Moving Boxes

Last week was a busy one. Not renovation wise, but moving stuff around wise. We had boxes and junk everywhere. I was (still am) preparing for the yard sale. The movers were coming to bring over the large pieces of furniture. I had to move the junk out of way for the furniture so it didn't have to be moved again. My sun room has become a yard sale staging area. I found out that it probably was originally called a sleeping porch, instead of sun room, so I may try to re-name it that in conversation... We'll see how well I do....

If you haven't noticed we have a write up and are in a remodeling blog contest. I haven't really seen other renovation blogs. Wow was I amazed on how good they are. Some folks have been renovating for years and years, not our one year. Please follow this link and visit this site and VOTE for THIRTEENELEVEN..... http://www.remodelingmyspace.com/contest-entries/thirteeneleven . There is a button at the bottom of this blog. I wish I would have thought to make pics of the rat and bird bones we found in this house, like they made pics of in another house. That is all for now, keep checking back to see how things are going.

Foyer Floors

Staining the foyer floor.
Also seen is the old marks from someone before us that really scarred the floor up with a sander. These marks are all over the floor, but are deep enough that all of our sanding still left the recesses. They are not as noticable once furnture is on the floor. ..

Foyer with 1/2 stained floor. The crystals are still not on the original chandelier.

Puppy in the Kudzu jungle. He loves to explore back there.

Spider Lilies

I sat down on the front porch for a moment and saw something in the lawn..... I thought could it be ...... already................... YES !!! it was the first spider lily.... I am so glad we did not cut the grass this weekend. The home had a good many of these lilies on the property, and I planted probably about 100 more over the winter/spring last year that I dug up from the old (former)house. I grabbed the camera and laid down on the ground to get this angle. It took several shots not to get the traffic in the background. But finally a great shot. Flowers make me happy!!!

Research-brackets

So, this morning, I did some online research on Craftsman Style Homes. I found some pics showing homes with brackets and since I just posted our home's brackets, I thought I would share.

I also found this pic of a home exterior showing the tone of green I have in mind for the exterior. I do want to use darker accent colors as well to show off the architectural details. Probablly in darker shades of a similar green and an accent color, probablly an orangy red, brickish in color. These columns are very similar to ours and I really like the way the porch railing fits in so nicely. What a difference that makes! I just want to take down that nasty metal rail on our porch right now, but it kinda keeps the dog in, so for now it stays, but just as soon as the exterior is a priority..........also look.......no shutters........but the mullions on this pic of a house need to be another color! Good door..

Yesterday, something strange fell from the sky...........
Was it???? YES!!! it was RAIN....
There hasn't been much of that around here this whole year. Thanks to the hurricane that hit TX, we had rain!!!!



But the best part was, the trim got wet. I had left it out and a wonderful surprise, the paint was falling off!!! Who would have thought by just letting the trim get wet. The at least 7 layers of paint just was falling off with a little help from my favorite tool as shown in the pic. ( I think it is called a 5 in one or something like that. ) As you can see, mine is well worn.

Basement

This pic shows a number of mechanical updates.

New HVAC Ducts, new wiring, and new plumbing.

Architectural Details

Detail at top of Columns
I really like this detail, and believe it is original.
Great Brackets.

I have to be thinking about some creative painting details for these elements.
I am thinking about a sage green tone for the base color of the house.

Pear

We have a pear.... Well a couple of pears on our tree. There was a heavy late frost this spring when the pear tree was in full bloom, so there are not many pears this season. But I thought I would share this pear with the beautiful September sky behind it. No, Gran.... there is not enough pears for preserves. I wish there were.

Porch Fixtures

The ceiling fans and light for the porch.

Puppy

Puppy waiting at the front door.

Ol' Coal

I haven't posted in a while, not much new to share, except piles of boxes.
I was walking the dog to the back yard and thought these old coal thingies would be neat to share.
The house has two. One larger one labeled Majestic down the side ally and a smaller one at the opposite side of the house near what appears to be an old chimney for a coal burning furnice. I am not really sure what to call these openings. Hatches maybe? I tried googling with no luck. So if you know, let me know. Thanks

Ol' Coal

I haven't posted in a while, not much new to share, except piles of boxes. I was walking the dog to the back yard and thought these old coal thingies would be neat to share. The house has two. One larger one labeled Majestic down the side ally and a smaller one at the opposite side of the house near what appears to be an old chimney for a coal burning furnice. I am not really sure what to call these openings. Hatches maybe? I tried googling with no luck. So if you know, let me know. Thanks

Oldie

Picture showing the family that owned the house before us.

My interest is the porch railing.... Currently there is some 70's looking metal railing. I was told this pic was from 1962. The porch railing is a nice wooden design. Hopefully one day something like porch railing will be priority, but I don't see that day anywhere in the near future. I also noticed the 70's looking shutters are not there ( once we work on the outside, they have to go. they soooo don't go with the style of this house)and the mullions appear dark at the windows, but not the door. The same ol' monkey grass is there. But I think the steps are wooden, not brick. So maybe at this time the porch was wooden, not the slate that it is today.

Deck DOWN !!!

Yesterday.........The deck came down. YEAH !!! No one was killed, and it had to be pulled down, it just didn't fall. The first pic is of how the deck was a while back, I didn't have a picture of the Leaning deck....