House RenovationsToday marks seven months since I started my house renovations. Of course things take a bit longer when you change the plan in the middle and decide to tear off your teeny-tiny office and add a big new part on to the back of your house. I won’t say I haven’t ever been discouraged, but mostly I’ve been feeling grateful, and all day today I’ve been looking around thinking, “I can’t believe I live here.” There are a lot of photos this time, since I’m trying to keep a record and there’s been a lot of progress. I’m starting with something very hard to photograph, but I wanted to show the blinds on my back door which make it so I can turn around and see my garden while I’m at the desk. The other window shows the Hunter-Douglas blinds, which are turning out to be great for photos.

I’m slow reporting about it, but I did get cement, after having a tiny cement strip and dirt here for nearly 20 years! This sidewalk goes along the east side of my house.

Here’s the sidewalk the next morning, and if you look at the back of the photo, you can see where the new part of the house is.

I also got a new sidewalk up to my front door, which I love since my front sidewalk has been cracked and broken for about 10 years.

Here’s the new sidewalk the next morning, seen from the porch. That pile of broken concrete is gone now, and the new sidewalks look great.

Over the last few weeks the lower deck has started to appear. It’s been fun coming home each day and seeing a bit more deck.

That deck is now pretty much finished, and here you see where it meets the new sidewalk. Good planning, huh?

This view shows you how high the lower deck is. There are steps coming down to a path to my garden, and there will be raised beds for tomatoes running along the front of this deck on each side of the steps. (That will be next year’s tomatoes, since it’s too late to move them this year, but the new spot has total sun and I’ll have a drip irrigation system for the tomato boxes. Very exciting, huh?)

Here’s the stoop on the new deck, with the open door that leads into my office. If you’re a long-time reader you might remember the doormat with the herb planters, which is even more perfect for the back door!

I wanted to show how the lower deck connects to the upper covered deck, with just one step up. As you can see, the covered deck is buried in contractor stuff and a bunch of things from my house that are moved out so the older part of the house can get painted.

I’m going to show the finished office when it’s all decorated, but here is my new desk and chair (and Twitter on the computer screen, which I thought was pretty funny when I looked at the photos.)

And here is where I take photos of food (or at least I would be taking photos if I hadn’t been busy for three days packing up all my possessions so the painters could do their magic.) I’ll work on getting a better shot of this when I show the finished office, but it’s a wonderful place to take photos.

Finally, this is what you’d see if you walked in my front door right now: every room with the contents in the middle covered with plastic, and painting supplies everywhere. The ceilings got painted today, and the painters come back Monday to do the walls and then trim. I’m painting the whole house the same color as the office, and my house was last painted in 1998, so I’m really looking forward to having clean new walls, doors, and floorboards again!

If you’ve read this far, thanks for taking an interest in the updates which I know I ‘ll love having to help me remember the process when the house is done. (If anyone is interested, you can see my whole set of House Renovations Photos on Flickr or use the label House Ronovations to see all the posts.)

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