Wood Burner

If you didn't know Lena and Randy moved out of there old house and were gracious enough to give me their old wood burner. I refinished it and put it in the house and so far so good. I installed a Dura-Vent duratech class A chimney that is rated to 2100 degrees and follows the directions to the "T". Dura-tech is a double wall professional grade stainless steel chimney. With the stove blazing hot the outside of the pipe is cold to the touch pretty slick stuff and was super easy to install I did it by myself in just one day.

next project will be a stone hearth and wall covering and the mantel that I cut from a solid cedar log. Gonna look SWEET!

click on the slide show below to view pictures:

The Pantry

Tim had a great idea (one of many) to put the kitchen cabinets in the pantry. Many probably wondered why we would crowd a pantry with cabinets, but if you haven't seen our pantry, it's HUGE! Before closing on the house we looked on the internet for remodeling ideas and we found a picture of a kitchen with no cabinets above the countertops.

How intelligent? It opens up the kitchen soooo much. So then we didn't want to waste the cabinets, hence Tim's grand idea of putting them in the pantry.
Before we could do anything in the pantry I had to take down the plywood shelves the previous owners mounted and take up the tile.

(The first posted picture of me working on the house)

Afterthat, Tim placed a cabinet in the corner to test it out... he built a frame out of 2x4's (saved from taking the wall down) to place the cabinets on and raise them to counter height.

	We decided to put 4 outlets above the counters so we can plug in the small appliances everyone always stores under their cabinets b/c they don't have the counter space. Tim has a little bit of rewiring to do...

The cabinets are oak and the previous owners never stained or finished them so we tested one out and stained it "Early American". We wanted the rustic/old/worn look so we took a hammer to the doors and stained the crevices "Dark Walnut".

I finished the staining while Tim was working Tuesday. I still have to coat them with poly. Don't they look cool? The pictures don't do them justice :)

Tim put the wall back together and started measuring for the countertops. We purchased pine 2x8's and will probably stain them "Early American" as well. If you've seen the end table he made out of logs earlier this year, the countertop will come out like the top of that end table.

The next steps are to sand the walls, respackle, paint, poly the cabinets, finish the cuts for the counters, stain counters, and mount :) Tim is also building a wine rack in the opposite corner where we don't have a corner cabinet. We will mount a microwave in there also.

So far in July...

We returned from beautiful PA and got back to work. Tim mowed the weeds for the first time... look at that hunk w/o a shirt on.

We took down the entertainment center built with plywood and 2x4's from the previous owner. We saved the wood for future projects (or bonfires).We took down the wall between the kitchen and living room to make one BIG greatroom. We love it! My girlfriend's dad came and bush hogged the property on the 4th after we realized the weeds were way too thick for the push mower. It looks so great! I started weeding one of the many flower beds and pruned some trees. Tim hooked up the new beautiful stove, rewired the breaker box, and replaced the old thermostat so that we could officially start living there (Monday July 6th). Luke rested during all of this! We are living out of a suitcase and have chosen select items to live with/without for the meantime. I finally picked the first paint color, groundcover. I sanded a section of the living room wall and tested it out... we love it! We also tested different stains on pine for our baseboard options. We have decided to stick with cedar 1x6 boards with a coat of poly, it looks great next to the green! Tuesday was eventful with trimming trees, taking nails out of wood, and finding a snake. Tuesday night we had our first relaxing moment swinging under the moonlight with a fire in the pit. It was so quiet and peaceful... Last night we built bat houses after Tim got home from work... he calls it, "his and her bat houses". How funny! We haven't put them anywhere yet, but we did see 3 bats last night. Yesterday (July 8th) was my first full day by myself at the house. I mowed the HUGE yard and pulled up dead bushes... I attempted to pull up all of the millions of juniper around the house, but got frustrated because it doesn't come up very easily... I think I might have to kill it first. This morning I took the shelves out of the pantry, measured the kitchen cabinets, and drew out a plan for placing them in the pantry. We love feeling productive and don't slow down til it's close to midnight. Keep checking back for more updates :)

Day 4 - June 22

Went out to the house around 2pm and completed the termite treatment. Tim began pulling up the front porch and then realized that the previous owner didn't build it properly... imagine that! So he took the circular saw and ran it right through the boards pulling up the first foot of area closest to the house. Now we can build a ladder into the pond with the wood :) I dug holes to plant those shrubs I was talking about earlier... it was harder than I thought. No pictures of me working, but that doesn't mean I don't help! Tim needs to post the pictures he took of me digging :) After digging holes and pulling up the deck, we headed to the back to drill holes in the concrete for treatment by the back door. Tim let me drill the last hole (again no pictures of me doing this... Mom said I needed to be supervised so Tim couldn't hold the camera). I love power tools! I also tried cutting the deck, but Tim took it back over b/c I was too slow... Today I got trash cans, a new thermostat, a sanding attachment for our Shopvac, a mailbox, outlet/switch covers, a smaller drill bit for termite treatment inside, and many many many paint chips... Can't wait to see what I learn tomorrow when we head out!

Day 3 - June 20

First cookout at Jelen Acres! Baby Ky was having a blast in a garden wheelborrow... Tim took the boys on a tour around the property :) After the family headed out, Tim and I hung around til 12am... ouch! Tim worked on changing the locks and found the previous owner never installed the old ones correctly! What a job! I pulled all the baseboards off and the trim around the windows. We are going to replace the baseboards with 1x6 cedar boards and the trim with 1x4 cedar boards... after I choose paint colors, sand, and paint the living room. So much to do and having so much fun doing it :)

Day 2 - June 18

Tim picked up the appliances and worked on the house all day. He had help from his buddy Neil. Thanks Neil! The trench was dug and trees were groomed :) Look out termites... the end is near!

No more bushes!!! Where'd they go? Oh yea, Tim's gonna make me scatter them through the yard to grow woods and re-plant them :) I guess I have holes to dig!

Day 1 - June 16

It has finally happened! The closing was a done deal on Tuesday! What a fiasco... Tim began digging a ditch for termite treatment and changinig locks. Lots to do... more coming soon!