July 27, 2010
renovations building a shed Leave a comment
Rob has continued to work on the shed. He put a drip edge along the roof, and started putting shingles on one side.
One side of the roof is done! It was kind of hard to work up on the roof at an angle, but he managed, using ladders and a scaffold. Rob used to put roofs on houses, so that is how he knows what to do. He’ll complete the other side of the roof soon.
July 18, 2010
outdoor stuff, renovations building a shed Leave a comment
Rob put the windows into the shed today. Here’s the view out the back window.
Rob’s father helped him to put up the heavy plywood boards on the roof. I’ve been helping him by holding up trim boards, handing him tools, moving ladders, etc. I can’t lift really heavy things, but I do help when I can.
Some trim boards also went up. Tomorrow, Rob hopes to add on the drip edge, then start putting up roof shingles.
July 13, 2010
renovations, tools building a shed 1 Comment
Here are a few more pictures of the shed project. It was soooo hot last week, but Rob just kept working on it.
Rob had to set up a scaffold to do some of the work.
It’s looking pretty good, now! Rob will continue to work on the shed over weekends during the summer. I’ll continue to post more photos as the work goes along.
July 10, 2010
outdoor stuff, renovations, tools building a shed, DeWalt tools 3 Comments
This is the question I keep asking myself lately. Handy Man has been talking about this darned shed for over a year now. He took this week off from work so he could do a lot of work on it. He doesn’t expect to finish it, but he wanted to get the framing up.
We have a garage and a basement, so why he also feels the need for a shed is beyond me. Here is how the conversation has been going lately:
Crafty Woman: Do we really need a shed, too?
Handy Man: Yes, I need more room for my lawnmower, my generator, my snowblower, blah blah blah…
Crafty Woman: Is it possible that you just have too much stuff?
Handy Man: *Sighhhhh*
Rob planned out the expense of all the wood and extra gear by making a few trips to Lowe’s and Home Depot. He made a list of materials and wrote down prices. He bought just enough to do the framing and the plywood this week. In order to spread out the expense (and work!), he’ll buy more materials and work on it more over the summer and possibly into September.
Normally, we are “git-r-done” people when it comes to renovations…I can’t stand letting projects drag out for too long. However, this doesn’t involve any kind of construction mess inside the house (yaaay!), so we’ll complete it gradually and spread out the expenses a bit.
Of course, it was HOT and HUMID this week in New England, so there’s been a lot of sweating and drinking of water and lemonade.
Here’s Handy Man with his ginormous DeWalt nail gun. That thing scares me.
I’ve been helping him a bit, but I stay far away from the nail gun. And we make sure that Handy Boy stays away from it, too. Handy Boy has been entertained by using bits of leftover wood, and his own small tools, to build a chair and a table (pictures to follow).
Looking good so far! So, I’ve been supervising, 
and making sure that the Boys drink plenty of water.
We’ve been WICKED busy this week. In between shed construction, we’ve also been squeezing in some fun with Handy Boy. Also, I’ve been working on organizing my scrapbook paper. Stay tuned for more info on both projects.
July 6, 2010
outdoor stuff, renovations building a shed 3 Comments
It’s been hot, but Rob brought home a huge load of wood to continue working on his shed. He covers up the pile with a tarp at night, although there is no rain in the forecast.
He has one of the ends cut out, and he’s trying to figure out a way to raise the end up. We may need some help! But I’m sure he can figure it out.
More details to come about the shed construction…I told Handy Man to take a bit of a break today from it, as it was nearly 100 degrees here! He worked for a short time in the morning, but then did take a break for the rest of the day.
June 19, 2010
renovations building a deck 1 Comment
Handy Man has decided that he wants to build a shed this summer. This is to store some of his “toys” in, like his lawnmower, snowblower, etc. It is also for storing the generator, which we seem to need to use a lot over the winter.
First, he built the deck platform. It measures 8×12, and Rob was careful to make sure that everything was level. He used 2×10 pressure treated wood, with concrete deck blocks in the corners and on the edges.
I didn’t happen to get any photos of Rob building the platform, but I will get some pictures of him building the rest.
Rob has some vacation time coming up soon, and he is hoping to build the walls, the roof, etc. He thinks that he is going to finish it over vacataion, but we’ll see. I’ll have to add this to his Honey-Do List.
Have you ever built a shed before? We did look into buying a pre-made shed, but the prices were exorbitant!
January 28, 2010
before & after, kitchen, renovations kitchen renovation 5 Comments
Back to the kitchen renovation. You can click on the “kitchen” category to the right to see more photos, and I’ll be expanding and updating the “Before and After” page to add these photos eventually.
As a reminder, we did our initial renovation in December of 2008. We removed everything, and laid down new wood flooring. Handy Man installed a new soffit and put the cabinets back together in a slightly new configuration. He also moved the sink. And there everything stopped, until a warm day in Spring of 2009 when Handy Man put a window into the wall above the relocated sink.
Fast forward to July 2009…when Handy Man had started painting the kitchen cabinets. He painted them a glossy white. We had white cabinets in our last house, and loved them. It brightens up the kitchen, and the glossy paint is wipe-able. (Is that a word?)
Notice the two drawers that were missing at the moment. That is because those two drawers were “false” fronts, as they were under the original sink. Handy Man took the false fronts out and built new cabinet boxes for them, so we could have drawers there. Hey, he’s not called “Handy Man” for nothing.
You’ll probably also notice that the panels on the sides of the cabinets are still bare. This was because the wood there had a very smooth finish that we decided would be difficult to paint. Handy Man decided to put some beadboard panelling over the cabinet sides, which we also painted white. It solved a problem for us and helped the cabinets to look more “finished.”
Another thing you’ll notice is that the toe-kick under the cabinets wasn’t yet painted. Hey, Rome wasn’t built in a day!
By now, the kitchen was really coming together. Just a few more minor painting details to go, and it was 95% done.
What are we planning for the other 5%? You’ll have to stay tuned for details…!
January 13, 2010
kitchen, renovations 6 Comments
So, after all of the hard work tearing out, rebuilding, re-flooring and re-hooking-up (I made that one up), here is one of the “After” Photos. Only, the kitchen wasn’t 100% done at this point.
I know, it looks a lot better, huh? This is just one more phase of the work. Handy Man built a new soffit (the area above the cabinets.) He moved the sink, and rearranged a few cabinets. He also moved the dishwasher to be closer to the sink. However, there was still work to be done.
See the mirror above the sink? We wanted to add a small window to the wall there…but it had to wait until spring time and warmer weather. Also, we painted the soffit and the cabinets white; but that also waited until warmer weather.
I thought I would add the mirror above the sink to reflect some light, until we could put the window in.
The stove was moved over to the left, onto this wall. I know that above this area, it looks oddly blank! However, we put two decorative shelves up above the stove and put some knick-knacks on them. During the holidays, I put Christmassy things on the shelves. Eventually, Handy Man will build upper cabinets for this area.
Pictures of the cabinets, painted white, and the new window above the sink will follow soon. I just wanted to show how we did the kitchen in stages. Part of the reason was so that we didn’t need to have the kitchen torn apart for a very long period of time. Another reason was to spread out the expenses.
One more shot of our nice, new, non-yukky floor:
Ahhhh…!!! Shiny and clean!
January 8, 2010
kitchen, renovations Leave a comment
Back to some kitchen renovation photos…here is Handy Man, starting to put in the new wood floors. He decided to put the wood flooring right over the existing vinyl. The vinyl was glued down and attached to the subfloor in such a way that it would be almost impossible to peel it up. Handy Man used 3/8″ engineered oak flooring from Lowe’s. We bought the thinner wood so that it would match up with the floor levels in the living room and the hallway, which connect to the kitchen.
I laid out some pieces, staggering the joints, and he marked them, cut them, and installed them. It was a lot of bending and crouching over, but believe me, Handy Man is used to putting in wood flooring! The rest of the house has wood flooring now, except for the two bathrooms.
Ucky vinyl I couldn’t clean, next to nice wood:
Now, this looks SO much better, doesn’t it?
After the floor was installed, it was time to start putting the kitchen back together…stay tuned!
January 1, 2010
before & after, kitchen, renovations Leave a comment
Here are some photos of our lovely kitchen in the middle of renovations. Handy Man tore everything out! He took off the counter tops, the sink, took down the kitchen cabinets, etc:
What a mess!!
Handy Man: What have I done?!?
Water had to be shut off, and the refridgerator and stove were moved into the living room. We didn’t use the stove, but we were at least able to use the fridge.
We used paper plates and cups for about 10 days. We set up a makeshift kitchen on a table, where we used the microwave and toaster oven for simple cooking. That, and some takeout food helped to get us through:
Once everything was torn out, the rebuilding could begin. The cabinets were in decent shape, so we put them back up, but in a slightly new configuration. Handy Man also put in hardwood floors.
Stay tuned for more pictures!
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