Back Door!

September 23rd, 2010 we finally were able to buy a new back door for the mudroom! Jason had been working mandatory 7-day weeks for three weeks straight, which is why we could afford the door (on sale) but also made it tight to fit replacing the door into the schedule. But, we desperately needed to replace the old door which was NOT at all weather tight.

The old door showing the light (and cold or heat, depending on the season) that would stream in:

Taking off the old storm door. We put the old storm door back on, but we will eventually replace it as well.

No doors!

The old door off. The bottom window panel was actually a very thin Plexiglas instead of real glass.

Fitting the new door in the old slot:

The new door installed! Jason had to go to work before the knobs and deadbolt were in, so I chiseled the spots and installed the door knobs and deadbolt:

Trim Work

In September, 2010 we finally got the trim work around the front door finished up. Here are pictures that were taken the 12th of September.

One Full Year

We have officially been living in this house for a full year. Last year on Labor day September 7th, 2009 we moved in and started staying here. I was going to post this glorious post to compare pictures of how it looked then and how it looks now on the actual anniversary, but I got so caught up in preparing for Benjamin's first day of school, it just didn't happen. That, and I still don't think I got the moving day pictures from my sister...

One Year Ago!

One year ago today we signed on the house and "The Grove" became officially ours! See my original post about it here.

Here are the pictures I took that day:



We've had a busy day today with unpacking from our trip to Orlando, doing some errands in Grand Rapids, laundry, and decorating for the "Tivoli Town" contest for the Danish Festival this week. I'm excited that we'll be celebrating our first official Danish Festival as Greenville residents this year. :)

Anna's Curtains

I had the curtains in Anna's room finished for quite some time, but I hadn't gotten the tie backs or the swag I was planning to put over the windows made. For the swag, I wanted 3 silver crowns cut from wood (we made them ourselves) that I would drape a sheer pink fabric that has swirls of metallic silver on it. June 28th, 2010 I finally got everything finished.



This is how we had to open the curtains for quite a while:


Putting up the crowns:




The crowns, complete with jewels, are up:



The swag and tie backs finished and in place:




Anna, checking out her new curtain swags:

Anna's Cinderella Mural

Anna loves the Disney Princesses, especially Cinderella. Before we moved, I had plans to make her room into a princess wonderland featuring Cinderella. I didn't get a chance to start, but I'm so glad I was able to do that here at this house. Anna's room is so much bigger and better here!

On June 8th, 2010 I took the life-sized drawing of Cinderella that I had done on paper and transferred it onto the wall that Anna's bed is on.





Then, I began to paint, starting with Cinderella's dress and headband:



Just before I ended for the night, I took this picture of Anna with her developing mural. You can tell she's very excited about it!



The next day, I started first thing and got the entire thing finished.

Adding the light blue:



All painted, before the detail line work:



Finished:


Two Princesses:


I plan to paint flowers of various sizes cascading down the walls and I hope to have "Princess Anna" painted above her headboard. I still need to paint the trim in her room a darker shade of pink.

(Look for another post soon with the work on the curtains.)

Playset

This really doesn't have anything to do with our house, but it was a project that needed doing, and a very important one to the kids, so I thought I'd blog about it. We were trying to get the playset put up before frost set in, but we ran out of time so the poor thing sat rather crooked the entire winter. Then, one day in March (I believe) I had two guys come to the back door. I had been waiting for some people from Freecycle to come pick up the old toilet we took out of the upstairs bathroom, so I was expecting it to be them. I stood there telling them the best way would be to bring the truck to the front since the toilet was on the porch. They looked at me like I had trees growing out of my ears or something and then told me they were there about the playset. I told them it WAS NOT for sale, it belonged to our kids. I felt like saying "Do you see a 'for sale' sign on it? No? Well then go away!" But, I didn't. I secretly hope that they see it now, often, perhaps while our kids are actually using to know how stupid their request was! :)

We had to dig quite a bit because the spot we set up the play equipment is hilly. The back legs of the swing set (and the fort) were lower than the front legs, so we had to dig into the ground so the front legs would be level.




We had a toad visit us in my strawberry garden while we were out working:




Testing out the swings:





Everything set up and ready for play!

Bedroom Wall

The front porch light mysteriously stopped working just before Halloween. We needed to take the paneling off the wall in our room and tear into the wall in the hallway in order to get to the wiring and see what was what (the light was just outside our bedroom window). We didn't want to tear into the walls during the winter, so in March after it started to warm up, we began.

We weren't planning to change our room any more than just to extend the closet. However, during the winter, we quickly realized we'd need to do something because, even though we put a heat vent in (there wasn't one), our room didn't get much warmer than 65 on a good day all winter (I think it got as cold as 51-52).

In the process, we decided that we would move the light switch because it was behind the door. We put in a wall that will be the side of the closet so that we had a place to put the light switch. We also added an outlet on that wall.




Taking off the paneling and window trim:




The insulation under the paneling (there was no drywall) was very old and thin:



We decided to go ahead and do the entire wall, not just the side where the light was:






Prepping the doorway wall for the new closet wall:



Installing the new closet wall:




Installing new, thicker insulation (warmer, toastier!) :



Starting the drywall:





Figuring out the new wiring:



The new light switch in the new location:



More insulation:



More Drywall:







I finally got the curtain valance done, as well as the white detail strip on the curtains:





Installing the plug in the doorknob hole to re-drill it properly:


Obviously, we still have a lot of work to do in our bedroom. We're also hoping to expand the bathroom a tad with the hope that we can put a slightly bigger shower, sink, and vanity in. This will correspond with extending the closet, which we hope to be able to afford to do/finish soon.