Last post of the year

Well, it's the last day of 2010 and I am laid up with a cold. It's a heck of a way to ring in the new year! We wanted to cram in a few more odd projects before the clock strikes 12. In my condition, I'm supervising. Justin is the sole laborer today. The project du jour is new lighting for the garage.

Here are our new T8 fixtures with electronic ballasts. We had an old 8 foot T12 fixture. Since the lamps were fading, we decided it would be a fantastic time to install more efficient lighting. And, another bonus: no more 8' lamps with which to deal.

The outside of the garage gets some new security lighting.And, we have some handcrafted house numbers up in the back to help with back yard deliveries. Thanks Mom!

Happy New Year Bungalow readers!

Greetings!

Well, a few weeks ago I imagined the front door would be in by Thanksgiving. That didn't happen, but we did get the new back door installed before the turkey was roasted. Today, after 5 coats of urethane, we took on the front door. I don't have any before photos because Justin dove right into this project and had the old door off its hinges before I could grab the camera. The only thing remarkable about the old front door was the porthole that the former owner installed as a peephole. But, alas, that is done and we are getting rid of the 6 panel contractor-grade steel door and installing a lovely Craftsman-style fir door with 3 window panels for viewing who is knocking on the door.

Justin, pulling off the interior trim, cracking lots of plaster along the way:

Out with old and in with the new:

3/4 of the way there. We still need to install some hardware so we can latch and lock the door and have some insulating and trim work to do (another day):

Lookin' good, Beacon Hill Bungalow!

Winterizing

A welcome surprise came on Friday, clearly the work of Mother Nature's elves (does she have such things?). Apparently, trees are falling like pick-up sticks around here because a friendly tree service was finally calling with a load of chips. It smelled like Christmas trees around here all afternoon.

Here's the pile before--probably about 10 yards of mulch:

Our newly bedazzled yard, tucked in for the winter officially now (hope it's not too late, the cold snap came early this year!):

We have about a yard of mulch remaining and hopefully a neighbor will want to use it in their yard. It's free and it's a miracle worker on weeds.

Sketch-Up

My new favorite tool from Google: Google SketchUp! Aside from the water issues mentioned in the previous post, I have a vision for what our basement could become. I think I might get a side gig as an architect.


Thoughts? Comments? Feedback? I've got lots of time before we're ready to build this.

***And just for the record, the TV was Justin's idea.

Uh oh...

What do you get when you cross a porous foundation with 3" of steady rain in 24 hours? Why, a wet basement of course! We spent the better part of the summer installing drainage in the backyard but it wasn't enough to prevent the scene we awoke to Sunday morning.
So, now the question is, what do we do now? Luckily, our basement is unfinished and we probably only took on about 1 gallon of rain water. No harm done yet. But we have big plans for this space and 1 gallon of water puts a serious crimp in those plans.