Between Two Pheasants...

After the devaststing news that our bathroom plumbing would be a cool 10 Gs, we put our bathroom goals on pause to save a few extra bucks. We finally launched on January 9th which means we are already 10 days in! Here are a few photos of our progress: End of Day 1

Hey friends and family! The last few months have been wild, but seriously productive as we made progress on the plans for our laundry room and bathroom.

Another year has come and gone and so much and so little has changed. I think we can all agree that the dumpster fire that we anticipated in our federal administration is actually here. Instead of feeling sad and frustrated at all the things that we can't change, I'm choosing to focus on the things that we can...like home renovation (and fueling the resistance in small ways)! It's been a great year as we've made progress inside and out on our 1915 American Foursquare . The year started off strong with a renovation in Cinderella's room (I just posted that final project even though it started in February--eek)... And, the Handyman and I spent a super sexy weekend without kids insulating our attic. Can you spot the African Tribal wallpaper in the closet? 😆 In the Spring, we started on the kitchen remodel and O-M-G! It's made a huge difference in how we cook and spend time in there. Still So.Very. Small, but light, bright and modern! And how about...

Happy New Year! I've been reading a lot of posts on Facebook about how 2016 was a really tough year for a lot of people. It was tough for me too. I'm still struggling to accept the results of November's election and am scared for my friends and family that will be impacted by the actions and policies of the Trump Administration. Particularly, I'm fearful for immigrants, the LGBT community, women rights (and access to healthcare), and not to mention the impact on our energy, environment, healthcare, and international policies. I won't go as far to say that I'm cautiously optimistic, but I am hoping for the best. With all that said, my year has been busy, hard, rewarding, comical, and full of love. At work, I welcomed two new "bosses" (I have a dual reporting line) all while adjusting to a new routine for Cinderella as she headed off to kindergarten (proud mama). Then there is The Babe doing what The Babe does best (not sleeping, sleeping, waking up ea...

Folks, we are feeling mighty fine. We are legit. We live in a house with real heat, because we have a brand new furnace. That's right! Last month, we said "Sayonara" to our 101-year old, original furnace. As much as we are trying to preserve the house, we definitely need to live in a comfortable home and last winter, the space heaters weren't cutting it. In fact, they were tripping all our electrical breakers. Eek! But, how cool that this house has had the same furnace this whole time. They just don't make them like they used to. Here's a pic of the old guy below. Attached on the top is insulation full of asbestos and there were five metal ducts coming out. One duct was completely turned off because it developed a big split in in sometime over the years before we moved in. Another duct was crunched, allegedly by a home inspector when a previous potential buyer came before us. Anyway, here's the big old boy:

I remember a moment when we were walking through the house with our realtor thinking, "a french door really should go where this window is so people in the house can access the backyard." At that time, I had hoped these hypothetical people would be us and we are! We people are the proud owners of a new french door (as of August)! The door is from Home Depot (Orepac is the brand, I believe) and it was not cheap, but it was about 1/2 the price of Andersen which the price of a small car. We had a real handyman/Jesus' sidekick, Ricardo, install it for us. The door is fiberglass and has a real wood grain texture. Since it is in a fairly sunny location, we opted for something that was a little more indestructible than wood. The hardware is also from Home Depot. Now that it's here and we have a glorious view to our outdoor fireplace, I'm dying to put in a deck. That's going to be a project for 2017 and hopefully sooner rather than later. Side no...

I find that one of the most aggravating part of doing any sort of home improvement is that once you spruce up one area, everything else looks a little sad and dingy. Such is the case with our front porch. Our house is looking beautiful but the front porch is a totally Debbie Downer. Wah-wah! At some point in this Pheasant's House's history, the owners painted the red concrete porch red. Probably to match the brick, but it looks so bad. And, the color of the concrete below is pink. There's NO WAY it can look good. The paint has been peeling off over the years and left the porch with a blotchy red look. Like, worse than a teenager's face. It looked even worse once we power washed it.

So, here's our beloved home between May 1st and Memorial Weekend. This first picture shows the giant hole in our siding that was covered up with sheet metal. We took out a wall a/c unit when we put in the mini-split system. Hence, the hole. Knowing we were going to patch and paint the house anyway, we left it. So ugly. Here's the next phase in the process on this part of the house. Patching the hole! Our new handyman (not to be confused with The Handyman), Ricardo, and Jesus took siding from underneath the double window to match the second story siding. And, here's the patched hole. Viola! As you can see, the back of the house has also been primed, but the trim paint hasn't been put on. Not sure about that smiley face. By mid-May, the back of the house started looking like this. Lots of patching and extra layers of primer. May 16th, front of the house! Shut the front door! Literally, it's yellow and beautiful! A close up of the front porch. T...

Well, hello there, old friend! Yeah, it's me. Totally slacking on updating this blog. Particularly lame because we've had lots of progress with the Most Exciting Update. Yep, the house is finished! Shhh! Don't tell anyone that it's actually been 99% finished since June. There was so much progress in April and May that it doesn't feel right to skip to the end. Gotta prolong the suspense a little longer. In April, we finally got body paint! Still looking like the Coat of Many Colors. At this stage, I am so giddy because the color is just perfect! The house really started to transform on both sides. Here's a close up of the windows.  After scraping and after painting. Huge difference, don't ya think? Here's the same window during different stages of the process. The front of the house started to get some attention too. (Neighbors let out a huge sigh of relief) It already looks so much better, but what about those shutters?  Th...