Home Renovation: Update

One might think that since my blog has lately been all about the adventures of life with Alec that the home renovation has come to a complete standstill.

Happily I can report it hasn’t. It may not be moving along at the fast clip it once was in the days before Alec entered our lives…but I think we’re not doing too bad considering we just had a baby this year.

As you know, there was the big porch re-do. And honestly we still haven’t finished it…and seeing as it is 35 degrees out, I can confidently say it has become a spring project. I’m a bit bummed about that, but life goes on…and I know it will look so cool when it is done.

But other projects have been begun, and finished as well, that I just never got around to bloging about. Dave has spent much of the summer staining and shellacking like a mad-man. Some of the doors we installed upstairs are now stained, as well as the railing for the stairs (which isn’t installed yet---but we’re getting there), and a curio cabinet for our dining room for my ever burgeoning teapot and teacup collection. He also stained the 3 oak book cases with glass doors for our bedroom which will someday be built into the wall.

We also had our friend, the “Bob Villa” of wiring and electricity, come over and he added 2 new outlets to our living room. Since we have an old 1920’s bungalow…there aren’t a lot of outlets. Our living room had 1 to be exact. So, we had an extension cord going from the dining room around the wood column into the living room for the TV. Alec has found great joy with this extension cord and we knew it had to go. So, we had an outlet installed behind the entertainment center, as well and a cable outlet to hook our cable directly into, an outlet behind the couch for the lamps we might have someday, and he also installed a phone jack (Since the current one was way the hell on the opposite side of the room that our phone was). The joys of a cord free life. Alec was so sad to see them go…

We have also been continuing to organize our Den and the Art Studio, and tossing tons of crap and clutter. I can actually see my studio now. It’s lovely!

The bathroom re-do is currently in discussion and is snowballing every day. We had decided for a Christmas gift to one another we would buy ourselves a pedestal sink (So romantic, huh) to replace the skanky wood 70’s sink we currently have and a nice cabinet to go over the toilet to replace the quasi gun-cabinet looking thing above our toilet. I kid you not. It looks like a gun cabinet. I will post pictures before we remove it. But we are now talking about fixing the ceiling in the bathroom as well because some nimrod painted the ceiling with CRACKLE paint. Why on earth would anyone do this? It’s a bathroom people, with lots of moisture! Needless to say, all those lovely cracks are trapping moisture and getting really funky. So, what began as talk of replacing the sink, is slowly evolving into a complete aesthetic over haul of the bathroom. I wouldn’t mind replacing the sink and bathroom hardware, along with the towel rods, and any other hardware in the bathroom as well.

Also currently in discussion is going back upstairs to complete the numerous projects that were begun but never quite completed. Those bookcases still need to be inset into the wall, the reading nook is still not finished, and albeit the closets are built...they need organization! We hope to get a good start on these this winter, and now that the little guy is mobile it's sometimes easier to get projects done...it is also sometimes much harder. Gotta love the little guy...

Some of the things we hope to begin next spring and summer are:
Hardwood floors upstairs
A complete overhaul of the stairs and replacing the banister
Buying, staining and installing into the wall a dresser in the bedroom
Installing the bookcases into our bedroom as well as bookcases in the hall
A retaining wall
A new backyard fence

Is this a bit unrealistic, yes....But we always make a huge "wish" list and then as the summer progresses we re-evaluate what will get done and what will be put on the back burner. We also find, the larger the list...the more we inevitably get done. So this is the game plan, wish us luck...