One Year Later

Well, it has now been just over a year since Eric and I became homeowners.

The time certainly has flown by. It seems like the projects we have finished always end up taking more time than expected, but when I look back over the year, I realize just how much we have accomplished.

We finished a major basement renovation, starting with this:

We totally gutted it: 

And ended with this:

Meanwhile, we had close encounters with local wildlife (Mr. Rocky Raccoon chillin' above the window). 

We also found some wickedly awesome mouse skeletons in the walls. 

We installed a new fridge, range, microwave, ... 

...and dishwasher. 

We re-finished a dining room table and chairs.

We built a garden. 

We tore down our old deck. (BTW, huge update on the deck construction progress coming soon!!)

We installed 2 new windows, ... 

... and 3 new exterior doors.

We painted all our exterior windows. 

We got new siding and a new roof. 

We painted our door blue. 

We (almost) built a new deck. 

Anyway, I'm happy with our progress this year!! Things are looking quite a bit different around here than they did when we moved in. I love finishing a project and being able to step back and see the result of all that hard work. A huge thanks goes to everyone who helped with projects over the past year, in particular my dad, without whom almost none of this would have happened.   

A Face Lift for Mi Casa

Ladies and gentlemen, I've got some exciting stuff to show you!!

If you remember, we had a hail storm in early summer and our house suffered some serious siding and roofing damage... cue the insurance-financed new siding and roofing! 

The toughest choice was colors. Our old siding was a cream-ish beige color, with all the trim painted the same color. 

For new colors, we needed something that would look good with the red-ish brick on the front of our house. Now, Eric and I don't often agree on paint colors, so I was very surprised when he agreed with my suggestion for grey siding with white trim and a blue front door. We got a few samples and finally made our choice for a rather dark grey. 

The next step was painting the trim. Oh man was that a pain. The most challenging part was that none of our ladders (nor the ladder we borrowed from our generous neighbor) were tall enough to reach the 2nd story windows. So, I called up the local tool rental places and was able to find a 14 foot ladder for rent for $17/day. And let me tell you - a 14 foot ladder is TALL!

A whole lot of trim painting ensued. Eric's parents helped out 2 weekends in a row.  Thanks :) 

Did I mention we also washed the inside and outside of every window AND storm window? 

Then the really exciting part started - siding! (The truly incredible part was that we didn't have to do any of the work!!)

The colors are a bit washed out in the photo below, but you get the general idea. In reality, the siding color definitely comes off as a mid-tone grey. 

We were feeling pretty good at this point, so we taped up some bright blue color swatches on the front door and left them there for a couple days to see what struck our fancy. (Oh, I forgot to mention that I also spray painted our mailbox white and the handle grey. I think it looks pretty nice if I do say so!)

Okay, back to the door paint color. We were going for something eye catching but not obnoxious.... 

... and we got really nervous after the first coat of Behr's Running Water went on...  YOWZA!!!

But after the second coat, things are looking much better. We still aren't quite sold - we keep waffling back and forth between wanting to keep it as is or wanting to repaint with something a bit more subtle. 

So what do you guys think? Did we hit the nail on the head for 'eye catching but not obnoxious', or are we way past that, into 'crazy people on the block' territory? Seriously, I need some feedback people!!

Home-Made Compost Bin

Well it has been a little slow on the home improvement front around here, but we have some big stuff coming up - new siding and a new deck!

I'll be posting on those as soon as we have some updates. In the meantime, I thought I would share my compost bin project.

After tearing down our deck, we ended up with a big pile of lumber.

I put up a post for free lumber on Craigslist, and I was able to find one guy to pick up this entire pile. But, I kept some pieces that I thought would come in handy for making a compost bin. I had this project in the back of my mind since early spring when I realized I had nowhere to put all the leaves, weeds, trimmings, etc. and general yard waste.

Conveniently, we had two large gate pieces that were removed from the deck. After cutting them in half we had 4 pieces that looked something like this:

These would serve as 2 of the sides of the compost bin and the top. We also had some 2x4s and some pieces like this:

We cut the 1x6s to the length we wanted and used the 2x4s as supports. Dad helped (of course)!

After assembling, we ended up with two matching rectangular pieces. (BTW, check out that lush garden in the background - and it looks even better now!!)

After that, it was as simple as screwing together the 4 side pieces and laying the final piece on the top. Ta Da! 

To put in yard waste, I simply slide the top piece aside and throw in the debris and then push it back on. I didn't bother painting it since the brown color actually blends in pretty well so that the bin isn't too attention grabbing. My favorite part is that it was free!!

Land of the Midnight Sun

I mentioned in my last post that Eric and I took a trip to Iceland. It was a trip of beautiful scenery and almost endless sunlight. We began by exploring some of the geothermal features of the island. There are numerous hot springs which create an eerie steamy landscape.

We saw the famous Geysir (for which all geysers are named). 

Nearby was an impressive waterfall flowing deep into a ravine.

Part of Iceland sits on the division between the Atlantic and Euro tectonic plates, which are are separating at a rate of 2 cm per year. A large valley and some very deep, water-filled crevices have formed as a result. We went snorkeling in one of these crevices. The water just above freezing, so we wore 'teddy-bear jump suits' and dry suits over the top. The water was incredibly clear (and tasty). 

Throughout the trip we did a lot of driving in our tiny Chevy Spark. Luckily we got 50 mpg!

Despite it's small size, we drove through some pretty rough terrain in this car. The roads in rural Iceland are unpaved, steep, and very narrow. There were a ton of these signs. I'll leave it to you to interpret the meaning. 

We decided this would make a good car ad photo:

Snow capped mountain? Check. Rocky terrain? Check. Alpine lake? Check. 

We stopped at said alpine lake for a lunch break with some Appelsin pop (appel means orange?). Yum!

Since we were doing so much driving along the coast, we stayed in a different guest house every night. Many of them were quite cute, like the mini-cabin in the center of this photo:

The owner of this guest house also owns the adjacent land on which a huge lava tube sits. He gave us a guided tour of the 1.5km long cave. The entrance is a spectacular opening in an otherwise very flat lava field. 

In addition to numerous lava formations, the cave also houses Ice Elf City, a series of ice stalagmites that form and melt each year according to the season.

Settled primarily by the Vikings, Icelanders had some curious customs. One was the stone carrying test that was used to test a sailor's strength. I was only able to lift the smallest of the 4 stones. 

Eric tried the second stone:

Whew, made it! But even that wouldn't cut it for the Icelanders. In order to pass the test, a potential fisherman was required to lift the 3rd stone onto the platform. 

We stopped at the famous bird cliffs in the West Fjords, which span 14 km and reach heights of 441 m. The drop was truly dizzying. What made this even more scary was that there was a very very very strong wind (had to be at least 40 mph) which felt like it was attempting to rip you right off the edge of the cliff. 

The wind made it very difficult to get a good view of the cliffs themselves. There was a lot of crawling going on to get a peek over the edge.

Told you it was windy! At one point the saliva was blown (directly horizontally) out of my mouth!

The entire country was covered in these violet-blue flowers. Whole hillsides were completely blanketed - gorgeous! 

With only 300,000 residents and a population that is moving out of rural areas, it was common place to find abandoned buildings. I thought this old hangar provided a very interesting focal point for this photo.

One of the guest houses that we stayed in had a hot spring-fed swimming pool. The water was VERY hot. (By the way, it was about 10pm in the photo below.) By midnight the sun would no longer be visible in the sky, but twilight would fade slowly into dawn rather than full night.

 
We ended our travels with a trip to the Blue Lagoon, a geothermal spa whose waters are fed by the adjacent geothermal power plant. A very nice place to soak in some relaxation time before the end of vacation!