More Ideas...

Last night, I started thinking about the back porch/laundry room/bathroom. It's the most-used entrance to the house, so it's the logical location for a mudroom. Problem being, there's no room back there for mudroom-type storage. Observe:

Picture #1 is taken from the doorway leading in to the dining room and kitchen. This was taken to show how little room there is for the washing machine. It's squashed between the bathroom (lefthand side) and the cabinets, and when the outside door is opened, it covers up the washer.

Picture #2 is taken from outside and shows the little walkway between the cabinet and the dryer. The bathroom door is to the right of the cabinet. You also have a nice view of our dumping ground, aka the microwave. With both of us having work radios, we'll definitely need a "charging statio" in in the mudroom. Other assorted work tools get dumped here was well (flashlight and charger, keys, cell phones). Also visible in the picture are both Bach and C.C. who are eagerly awaiting breakfast!

Picture #3 shows the teeny-tiny bathroom. You actually have to sit diagonally on the toilet because there's no clearance for your legs if you sit straight. Aside from being uncomfortable, I'm sure it's a code violation. Although our inspection didn't catch it, we might not be so lucky next time.

The whole back porch area is 9'4" by 7'7". We're thinking of expanding it to the whole length of the house, which would make it 18'2" by 7'7". Definitely much more room. We'd then have room for a luncry center, coat hooks and storage cubbies, and a full-sized bathroom (possibly with a shower stall). The foundation for the current back porch seems to be just frame, not concrete like I thought originally. Not sure yet if we'd demo the original porch or add on to it. Probably add on. And if I can convince Shayne to let me keep it clapboard, we can see how well that will stand up to the elements (he seems to think it will need to be painted every 3 years or so).

The Carpeted Kitchen

I'm so impatient to begin work on this house... A few more months of saving and we will be in a position to do some worry-free work. I say worry-free, since we shouldn't have the problem of running out of money in the middle of a project if things end up being more difficult and expensive than budgeted. One of the sad realities of home improvement: money will always be a factor. As gung-ho as I am about getting started, I don't want to end up in the middle of a project I can't finish. Until then, I'll just continue to come up with ideas and bug the heck out of my poor husband...!

Today's annoying room is the kitchen. I don't know why it's bothering me so much today, but for some reason, that carpet is just getting to me. I've cleaned it once already, but it's just dirty and stained. I found a piece of the unused carpet in the garage... The stuff in the kitchen is dirtier than I thought. But I don't want to recover the kitchen floor if we're going to redo the cabinets eventually, too. And we are. I want the sink to be centered under the window. And maybe for the cabinets to go all the way to the ceiling, for storage of items we rarely use. The appliance "garage" can go. And the little makeshift shelves next to the window...? Nice idea, but definitely could look a little more professional! Below is a counter-clockwise rotation of the kitchen, starting from the back of the house (east).

Happily, the original kitchen cabinets are out in the garage. I'll never convince Shayne to let me restore them and reuse them, but they will be a guideline of what the kitchen should be. The re-arrangement options are low, though, since there are lots of doorways and such to work around. Next to the refrigerator is the doorway to the back porch laundry room and bathroom. The bottom picture shows the doorway into the dining room, and the chimney next to the pantry. On the other side of the chimney is another doorway, a double-wide that is NOT original to the house. That one might be replaced with a regular doorway so that it can be properly trimmed and a built-in hutch can go on the back wall of the dining room without blocking the existing doorway.

After the plaster is finished and the hardwood floors restored, the kitchen will likely be the next big project. After all my worries about the bathroom, that will probably be last. Even though I don't like it the way it is, it's actually the most recently re-done room, and it's in the best shape. Why tear up a clean, functioning space when there's a carpeted kitchen waiting?

Ideas and project planning

Since I'm not smart enough to have made myself an actual webpage yet, I decided to post a link to Webshots to give access to my "Idea File". You can access that (and other assorted photos of mine) here.

I've been doing lots of thinking about the plaster. After much research, I believe that we can do most of the work ourselves. We can patch any cracks or holes, and if the wall is absoloutely hideous, we can put up wire mesh and use joint compound to recreate a smooth wall surface. This method has already been used in the bathroom (and probably 2 of the bedrooms, as they have no wallpaper and textured ceilings).

click to make it larger...

Another option (most likely for ceilings) is a product called Nu-Wal. You might have seen the ads for it in the back of Old House Journal. Basically, it is a fiberglass sheeting that is adhered to the wall and painted. Same basic idea as liner wallpaper, but supposedly longer-lasting and designed to hide imperfections. I'm not sure how keen I am on the idea, since you're basically covering the plaster with a fake wall... Still, it's a thought, in case the ceilings are as bad as I'm afraid they will be.

The walls between the master bedroom, master closet, and the office will have to be redone, as with the wall between the office and the office closet. I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but they're made out of framing and paneling. No drywall. No plaster. Just 1/8" paneling nailed to the studs. Those will be replaced with blueboard with plaster veneer.

So... I think that will be project #1.

Project #2 will be replacing the carpet in the kitchen (yes, a carpeted kitchen...) with linoleum. Maybe that should be #1, since it will be so much cheaper...!

Lazy days

I am a non-blogging individual lately. Not that there's really any progress to report anyways... The weather had been awesome (70s during the day, 50s at night), so I've been outside working on the yard and not inside working on the house. The POs left quite a bit of grass and weeds and their flower beds, and I decided to take care of it before spring. We also have this crabapple tree next to the garage, so there are cherry-sized crabapples EVERYWHERE. I raked half a trashcan-full out of the grass the other day, and there's probably still that many in the flowerbed and again as much on the tree. It's a nicely-shaped tree, and it's in a good location, but I think I'm going to have to cut it down and replace it with something that flowers but doesn't fruit. Maybe a weeping cherry or even a Japanese maple...

S is wanting us to stick with the 6 month waiting period before we start doing any serious work on the house. As much as I want to get started, I'm willing to conceed that he's probably right. I'm going to start stripping woodwork and doors this winter, and I might get the wallpaper down in the office, but that's probably as far as it will go until spring. The woodwork should not cost any significant amount to strip (some chemical stripper, denatured alcohol, sandpaper, and I already have the heat gun), but the wallpaper should wait until we can afford to hire a plasterer should the worst happen. I don't want to have crumbling walls for 6 months while we save up enough to have them repaired.

Patience is a virtue. One that I desperately wish I possessed!

We have cable!!

Woo-hoo for fast internet!! Of course, now that I have it, I can't think of any of the bazillion things I've been dying to look up for the past 2 weeks. Go figure.

Other than that, not much is new and exciting. S will be gone all next week at a class for work, so I'm going to start stripping my dresser on my 3 days off. It will probably turn out to be a slow and painful process, as I've never used a heat gun to strip paint, but if I screw it up, I can always paint over it again. It can't look any worse than it does now anyways.

It's 3 am, and I'm kind of tired, so I should probably get ready for bed. Pictures of various things to come soon, now that I can :)