This is just a place for me to post remodel photos

I had the idea in starting this blog to post ideas for houses I like and I still mean to do that, I just never do it when I pass houses I like. I do have more of my own remodels though to update so I will just post those.

I have spent the last two months renovating the kids room. My initial intention was to just smooth out the walls with a little skim coat and then put in flooring. When I started doing prep on the walls for the skim coating I discovered there was no insulation inside my walls. I decided I better just pull down all of the walls and put in insulation. We have had problems in the past with walls sweating from condensation when the interior tempurature was greater than the exterior (think cold glass of your favorite beverage on a hot day and all the water that forms on the outside of the glass, that was our bedroom wall at times in the winter).

I'm terrible with the before shots. I wish I had more of how the room looked pre-work. The work shots will have to suffice.

Putting in insulation (R19, nice and insulating)

Hanging the sheetrock

Taping and mudding

Painting the room yellow


Then Heather decided the room was too yellow and we painted two walls a lighter color to tone it down.

We put in some natural color Bamboo flooring

New projects means new tools, notice the compressor and floor nailer I purchased (it was cheaper than renting especially since I am going to use them for the front room soon too)

Heather doing her inspection for approval of my work


I forgot to take pictures of the finished product once the moldings were in and final touch-ups made. We have the crib set up in there and Ethan's bed and it is starting to look like a livable kids room again. I will take some more pictures once drapes and final bedding is put in and it is all officially done.

On to the next project for now though. Last November right before it snowed I got busy on ripping out my parking strip. I tilled up all the grass and put in a brick pathway and left it for spring to plant. I finally got around to finishing it this week and I am pleasantly pleased with myself. Everything I have ever planted before has died and I know nothing about gardening. I got some help from a landscaper friend and my dad who loves gardening so here are the results.

Something I forgot the name of

Some Utah native grass that I don't know the name of that will get bigger and taller

Some Hyssop, which I discovered from wikipedia was the plant the Hebrews were instructed to use to paint their doors with lamb's blood at the passover.

Some Chives from my neighbor's park strip. They remind me of the flower from Horton Hears a Who.

and some Ice plant for some ground cover

I plan on getting sme fire chalice and maybe some thyme to fill in the strip a bit more.

Here's the parking strip from two angles

Here is the view straight on the house from the street

Next up will be ripping out the grass in the front yard and putting in more brick pathway and remodeling the front foom of the house.

The room is almost done

I have been taking my slow sweet time on this room but it is almost done. I skim coated the walls and painted. I am letting the flooring acclimate before I glue it down this Saturday. The picture here doesn't look like anything but a blank wall. That is exactly what it is supposed to be! no bad patch jobs, no holes, no cracks. The skim coating worked wonders. Here is a view from the south wall facing in to the room. And now looking back the other way toward the south. The closet look very nice too. With the wood down I am getting really excited to finish this thing. See how excited I am!

Anyway, my next project will most likely be a bathroom just on the other side of the wall from
this room. I need to start figuring that out. I think I will probably make a model in Google Sketchup and show around to some friends for feed back before I start. I hope I can get that done faster than the six months it has taken on this room.

I'm too lazy to stop the car

I keep thinking about taking pictures of houses I pass around town. When I see certain houses I think "I should stop and snap a few" then I think " ahhh I'll do it later" Here are a few of my own house to try and get things rolling.

My Paternal grandfather passed away in 1994. In life he was a real renaissance man. He was an engineer, a musician that could play almost anything and a true craftsman. I have a hand made rocking elephant that he cut and carved out of wood. He made it when I was born. There is a carved plaque on its tail that says it was made by him for me.

I was in my dad's basement helping him move some things around a few weeks ago. I saw a piece of stain glass I knew that my grandfather had made. I told my dad that he should hang it up and that if he didn't have a place he wanted to hang it that it would look fabulous in my 5'x5' plate glass window in my front room. He then gave me the stained glass. I feel such an honor to have it. It is really a family heirloom and one of the few remaining pieces of craftsmanship left from my grandfather. It will definitely always have a place of prominence in my home. Here it is from the inside and then the outside.

My first remodel project for my house is the basement bedroom. I'm turning it into a master bedroom. I've torn out all of the carpet and ripped up some water damaged areas and cleaned them up. Two weekends ago I poured a self leveling quick setting concrete down to get the floor nice and flat so I can put hardwood down. Yesterday I ran some electrical cable for new outlets and lighting. Here's where I'm at so far.

This is for Houses

I don't know if anyone else does this, probably not, but there are certain houses I see on a regular basis when driving around that hold a certain penchant for me. Many of them aren't attractive or architecturally innovative or anything, they are just houses that stick in my mind. I look forward to seeing these houses when I drive on certain streets. Sometimes they are houses I dream about how it would be to live in them others I wonder about their history or what the name of the style they are designed in is. I end up thinking about these houses a lot when I drive. I'll probably crash my car into the back of some poor unsuspecting parked vehicle one day because I will be too busy day dreaming about the houses I pass.

I thought it might be cool to post some pictures of a few of these houses and write down why I like them. I think this might help me understand my sense of style a little better. I think it also might help me say specifically what I like about houses in general and who knows, it may help me to make a better decision one day when I decided to buy another house.

This blog will probably also include some pictures of my current house as I go through an unhurried renovation of it over the next year or so.