The Bois Bungalow

Because of the break in over Christmas Break, we have had a flurry of purchases at the Bois Bungalow. We had to replace both our front and back door due to the kick in and we chose to upgrade and purchase beautiful fiberglass Craftsman style doors along with Emtek Arts and Crafts hardware. For the hardware, we chose a single cylinder tubular set with the Arts and Crafts lever. (I tried to post links, but they do not seem to be working...) As for the door, we ordered the Fiber-Classic Mahogany Therma Tru door. The link for the door is also not working :( We have also purchased an additional two cameras for our property. One will be on the front porch facing the door and the second will be in the backyard. Hopefully this will deter any future break ins. We have also chosen to purchase wood for our arbor out front that will frame the walkway up to our front door. It will be great to finish the fence. It has been far too long! We also purchased a locking mailbox because our mail ...

For Christmas and New Years, we spent 11 days out of town visiting both of our families. We have never been away from the house for more than a week, so this was a long trip for us. We headed up to Seattle on Christmas day to visit my grandparents and then to British Columbia to visit Thomas' family. We had a security system installed less than a year ago and have a security camera along the back of our house to keep an eye on our fence (tagging is a huge problem in our area). On December 29th, we got notification on our iPhones that our alarm was going off and the back door, kitchen door sensors had been triggered along with the living room motion detector. We assumed that it was my parents checking on the house (they have set the alarm off before...) So we disarmed it remotely. I texted my family, and eventually realized they were not the ones that set off the alarm. We immediately re-armed it and got a phone call from our alarm company and sent the police to check the premises...

We have been having trouble getting motivated to work on the woodwork. Thomas has decided to start working on more of the electrical to avoid having to help me work on the trim... I do enjoy the results of his electrical work, but I feel like it would go so much faster to both work on the woodwork. I finished the breakfast nook a few weeks ago and it has been nice having a little table in the kitchen that we can actually use. The previous table in there had his computer on it, so it was never used for meals. Here is a picture of some of our original wiring. Isn't it beautiful? Is it odd that I enjoy seeing inside of our walls... I feel like I get to see a little bit of history. In the dining room we left a little note for a future owner to find. I'm thinking I might leave another little something in the parlor when Thomas finishes up in there. I'm hoping to get motivated to work on some more sanding tonight... It wouldn't be so bad if it didn't leave such...

Because of the cooler weather, our work has shifted inside recently. We have been stripping the woodwork in the living/dining area and are hoping to finish it this winter (*hopefully!). Some of the woodwork is more difficult because the paint smears more, while other sections of paint come off in huge sheets. It's odd. This is one job I cannot wait to complete. We also planted our first tree on the property. We chose a Scarlet Oak because we wanted a decidious tree and the leaves turn a gorgeous red in the fall. It is going to be a gorgeous tree when it grows up... This past week the hubby was away so I picked up a banquette for our kitchen and an old round table to go with it. I decided to prime it and paint it white to match our kitchen cabinets. It will be great to eat breakfast in our bright little breakfast nook. I will have to post some after pictures once it is all set up. Post sanding After priming

Our bathroom is by far the most embarassing room in our house. It has horrible wood beadboard, ripped linoleum, an 80's vanity/sink, gross tub/shower surround and (used to have) a peeling window. A couple of weeks ago, we decided we were tired of the gross window, so we stripped the paint. We found decades worth of paint underneath the white paint. There was pea soup green, mustard yellow and pink. We then painted it with primer, and we are waiting on a paint sale so we can paint the beadboard, window and original medicine cabinet white. Here it is before primer:

I know I haven't posted in a while... We have been busy working, doing yardwork and recently I have started working on stripping woodwork again! I am going to be be playing catch up on here :D Last month, we found some furniture on Craigslist that matched a dresser we had purchased from a lady that painted it. I got the paint matched at Sherwin Williams, and we were able to paint the new dresser and nightstands and now have a matching set! They are far from antique, but have a lot of character. Before: They were pretty scratched up, but were beautiful! After: Now it matches the rest!(Please ignore the missing drawer, I didn't notice when I took the picture) Now we have two matching dressers and two nightstands. We also chose to take down a closet that the previous owner added to add more space to our room. It was a messy job, but it made our 'master' bedroom feel a little more spacious. Before: The closet protruded into the room and took up a lot of squa...

We finished up the front fence this past week, and I couldn't be happier. We just have to build an arbor and gate to complete it. We have also been doing a bit of yardwork. We have added a lot to our yard this year (daisies, several types of echinacea, trumpet vines, honeysuckle, clematis, and several other colorful perennials. It will be great to watch everything grow over the years and have the opportunity to continue adding more every year. We were cleaning our closet, and found an old photograph. I sent it to the second owner's children (the two that we met), and they said they did not recognize the people in the photograph, but were able to tell me that they were wearing was an Army Air Corps WW2 uniform, which was when their parents owned the house and that the man could have been a son of friends. Very cool! Our next goal is to work on the woodwork. We have almost completed three windows, and want to stain them back to how they were originally. Windows now:...