Before and After......

New back porch and sidewalk

Front porch before the latest and newest model was installed

New front porch--covered, new decking, new steps, paver bricks, and painted railings. I learned how to weld by helping Dad install the railings!

How the back looked when we bought the place

Just in case you think that we have been spending our summertime fishing in streams, lazily dreaming, and watching the clouds go by.......think again! We've been working our tooshes off on the Ioka house--inside and outside. We are officially done inside--everything is painted and finished--all new appliances, flooring, doorknobs, new bathroom, new cabinets, new lighting, new doors, carpet, wooden flooring, tile floors, the WORKS! We've put in new windows, two new porches, paving bricks for walkways and a nice new patio in the front, new lighting, covered the two porches, put on a new roof, tore off old porches and buildings, burned TONS of junk, and cleaned out tool buildings. Now we hope to get new siding on before winter comes. I'm pooped just thinking of the hours we've spent on this house. It's a cute house now tho! I'll post some pictures later of the inside and how nice it turned out. We actually just put renters in it last week in hopes that they would keep it nice and warm through the winter and not let any pipes burst. Anyway, it's been a fun project but am glad that we can finally see the finish line!

Need fire? Hire Terry--he'll burn ANYTHING!

John clearing out one of the tool sheds. You couldn't walk into it when he started!

The original porch on the front of the house

Bathroom Remodel

Forgot to post pictures of the new bathroom in the Ioka house. We decided to take out the bathtub and just do a big walk-in shower. We ordered the walls and trim and Terry did his magic in creating the "tub" or shower floor. We used a darker color on the walls and a lighter color for the trim, soap dish and shampoo shelf. It turned out really nice and I LOVE it! Glad we went this route. We liked the material so much that we are putting in a vanity top to match the lighter  color and then...........the Ioka house will FINALLY be done at last. Only took us 2 years of 1 or 2 weekends a month to get the inside of this place done!!!!! I LOVE this house now though. Sooooooo much better than when we bought it! I could sooooooo get used to only living in 800 square feet too--doesn't take but a quick blink and this place is spic and span! The first picture is what the old bathroom looked like before the remodel. Glad I'm married to a handy guy. There isn't much that he can't do! Please ignore the awful flash reflection in these pictures--couldn't remember how to turn the flash off. And PS Amber, I had to do the painting (3, yes I said three, paint colors in there!)  in the new bathroom--Dad wouldn't do it for me. So you just need to suck it up and get yours painted without him!!

Remodel Project--Georgia Style

While we were in Georgia, Amber had Dad remodel the kids bathroom tub surrround. It was a VERY messy project. It started with demolition, mess, dust, and several days without the shower. There ended up being a layer of white dust (from the sheetrock and old tile) EVERYWHERE in the house. On walls, floors, furniture, countertops, ceiling fans,........ He even recruited some Really unusual helpers! It was a messy project but a nice one when it was all said and done. Amber was left to repaint around the new tub surround! We love her--just not enough to do the painting for her!!! Ummm, hello!, we haven't finished MY painting projects -- which consists of most of my ENTIRE house! Sorry Amber. It does look nice, don't ya think?

Pictures to Prove We Actually Work--Not Just Tear Apart!!

We're finally getting to the put-back-together phase at the little house in Ioka. We have installed new front and back doors; laid tile in the kitchen, laundry area and bathroom; painted ONE wall in the kitchen--the wall where the lower cabinets go; and installed a new toilet and vanity and new faucets in the bathroom. We bought wood flooring for the living room this week and took it out so that it can "acclimate" to the temperature of the house. We need to finish installing the lower kitchen cabinets and do some serious painting but I'm excited that things are starting to actually come together instead of always demolishing stuff! In the next few weeks we also hope to start laying the new hardwood flooring in the living room. Always busy but at least we are starting to see some of the "fruits" of our labors!!! Notice Grandpa's technique for hanging cabinets!! What a crazy man to use his head for supporting the weight of cabinets while Terry screws them to the walls. Grandpa and Grandma stopped by for about 30 minutes and man oh man, we put them right to work! PS--we took them to dinner afterwards so their efforts didn't go without some payoff!