And so it begins...

Phase 1 of operation Blow Our House Up and Slowly Try to Put it Together began a few weeks ago.  Actually, it began almost a year ago when myself and some good friends (aka. the CHUMPS) replaced a load bearing wall between our dining room and living room with an engineered beam.  So we've had a hole in our ceiling since January...which is pretty awesome.

Our intention was to start our remodel many months ago, but the lack of experience in all things remodel and home ownership coupled with our recognition that Paula and I have different interior design aesthetics whilst sharing no ability to conceptualize design has slowed us down.  And then there's the obvious which is Paula's insane schedule that regularly saps her of energy and motivation.  She's rallied more times than not though while I bug her about how low the carbon footprint is of locally harvested alder cabinet materials, the advantages of low-formaldehyde medium-density fiberboard, great strides in locally produced recycled concrete countertop materials, and other boring topics that would put most normal people to sleep.  So, she's a champ.

About a month ago though, we sealed our fate by throwing down a chunk of cash on new kitchen cabinets and countertops.  Paula and I have been drinking Pepto-Bismol with dinner since.  They've not been delivered yet, but their imminent arrival has required us to start getting serious about this remodel and begin making progress.  So, I spent two weeks thinking the remodel through a bit and trying to plan all of the steps for a major task that I'm woefully unprepared for.  And finally, one weekend when Paula was on call I hung two large green sheets (I think Maddie's thinks they're like the green curtain the Wizard of Oz hides behind because she's been so scared of all the noises coming out from behind them...) to separate our temporary living/dining/and cooking quarters from the chaos and demolished much of the kitchen.  The process has taken a bit longer than I had scheduled (probably because I have no idea what I'm doing), but I think we've been making decent progress.

This weekend, Paula and I completed our first task where we can actually see progress towards a new livable, functional kitchen.  We finished putting in a new-to-us red oak floor in the kitchen.  I bought about 250 square feet of old red oak flooring in all types of condition.  We really only needed about 200 square feet of flooring, but there's a ton of crap that you get when you buy reclaimed flooring (e.g., tongue and/or grooves missing, split boards, etc.).  But now we've got a sweet hardwood floor with most of the imperfections strategically placed where the cabinets will be.  All that's left for us to do now with the floors is to rent a drum sander so all the miscellaneous boards that have traveled far and wide to end up in our kitchen can feel and hopefully look somewhat uniform (we're not going to stain the floors yet).  For now though, we're enjoying having a tangible example of progress behind the green curtain.  Victory is ours....

Next step is either installing our new windows, running the new plumbing, or running the new electrical.  Not exactly sure though since, I repeat, I have no idea what I'm doing.

Read more...

Kayaking with a dog?

A couple weeks ago, the weather was actually sunny. Crazy, I know given the torrential downpour that has been our summer. However, we took advantage of the sun and tried something that Paula's always wanted to try...kayak with our dog, Maddie. (Just so we're all clear, I always told this would never work.)

So, here's what we did. We outfitted some padding to fit in and around the stern dry storage compartment where we hoped that Maddie would sit calmly.

 Then Paula got the kayak in the water and I tried to position Maddie into her compartment where she was to sit calmly and enjoy the weather and good company.  However, that didn't last very long at all.  Maddie wanted nothing to do with that cramped, unstable perch (just like I told Paula she wouldn't).

Not to worry, I took Maddie home while Paula hung out in her kayak and then we could finally enjoy the weather and a rare day off for Paula. 

Not a bad day.

Read more...

Cool stuff has been going on...

Paula and I have been busy lately, although it doesn't feel like it at the time. However, having looked back through some photos lately I realized there's lots of great and fun stuff we've not shared. Have no fear, we're going to slowly catch up over the next couple weeks. So, stay tuned...

Read more...

Our Grow Operation

A few weeks ago, when the weather was nicer, Paula and I got excited to start working out in the yard and start our first garden. So, I did a bit of research and picked up some lumber to build some raised beds. Meanwhile, Paula went to town on planting seeds for all sorts of soon-to-be delicious veggies (tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, basil, onions, and more). She wasn't too sure how green her thumbs were, so she planted a ton of everything.

The next weekend, I borrowed a truck and picked up 2.5 yards of an herb garden soil mix from Cedar Grove. Paula and I did the back breaking work of hauling the soil by wheelbarrow around the house to the garden beds. After 2 full weekends, we had 2 pretty kick-ass 4' x 8' raised beds. I've been 'feeding' and 'energizing' the soil in preparation of the new plants by spraying various garden 'tonics' onto the soil as recommended by a master gardener in one of the many DVD's we've checked out from the library.

The next thing is to put in the garden starts, right...



Well, apparently there was still about 2 months of growing for these garden starts that Paula got going. Furthermore, her thumbs have turned out to be SUPER green. She only had a few seeds not germinate. So, we had to convert our smaller bedroom into a home made greenhouse to house all the garden starts that are going crazy!



After some discussion, we decided to build a new garden shed in the backyard. Actually, Paula didn't want a new shed (wasn't a priority) but I was a rude and unthoughtful husband and moved ahead with it anyway. So, I spent the next several weekends working on a new shed. While its just a shed, I didn't have any plans and wasn't exactly sure what I wanted to do, so it took some time. Nevertheless, we're almost done! I still need to install the siding, add a gutter, and pimp out the inside with shelving. But, we finally had it ready for us to move our grow operation out there about 2 weeks ago after I installed 5 grow lights! (We go all out in the McJohnson household)





So, now we have tons of veggies that are going nuts in their new home and we're looking forward to mothers day when we're apparently able to put these babies in their fresh beds.

Read more...

Home Repair 101

With the majority of my experience in carpentry and construction limited to house building trips to Tijuana, Mexico, I have begun a massive learning experiment. Paula and I purchased our house with the understanding that we'd update it and do as much of the work as we could ourselves. Paula has entertained my willingness and eagerness to use our house as a massive learning experiment. So, she's graciously entertaining and put up with all my tangential ideas about different floor plans (which she has many great ideas about), which walls to blow out, and where we should add bathrooms and bedrooms. It's amazing we've made any progress.

Paula and I are settling on a pretty comprehensive floor plan rearrangement which will keep our time and bling invested in the house for a few years, we've begun to make a little progress. In late January, some brilliant friends and I took out a load bearing wall and replaced it with a gluelam (e.g., an engineered beam constructed of laminated pieces of wood). Taking load bearing walls out are super easy...right?

The idea was to blow out the wall between the living room and dining room to create a more open feel (sort of like a half-great room). Above is a picture of the living room taken when the previous owners were living here. The dining room is on the other side of the wall on the right.

So, we built temporary brace walls on either side of the wall we were going to remove. Ahren and Nelson are trying hard to play the role of the stud in the temporary walls.

Once the temporary walls were up, we slid the gluelam into the attic, cut the ceiling joists that were resting on the top plate, removed the top plate, and then fastened the gluelam to new beams and the ceiling joists to the gluelam. Piece of cake. Actually, it wasn't too terribly difficult, although I chalk that up to the Nelson, Ahren, and Matt holding my hand through the whole process.

Now, we've got a large open room that includes a distinct area for dining yet is large enough to make the house feel so much larger. The only problem is that we have a hole in a floor and exposed insulation hanging down from the season. Oh well, we'll sort that out sometime in the next 2 years.

Read more...