House Remodel!

I've been hard at work on my thesis this spring (my defense is in 3 days, yay!), which doesn't really make for an exciting blog post.  So, on the bright side, Jon has been working on the house the past month, and I can show you that!  

Last spring, we made it to the top of AHFC's energy rebate program.  A guy came out and did an energy efficiency rating of our house and put together a list of things we could do to improve our rating. We'll get reimbursed for a portion of it!  pretty great program.   All the big stuff for us - insulation (apparently they only believed in vapor barriers in the 1950s?  it's like our house was wrapped in tin foil, and that's it), windows, doors, all of that.  So, last fall, we stripped off the asphalt shingles and put foam insulation on the outside of our little 2x4 framed house. We stuck with the "under construction" look until this past month, when Jon got to work on windows, doors, and siding.  Seriously, you won't even recognize the place, it's looking pretty great.  A combination of metal (same stuff as our roof, but blue) and cedar shakes.  the best part?  it smells like cedar when you go outside.  

so here are a few pics of the evolution of our house.  Our first summer, when we pulled out all of the grass on the south side, and put in raised perennial beds.

Then the pond on the north side.

It's really worth the effort to just throw up a gallon and see how a color looks before starting in on the whole house, and dark trim can't really "tone down" lemon yellow.  

48 hours and a few trips to home depot later...

and now...

Robin helped with the new big window.  It was flattering that Jon thought I could help him carry and install it, but really...