• It's July...so we're at it again!

It was right around this time last year that we bought our birdhouse and began some major reconstruction. If you follow our blog you know we're far from finished! But, we've taken a break from our place to help our family (Gina & Max) with their new purchase. The big project is the detached garage, which Gina plans to turn into a letterpress studio.

The previous owner built the garage to house a car he was fixing up (we're guessing) and other items. There was one light fixture, one outlet, one single-pane window, a garage door (duh!), and outside paneling attached to the studs.

Here's what we accomplished over the fourth of July holiday weekend:

With the help of an electrician we're running a sub-panel to the garage so the press has power and we've added a European-style hanging a/c unit, 10 outlets, 3 switches, 6 can lights, and a fan box. Of course, nothing ever goes exactly as planned!

The red circles are two of the new outlet boxes Gina and I installed together. The pink circle is where the a/c unit is going to hang on the wall. The black pipe thing has two copper lines inside for the a/c duct work.

In order to run the wiring from one outlet box to another Gina and I had to drill holes through the middle of the studs. Afterwards we ran the wire through the holes to daisy-chain everything together to the sub-panel.

My dad realized the former owner did not "shore up" the garage as he should have. David added 2x4 pieces running perpendicular to the ceiling trusses. Max added 2x4 "blocks" around the entire garage so George (our drywall guy) had something to drill into when attaching the drywall. There were a few other wrinkles as well, but let's just say we're all over the Home Depot surveillance cameras (more trips than I'd like to remember!)

Brandon (Max's college buddy) came over to frame and help install two new windows.

Before we could drywall Gina, David, and I cut and hung insulation between the studs and around the newly installed windows.

Later that afternoon/evening I worked on caulking the outside of the windows and trim and Max added foam and insulation to the windows on the inside.

Sunday and Monday George came over to install the drywall for the ceiling and walls. Gina & Max are leaving the garage door so there are really only 3 walls to cover.

In between all of this fun going on Gina and I ripped out all the old carpet and pad- ewww, gross! Because the house was built in the 1950's the cement floors are really nice and heavy-duty. Gina & Max are still talking about what to do with their floors; one option is to just buy some cheap rugs for the time being and live with the concrete.

Gina's mom (Cathy) and Max's mom (Barbara) were also over cleaning out cabinets, shelving, the refrigerator, etc. Barbara and Max pulled out the linoleum kitchen flooring as well. The move actually goes down this Thursday, but the kitchen items and some other boxes have already started making their way over to the new house.

My dad (Paul) was over three different days getting things ready to install the a/c unit. He had to create a drain pipe for the unit, figure out where to hang it, and create an area for the outside part of the unit to sit. Thank the lord he was over because he gave us a lot of great ideas and helped us figure out some of the initial issues before we got too far in our work.

Mike (another of Max's friends) sawed down the overgrown bushes in the front yard, and later Max and Barbara hauled them into the alleyway for the bulk pickup. The yellow circle is where the bushes once were.

A random item worth mentioning is the amazing (sarcasm here) bathroom fountain that was created and installed by the last owner. Let us know if you'd like this masterpiece for your house! :)

Today George was over at the new house taping and mudding the drywall. Tom (the tile guy) was also over to begin ripping apart the master bathroom and getting it updated to Gina & Max's liking. A trench guy was also over early this morning to dig the trench from the main house panel to the garage for the electrical to sit in. We'll be stopping by later to check out the progress so far. Sit tight everyone...another house remodel is underway!