Ben's New Room!

Wow, I haven't update this blog in quite some time! We have been consistently busy working on the house with various projects and have several that are close to being finished. This is the first of the most recent projects that is now entirely finished: Ben's new room in what was formerly our dingy attic.

Before. An old attic that needed a lot of skim-coating, new carpet, new paint, a new stairwell leading up to it and a closet. Not to mention a good vision on our part so that we wouldn't feel too guilty about sleeping our 4-year-old in the attic - ha!

After. Ben's new room, his "big boy room," as he likes to call it. We love it and so does he! The beds were given to us by my parents, they are antiques that my grandma and her sister and also my mom and my aunt used when they were little girls. So they have been in the family for a while and just needed a little TLC.

I will be posting more pictures to our family blog over the next few days since we have a few of Ben enjoying his new crib :). We also have Nate and Abby's new rooms being redecorated so once those two are also finished (very shortly!), I will post pictures of those as well. Just wanted to get these up here since it was an actual construction project that we did, not just a shifting of rooms between kids and redecorating job.

We are also very close to finishing the other room in the attic - our guest room loft - so those pictures will be coming soon as well. Hope you enjoyed the latest installment of This Old House: Telford :)

Tiling the Sunroom

I know, I know, I haven't updated this blog is such a long time and I apologize for that! We have been certainly keeping busy around the house but there have not been any recent projects that have seemed "picture worthy" but that doesn't mean that our progress has waned. However, the most recent project that has been occupying Andrew's time since early July is finishing up the tiling in the sunroom. This is the last major project in the main part of the house and the last one on the first floor. After this is complete, I will feel so much cleaner since we will have flooring in all rooms! :)

What a project this has been, though. The room used to be an outdoor porch (prior to our living there) so it is very drafty and cold. So, Andrew installed radiant flooring underneath and also had to do some leveling out of the concrete before he even thought about tiling. Prep work is always so time-consuming and never gets the credit it deserves since it's not really seen in the final product. And then, of course, Andrew opted to take the "easy route" by laying the tiles on the diagonal, adding a decorative border and a small pattern throughout the room. He's always looking for the shortcut when doing these things (ahem, not!) :). It looks great, though, and we are excited that the end is in sight. He is nearly done with the laying of tile and will then just need to grout and seal it.

Here is a photo of Andrew and his helper Ben :) working recently. Ben is very serious about his apprentice job and always changes into his work jeans and gets the appropriate tools for the job :)

Andrew, hard at work!

Ben, doing his very important job of picking up the tile spacers and scraping off large chunks of dried mortar.

Bathroom, Part 2

I wanted to post one more picture of our hall bathroom since Andrew and I primed it white this weekend. What a world of difference! It now actually doesn't look like it's under construction anymore even though we still have to put the final coat of paint on and Andrew has to do the tile surround in the tub. We will paint it a light smokey blue color but for now, here's the kids' bathroom (aka our guest bathroom).

Hall Bathroom

Well, I haven't posted to this blog in quite some time but that doesn't mean that we have not been busy working on our seemingly endless list of tasks to do around the house. Andrew has particularly been busy with yardwork, odd jobs around the house and especially, with refinishing our upstairs hall bathroom. This was one of the rooms that will be up for the greatest improvement award once complete :) since it was totally gutted and redone from, literally, the floor up.

We are not done with the entire room yet but the toilet and sink are functional, we now have storage in there and we are hoping to prime it next weekend so that Andrew can then begin work on the tile backsplash in the tub (which will give us a second shower when guests come!). The plumbing is complete for the entire room and the tile is about 3/4 of the way done on the floor. Here are a few photos. The boys are excited to have their "monkey room" back again :)

Spring Yard Cleanup

Now that the weather has been starting to get nice, we have prioritized getting our yard cleaned up so that our house can hopefully move away from that rundown and overgrown look in time for us to enjoy the great outdoors this spring and summer. This is a large project so what a blessing it was that we did close on the house in the middle of the winter, given that there was so much inside to be tackled before we even thought about gardening. We truly would have been quite overwhelmed!

We rented one final commercial dumpster to really clean up the last of the debris in the yard and that just left this morning. Andrew and Ben have also been busy puttering around the yard gardening, mulching and weeding. My dad helped out when he visited last weekend as well. The majority of our progress, however, is thanks to a landscaping friend of ours from Bible study, Mike. He has really added that professional touch to the landscape and has made great progress the few days he has been here working. There is a long way to go, but we are on the right track!

Here are some photos of our new and improved land!

Craft Room

Andrew has been diligently working through yet another home improvement project around here and to my delight, has completed much of my craft room! Okay, I guess I should state that this room is also our laundry room and utility room...and that technically I'm supposed to share the space with the other family members. But... I'm being greedy and referring it to as my room since I have been so eagerly awaiting it :).

Despite feeling ill this weekend, I went through with hosting my annual scrapbooking weekend with the group of ladies I regularly scrapbook with since everyone had been looking forward to it and it was nice to have a break from the kids for two days. So, my room was useable in time for that and we all were able to really christen it. I love my Handy Andy! :)

Here's Handy Andy himself with Mini Me, working on installing the utility sink:



Oops! How did Natey wind up in the cabinet?



And voila! The finished masterpiece...

Here is one other photo of the opposite side of the room, showing my own work table in the bay window and the tall white cabinet that I have filled entirely with kids craft supplies. Ben loves this!

More Photos

I've finally remembered (several days late) that I promised more photos of the house as we've been getting things set up and in order. Here are a few more. We're really getting situated and at this point feeling very moved in and comfortable here. There are still many more projects to do but they'll get done when they get done. At least the boxes are out of the way and most of the house is unpacked.

The dining room. I found the best picture hangers for use on plaster walls so I hung up pictures everywhere with minimal glitches. I even found some hangers that were specially for brick and concrete. I needed to use these when I discovered that a brick wall is embedded in a few of our interior (once exterior, prior to an addition) walls. Oh, the surprises never end with a 160-year-old house!



Don't you just love this little sitting area in the bay window? We have two extra dining room chairs for when the leaves are in the table so the extra space in the large window just beckoned them and a glass end table I no longer needed in the living room. Curtains are next up on our to-do list throughout the house. Hanging pictures in plaster is one thing; having to drill holes to hang curtain rods is quite another and I have just not gotten around to it. Hopefully this weekend!

The living room. I also have a bookshelf on backorder for one wall in the living room to hold all of the random picture frames and tchotchkes that you may see laying around in some of these photos. If you look closely at the mantel, you'll see an oil painting...of our house! It was in the house when we purchased it and we thought that was pretty neat since this house has lineage that can be traced back to William Penn! So, I decided to showcase it on the mantle. As a good friend said the other night while visiting, "How very Jane Austen of you!" LOL!

Finally, the family room. This is where we spend most of our time during the day (well, the kitchen and the playroom follow closely behind). Again, curtains are needed here.