Renovating and life updates!

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! 

 

Fastnachts, Antiques and Quilting

 Well hello readers!! 

 

I had a great week last week, and so far, this week is going really well too! 

The other week, Dan and I dropped into an antique store in Whitehall.  We were looking for a small end table for our church lobby, which we are beginning to remodel.  We didn't find a end table that would work for that, but we DID see an old trunk that needed some work, but I really liked.  I think the reason I REALLY liked it was because it was full of old letters from the 1800's and those would come with the trunk!  That trunk was $45.  Then the owner told us that he had more trunks, but they were sitting out on the porch.  So after looking them all over, we found this one for $15.  We couldn't resist the price, even though it meant that I didn't get all of the letters.   

 

 

 

One handle is broken off, and the leather straps were mostly dry-rotted off.  We ended up just taking the straps off, polishing up the rusty hinges and brass buttons as best we could and sanding and varnishing the wood.  The canvas is actually still in decent condition, so we are keeping that on. 

I DID find a sheet of paper at the bottom of the trunk that listed all of the items that were shipped in it.  It is clearly very old...and I enjoyed reading about the "puffs" and "shirtwaists" that were stored in it.  The shipping label is on the side still, but the year cannot be read unfortunately.  Now the trunk is in our living room!  I love it...

 

 

Another thing that has me excited is that I am almost finished my first quilt!  My grandma bought me a quilting frame and I used it to hand-stitch the diagonal lines.  It isn't a large quilt, but I'm very excited that I actually made it!  I'm looking forward to the next one I can do, which will be a baby quilt. 

 

 

The other week, it snowed 12 inches.  Dan wanted to make a snowman, so we did our best attempt.  After beginning to make it though, we realized that the snow was not good packing snow at ALL.  So our snowman looks really interesting....

 

And finally, last Monday, Dan and I made apple fritters and Fastnachts to celebrate "fat Tuesday", the day before Ash Wednesday.  Actually, we don't really celebrate the day, but we did make the fastnachts!  I remember from my childhood, my grandmother would make fastnachts and deliver them to our house in bags.  We would eat them for breakfast and roll them in confectioners sugar...mmmm, SO delicious.    This was my first time ever making fastnachts myself; I was pretty happy with the outcome!

 

 

But before the fastnachts, I made apple fritters.  It was also a first to make those. 

 

 

 

Dan said to me after eating one "Wow...these are great, but not very good for you!"

 

And THIS picture was taken after he ate his fourth fritter.  :)  I said "I guess you can afford to eat four of them!"

 

These are the fastnachts.

 

After they were done frying, I decided I'd use the leftover glaze from the fritters and dip the fastnachts in them.  It actually helped really keep them soft and also made them a little bit more sweet (they are generally not a sweet doughnut at all).

 

 

Just on Wednesday (Valentines Day), Dan woke up early and made me breakfast!  I couldn't resist taking this picture of him. 

 

So you can see why last week was awesome!!! :D  So far this week, I've learned how to grind venison meat, and helped Dan to sand down the whole church lobby and re-paint.  It's been fun! 

I hope that all of you are having equally amazing weeks!