New windows

Although the new sliders don't even seem big, (they just seem normal today), the extra light and the new, wider view is something we appreciate and enjoy very much, -every day!
Thank you, Lighthouse Windows!

The slider doors seen from the deck.

The new sliders in the dining room area are the same size (8 feet); here also shown from the outside. This image was taken before the house was painted.

Single pane windows -now history!

Another one of those bigger projects was replacing all the windows and slider doors. Of course the house became easier to heat and keep warm, but we really liked how it also suddenly appeared younger, inside and out.

When we moved in, the windows and sliders were old, aluminum, single pain, and most of them smaller than we liked. This image shows our bedroom sliders before they were taken out.

The size of the sliders were exactly the same (6 feet) in the dining area but we thought there was plenty of room to grow them wider, to at least 8 feet.

This image shows the bedroom slider missing; and the new panels ready to be installed. The new cutout is larger; it's 2 feet wider towards the corner of the room.

The new cutout from the inside of the bedroom. Another tree to be seen from our bed, what a wonderful gift!!

A new and much larger beam was installed to fit over a now larger opening.

...and the new, raw wood frames around the sliders, with brand new sheetrock walls, right before painting. Ahh, things are getting better around here.

Light at the end of the hallway

There is a short hallway in the house with no lighting in it, so it used to lead to a rather darkish corner, especially on cloudy days. Instead of investing a lot of money in installing light fixtures here we chose a low budget solution and hung three large mirrors on the wall at the very end. It's like we added a small window, the difference is pretty noticeable!

Since these (Ikea) mirrors came with wide, walnut wood frames, they make the perfect place for candles at night as well.

New outside lights

These two new lights are not quite the same; one installs perpendicularly while the other one sits flat against the wall. They don't even line up, because they connect to the wall at different places but we thought that was kind of fun.

Luckily, the color of these light boxes are pretty close to the dark gray accent color of the house.

The perpendicular light attaches to the wall at its center;

the flat one attaches at its base.
Since the old lights (their junction boxes) used to line up, these new ones just won't, but we don't mind that at all.

Old outside lights

Not even those cool modern light bulbs did the trick to modernize our old light fixtures by the entrance, so it was high time to replace them.

Bedroom walls -without mold

Clean and dry new walls in our bedroom meant that after a few months we could finally move in!

We are not crazy about this particular texture, but all the walls in the house have something; it would be pretty difficult to get rid of it everywhere. (These two images above were taken after even the window was replaced)

Brand new, clean sheetrock boards taped, and ready to be textured.

The walls still before painting, but the bedroom already started to feel like a fancy new hotel. Well, for us, anyway. After what we have seen...

Moldy old walls

Even before we moved in, it was obvious that the house had some mold in its walls and carpeting. We could not only smell it but noticed it under the wallpaper and all over the old carpet padding. Of course we didn't move into the bedroom right away.

First we thought removing the lower half of the sheetrock was enough but after a while it just seemed easiest to pull off the entire wall. This image was taken after we scrubbed the subfloor with a bleach and water mixture. On the wood framing close to the floor some damage can be seen. The rotten sections were removed and replaced before we washed the 2x4's and the inside of the outer wall.

We removed all of the old insulation and tar paper, and replaced them with new ones.

Here is an image just because it is kind of funny to look at this, TODAY. I was not laughing back then, honestly :)

vintage lampshade

after years of waiting, we finally hung a light fixture over our dining room table! it's a vintage hand blown and hand painted shade salvaged from a very old house that was demolished (in hungary).
we are honored to give it a new home and really like the way it looks. it's the perfect company for our garage sale found vintage chair mix. thank you m. and p. for the great gift!

garage door project -finished!

we are done with the cover of the garage door.

... and could not be happier. thank you pl, for your help!

garage door project -in progress

we decided to cover the garage door with redwood that was salvaged from our disassembled lower level deck. we are very excited to see the front of the house look so different!

ugly garage door -on its way out

this is not really a door, but for sure used to be very ugly. we couldn't wait to start a project to change it! (btw, this image was taken long time ago, as we were getting ready to redo the concrete driveway.)

downstairs remodel -after

and finally, some after images. the new bathroom got a soft cork floor and of course a new pocket door (with sandblasted glass panel to let the light through) so no more swinging out into the hallway although the hallway is a bit wider, the walls were moved a bit.

the new curved walls of the shower are tiled with 2-inch tiles and the new toilet is sitting under the new area we took away from underneath some stairs (see angle of the wall above toilet). the mirror is from IKEA but we attached lights to its two sides.

there is a spacious new closet (compared to what it used to be) inside the bedroom, and the stairs are now moved over to the entrance; the "drop" is no longer between the hallway and the bedroom.
what a difference!
thank you cj and tj for the beautiful work here!

downstairs remodel -before and during...

here is a good "before" image of the downstairs bedroom with its closet and some stairs. the closet was so awkward and tiny that it is a mystery why the builders left half of its area totally unused. (only the area right behind the door was actually the closet space.)

this image shows the subfloor opened up and the earth exposed. we needed to lower the ground here by removing some dirt so we could lower the hallway above and do away with those stairs between the room and the hallway.

the old closet during demolition. one can see on the ceiling on this image that only a small portion was actually a usable closet; the rest was an enclosed empty area. we divided this space between the new closet and the shower.

the hallway used to be so narrow and so low that larger people had to draw their arms closer, and taller ones had to bend down so not to hit their head into the ceiling. when the bathroom door swung out, it hit the glass part of the light fixture across the hallway! there was a small door here across the bathroom door as well, it led to the utility room. this door was removed and today the heater and the likes are accessed from the outside of the house.

next to the old toilet one can see a small opening which used to be a doorway to the crawlspace. across the room from the toilet this room had a kitchen sink, but no shower.

downstairs remodel

a widened hallway, with its brand new wall moved outward
(on the left).

the remodel of the downstairs area has so far been the biggest challenge in my opinion. it took a very long time to conclude and included jobs like opening up the subfloor and digging / flattening some dirt to prepare for an even floor, widening of a dark and very narrow, low ceiling hallway, enlarging the bathroom using the area under our entry steps, and adding a brand new shower with curved walls so it would take up as little space as possible. there used to be a huge level difference between the hallway and the bedroom here with about three clunky stairs which we of course had to fix as well. we will post before and after pictures as well. thank you cj and tj for the remodeling help; --beautiful work!!