Archive for the ‘Projects’ Category

The cellar..dun dun dun

August 12th, 2010

Ahhh When we bought the house we knew we’d have to keep a constant eye on our cellar. Unlike newer houses, our cellar can’t really be transformed into a sweet playroom or man cave, but luckily we have the garage space for that. So without that constant foot traffic, it’s easier to forget it exists until something bad happens, and then it’s like an ugly pimple in the middle of your face. You know, the ones that hurt when you don’t even do anything, but instead of physical pain,  the cellar hurts you financially.

So our plan was to do anything we possibly could to prevent any future problems, resolve any current problems, and hopefully be able to store some canned foods and wine down there.

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If you hear crickets chirping, it’s because our intentions were great and fantastic, but we definitely delayed on this. So now we’re in a mad dash to take care of any problems before fall and winter hit.

Problem #1: Moisture

Our cellar had a ridiculous amount moisture, but I couldn’t figure out how much was because of moisture in the air or bigger problems. So I purchased this guy:

This better work.

I purchased the 50- pint version from Lowe’s at $200, and we have it down there on high which is supposed to resolve any moisture problems within 3-4 days. Then you can set it at a lower setting and adjust as necessary. I purchased this two weeks ago, and we still have it on high. One of the nice ammenities of this product is the ability to connect a water hose, and then you can have it drain directly into the sump pump. Which leads us to….

Problem #2: Sump Pump Drain

Our sump pump is working beautifully (thankfully!), but the drain that flows out of the cellar is leaking. So in order to drain our dehumidifier, we must do it manually and make the trek up and down the stairs every few hours to empty it. We have someone who is going to help us fix that this within the week, so once we have that fixed we’ll have a better idea of any other possible moisture problems. Lastly….

Problem #3: Garden hose

I wish I could say that I went off track and forgot which space I was talking about, but sadly, I’m not. Like some problems, it’s easy to put them aside and figure out another way to get to the end. We have been unable to use our garden hose all summer, because the spigot has a leak and drains into the cellar as well. We have been using a bucket or a watering can in order to water our garden, and for the most part, our landscaping has just been left on its own.

So those are the wonderful issues we’ve been dealing with, and I know that we shouldn’t have let them go on this long. Do you have any problems you’ve pushed aside even though you knew you shouldn’t? What state is your cellar/basement in?

A room devoted to partying and fun?

August 6th, 2010

We have an outside unit that we weren’t sure what we wanted to do with it. The practical side of me wanted to rent it out to help us pay for projects inside of the house, but the entertaining-live-your-life-only-once side sided with Steve who wanted to turn it into a “man cave” of sorts. So which side won out?

If you guessed the man cave, then you’d be right. We bought a pool table several months ago, and now we’re focusing a lot of thinking power on how to set up the room in order to get the most use of it. Having a sort of party room was also one of the things on our list when we were looking for a house to buy. It needs a lot of updating and a good thorough cleaning. Here is how it looked when we got the place:

Before

Corner portion of room

I have no idea how long that carpet had been in there, but I’m not sure that I want to know. We  have removed all of the carpet in the upstairs to expose the wood planking underneath.

Working sink...working boyfriend :)

So much better

We are considering several options for the flooring, and if you have any advice, we’d love to hear it. We have three main stations that we want up here: the pool table, seating/tv, and a bar. Ultimately we want this area to be where we entertain and host, so that the house won’t have all of the heavy traffic (especially with the animals). I think out first goal for this room is to host a party for Halloween and decorate it like a haunted house, but we will see if that happens since that leaves a mere three months to plan and execute. I think we may have to wait until Halloween next year.

Mirror, mirror on the wall

July 30th, 2010

My friend, Nicole, gave me a mirror she had in the garage, and I loved it. I knew exactly where I wanted to put it, and that happened to be the dining room on the fireplace. When she gave it to me, it had a nice wood finish, but I knew that I wanted it to be white in order to mesh with my ultimate plan for the room. So when we purchased paint for the ceiling, I made sure to pick up some for the mirror, too. Here is the before:

And here is the after:

Fireplace in dining room

I love how it matches the trim in the dining room now, and it helps to bounce the light beautifully in the room and into the living room.

25 before 25

July 20th, 2010

I actually got the idea from here where she had a thirty before 30 list. I liked it, because it’s an accountable way to keep track of things you’d like to do. I’d really like to do a list every year of things I haven’t done yet or would like to do. Without further ado, here is my list of twenty five:

  1. Write a book
  2. Learn how to use Illustrator
  3. Buy really nice makeup
  4. Donate enough clothes that they fit in the closet and drawers
  5. Remodel Whimsy Flavor in order to incorporate the features I want to have available
  6. Go to the Columbus or Cincinnati zoo
  7. Take a week vacation with Steve
  8. Camp in Gatlinburg, TN
  9. Go hiking in Hocking Hills
  10. Help one student to choose engineering
  11. Start my Masters
  12. Get flooring done on first floor
  13. Fly a kite
  14. Finish my tattoo
  15. Win a beautification award for the front yard (hopefully in spring next year)
  16. Pay off 30% of my student loans
  17. Get a hot tub
  18. Paint trim upstairs
  19. Get a car parked in my mom’s garage (I love you, Mom!)
  20. Get a photo of my grandma, mom, sister, and myself
  21. Be published
  22. Get a family photo of Steve, myself, Elway, and Tito
  23. Throw a wicked cool Halloween party
  24. Make a set of cards for all events, so that we have them on hand.
  25. Fix my desktop computer, so that I can use it again instead of the laptop.

Whew! So, that’s my list, and I’m excited. Making that list took me a while, but it caused me to think of things that I wanted to do but could easily put off.

Laminate? Bamboo? Hardwood? Oh my!

May 13th, 2010

Deciding on the right flooring for us was a really hard decision. I really wanted to get bamboo, but after testing it out, realized that it would end up costing more in repair with Elway’s paws and any kids. We really needed something more durable. I was really against laminate flooring, because to me it looks so fake. Plus the boards are really thin, and I wanted something that more closely resembled the flooring that existed in the house. However, it would fulfill almost all of our needs in a flooring and so our search began. We looked at all kinds of flooring samples, and I was getting very frustrated with the process.

We were finally shown a laminate sample that we both fell in love with the moment we saw it. It was a darker shade like I liked, but it also was wider than normal laminate flooring. So it looked more like the planks that are traditional in a house like ours. I will admit before making the purchase I had a mini-freak-out asking Steve if we really did want this one, but we’d taken home a sample and used it for two weeks before going to purchase.Without further ado, here is the previous flooring:

bedroom

Here is the new flooring:

New flooring

New flooring

I am absolutely smitten with it. I didnt’ realize how much I disliked the sub-flooring in the room until we put in the new flooring. I also didn’t realize  how much of a pain taking out the baseboards would be, too, but that’s another story. In case you were wondering, we chose Lowe’s Swiftlock “Chesnut Hickory” for the flooring.

We’re currently finishing the closet remodel, so I’ll post pictures of that soon. I must say that the updates have already made the bedroom feel even more like a wonderful retreat.

Spring Break

March 12th, 2010

Spring break is quickly approaching, and I can’t wait for it. While I love school, I’m very excited to get some projects around the house completed. In addition to the house, I have two school related projects to work on throughout the week. One is my senior design which I’m very excited about. It’s a bicycle collision avoidance system, and that’s all I can really say about it. It makes me excited, and it reminds me why I chose engineering. There’s just so many doors open to you once you complete your degree, and I highly recommend taking as many math classes while in high school.

The second project is learning SolidWorks. I created several projects that relate to the house to try and design in Solid Works which is a 3-D designing software used in a lot of engineer designing applications. So I’ll be sharing those as we get to those side projects with the house. Depending how those go, I may continue to design some things in the program as a nice way to combine my engineering and the house.

Now, unrelated to school, I have several big projects that involve the house, and some are very important to me to complete before we do our open house in May (squeal!).

First, I really want to get the upstairs cleaned up (like the library). Right now we have to pick and choose which projects we do until I complete my degree, so I really want to focus on the downstairs and the outside. So for now, the upstairs I just really want to get organized.

Second, I want to finish painting the bedroom. Right now we need to paint the last wall which is shown here, because we ran out of paint. We also purchased white paint to paint the trim in there as well as the ceiling which has varying colors currently. Steve wants to finish the drywall in the closet which I will post pictures of once we start. I’d also like to build and install the trim around the closet and main door for the bedroom. Because these the door was moved and the walk-in closet was built by the previous owners, they don’t have the trim around them. Also, the room doesn’t have the baseboards that are consistent throughout the house. While I’m not sure we’ll get to that during this spring break, I’d like to do the crown molding.

Lastly, the outside is a huge eye sore right now. There are a few plants out front which can be seen here:

Front of the House

I really want to clean up the stones that are used there, and I have some ideas for the plants that are there now. We also put up a fence shortly after this photo was taken, so it’s not the most recent. I want to move the fence back and paint it. This will give me some additional “front yard” in which to plant flowers and add curb appeal. We also don’t have a gate at the front yard, and this makes it difficult for guests to get to the yard when they come to visit. Since we plan to have lots of outdoor parties and entertaining, this is at the top of the list to fix.

So while it sounds overwhelming, we’re going to start this weekend prepping in between studying for finals, and we’re going to start spring cleaning. I’m off to get started!