Around the house

Last weekend I got together with my little sister to take her senior pictures. It was raining outside, so we decided to do indoor shots until we get some clear weather...which will hopefully be tomorrow! That day made me realize I haven't picked up my camera in what felt like forever. The battery was dead and the memory card was almost full. After some charging and downloading/deleting files we were ready to go. It got me thinking though about the convenience of phones these days.  More often than not I accept that my phone camera will do and that I don't need to haul around my big heavy Nikon. Yes, it is more convenient to just have my phone when we go out on adventures, but the picture quality, control, and creativity you get from using a SLR camera is incomparable.
            So this morning, I pulled out my camera, and just took some simple photographs around the house to please my heart and my itch for taking pictures WITHOUT my phone. I tried so hard to broaden my subject this morning too! (It is so hard to NOT take pictures of just my kids...they're so darn cute!)

getting ready to make leather finger cuffs for Jeremy to wear when he is using his woodworking files

blooming...and dusty

The never ending demo...

As we enter into spring, we are preparing to replace all of our windows! We scored 16 matching windows at The ReStore in Ballard for $20 each. I am eager to see the drastic change it is going to make to our house, inside and out. The inside of the house is on a bit of a standstill though. As the clear days become a bit more consistent, we've been doing a lot of demo in the yard. Our backyard is now without a pond, a bridge, and 4 trees. We have also accumulated piles of brick and granite rock from digging up the pond. Did I mention the pond is GONE?!!! I am very excited to see a huge dirt pit instead of a dirty, overgrown, dangerous pond. Our plan is level out the ground and build a wood platform where the pond used to be. But for now the only word in our remodeling vocabulary is demolition.
      To satisfy my desire to fix up the inside of the house, I've been rearranging, organizing, and sewing some things for the house. Since we don't have a basement or garage to store things, I've managed to use every bit of space until we can get proper storage built in the house. The other night, Jeremy and I were discussing our kitchen remodel ideas, which included knocking out walls, rearranging the cabinets, new flooring, etc. Ruby decided to chime in and tell us, "I like the house just the way it is mom. You don't need to change anything!" It is nice to hear a child's perspective on the topic. I love that she is comfortable here, and it feels like home to her. We are so thankful to have this house that provides our family with shelter and comfort and we are blessed that God gave us a creative outlook on life and we can use our house to express who we are and what we love to do.

 

 

 

 

 

bits of progress

  A whole lot of side work has been going on in the Hanson household lately. Side work for other people, that is. Jeremy has been very busy making furniture for clients on the side, so we mostly have been doing little jobs here and there on the house. We've got all new water lines (yeah!), drained both ponds out, demoed the small pond, cut two backyard trees down, and discovered a brick patio underneath a layer of grass. That has been my project this past weekend. I got to tell you, it has been very satisfying to unveil something that has been hidden. All I need to do now is fill in the empty sections where the small pond used to be.

    I am so grateful for such a large backyard where our kids can explore, discovering new bugs, get covered in mud and see where their imagination takes them. Ruby has been going through Jeremy's scrap wood piles to create things like fishing poles, a bridge, slides, and much more. Now if it could just be sunny everyday, I could get things done a lot quicker!



the two spots where the pond was

Ruby's bridge

this whole patio was once covered with grass

a small section of everything we have been digging up and cutting down

Do it right the first time around

Saturday morning was the start of our first big project on the house. Our mud room was not built properly and every time it rained the studs and part of the floor got soaked...which has resulted in wood rot. As we were doing all of the demo, we found we needed to replace two whole walls and the sub floor, instead of just the one wall we were planning on. At least now we know it will be done right and there will be no more surprises in that room! Jeremy surprised Ruby with her own tool belt, work gloves, hickory hammer, mask, and crowbar. She was very excited and helped by prying off some of the drywall. I think she lasted about 10 minutes :)

bees nest we found when we demoed the ceiling

Our house

It is a Friday morning, the kids are still in bed (yeah!) and I actually have time to write and edit pictures...I love the early mornings! We have been in our new place for about a month now, and both Jeremy and I are trying to document every possible design idea for the house, so when we are ready to do a certain room, we will have plenty of inspiration to look back on. I made sure to not be lazy this time around and take before pictures of our house, inside and out. So make sure to check out the after pictures, which will realistically be put up in the span of 5 to 6 years I'm sure! The first on our list of urgency is to replace the electrical panel, install washer/dryer (yippee!), and rebuild the mud room. All of those projects are on the list for this weekend. It sure is nice to be married to a carpenter/all around talent in the construction world:) I love you Jeremy!

Ok, so the silence didn't last too long... I'm coming Shepherd!

In case you didn't know, we bought a major fixer-upper and bought it as-is, but boy do we have plans for this place!

Living room

Kitchen, left

Kitchen, right

laundry room off the kitchen

Laundry room

                                             Mud room off of the laundry room

Our room

Our room

Kids room

kids room

Bathroom