Project Graham Ave

Tornado Effect

2012-03-05T20:25:00.000-08:00

I hardly recognized our home after last weeks high winds, hail, and tornado warnings .........and the work of Clingerman Tree Service. :) Our new home is finally starting to take shape. It hardly looks like the same house! I went running by it last week (when this crazy weather decided to be 60 degrees) and ran by it 3 times. Sawyer was so confused as he has memorized my normal route. He just looked at me as we ran, like, "What?, this way again? Whatever" haha "Yes, one more time puppy. I want to see it again" :) so fun!

Love these colors. One idea for exterior paint.

Above is where I want to plant green hydrangeas. I love Cape Cod style houses with hydrangeas..... I've added a few pictures of what I have in mind. :) I need my mom's green thumb for them to turn out like these though.

this is what I'm starting with, spring has brought some pleasant surprises. These are popping up everywhere.

This front part of the barn will eventually be gone and I hope to put a pergola in its place. Love them.

pergola idea

Sawyer found a ball under the leaves. :)

our new living roon ceiling (almost)

And The Walls Came Tumbling Down......

2011-11-08T20:01:00.000-08:00

The dust was flying on Saturday as the walls to the upstairs came down! All of them. :) Lets just say we might have had alot of energy after a 3 week break from working on the Graham House. The walls were made of some type of foam board that was caving in at several places. All the foam board came out, causing it to snow insulation...old insulation...yuck. We were prepared however. With masks, glasses, and 3 old trash cans. Ben and I hauled one load out at a time. It took some time but we finished and rewarded ourselves with an after picture ( love those!), a cheesburger, a movie, and a good nights sleep. :)

The Before!

The odd foam ceiling that had to go.....

another before.....

My brother with a crow bar.....yikes. Thanks Mark!!!

The old insulation

Styling our masks

our trash window :) we threw large items out the window into the yard. It is very satisfying to hear it crash to the ground.

uh huh....we did that.

and that. :)

AND the after!!! :)

The AFTER for us.....zzzz

Another AFTER for us. :) yum! highly recommend. Especially after hauling 20 trash cans of insulation and plaster down the stairs and outside. :)

Paneling eliminated...and a NEW STAIRWAY in mind...

2011-09-30T07:19:00.000-07:00

Now why wouldn't you fill your entire house with wood paneling from the 70's? Its cheap, easy, covers EVERTHING, including bugs and dirt, and if you ever sell your house and the crazy people who buy it want to renovate, it peels off the walls as easy as can be. Hauling down the stairs can present a challenge however, but another GREAT thing about paneling is that it bends........so out the window it went. All of it! The picture doesn't even do it justice. We had a porch, FULL of paneling.

AND we're moving the stairs. And yes, there is a hole in the ceiling in our living room and upstairs. At this point, the stairs are more of a back stair way, wedged in a tiny "L" shaped hallway between the main floor bathroom, master bedroom, and kitchen. Awkward. When Ben and I first walked through this house on that fateful day (on August 7th), all we had to do was look at each other "These stairs have to go..." Moving the stairs and tearing out the old stairway will open up more space for the kitchen and a larger master bath/main floor bath. Maybe we can post a rendering of that some day. :)

I've posted a few of the renderings ben did to give a better picture of the stairs. Ben and I had fun putting this together. (I should say Ben had fun creating a rendering of it, while I had fun watching!) pictures at the bottom.....

Our amazing pile of paneling!!!

Thanks Janna!

The soon to be, "top of the stairs"

The back stairway....

The home of our future Stairway.

A side view of where the stairs will come down.

The Karate Kids

2011-09-13T19:47:00.000-07:00

"There may be money hidden in the house" is what they told us at closing a few weeks ago. Apparently the previous tenant was in the habit of hiding her money. Well, we have found a lot of dust, bugs, and paneling from the 70's but NO money. My nephews Clayton and Ethan are not discouraged. They are enjoying helping us demo and love the idea that there may be treasure hidden somewhere. :) They spent most of their Saturday cleaning out the dark, musty basement- which thanks to them, Stan and Ben, it looks a lot more friendly. The video below is of the boys tearing down a fake wall that the previous tenant had placed in her living room. Obviously very high quality. :) The Karate Kids had fun demonstrating their moves.

Its linoleum!... its tile!.... wait...its hard wood floors!!

2011-09-13T19:02:00.000-07:00

The kitchen floor was uprooted on Thursday night with the help of our friends Tyler and Janna. After a healthy meal of Jockomoes pizza and Coca- cola, we proceeded to tear apart the floor in one evening. Success.... after 4 layers of linoleum, plastic tile, and glue on plywood there appeared a dusty, dirty, hard wood floor! Thank you Tyler and Janna for you help! :) I admit I fell asleep when the clock struck 11pm as Tyler and Ben were still discussing the position of the new stairway. Pulling up 4 layers of flooring is hard work!

Labor Day: True to its name.....

2011-09-07T16:30:00.000-07:00

Our Labor Day was a day off from Dental Hygiene and Graham Home Remodeling LLC but not from the Graham House. I had a few goals for the day: tear up carpet and clear away brush. I thought I'd start small. With much help from our family we did much more! and had Donatoes to go with it. :) As Ben put it, "We did as much in one day as we hoped we would do in a month!" Thank you Kaylin, Teryn, Clayton, Ethan, Stan, Mom, and Katy. (and Andrea, Cedi and Mali for going with us to lunch!)

I want to paint these shelves and create a wall of bookshelves with a ladder, something Ben and I have always dreamed of having! I love google images - I always download pictures that I like and save them in a file just for our projects. :) See below.

The Graham Tour :)

2011-09-07T16:16:00.000-07:00

Use your imagination when looking at this house. Just think of what it could be!! :) Because it can be a lot more than what is is....we hope. These pictures are priceless, as Ben and I are terrible at taking "before" pictures. So enjoy!

Stain Glass Galor!

Is that WOOD FLOORS?! Yes!!

Everything must go - except maybe the chandelier- Maybe......

Fireplace Stays. :)

Laundry on the 1st floor. yay!

Lots of leftover antiques.

"Maybe We're crazy! ......Probably...."

2011-09-07T16:00:00.000-07:00

I think Gnarls Barkley put it well for Ben and I. :) Sundays are our open house days, especially in the summer. I love driving around in circles in our historic neighborhood looking for that big sign with bold letters reading, "OPEN - Sunday 2-5". :) Love it!

A few weeks ago (August 7th to be exact) Ben and I stumbled upon a house we had never seen before - pretty hard to believe since we've seen almost every house that is for sale in our area. The house is not much to look at from the outside (or on the inside for that matter) but here is the key word of the year: POTENTIAL!!. This house is screaming it! This house has had nothing done to it in the previous 40 years of occupancy by the same owner, and I mean NOTHING. This is exactly what we wanted. A clean slate, nothing to undo and plenty of room for creativity. After much prayer, brainstorming ideas, long walks past the house with Sawyer (who would wine endlessly while we stopped our walk to stare and talk about the house) and more prayer- We closed on 346 N. Graham Ave on September 2nd - Labor Day weekend! Lets just say our labor day was not free of labor. :) With much help from both sides of our family, you may find the little house looking quite different....and a little less like its about to cry. We are so excited to tackle this project together. It might include a lot of dusty, sweaty weekends and evenings, but in the end I hope they will be well spent. We may be crazy, Gnarls Barkley, but we took your advice, thought twice, and we're having the time of our lives. :)

The Graham House