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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]