The Master Bath Gets a New Floor

It is really exciting when you start to see a project come together. Recently we have been working on sprucing up the Master Bath. Now, bare in mind, this is a Master Bath by 1980's standards. It is small. There is nothing to be done about its size though at the moment. That will be addressed in a few years when the major re-model happens. For now, this bath serves as our experiment room.

Experiment room you ask?

We have a lot of deeply yellowed and grained 1980's oak all over our house. I hate old yellowed oak. Hubs, like most men I've encountered, abhors the idea of painting any quality wood surface, not that he likes old yellowed oak either. However, Hubs also understands that it will much easier to paint cabinets than sand and stain them all. He also is on-board with the "modern" makeover we are giving the house. Dark stained wood cabinets, are not so much a modern thing. Due to all of this, I eventually persuaded him to proceed with the experiment of painting cabinets in our bathroom. If it looked bad, no biggy, we would do something different with the rest of the cabinets in the house. Eventually the bathroom will be torn out and relocated/redesigned, etc. They were viewed as sacrificial cabinets.

So that is what we've done.

Master Bath Before

Master Bath - half way there...painted cabinets & new floor

The bathroom renovation doesn't stop at painted cabinets though. We also painted the yellow walls a nice light grey color, removed the horrid brown carpet that has been in there for 30 years, and replaced it with wood-look vinyl flooring. Again, this room is our experiment. We wanted to see how the flooring looked and felt before committing to the entire house.

New floor close up

New floor top view

I gotta say, I love this flooring. Not only is it economical, but it is durable (kid & pet resistant), and very convincing. It even feels like wood to the touch. The product we used is referred to as "Distressed Wood Luxury Vinyl". It is made by Armstrong, and it is called Luxe Plank and the color is Primitive Forest - Falcon.

What we have left to do consists mostly of superficial tasks. We need to paint and install the new base boards, paint the existing trim board white, replace the vanity mirror, pull the weird wood plugs on the counter edge, fill the holes, paint the edge, and paint the oak light fixture. Oh, and put the toilet back in!

Renovating The Farm

Welcome to the new renovation blog, Asparagus Rising. Back in 2014 we purchased an old (1985) house on 5 acres of land; a hobby farm if you will. We thought that we would start renovations immediately.

The Hobby Farm

That didn't happen.

We focused on building our business instead, which was and is a good thing. Now that things are looking rather sunny, and the economy is back in full swing at long last, we are finally getting around to start the renovations. Little things for the most part to start, but in a few more years the big ones will start. This blog won't be updated weekly, but will get updated as the renovations tick on by over the years. I am blogging about it simply to document the progress, but if some folks out there want to tune in, follow along, and provide constructive criticism, all the better! Welcome.

Weeding, Weeding, Weeding.

A funny thing happens to a 5 acre property with a lot of garden beds and pasture when it has been vacant for over a year. Weeds grow. A lot of weeds. They grow tall and in abundance.

When not working on fencing (ie. mostly before the fencing project started full tilt; before buying a horse), and mostly during outside play time with Junior, I have spent a lot of my time weeding, thinking about weeds, imagining weeds magically gone, imagining weed genocide, and all sorts of odd weed related things.

Professionally, I am a Landscape Architect. Thusly, I HATE WEEDS. They are just not something that I tolerate in my daily life, work or personal. So the weeds all had to go! I would have simply let 100 goats go to town on the property the day we moved in, but alas, our HOA doesn't allow goats (or pigs). So instead I've been breaking my back (literally) and pulling them all by hand. Bonus, I've lost 3 pounds!

I took a million photos of weeds, and almost posted them all. But then realized that NO ONE wants to see that many photos of weeds. So I picked a few of the more pertinent ones.

Vegetable Garden #1. Note weeds also growing around the outside of the garden.

I already weeded about half of this garden bed when I took the photo. It is now fully weed free! I was shocked to discover raspberries and asparagus growing amongst the 5' tall weeds (basically all Canada Thistle).

Vegetable Garden #2: prior to weeding

This garden will actually be converted to lawn, as there is no way that I will ever have time to tend to two gardens worth of vegetables. Right now it is about half way weeded. It is my last remaining weeding project. I am getting there...slowly.

Vegetable Garden #2: prior to weeding

The only treat this garden housed, other than weeds, is a Northstar Pie Cherry Tree. The birds got to all of them this year, but as it is still small, I am hoping that the tree will survive relocation and continue to yield fruit in the years to come.

Between the Gardens - More weeds, but of course!

I am mostly done. One by one, I have been pulling up and stacking the weeds in a giant burn pile. I have weeded all the flower beds around the property and really only have the second vegetable garden left to finish. Once finished, I will share some before and after pics. I would have finished it by now if it weren't for the fencing project. But trust me, it will be done before the snow sticks. Oh yes, it will!

That or I will have to buy 100 sheep costumes for 100 weed eating goats...halloween is just around the corner after all.