I’m Handy (In 3 Parts)

Part 1: The Kitchen.

Back in 2007, we bought our first house. The SAME DAY we moved in, we tore apart the kitchen. That was a crazy summer: bought our first house, worked on a big kitchen remodel, AND trained for IM WI that September! Never. Again. (Matt helped with the plumbing and electrical. Thanks again, Matt!)

Before moving in.


The night we moved in.


After.

One more “before and after:”

Part 2: The Guest Room.

Over my spring break this year, I worked on our guest room. It used to be a blue and red “boy’s room,” and we made it “cuter.” It was also the room with the nastiest floors in the house, so we got those refinished before starting the rest of the room. Check out these “before and after” shots:

Before: nasty shelves and beat-up floor.


After: shelves down, holes patched, sexy refinished floor.


Before: fixure on wall was broken (but had power).


After: new fixture.


Before: nasty all around.


After: cuter all around.

Part 3: The Porch.

You heard me say it all summer: “I got home from my 30 mile ride, and got to work on the porch.” Or “the porch is getting closer and closer!” Well, we wrapped it up a few weeks ago (just before the TC Marathon and TC 10 Mile). Here’s the progression through the summer:

Before.


Before.


Removing the drop ceiling. WHO WOULD PUT THAT PANEL CEILING OVER THAT BEAD BOARD?!?


Tearing down the white paneling. Gross.


Tear-down complete.


Patching holes.


Trim done, ceiling refinished, old carpet up, new windows installed.


Painting all 4 sides of 136 pieces of wainscoting.
Driven to drink.


Drywall up, primed, painted. Notice the sexy ceiling!


108 strips installed in order to put up the wainscoting.


Done! With new furniture!

So, one last “before and after” pairing of how I spent my summer of 2009:

Before: gross!


After: sexy!

To see more photos, click here to see my Facebook album called “Front Porch Remodel.”

Oh, one last “handy” thing: on Sunday, Pharmie and I juiced about 4-5 dozen apples from her parents’ farm. Here’s the majority of the juice cooling on the stove after a gentle boil:

You can see some steam rising on the right.

That made our house smell GREAT! (Better than any of the remodels made our house smell! Ha!)

One last thing: any locals interested in hitting the track Saturday morning at 9? I’m thinking that will be my last hard workout before next weekend’s Monster Dash 10 Mile.