We painted the external part of the structure, and installed a light, so it looks WAY better now, and definitely looks near-completion.

The next step is the tricky one, though. Running wires for switches, fixtures, insulation, and drywall. As we started, we were reminded of what we were doing a little over a year ago, back at the end of 2010. At least this isn’t something too important, like the kitchen. Or running water.

as you can see, we’ve got some yard work to do this coming spring. We also still have about 2/3 of the drywall to hang, but at least there’s power to the interior and exterior lights and outlets.

In the meantime, we’ve been painting and furnishing the basement, trying to make it a livable space, incorporating it to the rest of the house. We’ve got a rad new sofa and all sorts of cool things, but I’ll fill you guys in on that one later.

I know, it’s been a while. And, as per usual, more significant changes. The short list: more progress on the rear entrance, some small kitchen updates, and starting the Hospitable Basement project.

Its late right now though, and I’m still struggling with the weird cold I must’ve gotten last night at the New Years thing (I’m sure it wasn’t the heavy drinking), so I’ll refrain from the lengthy post. In the meantime, here’s a picture of the shed we had installed a couple months ago. Since we had the ongoing entrance project, we figured we’d pay someone else to do this one. It didn’t come without some sort of work needed though. We painted it, put in the drip edge, and even flipped the window around 180 degrees, since the contractor put it in upside down.

It’s really nice having a dedicated place for all the yard crap.

Seriously. I’m getting really tired of this pump situation. So, a freak heavy snowstorm in October showed us that our current sump system (see: May) wasn’t going to hack it. Not only the plaster tube running down the yard require multiple passes with a roll of duct tape over the summer, but somehow water was still coming into the house via the pump. Totally ironic, right? I feel like this subject needs it’s own category at this point.

So, since the window of opportunity to do this before the ground froze over was dwindling, we decided to just rip the whole goddamned thing out and replace it. New pump, new pipes, new hole in the back of the yard. We started by digging a new trench down the length of the yard, and pulled out the old rusted pipes that weren’t even hooked up to begin with. Then we pulled the old pump out. The following four hours were dedicated to removing the pipe from like, five inches of foundation.

Once we were able to continue, it was getting dark, so we went out for a pitcher of rum.

The next day I was able to dig the hole at the end and fill it with rocks. I made a home-made drain system with a sawed off bucket and more duct tape, and then buried that sucker. Shits hella pro.

As I write this i still need to reconcrete the hole in the side of the house that the pipe runs out of, but whatever. Close enough.

dude this shit is HELLA pro

Tar paper up, and old crappy insides gutted, we proceeded to put the cedar shingles up. We originally looked at clapboard, but that was WAY expensive. While Cedar Shake Shingles aren’t the cheapest option either, it was still night and day from the clapboard. The only other option was vinyl siding, and eff that. Match the rest of the house? pssht. NO.

These shingles were no walk in the park but at least the results were nice.

Once all the plywood panels were put in, the next step was the roof. We lined it with felt paper and layered those shingles on. I will admit, my sometimes overwhelming Obsessive Compulsive Disorder was pleased with the measuring and careful overlapping of the shingles. We also cut out an octagonal hole for the rad little window we picked up.

Cutting some excess off the edge.

I’m sure watching me and my father do this is both an exercise in patience and humor.

We started lining the rest of the entrance with the felt paper, because apparently they only sell it in large quantity rolls.

You can also see we installed the door. That was a project that spanned a few days, since we couldn’t seem to get it just right. We had to keep refitting it of the course of a few weekends. FUN.

Oh yeah, I also built this rad bat house. Four months later, still no residents, despite the fact that they fly around like, all of the time. Seriously, its kind of awesome.

It might not be high enough, or maybe its facing the wrong direction. If nothing settles by next year, I’m going to try moving it.

So once we cleared that garbage out, we spent about a week filling in the concrete and letting it dry in two stages. Then we started with the framing. This was when we realized exactly the breadth of the new structure. We had to cut back some vinyl siding, which is always a huge pain in the ass, and we decided to go with an asymmetrical roof, being longer on one side than the other.

We also discovered a nest of ants and their larvae within the walls. After the initial revulsion, I sprayed an entire can of insect killer into the while mess, and we had ants falling out of the house dead for the next couple of hours. It was actually kind of sad, because they were carrying out their young to safety before dying, and helping each other by dragging the wounded to a “safer” location while they all slowly perished from the toxins. Seriously, I was kind of glad they were leaving the walls of my house, but also really upset to do this to them. Yes, i’m that kind of a person.

Here is a picture of the structure with our makeshift roof. You can still see the concrete frame in there being held up buy shitty 2x4s.

Yes, we actually did this. Don’t judge us.

Here we started with the walls on the following weekend. At this point its starting to actually look like something, which is reassuring.

Naturally, Jessica was drinking on the job pretty much the entire way through.

So now that we’ve established that we need to do something about this piece, the first thing to do was destroy it.

We even got assistance from my extremely handy uncle for this one.

Killian you’re so helpful.

Then we needed to clear out some space to fill in a wider chunk of foundation. Up next, Concrete.

The time had come. For about a year I fought with a medieval style bar-and-plank lock for a door that didnt fit, and a second door (which also didn’t fit) that could only be opened by jumping, grabbing a rafter, and swinging back to kick open, all Batman like. While that part was kind of cool, it got a bit old with the severe draft during the winter and the parade of large bugs that came in during the summer.

Actually, this was something we had been planning on doing for some time, but what really tipped the scale was the day was stood in the basement contemplating the ‘when’, and a giant stag beetle crawled over the top of the door are stared at us. Right then and there we decided to start basically immediately. Here are some before pictures so you can see what i mean:

this would be a great picture if not for the hideous structure attached to the house.

Seriously though, more than once i wondered what the hell i saw in this place a year ago.

We bought the place in August, 2010, moved in sometime in November and had been using the three-season porch as a pit to chuck all those weird whatcha-ma-call-its, we-might-need-thats and about $35 in empty beer bottles since day numero-uno.  Yeppers… as you can imagine it was pretty dingy out there.  But as the weather got warmer we started day dreaming of a useable porch.

A few weekends ago we got rained in and couldn’t spend any time on the fence project and we took the opportunity to rejuvenate the porch. We tossed most of the heap, redeemed the beer bottles and bought ourselves a few cans of paint.  The results aren’t breath-taking… but it’s much nicer out there.  Especially once we gutted the ceiling and exposed the underside of the roof.  (heh).

So, for all you nay-sayers who don’t think you can rejuvenate a space with under $100 and an afternoon we say think again!

Here are some before, during and after the make-over photos: