Before & After

Finally! Some hotly anticipated before and after pictures.

Dining Room
Before

After



Kitchen
Before

After (TA DA!!!)



Thanks to Mom Franklin for helping me sew those curtains (made from material from the apartment curtains and leftover fabric from a quilter friend)

BAM's Holidazzle

Disgusting Scat

Remember the original mail slot? First, it was too small for standard size envelopes and magazines. Second, our bird friend left his scat all over the slot cover, making it a health hazard for the mail carrier and us. After we attached the new mailbox, covering up the mail slot, we thought our problems were solved. Our mail was intact and the box was safe to handle.

Then this happened:


Our bird friend came back and let 'er rip all over the new mailbox. Day after day he would perch and shamelessly drop his load. Does he think no one wouldn't notice?


Even though he was a cute little shitter, he had to go - and we didn't want to employ an exterminator, poison, or a BB gun. The most PETA friendly option was to put up plant netting, and even though it looks a little odd, no more scat!

In Love

We have an apple tree! We didn't know we had an apple tree, until one day APPLES showed up! Glorious red-green apples!

They have a sweet, tart, crisp bite - pretty good for eating right off of the stem. But, they are DELICIOUS baked. Smother them in raisins, butter, and brown sugar OR bake them under a pile of old fashioned oats, butter, brown sugar and cinnamon ... and serve with vanilla ice cream/custard. OH MY GOODNESS.

I am totally in love with our apple tree.

We're BACK!

I KNOW - it's been almost two months since the last H of B post. Can you blame us? We've been busy trying to maintain a normal-ish life and reacquaint ourselves to friends and society, while living in a fixer-upper that can make the well-intentioned owners freak out (Becky) or shut down (Sam).
Impressively, we are still married, still speaking with each other, and we still have all of our digits in tact.

So, how much did we finish on our wish list from June?
To-Do "Immediately"
all items scratched out either A) will never be completed or B) haven't been completed, YET

1) Bedroom: paint ceiling, walls, trim, closet, doors; make bought curtains.
2) Other bedroom: paint ceiling, walls, trim, closet; install new lighting; make bought curtains; create new artwork hang artwork we already own.
3) Bathroom: scrape popcorn off bathroom ceiling wait for more ceiling to fall into the tub while showering before finally deciding to scrape the popcorn; paint walls; replace medicine cabinet; install shelving; make curtains.
4) Dining room: paint ceiling, walls, trim, china cabinets inside & out; install new lighting; make bought curtains.
5) Living room: paint ceiling, walls, trim; add additional shelving to book case; ask Dad Franklin to make a table for entryway (see pictures in future post); clean fireplace; put heavy boxes in front of fireplace so that the squirrel/bat/gremlin stuck in the chimney does not escape into the house; make bought curtains; create new artwork for space hang artwork we already own.
6) Entry way: paint closet, walls, ceiling, trim; tear off vinyl & replace with ceramic tile.
7) Hallway: paint closets, walls, trim, ceiling.
8) Kitchen: rip off wallpaper; install appliances; install counter top & sink; strip cabinets; paint cabinets inside & out; attach hardware; add shelving in cabinets; paint trim, walls; install new lighting.*
9) Upstairs Half-Story: replace ceiling tile; paint walls; make curtains; paint powder room; replace toilet seat.
10) Basement: install dryer; remove leaky cement sink; install new utility sink; install shelving & storage
11) Outside: install mailbox; trim back large shrubs; mow the lawn

*There is NO WAY that we would have been able to get the kitchen in any kind of order by ourselves. Lucky for us, our friend and former Uptown neighbor Dan Hanson is the owner of Hanson Building and Remodeling - he saved our butts.

Overall, we are pleased with our progress, especially after looking back at the photos on this blog. Can you believe that kitchen?!

What to stick in the hole?

Now, we have a patio, we have stone steps ... the dilapidated grill just has to go.
All it really took was a few whacks with a sledge hammer to separate it from the tube in the ground that contained the gas line.

Don't worry - the gas was capped weeks ago!

After that was done, the first thought was, what to stick in the hole?

Three choices: corn, bamboo shoots, enchilada sauce.

Corn doesn't work.

Enchilada sauce wins!

Add some dirt, and...what hole?

Uncovering the Past

In late July, Becky's parents came to visit for the weekend, with no intent on having a lazy, relaxing weekend. While Becky and Mom Franklin were out at a weaving class, Sam and Dad Franklin did some extreme pruning.
See the before picture.
Now check out the after shot: The mass of ivy is gone, and during their archaeological dig, they found stone steps up to the unearthed flagstone patio. Amazing!

It was great that the Franklins could share their expertise on what exactly is living in the yard, and to know what to do with it all. We look forward to having them back!!!

Boo! to Boo Radley

Remember the front of the house? See the scorched earth along the walkway? Notice the unruly bushes? There's even a small maple tree smack dab in the middle of the shrubs. Sam has been scheming how to remedy the yard's aesthetic woes, so the H of B can shake off the Boo Radley House reputation.

This morning we took a trip to Gertens and got a lot of great advice. Sam had researched earlier that we needed to over-seed the dead lawn, which requires fertilzer, soil, and seed. At Gertens, they had exactly what we needed - Minnesota grass seed for 50+ year old lawns. So, today we trimmed back the wilderness in front of the house, patched the lawn, and for good measure, adorned the front stoop with a pot of purple petunias.

It just so happened that a neighbor saw our progress, and after introducing himself, mentioned "it looks like a yard now." Take that Boo Radley!

Meeting our local MFD

We decided to finally follow the suggestions of our home inspector, John Trostle (hear him on MPR Midmorning), and purchased a fire extinguisher, carbon monoxide detectors and smoke detectors. Crossing one thing off the to-do list tonight, Sam installed the carbon monoxide detectors.

As soon as he plugged in two detectors, an 85 decibel shriek filled the house. Press the reset button! Make it STOP! Bury them! Do SOMEthing! He pulled out the batteries. Why did the alarm go off?? Do you feel sick? Are we getting poisoned? Should we call the fire department?

So, after calling 911 and explaining that this is NOT an emergency, in five minutes a huge ladder truck with flood lights blazing from Minneapolis Fire Department arrived at house. Four fire fighters, one in full gear, checked for carbon monoxide. Then they put the batteries back in the detectors and plugged them into the wall.

No alarm.
No carbon monoxide.
We're not going to be poisoned in our sleep.
Our neighbors probably think we're the new disaster on the block.

Thank you MFD.

Nice Surprise

A great surprise! Mom & Dad Franklin sent us a grill through our neighborhood hardware store. We will definitely use it - especially in spite of the condition of our kitchen.

This dilapidated grill just won't cut it anymore.

Another nice surprise - there is a buried patio of flagstone! Perfect for the new grill.

The Exterior

Rhubarb!

End of an Era

Yesterday we officially moved out of the Uptown apartment, which was a little bittersweet. It was our first place together, where we worked through the growing pains of a new marriage. The cozy neighborhood was perfect for us - we had a lot of fun living there. It will be missed!

Knocked Out

The Blitz, Moving Day, living between an apartment and a house ... Becky's body took a break for her. Maybe it was the flu, or maybe it was just sheer exhaustion & dehydration - it knocked her out for a couple of days. However, there is no rest for the wicked (a.k.a. home owner), because she was home sick while the Comcast guy drilled holes in the house to hook up the internet & cable.

Moving Day!

Last Saturday we survived the big move, loading up a U-Haul and schlepping our big stuff to H of B. Lucky for us, we had some incredibly generous friends who sacrificed their bodies to help us move. These miracle workers hiked up and down 3 flights of stairs to heave furniture out of our apartment. They didn't stop there - they came with us to the house and moved everything into the house.

We are indebted to Hoa, Ryan, and Adam - wonderful friends and neighbors in Uptown. And Fred, Sam's oldest friend (they've known each other since the third trimester), who coined the moniker BAM, made the couple of hours trip and really saved us.


Sam and Fred


"Little Sammy Mover"
Coincidence or Irony?

More Sneak Preview

Living Room. See Before

Dining Room. See Before

The Blitz

Sam and I were able to both take a few days off of work this week, and tomorrow is the last day of the Five Day Blitz. We've accomplished several items on our "Immediate To-Do List" But, there is no time to relax! We are officially moving from our Uptown apartment and into H of B on Saturday, so the pressure is on to get the house ready for us to live in it.

The goals for the end of this week?
#1: To not completely freak out.
#2: Have spaces available appropriate for sleeping, eating, and bathing.

This may be asking too much.

Oh my god, what have we done?!

It can't get much worse...can it?

Spackle and Popcorn are not snack foods

It's not easy to paint a popcorn ceiling.

Sam + Spackle, Wall Compound, Plaster = Repaired Walls!

Sneak Preview

"Blue Room" a.k.a "Piano Room" a.k.a "2nd Bedroom" a.k.a "Office" See Before

"Our Bedroom" a.k.a "Green Room" See Before

A Conundrum for the Mail Carrier

A bird's favorite dumping spot. I feel bad that the mail carrier has to touch that!


To retrieve mail, we have to yank it out of this slot in the 2nd bedroom. The problem? Most envelopes are bigger now than what was sent 60 years ago. Will this cut down on junk mail? Probably not.

More of the Kitchen

Amazing contortions! Maybe Sam is made out of rubber.

Kitchen Cabinet

Oy! Needs work!

Sam will take care of those yucky cabinets!

The Doozey of a Kitchen

Who doesn't love faux brick?
Cute wallpaper! Unfortunately, most of it is covered by white paint or appliances.
This poor red plate was behind the oven for far too long.

And the wallpaper is gone!

Found Treasure!

Seems that the sellers forgot their googley eye!

Hard Worker

Put a mom to work!

Sam's mom made a trip to help us for a day. It was nice to have an extra pair of hands!