Home Sweet Construction Zone

I lovingly refer to our house as the 'construction zone'. I've gotten quite accustomed to weaving through boxes on my way to make coffee, and keeping all of the doors closed, so the cats don't accidentally rub against a saw, or step on a razor blade, or swallow a screw, etc. However, I have to say that I am excited for the day that I can have guests over without having to give the 'our-house-is-a-construction-zone-please-don't-judge-us' disclaimer. It gets old, and even I am getting sick of hearing myself say it.

And no, I did not stage the above shot. I was photographing the formal living room this weekend, and almost leaned back on this death trap. Jeff claims that he was testing the nail gun on this scrap piece of wood, but I'm hard pressed to believe that it took him ten tries to figure out that it was working properly.

Anyhow, the whole living-and-working-in-the-house-you're-remodeling thing is not as glamorous as HGTV led me to believe.

Literally, every corner of the house is being occupied. Be it a rug, a curtain rod, or a power tool -- there is something resting in every available nook in this house. It is nerve racking as I constantly feel that any one of the numerous piles-of-stuff that we have stacked to the ceiling could come crashing down with one false move.

Anyhow, in less dangerous news, something else I've noticed about living in a construction zone: I can't live without my iPad. It is, hands down, the most brilliant product I've ever owned (besides the mothership, of course) -- and I don't know how people survived this whole remodeling process without being able to carry a beautiful baby TV with them from room to room.

Let's not even talk about the carport. I dream of the day that our cars will have shelter from the rain.

And yes, I'm pretty sure our neighbors can't wait for that day either. 

The thing about remodeling a house that you just moved into is that everyone wants to "come see the new place", or "come see what you've done so far" -- and let me just tell you, it ain't pretty. Half of our house is covered in construction-grade paper, the other half is holding the furniture and stuff that will eventually go on top of the floors that are currently cover in construction-grade paper. It's a mess, people; and it loses it's charm after about 10 minutes when you realize there is no where to sit down -- because, apparently, every chair we own is also occupied.

I don't want this to discourage any visits as I have gotten really good at "giving the tour" when people come over -- not to mention, I started a blog to document the remodeling process, so I obviously don't have any secrets. However, if you want to come visit, you must (1) bring alcohol and/or your working gloves, or (2) take us out to eat ... which we've discovered is our parent's trick -- and. it. works. every. time.

Here's to our home, sweet, home construction zone. Happy Thursday!

Ryan

Weekend Wrap Up

This lovely-three-day-weekend was something of a circus at our house. Not surprisingly, we worked on a myriad of random projects and didn't finish a-one-of-'em. Apparently, we are just not a "one-room-at-a-time" type of couple. I've decided that we work in phases, and that we are in the process of finishing Phase One; a metaphorical [and somewhat literal] sweep of the entire house.

Since I have no final reveals to share, I thought I would just give an overview of some of the projects we worked on over the last three days. The one I'm most excited about is my office; Jeff painted the ceiling "Persimmon Red" -- it's not finished, but here's a sneak peek:

Jeff also gave an extra coat of "Powered Brick" to the formal room, and I continued to work on the trim-that-never-ends:

I also painted the front door gray one night when Jeff was at work. It's just a first coat, but I kind of love it. In the coming weeks, I'll take the door off of the hinges, paint the final coat, add new hardware, and photograph it properly -- but for now, here's a shot to give you an idea of where we're at:

Oh, and perhaps my favorite project from this weekend is the guest bedroom curtains. We found them in the attic when we moved in, and I was this close to throwing them out -- but Mom encourage me to save them. They look to be from the late 50s or early 60s, and I'm pretty sure they were custom made for the guest bedroom windows specifically. Mom and Dad surprised us by having them dry cleaned as a Christmas gift, and I finally got around to finding some hardware that would allow them to hang properly. The only problem is, I underestimated how much hardware I would need - so, er, I was only able to complete one window this weekend. Here's a peek at the fabric and the rigged hardware: 

Custom curtains are no joke, people.

In other-more-nerdier-news, Jeff is knee deep into his aquarium adventure. This weekend, he started the process of cleaning and assembling the tank:

Oh, what is that you say, you didn't know Jeff was into this sort of thing? Well, he is, and we are about to have a 90-gallon-salt-water-reef-tank in the man-cave to prove it.

To be fair, underneath all of my eye rolling, I am super impressed that Jeff even knows what any of this stuff is; no less, how to make an entire ecosystem grow inside of it. 

Random fact: Jeff also served as my muse for a project that I'm working on for school:

So yeah, on top of painting and hanging curtains and cleaning out a pump system in our carport, Jeff also did some hand modeling this weekend. What a trooper. 

More on all of these projects to come. Happy MLK Day, all!

Ryan

Sneak Peek: Wainscoting

Over the last several evenings, Jeff has been installing wainscoting in the dining room. He completed the chair rail earlier this week, and has been tirelessly measuring and cutting and making loud noise in the front of the house ever since. Seriously, do you know how painfully loud a miter saw and a nail gun can be in a big empty space with hardwood floors, bare walls, and no furniture? 

Here's a sneak peek at his progress, because I'm just so darn impressed:

One wall down, three more to go -- and then... rinse and repeat in the hallway.

A man-with-a-miter-saw's job is never done.

Ryan

Prep Work

This weekend we hosted a painting party --  and made some substantial progress in the formal living room, dining room, and foyer. While I am anxious to show you some "progress" shots from the party, I thought I'd first share some moments leading up to the big day.

 

I'll be back soon with some before and after shots from the party, but in the mean time -- here is a sneak peek to keep you a'comin' back for more. 

Happy Monday, all.

Ryan

Weekend Wrap Up

Here are a few moments from our last weekend in 2012.

Don't be scared of my mermaid harbor; it's going to be beautiful.

Jeff was none too happy about my interrupting his wallpaper removing nightmare extravaganza on Saturday.

You have to understand that Jeff considers himself a wallpaper-removing-champion, so this dining room has been an emotional and physical challenge - to say the least. 

The steamer was no match for this wallpaper, so we had to buy one of the dreaded wallpaper scorers.

This project is going to continue well into 2013, so you can look forward to that. In other sad news, Christmas is over.

Everything is all packed up; and today, the tree is coming down. I am only slightly depressed, but I can genuinely say that I'm looking forward to the new year.

Oh yeah, Dad gave me his camera tripod (from back in his hipster-camera-carrying-days) -- so, you can definitely look forward to a lot more staged shots in the coming months. Thanks, Dad! Here's our first test shoot on Christmas.

Happy New Years, all. See you in 2013!

Ryan