Heating Up and Cooling Down - Next Phase of She Shed

Aaacckk!!! We are miserable in this horrible heat and humidity that is engulfing most of the country right now. As I type this we are at 88 degrees with a heat index of 98. That's hot enough, thank you very much. In the meantime we are staying inside and not working at all on our She Shed.

Ahhhh but I can still write a blog! This is a preview of the upcoming attractions!

We just got our building permit approved for the rest of the work that we are doing on the exterior of the She Shed. This garage room conversion is going to be my studio space. It will hold my weaving looms, quilting machine and frame, my sock knitting machine and spinning wheel, plus a little sunroom area looking out to the East over our big big backyard.

Some time back among the previous owners or renters, somebody had covered some of the walls with a buffalo chip board material. Around the edges was some grey flannel felt and we were thinking it might possibly be insulated behind there. Now it was time to rip it off to see. Nope. No insulation. But that's okay, we are going to insulate the ceiling and the walls and finish them off with a nice clean fresh drywall or tongue and groove carsiding.  We will see what the budget is like when we get that far.

But before we can really think about walls or ceiling we are going to put in the new windows and one more door to the far right in the photo below. That exterior door will lead out to the doggies' potty yard. It matches the one we just installed on the other side of the room. It will be a full insulated glass with little French pane grids in between the layers. We just picked up a cute old fashioned wooden screen door that will also go there on the outside, to let in fresh air but keep the bugs out.

This will be our "BEFORE" picture:

The two sets of junky old garage windows that you can see in this photo above will be coming out soon. They are just single pane glass and in very rough shape.

In their place we are going to put something really cool. After the headers are installed correctly, up to code, we will be placing these large panels of heavy insulated Anderson French exterior doors. We bought four of them brand new in the boxes that were a custom order that someone never followed through on. Another guy had bought them to use in his house and never got around to doing it either. So he sold them on Facebook Marketplace to us. They are a bit shorter than the normal 80 inch tall doors, so nobody wants them. After wheeling and dealing a little bit we ended up with them for $20 each!!! They retail for $800 each online!!! That means Steve found over $3,000 worth of doors for $80.

Steve will frame them all around in place as stationary window panels unless we decide to make them as opening doors. We really don't see the need to make them open up.  Using them as windows will work well too. They even have weatherstripping built in on all four sides. We do have the special brand specific hinges that correspond to these doors, in case we change our mind and make them into operating French doors.

Here are pics from where Steve set them into place. The two doors take up the same space as the three windows in both Eastern facing sections of the She Shed. After framing around them properly, they should fit perfectly!

They will reach almost from floor to ceiling and give the most beautiful access view out of the back of the She Shed. The view out into our backyard is one of the main reasons we picked this house to live in. 2.5 acres of beauty with a nature conservancy behind us (never any backyard neighbors) and lots of deer, turkey, foxes and a few coyotes we are told. 

This little scribble drawing from my phone gives you an idea what this East side will look like. Once we cut away the excess wood underneath the existing windows, we will have enough of the cedar shake siding leftover pieces to repair other damaged areas of siding.

On the inside, here's another scribble drawing that gives you an idea of how the windows will be from just about the top to just about the bottom. I can just imagine the dogs laying on their little ottomans in front of the windows, looking out at anything they can find to bark at.  Thinking of night time with back yard flood lights shining out to find the elusive deer and foxes, or maybe snowflakes falling softly while inside we will be cozy and warm. I think we will be spending a lot of time in the She Shed. 

There is one other little tiny window at the top of the stairs leading into the kitchen. It's an odd shape of 41" x 21". We inquired at Menards about having a small window custom-made to put in that spot. Holy cow! They wanted $290!

We had stopped by the Habitat for Humanity ReStore in Marinette. Their ad said they had 75% off all windows and doors. You just never know...

OMG! We found a used window that was 39 in by 21 in that will fit that space with a 1-inch spacer on each side! It is a very high quality Pella window with insulated thermal pane glass with the little pane grids in between just like all of our other entrance doors and French windows! It's a vertical casement crank out window, but we are going to mount it horizontally in the opening.

And the price of this bargain, you ask? Well! It was marked at $20. And then with the 75% off and brought it down to only $5.00 --- Score!

Okay. That was the preview of coming attractions. Once this hot weather settles down we can get out there and get started on some of those things.

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Right now, on the inside, Steve is finishing up the last few details on our laundry room half bath conversion that we started last month.

Originally the only bathroom to this home was in this room. The previous owners removed the toilet and sink and just had a washer and dryer in there.

Instead they had made a large bath with master access out of the third bedroom space, so they figured they really didn't need another bath. They wanted a first-floor laundry. I could see that making sense.

But we could also see the convenience of having an extra half bathroom in the house as well. Steve agreed.

The other thing that we wanted to do was to change was the entrance into that laundry room. It was located on the longest wall of the dining room. I wanted that full span of wall to set my large buffet against. So Steve figured out that he could close off that existing doorway and make a solid wall for me. Then he would make a different entrance to that room from the kitchen.

Here is where he closed off the wall and studded the opening, adding sheetrock. After that was finished I painted it to match and he added new trim baseboard.

Voila! My buffet now fits
 in a place of honor
in the diningroom.

I love having a large formal dining room that can hold both my buffet and my hutch. Plus having the dining table spread out with both leaves and all eight chairs around it. Perfect for family gatherings and much better than storing chairs and leaves in closets or in other rooms of the house.

A new doorway went well in the space in the kitchen. This is the space where the gas cooking stove used to be. The previous owners had removed the stove and installed a new electric one in the middle of their island that they created. This awkward space was left behind with cabinetry over the top. The top cabinet we are going to re-purpose into a coffee bar later. It's waiting in the garage for another day.

A little creative weaving in with spare pieces of hardwood flooring matched well. Then an oak threshold spanned the space into the half bath. I still have to stain it and poly seal it to match the rest of the kitchen flooring.

The laundry room half bath flooring was in pretty rugged shape. We decided to cover over it with some of this snap together vinyl plank flooring. Our son-in-law Waylen and daughter Erin put this in her bathroom and kitchen as well and it holds up wonderfully with kids and dogs.

Look how easily it snaps together. No gluing no nailing. It's a free floating floor that just sets into place. Then you put the quarter round trim back on the edges which holds it down.

Next on the list was to add some cabinetry over the washer and dryer. We looked at a few home improvement stores and they wanted $100+ for a utility cabinet. We figured we wanted three cabinets across the entire span of the wall over the washer and dryer as additional pantry space.  Ouch.. $300.00?

Back to my Bargain Hunter Steve. Somehow he ran across a Craigslist listing of someone who had some office cabinetry to sell. One of the cabinets is exactly what we wanted for the laundry room! The deal was for $100 we had to take all of it. That's okay. For the price of what one utility cabinet would have cost us, we will now have a full span over the washer and dryer. The rest of the cabinetry will be re-purposed for in my She Shed.

They needed a couple coats of paint, because they are butt ugly!!! There are two lower filing cabinets, a center island desk type cabinet with angled ends, a big half circle piece of laminate countertop, and then a half pony wall with a counter on top of it as a kind of registration desk surface. Just wait to you see what I have in mind for that!!

We hauled it all home on our cute little trailer and the rest of these pieces are stowed away in the garage until the She Shed is done. The cabinets are solid wood and very heavy.

I got out my palm sander and roughed up the surface a little bit. Then a coat of primer and two coats of paint transformed the butt ugly cabinets into a nice row of heavy white wooden cabinets. 10 times better than the junky utility cabinets at the home improvement store.

We put the laundry room back together and suspended the cabinets up over the washer and dryer.  Once they were in place, we screwed the doors back on and Steve added shelving inside at the heights that we wanted for our laundry items, pantry items, and a dog food cabinet.

The half bath laundry room also had a really crappy single pane glass window and a piece of plexiglass over it.  Luckily, it was a common size and did not cost us an arm and a leg for a replacement window.  It went in easily and Steve trimmed it out neatly. It has a nice wide window sill and I put up our little cactus garden from a vacation to New Mexico. It won't get bumped on there and it's up out of reach from the grandchildren.

Now it was time for the toilet and the sink. Since this was already a bathroom, all of the plumbing was right there underneath and Steve just had to hook things back up.

We waited for this adorable little sink to go on sale. It's just the right size for the room, and still allows us to open the dryer door easily.

Now, isn't that the sweetest thing you ever did see? We re-purposed the faucet from replacing the sink in the master bath and it sure looks cute in there.

I also added a sturdy white enamel metal shower curtain rod across the room, just in front of the washer and dryer. It does double duty.

First, it is handy for hanging clothing on hangers as we take things out of the dryer. Most of our clothing goes up on hangers as we don't have dresser drawers. Socks and underthings are kept in fabric bins on the shelf in the closet. Makes for a bigger more roomy bedroom, and less clutter being dumped on top of a dresser!

The second purpose of the shower curtain rod is that with the shower curtains, they can be pulled across the washer and dryer when we have company. Then the bathroom appears to just be a full bath with a shower/tub combo.

The washer and dryer are spaced apart which allows the heating/cooking register vent on the wall behind to circulate into the room unhindered. A laundry basket slips right down in between the washer and dryer in a handy position while folding clothes.

As I type this, Steve just finished up the connections for the little sink. Good "inside" project on a sweltering hot day.  The temps came down a little, not a lot.  Staying inside and eating cool foods for supper.

Winter Gardening, Bathroom Is Done, Pot Roast and Thrift Shop Finds

Winter temps have set in now in Wisconsin, We have been down in the 20's some of the nights, so the outdoor plants are totally kerput. I love my coleus because they are my favorite colors of fuschia, magenta and green.  They add color immediately to the flower beds in the spring, because the leaves are the full riot of colors. The flowers are an added plus in the later summer of pale lilac blooms on thin stems.

My coleus cuttings that I talked about in recent posts have been safely ensconced in quart canning jars to grow some roots. It only takes a few weeks and they are ready to plant.  I have been doing this since the early 1990's since my friend Connie gave them to me.  I have shared them with other friends over the years as well.

The roots were filling up the jars, 

 so it was time to plant them in the dirt! 

I used three long plastic window boxes with no weep holes in the bottoms (don't want water on my hardwood floors!) I use moisture control potting soil over a layer of pea gravel for drainage.  With careful watering all winter long, they will be ready again for next spring.  I put the trays in the south facing guest bedroom window for the best exposure.   

I smile when I put down the layers of tin foil on the old wooden tv tray tables.  Fond memories of my Grandma Kafehl putting tin foil down on her end tables before she sat down her pots of african violets and cactus plants.  Ahhh I miss her.


Steve was done with driving today around noon. He started at 5 am ...ack!  He wanted to finish up the floor in the bathroom this afternoon.  A few days ago, he spread floor leveler over the patched in area of the floor where the old tub piping had originally been.

Now that it was dry, we could cut back the old flooring, carefully tuck a new piece under the edge back under the shower pan, and lay it out to do a "double cut" for an almost imperceptible seam. Once the seam was cut, we could use some vinyl flooring tape slid underneath and press it down firmly.  The third side got tucked under the tub and the last side along the wall will be held down by the baseboard and quarter round trim.  You almost can't see on the flooring seam where the patch job took place!

Here is Steve's corner with his shower.... and my little table and antique lamp set between the shower and the tub. Don't worry, the lamp is not even plugged in, nor is there an outlet nearby.  I like it for the flavor and decor...

We mounted the lip edge of the tub now firmly to the bead board walls (now that the flooring is tucked underneath the tub)  The tub is settled securely into place anyhow with the circle shaped feet and support brace on the bottom, plus the plumbing held into place.  All we needed to do now was to attach the lip edge that is held by six little screws. Steve attached the lip edge with the screws and used these handy little screw cap covers that snap into place. Looks much nicer than an ugly screw or having to put a trim strip over it.  See the screw to the left of the corner that the cap hides the screw nicely.

I don't like big towel bars, nor do we have a lot of wall space anyhow.  We have some moveable plexi hooks that we hang towels from the shower stall when they need to dry.  But when I am in the tub, I wanted a big hook, like a robe hook, to hang my two towels on to be within easy reach as I get out of the tub.  (I need one for my hair, and one for my body).

We stopped at Hobby Lobby and found two big wrought iron hooks that would work for my idea. There was an online coupon to bring up on the phone at the checkout to get 40% off for ONE item.  The nice lady at the checkout let Steve use the coupon on my phone for his hook, and then let me use the same phone coupon for my hook.  Deal!

We hung them on each side of the window frame and they will only be used when I am actually in the tub and want my towels within reach.  The other one on Steve's side is for his towel or washcloth he uses near the sink while shaving.   Like I said, they won't be hanging there all of the time, just when in use.  Don't think we have some weird decor theme of towels used as side curtains on the windows... LOL.

Sooo there we have it done!  My birthday isn't until next week, but the tub is finished and we are happy to say it looks more balanced and fits the space well.  We had wanted to do this tub 6 years ago and didn't at that time. I am glad we did it now....   Complete with the tray, pillow and towel hooks, we are finished!

This afternoon was cool and crisp,

but sunny....   we took a walk to the post office

and stopped at the little city center park.

Yesterday I had plopped a big ol pot roast in the electric pressure cooker.  We LOVE LOVE LOVE our electric pressure cookers!  We have an 8 quart Go Wise USA cooker in the motorhome and an 11 Quart Nesco one in the house.  You can do food so fast and so flavorful in a short time.

I add an envelope of onion soup mix and a few dollops of Andria's steak sauce.  40 minutes later it is fall apart tender.  Then I add a pile of peeled potato chunks, a bag of baby carrots, and a sliced up vidalia onion.  15 more minutes on high pressure and the meal is finished!   It was sooooo good that we re-heated leftovers tonight for supper. Yummmmmmmm!

Oh, yesterday I was also on an errand, and stopped at one of my favorite thrift shops in Plymouth WI.  I saw this interesting little juice pitcher.  I picked it up two times and set it back down.  I didn't really need it.  But passed it by. Then the third time I saw it as I passed that section, I put it in my cart. It was only 79 cents, and I could not resist.  Hmmmm  Maybe for a pitcher of ice water, lemonade or iced tea while I am sitting in my tub?

The other big "bargain" I stumbled on was a huge 9 yard hunk of quilting fabric for only $7 (worth about $90) and a bunch of fat quarter bundles for only $1.29 - 1.49 a bundle.  Each one is worth about $10-12. Score!

I am working on something that I will post about in my next blog... when the time is right. But I am glad to say that family is going to be fine, and healing takes time. Thank you for your prayers and kind thoughts.