Van·i·ty (ˈva-nə-tē): inflated pride in oneself or one's appearance

No, no, no. Not that kind of vanity. The bathroom variety!

The big project last Saturday was getting the bathroom vanity installed and starting the trim work. As usual, Greg has worked tirelessly to ensure every last detail of our custom vanity was perfect.

Once we're ready to work on the main house, we know we're going to want to do some tiling. Neither of us have much experience in this area, so we thought the guest house bathroom would be a good place to practice. The vanity counter seemed like the perfect project.

Installing the upper cabinet.

Almost finished! Just in need of the drawers, faucet and a mirror and we're set.

Then it was on to the trim.

Earlier last week, Greg stopped out to the house to do some additional finishing. The closet is ready and the ceiling fans are in!

The closet and patio door after trim. The trim will be painted white.
Yesterday, we picked out carpet and vinyl. Assuming the trim will be complete, we'll be flooring this weekend, as well as finishing up the vanity. Ugh, we are getting so close! Our move-in date of 12/19 is now going to be 12/26.
All WE want for Christmas is to be HOME!
I may not be back for posting until after the holidays pass, so cheers to you and yours this holiday season!

Mini-Projects

I thought I'd post some more photos of the colors we painted, since it was tough to see them in the previous post.

There's the accent wall!

Bedroom Patio Door: Installed!

So this weekend was all about projects. Not much to do in the hut at this point.

Winter hit with a vengeance this past week. I always find it so amusing how cold 30-degrees feels. That is, until it hits single- and sub-zero digits!

We brought the workshop into the main house for our projects this weekend. Greg built a couple makeshift workbenches out of a couple of our many interior doors we salvaged. Man, those extra doors are handy!

Posch stopped down Saturday to help. He took on the dirty job of sanding and refinishing the base heaters for the hut.

Greg worked tirelessly on designing a bathroom vanity. After searching at the big box stores, we determined that the standard sizes for bathroom vanities wouldn't work in our bathroom. They'd either be 2-3 inches too large or 10 inches too small. Either way, not a good use of space. So we're making our own.

After Chris left I took over painting the base heaters.

I'm slowly learning my way around power tools. I especially enjoy this power sander.

Later, we put the first coating of stain on the vanity doors and I reassembled the base heaters. We're about ready to go!

Up next, Tom will be coming back to install the base heat, we'll finish the vanity and start on trim work and window casing.

Two weeks to go!

Color Makes Everything Happy

This past week was paint week! We've both been rather busy during the week, so we didn't make the decision to paint this weekend until Friday night.

So, Saturday morning, while Greg and Mark worked on installing the new water heater, I headed out to Hirschfields to meet Mom and Elisa to pick out paint colors. Initially I thought it would be fun to go with some bold color schemes (think greens or blues). In the end, however, our time crunch proved to be too much and I decided neutral colors will just have to do. I went with a couple of browntones - light tan for the whole place, and a darker brown for accent walls in the living space and bedroom.

Later Saturday, Mom and I headed to Menards to pick up some ceiling paint (FREE!) and check out carpet, tile and bathroom vanities. Lots of choices still coming up!

Sunday was D-Day. Dad, our household professional, showed up with all the equipment necessary for a successful day of painting. Mom and Brian, as well as Nancy and Shaun, all showed up to help.

Nancy and I hard at work in the bedroom.

Mom, our skilled cutter! Those edges are perfect!

First coat in the bathroom.

Dad cutting the accent wall in the bedroom.

Brother and sister!

Ugh! No wonder Greg's lost weight! Someone is hogging all the food!

The finished product!

The lighting is not the best since our lights aren't installed yet, but you get the idea.

Accent wall. Again, hard to tell due to the lighting.

Our Luxurious Weekend Get-Away

"Do you really stay in a fish house when you’re working on your new place?”

This is a question I’ve been asked a lot lately, and the answer is, yes! A lot of people have asked about this unusual sleeping arrangement that we have set up. Some of you are probably just amused by our weekend getaway, while others may have yet to see what a fish house even looks like.

I know the first time I saw a real fish house I was astounded that you could stay warm in it, let alone sleep in it. That’s when I realized that when a guy says to you, “Hey my Sweetie Love Muffin! I’m going ice fishing with the guys for the day, I’ll catch some fish that I’ll cook up for you tomorrow, I love you!” what he is really telling you is, “Hey Hot Stuff you have a nice butt! I know it’s only 10:00 a.m., but don’t wait up for me tonight because I’m going out to drink beer and fart with the guys for the rest of the weekend. We’re going to be really obnoxious so we’re putting up a shack in the middle of the lake because that is as far away from civilization as possible. I probably won’t even bring my fishing pole, so make me a turkey sandwich for lunch tomorrow, mmkay?”

Sorry boys. The secret is out!

"A cozy, weekend get-away for two, this sleeping suite boasts four bunks, a propane heater, foam pads and blankets-galore. You and your sweetie will get back in touch with nature and yourselves as you surround yourself with the luxuries of fish-house living."

We've Got Walls, Folks

11/27/09 UPDATE: As some of you know, our intent was to be out of our apartment and into the guest house by the end of November. As you can see by the pictures, the hut won't be ready. Taking this into consideration while thinking about the busy holiday season and our sanity, we've extended our lease on our apartment to the end of December, and hope to be able to move by the weekend before Christmas.

WOOT!

We officially have rooms in our hut. Our glorified dorm room is officially a glorified 1-bedroom hut.

Greg spent his birthday week out at the property - staying in the fish house at night. He spent the days helping the insulators, sheetrocking, mudding/taping and the like. He's one exhausted boy now, especially considering how difficult it is to stay on a regular eat-sleep-work cycle.

Since we don't have a fridge hooked up at the house, we need to be creative every weekend with our food situation. Typically I'll prepare the food Thursday or Friday for the whole weekend, freeze what can be frozen, then pack up the coolers with lots of ice and the weekend food. It's quite the process and I'm getting really creative with my "One Pot Meals." Stew just isn't as appetizing as it once was.

Trying to come up with enough food to keep for an entire week for him proved impossible. This certainly didn't help his situation, and I feel pretty bad about it.

I made him come home one night last week so he could at least get a good night's sleep in a real bed. The novelty of sleeping in a fish house wears off pretty quickly.

Thanks to those who came out this past week to help and keep Greg company.

The walls were a great surprise to me Saturday morning when I showed up. It actually looks like a house now! Steve and Dad came on up to help with the remaining mudding, taping and sanding.

I spent most of the day Saturday, once again, raking. I've learned that this may just be a ploy to keep me out of the way. Every week when I return, there are MORE leaves that have dropped and require raking. Hmm. Someone needs to invent a raking machine.

Check out the boys' progress:

New windows in as well! We added some larger windows and put transom windows along the north side of the home, which is where the shared driveway passes. Gives us a bit more privacy from any peeping toms!

Pics of the bedroom. Greg built a closet and we've decided to put a patio door on the south side of the bedroom (where the black panelling is currently in the photo below). This direction looks out into our property so it will be a nice way to bring in a lot of light and have some nice scenery!

Mudding in the bathroom. Nice pose Pops. We also put some privacy window blocks in the shower stall of the bathroom to let some natural light in. This was a dark, dank cave otherwise. Dank caves are not my style. The blocks are about 10-feet up and, again, face back into our property. We'd have to have some very tall, very clever peeping toms to be peeped at through these.

"Greg, look at the camera."

"Why do I have to look at the camera, just take a picture!"

"I already have a lot of pictures of your back, plus Dad just struck a sweet pose in the shower so see if you can do any better."

"Uggggh! FINE! I'll look at the camera!"

Brilliant.

On Sunday, Greg and I spent the day sanding. I so wish I had a picture of us when we took a break for lunch, because we were both COVERED in white dust. It was everywhere!!

Later, Dad came up and we primed the hut. Lookin' like a nice place to set up shop.

Even better pose, Dad. Not sure what you're doing, but we'll take it.

Next up: Choosing paint colors!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!