an artifact

when ben was pulling out the bathroom vanity, he found an artifact. who knows when it was made...but at some point, someone in our home owned a "lady sunbeam electric shaver . . . with built-in light"!!!



the shaver promises "freedom" and "daint[iness]" and an end to the "muss and fuss" of soap and a blade. as someone who works in publishing, it is especially fun to see what words make their way into print.




i put the address for the minnesota service station into google maps: it looks like there is a ragstock and a monique's african art there now. did i ever mention that our electrician found a pull-tab beer can (from 1962 i think) in the ceiling last summer? our home is an unintentional time capsule.

saturday {3.13.2010}

not much to say...pictures are probably enough. the last one is my favorite!

see the face? ha! :)

dust barrier

on tuesday night we put up our zip wall, which means the dust is now contained in that part of the house. so when we go in, we are free to kick up as much dust as we want!





it's kinda cool. you stretch plastic across two poles, and then install zippers to make a doorway. ben was stuck in there until we put on the zippers! ;)



then we got to work. we have an old 5-disc cd player that's all dirty and perfect for such occasions. first, we listened to the used (which is fitting music for ripping down walls and tile). but the next cd was ben folds. not quite right...so ben asked me to see what was next. when we heard the first few notes of "brightest" by copeland, i head ben yell from the other room, "i don't want to shave my legs...i want to rock!" i almost died laughing and changed it back to the used.







the tile came down easily because it was so rotted. yuck.



i shed blood relatively quickly...but it's not from what you might think. i gashed my finger opening the zip wall box! so klutzy.

here we go again!

the first day of demolition—saturday—went pretty well.

we found some lovely wallpaper behind the bathroom mirror.





when we took down the mirror, we dropped it a little—but only a small corner broke. i was thanking God—what if the whole thing had shattered?

i removed the vent and return covers. yuck! as gross as they are, vacuuming something like this is kind of satisfying. {side note: after we finish this remodel, we need to get our ducts cleaned!} then i stuffed them with insulation wrapped in plastic.

we tore off all the trim, casing, and doors. we got the wood paneling off the wall in the front bedroom, too.



we stopped there because we need to buy one of these dust barriers. drywall demo kicks up a lot of dust and we want to protect the other parts of the house that we've worked so hard on.

oh yeah, and we also made a budget and timeline. from the looks of it, we won't be finished with this remodel until mid-june. (which, as someone pointed out, is just in time for us to tackle outdoor projects!) here's to hoping we finish ahead of schedule! :)

"the south wing"

we've officially "broken ground" on our master remodel. i want to start by posting pics of what we're working with!

up until yesterday, we had a "wing" of our house that was closed up. {imagine the west wing from beauty and the beast, but without the magical rose.}



down this hallway, you'll find a closet (which we are using for tools/supplies), two bedrooms, and a full bathroom. {okay, so it's nothing like the beast's west wing. except for the fact that it's scary.}

inside door #1:








inside door #2:







and perhaps scariest of all (are you ready?), door #3:















yikes! what a bathroom. so that's where we stand. consider this the "before."

we replaced all the windows in these rooms, and did some patching where we moved walls around for the kitchen (which is next to one of the bedrooms). we tore up carpet in the front bedroom. other than that, though, these rooms have been pretty much untouched.

it was my father-in-law's idea to make this area of the house the master suite. we started the labor yesterday. i'll upload the tentative floorplan and place it next to the current one to show what we'll do.

enjoy the weekend! we'll be resting today. God gave us a Sabbath for our good.

what lovely warm weather we've been having here in Minnesota. the turn of the season is such a sweet remind of God's faithfulness. a friend shared this verse with me a few weeks ago:

Hosea 6: 3
Let us know; let us press on to know the Lord;
his going out is sure as the dawn;
he will come to us as the showers,
as the spring rains that water the earth.”

sweet.