backhouse progress

we made a little progress on the backhouse this weekend.

the counter top search was on.

after exhausting our usual options for decently priced home and building materials (second use, restore, and earthwise) we took a risk and went to pius - a granite and cabinet place...one of those scary places over stuffed with product..... we got our bathroom vanity and kitchen counter tops here...so we know the drill, which is why we avoided it from the get-go.

(products from earthwise)

the drill goes like this: awesome product, many options, TERRIBLE, HORRIBLE, DISGUSTING CUSTOMER SERVICE. but you get what you pay for....great INEXPENSIVE product and ZERO help. instillation sucks, the people suck, but the customers still go b/c they can get a fantastic price on a "scrap piece of quartz for their back house."

we dove (literally i was climbing on top of piles of the stuff) into a pile of quartz and granite scraps and found the perfect piece with a bullnose that just needed to be trimmed 2 inches. after being ignored for 30 minutes and almost leaving b/c i was NOT in the mood for any sort of BS on saturday, we "negotiating" a decent price (and by that i meant asked one woman who half gave us an $80 price while on the phone and speaking in quick sharp tones in a language i couldn't even begin to identify, and finally hunted another dude down who said, "uhhh $70" we replied with a "can you do anything better" and he shot back, "dude, the full slab of this is over $200...sorry, man."). the most decent interaction we've ever had there (we've been to pius COUNTLESS times...and THAT was the very best it's ever been). long story short...or still long, whatever....we walked away with a great piece of, what i call, tapioca quartz.

(the pile of scrap i climbed all over)

("tapioca" quartz and our diamond blade-sounds fancy...isn't)

after another (2nd time that day) trip to home depot we walked out with a diamond blade (to trim the quartz) and a scrap piece of $0.52 plywood and quickly the backhouse felt impressively more finished. 

(before cabinet, fridge and counter top)

(very untidy version of the cabinet/3-drawer set up with the quartz, the "during")

left to do in this space:

• caulk around counter top 
• install face plate around outlet
• purchase and install cabinet hardware 
• purchase and install light fixture (just above picture)
• purchase and install shelving for blank wall. picture something like this: 
  
  (via)
  .

dhause house exterior stage 3

....naturally, the front of the house left us feeling super accomplished and with a sense of 'phew! weight lifted!' it was awesome. we were sore. but we were DONE -ish....and then we walked out our back door.


the back yard, all dirt and a deck we built last year, was my nemesis. the "back yard to-do list" was one of my most dreaded lists and if you know anything about me, you know i LOVE lists.

it felt endless and impossible. i had weeded and weeded. killed darn near almost everything there was to kill, and now it was time. we worked endlessly and let me tell you, i have an entirely renewed appreciation for landscape artists. yard/outdoor related work is NOT. A. JOKE. and i hate it. as this was a multi-stage process. i'll just give you a quick rundown and share some pictures of the mostly-finished back yard:

1. remove one large tree - DONE
2. lay dirt, lay sod - DONE
3. clean up "rock area" - DONE
4. lay dirt on rock area, plant ground-cover - DONE
5. patio furniture - DONE
6. stepping stones - DONE
7. prep and lay patio - DONE
8. plant greenery around patio - DONE
9. clean up around back house - (sorta) DONE
10. lots of little mics. - DONE
11. talk about never-ending needs/wants - ON GOING....

(back yard, prior to removing HUGE tree)

(back yard, without tree....notice the SUN)

(no tree, view from deck)

(rocks clean, getting prepped for fresh dirt)

(fresh dirt!)

(fresh grass!)

(more grass!)

(from backhouse)

(back hard, in process, view from deck)

the list of to-dos never ends here. we want so many things for our small yard which is mostly backhouse (post to follow) and the space provided has to be highly functional. thing we have left to do include:

1. pressure wash and stain fence and deck
2. build vegetable garden bed
3. lay weed guard around backhouse
4. lay rocks/pebbles in front of backhouse
5. lay bark in front of backhouse
6. paint garage and replace door (totes counts for back yard projects)
7. and on and on and on

the backhouse

so, if y'all have never seen my house via instagram or fb or what have you, you are unsure what i mean by "backhouse"......it's not half as special as it sounds. it is literally a tiny, detached, "house" of sorts in the back of my actual tiny "house" . my yard is tiered and on the upper tier lives the backhouse.

we i wanted to demo it completely, and now looking back that would have left us with an awesome yard. but the benefit of keeping it and the cost of ridding ourselves of it outweighed the larger yard (although even typing this i have a gut feeling of "DAMNIT").

the backhouse, once finished, will be a catch-all. it was once a small space, with an unusable closet, moldy outdated bathroom and some serious plastic paneling. we rented it out for a short period of time, we used it as storage, we even slept back there for a week while our floors were getting refinished in the middle of a snow storm.

now, the backhouse has been gutted, the mold taken care of, new drywall, plumbing, and electrical installed, textured, painted, tiled (mostly) and floored....new floored....floors have been installed! soon, it shall be a mancave, zen-den/yoga studio, place for my sewing machine and foot ball games. a quiet space in the morning for my meditation and above all else, a second living space unique to the house, the dhause house.

the backhouse has been a difficult project. we don't NEED it, you see. it's not vital to our existence. we gutted it and made a good push on completion until the sun came out and we switched modes, finishing most of the exterior. now, as football season is in full swing and i'm beyond tired of seeing andy sit on his butt in front of the TV all day on sunday and i need a space for me to have some quiet time...we've hit it hard. the progress looks like so:

(behold, the backhouse before, during and during)

(the damage....)

 

(demo and cleaning)

(framing and electrical/pluming. how hot is my husband who did this LITERALLY HE. DID. THIS)

(how scary...but all new! electrical box)

(andy hanging drywall)

(andy tiling the shower)

(starting to tile, the red is a moisture barrier)

(mini enjoys getting in the way helping me tile)

(one of MANY trips to home depot for the backhouse)

(again, hot husband....this time installing floors)

(where we currently are, almost done with the little cabinets, and no where done with the bathroom (on right))

dhause exterior stage 2

quite quickly after our home turned yellow, the "MUST PAINT THE EXTERIOR OF THE HOUSE" to-do made a fat jump on the priority list. knocking off two huge projects in one week - siding and windows - made painting the house a must. so, needless to say, we bought a paint sprayer, taped up our new windows and andy became a professional house painter.

(andy and his new toy - the paint sprayer)

(dhause house, mid paint job)

sadly, yes, this is the condition of our house (often!) all the junk, all the weeds. it's embarrassing. we have hoped and prayed that our neighbors understand that a) we're in the process, the long process of DIY home updates b) that by doing all of this we are not only raising the value of our own home, but theirs too (!!!) and c) DIY, PEOPLE!

painting took a weekend, with dry time and paint choice (wished we would have gone darker and either more gray or more green, however we decided that anything was better than purple (see garage, back left of photo) or yellow (see previous post). 

and as it does in home updates, once one thing gets accomplished, the many other things become BLINDING. from there it was a new door, which led to a few plants on the patio, and naturally ripping out all of the WEEDS old gross grass and replacing it.

(new siding and first coat of paint, old grass, old door, old door trim)

the grass replacement was, quite literally, the hardest job we've have accomplished yet (outside of the double doors....that's a whole other post). the ground is rock solid and between tilling all the old grass up, removing, raking, replacing with new dirt and hauling sod....well we were covered in literal blood, sweat and tears.

(new door, no grass!)

(new grass, andy putting trim around the door)

but as they say, "it will all pay off" and if it doesn't, well someone will die. i'm not smiling. 

after this photo was taken (two days of hard grass work....), andy told me i'm no longer allowed to take pictures of our house with the bright green beach towel hanging in our window. time to iron and rehang (removed from WEEKS ago when we had the new windows installed) our curtains....

luckily, as we were covered from head to toe in dirt, grass and sweat, we had a number of our neighbors walk by and compliment/make funny comments to us. this was some SERIOUSLY needed motivation!

"my gosh you guys! looks great!"

"we can't believe the work you've put into your home, it's looking better everytime we see it"

"you guys are like energizer bunnies! do you ever stop!?"

"have you really done this ALL by yourself?" 

dhause exterior stage 1

although i was sold on it, and then un-sold (?) on it...we bit the bullet this past spring and got new siding. after covering a window and replacing another window in the back of the house, it was apparent that patching the current siding wasn't going to work. we had the back side of the dahuse house re-sided and then let it sit. it sat, and sat, until finally it was time. "NEW WINDOWS" andy declared and with that, came new siding. this was definitely work that was beyond us and by us i mean our time and energy, not our capability (don't be mistaken, people. we are unstoppable).

(dhause house, old windows, old siding, PURPLE paint)

(new windows! and more purple paint)

(demo is SO MUCH MORE FUN when you're watching vs. doing it yourself)

(purdiest little house on the block)

and just like that, it was done....also, for the life of me i cannot figure out WHY that last picture, where my tree is appears leafless (LIES) and my house dirty yellow (sadly, not lies) is upside down. nor can i figure out how to rotate it. so please use your imaginations and/or flip your laptops upside down. do note, other than the horrid color, there are new widows and they're purdy. 

UPDATE: the dhause house

i haven't done a dhause house update in a LONG while. and by long...i mean what? a year maybe. i'm pathetic. i guess there hasn't been much in the progress department going on as of late. little things like our dog losing her eye, money, the agency and time have really set us back on our productivity levels! however, we're ramping up to have a fence put in...so the second the weather starts getting purdy again, we can lay our tiny patio and start working on landscaping both the front and back yard.

here's a little taste of what we've been working on (and yes, we know it's not much...:)

my $10 craigslist find, to be sanded (almost complete) and stained...i'm thinking paired with either retro/chic chairs or matchy matchy (andy's choice) traditional babies and a bench.

we've stripped, stripped, scrapped, stripped and sanded our doors....a no where near complete project...in order to paint them this summer.

we've received a handful of quotes for a fence in hopes to get something rolling THIS WEEK!

i've shopped, and shopped, and dreamed and DREAMED and shopped some more:

 

andy's office was painted and new carpet was installed...we installed the entry counter and he's almost ready for move in...not dhause house related...but still:)

french doors went in to FINALLY cover our laundry closet....BLISS i tell you! and last weekend put door handles on which resulted in even MORE bliss:)

then there have been all the little things: replacing our smoke alarms (ruined by dude who textured our walls...if you'd like a recommendation of who NOT to use, call me. Price was decent, product and performance was CRAP!), installing a dead bolt on our back door, finishing putting our cabinet knobs on our cabinet doors, installing a hardwood transition piece between the "hallway" and the bathroom floors, getting other small furniture items we've been wanting, andy's laid bits of trim all over the house. we've talked long hours about what to do with our siding and windows....sigh, etc. although the progress has been minor, it sure feels like we've been workin' our tails off.

the project has been draining. we, eh hem, i am a firm believer in only having what you really need.....however frankly, we have more than we need. we live within our means yes, and yes, our home is tiny, and yes, we look back and sometimes want to burn it down and yes, there have been so, so many tears cried over the stress of this house - but it's ours. sure, we'll grow out of it quickly, but we hope we can finish it and enjoy it for a few years before that happens....and then we can move onto our next project....after we rent this tiny hell hole sweet, precious home out (hopefully). i'd like to think i won't do this again, and god willing i won't get involved in such a large project again, but maybe something small, that needs updates that won't take years:)....that i can manage....ya know, with babies running around:)

ps: if you're interested in the minimum of what is left to do on the dhause house, please check out my new page tab at the top of the page.