First of all, let me start by saying I'm sorry for not posting sooner. Life has been flying by these past few weeks. I can't say that anything huge has happened, but in general, regular life events keep me busy. In the first week of March, I made Fastnachts for Fastnacht day. I enjoy doing this each year. It's not that I actually make them to celebrate fat Tuesday...it's just that I absolutely love donuts, and its fun to have a family tradition.
The way I see it, if you're going to get out the fryer, get it running, and use a huge container or oil, you may as well fry everything in sight. So I also made apple fritters. Dan really enjoys them.
Aside from donuts, Dan has been working VERY hard on the house. I mentioned a few of the big projects he was working on in the last few months...furnace, kitchen and mudroom floors, and re-plumbing the house. After finishing those things, he started in on the next big job...resurfacing walls.
Just to give you an idea of the changes that have been made, I'm posting before and after photos.
This is the downstairs bathroom before. There was a large heart-shaped tub rather than a shower. Besides the fact that the tub didn't work, it hadn't been plumbed properly. In fact, the pipes had been duct taped together, and in one place, an old vacuum hose had been used rather than pvc pipe.
Dan installed a new shower instead. It's hooked up and fully functioning.
In the dining room, wallpaper was falling down, and there were several holes in the lath and plaster.
Dan has started patching, and mudding all the holes.
This one is hard to see, but the staircase on the left is the one that goes upstairs. Some years back, a former owner changed the stairway to be a narrow, low ceiling with a sharp turn. So sharp in fact that the plywood Dan bought for the floors in the upstairs bathroom wouldn't fit up them. So you'll see the change Dan did to the staircase opening in the next picture.
He took the ceiling up (not pictured) so it's much higher and more open now. He widened the doorway, so now large items can be moved easily upstairs. I also just have to mention that I love the banister posts he built...they fit the Victorian style of the house much better than having none.
This is the upstairs bathroom before. I took down all the wallpaper last summer, and now....
Dan removed the hideous purple tiles on the walls and the peel-and-stick tiles on the floor and redid it.
He resurfaced the walls, put in a newer shower surround, and removed the toilet (we'll be putting in the new one this week).
What a hard worker! I'm very proud of all the work he does. Dan is trying hard to finish the house before the baby comes in May. This week, my father-in-law is coming to stay with us for a few weeks, and will be helping with the renovation projects. We've already purchased all the drywall needed to complete the upstairs...and that's the goal for the next two weeks.
Be expecting to see some more photos soon!
