House Projects Update!

It's house project mania around here. I wanted to wait until we had at least one project complete so that for once I could show an "after" picture, but hey, we're still workin' so yet another post about projects in progress will have to do. Here's what we've got going on...

The Bathroom
It's been completely gutted, and Josh is working on putting up the drywall and installing the shower kit as I type. We opted to stay away from the plastic showers you "pop in" and instead are doing a custom tiled shower. It's a ton of work, including pouring cement, grading the floor so the water flows toward the drain, installing water barriers and a curb around the base, cutting tile, grouting, and sealing. You get the picture. My contribution to the bathroom is refinishing the oak cabinet we are using as the sink stand, and refinishing an old flea market mirror to use above the sink. Josh is a good guy, and he has also let me take over the choosing and ordering the fixtures, tile, lighting, etc. We had a nice vessel sink delivered last week that I can't wait to pop on top of the oak cabinet. I'll pull together dedicated posts for those pieces once we have something to show, but in the meantime, here's a small sneak peek of the sink cabinet being refinished (the top was previously painted black):

The Stairs

The stairway leading down to the basement was in rough shape. The stairs were bare, dirty wood, and the walls were covered in dark wood paneling. I sanded and stained the tops of the stairs, and we both worked on painting the kickboards and walls Navajo white. The upper part of the walls will be a light sage green. We also found a new light fixture to replace the current boring one. Here's a small sneak peek at the refinished/painted stairs:

The French Doors

We found a pair of flea market french doors and sanded/painted them to use between the office and bedroom downstairs. We finally hung them yesterday, and while a bit of tweaking on the hinges and knob hardware is still needed to get them to close properly, I'm really liking how they turned out. Considering this wall was previously a weird open closet with pipes running through, this is a big improvement!

The Rock Wall

As mentioned last week we are building a rock retaining wall for the kitchen garden next to the house. Building a rock wall by hand is incredibly labor intensive. If we had a tractor to pick up and transport the rocks for us, we'd probably be done by now, but we are literally climbing down into river beds, pulling out rocks by hand, one by one, then lugging them back to the truck bed. One. Rock. At. A. Time. We limit ourselves to a few hours a day doing this, as some of the rocks are a few hundred pounds each, and carrying those around really takes it out of you. On the bright side, I am learning proper lifting form. Squat deep, push through the heels, chest to the sky, lift with your legs! Here's what a typical rock gathering run looks like:

That's all for now! Hope everyone had a great weekend. We are heading to NYC on Thursday to see my dad's band play at Birdland, and I am really looking forward to some time in the city with family and friends. Winter was pretty and all, but I'm ecstatic to finally be able to take a trip and enjoy the warmer temps!