Extreme Makeover Home Edition

I love before and after shots, so here are a bunch of the exterior/yard.

The back entrance to the house, taken October 2006, right after I moved in.

February 2009 - The foundation for the addition is framed here.

Today, May 31, 2009 - The addition is where the old deck used to be, and the new deck is where the overgrown secret garden used to be!

October 2006 - Some pitted grass, a makeshift slate patio, and a much smaller laurelwood hedge in the back.

May 31, 2009 - Flat lawn, trimmed hedge, and veggie garden.

February 2009. You see the side of my neighbor's garage and shed, then the foundation of my garage, then the massive piles of wood on top of my poor raised beds.

May 31, 2009 - Super cute garage, raised beds with veggies, new sod, and my firepit!


October 2006 - Side yard is over grown waste of space.

May 31st 2009 - This area is now home to my favorite spot in the yard (the lawn chair under the trellis), shaded by my beautiful wisteria and bamboo. I fired up the grill for the first time last night and had dinner on the deck.

Advil anyone?

My back, my legs, my shoulder! Staining the two decks this past weekend took its toll on me. But they sure do look good! I made some good progress on exterior painting as well and I now have three of the eight areas I'm doing finished. Yesterday a lot of work was going on inside, installing the baseboards, reinstalling my appliances, attaching window hardware... lots of little things. And on the outside the landscapers were there tearing up the remnants of my old lawn, tilling, leveling, adding super smelly compost. Today they will be back to lay new sod and place some stepping stones I bought over the weekend.

I spent two days staining the decks... you would think Gus did the work by how pooped he looks in this picture! I did the first coat with a waterborne neutral colored base, and then a clear top coat finish.

Lovely new exterior light fixtures.

Cork floors are in. We are having a few issues with the installation of some of the tiles so it looks like they are going to have to come back and relay some pieces.

Painting... sucks!

I've been painting, and painting and painting. And it may seems like I've made very little progress, but I promise you I have! I'm pretty much done with siding except for a few areas on the garage, and now I've moved on to trim. Inside, they have been working on installing the new electrical stuff, and I think the day after tomorrow they are laying the cork floor in the kitchen.

The inside of the garage. This is going to make a nice home for Red Sail! There is paper over the concrete floor to protect it and they've done the window trim since I took this picture so I've got to prime and paint that as well.

Getting there on the garage. Nothing that is white will stay white. I've got five trim colors still to do!

Driveway side just needs some work on the trim. The upper is going to get done later by a pro.

This corner is almost done too!

Have to touch up the trim and then next week landscapers are coming to lay some new sod and bring in some fresh soil for a flower bed under this window.

My pendant lights are up... so cute!

And now my dirty dishes will be very well illuminated too!

Kitchen Progress

My beautiful Pratt & Larson (made in Portland, OR) tile is in place... well almost. There was a mix up on the edge pieces so instead of 1" liners, 4" showed up. Not going to work. So a rush order was placed and the tile company is footing the bill since they made the mistake. Sadly that means waiting 10 days for the tile to be made. So in the mean time they set the remaining tile with a wood spacer. The liner pieces will outline the herringbone area and will run along the top of the blue subway tiles. My lovely Blue Peacock granite counters are in too! Very excited about that!

Tile backsplash.

Close up of granite counters. Blue, gray, golden brown.

Weekend Update

Thanks to three days of sunshine I was able to get a good amount of the siding painted this past weekend. On Saturday Merrill helped out for three of the eight hours, and on Sunday I cranked out another seven hours of work on my own. The walls shown in the pictures below all have two coats done, so that is satisfying. We are supposed to have nice weather this upcoming weekend so I'm hoping to tackle the remaining lower siding, and get a start on the brown trim around the windows and doors.

The color is the exact same color used on the old siding, so any variation is due to ten years of weathering and dirt.

I really wish I had put those raised beds about 2 inches further from the garage. Had to get creative to reach the top three rows of siding.

Yeah, I'm not doing the upper part of this section. Calling a pro!

This area is looking really good. Have to stain the decks ASAP too!

Love it!

The interior painting is almost wrapped up, and the kitchen looks great! Can't wait for the plastic sheets to come off the windows so the light can shine it! I think they still have the stairwell to do, but otherwise they are almost done, yippie! Only 24 days left and it's all coming together outside as well. Concrete is poured, garage doors are in, and the decks are almost done.

Kitchen

Entryway (they will rehang basement door when they are done painting)

Can't wait to take the window cover off!

My garage is so cute! And the interior paint looks awesome. The walkway outside the door will be slate.

New backyard entrance and my old fence is back in place!

Driveway, fence and garage! Gus even signed his name in the concrete :)