Mom - your garage is bigger than my townhouse!!!!

I've been home for almost two weeks - so nice to be in one place for longer than a week at a time - but I'm heading back to the promise land next week.

This week has been filled with Ryan putting a bid on a townhouse, inspection and if all goes well, closing the end of August!  So - he had a little time to spare and he whipped out to the job site.  Now - first let me show you a photo to remind you what we started with!

My cute little church from the back.  Pretty plain, but wait!!!  It all started here.

A large slab of cement - yes that's going to be an attached garage.  One of the things on my want list when I was moving to Iowa was an attached garage - you know they have snow there.....I should say SNOW!!!!!!  So it's going to be a 2 car plus garage with an upper floor for storage, but I could finish it out for a renter or caretaker - but storage is what I need now.  The church has lots of usable space inside - but I need storage - hence.....

the call from Ryan, Mom - your garage is bigger than my condo.......!!!!!!   I laughed - but he's probably right.  The second photo shows the upstairs area (storage center).  I can hardly wait to see it!! 

 

Then while I'm up there - if you look close - you can see that there is another slab coming out between the 4th and 5th stain glass windows....that is where there will be a screened in patio.  Won't be long - I just have to order the door!  Hello - Mr. Pella man!!??

 

So - the guys are working and oh - look - the fireplace has some insulated boards around it - so you can get a better idea of what it will look like!

So - there you have it.  The little church will soon have new occupants, a large white dog and an little old round lady.  There's more to come - so stay tune!!

SUBS - love them or hate them - got to have them!!!

So - you are probably thinking that nothing is happening up north - but you would be wrong!!!  The subs for plumbing and electric are in and as of a little over a week ago - all inspections are passed and we are ready for sheet rock....but not so fast!

When I was up there, Ryan and I went through and took photos of the walls between rooms.

 

Now - my son things I crazy - but alias we have already established that, but this was a trick that Jon taught me about.  It's always smart to take photos of all the walls before the sheet rock goes up - then for future reference if you ever need to know what is in that wall - you have it!!!  I even got fancy and labeled each photo.  Believe it not I have used it several times at the RoundHouse - so thought it would be smart to do it again!

 

So with that done - it won't be long before the sheet rock goes up!!

 

BUT.....let's talk about doors.  Remember I have vestibule.  Set of outside glass doors and then another set of inside glass doors. 

I'm going to keep the outside doors, but I want to change out the inside doors.  I looked around and finally Pete my contractor sent me to the Pella man.  Of course Pella windows and door are made in Iowa and let's say that they are pretty proud of that factor.  I picked out the profile I wanted, a single door with a couple sidelights, vinyl covered - for the weather up there and all they wanted was $3000-4000 dollars!!!  Vinyl looked like crap so then we are looking at wood and price didn't really change much!!!  Happy I wasn't!!!

 

 

Enter - a gentleman who was interested in giving a bid on painting and floor refinishing and he told me about Mike the not famous salvage man.  We have West End Salvage - HGTV stars - in Des Moines and prices reflect their stardom.  But Mike is on a much small scale and he has the cutest little white fluffy white dog, Earl!  Off to meet Mike I went and looked around, saw several door I thought would work and then......Oh My Goodness.....baseboard and door trim - be still my heart!!!  I left and promised to send Pete back so he could see all.  Then when I came back to town in a couple weeks we both went down to see Mike and Earl.  3 doors, enough baseboard for the downstairs except one bedroom, some door trim and a couple hours - we were out of there, promising that we would keep in touch, because he is always finding more.  Two of the doors were my new front door - they are 9 foot tall and Pete is going to install them and give me another transom - I'm a happy girl!!!  Doors are beautiful - but I'm even more over the top on the baseboards!!!   YA-HOO!!!  Photos will follow when they get installed!!!

 

 

Successful trip!!!!