Friday, July 20, 2012

Friday, July 13, 2012

Le Cotage Conversion- Making Ready for Michelangelo

 Don't have a notepad handy? Write on the wall! Sorry, Pete. Hope you don't get prank-called from this.
 I love caulking. Bet you didn't know that about me. I'm going to remember this next time someone does that whole "Share something no one knows about you." in the middle of some group function. I don't love thAt. Last time that was required of me, I said, " I like to eat cottage cheese with a fork."


Okay, so.... what is something you've shared when they've asked YOU that question? Ha. *wink, wink* (I'm not actually a winking kind of person)
 So, the metal siding had to be scrubbed with an acid then pressure washed. Guess who got to do those jobs?



NOT ME. Yay!
 In this case, youth is not wasted on the young. Here is Anthony being a good little helper. Also here, you can see the trim is up around the doors and windows. I didn't get a picture, but our nephew Brendan is here helping as well.
 He who fears no ladder. I was on one shorter than that, taping that very window and literally keeping myself from hyper-ventilating. "Trust in the ladder... It's not going anywhere...You'll be fine..."

And then, here's the support I get:

"You know you're only like two feet off the ground, right?"

or

They pound on the ladder and tell me I'm doing great.

Or 'some'one says: "I've never been more proud of you than at this moment."

(A)
(B)





















Oh, yeah, Jake is only priming today. Okay, here are the two colors I narrowed it down to.The green will be the siding, the cream will be the trim.








Which is better? (A) or (B)

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Le Cotage- Random Visuals

 Here is the INside of our front door. Wait til you see the other si-iiiide.......
Dirt piles gone!
 My kids have mad skills at improvising. Those are my ratchet straps that they're using for swings!
 Here they are playing I-Spy while picking rock. For anyone who grew up on a farm, especially in Star Valley you know what an endless and therefore seemingly pointless job rock-picking is. Ever notice a big pile of rocks next to an open field of hay or whatever? That is years of someone(s) walking along picking up rocks behind a truck or trailer. ROcks just GROW here.
This is what you do when you no longer have a 15 foot dumpster on your construction site. Guess who had the privilege of driving this trailer up to the dump and emptying it out? Go ahead, guess...



Alright, I had a little help. Rylee came with me and a very nice fellow who works there helped a little too. 

Imagine being in a big box, in hot weather, moving around with nails poking every which way. Then you get to the bottom of the pile and find slabs of heavy dry-wall as well as bunches of little pieces, and the DUST! Oh my-the dust!

But who's complaining?

Sunday, July 1, 2012

Le Cotage- Well, it's a window well.

BEFORE- Not even an opening for a window. This was the first place where Jake cut a window opening, remember?
AFTER- A lovely 4x4 egress window and a nice deep window well. Around the window well will be concrete (higher in the corner and then lower to the right towards the driveway) to help shed the water away from the house.
AFTER- Future driveway.
BEFORE- West side.
















Northeast corner.



South side. Jake had the old deck already torn down when he remembered my request that he take a before picture. It was covered and ran from the garage to the left edge of the french doors and came out ten feet. There weren't any stairs. The square to the right of the french doors was a window and the only door on this side was the one close to the garage.



Now he is building the new deck. Yay! We were able to use most of the boards from the old deck which saved us a grundle of money. However, the ends needed to be cut off so the new deck is 8 feet wide instead of ten. The kids worked hard to get the old nails out of the old wood. They earned an ice cream from Rulon's Burger Barn for that. The stairs will come down directly opposite the french doors. Oh, FYI- the single french door near the garage goes into the master bdrm, the double french doors go into the kitchen.