Snow day clean up

Sometimes when you're stuck at home for 3 days in a snow/ice storm you decide to listen to your 3 yr. old nephew when he tells you, "Uncle Ryan, you had better clean up that mess."  
Sam, here ya go... garage workshop-tornado-disaster-zone turned into a functional storage and work space that will fit a car!!!!!! woohoo!

Winter Weather

First we have beautiful sunshine, next we have a surprise snow storm.  Heading to the coast for some sunshine felt amazing a few weekends ago, while heading home from work Thursday afternoon was a different story.  After 5 inches and a completely shutdown Portland, we are so excited that the heat works, the kitchen is busy and the house projects are abundant.  Hibernating inside all weekend may not be that bad.

Stairway to heaven

Refinishing the back hallway has been a big challenge that's required a lot of late night work shifts.  Lately Ryan's been spending his time replacing steps and risers, re-building some stairs and creating new molding. 

 Then came the acrobatic paint job. 

Next, he decided to frame out a wall and rewire some of the electrical. This required squaring off the lower staircase and tackling more drywall.  
Then why not add a newly constructed shoe shelf made from the old floor boards pried loose from the original landing? 
Love it!

desperately need a few more new appliances? why, yes. yes we do.

So, after the old dryer broke with 2 loads of wet laundry to finish... we decided to bite the bullet and buy a new washer and dryer. 
Tada! Let the laundry begin.
(We clearly chose a rather basic model without the compatible smart phone app or built in digital touch screen.) 

framing, drywalling, texturing, priming, sanding

No more plastic, no more dust, no more electric sanding = best birthday gift ever.
Please note the new ceiling, (with wood hatch entry into the unfinished attic -think potential for a ladder up the wall and loft in the future) the new framing for a shoe cubby, and the freshly sanded beams in the basement.  Ryan also put in some new molding and trim work around the stairs. This project included a lot of demolition underneath the basement stairs and gross removal of musty wood/walls.  Next, we'll lay some new back entry oak flooring, refinish the original wood steps, finish the basement stairs walls with some more framing and drywall, paint, add coat hooks and some shelving. 
That's not too much work right?
Oh yeah, and don't forget about the need for a new back door/screen...

Basement cement update

This past month someone's been cementing the basement.  This has included over 6 bags of cement in the old chimney foundation base/hole and skim coat patching along some of the walls. Please note that the basement and backdoor are still off limits from the rest of the house with some lovely dust control plastic sheeting. 

Basement insanity

The oil tank is officially out of the basement!
We now have a basement that smells like oil, is covered in 3 inches of cement dust, and has a massive hole in the floor where Ryan removed the old oil line and chimney base.  He spent a weekend with the skill saw, the pick ax and the face mask.  I went shopping.  Please note the insane amount of dust left in the wake of this project.  This is one of those house projects that got really big really fast.  We called in the reinforcements and Jason came to the rescue.  Slow and steady progress got it wedged up the stairs and out the door.  Now there are 20 gallons of heating oil in buckets in the garage, and a giant tank waiting to be transformed into some type of art-piece/fire pit in the back yard. Congratulations guys!