This 'ol House

For the past month, we've been working every night and weekend. At first glance, you'd be hard pressed to see the dent we've made. We've done so many "little" things while we've waited and waited and waited for the electrical work to be finished. What a saga that's been. While we had the ceilings all opened up, it was important to make all electrical decisions and rewire everything just so before closing everything up. This was especially beneficial as we took out an entire soffit that hung low from the ceiling, therefore creating a lot more height to the main rooms of the house. Unfortunately, our electrician friend and former neighbor has been out of commission due to a rotator cuff surgery. The company he recommends was 3 weeks booked out...so we went with the guy who'd been called in by our chimney guy to help hide wires while doing chimney work during our South Dakota vacation. He had done a lot of work already, knew the house, and would supposedly come after work each day. Long, loooong story short...it took about 3 weeks to do a few long days worth of labor. This guy was a trip and we are so glad he's finally done. (Insert lesson # 253: Nobody cares about getting the work on your house done like you do! Nobody wants to live in the house as soon as you do. ;) 

So, while we did electrical work here and there, we also tackled many, many things.

We've cleared out a ton of extra firewood that was too hard to cut. Rudy loaded wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow of massive logs out to the front of the house and then listed it for free on a local website. This is what we ended up donating. 

These logs were massive and took up so much space on the side of our house and back house. The logs were gone within a couple of days and it's been awesome to be rid of them.

We saved all of this firewood though, since it was already cut up for us! 

The other side of the house is for storing most of our wheels. It looks much less cluttered now that the wood is gone!

Logs covered the entire space here, going up to the top of the wall. We'll try to clean the stains, but for now, we've moved the trash cans over and no one would notice a thing, except the fact that there's less clutter. 

We've been patching holes in the exterior walls as well as sanding down the fascia to hopefully help us lower the cost of getting the house painted professionally. So far, quotes are coming in super high. We think that's due to a lot of prep work that needs to be done. I don't have pictures of the front of the house that Ru and my dad have worked on, but it's been slow going to get all the many layers of paint sanded down.

Another project we've tackled is the jacoozi. I think the boys have played in here every single day. They LOVE to "swim" around and make up all kinds of games. We called a pool man and found out he'd charge way too much for a weekly visit...but he did give us good advice about cleaning it and offered to bring over a used filter from another home to replace our very, very old one. The boys watched and were a part of every part of the process.
First up, drain the water.

Then, scrub scrub scrub.

Rudy and Kyle got right to work cleaning and installing our "new" filter.

Late into the night, Ru detailed this baby.

Here are some shots of the electrical work that's been done.

This whole part above the front door hung down low, right about the door line. I was SO happy the soffit could be taken out! We rewired an entry light so that it would be centered above the door. Picking out a light will have to come in the future, but glad to have it all ready to go. Oh, and the paint around the door won't stay like that, either. :)

Here's another view of all the soffit that was taken out. I suppose it's hard to tell the difference this all makes when looking at a picture, but in real life, this took the house to another level.

Here's one of the before shots, so you can see how low the ceiling came down. 

After some fun demo, masonry, and construction, it looked like this while waiting for all that electrical wire and plumbing pipes to be taken care of.

And here's how it's looked this week while we've waited for the drywallers to come. We're crossing our fingers that tomorrow this will be all patched up. The beam will stay exposed but we'll be staining it to sort of match the fireplace mantel.

Here's a look from another angle. The chimney will need to be completed up by the beams. It will also need black screens covering the openings and a nice piece of reclaimed wood for the mantel. (That part has got me all sorts of excited! I'm hoping we can purchase those things by Christmas time. In the meantime, I will be patient. ;) 

Rudy worked many, many hours fixing the flooring around the chimney. This was quite a job and one that will have to be done again, including the leveling of the floor, when we do the kitchen and replace all the flooring. In the meantime, however, it looks amazing and well worth all his efforts. Rudy was the least pleased with the flooring patchwork and would have gladly ripped it all out to start from scratch if it weren't more prudent to wait for the new kitchen layout. This was a beast of a job...so I'm glad what he's done will pass for now. :)

Here's Ru doing the happy dance when he finally finished!!!!

We are thrilled with every bit of progress we make, but we are anxious to finish the walls and ceilings so we can get our furniture into these rooms and begin actually "living" in our home. No moving in until the drywall and texturing are done. This was supposed to happen last week but instead is happening this week. Fingers crossed this happens and they do good work. After living here for 3 months, I'm excited to finally move in. ;) Here's a typical view of the house...each day and night, we clean up one mess only to make another.

As I type this, Ru has been installing these doors (below) he painted in our living room. We decided we'd wait and gather the funds needed to bring character to these doors. In the meantime, we need the garage space and the bathrooms could sure use some doors...so we'll just slap these puppies on and tackle the doors one by one sometime in the future. In the shot below, you can see the new recessed lighting we've put in. The former owner had the perimeter of the room lined up with lights, but the center of the room was darker. Since our furniture and t.v. configuration will be much different than his, it made sense to rewire the lighting and spread light more equitably. We did the same thing to both sides and will add a single fan to each side in the center of the room. 

We hired the electrician for all the work Ru couldn't do, but saved anything Rudy could handle for after he left. Our electrician friend has been so kind to come over and teach Ru. Both electricians have commented on what a fast learner Ru is and how well he has learned the trade. (I'm so grateful I married a guy who is willing to tackle hard projects...especially when they prove to be more challenging than anticipated - which is just about always!)

Over the past few weeks, we've done more and more finishing type projects to the boys' room. The boys were excited to get their books back out of boxes after we hung up their bookcase. I also framed their most recent art and made a collage on the wall they see most. (Kyle attended a 3 day art camp taught by one of Rudy's friends from college.)

Kyle is super excited about having a clock in his room!

Today, Rudy scored probably his best ever "roadside" find.  Someone placed their perfectly fine fridge out on the sidewalk with a "free" sign on it. Ru had that thing on a dollie in no time, and walked it all the way down the street to our house. We are very grateful to add this to our garage for our guests who stay with us. In just one week, we'll have a family of 5 staying with us for about 3 weeks...so how perfect to be able to offer them their own refrigerator space for food! In true RuMin form, we detailed that thing to perfection and it is now sittin pretty in our garage just waiting for company or Rudy's smelly fish, or a birthday cake. :)

The to-do list is long...really, really long...but we've been checking away at it. I've lost track of how many lists we've made. :)

And though I haven't mentioned it in this post, we've been taking time out to spend together as a family in an effort to keep ourselves balanced in this whole process. Gavin and I started school last week and Kyle begins his school on Tuesday. The drywallers come tomorrow, Monday, and hopefully they are done by Thursday when our guests from Colorado arrive!!