Chickens!

We are getting ready for chickens. We need to have a pen ready in about 3 weeks, so the push is on. 
I repurposed an old wardrobe into a chicken coop. This will go inside our larger chicken pen. There's three nesting boxes behind the door. By opening the door we have easy access to the eggs. The other side is for roosting. I did the work myself, and learned how to use a jig saw, a pneumatic stapler and a chop saw. It was a good afternoon.

Problems

When watching Love it or List It or Property Brothers, every home renovation runs into problems. Well, we ran into ours (with more to come, I'm sure). When the Handyman went to replace the windows in our living room  and family room, we found some damage... termite damage. Thankfully, there were no little critters, but they had obviously found our walls to be yummy.

A large section of our walls had to be replaced. I am thankful the Handyman was able to clean up this mess and rebuild what the termites destroyed. 

Demolition

I watch a lot of HGTV, especially Property Brothers and Love It or List It. I also enjoyed Extreme Home Makeover. Demolition looks like so much fun on all of those shows but I have recently learned it is NOT as much fun as it looks.

1. Demo is NOT fun when you are living in the home.
2. Demo is NOT fun when you just spent lots of $$$ putting in new windows and a glass door. 
3. Despite my best efforts, my kick and punch are a bit pathetic against 1/2" drywall.
4. Demo is only fun if done the Extreme Home Makeover way, ie. bulldozer!

This is what I accomplished on my own last night...

Today, I have had a bit more experience and I'm rockin' this. And I like having my own little helpers.

Kitchen Remodel Phase 1 - Part 2

I had a holiday today, so it was a great chance to work a bit on the house. The Handyman helped me demo the rest of the wall. I love how open it is now and once we are finished we will have a great space for dining.

Now that the dining area is opened up, the Handyman decided to continue working and we have moved on to Phase 2 - the Island!! I think he is enjoying having the Foreman home and helping. And I am having fun working with him.

Kitchen Remodel Phase 1 - Part 1

Our new home has a VERY small kitchen. Here's a floor plan so you can see what we are working with... The kitchen is in the upper right. It's a small space with an even smaller kitchenette area.

With five kids, it is impossible to eat in the eat-in kitchenette area. And with five kids, it is pretty tough to maneuver in the kitchen. It's a bit crazy. And there is NO counter space. Appliances alone take up most of the counters. I made a small homemade island out of an old changing table and slab of granite to give me a little working space. It has helped provide a little counter space, but it's small and makes the space even tighter. 

So we are starting a kitchen reno... 

Phase 1 - Begin removing the wall between the kitchen and the dining room and remove the sliding glass door and put in a single windowed door and an additional window. (See previous post)

I was hoping to get to use a sledge hammer to take out the wall... but according to the Handyman, that's only on TV. A sledgehammer would create a huge mess. So instead, we got to go at the wall with crowbars. 

I managed to get one side of drywall off... and a hole in the other side. It's super think dry wall, so I wimped out. The Handyman has been working hard all day, it's late, he's calling it a night. I'm hoping the wall comes down tomorrow. 

Phase 2 - Remove the hallway wall and put in a LARGE island (4'x8'). Hopefully this is coming soon. :)

Let the Light In and Keep the Heat Out!

Over the last few weeks, we have put new windows in the entire house. We purchased dual pane windows from a local company called Window Depot. We saved a bunch as compared with the big box stores and hope to see a huge savings on our electric bill with the energy efficient windows.

As part of this, the Handyman removed a sliding glass door off the kitchenette area and added a third window by the dining room. The first two pictures are before pics from when we bought the house. The other pictures are the work in progress.

I was amazed at how quickly the Handyman and the Old Man were able to get these windows in. This morning, they were going to put in the three big windows. I called around 9 to check in on the process. As the foreman, I wanted to make sure this project was on schedule. ;)  The Handyman did not answer my call, but an hour later, he sent pictures of the completed project! Tonight we plan to finish demo-ing the wall. Sledge hammer, here I come!

Welcome

Welcome to Doublewide Reno

August 2014, the Handyman and I bought a new house out in the country. We loved the 1+ acre yard. We loved the mature trees, We loved the beautiful in-ground pool. We loved the large garage/shop. We made do with the 2000 square foot manufactured home (ie. doublewide). The home had a living room, family room, dining area, kitchen and small kitchenette, along with 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. With 5 kids, the square footage and room number was a little tight, but we knew we had the necessary space outside.

We spent the first few months moving in, trimming trees, planting trees, setting up a wood shop, etc. Now it is time to move inside and begin some much needed renovations... and you are welcome to join us on this journey.

We have LOTS of projects, and knowing the Handyman, he will add more regularly. If you enjoy remodeling, renovations, designing, or just want to laugh at us as we dive in, then this blog is for you!