When faced with a monstrous project of this proportion, I feel it would be any man's response to do the following:

1. Stand, somewhat perplexed, gawking at the thing for hours.
2. Call the neighbors over, and stand in front of the project perplexed
3. Grab a beer, hoping that it will make things less perplexing
4. When all else fails, go to the hardware store and spend money on tools!!!

I haven't had a chance to do the first 3 - b/c we don't own the house yet - but I am planning on doing the last one soon (in fact, it has already begun). As I mentioned in an earlier post, I went to 7 Corners Hardware a couple weeks ago and got a few birthday presents! Here they are:

TILE SAW! The MK370EXP 1.25HP wet tile saw:


This is just the best tile saw we could find for the money. It really is going to save me a TON of time. I considered just renting one, but with me doing all the tile work in the house, I figured this would more than pay for itself - plus it's not used and destroyed by other people and I have it whenever i want it!




FRAMING NAILER - Hitachi NR90AD:


I mean, I'll probably save 1/2 a year with this baby when I'm building the fence and deck. Might also help out with a couple framing chores in the house as well.

But even more than time saved, doesn't this thing just look TOUGH?! I feel like I'm shooting nails with the green goblin or something. Don't mess with the man with the nail gun!!!



7 Corners is having a HUGE SALE coming up soon. Several of the guys from the Wiens clan are going together to check it out (and write out some checks I would imagine!). It's quite the deal, so if you live in the Twin Cities and love tools, don't miss the sale! I'll probably be there maxing out my credit cards, so feel free to say hi :).

Today we were supposed to be in Iowa with my family, but my nephew (who is a serious stud of a little man) got sick. We ended up deciding that it might not be wise to expose our little girl to a potentially contagious situation - so we're at home for the weekend.

I called through several of our contractors to begin the process of finalizing bids last night. We have a meeting set up with our cabinet maker and our potential general contractor on Thursday of this week. I'm hoping to meet with an architect this week as well. Turns out that the architect that designed most of the local buildings of any import whatsoever happens to have his offices just a few blocks from our new house. He also happened to be the guy who designed the 'house on the isle' of Bald Eagle near our current home! We'll see what it would take to bring him on board. Do any of you have any experience working with architect/designer types on these kinds of projects? It's a bit uncertain whether or not we really need one, but it feels like it would be a good idea with all of the custom touches and period detail we'd like to put into this remodel in the hopes that the house retains its old world charm. If you have any advice or thoughts on the architect issue, make a comment at the bottom of this post. i'll check in with it.

We got a bid in on kitchen & laundry appliances from Warner's Stellian today. ugh. My wife loves nice things (she's rubbing off on me slowly over time) and those appliances sure look REALLY, REALLY nice :).

I'm heading to 7 Corners Hardware - the world's greatest hardware store - today with my father in law to pick out my birthday present. I haven't decided what it should be yet. Perhaps one of those sweet Paslode cordless nail guns. I figure I'm going to be doing a LOT of framing myself to save money, as well as most likely building our fence and our deck. This little baby should come in VERY handy on those projects! Plus I can terrorize squirrels with them. Just kidding. I haven't done anything that evil to an animal since High School (ask my cousin Adam about that one). If not that, possibly a tile cutter (for doing the bathrooms) or a dust collection system for the garage. I'm DETERMINED to have the shop in this new place be awesome... something I'm actually going to want to use because it's laid out well.

As soon as Ella wakes up (I suppose she will first have to stop talking and rolling around and then go to sleep), we're going to Lumber Liquidators to check out different flooring options for our main level. We're debating between something exotic (like Brazillian Cherry or Koa) or going with a good old standard oak. All the exposed woodwork in the home, albeit a small amount, is in oak. Any thoughts? Soliciting advice is going to be a standard practice in this blog.

I think that's about all we'll accomplish today on the home front! It should be a good time! Rarely would I use the words shopping and fun in the same sentence, but in the case of 7 Corners both those words apply! Have a good weekend!