House update

We're getting closer! Almost all the tile has been set and the painting is FINISHED! I know my lovely wife is happy about that. I have so much that I want to share but I am just drained so here's a couple thousand words about our progress...

Worms Update

Our worms are doing much better now that they live outside. Well, the are actually living in the laundry room. The number of mites is way down now that the lid is off full time, I guess the mites don't like the fresh air. I think that once we get settled into the new house, it will be time to sort out the worms from the castings and start again.

*Work Worm Bin Update*
These poor guys are not doing good at all. I brought them home last week for a little worm vacation and they have been slowly getting better. They had been WAY overfed and their bin way full of enough rotting food to keep them busy for several months. I cleaned everything out and throw all the food - the worms into the compost pile and then start a fresh box for the little guys.

Potato Update

I can't believe how fast the potatoes are growing! A day after these pictures, I put the second tire on and now the plants are all growing over the side! Today or tomorrow I will mix up some good soil for them and bury them to the top of the second tire..stay tuned!

House Update!

So much as been going on the last few days that it's hard to remember what the house looked like before we started the remodel.

In the kitchen:
The new hardwood floor is installed and the cabinets have all been set. Morgan and I have picked out the tile for the new counter tops and back splash and are now trying to compare prices around town. The kitchen has also been painted and looks really good. Morgan's dad also installed three small can lights above the stove and a larger one above the sink. The new back door in the dining room is installed and the molding in place. My dad did the texturing around the opening for the breakfast bar to help blend it into the current wall on both sides.



Front yard/Garden:
Our new Casaba tree was planted a few days ago by Dry Creek Nursery here in Reno and looks great. Nice and small for now but will hopefully one day be a monster like the neighbors. The hanging tomato plants are doing alright...we started them from seed so they are still small. The are trying again to grow up towards the light so every day I rotate the hanger to try and straighten them out. I'll take pictures soon. Eric (friend and now neighbor) and I cleaned out the gutters (first time in a decade maybe?) and also powerwashed the outside of the whole house...What a difference, looks great! The garden is doing really well with all the rain we've had in the past few weeks. The potatoes have EXPLODED! And yesterday I got to put the second tire on each stack. We do have one little square where some of the spinach has decided not to grow :( Time to replant it we think. And our suger snaps are starting to fruit as well!

Inside the house:
So much work as been going on inside the house! We have had a good stream of help from friends and family so things are moving along nicely....although there is still a lot to do! The biggest house change has got to be paint. There is not a single wall in the entire house that has not been primed and will not soon have to coats of paint! The bathrooom is a light blue the hallway is oatmeal/mocha, the master bedroom is oatmeal on top and chocolate brown on the bottom. The office is TBD while the guest bedroom is split half green, half blue. The living room is the opposite being half blue, half green. The wall above the fireplace is in the process of becoming stripped blue and green. The new front door has one coat of green paint and is waiting for it's second. All the ceilings are nice fresh white..no more nasty shinny ceilings! The closets/shelfs are nice white now instead or peach and yellow! Next is the baseboards and crownmolding! Also, some new friends/neighbors gave us this brand new 40gal gas water heater! We just walked down the street and got it from them. Now we have a nice water heater for us and the old one for the basement unit!
Check out Morgan's blog for more details/pictures!

Kitchen Remodel

Now that we finally have our keys, we have been able to start on the inside of the house. Our two main pre-move in goals are to remodel the kitchen and finish the hardwood floors in the whole house.

We had talked about putting a hole in the kitchen wall in order to open it up to the living room...problem was that I had never done this before. I was pretty sure I knew what needed to be done, but just needed some assurance. Thankfully FIL (for father in law) was free and willing to help us out. (I'm glad I didn't do it all myself because I have been learning so much. Next time I think I could do it!)

Before:

During:

We made the spice rack smaller to make room for the counter tops

After:

The header is in place, the wall is ready to be finished off and the old floor has been removed and is now almost ready for the new hardwood floors. Next I think we will finish and paint the walls and then be ready for the new floor. The hole that we built will soon be our new breakfast bar!

While the boys were working in the garage, the girls were working hard in the garage sanding and priming the cabinets. The white of the cabinets will be a nice contrast to the dark hardwood floors Morgan picked out for the kitchen.

Yard work with my beautiful wife

*** Warning...this was a long weekend I wrote this while trying not to fall asleep :) ***

This weekend has been a busy one. We had planned on tearing out the old kitchen this weekend but the closing feel through and we did not get the keys. We SHOULD be getting the keys tomorrow...I hope.

This could have been a blessing in disguise because it forced us to take time and work on other project for the house. We found all but one part of the fountain that we are going to be making for the fountain in the courtyard. We made two stepping stones (one each) and made some killer headway on the front yard.


To make the stepping stones, we went to the local thrift shop on bought a stack of plate for $7 and some mix from the craft store (I'm pretty sure this is just concrete so next time I'm just going to buy a bag and save some money). We took the plates home and smashed them on the ground to get our tiles.
We then made and pour the mix into our molds (plant liner trays) and added our design.
A day later and they are enjoying their new home in our garden. I'll try and remember to take some picture for you.

Over the course of the weekend, our new yard went from this:

To:

Next on the list is to get keys and then remove the kitchen! Stay tuned!