| 3/1/2015 |
Spent the weekend cutting, sanding, staining and finishing trim pieces. And sanding, priming and painting drywall. |
| 2/21/2015 |
Finishing up the new stair landing and trap door. The hinges came in, they are much bigger and shinier than I wanted them to be. More expensive too. I hope they will tarnish a little over time. I mis-cut two complicated pieces of the stair landing and had to resaw them, taking about two more hours than I wanted to. |
| 2/17/2015 |
Ripped all the paneling off the wall by the stairs. No surprises, for once, which was kind of a surprise in and of itself. Also took out the landing at the bottom of the stairs, preparing to make a trap door storage area. That’s eight cubic feet of storage we’re not yet using. |
| 2/7/2015 |
The side door was cut perfectly. All measurements were dead on. The mortises were in the exact position and were the correct depth. It fit in the door frame easily with just enough tolerance on all sides. I mount it up on the hinges, and it wouldn’t close. Had to shave 1/16″ off one side. Ugh. |
| 2/1/2015 |
Did surgery on the door all weekend. There’s a 50/50 chance that it will not work. |
| 1/15/2015 |
Bought a new side door. It’ll need some surgery to make it work. |
| 12/28/2014 |
Finally finished the wall on the side of the dining room area. Now the side door looks awful and needs to be replaced soon. |
| 12/21/2014 |
I think I’m getting better at putting joint compound on drywall. |
| 12/20/2014 |
Installed the final two trim pieces around the kitchen window. |
| 10/13/2014 |
Install trim and reassemble laundry room. It’s been a rough weekend but it’s a really nice looking room now. |
| 10/12/2014 |
Two coats of primer, two coats of paint, and two coats of polyurethane on the trim. |
| 10/11/2014 |
Spend all day cutting and sanding trim pieces. Got around to staining them at midnight, which is when disaster befell. Spilled an entire can of stain on my trim pieces. Barely recovered by mixing what I could salvage with another can of stain. |
| 10/10/2014 |
Jamie’s out of town, so I’m taking the opportunity to tear apart the laundry room to repair the damaged walls, paint it, and install proper trim pieces. |
| 10/4/2014 |
Cleaned the hot tub. With the help of a neighbor and his friend, managed to lower it safely to the ground and get it on the pad I prepared for it. |
| 9/28/2014 |
Hot Tub Day. Me and four other guys got the hot tub loaded into the back of my truck and drove it to my house. It only tipped over twice. Almost flipped the truck over. |
| 9/27/2014 |
Repaired deck and prepared the spot for the hot tub. |
| 8/9/2014 |
Sanded drywall, primed surfaces and painted, installed trim pieces and bookshelf, put all furniture back and all things where they’re supposed to go. Went to bed at 2 a.m. |
| 8/3/2014 |
I wanted to paint this wekeend but the plaster wasn’t nearly dry enough. It needs to dry further, sanded, and then I’ll need to assess whether another layer is needed. I am not a professional drywaller by any stretch of the imagination. |
| 7/27/2014 |
All drywall on the kitchen-living room wall is up. Trim pieces are cut and ready. The woodwork and beams are all installed. Electrical is finished and the new light fixture is in. It was way more than the $100 budget I had in mind for this project. In fact, I think we’re up to eight times that in costs to date. |
| 7/20/2014 |
Drywall is up! |
| 7/19/2014 |
The bookshelf footer is made and I’m restoring it to it’s original state of ugliness. Most of the framing and woodwork is done for the half wall, and it’s about time to start drywalling. Birds keep flying into the garage and they can’t find their way out. |
| 7/6/2014 |
The nice thing about removing the this wall is that I already have most of the material I need to finish the project. I have all the drywall, most of the electrical and a ton of paint. All I need is a little electrical materials and some wood trim pieces. Shouldn’t cost more than $100. |
| 7/5/2014 |
With a hand held saw I cut the kitchen cabinet in half. I was going to keep and re-use the half I took out but it didn’t survive the demo process. It’s trash. |
| 7/4/2014 |
Began taking the wall down between the kitchen and living area. This is going to be a big one. |
| 5/27/2014 |
New shelving and new washer-dryer placement in the laundry room has made a huge difference. Jamie actually said “it feels like being in someone else’s house!” which was a compliment. |
| 5/24/2014 |
Laundry room cabinet is finally restored. |
| 5/18/2014 |
That Incra table saw fence I spent gobs of money on? It really earned its place today by helping to cut down those cabinet doors to the correct dimensions. 1/1000 of an inch at a time. |
| 5/11/2014 |
Using cardboard and duct tape, I finished the dust containment system on my table saw. |
| 5/10/2014 |
To install the kitchen floor, I need to either fix, replace or destroy the cabinet in the laundry room. I decided to fix it, against all better judgment. It needs new hardware, a new countertop, sanding and refinishing, and the doors all need to be squared. |
| 5/4/2014 |
Installed the bench vise that I bought a year ago onto my shop bench. |
| 4/30/2014 |
Installed a few of the floor tiles in the kitchen. It’s a huge improvement already. |
| 4/29/2014 |
The new kitchen flooring arrived, delivered by a cross-eyed truck driver. He got it here fine. |
| 4/27/2014 |
Took a 2×12 from up the hill and made brackets out of it. They will be the support for a built in side bench in my workshop. |
| 4/20/2014 |
Cut final trim pieces for the garage and a new woodworking bench. The garage is shaping up very nicely. |
| 4/12/2014 |
Painted the bathroom. With the new paint and new hardware it is a substantial improvement. |
| 4/6/2014 |
Removed the disgusting aluminum framed glass doors from the bathtub. There’s a lot of water damage in those walls because of that thing. Patched the holes up and waterproofed it as best I could. Hope it lasts a few more years before I have to gut the bathroom. |
| 3/30/2014 |
Built my new woodworking bench. Can’t wait to start making cabinets. |
| 3/22/2014 |
Installed new bathroom sink and quartzite countertop. |
| 3/11/2014 |
New appliances arrived. A stove, a refrigerator and a dishwasher. And each one has its own set of unique issues that need to be resolved before they are fully installed. |
| 3/9/2014 |
Finally moved the electrical outlet in the bathroom to a safer location. The previous install had the outlet sticking out of the wall, wires exposed, and so close to the corner you couldn’t plug certain things into it. |
| 3/3/2014 |
New bathroom light fixture arrived. Yay! |
| 3/2/2014 |
So, we’re getting new appliances. That means we’re getting rid of the old crappy ones. Except the fridge, as it’s good to have a spare fridge. Which will be kept in the garage. Which means I had to reorganize the entire garage, build a new wood storage rack, move a bunch of heavy things up to the shed in the slippery, icy snow, and basically spend an entire weekend just moving things around. |
| 2/28/2014 |
I hereby declare that one eighth of the house is finished. Wood trim, mantle, floor trim, all that is now in place. |
| 2/22/2014 |
Fixed the bathroom wiring. Yes, someone connected the hot wire to the neutral wire. I’m not even sure how that worked before but at least we can turn the lights on in the bathroom. The old, crappy, 1982 Xanadu Special light fixture that we love so much. |
| 2/17/2014 |
The light switch in the bathroom has been flickering the lights on and off. This is especially problematic when you’re in the shower and the lights go completely dark. I decided to replace cheesy double light switch in a single box with two single switches in a double box. Now the switch is moved but the lights do not work at all. They trip the fuse immediately when connected. Something is not wired right. |
| 2/15/2014 |
Did some much needed updating and trim work in the bathroom. Got rid of the old rusty hinges on the door, the loosely fitted trim around the walls and hinges, the poorly installed and nicotine stained tile on the window ledge, and got rid of some ugly old hooks that someone found at the bottom of a discount bin at Ace hardware. |
| 2/13/2014 |
Got some solid oak and made a wooden mantle to go up and around behind the wood stove. With the mantle installed, the wood stove area will be nearly complete. |
| 1/23/2014 |
Our new couch arrived. Yay! |
| 1/21/2014 |
Made a bunch of brackets for the trim. The brackets are a decorative / architectural feature that will run a wood trim band that goes around the house like crown moulding. I made 18 of them. Only 102 to go. |
| 1/18/2014 |
Painted those galvanized steel sheets to look like hammered copper. They do look nice, but for some reason this renovation is seeming more and more like an 8th grade shop project. |
| 1/12/2014 |
Finally tore out the wall behind the wood stove so I could run an electrical line to the light on the back porch. Until now, the back porch had a light without electricity. Which had a funny way of not working. |
| 1/5/2014 |
Spent the whole weekend putting siding up on the shed. It looks much less embarrassing now. Still needs a new roof. Needs a coat of Sikkens too but I need to wait for it to get warmer outside. |
| 12/29/2013 |
Funny. By sunset today, I was exactly as far along as I thought I would be at this same time yesterday. |
| 12/28/2013 |
Demo’d the rest of the old shed and cut out an area to store firewood with some air flow to keep it from getting moldy. Sun went down around 4:15 and I wasn’t quite finished. |
| 11/24/2013 |
The old fuel tank for the old boiler is finally gone! |
| 8/23/2013 |
Replaced boiler. Pulled the old rust-bucket boiler out and left it for dead in a field. Installed new electric boiler. Now the shed needs to be rebuilt. |
| 8/21/2013 |
Demo’d most of the shed with the old boiler in it. Encountered soot and cobwebs like nothing ever seen before. |
| 8/20/2013 |
Purchased windows for living room and bedroom area. That’s cool because I was running out of things to do. Now I get to install windows. |
| 8/19/2013 |
Replaced electrical panel. Power was out all day. Now we have a new panel with enough room to supply utilities to a small hotel. |
| 8/18/2013 |
Painted bathroom cabinet. Now the sink and countertop look awful. |
| 8/18/2013 |
Painted the mailbox purple and installed some fancy looking numbers on its side. Now it looks snazzy. |
| 8/17/2013 |
Replaced bathroom cabinet hinges. Now the cabinet looks worse. |
| 8/3/2013 |
Removed old light fixture at back porch (the one that didn’t work anyway). To remove it, you need to remove the glass globe to access the screws that affix it to the house. To remove the glass globe, you twist it until is unscrews from its housing. When it doesn’t unscrew, you keep twisting until the glass shatters and cuts your hand open. Then remove the rest of the fixture with a wood splitting maul. |
| 7/28/2013 |
Installed much needed coat hooks and key hooks near the kitchen entry. |
| 7/22/2013 |
We’re declaring the outside of the house to be painted. It’s a little dispiriting that there are already areas where the paint is chipping and peeling off. |
| 7/8/2013 |
Had to buy more paint to finish the back of the house. Smartly, we painted the front of the house before we ran out of paint so no one would notice. |
| 7/5/2013 |
Began painting the house. Set up scaffolding for the hard to reach places. Now it’s just hazardous to reach. |
| 7/4/2013 |
Table saw restoration is complete. It is ready to make copious amounts of sawdust. |
| 6/8/2013 |
Covered a bunch of switchplate covers with copper foil and now they look much cooler. Well, only slightly less cheesy than the ones people cover with wallpaper. |
| 6/7/2013 |
Mounted a planter box outside bathroom window. Hopefully high enough the deer don’t get to it but I doubt it. |
| 6/4/2013 |
Replaced the cabinet knobs, drawer pulls an robe hooks in the bathroom. Now the rest of the bathroom looks worse. |
| 5/28/2013 |
Installed new ceiling fan, 17′ off the floor on a rickety ladder that supports about 100 pounds less than what me and the new fan weighed. |
| 5/28/2013 |
Replaced laundry room light fixture. Yes! |
| 5/14/2013 |
Installed punching bag brackets and hung the bag up for many vigorous workouts yet to come. |
| 4/16/2013 |
I found a ceiling fan I actually like. And it costs less than a car. |
| 3/30/2013 |
The 38 pots that mysteriously surrounded our front deck are now gone. I put squares of slate tile in their place, and they don’t even look all that cheesy or stupid. |
| 3/15/2013 |
That hideous white plastic lattice is gone, thanks to Jamie. I think she even drove it to the dump. |
| 3/3/2013 |
I inherited a table saw, an old Craftsman that was made when Jimmy Carter was president. I spent all day sanding out the rust and dents in the table top. I’m halfway done sanding it. Blew a fuse twice. |
| 2/15/2013 |
New dining room light fixture arrived. Yay! |
| 1/30/2013 |
The old white plastic lattice is still under our front deck. It offends me every time I see it. It has to die. |
| 1/14/2013 |
Got a chord of firewood delivered to the house. It’s in a pile out in the side yard. I have no idea where I’m going to put it all. |
| 11/24/2012 |
Bought shelving and stuff for garage. Hooked up about half the stereo, and it sounds about half as good as I remember it. The receiver is old, I don’t think it enjoyed being moved. |
| 11/23/2012 |
Furnace is duct taped back together and it’s running again, but no telling when it will explode. We need a new one. |
| 11/22/2012 |
Thanksgiving 2012. The day the furnace blew up. |
| 11/19/2012 |
Moved a bunch of crap from the storage unit into our garage. Now it’s filled with boxes of things we don’t use, don’t need, have no idea what’s inside them, and need a place to sit for the rest of their lives. A dismantled elliptical machine is taking up about 10 square feet in one corner. |
| 11/17/2012 |
Moved all our crap from the storage unit into the garage. It actually fits well and there’s more than enough room for the shop and a little area in which to work out. |
| 11/15/2012 |
Painted the inside of the garage. It’s now finished and ready to use. |
| 10/30/2012 |
Installed light fixture by front door. |
| 9/30/2012 |
If you nail your bookshelf to the wall and prop it up on 2x4s, you just might be a redneck. |
| 9/29/2012 |
Went to the mainland and got our furniture. No more sitting on plastic patio chairs. |
| 9/16/2012 |
Put down hardwood floor in the bathroom. It’s not permanent, just something to put in place while we get ready to gut the bathroom. Going to be a while before we do that. |
| 9/15/2012 |
Reassembled and painted the wood stove. |
| 9/9/2012 |
Finished hardwood floor in the bedroom. |
| 9/2/2012 |
Installed hardwood floor throughout living area. Most of the house now has a floor, and we are no longer walking on subfloor. |
| 8/28/2012 |
They broke ground on the garage today. Excavation has begun. |
| 8/26/2012 |
Ran to the mainland and picked up our hardwood floor. It sits now in 19 boxes in our house, just waiting to get nailed down. |
| 8/12/2012 |
Cut backerboard and set down for the hearth and back door landing. Installed new threshold at back door. Progress slowly but surely. |
| 8/5/2012 |
Cut and installed some of the backerboard for the tile. Got the front entryway laid out all nice. |
| 8/4/2012 |
Moved an electrical outlet from its useless location behind the wood stove firewall. Now we can get to it and plug things into it. We now feel empowered, no pun intended. |
| 8/4/2012 |
At long last, the new dryer arrived to replace the broken dryer that was delivered to us back on June 10th. I first ordered the washer/dryer set back in April, and we just now got what we ordered. Laundry ahoy. |
| 7/29/2012 |
Dismantled the wood burning stove. It’s now outside under a tarp just waiting for me to go out and clean it and rebuild it. |
| 7/29/2012 |
Took out all the old tile. Some of it came up without a fight but the hearth underneath where the wood stove goes is a little obstinate. At least it’s pretty fireproof. |
| 7/28/2012 |
Installed an outdoor electrical outlet. Nice heavy duty GFCI in a wet-location box. I’m getting good at this electrical stuff. |
| 7/26/2012 |
The tile we ordered back in June has arrived. |
| 7/15/2012 |
FINALLY finshed all the screens in the house. No more bent, torn, corroded screens that can’t fit in the window anymore. |
| 7/14/2012 |
Removed the bat that was living inside our wood burning stove. |
| 7/14/2012 |
Put some stain on the replacement boards on the deck. |
| 7/14/2012 |
Replaced almost all the screens in the house. Ran out of parts for the last screen so have to save that one for tomorrow. The house just seems obsessed with making sure I don’t completely finish a project. |
| 7/12/2012 |
Installed new blinds in the bedroom. Got rid of the old blinds. Now it doesn’t smell like cigarette smoke anymore. |
| 7/8/2012 |
Painted the shed up on the hill. I hope I never have to paint it again. |
| 7/7/2012 |
Replaced bad light switches and power outlets, installed GFCIs in kitchen and bathroom. Amazingly, they all work. |
| 7/4/2012 |
Painted the shed behind the house. It’s still disgusting, but it’s a little easier on the eyes. |
| 7/1/2012 |
Jamie painted the outdoor shed with Killz. We’re just waiting for a dry day or two to finish the job now. |
| 6/29/2012 |
Jamie bought paint for the shed out back. 2 gallons? Hope it’s enough. |
| 6/28/2012 |
Finally installed about half of one of the deadbolt locks. Will put the other half in as soon as the drill battery charges up. |
| 6/20/2012 |
We now have stairs on the back deck, and no longer have to jump off it. |
| 6/18/2012 |
Bought some flooring and tile. They have to get it shipped in so I won’t have it for another few weeks. Can’t wait until it’s in. We’re living on subfloor now. |
| 6/17/2012 |
Replaced one of the screens in the windows. Six to go. |
| 6/11/2012 |
Replaced door locks (knobs only). Now every exterior door locks and unlocks using the same key. What a concept. |
| 6/10/2012 |
Installed washer and dryer. They make the whole house shake when they spin. Also got rid of the old trash compactor but it’s still outside on our back porch. |
| 6/7/2012 |
Disposed of old countertop in the loft. Heavy and ugly. |
| 6/2/2012 |
Pulled up all carpet on main floor and disposed of it accordingly. Cost about $35 at the dump. I have a feeling we’ll be giving them a lot more money over the next year. |
| 6/1/2012 |
Removed and discarded almost all of the lace curtains in the house. Kept the ones at the back door because, believe it or not, they’re more attractive than the shed with the boiler in it. |
My boys are going to love the bat story! You handled it way better than I would have. The pictures are amazing of the island, the house and all the beautiful wildlife. I am anxious to hear about Jamies job. I also look forward to updates of the work you do on the house. An adventure it is!
Enjoyed the pictures and the bat story. We sure do miss you guys. Sounds like way more work than we would like. Looks very peaceful though. Hope you are enjoying it. Take care.
OMG!!! So amazing to be living your dream!!! We love this website!!! Now we can stop wondering how and what you are doing!!! The BAT!!! Get out!!! I remember the one in Denver!!! What is it about you two!! LOL!! All the critters….Inky is in for the time of her life as well as the two of you!!! Amazing guys!!! We are so proud of you and James… I miss you so very much!!! xoxo