Spring is our favorite time :)

Visions from the garden...

Kitchen Window

This is a project from last summer. I have been really bad about blogging, but I am going to attempt to take more pictures and update for family and friends to see our progress. Jed was given a pretty nice 4-panel,double paned,crank-opening window that we decided to put in our future kitchen. The pics below are from a days work last June.  

Pre-window we just had a void where a door used to be.



Paul helped us get it ready.

We had to take the whole wall out to put it in.

Team Work :)

Our future kitchen window is in!

A view from the outside the day it was installed. Since then it has been primed and painted. I can't wait to have a real kitchen in this place one day!

Recycled Swing

Check out our sweet swing made from old pallet wood and fence boards. Special thanks to Theo and Josh for helping out with this one!

Green Grass and Gardening

We have been spending some time caring for our yard and it has been really encouraging. Green grass and fruit tress and succulent gardens and herbs have been adding new life and beauty to the area around our house. The recent rainfall has been great. We cant wait to see this place in the spring!

Baby Pines in our front yard and our swing in the background :)

Rosemary

We dug up the barrel cactus off I-8 on a road trip from SD to Austin in the summer of 2011. and built the planter out of a recycled limestone wall.

More coming soon!

(not so recent) house happenings and small projects

OK, well it has been a very long time since I updated anything on our blog, but I figured I'd put together a random assortment of small projects and things that we've been up too over this past winter and spring. The pictures aren't the best, but you'll get to see into a window of some of the things we've been up to :) Hope you enjoy.

While Kayla was here in November we made a mini chicken coop out of old window screens, but I don't have any finished pictures of it right now.

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One of our main projects lately has been working on refinishing old doors. Taking an old busted door and bringing it back to life may not seem like a challenge, but it's actually really difficult. We have to wear serious face masks because the old lead paint is scary. After sanding and chipping all the old paint down, filling the dings and dents with wood putty, gluing boards back in place, refinishing the hardware, and painting it to be bright and new... you have about 18 hours of work and an awesome refinished old door!

And here it is in our bedroom :)

And check out the awesome quilt! It was a Christmas gift from Jed... quilted by Grandma Spalding. I LOVE it!

Peter and Theo helped us re-finish the front door... it came out pretty cool.

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When we first moved in our house had no closets or shelves. Since we're not ready for a major walk in closet addition that we want to build on our bedroom, we made temporary closets :) Here's what we assembled with some reclaimed wood and random paint from other projects.

(yes... that is a toilet you see sitting in our back yard. Another free-be waiting to be cleaned up and installed)

And here is my new closet :) It lives in our "utility room"/ future bath room.

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This winter it got REALLY cold in our non-insulated house, so we thought a wood burning stove would be a nice addition to keep us warm. Jed built the hearth out of our home's old chimney bricks and mesquite boards milled from trees on our land. This thing has character. (It was another amazing craigslist purchase!)

Another thing we did to help keep us warm this past winter was make thermal curtains out of an old blanket. It was a fun project for us to create them together and a colorful addition to our bedroom.

I may add to this post later... There's been more going on, but that's all for now! Until next time...

Laying a Firm Foundation

The first step in setting up our foundation was moving the blocks aside so that we could dig out the piers.We hired some help to excavate 6.5 ft deep holes for all of our piers.

Once the holes were dug, the crew filled them with gravel, concrete, and rebar.

Before we could move the piers back into their original location we had to do some major structural reinforcements in the places where the piers were to rest. We went around each corner of the house and repaired every one that needed attention.

First we cut out the rot and structurally weak corners.

You don't want to set your foundation on a piece like that!Here is what the corner looked like when it was still in tact with the beams under our house.

We cut out new replacement pieces and made an awesome structure for each corner that was in bad shape.

Here is a simple step by step.

1. First cut out the rotten wood.
2. Notch out old beams to accept new wood.
3. Cut new pieces to fit.
4. Assemble new corners with 5 inch bolts, PL400, and steel corner brackets.

Check it out!

Look Dad! I'm using your drill ;)

Some of the beams were in obvious need of help as well. So we reinforced them.

Hurtin.

We replaced every weak or rotten board with sturdy treated wood.
And double reinforced the new joint on every side with bolts and PL400.

Once the reinforcements were finished, we moved all the blocks back in place over the piers and began leveling the house.

We made a home made water level that worked great! With the help of our cousin James, we leveled the house!
Precision leveling :)

James under the house helping out with the leveling process.
Now we are finished leveling the house! Onto the next project!!!