Project Landscape Renovate

While I'd love to give you some prose about the beauty and grandour surrounding me in Oregon, truth be told, it is not always thus.

Yes, I live in a mountainous recreational area. During the summer Bend hosts the Pole Pedal Padel, and in one event you ski, bike, run, kayak, and run to the finish line, all in the same race, and all on the same day. You can do it all here.

But the climate is referred to as the high desert. Many people think it rains all the time here, but that isn't true. If you are in Portland, you will drive up and over the Cascade Mountain range as you head south, and 2.5 hours later you will get to my house.

We are at an elevation of 3077 feet (to be exact).

We should have snow right now. But for some reason, it all landed in DC.

In the summer we institute Cold Zone Gardening, which means it isn't easy to grow things here (well, it is for some people, but not for ME). It can still freeze at night in the summertime. Not good for growing hydrangeas, don't you know.

That said, I love it here. And I'm busy renovating to create a beautiful home to raise my girls. But it needs a lot of work.

The previous owners of 20 years planted a zillion trees around this 2 acre property. The problem is, many were planted too close together, so they are growing into each other, and just aren't healthy.

These three pine trees are smack dab in the middle of my backyard.

We've never been happy with these trees. They drop needles and pine cones, so my little ones have to take care of their precious bare feet when they are zipping around the yard. They suck the water out of the ground and are killing the lawn.

We've gone back and forth a million times regarding what to do with them. They are mature trees. You should keep them. But they are unhealthy and growing into each other. They won't last forever this way. Do you take out the middle one, leave just the one on the far left, all of them? We don't know.

But alas, after 4 years in this house, we still aren't certain what to do.

Wait? What was that? Did you notice a little something on the lower left of the above photo? Did it look like this?

Oh my goodness. Is that Steve? Is that, dare I say, a chainsaw?

Why yes. Yes it is. You see, a decision was made, and Steve, who spent his summers working for the Forest Service while in school, therefore having mad chainsaw skillz, spent Monday morning out in the yard, and this is what he did:

(Polaroids made with Poladroid)

What we have here is a lot of pressure. Pressure because we have a huge backyard, and now we have a huge backyard without 3 great big trees in it, which means that you are really going to be able to see the lawn, which means it needs to be pretty. We don't even have an underground sprinkler system at this house. That's a lot of pressure to put on a lawn. And me, the waterer of said lawn.

Taking out those three trees revealed a great big tree that sits just outside the fenced yard. That's nice. And you can't see it, but to the left of that tree is the chicken coop and two baby apple trees, and to the right is the fenced garden, which WILL be planted this year.

So there you have it. The renovation continues...... with a lot of work to be done.

Davinie

P.S. Back soon with Studio Calico sneaks. And Project 12 (you still have a few days on that one).

My Fixer Upper - The Downstairs Bathroom.

First, the Homefront Giveaway is still on! Leave a comment here and check out another layout from this Collection on this post.

Now, as promised, I am going to share part of my home.

First, I was 6 months pregnant when we moved in, so all I really cared about was a nap, which means I was really annoyed, because the bed was in pieces and the couch was in the back of a trailer being moved, you know? Everything was in upheaval so I didn't really care about anything else. AND in order to even move into this house, a lot of things needed to be done to make it livable. The house was previously heated with solar heat, but it was inefficient, so the previous owners also had a woodstove, which was old and in a terrible spot for young children. So the first thing we had to do was buy a heat pump, which came with air conditioning, which was a big chunk of money. And that was only one of the zillion things we had to do in order to live at the house.

I did manage to take a few before pictures though. I wish I had taken more detailed shots, but at the time, my pregnant self took a photo and was done with it, lol.

Without further ado, this is the before photo of the bathroom downstairs:



You'll notice linoleum, a rusty metal shelving unit of sorts over the toilet, an old icky vanity mirror with those sliding doors. And a 1980 sink. I know this bathroom could be much worse, but the thing that turned me off the most was the rust and general lack in cleanliness. ick. I didn't get a photo of it, but the door needed replaced too. The whole house had those cheap hollow core doors, meant for mobile homes, I think? They didn't even fit properly in a standard door frame. There was major air space underneath... which certainly wouldn't have made any quality time in the commode very comfortable, you know? heeeee.

Okay, I will say I am extremely disappointed in the upcoming photos, because they don't do the room justice. But it's extremely difficult to photograph a bathroom without a window or a 360 degree lens, ya know?

First, the bathroom door:


To the left is a guest bedroom.

Solid pine doors, full of knots and bumps. I love love love these doors. This is what all the doors in the house look like (as soon as we get them all hung, anyway). No more hollow core doors for us!

This next view is the from the open doorway, looking at the shower. There is no tub anymore. Steve laid tile floors, and a tile shower, with these really cool rocks on the floor. The floor is not even and it feels heavenly on your feet. It's almost like a foot massage when you take a shower.


I didn't get a photo of it, but the shower head is huge and is one of those "raining" shower heads. So when you go into this bathroom, shut the door and turn on the shower, it's almost tropical. You just have to drown out the sounds of the small children banging on the door, lol.

This next photo is my favorite part of the bathroom. I was at an antique store and saw these matching windows, so we backed them with mirrors and used them in the bathroom over the sink, as we bought a double sink. They still have the window latches on them, the paint is scruffed up, and I love these window/mirrors a lot.

Lastly is a view of the double vanity from the shower.


You can also see a niblet of the bathroom floor from that last photo. Steve laid tile floors as well.

The walls are painted a very light shade of grey.

So that's that! My downstairs bathroom!

I think the next tour I'll do is my scrapbook room and the mud room. Before, it was a single car garage and a separate room that housed an 800 GALLON water tank. A HUGE tank. Imagine THAT transformation!

:)

Have a great day!