Herd Mentality

5.21.2008

A little different...

My house wasn't the prettiest house when I bought it, but I liked the price.

October 31st, 2003





May 20th, 2008



The siding made quite a bit of difference I'd say. If I ever told anybody how much it cost me to side my entire house with new soffit, facia, gutters...they'd never talk to me again. Then again, I had free labor as well. Since we finished the project so late (gutters went up when it was snowing), hopefully I get some time soon to finish painting window trim and putting in the new sidewalk that I tore out last fall to do the step. Fun, huh?

5.06.2008

Time to Start Over

February - June 2007

I ended up having to return the original fridge I bought due to there was just no way I could ever get it to fit and still look right. I traded it in for what is now known in my house as the "Darth Vader Fridge". Everything was tore out, patched, painted and the installation of the IKEA cabinets began...



After the countertop arrived.... Some people ask why I didn't tear out the old linoleum and actually patched in the areas where I removed cabinets and the pantry. Simple. Most linoleum installed prior to about 1985 was asbestos backed.



Unfortunately, once the dishwasher was installed this project came to a screeching halt on June 20th with a phone call from my father. "Weren't you planning on residing your house at some point...?"

5.05.2008

Goodbye Death Rail

March 2006 - So by this time a year had gone by...

My fridge died. Turns out that it was going to be next to impossible for me to get a decent sized fridge in my kitchen without tearing out the existing pantry...so I decided to make a few other modifications.







5.02.2008

Fake Brick Paneling - Not As Cool As I Had Hoped

March 2005 - First step was to get rid of the brick paneling and spend an entire weekend filling paneling nail holes. Luckily there was textured sheetrock underneath. A few new light fixtures brightened things up a little bit after a coat of paint.


April 2005 - At this point I had just finished remodeling both of the bathrooms in the house, so I threw the now famous "Can Opener" party. I couldn't figure out why so many people avoided the kitchen. Someone told me that when they went in there they felt trapped. Well, after that I felt trapped every time I walked in there. So that led to the removing of a few cabinets


Note the beautiful metal railing in the corner of the picture. It wasn't even anchored to the wall well. You could grab it and shake the heck out of it. Considering it was all that kept me (or my clumsy friends) from falling into the basement, I needed a different solution.