Squeezing in as much as we can before vacation!

The week before leaving for Morocco, we decided to go on a home renovation tear. So, we went to our friendly Home Depot and bought: a washing machine, a dryer, an attic ladder, ducts, roof vents, a new front door, pavers, and all the little things we thought we needed to get everything taken care of. We also research and ordered a bathroom light/vent combo.

And then we called Todd, our handyman. Seriously, you didn't think we were going to try to do this all ourselves, a week before going on vacation?

We had to do a little prep work first, though.

We decided to put the washer/dryer into our hall closet, stacked. In order to do so, we first had to strip the wallpaper and take down the scrunky homemade racks, and then paint.

[photos to come]

And then we had Tim, our helpful plumber, swing by and plumb the closet for us, since it had not previously been used as a home to a washer/dryer (the older washer lived in the furnace room, and there was no old dryer). Tim is awesome -- always right on time, efficient and friendly (and cute -- for all you single ladies!).


Our new washer/dryer hookup.

Of course, our lovely paint job was ruined, because Tim had to cut the wall open to put the new pipes in. Evan got to spend an evening putting up new drywall, which hasn't been painted yet, as you might be able to discern from the picture...

The next day, Todd and his helper Charlie came by to start on the projects we wanted to accomplish. They spent the first day installing the new attic access, and venting the soon-to-be-installed dryer. They also installed a new bathroom light/vent fixture, since we didn't have either a vent or an overhead light in the bathroom previously -- it got pretty foggy in there.


Vent sticking out of the ceiling in the hall closet.


Piece of venting waiting to be installed (after the dryer arrives).


The new attic access, closed. It needs to be painted, but we haven't quite decided how we want to paint.


The new attic access, open!


The new bathroom light/vent. Very quiet!

Very last thing: Todd and Charlie removed our old, hollow front door (which someone totally could just kick right through, if they wanted to), and installed our bright, shiny new front door. With a stained glass window! How classy, right? We're thinking about painting it dark green, with a white trim, just to give our house a slightly different look.


Welcome!