Drywall. Sheetrock. What ever you call it, we do it!

Most the rooms will need at least some dry wall work.  Many of the seams were done incorrectly and are falling apart, and we plan on doing some minor floor plan improvements.  Among the changes to the floor plan, I'm adding a walk in closet.  I've found that happy wives are good wives, and my wife tells me a walk in closet will make her happy.  Here goes nothing.

The framed in walk in closet.

Dry wall dust does NOT scare me!

Maybe one of the longest days of my life.   I blew white boogers for a week!

Framing the walk in closet.

This is my first walk in closet. It took some thinking to lay everything out.

Gotta start somewhere.

More planning.

Framing for the walk in closet.

What's a walk in closet without a built in?  This is the "hanging clothes" part of the built in wardrobe.

Spacing the top of the wardrobe.

A sideways picture of the framed in wardrobe.  Ready for paint, doors, and drawers. Maybe next weekend.

My wife's second best friend.

She'd be a ton more help if she's spend less time practicing her "gangsta" pose and more time helping. ;) 

The Bathroom Diaries

The bathroom when we started.

The bathroom was the first major overhaul we tackled.  The sub floor was rotted through in places, the fixtures were GROSS, the vanity and cabinets were falling apart...etc. So, I gutted it and started over.

Dry rot under the toilet. I replaced the entire sub floor.

More dry rot. Or, since it's a bathroom, is it really "wet rot"?  I guess I'm not for sure, but it's all gone now

Yuck.  Enough said.

The tub surround.  This is the water-proof coating required before the tile.

The new tub and studs for the privacy wall for the toilet.

The new tile wall.  The white tiles are 4*4, the brown tiles are a 1*1 mosaic.

The vanity I built.  I had no idea how nice two sinks would be until we started using these.  Very nice.  I highly recommend them.

Short Comings in Paradise

So I like our house, and the price was certainly right. However, for any one out there considering buying a fixer-upper, I feel it's my duty as a man to highlight some of the shortcomings and struggles I've had along the way.  To quote a favorite Iowa Public Television icon: We're all in this together.

Red Green Link for Enlightning the the Un-Enlightened

Our entertainment center. Thank heavens for Netflix and Hulu!

Snakes in a bucket.  While I was cleaning out the "grove" these critters kept showing up EVERYWHERE!  Rather than get the holy buckets scared out of me by the same snake more than once, I collected them, detained them, then turned them loose when I was done working.  They are EVERYWHERE in this area!!!

Our temporary vanity.

Even the dog saw a significant decline in her standard of living. Here she is dejected, shaved as a result of the EXTREME heat, laying on the only not-burning-hot surface she can find. 

Here's how we showered for over a month.  Not too bad really.  After dark the bugs get rather bothersome, and I'm pretty sure some highway traffic got an eyeful, but it works for now.

I'm not sure if this could be considered a water-saving shower head, but I know my showers have gotten a TON shorter.

The Epic Begins

My wife, Alyx,  and I bought our 1.2 acre piece of paradise in early August, 2010.  At closing, Alyx had two weeks left in grad school, so I took the plunge and moved 1200 miles away without her.  Thankfully.  We were in for a bit more than we bargained.

My first week in the "house" was a bit rough.  The term "house" really needs to be used carefully at this point.  The dwelling was short on running water, short on electricity, and long on rodents, snakes, and bugs.  My dad came down for a few weeks and was instumental in keeping me sane.  The two of us were able to get the well operational, re-wire the lion's share of the house, and complete the demolition phase of the main bathroom.

Two weeks into the project Alyx moved in.  By that time, my dad and I had most the important functions (running water, electricity, flushing toilet) operational.  We moved most of our efforts outside to attack some things on the outside of the house.

Here are a few picture highlights.

View from the road.  Note the overgrown bushes.  Good thing  Alyx LOVES chainsawing.

AFTER Alyx attacked the house with the chainsaw.

The brush pile after Alyx attacked the greenery.