons) and I ran out. I am going to finish the floors upstairs when I do.

Our house is getting so close to done, done, DONE!

Making It All Worth It

2009-07-29T14:15:00.000-07:00

We had an official appraisal done on our house.

I was worried. Nervous. Anxious.

The two houses in our very small town that have recently sold were both right around 30,000. But neither had been updated at all. So I hoped we would get at least 30,000.

We bought our house for 14,900 in 2002. Houses here are dirt cheap. Or were.

The appraisal came back yesterday at 68,000!

I guess all of our hard work is worth more than living in a nice house.

We aren't moving or selling. We just wanted to refinance for a lower rate. We accomplished that. Our interest rate will be cut in half.

Now we can move onto more home improvement!

Kitchen Complete

2009-07-16T13:57:00.000-07:00

Nothing like pressure to get you moving right? Especially when that pressure is coming from the bank. :D

We refinanced our home loan which meant an apprasier had to come through. So we had very limited time to get the kitchen done. We didn't get the new lighting in yet and we have a few "behind the scenes" things we want to do but overall the kitchen is done.

Here are the (almost) final pictures.

Remember the before???? Ye gads we had an ugly kitchen!

Here is the new improved kitchen! (We still want to put crown moulding around the entire kitchen to match the tops of the cabinets. Just one more thing to add to the to-do list.)

I love the granite countertops!

The new island. So much counter space!

This is one of those little things we need to finish. The beadboard will cover the end of this cabinet. Just need to get it cut and put on.

Nice bling eh? ;)

Faux Tin Ceiling

2009-06-10T13:55:00.000-07:00

We looked into putting a tin ceiling in our entryway. The prices were ummmmm, preposterous.

So we looked into the plastic panels that are a faux tin ceiling. For our little 6ft by 11ft entryway it was almost 800.00. Not happening.

And then we came across this wonderful product called textured wallpaper. It was $11.00 a roll. So for 2 rolls we spent 22.00.

Here is a few pictures of us putting it up last night.

All that is left is the faux paint treatment, complete with metallic touches.

Past Meets Present

2009-05-30T19:12:00.000-07:00

Today the most wonderful thing happened. We were working on the house and we noticed a car driving by realllllly slowly. Now this is not an unusual thing in our little bitty town so we didn't take much notice until the dog started barking.

I walked outside and a man was walking over to the camper where Becca was.

He said he had lived here a long time ago and wanted to take some pictures of the house.

It turns out he is a Nannestad. He is family to the original family to our house! I was so excited as I never thought anyone would come back to look at our house.

We talked outside for a few minutes and then (despite our messy house) we took him inside for a tour.

We learned that his family were the ones that put the bathroom in the entry way in the early 70's because they moved his Great Uncle into the house and he couldn't go up the stairs. We also learned that at one time our house had been a split level with two separate families living in it. The upstairs bedroom where we wondered why the load-bearing wall had been removed had been a living room and kitchen at one time. We also learned that where our little shed currently sits was where the outhouse once was. Which, we decided, is why the shed is sinking down in the southwest corner. It may also be the reason the snakes like that corner. We learned about how the town changed when the railroad came through and how the church was moved.

We talked a bit about his family and the other members of town as well.

One great thing for us was when we told him about the grave marker we had found up in the attic not too long ago. He said it was for his brother John Paul Nannestad. We asked him if he wanted it as we didn't feel right keeping it but weren't sure what else to do with it. He agreed and took it with him. I am glad someone in the family got it.

We exchanged information and he was so gracious as to offer his help in any future questions about our house. I am so excited to share what we have done as well as find out what our house was like in the past.

What a wonderful day!

Progress

2009-05-04T07:04:00.000-07:00

The kitchen is coming along, although much slower than we had hoped. We have been busy doing the unseen, but necessary, things like plumbing and electrical.

Upper cabinets, painted and doors back on.
The sink area getting closer. We remade the cabinet into a sink cabinet so the 2 drawers are no longer drawers and I need to add the wood trim and paint. We also need to put in the cement board and granite tile on this side. Please ignore the pile of dirty dishes on the stove. I have nowhere else to put them. :)

The west-facing side of the new island. My husband built that fancy shelving unit himself. It looks so nice. Notice the granite tile is dry-laid on this counter. Nothing is stuck down yet though.

The south facing side of the same island. I need to put the wood on these drawers too and paint.

I bought the wall paint too this weekend so hopefully we will be ready for that this weekend. I don't want to paint until my husband is done in there as he has a tendency to "undo" all my hard work. :)

Making a Mess in the Kitchen

2009-04-14T13:11:00.000-07:00

We decided to go ahead and start on the kitchen makeover. We found some awesome granite tiles we wanted to use for the counter tops and it sort of spurred on the transformation. Here are some before shots of the kitchen: Notice the mismatched counters, lack of a sink cabinet, and no "finishing touches".

The upper cabinets

The ugly 70's style cabinets.

Doors and hardware coming off.

Instead of buying all new cabinets we are using the ones that were given to us by a friend. They are very 70's-ish and definitely need a facelift but are in pretty good shape.

So we decided to add a bit of trim and paint. Primed and painting.
1st coat of paint. They are starting to look like brand new doors!

Right now I am on the third coat of paint. I hope to get to the tile on the counter tops this weekend. More pictures to come!

Bitten

2009-03-05T11:04:00.000-08:00

That remodeling bug is trying really hard to get up my pantleg and bite. I am resisting but I think I finally am losing.

We have decided to put the attic on the back burner (not that we won't work on it, it just won't be the top priority) and finish all the details we have been leaving from previous projects.

So here is our to-do list for this spring:

Tile the kitchen and dining room
Finish the entryway ceiling with faux tin ceiling panels
Finish entryway trim pieces
Install an instant hot water heater in the downstairs bathroom
Recarpet in the livingroom
Hardwood floors in downstairs bedroom
Foamboard for the attic
Finish bathroom trim

It will feel so good to wrap all of these projectst that have just been waiting. And things will look so much more "polished" in here.

Of course before and after pictures will be coming.

Ugh!

2008-10-15T09:36:00.000-07:00

At various points during a home improvement project, the excitement wanes. Suddenly the idea of gutting a room putting it all back together again gets lost in the minute details. Like the rafters need more framing, the light switches and outlets need to be rewired, and ummm we are out of two by fours AGAIN.

That is where we are with our home improvement. We have lost enthusiasm for the whole she-bang.

But that doesn't mean we have given up ship. Nope. We are still plugging along albeit very very slowly.

We are about 3/4 of the way through insulating the attic. But we still have a lot to do.

The bathroom that we are redoing for the 2nd time is pretty much done. We got the tile in and the shower is back up and running. But the two sections of drywall we had to replace are still only in the beginning of the mudded stages. And are likely to stay that way for several more months.

Our priority right now is to finish the attic insulation so that our expensive heat stays in the house as winter is quickly approaching.

So guess what we will be doing this weekend?
.
.
.
.
.
.
Did you guess the attic?

Nope! You would be wrong. We have a birthday party with 6 nine year olds coming to sleepover. :) At least until Saturday afternoon. Then we will be working on the attic. I hope.

Beautiful Bathroom

2008-08-25T11:10:00.001-07:00

Here are the pictures of the projects we worked on this weekend.

Two flat sheets I had stored in the closet. We don't use flat sheets on our beds. Why? Because the next day after putting them on I find them bunched up on the floor in the kid's rooms. Then they just become more laundry. So in this case they became curtains.

The finished product! I cut the decorative part of the tan sheet off and attached it to the hunter green sheet for a pretty accent. Then we added the tie tops.

The tie tops up close!

Where two sheets become one.

What the new curtains are designed to cover.
(And yes the washer and dryer are both full. They are always both full.)

Busy Bees

2008-08-11T09:50:00.000-07:00

We were busy busy bees this weekend. Here is what we accomplished this weekend.

Fixing screens.

We did somewhere in the neighborhood of 7 or 8 windows. The cats have this habit of sitting in our windows and eventually pushing out the screen. So this time we bought aluminum screen in the hopes that it will stay put better than the fiberglass ones.

The shower as you saw it last week.

(Click all the pictures to see them bigger)

The shower in the middle of tiling.

The shower as we left it at midnight last night.
We just have a few tiles and the border tiles to put up and it will be ready for grout. Wooooo!

In addition to those two projects we also got our hiney's up in the attic and got three more sections insulated in the attic. We only have the dormers and the east wall left and it will be fully insulated.

I cannot tell you how excited I am to finally see projects getting done again. We still have so much we want to do but at least these are finally getting going again.

Oops

2008-07-24T10:32:00.001-07:00

When Billy came home from work, the small hole I accidentally made suddenly became a new home improvement project. (Even though we just completed this bathroom in 2006, to see the original photos follow this link, Big House On The Prairie.)

We knew the shower was having leaking problems almost right after we installed it. And we probably could have saved the wall and caulked it properly to prevent what happened but we didn't. Not because we were lazy (okay so that was a part of why) but mostly because we were unhappy with the wall panels and how they looked and functioned once we got them installed. So we left the shower and slowly the corners next to the base got wet and mushy. Last month it started to grow mold on the wall (which is why it was so easy for me to push through it).

So when Billy came home and inspected the damage we decided we would put in the ceramic tile like we wanted to do in the first place. So out came the drywall and the moldy insulation. Now we are letting the wall dry out for a couple of days and then we will be putting in cement backer board and tile to match the tile on the floor.

Hopefully I will have my shower back in a week or so.

Bang Bang!

2008-07-19T13:31:00.001-07:00

Could it be... Is that the sound of hammering I hear... coming from above...?

IT IS!

Work on the attic has finally re-started after an 8 month hiatus!

Hallelujah!

Denial

2007-12-28T09:07:00.000-08:00

As much as I have been neglecting this blog is as much as we have been neglecting our house. There are so many projects that need to be finished but we just have no desire to do it.

The attic is still no farther than it was two months ago. We sealed it off from the rest of the house, if you can count that as work. ;)

Hopefully now that Christmas is over the remodeling bug will bite us again and we can finish up that attic soon.

There are so many other little projects that we need to work on as well. I think it is time to *gulp* make a to-do list.

Attic Remodel

2007-10-12T05:42:00.000-07:00

The attic is coming along slowly but surely. Last weekend we got some of the new plywood down for the floor and two walls up. They were a bit tricky since our attic is not exactly straight, plumb, or square. But Billy got them in and I insulated them both. Now we need to work on the bathroom walls (yes we decided we need a bathroom up there). Then we can start with the insulation. The entire attic is currently uninsulated (well it has been since we bought the house 5 years ago) but now that it is open and exposed to the rest of the house it is making it hard to keep the house warm.

We are hoping to get to the insulation this weekend. Hoping because we have 30 other things going on this month too that seem to get in the way.

Dancing

2007-09-28T12:10:00.001-07:00

My new roof is done. And it is so pretty and flat that I want to get up there and walk on it and dance on the smooth-ness.

But it is soooooo far up there. And my legs get all wobbly when I am just standing on the fourth rung of the ladder.

So I will stand on the ground and admire it from afar.

What a beautiful roof.

Roof Finished

2007-09-26T19:11:00.000-07:00

Today the roofers came and finished the very last little part of our roof. It is done.

After 15 days, two downpouring rains that soaked my house, and 3 workers blaring their radio outside my house from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. .....

IT IS DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I will get some pictures tomorrow. And write the check. Which the roofer thinks will be under the estimate he gave us. That is good news. Good news indeed.

They're Here! They're Here!

2007-09-11T06:18:00.000-07:00

The roofers are here.

This is the very first (and probably last) project on our house that we are not doing ourselves. But it is sooooo worth every penny. I am not getting up on that super steep roof.

And today they arrived. They are up on my roof making a ton of noise and the shingles are a' fallen.

I will get some pictures tonight after they leave to show you all the progress.

Woooooohoooooo!

Attic Puked

2007-09-04T11:30:00.001-07:00

This weekend we used our free time to clean out the attic that has been waiting so patiently for us to get up there and turn that empty space into bedrooms.

But it was not as empty as you would imagine. Our attic has been storage central for the last five years. So we had a few boxes up there. So we hauled boxes down 3 flights of stairs only to realize the attic had puked into our living room. This was only the beginning. Once we got the "organized" boxes out we hauled them to the garage. Which then looked like this:
I know we have a serious holiday imbalance. But you see we host the town's annual kids Halloween party so we have way more decorations for that. The ghost/pumpkin bean bag toss and the frankenstein plinko game were both constructed and designed by my insanely talented husband. We have two more rubbermaid containers full of Halloween stuff but until they start selling the orange and black ones we have to use the grey ones. :)

After about 3 hours of going through boxes labeled like this one

We had a garbage pile like this:

Which allowed us to sort the remaining stuff into newly purchased rubbermaid containers and put it all in the garage. By then it was 9:30 at night and dark so I couldn't get a picture of the garage or attic but believe me one is full and the other is empty. And I am so proud of my pack-rat husband. We have moved these boxes full of art stuff, his Dad's art stuff, and other "crap" that needed to be sorted through but he is not good at getting rid of anything. He managed to sort over 15 boxes down to 9 rubbermaid containers. Bravo! Although it may have something to do with him having to carry all 15 boxes (some full of books) down three flights of stairs. Maybe.

So now the roofers are due to arrive sometime this week and the construction on the attic bedrooms will commence shortly thereafter. Yippppeeee!

Life With 7 Kids...

2007-08-23T05:45:00.000-07:00

No walls were hurt in the making of this post.

We decided after much contemplation NOT to rip out a new door and build a hallway. Why?

Because WE NEED ANOTHER BATHROOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

With 7 kids getting up and showering each morning 2 bathrooms is not cutting it. Neither is one hot water heater but we knew we were going to have to get a tankless one soon anyway. So that issue is resolved, we are just waiting for some money. You know, from the money tree in our backyard? Yea.

So anyway, we are contemplating where to put a third bathroom. I say up in the attic space where the two new bedrooms are going. Billy says no. But we are going to have two girls up there who will be teenagers in less than 2 years. I say yes.

I think I am going to win this battle. If not he is going to have to start showering outside with the hose. And when winter hits here in South Dakota, that is going to be one icy shower.

A new door

2007-08-16T21:00:00.000-07:00

Now that we have adopted two new kids, we have had to move our bedroom downstairs in the the bedroom/office. Which has no door. And hasn't since we moved in. We have been unable to find a matching door that is 32X84.

And the only downstairs bathroom is off our now bedroom. So we are going to make a very small hallway and remove the current doorway. That way people can go into the hallway and either go left into our room or right into the bathroom.

We are so creative. Of course I will get pictures before we start ripping out walls this weekend. :)

Behold, A ceiling!

2007-08-05T09:15:00.000-07:00

We finally got a little work done in the new hallway that leads to the new stairs.

There is sheetrock on the ceiling!

Amazing isn't it!?

And today, GASP, we may actually get the rest of the hallway done. So at least the walls will be sheetrock white/gray. And there will be no exposed studs.

And we can move on to building the walls.

30 days till the roofers come. I can't wait!

His Baby

2007-07-23T12:15:00.001-07:00

My husband got a wild hair up his butt this weekend and decided to paint Marea's room. We moved Mr. Bill and Megan into the larger room after we painted it Spiderman blue and put up a Spiderman border.

So Marea was moved into the bright yellow room we had just finished a few months ago for Mr. Bill. Only she didn't want yellow walls. She wanted purple. But I JUST painted this room and I was NOT going to do it again.

So Billy decided to give her purple flowers on the wall. And this is what she got. Large purple flowers on bright yellow walls. And an accent wall at the head of her bed that is purple with large yellow flowers. (We used contact paper to make the flowers)

I still have to do the second coat today but otherwise her room is done. And I am not painting it for at least a year. At LEAST!

Dishwasher Dreams

2007-07-22T11:26:00.000-07:00

When I was a kid growing up my Mom and Dad always said they didn't need another dishwasher because they already had 4 of them. 4 of them named Angie, Jodi, Jamie, and Vonnie to be exact.

When Billy and I got married part of my vows included "and we will always own a functional dishwasher". Okay, not really, but they should have.

We lived without a dishwasher for the first few years of our marriage and then we found an apartment that had one. And I kid you not I stored up the dirty dishes for about the last two weeks before we moved and then I ran the dishwasher in our new apartment for the first 24 hours straight. It was so awesome to not have to do dishes by hand.

And then we moved again. And our new apartment did not have a dishwasher. That was certainly not acceptable and the day after we moved in, we drove straight to Sears and bought a portable Kenmore dishwasher.

Fast forward 10 years. We have moved across several states, in several different apartments and my beloved dishwasher has followed in each move. And it still works like it is brand new. But the racks are starting to rust and lose the little poky things that keep the dishes apart. And while I could order new racks from the Sears company (I called to find out) Billy and I have decided it would be better to go and get a new one. We eventually want to redo our entire kitchen. But for now we will have to settle for a new dishwasher. So I once again hit the Sears store. And I kept gravitating towards the stainless appliances. I really really like them. And Billy agrees.

So here is what we are drooling over right now: The Kenmore Pro Stainless Dishwasher.

It is soooooo pretty. And has so much more than looks. Just look at what the Sears Website has to say:

ENERGY STAR® qualified appliance.

Kenmore PRO™ offers a new line of professional dish care, complete with contemporary styling and exclusive new technology for a dishwasher that is truly faster, quieter and cleaner. Saving home cooks time on cleaning, it offers more time for cooking and entertaining like a pro.
304 profesional grade stainless steel construction is modern & durable
Stainless steel door & tub provide a contemporary, streamlined look
Giant tub holds items up to 13 in. tall in lower rack, 11 in. tall in upper rack
TurboZone™ with rotating spray jets attack dirt from every angle
Smooth glide rack system moves effortlessly
Split-able basket w/ 2 lids, wire cup shelves, utility basket, removable rack inserts, fold-down tines
QuietGuard™ II sound package ensures virtually silent yet powerful cleaning
SmartWash® with Optical Soil Sensor knows just the right amount of time, water & energy needed for cleaning

While the rest of the appliances in our kitchen are working just fine and in fact only a few years old, I will be eventually replacing them all when it comes time to do the kitchen remodel. And you can be sure I will be getting a matching set to go with my new Kenmore Pro Dishwasher.

Check out the entire line for yourself on You Tube.

Don't you just want to hug them?

Musical Rooms

2007-07-19T19:34:00.000-07:00

Our kids are going to be well versed in the game of musical ~~chairs~~ rooms by the time we are done with this remodeling mess we call our home.

We started by taking 4 kids out of the large bedroom upstairs and dispersed them to the other bedrooms in the house. We had three in one bedroom and two downstairs in the office. It was crowded and most of their toys ended up in the attic.

Then we finished one of the new rooms and so two kids moved into that room and out of the other room that previously held three kids. The other two remained in the office.

And then a few months later we finished the second room. And the two in the office moved up.

And now we have re-thought our plans. We have two kids in the smallest room and one kid left in the bigger room. So this weekend we are re-painting the room (which is badly needed) and swaping the two kids in the small room with the one kid in the big room.

Eventually they will all have a place to call their own. Hopefully it will be before they head off to college.

Finally

2007-07-10T12:33:00.000-07:00

We are finally going to get a new roof put on this year. We got the money and the company to come and do it. Of course they won't be here until September because who the heck wants to get on a super steep roof in 100F heat?

So come September we will be rid of the wooden shingles buried under 4-6 layers of asphalt shingles.

The roof will be so pretty and so much lighter!

I will be sure to get plenty of pictures.

HOT Pink

2007-06-10T12:23:00.000-07:00

We finally finished the second of the two new bedrooms upstairs. Well except the trim but we want to do all the trim at once and not one room at a time. And Cassie picked out her paint color, Raspberry Fizz. My kids certainly are not afraid of color.

Here is one picture of her new room. It is already messy so she wouldn't let me take any other pictures. LOL

I wanted to do large purple stripes over the Raspberry color but we decided to get the girls moved in for now (to get them out of the office) and do the stripes after we get the attic done.

Exit Door

2007-05-14T06:27:00.000-07:00

We spent the first half of the weekend removing a door in our house.

When we bought our house this door was used as the main entry. It is not the front door though. The other problem was it walked right into the kitchen. This is always the messiest room in my house and I wasn't too thrilled to have people walking right into it.
So we started parking in the front and using the front door. I put one of those cheesy signs on the side door that said "Please use the front door."

A couple of weeks back we ripped off the stairs to this door. Then we went to Menards to get a new box of siding so we could take out the door and cover it up. We found out our siding is now a special order item so we had to wait 2-3 weeks for it to arrive. We picked the box up on Friday.

So here are the before and after's: (click on them for larger images)

There is a "real" back door just around the corner from where the old one was. I am so glad to have it gone. And the biggest bonus? I gained an entirely new flower bed where the stairs once were. I put 16 carnation plants in and several other flowers that I cannot remember the name of. Soon this will be a very colorful side of my house.

Painting

2007-04-27T08:35:00.000-07:00

This is one of the new bedrooms. This one is Mr. Bill's. He picked out the color. It is pineapple yellow. Don't adjust your monitors. It is really that yellow. And he likes it.

Pictures coming soon, famous last words

2007-04-27T08:09:00.000-07:00

Here are some of the millions of things we are working on... This is the hole in the flooring where the attic stairs used to be. We took out the attic stairs and used old boards to fill in the flooring. We will be carpeting the rooms so it didn't have to match perfectly.

Almost done!

2007-01-23T07:51:00.000-08:00

Last night I got the first of our four new bedrooms primed and tonight we hope to get it painted. I can't wait to get the kids moved in. We still need to get trim and carpet but otherwise this room will be done. This room is going to be Mr. Bill's and he chose a pineapple yellow color. Not sure why but it is his room so we let him pick. I think I am going to go with a blue and yellow theme. I have to find him a denim comforter for his bed.

Pictures coming soon.

Progress

2007-01-14T16:49:00.000-08:00

Here are the pictures of the progress we have been making... (click each image to see it larger)

Billy running from the camera! ;)

The door temporarily in its new place.

Sheetrock!

More sheetrock!

And more sheetrock!

The hallway. No sheetrock there yet.

We are finishing up the mud on the sheetrock right now. I will get some pics of that soon. Billy is also in the process of building the walls at the top of the new stairs that will be the attic bedrooms.

Working Hard

2006-12-18T10:02:00.000-08:00

I know it has been awhile since I have posted but it is for a good reason.

We have been very busy with our house!

Last night we finished the entryway that we started almost 2 YEARS ago. Oy! I finally put the pressure on my hubby and he finished the mudding of the drywall. Then we made our very first attempt at texturing a wall. I must say we did a pretty good job once we got the hang of it. I painted the entryway this morning and finally it is all the same color! We are going to finish the trim work tonight and then the tree goes up. Usually our tree is up on the 1st of December but I refused to put it up and take pictures of bare drywall for two years in a row. Maybe the promise of presents is what truly motivated my hubby. LOL

Now we have to finish mudding the new bedrooms that we have sheetrocked. They both have one coat of mud already (thanks to me) and are awaiting my hubby's perfectionist touch. ;) Hopefully they will be done by the middle of January. When you can only work on weekends this takes a tad longer.

Hiatus

2006-10-25T07:45:00.000-07:00

We are on hiatus this week while I finish up the halloween party for our town. I will try to get here on Sunday and show what we have done so far.

The mud is up in one room and the other is still waiting for sheetrock. I will have pictures.

TTFN!

Just to clarify

2006-10-13T14:00:00.000-07:00

I know how hard it is to imagine what we are doing without actually walking in the room so I had made these fancy schmancy floor plans for you to get a better idea of why we are making this disaster.

The drywall is going up

2006-10-13T13:15:00.000-07:00

Looking in through the old bedroom door into what will be Cassie's room. The stairs are there on the left.
Billy trying to hide from the camera as we started the drywall.

Ignore the tools and stuff in the way. :)

We weren't able to use ONE solid piece of sheetroock in the entire room because of the measurements so we spent a lot of time cutting and measuring.

We managed to get one of the two new rooms completely drywalled. By the time we got one done we were both tired.

Making progress

2006-10-05T10:54:00.000-07:00

Making some progress on the stairs. (Scroll down this blog to see many before pictures!) We have gotten this far and then put them on hold so we can get the two adjoining bedrooms put togehter first. We have three kids in an 8X10 bedroom and it is not working very well, especially at bedtime.

This is the first time we have ever attempted a window and I must say it was fairly easy and quick. The instructions said it would take 40 minutes if you had never installed a window before and 15 minutes if you were a pro. Let's just say we definitely didn't fall into the "pro" category.

The new window fully installed.
This is the east wall. The new wall you see on the left of the picture is where the new hallway is going in. The stairs are just to the left of the new wall.
This is the southeast corner of the room. Notice the jack in the middle of the picture. It is holding up the ceiling where someone (not us) took out a load bearing wall. This one big room is getting divided into two rooms so we are putting the wall back in.
The new ceiling joists snug up against the old ones. We moved the location of the load bearing wall (by about a foot) so we put in longer boards.

I did all the insulation while Billy did the window and filled in the prior attic hole. I already have more pictures to post of the dividing wall in and insulated. I will try to get to that soon.

Some changes

2006-08-31T12:07:00.000-07:00

We have made some progress in the upstairs bedroom remodel.

The stairs are going in...

Cleaning the Woodwork

2006-08-30T11:16:00.000-07:00

Chris was ever so nice to share this "recipe" with me.

Put equal amounts of coke and ammonia in a bucket and use to scrub down your old wood.

Here is what I started with:

And here is how clean it got:

After scrubbing it down I discovered our wood is waxed, not varnished. The entire finish came right off with the ammonia/coke mixture so I added some stain. Now I need to either re-wax or put some polyurethane over the stain.

It looks maahhhhvelous! Now I have to do sooooo much more of the woodwork in my house!

New Screen Door

2006-08-28T12:06:00.000-07:00

It is child and cat friendly. The screen hides in the top unless it is open. And it just takes a little windex to keep it looking brand spanking new!

BIG project

2006-08-11T20:18:00.000-07:00

Well we have hit possibly the biggest project on our list: The attic remodel into 2 kids bedrooms. This involves gutting the bedroom below to add a new staircase that is not so freaking steep and making two bedrooms out of it. Are you ready for some pictures?

The attic doorway(in front) and the current bedroom doorway (to the left).

The closet wall and entryway before

And after. Can you find the closet doorway still? :O)

The SouthEast corner of the room before

And after. Lath and plaster make such a mess.

The super steep attic stairs that are coming down!

We of course will have many, many, many more pictures before this project is complete.

The roof

2006-07-15T20:37:00.000-07:00

Well we got ambitious this spring and were all geared up to have the roof redone. We called around to get quotes and soon they came, well..... trickling in.

The first one came in at 16,000.00! Ye Gads People! It is just a house not an entire warehouse!
That quote was more than I paid for my entire house. Yes you read that right, the E.N.T.I.R.E house.

The second was better at 9000.00 but still about 3000.00 more than we had anticipated or budgeted. So back to saving we go.

No new roof this year. Good thing it isn't leaking. All 6 layers of it.

The bad thing about owning your own house...

2006-07-10T07:32:00.000-07:00

Now that the bathroom is finished and looking awesome, something must break....

and it did.

The hot water pipe in the wall to the sink has a leak. The wall is wet and bubbling. We are going to have to rip it out and find the leak.

What a mess!

The downstairs bath from start to finish...

2006-06-20T21:15:00.000-07:00

We took out what used to be the walk-in pantry in the "kitchen" (I use that term loosely because when we bought the house the only thing in the "kitchen" was an old metal 60ish sink. No counters, cupboards, etc.

I do have some pictures of the pantry just after we took out the upper cupboards. I will have to find those and add them at a later date.

Taking out the floor:
It was nice wood but it had quite a few holes and was rotten in the southeast corner so we opted for tile instead.

Here is the pantry in progress: (We had finally got the room gutted down to the studs, added outlets, plumbing and then sheetrock.

Then we put in the tile.

Finally we got to the good part. In real life this project took us well over a year. We lived with just a toilet for a good 6-9 months before we bought everything else. Thanks to the power of the internet you all get instant gratification though. Here is where we added the sink, the shower, the toilet, and all the accessories.

The cat's new favorite spot:

What happens when someone puts a bathroom in an entryway...

2006-05-11T09:49:00.000-07:00

When we originally looked at this house the very first thing we both said was, "That bathroom will be the first to go!" and it was the first room we really tackled in a big way.

The bathroom view from the office-turned-kitchen. (See the little bump-out next to the toilet? That is the pocket door from the picture below.)

Here is what you see when you walk in our front door (the back wall of the bathroom):

To the right of this picture is the stairs:

The previous owners had permanently secured one of the pocket doors to make a wall for the bathroom and put the other door on hinges.

Then one day I just couldn't take staring at it anymore:

And the bathroom came down. My husband was rather shocked when he walked in the door! And now here is what you see upon entering our home: The flooring we choose to do in the "S" curve due to the various holes (and main sewer line) that had cut up the floor. Obviously the drywall is not quite there yet but it will be soon.

Painting the Garage...on the list.

2006-04-11T10:15:00.000-07:00

When we sided the house we color-matched 10 gallons of paint. 5 of those went on this... Our "garage".
We also painted the little shed that is next to it. I will have to get a picture of that to show you.

Number 1 on the list

2006-03-02T17:29:00.000-08:00

The first thing on our list was Siding the house. Not that we intended to have it be the first thing we did. But in February of 2003, we got this lovely letter from our insurance company that informed us they would be dropping our insurance as of April 2003 because we had not painted the house as they requested.

We were astonished, not that they wanted us to paint the house, you can see that it needs it, but that they sent this letter with no previous warning that painting was required. And to top it off it was February. If you have ever been to Eastern South Dakota in February, you KNOW it doesn't get above freezing the entire month.

After much complaining on my part and NO compromise on the insurance companies part, we decided we would have to do siding as it can be done in below freezing temperatures if the laborers are willing. The laborers in this case turned out to be my hubby and his cousin who came to live with us for 2 months to help out. It took them about 2 months to get it 99% done as they only could work on it after work and on weekends. On April 12, the insurance agent came and looked at our work. We had about 2 pieces of siding left to put on. He said it would be good enough and they would reissue our insurance. We left the remaining two pieces of siding untouched until that summer when the weather was much more appealing to be working in.

Here is what the newly sided house looks like now.

Oh, and I switched insurance as soon as they issued us our renewal policy.

The List

2006-03-02T17:19:00.000-08:00

When we moved into this house I casually made a list of things we wanted to accomplish on our house.

Here it is in its entirety:

~~Siding~~
~~Roof~~
~~Paint Outside Trim~~
~~Downstairs Bath~~
~~Upstairs Bath/Shower~~
Girls Room
~~Duct Work~~
~~New Furnace~~
Paint Inside
Carpet Upstairs and Hallway
Finish Attic
Lower Attic Stairs
~~Rehang Pocket Doors~~
French Doors for the Kitchen
~~Move Washer Upstairs~~
Stove Hood
~~Circuit Breaker Box~~
~~Move Dryer Upstairs~~
Landscaping
~~Garden~~
Refinish Stairs
Update Electrical Outlets
Foundation
~~Paint Garage and Shed~~
Addition? (Garage)
~~Rewire Attic and second floor~~
~~Rewire kitchen attic~~
Update Kitchen
~~Update Plumbing~~
~~Add bath downstairs~~
~~Entry Way demo~~
~~Replumb Upstairs Bathroom~~
~~Main Sewer Line~~
~~Bathroom Closet Doors~~
~~Bathroom Shelving~~
~~Find replacement door for office~~

Some items have gotten added out of necessity and some we added as we went along. In the end, I know we will get them done. One at a time!

Just the beginning

2006-03-02T13:18:00.000-08:00

I have decided to enter the world of house blogs, because, well, I sooooo enjoy reading what other people are doing to their houses so I thought I would chronicle the remodeling efforts we are making, small as they may be.

We bought our house on April 12, 2002. It is a large farmhouse with 3 bedrooms and 1 and 3/4 bathrooms. We have already done an extensive amount of work to the house which I will save for future posts here at the Big House on the Prairie.

For now, I will leave you with a picture of our house when we first purchased it, almost four years ago.