Top Developments of 2009

I’ve already talked about all the things going on with the residents of This D*mn House. But 2009 was full of activity for the house itself, too.

· Pimpin’ the Shed – A project that was a carry-over from 2008, I finally got the exterior of the storage shed resided.
· Michelangelo (Phase 1) – We finally reached a consensus on what kind of ceiling tiles to use – faux tintype in white, unfinished 2x3 sheets of polystyrene. The mother painted some black for the bathroom and silver for the kitchen, including a few extra for backsplash. (All of these except for one section of backsplash in the kitchen) are now in place. Phase 2 will be included in my overview of 2010.
· New Appliances – The mother nearly drove me to distraction after falling in love with an oversized (at least for our tiny kitchen) refrigerator. It took months for me to find one that would meet her exacting standards and nearly that long to find a stove to match. We also got a new under-the-cabinet can opener and a still unboxed microwave.
· Bathroom floor – We both fell in love with the black and white hex mosaic and this gave me a chance to try my hand at porcelain tile. I don’t think it came out too badly (except for some stubborn grout haze which I’ve all but corrected.) Still some work to be done here.
· Goodbye cabinets! – With some help from the ever loyal Lawrence, I was able to shed the kitchen of its antiquated raised panel doors. More recently, we manufactured some drawer fronts to match. There is still quite a bit of work though to get this project across the finish line. Even so, it already looks incredibly different.
· Kitchen floor – Tearing up the old kitchen floor, or I should say floors as there were at least three or four layers of them, was a bear. I only got as far as putting the new Hardibacker down. Porcelain tile is coming. Soon.
· Carport conundrum – That disquieting lean that the carport had been reaching during the past decade was finally corrected – and based on what Lawrence and I found, not a minute too soon! The idiots who built the carport had just set the columns in the dirt – load-bearing columns! – with no footing underneath. Luckily, we were able to fix that and I even got to fix the excavation we did by adding a little brickwork, tying it neatly to the walkway and porch. Matchy, matchy!
· Tub enclosure – We didn’t get the one that we wanted, but we did get a new one. And it’s white, too! All of which brought about some additional and previously unexpected changes for the bathroom. Like new wallpaper. That’s another still to come project.

Lots of projects but most of them are just the beginning of something else. Yep. It's going to be a VERY busy 2010! Happy New Year everybody!