Category: Small Projects

Small, but noticeable ways to improve your home.

The Sky Is Falling

Published on by Our Humble Abode23 Comments

Wow, it’s crazy how much we can get done on the house now without the roof demanding so much attention.  We’re currently between big projects, having just finished the roof and waiting for our windows to arrive.  Which gave Ben some time to tackle a few, slightly smaller projects, including installing the Sky Tube in the bathroom.

After some debating from everyone (you included!) we landed on centering it over the tub width wise, and centered over the shower curtain depth wise.  Ben started by tracing and cutting most of the outline of the light.  Before cutting it completely through, dumping a pile of insulation on our heads, be climbed up in the attic and moved the offending insulation.  From there, Sam cut the rest of the sheet rock left, and installed the bottom glass part of the light, screwing it into the joists above.

Ben attached the flexible duct work to the cover he had already installed while roofing and we were ready to rock.  And on an overcast, rainy day, this bathroom saw its first shred of natural light in existence.

Monumental, right?  Haha.

When the clouds parted and the sun popped out, our bathroom lit up, too.

Of course I had to hop in the shower to see what it was like with the curtain closed.  Look at all that light, without any electricity.

Ben was right, I’m glad we decided to center it over the tub.

Not only does the sky tube give great light to the tub area, but the rest of the bathroom as well.  The vanity area is light and bright.

Trust me when I say the change is dramatic.  Actually, why don’t you take a look at the before and after:

Light, bright, airy, and not at all yellow toned.  Ahh, I see the light.

How was your weekend?  Did you spend some time crossing things off the honey do list?  Or relax knowing fall is around the corner?

How’s it Hanging?

Published on by Our Humble Abode4 Comments

As usual, when back in Minnesota, Ben and/or I try to help my sister with something on her house.  Over our Christmas vacation, Ben refinished her stairs and built an awesome bookshelf.

Of course Ben’s skill set grossly out does mine, so I decided to do what I do best.  Hang a few pictures.  Ash gathered up her frames and art to take this wall from blank to beautiful.

Ten framed pictures later, we’ve got a super simple gallery wall.  To simplify the hanging process, I held up the pictures, asked for opinions, then marked the wall to hang using this method.

For the arrangement layout, I tried to follow the line of the stairs.

As they accumulate artwork, this wall can be added to and rearranged to fit large and small art.  But it makes their home feel more lived in and cozy.

What have you been up to lately?  Hanging pictures?  Going on a vacation?  Helping your family with a house project?  Getting help for a project?

Gimme a Giveaway Winner: Jillian Rene Decor & Purchases

Published on by Our Humble Abode8 Comments

We’re excited for the weekend.  Cooler weather is on the way and we get more time to work on a few house projects.  The Jillian Rene Decor pillow giveaway reminded me of pillow fight fun.  My sisters and I had pillow fights and now V and E do.

Liz S, the winner of a $50 Jillian Rene Decor store credit, was involved in sock fights.  Ha, never tried that!

On a more serious note, we’ve been busy buying things for the mountain house.  50 4 foot by 8 foot by 1 1/4 inch sheets of recycled (pulled off a remodeled building) polystyrene insulation thanks to Craigslist.

Similar products cost $18 per sheet at Home Depot.  Ben will use this to insulate the back basement wall, which now has only framework and sheet rock.  We’re hoping to score more through Craigslist and local recycle companies to wrap the house before we install new siding.

Another necessary addition is this Killer Whale by Pur Vac.

Sure, we have a central vacuüm already, but it is super lame.  It sucks so little that it sucks so much.  And only low voltage was run to the outlets, so it can’t support a rug attachment head.  Oh, and it turns on as soon as the hose is plugged in, which has worn down the motor.  Cleaning dog hair out of our rugs with the current vacuüm and hardwood floor head is not easy.

 

Ben has some wiring to run to get this behemoth hung in the garage.  Actually, we don’t have enough room in the house electrical panel, so Ben is working on adding another to the garage.  The previous owner ran wiring for a future shop/garage and we’re using that.  As if we didn’t have enough irons in the fire, Ben tore down the wall separating the two storage rooms in the garage area.  One month ago, after closing on the house, the storage room looked like this:

As of this morning, it looks like this:

Notice the square on the floor?  That should help you get an idea of the wall placement.  Soon, Ben wants to tear out the rest of the walls in this area to make room for his boat and give us room to park two cars in the garage.

Between knocking down walls and installing vacuums, he’ll have to add wire to each vacuüm port to power the new attachment kit we ordered.

That’s on our agenda this weekend.  Maybe a little bathroom work for good measure.

What are you working on?  Wall removal?  Weekends just aren’t the same without demo work.

Airing Things Out

Published on by Our Humble Abode16 Comments

Montana summer is near, and we love enjoying the warm weather outside.  And we want that warmth to stay outside.  In our first house, keeping it cool wan’t too difficult.  Ben super insulated the walls and we had a functioning geothermal to cool.  Well, the mountain house has neither and we’ve got loads of large windows and southern exposure.  It heats up in here.  Luckily, our nights cool off nicely this time of year. Ben came up with a genius idea to tide us over during these in between months; a whole house fan.

After some discussion and weighing our options, we decided to remove the ugly fluorescent light in my office to make room for the fan.

The electric from the light made install easier.  Removing the light was easy enough, then Ben located the roof rafters using a stud finder.

Typical install involves cutting the rafter to make room for the fan.  Not cool with us.  Something about tearing out part of a structural element seems wrong.  Instead, Ben used the fan template and cut the sheet rock around the beam.

Here’s the big guy now.  The fan, not Ben.  🙂

Ben used 2 by 4s to build a brace around the outside of the opening, then put the fan in place.

I’d love to give you a detailed tutorial of everything he did, but I wasn’t in the attic.  However, I can give you this shot of how it looks from afar when on.

The fan sucks warm air from the house and puts it in the attic, which also pulls the louvers up.  The beam across the middle blocks the center louver from moving, so Ben cut it loose from the rest.

When off, the louvers kind of look like a vinyl fence.  Still, it is a far better look than the huge oak encased light of yore.

Even better, when on, the fan does a great job pulling the cold outside air through the open windows.  If we close everything early enough, the house stays cool throughout the day.  What a smart man I have.

All the Fixings

Published on by Our Humble Abode7 Comments

Now that we’ve sold our house, we’re working on it again.  Nothing major, just small projects we want to finish up.  Adding fascia to the exterior.

Installing and staining window trim.

As you can see, Ben had a little help(er) for this project.  I went into the house to get a paint brush for Ben, came back out, but didn’t see V.  Ben asked if he went in with me.  Then V popped up from the window well.  Scared the crap out of me!

One of the things we promised to finish was the fence on the ends of the house.  Ben didn’t finish the south end when he worked on the rest of the fence because the old posts were cemented in.  Finally, he had a reason to tackle this.  Simple enough, and I stained it to match.

Here’s what the north side looked like last summer.  The fence is done, but we lacked a real gate.

That’s done now.

So much better.  Jack approves, too.

For the past two years the French doors in my office have been without door handles.  We recently replaced a few handles for locking levers in the basement, so Ben retrofitted the old handles to work for the office.  He just removed the plungers and we’re good to go.

See the gaping hole below?

Here it is today, complete with closet doors.

Ben still has to cut a trim piece to hide the track, but we’re getting there.

We’ve done all this, but I have yet to pack a single box to actually move.  I’m afraid it will jinx the closing (our situation is slightly different than usual).  So, keep your fingers crossed everything goes smoothly and we’ll update you as soon as we can!