Summer of 2010

Wow. Oops. I suppose we've neglected this blogspot for quite some time.

We had a pretty busy schedule with Chicago, Tennessee, & Colorado but we managed to do a few projects around the house (s):

Fuller:

We finished putting up/ staining the fence and getting a cute little backyard set up.

I managed to grow nice grass, over fertilize it, & then regrow nice grass.

I planted flowers around the patio (parking pad) and we have a tiki torch/ bonfire thing happening.

We painted the entryway/ trim/ upstairs hallway a soothing tan color.

We ripped up the carpet on the stairs to reveal beautiful wood stairs that we plan on refinishing along with the foyer floor.

Logan:

We enlisted the help of a skilled builder to fix & frame our walls.

We obtained a few quotes & are having plumbing started at the end of this week!

Seeing Logan's skeleton shape makes it a lot less depressing. It has such a clever design & will be very practical. It will really end up being a cool house.

I am so done with owning a fixer-upper!!

Things are happening!

Just wanted to make a quick post to assure everyone that things are getting done! All the walls in the bathroom have been painted, including the toilet room. We painted that an espresso color but, because of all the defects in the wall, will need to be repainted. The new paint & the hardware on the built-in makes a world a difference. Just a few more lights, a light switch, and some trim and we are done!! I was so anxious I had to add the towel

hooks & candles. And I'm excited to hang up our new art- the custom framed crochet place mats.

Our current motivation is our yard. We are very excited for summer & so we're a- building a fence!

Vanity. Check.

We are finally starting to wrap up this project just as it's starting to warm up (and thus, we'll need to start devoting our attention to Logan St). We have the mirror, sink, and the paint (well, we're half way there, 2 walls to go) set.

Paint: the color we picked ended up being too dark. We picked out a lighter color but considered texturing the wall. We picked out a texture roller and thought we'd give it a try and if we didn't like it we'd paint it solid. While we didn't do a perfect job, we actually really liked the effect (it kind of looked just like our tile) and with the trim and some artwork adding a splash of color, it will really come together. Also, texturing the wall really hid some of our obvious shortcomings in mudding the drywall. We'll also be getting some estimates concerning texturing the ceiling in the next few weeks.

Holes for the lights/ outlets/ switches are all ready to be hooked up. The wire has already been run to the basement/ attic. It shouldn't be too long before this bathroom is complete. And it's exactly how we've been picturing it. THIS is why we bought (2) fixer-uppers. Because the finished result is worth the wait/ time/ effort/ money. Yay!

Recessed Lighting all around!

I am very excited! We just sent back the old bath fan/combo we had because the new bath/fan combos I ordered look like recessed lighting! I am so excited not to have an obtrusive fan on our otherwise sleek lighting arrangements! Also, because I poured through hundreds upon hundreds of vanity lights and did not really find one that I liked, we decided to go untraditional and just have small 4 inch recessed lights above our vanity table. The thick-rimmed mirror is so prominent a light would be lost and/or out of place anyway. Yay! I am getting more and more eager to see this bathroom completed!

Almost Fully Functional Bath

Months in the making, our full bath at Fuller is almost fully functional. The shower, tub, and toilet are all usable but the aesthetics and the sink are lacking. We have discovered the joys of mudding drywall (and decided that we would hang but hopefully hire out to mud the drywall at Logan...). We have pictures of the progress. We've planned our outlets and switches, choose our lighting (mostly recessed), and snaked electrical wires. Also, we just got our new window installed today! So it's starting to come together. We need to finish up electrical, paint, and install the sink. Soon, we'll repaint the built-in storage, choose and put in crown molding and trim, and (in the long run) obtain our glass shower doors. It's looking better and better. How encouraging!

It's taking forever, I realize, but can we please reflect on what the bathroom used to look like?

Bathroom is tiled and shower ready!

Merry Christmas! Our shower is finally useable! As soon as we put the shower head on and seal the grout we can finally shower in our Fuller house!! Komodo took the maiden voyage in the bathtub- great success. We just need to caulk around it so us humans can use it. I'm glad we sprung for the expensive faucet fixtures- they are beautiful and we would always think about them if we didn't. I'll post pictures in a few days when the bathroom phase #1 is done.

Though it looks a million times better with that tile, we still have a ton of things to do: drywall, paint, add trim, add outlets and lighting, and add the vanity and sink, and eventually put in our glass doors for the shower. Phew. One day this project will be done! At least we can see how nice it's looking to keep us going...

Eric and I took a day to clean Logan. We have pretty much all of the wood debris out of there and it's ready for framing. There are still some insulation fluffies but without masks we couldn't remove them.

Now that we are both college graduates (!!) we will have more time to spend working on our houses. Merry Christmas!

Full Bath Inspiration

Someone is coming to finish the shower floor this weekend and then Eric & will tile that puppy so we can have a shower! I've been pretty into Numbers and whipped up this "inspiration spread" so everyone can share my vision: Hm. It copied strange. I'll work on that next time.