We decided to replace the old oven when we got our floors installed.  This is a quick picture of the new stove – we are really loving it!

They are in!  We have finally replaced the nasty carpet in the living room, upstairs hall, and stairs along with the linoleum in the kitchen with brand new hardwood!  It took around 5 days for the crew to remove the carpet/linoleum, install the hardwood, sand and seal.  We are thrilled with the results.  Below you can see some before and afters of the areas described.  Enjoy!

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Here they are, the before and after pictures of the front of our house. Before shows the old aluminum windows and the shake shingle siding. The After has the new windows plus the cut cedar shingles. You can click on the images to see them at a higher resolution. Enjoy!

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Here are some images from this spring.  We got the garden planted, and we laid some new sod.  Enjoy!

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Well, if you looked outside you wouldn’t think it was spring. We got around 4 inches of snow last night and with 40 degree temperatures during the day our white dog has taken it upon himself to get soaked filthy as if it were his job.

However, our spring fever is in high gear. We have already placed a full 3 cubic yards of dirt into our new garden beds (see GECK project) and added some huge earthworms to the mix. Our 3 gorgeous apple trees have recieved some much needed pruning, so our bounty this fall should be fantastic. The front garden area is also getting our attention and is next on our list of projects (we have already trimmed back the out of control dogwood in that area). Neither of us is looking forward to the manual labor required to clean up the entire front area. It will involve totally ripping out the green weed-type foliage, along with the fabric sheathing it is effortlessly growing through. We will be placing some large cobble (2 – 4 inches) up front and adding some local grasses for a nice xeriscaped look. Stay tuned for that as it is sure to be a remarkable improvement (Check the Projects page for more information).

Here is a picture we took of the amazing sunsets we are treated to here at 2061 Tunis. Enjoy!

Happy New Year! Kelley and I were fortunate enough to have just gotten off of a three day weekend, of which the temperature outside was a balmy 15 F at most. So, we wouldn’t be going into the mountains to play. We decided to get some much needed painting out of the way. After a visit to the Home Depot, we spend two full days painting the living room, kitchen, upstairs hallway, and the office! We basically just freshened the same color in all but the office, which we painted a dark blue called “Lakefront”. Needless to say, everything looks absolutely amazing! We even managed to replace the light fixtures that hung above the entryway with some modern track lighting and a cool handblown glass droplight (see images). Also, we finally got right of the old light fixture in the kitchen dining area and got a nice, small ceiling fan installed. Such and improvment – It looks great! So, we are now plenty sore from the ordeal, and love staring at the amazing work we accomplished.

Next up on the winter indoor work – painting the downstairs recreation room (same color as upstairs). This shouldn’t be too bad – however, Kelley and I need a little time away from the brush if you know what I mean. Take care and stay warm!

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Winter has arrived in Colorado! Our outdoor projects have slowed to a halt beyond any routine maintenance. We have some ideas for winter projects revolving around updating light fixtures, painting the main areas of our house (great room, kitchen and upstairs hall). We will also be putting in hard wood floors in these areas sometime later in the winter/early spring. That’s about it for now! Click on the photo below to see other “Winter Wonderland” photos. Stay warm!

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Although autumn has arrived and the temperature has dropped, we are still holding strong with our attention to the house. The GECK project has been completed and now awaits springtime for use. It turned out really well – check out the projects page for more information. We also managed to get our hands on a steamer for removing wallpaper and have proceeded to redo the main guest bedroom downstairs. Removing the wallpaper, sanding the chipping paint beneath that and repainting should be completed by tomorrow evening at the latest; just in time for our friends Mark and Leslie to arrive for Friday night and their baby shower! Congratulations guys!

The fall apple harvest went well and we (well, Kelley) canned a ton of applesauce. We are looking forward to next year after we trim the trees this February as the fruit will be larger. We have also shut down the sprinkler system for the winter – it will professionally blown-out early next week.

Another ongoing “unofficial” project is the updating of the light fixtures. Since this house was built in the 70’s, there is a lot of fluorescent lighting and dated fixtures throughout. We can’t stand to even use some of the fluorescent lighting and therefore haven’t even been using it. Kelley recently took a trip to IKEA in Salt Lake City and got a great set of track lighting to replace the Fluorescent fixture in the kitchen and it has made a huge difference – it looks great and gives way better light.

Finally, we have several winter plans lined up. Sometime in February or March we will be putting in hardwood floors throughout the upstairs (hall, stairs, living room and kitchen). This will probably be a light bamboo which is fairly durable and comes from a renewable resource – unlike many of the exotic hardwoods people use that destroy tropical forests and are extremely endangered. We also need to apply a new coat of paint to the upstairs hall, living room and kitchen (including the kitchen ceiling). Wish us luck!

Well, this weekend we have our first “gathering” of many people we know, commonly called a party. It went super well, with around 30 people milling about enjoying our new home. Kelley was super pleased as we used all of our spaces well. With that behind us, I spent most of the day on Sunday working on the GECK project and made substantial progress. I am planning on chipping away at that after work each day this week, so it looks like that may be a quicker deal that I had originally anticipated.

Well, we have a few updates. First, we finished the island project which is great. We have some pretty gnarly before and after pictures located on the projects page for your amusement. We also got around to updating a little bit of the upstairs bathroom. This invloved fresh paint, updated towel hangers, toilet paper holder, and overhead light fixture. We still want to update the other light fixture, but that will come in time. We also finally got the water line attached and working for the fridge. Gotta love automatic ice makers! Oh, and we got some awesome new furnature for the upstairs living room – it looks great! More to come, so stay tuned!