Our Retro Bungalow : 2012

Saturday was busy.

Our ward Christmas Breakfast was at 9am.
(at which I had an emotional melt-down with the thoughts of leaving our wonderful ward family)

We came home with much to do to get ready for Sunday.
(thank Heaven our girl Lars helped out so much with all of that)
And a 2:00 appointment for the entire Mossi gang for family photos.
(and if you don't think THAT'S a feat with all 13 of us, then you don't know the Mossi's well enough)
((Sharon is amazing, btw))
But Dean managed to put up a temporary fence from the south side of the house, over to the south fence that we share with Brechbill's to keep Al in the back 40.

He texted me this photo when he'd finished.

The deer will easily be able to jump over, but Ally won't.

Anyway...
our neighbors, the Jorgensen'sn (PV neighbors. I feel like I need to clarify cuz we have TWO different sets of neighbors right now),dropped by on Sunday and Marlene said it'd be nice if I posted a photo of the front of the house so they could recognize it when they drive by.
So, here it is with a few more ta-boot.

That's all for now...
gotta run.
Thanks for stoppin' by.

-What We've Done So Far-

1. Removed the “gnome trees" (dwarf Alberta spruces) in front of the porch that almost completely blocked front door.

2. Bug bombed and sprayed pesticide inside. The place was INFESTED with spiders. BIG 'uns. I really, really, really DO NOT LIKE SPIDERS.

3. Removed the two funky white concrete planters in back yard.

4. Cut down the giant, spooky remains of a large dead tree on the front Southwest corner of the property. It looked like permanent Halloween decor.

5. Removed dead Aspen at Northwest corner of the house.

6. Removed Dead Cedar in back. Cut cedar smells heavenly!

7. Yanked (tied 'em to the truck hitch and juiced it) 3 overgrown Rose bushes and their trellises down and out of the lawn on the South side of the house.

8. Took out the ratty clematis and chain-link that went from the ground to the eaves. It was attached to the side of the garage and used as a trellis. Yes. Mr Chadwick created a trellis out of chain-link fencing.
He must have gotten a good deal or a freebie on chain-link.

9. Cleaned out the rain gutters and downspouts. They were PACKED
with leaves and debris.

10. Removed “junk” nailed to outside of house. Countless hooks and nails all over exterior from top to bottom. Took about a hundred of them out of the interior ceilings and walls as well! Sheesh. There were swag hooks EVERYWHERE.

11. Removed the funky flagstone planter on front porch.

12. Removed the wood planter in front of garage. There was quite the spider commune concealed under and behind it! Vile creatures.

13. Removed the decorative flagstone planter and wooden trellis/screen that was inside next to the front door. Not gonna miss that gem.

14. Tore out the summer kitchen in basement.

15. Removed the back splash in basement summer kitchen. That was a booger.

16. Removed obsolete wiring in Summer kitchen.

17. Re-plumbed laundry area in Summer Kitchen.

18. Installed a shower head in main bath.

19. Replaced the toilet valve in main bath.

20. Removed old shelving from furnace room.

21. Removed carpet and padding from downstairs bedrooms.

22. Removed carpet and padding from upstairs.

23. Removed carpet and padding tack strip and staples from sub-floor.
A kitten couldn't walk across that subfloor without it sqeaking!
It's only temporary. Right?

24. Removed the curtains and shades from all windows. The were awful. I don't care for curtains to begin with. I did take the base sheers home, washed them in HOT water (pre wash & extra rinses too) and hung them back up (it's only temporary. right?) so we have something up on the windows. SURPRISE! They weren't grey. They're WHITE. I threw all the others away. And the roller shades would just crumble if you pulled down on them, they were so old.

25. Broke and removed a cracked kitchen storm window.

26. Replaced the gaudy light switch covers with 25 cent, ivory ones that we picked up at Home Depot. We just couldn't stand the old ones even though
the walls will be coming down soon and...it's only temporary. Right?.

27. Removed the alarm system.

28. Removed the phone lines.

29. Removed all the assist bars from main bathroom. There were 6. Gosh, I don't want to get old.

30. Cleaned the lovely, sculpted orange basement carpet. It's not too bad and we'll spend very little time down there over the winter before tear-out and reconstruction begins.

31. Removed old light fixtures - the most offensive ones.

32. Removed a kitchen cabinet so our refrigerator will sort of fit.
It's only temporary. Right?

33. Painted the sub floor just to make it more livable over the winter. Well, and to lock in some of that old smell and embedded dust. And cat. Again...it's only temporary. Right?

35. Pressure washed the entire outside of house.

36. Vacuumed between all the storm windows and inside the single windows (they were full - I'm talkin' FULL - of spider webs) and washed 'em.

There's more.

Oh, yes. You can bet yer bippy there's more, but we're pretty much done with the big things so we can move in; I just can't think of any more at the moment. It'll be kind of like camping over the winter. And we'll live in our slippers on that bare sub-floor. And wear sweaters all the time, because that old place is poorly (if at all) insulated. And I'll probably spray for spiders every-other-day.

And it's only temporary.

Right?

The dumpster that we had delivered was full to the brim. They came and picked it up last week. We got a bill in the mail for additional weight over the 6,000 pound content limit. We went 1,400 pounds over that limit. 7,400 pounds! That's alotta twash! Thank goodness Tami has a thing for 'junk'. She spared us having to pay for several hundred more pounds by hauling away the Summer kitchen cabinets and the old cast-iron sink that weighed a ton.

***a few photos***

Mr & Me & Al workin' on a weeknight. Tami stopped by and took this picture with her phone.

Dumpster delivery on November 9th.

A fun find under the old, nasty carpet that Tan pulled off the stairs.

Even Kiba knows this place is a dive. She jumped up, onto the kitchen counters to get a good look at the cows and horses across the road.

The sun setting at the end of a long work day at

Our Retro Bungalow. A lovely bonus for a day's work.

Our make-shift idea board. I've saved these drawings for about 15 years. I still love them and we'll incorporated some of the elements into ORB.

Dean put to first coat on. I put the second coat on in this big area. Lars and Joe finished the second coat in the bedrooms, hall and little room off of the kitchen.