Between Two Pheasants...

As per usual, the project has wrapped and I'm not getting around to an update until a couple of weeks later.

It's already mid-July? How did that happen? Of course we are still plugging along on the kitchen remodel. I think this marks two months without an oven/stove and a mudroom since our fridge takes up most of it. But, who's counting? By the end of May, Jesus had finished painting and we had our new Schoolhouse Electric Lights installed. Here's a close-up of the over-the-sink light. Since this picture was taken, we've exchanged the bulb with an Edison bulb. It's not as bright, but it's more period-appropriate.  Here are a few side by side shots of before and after painting. What a difference! Next post will be all about the floors and there is some drama involved!

One month later and a lot of progress has been made on the kitchen. Ugh, but it's not done. We are inching toward the finish line. OF COURSE it always takes twice as long as you originally plan. After the cabinet doors and drawers were in, Tom and Nate took out their aggression the counters and back splash. By far it was the most gratifying as well as messy part of the reno. We are so lucky to have talented and amazing people in our world. Tom and his lovely wife, Betty, are our neighbors who have renovated/restored several homes. (They also give us fresh chicken eggs and figs from their tree) They gave us the confidence that we could take out the counters ourselves and even offered to help. While they worked, I pulled out all my mom-tricks to keep the girls occupied outside. In process pics:

Remember this room when we moved in? I barely do. It feels amazing to look back at the real estate photos and see how much progress we've made. This sleeping room/porch is one of the reasons why I love this house. For a recap of when and how this wallpaper came down and the beginning of this room's transformation, you can read about it here . Shortly after, the Handyman and I painted the walls SW Mint Condition, but didn't dare touch the trim. For a long time, the room looked like this. Yuck! We didn't touch the trim because there is A LOT of it. There are seven windows, three doors, and baseboards in this room. There was... Lots of chipped and cracked paint: Nail holes and damaged wood. Gaps between the baseboard and plaster wall: And, window hardware needing to be cleaned up. We knew that Jesus would need to save us on this one. The main reason it took so long to get back to this room is that I hadn't found the right ...

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...