That was Easy

That was the easiest carpet I have ever ripped up, and I've done a lot.  

I was told by the carpet salesman that it was most likely glued down.  Nope, just laid right down on the old tile and that was it.  Easy Peasy.

I'm thinking maybe I need to cancel the carpet order and just go with the retro linolium look.

What do you think?

Nah, I'm just kiddin'

Here's the existing carpet....I know, hideous. 

Only took about 1 1/2 hours to rip all the carpet and pad out.  Whoo hooo.   It's ready to be scrubbed and then I am in a hurry up and wait mode.   Carpet has been measured and ordered but seems like everyone is doing remodeling and ordering carpet.   5 weeks out.......I'll see you in about 5 weeks with updated photos.

Beautiful Cedar Shelf

I had orginally went to buy a piece of cedar to make a shelf when I found my mantle.  Well today the weather had a bit of a breeze and wasn't so blistering hot I finished my shelf.

First I started with a beautiful piece of cedar and did a lot of sanding.

 Triple coat varnish recommended by the people that I bought the wood from.

Two coats later, which I guess is an equivalent to 6, it's finished and beautiful.

Finishing the Mantle

The people I got the wood from told me that I needed to sand it down, otherwise the edging would just flake off constantly.   Today was the first step.  I used my electric sander to sand down the first layer.    It's really bringing out the reds in the cedar......and look at the worm holes.   What character. 

Perfect Mantle

Well, at least I think I found the perfect piece of wood to make a mantle.   I'm super excited and it was just by chance that I found it.

First of all, this is my ugly fireplace.   This is the one thing about the house that I truly hate.   I've even thought of taking all the rock off but I think if I can at least dress it up and hide those ugly square tiles with a unique mantle I'll be happy.  

Since the rock has so many different levels I decided that live edge wood is the way to go.  

It's 6' long and 3" thick.  Weighs about 30lbs so I can handle it myself.   It's so unusal and I love it.

Making the Garage Fancy

Well no one will even notice but me, but when I first moved all my treasures to the garage I stapled fabric over the windows and door.   The fabric over the door was a genuine pain in the ars because everytime I opened and closed the door it would get closed in the door.   Today I decided it was time to make some new curtains.   I also have been organizing my fabric and if truth be known I finally found the fabric I bought for the curtains.  Yep, this is the before...now you see why I need curtains.

I had 5 different windows and 1 door to make curtains for.   All done.

And here's the finished product.   They are made of green striped ticking.   Pretty sunnty out so you can't really see the true color.   They look really nice.

It's the Little Things

No one noticed but I new this little tiny piece of tile would drive me crazy if I didn't fix it.

Before

After

It's fixed.

After

Bye Bye BBQ

There is, or should I say was, a really old BBQ in the back.  It's nice because it hooked directly to natural gas, which I didn't even realize that was something you could do, but it didn't work.  At least I didn't even want to try it.  Pretty disgusting.   I've taken out the old BBQ grill and as soon as they go on sale at end of the summer I will be getting a new one.   One that runs on natural gas.

Before

It's the one right next to my smoker.

And the After

Now to watch the sale ads!

Ready for Winter

Did I really say that out loud?  Not ready for winter but super excited to get my fireplace insert.  Thanks to my bestest baby boy I have a new gas fireplace insert and I love it.  Thanks Mikey.

Before

It may not seem like anything special but it's my new vent cap for the fireplace. 

Worker man putting in the fireplace.   

He had to chisel into the concrete a bit to get to the gas line but all is good!

It's done!

Didn't I tell you it was perfect!

Now I have to burn it for 12 hours to get it ready to use regularly.   Not bad, it's 64 degrees outside, I have all the windows open and fans going but my family room is nice and toasty.

I'm sure you'll agree, it's time for a mantle to get rid of those awful squares.   

Cleaning up the Great Outdoors

The prior home owner had lots of flowers but they were scattered everywhere.   No rhyme or reason to how she placed them.   I've been working all month to try and clean things up.

I didn't take a previous picture of the mess I started with but here's a picture from last summer.   Lots of "stuff" in the front.

Thanks to my girlfriend Patty who gave me tons of landscape blocks.  All I had to do was haul them.

My first projecyt was to border around the trees.   The guy who mowed my lawn last year would always cut into the bark of the tree when he did the weed eating.

I also took out a huge bush on the side of the house.   Some people call it a snowball bush, I call it a stinky bush.  It was quite a job to get the stump out.  Thanks to Patty again I got a bunch of hostas.

Then it was time to tackle that jungle in the front of the house.

Simple and clean now.

Couldn't have done it without my little helper.

I also don't like how it looks like you drive staight into the family room.  I decided to plant some flowers right in from of the family room window.  Nice to hear the water running too.

Founs a steal of a deal on flower pots at the end of the year at Lowes last year. 

I have one more flower bed to do, but that's for another day.  

Time to Unwind

Decided to try out the new tubby.

It was awesome....and so was the wine!

Bathroom Done

Another room is finally complete.   I do need to still caulk but I will be doing this on the weekend.  It's so damp and rainy right now I want to make sure it's perfect for the grout.   Well at least that's my excuse.

First I want you to remember what the bathroom originally looked like.   It's not that bad, in fact I thought about doing nothing, but I really wanted a deep soaker tub and well just wanted to do it my way!  Oh, and I almost forgot how awful that floor was.

I never could have done it without my helpers.

The floor was solid concrete so we left that up to the professionals.

I couldn't be happier how it turned out.   It's a really small bathroom 5'x5' but it has the perfect soaker tub.  In fact I may have already tried it out. 

I wanted something different for the sink and I love the bucket sink....

and yes I know I have a bit of caulking to do.  

Love love love the floor. 

Adding my personal touches.

Grout Finished

Well, I thought it was finished.   Did all the grout last night. Isn't it pretty.

This morning I walked in to admire my work and clean up a bit........

HOW DID THIS HAPPEN!

Seriously!!!!!  Looks like the dremel took will be cleaning out the grout 

so I can add the one small little tile.  

Well it wasn't finished anyway,  still have to caulk.  

Jeff

Friday night I received a call that I was dreading.   My brother Jeff was found dead in his home.    Sad day for all of us but I know he is in a better place.

Day 8 - Floor Grout

I can now say officially that the floor is done.   Grout done tonight.  

Day 7 - Floor

Finally!   Finished laying the floor in the bathroom.....the never ending project.