So this is A LONG TIME COMING I’m pretty sure I’ve been promising the before and after here for months…. well it’s FINALLY HERE!
Boy oh Boy was this bathroom a project. When I first started this ‘mini-refresh’ I thought it would be new paint and a shower curtain………
Here’s what I really ended up doing:
Removed shower stall
Re-did all caulking
Restored Window
Restored Medicine Cabinet
Painted walls
Painted vanity
painted heating vent
Replaced toilet
Deep Cleaned
Changed cabinet hardware
Replaced broken soap dish tile
Repaired vanity drawers
Lined vanity drawers
It took ~30 full hours to restore all these items over the course of 4 weeks. I had to sand and strip almost every surface to remove rust, paint, caulking, and calcium build up from the untreated well. Well enough chit chat – PICTURES!
BEFORE:
just grimy – shower stall covered in calcium – toilet filled with rust and calcium
mmm moldy calcuim
rusted out window in the shower
Please feel free to go shower now after you’ve looked at all of those grimy/nasty pictures.
and now…. drum roll please!
AFTER
I made the shower curtain from IKEA fabric.
I chose a light mint green and I love it. this cabinet is one of my favorite things. I worked so hard on this damn rusted window – just need to fix the cracked sill.
It was a productive weekend here at the Farm House. Last Thursday, I had sinus surgery and well… it knocked me on my ass. Between the anesthesia and the trauma – I was not myself for a better part of a week. In fact, I think I slept all last weekend 😉
However, this weekend – I got shit done. Here’s some photos of some things that happened.
the $7 table i got at habitat – painted coral and added some fun fabric i’ve had in my stash for a few years under the glass.the garden was planted! read more about it here!the soffits and the gutters are done!peaches sunbatheslast weekend with my ‘nurse’ and bandage – NOT productive lol
I’m gardening! I’m gardening! Well sort of… now I’m watering and waiting, but that’s probably 80% of what gardening is.
I’m sure I have a few gardener friends that I could have heavily relied on to help put this garden together, but I chose to circumvent the years of trial and error that plague some novices and just hire a great company to help me get started. Obviously, it’s in my hands now, but the folks at Urban Farm Colorado really gave me a huge head start and lots of advice. They came out with the materials and set up the beds with their nutrient rich soil and provided me with either starter plants or seeds. All in all, the cost was great! I actually price compared several times to see if I could do it cheaper and I couldn’t. Plus, they are available to help me if something is weird or if I have questions. Which is a great comfort since I have a nice little investment out there and have already planned on not shopping for produce this summer 😉
I decided to go with 2 4×8 beds. It wasn’t until I was planning the layout that I realized that 2 beds is going to yield A LOT of produce.
Here is what is in my garden:
Micro Greens
Kale
Cherry Tomatoes
Tomatoes
Carrots
Thyme
Oregano
Dill
Fennel
Parsley
chives
Basil
Jalapenos
Serrano Peppers
Bell peppers
Squashes
Beets
Plus some more things I can’t remember 😉
Here’s all the pics!
urban farm builds the beds, while I mowed my lawn.We set a grid on the bed first to figure out where everything would go.the irrigation system is on! drink plants drink!!the ‘herbe’ section2 beds, irrigation systems, sun/hail protection netting on bothi put vladimir’s ‘memory totem’ here also.
Finished the living/dining room and hallway. The bedrooms will get their first coat of oil tonight and then their white maintenance paste tomorrow night.
Well it was a week of highs and lows all around. We lost Vladimir to a stroke on Wednesday, which just put a heavy cloud over the week. There was a lot of grief and sad painting – I’m happy I kept working though, because now I feel like a lot was accomplished.
The Low:
I need a new main panel. F*&k! The connection tabs on the bus had been roughed up by the former owners and it’s such a severe issue the electrician (now that he’s involved) is going to replace the whole thing. This will require a permit so because the garage wiring is so bad/not to code we actually have to disconnect the garage and cap it so the inspector does not fail the work. I just keep having flash backs to the listing ‘AS-IS’ – and indeed it is….. The photo below shows MY inspector complaining about a breaker that does not match…. no mention of circled broken tab on bus. I am learning a LOT about electrical work though – pretty fun. Except for the whole spending money part.
The Highs:
Painting like a mofo –
Got the living/dining room in progress with 1 1/2 coats – still need to do the ceiling and the interesting trim on those cove ceilings.
Finished the bedroom!
Before – rusted windows, major plaster damage on windows, WHITE, wonky window treatments…
AFTER!
grey walls and new white trim.
I again had to refinish another window since it was rusted severely.
Plus the bathroom is 99% done! In the next week or so I’ll post a total before and after on the bathroom. I have done so much work in here – it’s so nice looking now! 🙂
Well, we are 3 weeks underway of getting the farmhouse – livable.
Here are the things we have done:
removed all bathrooms that were not supposed to be there
re-did the main bathroom on the first floor
removed all debris from the yard/house
starting painting
hung window treatments
got all new appliances
installed new well system
installed washer & dryer
repaired all rusted windows
removed paint from all window sills
installed new furnace and water heater
It’s been A LOT of work. Thankfully, Lois has been a huge help with most of these items – the yard looks 1000% better due to her. On the days we were able to tackle things together it felt like we got a lot more done than I would have ever imagined. My Pops has been a major help in figuring out what we can/can’t do electrical wise and prepping for Connelly Power Co to jump in on some things. We still can’t live there until we resolve the electrical issue for the water pump/well system. That is the most frustrating part, since we really can’t live there without water, but everything will be easier to work on, continue to deal with once we live there. Right now, every moment over there has to be utilized 100% so I think I speak for everyone, but I’m tired. I love working on the house and it is really rewarding and exciting, but it’s just hard to not have a bathroom to use there, or water to use – and it’s hard to drive back and forth to our apartment in Broomfield (30 minutes away). Eh, but why am I bitching? I fought super hard to do all this – just at a different pace I think, but oh well in a months time or less it won’t feel ‘so close, yet so far’. Plus, a lot of the things I had planned on spacing out over 2 years will now just be done. So when we do move in we can literally just start enjoying it instead of prolonging some of this fun.
Moving forward I’ll being doing more ‘before and after’ shots on our progress – now that there are some really impressive ‘afters’!
Thanks again, Lois, Pops, Uncle Mark (MD Services – my HVAC/plumbing hero), Aunt Lori, and everyone else in their virtual support so far in helping us get this fixer upper livable!
Here are some photos of the recent happenings:
Lois cleaned up the front yard and what a difference! So clean and pretty!just some of the yard debris we cleaned up – broken glass/car parts?it’s the simple things although it is still un-used due to no water at the house.
Leopold was in love with the house – and so cute on his house tour.A sight for sore eyes – new well jet pump and tank (note no longer in the crawl space under the stairs).‘oily beau hunk’ installs my cellular ikea blinds also Sixteen Candles joke. new washer and dryer – thanks pops and cym! window sill- i’m blue da bo dee ba de dow….. look at the sexy new copper plumbing for my washroom…. rawwwr!before: yard cage for former tenants that didn’t pay rent…..after: bunny coop/chicken larvae den removed. just a nice space for appropriate plants.
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