Posty Post

Long time, no blog, eh? Sorry for that. It's been busy at work (so, ya know, that comes first, right?), been off for the Easter holiday, and just generally busy!

On the "busy" note front: My typical response lately to the question of "How are you? How have you been?" has been, "Busy!"

So, here's one thing that has contributed to my perpetual state of busyness:

Home Improvement

The front of the house. You can see the progression of the re-siding and the old front door.

Owning a home of any age requires you to almost constantly be doing something to it. But owning an older home requires some TLC. And some creativity.

Our house was built in 1948 in Bluff Park. We love it, and I would much rather have a quirky, old house than even a custom-designed new one! Well, let me amend that: Old house, but with a custom-designed new kitchen.

Back to our cozy (AKA really tiny) cottage. When we bought the house, the day before our wedding, it was not live-able. As in, the bathroom was disgusting and non-functional and neither was the kitchen. Now, this is a long story for another day, but needless to say we have done lots of home improvements/renovations over the last 7 years!

Scottie hard at work. There was some water damage that caused some rot in the wood underneath the old siding that had to be replaced as well...it's never simple.

Our latest project is on the outside of the house. No, not the landscaping, yet, but re-siding the entire house. The original siding is whatever they put on it in 1948, painted grey, with a plain cinder-block foundation, also painted grey. The house featured dark green shutters, a matching shutter door (a pre-cursor to storm doors?) and an old fashioned 3-window front door.

We (Scott) are (slowly) in the process of replacing all the siding with cedar shingles. We wanted to give it a Cape Cod cottage look. The process is quite time-consuming, but once we (Scott) figured it out, it has gone quicker each section that we (he) do! We have also picked out a natural stone product that we'll use to veneer the cinder-block foundation, the concrete front porch and stairs.

My latest contribution has been to pick out a new front door, and, let me tell you, this is harder than you would think. And more expensive than you would think. After looking for about a month, liking the doors that cost multiple-thousands of dollars (yes, multiple), we finally bought one last weekend at Home Depot, for just a few hundred dollars. It's not the solid-wood Craftsman that I loved at another place that sells only doors, sigh, but the style will work with our home's new facade.

The old front door, out and discarded....sad!

Now I have to decide what color to paint it...

My dad, of course, helped Scott install the new front door.