Making Our House Our Own

We’ve reached our two-year anniversary here. Those of you who have followed along from the beginning know that there were some changes that we wanted and/or needed to make to the house and property to make our house our own.

You’ve seen us (and by “us”, I mostly mean Michael) learn plumbing. You’ve seen my dad paint the inside of our house. You saw Michael put up his shop in record time and then go on to his first attempt at electrical. Of course he builds a lot of things. You remember the laundry room cabinet, followed by bookshelves, and who can forget all the fencing that we have all participated in.

It has taken two years, but we finally came to some stuff that Michael didn’t want to do. (Note: I didn’t say he “couldn’t do”) Knowing my hubby, if he would have had the time, he could have done it. But he does have a paying 40+ hour/week job.

“What has been our latest home improvement projects ?” you ask.

Well first, let’s show you the “before” pictures.

You will notice that the front of our house had a sunroom. Each morning I would sit there and do my Bible study. You might also notice the gutters. The house didn’t have gutters and the lender wouldn’t lend without them so they were attached to the existing roof. The second picture is of the detached garage. Notice it doesn’t have any gutters.

We began by hiring someone to change the sunroom into a front entry.

Day one.

Day two.

Day three.

Day four.

At this point, the contractor had to wait for the door and windows before he could continue.

In addition to the front entry, we needed a new roof. We had hoped that the existing roof would last the five years the inspector estimated, but the garage had some leaking and Michael was pretty nervous there could be some on the house as well.

We have always saved for each project. Well, we felt the roof was urgent so we took the old refinance route. Michael really wanted a metal roof so that is what we decided on.

These poor guys got more of a job than they thought it would be. Because of the odd shape of the roof, EVERY piece of metal had to be cut to fit. What they thought would take a few days took more than a week. Some of those days were pretty hot to be on a roof laying down metal.

They were great guys though and did an excellent job.

So, here is the finished roof and front entry. Michael and the boys are out painting the siding to match the house. Eventually, we will paint the whole house. Since we have a deck all the way around, we  Michael and the boys will be able to do that ourselves themselves.

Here is the garage. I can’t tell you how excited I am to have gutters on the garage. Because it is a detached garage, when it rained the deck between the house and the garage would be all wet. Probably eight to ten times a day I need to go out to the garage and it was very slippery when it was raining.

After it was done, we had really nice weather. I couldn’t wait for some rain just to see how dry it would be. Finally, a storm came through and the area between the house and the garage were nice and dry.

Michael is doing the wiring in the new front entry. We will have outdoor lights on each side of the door and a light in the middle of the room.

Prior to this change, there was about a six-inch drop between the house and the sunroom. Now it is level.

We put all new windows in as well. The old windows were not actually set in the walls and the windows wouldn’t stay open without a stick. It was always a bit scary.

Michael has put everything in for the electrical. That blue thing will hold a light fixture.

So, if you ever come to visit, you will now enter the house from the front and into the kitchen. I like that better than into my laundry/mudroom.

Here is a shot of the front after Michael and the boys painted it to match the house and put the two lights up.

By the end of summer, we will have a cement walkway and a step up to the front door.

Have a great Friday,
Karen

PS: Here is Joshua saying “hi.”