Good things come to those who wait.

Do you remember me telling you about this door?   I told Gene multiple times over the winter that we needed to install it early in the year because by the time summer came around it was gonna be hotter than a motha.

I think he agreed last summer with the deck was "lesson learned".  Don't put off tomorrow what you can do today.

So he unceremoniously picks up the phone and calls  his buddy Bobby about a week ago to ask him to come up over the weekend to help with the door project.  ARRGGHH... that means I'm going to have to get everything all spic and span for company.

Which worked out ok, because in the end Bobby couldn't make it.  That, however, didn't change our plans.  We decided to move foward without him and try to install it ourselves.  I've installed doors before (interior and exterior) and know that it's NOT an easy job to do, but felt confident it was something we could accomplish.

Saturday we got up early and started the process  The left you can see how it looks "before."  Not very pretty is it?  The window is going to become a big double door, and the old door, will become a smaller window.

We got as far as getting all the drywall ripped out on the inside, then went to town to look at door handles... only they didn't have what I wanted and the selection was really limited so that meant a trip to St. Joe to see what they had.

We found some nice ones, on sale, but by the the time we were done hemming and hawing over it, it was pretty much too late in the day to do anything else.  Which is a GOOD thing because it was pretty cold to have your house open to the world for most of the day.

Sunday morning we didn't mess around.  Got up and started ripping things out including all the insulation, windows, studs etc.

I went to town to run errands and I came home to a big hole in my house!  Boo kitty always wants to help.

Pretty much committed at this point.  Don't mind my messy house, it's deconstructed if you haven't noticed.

Here is the door all crated up.  It's huge and takes 4 people to move the crate.  Not much I can do with it with my bum shoulder and old lady hip.

Cutting out the center support was really scary.  I kept worrying my house was gonna fall in or something. LOL.  I did talk Gene into putting in a big header over the door.  We hadn't planned it that way but we both were happy in the long run we did it.


{Insert pictures of us installing door}
{Insert lots of cussing}

I tend not to take a lot of photos when I'm wanting to kick something down the steps.  If it weren't so heavy I might have.  We were both pretty frustrated with installing it.   It took some creative adjustments (and luck) and we finally got it.  It's not perfect, but that's why god made trim work.

The almost finished product.  The view on the left will eventually have a wide stair steps leading up to the deck.  I've always wanted a big wide set of steps, I think they're pretty.  On the right you can see how pretty the decking is going up to the house now.

We still have to add all the trim, and we'll be adding some outdoor light fixtures on both sides of the doors. 

Gene will be doing the electrical.  Heaven help us. LOL.
Actually, he's done work before and did a really good job so I trust he'll do a good job.  The electricity has to be rerouted over the door as it used to go under the window.

Old door.
New door.

I think we made the right choice.

And here is the new handles.  I only cried once doing this.   Nope, it wasn't hard to do, actually you can put the handles on in less than 10 min.  I, however, screwed up and there's now a hole in the wrong spot.  You can't see it on the outside, but you can on the inside.  I broke into tears and Gene handled it better than I did. 

THIS IS WHY I CAN'T HAVE NICE THINGS!

lol.  I'll fix it, and then I'll hyperfocus on it for as long as I live here.

Anyway, so I had to buy 2 door handles, and the one on the left doesn't have the guts in it so it doesn't actually work.  That includes the deadbolt.  Tell me if it's weird to have a deadbolt on the left that doesn't work.  I'll have to try to find a cover plate of some sorts otherwise, which I'm having a hard time doing.

On the right is the pretty stained glass.  I really like it, but now I'm worried a little bit about privacy and people being able to see inside night/day.  Do you have windows doors with big windows?  How do you handle privacy?  I really hate to put a curtain on it and cover it up after spending all that money on it!

This project I would put on a difficulty scale of 3.5 out of 5 chickens.  (poor half chicken). If the only power tool you've ever run is a kitchenaid, then I suggest you hire it out.  Having said that, you can learn all of this!!  I have found that home improvement shows are very educational and what you don't know for sure, there's someone on Youtube that is teaching you how to do it so do new things!

When finished, we'll have about $1000-$1100 into this project.
If we would have hired the whole thing out, we would be out around $3500-$4000.

Savings of $2400-$3000!!

Learn to do some of these things on your own my friends.  You'll have such an enormouse amount of pride in what you do, and at the same time, you'll build lots of free value in your home.

Sweat equity baby. 

First world problems

 

I've gotten to the point in my career where I can spend 500 bucks, get a very small box and there's not a damn fun thing in it.  Yawn.  New camera means higher megapixels, which means more cards to fill (and it has dual slots) and a bag to hold it in.  My old camera will be Gene's camera - which now means I need another flash.

 

I'm pretty sure I'd rather have a new lens.

 

Or nail polish.

 

Oh who am I kidding, I'd rather have a Harry Potter wand and my own owl.  Yes I'm lame.

 

A new ride

A few months ago, at the beginning of winter, I reported that Tanner purchased a new kayak.  A couple weeks ago, said kayak *finally* made it on the water.  I, being mommy of the year (always), drove 15 miles just to take a few pics.

 

Which he didn't like because they weren't senior picture-y enough.

 

Damn ingrate.

 

In other news, his other ride suffered.  He was driving down Main Street in stop and go traffic.  He stopped, but the girl behind him didn't so the old Jeep's tail in got bashed in.  He's now trying to sell it so he can combine that money with his insurance money and buy something else - which he's been shopping for since about 12 minutes after he got the Jeep and realized it wasn't a 2013 model.

 

He keeps showing me pictures of mustangs and corvettes.

 

Yeah good luck with that kid.

 

Our new adventure!!

We are proud to announce our new adventure! www.ruralbride.com

I've been thinking for a long time about creating a blog that's inspirational for brides like the ones we find in towns around America just like my town (Maryville, MO). As I have shot so many weddings here, I realized that there's probably a lot more brides taking the VFW or the community gym and turning it into a "ballroom" than there are "ballroom brides".

I find them inspirational because they have taken something very rough around the edges and created something incredibly beautiful in the process. It was then, that I knew that there were other brides struggling with the same issues. That's why www.ruralbride.com was created - to bring all those people together.

I hope you'll visit the blog and visit it often. Please put it in your feed burner or your bookmarks. We're still doing a bit of work on the site here and there, but we're 90% there. This is what has consumed my life lately!

Right now we're having a special giveaway. If you like our facebook page, you're entered to win a DIY Bride book! Please join us and invite your friends too!

Workin' for "the man"

And sadly, I think at this point, "the man" is just me.

 

I've gotten really busy... driving to a secondary location to "work" has been good in ways, annoying in others - we haven't worked out all the kinks yet but I kind of like my little "apartment in the city" as we call it.

One thing that I realized was becoming a problem was keeping track of all the things in my life that needed toting back and forth.  Calendars (multiple ones for different projects), notebooks with project ideas, my kindle, phones, etc etc.  God forbid I want to carry something extra like an actual book.  You know, I don't think carrying your work stuff in a Wal-mart bag is really all that professional.  Ya think?

I finally deduced that I needed something and pulled out my old leather planner.

I used it one day and realized it was still too small.

So, I caved and bought a briefcase. I'm now "the man".  I feel like a traveling salesman ready to sell you a brand new Fuller Brush.  Sometimes I even put a sandwich in there.

Can I interest you in a low rate mortage?