Making headway

It has been a busy few weeks! Since I started a new job, Mom and Dad have taken over as project foremen and are doing a fabulous job as usual. Shannon has been coming to assist us and took down all of the really ugly ceiling fans. This is great news, but also leaves me no light to take pictures with when I get home from the gym :-( Other highlights:
*The basement demo continues... Just the blue bedroom and bathroom left to go and it will be a big open/empty space - just how I want it!
*The rewiring has commenced. Shannon has set up all the wiring in my kitchen to meet code and we are going to pull permits ASAP so we can get it inspected and start the insulating and sheetrocking.
*The bathroom vanity has arrived and is waiting at Home Depot. We haven't picked it up yet because the vanity top isn't in yet...
*The kitchen tile is still on back order at Lowe's.

I really want to get some pictures up of the basement because it looks so different! I think we have another dump trailer full of debris to haul out!

Heather's woodworking projects

Heather has been creating some absolutely beautiful pieces of furniture! Through remodeling her house, she has discovered a love of woodworking. She can often be found looking at the latest projects posted on http://www.knock-offwood.com/ which is a blog of easy furniture plans written by a woman in Alaska. Here are some of her creations:

She calls these her "picture frames" and she made them out of a simple molding she bought at Menard's, mitered the joints and air nailed them up. I had no idea something so simple could dress up a dining room so much!

Heather made this headboard using a door she removed from her house during the remodel. Simply added a couple 4x4's, put some boards on top and down the middle, painted it and instant headboard! In my esteemed opinion, it looks like something you'd buy at IKEA! And she made it using an old door. That takes skill!

It's hard to say what woodworking project Heather is most proud of, but I'd have to say it is this one. With an awkward spot in her living room, but between the main entrance and kitchen, she decided to build a window seat. She used two base cabinets (the ones with the drawers) and one upper cabinet from Menard's. She built the two cubbies with no doors and the countertops. She even hand crafted the seat cushion. What was once an almost unusable space has become a really awesome spot to read a book and doubles as additional living room seating. The cats also really like this spot :-)

This was her first attempt at a headboard. The lighting is terrible in this picture, but it has a white washed stain on it to compliment the white furniture in my room. She used a plan from Knock-off Wood. Due to the amount of wood used, it is quite heavy. Dad said if there is ever an air raid we could just hide under my headboard! Silly Dad. But at least I know it is solidly built and made of real wood. It is gorgeous and I love it!

I had to share her awesome projects because she has worked so hard on them. I sure hope she wants to come over to my house and try out some new plans!!!

New vanity = ordered!

We have been looking for a 30" x 18" vanity for my bathroom for about a week. After checking out Home Depot, Lowe's and Menard's and not being impressed with the selection, I decided to order a custom cabinet from Thomasville at Home Depot. It ended up being slightly more expensive, but far better quality and is exactly what I want. I also ordered a custom top for it that is going to be so beautiful! Oh, and an over the toilet cabinet, too. They said it would be six weeks, so plenty of time to get the tile laid, right?

Other recent purchases:
Two ceiling fans at Menard's - on sale for $50!
Plumbing supplies to get the bathtub operational
Sheetrock for the bathroom

I started a new job at US Bank today and so I am no longer available during the weekdays to help Mom and Dad with the house. This makes me kind of sad because I really enjoyed getting to spend quality time with my Mama and Papa. :-/

Some of my favorite helpers!

My most favorite helpers in the whole wide world came to assist at the construction site a while back:

David Anthony with Grammy

Sydney Lucille

Katherine Joan

Thank you to my sister-in-law Kourtney for stopping over with my precious nieces and nephew for a visit. I love these kids!!!!

Iowa house damage

Mom and Dad drove to Ames last Monday to survey the damage and line up people to fix the place. They took these photos of the damage:

This is the side and back of the garage. You can see that if the tree would have been just a few inches to the left the damage would have been much more significant. Fortunately it is just the overhang that has been ripped off.

A hole in the ceiling of the garage. There were several places where the tree went through the roof in the garage.

The overhang on the back side of the garage also sustained some damage.

The bigger picture of the tree on the house. I am so thankful no one was living there when this happened, the damage is relatively minor and the contractors have already removed the tree off the house.

Now, if only we could sell the place once the roof is fixed...

Reinforcing sub-floors

Brother Russ first introduced us to this genius technique at Heather's house. Because the sub-floor has lived a good life for over 50 years, we decided to give it a little help to make it stronger for the next 50 years. Dad cut the plywood into 14" strips, applied Liquid Nails and then we screwed it to the sub-floor from underneath. This photo is of the laundry room "ceiling" which also happens to be the bathroom sub-floor. You can see we've attached the reinforcing plywood. We will also attach 2x2's to the floor joists for further support, we just haven't done that yet in this photo.

We will do the same reinforcement under the front entry and kitchen where I plan to install tile.

Piles and piles of junk

Where there is demolition, there is junk. Lots and lots of junk. Fortunately, Dad got Mom a dump trailer for Mother's Day (what a guy!) and we've been very busy filling it up - three times and counting! Dad hauls it to a demolition landfill for half the price of renting a dumpster. I thought you'd like to see some of our piles of junk!

This looks like old kitchen cabinets and the plywood that was under the kitchen tile.

The basement needed to be un-finished so we could reinforce the floor above, correct wiring issues and do a much better job of waterproofing the place. This is a pile of basement junk.

The handy dump trailer with load #2 all set to go!

We are already hard at work accumulating enough junk for load #4. We still aren't done with the basement demo, but we are getting there!