New Windows! (Or: No More $150 Heating Bills)

Hello readers! We took a bit of a hiatus from home improvement work during the summer, as I was home every day (perks of working for a school) and didn't want to live in construction dust.

Also, we did a lot of travelling and weren't even in town for that long at any one time. 

However, we decided to replace all of the bedroom windows in the house before winter comes around, as the original windows in the house were not energy efficient at all and we spent way too much money on gas to heat the house last year.

Ryan's dad, Roger, came to help him install the windows last week. They finished the two big bedrooms and now Ryan is completing the smaller two on his own.

Because the new windows are so much bigger than the old ones, they basically had to rebuild the walls of the house to accommodate them. Also, the walls didn't have any insulation in them (wow!) so they insulated, added new plywood, and wrapped the house in that nifty vapor seal stuff at the same time.

We decided that while the siding is off for the window project, we might as well buy and install new siding. The stuff that's on there now is original, aluminum, and dirty. We ordered some nice "Natural Clay" vinyl siding from Menard's last week and Ryan hopes to install it in a week or two. Our lucky neighbors will feel like they're living next door to a new house pretty soon!

Here are some photos of the window work:

 

These are the old windows. The white one on the far right is our bathroom and was new in May.

 

Guest bedroom straight ahead, master bedroom on right.

 

Half of the new windows in our bedroom, with Roger peeking out.

 

This is scary to come home to...but it all worked out in the end.

 

New master windows with insulation, plywood, and house wrap installed.

 

Looking out to the street from our bedroom. We have so much natural light now!

 

Ryan and our dear neighbor John Somerville working on the first of the two "spare" bedroom windows today.

 

View from end of our driveway - doesn't the house look totally different? Windows on the far right here are in the kitchen and were installed in May. For comparison with the photo above, old:

 

 

More photos will come when we have new siding!

~

My beautiful kitchen!

Well, our kitchen remodel is finally done and I couldn't be more pleased with it. We had some friends and neighbors over to celebrate a few weeks ago, which was a fun way to end the whole process.

Here are some "before" shots, just to remind you how terrible it really was when we moved in.

Oh, the wallpaper! The cabinets are the same ones, just totally sanded down and refinished by Ryan, who has an amazing array of home improvement skills. We repainted all the walls a color called "goldtone" and installed new appliances. The counter top is new (Formica, looks like granite, though) and Ryan and Paul installed the tile back splash. New light above the sink and all new windows, as I'm sure I mentioned before. We need a pantry, and haven't really decided what to do about that yet, so all our non-fridge food is on a small storage shelf as seen below.

And here's the finished product:

As seen in the middle picture, Paul and Ryan are putting in a new window in our master bathroom today.

The living room is also "finished," although we still have the old carpet. It insulates the floor well...we'll get rid of it eventually.

The walls are "calming cream" and "rosemary sprig."

We got all of our DVDs on shelves and finally hung art two weeks ago. Paradise family: notice the painting by Grandaddy above the mantle! This one was in the basement at Grandma's house and she said I could have it when she was moving out. It's gotten lots of compliments from visitors.

Finally in a beautiful, functioning kitchen,

Maria 

Major progress made, kitchen nears completion

I fully intended on updating after spring break, which was in mid-March, but decided to wait until more "tangible" progress was made on our kitchen/living room.

Much of what Ryan and I did to the house over spring break was not photo-worthy - things like moving heating vent ducts and running new wires for fridges and taping off sections of walls to paint.

Since the last update, the major upgrades of note are:
- New big window over the kitchen sink, with trim and blinds
- Cabinets all moved to their final positions
- Lower cabinets almost entirely sanded and stained
- NEW COUNTER TOP
- NEW TILE BACK SPLASH
- A fridge that makes ice and dispenses chilled, filtered water

- All new paint in the living room ("rosemary sprig" accent wall and "calming cream" for the rest)
- New cream paint in the entryway

The deadline for the kitchen to be completed is this Saturday and we will finish it! Many thanks to my brother for helping put in the tile and to James and Paul for helping Ryan get the new counter in place.

Better photos of the kitchen all completed and the living room upgrade will come soon.

This is the kitchen at the beginning of spring break - note the dark brown lower cabinets, old window, old counter, old curtains.

Here it is after Ryan pulled out some cabinets, which are moving directly across the room. Also note the new windows.

Moving heating vents.

The new set-up for this half of the kitchen - still quite roomy! The other half (behind where I'm standing) now will only house our table.

Painting the accent wall (above the brick half wall) over spring break. My roller form is not good here.

The former owner left two of these benches on the back porch, but they were rotting and falling apart. Ryan replaced the wood with Trex decking and repainted the side bars. This one now graces our front porch, so we can watch the neighborhood.

Here are some tulips in our front garden.

Here are the three men trying to get the new counter top in. It was quite heavy and it's only Formica!

Setting it into place...the color is called "Labrador granite" and is dark with some light flecks.

Ryan begins tiling with the glass tile sheets we bought. They come in 1 foot by 1 foot sheets.

Almost done laying the tile. Also note the new lamp above the sink.


We're nearly there! If it's done this weekend, the kitchen will have taken roughly nine months to complete, but at a minimum cost and with one (sometimes two) crewmen. My husband is awesome.

~

An extra set of hands

My father-in-law, Roger, came to Hillsdale last weekend to help Ryan work on the house. It was a fun and productive visit - the best kind.

They spent the first few days installing new, energy-efficient windows on one side of the kitchen. We have more to replace the large window over the sink on the other side of the kitchen, as well.

Above, they are knocking out the old windows and making big holes in my wall in the 30-degree weather... ;) 

And here are the new windows with pretty, new white trim! I think they look great with the yellow paint. They also insulated the walls around and underneath the windows...apparently there wasn't any insulation there before. Yikes. The kitchen feels much warmer now and the wall isn't as cold to the touch. 

They also installed a new front door, also energy-efficient. Trying to get the new door to fit in the old hole was a bit difficult, I gathered...I just took pictures after I got home from work. 

Here is the house, sans door...

And the next day, James came over and helped put the new one in!

Isn't it pretty? :

As a refresher, here's what the front of the house looked like when we arrived, after we had only taken out the juniper bushes. That old, red paint was really terrible. 

I would say we've made some progress. 

Ryan is installing another cabinet he finished today:

And here's a nice photo of some icy branches in our front yard the earlier this week:

We're doing well! Many thanks to Roger for helping us this week.

~

Who needs a microwave, anyway?

Two weekends ago, my brother Paul helped Ryan and I paint the kitchen. We chose a color called "Goldtone" which is yellow but not bright yellow. It's soft and, hopefully, will match well with whatever counter we get...eventually.

Ryan also installed the microwave we bought in July...which had been in its box in the middle of the kitchen, serving as an island, since the day it was delivered. He had to build a custom cabinet to go above it that holds the microwave's ventilation system, electrical cord, etc.

Yesterday, my father-in-law arrived in town. He's going to stay for a week and help Ryan work on the house. They plan to replace windows in the kitchen (awesome!), work on cabinets, get the electrical and water lines for the refrigerator hooked up, and probably several other things.

Right now I am sitting in the living room, trying to ignore the ripping, scraping sounds coming from the kitchen behind me. I just have to keep telling myself that messes now = beautiful kitchen later.

We have only used our newly-installed microwave a few times...we got used to not needing one at all. Aside from using the microwave at work for my lunches, we haven't used one at all since we moved here. Yes, heating up leftovers in the oven was a slow process, but I didn't really miss not having "the modern convenience."  

Here are some photos of the painting process and the new oven/microwave/cabinet setup.

Here, Paul removes the terrible old curtain rods. 

Our kitchen wall color. 

It's hard to tell, but this is what it looks like after it was painted. 

Eventually, cabinets will cover that oven cord...just imagine it all completed! Yes, that wall is painted. In bright light it doesn't look very yellow. 

This is our new computer! We bought it very gently used but it's basically brand new, and it was a great price. It was time to retire the Dell that I got when I graduated from high school in 2006 (yes, I was still using it until this one arrived).  

The Spice Rack

Hello all! Happy 2012.

Ryan and I spent the one remaining week of Christmas Break (after several weeks in Colorado and St. Louis) designing and building a spice rack cabinet for the kitchen. 

Because the cabinets that were in this part of the previous homeowner's kitchen were not standard and housed the out-of-date stove and oven, we have to put the whole area together like a puzzle of old and new cabinets. 

After figuring out which cabinets from the other side (where the fridge will be) we can move, we ended up with several inches of space the height of a cabinet that wouldn't be taken up by anything else. Ryan had a brilliant idea: build a tall, skinny, sliding spice rack that hid inside a cabinet. 

Using some old materials and some new, we created it! I helped a little, by drilling some holes and holding things and keeping Ryan company in the cold garage. 

He built the door of the cabinet from an old one, but had to match the curves to the rest of the cabinet doors. Good thing he bought a router when we got back to Hillsdale. :)

Here are some photos from the installation:

This is the inside part that rolls out. You can see some nice, old glue from behind the old stove on the wall there...we haven't gotten to doing the walls yet. 

Ryan showing off his work and sporting some new glasses! 

The empty cabinet! Nice, huh?

And the cabinet once I filled it with everything. It actually fit everything I have, spice-wise. There are some repeats in there, so I guess I have room to grow. 

While in Colorado, we took a trip to the new IKEA in Denver to spend some gift cards my awesome sister-in-law gave us. We bought some sleek, brown-black (that's the official color name...) pieces: a coffee table and a sideboard. 

Here's a photo of the new sideboard and what Ryan has dubbed "Maria's reading corner." 

The gold clock is from my grandma's house - I thought it was the coolest thing when I was a kid...turns it out's all just plastic. Oh well. The inside part turns back and forth, which is sweet. The crucifix is a Christmas gift from my parents. It was made in the Holy Land! 

And here is a photo of Ryan playing video games after a long day of cabinet finishing and installing and IKEA sideboard building. He is resting his feet on the new coffee table. 

This photo gives you a good idea of the natural light in the room in the evening...kinda dark, as the windows face east. In the morning, it's very bright and lovely. 

Yes, the carpet is still there...we're going to keep it until winter is over. Ryan wants to add some insulation under the floor in the basement before tearing it out. 

Today, Ryan is continuing working on building a cabinet to go above the microwave. Those two things will go right next to the spice rack. The stove will be moved over to go underneath them. He has to build a cabinet for above the microwave because there wasn't one before we moved in. The lady's Montgomery Ward microwave sat on the counter top. So, that's next! 

Interesting fact: We haven't used a microwave in our house since we got here. (So, since July 19th or so). I have used one at work and we did when we were in Colorado, but not at all here! Who needs such modern conveniences, anyway! 

- The Servolds