When Eli & I bought this old house it was not because we loved it! It was because we loved the property & the beautiful view of the valley, and knew that the house could be remodeled. Currently our house is not very pretty to look at...it is a hodgepodge of cinder block, river rock, lava rock & siding. Not to mention the "garage room"...an addition that was intended to be a garage with an extra bedroom on the second story. The only problem it that the owner at the time forgot to factor in the staircase to get upstairs to the bedroom when he figured the length of the room, so it ended up being too short to park a car inside!
We had great plans for turning this ole puzzle into something beautiful...something to be proud of. Due to economic situations & a fire our plans have not come to pass quite as quickly as we had planned, but during my Spring Break from work we finally got started on our remodel!
One of the things that bugs me most about the house is that my kitchen is practically a part of my living room. In fact when we first bought the house, as you came in the front door, you were standing in my kitchen. Eli built a wall and created an entryway, but we knew one of the first things we wanted to do was move the kitchen.
The area we wanted to move the kitchen to is the perfect spot for a kitchen, except for the wall of windows! The windows are too long...we wouldn't be able to place cabinets on that wall. Well, not unless we change the windows! So that was our project for Spring Break.
Friday morning Eli & I started removing the molding around the windows & that went really fast...so then we took out the windows, & that went really fast too! We kept looking at the clock & saying, "Wow! That only took 10 minutes." Things just kept moving along so quickly, we were thinking we might actually have the new windows back in by that evening!
The wall that we were needing to change is a cinder-block wall, so while I made a quick trip to Lowe's to buy mortar, Eli was going to get the cinder-blocks we already had moved to where we needed them. That was when he noticed that the cinder-blocks on this wall are actually not as thick as the ones we had! Which was really odd, because the left over blocks were from when we filled in a window on another wall...who would have thought that a builder would have used two different size cinder-blocks when building a house! (This is the point in the story where Eli tells people that having level floors & square walls is seriously over-rated!) Luckily when we got back to Lowe's they had the exact size of cinder-block we needed sitting right by the back door, so I just backed the truck up to the stack & Eli loaded them on.
Once we had the right size bricks work started moving quickly again. Connor got home in the afternoon & was able to help Eli placing the bricks, which really helped out! Once all the brinks were in place, we decided to let the mortar dry & save the framing & putting the windows in until Saturday. Thankfully the weather cooperated, because we left it all open & just closed the door on that room, so the rest of the house wouldn't get too cold.
Saturday morning Eli's back was feeling a little tender from lifting & hauling the cinder-blocks the day before, so he took some Aleve & we got started building the frame for the opening. Once again things were moving along really well...we had the frame up & were trimming the molding that was going to hold the windows in place when Eli cut his finger with his circular saw...OUCH! Wow! What a lot of blood! We quickly got him into the bathroom to try a get it cleaned & bandaged. The problem was that the first aid kit with the gauze & surgical tape was out in the tool shed, and all we had was band-aids...which weren't sticking because he was bleeding so badly. So being a quick thinker, Eli grabbed some blue painters tape to wrap around the finger & keep the band-aids in place! It was amazing...within 1/2 an hour Eli was back working! He was back trimming the molding & nailing it in place. In fact it was his back that was bothering him! I guess it was a good thing he took that Aleve in the morning.
Eli's injury slowed us down a little but, by the end of the day we had the new windows in place! We still needed to make another trip to Lowe's for the the finish molding & it was late before we got home, so the project is not quite complete...but we are so close!
We had great plans for turning this ole puzzle into something beautiful...something to be proud of. Due to economic situations & a fire our plans have not come to pass quite as quickly as we had planned, but during my Spring Break from work we finally got started on our remodel!
One of the things that bugs me most about the house is that my kitchen is practically a part of my living room. In fact when we first bought the house, as you came in the front door, you were standing in my kitchen. Eli built a wall and created an entryway, but we knew one of the first things we wanted to do was move the kitchen.
The area we wanted to move the kitchen to is the perfect spot for a kitchen, except for the wall of windows! The windows are too long...we wouldn't be able to place cabinets on that wall. Well, not unless we change the windows! So that was our project for Spring Break.
Friday morning Eli & I started removing the molding around the windows & that went really fast...so then we took out the windows, & that went really fast too! We kept looking at the clock & saying, "Wow! That only took 10 minutes." Things just kept moving along so quickly, we were thinking we might actually have the new windows back in by that evening!
The wall that we were needing to change is a cinder-block wall, so while I made a quick trip to Lowe's to buy mortar, Eli was going to get the cinder-blocks we already had moved to where we needed them. That was when he noticed that the cinder-blocks on this wall are actually not as thick as the ones we had! Which was really odd, because the left over blocks were from when we filled in a window on another wall...who would have thought that a builder would have used two different size cinder-blocks when building a house! (This is the point in the story where Eli tells people that having level floors & square walls is seriously over-rated!) Luckily when we got back to Lowe's they had the exact size of cinder-block we needed sitting right by the back door, so I just backed the truck up to the stack & Eli loaded them on.
Once we had the right size bricks work started moving quickly again. Connor got home in the afternoon & was able to help Eli placing the bricks, which really helped out! Once all the brinks were in place, we decided to let the mortar dry & save the framing & putting the windows in until Saturday. Thankfully the weather cooperated, because we left it all open & just closed the door on that room, so the rest of the house wouldn't get too cold.
Saturday morning Eli's back was feeling a little tender from lifting & hauling the cinder-blocks the day before, so he took some Aleve & we got started building the frame for the opening. Once again things were moving along really well...we had the frame up & were trimming the molding that was going to hold the windows in place when Eli cut his finger with his circular saw...OUCH! Wow! What a lot of blood! We quickly got him into the bathroom to try a get it cleaned & bandaged. The problem was that the first aid kit with the gauze & surgical tape was out in the tool shed, and all we had was band-aids...which weren't sticking because he was bleeding so badly. So being a quick thinker, Eli grabbed some blue painters tape to wrap around the finger & keep the band-aids in place! It was amazing...within 1/2 an hour Eli was back working! He was back trimming the molding & nailing it in place. In fact it was his back that was bothering him! I guess it was a good thing he took that Aleve in the morning.
Eli's injury slowed us down a little but, by the end of the day we had the new windows in place! We still needed to make another trip to Lowe's for the the finish molding & it was late before we got home, so the project is not quite complete...but we are so close!
Outside...before we started!
Outside view: After the windows are out.
Inside view: without the windows!
Eli pulling wires for electricity...
The first row of blocks...so far so good!
Framing: After the 2nd row of blocks...before the accident!
The new windows!
Now we just need to get the finish molding up & paint. These new windows are wonderful! The old ones were not double paned...we never realized how much noise from outside came in until we got these new windows up!I guess this is just the beginning...
