July has been crammed full of activities so far… we didn’t make it up to the Grounds last weekend – let alone work on the house and finish the jobs we started at the end of June. Last weekend was July 4th which we celebrated by kayaking down the ‘hooch and grilling out with the family in Loganville. This past week we have been running around trying to get everything in order to sell our Buckhead condo – we got an offer! Yay! In addition, Lindsey joined a cover band and we had to take the dogs in for their annual exam and shots:

Looking through our blog we realized that we haven’t really said much about them yet… so we thought we would take a minute to officially introduce Hines & Rhyder – the Beecher Bungalow Pups! Hines came first back when we lived in the condo (April 2006) – he is a little brindle mutt that was found in a junk yard with his siblings and rescued by Second Chance Animal Sanctuary. We cam across him at the Cumming PetsMart and immediately fell in love with a then 8 week old pup. Since then he has chewed shoes, peed on everything, and eaten about 25 lbs of trash – overall a great, loyal friend.

As for Rhyder – he is a recent addition having been adopted just last year when we moved into the Beecher Bungalow (August 2008). He is a 4-year old pure bred Weimaraner who was originally intended to be a stud for breeding. Fate would have it that he was born sterile – which made his previous owner quite upset and he took it out on Rhyder. When we found him at the Buckhead PetsMart with the folks from DogPack Rescue who saved him, we weren’t so sure – but when he buried his little head into Kevin’s chest for a “hug” we were in love. Since then we have been training him and have come to find that he has a cataract in his left eye (among a few other ailments) – but we love him the same. What we do not love are his farts.

Stay tuned for more Hound-tastic postings in the near future!

- Kevin & Lindsey

Filed under: The House on July 12th, 2009 | No Comments »

Since we have been so busy with wedding planning and the new biz, our poor house has been neglected. After months of abandonment, we have decided its time to give some TLC to the good ol’ bungalow. This Saturday was our first project since being back on the home renovation bandwagon (and since our housewarming party on 9/20/08. Yikes.)

Kevin was tasked with cleaning up some mildew spots that have been accruing on the bathroom ceiling. After a quick trip to Ace Hardware to purchase Kilz, joint compound, and sandpaper, we were in business. Kevin surface cleaned the mildew and began scraping away at some of the chipping paint. A few hours later and our bathroom looked like it was a war zone: patches of chipped paint covered the bathroom floor!

After all of the chipping paint was removed, Kevin slathered on the joint compound. Its drying as we type! Next up, we have to sand down the walls, paint the walls with Kilz, and finish up with our pretty blue bathroom paint. We also have one last coat of white to paint onto the bead board and trim… then the bathroom will finally be finished!

While Kevin was working his tail off in the bathroom, Lindsey was one room over making headway on the home office front. First up to bat, the beast of a desk that has been passed around Kevin’s family and has found its way into the house. The goal: sand, stain, and patina the desk with a black paint finish, adding new hardware to the shelves to finish it off. Also on the office to do list, paint the walls a lovely shade of brown and hang some accouterments to warm up the previously barren space.

After many hours of sanding (which would have been shorter had Lindsey not had to labor over removing the adhesive from the drawers that Kevin taped shut months ago… who does that?) the desk finally was stained. Lindsey painted a layer of black paint on the top of the desk, let it dry for five minutes, then wiped it off to give it the patina effect. The drawers are now a solid black and the last thing to do is to install the new hardware. The desk is 90% done. The walls have also been painted, trimming is half way done.

We will be finishing off the bathroom and the office this week and hope to have pictures of the final results next weekend. Stay tuned!

-K & L

Filed under: The House on June 28th, 2009 | No Comments »

So it has been too long… I think our last post was over 9 months ago which is completely uncalled for! We decided that we will be doing regular updates on Sunday mornings from the Grounds Coffee House here in West End… So much has happened since last year, here is a quick shortlist of updates:

1. We got engaged on October 11, 2008 (wedding on NYE 2009!)
2. We got new neighbors to our left (and they are amazing!)
3. Two more houses have been bought across the street. Woo Hoo!
4. Kevin and his brother insulated the attic last Fall (it was messy.)
5. Kevin started a new business (Vert Mobile) & we are working on the home office
6. Lindsey and her Mom did some initial landscaping (more this Fall)
7. Lindsey auditioned for American Idol and they told her to come back in 2010!
8. A tree fell on our house in June 2009 and Kevin hacked it up with a chainsaw

Filed under: The House on June 28th, 2009 | No Comments »

West End just got a killer write-up in Atlanta INtown Magazine. Check it out below!

Filed under: The House on November 3rd, 2008 | No Comments »

The Beltline threw a kick ass party down here in West End to kickoff the first completed portion of the trail. A walking biking path that runs just behind our house and ends at the new Gordon-White Park where the festival was. Lindsey was babysitting for the day which is why we “have kids” Check out the video below as well as the pics we uploaded!

Filed under: The House on October 31st, 2008 | No Comments »

With the housewarming party coming up, Lindsey said we HAD to have a gate for our back deck stairs because there would be little kiddos running around (her nanny family) and that way we could let the dogs run around outside instead of terrorizing our friendly party-goers. So, I drew up some plans…

My masterful deck gate plans

After some careful consideration (and about 30 minutes) I was able to locate the 15 or so pieces of wood I would need to put this thing together… For whatever reason I decided that Friday night after dark would be the best time to build it so I went to town…

Low light conditions are a safety hazard

I used some leftover drywall screws to hold it all together (except for the hinge pieces which needed the fat-daddy 3.5″ wood screws to hold the thing on there. The only pain was getting the latch to work right because there was no spot to attach the post – so I just drilled a nice little notch into the side of the house to wedge it in. Whatever I did something worked because now we have one of those new-fangled fancy gate contraptions!

Smile for the camera Kevin...

Filed under: The House on August 30th, 2008 | No Comments »

Most all of our time is spent on the actual work and sometimes it is tough to aggregate all the photos and videos to get up on the site in a timely fashion… This housewarming party has us (really just Lindsey – haha) in a frenzy to make the house as done as possible in the next two weeks.

Keep checking back though – I promise we have tons of great stuff to share with you guys!

Filed under: The House on August 28th, 2008 | No Comments »

So I promised Lindsey that I would install the new garbage disposal (which was the last of our renovation money) before she got back from L.A. (she is visiting her friend Molly) and since she gets back tonight I figured I should get to it. I figured it would only take me a few hours since I have already shocked myself a few times while getting the hang of all this electrical business. I got started around 7pm after walking the dogs and worked straight through dinner (I am still hungry).

Don't mess with the Badger 5!

As you can see I got it done in a little less than 2.5 hours… and it was worth it! Straining all the nasty water was getting old and, well… nasty. The only real problem I ran into was that the end of the P-trap started leaking just after I got everything done (that is what took the extra 30 minutes). All in all an evening well spent.

Filed under: The House on August 26th, 2008 | No Comments »

We have just moved in and are getting the website ready for all the updates…
Stay Tuned for lots of pictures, videos, and other goodies

-Kevin & Lindsey

Filed under: The House on July 20th, 2008 | No Comments »