From Hovel to Home

It's been over a year since I posted. There are a couple of reasons for that.  1) We can't get internet service to our house. We use our phones as hotspots but loading photos is very slow. 2) Having a small child prevents us from getting much done. However, I am happy to report that we have actually accomplished something this summer. I've been working hard and I'll post more about our other projects later (maybe much later), but for now I'll share the face lift we gave the prow front of the house. The siding was in very poor shape from years of sprinkler damage.  We also had a large hole in the wall from where the old air conditioner was installed.  Throw in some drafty old windows and the whole thing needed an overhaul. In process - Replacing the original windows from 1981. We replaced the siding on the lower half of the walls with LP shingles and put new trim around the windows. After - The new windows, paint, siding and trim give the house a

I recently announced that we had sold our home in Helena and will be moving to my hometown in July.  We did some house-hunting over Easter weekend and I'm please to report success.  We are in the process of buying our latest home: I know you can't see it well behind the trees.  I'm so excited to have actual trees on the property.  The house itself is nestled against the base of a hill which will block our views of the sunset but the east-facing front porch should offer some wonderful sunrises.  And here's a sneak peek of our view. I won't be posting any more photos until we've actually closed on the house.  Closing is still two months away and a lot could change before then.  Still, I look forward to sharing our latest project.

We sold our house last week.  This may come as a surprise since the house wasn't even for sale. We weren't planning to move.  Everything in the house was designed with the idea that we would be living here for years.  But sometimes God makes it abundantly clear that He has other plans.  In the course of just a few days Luke was offered a chance to move to his company branch in my hometown and we met a family looking for a house in our neighborhood.  And now our house is under contract. Closing is scheduled for mid-July so I will have a little time to recover from having the baby, but until she arrives I've been packing up all our non-essentials.  We have already started looking for our next home; maybe it will be a home we get to enjoy for decades.  We'll just have to wait and see.

Now that you’ve seen the finished work in the basement it ’s time to head upstairs for a n ew project. Since buying our first home a dozen years ago we’ve done four kitchens, nine bathrooms and innumerable other projects both small and large. But this time we’re trying something totally new: a nursery. We’re not really sentimental, emotional people so I wanted to create a calm, useful space instead of packing this small room with all sorts of decorative baby crap paraphernalia. Some friends were nice enough to give us their spare crib, I found the rocking recliner at a thrift store and we already had the fireplace and the dresser that we are using as a changing table. We did add a few decorative elements to dress up the space, a mirror that was too large to use in the basement bathroom, some curtains and a few moose prints for the walls. Once the kiddo is old enough to have a personality and interests of her own we can find some decorations she enjoys . For

The basement bathroom has gone through multiple phases since we bought the house. It started as space that was totally open to the rest of the basement, but at least the plumbing was in place. During the many months when the first floor was out of commission we used it as a temporary kitchen. It then became my office But eventually we were able to turn it into an actual, functional bathroom. Most of the items in this bathroom were clearance finds or leftover from other projects, but they actually work together pretty well. Though not my favorite layout it is clean, bright and feels spacious. Luke and I love the shower tile.  It's has a glossy, easy to clean surface and the vertical orientation should keep the grout lines from holding water.  Luke started finding excuses to shower down here even before the bathroom was finished. I think we need a cabinet over the toilet for storage. I've been keeping my eyes out for the right one but it w

When we bought the house the basement was classified as unfinished. The previous owners had made a haphazard effort to convert some of it into living space, but the carpentry was so bad that you would have to be drunk to consider it livable. From what we have heard about the previous owners drunk was proba bly how the work was done . Anyway, this space at the bottom of the stairs was used as two bedrooms; one directly in front of you and the other through the door to the left. We moved the bedrooms to the far corner of the basement so they could share an egress window well and used the two bedrooms as one large media room. The tray ceiling hides the pipes for the radiant floor heat and also distracts the eye from the beam running down the middle of the room. While we needed the tray in in one spot for practical reasons running it all the way around the room created a nice visual effect. The basement stays comfortably warm from the radiant heat fo