Another Abandoned Blog? Nah.

I look back and read this, and it makes me sad. Ok, not "sad" really. More like "Why did I stop posting?" This blog was originally started to share improvements we make to the house and yard. That all kind of came to a halt when the decision was made to sell the house. We are currently looking for a new house, and it will be kind of funny if we don't buy in Belchertown (given the blog title and all), but I look forward to many posts about things we do such as home improvement/trips/events/birthdays/holidays, etc. I guess the blog title still applies as long as we are still here, so why not, right? Ok. Cool. Hang on while I grab the camera for a couple of quick shots...

Ok. Just took a couple of shots of the snow in our backyard:

People here do a lot of complaining about the snow and cold weather, and it is easy to see why. The thing a lot of people miss is what is in the background: Look at that beautiful blue sky. Before too much longer, this tree will be budding, then covered with leaves that provide great shade for our dogs in the Summer. That blue sky reminds me of the beautiful, warm, sunny days to come.

All of this snow will soon be replaced by a beautiful green backyard where our daughter plays, we cook out on the grill, set up an inflatable pool, do yard work, eat dinner together on a big blanket, and plant veggies in a small garden we built behind the shed.

Another shot of the snow. It is receding and will soon be gone. Regardless of the season, this is a beautiful town, and I love it here.

PER-gola? Per-GO-la?

So today, Bella and I finally got it stepped out. I made 4 stakes out of 2x4s on the tablesaw that a very good friend of mine so generously gave me, and we began to meaure. 12' by 9' is what we came u0p with. The size may or may not change, depending on what we want to do with it, but this looks good from the deck. More pictures as things change/proceed...

Making a house a home -

We have been living here now going on 3 years. Such a quaint, beautiful little New England town. To read more on it's history, check out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belchertown, or the official town site at: http://www.belchertown.org/. This is a great place to live, and a great place to raise a family.

I guess this all started when we got the house in June of 2007. It is a former rental house, so a lot of things in the house were apartment-grade. Right down to the off-white paint in every room. Right away, we started brainstorming about what had to go, what color to paint each room, what to do about the ugly linoleum in the kitchen, what shade of laminate wood floor to get for the living room, etc etc etc. Ad nauseum.

About a year or so ago, we started on our first real project: remodeling the half-bath downstairs. It had a leaky toilet, an apartment-grade vanity (You know... the wooden ones in EVERY apartment complex), and a horrid-looking linoleum floor. Add to that that the floor was half-rotten, and all the trips upstairs, and we knew it was time.

First, we cut out the floor all the way down to the floor joists. I had 2 choices: either cut out the rotten part and patch or go in with 3/4" plywood for the entire floor. I chose the latter, and it is so solid. Plus, I wasn;t about to attempt a 12" x 12" ceramic tile floor on top of a particle board subfloor.

I was starting to look into renting a wetsaw to cut the tiles when a co-worker offered me a wetsaw for free. It was now easy to get the tiles cut to fit.

Now all I had to do was install the toilet flange in the floor, screw it down, install the toilet and sink, and we are practically done! All we have left are to finish the baseboards, install the sink plumbing (drain) and a door. Almost done!