Yard Work Project From Hell

When the appraiser came through to look at the house before we did any work the first thing he said was that our back yard and in general front yard looked pretty rough. Not just because we have a garage that is literally falling down - but the back yard looks like someone could get lost and perhaps die from carnivorous plants.



So this is what I'm dealing with here.... It's pretty bad. I didn't take a picture of the back side of the garage where I'd found that my grandfather had been hoarding stuff ... and a family of opossums had built a nest.

After six days of raking leaves that hadn't been raked in probably 10 years, cutting down small trees that had grown just a little taller than I am from seeds falling out of other trees - and generally thinning out the poison ivy and various other weeds and whatnot.

Here's what I've got now.

Managing electricity in an old home

What I learned when I had our electrician come out to the house at the beginning of this project is that in the 1930's when the second story of the home was put onto the house - they didn't exactly allow for the extra power usage by a whole second floor. What he thinks happened is that they branched off the power from the downstairs and just brought it upstairs.

A friend of mine who does construction and whatnot said this is typical of older homes. So the guys at Yukon's Twin City Electric - Russell specifically who has been really great and super helpful - hooked me up for a pretty reasonable fee. With the exception of the master bath renovation I think we're done with electrical work! I have new lights in my closets and lights and plug ins in the bathroom upstairs now... so I can dry my hair IN the bathroom.... (It's the little things)

Updating the power was one thing - but we were running on an old fuse system and would blow them every time we were drying close and watching TV at the same time. When we get our new energy star appliances and new heating and air conditioning units I imagine this will be easier but in the mean time ... bringing our electricity up to code was probably a good idea...

Before - except I didn't take a picture of the fuse panel...


After! (Also note the fancy windows!!)

Super Energy Efficient Windows Complete!

Wow..... the difference it makes is unreal - seriously... unreal....
Before:

After!


ooooo ahhhhh





these are the most energy efficient windows I could get. Low e suck all of the air out and pump in that special stuff that is supposed to defuse whatever...

Here's what you need to know about energy efficient windows. If you want to get the tax credit for energy efficient improvements to your home... I'd invest before the end of the year because chances are those are going to get cut by Congress next year.

OMG Windows

First window going in by husband and wife team from K2 Instantiations. Yay for hiring locally!

YAY! NEW WINDOWS!

So here's what I'm dealing with.




























































Yesterday morning when I was at the house doing a few things - my grandfather actually said to me "You know, I was looking at those windows in your bedroom... and they're pretty bad...." I just wanted to go.... yeah no sh*t. Welcome to the party. Let's not focus on you being late, but embrace that you showed up at all....

The windows were purchased from Consolidated Builder's Supply in Oklahoma City with a big thanks to Chad Proffit who has endured many emails and phone calls from both my mother and me. Dan Kerranat K2 Installations is the genius behind the install who begins tomorrow. Dan has the daunting task of basically redoing all of the framing of almost all of the windows in the house. Which by the way are 28 windows.

The deliver guy was super nice and obviously very careful. They arrived sooner than expected and I had to race over to the house because I wanted to make sure none of the frames were bent or glass was broken, but no worry they were all in perfect shape and well wrapped for the travel across town from their warehouse.

These windows are the highest in energy efficiency you can buy. So, we've got three things that will be happening here. First, the re-framing of the windows will create a tighter seal between the windows and the house reducing cold air leaking into the house. Second, we've got windows that are actually sealed up, where as you can see from the photos above are horrible. Even with the storm windows the amount of cold air that leaks into the house is astounding. Third, we're talking about super high efficiency glass that will stop the insane heat that we experience in the summers too.

I happily wrote them the second half of my check to pay them. Total for 28 brand new windows 6 of which feature the Prairie style lines in the upper frame was $5,177. Not bad. I'll be taking pictures of Dan and his team tomorrow and reporting on the work. It's supposed to take them a whole week there's so much to be done. And it's not cheap... $6600 for instillation.

Upstairs Bathroom Progress

Remember this? and then this?

Well the progress has continued :)

Let the games begin

I have officially purchased bathroom renovation ... stuff... and whatnot

Upstairs Bathroom Redux

So - I've basically decided on my inspiration for the upstairs bathroom.


I found tile at HomeDepot for literally 99 cents a tile that is porcelain but has that slate look to it. The thing about slate is its a nightmare to keep clean, and in a bathroom.... well... obviously that's not a happy place to have difficult to keep clean things.

Love the color of the walls - I might do a few panels of waynes coating depending on how much money I have left over.

But the biggest fight has been to find the right vanity. I thought I'd found the perfect one at HomeDepot but its an antique white which is not white enough. But its impossible to find a counter top/vanity combo that is less than 38 inches wide, white, and not over $1500.

So I kind of like these - all of which are different.







Even though this one doesn't have drawers I really like the shape of it. . . .but I really want drawers in a bathroom, right? That's a no brainer.

Upstairs Bathroom

So ... there's been a long delay before I can do anything significant on the house because I have had to wait on my loan. While I'm waiting, however... I demolished the upstairs bathroom... ya know... like ya do...
This is my BFF Peaches beating down a wall...

Shower from hell...


So... inspiration for the bathroom to be honest comes from my friends Chad and Cheyanne's master bathroom. Sage walls slate looking floors and wall tile... very sexy.


This one is my fav