Finishing Touches

Now that the major work has been done on the house, Dave is having fun putting our own touches on things. We had some left over tongue and groove cedar from the ceiling, so Dave used it to finish the walls in the hallway. We had originally gone with door skins for our wall material as it is a better choice then drywall but we are loving the look of the cedar and will probably get some more and use it to do the living room walls and the ceiling/side walls in both bedrooms upstairs. It's starting to feel more like a log cabin in here now.

I found two free frosted glass antique windows on Craigslist and used them in our bathroom. One of them got incorporated into the bathroom door. The original window was plain glass and had a cracked panel, so Dave took it out and framed in one of the windows. It wasn't tall enough to fill in the whole space of the original window, so we bought a piece of blue stain glass and added it to the top. Above that Dave built a box with blue square fishing floats

The other window got placed at the head of the bathtub with more glass fishing floats on either side.

Now the bathtub is in its own enclosed space which makes it cosy!

The backside of the window with various contrasting materials for the frame

The next project was the bare space under the stairs

We used some drawers from an old dresser we didn't have room for to create some more storage. The space in front of the drawers became a space to store our recycling bins.



The stairs got built in drawers under each one, and more wood paneling was used to close everything in. The white drawers got the paint stripped and the wood stained to match the bathroom door.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 We also found some free bi-fold doors which got installed to hide our furnace in the living room. We still need to add another wood beam on the left side to finish framing them in.

 

 We rearranged things on the front deck, moved the gazebo to the end and put the hammock on the outside to better enjoy the views. The screens give us some privacy. I am on the lookout for some futon frames to create a seating area under the gazebo so I can get rid of the plastic furniture.

When we are not using the hot tub, its gets used as a work bench for Dave to cut and sand wood for his various projects.

The bulbs I planted in the fall are just starting to bloom and they are smothered in big juicy bumble bees.

We found a whole bunch of free cedar fence panels and used two of the lattice panels to frame in our front porch.

 I am hoping that the wisteria vines that I bought last summer survived the winter and will eventually grow up the panels.

The landlord is letting me have a piece of the property to grow a garden in. Today we moved some poles that were laying around to mark the borders of the garden and protect them from parking vehicles.



Can't wait to start planting and building beds!

We used the fence panels that we got to cover up the shipping container so it doesn't look so industrial.   Before....



After...

 

 The container used to have a door that rolled up, but it had deteriorated over the years and didn't roll very well, at one point it trapped Dave in the container for hours one day, so it was time for it to go. Dave rebuilt a door onto the steel bars of the exterior gate and used a wooden grip that had been a part of my old boat for a handle. The ivy in the side gardens has really grown a lot since last year, Hard to believe these were tiny little one dollar cuttings when I first got them.

 

 We were lucky this year, winter was fairly gentle. It only went below zero for a few days. Unfortunately  that was enough to freeze our water pipes and burst our hot water on demand system. We ended up gutting the bathroom and re insulating all the walls and wrapping all the pipes in more insulation. Dave found a way to replace the burst corners on the hot water tank and salvaged it for us.

Luckily that was the worst of it. The river didn't freeze, the hydro bills were very reasonable and winter passed in a blink of an eye. I am looking forward to spring and working in the garden. We will continue to putter away at making improvements on the house and property, but I have to say its nice to finally be able to kick back and enjoy what we have accomplished so far!

This is todays project. Dave is building a frame for a mirror that will cover our electrical boxes. 

 

The electrical octopus contained in a frame that will hold the mirror/door

This wall will get the cedar paneling treatment with built in bookshelves on either side of the mirror door that will cover the electric panels

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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