Sledding

Ryan Sledding from jvtubbs on Vimeo.

This was Ryan going down the hill. Only he and Christine were able to make it to the hill with us, but it was a BLAST. Then we warmed up at our house with spicy hot chocolate, while others trickled in.

Big Weekend

We spent Friday night clearing out Lucy's room (the other bedroom that she stays in during the day) and repairing cracks in there and the bathroom.

Then Saturday we went up to the Golden Valley Menards. Everyday on my way to work their flashing sign has been "Store Closing, Everything __% off". I told Josh about it and we decided to check it out. Saturday was the first day of 40% off everything in the store. Everything was pretty picked over, but we managed to pick up bug repellant, seam roller, wallpaper adhesive activator and knife for wallpapering (when I get around to it in my office), more Restor-a-Finish for the woodwork, and a Handy Paint Pail. 

We also snagged almost all the new gutter supplies that we need at 50% off! It was interesting trying to fit 16' long pieces in our car and driving home. Josh was super excited about these...our gutters have huge rusty hole in them.

That's the Handy Paint Pail. It's pretty handy.

Then Saturday afternoon we painted Lucy's room a light teal color and the bathroom a minty color. Doing pretty good on the list huh?

Privacy Please!

Saturday, I drove down to Clarks Grove to learn to sew. Shelby was home for the weekend and has a machine that I could use. She showed me how to use it and I made these panels for our side door. I got the fabric from IKEA and we had some brackets attached to the woodwork by our french doors in back that we that we repurposed to hang them.

This is the look from the outside. We're glad to have some privacy. You can also see that new lock we installed, I don't think we ever took a final picture of that. Apparently the door used to be yellow (wish it still was!).

Winter Projects Update

We are on a roll with these projects. Josh usually takes the week between Christmas and the New Year off (use it or lose it by Dec 31), so during that time he got some things done around the house including a couple things off the list.

First, he was able to bring our closet light fixture into Michael's for repair. Left you can see it dangling on the day we moved in. I know right, six months to get that squared away. When the bulb finally burnt out, we knew we didn't have anymore excuses. Michael's is a great little shop on Xerxes and 50th that sells lamps and repairs both lamps and light fixtures. For $35 they rewired and soldered it back together, and we love keeping original details in our house!

Secondly, Josh got our doorbell in working order. The chime has been up for a while with wires attached down to the basement where our transformer is, but everything wasn't connected and our new button hadn't been installed. We were finally able to take the "please knock, doorbell not working" sign off our front door.

Then this weekend we started tackling two items off the list simultaneously—removing paint, and restoring the woodwork downstairs on the stairs. We are using Goof Off to remove unwanted paint and Restor-a-Finish in dark oak to bring it back to life.

We've only tackled the bottom step (I just wanted to try the Restor-a-Finish so bad!), so we have quite a ways to go (on the stairs alone), but we'll post updates as we go.

Winter Projects

Since we're on the theme of lists, this is what I'd love to be able to accomplish over the winter. I started this list before Christmas so I've gotten a few things crossed off already. It's quite ambitious, so it may spill into the summer, but here it goes:

Remove paint from lower level woodwork.

Restore lower level woodwork.

Refinish the glass cabinet we got out at the farm.

Finish scanning photos (no way this gets done over the winter).

Create our 2010 photo book. Done!

Strip paper in the office.

Wall paper the office.

Get a library card. Done!

Make grain sack (also from the farm) pillows.

Measure closets for organizers. Done!

Decide on a plan for the closets.

Strip woodwork upstairs.

Paint woodwork upstairs.

Paint walls upstairs. Started.

Strip papers in closets.

Wallpaper downstairs coat closet.

Finish installing the doorbell. Done!

Repair the light in our closet. Done!

Organize all my fonts.

Redo kitchen caulk. Started.

List items on eBay. Done!

Phew! That will keep us pretty busy for awhile. Look forward to some posts as we finish them.

Looking like Christmas...

Our side door...

...has never really been used much because the lock was very difficult to unlock from the outside and you needed a key to unlock it from the inside (I know, this kinda freaked me out).

 

We've had a replacement for it for a while, but in order to install it, Josh needed to re-drill the hole in the door. We got a keyless deadbolt, so it has a keypad and codes to unlock the door. Now I'm not so worried about getting locked out of the house.

And I thought I would just show this too. It's the edge of the door and you can see the poor paint job and the previous blue and yellow trim colors before the red.

Just inside the door is where we were finally able to hang the flashlight holder Bud made for us. We've had it for 3 years I think, but we wanted to wait until we had a permanent place for it before we put it up.

Brickwork

 

Three weeks ago we hired a mason to repair the brick on the north side of the house. Most of it just needed tuckpointing (when they grind out the old mortar and replace it), but some of the brick were loose, so they relaid those. We were super happy that he had vintage brick that almost completely matches our original, and was willing to custom mix the mortar (pink, maroon, buff, brown combo) to match the existing mortar on the other three sides of the house. We'll eventually have to do the same on the other sides of the house and replace the buttresses on our stoop, but we were glad to get this side done before winter.

 Then last week we hired another mason to completely rebuild our chimney from the roof line up. Our original chimney's bricks were showing their age and it just was best to replace rather than repair.

With the rebuild we got a fancy limestone drip plate, critter covers and brand new brown flashing. This mason was also able to mix up a color similar to the bottom mortar to match. We love the vintage look of the pink mortar. Who ever thought we'd be so excited about our chimney and pink mortar?!

Macho.

Josh was looking very macho after he rented a power drill to get through the 14 inches of concrete and stucco of our foundation.

The last 2 weekends Josh and my dad have been installing our new furnace and central a/c! We're so excited to have brand new mechanicals in our house and can't wait to try out the air next summer.

This weekend they'll finish everything up and we'll be ready for the winter.

A Long Weekend

This Labor Day weekend was long for us! We got tons done here at the house. First, Josh took his last Friday off for summer hours and we installed the ceiling fan in our room.

It wasn't as easy as just attaching it to the wall. We pulled all the wires out going from the switch to the fan, and replaced them. Then added a new switch that controls the light and motor separately. Then we put up the fan. I'm so glad to have light again in there, and the addition of the fan is great too.

Then, we took it outside. We ripped out all the overgrown plants on the east side of our garage. It feels good to have all that junk out of there and now we'll be ready to plant there in the spring.

And the big finale for the weekend is our backyard.

We trimmed the 2 maples and birch in the yard and our yard looks twice as big. No more ducking under branches while Josh is mowing or playing with the dog. And...now we have some sun also. Hopefully the grass can grow a little thicker now.

Furniture Additions

Last week, we added some more furniture to our house. Christine and Ryan gave us the outdoor love seat from my Wist as a thank you for designing their print material for their wedding. I finally got it put together after about an hour and a half! Secondly, I found a credenza on good ol' Craigslist for the TV in the living room. It was actually like getting 2 pieces though, because we can use our coffee table as a coffee table again! The credenza is in the mid-century danish style, so it looks really good with the lounge chair and Selig table we also picked up on Craigslist.

Eat-In

Yesterday, our Herman Miller Shell Chairs came! We ordered the chairs from DWR almost 2 months ago and they are finally here. Now we can cook in the kitchen and eat in it too.

Now We're Cookin'!

Well I actually haven't cooked in the kitchen yet, but I could if I wanted! Friday we grouted the back splash and Sunday we were able to seal it and move our stove into the kitchen. We're so excited to have this big project almost finished. Last thing left is to paint the cabinet doors and put on the new knobs, but at least we can still function in there now.

Still in the Kitchen

Well, the stove isn't even in the kitchen yet. It's still sitting in our dining room while we finish the tiling on the backsplash.

Sunday we installed the microwave by ourselves. You can see in the picture the new oak countertops that we got at IKEA. I also finished painting the drawers and Josh put the handles on, and the upper cabinets on this side I finished painting this weekend.

We still need to tile which we'll probably do on Friday when Josh is home from work. Our new light fixtures will be delivered on Thursday, and I need to paint the cabinet doors yet. I can't wait to start cooking for real (not with a micro and toaster oven like we've been doing since we pretty much moved in)!

On a completely separate note, this is what Lucy has been doing all day while I work.

We've got wood!

That is, in our kitchen. We found it after spending 2 days ripping up linoleum and 1/4 inch plywood that was nailed down with 3 inch nails.

After seeing what we had to work with, we went to our local ACE to get some Krud Kutter. I had heard about it online and after using it, I seriously recommend it. It's an all-purpose, non-toxic cleaner for almost anything. First, Josh sprayed it on and let it sit for a few moments. Then he used a putty knife to scrape with the grain. After that, he scrubbed it with the rough side of a sponge.

When Josh was finished, I came through and washed up the residue with a big sponge and water.

The floor looks amazing right now, that is, for being covered up for so long. We had a guy come look at it to get a quote for refinishing it and he said we have maple in the kitchen, and oak in the rest of the main level. They should start refinishing the kitchen sometime next week!

The First Week at 5053

Well, we're FINALLY here. And we already have a makeover to show! This was the dining room before...

We had to prime the walls because of the dark color, but we may end up priming all the walls in the house for that matter.

And after! We changed out the light fixture for a George Nelson saucer. You may remember back to the Nelson cigar pendant that we bought a few weeks ago at the Room and Board outlet. This is part of the same line. And you're not seeing things, that is pink (well actually it's Coral Gables) and purple (Black Raspberry) on the walls. It looks fantastic with our robin's egg blue buffet.

The room isn't complete yet...I'd like to add some curtain panels and a FLOR rug, but I wanted to update everyone since we've been busy!

We're Closing!

Tomorrow we're closing on our first home! Janelle and I have been waiting for this day for a really long time. The picture above is from the first time I looked at the house at the end of January. We've been waiting for short sale approval since the first week of February and everything finally went through this week.

Stay tuned as a house warming party will be coming soon!

Nelson Lamp

Today, Josh and I went to the Room and Board Outlet even though Brie and I went yesterday, and I'm glad we did. We found this George Nelson lamp for sale $100 off. I must have passed right over it yesterday! We were so excited to find it!

We chose...

This house is a place we may never leave. The location is AMAZING. It's only 3 blocks from Lake Harriet and 1 block to Minnehaha Creek, right near 50th and Penn Avenue. You can check out some of the pictures Josh took at the showing in January on Flickr.

We're not out of the woods yet though. The property is going into short sale, meaning the seller owes more on the property than we offered and she doesn't have the money to make it to closing. Her bank has to approve our offer and agree to lose money on the deal. It's kind of the middle ground for the bank and seller between a normal sale and foreclosure. So, we technically don't have it in contract yet to move to closing, but we have sole rights to the property, so no one else can make offers.

Our Offer was Accepted!

So we're going to play the House Hunters (like the show on HGTV) game. Did we choose...



Post your guess in the comments and we'll reveal tomorrow which one we picked!