June 7th 2014 yard work and ideas

I'm slightly obsessed with Pinterest. I check it more than I check Facebook and Instagram combined. I like what it's about, the set up and the ability to search for just about anything. 

I want a fire pit. I know we don't have a ton of friends, but I think just having one is good for us. It will give me a place to stay warm when Larry has people over, it'll give me an excuse to try and be more social. So I pinned 4-6 fire pits, sent the link to john and said, "pick one" he picked one that it is near impossible to find the damn curved edging stones! Thankfully our friends The Romilios had 7 of them, so we're just making the fire pit a combination of 2 fire pits we liked. 

Another highly searched item for myself are crafts, particularly crafts that I used to make, and want Larry to know the fun of not having technology to let you use your hands. I know it sounds counter productive me using technology to show him, but they have so many "pony bead keychain patterns" ahhhhh!! Remember making those lizard keychains?! That's what that search result will show! Every single damn keychain us 80s-90s kids made during summer camp. 

I also was Gimp champion of the world! (Self proclaimed) I had every color imaginable. I would make lanyards, and key chains and zipper pulls. There wants anything I couldn't make! I had a go-to color combination, black, that weird whitish glow in the dark and pink (also glow in the dark) I called it 2x4 even though it was actually 1x2. Everyone loved when I'd do a swirl twisted one. 

I love Pinterest because I can find simplified instruction that Larry can understand, because I'm way too mathematical for most people when it comes to explaining things. I encourage you to embrace the nerd within and go Pinterest search an old craft you loved to do, and share it with your kids, a friend or just your Pinterest board! 

There is really nothing better than reliving your childhood. I remember one year my grandmother, Meme, bought all the makings for American flag safety pin brooches. We had the teensiest glass beads, and we had the pattern mapped out, took a few trial and errors but by the 4th we had so many pins we were giving them to anyone who would wear it. Twenty years later, Meme still has hers!

Larry loves perler beads, we make just about everything with them. We don't use them all that much because we have a small dog that would eat the beads, but I think we're buying pony beads this week, because frankly I need a stegosaurus keychain, and so does his teacher!!!

Hope you have a crafty, fun and safe summer! 

Manda

 

Here's Larry with his Komondo dragon project, that he received 100 on. He used cast plaster and paper bags, paper towels, a little felt and some paint. We really had fun shaping and setting everything up, this was not a Pinterest based item, this was 100% imagination, and a book about Komondo dragons. I helped very little and am so incredible proud of the outcome and the final grade. The teacher acknowledged his stand out work and his incredible habitat. 

This project probably took 7 hrs from conception to completion. 

DIY DOOR KNOCKER

So this is something I thought was awesome. I love all things vintage. This door knocker is pretty amazing. It was on the door when we bought it, I could not even contain myself.

Here's the door knocking prior to the facelift.

It was simply screwed on the door, I found a flat head screw driver and held it in place with one hand and unscrewed it with the other. I found a good work surface to inspect and prep for the next step. 

I bought the 3 pack of brushes to remove the flakey old cast iron from the door knocker. I was not 100% sure what style would work best, and the men at Home Depot were not sure either. So the three pack was perfect option.

Get all cracks and crevices, just to make sure there is nothing in the way. We want a nice and even coat of Spray paint when it gets to that stage.  This means FRONT AND BACK.

I took the spraying outside and set up shop in the outside kitchen, because it was well vented and who cares if I get some spray paint on some linoleum. 

The front was sprayed, and needed to dry. I was so impressed with the details that popped with just one coat, I felt like it wasn't coated enough.

Second coat made me feel like it was ready for the door.

I let this bad guy dry for a few hours, and I took my time, and put it back where I took it from. It came out exactly how I envisioned.

The before and after! 

The amount of little tiny details I didn't notice initially really were on display after the second coat. I wanted to share this easy and fun DIY that I am proud to have as a greeter to our guests! 

Come and knock on our door! 

Early June Update

This is more of a what to do when you're tired and ready to cry about everything. I have had some health things pop up since my last update, so I've been extra busy. Work has picked up, I work in the pest industry, which I love my job, and it's actually my crazy escape place. My health is up in the air, as I have an appointment on the 6th that should be telling me more things about what is going on. The house! The thing we come to this little thing for, well let's get to the meat and potatoes.


The First half of May.

So here we go, My high school friend Chris H came by to help us one weekend when John's Brother was away. I am so lucky that even though I only hand 1 friend help out, he worked like 3 of us. He really kept us on track that weekend, I owe him big time!  We tore up the old floor, and the old plywood. We found out that the floor had a pretty significant pitch to it, which is bad for flooring choices, but ok in the long run. We will work with it. We laid the new plywood down, and also got one of the two supporting walls up that day Chris was helping. We enjoyed Subs from the corner store and some sodas. I love living within walking distance of small stores with good food. We're also about a half a mile for a great fishing location.

We have electrical almost done, HVAC system is almost done and our plumbing is ALMOST done. We are going to natural gas, because it's the most logical option, and it's allegedly free after we get our deposit back! Biggest and most exciting step, WE HAVE WALLS IN OUR KITCHEN! AHHH!

 The Living was also started in the past few weeks, we decided that the tacky fake brick behind the tiki god wood stove were not going to be part of our house. This is strictly because they took up valuable floor space, and we don't really need a wood stove when we have an HVAC unit that was paid good money for. Besides, Larry has asthma and the Wood burning stove would irritate it if we did use it.

We were keeping the cabinets in the living room since we're not living there yet it made sense, but the dumpster was being picked up this past weekend, so it was a much needed removal, so I made a few Vine videos of John being super manly and breaking down the cabinets. We are not keeping for basement storage. Who sells 4 cabinets that are the most awkward sizes ever? NOT us! We still have a handful left for a lemonade stand (I will post that DIY) when we get that far, and tool storage for this handy man.

The Living room had an amazing bookcase around the Bay window, it was taking up nearly a foot of space into the living room, and Larry kept stepping on it when he would climb into the window. The steam heaters used to sit under the bookcase causing the wood to be bent and starting to be brittle. The walls were obviously in rough shape after the removal of the bookcase. 

Traveling home from Lowe's has become a great game of, hold this, make sure your drink doesn't tip, and pick a CD and you're not changing it in the 2.5 miles from the house! This is my view from the passenger seat of one of the many weekly trips to lowe's. Strapping for the ceiling, and 2X8s for the walls, and the door framing. 

I'm a high strung person for the most part, I hate leaving things unfinished. I think this is why I crochet and cross stitch so fast. I sometimes have to stop, take a breath and remember that this is going to be my house, that WE are going to be living here for a large chunk of our lives. We are investing in this beautiful piece of land, and this amazing house. We are lucky to have each other. I keep picking out all these meals I want to make in the new kitchen, and books I want to read in the living room, and music I want to listen to in the library. I just wish there were more people to share this experience with. I think that's why I started this blog about the house, I feel like the people who care the most about my experiences are hours, states, and oceans away. This is something that I will look back at and be like, "You know what, I'm proud of every bruise I earned from that house." 

Thanks for taking the time out of your day to come see more of the house, I'm so excited about it all and I really am proud to say I'm dating an amazing guy, who's family loves me.

What are you most interested in seeing in my house?!

Amanda