Entry and Stairway – Page 2 – nicole.groudasfamily.com

This and That

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.

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!

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 bathroom

A 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!

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!

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!

Work continues

We were back in NY this weekend getting things settled for our move soon! While there work continued on our house, our contractor came over for a couple of days. A little time this morning too and he’s finished up 2 projects – the upstairs hallway now has flooring and the front hallway downstairs has crown molding! He’s also doing the last bit of work on the closet door for the front hallway so I can get that painted soon.

A view from the stairs. We are having it stop here, not doing crown upstairs.

New floor – this is the washer/dryer room and entries to the stair cases

Another view. That doorway will actually be a full wall between the staircases but hasn’t been framed in yet.

I hope to make progress on a few more projects this week. Right now our front stairs are being protected from the rain and hopefully after tonight i can uncover them to really dry out and then stain them by the end of the week so they will be safe. (Hand rails too). The other main project is getting ready for insulation in the 2 bedrooms and attic (moving stuff and electrical to be done). Insulation is next week!

Weekend update

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!

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!

Thursday

Around 11 Ryan was ready to start tiling the front area again. I’m pretty sure almost every tile he did had to be cut (maybe 2 didn’t) today! So we got the wet saw setup in the driveway and he went to work on tiling. By 3pm he was done and it looks great!

The trim arrived early in the morning so Ryan got a couple rosettes stripped (I continued that job after bedtime) and he started putting up trim in the front hallway after organizing the trim (precutting to rough length and storing in the basement).

Chair rail started, the arch has all it’s trim, the door is waiting on rosettes

It’s a good after dark project to do a little at a time.

Today Ryan went and got the lift. He’s already got the aluminum siding on the top section stripped off and organized, he’s starting on the old siding. The little back porch is last since we don’t need the lift for that. Once the siding is stripped it’s time to paint the high sections that are left. Lots of red accents, a coat of green and we should be good to go. We have the lift through sunday morning.

Wednesday Wrapup

Just a quick wrap-up on what Ryan finished up yesterday. With Alex’s help he dry laid the tiles into the pattern we were thinking and of course we were short one mosaic tile 🙂 No biggie. Once Alex was in bed he mixed up some mud and did the pattern so it would be dry today and he could do all the cutting and finishing around the pattern today (after a trip to go get that missing tile).

Tiled until he ran out of mud – pattern almost complete!

And here’s a picture of the washer/dryer stand:

The stand is VERY sturdy, the top isn’t screwed down because we have to install a drain through it, then there will be a lip around the edge of the box and our baseboards will wrap around. We’re going to use redguard to make it water proof for the emergency drain instead of getting a pan (which is tough for an oversized washer. And since it’s for emergencies and red guard will make it water proof we’re not worried about it.

Ryan is back from home depot and getting ready to tile. I like working from home so i can see the progress! Oh yea and big news – the trim we had made to match our existing just came in this morning! So we can finish the trim in the front hallway now and we have enough hopefully to do the whole upstairs when it’s ready!

Floor is finished

We put the final coat of poly on Sunday night! Ryan sanded when we got back from NY and I got it vacuumed and poly’d while he put Alex to bed! It’s done! And great timing, we can let it dry/cure for the week and we’ll definitely be using it a bit by next weekend!

Just a few small things left to do (crown molding and trim paint) and the front livingroom will be done! The front hallway has a bit more work and the diningroom is on hold because we have to do the bathroom above it (plumbing). So excited though! We can finally put furniture back in the rooms officially. Here comes my new office (front livingroom), sewing room (diningroom) and playroom!

Second Coat!

It’s not as shiny because it’s drying much faster. It’s also a bit lighter after the sanding I think.

I don’t think the 3rd coat will get done before the weekend, maybe Sunday night. This coat took a while with the sanding and vacuuming and it was just me this morning. It looks very smooth and nice (the first coat was a bit rough). Can’t wait till this one dries!!!

First coat of poly!

The stain wasn’t quite dry enough last night to do the first coat of poly so I took an hour and a half this morning and got it done by myself and Ryan took Alex to daycare to save me some time.

It went pretty well, the first coat doesn’t need sanding/vacuuming before hand so the second and third coats will take more time. The floor is somewhat protected now though with at least one coat on so I feel better about it.

Our contractor showed up today to start working on the small porch off of our bedroom. He took out the screens and took off the sills and is working on rebuilding it a bit. The porch roof leaks where the porch is since we took the siding off so he’s got to fix the leaks (flashing and shingles should help). I think we may leave the porch open (no screens) for now, it looks nicer but there’s a lot of work to make it look really nice that’s for sure!

FLOORS!!!!

This weekend was awesome! Mom and Dad came out for the weekend and it was a very productive weekend! We started with this….

The front hall had almost no finish left on it, just very worn

Dad and Ryan spent Saturday sanding the floors down … they came out great (and completely even)

Sunday we cleaned them up really well (all dust gone) and then Dad and I stained them Jacobean – nice and dark!

We’re letting them dry a while and tonight we’ll start the poly coats. 3 nights of poly then a few days to let them cure and we’ll be using this room again next week for sure! I’m so excited, the color came out perfect and once it’s done we’ll get the final white paint on the trim. The windows in these rooms are all done (2 coats of interior paint completed in the last few weeks). The last item on the checklist is crown molding – it’s always last for us 🙂

Our downstairs is almost complete – the front hallway is our last ‘room’ that needs a decent amount of work. The rest of the downstairs just needs some paint here and there (or crown molding) 🙂 Getting there!!!!

Vacation/Staycation

We took this week off as a little vacation from work. We don’t have major house renovations planned either for a change so it will mostly be relaxing. However we couldn’t go an entire week doing absolutely nothing house related! Monday was just beautiful out so we got the cars vacuumed and cleaned out (a little spring cleaning) and I got some toys organized after the toy-splosion that was Alex’s birthday party 🙂

Tuesday was a rainy day so we started off with a trip to home depot after dropping Alex off at daycare. Then home to start demo in the front hall (taking up the floor and taking out the door frame). Once that was done we put down a new subfloor of 1/2″ plywood on top of the existing old subfloor. We plan to tile on top of this directly but we still need to install the closet door first.

No house worked planned tomorrow as we have day plans instead, maybe we’ll make some more progress on Thursday though!