A New Porch & A Wine Cellar Make-Over

Our concrete front porch covers a small storage area that is accessible from our basement.  We have always called it our wine cellar because, let's be honest, that sounds so much better than a concrete storage area.

A few years ago we noticed moisture seeping into the storage area, so we just limited what we stored in that area (ie, no valuables).  We tried for years to determine the source of the leak.  We caulked.  We built up the dirt and landscaping around it.  We sealed it from the inside.  We had no luck.  And then this spring when the last days of winter had left us, we noticed that our porch was crumbling to pieces.

Outside:

 

The "Wine Cellar:"

 

 

We really didn't know how bad things had gotten in there because we hadn't used it much and there was insulation stuffed between those boards.  Wow!

So we shelled out an arm and a leg to have the porch reconstructed.  We really had no choice.  The crumbling steps were a liability, and I really wanted to be able to use that storage space again. 

Phase 1

Tear off the old concrete pad.  Seal and waterproof.

Phase 2

Rain.  Rain.  Rain.  The morning after sealant went on.  And fail.  We woke up to rain pouring into our basement from a tiny missed spot right at the threshold.  It was promptly fixed, and we moved on to phase 3.

 

Phase 3

The new pad and the support beams below.  Apparently concrete is really heavy when it's wet.

 

Phase 4

Wait a long two weeks for a new railing.

 

Phase 5

Clean up and paint the wine cellar.  There are no pictures of this stage.  I'm not pretty when I paint.  And it's just a white box.  Boring.

 

 

Once the railing went in, I scored a deal on two awesome chairs and a table at Menards.  The chairs were $67 each, and the table was $35.  I spray painted the mailbox.  Mike replaced the porch light.  And we spray painted the house numbers so they can actually be seen from the road.  

 

After:

 

 

 

I might even have room for a little pantry, right over here: 

 

Isn't she lovely?  We have enjoyed sitting out on the front porch a number of times.  Even better -- I am ordering two ottomans tomorrow from Home Depot that will make sitting out there even more comfortable.

 

I'll admit that I have not put anything valuable back in the wine cellar since the work was finished.  It has been absolutely bone dry in there since the work was completed, but I'm just not quite ready to put old photo albums or yearbooks in there. 

 

Next up:  new carpet for the basement.  Oh, and I am still painting trim.  And we still haven't installed new baseboards in the kitchen after the wood floors went in a year ago.  The list is long, but we're busy living life too.  Working, getting PhDs, loving on our nephew, walking the dog, and sitting on our front porch having a beer.

That tile!

For those readers who wanted more information about the tile in our bathroom. 

The Great Flooring Project of 2012...and 2013

This May, we finally got tile installed in our bathroom (see the surprise we uncovered when we had our wood floors refinished here) and in the entryway by our garage.

We scored an awesome deal on the tile for the bathroom and picked a neutral tile for the entryway that would hide the dirt we track in and out.  We found both at our local Habitat ReStore, and I even stumbled upon tile for our kitchen backsplash to be completed down the road.  One of our good friends did the work, and we are so pleased with how it turned.

Dr. Risuglia...What?

Life as I know it (meaning afternoon naps, no commitment weekends, and spur-of-the-moment dinner dates with the hubs) is over come fall.  I wish I could say it's because I'll be giving birth to a bouncing baby boy or girl, but it's not.  I'll be giving birth, instead, to a PhD.

So I'll be plugging away over the next five or six years at classes and then a dissertation all the while working full time and  starting a family.  Send wine.

Our Ornaments, Our History

Since Mike and I first started dating in 2004 we have collected an ornament each holiday season that represented that year.  Most of them are from vacations we took, additions to our family (doggies), and the like.  This year we decided on an angel to memorialize our spring baby and our two poochies, Walter and Brutus, who we lost this summer and fall.

Each year, I hang the ornaments on a little table tree as a display.  Soon enough, that tree won't be big enough, and we'll have to move them to the big tree.

I took a little time this year to package each ornament inside a plastic bag with an index card noting the year we purchased the ornament and why.  It's one of those projects that took little time now but will be so worthwhile down the road as we gather more ornaments and some day pass them on to our children.  As I grow older and learn to appreciate the history of our family more and more, I realize how important it is for Mike and I to chronicle our history for our children. 

RIP Brutus

Our Brutus went to Rainbow Bridge on October 16, 2012, five years almost to the day when we brought him home from the humane society in 2007.  He was already 11 years old when we brought him home. 

He was a little guy and had some lingering health issues from his previous owner, but he quickly recovered under our care and was a handsome guy when he was freshly groomed.  He loved to cuddle, go on car rides, and sit with us in the evenings while we watched our favorite shows.  He didn't like to have his bangs cut and had trouble seeing and hearing.

Though we knew Brutus was growing older and starting to suffer, his death snuck up on us.  We didn't feel like we got as much time to really be at peace with letting him go as we would have liked.  We take comfort in knowing we provided him a loving home for the last five years of his life.

The Beast in the Bedroom

Since we moved into our charming little house seven years ago, we've been plagued by the beast in the bedroom.  This beast:

So you're wondering what that beautiful monstrosity is, right?  I don't even know what to call it.  Google searches turn up nothing.  Essentially, what you're looking at here is the space where the ceiling above the stairs from our living room to bedrooms and bathroom (shown in previous post) juts up into our master bedroom and causes major headaches. 

Our home is a multi-level.  What that means for us is lots of stairs, but never really a full staircase.  In every other place in our house, the space is usable and blends in.  This is the one place that it does not, and it has been driving me nuts for seven years.

Many a discussion took place about how to best make use of this space.  Shelves?  A curtain and tension rod to hide it away?  Finish off the slant and just embrace it?  Back when I moved in, my Dad framed it out to square off the area, and my sister and I covered some plywood with batting and fabric and nailed it in.  Over time, the nails came loose, the boards shifted, and it just looked crappy.

Recently, I decided to give it a little help and make some use of that space.  I took off the covered plywood and cleaned up back there.  I touched up the purple paint and vacuumed.  Then I just put that plywood back in place, but I went to town with some Liquid Nails first and locked those puppies in.

I am on a journey to shed some weight, and this is a collection of clothing at different sizes.  It never really had a home.  I just moved it from place to place.  I bought three clear bins at Target for like $5 each and took an evening to sort.  My Dynamo label maker did its work, and now it feels so much better.  Not only does that space look less scary, but I'll easily be able to access the smaller sizes as I need them.  And I finally have a place for the throw pillows from our bed!