Why I Oughta...

Two years ago today, I posted the initial photo of our windows being installed and our house being 'closed up' during the construction process.  One year ago today , I marked the occasion with a post that looked back at that day too.  Today, I'm posting a photo of a post that has a photo of the original post.  Maybe next year, I'll remember to do a post about today's post, which featured last year's post that re-posted the original post. It is turtles window installation posts all the way down, I guess. 

Up top is the 'before' photo of one of the window wells on the southside of our house.  We had some work done to it and the landscaping required restoration.  This is technically the 'in the middle of' photo as the landscapers had already done some cleaning up. Below is the after.  They laid some sod, straightened things out and put mulch down.  Now we just have to babysit the sod with a soaker hose while it gets established.

The last update on our #NewOldFarmhouse showed off the drywall being hung and finished back a week or so ago .  Today, I'm sharing a few photos of the tile work being done in an upstairs bathroom that I think is coming together really nicely.  Nat has been the champion behind all of the design selections and she's done a really great job on all of it - including the tile. This bathroom has a retro-vibe to it and she's using 'penny tiles' that from this distance look a bit like hexagon tiles, but are all circles.  We had a hexagon tile bathroom floor in our last house, so I'm inclined to love the look, but in this one, she went in a little different direction by introducing a custom border around the room.  In the photo at the top, you can see the section that the tile guy is working on.  In that spot will be the pattern he's been building below.  If you look closely at the photo above, you can see a printout of the tile pattern right above the tile gu...

The last construction update that I shared on our New Old Farmhouse was way back in early March when I showed the audio/visual 'chases' that were put in the walls to carry all the various cable-ing back to the basement.   Well, a lot has happened since then.  But let's start with what came after the chases.  The crew put in insulation.  We had a pretty cool mix of foam, batts and blown-in.  Different product for different applications.  As soon as the insulation went in, the street noise went to almost zero.  It was nuts.  After that?  What you see in this photo.  The drywall was hung. For the first time, the rooms took shape and we could get a sense for the light values in each room.  Exciting stuff.  If you're following along with Nat on the insta (as the kids say these days, right?), then you know where we are today and what's been done since I snapped this photo above.  Exciting times! Also, for those following...

In a major development on the construction site, we now have windows installed!  Windows!  Yeah, I know.  You're questioning the exclamation points.  But, listen....we've been at this a loooooooooong time.  And this is a real mark of progress towards having a home completed, so it is worth celebrating for our family. They're not all in - nor are the doors - so the house isn't quite 'buttoned up', but it is close.  And that marks an exciting time.  If you look closely on the right side of this photo you'll see some metal conduit that the electrician has put in.  That means that some of the mechanical work has been started, so once that's done and the insulation is installed, I think we get the drywall hung.  Then we'll *really* get a sense for how the place is turning out and what the true space is for each room. But for now, we're celebrating windows.

That's pretty swoon-worthy, isn't it?  We found these doors at the Reuse Depot in Maywood.  If you're in the market for doors, go there.  You won't be disappointed.  It is the same place that has the stairs that I posted earlier this year and called 'the stairs of my dreams' .

We were looking at a house a few weeks ago that had this shiplap stuff everywhere.  And...I mean everywhere.  And it wasn't put up in planks.  It was put up in sheets of the stuff, which was kinda weird. Me thinks they watched a bit too many episodes of Fixer Upper?

While at Menards this weekend, I spotted this display for the Smart Screen Gutter Protection System that appears to be either endorsed or created by Mike Holmes.  You know him, right?  The 'Make it Right' Canadian guy.  I like watching his show - but he does come off as a know-it-all sometimes.  But, still...I can respect a contractor for wanting to make things right and doing things the right way. These screens, which you can find more information here on the Smart Screen site , are $19.99 for 20 linear feet.   They have both front and back fastener systems (back has a screw) that makes them a bit different than most.  I've put gutter guards on our hold house that basically 'click' into the gutter and then get slid under the first row of shingles.    The normal ones are white and come in two varieties:  with a screen or without.  I think the ones with the screen work slightly better, but both work pretty well. Those are plastic, a...

One of my correspondents (Ahem...Nat) sent me this photo of the Christmas section all filled out over at the Target on North Avenue this week.  Christmas Creep - in all of it's glory - is alive and well at Target.  In the bottom right of the photo, you can see a little bit of Halloween stuff peeking through, but they're moving full bore on the Holidays. There's plenty of house decor what-have-yous and it appears that foxes are still 'in' this season.  (Or...is Target's mass audience always a bit behind a trend?  I dunno.  It seems like foxes have been 'on' trend - or is it 'in' trend?? - for at least the past few years.  Don't get me wrong...I like foxes.  But, I just wish there was a Christmas peacock or Christmas giraffe or something....) We're in a funny spot with Christmas this year since we're not in *our* house.  We normally go all-out with decorations and such, but I'm thinking this year will be far more subdued.  We...

Look who has turned up at our new place?!? Welp...it is kind of *our* place.  You'll notice that the house looks a bit different.  We've still living on the same block thanks to my sister and Equation Boy/Man moving overseas for work. They were nice enough to allow us to 'squat' at their place while we figure our housing situation out.  That situation is a long, sad, and open-ended story, so that might be for another post. But...as you can see, we're making ourselves at home in the form of some Halloween decorations. Being the first day of October, I thought it was appropriate to show the new home of two of these guys.  I put them up but didn't have time to put up the two little girl scarecrows.  I'll get them up this weekend and then we can try to figure out building a new one for the boy. This is the sixth year of putting these guys out and with a little bit of spiff'ing up, they're still looking good. Last year, I didn't post abo...

A week ago today, we moved out of this place.  We bought this home together back in September of 2008.  In fact, we closed on it the day of our rehearsal dinner.  We didn't go to the closing, but my Dad stopped by our attorney's office and picked up the key on the way to our rehearsal dinner at Southport Lanes. I remember the smile on his face when he saw me and dropped that dangling key into my hand that night.  What a whirlwind.  Buy a house, get married.  Go on a honeymoon.  Then come home and begin a long rehab process. That process took five months.  We moved in close to Valentine's Day 2009.  We had been staying at Nat's parents' place while we built the house and while that was awfully nice, it was different when we moved in here. I think of our three kids as our 'second, third and fourth projects' together.  But the house at 274 N. Indiana?  That was Nat and my FIRST project together.  And it was A LOT of fun. ...

Mixed emotions this morning based on seeing the survey stakes out front.  She was a good house.  A great house, in fact.  But more on that later when I give her the proper sendoff she deserves in a post of her own.  274:  we thank you for all you've allowed us to do with you.  We are hopeful the new folks love you as much as we do.

We hosted a fundraiser for our good friend Todd Scalzo - who is a current City Councilman for the City of Wheaton .  He's up for re-election in the spring, so he has to get his campaign started.  We were fortunate to have pretty amazing weather and a great collection of friends and supporters. This photo was taken about noon.  And...as you can see, the Babe still has her pj's on!  We had to drag her out of the thing to change and to take a not-so-productive nap. If any of our neighbors read my blog...I hope you guys don't think we're crazy.  Yes...this is the second bouncehouse that we've gotten in a month.  And...yes....that is crazy.  But....at least this one wasn't Disney Princess themed.  That's something, right?

I came home from my trip to see that our tree had been rodded and cabled.  There's 2 rods.  See the other one up in the crook of the tree?  The wound is healing nicely and hopefully these rods and the associated cables will keep this big thing up for many years to come! The guys tell me that as the tree grows - which will take years - the tree bark will sort of 'knuckle' over those washers/bolts/end of the rods, so they might disappear somewhat?

This is our couch.  And...yes...it is currently located in our garage.  That's a thing, right?  A garage couch?  I hope so.  Because, we bought a new couch for our family room thinking that we'd take this couch downstairs to our recently-finished basement.  Only to find out that it won't fit down the stairs.  Hence, why it is currently sitting in our garage.

My sister Vic gave us this cute welcome sign a week back and it immediately found it's way into the grass right next to our front porch stairs.  Neither Nat nor myself are big on yard chotchkies in general, but this sign is different and we both like it. Aside from the pain that yanking it out every time I cut the grass, I think it makes for a very cute addition to our yard.  Welcome, indeed.

Last night the snow came in and piled up to the tune of almost 8 inches.  Half way through the storm, I went to let Maisy out the back door when we came across this snow-art on our back deck.  The snow was so fine and light that it was spilling through the cracks in the deck boards.

Earlier this year, we bought these Aqua Globes for the ferns that we keep on our front porch.  We were going on a trip of some sort and I was afraid they were going to dry out totally, so this seemed like a short-term solution.  They worked, in that they kept the ferns from totally dying. After the ferns came down, these globes came inside.  I've since plugged them into the pots of our Asparagus Ferns to keep them alive during these dry winter months.  So far, so good.  They drip out water in very small quantities, so I'm not sure they're adequate as the sole watering mechanism, but as a supplemental technique, I'd recommend them.  You'll still have to water your plants every once in a while, but these globes will make that job less of a hard requirement.

The plumber was waiting on the arrival of our shower base because he wanted to do all of the rough work with pvc and copper in one visit.   Because of the size/shape of our bathroom, the shower is an odd shape and therefore this shower base was a special order unit from Menards.  I picked it up in the store recently and (thankfully!) it fit perfectly.  The carpenters hit the marks perfectly. That means the plumber can get started and bang out all the plumbing asap. But...there's always *something*, right?  Well...when I opened the box for the shower, there isn't a drain.  So, I'm guessing the plumber will have a problem with getting this done.  He's set to be finished by the weekend and the drywall guys are starting on Monday.

Woke up this morning to the first hard frost of year.  Winter is nigh .