Addition

You may or may not know that we are adding onto our house right now. We bought our little 2 bedroom 1 bathroom house two summers ago with dreams to add on a master bedroom and bathroom. It took a while to get going on the project (partly because of the headache it is to get permits to do everything!!), but now we are going at it in full force and its all coming together. Here are some photos of what's been happening around here:

From a few weeks ago when the framing was going up.

This will be our master bedroom. Our bed will be centered between the windows.

This is taken from the window side in the above photos. You're looking at our closet here and the door to our bathroom.

This is a view of the bathroom from the bedroom. Of course, soon you will only see a door from this angle as the insulation and dry wall goes in next! Shower on the left, tub on the right.

 Our nice big shower at the end and the future placement of our double sinks and linen closet on the right.

Tub and toilet next to it.

This is the laundry room. You are looking into our bedroom on the other side but the access to the laundry room will be from the kitchen. My laundry is currently in the basement so I'm really excited about this addition.

And the changes are invading into other areas of the house too! I couldn't find a good before picture for this section of the kitchen, but our back (main) door used to be where the windows are and we took down a wall next to where the stroller is in the photo. It used to be a narrow entrance into a little mudroom with a small nook on left where the new door is now.

Before on the outside of the house. The patio area on the right is now the addition.

After (Same view as above)

This is from a few weeks ago.

The house currently with the new door.

Again I don't have a good before photo on this one, but this is where we removed a chimney that was going through the middle of our kitchen. It was all framed in before. We are hoping to eventually knock this wall out and open things up between the kitchen and living area.

And we finally removed the front porch! Here is a before shot.

side view of the porch when we bought the house.

another porch view from when we bought the house.

And now its gone! No more 1950's drive-in feel. Now the 1950's bushes need a little work still though (as in I hope a lot of them will be leaving soon too).

And if you didn't think there was enough going on around our house, Chris and I recently tackled a little bathroom paint and trim project. This is a before.

And this is the after with new lighter paint and wainscoting. I love it!

Helpers

I have some posts backed up in my queue for you. I have been silent on this front, enjoying my time with my husband while he is on vacation, but I thought its about time to post my old news so I can catch you all up on my new news too! This one is from early June.

These girls came over to help me with some weeding and outdoor projects so they could earn some money for summer camp. I tell you what, they are such hard workers and definitely went above and beyond what I asked them to do--figuring out what needed to be done and doing it without me even asking. Thanks, Michaela and Anna! I'm sure your hard work was worth your week at camp and it definitely blessed me too!

Andra came by to pick up the girls and ended up in my garden helping me out too. Thanks, Andra! You are amazing!

A little after my first helpers came by, my parents stopped by on their way back from a trip to Idaho. I don't think Vancouver is exactly on their route home but they went the few extra miles to spend an evening and a day with me and they were so helpful too. Thanks mom and dad! My dad even helped me evict a mouse who was enjoying treats in my kitchen. It was good timing for him to be here!

This is my hammock from Doug and Leah Leaman. Thanks you guys for the beautiful brazilian hammock!! They gave it to us for our wedding and 2.5 years later we finally have a place to hang it! I have really been enjoying it this summer and I'm so grateful for my dad who hung it for me too.

My dad also helped me with various projects around the house and yard. Its nice to have a Mr. Fix-it around when the one you are married to is deployed!

Meanwhile, my mom spent most of her day on her hands and knees bleaching my kitchen floor. I knew it was dirty after a winter's worth of the dog and farm boots tracking in mud, but I had no idea it could be this white! Here is a before and after shot when she was mid-way.

After she was finished, my dad declared it clean enough to eat off of. :)

I'm so grateful for the various friends and family who came by and helped me out with various projects and even daily chores. THANK YOU!

Around the Yard in May

Here's some of what I'm enjoying around the yard this month:

Does anyone know what kind of bush/flower this is? I'm stumped. But it sure is beautiful!

Sunflowers were a gift from Talitha. The rest are spring flowers from my yard.

Don't you just love a freshly mowed lawn??

And perhaps my proudest moment was to find apples growing on the tree I tenderly pruned this winter. It was a ton of work because I don't think it had been done for several years--which explains why there were no apples last year. Looking forward to finding out what these will taste like!

Spring Blooms

Spring is here and the weather is fickle. Showers one minute, hail the next, then some sunshine. Here's what is blooming around my house--none of which I planted. It's been fun to see what is popping up.

Birdland Ave.

Okay here was my outside project on the last few sunny days we had. Our drive-way is a U shape with a big hedge in between and we usually only use one half of it so I've been ignoring the clean-up of this portion of the drive. I can't see it from the house so I don't think about it every day, but it is the first thing you can see as you approach our house from the street, so it has been on my to-do list.

Here is a before photo and sorry its so dark! Basically what was going on is that on each side of the drive it was thick with hundreds of 3 ft tall ugly brown weeds. On the left side there are several birdhouses on polls surrounded by rhododendron bushes. So I went to town pulling up all the weeds and taking down the bird houses.

After the weeds were pulled: Bird houses still need to come down.

Here are a few of the rhodies. Most of them are taller than me, making me think that they've been there for a while. I'm not a huge fan of Rhododendrons since in my opinion they are a very ugly bush most of the year, but they do make up for it when they bloom in the spring. And they are our state flower so I suppose I should show some respect. At any rate, it would be a major endeavor to get rid of them so I think they are happily staying put.

I felt a little guilty pulling off the first birdhouse. I know the last owner of the house must've spent hours on these and they were obviously his passion. Each one is unique and some even have themes like a barn birdhouse and a nautical birdhouse, etc. But they are beginning to rot and fall apart and I don't think even the birds can call most of them a home anymore. So after pulling off a couple, I began to feel a little better about it and as more and more got cleaned up, well, let's just say it felt really good! There really are still tons more to go, but it was very rewarding to begin the clean-up that I've been dreaming about since I first saw our new home.

Anyone want a birdhouse?

My Handyman

Well, this window had to go. Most of the windows in our house are ancient...and thus do not help with keeping the house warm in the winter. Our hope is to replace all of them at some point in time but we are taking things one window at a time for now. We actually have a window in the bathroom where the  previous owner (who built the house in 1938) simply added the new shower (to replace a bathtub I'm assuming?) over half of the window. You really can't tell except that you can't open the window and one part of our shower sort of glows on sunny days. He even planted a big bush on the outside to cover up the evidence. So that one may be an interesting fix someday...

But anyway, back to the living room window which was the one replaced this time. With a couple days off last week, my handyman decided to tackle the side of the house that gets all the weather coming in from the west. The siding was beginning to rot where the aluminum window was allowing water to seep in, so he decided to nip the problem in the bud and replace the window and siding all at once.

Kinda scary having a big hole in the side of your house in February...but I'm really proud of Chris for figuring it all out (he had never done it before!!) and being brave enough to tackle the project.

And here is the brand new window (that opens now!! the last one didn't!) and fresh siding with new paint. Yay!!

And I figured I'd share the new pellet stove he installed while I'm talking about my handyman husband. We are loving it and it really makes such a difference in heating our home. I'm sure we will enjoy it to the fullest next winter!

Sunny Winter Work

Chris and I had the weekend off together (only his second weekend off this year so far--poor guy has been working a ton!) and the weather was beautiful! Sunshine and 50 degrees which I will take in the northwest! We both got some projects done outside and Chris installed the pellet stove inside. We are loving having some fire to heat the house instead of electric heaters!

With 5 acres there is plenty to keep up on and I'm sure it will be a several year project to get things how we want them--things in our yard are a little bit crazy with lots of birdhouses and figurines from circa 1975. So I'm just trying not to worry about it all at once and tackle little things here and there. First thing on my agenda was to trim the apple tree. We have two old apple trees and only one produced fruit for us last year so I knew some pruning would be in order to see if we could get some fruit this summer or next. I don't think this guy had been touched for years and after hours of chopping off 10 foot high branches that were 2 inches thick, I still wasn't finished. But it was a good start! Here's hoping for some apples!!

Before:

After: Still more to be done but its looking a little more cleaned up.

So nice to see blue sky in February!

I also tackled an area that was covered in old gross beauty bark and pine needles. It has been so brown and ugly since we moved in and I've just been trying to ignore it. And look! I found this nice little brick path under the inches of beauty bark/needles that I raked away. This photo was just the beginning of the project so it all looks cleaned up and a nice earthy brown now--sorry I forgot to take an after shot.

Do you like my little donkey and cart figurine? Its too heavy for me to move but I did get my little sombrero wearing boy out of there for now. The donkey will live on for another day--for now.

And underneath all the ugly bark I found several patches of crocuses (I think?). It made me so happy to clear away the ugliness and find life growing underneath. Yay for spring!

This guy came out too--we're not Norwegian so it had to go. (Well, I do have a little bit in me but not enough to have a sign...). Thankfully it came out with a little bit of yanking on my part. Anyone want it? ;)

Have you tackled any outdoor projects lately or are you waiting for summertime?