V’s Project Updates: The Neverending Story!

It’s been a while since I shared any DIY progress updates… that’s mostly because we lost steam and as a result, things have been going soooo slowly!

Man I want something to be finished!

Knowing that the only way to achieve a finished project is to WORK, my husband Brian and I got busy these last few weekends… and we’ve achieved… a little! Not a lot!!

Take a look at the tent Brian created for me so that I could paint the back door on an extremely windy day… and my pup Simon supervising my work :-)

And this is what the door looked like BEHIND the protection of my makeshift tent & wind-blown debris guard after one coat of Benjamin Moore’s Sundried Tomato. It’s a beautiful colour… after a few coats! :-)

How beautiful? Well… take a look at the finished back of the house. Okay ~ first, look at the BEFORE:

It’s just a little house, but I love it!! And the RED DOOR is absolutely perfect!!

Next summer we’ll be building a fantastic deck off of the back door. I can’t wait!! Oh… and the non-matching bathroom window… that will be replaced when we gut and remodel that particular space. OMG! I just remembered that we have to put a vent in the gable’s peak. AND I want another basement window installed directly under the bathroom window…

DAMN!! That means that the back of the house is NOT so finished after all!! Will it never end?!

How about another not-so-finished project?! Geesh!

For those of you who have been following my front-yard hardscaping project, we’ve started the paving stone walkway…

 

Looking close at the Almost-After photo above and you can see that we have materials stacked everywhere: paving stones, capstones, sacks of joint sand, walk edge restraints, a few piles of crushed rock, the wheel barrow… it’s a work zone!

Brian did such a fabulous job putting the first couple of sidewalks together – on the right, the section connecting the first set of stairs with the second, and on the left, from the public sidewalk to the first set of stairs.

Here are some closer photos of the two finished walks… both walks match in colour (charcoal), it’s just that the upper walk has been walked on with sandy feet. Also… the black edge restraints will eventually be covered with soil or grass (depends on the area). If you can, please ignore the wall tops – Brian has to rent a special saw so that he can cut the cap stones to fit the curves. Poor Brian!

Alright… we haven’t completed all that much considering we have SO MUCH more to do… but it’s something! It’s started!! Of course we’ve pushed the start of this particular project into the rainy months of Fall… we need dry weekends so that we can finish what we started! Cross your fingers for us, please!

Finally… yet another project Brian and I have started over the last few weeks… a project that has a LONG way to go!!

Our basement remodel.

New windows have been installed, and walls/ceilings are being removed – it’s a mess! This mega-project will likely take us the whole winter… one full bathroom (it’s not plumbed so we’ll be digging out the floor in search of the main!), 2 bathrooms a laundry room and a family room. Argh!

Look at my Grandmother’s poor antique hope chest sitting in the middle of the “rec” (yes, it’s a pun!) room. I have no where safe for it to sit!! I just HAVE to find a safe place for it to sit upstairs… and I have to do that very soon!

And guess what I found out about a week ago… my son is returning to live at home for a few months so we have to find room for him in this chaotic basement! The good news in this… he won’t be that comfortable and will leave soon! HaHa!!

So that’s what’s up with me and my Neverending Projects!

I’m grunting, groaning and complaining about the fact that these projects never seem to end but you know what…

I love it and wouldn’t have it any other way!! Really!!!!!!