photo dump

if i could only show you the thousands of photos in my phone......

 

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.