Main Level Demo Party!

We definitely had quite a demo party on the main level this weekend!  Lots of tools, drywall, trim and tile were flying around! Frank and crew had started tearing out the smaller dividing walls before we headed up to NJ (prior to Christmas).  Here's how things looked post mini-wall demo:

This is a view from the current and future living room area at the front of our house, looking back.



Here's a look from the current kitchen, looking towards the front of the house.

Even with just these small walls down, we could already see how things might look when we open up the space... so exciting!!

This past weekend, we went wild on the space and tore down the rest of the drywall and trim in the current living room and dining room spaces.  The light flooded in once that wall was open and you can really start to see how it will look once we're done now...

Looking from the living room towards the side/back of the house.

The current dining room space, which will be part kitchen, part living room in the new layout.



Standing in the current dining room and looking towards the front of the house and living room space.

We still have to move wiring and the central vac in that wall above, so for now the studs will stay until we can take care of those things. 

Since we were feeling ambitious, we also started some demo on the kitchen.  For now, we're leaving that one wall of drywall between the kitchen and dining room.  We're trying to keep dust away from the refridgerator until we have it moved/sold.  So, we moved onto taking down cabinets, countertops and removing tile floor. 

Frank loved it!



This is the wall between the current kitchen and dining room... we ripped out the cabinets, countertop and cook top from here... the wall is next!

 The tile in the kitchen had lots of mud and adhesive underneath, but luckily it wasn't too bad to take out.  We got 1/2 of it out in about an hour. 

Chipping away!



1/2 the tile is out! 

 So that's where things stand after our weekend demo party!  Lots of progress for a few hours of work.  We'll be getting a dumpster soon so we can start to unload all of the resulting trash (hopefully today if they're open).  Next up, we'll continue in the kitchen and then start on the hardwood floor and hallway tile removal.  More photos to come as things progress!  Oh, one last thing... if you have any pent up anger or just feel like getting some extra exercise, all are welcome to come and help demo!!

The Bat Cave... I mean, Man Cave

Demo at the Prihoda residence has begun!  Right before heading up to NJ for Christmas, we started tearing down walls. Our demo started downstairs, which allowed us to do a few last things that would make the lower level fully liveable for a few months while we totally renovated the upper/main level. 

We had to tackle the back two rooms first (lower level) so that we could also accomodate the new mudroom we're adding for our side entrance (where we enter from the garage upstairs). We'll need to add in some in-floor support, so tearing down the ceiling in the lower level rooms was the best way to do that at this point.

While tearing down the back two rooms, we discussed plans of what we wanted to do with the space. When we first finish this newly expanded room, we're going to move in and make it our (2nd) temporary master bedroom.  There's also a bathroom attached, and we're planning to hopefully tackle at the same time.  This way, we'll have a nice clean suite to escape to from all the work that will be underway upstairs. 

Once the upstairs renovations are finished and we move into our real master bedroom, we're planning to make that back room downstairs a "man cave" for the man of the house -- Tyson! Haha, no I'm just kidding.  It will be Frank's man cave of course!  We have decided exactly what will go in there furniture wise just yet, but we'll defintely include a TV and possibly a pull-out couch for extra guests (in additional to a traditional guest room).

It's exciting to see progress in the renovation! Things are really coming along... here are some photos from the demo in the back two rooms (so far)...

Lots of drywall coming down in there!

Drywall aftermath.

More progress! We made it down to the cinderblock and cleaned up that big mess...

Ceiling is out now too... just about done with demo in here.

Once we take up the carpet we'll be just about finished with demo in here.  Then we'll move onto rewiring, replacing the window (to a more energy efficient one), replacing the flooring, dry locking the cinder, adding back walls, painting and decorating!  I'll keep you posted as this room evolves, but so far, so good in here!

Patio Power Washing

A while back Frank bought a power washer on craigslist.  It needed a part when we bought it, so I picked on him for weeks about how it was junk.  He did a superb job and fixed it up to working order - I'm such a proud wife!  I finally took it for a test spin last weekend on the back patio area, and boy did it work well!  Between the backpack leaf blower and the power washer, it's hard to say which yard tool is my favorite!

Here are a few pictures to show you the before vs. after look of the patio.  The dark is the pre-washed area.

Overall it didn't take too much time to finish at all.  I think the patio looks much better now, and I'm excited to take on the next project with the power washer soon!



Our Plants are on the Move!

It feels like since the day we moved in we've been cleaning out the yard!  There was way too much overgrown greenery right on top of the house.  Frank and I have been working hard and seeing some big progress.  This past weekend, we even had some hired help come over to help us relocate two beautiful rhododendron trees/bushes we had right out in front of our house. 

The one tree was quite large. The job was one we definitely couldn't do by ourselves.  The second seemed smaller, but one the guys got digging it looked bigger than we thought.  Before we moved anything, we needed to figure out where we wanted them moved to.  We really wanted to put them right at the front of our driveway, but unfortunately there wasn't enough sun there. These plans need lots of sun, which can be somewhat hard to come by in many parts of our yard due to the surrounding larger trees. 

We decided that the side yard would be best.  You can see them from the front as you drive up, the back and the side. Plus, they'll be right outside of our master bedroom and bathroom, so we'll have the view there as well.  Once we decide on the spot, it was time to get to work. 

Here's a few reminder pictures of where the trees were before...

You can see the larger tree on the left of this photo by the hose - only about a foot from the house.  the second is in the top right of the photo, in front of the second bedroom on the first floor. Again, right up against the house.

Below is a picture of the larger of the two trees right when we moved in.  They're just beautiful when they flower, so we really wanted to try and keep them if possible. Although, you can barely see half of the tree with the jungle in full effect around it!

Here's a quick picture of where we were going to move the rhododendrons.  There was a tree there as you can see, but we took that out.  It was a crab apple tree and made a big mess.  It was also a terror on Frank's allergies. 

We hired four guys to come and help us make the move.  There was lots of digging, until we got the base of the trees into tree balls like this:

Next they wrapped it up in burlap, but I was busy doing other things in the yard and forgot to snap a picture.  It took the four guys, plus one more we called for backup, plus Frank to get this thing moved!  It was much bigger than anyone though and super heavy!  Frank's tractor was a big help... here's a picture of him on his favorite toy (moving compost for the tree transplant).

And here's a few pictures after the trees were out of their holes...

(where the big tree was)

(where the small tree was)

(side yard where the crab apple tree was)

All in all, it took many hours, lots of man power and one Kubota to move the trees.  But they look GREAT!! And I'm so happy with the results.  Now we just need to nurse them and keep our fingers crossed that they live.  Here they are!

Wash, Dry, Repeat

Recently we found a steal of a deal on a few appliances! Along with some things for the bar, we purchased a new washer and dryer. Since we'd been pretty busy, there wasn't much time left to install them. Luckily, last weekend was the day! Here's a look at what we had in place before:

Nothing wrong with them, just couldn't pass up the deal we found.  However, the white set is for sale now! So anyone who's interested please let us know.

And now for the reveal of our new duo...



Of course Tyson wanted to get in on the reveal action!  He loves hanging out in the laundry room while I fold clothes.  Such a good helper her is. 

The new set is great!  It's very energy efficient and washes and dries in less time than before.  Additionally, there's a ton of space inside to fill.  Check out the washer ...

... nothing sticking up in the middle means lot smore room!  Another fun thing about the set is that when the cycle is done, a pretty song plays to let you know.  Since we're not used to it just yet, we always think it's so funny when it starts to play. 

I have lots of plans for this room as we start working more on the lower level transformation, but for now I'm happy with the new washer/dryer set! 

More Yard Cleanup!

Frank, Tyson and I were all busy this past weekend out in the yard!  We did some more cleanup.  First, Tyson and I tackled some BIG weeds growing by our walkway and front garden area.  Here are some before and after pictures of our handy work...

 The photos on the left are "before" and the ones on the right are "after."

The other thing we took care of was bundling up branches and small logs from the tree that fell during that big storm we had a few weeks back. Each Wednesday they'll take up to 10 bundles.  Here's our lot for this week...

  

We have a few more weeks worth of branches and bush limbs to go, but we're making progress! 

While we were out in the yard working, Tyson was busy having a ball rolling around the ground - probably in something stinky!  Between his fun rolling around and the mud/dirt he was definitely in for a bath after we went in that day.

 

This weekend I also had some time to re-pot my herb plants and my peace plant for the breezeway.  Here's how those turned out...

Tyson helped with those too, of course. All in all it was a very productive weekend in the yard.  We got lots done and all felt very accomplished!  More updates to come soon...

- Jess

De-bushing the Front Yard

As you've seen before in our Yard Tour, the front of our house was extremely over grown when we moved in.  There were a ton of huge bushes with no shape to them.  We also had lots of azalea bushes, that the deer like to eat.  The problem there is that the deer would trample everything in their path to get to those azaleas (like my peonies!). 

So, this past weekend Frank and crew decided to clear out the front a bit... or maybe I should say ALOT!  It looks so much more open, and you can actually see the house now!  We're already envisioning all the possibilities for a new porch and some more manageable landscaping. 

Here's a reminder of what things looked like before when we moved in:

And here's what it looks like now!!

The bushes you see left will all be transplanted this fall.  We spoke to a landscaper who takes care of our neighbor's yard, and he recommended waiting until the fall to move them.  We'll relocate them to the side yard tree line, so they can grow as big as they'd like.  They'll also help add some privacy in the more sparse tree line on the one side.

Once we have all the bushes moved, we'll start re-landscaping with new plants, rock, etc.  We're also looking to change our curb appeal - or lack there of.  The white shutters on tan brick are just not doing it for us.  That will be getting an update as well down the line...

More to come soon!

Weekend "Treasure" Hunters

This weekend Frank and I were busy out in the yard. We cleaned up lots more sticks, moved more random wood from the yard, moved more rocks, found all kinds of "treasure" in the yard and knocked down the back fence. Here's our now huge pile of wood collected out of our yard...

  What's sad is that we still have a ton more to remove!  There are gardens that still have the wood border and there's also some lining the yard.  The wood is mostly rotten, so it's gotta go!

Here's a picture of the 15 bundles of sticks Frank and I tied up yesterday... We wanted to clean up the yard and also the path through the woods where we walk Tyson sometimes.  It was a very productive time picking up sticks, haha. I must say, this was mostly Frank!

Regarding the "treasures" we found... apparently the last homeowners enjoyed throwing anything and everything out in their yard! We've found old tile (two yellow buckets full above in the first picture), lots of old wood from furniture and other structures, soda bottles, plastic bags, buckles, and our largest find so far - this firewood wood hoop!

Isn't this ridiculous?? Who knows what else we'll find as we keep going with our outside landscaping!

Next up are some fun photos of our backyard before and after (fence removal only).  We haven't done too much else back here yet besides cleaning up things, but I think it looks so much better already with the fence gone! So here are the before reminder photos...

And here's the after... thinned out the garden a bit and tore down that "fence!"

The last thing we did was tape out where our future closet will go... so excited to see it taped out!  Here's a little preview...

The long line along the bottom will be a new wall that creates a walk way to the bathroom (off the the right out of this picture) and the closet which is the back square in this picture.  If you look hard, you can see where our king size bed will most likely go with the blue tape dots on the left.  Can't wait!!! More to come soon hopefully. 

Love,
Jess