Saturday, July 25, 2009

Exterior: After

The "before" picture of the outside of the house is dreary, yet it's the one constantly displayed at the top of the right margin. So, we've decided to update it with a little comparison shot. And how timely! Jessica has just finished the front porch improvement project that she's wanted to do since the beginning of this whole adventure: replacing the wrought iron "posts" with handsome wooden ones. She had help (and borrowed some crucial tools) from her dad, and they did a fantastic job. Observe:


Mind you, these are not prefabricated posts picked up at Lowe's; they were painstakingly handcrafted ("from scratch"?) and customized, each for its own location. I thought it was a superfluous project and that the wrought iron was completely fine, but the new posts improve the look of the porch (and indeed the whole front of the house) enormously, and I'm very proud of my wife for executing it so well.

Here are some more exterior "after" pictures:




Also, I've updated the "Links" section in the right margin. There are now three separate links to picture pages: Before, During, and After. Enjoy!

Thursday, July 2, 2009

More Emptiness

That title really sounds dark and depressing, but at this point in the bathroom renovation, it's our goal. We've removed significantly more matter from the bathroom, including the vanity and the all of the sheetrock/plaster from the doomed shower wall.




This has opened up the space a lot and gives us a better idea of what it'll feel like with that wall gone (which is, quite nice). The next several weeks of work will undoubtedly be the most challenging. We've got to take out those studs while taking care of the pipes and the wiring (one switch and one receptacle) that used to reside in the wall. We've got to remove the remaining tile from the floor. Then we've got to patch up all the holes that will be left in the floor, wall, and ceiling. I think that will be the most difficult part--patching everything up and making it all look nice and seamless (and, in the case of the floor, preparing a flat, level, and sturdy surface for laying tile). This will be the phase in the project when we're most likely to say to ourselves, 'We've made a huge mistake.' I'm praying it doesn't come to that.