Thursday, June 17, 2010

Cabinets!

Posted pictures in the wrong order again---this was going to be the big reveal at the end. Oh well.
With lights on and no flash.
With flash and the cat, at John's request.
"Everything looks better when you point to it!" said John.
Stuff...
Anyone for a drink?
Hall closet, closeted.
Closer shot of the new, improved Butler's Pantry, now jumbo closet.
Further away shot.

Monday, June 14, 2010

Moldy Basement and resulting changes

The mold story began on April 11th when I first felt wet carpet in front of the couch. However, it was not until James told me that the spot was still wet on the 15th that we pulled back the couch and found this.
We called the insurance and then Complete Restoration, the company who helped us rebuilt after the broken pipe flood last January. They came and cut out the wall, insulation and carpet from the moldy area, after the mold was tested to see what type so they could properly remove it.
This is the plastic wall they built to contain the mold as it was removed. The blue machine was a suction fan thing that vented out the window. It was running for 3 1/2 weeks straight. I could hear it everywhere in the house.
After they had cleaned, they had the area tested again for mold. It came back clean in the area by the hole, but still mold present in other areas of the family room. They then had to clear the entire area and remove the carpet and clean again. This is a picture of the guest room stuffed with things and all of our games and puzzles under the stairs.
Family room with nothing but the fan. The cursed fan.
When it finally came back clean in May, Maria came and helped us lay tile in the bar area that we planned for when we finished the basement. We used up a lot of the small scraps from the kitchen tile.
The finished tile.
The restoration company rebuilt the wall and then painted the whole room, due to the residue from the cleaning. This is the night before carpet came, as Michael and his friends hung the new tv while I finished painting the hallway and stairs. Notice the mini fridge in the bar area.
Here is Ben and James on the floor enjoying the empty room with carpet. We helped move a lot of the furniture and moved all of the books from the hallway, both before carpet and back after. We also unpacked all of the games into the new game cabinets below. For that, the insurance took almost $300 off of our deductible. Yea!
Here are the games in the new cabinets. The center section bottom will have drawers to hold card games and odds and ends. The doors come on Wednesday with the cabinets for the bar area, the cabinet for the tv equipment and the cabinet for the main floor "butler's pantry" area. We are very excited.

We will still need to get a counter top for the bar and then a plumber to hook everything up, but we are close to done. Yeah!

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Flower beds, 2010

Back flower bed, center section, June.


Back flower bed, center section, May.

Back flower bed, center section, April planting day.

Front flower bed June. The red has taken over. I wish I had a picture in May when the purple was dominant.

This is what the front flower bed looked like in April.

This is supposed to be the last in the line up. It is the back flower bed today.


Another view of the back flower bed.


The is the "before" picture of the back fence flower bed. I did a bunch of reading through different perennial flower books and then spent hours cleaning out and redesigning the bed area, then adding the bricks and amending the soil. This was planting day in mid April.