Thursday 28 October 2010

The Roof is (not) on Fire

Finally we have a roof over our heads – well one that keeps the rain and snow off our balcony to be exact.

After Dad was so kind to do the first and really important steps to prevent water from entering our holy walls, we figured it would be smart to take more precautions before the winter finally arrives.

Here’s the result

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Ok, ok…we admit that eventually we will have to paint the beams to make them match the rest of the wood but they’ve been treated with wood varnish and will receive another paint job in the spring.

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Sunday 24 October 2010

Halloween

In preparation for Halloween, the hubby and I talked about getting a pumpkin for carving. Whereas I would’ve gotten a pumpkin the size of a basketball, the hubby went for this:

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Apparently Texas isn’t the only state where things are bigger….

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Look at that beautiful lopsided grin…

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The hubby gets to work….

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Finished. We then put it out on the doorstep. Not an hour later we had the neighbors call in for a visit after they saw our pumpkin. They loved it.

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Now all we need to do is stock up on sweets and look forward to next weeks trick or treating.

Happy Halloween!!!!

Sunday 10 October 2010

The One Where They Finish the Office

A few weeks ago you would have thought you entered a messie’s room when you came into what was supposed to become our office.When my American twin and her family came to visit, we at least managed to haul up the heavy armoire to the guest bedroom but that is really as far as we had gotten to date – regarding the office.

Now it was time to find a home for the countless folders and lose papers and the homeless workstations rotting in the basement.

So this is how it started out (a contenter for “Das Messie Haus” or “Hoarders”")

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We stored all of our tools in there and all the things that had not yet found a place where just thrown in.

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Well the one and only hubby took two hours to clean out the office one day, when I was off lunching with the girls. And when I got back, I came home to this 

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A remarkable difference and no more hoarding or messiness.

On to the paint job.

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The after

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The first furniture finds its way in

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Luckily we still had the Expedit shelves from the old apartment sitting in the basement. They’ll be making a nice new home for our paperwork and files.

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More to come soon. So stay tuned.

Sunday 5 September 2010

Let it rain

When it was raining heavily recently we started noticing that the wall in the small guest bedroom would get wet. When the previous owners had exchanged the windows to the balcony they never made sure the walls were sealed properly. Whenever it was raining heavily and the water was standing on the balcony or splashing back onto the wall, the wet patch inside would grow.

To prevent any mould from growing something had to be done. Something that, unfortunately could not be fixed with a quick fix solution. Luckily Dad came to the rescue. With the hubby’s help they removed the old plaster, filled the holes with Polyurethane foam before sealing and plastering the whole thing again. A bit of silicone did the rest and now we’re hoping that this solution will bring us over the, hopefully not too nasty, fall and winter.

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Meanwhile Mom and Grandma weren’t lazy either. They turned the flowerbeds from this

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into this

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and this

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into this

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or this desaster

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into this

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or this

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into this

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Who would’ve thought that the backyard could look like this?

Monday 16 August 2010

Kurz vor dem großen Besuch - Shortly before the first guests arrived

 

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The small guestbedroom. In lieu of a missing smaller mattress for the IKEA Hemnes Daybed, we took the two Futon mattresses from the guest bed and made a hopefully somewhat comfortable bed. Das kleine Gästezimmer. In Ermangelung einer zweiten, 80cm schmalen, Matratze für das IKEA Hemnes Tagesbett, haben wir die beiden Matratzen des Futonbettes zu einer hoffentlich bequemen Bettstatt zusammengebaut.

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Tuesday 10 August 2010

Another Before and After Post

Diesmal waren die Nachttischschränkchen dran. Beide sind Fundstücke vom Dachboden und laut Stempel auf der Rückseite von Herrn Humpe im Jahre 1950 zusammengebaut.

Vorher belesen, 2 in 1 Acryllack in antikweiß von Alpina sowie Pinsel, Rollen und Schleifvlies erstanden und schon ging es los. Die Griffe abgeschraubt, angerauht und losgestrichen. Jedes Nachttischchen wurde zweimal gestichen, 24 Stunden Trockenzeit und voila fertig.

 

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Weil wir nicht wußten was wir über den Fernseher hängen sollten, haben wir Rahmen einfach mit Stoff bespannt, der die Farben im Wohnzimmer einfach wieder aufgegriffen hat.

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Und dann war da noch das kleine Gästezimmer, in dem heute auch noch die Lampe an ihren dafür vorgesehenen Platz kommt.

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Gut, noch sind wir auch in den Gästezimmern noch lange nicht fertig. Die Dekoration zum Beispiel. Die fehlt noch komplett. Genauso wie die Kommode und der passende Spiegel, die uns der freundliche Herr von dem wir das Hemnes Nachtschränkchen ersteigert haben, hoffentlich bei seinem Umzug im Oktober verkaufen wird…stay tuned. P1010831