Oct 5, 2007 Posted by Tiffany

A new way to sling mud

As we mentioned earlier, we have been doing some work on the exterior wall of the main house (called the “sockel” in German) because it was starting to crumble a bit. It seems that our house was rejecting the modern metal framing the previous owner used to patch this wall in the past. This metal stuff is used on many of the edges of the house but in this area in particular the rain comes down... read more

Aug 2, 2007 Posted by Tiffany

A final day of doors…for a while anyway

I’m nearly uninspired to write about these doors and the trim but I figure at least I’m nearly done for now and perhaps writing about it will help me to forget it happened. It’s not that the results are not worth it – they completely are. Although you may not be able to tell from the photos, it’s making a really positive impact in all the rooms – I just sick of doing it... read more

Jul 31, 2007 Posted by Tiffany

Now it’s getting somewhere good

This weekend we worked ourselves hard again and managed to paint the entire chicken coop, brick out a hole in the wall leading to the outhouse and dungheap (which the dog loved to use when we first got this house and Ayla smelled just lovely after romping around in the pile of waste) and laid out the wooden tiles just to see how it all looks. You might recall our post from last weekend and the work we did... read more

Jul 26, 2007 Posted by Tiffany

An endless supply of doors

This week, one by one, I have been painting the doors in the house. I’ve completed most of the doors downstairs now but will probably have to do a second coat tomorrow on the living room door…which means tomorrow I get to start tackling the doors upstairs and the two wooden walls should we have enough paint…and I don’t go crazy All the doors and frames were painted a shade which I... read more

Jul 25, 2007 Posted by Tiffany

Mommy’s little helper

Over the past few days I’ve been painting the doors inside our house and Ayla decided yesterday that she needed to help. I don’t think it was really her main intention but she came in the house, leaned up against a door jam, froze in place when I told her to move, back up, get out of the way (anything I could think of that might communicate to her to un-stick herself from the door) and then... read more

Apr 12, 2007 Posted by Tiffany

Painting kitchen cabinets

We have a bunch of kitchen cabinets from the old kitchen sitting in the barn, in what will one day become the climbing hall. We’ve talked about using part of them in the pig stalls area, which you pass through to get to the climbing hall. Perhaps using the small fridge so we can always have cold drinks on hand while climbing…and maybe a sink running off the pump water with a bit of counter... read more

Mar 29, 2007 Posted by Tiffany

How expensive is it going to be?

Here’s a fun little tool we came across on RemodelingMySpace.com – a cost estimator for common projects around the house. Unfortunately for us it will only give us a vague idea since we’re not in the US, but we played with it a bit anyway. It turned up a price of $315 to paint our 5 interior doors and 13 interior windows with a base and 1 coat of paint…that seems a bit low since... read more

Mar 28, 2007 Posted by Tiffany

One pane at a time

Yesterday, I finished up the frosting of the windows in the bathroom. There’s few places I will need to re-stick the film because a few bubbles have come up but having that finished is a very nice accomplishment. Nothing like actually having privacy in your bathroom. We also rehung the door to the bathroom which we painted over the weekend. It still needs another coat but we’re trying to get a... read more

Mar 26, 2007 Posted by Tiffany

Another great stencil site

Yeah, I know, you’re getting sick of reading about stencils already…but I came across another site with some interesting stencils that just might work for our shutters. This flower stencil from Stencil Planet which I think could look really nice. 7.5 in x 5 in (HXW) for only $15.95. Even if I don’t like it, it’s hard to argue with that price…and they will automatically resize... read more

Mar 26, 2007 Posted by Tiffany

Helping out around the house

Yesterday, we decided to start painting out bathroom door, the first of many doors in the house which will be repainted. We didn’t want to take it all the way out to the barn so we laid it across the bathtub to paint it there. But keeping the dog out of the room became an interesting challenge with no door to block her…and she eventually managed to get paint on her tail, hind quarters, back and... read more