This weekend we brought along the peanut and she was a big help 🙂
I found her like this when I came downstairs from doing something – she’s ‘making lists’ and has her tools ready.
Don’t ever change alex – you are too perfect 🙂
We had a busy day Saturday. Alex and I ran to home depot while Ryan started with some spackling. We have this tough to reach spot at the top of the staircase (ceiling and walls) that is taped but not finished. Ryan got a good coat on that area.
Doesn’t this plank look totally safe?
We also managed to get 2 coats of paint on all of the ceilings that were ready – that’s the 2 bedrooms and the hallway (minus the stairway area). Next time we’re out I can do smoke detectors and lights now!
Our neighbor was over to work and he sheetrocked (which included some 2×4 installation) the attic stairwell – we are only doing the first section to the 2x4s they have up because the attic is unfinished but this way when you open the hopefully soon to be installed attic door, it opens to a seemingly finished stairwell. We will probably leave this untaped since the rest is unfinished but we’ll see.
Attic stairwell – calling it done for now
All in all we had a productive weekend when you consider 6 hours of that is driving 🙁 Sunday we ran errands then drove home after packing up. Attempted to drive during naptime (no nap). All well.
Now it’s time to enjoy Christmas and family. In the new year we’ll return to the home building 🙂
Our last chunk of insulation is done! If you don’t count the windows – we’ll have to insulate around the windows ourselves with cans because their sprayer was broken but we weren’t charged for it so no biggie. Either way – we are very close to ready for sheetrock now!
Last section of the attic is done!Coming up the attic stairs we had them cut it back for more head roomBack bedroom done!Washer dryer room done!under the master bathroom windows (just the small space) had to be doneMaster bedroom done!
Hopefully this weekend we can finish prepping the hallway and get the windows sprayed – then we really are ready for sheetrock!
The last week and weekend has been a bunch of projects so I’ll just update using pictures on all the work that’s been done recently.
During the week we had a crew working on the siding on the back side of the house! They got the siding installed and the soffit stripped and all primed (new siding primed too). good progress. Our contractor is back today getting paint on the soffit and siding and when the crew comes back they’ll install the red molding and take down the pump jacks.
Progress from Monday – just our contrctor getting the base piece on, the tar paper up and the window cab on.Tuesday progress – siding 1/2 way upSiding all the way up on the next dayEverything is scraped and primed now!
On Friday I got the front stairs sanded and stained in anticipation of rain this weekend (there wasn’t any of course) 🙂
The color is supposed to match exactly but it doesn’t – I’m pretty sure the deck used to be reddish like this and age just darkened it.
Also last week our contractor finished the front hall closet door – got the knob installed and the door fits very nicely now!
Closet door done!
We had our neighbor help with demo cleanup and room prep Friday and Saturday so with that help and our time Saturday and Sunday we got the Master bedroom and back bedroom ready for insulation. Wiring is just about done (i’ll finish securing some wires tonight) and rooms are nice and cleaned up.
Master bedroom – light is wired, outlets are wired (from existing outlets) and rooms is ready for insulation and sheetrock!Ryan framed out the new door that goes to the master bathroomA few wires for me to secure tonight but otherwise this room is ready!
The back bedroom is a step behind the master bedrom, only because the light isn’t wired yet. The outlets just need to be secured (and existing wires need to be put into new boxes) – then that room is also ready for both insulation and sheetrock! These 2 rooms are moving along quickly. We are leaving baseboards in these rooms and sheetrocking up to them. Then we’ll just put the baseboard caps on.
Back bedroom – all cleaned up and ready to go!Another view
I got the attic all cleaned up (the side that needs insulation still). I have some stuff that goes in the garbage but otherwise the attic is ready for insulation too!
Attic cleaned out
A productive weekend, we also had a yard sale on Sunday to get rid of some stuff from the attic. Now I just have a trip to the library to get rid of some books and everything else stays/goes with us 🙂
I’m hoping to have a few nights this week to complete some projects. It’s our last week here officially so I’m hoping for it to be productive! After that it’s just weekends!
Well I was supposed to take last friday off to paint/work on the house but Alex got sick Thursday night and had to stay home friday so I worked while she watched Thomas on TV most of the day (not the WHOLE day, although she did that most of the morning) 🙂
Anyhow, so the weekend came and we made some progress on the bathroom, Ryan got the last small pieces of cement board cut and installed around the window in the shower. We caulked all the joints in the shower, we got the first coat of spackle/tape on the ceiling and walls and I did a little painting (touchups at the peak and the half moon windows).
The peak is finished!!!
I took today off of work (mostly) since I missed last friday. I got another coat of spackle on the bathroom walls/ceiling and then got some paint on the outside of the porch soffit/posts. I didn’t get very far on the porch, I had to caulk most of the posts on the outside first which slowed me down.
Bathroom – coat 2Another view
Where i stopped paintingThe part I finished
The halfmoon window I got painted was re-made by our neighbor. He stripped down all the wood, put it back together and cut new (re-used from other windows) glass, then glazed and primed it. He’s working on the last half moon window now, the front one I just kept installed and did a quick fixup job in place. This one he did came out MUCH nicer!
Half moon window, painted and ready to go back in the attic!!!
This weekend we hope to get the shower water proofed (red-gard), and the walls/ceiling finished (spackling/sanding). The following weekend hopefully we can tile then. Let’s see how that plan goes.
Surprisingly they only missed a half day last week due to rain, although they couldn’t paint with the constant threat of rain. Great progress was made when I came home Friday morning and I’ll just explain through the pictures since I wasn’t here to witness it anyhow 🙂
Scaffolding went all the way up the tower and the crown molding and soffit were stripped down!The attic windows were all installed and the window caps for the second floor windows were installed with copper, all panels around the lower windows are also done (before they put up staging). Primed as well.The bumpout with scaffolding removed. We still have to add the red molding over the lower windows and paint inside some of the center panels.New attic windows really brighten this attic space!And the other side.
I don’t think I have a picture of the end of friday progress, they got the window caps on the attic windows, all the way around with copper. They got the casings and sills for the attic windows all made, cut and primed, ready to be installed. The goal is to get above the attic windows done completely, as well as down to the sill of the attic windows. Get that caulked/primed/painted, add the red molding and then lower the staging down to just one level to do between the two sets of windows. With the long weekend coming up, hopefully the weather holds so they can get this done like they want.
I never did an insulation post so let me recap… the friday after thanksgiving we had our insulation guys out to do the kitchen wall, the upstairs bathroom wall and then the attic ceiling. Here are the pics!
hidden staircase in the kitchenbasement way wall under the hidden staircasekitchen wallback door, the door will be replaced with an exterior door so they didn’t do around the actual doorupstairs bathroom and laundry room walls (again these windows will be replaced so we didn’t do around them)attic cupola insulated (the one wall section in the attic we did have them shave down)cupola ceiling – awesome!this is what most of our attic looks likethey did shave back around the furnace so we can put in a fire block/sheet rock sheet in therehere you can see most of what the attic looks like, the old vent pipe we ‘cut’, we’ll be fitting a new vent up to the old cast iron that goes out the roof once we get the new plumbing up to the attic
And that was our insulation. It went well, they came friday, did most of the work, ran out of insulation and came back monday to finish just the attic and shave the cupola area. They were done by 11. Expensive but worth it!
