Meet The Back Of Our House

Meet the back of our house or what I refer to as our hidden shame:

Problems: Rotting masonite siding, mismatched original siding, ugly windows that didn't even open, ugly light fixture, door that doesn't match the house and a rotting door jamb and trim.

Nice right?  This is the only part that's not painted.  On the right side we couldn't decide what we were going to do about that siding.  On the left side we knew we definitely wanted to get rid of it.  It's that horrible 80's masonite siding. 

I had started scraping and sanding.  We decided to go ahead and keep this section because part of it is original to the house and the other part has been there for about 60 years.  So even though it doesn't match it's been there long enough to stay.

I started with the far left side of the back.  I had bought this adorable window off craigslist and couldn't wait for it to go in.

So yeah, imagine walking through this every day.  Hideous!

Rotting door jamb

80's masonite siding.  I learned there was a class action lawsuit against this company in the 90's.  Too bad I didn't get to go in on that!

This took less than five minutes to take down. Not surprising to me NO INSULATION. (notice cute dog in bottom right of picture)

On the other side of the wall is ugly paneling.  I began to cut and put up the new siding!  Yay me!  Joe was impressed. Or glad he didn't have to do it. (notice our other cute dog)

In the process the drill slipped and the bit went into my finger nail.  It's still growing out...this was two months ago.

This is the view from inside:

Sprite sitting on the insulation and giving me the look like please sit down and pet me.

A little surprise we found when we took down the paneling. Hello!  Those are holes to the outside!

Here's Joe trying to figure out how we're going to install this.

Putting a frame around it

Success!!

Since this was originally a screened in porch and it's all siding we added the same siding as the outside on the inside.

Painted!!

Ta da!!!!!!

Wow I wish it had been that simple!  We did this over memorial day weekend and then it took a few more weeks to finish after that.  

Coming up: how we replaced the door jamb and installed a new old door.

More Progress In The Kitchen!

I can't believe how long it's been since I've posted!  

I've  had a few more improvements.  I finally got curtains and a skirt for my sink thanks to my son's awesome teacher who graciously offered to sew them for me!  I couldn't find fabric I liked but I did find a shower curtain so I went with it.

I originally had blinds which weren't bad but I love the light.  The other two windows I have in the kitchen face the street so I don't really want those open.  Also, this window faces our driveway and our trash cans.  I didn't want the lower view.  Ha  I just want to see my beautiful trees and birds flying.  I wanted to bring a touch of blue to the kitchen in honor of my grandmother who loved blue and in honor of our Swedish roots.

Doing dishes isn't too awful when you have this view.

Next is my adorable sink skirt.

The other change is that I decided to paint the other cabinets.  I tried to be trendy with the two different colors but I couldn't take it.  Plus, when I had my little mishap of falling off the ladder I spilled paint which splashed up on the cabinets and it wasn't easy getting it off.

Before:

Now: 

It may not be everyone's favorite color but I love this color.  It's called Lunar Tide by Valspar.

Another big improvement is that I got the pantry door out of the shed. (thank goodness the previous owners left it)  It had flaking paint with probably at least five layers.  So yep you guessed it I got out my trusty heat gun.

At first I wanted to stain it but you see all of those white marks?  They are all flush with the door.  There are so many nicks and a big crack on the left so I painted it the same color at the screen door.

(ignore the bad quality of this picture but you get the idea)

Amazingly enough we were also left the original lock box for it.  I had to get a new door knob at the salvage place though.  It looks adorable.

The only thing we're missing is the other side that attaches to the frame.  I believe it's called the keeper.

But I'll worry about that later.  Right now I'm just glad I don't have to see the inside of my pantry every time I walk into the kitchen and the dogs are staying out of the trash. Win win!!