The evolving revolving door

You may have picked up on the fact that we've been quite busy lately.  After hosting Easter guests, we were off & running ~ for 5 consecutive weekends.  Along with our big bike trip around Cayuga Lake, we made 5 trips to Pennsylvania (3 together, and one each in separate directions).  Between the two of us, we visited Scranton, Levittown, Altoona, and Bradford.  If you know your PA geography, that's all four corners of the state.  Not to mention the time we spent in Milton and Harrisburg (our respective hometowns) in central / southcentral Pennsylvania.

With 6+ hours in the car (or on our bikes) each weekend, renovation time has been severely limited.  Don't get me wrong, I've had a fabulous time visiting with lots of family and friends, but that much road time really gets exhausting.  Perhaps another reason I tired of so much coming and going was our super ugly front door.

Here is was, as of our purchase date:

And the inside (as of this week) still looked awful as well.  Between the residual orange paint, the many dings/scratches/random marks, the crazy weather stripping, the can't-be-cleaned smoke film from the previous owner, and the really dirty blinds, I had really had enough.  I basically avoided our living room (and our nice new couch) because I couldn't stand the front door.

Here's a close-up, just in case you couldn't see before just how ugly it was:

Is everyone thoroughly convinced that it was B - A - D?

Not any longer!  :)

I used leftover paint from the sewing room dresser to freshen up the frame and both the inside and outside of the door.  It's technically just interior paint, but since the front of the door is protected by a storm door AND a covered porch, I figured it would be OK.  

I also made a snazzy little roll-up curtain using two pieces of fabric.  I simply cut two rectangles of fabric 1 inch larger than the measurements of the window, sewed them together with a 1/2 inch seam, and then flipped them right-side out, stitching around the edge to hold it in place.  

Here's the curtain when it is down:

However, I like it even more rolled-up!

The tabs are the only part attached to the door.  I wanted to make sure I could take the curtain down to wash and/or iron it in the future, so I added button holes to the tops of the curtain, as well as to the end of the tabs.

When it's removed, it looks like this:

It's attached to the door via a highly sophisticated method known as the staple gun.  I temporarily thought it might be cheating, but it was easy, and the buttons hide them, even if you're up close.  And no one will ever be this close:

I was also inspired in all of this door renovating to make a wreath for the front door with a grapevine wreath, some dried flowers, and ribbon from Michaels.

The wreath is also attached to the door using my friend, the staple gun.  I just stapled the ribbon to the top of the door.  Even if I change the decor down the road, no one will see tiny holes on the top of the door.  It's the same method I used to hang my yarn wreath in the sewing room, which has worked well thus far (with lots of opening and closing of the closet).

Not a bad weekend, overall!  It was nice to spend a weekend at home; especially one that will make our future comings-and-goings more sweet!

Annnd...because as I wrote when I introduced this blog, do-it-yourself house projects make me want to shout from the roof-tops and tell the world....I'm linking my project to the DIY Project Parade at The DIY Show-off.

The little things

If you are a very attentive blog reader, you will remember the white tin basket I hung on our front porch. (If you need to go back and check, it's in one of the pictures in the Front Porch post).

This little item is one of the things that makes me really excited about making a house a home - it was a $3 Michael's clearance purchase, and in my opinion it makes a huge difference on the otherwise very bland gray wall.

In the last picture you saw, it was filled with some extra branches from when I trimmed the front hedges. This week at work, one of my volunteers brought me some beautiful flowers from her garden. Dahlias, I think. (Mom, a little help here??) It seemed a shame to let them go to waste all weekend on my desk, so I plucked them out of the vase on my way out the door. When I stopped at the house after work, I stuck them right in the basket on the front porch - partly for ease of unlocking the door, partly because I didn't know where I could find another suitable container, but most of all because I love decorating the space!



I'm looking forward to keeping the basket filled with seasonal decor - some leaves/branches in the fall, holly around Christmas, tulips in the spring. Since we have a storm door on the front, my wreath options are limited, but this is a bit of an extension - and oh so fun!

Despite my excitement about "little things," big things are happening around here, too. I don't think I ever confirmed that our big pile of junk is finally gone from the backyard. Would you believe that it was more than a ton (literally) of stuff. Demolition continues this weekend - the wood lathe in the "wood bedroom" (we're very creative with our names) is coming down, insulation is going in, and drywall is going up. All of this is to keep us on track for building a closet in the master bedroom, carpeting the upstairs, and getting the master bedroom ready for post-honeymoon residence! And we didn't forget about the den, either. Justin unfortunately couldn't finish the sanding because Home Depot was out of the sand paper necessary to run the rental sander. However, we'd like to get that done as soon as possible, too. Lucky for us, we've got more visitors (and helpers) this weekend!

Thanks to everyone who has sent messages or comments about the blog - it's nice to know there are readers out there who appreciate the posts :)

The Front Porch!

Well, the long-awaited day has come: I am pleased to report that my camera, my camera cord, and myself are all in the same place - and there's an internet connection! I suspect that this should be a much more frequent occurrence going forward, and I hope my loyal readers haven't lost interest in our progress during our time of disconnection!

When we first bought the house, I knew that the front porch was one of the places where we could get a good bang for our buck - both in terms of time and money spent - towards increased curb appeal.

Here's us, on the day we signed all the papers:



Here's the light and the lovely, psychedelic house numbers - before:















Here's the "after," or I supposed I should say the "on the way:"
















Please note that the gray blobs are not really part of the house - just my unskilled attempt in Paint to maintain some internet security about where we live!

In the photos, you may also notice that the prior owner's name was displayed on the front porch - and it happens to be the name of Justin's hometown. Some things are certainly meant to be.

Also, there was some aging indoor-outdoor carpet that we've removed. The floors will be repainted next spring or summer, but for now they're looking better than before! In front of our door, check out the awesome doormat from Justin's sister :)

On the corner of the porch, we now have a flag (thanks, Colin!), a fern, and another beautiful plant from my bridal shower (thanks, Lisa!):



We also purchased some brown wicker chairs and a table from Lowe's. I'll be picking up the table on Tuesday, so stay tuned for additional "after" porch photos!

One tiny step for our house, one giant leap for the blog

Well, folks, I am [VERY HAPPILY] sitting on my front porch and typing a blog post.

This is a very exciting occasion in two regards:

1) THE INTERNET WORKS AT OUR HOUSE! Thanks to my genius engineer husband-to-be, there's a wireless router sending signals my way. As I mentioned in my last post, I have been waiting (mostly impatiently) for a while for a connection. My apartment doesn't have internet, so any online use was limited to a quick log-in on my lunch break. I feel a little silly for how lost I felt without being able to regularly check my email or google things, but I suppose it's simply a sign of the times. And besides, I've got some loyal readers to update on the amazing progress we've made at the house while Facebook wasn't a distraction :)

2) We have porch furniture and if you were to look only at the front porch, you'd think the house is set up and lived in! Granted, it is in fact lived in, but only in the sense that Justin is currently sleeping here - on a mattress in the kitchen. It has a long way to come indoors to looking like a real home, although day by day we see progress and get more excited about having a residence as opposed to a falling down structure.

With internet access, I plan to post blog entries much more frequently. I also have lots of pictures to share, but of course getting me, the computer, the camera, the camera cord, and the internet all in one place can be a challenge. As soon as I get the camera cord from the apartment, we'll be in business to show you the new porch furniture, our American flag, new light fixture, mailbox, and numbers, and many plants.

This weekend, I'm headed to Harrisburg for a dress fitting, taste testing, floral meeting, and other wedding planning. Justin will hold down the fort up here and work on the den. The floor is about half-way sanded using a belt sander, but Justin (after remarking that the belt sander feels like he's cleaning the floor with a toothbrush) plans to bring in the big guns this weekend with an orbital sander rental from Home Depot. We've picked out the wall color (brown) and the stain color for the floors, so we're getting close to having a finished interior space!

Woo! What an exciting day :)