A new addition and necessary repairs

We've added a new member to our family! Dudley is a 5 1/2 year old, 9 lb. Dachshund/Chihuahua mix. We recently adopted him from Midwest Dachshund Rescue. He's settling in really well.

Excuse the old, ripped up couch - I'm googling slipcovers right now!!

With the blizzard we had a couple weeks ago, we could only take him on walks - the snow in the backyard was way too deep for this little guy! But now it's all melted and he can run around the yard, which means it's time for escape-proofing.

On the N side of our backyard, the neighbor's wooden fence has big gaps on the bottom. It had some mangled wire attached to it to close off some of these gaps, but there were still plenty of holes for a tiny dog to sneak through. As for the W side of our yard, it doesn't even have a fence! We stapled 2 ft. tall rabbit-fence (rectangular holes - bigger at the top, smaller at the bottom) along the whole fence line, and ran it between the shed and the fence to make a barracade at the W side. It's not quite as high as it should be, but it will do for now. There is talk of working with the neighbor to put in a new fence in the spring.

Bob and Dad hard at work, me supervising

Mom and I at the back fence

Thanks to Mom and Dad who were in town for the weekend and assisted with the project (also, thanks for the pictures Mom!!)

The garage door

Our two-car garage has a wooden door - nothing fancy, but it works. However it had a couple spots near the bottom where it had rotted. Bob and I didn't want to buy a new steel door - this one was fine, just needed some love.

I think we spent about 10 hrs total scraping, sanding, filling, and priming the garage. Every weeknight was a rush to finish as much as possible before nightfall (which was around 7pm at the time). We also added new weatherstripping to the bottom of the door to finalize the project.

It looks 10x better now, though we still have to do the rest of the doors and all the trim/siding on the garage. We'll save that (as well as adding some color) for next spring...

Sorry about the crappy pictures! They were taken in a hurry.

Long time, no post

The whole idea of buying an older home, fixing it up - I'm still enjoying that (for the most part). But the concept of blogging about the process quickly lost it's luster. Take before pics, do project, clean up, take more photos, edit photos, write entry - how do people do it? But I'm still trying to give it a go. Bob has been pushing me to "take pictures for the blog!" so there will be some posts soon.

Below is the list of projects we've completed since we bought the house on April 30th. Some are small, some bigger, but I'm happy with the progress made so far. Also, thanks to both our families, who helped us with several projects!

Adventures in caulking

Last week I spent one night after work removing this disgusting, old, moldy tan caulk:

And a couple hours re-caulking the next evening to end up with this (excuse the dirty tub):

What a big difference! I'd never done a caulking project this big, so it isn't anywhere near perfect. Also I ended up with both hands completely covered in a caulk.

I used this silicone caulk we got at Lowe's. Smelled like vinegar gone bad, but other than that was fine.

 
*Another stalled post from July.

From one Honeywell to another

We installed a programmable thermostat just in time for the cool fall weather.

A Honeywell 5-2 Day we got a Lowe's (with a b-day gift card from Mom R - thanks!)

Now we just have to find a place to recycle our old thermostat, as it contains mercury.

A nice surprise to come home to

When Bob and I got home from our trip to MI this weekend*, we were surprised to find the previously dirty pink guest room had been painted a clean crisp white!

Our summer house guest, Dan, painted it while we were gone (even the pink ceiling!) It makes the room look so much bigger, and did I mention cleaner? Thanks Dan!! :)

Before (taken during the inspection):

*This draft is from back in JULY people. I need to catch up!

Dryer update

For those of you who heard about our dryer woes (it wasn't igniting, just pumping gas into the dryer - not effective and definitely not safe!) no more worries! It has been fixed by the hubby and I!

How we did it:

1. I took apart the back of the dryer
2. Vacuumed all the lint out of it
3. Looked it over with a flashlight
4. Got frustrated and gave up
5. Then Bob helped me take apart the FRONT of the dryer (didn't even need to bother with the back)
6. Figured out how it worked
7. Did some trouble shooting and testing
8. Found it was working again
9. Put it back together

Resulting in a fixed dryer! In moving it all around we must have bumped something back into place, or maybe the cleaning helped. Either way, we just saved ourselves several hundred dollars so I'm happy.