Farewell Old House

Demo is going full force over at our new place.  The dumpster arrived Friday (sorry neighbors) creating quite the eyesore in our side yard.  Nick and I walked over today to see what progress had been made.  The trim, kitchen cabinetry and wainscotting were the victims.  There was one old pamphlet from 1969 sitting out that had been found in some crook or cranny.  I felt a little sad!  I have debated what we are doing with the house with Nick over and over, and with others as well. . . are we ripping the heart and soul out?  Will all the character be gone?  Our plan is to modernize the interior, no more mis-match this and that all over the place painted with 20+ coats of paint, but a brighter, fresher, newer, cleaner place to live.  I hope we're doing the right thing. . . I will admit, I am one of the worst decision makers, I second guess everything, but it's too late now.  

Hoping the final result is worth it.

Ikea Kitchen

Here are some photos of Steph and I exploring the ikea kitchen we will be installing in the house.  And photos of the old kitchen as a reminder!  The wall you see of existing cabinetry will be where the sink, stove and counterspace are with open shelving of walnut above, and a white chicklet tile covered wall.  There will be an island in the center with a walnut top and sides, and on the other side of the kitchen that you cannot see, several tall cabinets for pantry and storage along with the fridge.  The back door will become french doors, and around the corner there will be the laundry area and doorway into our master bedroom.

Good News!

We had some good news today!  After posting this sign in our yard for 10 days, not sure if you can see the flourescent pinkness of it, we had no complaints from neighbors about doing a rear addition that violates the side setback under code.  We had to put this sign up for a review period to let everyone in the neighborhood know that we were building a non-conforming structure - the addition behind our house.  I had seen white signs like this, and was very surprised to see that ours would be bright pink, yikes.  But so far so good as far as the complaints go - if someone had said something, we likely would not have the opportunity to build the master bedroom and bathroom and basement addition as planned.  Send some good energy our way though, people can still submit comments for a couple more weeks.  

The night we went to post the sign in our yard we discovered a busted pipe gushing water into our basement - 1" deep - which we had to shop-vac out right after Nick's company holiday party.  Who knew negative 17 degree temperatures with a hole into the crawl space could cause such a thing?