Entry Way Update...

Yesterday I posted all about my excuses for not doing anything in the house recently...well since I had posted it at work and looked the list of things that I still needed to get done I decided that I had to finish off one of those things before I could go to sleep.

So I decided to paint the entry way/ hall way whatever you want to call it.

Here is a little before and after (because every one loves before and after pictures).



Lovely paneling and art work on the wall.

 

Hall closet, with hole in the ceiling of it.

 

 

Look how pretty now...no more icky wood paneling, fresh drywall and paint! (I took the vent down so I could clean it...don't worry all ceilings are hole free!)

 

No more toddler art work the walls.

 

I felt quite accomplished before I went to sleep and all I did was paint the walls.

 

Over and out,

A Engineer in the Kitchen

Someday Maybe...

The last of the walls to get taped and mudded...

This my office...someday (hopefully soon) the walls will be painted a gorgeous shade of bright orange, there will be some nice built in shelves in the closet area (where the ladder is), a new ceiling fan, crown molding, flooring, trim and some outlets need to be replaced. 

Oh at since like now half of my house doesn't have popcorn ceiling, the rest if on its way out. I guess that is like the only good thing that came out of losing my ceiling. 

The List is Getting Shorter

The drywall in the living room/dining room/hallway/laundry room/office is being finished as we speak. It's nice no to see at studs when I walk into my house. The rooms are starting to look like rooms and I can't wait to have paint on them walls!

This has lead me to think of all the things that has been accomplished on the house, how much of it we have done ourselves, and that the to do list is getting shorter and shorter and it's starting to chart new territory (like furniture and all those DIY projects that I have pinned...)

Over and out,
A Engineer in the Kitchen

Aren't I So Smart!!

I have a relatively small kitchen. Let me rephrase I have a large kitchen with small amounts of cabinet/counter space. I have always hated the fact that I kept my pots and pans are on top of my refrigerator because I really don't have a better place to keep them. It seemed like a good idea at first but then it just became a pain in the butt. I mean I had to rinse then out every time I wanted to use them because they collected dirt and dust like crazy, plus add the safety hazard of them falling on me (happened on a couple occasions). So by Christmas time I was ready for something different, so I  thought hey why not ask my mom for a hanging pot rack because that would be totally awesome...Well being the awesome mother that she is she decided that I needed a new microwave instead, I mean cool I have a microwave now (that I have used three times in the month and half it is been up) but where was I going to put my pots and pans....

Then I remembered something I had see on Houzz...(here is the link because for some odd reason it's not letting me upload the actual photo.)

Here is my version...

I do plan on painting the peg board, not sure if I want to do the same color as the wall or do something cool like an accent color. What do you think? 

Now I'm trying to figure out a cool way to store my kitchen utensils. Any ideas? Have any cool ways of storing things you in your kitchen?

Over and out, 

A Engineer in the Kitchen

Slacking...

At least in the blog world.

I think when I get back to classes I fall off the edge of the planet, I'm taking less credits then I did last semester and I can't figure out what is wrong with me and blogging. I'm not sure if it's the fact that I have class until 7 PM three nights a week and then have to be up at 10 PM to be to work and to be honest at that point nothing is more important to me then going home and cuddling with the puppy to get a couple hours of a sleep. I have been majorly slacking in cooking...sorry Big-D! His mom who I love very much has been sending over meals...

In my free time (haha free time what is that), I have found lots of things to do.

The drywall in the living room is up...finally. OMG I am so happy to not have furniture in my hallway, bedroom, office and any random other place that I had it. Like seriously it's nice to be able to use our second TV so I don't have to watch that basketball game I could careless about. It isn't finished yet, going to have them do it all at once and we have one more room to put new drywall up in. Hopefully by the end of March I will be able to paint!

I got a microwave for Christmas, because my mom is awesome like that. I wish I had known they were into buying appliances because I would have asked for a new washer and dryer. (They got me a brand new refrigerator for Christmas last year.) Well it sat in the middle of my kitchen floor for 4 weeks before I finally got annoyed enough to put it up! That was an I operation not a we operation, I literally did the whole thing by myself (up until I needed to actually install it)...

Hank and I have been crazy busy, we started an agility class and I don't know about his agility thing. I thought it would be fun and it is fun but I have a what I am going to call an ADHD dog and he gets bored very very easily and when he gets bored I hear about it.

Speaking of Hank he turns ONE!!! on March 1st. I feel like I am going to have to make him a cake and have a little party for him...

Okay, I have a couple of planned posts just need pictures and to finish them up. Hopefully I won't disappear again..

Over and out,
 A Engineer in the Kitchen

Actually Looks Like A Room

One of the other things that we managed to complete this weekend was putting up drywall in the new laundry room. Once the drywall started to go on the walls, I informed Big-D that it is actually starting to look like a room. I think it was the fact that I could no longer see into the other room from the laundry room.

This was what we had done before lunch...I told Big-D that we weren't going to bed until we had it done because I needed to do laundry (like no clean clothes left need to do laundry).

This is how far we got before we had to leave to go to a birthday "party". We came home and went to bed...

This is what I came home to on Monday after school. Closet was finished and so was the the laundry. I guess the one nice thing about Big-D not having a job is that he was able to finish this project.

Oh yeah, he put up the rest of the drywall in the hallway as well.

I am kind of happy that I no longer look at studs when I walk in my house....now to finish up the drywall in the living room and I will be a happy camper. 

Over and out,

A Engineer in the Kitchen

Laundry Room Update

Last weekend, we had a professional come over and install the water lines for the laundry room. We are one step closer to having another project done...I am quite excited to be able to use our own washer and dryer again as well.

Big-D had to build the wall out a little bit because The Professional wasn't able to get through the truss. And because I am an idiot, I had to put in a GFIC outlet too...I forgot water was going to actually be in the laundry room.

Next step, drywall!!!!

Over and out,
A Engineer in the Kitchen

Other Happenings Around the House

I feel like a lot has been going on in the house but nothing that is worthy of an entire post.

All of the drywall and insulation was removed from the living room ceiling, click here to see why the ceiling had to be removed.

Oh what a mess cleaning up that was. The white brick in the corner has also been removed (and a massive ants nest was found and destroyed). New insulation has been installed and waiting on drywall. We decided that we would have a professional install the ceiling drywall.

 

The cabinet that goes above the stove was reinstalled and so was the cabinet that goes next to it (in this picture it is still sitting on the floor). It only took like six months for us to get the cabinets back up.

Big-D built the handrails for the back door steps, needed to be done for insurance purposes and we final got around to it. Luckily I have a really cool insurance agent and he understood the fact that there were more important things that needed to be done.

I also, with the help of Big-D who ran the wires in the dark crawlspace, got the new laundry room all wired up and it works...go me! Only managed to electrocute myself once, it was only a little tingle nothing serious.

Big-D put a bigger gate up because someone learned how to jump the old makeshift one that we had. He has is only able to half clear (can't get his hole body) over the new gate, next summer we plan on extending the six foot fencing. Hopefully the cheapest of this gate will keep people from stealing it...we have had two gates stolen, why someone would steal a gate I have no clue.

Lastly, we installed a door for the guest bedroom...guess what? The floors in our house aren't even...go figure. Nothing like a project that should only take a hour taking three right.

Other than that not much really going on around here....well in the house at least.

Over and out,
A Engineer in the Kitchen

Our First Piece of Furniture

Okay it's not the first piece of furniture that we have ever owned but it is the first piece of furniture that we have bought together. I found it on craigslist and it was pretty much an impulse buy.

We stole the mattress from my parents basement (it was my brothers before he moved out) because after many nights of Big-D, Hank and I sleeping on a double it was finally time to get a slightly larger bed and the new bed frame was just the incentive to do so...

See that cute little cotton ball up there...that is Urban our foster puppy. Big-D told me her first night she wasn't allowed to sleep in bed with us.

Over and out,
A Engineer in the Kitchen

Guest Room: Paint Job

I painted the guest room last weekend and OMG do I love the way it turned out. I wanted something fun but also some what neutral and I needed some type of color on the wall.

Big-D hes a simple man, if he has his way every wall in the house would be white, but don't worry do you think he gets his way all the time...nope.

The guest bedroom out of all the rooms in the house, is the room that needed to least amount of work. Once we fixed the closet (the master bedroom closet and the guest room closet was separated by a sheet of drywall) there was nothing really do but new flooring (some day) and paint the walls.

 

Before: Looking in from the hallway.

Before: Windows

Before: Other corner

Before: Looking from the room to the hallway.

 Before: Closet

I don't always put primer on the wall but being that there was a dark color on the bottom half of the wall and marker all over the wall (grrrr...people that let their kids draw on the wall.) The primer covered the paint but not so much the marker so I ended up having to get the two-in-one paint anyways.

After: Other corner

After: Looking in from the hallway.

After: Windows

The day after I got done painting, I went in to clean the windows and yep kids colored on the windows as well. I really don't know what these parents were thinking but seriously the kids colored on all sorts of stuff, including cabinets.

After: Looking from the room to the hallway.

After: Closet

Now to find two twin size mattresses for the bed frames, I might have a couple of leads.

Over and Out,
A Engineer in the Kitchen

Let's Play A Game...

Every once and a while we have to play a game called "Where's Hank?"

It's similar to "Where's Waldo" but instead of finding Waldo we are finding Hank.

This is where we found him last night...

For some odd reason he loves to sleep on our nice clean clothes...

Over and out,

A Engineer in the Kitchen

PS: Don't judge my closet, if it makes you feel any better it annoys the crap out of me too.

Roof: After

Okay so the new roof has been on for a few weeks now but I have been so crazy busy with life that I haven't posted pictures of the new roof.

Here it is the new beautiful roof!

Now off to finish fixing the ceiling...ugh what a mess.

Over and out,
A Engineer in the Kitchen

Hank's Screw Gun

 Hank loves to help us around the us with all of the remodeling going on.

"Sorry dad."

Big-D sometimes forgets that if you leave it on the ground and don't close the baby gate its fair game and if he is being cute I am more than likely going to take pictures of him before I stop him.

Over and out,

A Engineer in the Kitchen

Houston, we have a problem.

I hope everyone had a much better weekend then I did....

It rained for four straight days, in the 24 hours between Thursday morning and Friday morning we got 9 inches of rain.

Here is what I came home to on Friday...

Here is what I came home to on Saturday...

More has fallen down, but I am to depressed to take more pictures of it. To make all things better he had no idea that there was water damage in the living room. It has never leaked once. I mean I knew the roof was bad but the leak was in the office. And the BEST part is that since the roof is not covered by our insurance (since it was in such bad shape) they will not cover anything that is a result of a bad roof...just wonderful!

On top of everything else, it stopped raining on Sunday...it rained this morning (Monday) and suppose to be thunderstorms tomorrow (Tuesday).

Here is how far they have gotten on the roof.

The shingles and other stuff have been sitting in the driveway since last Tuesday, it has also be raining since last Tuesday. 

I got about a dozen phone calls from the delivery person trying to find our house. It's a lot of fun living down a road that doesn't have a street sign.  To make her feel better I told her I have driven by a road a million times. Of course I did give her some really good land marks but I don't think she really listened.

 We have a nice pretty trailer in the driveway as well.

Look even a sign! ( I really love Lowe's I will probably frame that sign.)

Some day these wonderful people from Lowe's will be able to come and actually start and finish my roof. Then I get to go through all of the fun of fixing the living room ceiling.

Hope you all had a better weekend then I did. Anyone get crazy amounts of rain? Is it still raining?

Over and out,

A Engineer Ready to Cry