Just so we’re clear from the start, the “beautiful” part of 2011 was definitely how the Memorial House turned out, and, well, I think “disaster” is the only accurate way to describe what I looked like for the better part of the last year– paint-splattered, unshowered, and a general sawdust-covered mess.

I’ve got a plan to tackle that last part in 2012 that I’ll let you know more about later, but first I think I should give 2011 a proper send off by looking back at some of the most significant milestones and projects of the year.

Where It All Started

Yep. This time last year I was totally living in a garage.

That snow covered grill was the one major cooking appliance at my disposal, if that gives you any indication of how awesome garage living was. There was also a lot of mice.

So it’s safe to say that 2011 started out with the singular focus of getting the hell out of that garage. This meant spending a lot of hours each day making progress on the Memorial house with projects like these…

Rustic Window Trim

Master Closet Pipe Shelving

Pottery Barn Inspired Vanity

Rustic Beachy Bathroom

Kitchen Cabinet Installation

Master Bedroom Floor Installation & Finishing

Master Bath Tile Floor Installation (The one that nearly did me in.)

And somewhere in between all of the drywall and paint and tile and sawdust I also spent a lot of time studying for the contractors exam. I totally passed, by the way, which seemed surprising to me when it happened, but now that I look back on it… I was building a house with my bare hands at the time, how the hell could I have failed it?

That’s the beauty of perspective, I guess.

Middle Ground

All of the hard work in the first half of the year did get me out of the garage, but it’s funny how once you step out of the tunnel and into the light things don’t look exactly like you would expect. The middle of the year held a somwhat unexpected twist… MysteryMan and I got the house to a liveable state, and then decided we didn’t actually want to live in it. At least not together for all of eternity. We did spend almost half the year living it the house together as roommates while we finished off miscellaneous projects, in what I’m pretty sure we could call the most amicable end to a four-year relationship ever. (And we’re totally still good friends.)

That meant that for me the second half of the year was open for more projects that weren’t strictly related to constructing a house, and I went to town with stuff like this:

Pottery Barn Inspired Pinboard

Rustic Wood Wall Art

Tiny Planets

DIY Spice Jar Labels

Fun & Functional Tool Boxes

Custom Door (With the cameras rolling, just for fun.)

I realized in those few months that were the first time in a long time I wasn’t singularly focused on building a house, that I really missed the creative part of just building stuff. Stuff that doesn’t have to be pretty or structural or, you know, make sure the roof doesn’t collapse on you in your sleep.

I mean, there’s an art to all of it. There’s something incredibly cool about building the place you’re planning on living in and knowing the walls, the wires, the pipes, inside and out, but this year also taught me that I need to have a little bit of both in my life– big challenging projects, and fun creative ones.

Where It Ended Up

As the end of the year approached, the Memorial House finally took shape, inside and out.

June 2008

January 2011

October 2011

Of course, the end one big project meant it was time to move out and move on to the next adventure. I moved a little farther north into Michigan, found an old farm house to rent so I could be surrounded by cornfields and some awesome old outbuildings while I work out a plan (and finding a place) for my next house.

You could say that 2011 didn’t end anywhere near where I expected when it started out, but looking back on it I wouldn’t change a thing. I had the opportunity to work on a lot of awesome projects (I even finished a few of them) and it was wonderful to be able to share my stories with all of you who visit DIYdiva. The lessons I’ve learned this year are too many to list, but they’ve shaped my one resolution for 2012:

To be constantly grateful and live deliberately every day.

Here’s to more sawdust, paint, crazy ideas and big projects in the new year!

Back when I built the shelving for the closets in the Memorial House, I had this idea about building some custom doors for them that mimic the style of the front door of the house, which we all know makes my little heart go pitty-pat.

Well, this is one of those ideas that was bound to end with something getting hit by a hammer– hopefully not an innocent bystander– because truthfully I’m not sure I’ve ever even just installed a pre-hung door by myself (usually there’s at least one other person involved that I try to stab with a shim at some point) much less built one from scratch. And of course, give the fact that I’d be taking on a totally new and challenging project with a high likelihood for failure, I thought it would be the perfect time to invite a bunch of mustached dudes with cameras to come film me while I did it.

(I actually work with these guys in my day job — the one where I’m not usually covered in sawdust– and after I asked for some tips about putting together this video they offered up a Sunday and many hours of their free time to come help me do this thing right. I am incredibly grateful and lucky to work with people who are so passionate about what they do.)

Other than the fact that there were going to be a bunch of people silently staring at me with video equipment while I attempted a totally new project, I was also pretty worried about the fact that telling the real story on camera is totally different than writing it down after the fact. You know, when I’m showered and sane again.  But the video team did a fantastic job of cutting six hours of work into this six minute video, and still telling the whole story, including the parts where I screw up and have to try really hard not to start throwing hinges around.

So, without further ado, here’s how you build a custom door and jamb with three cameras, to microphones, and seven people staring at you.

At the end of this video the door isn’t completely finished, but it’s what I could get through in a day. The jamb needs to have a door stop installed, and the door needs to be stained, polyed, and finished with hardware. I’m hoping to wrap that up and have some good “after” pictures in the next couple of weeks, once I’m settled in from the big move.

Thanks again to the video team for making this thing look completely awesome and professional. You never know what exciting things may come out of this, but I know for sure what came after it was a very long nap.

Since we’ve just barely stepped foot into Thanksgiving territory I feel like I shouldn’t have to clarify that there is no tree trimming (Christmas related, or otherwise) going on right now, except I was in the seventh circle of hell mall last week and I’ll be dammed if there weren’t wreaths and ornaments everywhere.

Let’s talk about something that has to do with pine, but is way more sane. (Kind of.)

I’ve had a few doorway’s worth of trim hanging out in the mudroom hallway for a few months and since it’s one of the things I’d like to check off my list, I finally hauled the cordless Paslode trim nailer out (which you may see in The Family Handyman in a couple of months) and got to work.

Excuse the messy, half-drawered, no-doored vanity in the bathroom. That’s also on the list.

I’ve mentioned before that instead of paying a ridiculous amount of money for trim and baseboard, I made use of 1×4 pine for a simple clean look. I ran the baseboard through the router to get a bevel, but decided the door trim would look best square (without miters) to match the big rustic trim on the bedroom window.

To start I marked the offset for the trim on the door frame (3/8″) then measured the two side pieces to run from the floor to 3/8″ above the top of the frame.

A quick cut on the miter saw and a few finish nails later…

After these were in place I measured for the top piece, and since it wasn’t a miter joint the ends needed to be sanded and stained prior to installing.

Now, the doors in my last house (which was built in 1927) had similar trim, except it was capped off with an L-shaped piece of trim– mitered at the corners– for a fancier look. You would think after four years of blogging about that house I would be able to find a better picture to illustrate how this looks, but apparently this is all I’ve got.

I decided against using that secondary trim on the Memorial doors, because the theme in this house is pretty simple and rustic.

I also kept with the theme of finishing off bathroom doors by installing trim on the inside of the full bath, which has been sporting a gap wide enough to peep through for a while.

The unnerving part is looking over an seeing the cat staring at you through that 1″ space with one glowing yellow eye.

So, following the same method as above I created a much more private space in this bathroom.

The top piece of my rustic wood wall needed to be taken down and notched, but other than that it was a pretty easy install.

And with that I believe the full bath is the first and only 100% complete room in this house. Hey, don’t knock progress.

My time frame for moving out of the Memorial House and on to the next project has always been roughly around the end of October, which of course is tomorrow. Unlike some of my other “hopeful dates” (you know, the day I hoped I would move out of the garage, or have the house done) the fates actually smiled upon this one and the appraisal and loan for the house went through.

I’m sorry, I think I need to repeat that for effect. The appraisal and loan for the house went through. And I didn’t have to do anything out of the ordinary like reinstall a kitchen or make a blood sacrifice or sell the rights to my firstborn. Which is awesome, but also a little anticlimactic, to tell the truth. Hopefully the paperwork will be wrapped up this week, and then there’s nothing stopping me from embarking on my next big adventure.

For anyone who is wondering what that might be, I’m leaning towards Option B at the moment. I’m also looking at places to rent for the next six months while I find just the right piece of land and hopefully get my barn/apartment underway. (There will definitely be professionals involved in the construction of the barn due to time constraints, but I’m hoping to build all the furniture for the new place over the winter. I mean, you know I’m not taking a six month break from my tools.)

Since I could be moving out in as early as two or three weeks…

Whoa. I just had to take a minute to let the enormity of the amount of crap I need to organize and pack in that time frame sink in.

Anyway, as you can imagine, building-stuff posts are going to be a bit lighter as I tackle that major logistical nightmare of moving approximately 4982 power tools to a new location, however there are still a couple of loose ends I’m tying up on the house to leave it in good shape.

And on a completely unrelated note, the donkeys would like to wish everyone a Happy Halloween…

My mom didn’t dress the donkeys up again this year, but really do last years costumes ever really get old?

Let me just say that not much could top the finish and luxury of the half-inch plywood that has been standing in place of counters in the kitchen for, oh, four months.

And as it turns out, I know from experience that plywood counters are perfectly acceptable when getting your house appraised for a loan, but the lack of a kitchen sink is not.

Since the house is being appraised on Tuesday it meant those fabulous plywood counters needed to be replaced by something slightly sturdier. Lucky for me there was 24 lineal feet of butcher block hanging out in the living room.

The kitchen layout required one long stretch of counter on the left side, two smaller sections of counter on either side of the range, and a bigass square piece on that corner cabinet that was so fun to install.

While the straight runs were pretty easy (just cut to length) the corner piece required joining two sections of counter together which was an excellent use of the portable Kreg jig setup that came in my kit. (For a step-by-step look at using the jig, check out this post.)

The pieces were joined together first, then cut to size for the corner piece.

Looks beautiful, but seems to be missing someth… oh yeah, there needs to be a hole for the sink there, right?

Now, normally I don’t take the easy way out of projects, but given the circumstances I might have gone with a drop-in style sink, but for the first and only time while building this house I was not the one that had a crazy moment and said, “Oh, you know what would be awesome? Undermount sink!” But someone else totally did.

If anyone else is considering an undermount sink in butcherblock, I’ll give you the same recommendation I gave MysteryMan just after the have you lost your mind look.

Use a jigsaw to cut the “rough” opening for the sink, 1/4-1/2″ smaller than the final hole. Then cut a template out of 1/4″ plywood the exact size and shape of the sink hole, and use the router with a 1-1/2″ straight bit and flush bearing to trim out the rest.

He actually did a fantastic job at this (something I probably wouldn’t have attempted… that’s role-reversal for you) and the hole for the sink looks awesome.

As you can see, attaching all of the pieces together was a little tricky, but almost anything can be accomplished if you twist yourself into a pretzel inside a cabinet, apparently.

The counter was attached to the cabinets by drilling 1/2″ holes through the blocking under the cabinets, and then using a 1″ deck screw with a 3/4″ washer on it to pull the counter snug to the cabinets.

In the midst of all this counter craziness I was also dragging my step ladder around the room touching up the paint job.

There will eventually be a backsplash between the counter and wall cabs, but that’s be a project for MysteryMan to finish later… so for now I painted everything with Revere Pewter to make it feel more finished.

The kitchen is clearly not done yet, but it looks like I may be able to wash dishes somewhere other than the laundry sink in the near future. It’s not as exiting as washing dishes with a garden hose, but a girl has got to get her kicks in where she can, right?

An interesting thing happened over the last week or two… the house all of the sudden resembles what I’ve been picturing in my head since way back when it looked like this.

And now…

Crazy, right?

It’s getting closer to being “done” although not so much closer that it is in any way, shape, or form ready for the surprise appraisal that’s being done on Friday. As in three days from now. Have I mentioned before that there is still no kitchen sink? And I’ve been down this road before.

Hopefully it gets rescheduled for after the weekend, because there is a pretty decent sized list of stuff to get done to put it in better shape for being appraised which currently looks like this:

1. Install counters and kitchen sink
2. Paint kitchen
3. Install master bath cabinet doors
4. Poly and hang master bath doors
5. Trim out master bedroom doors
6. Finish tile in master bath
7. Clean all the junk up

Since a lot of things are still in progress (notably exterior and interior stairs, and the lack of flooring in most of the house) it’s possible there’s going to be a Part 2 to this list. And there’s about zero chance all of that gets done in two evenings after work.

The last two years of my life have basically been lists about this house. Lists of things that need to get done, that need to be bought, that should have been done, and that I would have liked to do at some vague undefined point in the future (um, chicken coop, anyone?) so it’s strange to think that this might be my final list about the Memorial House before I start making all sorts of new crazy lists for the future.

Here’s a project on the Memorial House I haven’t spent any time working on, but still looks awesome. This is what the front of the house looked like two months ago:

And now:

The posts from the main beam to the porch are the same with the addition of a nice coat of not maroon stain. (For any of you unfamiliar with that story it goes like this: I messed up, I bought a new tool and fixed it. The moral here is don’t let me pick out your stain colors, and new tools fix everything.)

The beam required quite a bit more work. To make it look like the solid wood posts, it needed to be boxed out…

And then covered with 1-by cedar trim…

There will be two more 6×6 posts on an angle above the beam in the traditional timberframe style, but since they’re decorative and not structural they don’t take priority.

I think it looks great and can’t wait to see it with the front of the house painted, but apparently not enough to actually paint the house. I’m still trying to find a new source of motivation because obviously I don’t have the whole “I better get this done because I’m going to be looking at it for the rest of my life” thing going on anymore.

However, back on the subject of beams, I recently checked out a place just a short walk away from this beauty…

Which almost makes up for the fact that the house comes without a kitchen.

Since both the computer and I are still fighting our respective viruses– neither of which seems to be improved by the excessive application of Lysol, by the way– I thought it might be a good time to sit down and write the post about some things I’ve been meaning to share with you for a while. For a number of months, actually.

As someone who has posted pictures of herself covered in head-to-toe dirt, and doing incredibly stubborn (and sometimes stupid) things on the internet, it should be clear that I don’t have a problem sharing my stories– and parts of my life– with whoever is interested enough to read them. It’s important for me to say that those are just bits and pieces of my life. When I tell a story it becomes a concentrated version of reality– quicker, funnier, more poignant, maybe with a lesson that is easier to identify in writing than it was at the actual moment that I learned it.

But I still hope that there is truth in the stories I tell… that I’m not perpetuating this idea that things are always easy, that people are always clean and smiling when in the middle of a project, or that things always turn out the way you expect them to.

After four-ish years together, MysteryMan and I decided that while building a house with each other was a pretty awesome experience, living in it together for the rest of eternity was going to be a different story entirely. So we’re not going to. See? Not exactly the way we expected.

If your reaction to that is anything like the people we’ve told in person, I imagine the first things you’re asking– right after picking your jaw up off the table– is, “Okay, who screwed up here? Who’s leaving who? What fight did you have? Seriously… curtains are not worth breaking up over!” Followed closely by, “Oh my god, who is keeping the house?!”

The truth is, we knew before this house-project started that “happily ever after” was a bit of a crapshoot. But when faced with the options of playing it safe because things might not work out, and embarking on an adventure as a couple who liked, respected, trusted, and got along really well with each other? No brainer.

A lot have people have said, “Oh my god… the house! It killed your relationship!” But honestly it was just the opposite. This house taught us that even with our completely different approaches to life, we could still do awesome things together. And maybe it also gave us the confidence to make the right decision about our future. No one screwed up here, or got fed up with the house, or had a fight over curtains. We just decided that it wasn’t right for either of us.

So we amicably called it quits. Like, if there was an award for “most amicable break up” I think living on the same property and finishing a house together for several months post-split would put us at the top of the list.

And the answer to the other big question is that since the house is right next to MysteryMan’s parents, it was always going to be his. Luckily we were super smart about building the house together as unmarried adults who may not spend the rest of our lives in domestic bliss, so splitting everything will be pretty simple.

The truth is that the last two years have been a great experience, and even had I known the outcome would be that I would live in a garage for a year and then not spend the rest of my life in a house I just built, I would have done it all over again. Will, in fact, probably do it all over again. After all, you can’t write the end of the adventure before you set out on it… and if things don’t work out the way you expected, you find a new path.

That’s the beauty of life, there’s no end to the adventures.

So, what now? Here are the questions that people have asked me most often after getting The News.

What about the donkeys? To some degree it depends on where I end up, if it’s a place with room for a pasture I’ll take them with me and MysteryMan will get more (they came from his aunt to begin with), but if it doesn’t work out that way I’m still retaining visitation rights. I love my girls and just want them to be happy, even if it means they don’t get to chew on my hair every day.

Now what are you going to do? DIY, of course. It’s what I do. I bought my first house as a single 22 year old woman who knew nothing about houses, as a single somewhat-older-than-22 year old woman who knows a lot about houses I’ll do the same thing. Buy a fixer-uper and fix ‘er up. Or maybe build one from scratch. Yes, it was nice to have someone to help with the heavy lifting, but I’ve always said you shouldn’t let the prospect of “can’t” be the thing that defines you.

I’m bummed that there won’t be a bunch of wonderful “after” pictures to share with all of my visions for the Memorial House (I know, I know, they were supposed to make up for 18 months of pictures of me covered in sawdust) but that right there is a lesson for all of us. Sometimes in life, there is no beautiful staged “After.” But If the best you ever get is “In Progress,” well, at least you tried.

This won’t be the last you see of the Memorial House, there should be quite a few changes as we get the house in shape for appraisal and I’ll be sharing my vision for each room (to make some future decisions easier on MysteryMan as he finishes things off for himself.) But I’ll also take you on a tour of some future properties I’m considering so you can see just how crazy I am. (Hint: 100 year old farm house, anyone? Because you know, I could probably live in the barn for a year while I fix it up…)

Me: I have a house insured with you, and I need to increase the insured value… we’ve done a little work on it.

Insurance Agent: Okay, it says your house was 950 square feet, has that changed?

Me: Yes, its 1927 sq ft now.

Insurance Agent: And 2 bedrooms, 1 bath?

Me: Actually 3 bedrooms, 2 baths.

Insurance Agent:  Still have aluminum siding?

Me: No it’s all cedar siding now.

Insurance Agent: Same 3-tab roof shingles?

Me: No, they’re new, dimensional shingles.

Insurance Agent: Vinyl windows?

Me: Nope. Aluminum clad.

Insurance Agent: Carpet inside?

Me: Ah, actually… no. It’s mostly hardwood.

Insurance Agent: So… is any part of the house the same?

Me: …

Me: I think one of the closets is in the same spot.

Insurance Agent: Okay then.

(Also, last day to enter the Wagner Power Painter giveaway.)

It might have taken me the better part of three days to get it under control, but you can’t argue with the results.

By the way, pre-addition this wall of the kitchen looked like this, if you were angled toward the left closet.

There was some strange storage behind that little door, which I think you could say has been improved upon.

Unlike with the utility closet where the shelves were only 12″ deep to leave room for the brooms and steam mop, I wanted to maximize shelf space on the left side, which meant adding a little depth to the shelves.

Since I already had 12″ bulk shelving laying around, I just cut a couple of extra pieces down to the right width, and then used the table saw to rip them in half.

Then I used the kreg jig to attach the 6″ pieces to some 12″ pieces.

Which gave me nice, 18″ deep shelves, which were installed just like the other ones.

I used the same 24″ space between the floor and the bottom shelf, and then an 18″ space between the two lowest shelves, before continuing with the 13″ spacing I used in the utility cabinet, which gave me room for some of those small appliances.

Some of this kitchen equipment is stuff I haven’t seen in over a year. Hey look! I own a toaster! (Seriously, I’ve taking to buttering pieces of bread and tossing them in the pan on the hot-plate to make toast. It’s crazy over here.)

I also took a crack at this linen closet, which is opposite the full bath.

For this one I used that bulk wire shelving you can get at a Big Box. Cutting it down to size was a minor pain in the ass (I tried a lot of tools and the good old fashioned metal hacksaw worked the best.)

Installing them? Let’s just say that was the kind of experience that had me making sounds that were all consonants. Kind of like the Tasmanian Devil.

I know they were trying to make it “easy” but it was completely unintuitive for anyone who has ever actually hung a shelf before. (The anchors go through the holes in the supports, by the way. And the threaded pins? Those you’re supposed to hit with a hammer.)

The “big” earthquake happened while I was doing this, and while some people actually did feel it up here in Michigan, apparently it couldn’t really compare with the force of my frustration. However, temper tantrums aside, this now a linen closet with actual linens in it!

The only really important closet I haven’t tackled yet is the kitchen pantry, but now that four of the ten closets in this house have shelving, I feel like things are more under control.

Now, if I just had some closet doors…