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Selling Our Young Victorian; a Bittersweet Time
I can’t write one more detail, describe one more project, or pick-up where I last left off without first talking about where we are today. Reliving the renovation of our Young Victorian up until this point, has been so much fun. Fun because I would be writing from my desk in my finished office and I could walk through our finished home, and I was on the other side of the renovation and left with nothing but pride and joy for the home Warren and I had created. Revisiting the renovation has been a delight and a fun reminder of our progress. A New Season But today, I’m not in…
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Siding and a Side of Various Projects
Yay, the new roof was finally finished and now the work on the siding could begin! But before we relive the siding story, I must take a moment to update you on where we are present day. Spoiler Alert: as I sit here writing this post, I sit in an 800 square foot apartment in the Denver metro area. What? Yep, we are two days into a brand new season of life and two days beyond the sale of our beloved Young Victorian. It is September 2020 (yeah, best year ever, will say no one ever) and several months ago, we made the bittersweet decision to sell our home. I’ll…
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Exterior Transformation: New Roof
Once the contractor found a crew brave enough to install the new roof (read about crew #1 and their fear of heights here; yeah, roofers with a fear of heights, that’s a thing), the roofing project could officially begin. Nails Are Forever! If you’ve ever had a new roof installed then you know what a mess it makes. The contractor promises to carefully go over your property with a magnet to remove wayward nails and clean everything up. So while the mess is being made, you think they have it all under control. Old roofing materials (and nails) are flying every which direction, but it’s okay (I kept telling myself,…
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Never Ending Projects
Never ending projects, that’s what it felt like in those days. In the last post, we talked about choosing roofing and siding and I mentioned that we would be faced with delays on both those projects. Yeah, well those delays amounted to about three months. But it wasn’t like we had any downtime during that time of waiting. There were plenty of other projects to keep us busy! Never Ending Projects; Will We Ever Be Done? There was more wallpaper to pull, I’m sure. Walls to prep and paint. Basement shelving to build and install. Weeds to pull, lots of weeds to pull outside. Property to mow. A window to…
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Roofing and Siding Projects and Decisions
The shock wore off the unexpected need for roofing and siding (click here if you missed the details), and it was time to decide on who we would hire for the projects and decide on the materials that would be used. Choosing the Details We focused on the siding first since the color of the new roof would depend upon the siding color. Ultimately, we chose a slate blue/grayish color scheme for the projects. We chose James Hardie siding which would come with wrapping and foam insulation layers under the actual fiber-cement pre-colored siding. Extra insulation is a good thing when you live in the mountains of Colorado! With new…
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Surprise! Let’s Add Roofing and Siding to the Project, Shall We?
Roofing and siding are big home systems and both are something you want to look closely at when considering a new home purchase. Everyone knows you need a home inspection to inform the purchase process, right? Yeah, we know that as well which is why we did our due diligence and had an inspection done on our Young Victorian while we were considering the purchase of what we knew would be a true fixer upper. Some Stuff Can Wait! Imagine our delight to learn that the original roof was in great condition and should last us several more years! And while the wood siding would need to be replaced at…
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Why A Painted Staircase?
A painted staircase was not our first intention… When we first saw the pictures of our future home online, the foyer shots definitely stood out. What looked to be a grand foyer (complete with a very Victorian newel post light), was probably the most formal of all the rooms! And when we first toured our future home, we confirmed that the foyer was most definitely the most formal space. Even though the wallpaper was peeling, the flooring was in rough shape, and the room was very dark, we could see the potential of this grand space! Looking Below the Surface Once the home was ours and the renovation began, we…
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Our Own Island (Kitchen Island That Is)!
So once the cabinets had been installed in our Young Victorian, it was time to finish the kitchen island. This was a huge step in the kitchen renovation as there had been no island previously. We had a large open space and a desperate need for more storage given our decision to forego upper cabinets. You can read a previous post on the decisions surrounding the island and cabinets here, if you’d like to catch up! Big Space Needs A Big Island The original owners of the house had utilized an antique retail counter as their island. The piece, however, had been sold during an estate sale prior to the…
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Kitchen Cabinets; Finally!
Kitchen cabinets are pretty necessary. And when you’ve gone without them for 6 months, you really appreciate it when you are finally able to install them into what will be your brand new kitchen (some day)! In a previous post, I shared our experience with picking out the cabinets. You can click here to read that post. We had decided to go with IKEA cabinets given their cost and the flexibility to create a configuration that would work with our specific kitchen space. Mixing It Up We also decided to go with two different types of cabinets. Remember that we do not have any upper cabinets because of the configuration…
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Thistles Are For Eeyore!
Who likes thistles? Anyone? Eeyore likes them, bees like them; I don’t like them! And I feel quite confident in that statement because I’ve been battling thistles and other nasty weeds around our property for 4 years now. I feel like I’m slowly winning the war but that may just be wishful thinking. Grilling, Hikes, And Thistle Pulling; Must Be Summer! During the summer, I’m out on the property almost every week pulling thistles. Warren helps the process by mowing the entire property 2-3 times a summer. But these nasty weeds grow so fast, and so much faster than the natural grass that grows here. I have to pull the…
