So Ready For Spring!

We have such big things coming along right now, and I'm so excited for things to keep moving!
K started her own general contracting business in March.  It's been a lot of work, quite rushed, and so much studying and researching on K's part.  The month just flew by with everything that was going on.

K's new business!!  Yay!!

We have a home loan in progress to help us get the garage done as soon as possible.  Obviously, K is really going to need it once her business is really going, just to keep organized and work on projects.  We had an appraisal for the loan, and it came back better than we expected.  During our buying process, we had one terrible appraisal and one perfect one.  The first one came in at $58,000, which is INSANE!  The appraiser obviously couldn't see beyond the paint and murals on the walls, and wrote the report like the house should be a tear-down.  We had to switch lenders and get a new appraisal to actually get the house.

The appraiser this time clearly sees that this house is stable and has potential to be a very nice place.  It seems to us that we have a long way to go, but if we take a look back and take inventory of what we've done to the house so far, it's a pretty good list.  Lots to go, sure.  Lots done... absolutely.

Coming up...

1)  The curb.  We've asked the county to replace the curb in front of our house because it doesn't exist.  Along pretty much the whole front of the block, the ground just slopes down into the street.  It looks gross and the soil is just crumbling away.  There is nothing there to keep litter from blowing up into our yard, and there's not point in planting anything there while the soil is falling into the street.

How our "curb" looks now.

2)  The garage.  You better believe that pics will happen of this process.  Can't wait!

3)  Garden and stuff.  I won't be starting my garden SO late this year!  Since the bed is already built, I should be able to get my seedlings into the ground pretty soon.  I also have some plans for other flowers in the front, to dress the place up until we can do serious things like siding.  The nice thing about our front yard this year is that our lawn will be totally caught up from when we took out those huge bushes. 

Laundry Room Part 2

It's official--  the laundry room is now one of the nicest rooms in our house.

We've got big changes in the works, right now-- K will be starting her own contractor business, like... right now.  She'll have her license at the end of the week and already has a couple jobs lined up.  So that means we really, really need to get things in order here.  #1: She needs a GARAGE!  In order to do this well, she needs space for all her tools and stuff to be organized.  It's not just about our house rehab anymore.

For the last couple days, she worked on going through all her stuff that was stored in the basement and got rid of a lot of stuff, organized all the rest.  And yesterday she cleaned out and painted almost the entire laundry room!

New paint on the walls, new paint on the floor.  And she used some left over turquoise paint on our little storage room door and the shelves above the washer.  

For reference, here's what the room looked like before:

BEFORE

BEFORE

Vintage Honeywell Tap-Light

The Retro Renovation blog shared an Etsy listing for a few new old-stock Honeywell Tap-Light switches.   I'm pretty sure that this is what we installed in my stairwell!  One switch that is listed has a clown face that is similar to the one on my switch, and there is a pattern shown on the package that looks like the blue pattern on my switch.  Looks like the switches came with a few paper inserts so you could change up the patterns.

Photo from MorningGloryModerne's Etsy shop:

The listing: http://www.etsy.com/listing/178303081/vintage-nos-1950s-mid-century-honeywell?ref=shop_home_active_16

And again, the pictures of my switch.  Doesn't the blue-patterned paper look like the pattern 2nd from the left on that package above?

Office Ceiling - Part 4

Took a couple pictures of the office ceiling because it is sunny today!  It's so nice in here -- I have the ceiling light on, out of habit, but I hardly need to because the sunlight carries all through the room.

To the East...

To the West...

Lovely, sunny room! 

Backyard View

It's been a long, very cold winter so far.  Not much has been progressing on the house...  Since it's been below zero most of the days in January, K has not gotten to work on the garage.  Plus there's way too much snow on the ground.

Anyway, there's still a lovely view out the patio door, most days.  Today there was a very beautiful train parked for most of the afternoon, and some fluffy snow was falling...

Office Ceiling - Part 3

Since I didn't post these last weekend, here are my last "progress" pictures and the finished product.

First, here's the scary scaffolding contraption that K put up over the staircase...  It was really stable, since it was resting on a wall, but it was scary to look down!

What a great girl I have!  She's almost finished... 

And now.... the finished ceiling.  I did take these pictures at night, so I'll need to take some during the day, too, because it looks totally different.  The light really shines off of the paint and reflects all over.

To the East...

And to the West...

I'm really happy with it, and I'm so glad I did it.  It's much easier to work on anything in this room, even in the dark evening winter hours.  And during the day it's just beautiful.

Big, Big Weekend!!

A couple big things happened this weekend...

#1 - K got the ceiling above my stairs painted, with the scaffolding on a ladder, high above the stairs.  So that means...  my office ceiling is officially done!!  Photos to follow, but I need to clean up the room first. 

#2 - K and I got ENGAGED!!!  We've been together for more than 6 years and have been discussing marriage for a while, but even more so once it became legal for us to marry in Minnesota!  K wanted to do formal proposal, and boy, did she...  Huge deal, public, friends and family involved, lots of secret planning, the whole deal.  I was surprised and thrilled!

As excited as we are to legally tie the knot, we would really like to have our celebration in Wisconsin with our families.  We have big families, and we are so incredibly blessed, because we have the support of almost every person in our families.  And a party of that size is going to take some planning, so we will need some more time.  And anyway, everyone is telling us to just enjoy being engaged for a while.  So that's what I'm hoping to do!

Here's my ring!  Vintage, 1920s...