Furniture and stuffs

 Since completing the majority of the exterior of the shed a few months back, I've been at a standstill on the shed.  Other than adding a shelf across the top and lucking out with free cabinets, I've not had the money to do anything else in there.  There's a roof, and (nearly) four walls on the thing.  Dad came two weeks ago and we rebuilt the front wall so the doors function a little better.  You can see the shelf at left, now completely filled with Lauren's school supplies since she's switching jobs.  Some of this will go when she gets into her office, but at least now we have the place to put this..and don't have to cram it into the attic or the playroom.  

I bought wire to tie the shed into the house electrical, just have to have the time to get under the house and run the wires.  Still have a little more work to do on the front of the shed, and the walls need to be closed in on the inside...but that'll happen after the whole thing is finished being wired.  Soon.

Meanwhile, I have stumbled into an unexpected project that I am now loving.  While driving through my neighborhood a couple of weeks ago, I stumbled upon a pair of MCM dressers.  The long dresser is pictured below.  They both needed a good bit of work, so I got to it.  

The overall condition of the long dresser was good...the finish was crap and the top was wood grain Formica. NOPE.








This was AT A DUMPSTER.  REALLY???










I sanded the whole thing down, saving most of the veneer.  









          
      Un-sanded at right, sanded on the left. 

The finished result was fantastic.  I decided to patch the veneer on the sides and sand & paint them, as well as the fake wood top.  I repaired the legs and base, and ended up with a pretty darn cool piece of furniture if I do say so myself.  It looks great in our room!

NEXT UP:  This guy

It's got tons of water damage & the veneer is in decidedly worse shape, but that's a project for another post.  Next post I'll have the finished product of this, along with the process of the antique school desk and Dutch chair at left.  Also, I bought a pretty sweet end table today that will probably end up on here at some point. 

 Who knows.  If I sell enough of these finds, I might actually be able to finish the shed!

Shed time. STORAGE!

It finally happened.  A real update!

About a month ago, we finally made the decision to pull the trigger on the shed.  It was PAST time.  The old one had significant termite damage, has had a tree fall on it and the roof pealed back in the last hurricane.  Don't get me wrong, the little POS served it's purpose and far outlived its useful lifespan.  It was just time to say goodbye.  8x10 wasn't cutting it anymore.  

The first weekend, we cut down the crape myrtle behind it and emptied out the shed.  Dad took everything back to Plaucheville where it still sits.

Over the next 2 weeks, I tore the shed down myself.  So easy when it was the cheapest thing going.  Back in '82.

Seeing the shed gone made me giddy as a school girl.  Had to move the ginger and the parsley hawthorne (which didn't survive the move). Grr.

Lumber arriving was better than Christmas.  God bless Lowe's delivery.

The foundation and base was the most tedious, time consuming part.  Dad rocks.

I had to work all day friday, so my work horse of a dad did all of this BY HIMSELF.  In less than 8 hours.  

Saturday's progress was awesome!

By midday sunday, we had 3 walls, window and doors.

The back has a drop roof and will have shutters around it to enclose lawn equipment.  This gets all the yardwork stuff out of my woodworking space!

I even got ladder hangers to keep the ladders on the north side, also out of the way.

I hurriedly put some of the front on so we could host Emmy's 2nd birthday party and the kids wouldn't feel compelled to play with all of the equipment inside.

Hard to tell, but those are plexiglass windows.  I know.

Here is the latest progress.  I ran out of boards, which I will be going to pick up at lunch.  Things that remain:

1.  3 windows above the door.

2.  Paint all exposed wood (dark green)

3.  Paint doors (dark purple)

4.  Corner galvanized trim pieces.

5.  Rafter straps.

6.  Wire the whole dang thing.

7.  Gravel porch & swing

8.  FINISH the inside.

Lots left to do, but just seeing this thing here makes me more than happy!  Can't wait to have a party there.  

Wow.  Severious slacking of the worst kind!  (Severe + Serious).  New word.  You're welcome.  

Lots has happened, and yet nothing has happened in the many months since my last post.  The girls are almost another year older, and more feisty too.  We combined them both in the same room, Allie's front room.  Emmy is still in the crib, and AC is still in that awful bed we got on the cheap a few years ago.  Overall the room is good, we're just needing to get them new beds.  This is likely the beds we're going to go with:  

It's Ikea.  Great price, simple, perfect beds for little girls, right?  Once we do that, the crib will go into the playroom (former nursery) and that room will function as both play room and guest bedroom.  Looking forward to having a place for the folks to sleep when they come in town...and a bed for our many friends who live far away during football season!

The exterior painting has stalled this winter.  Mostly b/c I've gotten lazy...but also b/c I needed a break.  The front of the house has been sanded, primed, and painted.  That includes the porch ceiling which is now a very southern, pale blue.  All that is left on the front of the house is the upper front gable over the porch, then a second coat on everything...including the porch floor.  Probably gonna pick that up again once the time changes in 2 weeks and I can work on it in the evenings.

The bathroom addition got pushed back. Again.  Stupid money, there never seems to be enough!  We're pretty sure that it'll be happening in the next 6 months, but stay tuned for that one.

In place of the bathroom, we decided to go ahead and do the shed!  Dad's coming this weekend to help me clear our old dinky 8x10 shed out, and cut down the ancient rotten crape myrtle behind it.  After that, I'll take the week to tear it down and prep the ground for the foundation for the new 12x16 shed.  I've priced all the materials and I have to say, I'm super excited about it.  Within the next 4-6weeks, we should have a spankin new shed, complete with 8x12 front porch and swing.  We'll FINALLY have a legit backyard space to gather...and I'll have a place to justify putting a beer fridge!  Woot!

Progress photos to come VERY soon....

Lots of progress lately at 538.  The house painting marathon continues...about half the front is done!  Just bought the light blue porch paint this weekend, so that's next on the list, after I strip down the front porch area.  Hope to have the front of the house done within a month or so.  

Also, WE FINALLY GOT A DRIVEWAY!  About 2 weeks ago, the guys came and ripped out all of the drive and sidewalks, formed it, and poured it all back within 2 days.  It's like driving on glass instead of the bumpy gravel roller coaster we had before.  And it doesn't hold water!  The neighbor's side holds water a little bit, but we'll have to get the guys out there to do something about that.  Overall though, we're super pleased.  

Still working on the plans for the new bathroom/back porch, and that all hinges on us paying off the loan for the central A/C.  Hopefully we'll get er dun before the end of the year...we shall see.  

The process:  strip, sand, prime, caulk, paint(twice). 

All white and solid.  Not pervious, but the kids LOVE it!

Surprise of all surprises:  

when you leave an artichoke unattended, 

you get this stunning beauty!

Workin all the live long day...

OK, so I haven’t really been slacking.  That much.  I completely underestimated how busy life was going to be with two kids and the desire to still have a social life!  Add on top of that a second job teaching at a local Technical College, and you have one busy Justin.  I have, however, been working around here.  We decided recently (after a lot of painting has already been done on the house) to add on a second bathroom and just stay put at 538 for a few more years.  Hopefully we’ll get to that by the end of 2012!

Last weekend was a banner weekend here at 538.  After MONTHS of dragging this project on, I FINALLY finished painting the back of the house.  I used a heat gun and a sander and got the house down to the bare wood…then primed and painted the house and trim!  All I have left to do is scrape the windows and put the screens and shutters back on and the back of the house is complete!  Until we rip it off in 6 months…

I also got around to re-painting the back door after it had been scratched up and test painted ages ago.  We went with a deep, almost brownish purple color after seeing how great it looked on Lara’s house.  Which brings me to my next project:  the new front door! 

I’ve been looking for a door like this since we moved in.  The current front door is a solid metal door with no windows whatsoever.  It’s the definition of depressing and makes the house look like it’s still a rental property. 

 

Well, I snagged this bad boy for less than $100…so we’re gonna paint it the same purple as the back door and splurge on the hardware…which will look something like this: 

 

Last but not least, we finally replaced the dining room light fixture.  I really liked our old cantilever lamp that came with the house, but it was a bit too heavy and blocked the view into the kitchen after we opened up the wall.  This new fixture is from CB2 (via craigslist at 30% discount!).  Installing it was a BIOTCH, as moving the fixture 3’ over to the south resulted in re-wiring the living, dining, and kitchen because there was absolutely no slack in the wiring in the attic and the circuits in this house are whack!

Really brightens the space up!  Now it's time to patch the hole...

update: I'm in love. AGAIN.

It's amazing how you can fall in love. Three times. So completely that you lose your breath more than once per day. I knew when I met Lauren I'd found love. Then we had AC...I had no idea what I was in for. She completely blew me away with her sweetness and grace. I thought that was it, how could I possibly love yet ANOTHER person this much?

and then we met her:

Stunning eh?

This is why I haven't been on here in ages. Coming home at night, I've been completely consumed with having both kids and trying to get everything done that needs to be done to keep this life afloat.

I guess at some point I'll have to get my butt outside and finish re-painting the outside of this place, eh? oh well, maybe after Christmas...

yes, yes, yes

Yes, it IS almost September. And yes, it's been over a month since I posted. I promise I've been busy. No, really. I've been working on the house and playing catch-up with other things in life. Plus, I had a *ahem* procedure done, so I'm a little doped up and out of it. So I will be back soon. Promise.

oh yeah, this thing...

Bad blogger! Bad. Blogger. OK, I'm not really a blogger, but I happen to have a blog which I'm too lazy to keep up. I never understood why people always said life got so busy when you got older. Until I got older...I'll be 30 in a few months yaknow?

Lately, life's been full of diapers, feedings, and just plain trying to keep up. A little extended time off for L meant a bit less pay this summer. While it was worth it for her to be off with Emmy for 3 months, it's slowed progress down here quite a bit. I STILL haven't ordered the remaining glass for the kitchen cabinets. It's also going to be a while before the new floor and lighting make their way in.

I have, however, started working on the outside of the house. Sigh. What a project! I've scraped a large section of the back of the house and washed sections. Once I get a couple of dry days, I'll sand it all down, putty what needs it, then prime and paint it. Stay tuned, there'll be pictures coming eventually. Until then, enjoy this:

Catching up...

Whew! It's been a crazy month or so around here. We got the majority of the kitchen done juuuust in time for Emmy's un-prompted 3-week early arrival. There are still plenty of small things to do: get the glass for the upper cabinets, adjust a few knobs, sand here, paint there, fix the trash can drawer, etc. All little things that only I notice, but things to do anyway.

First things first:

Emmy enjoys a nap. Pure sweetness.

The simplified cabinets and new dishwashwer.

The simplified lower cabinets. Clean and timeless!

The bar with the updated cabinets!

The trash can drawer...love this thing!

Our world has grown a little bit more

God has blessed us yet again! Emery Kate Lemoine was born at 7:37pm on May 3, 2011 weighing in at 5 lbs 15 oz, 19.5 inches long.

I must say I feel like an extremely lucky man to have been given such riches in life. Now it's time for me to start showing how thankful I really am.

My bathing beauty...just before things got REAL.

Our first picture as a family!

Emery Kate Lemoine (yes, I'll put better pics up later)

This weekend was a banner weekend in the ongoing 2-year renovation of the kitchen. We FINALLY installed a dishwasher! Also, we re-faced all of the bottom cabinets, stained the butcher block top, and re-ran a new copper line to the fridge (over a year after it burst during a cold snap and flooded the kitchen while we were away).

There are still tons of things to do, like sand, paint, finish installing hardware, new magnetic catches, add braces to the bar and re-frame the bar door, but he majority of the heavy lifting is over!

My nanny, mom, Lolly, & AC spend the weekend painting in AC's big girl room too...those pictures are at the end.

Below are a few pics of progress in the house:

New drawer fronts & door faces

newly stained & varnished bar top

New cabinet faces and dishwasher!

The tree & owl Owl behind the old window

it's getting there..

We drove up to mom & dad's Friday night to spend Saturday working on the cabinets in preparation for moving them to the house Sunday. One small problem: we realized about 1:15 into a 1:30 drive that I forgot the paint. Whoops! Oh well.

Saturday we got up, sanded everything down, put the cabinets together, and drove to BR. We spent a good majority of the day Saturday putting the cabinets together and installing the hardware. The doors need a little adjusting to line up all the reveals perfectly and there is still glass to be bought for the top doors, but overall it looks great!

Sunday, we drove to 3 different Home Depots to get the cup pulls we wanted (each store had 2 or 3...except for the last store in BFE which had about 100,000). I finished the day off by putting the baseboard back, putting in shoe molding, caulking, and doing some touch-up painting throughout the house. What you see below is essentially finished, minus the stain on the butcher block top. Overall, I'd say quite the success. I have the best dad. ever.

update:

Kitchen Diagram

THIS is why I love my dad. Bottom half of the new cabinet.

A little home update...

nothing quite as heavy this time, I promise.

Project update actually! Projects of note: Chicken coop, Kitchen, Girls' rooms.

Chicken coop - Well, it's mostly finished but since the Christmas day chicken massacre...we now have no chickens. That's right, I finished the house a week before the last chicken was mercilessly killed. Figures. So my next step is to get the black netting tied to the top of the thing so that chickens can't fly away and other animals can't get in there and eat them once we do actually get new chickens. I'll probably do that within the next month so I can go ahead and get chickens in early spring. I'm ready for fresh eggs dammit!

Kitchen - The upper cabinets on the south wall have been up for a couple of months and we chose the hardware that we'll have throughout the kitchen. 3 different types: cup pulls for the drawers, 6" bars for most of the doors, and simple knobs for the top glass doors. With the heater on full blast, a lot of the joints in the bead board are opening up so I'll have to caulk them and re-paint at the end of winter...hopefully for the last time. We're going to m0m & dad's the weekend of the 19th so dad and I can complete the cabinets for the north wall and I can bring them back to install them. The final step in the cabinet marathon will be to replace all of the cabinet faces and doors on the existing lower cabinets and repaint the inside of all of the cabinets white. All of this mess should be done in about a month so we'll have the bones of this baby in there. If our income tax check is a good one, we'll also buy our dishwasher and new counter & backsplash. I'd like to also get the new lighting...but we'll see. Baby steps.

new cabinets on the left...newer cabinets coming to the right

Girls' rooms - Em's room will get an update with all new decorations, while the furniture and paint will remain the same. Currently it's PACKED with all the bins of baby stuff we just pulled down from the attic. We got AC's big girl room painted this past week and she spent the last two nights in the room like a true big girl! Here's to hoping she keeps it up. We picked up a couple of pieces of furniture for her big girl room pictured below. These two need a lil TLC - mostly just paint - to get them ready for the room.

Big girl's dresser. what this picture doesn't show - it's actually flesh colored *shudder

(soon to be white)

Great Mid-Century piece...also soon to be painted. This will be her pantry for her little kitchen.

Whew! That's a lot of talking. I'll stop now and hopefully have a more picture-filled update again soon.

Welcome 2011

Aaand with a few weeks of the year behind me already, I can say that this year is bringing with it a little perspective. Funny how time (well...God) has a way of doing that.

Christmas weekend I was sick as a dog and missed out on seeing my extended family, my godchildren, and my grandma. Eh, whatever, right? They'll be there next weekend when I come in for New Year's Eve. ack. Not so much. Monday morning after Christmas, mom calls to say that dad's mom is in the hospital b/c of a fall. New Year's celebration (first big family NYE party in a decade) is cancelled and all the fireworks, etc are to be saved for the 4th. Mawmaw isn't doing that well, but she's still conscious and talking. We made a visit to the hospital in Alexandria to see her and AC got to visit with her and talk a bit. Fast-forward a week and I get the call to pack my suit and the girls and come home to the country for a funeral. Not the holiday season I'd hoped for...not by a mile. Losing someone is never easy, but time heals all pain. The toughest part was watching my dad say goodbye to his mom. My last grandparent and the person who taught me Cajun French (the little I know) and also helped to inspire my love of plants. We truly were a lucky family for having her and she will be truly missed.

We came back and got on down to business as usual. Wake up, work, daycare, dinner, rinse, repeat...all the while thinking about how odd it is that she's not there anymore. Lucky for her, after 22 years, she's with her husband. I bet that was a sight for sore eyes!

Anyways...looking around my house tonight, I'm extremely grateful. I have a beautiful wife who is carrying our second child...and looks amazing while doing it. We have a spunky little 2-yr old who throws her arms around my neck and says 'big hug daddy' and gives me a kiss. We have a great home (nothin fancy but we love it), dependable transportation, and a wonderful extended family that loves us very much. We both have jobs, and that's more than a lot of people can say. Do we love them? I can't say that. But they pay us and we have insurance, etc., and the lights and heat stay on in the house. Not bad.

Sure, we could always want more. That's human. But we don't really NEED more. Looking around, I see suffering of every kind. Lost loved ones. Strained relationships. Unemployment. Sadness & Suffering. It's easy to dismiss or ignore the plight of another and focus on your own unimportant whining. What's difficult to do is to tell yourself to shut up and be happy with what you've got.

Tonight I feel as though I've got better perspective on things. We're just an average American family moving through the maze of life, thankful for the chance to come home and be loved. Nothing special, nothing fancy. Just us.

Just average.

I like it.

From our family to yours.

Happy Birthday!

Two years have passed by in the blink of an eye. It's hard to even imagine life before you were here. We wake up and thank God every day for the blessing that you are. Thank you for opening our eyes and filling our hearts full of joy. On this, your second birthday, I say a prayer that your life is as happy as you've made ours!

Love,

Daddy

See? Progress!

The stars aligned: I had free time (ish) AND money in our account, so BAM...got stuff done. This past weekend was busy with LSU and Saints games, plus moving my brother and having mom and dad in town. How I found time to get things done, I'm not sure. Especially since Lolly was in Memphis and AC was with me. Oh well, stuff DID get done so let's just focus on that.

K? K.

New glass and knobs on the upper cabinets. Crown moulding will have to wait til the unit on the north side of the kitchen is done...

The completed coop (minus corner trim) - East Elevation

North Elevation - corner trim missing, also needs ramp and to be relocated to correct location