Another year has gone by... We've done a little bit of work on the house, rented our upstairs apartment,  traveled more, spent more time with family, relaxed, and we've come to find another project for our future... 

So here are some pictures of the final work we did on the upstairs apartment. The apartment was rented last August to a young professional couple around our age. They are very nice and have been great tenants. 

Stairs - After

Stairs - Before

Stairs - After 

Stairs - Before

 Bedroom - After

Bedroom - Before 

Fireplace - After 

 Kitchen - After

 Kitchen - After

Kitchen - Before

Living Room - After

 

Living Room - Before

Bathroom - After

 Bathroom - Before 

We'll that's a difference!!! 

Once we finished and rented out the upstairs we started work primarily on the backyard. 

This is what the yard looked like at the end of the summer last year.

This summer its much more filled in with plantings,a new Japanese maple, a finished shed, a new fence, and  a wooden patio set. 

 

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 The ground cover came from small plantings from my mother's and grandmother's yards. I had to slowly spread it over the year to get this final look between the paver stones.

The fence was modeled after a fence my grandfather Kilduff designed in his yard in Hampton, VA. I think we spent 6 or more weekends working on this fence due to its intricate detailing. The coolest thing about is that it offers privacy from the main road, but if your walking up the alley you can see little glimpses of the garden. 

Here are a couple process shots of the fence....

And now for the before shot of the backyard..... I can't believe we purchased this place... :) 

Gross..

It's been 4 years now since we purchased this house in 2010. We've been through a lot of tough and trying times, but we made it!! We love our new home and now spend more time enjoying each other's company trying to relax....

Oh and by the way, what happens after you get married, build your home, and find too much time to relax???

Only one thing....

We will be welcoming a baby boy into our world this December 2014!! 

We are thrilled with this new adventure ahead!! So our next project for the fall is a nursery... Stay tuned! 

PS. If anyone is looking for design help in Richmond, please ask us. We'd love to help you in your renovations! Message us sarahvhunt@yahoo.com or benclair@gmail.com 

End-of-Summer Update

Well it's been a very nice and relaxing summer, and while we've gotten back to somewhat of a normal life around here, there was still some work to be done on the last few projects.  With the garden well on it's way, it was time to focus on converting the second bedroom from little more than a tool room to an actual usable guest room/ office.  To do this we needed a home for the tools, and that turned out to be a 5'x'6' shed...now sure we could have just bought one, but where's the fun in that?  Nope, we had to build one from scratch, one that would be the best size, and one that would fit in with the character of the area.

 Digging holes is tough.....digging holes in the middle of July, well I guess is better than January, but that's about it.  Maybe I need a better shovel, or an auger.

FYI if you ever build adjacent to a retaining wall like we did here, always dig the footings that are closest to the wall down to the same level as the bottom of the wall.  Otherwise you will put added pressure against the wall and risk overturning it.

Normally building a shed on anything but 4' dimensions is considered a mistake, but in our case we had some very exact dimensions we needed to meet, in order to store what we wanted and without making it too large for our small yard.  So we ended up with a 5'x6' size.

Sarah inspecting the work after a long day.

The siding is Hardi cement board so it should last a good long time.  One of the features we wanted was deep overhangs on all sides, which will protect the shed from sun and rain, and give it a little more character.

 And here it is completed and painted.  The deep red is the same as our front and back doors and matches the windows on the building beyond.  The roof is galvanized metal, which was a first for us but actually fairly easy to install....only I wouldn't recommend doing it on a hot July day.  You might see the scrap wood laying flat on the ground....one day we plan on putting some deck boards down in this spot for a planting area.

So after several weekends of hard (and hot) work we finally have a home for the tools, and most importantly, another room in our house!  The next project in the fall will be the back fence, and as always we'll be sure to post pictures.

Spring is here and so is our garden!!

Hello everyone! We are back. There has been a number of changes since we last posted. One of the biggest and best milestones however was that the State approved our house as a certified historic rehabilitation!! We met our biggest goal!! It was certainly no easy task and it was filled with little speed bumps every step of the way. Thanks again to all of those who supported us along the way. Now all that is left is to get the upstairs apartment rented!

So enough said.. here are the latest pictures.


The final shots of the FINISHED Bathroom...
We love our curb-less shower!!

Progress shots of the railing install  & paint job on the deck.. Oh my this took a while. The redneck down spout has actually already been replaced too. Just not in these shots. We are already using our new deck at least once a week for BBQs. We are looking for a small bistro set for out here now. 

And with the spring weather we couldn't resist starting our backyard... so we put our upstairs apartment on hold for a couple weeks. We started the backyard by clearing the left side. building a small retaining wall, raising the flower bed, adding in rocks for drainage, and topped it off with an assortment of flowers. 

Before...

 During...

 We've since added a 2nd rain barrel to support the water flow from the roof...

Ben's already enjoying the garden view... Study time :)

Then we tore out all the grass on the right side, enlarged the garden with the tree, planted more veggies and flowers from seed, put down a few levels of gravel & sand, then layed 1 ton of blue ridge flag stone leaving room for ground cover to fill in the cracks.

Now that its getting warm, I can tell we will be spending a lot more time out in our backyard. Next up we will finish our upstairs apartment, build a shed, and finally a privacy fence. We're getting down to the super small stuff and we are starting to get out and enjoy our lives more with camping, kayaking, cycling, swimming, and of course family and friends. Stay tuned we are getting there!