Laundry Room

The laundry room had some serious carpet issues.

Not only was it an unattractive color,

but is didn't smell very good either.

And it was glued to the cement.

At one time, the laundry room was a porch.

They left the siding on the former exterior wall.

This turns out to be a good thing for us.

When we convert the upstairs apartment entrance door to a window, 

we can use the siding from the laundry room

to fill in on the exterior where the door was.

So, we got rid of the old fridge and began scraping 

up the carpet backing
(we seem to do this a lot).

And from what we can tell,

we'll be doing the same thing in the upstairs.

Anyway, we scraped the floor.

After removing all the carpet and padding, 

I scrubbed the floor to try to get rid of the odor.

Nothing seemed to work with that 100%.

My thought is that a dog peed in there on the carpet

and it soaked through to the porous cement.

The game plan is to seal the cement with a primer that locks in odors.

I primed the walls,

and chose a minty green color called Witch's Brew

for the room.

Yes, I chose it mostly for its name.

So, I planned on finishing up the trim paint
and priming the floor
before posting any kind of reveal.
Then Friday, Big E got home early.

 And he decided it was a good time to rip off the aluminum siding
from the former exterior wall.

 Underneath is old asphalt siding.
If it were in better shape,
 I would have painted it white and leave the brick-like effect,
but there are too many holes.

Big E also took out the bathroom window.
We're preparing for demoing the bathroom,
which is what prompted the whole window and siding removal.

So the laundry room is not finished,
and the big reveal will have to wait until we have
fixed the back wall and closed in the window
and put down the laminate flooring. 
So much to do!

Putting up the Cabinets

Last night, Big E and I worked on the garage some more.

We adjusted the plans a little bit and made some room for gardening tool.

The empty space next to the cabinet below will eventually

have some shelves for me to store pots and trowels and what not.

A big thank you to our neighbor's son 

who came over and helped with the largest cabinet

(the one on the far left below).

I wouldn't have been able to hold it in place myself.

I'm anxious to get the tools moved out here from the laundry room

so I can get that finished.

So much to do, so little time.

The Garage

First, I apologize for the not so great photos,

but the garage is not well lit and it was dark.

Last night, Big E and I began working on organizing the garage.

Right now, it's a hodge podge of cabinets, replacement windows, scrap metal,

paneling from the house and various pieces of wood slated to go to the burn pile.

No room for my car,

or anything else for that matter.

Plus, I'm anxoius to get my laundry room cleaned up, 

and Big E's tools need a place to go live other than my laundry storage cabinet.

So, it was time to try to get things picked up.

Once again, we've managed to save and reuse items.

For his work shop area, 

Big E salvaged the cabinets from the former upstairs kitchen.

I'm quite pleased with how much we've been able to reuse so far.  

It saves money and it keeps the stuff out of the landfill-

win for everyone.

Anyway, we got the biggest (and heaviest) into position, got ready to screw it into place

and the drill battery died.

While annoying at first, 

it gave us a moment to rethink placement of cabinets and discuss where my gardening stuff is going.

So tonight we will move everything around and get the cabinets up 

and the tools out of my laundry room.

I'm hoping I get to claim some space for gardening items.

I might just have to forgo space for my car.

Desktops Complete

We had a pretty productive weekend this weekend.

Big E was as anxious as I was 

to get the office area up and running.

We used 2x4's we saved from demoing the old wall

separating the upstairs and downstairs

to make a ledge for the desktop to rest on.

And we used the closet doors for the desktop,

so we didn't spend any money and we kept some things out of the landfill.

And after just a few more hours,

we had two desks.

Mine, of course, already has a ton of stuff on the shelves,

and a sign that reads "Ghost Stories Told Here".

Big E's area is a little barren

(though I'm certain I can help fill it up)

and sports his Elvis sign.

Eventually the room will be primed white

to brighten it up and make it easier to find curtains to match.

I'm itching to be able to start using the space.

Our productive weekend kept us from having much free time at home.

 

The Office Continued

Here we have a photo showing the majority 

of my scrapbooking supplies all together in one place.

All that's left are a couple of bins and a stack of completed books

at my parents' house,

and some odds and ends up in the attic.

Since i have to go over to the homestead to get the hens ready

for the polar vortex this weekend, 

I'll grab what's there.

Big E (the husband) will be working on the desktop next.

I can't wait to have my own little space again.

In other news, I think I changed my mind about painting the walls.

I think white is a good choice,

so I'm going to go ahead and priome the walls and leave them like that for a while. 

he white will help brighten the space up considerably, not to mention it's easier to match curtains to white than to gray/blue/brown paneling.

Weekend in the Office

This is our back room in the downstairs.

From day one, we planned to make this 

and office/den/guest room/playroom.

Sounds crazy.

My idea was to remove the closet doors, add a shelf

and make a built in desk top to create his and hers desk areas.

I've been dying to have a space to scrapbook again, 

and this should provide the storage I need to have all those supplies at hand.

And with some portable folding tables, 

I have the room to have some fellow scrapbookers come over and scrap together.

I'm anxious to get the office up and running.

It drives me nuts to not have an area to keep paperwork organized.

So, using the 2x4's from the former upstairs dividing wall, 

the boards from the upstairs kitchen pantry and the closet doors,

we'll be able to get both desk areas completed for little to no cost!

This, Ladies and Gentlemen, is how to keep stuff out of the landfill, 

figure out a good use for it if you can't recycle!

I can not even begin to express how excited I am about this space.

It's been about 2-3 years since I've been able to scrapbook.

And I like to be organized.

As far as changing the room itself, 

the husband and I have opted to leave the paneling as is for now.

The carpet isn't the greatest, but it's doable.

Plus the walls will be covered with our "collections":

the husband has a ton of Elvis photos and such, and I have a ton of ghost/paranormal items.

It'll be a hodge podge, but it's a good place for us to display our stuff

(and really, Elvis and the paranormal are more closely related than one might think- with him not quite dead and all)

And in other news, 

the replacement windows arrived.

I can't wait to get these in!

Right now they're taking up my parking space in the garage, 

so our other chore to finish is to get the cabinets up in the garage.

The husband saved the cabinets from the old upstairs kitchen to use to make himself a workshop.

Once the shelves are up, 

we can get things moved around so I can get back in the garage

(especially because we're expecting more ice and snow next week).

Hopefully everything will run smoothly, 

and next week I'll have some "after" photos.

Keep your fingers crossed!

Helpful Hens

We had another snow storm on the horizon, 

so I had to head over to the homestead to take care of the chickens.

The coop needed to be cleaned out, 

and they needed some high energy snacks.

The girls thought I needed help with the straw.

I had to shoo them away several times.

Apparently, they like their straw pre-scratched and picked over.

The coop got cleaned, 

the snacks got added,

and I woke up to snow.

Yay.

A Wet Bottom

There comes a time when you start to wonder why the heck

you took on a hundred year old house.

Last night was one of those times.

We've had a lot of rain coupled with 30"+ of rapidly melting snow.

Add that to a hundred year old foundation

and you get:

water in the basement.

Granted, the amount of water we had isn't as bad as others,

but it made the whole house smell musty.

In the photo above, you can see a couple of things.

You can see the water streaming down through the open doorway in the back

and you can see a water mark on the beam from a previous water issue.

The hubby vacuumed up 21 gallons of water

in our handy dandy shop vac

(I love my shop vac)

And when we got home from a meeting, 

there was even more water waiting to be sucked up.

Normally, water in the basement wouldn't be such a huge issue.

But inspecting the walls of the foundation, 

we found places where the mortar is crumbling and needs to be repaired.

And we need a dehumidifier.

If it's not one thing, it's your mortar.

Snowbirds

I went over to take care of the chickens yesterday evening.

They were in the coop until I showed up, then they wanted to hang out with me.

We took a stroll down to the barn.

It cracks me up how they follow me around.

Mostly they stuck to the grassy paths, 

except Royal Farms.

She opted to go where no chicken has gone before.

Before leaving, 

we noticed Louise never left the coop.

Seems the leg band she had slipped down and had cut her leg.

So we had to do some emergency first aid.

She was quite content to lay in my husband's arms.

I imagine not having to put any pressure on the leg and being warm had something to do with it.

After some antibacterial ointment

and blue camo vet wrap, she was ready to go.

I'll have to keep an eye on her leg,

but I'm sure she'll be fine.