Our Brick and Painted Ranch

The brick used to be the biggest appeal of this house for us. Now the entire house is rich and warm and GORGEOUS! I am so thrilled with the job the Student Painters did on the exterior of Our Brick Ranch. So let's do a little before and after shall we?

Front
Before

After


Pergola
Before

Different view

After!

And honestly it's all because of these two guys. They came in on a Saturday and worked their butts off until almost 10pm to get it finished for us. I can't tell you how much we appreciate their hard work and kindness. I know the picture is terrible, sorry guys, it was dark.
If you guys are reading this, you did a GREAT job! Thank you!!!


And you all know I have to sneak some gardening in here right?
My Hydrangeas seem to have taken the move well and have blooms all over!

This purple sage was sitting all alone in the lawn when we bought the house. With a little love it's thriving! And sooo very yummy in my pot roast :)

My daisies were also brought over from the old duplex, and are very happy in the sunshine. I have high hopes that they'll bloom just in time for my Grandma's visit from Michigan in about 2 weeks!

And then there are these guys! They just came out of nowhere! All along the side of the house, about waist high. I have no idea what they are, but they are beautiful! I love suprise flowers :)
Update: I've just been notified this is a Hollyhock!


It's been an insane and eventful week. Every day I grow happier in our new home. I'm still the luckiest girl on earth.

Painting Day 3

I know I promised you photos yesterday, but honestly nothing really looked that incredible until today! Painting is in full swing and it's so exciting!

Sigh.... dreamy....




We also have gotten a jump start on painting the bathroom. The drywall is finally all taped, mudded, sanded, and primed! Here's a sneak peak of the color that's going up.

We had kept the old giant mirror that used to be in the bathroom with the hopes of saving some money by cutting it to fit our new frames. Well we got one good cut ( it's our first time cutting glass) And the rest of it broke.

So we set out on a mission to find a cheap mirror at goodwill or something. We hit the jackpot on our first stop. The ReStore run by Habitat for Humanity.
Seriously, if you have one of these near you, check it out! We found huge old mirrored closet doors for $8.50!!!!! Plenty of extra to break and there were more of them there in case we screw up we can just buy a new one! OMG if you've ever priced mirrors you know how incredibly cheap that is. This place is full of incredible goodies, and just plain crazy cool crap.

We also found this....

Which fits our fireplace beautifully.

I mean, it's like it was handcrafted specifically for our oddly sized fireplace!

And the best part? $15.00 That's right. I totally snagged it.

Let the painting commence!

The painters came today. They immediately dug into the pergola. In full tyvek suits and respirators. They did so because our house was built in 1964 and there is the possibility of lead based paint. They also were taking extra precautions by laying drop cloths everywhere they scraped or sanded and vacuuming every chip and piece of dust up with a hepa filter. This includes laying heavy cloths on all of my plants, trampling my poor potatoes. Not that I'm complaining, honestly, I understand these things happen. But, we thought, boy is this silly. Why don't we just do a lead test? That way when it proves negative they can save a ton of prep time.
Well guess what. Instant positive. Yup. On every surface!

So now, we have these posted on our house.

And caution tape around the entire yard.

But the priming is coming along already.

It looks a little ugly at the moment, but I'm sure tomorrow I'll have some nicer pictures to show you!

Pergola Repairs

I received a call from Student Painters today. They said they'd be here June 16 to start pressure washing, and begin painting on June 23rd. Yes folks. That's 4 days. Panic ensued at the Brick Ranch as we realized all of the work that still needed to be done! Mr. Beals ripped all the old downspouts and hardware down, then started in on repairing the pergola. If you look at my previous post you'll see there was a beam on the front of the pergola. After closer inspection we realized it was rotted pretty badly. After a nice dinner with my parents they helped us come up with an idea to quickly and easily repair it.

We took the beam off.


Drew out the angles and chose the perfect one. We also cut off the old ends to make it look fresh and square.

Mr Beals then laid out his cuts.

And dug in.

Without Safety Glasses.

After learning the error of his ways, he donned his trusty eye protection.

And finished off the end of the beam that broke when he was cleaning the pergola up.

I think the results are stunning! I can't wait to see it painted white!

I did a little of this.

And took in a bit of this.


Heaven.

Pergola

We finally got some sun today! We finally got some yard work accomplished. As mentioned in the previous post, we are now working on the pergola before the painters come out in 2 weeks.

This is the pergola, note the gutter and there is a downspout to the left. Why I have no idea. There is no roof on this pergola, so why is there a gutter just hanging from a random beam?


As you can see it was covered in hardware cloth, and every few feet there is remnants of plastic sheeting dangling down. I can only assume this was their roof?

What an ugly sight!

Dan still out there working as we speak. Won't this look so much nicer when the house is done being painted a deep brown, with white trim and the pergola will be a bright white to match!

Uhoh, bad news. Dan was backing off the pergola towards the ladder and this whole portion collapsed and almost took him with it.

He was dangling off the edge of the roof holding onto the eaves with his hands. A kind neighbor came running as he pulled himself onto the ladder.

I told him to avoid complication, we'll just take a saw to the beam and cut off the edge as the portion that fell down was really not needed to make it look pretty anyway.

You knew there had to be some drama didn't you? I mean every aspect of this remodel had something go wierdly wrong! Good thing nobody was hurt!

We relocated the hammock to behind these trees. I wanted the illusion it was actually hanging from them.

My next project is turning this old shed into a pretty potting shed! I've got some great magazine photos I have been drawing inspiration on. Thinking of painting the whole inside white to lighten it up. My dad is going to run power out there so I can have a light at least. Hubby put these old cabinets from the garage up, and is using the old kitchen cabinet's in the garage.

He also started a pantry area for me around the new deep freezer.

Progress

We have a toilet in the main bathroom now. Yeah I know the photo isn't pretty. But let me explain. The other toilet, the only one installed was at the other end of my house. I had to walk down a hallway, through the entry way, around the living room, through the kitchen and diningroom, through the family room just to get to the toilet. Imagine that in the middle of the night. By the time I was done and walked all the way back I was wide awake!

Therefore, this porcelain God is my savior!

I got a little sick of how long the bathroom was taking to get finished, so I hopped on a ladder and started filling in those gaps. After 2 days of me whining on a ladder with a sprained ankle, my hubby jumped in and finished it up for me. Hopefully I can paint it by the end of this week!

Then we can hang the lights, mirrors, and feel like it's an actual bathroom!!!

In the meantime, I've been reorganizing the living room. It felt like I was in a Dr's office waiting in line. The couches were all lined up on one wall. I feel this makes it a little easier to carry on a conversation. And as I have company every Friday evening, and sometimes other days of the week, I think this will work out better for us. I also love that the first thing you see is my piano, which is my prize. My favorite possession at the moment :)


The painters are coming to start the exterior on June 20th, they'll be pressure washing 2-4 days in advance. So we are currently diverting all of our attention to the pergola, which is covered in chicken wire and old plastic sheeting. I'm taking it all down and having them paint the whole thing white. It also has an old gutter attached to the front of it with a downspout. Which is ridiculous because it has no roof on it!
I am really really excited to show you before and afters when the painting is done!
And the best most wonderful part for me is in mid July my grandparents are flying out and will get to see the place all gussied up!

Okay, just looked at these pics and realized I really really need some artwork! Any suggestions?
Oh... and question of the day. How do you organize your tupperware like containers? I currently have mine neatly stacked in a cardboard box in a lower cabinet. I'm really interested in other options! hahaha