OUCH! and now a lesson is shop safety.....

Soooooo i'm in the house and i hear james shout 'i'm hurt!" from out in the shop. uh. not what you want to hear. i run outside and james is coming up the driveway cradeling his left hand and there is a trail of blood. i run in the house, grab a towel and some keys, throw james in the car and head to mt hood medical center as fast as the countour could make it. we got right it, which i guess a big bleeding hand wound does for you. they finally got james some iv pain medication but he was still in a great deal of pain. here's what happened: he had the miter saw blade IN HIS HAND as he was adjusting it. he accidently TURNED THE SAW ON while the blade was still IN HIS HAND. so. ya. he sawed himself up. We were at the ER for about 5 hours, but 30 stiches and much pain medication later we found out he wouldn't have permanent damage. in fact, the hand specialist said that james was really lucky, and that when he operates he makes incisions exactly where james cut himself up. (well, probably a bit straighter). so, it was a wild sunday and thank elvis he will not lose any functionality in his hand. and now we have this 'fun' story about shop safety!

painting some flair

so the laundry room (which is connected to the bathroom) will have red coral as the decor, the flair, if you will. i found these coat rack/towel hanger things at urban outfitters, of all places. they just needed a bit of paint.....

now for some bead board

Once the hardibacker was up, James started hanging the beadboard. Beadboard comes in this big huge sheets that are attached to a thin piece of plywood. James was against that, and wanted to make it himself. Here is the start of it. I'll be doing primer and then paint. A really nice blue. The tile will be subway tile in white. More on that later....

The start of walls

The bathroom walls will be tile from the floor up to five feet, and then bead board. The first thing to do was hang the hardibacker to prepare for the tile. This stuff is not fun to work with at all. See what the walls looked like? That's the siding of the house!

Penny wants to help

Penelope likes to be as close to James as possible, so she decided to help hang the hardibacker. Never mind that she ran out of the room whenever the sound of the drill started. She is mostly about moral support anyway. You know, lack of thumbs and all......

let's take it from the top

The first thing we did was put in a new light fixture and tin tiles on the ceiling. James picked up the tiles at a store close out sale for about a dollar each. Quite a deal! The silver ceiling really brings light to the room.

And here we go!

So today is the start of our home remodel blog. Hurray for home remodel! James and I have been living here for about three years (he many more than that) and we've been busy with things like planning and paying for a wedding. But we're hitched now and ready to begin the next phase!

Our house is teeny tiny (850 square feet) but sits on just under 3 beautiful acres. I often describe it like this: the house is the postage stamp and the property is the envelope. It was built in 1906. Well, we think it was. We found a 1906 newspaper shimming a window frame in the bathroom. As far as style, it doesn't really stick to one. We think the house built by people using the property to farm. It was a three room house. In back of the house there was a concrete room used as fridge. At some point a small building was built around the cement room. Later, a remodel was done to add a bathroom and a kitchen. Now here we are in 2009 getting ready to remodel again.

The plan is this. We are going to remodel every. single. room. We are flipping the orientation of the house, so the current side door will be the front door. The current kitchen and living room are switching places. We are leaving the bathroom and laundry (alcove) as is but remodeling everything from ceiling to floor. We are pushing the two bedrooms out a bit so we can add a hallway. We will add a small bathroom to the master bedroom. The little building that has the cement room is being remodeled into the library. (The Wilson's have a lot of books).

James will be doing most of the work himself. He taught himself how to do electrical work and plumbing, and of course he already is a carpenter. (I prefer the term 'craftsman'). I'll be doing all the painting because he refuses to. Rude!

We HOPE to get this done in the next year.
As everyone who knows me knows, I don't have guests out to the house. It's very much a 'before' picture now, and I don't want to have company here. So, this blog is the way to share this journey with you.

I won't post a before photo now. I'll do that, I promise, but not till the end. There will be a lot of photos of the during and after though, believe me.

I hope to entertain and inspire you as we change this house into a home. Then when we are done we are having a HUGE housewarming party and you, your kids, and your dogs are all invited!

xoxo
Jenn

P.S. That rainbow was hanging out over our yard today. I think that's a good omen to start with!