Rocked the Reno

Well folks, it was a labor of love... not so much for me, mostly for the guys who did all the work, haha!  Finally, some pictures of the finished work, though I do still need to get furniture for the room so it actually looks complete!  Check out the before & after views:

Left view before, where the w/d originally stood

Left view after, w/d are now beind the closet on the left and the door to the dining room has been taken out

Right view before

Right view after, new broom closet there on the right

Opposite side before



Opposite side after. Nothing changed here, just the paint color

 Not sure if you can see the coloring in the after pictures well, but the walls are a light grey (Silver Drop), the trim is a crisp white (Silver Dust), and the ceiling is a barely there blue (Coastal Fog) all from Behr.  The floor is a just painted tan, I'll put an area rug down later.  Picking out the paint colors for this room as inspired me to change up my whole house... though I haven't actually done any of that work, I'll save it for cooler days in the fall.  Once I get furniture in there I'll update the blog.

Gotta give mad props to Wes Barger and the BWB Construction team for the great work they did on what turned out to be the room of disaster!  If you are ever looking to do any renovations, repairs, etc definitely go with them!

The last mile is always the longest

Or something like that. I don't run, the last time I ran was probably a drunken stumble up to Lane Stadium because I heard kick-off about to happen and I was gunna miss it!  Okay, back to the reason for waisting your reading time...

In just a few short days I've gone from having a whole wall taken down to a room almost finished!  There are a few things left to do before I can take back over and start the fun part of paint colors and decorating!

Check out the before/in progress below...

Before



In progress.  The W/D will be in the closet on the left now!



Before

On the right will be a smaller storage/broom closet

New Deck!

For three years, stepping out on my deck was basically a crap-shoot.  The boards were so warped and rotten, it was only a matter of time before one step out the door landed a person straight through to the ground.  It was like Deck Roulette.  No more!  Got me a brand new deck, yippie!

Before:

You cant tell how bad it is in this picture, but the deck was ollllld, to say the least!

After:

Time to have a cookout!

Renovation Vacation

Well… the time has come… a major renovation project… well, at least more major than I can do on my own.  At some point in time, round about ’84 I’d say, someone turned the old porch into an enclosed porch/sunroom area.  Why 1984 you ask? Well, because I still have the washer and dryer from 1984 as proof (no, they won’t be staying much longer).  Whomever did the work certainly didn’t have an eye for design or function, at least not one I can figure out.  Genius put the washer and dryer right in the middle of the room, rather than on a side wall, therefore cutting down on the good “usable” space for the sunroom part.  Behold…

Door to Nowhere

Well, the room was “ugly as homemade sin” (as my friend Angela’s husband William likes to say).  Well, maybe not ugly, but very bland.  There was a Door to Nowhere (one point was a window, someone made into a door, but to go through it meant you had to climb over the dryer, lame). Something had to change.  So I covered the Door to Nowhere with a curtain, pulled up the old worn out carpet, put in new doors, and painted the walls and floors.  I fashioned another curtain to disguise the appliances as best I could.  Still, the “sunroom” felt more like a hallway to the back door.

May the odds be ever in my favor... 

Day 1: Must try to have vision.  I can see it all coming together, I’m just more of a finished project, “oh let’s pick out pretty paint colors and furniture” kind of person, not so much on the demo and drywall.  The odds were not so much in my favor today, shit happened...  What was supposed to be a simple tear down of some 70s wood paneling turned into a full exterior wall replacement.  Not only was the thing COVERED in mold (yikes!) but apparently it was also the final resting place of six birds (GROSS!).  Birds and mold gone and the entire side of the room taken off, here’s what it looks like partially put back together….

On the left will be the enclosure for the washer & dryer, behind closed doors, out of sight!  On the right will be a broom/ storage closet.  The third picture is the outside of the new wall in progress.

Oh, and what was supposed to be a simple replacement of deck boards turned into a total deck redo, what did I get myself into?!

Whar'd ma deck go?!

New Years Resolution

Okay... this is probably the most common resolution in the world, I guess I'll just join the ranks.  In 2012 I'm going to stop being fat.  Yes, I said stop being fat.  Not loose weight, be skinnier, but stop being fat.  Somewhere back many years ago I started eating less healthy and exercising less and less.  It happened by my choices of food, one too many beers, and plain laziness... so this year I choose to stop those bad habits!

It's been 5 days since I started my new commitment and so far (aside from NYE) I've stuck to my calorie count/eating plan and have exercised more in 1 week then I have in the past 6 months.  I downloaded an app to help me keep track of my eating habits, learn where I need to make changes, enter my exercise and weight... and hopefully watch that number steady drop in a meaningful way!  I'm already feeling better in general!

Oh, and if anyone is looking to be a free personal trainer, I'll gladly be your client :o)