This weekend Alex and I went down to Aimee’s house to work on their new nursery (for baby #2!). Alex wasn’t much help but luckily Grandma was there to entertain the kids so I could help on the nursery. Jason got the wallpaper off, I scraped around the trim and then skim coated 2 walls. A good start! Gotta get this room done before baby girl arrives!
Wall number 2 after the scraping was done, the first wall was mostly skim coated at this point.And after the skim coat – looks great!Hard to get a view of the first wall due to the lighting
Meanwhile back at our house on Friday the work continued, our contractor continued work on the ceiling boxes and our neighbor got the front hallway walls taped. I haven’t gotten pictures yet so will post that later on.
This weekend was full of progress on various things. Friday our neighbor taped the diningroom (the part we can tape) and our contractor started on the cofferred ceiling boxes. On Saturday they both were installing the boxes and we have the sides on for most of the boxes (just the bump out part is left). This friday the plan is to finish up the front section and start on the bases of the boxes.
A view from the kitchenSame thing from the livingroom.
My project this weekend was to get the crown molding in the kitchen primed and then painted. It needs one more coat of paint but I got the initial coat on and the ceiling and wall touchups done. So one more coat and we can install the crown on top of the cabinets finally. While doing the crown, I primed the trim on the 2 doorways in the back hallway and I got a coat of paint on the window (so that needs just one more coat to be done now too). Coming along!
Crown with a coat of paint!And another section
I also got the bathroom door sanded and primed, so now that needs 2 coats of paint and we can have privacy in our upstairs bathroom 🙂
Ryan worked on the front livingroom, first he finished up the trim on all the windows, they look great!
Windows all have trim now!
Next he framed out the archway to the front hall and started trimming that out. We’re back to the point of needing to strip some rosettes 🙂 And to do the other side of the arch we need to get some matching trim made so that’s on the list.
Archway – first he framed it in narrower so the switches don’t interfere with trim, then he lined the inside with poplar and installed the first parts of the trim!
Finally he got started getting the plinth blocks installed so the baseboards can go in next. After baseboards it’s crown molding and wainscoting (shadow box style). There is a lot of finish work in this room but it will hopefully look great!
My focus is to finish the painting in the kitchen and the bit of baseboard installation (caps and quarter round) in there, then i’ll start the livingroom painting work (by then the trim should be installed and ready). So that should work out well! The diningroom won’t go too much further because we are leaving 1/2 the ceiling exposed for plumbing purposes but I do hope to do the exterior wall (install window trim) and maybe get that part painted at least? Fun stuff!
Another great weekend of house progress. Our contractor and our neighbor were over Friday and Saturday, they got the sheetrock finished in the diningroom (the part we can do), the first round of taping in the upstairs hallway (and stairwell!) finished and the archway in the livingroom stripped the rest of the way! Woohoo!
Upstairs hallway taped!This is the ceiling from the ground floor.
Then the real fun began. Ryan started working on the window trim in the livingroom. Saturday he made all the window sills (he actually made 2 for the diningroom too!), then he made and installed the filler strips, then installed the side pieces of molding and the window aprons on Sunday. The tops couldn’t be done because the rosettes had to be stripped.
Window trim! And you can see the arch here too.Check out all those windows just waiting for rosettes and top pieces!
Which brings us to my participation. I stripped all the rosettes for the livingroom Sunday afternoon (that was 12 total) – fun stuff 🙂 So many left to go though still!
And my final participation this weekend was getting the crown molding sanded in the kitchen, ready to be primed. I also finished sanding the trim in the back hallway around the doors. The mini hallway outside the bathroom still needs sanding but I ran out of time.
Crown is sanded and ready to be primed!
Another little project got completed as well, the outlet in the microwave cabinet cut-out got in-set (Ryan cut out the piece of cabinet and sheetrock so I could install the outlet back about an inch). The means the microwave fits nicely now (the plug sticks out so far the microwave wouldn’t fit nicely. So now I just have to wire that outlet to the panel box and paint and install the nice trim we have for the outside of the cutout. Then we’ll have our microwave installed permanently as originally planned. Can’t wait!
I’m hoping to focus on finishing the kitchen as much as the front livingroom. Our main goal is to have a playroom, finished kitchen and almost finished? front hall before Alex’s birthday part! We’ll see!
Our contractor and neighbor came over Friday and Saturday this week and we have a sheetrocked stairway now! It was not easy sheetrocking that section over the stairs, we left the original ceiling in place (there are only 2 ceilings in the whole house we are leaving, this one and the front livingroom). They sheetrocked right over it. Not easy since my neighbor is afraid of heights, that will be one section he is not taping 🙂
Stairwell from the topThe wall of the stairwellOur closet wall at the top of the stairsOutside Alex’s room at the top of the stairsThe window at the top of the stairs
There’s a lot of taping and spackling to get done now. The diningroom has some sheetrocking to finish up, then some of that will be taped, the front hallway, stairway and upstairs section. That will be the next couple of weeks. In the meantime I need to get some electrical done in the hallway upstairs and we’ll be able to start moving that way.
Ryan and I worked on finishing touches in the bathroom, I sealed the counter (because I noticed it darkened when wet so it probably would be good to seal), all the rods and bars were installed, the mirror was hung. It’s just about complete, we’re waiting on the shower rod to come tomorrow (although we moved the one from downstairs temporarily for now). I’ll get final pictures tomorrow when the rod is in. We have to paint the door and get that hung back up and then it will be really done, doors are always last in this house 🙂
