Fence
First major project: FENCING. I want my sanctuary to extend to my yard so the pups can roam.
I'm so very grateful to Hulme Fence for installing my fence in the December snow. I tried to keep them toasty, with donuts & mulled cider & Keurig stationed in the tiled room downstairs. Between these hard workers and Home Depot's 0% interest financing, this was my best first new-home-owner decision ever.
Installation was made tricky by the knee-deep snow. The corner went a little over my property line, and Hulme Fence will come back as soon as the ground thaws to reposition it.
Update, Spring 2014: Hulme Fence contacted me in the early spring and made quick work of the repositioning. I'm always grateful when a company demonstrates good business integrity - thank you, Hulme!
I loved not having to leash up for every potty break all winter long. And now that the spring has sprung, Maddox (pictured, right) and Sadie love the freedom of lounging around in the grass on sunny days, regardless of if Mom has to be at work.
Bedroom Closet
The two sad closet rods easily gave way to a customized closet system.
The closet was equipped with two rods and boards loosely balanced on angle brackets pulling out of the drywall. This arrangement fell down on me more than once.
The new closet has top & bottom hanging rods on the left, and shelves, drawers, pull-out laundry bins, and shoe cubbies on the right. Add-ons (just because) include the valet rod and pull-out tie rack that I use for jewelry. Thanks Martha Stewart!
Before
After
Thermostat
Swapping out the old-school thermostat for one that warms up the kitchen before I get out of bed and saves on my oil bill.
Oh, the little things... like a thermostat that still has a tiny bead of mercury in it. And changing it out for one that actually controls the temperature in my house. I didn't get anything fancy... just a simple 5/2 Programmable Honeywell. Maybe someday I'll go for a super-fancy smartphone kind, but for now this works.
Front Door
My forest dwelling is better suited to forest green.
Before
Old color, old handle
After
New color, new handle
Since the door is already covered with dents and brush drips, I didn't feel bad about going at it with the rattle can. Someday I'll get both steel doors replaced, but for now, this is perfect.
Bedroom Blinds
Horizontal vs vertical, wood-slat vs fabric... the bedroom needed new blinds.
Before
The horizontal bar cut across the arch, and the too-long vertical panels hung broken and crooked.
The adjacent window in the same room had heavy, too-long dark wood slats.
After
After: The new blinds are mounted within the recessed window casement, so they virtually disappear when open.
When closed, the blinds still allow for a glow of daylight.
Much cleaner look than the dark wood blinds.
Dog Benches
Giving the pups a little lift to enjoy the view out the living room windows.
My girls used to love gazing out the sliding glass door of my condo. So - thank you Target - here come a set of window seats. I cut the legs down by ~5" so the dog beds would not block the glass, which also means Sadie can jump up more easily.
Before
Girls craning their necks to see the wild turkeys out the living room windows of our new house.
After
New benches provide better viewing. Carrots by the window sometimes fall into the crack & petrify on the baseboard heater. Yum!
Sadie's in it for the head rush.
Maddox misses the point of the window bench.
My little sentinels
Pull-out Kitchen Trash & Recycling
Now handles both trash and recycling.
I love the pull-out trash, but miss not having a convenient place to put recycling. I swapped out a new gadget that has dual bins. I failed to install the rails *perfectly* level, so a tiny magnet helps keep the trash from opening on its own.
Before
After
Shower Doors Begone
Out with the sliding glass shower doors.
Glass doors are one thing, but I could live without the etched graphics on them. Also, since the tub in the master bath is jetted (YAY!), I can't use it to bathe the dogs. So, the guest bathroom tub needs to be accessible without sitting on the metal rail and contorting my body around the glass panes.
I posted this picture on Craig's List and said the doors would be free to the first person who offered to uninstall them for me. They were gone that night... boy, I love the internet.
Move-In Cleaning
Merry Maids = Mixed Results
Merry Maids a good enough job to fool the real estate photographer and casual observer. But when it was time to unpack, the ick factor kicked in. I even found a desiccated mouse carcass under the dining room radiator. Um... yuck.
The trash cabinet.
Above the fridge.
Behind the produce drawer.
Happy House!
The house at 70B is officially mine, and I'm getting settled.
Good Fortune
Home Depot has all my money
SOLD
Bienvenue!
Old 70B Street View
I am amused to see the evolution of the yard over time.
2007
The oak tree was not nearly as thick, and the bushes out front had limbs down to the ground. I'm not entirely sure what street work was being done here... they dug up a chunk of the street, but most of what you see in the picture is dirt over the existing asphalt. Thhe bush in front of the middle bedroom hadn't yet grown to obstruct the window, and the hedges at the front walk were still short and dense.
2011
This year the Google Street View car was able to drive around the corner, so you can see how incredibly overgrown the side of the yard was. I'm told by the neighbors that the surveyor was preparing for the sewer installation project.