This week has been a bit exhausting – at 31 weeks pregnant, once I’ve worked a full day and picked up the little one from daycare, then fed her (and us usually), I really just want to rest. HOWEVER there are things to do! This week I got the 3 closet doors that we brought home MONTHS ago finally painted. We can get them installed this weekend, the painter is taking care of the rest of the doors which should be done when we get out there. I’m excited to see the painting progress this weekend!
Next week is the last week like this, I’m going to be painting the drawers and doors for the diningroom built-ins once they are stripped, I got one drawer stripped last night and I can finish the rest maybe monday night then paint Tue, Wed, Thur nights (primer and 2 coats of paint). Lot of work but going to look great!
Ryan and I are going out without Alex this weekend so I can finish up any projects from my list. This will be my last trip out, I will be 32 weeks along next week and want to start taking it easy as I’m hoping to make it to 38 weeks this time (Alex came at 37). Ryan will have one more tough weekend of doing floors the following weekend without me and then he too will be taking a break as he has other commitments for a while.
Not really long as in longer than 2 days but long as in it felt very long. We got an early start Friday, hitting the road at 5pm and getting to the house by 8! I put the munchkin to bed and Ryan got started grouting the master bathroom! I cleaned paint off the master bedroom windows while he started and then by the time he was onto the floor I could help (not much help in the shower). We were up until 1am but got the entire bathroom grouted!
Grouted shower!Floor view (next day when Ryan was doing trim)
On Saturday we couldn’t walk in the bathroom until after about 3pm so Ryan worked on various other projects throughout the house. He put up some trim in the tvroom closet (door and a piece of baseboard) and he put the trim up around the top of our columns in the livingroom – they look great!
Caps on the columns
Now that the master bathroom is done we had our neighbor hang the last piece of sheetrock and start taping/mudding the last section of the house!
Taping/spackling in progress
Our painter had worked a bit during the week and worked all weekend again, trim is almost done, he’s coming again once this week and a bit next weekend and it should be done (what’s up already) – and if he has time we’ll add a bit more to his load after this weekend.
The stairway has paint now – looks great
I was pretty distracted with a toddler most of the weekend and never took pictures after this point (some time saturday afternoon) so the rest is choppy.
During naptime and kid free time I got the build-in drawers (tvroom) sanded and shellac’d so those can be installed (this is the 5 that weren’t in out of 10 total). I worked on the doorbell finally but may need a new button on the front to get it working. I got the back porch light installed and the back bedroom closet light wired up (needs a fixture but works as a light now).
Ryan worked on installing trim on the back porch using what scraps we have left once he finished all the trim in the master bathroom (3 windows, 1 door and baseboards) between Saturday and Sunday. Aside from one piece of cap molding in the master bathroom the upstairs trim is finished. The only trim really missing is the front hallway closet (inside) and some small baseboard in the back porch which Ryan will finish up next weekend. Ryan also got the little porch off the master ready for a new ceiling (added some strapping) and cleaned it up – it looks really nice. Once the ceiling is in and everything gets a coat of paint that porch will look great.
We stayed until 5:30 on Sunday, I got the last of the fragile kitchen stuff packed up while Ryan did a final cleaning of the bathroom tile with cheese cloth and we headed out with a truck load of stuff. Next weekend is the last weekend I’ll go out, the plan is to go kid free if we can and make the most of it. Then the following weekend Ryan will take a 3 day weekend and hopefully my dad can go out and they can do the upstairs floors – then the house is on the market. So close it’s unbelievable really.
A mid-week visit up to the house for some appts and I have a few more pics to share and a tiny bit of progress updates as well.
First some more pics of what was done over vacation …
Another shower view
The painting continues smoothly and he will be finishing up what he has time for this weekend, anything left will be for us unfortunately but I think he’ll have almost all the trim done (that’s already installed).
Washer/dryer stand ready to carry those up and install
I still forgot to take an outdoor (front porch ceiling) picture – this weekend I will hopefully remember but I did get a pic of the floor in the master bedroom that Ryan fixed up (it had damage and a hole from the radiator).
Repaired floor in cupola!
And the electric in the bathroom is officially done – of course I forgot to take a picture of the ceiling fan but the outlets and vanity lights are in and everything is working/wired up.
Outlets and switches (need another double switch plate…Vanity lights … so…
Turns out that when they say the vanity light is 24″ across they measure the edge of the metal NOT the glass! Since our sinks are 12″ in from the sides and we wanted the lights centered I thought I was safe with a 24″ wide light. Not so much it turns out 🙁 Luckily I think I can just buy different glass and change that out for a small fee instead of using this flared design. I’d have to have to unwire and replace them completely as it was a pain to get up of course!
That’s it, it was a short trip and I mostly just worked remotely while there. We’ll be heading up tonight for another weekend of work including grouting the bathroom, putting up the bathroom trim, spackling the last wall in the diningroom (me) and working on the banister maybe or hanging ceiling fans. We are going up next weekend too so some of that may happen then.
Well this was our last stay-cation at our NH house where we take a week off of work to work on the house, definitely not as much fun when it’s finishing a house that will get sold 🙁 Add to that my back has been killing me (sciatic) with this part of pregnancy (so much fun) but we got a ton done and we are on track to get the house listed in mid-may i think. Let’s see if I can recap the vacation a bit…
We drove out Friday night (Alex’s birthday). Saturday Ryan worked on getting trim installed, the painter was starting on monday so he wanted all but the master bathroom trim done if possible. He got the back bedroom windows and doors trimmed, then the window by the washer/dryer…
Baseboards done … the old baseboard tops had to be stripped of paint and cleaned up a bit then the caps put on, plus a small piece had to be pieced in.Doors trimmedWindow trimmed by washer/dryer
When i had time I focused on electrical. These lights were done the last weekend we were out but I didn’t take pics so here are the lights i installed in the stairway and top of stairs.
These will have shades on topChandelier at the top
I got the back bedroom outlets all wired up at some point during the week (a naptime – there weren’t many naptimes). So master bedroom and bathroom are really the last outlets left.
Sunday Ryan worked on the master bedroom trim (baseboards again) and also patched up the floor where the radiator had done damage. The floors are officially ready to be refinished now (well when we have time!).
Over the weekend our neighbor finished spackling the bathroom and then sanded it on sunday so I could prime it and Mark could paint it Mon-Tue, we went with a light grey paint.
SpackledAll done!
Monday started the master bathroom project in earnest, Ryan had to get the shower pan installed which took some work and included putting the drain in, then the foam floor insert (Kerdi system). Ryan’s dad came out to help Monday afternoon-Wednesday which was a huge help. The kerdi system involved putting down the underlayment then letting it dry so working on something else until they could tile again. It slowed down the project but hopefully is worth it.
The project they chose as extra was putting up most of the front porch (wrap-around) ceiling! They put upstrapping to nail the new ceiling to and then put up bead board panels. We’ll need to put up some trim on the seams and around the edges to make it look really finished but it’s a huge improvement and looks great. Over the 3 days they got all but 2 panels installed.
In the bathroom on Tuesday they got the floor to the shower done AND the floor to the whole bathroom tiled! All day on hands/knees as this is a large bathroom! Oh and Mark also painted the entire bathroom
Shower floor – charcoal – love it!Starting the floor tile, simple subway layout of 12×12 on the floor.Finished!The bumpout part
Unfortunately they needed to give the tile 24 hours to dry so the shower project had to wait until Wed night before starting. So that’s when they worked on the porch ceiling the most.
I got some lights in the master bathroom wired up so Ryan would have light in there at night if he tiled the shower. I also worked a little on the banister project I have planned. I’m sanding it lightly with 300 grit, cleaning it well, staining it dark so it hides any knicks then i’ll give it a wax. Here is a section I did with just stain, no wax yet…
It darkens a bit but really hides the old knicks well and looks awesome in person! This section only took about an hour so won’t take too long to do the rest!
The painter started on Monday with prepping (filling holes and sanding) the trim we had installed. Then he got to priming – he’s doing all the trim upstairs, some downstairs and all the doors we’ve had dipped. I actually drove the last 3 doors down to Worcester on Tuesday to be dipped and they’ll be brought back this week when I make another trip out!
Painter got the trim all primed in the back bedroomHallway trim all primedTrim at the top of the stairs primedMaster bedroom windows all primed
Some great progress this week… Alex, Mark and I headed back late Wednesday night so I could clean the house and prep for the birthday party Thur and Fri. Ryan stayed through Thursday, tiling the shower!
Matching tile in 12×24 for the shower.
The glass guys came and measured on Thursday once the shower was tiled and Ryan also met with the realtor … about 4 more weeks and we’ll be listing hopefully!
We have a few big projects left and lots of little things. We need to fit in finishing the floors, the painting is being handled so that’s not a concern. The bathroom has to be grouted – this weekend! And then the glass can be installed in the shower. We have to get the vanity upstairs and put in – that is crazy heavy and will be tough but hopefully soon.
