Picture Progress

So much has happened since my last post, I thought maybe it would be appropriate to just post a collage of pictures that represent the various things going on.

In this collage we have Claw Foot Bathtub Makeover, Framing the Rooms, Studs (the wood kind and the manly kind), Staining and Spray Painting (the hinges must match the doorknobs), and Sheetrock Party (So far only the unloading kind of party...hanging is soon to come).

This is the first year I have actually looked forward to Daylight Savings Time Spring Ahead. It's so much easier for my hubs to come home from work and go straight to work on the house when it is still light out. So, nightly work on the house has started back up. Basketball season is over so we are hoping to get some long Saturday work days in as well. The countdown says we have about a month and half to move in, hmmmm it's gonna be close!



I can't wait to call this place home...

Nexus Brown Cabinets with Walnut Countertops from IKEA

I just happened to check out the new link IKEA sent me this week for their kitchen planner at planyourkitchen.com and I stumbled upon a pleasant little surprise!

FINALLY, they have the cabinets we bought for our new kitchen PAIRED up with the countertops we ended up making a quick decision on. I have been googling all kinds of stuff to give me a visual on how they are going to look together. We put the samples together at the store back in November upon making a decision, but I haven't been able to visualize it sense...hence the excitement to see this picture:

Whoo-hoo-hoo! I like it.

Our handles are different than pictured and our flooring will actually be just about the same as the countertops. I haven't finalized a backsplash yet...originally I was going to go with something "whiteish" as pictured...but I wasn't sure if it would be too big of a contrast. I kind of like it now that I see it in the picture. Decisions, decisions!

Suddenly I'm no longer tempted to rip open the boxes of countertop we're storing here behind our couch (it's too cold to store them at the church house).

Plumbing Covered with Cement: Check

We are soooo close to putting this horrid cement job behind us.  Just have to remove the frame around the shower and pour the shower floor before we store our new best friend "Orangey" away until spring when I have grand plans of mixing and pouring large cement patio blocks. <------wow...long run-on sentence. OR until I talk the hubster into cement countertops....mwahahahahha! Actually I don't know about that yet...just throwing the idea around a bit.

Anyway, the cement job wasn't so horrific once we (by we I mean they) got started and all the supplies, machines, tools, were in place.



My twin uncles who are only a few years older then me, worked like a well-trained team of Oxen keeping that cement mixin' and spreadin'.




My 13 year old got in on the fun lugging 5 gallon buckets of water from the neighbor's house.

Our friend, Vernon, lifted bags of cement for 2 hours straight and my amazing husband did a LOT a bit of everything.


Two and half hours later, smoother than an elephant's ba-hoosky...we have a nice solid (well soon-to-be-solid) floor to walk across again.



We felt like celebrating...so we went to our church's "Minute to Win it" game night and left the cement to cure by the heat of our "little propane heater that could."



Exhausted from Saturday's events, we took Sunday off from going to church and went to check on our work, prepared to finish the pour on the shower floor.



But, like the cats exclaimed in the 1985 movie I filmed with my friend Joni Todd when they discovered the flood wrecking their town, "Horror!"

Picture Stolen from someone else's blog

(No pictures accompany the following events):

The middle of the basement was covered in 1-2 inches of water streaming toward the old plugged drain. At first glance we thought perhaps the water was just run-off from the wet cement. Most of the cement was not yet cured and when my babe sat down the work light, he noticed it sank a little into wet cement. Further discovery showed a huge bubble of concrete in that section. Ah ha! Someone must have bumped the valve that was keeping the old water line off while we were trying to bury it for eternity.

My babe dug through that cement like someone digging to find a lost wedding ring (not really, I just though that sounded kind of funny). Actually, he calmly dug until he found the valve and said, "Yep, somebody must have bumped it on."

With the mystery solved, we quickly worked to get the mess cleaned up and the cement smoothed back out. The rest of the cement wasn't cured enough to take the forms out, so work was delayed another day. I guess we were forced to take a Sabbath-rest after all.

Like I said before, "Cement, how I loathe thee."

One last shout out to the men who helped carry  (73) - 80lb bags of cement into our basement...you know who you are!

And another shout out to our new friend "Orangey."  Hope you enjoyed your shower!

One Plumber Plumbing

This old church house came with the following plumbing:

(1) Toilet
(1) Bathroom sink
(1) Other sink (laundry basin)
(1) 5 Gallon water heater (that's not a typo...5 gallon...not 50 gallon)
(2) Floor Drains

Also Note:  All plumbing was in the basement.

As you can imagine, A LOT of plumbing needed to be added to make this a livable space for an American family of 4. Hey, we'll still be living with the below average number of bathrooms (we will have 1 for us and 1 for the apartment)...the average is 2 per household. And we kind of thought we need a place to bathe and do laundry...soooooo...

Step 1: Cut into the current floor to locate and modify existing plumbing. Usher in the giant cement saw, cement dust, sludge, swinging sledgehammer, and lots of chunks of concrete to haul out.



Step 2: Remove nasty drain pipes and replace with nice white PVC drain pipes.

Kitchen Sink

Step 3: Oh heck, I really have no idea what I'm talking about. My hubby did all the work and he looked like a master engineer with all the PVC and CPVC elbows, weyes, tees, and purple glue stuff encircling him.



I do now know a few things and that is this:

• Purple Primer is messy and smelly, but it ensures a tight seal and a happy mood.
• Drains look like spaceships

• PVC is used for drains (stuff leaving the house), CPVC is used for water lines (water coming into the house)
• Cool new words like "3-3-Weye" (not the letter Y), "3-2-Bushing", "Couplings", and probably a few other useless words that I hope I never have to say to the guys at the hardware store again.
• When all the drain pipe is in and you run 20 minutes of water through the pipes with no leaks or water backing up, it's cause for celebration!
• My husband is just amazing, amazing I say! (I already knew this part, but it's worth repeating)

With this new information in place, I can now say we have a nice set of pipes in our house.

Look at those Pipes!

Our new plumbing includes the following and now includes 2 levels of plumbing:

(2) Toilets (1 up, 1 down)
(1) Walk-In Shower
(1) Bathtub
(1) Bath/Shower
(2) Washer Hook-ups
(3) Bathroom Sinks
(2) Kitchen Sinks
(1) Dishwasher
(1) Refrigerator Water Line
(1) Outdoor Spigot
(3) Floor Drains
(2) 50 Gallon Heaters (not hooked up yet)
(1) Water Softener (not hooked up yet)

Now, the thing that has delayed us a couple of weeks now....covering those pipes back up. Cement work, I loathe you.

Decon to Recon Home Renovation

There is soooo much deconstruction! I've personally had it with deconstruction. It seems to be about the only thing I can help with.

Deconstruct and then haul out the aftermath and then haul away the aftermath and then unload the aftermath. I'm touching this stuff FOUR times and then sweeping up afterwards!

I'll stop whining ONLY because I have begun to see some REconstruction going on. And it is so exciting!

First off, we tore out the stage on the main level where the worship band use to stand.



We found some very disturbing construction below the carpet and sub-floor. Apparently when they removed the sunken baptismal they replaced it with some rigged up boards that weren't supported by anything.



We've wondered why the floor seemed to move all those years when the band was "stomping Satan under their feet." Turns out, God saved them from a catastrophic fall through the floor to the pits of hell below.

The floor remained open for several weeks as we struggled through a tough month. And then the gumption came to rebuild the floor and support structure. I had the privilege of throwing every unusable board out the window (literally) and then loading them up in the truck to take to the burn pile to unload again. Before your sympathy for me overflows too much, my wonderful dad and kids helped too.



Now, we have this beautiful sturdy floor (or sub-floor I think is what it is called) complete with plumbing for the kitchen, bathroom, and laundry area that will one day be built in its place.



My husband is super talented.

IKEA or bust!

We've planned, planned, and planned some more for our trip to IKEA in Twin Cities, Minnesota!  Twice a year, IKEA offers up to 20% off kitchen cabinets, appliances, and some accessories.  Hoping to be moved in by May of next year, time was of the essence to get in on the deal that ended at the end of November.



The trip took just about every ounce of energy, creativity, enthusiasm, and too many other things to think of out of me to even blog (and barely facebook) about. Almost caught up and a series of unfortunate events followed...so sorry for the delay.



Don't get me wrong. I loved, loved, loved living at IKEA for 12 hours straight. My feet didn't love it and neither did my Type-A husband. And, I have to be honest, I was in creative overload when I left...to the point I didn't want to decorate or plan a single other thing in our house. But, that soon passed.

The kids started out at IKEA with us and my parents, seeing the stress mounting, grabbed them and headed to the Mall of America next door. After visiting the showrooms, we STILL had not made it to the Kitchen Department to meet with our planner, Eva Davis. Now the kids were back and time to eat lunch at the IKEA cafe
where Lingonberries and Elder Flower Beverages are a must!


The afternoon continued and continued and continued. With our kitchen plans finalized and payed for we ended up basically getting 3 appliances for free with the savings (or so Eva Davis told us....she's smooth). Making the trip with a moving van ready to take everything home, we weren't about to NOT make the most of the trip and shop around other departments. We found some super sweet deals in the damaged section, and found the the bathroom cabinet and sink I wanted were on sale. And wouldn't you know, IKEA just started a super sweet deal on 15% back on sofa purchase that I had to take advantage of.

Kitchen Planner - Eva Davis

With the trip behind us, I can't really remember everything we ended up getting. I just know we starting loading the truck at 7:30 pm and were eating supper back at the motel by 9pm in complete delirious exhaustion. No wonder I lost my phone that night at the restaurant!



Can't wait to put this IKEA stuff in our new home...

Basement Entrance

It's old news to the locals driving by, but to those of you around the world waiting in anticipation for a house renovation update we can now walk in the back entrance, down the stairs into our basement!!

With the walls securely in place, we were finally able to pour cement for the pad, build stairs, and frame in the entrance door.







Welcome to our Home! Come on in!

The Grand Entrance Continues

I love the fashion of construction work, that mask doubles as a headband.

The entrance is beginning to look like an entrance, or maybe like a mini shed attached to our house.


My amazing husband framed that thing and sheeted it all by himself once he and my dad figured out the rafter angles. My dad got in on the tail end of finishing up the roof and rafter tails and is planning to single-handedly shingle that cute little roof this week. Wow, the men in this family are talented and amazing!

Hanging the "Typar" brought back memories of our South Dakota mission trip.

While my babe diligently worked on the entrance my dad and I worked on cleaning up the mess that has accumulated week after week. The forms are stacked and ready to take back to Dixon Construction and the wagon is loaded and ready to take to the landfill again. I am determined to have everything outside ready for the first snow to hit (which I've heard could be this week...NOOOOO!).

Before with the Mess                                                                After the Mess is cleaned up (and my mom in the hole)

After all that fun on the outside, my babe was not going to let the weekend end without getting his plumbing channels cut. So here he is showing off that he can cut and text at the same time. I think that women are supposed to think men operating power tools are sexy, but I'm just not seeing it. I don't get what is sexy about fumes being blasted into the air while sludge is being poured out all over the floor while the clothes he is wearing are going to have be washed in an industrial machine if he ever wants to wear them again which really translates, I'll be throwing those away and buying a pair at the New Image Thrift Store. Did I mention I will probably be the one cleaning up the mess on the floor and trying to blow that crap out of the house? But really, I AM impressed how he operates that thing. He cuts a really good piece of concrete (while texting).

Amazing.

The Frames Must Come Out!

The past weekend just didn't feel very rewarding. I'm sure a lot was done, but it just doesn't feel like there is a lot to show for it. And I don't know about you, but these exterior pictures are beyond getting old. I really need to see something pretty.

For one thing, getting cement frames out after the cement is poured and cured is not an easy task. My babe and a few others worked on these things every night in the hope of starting on building up the structure on Saturday. Ugh.

Construction Genius and yep that's ME working in the background!

Because of our cement mishap that caused cement to push to hard against the forms and seep out every crack and crevice, there was some extra sledgehammering to be done to loosen things up.

I have to say, my Uncle Jaret is a master form-remover. Master everything construction really. It was mesmerizing to watch him remove a form in less than 30 minutes by himself. His techniques are a little more professional then banging and jumping on the wall technique we had been trying for several days. You mean we should remove the stakes and loosen the cement around the edges BEFORE we start trying to sledge the forms out of place? Brilliant.




With the forms out, the holes were filled in with dirt and my dad sledged like a madman to get all of the overflow cement out of the entrance hole. Mr. Levine helped throw chunks of cement out of the hole with me. What a work-out!

Thor's Hammer?

Larry Levine

Darkness Falls

Here's my babe finally laying the first piece of green-treated lumber:

Yes, my dad is still working on getting the last of the forms out.

Window Wells Using Landscape Timbers

If you've ever priced window wells, you understand why we went with Landscape Timbers.  For the not so pretty metal jobbers, they are priced over $200 each.  If you want anything pre-made that is fancier than that you can expect to pay around $400 each.  We considered our options and decided the most cost-effective with consideration for the installation time, we chose landscape timbers.

For each Window Well, we used approximately 14 timbers @ $2.97/each (now on sale for $1.97/each...I will be going back for my discount).  So being the Mathematicer (play Webkinz..it is a word) that I am, that comes to about $42 per window well.  Add landscape fabric, screws, adhesive, and caulk and the price is still WAY lower than the pre-made metal thingy dings.

Now with that being said, I design...my husband builds.  Here's how he did with a little help from our Husmann friends:



Now, the above may not be the preferred order or you may be thinking I put the pictures out of order. But, no, that is the order things were done. And here is how it ended up:



Isn't it beautiful? The support board will come out once all of the landscaping is done around it.

Here's how the second one started, notice any difference in method?



Yes, he started IN the hole to eliminate having to use the Bobcat to lower it in.

And finally, the third Window Well which I absolutely love!



Look at the built-in "herb" box!!



From the inside:



I felt so loved when I came home to see the added feature of the herb box in this window well. I know I mentioned to him that some people have done that, but I didn't know he was planning to do it. So sweet!