Day Nine: Door Hinges

I now have hinges on my door that leads from the kitchen to the garage. Yay! Now we can keep the heat in the house and not in the garage. I mean my truck likes being kept nice and toasty but I think I like being toasty instead.

The before: no door going from the kitchen to the garage.

Lining the door up.

Removing old hinges. (He loves his new drill that I got him for Christmas, I love it too.)

We decided that it would be easier to put the hinges on the door first since the door weighs a ton and the hinges couldn't come apart.

 

At this point Big-D is holding up a very heavy door waiting for me to put the screws in and I am off taking pictures of him holding up the very heavy door.

After moving the door up and down several times to get so that door would line up just right we finally got it in place so that the door would close completely.

The after: Look at the pretty door. Don't worry Big-D will get the door knob on at a later date; we wrestled that door around for three hours and both exhausted and wanted to go to bed.

Look at that pretty new hinge.

One thing down on the to do list; so many more things to do.
Over and out,
A Engineer in the Kitchen

Day Eight!

I feel like today was a very productive day but it doesn't seem like that much even got done. We still don't have running hot water and we are calling in the professional to get the hot water heater hooked up. My dad and Big-D's dad went out and got us a new water heater. Which was great but it was larger then the old one and now the plumbing needs to be adjusted for this change. Hopefully that will be taken care of tomorrow and I will be able to take a nice long hot shower in our new house.

Got a new door that leads from the kitchen to the garage. However, there is no door knob or hinges so it's not useable.

Got "new" appliances but none of them are hooked up and are sitting in the garage. They are used appliances and the cool thing is they are only like 5 years old so they are still pretty new and are in really good condition. Plus we got them for a really good price. Still haven't picked up the new refrigerator from the store yet, hopefully we will find time tomorrow to do that.

One thing that did get done was a lot of cleaning which means that we can finally start moving stuff in from the dining room and putting it in its appropriate place.

I think I will at least be a somewhat happy camper when I have running hot water. Trying to clean with freezing cold water is starting to hurt the hands and Big-D doesn't like it when I put them on his neck to warm them up.

Well hopefully tomorrow is maybe a little bit more productive or at least seems that way.

Over and out,
A Engineer in the Kitchen

Day after Christmas

We tried to go to the store today (the day after Christmas) and let me say I think it was just as bad as the Black Friday. Big-D made the executive decision to make me go home right away instead of spending the whole day at the mall. He's not a big fan of spending the whole day at the mall. I will have to try to return a few things in the morning. I won't have to go at all if my mom could tell the difference between orange and red. I don't like the color red and after a several different polls of things that she thought was orange but everyone else said was red. Oh well it's the thought that counts right. Love you mom!

Anyways, I hope everyone got what they wanted. We got a new refrigerator from my mom and dad which in fact wasn't something we asked for but when you have been using a dorm size refrigerator for the last year I think my parents caught on that we needed a new one.

On the sad side of things, my laptop final kicked the bucket. Funeral services for the beloved laptop well be held this week. This means there may be a little slack in photos for a couple days since I will be using the my work computer and I don't have a port for my photo disk thingy (I don't even know what it is called) in my work computer. I apologize for this ahead of time and will have the problem fixed hopefully in the next week or so.

Over and out,
A Engineer in the Kitchen

Merry Christmas Eve!

Merry Christmas Eve to everyone! Hopefully y'all will have a very peaceful and relaxing Christmas Eve. Unlike me I have a few very important things that I need to get done before 7pm. That's right 7pm because that is when church is and I have a feeling once we get home from church and open stockings at Big-D's parents house I will not want to do anything else.

The few things I MUST get done today:

1. Change toilet handle
2. Put water heater connectors back on water heater
3. Install new light fixture in kitchen
4. Finish wrapping Christmas presents 

You heard read right I don't even have all my Christmas presents wrapped. If only I didn't have to be at work right now so I could be doing the few things that I have to get done done and not have a busy stressful evening ahead.

Oh well I guess someone has to pay my bill and I guess it might as well be me.

Okay I am done complaining.

Everyone enjoy your Christmas Eve and Christmas day.

Over and out,
A Engineer in the Kitchen

Chez moi! Day One!

FYI for all you none french speaking people...Chez moi means my home! Sorry I am like half French and I occasionally throw random french words into my life.

I bought my first home on Wednesday, December 21st 2011. It was my very expensive Christmas present to myself.

I realized when I was looking at the pictures that I look pictures of the back of the house and the backyard (plus all the inside rooms) but didn't take any of the front of the house of the front yard. So those will be coming in the next couple of days.

She definitely needs some tender loving care but I don't mind the work.

The entryway:

 View from the bathroom.

 Hole in the ceiling in the hall closet.

 Hallway closet with insulation on the floor...from the hole in the ceiling (see above picture).

View from the kitchen/living room.


The master bedroom:

The guest bedroom:

The third bedroom which will be used as an office:

The bathroom: 

Linen closet, there was one below this but it had a big scary spider in it and Big-D wasn't there to kill it so I didn't want to open the door again. I mean it could of grown 10 feet tall and eaten me right there on the spot...what a rational fear.

The bathroom has a pocket door, which I think is nice; creates more space in the bathroom.

The living room: 

Looking into the living room from the kitchen and future location of a fireplace.

Love the nice big picture window that looks into the backyard.

Looking into the kitchen from the living room.


The kitchen:

Missing overhead light in the kitchen; oh and only a small fire hazard.

The utility room and the dining room:

Sliding glass door that leads into the backyard.

Nice little bar/storage area in the corner.

Utility room in the dining room, that is going to have to change. Going to build a mudroom in some of the extra space  in garage and put the washer and dryer in their.

The garage:

The missing door...

Nice big work bench.

The backyard and back of the house:

Lovin' the tree house :)

The house isn't in the best of shape but it has a lot of potential and with a little TLC it should turn out great.

Over and out,
A new home owner

It's official!

It's official but not Facebook official ( I haven't put it up on there yet.) Are you guys wondering what I am talking about...

Engaged? Nope
Pregnant? Nope
New job? Nope

Anymore ideas....Yes!

I bought a house!!! I am pretty excited yet nervous at the same time if that is possible. I closed on it yesturday afternoon and I going there today to clean, take pictures and maybe move a couple times over. I hope Moo and Bull like their new home.

Plus I have all the guys at work bugging to bring in snacks because I missed last week...opps. I will have to at least unpack that stuff so I can make them something.

Okay you will see me again in a few hours with hopefully some pictures and a long to do list.

Over and out
A Engineer in the Kitchen

My favorite puppy niece

You see that large dog off in the picture off to the left side...she is my favorite puppy niece in the whole wide world. My brother just loves how much I spoil her.

She was once this big...

I took these photos of her when he was 8 weeks old (my brother had her for two days.) These might even be her very first set of photos.

That bone was seriously longer than her leg. I actually got that bone for Sam (my black lab) and I got her a nice squeaky toy. Dakota wanted nothing to do with the squeaky toy and Sam wanted nothing to do with the bone so they talked it out and switched. It took her awhile but she did eat that whole bone.

She still loves that kind of bone; she eats squeaky toys so I was grounded from buying them for her (she still gets them and my brother hates me for it.) Those are nice compacted rawhide bones and it takes her three times as long to eat 'em compared to the regular rawhide bones.

Here is some of the many stuffed things, I am say things because shes use to chew just about any soft, they are all in different stages of destruction. That day she had just picked out the green duck so it hadn't been around long enough to be destroyed.

Protecting her duck and showing off now brown she has become over time.

Photos from her first time in the lake I think she was 9 or 10 weeks old.

Sam bring me back the ball and Dakota coming to get that ball from her.

"Get me out of this cold wet stuff Auntie. I just want to go home and cuddle."

"Please! Don't make me use this big brown eyes as a weapon." (Those eyes melt my heart.) She's spoiled she puts her legs up on me and I pick her up. Still do it today, it was easier when she weighed 10 lbs versus her current 75 lbs.

"I'll just sit here and watch you guys."

"Okay maybe I'll come in a little bit."  For what we believe to be her first exposure to the water she was actually pretty good. She ran in and out of the water.

Papa Pat (my brother) was more daring about going in the water then I was (I mean it was May in Michigan meaning the water isn't warm at all.)

She fell in that gap and I felt really bad.

One of the beautiful things about playing in the lake all day...two tuckered out pups. Yes Dakota is sleeping under the coffee table, she still believes she can fit under there from time to time.

Okay I'm done with pictures of Dakota for today. Are you guys wondering the random post...I get to see her this weekend and I am very excited. I use to get to she her almost every weekend but since my brother got his new job he hasn't been able to come home as often which means I don't get to see her as much.

Over and out,
A Engineer in the Kitchen