The Plywood Palace, Siding, Phase 1

We've been busy at the Pitt. We began the outside of the house and thought, a couple of weeks and BAAM we'd have siding. As you may know, things are not always how we think they should be at the Pitt. There were a billion repairs to do in the wall itself. And we had to build the wall for the new bay window in the kitchen!!

So we begin with pictures of the plywood palace. Our neighbors must be getting super excited that we are a step closer the real siding:

 We also had to tear down the front steps. They weren't level and water was flowing toward the house. So while I'm at work Bob calls me and says, "We just rented a jackhammer." I'm not going to lie, I was worried. Bob, Dad and the Jackhammer. Who would win?

Dad 1. Steps 0. Bob 0.

Phase II: House Wrap

A Passing at the Pitt

It's been a tough couple of days on the Pitt. Our sweetest Wini girl passed away on Thursday.

Wednesday night we noticed she wasn't eating (she was fine that morning). This is bad, because rabbits need to eat pretty much constantly. We took her to the nearest exotic animal emergency hospital (exotic? yeah, we know) which was all the way in Novi. She had gut stasis (again), a condition where she basically stops digesting. They medicated her and kept her overnight. By morning she was doing much better, so we transferred her to our regular vet for observation the rest of the day. She was doing better, but in the afternoon she took a turn for the worse and never recovered.

We miss her so much. And we know Shaggy misses her terribly. Wini gave us so much: she was our first pet together (and the only one that's been at all of the places we've lived together), she led to Orsi's nickname (Bun), she convinced Orsi's parents to get a pet (their dog Virgonc), she got us Shaggy and so much more.

So in loving memory of our Wini, here are some photo highlights from the last 6 years:

Front Door and Curtains!

It seems like Michigan fall is settling in. It's beginning to get darker sooner, so many of our pictures are being taken in the dark. It's cooler out. Sweatshirt weather has set in, football games have begun (GO BLUE!), and we've finally picked out some siding. The siding is the last big outdoor project we have left. So while Dad and Bob talk about G channels, and J channels, and integrated J channels and all that other exciting siding stuff, I've been focusing on interior design.

So here's a couple of side projects that we've been working on. The front door has finally been painted. The color is Sundried Tomato by the folks over at Sherwin Williams on the outside, and white on the inside.

My other obsession has been finding the perfect curtains for the master bedroom. It's been a long hunt, but I've finally found ones I love at Cost Plus!

No curtain rods yet just Bob. So what do you guys think? Isn't it totally Ors (and Bob if he had an opinion)?

And it Looks Better!

So it looks better already (see just a temporary set back).

Our new door wall!

Dining room back to normal.

Our new bay window in the kitchen!

It has to look worse before it looks better. Right?

So we have jumped, head first, into replacing the sliding door and window off of the kitchen. This project has become a serious endeavor.  Replacing rotting 2 x 4's, 2 x 6's and every other possible wood types that are in the wall. Foam board is in bad shape, insulation is in bad shape - the whole thing in bad shape.

And somehow, when it seemed like we were making so much progress, we took a big leap back (well not really - but that's what it looks like)

Our new sliding door - with a great plywood appearance

 

The deck from the outside:

Ahh the window (Where's Scamp?):

More of the deck. The sliding door from the outside:

Just keep reminding myself, it will look a lot worse before it looks better.

The Deck Part 2: Detaching from the house and then some

Orsi's dad attached the deck to the new posts and cut the deck away from the house:

We wanted to pry the long, wide boards attached to the house away, but there's no room to pry. So we cut away the metal brackets:

 

Those sparks are hot! With the bracket cut loose, we removed the piece of wood, making room to pry the boards off:

 

 

We removed the large bolts and pried away. Some segments were stuck pretty good, and some practically fell off. This is why you don't attach the deck to the house! Here are some of the boards we pulled off:

While we were at it, we removed most of the rotted siding as well. Some of the foam board underneath will probably also have to go:

 

The next step will be to replace the window and sliding door over the deck. Then we can redo the siding. Then we can close the deck back up.

The Money Pit

When we tell people about our house, more than half the time we get a response along the lines, "Have you seen the Money Pit?" Somehow, neither of us had ever seen this 1986  movie. Well, it's not that mysterious, actually. Orsi was in communism and movies were just not a big part of Bob's family at that time.

Anyway, once we learned of the movie, Orsi didn't want to see it - she was afraid it would jinx us. As if our house needed any help in that department. So Bob added it to the netflix queue, and several months later, it finally percolated to the top.

We watched it. We were highly amused.

We have to say, our house is simply not that bad. As far as we know so far. On the flip side, Bob is also not Tom Hanks. We guess we'll have to take the good with the bad.