We Have Arrived

Finished Brick in the evening hours

Plants in the front

Plants on the side

Silver Mound near our new downspouts 

Denver Daisies 

The brick finished during the day

Potted Perennials 

Closeups 

Closeups

For the first time in three years we can actually use our porch

The Golden Vicary will some day cover our utility vents

The Front Planted and watered

Well over the weekend we finished up all the brick siding and got a good deal of the landscaping done as well.  Amber found some excellent deals on shrubs and flowers and with the help of her parents (Dennis and Lois) transformed the otherwise terrible looking front into quite a nicely landscaped garden.  With the brick done the scaffolding got returned and we are more or less done with the place.  I say more or less because there are a few things we want to get done before the open house, and will be working on bits here and there for the next ten years, but we are ostensibly done, and it couldn't feel any better.  In fact I think that we are going to skip town for a few days over the fourth holiday and see some of the sites upper MI has to offer.  So other than the open house the big events of the renovation are done and Amber and I are looking forward to finding out what hobbies we used to/still like doing.  






#BobVila

On With The Show

      We moved into the house over Thanksgiving on top of having both of our families and some friends coming for the holiday.  Despite having a great time with everyone who came I wouldn't recommend this level of stress for any body.  The meal and the move went off with out really any real problems though,  despite some hardships getting the bed up the stairwell.  Christmas and Hanukkah were less stressful with a few friends coming to town to visit and stay with us.  The goal was to get back in action after the new year, but it was so nice to not working on the house we decided to blend back in a few of our old hobbies (mainly brewing beer and cooking) instead of getting back to major projects.  That is not to say we haven't done anything around the house for three months, it has just been at a much slower pace, and a calmer nature.  We have more or less just been putting out fires here and there that come from new construction on old houses and making the rough edges disappear. So any given week there will be more cupboards here, or a new table there, or door knobs on the bathrooms.  Other than finishing up the detail work (hopefully we will have everything "done" by mid summer) things are going pretty well for us right now.  Amber has a great job working for the Center for Michigan and recently graduated from GVSU with a masters in public administration, and I am going back to grad school this fall at MSU to pursue a masters in business administration and was recently awarded "young engineer of the year", by MSPE.  The next projects are more dictated by the weather than anything else, we don't particularly want to do a lot of varnishing or painting when we cant have all the windows open, so instead we are planning to rough frame in some bedroom closets and some pantry storage.

      

Amber working at the counter

House Warming Gift from Dennis and Lois

Kitchen Island in use 

Winter snow storm 

Snow Storm

Cabin Fever 

Looking out the side window

Looking out the back window

Our back lot

Chess muppeting around

Dining table and chairs 

Entry way

Bathroom Door handles 

Chess Holding Down the furniture

Checkers 

All Lit up

Festive Assortment 

Chess holding down a different piece of furniture

Light shining in

Frame for upstairs closet 

Frame for upstairs closet 

Entry way

Brewing beer

Young engineer of the year

#BoBVila