On memorial day my husband and I drove out to the house to move a truck load of stuff out and for me to get a final look at the house and do some final packing up.
While there I got the last of the kitchen packed, he started on the endless empty the attic project and I organized the tools in the basement into boxes to get moved later. Finally we ended the trip with one last home project – painting the floor of the back porch to match the stairs.
A nice grey to protect the ‘mud room’
As I was doing it and seeing how nice that back porch looks I was wishing we had done it sooner and enjoyed it. It’s such a nice large room but alas – priorities, it all gets done just as we sell.
While out there we also met with the buyers who are SO sweet and excited about the house. It made us feel so much better about selling knowing it’s going to a family that will appreciate it almost as much as we do 🙂
And that’s it for me, Ryan is going out the next 2 weekends to pack up the attic and basement and the rest of the furniture, hopefully we can fit it all in our new second storage unit (yes we already filled one). I’m done traveling now that i’m almost 36 weeks pregnant and Alex arrived at 37.
This weekend was the last weekend I plan to go out to the house to work! We’re busy the month of may and with the baby coming I won’t travel out there in June. Ryan and Dad will go out next weekend to do the floors upstairs and Ryan will stay and finish a few more things. We have our contractor back working on some things this week and next if we need him. The house goes on the market on Monday next week!
Let’s try to recap the weekend a bit.
Friday night Ryan got the drawers installed in the built-ins so the tv-room built-ins are finally completely finished!
Built-ins are finished!
Since the doors are all painted I put the hardware back on all the downstairs doors and they look great. Ryan hung the tv-room closet door too that I had finished painting last week.
Saturday we got an early start, the first thing I did was clean and mom the diningroom which was scuffed up from the painter, then I covered the floor with paper and a new drop cloth knowing we’d have people working in there still but wanting to minimize damage. Our contractor came out (he’s back from Arizona!) and he did the crown molding in the ceiling over the weekend – it looks awesome!
Diningroom ceiling crown is done (just needs paint!)
His wife is actually going to do the painting for us, she painted the front closet on Sunday. She’s also going to do some cleaning downstairs for us this week to get the house show ready (wash windows and such).
I got the built-ins stripped (just the front face) and sanded. Ryan put up the last bit of trim on the built-ins and they are ready for caulking/prime/paint!
Built-ins are ready
My project at home here this week is to strip/prime/paint the drawers and doors so ryan can put those back in next weekend.
Maribeth and Dan worked on outside projects mostly for us. First Maribeth painted the outside of the little upstairs porch!
Porch is painted
Then she and Dan scraped the old paint off the back porch and got it primed (the 2 sides). Our contractor will do the siding on the back side of the porch this week and get the final paint on everything back there I think.
Back porch siding scraped/primedOther side
A big project Ryan did with Dan’s help is getting the ceiling of the front porches done (the wrap around and upstairs porch). They finished putting up the last pieces of paneling, then quarter round around the edges, then lattice, flat trim on the seams.
Porch has a ceiling!
Once that was done I could put up the ceiling fan on the porch!
Ceiling fan!
Speaking of fans, I got the back bedroom fan and closet light installed. I also go the master bedroom fan installed and fixed the master bedroom closet light wiring which was flaky/not working for some reason.
Back bedroom fan!Master bedroom fan
Ryan also got the hand rail on the front staircase installed (the second one) and finished the small railing by the side door which Maribeth then painted. The one last back railing he got the hand rail and bottom piece installed, but has to do some sort of railing still, it won’t match exactly but it never did anyhow before.
Maribeth got the final coat of yellow paint on the little porch off the master bedroom.
Little porch all cleaned up and finishedAnother view from the little porch
With a ton of help Ryan got the vanity upstairs, he had to cut the side of the vanity that sticks out further than the granite in order to fit it properly in the bathroom – (that was unplanned work) but it came out great!
Vanity installed! And he could put in the last piece of baseboard on the right there.Another vanity viewAnother bathroom view
The bathroom list remaining is just : Paint touch ups (Last baseboard), hanging mirrors and bars, plumbing and glass. Then it’s done! That was definitely fast for a bathroom renovation!
Ryan and Dan also moved the washer and dryer upstairs on Saturday and I tested them out. They are awesome! Not too loud at all like everyone said, I ran a full heavy load through and you could barely hear it during the spin cycle. The dryer noise was actually louder (and not too loud). Man I wish we had done this particular project sooner so I could have enjoyed it!
Washer/dryer upstairs!
Finally one of the projects that was just waiting to be done.. the banister! Everyone pitched in Saturday night and got the banister sanded. Maribeth and I stained it and she waxed it on sunday as I was packing to leave. It looks awesome! We’ll have it covered with plastic next weekend while the floors will be done so it won’t need to be dusted and it will certainly be a showcase feature!
Banister – wax in progress!Another view
What an exhausting weekend, everyone worked so hard and we were all sore after but so much is done. My list of what’s left to do finally fits on a single page! That’s amazing! After this week I can focus on getting ready for the pig roast and then baby coming. As we move more and more stuff out of the house (mostly attic and basement/tools left to move) we’ll have to find a place to store more stuff (another storage unit!?) like tools but it’s a good problem to have as it means we’re getting close to not paying a mortgage on a house we don’t live in (after 8 months already of doing so!), i’m hoping we can keep it to 1 year total.
Our house…. for now
Goodbye Nashua – hopefully I’ll see the house finished when we sell it if baby arrival works out well with that! (She has to come a couple weeks before we close in order for me to deal with the drive out!). I think that’s very likely.
Well this past weekend was most likely the last weekend we’ll go out kid free – the next weekend we go out is for our ‘vacation’ so of course we’ll bring Alex (plus it’s her birthday weekend!). After that we’re getting close to the end of what I can do anyhow as I get further along so we’ll bring her along.
We drove out Thursday night and both worked from the house on Friday so we could get the new vanity delivered. Then we worked friday night from 6-11 with a break to go to Lowe’s for our tile!.
Bathroom tile!
Friday night was mostly making a new door frame for the master bedroom door and getting that installed. Ryan also worked on some chair rail in the hallway and I got some outlets installed in the master bedroom.
New door installed!Chair rail!
Saturday we started with another hard project and got the master bathroom fan vented out through the attic frieze board. Ryan had to hang out of the half moon window to cut the hole for it, it was quite the ordeal but the fan is vented!
Fan vented! I didn’t take a pic outside because it was snowing – ugg in spring!
Other than installing lights (I got the front hallway lights all installed up the stairs and top of stairs!), I also took up the carpet on the stairs finally. We can finally see these beautiful stairs that will look great refinished!
Stairs! the lower part of the wall just needs to be painted and this will look great!
Ryan got trim around the rest of the upstairs hallway (chair rail and door trim around the master bedroom door). Then he did the other doors in the master bedroom (outside door and closet door). The bathroom door is our last one in there that needs to be installed and trimmed out!
Trim around doors and some baseboards done too
I got the vanity light boxes installed (we were waiting on the vanity so i could make sure the lights were centered above the sinks properly and I think we are good here).
Vanity light boxes installed!
Our neighbor finished spackling the back porch and got that sanded. It’s ready for primer/paint and trim! Then he built the knee wall in the bathroom for the shower and put in some blocking for the glass door to hang on when we get that.
Shower walls ready
We headed back to NY Saturday night at 7 so we could have a family day with Alex on Sunday which was very a great idea and ended up being a blast.
I’m headed back to the house this week to get the master bathroom inspections done so that the next weekend we are out we can move forward on the bathroom (and our neighbor can start sheetrocking it). Exciting!
Lot’s left to do but the inside is coming along nicely and if we hire someone to paint we are getting closer for sure!
Ryan and his Dad both had a 3 day weekend this weekend so they took advantage and went out to work on the house. Alex and I joined them Friday night to Sunday afternoon to provide entertainment in the form of a 2 year old and so I could do a tiny amount of work while Alex napped or watched tv.
While we were gone, our neighbor has made some progress, the back stairway is now sanded and primed. Also the ceiling over the front stairs was painted – ceilings done!
Back staircase
Sheetrock wise the only thing left is the back porch – Ryan’s dad installed the light box in there so that room is ready for sheetrock next!
Friday after getting some supplies, Ryan and his dad worked on the front entry trim. The panels in the front entry were finished up on Saturday and all holes are filled and trim is caulked. Ryan’s dad also painted the wall portion so all that is left is to paint the trim (considering hiring a painter to just paint all trim and doors when we are done).
This is with only 1 coat of paint but after we left Sunday Ryan’s dad finished all second coats of paint on the brownTowards the front doorComing soon.. panels up the stairs
Upstairs Ryan got the attic door installed, and trimmed out doors and windows wherever he could. He made up the sills for most of the rest of the windows and I hear got the master bedroom windows sills installed! Our neighbor stripped some rosettes for us too so we were able to trim out a few things completely and not do just the sides 🙂
Top of stairs – that’s the nursery and the archway – with trim finished!The window at the top of the stairs trimmed – and that’s the stairway all painted (even cut in) thanks to Ryan’s dad! (We’ll have chair rail and panels up here too)The hallway – closet and bathroom doors trimmed out and hallway painted!Washer/dryer spot painted!Back bedroom door trimmed out and attic door getting installed (and then trimmed).
My contributions were minor, I caulked the trim in the front hallway and played with the toddler. I can’t wait to go back and see the progress next weekend! Pretty soon Ryan and I will do another kid free weekend and I’m hoping to get a bunch of electrical done then. Progress everywhere. Pretty soon we’ll be starting on the master bathroom, we just need the rough-in plumbing finished so we can get inspections before we close up walls and start tiling!
Work on the house continues this week. Maribeth and Dan came out for a long weekend and worked away on our small porch off the bedroom. They stripped all of the old paint and it looks great! Can’t wait to get this thing sanded and painted so it looks nice. We’re going to put new out door carpet in there, a new ceiling and call it done (once painting is done). Of course the door has to be stripped and refinished as well.
Posts and details all stripped, ceiling just scraped since we’ll cover it with a new one.One small section to strip on that top right!
Ryan got a bunch of things done the last few days. The vent for the upstairs dryer is installed.
New vent!
He worked on the back porch demo, we ran a wire from the switch to the basement when we did the back hallway so that wire is now fed up to the ceiling in the porch and we just have to get it to a new light so the back porch will have light again. All of the aluminum around the porch was removed and he recycled it with a few trips (getting rid of one last radiator as well!). A couple trips to lumber yards – got the decking we need this weekend, got some crown for the livingroom (our contractor is here today putting up more crown!). With all the errands needing to be run (we were sending our truck back to NY with Dan and Maribeth so it all had to be done), Ryan didn’t want to start demo in the late afternoon. Plus the heat/humidity was crazy yesterday.
Today he has cleaned up the little porch, the roof and gotten ready to start the demo in the master. Here is a before pic of what he’s starting with – the windows are already all new, so it’s just taking the plaster/lathe down. We’re saving the ceiling in the cupola since we won’t need a light there (doing sconce lights over the windows in there), we’ll just sheetrock over that ceiling. The big ceiling has to come down though (yuck). We borrowed this negative air machine so looking forward to seeing if that contains the dust mess.
Pre-demolition!
Demo and cleanup/prep work today and tomorrow. Friday starts the porch project!
Friday and Saturday we rented a lift to complete some up high projects around the house. First up Ryan got a coat of paint on the shakes on the driveway side and the molding up under the soffit. Some sections of that molding aren’t done yet but they are easier to get off a ladder so we waited – wanting to take advantage of having the lift. Ryan then painted all the green that he could easily get with the lift that was left (again what’s left we can get off a small ladder on the porch roof).
Red shakes done – green around the windows done! Almost finished with painting 3 sides!
Next up Ryan moved to the back and removed both the aluminum siding and the original siding from the back side.
This took about an hour and a half to get to this point!
That was all on friday, Saturday it was a second coat of red on the shakes and moldings, then he installed the last 2 windows in our entire house that we plan on doing! Our contractor is going to reside that back side (hopefully very soon so we can insulate) – so we’re done with that upper section, leaving just the back porch for us to deal with. The flashing for that porch was fine so a little ice shield to keep water from getting behind it until it’s sided and we’re good to go for now.
Last 2 windows installed! The attic one is just a vinyl window
We attempted to get the lift to reach the small section of green by the electrical wires that i couldn’t reach by ladder last year but it wouldn’t reach 🙁 So we’ll have to pull out the bigger ladder to complete that green paint. Finally we started pulling aluminum off the back porch which didn’t really need the lift but we ran out of actual projects that needed it!
Porch with most of the aluminum off. This siding is in decent shape, we’re going to patch the missing piece of sill and sand/paint the siding/trim as is. Not putting a lot of work into this porch as it really should just come off the house and have a garage attached!
Sunday we returned the lift, went out to breakfast and then I spent the day packing while Ryan was on Dad duty. I got our bedroom packed and ready to empty and the back porch emptied. These are the next 2 demo projects although the back porch is only getting partially demo’d. During naptime Ryan got the front area grouted so that tile job is done! The front hall just needs trim and paint to be completed!
Grouted!
Maribeth and Dan came out Friday night and spent Saturday morning stripping paint off the little front porch off our bedroom. They are back to it today and it’s coming out great (pictures coming soon!).
Today is a day of getting lots of small stuff done. We were hoping our contractor would come today and finish the crown in the front livingroom (he did the cupola crown over the weekend) so we could move our furniture down there and it wouldn’t be in the way but he has another job holding him up at the moment. The plan is to demo our bedroom Tuesday and Wednesday. Then get electrical done Thursday.
Cupola has crown! Just needs caulk, prime, paint!
Friday will be the start of the porch project – that is very exciting — a finished porch coming soon! I’ve had a hole in my porch for so long now! I wrote a list of everything I can see that needs to get done still and while it’s huge it seems manageable with the next 2 weeks of Ryan’s time so I’m excited. He’ll need a break next week for sure but hopefully putting up trim or doing some smaller easier tasks will be okay!
