Upstairs Demolition

So last weekend, we ordered a dumpster, bought some respirators and gloves, donned our grubby clothes and went to town on the upstairs of the house. It was, in a word, AWESOME.
We filled a whole five-cubic-yard dumpster (plus had a smidge of room left over for our old broken grill and a busted lawn chair. We are totally less like hicks all the time!)

After learning from previous projects that what you rip out of your house and throw out a window has a way of spreading, and not everything will end up in the dumpster, I put out a tarp. And felt really smart when it rained and made the bits of old wallpaper what would have been horrible to clean up, were it not for the tarp.

Anyway, you didn't come to see pictures of us or our dumpster. You came for the before and after pix (or before and halfway...whatever. After is still a ways down the pike.) With no further ado, the guest room!
Guest room again, facing south...
Hallway/landing. Standing in guest room doorway, facing Todd's office. CHECK OUT THAT RAD CHIMNEY!!! So excited about that.

Hallway/landing facing the guest room.
I also have a video, for your viewing pleasure.



We didn't find a whole lot surprising in the attic. Pretty standard stuff: mouse droppings, old rat bait boxes, cruddy, patchy old insulation (which we're paying someone else to deal with -- luckily NOT asbestos insulation, YAY house!) and packing peanuts, which someone evidently decided would be a workable substitute for actual insulation.

Next steps include:

• getting someone to clean out the insulation
• making a plan for the bathroom (move the wall or don't move the wall in the bathroom?)
• getting the electrical inspected while all the walls are down
• properly insulating the upstairs
• finishing (drywalling) the attic space, hallway and rooms
• adding sconces and Solatubes for more light in the landing area
• replacing the windows
• executing whatever plan we formulate for the bathroom (it will be an all-white bathroom, for which I'm kind of excited)
• refinishing the gorgeous red pine floors
• possibly adding a large dormer on the back in the guest room

So, just a few things to do. But it's going to be great when it's done. Especially with that chimney.

ALSO! I never posted a picture of this when we picked them, but the apples from our "anniversary tree" orchard are SO GOOD. They are the best apples I've ever had, and I don't even really like Red Delicious that much. Having fruit trees is going to be so much fun.

Phase Two

So, it's official, our friends are moving out on the last day of October and Kate and Trevor are moving into our house!

To celebrate, we decided to bash out a wall...Ok, not exactly to celebrate. More like, to start plotting the remodel of our lovely upstairs...and its closet-sized dysfunctional charming bathroom.Wait...I didn't show you the shower. This space is less than 32"x32" -- that is super tight.Nice, huh? Anyway, no matter. It's all going away. We're still hashing out how we're going to configure the bathroom and looking at some creative options, but it's exciting to be moving forward. (I'm also pleased because this means I get to go to the Home Depot--more saving, more doing...I'm not a sucker...)

Meanwhile, outside, here are the laurels Todd's dad planted in July to fill in the gap that the now-gone dead tree left.
There are actually four total, two on each side of the tree stump. The right two just lost a lot of leaves, but they're doing fine now.

One other SWEET little discovery that we are soooo excited about...One of the things we contemplated as we're trying to plan out the bathroom remodel was moving the shower out to be even with this (apparently) useless wall. So we poked a hole in it to find out whether that was an option, and this is what we found...
This is the chimney vent from the oil furnace (removed three years ago when we moved in) and it is fabulous original-to-the-house red brick, so we're going to expose it when we redo all the drywall. That should look legitimately charming and add a lot of character (in a good way) to the upstairs. Cool, huh?

One more down, lots left

I've been meaning to post this for a few weeks, but we FINALLY got that dead cedar tree cut down! I have video, too, but my new camera takes much higher-quality videos than the old one, so it's taking a really long time to upload. I'll post it later, probably. Anyway, you may remember that we used to have this lovely tree in our hedge:
I'm referring to the one right in the middle. It looked much worse in person. It's been on our list to cut down for about two years, but we didn't know if we wanted to put up a fence or plant more shrubs, or put up a fence while we waited for the new shrubs to grow.

Then we discovered that city ordinances placed restrictions on fences near roads, so we decided to just put in new laurels. BIG ones. (This may have been done, but Todd's dad did it for us. We weren't around for that part.)

So we had a good old time borrowing Tom's chainsaw and creating a new pile of firewood.

And here's the hole it left. I didn't take a farther-away picture...maybe next time. As you can see, it left a big gap. So that's the story of the great tree-cutting-down.

I also have some very exciting news in the remodeling category: it looks like Kate and Trevor might be moving into our house in a few months, and we've arranged a work-exchange agreement, so we're going to be able to finish our house, with their help!

On that happy note, I think I might use this river rock pebble stuff in the upstairs shower pan. But I would pull out all the black/gray pieces and replace them with white. It's probably going to be an all-white bathroom. EXCITING!!!

Memorial Day Weekend Update

Just a little update from our weekend a couple weeks back...weather was sadly cruddy, but we did get out for a little while. Todd found cherries...and little peachlets on our fruit trees. I don't think the apples had anything yet, but there were actually a fair number of peaches on the peach trees. Totally excited about that! They're so adorable and fuzzy :)
I also weeded this bed in our circular driveway, which had grown a number of normal-size weeds in addition to these trees. I left the trash can and shovel in the picture for perspective. The one in the middle was taller than me. Yikes.

The rock border around this bed was where I had my first true run-in with a black widow (I picked up a rock with an un-gloved hand and the evil little spider was sitting there on the rock about five inches away from my finger. GAAAHH!!!) so I was a little wary and careful poking around in there. No spider encounters to report this time.

I forgot how high it is when you get to the top of the roof (and how steep the climb is), I decided to scurry up to inspect the chimney that used to vent the furnace. It's a bit on the crumbly side and was supposed to have been capped when we got the fireplace chimney fixed a few years ago. I HATE HATE HATE going on that roof. It's very high.

I was inspired by Todd, who went up to the garage roof to sweep it off (oak leaves and acorns and whatnot collects there)...he finished his job and is sitting around in, taking in the views.

One bigger project we're planning on getting done this summer is cutting down the dead cedar tree. You can see the lower branches just to the right of Todd in that picture above. We've been stalling because it'll leave an open space that we're going to fence, but fencing is (probably) a day's work.

We'll see about tackling that later in July or August. The tree's a magnet for landscapers, all of whom want to cut it down.

Springtime

Thought I'd post a little update since we've been getting a few hours in occasionally every few weekends. I love yard work. I seriously can't wait to have tons of it to do again. Our little laurels, which have been in the ground for about a year and a half, are coming along really well. You can't really tell from that picture, but most of them have at least doubled, if not more. Compared to the linked image, they've grown leaps and bounds.This is a bud on Todd's Red Delicious apple tree, with a ladybug that's enjoying it. Please note that it was in fact warm enough to wear my Birkies this weekend. (It snowed in Bend today. I love the snow, but it's almost May.)
These are blooms on the peach trees. We're not supposed to get any fruit for a few years, at least, but they look pretty. All six trees (Red Delicious, Macintosh, two peaches, Rainier cherry and some other kind of cherry) are healthy and growing well!
These honeysuckle vines that I planted along both sides of the pool fence are just going bonkers. I spent 45 minutes pruning them and weaving the new growth into the fence. I probably should have chosen between the green variety and the purple variety instead of alternating, but I couldn't.
I'm working on another little project for our apartment garden...you can check out the Purloined Pizza Stone in a few days for the details. I'm eagerly anticipating the day we get to move home. This apartment might fit my body just fine, despite the amount of Easter candy I've recently consumed, thankyouverymuch, but it doesn't have room for my soul. Or my circular saw, which I used this weekend and remembered how much I missed it.

More to come next time!