Our Attic is PINK!

Our heating bill was ridiculous last winter. So we've spent the last year "preparing for the winter," like farmers from the 1800s. Anything we've heard that keeps your electricity down, we've tried, within our budget. That leads us to our next blog . . .  Insulating the attic:

Check out that good-looking man! Here Danny is putting up those beams across the top. I don't think it has anything to do with insulating the house but it's needed to better support the house. ? - Details go over my head, I just take the pictures and try to write about it.

Ok, now that the prep work is done we can get into the insulating part. There is where my job comes into play. You take the pink bags and cut them into half. (There's a dotted cut-here line, like in school that shows you the way)

I'm not gonna lie, it takes more strength than you think. And this wasn't the sit back, read a book job that I thought it was going to be. I was constently moving, cutting, and loading this stuff into the machine. Danny even agreed that my job was more work. However, Danny knew best where all the insulation needed to go and how much was needed, and I was more likely to fall through the ceiling.

*Notice the gloves I insisted to have on. This stuff makes you itchy if you touch it. My dad told me that with our attic when I was a kid. But it was pink and fluffy, it couldn't be that bad. I now know for sure that it is. I wear gloves. End of story.

Next, you put half the package in this machine that we rented from Home Depot. The machine mixes it all around and spits it into the small tube at the bottom.

Good ol' Pink Panther shows you the instruciton on the package.

Final result: the pink fluffy stuff comes out of the tube and fills your attic up until it looks like pink snow!



From Our Front Porch Looking In

 

 We finally made it to redoing the front porch. One of the areas Danny looked forward to the most. He thought about it and talked about it forever. Something about the uneven waffer board Danny didn't like. I dunno why, but being the good wife that I am I agreed to redo the porch. Even if that meant the fake bricks had to go. Bummer!

So here lies the remains of our deck. R.I.P.

Danny got excited when he finally decided what weekend he was going to fix the porch. He gutted most of the porch and built the main beams that would be needed that weekend. He did this on Tuesday. That left us without a porch for 4 days.

Here's the maze we got to hop through during that week.

I sprained my ankle one night, showing off, trying to be an arcobat. Still hurts when I move it certain ways. And it's been a month and a half!

(Um Jessica, next time you're in town if you want to take a look at it. I'll buy you ice cream :). )

This job required more help than I could provide. I'm thankful we had more suitable helping hands. I sat in the yard with my mother-in-law while we talked, watched them put the porch together, and I put on my make-up. It was a really beautiful day! And the guys did an awesome job.

Here's our finished porch, all ready for fall!

After a long debate on what type of wood to use, we decide to try out Trex. A board that is made out of recycled plastic (we're so green) that claims to never rot, crack or slinter. A high saler for us was that it is water-resistent and promises to never need repainting or staining. Normally I want the real thing verses fake. But this did have a lot of pros and seemed more maintance free. And yet still had the authentic wood grain look of real deal.

And now meet Scara, our friendly scarecrow, who greets our guests.

 

And here's one more look side by side at the before and after.

Well and actually a true before picture would show how we switched the door and the window.

New Siding

When we first mentioned getting our house resided, some people's reactions were "Oh really? Why?"

Soo, here are some pictures of what the old siding looked like to help explain why we made the decision that we did.

. . . Besides the fact that we had holes that allowed air-conditioning to escape.

Mmmm, gotta love that look, huh?!



Yeah . . .

      

Ehh!

Ok, whoever lived here before us did a lot of strange things. One of those things was cover up one of the windows. I understand that the sun does rise on that side which makes it pretty bright. However, There's a great new invention called blinds and thick curtains that helps with this problem, and won't leave the outside of your house looking off-centered.

I'm a very Asymmeterical person. I like things looking even. So I suggested that before we got new siding and were already replacing windows, why not just add a window where there should be a window, and probably once was. I got lucky. Danny said ok.

The back of our house now has two nicely proportioned windows.

Oh, and even more reason to reside the house. :)

Now , the moment you've all been waiting for:

Ta Da!   A thousand times better. LOVE the new siding!

Um, minus the water bottle left in the yard, and of course, the old porch which will soon be replaced.

Red Neck Window Repair

Before we could get new siding, we wanted to replace all the windows that were old and no good for various reasons.

 This one lovely window was giving Danny the hardest time to pull out. Most of the windows we replaced came out with enough effort and force. This window, however, was held down strong by nails and would not budge. So Danny scratched his head and then, being the creative man that he is, decided to pull it out with his all powerful Jeep.

As you can see, it worked!

No misson is too impossible for a Mayberry!

P.S. And that's why I'm a Mayberry ;)

Our little Island

We finally added an island to our kitchen. The "original" kitchen had an island and that was one of the things we really loved. We decided when we cleaned out the kitchen that we would someday build an island back into the kitchen.

You may not be able to see this now, but this is Danny's old desk. His parents brought it by our house one day and he really didn't want it . . . I say yes to everything. Bad habit. - I'm getting better though. With Danny's help I'm learning the word "No".-  I thought it would look nice in the guest room. Danny had other plans. He came to me with the idea of turning it into an island for the kitchen. (I wish I had a picture of what the deck looked like before, bummer.) Not really convinced, he did his best to show, draw, and explain to his visual wife what it was going to look like when it was done.

Long story short-ish, he raised the deck to the same height of our other cabinets, we added on so I'd have a place for a trash can, and my amazing man added an electrical plugs for easy cooking. :) Oh and we added paneling around it to better blend where we extended the desk.

Danny wanted to put those angle things on which I wasn't really crazy about . . . until we found TX star ones. Then I was game. The Texas star makes everything better looking, doesn't it?!!

I'm all about convenience, so I made the suggestion to install a pull out drawer for the trash can. Genius! We both love it! It's our favorite feature. Thanks Lowes!

Oh, where the big (non-hanging) pots, and pie pans are all crammed, will someday be nice organized shelves. They are already marked off just haven't built them yet. :(

The island in all it's glory! :)

It's all starting to come together.

In case you were wondering, this picture has nothing to do with the island but I just really liked it and thought I'd throw it in for your viewing pleasure.