Finally....

You may remember back in March, I had aspirations of painting the house while Jenn was traveling. Well, that didn't happen because of weather limitations. You may have even voted on what color you liked best at the time. And out of the initial colors we ended up not going with any, but chose a variation of green, "smoked olive" to be exact. Here is the finished product.

The before:

Helping Dad...

Last weekend, we didn't have the best weather here in Longview, so I did little chores inside the house. One of which was finally finishing the network/video wiring, in what Jenn refers to as the "techie closet", I prefer to call it "the brain" of the house. But, anyways, nicknames aside, I was also on 'Ava Duty' this day. Even though all my tasks take twice as long with her, she liked watching me and wanted to touch and play with my tools and wires. Jenn thought it was so funny that she took these pictures. I wonder if someday, Ava will look at this picture and be embarrassed that the only toy her geeky dad could think to give her was a piece of some CAT6 network cable. But hey, it worked for about 5 minutes. And for those who care here is the 'techie closet'.

Finally the house project winds down

Over the past three months, I have been diligently working on our house with JR while Jenn takes care of Ava. At many times, I wondered what if was in over my head and many times found myself uttering the infamouse words,"I've made a huge mistake".

Finally this weekend, we had our open house and invited neighbors and friends, and even held our inaugural movie night with a nice viewing of Transformers, (more than meets the eye). It was awesome. I really can't believe what it has turned into. We are really happy with it. Check out the photos below, but jump on over to my Flickr-Flip This House collection for the whole storyboard.


The concept:
A. B.









The end result:
a. b.

This Old House

Like I said in my last post, I haven't been able to post much because my computers aren't set up and my downstairs is a dust bowl. But, I can proudly announce that the upstairs is 95% complete! The remaining 5% is new door knobs, trim pieces and blind adjustments which basically will never come to an end. As far as my original schedule is concerned, I am running over by a couple weeks, but that comes with the project. All in all I am very pleased with how the upstairs looks, and pleased that we got about 80% (I am all about percentages in this post) of the basement drywalled over the weekend! There is light at the end very soon here. Of course, mudding and trim work can be very time consuming.

Here are the pics of the final kitchen and bath projects. If you forgot what the "before" looked like, then refer back to my other post. Also, I will be having all the before and after up over at my flickr for a more detailed photo viewing experience.




















Check back for the final pics! Hopefully we'll be having movie night at the Gardner's soon.

FLIP THIS HOUSE

Many of you have been on my case for not keeping the blog up lately. And my excuse for that is, I am in the middle of a pretty good size remodel project on our house we just bought here in Washington. When we were looking for houses we knew exactly what we wanted, we just couldn't find the right one. So Jenn and I decided to find a house in the area we wanted and then make the improvements and updates now, so we can enjoy them while we are living in it.
Here is a little bit about the house:
Built in 1950
2400 SF
3 Bedrooms
2 Bathrooms
Unfinished Basement

Our remodel scope:
Refinish hardwood floors
knock out wall between kitchen and front room
gut the bathrooms and re-finish
gut the kitchen and re-finish
Paint
Add a bedroom downstairs
add more electrical
add a family room
add a theater room

The goal for all of this to be completed: 10 weeks!

I know what you are thinking...How am I going to pull this off with my little knowledge of construction? Well, I have a great Father-in-law who has been here for a month helping me. I also had the help of my Dad who gave a long week and longer days to get this project started.

Now, after 4 weeks, the upstairs is coming along really well and is about 90% completed. I haven't had the time to post much on the blog, but I have been posting periodic twitter updates in case some of you haven't noticed. For now, here are some "before" pics as well as some of our progress. Check back for more as we near completion upstairs and start the downstairs.

BEFORE:

MID-PROJECT:

The kitchen completely gutted.










Movers arrived!










The cabinets hung, and appliances in (except the dishwasher)



I will post all the pics on my Flickr eventually, but check back for more updates either on the blog or my twitter.

Jack of all trades....

Well, last week while Jenn was in Lake Powell I decided to be productive. First it started with the Jeep. With the help of my brother Bryan I changed all 8 spark plugs, the transmission fluid & filter, and the rear brakes and rotors. It was a pretty good project and some needed maintenance on my Jeep before Fall and winter come.

Next it was on to bigger and better projects. For some reason in our town home the developer couldn't build a closet in the third room/den. Even though we have 3 full bathrooms, the one room could only be called a den. Well with a lot of work and some basic framing and drywall skills I changed that. Now we officially have a 3 bed/3 bath town home! Lucky for me my Dad was able to help me with the project or else I never could have completed it without his help. Below are some pictures of the design concept, the project and the then the finished result. I have couple finishing touches to complete still, but I am pleased with it.

My HOA

Well as many of you know, we moved into a new town home at the beginning of the year. Everything is great...except the HOA company. If at all possible do not do business with Advantage Management. I kind of don't have a choice right now, but if anyone with in the sound of my voice (?) is in a position to make a decision about Property Management company's then don't select Advantage! I have written them the following letter. Let's see what they reply. Let me know what you think.



My Letter

My Theater

Being a novice into the home theater arena, I gotta say that I think I did a pretty good job creating this room for under $700. It all started when I check The Woot one night. They had the InFocus projetor priced at $600 with a $200 mail-in rebate. What can I say...I had to do it. I then went and bought a Pioneer 5.1 Progressive Scan DVD Player. As I got it all set up and looking good, all I needed now was the screen. After a trip to the fabric store and $15 later, I went to Home Depot and got some wood for the frame. A little stapling and then hanging the screen--I was in business!
What I just said made it sound very easy. Now don't get me wrong it wasn't very difficult but all that took an entire weekend to do.
Here are the pics-






























You may be asking, "Is that a cutting board in the ceiling?" The answer is Yes. You would be surprised at how good those things work for drilling and screwing things into them. It was less noticable than wood and it is just as strong too.


With that said, I'll let you know when we have movie night.

I am Back!

Where do I start?...I know that I have been slacking in my blogging duties, but for good reason. Seeing how I was out of a PC for four months, I did the best I can. Within the last month we moved into our new townhome, went to Hawaii, got internet, put in a home theater, signed up for the San Diego marathon and much more. I will have to address those posts as I have time and pictures to do so, but you can also check my Flickr page because I will usually upload those pics first. For my pics this post I am uploading some pics from Hawaii, and some of the new house. I will post more of the exterior and other rooms later. Also, I plan on doing a full write up for my DIY home theater room, so be patient.

SOLD

Well, the condo is SOLD.
We got pretty close to what we were asking, but at the end of the day the appraisal really decided the price in our case. Which was fine, because it appraised for 120. We are closing on the 28th, and then after that I get to do the worst thing ever, and that would be 'moving'! In the mean time however, Jenn and I are going to be staying with my Mom, until our new place is finished. Which could be as late as DECEMBER!!! I really hope they get ahead of schedule and let us move in at least before Thanksgiving!
Here are some pics of the new place getting built. It is actually farther than this now, these are just the only pics I have so far. I'll get some more recent ones soon.