We have now been in our new place for a little over 2 months and things are definitely moving along. Unpacking is getting close to being over with - although we still have a good 20 boxes in the garage - mainly books and decorations though, so nothing too involved. And decorations is where I am still lacking with getting done. I guess I want to get everything out and see what I want to keep and finally get rid of a lot of things that I have been hauling around for years. We also haven't gotten to putting up pictures either, but once we get all the furniture situated, I think we'll be able to move along with that as well.
The main issues that have taken our time and attention (when available) are our master bathroom and kitchen. We really didn't have much desire to get right into fixing the kitchen, but after my first attempt at cooking on the stove top, I realized that we needed to move on getting a different set up. The stove top looked fine, but couldn't heat up to boil water - it wasn't that bad, but I swear it took me 3 hours to cook one night for something that should have taken about 30 mins. Anyway, we got ourselves a new oven and Mike installed that. We also decided to go for a new counter top, AND my parents bought us a dishwasher as a housewarming gift. So it's been coming along. We're making new updates, on an economical scale, but I think the final result will be such a HUGE improvement. This is the one side of the kitchen that has been attacked!
This is the before - see stove top, old light fixture, old counter and space by frig for dishwasher.
Ripping out - Mike had fun with the demolition!
After - new stove, dishwasher and counter. We still have some alterations to make (hense the missing drawer) but it's functioning and awesome!
Close-up of counter.
My mom has also been able to spend a couple of days with us on two occasions. The first time she helped me paint all the insides of the kitchen cupboards, and all the hall closets, and gave me some good painting tips for doing our bedroom. She again was here earlier this week and sanded and painted our three hall doors, painted the trim work in our bedroom and also improved our outdoor ramp! (Mike's parents and my dad have also been up for shorter visits and have helped in so many ways too! They've helped to move furniture, clean, install the dishwasher, repair falling apart furniture, and provide tons of moral support and guidance!! THANK YOU!!!)
Here is the "before" of the hall closet doors - they seemed to be painted to look like a wood finish...
Here is a close-up of one of the doors before - definitely in need of some tlc!
My mom sanding away - quite a handy lady!! :)
The after product! Thanks mom - what a HUGE difference!!
And here she is spray painting the ramp outside - that was also a great improvement!
While my mom was working on the painting side of things, I finally got a big dent in unpacking more boxes. AND I tackled my craft room! There's still a lot to be done but I can at least get to things and have a space to work. This is one of the highlights for me - having a craft room back again. I had one in DE but didn't have it set up as good as I would have liked. And then in our apartment I had to share a craft space with the guest room and it was just a horrible combination...so I feel like I haven't had a space for working for about 2 years! I am so excited to spend some quality time in here!
Now onto our master bathroom issue: we have two septic systems for our house, it's kind of strange, but that's just the way it is. Our master bathroom is the only thing connected to the one septic tank, and then the rest of the house (other bathroom, kitchen, laundry, etc.) is connected to the other system (that is twice the size of the one for our bathroom.) Well, to give a quick summary, the one for our master bathroom is malfuntioning, and we are in the midst of trying to get it repaired. We were going to try and dig it up and figure it out that way, but all the people that we have had look at it suggest tying it into our other septic system....so that's probably what we will do. We just need to find someone to do it. It's a crummy job because there is a tight crawl space under our bathroom where a lot of the work would have to be done. So we'll see. But for now, we are not using that bathroom, except to shower since that is our only shower in the house. Luckily that hasn't seemed to aggravate it too much, but we hope we can get it fixed as soon as possible. So that's been a ball of fun!
Now onto some pictures of the pets and nature. I have this next picture of Myra because when we moved into the house, she refused to come out from under the blanket on our bed. The poor girl was so freaked out and literally stayed under the covers for a good 3 days. Luckily she finally adjusted and is at peace with her new home.
Abner enjoying the heat in the sunroom/dining room
Goofy picture of Abner - he's a happy boy :)
And here is a silly picture of Myra - what a character!
Grasshopper on top of one of my mums that I planted outside (check this album for more pictures of our house and improvements!) Smith Abode
We also had a family of Robins! I was so excited because I discovered them the day they were born. Here is one of the first pictures I got - there are 3 of them.
9 days later
12 days old - I think that they flew away the next day (I was in DC, but I could tell they were close when I left).
And one more quick thing - we had a BAT in our house last night! We had gone out to Pixel and when we got back I was walking through the guest room and all of a sudden saw something flying around. I immediately hit the floor and was trying to decide it it was a bat or a huge moth OR I was just loosing my mind and seeing things. After about 10 mins of Mike and I searching the room and rest of the house we determined that it really was my mind that was going. So off to bed we went without thinking much more of it. Then after about 5 mins of laying in bed watching a movie, here comes the little bat flying through our bedroom - making circles all around us. I'm sure you can just picture both Mike and I laying on our backs as we sink lower into the bed and pull the covers up under our eyes...I'm sure we looked pretty funny.
Luckily with working in the parks and with wildlife, I've been told what to do if you ever have a bat in your house. So here is what we did. We turned out all the lights and then opened our door to the porch and put the porch light on. And literally 2 mins later, here comes the bat - did about 3 loops around our living room and then made it's way onto the porch. We got the door shut and turned off the porch light. Then walked around to the outside of the porch, latched the door open and pointed a flashlight toward the door leading the bat outside. We stood there for just another minute and just like that, the bat flew right out and into the night! So take note - if you ever get a bat in your house - don't freak out and start swatting at it - it's probably more freaked out than you - just turn out all the lights except for where you want it to go - slowly lead it out of your house one room at a time (closing doors behind you as it moves out). It was actually pretty cool and I'm still amazed at how well and quickly it worked! Yay for bats! I just hope we don't get anymore - I'm still puzzled how it got into our house in the first place.
The main issues that have taken our time and attention (when available) are our master bathroom and kitchen. We really didn't have much desire to get right into fixing the kitchen, but after my first attempt at cooking on the stove top, I realized that we needed to move on getting a different set up. The stove top looked fine, but couldn't heat up to boil water - it wasn't that bad, but I swear it took me 3 hours to cook one night for something that should have taken about 30 mins. Anyway, we got ourselves a new oven and Mike installed that. We also decided to go for a new counter top, AND my parents bought us a dishwasher as a housewarming gift. So it's been coming along. We're making new updates, on an economical scale, but I think the final result will be such a HUGE improvement. This is the one side of the kitchen that has been attacked!
This is the before - see stove top, old light fixture, old counter and space by frig for dishwasher.
Ripping out - Mike had fun with the demolition!
After - new stove, dishwasher and counter. We still have some alterations to make (hense the missing drawer) but it's functioning and awesome!
Close-up of counter.My mom has also been able to spend a couple of days with us on two occasions. The first time she helped me paint all the insides of the kitchen cupboards, and all the hall closets, and gave me some good painting tips for doing our bedroom. She again was here earlier this week and sanded and painted our three hall doors, painted the trim work in our bedroom and also improved our outdoor ramp! (Mike's parents and my dad have also been up for shorter visits and have helped in so many ways too! They've helped to move furniture, clean, install the dishwasher, repair falling apart furniture, and provide tons of moral support and guidance!! THANK YOU!!!)
Here is the "before" of the hall closet doors - they seemed to be painted to look like a wood finish...
Here is a close-up of one of the doors before - definitely in need of some tlc!
My mom sanding away - quite a handy lady!! :)
The after product! Thanks mom - what a HUGE difference!!
And here she is spray painting the ramp outside - that was also a great improvement!While my mom was working on the painting side of things, I finally got a big dent in unpacking more boxes. AND I tackled my craft room! There's still a lot to be done but I can at least get to things and have a space to work. This is one of the highlights for me - having a craft room back again. I had one in DE but didn't have it set up as good as I would have liked. And then in our apartment I had to share a craft space with the guest room and it was just a horrible combination...so I feel like I haven't had a space for working for about 2 years! I am so excited to spend some quality time in here!
Now onto our master bathroom issue: we have two septic systems for our house, it's kind of strange, but that's just the way it is. Our master bathroom is the only thing connected to the one septic tank, and then the rest of the house (other bathroom, kitchen, laundry, etc.) is connected to the other system (that is twice the size of the one for our bathroom.) Well, to give a quick summary, the one for our master bathroom is malfuntioning, and we are in the midst of trying to get it repaired. We were going to try and dig it up and figure it out that way, but all the people that we have had look at it suggest tying it into our other septic system....so that's probably what we will do. We just need to find someone to do it. It's a crummy job because there is a tight crawl space under our bathroom where a lot of the work would have to be done. So we'll see. But for now, we are not using that bathroom, except to shower since that is our only shower in the house. Luckily that hasn't seemed to aggravate it too much, but we hope we can get it fixed as soon as possible. So that's been a ball of fun!Now onto some pictures of the pets and nature. I have this next picture of Myra because when we moved into the house, she refused to come out from under the blanket on our bed. The poor girl was so freaked out and literally stayed under the covers for a good 3 days. Luckily she finally adjusted and is at peace with her new home.
Abner enjoying the heat in the sunroom/dining room
Goofy picture of Abner - he's a happy boy :)
And here is a silly picture of Myra - what a character!
Grasshopper on top of one of my mums that I planted outside (check this album for more pictures of our house and improvements!) Smith AbodeWe also had a family of Robins! I was so excited because I discovered them the day they were born. Here is one of the first pictures I got - there are 3 of them.
9 days later
12 days old - I think that they flew away the next day (I was in DC, but I could tell they were close when I left).And one more quick thing - we had a BAT in our house last night! We had gone out to Pixel and when we got back I was walking through the guest room and all of a sudden saw something flying around. I immediately hit the floor and was trying to decide it it was a bat or a huge moth OR I was just loosing my mind and seeing things. After about 10 mins of Mike and I searching the room and rest of the house we determined that it really was my mind that was going. So off to bed we went without thinking much more of it. Then after about 5 mins of laying in bed watching a movie, here comes the little bat flying through our bedroom - making circles all around us. I'm sure you can just picture both Mike and I laying on our backs as we sink lower into the bed and pull the covers up under our eyes...I'm sure we looked pretty funny.
Luckily with working in the parks and with wildlife, I've been told what to do if you ever have a bat in your house. So here is what we did. We turned out all the lights and then opened our door to the porch and put the porch light on. And literally 2 mins later, here comes the bat - did about 3 loops around our living room and then made it's way onto the porch. We got the door shut and turned off the porch light. Then walked around to the outside of the porch, latched the door open and pointed a flashlight toward the door leading the bat outside. We stood there for just another minute and just like that, the bat flew right out and into the night! So take note - if you ever get a bat in your house - don't freak out and start swatting at it - it's probably more freaked out than you - just turn out all the lights except for where you want it to go - slowly lead it out of your house one room at a time (closing doors behind you as it moves out). It was actually pretty cool and I'm still amazed at how well and quickly it worked! Yay for bats! I just hope we don't get anymore - I'm still puzzled how it got into our house in the first place.
No comments:
Post a Comment