When we bought our salvaged french doors from Historic House parts two springs ago, we knew they wouldn’t be great for the frigid Upstate winters. They’re single-pane glass, and they could really use new glazing. They weren’t built to be exterior doors, but we just didn’t care. They’re beautiful, they let in tons of light […]

Back in January, we got all exicted about a fancy Pegasus kitchen faucet we bought at Home Depot - only to find that the spayer handle leaked, persistantly, even with replacement parts. You can read about the debacle here.
With budget problems mounting, we decided to leave well enough alone for a while and put the […]

We’re about 90% done with the interior kitchen renovation, and I know you’re all curious, so I thought a slideshow might be in order. But first, a few before and afters - click on a thumbnail below to see a larger version:

Before
After

Before
After

All in all, it’s been quite an experience. We started with a scary, rotted […]

One of my biggest cleaning chores has always been the dog cage. It’s big, it’s unwieldly, and my little guys aren’t too proud to let loose and pee in it from time to time.
I’ve gone through a few different “systems” trying to find the best solution to this problem. For a while, I had a […]

Our new kitchen faucet is a dud. What a huge disappointment.

A few weeks ago we purchased a Pegasus two-handle high spout faucuet, very similar to this one, from Home Depot. We paid $179, an amount of money I had a hard time parting with even though the faucet was very pretty and exactly the […]

This weekend, our kitchen took another giant step away from a drab, dirty, box of a room we hate to an attractive and functional room we actually WANT to use and spend time in.
First, the goodies we purchased to make it happen:
A Whitehaus double-bowl farmer sink from Buykitchensinks.com and a very pretty Pegasus faucet from […]

I don’t know if it’s the new year, the Ikea trip, or just a chemical imbalance, but I’ve been on an organizing rampage since last weekend and I just can’t stop…..
It started with the pantry. We put shelving in, which meant *YAY* no more overstuffed kitchen cabinets. That got me revved up, so I went […]

We just leapt into Future-Land! At least, that’s what it feels like. When we moved in, we inherited a somewhat-working dishwasher from the previous owners. Shortly thereafter, that thing crapped out and made for a lovely “microwave stand” until we rented a dumpster and trashed it. No big deal, we thought. There’s just two of […]

Since the day we moved in, we’ve debated the merits of various kitchen countertop materials. We’ve gone back and forth between cement, wood, and tile.
The pros/cons of each were weighed carefully. Tile would be easy to install, and relatively cheap, but the grout would be a pain to clean and it wasn’t a look […]

and look what he fit through the chimney:

For Christmas this year, Teague and I asked my parents & grandparents to help solve our dirty dish dilemnas, and they definitely delivered. I can’t tell you how excited I am. I hate, hate, hate coming home to a sink full of dirty dishes every night. Even if […]

We’re too busy working on upstairs “quick fixes” to worry about our kitchen progress right now, but that doesn’t stop me from daydreaming about my pantry - which is still lacking shelves, so isn’t being used yet.
When we do get around to pimping it out, my top organization requirements are:
1. A place to store and […]

Oooooh. Ahhhhh.

I’m pretty sure our french doors are the prettiest part of the house right now. I spend a whole lot of time admiring them. And now, with some embellishment, they’re even better.
We had two leftover exterior brackets (from tearing off the old porch)that needed a purpose in life. Long ago we planned to use […]

Take a look at our state-of-the-art dustbag for the mitre saw. Why spend all that money on fancy attachments when you can just wrap some masking tape and paper towels into a makeshift pouch? This, my friends, is Wagner ingenuity at it’s finest. On par with another of our budget-friendly solutions, the homemade scaffolding.
Why are […]

Our open house was a smashing success - thanks to everyone who stopped by and humored us ;)
It was great to finally share our progress with so many friends and family members. We’ve been in the house for nearly a year, and this was the first time I wasn’t mortified to have guests spend […]

Going from no wall, to plywood, to insulation, to actual real-live walls is about as exciting as it gets around our house. And getting the ceiling AND walls done in one weekend for the kitchen addition has got us doing cartwheels!
Friday night:

Sunday afternoon:

(click on the thumbnails for larger images)
The walls make it feel like an […]

When you and your husband are trying to hold a piece of drywall up over your heads while standing on two shaky ladders, one of you perhaps wearing flip-flops, and you can’t get it to fit exactly right, it’ll start to feel pretty damn heavy. And when the “dead man” wooden support falls, and the […]

Another work weekend has come and gone; we worked hard and it paid off - the chimney is ready for painting, the kitchen ceiling is framed in, the french doors are spar varnished, and the inner walls are fully insulated. But I bet you guys are about as sick of the boring home improvement stories […]

Our holiday weekend was jam-packed. We spent alot of time with family, stopped by the New York State Fair , and still managed to squeeze in a full day at the house. God bless the 3-day weekend.
After doing some research and cost estimates for the proposed deck, we decided it could wait. There are […]

With the kitchen exterior. Can you believe it? It felt like this day would never come. It was no small project!

One door still needs flashing in, and there’s a bit of touch up painting left to do, but after a very long weekend of painting and putting up trim, we’re calling it done.
Teague did a […]

Though it sometimes seems we’re moving at a snails pace, we’ve been priming, painting and putting up more trim on the kitchen addition. I took a day off of work to paint, paint and paint, so the outside now looks like this:

Ooooh, color!
And one side is completely trimmed and painted except for the dark red […]