Behind Again

It's been another long week and I am again somewhat behind on my blog posting. So without further ado, the last week at Our Brick Ranch.

We decided that we couldn't possibly live without a phone line and cable jack in the office, so Dad got to work on making it happen. He is very dashing with his power tools wouldn't you say?


He ran the new wires through the crawlspace and is drilling a hole through the floor in the wall to run them up. He also installed an outlet in the closet in there so I can build a built in sewing area that I can just shut up with all of my craft supplies behind shuttered doors! Clean and baby proof!


Dan rebuilt the wall the shower head will mount to. The way it was before there was only one beam offset and the old tub handle was towards the right instead of centered. We decided that was silly and just put up another support and made it look symmetrical.

Dan also tar papered the floor and put some metal flashing up for extra water protection. He also reran the drain and the tub is actually in position but I didn't get any photos. He's also installed some of the durock cement board in the tub surround to get ready for tiling.

My Dad apparently got tired of the TP resting on the window ledge and did this. I think he's a mad genius.

It was a gorgeous day on Saturday and I worked my hands to the bone clearing a huge garbage heap/brush pile out of that back corner of the yard. I also clipped out a small tree between the fences and a bunch of blackberry brambles.

I also transplanted some plants from our old yard, including this lovely fern and a ton of red canna lilies.

It was all worth it because when I pulled back all of the dead stuff I found a bunch of these. Such lovely bulbs all popping through. Some definitely are daffodils, other's look as if they may be Hyacinths, but I'm not quite sure. I can't wait to see all of them pop up!

I love these trees so very much, despite the mess they make. Do you see that tiny lower branch? Dan is going to cut it off. Then you see that nice sturdy one above it? It will soon be holding a beautiful new swing.

A friend of mine walked into this back yard for the first time a few weeks ago and saw my trees and exclaimed, "You have to get a hammock!" That's exactly what I'm putting on my birthday list this year. Can't you see me chilling in my hanging hammock, Nemi on the swing beside me? Oh, also imagine the privacy fence that's going up between those 4x4's in the background. It will be my little piece of heaven.

Today the floor guy came. And I snuck in afterwards in socked feet to see what he'd done. He's completely sanded all of the floors, and they look amazing!

He also puttied in all of the age cracks.

And he completely replaced a whole section in the office where there were some very damaged boards the previous owners had gouged!

It really looks incredible. I can't wait to see what it looks like after the stain is finished!!!!!

He said he'll start staining on Wednesday and we shouldn't walk on it until Monday. So we are stuck finishing the kitchen and family room for the next week. I also can't have baby B over at the house because of all of the fumes. This gives me ample time to pack up all of our belongings. Because we are moving in by the 20th! I can't wait to call this house home.

A Hard Days Work

I worked a hard 8 hours today on the house. Ever muscle in my body aches. I have this advice for any of you out there looking for a great workout. Buy a crappy old house, tear down all of the walls and start from scratch. I've lost 20 pounds in 3 months. Just from remodeling.
Sooo without further ado. Guess what I finally committed on? A kitchen color!!!!! Sooo, I decided I'd just try the tiny wall the slider was on and just live with it for a couple of months. Yah, so, any of you out there who know me. You know that when I start something, I don't stop until it's sparkly and finished. That's right. I loved the paint so much I just kept going onto the next wall. I forced myself to pause until my husband came home to see it. He walked in with a giant armload from The Home Depot, and he squealed like a little school girl. Eeeee, I am a plaster GOD.
I said??? Hey buddy, it's my paint that made your plaster look so damn fine. He told me why did you stop? I love the color! So on I went.

I painted and painted.

And then I pulled out the new fridge and painted behind it. I heard my husband chuckle in the background, My wife the linebacker. Hahaha, I guess when I get started I do turn into some kind of She-Hulk.

And yes, I do know there will be cabinet's and tile covering every last bit of paint in this photo. But not for a few weeks. And until then I can marvel at my painting prowess.

Guess what I did then... Did anybody yell scrape nasty funky linoleum? Well, you were right. I decided that old linoleum had better hit the highway. I started out scraping and shoving and screaming, until I was red in the face and dripping sweat. My husband told me I was CRAZY. Certifiable. Out of my Damn mind. Then I realized that when I used a lower angle and pushed with my feet the scraper slid right under and ripped the linoleum up faster. I then got a better idea. Sit on my butt and push with both feet back and forth. Viola! The linoleum started coming up in patches!

At this point, my husband is sitting on a bucket laughing at me crawling on the floor covered in drywall dust, my pants sliding down because I didn't wear a belt.

But it worked. And that linoleum is almost toast.

During my 8 hour hardcore workout. My hubby played with the bathtub. We ended up having to buy some weird custom overflow that I've never seen before! See it? It's a weird rectangle. And then a matching drain because the overflow only came in stainless. And we have all matching antique bronze fixtures already purchased. Ah well, at least the drain will match the overflow. The rest will be in bronze.

Dad ran a new cable line into the office, finished changing out several light switches and outlets, and installed some new face plates.

I also patched up some holes around one of the old thermostat boxes so we can cap it off in case the next owners want to do something with them.

I do believe we are kicking bootay. I had so much fun today. I came straight home and soaked in a scalding bath. Every muscle in my body is screaming. And I'm in heaven.

Where's Waldo?

This is what my table looks like. It's become almost second nature to me to always be reading home manuals. My dad brought these over to help with the bathroom. The one on the top right is straight out of the 80's. The bathrooms are hideous. But it makes me happy.

We had an incredibly prosperous week. We finally got our family room blinds and installed them.
Tadah! I know, beautiful taped up fireplace! haha! Hey we're getting there. I believe this room will be a huge project for many years to come. Right now it's our staging area, our lunch buffet, and storage.

We put new numbers on the house. The old 2 was broken in half.

We also picked a stain for the floors. The one on the left.

Dan installed many doorknobs. I tried the first one on my own and decided to let a man do it.

This is my area. I eat sleep and breathe paint at the moment. I kept the old dining room chandelier because it was so handy as a brush drying rack. All of those paint cans have already been used in the house. They are all different colors! I have 4 more gallons of ceiling white. The yellow and black item is our paint gun. And the bin is full of miscellaneous rollers, tape, stir sticks, brushes etc.

We moved our first load of belongings into the new house.

Set up a little feeding station.

Installed a bathtub... okay, so it's just sitting there looking pretty. But hey, we will install it soon!

Primed all of the kitchen walls and half of the ceiling. We are ready to hang uppers! And we put our new fridge in place. It took some measuring and walking around half of the house to the only door it would fit through.

What an incredible sight! Sigh... my first new refrigerator. Brings a tear to me eye.

I wish everybody could see the whole picture. I walked in today after finishing the paint in the kitchen, and could completely visualize myself cooking in this kitchen. For the first time I could imagine my daughter running around our new home. Playing in her bedroom, running down the hallway. It's finally starting to feel like home. I know I still have no stove or shower. But in a few weeks I'll be living here, and I can't wait to see what new things are ahead of us.

There is officially a ceiling in the tub area now! It still needs some love, but it's definitely progress.


There is also progress over the vanity area.


Thanks once again Dad!


For these pretty new outlets and phone jacks.

And this one too!

I am very proud to announce that where once Dan's head was sticking through the roof... there is a new vent! Go Dan!


Here you can see 3 in a row, I think you can definitely tell the placement was perfect, they obviously just neglected to install it and just left us with a hole.


In other news, Dad moved the wires over the tub so we can get started on sheet rock.


He has done the same over the sink area, and hopefully today will be running the new lights.

I'm sorry this is a short post, but I have a sick kid, and my husband is at the house working on his own.

If it can It will....

Today started out beautiful and almost warm. I decided I must get some yard work done. Then it started raining on me. But we'll start at the beginning and take this post one step at a time.
The ceiling in the kitchen is dry and needs a patch or two but for the most part is ready to paint!

As promised, we have a sub floor where the tub will be installed! Unfortunately...That slit at the right is where the drain was. My hubby touched it and it... uh... fell off? Seriously. It fell off. Sooo more work.

Here's a view of the wall that he's put new supporting 2x4's in because of slight dry rot on the base board.

And the ceiling over the tub where there used to be a giant soffit box that hung down. Hopefully we'll have a ceiling soon!

This is the other side of the bathroom where a soffit box used to hang over the cabinet's and mirror. A little rewiring and we'll have a beautiful new wall. Today Dan spent the entire day bagging up the insulation that was in this area.

Our lovely new shop vac was an amazing help. You are worth your weight in gold little shop vac.

I bought some samples of exterior paint and pretty much ended up hating all of them. Just for the record, that orange was brown on the swatch... I swear to God. Eww!

Alrighty, now on to the yard work. We have this very narrow area between us and the park. We will be installing a privacy fence here and these poor Rhododendron's will have no light.

So I had the amazing idea to relocate them here. Against the back fence that has no privacy and hopefully let them grow into some kind of a hedge. My husband looked at me like I was insane and told me to just buy hedges. I told him if he could magically find the money for hedges he was welcome to.... he started digging.

We have one Rhody dug up... the smallest one. I also got some great work done on the front herb garden. There was one lonely purple sage bush against the front courtyard and one lonely lavender bush all the way up by the street! So I transplanted the lavender next to the sage so they could be buddies. Which led to me ripping up all of the old weed cloth along the driveway and digging a whole new garden in the front lawn... I am coated in mud and in glorious gardening heaven.

Until......

Hey Honey? Look up!!!!

WTF!!!!!!

WHY IS MY HUSBANDS HEAD STICKING THROUGH THE ROOF!!!!!!!!

Well, apparently the roofers decided a giant hole could just be hidden by one little shingle and we wouldn't find out??? But then, the shingle just fell off. Dan went into the attic for something and thought.. uh.. why do I see blue sky? I think there is supposed to be a third vent there. Well, there will be now because there is no other way to fix the hole. It of course started raining. So there is my poor hubby in the rain, in the dark, on top of the house, trying to patch a 20" hole so it won't rain in the attic!!! I must have jinxed myself after the plumbing, the drainage, the roof, all of the electrical, most of the walls and ceiling got replaced. I said... hey! Nothing else can go wrong right? We've replaced everything right? I've cursed us.

Oh! I didn't mention the funnest part of the day though. Forgive me .. do.

While I was digging in the mud in my painted jeans and way too tight Voltron tee, a beautiful little girl walked up and said is that your dog in the backyard? I said yes! She said, oh, she is sooo cute! I said thank you. She then told me her name was Dominique and she loved this house. OMG this girl was adorable probably about 10 years old, shoulder length kinky Afro hair and bright 80's style neon earrings. Like a black version of Hannah Montanah LOL She told me the house had been vacant for around 2 years and her and her girlfriends had been using it as a fort! I know it sounds bad, but it made me feel so nice knowing the break ins were just little girls! She said they loved the house so much and had been trying to clean it up and make it pretty but then were caught by the realtor and told they couldn't go inside anymore. But that they continued until they realized our stuff was there. I told her I appreciated that they stopped going in and that we would be living there soon. She told me she wanted to help us make the house pretty. I told her in the spring when it was warmer she could come over and help us with the gardens :) She seemed extremely pleased.