June 2019 – nicole.groudasfamily.com

More Progress

We’ve kept up the momentum on getting the playroom really truly finished. Before the party we were able to get the painting fully done!

Since the party we’ve kept up the work – I finished up most of the electrical in the playroom (waiting on switches before I can install the fan but outlets and recessed light switches are done).

We finished painting the shelves for the built-ins! And I’m already filling those up!

Shelves getting filled! I got to pull 2 boxes out of the basement of things that have been packed since we lived in NH!

I’ve been painting the storage base to my craft table and just finished the second coat on that last night!

Craft table – ready to get set up this weekend!

This table is going to be amazing – more storage and a big space for both the kids to craft and me to sew! I can’t wait for that to get set up!

I’m waiting on some new bookcases I ordered for the playroom before most of the toys move in but once that is set up I’ll get more pictures. By then the room should be finished fan and window wise (I have to scrape the paint off the windows still maybe this weekend).

In other big news – Ryan and his Dad started work on a new basement project on Monday – cutting a huge hole out of our basement wall to put in a new double door. It took all day and they made good progress but it will be most of this weekend working on it before the door is installed I bet.

Cuts had to be made from both sides to get through the 10″ of concrete

Full day of progress – next up jack hammering to get it down to the bottom

Still to go – clearing out the rest of the concrete, cleanup then putting in a new header and installing the door!

We have piles of dirt still in the basement from one of our very first house projects – putting new support beams with footers in – we’ve been waiting for this door before we get that dirt out (rather than cart it up a flight of stairs in buckets) – so I’m excited to finally clean out and organize the basement after this project!

The house is really coming together. Maybe we’ll even take a break from house work soon – hahahaha!

Playroom Painting

The birthday party is approaching and we’re trying to get the painting in the playroom finished up so that we don’t have to empty the room again after the party! We spent all day Sunday working on the playroom – sanding trim (primer coat) priming doors, painting the ceiling and all the caulking. I got the first coat of paint on the crown after the girls were in bed and started the trim paint (1 window and a bit of the wainscotting).

This is the floor finished with 3 coats – before we started our weekend work on the room.

Monday Ryan was off of work (mondays all summer) so he picked up the painting. He got the first coat on the rest of the trim (minus the baseboard and 1 window sash), second coat on the crown and 1 door painted. Unfortunately Monday night Bella got strep so instead of finishing up some work then some painting I was snuggling Bella who’s throat hurt until the medicine started working.

Yesterday was Bella’s 4th birthday! She had a sick day home but was luckily feeling better already and had a fun day playing while I worked. We had her favorite chicken and mashed potatoes dinner and cupcakes for dessert. She got to play with her new paw patrol stuff while wearing her new Elsa gear – her best day 🙂

After bedtime (and lots of reminding the girls to stop talking) I painted the baseboard all around and the last window sash. Then I switched and got the first coat of blue on the walls! The room now has 1 coat on everything except 1 door so it’s looking more finished. Next up we have to sand all the trim before we can start the second coat on everything.

1 coat on the room – paint is still wet in this picture

We are using the same ‘Ash Blue’ color in the playroom as my office as we really love it with the Linen White trim. I also picked out a Cobblestone grey color to paint my sewing table which is sitting in the middle of the room in that picture. That project will happen after the party but it’s ready for primer and paint (all sanded) at least.

It’s going to be another few long nights especially since I also have to clean the house for the party and maybe decorate and bake a cake ? 🙂

Playroom and new toys

It’s been a quiet few months here … haha yea right! It’s been quiet on the house progress front only. We’ve had 2 birthdays (one party) for Alex and Evie. We bought a new piece of property (32 acres!) a short drive away and Ryan got a sawmill. The sawmill is related to the property 🙂 Ryan’s new hobby is everything wood. The property has some hard wood trees on it he hopes to saw down. He wants to build a barn to dry wood as well as store some of our larger tools and trailers over there.

Later on he hopes to build a woodshop into the new garage we will build so he can build furniture. He’s just planning for his early retirement at this point 🙂

In April we took a vacation week off an made some house progress. Ryan built the shelves for my built-ins and then he built the storage part of my new sewing table (happy birthday to me!)

The playroom was mostly done, I believe just the crown molding had to be finished up trim wise so he also finished that!

And I designed my new craft table for maximum storage and the proper height for cutting fabric (for me).

During this april break I got the trim in the playroom all sanded and primed.

Then Ryan got his new saw mill (new to him) and he’s gotten to play around with it a bit…

It’s over at Dad’s barn right now and I don’t think he minds at all

Another project was Ryan’s dad’s spring project – getting the back yard (lake side) all cleaned up, leveled out and seed planted. The grass came in wonderfully!

now it’s just a battle to keep the geese off of it!

And that catches us up to this past weekend. We had a very busy weekend – Ryan got the playroom floor all sanded down (it’s our last unfinished floor that’s been waiting for us to get to it). He got sanded and sanded and sanded while I sanded the shelves for the built-ins and got those primed.

14 shelves – all sanded, primed, sanded again

I used the sprayer on the shelves and they’ve been sanded after the priming but rain kept us from getting the first coat of paint on. Hopefully this week I’ll have some time to continue that project.

Finally Saturday night I got the first coat of poly on the playroom floor! Sunday I sanded it and got the second coat on – 1 more coat to go!

Final coat of poly will go on tonight – then next weekend (and any nights we can) we plan to get the painting finished in the playroom and have that room finished up for the next birthday party. Getting closer!

That’s our update – i’m sure it will be a month before I have another one (at least) 🙂