Christmas

Wow, where has the time gone. Its almost January 2012. I felt I needed to do one last blog in 2011 - its been a while since the last installment.

We made a trip to WI and IL over Thanksgiving. The Mountain opened, although with not much snow, however with this new distraction, our energy level towards DIY waivered. SO rather than persue new projects, we embraced the Christmas spirit and cut down a tree and decorated!! It was a completely different Christmas this year compared to last - it was awesome!! Plus I had a couple of surprise visitors on Christmas Day that made it extra special!!

Chris loves his chain saw!!

The chosen tree!

Ready to go

Our lovely Christmas tree!

The outside of the house looking pretty  with fairy lights!

The pom pom garland that I made.....sure beats tinsel!

My surprise visitors - MUM and CHRISSY!!!! (at Mayflower Gulch)

Exterior - Done!!

Over the past few weeks we have been cutting, painting and attaching the trim around the windows, doors and new garage; painting the purple window frames white, and painting the soffit blue. Today Chris finished sealing the new trim, and we think (we hope) the exterior of the house is ready for winter! Lucky as there is a winter storm advisory out for tomorrow night - so looks like we just made it!! I'm pretty happy with how it looks, and OK there are still some things that need to be worked on (front deck and steps, painting the tin roof, fixing driveway), those are tasks for next summer..............

Chris attaching the trim

Probably not the safest way to attach trim - but our ladder was too short!

This weekend - painting anything green, blue.

Painting the soffit - a time-consuming task

Painting the soffit on the other side of the house!

We borrowed the neighbours ladder so we could reach the high points without having to lean out the window!

How the house looked tonight! Finished!!

Winston approves!

Just to remind you how the outside of the house looked like a year ago..................

Garage Door!

During the construction last year, the garage door was the first thing to go. However by Decemeber we needed a new one. The plastic sheet did a great job of keeping the snow out, but not the frigid temperatures!  As money was limited, we decided to make one. So on Christmas Day, Chris built a plywood door, with hinges so we could open and close it. It actually worked fairly well. However as the exterior remodel progressed and now that the outside of the house is starting to look nice, we felt the plywood door didn't really fit in too well. So we ordered a new one online, and on Friday a guy came and installed it! The decision now is whether to paint it blue, like the front door, or leave it white? What do you think?

The original doors - would have been a little drafty if we had kept them - and if I recall correctly we didn't get a chance to save them - the construction guys binned them!

The plywood door Chris made on Christmas Day - not an ideal way to spend Christmas (but I've had worse!)

Chris had to frame the door, so the door size we ordered would fit!

Garage door installer man - only took him a few hours, which was great!

The door installed. Just need to put trim around the wood framing. Hopefully that will get done this week!

Once the blue trim is up around the windows and doors, the exterior will be finished (for this year anyway!!)

My Blue Door. Take Two.

It was about this time last year that I decided to paint the original front door blue. However with all the new construction that took place, the old front door ended up a little too small for the door frame, and rather drafty. We bought a new door (again about a year ago), and for some reason it has remained unpainted this whole time. That was until this weekend.....

After a month of visitors and minimal DIY, this weekend we had some time to get back to house projects. On the top of our list was paint the doors and windows before Winter arrived.

I got to work painting the front and back doors blue, Chris started painting the window frames white. The exterior is starting to look so much better than it did in the Spring. We plan on putting trim around the windows the same colour as the front door - thats on the list for next weekend!

The front door, as it has looked for about a year - note the plastic is still on the glass!

Back door prior to painting - note silly hand rail we had to install in order to meet 'code'.

Deep Royal paint - certainly looks brighter than the sample - hopefully it will be less bright once dry, otherwise we'll have one colourful house!

Finally - my blue front door!!

Lovely blue back door and a welly boot!

Chris painting the purple window frames white.

Chris using a razor blade to remove paint from window.

We have ordered a new garage door, so hopefully the plywood door, will be gone very soon!

My front door matches my French 332 sign!

White window frames!