Home improvement: What would you do?

[InfiniteNow]

Well, I did my first bit of front yard gardening this weekend. Weather was purrrfect for it! ;)

 

 

My front yard was in desperate need for curb appeal and vegetation. I did some planting. Three trees, some sage at my entryway door (smells delicious when you approach!), and some flowers which I don't know what they're called... If asked to explain them, I'd say they were pretty and cheap!

 

This spring, I will be putting in some purples and pinks and bright yellows to my flower bed. How fun this is! I never knew how much I was missing when living in an apartment. :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cheers. :beer:

[InfiniteNow]

 

 

In the second and third, you can see where I took out the closet (the shop vac in the picture would have been IN the closet if it were still there). Removing it opened the space WAY up. You can also see the old tile which I've been working to remove for the past month. I've gotten all of the tile pulled up, and have been working to chip out the remaining mortar off the cement with a hammer and chisel for a few hours each night after work.

 

 

 

 

 

When I'm done, I'll be installing this:

 

 

 

 

I finally laid the concrete to fill that 1.5" gap yesterday. The gap was created when I removed that saltillo tile, and I bought, mixed, poured, levelled, and trowelled 2500 pounds of concrete yesterday, and boy are my arms tired (but my muscles are looking fantastic!). :thumbs_up

 

 

 

Seriously, guys... I've been putting that project off for a year and a half because I was so anxious about the extent of the concrete work, but I am SO glad it's finally done. :)

 

 

Now, on to the next... but only after a beer or three. ;)

[Jay-qu]

Well done, it is a satisfying feat to have done a long hard days physical labour, especially when its something you have been putting off doing for a while. Make sure you post some pics of your progress :thumbs_up

[InfiniteNow]

Work continues. I truly wish somebody would have slapped me in the face when I kept suggesting I'd be done with everything I wanted to do within the first year of living here. Yep, proof that I'm a real idiot. Hey look... it's 2009... house still isn't done. :D To my credit, I've been on a major special project at work for the last two years, critical initiative, and even got employee of the quarter for global HR. Good stuff, but the house had to be put on hold as I dove head-first into my job and climbing the hierarchy there.

 

Anyway, last post was about the 2500 pounds of concrete we mixed, poured, and troweled. This holiday off period I laid the flooring on top of it. So, the flooring is down in the living room, dining room, corner bedroom, front bedroom, entryway, hallway, and the area outside the guest bathroom (no pics, having camera trouble). All that's left now are the master bedroom and ktichen. It took me about 4 days straight from 8am to 10pm, measuring, cutting, placing... over and over, but the floor is finally down and looks amazing. I'm sure getting older, as my knees were not happy with me. I remember being in my 20s... I could have done that type of work for two weeks straight and still gone out partying. No more of that, I'm over the hill now. :)

 

I also got a new roof put on this summer. We had 3 really nasty hail storms over the course of 2 weeks, one where hail was larger than golf balls, so I made a claim even though I had to come up with a few thousand bucks to cover my deductible. Since I was paying to have it done, I went ahead and paid extra to get the reflective coating on the sheathing. It's a lot like aluminum foil on the plywood, and it really helps reflect the heat away during our hot TX summers. I also had a ridge vent installed to assist in cooling. It's been great, and it's really nice to have that done.

 

I painted the exterior, and have done more painting inside. The live oak I planted is doing great, and has a timer so it's watered regularly, but my sage didn't make it. We put some honeysuckle vines in, and a nice trellace for them to climb, and they smell awesome when the flowers are in bloom.

 

The guest bedroom had a set of sliding glass doors which led out onto the patio, and I pulled those out and installed french doors. I've now begun tearing out the master bathroom, so the guest bathroom is the only one functioning right now in the house. All of the tile and drywall is down, and I'm slowly working my way toward pulling down a wall which separates the shower area from the sink area (it's too tight right now, where the sink is separate from the shower and basin, so I'll pull down the wall and make it more of a "master bathroom" that is large and open).

 

I bought a whirlpool jacuzzi style bathtub at the local Home Depot when the store was closing and they did a liquidation. That's hanging out in my garage waiting to be installed. Much work to be done before I get there, though, and I'll need to wire it up with electrical (which is another task I've become proficient at... I've rewired multiple lights and outlets, dropped new cable lines into diferent areas of the house, and I'm much more comfortable crawling around my attic than I'm comfortable admitting. :hihi:

 

I also bought new appliances when that Home Depot store closed (GE Profile stainless steel, baby! ... there's nothing like increasing your debt level during a recession :doh: but at 40% off, I couldn't pass it up), so those are waiting and available to go in once I am ready to do my kitchen rennovations (for which I also already have the new sink, faucet, and other goodies).

 

Anyhow, I've still not paid for any work (except the roof), doing it all myself. It's taking a lot of time, and it's difficult to motivate myself after working long stressful weeks, but it's really rewarding and it's finally coming together. It's taken more than 2 years, but it's finally approaching the vision I had when I signed the papers to make the purchase. I think I'll finally get it exactly like I want it and then it will be time to move. :( Okay... thanks for reading this far. Don't hesitate to share any stories you might have. I'd love to hear them.

 

 

Cheers. :)