Exterior – Page 2 – nicole.groudasfamily.com

A banner day

What a packed day we’ve had! I hope I don’t forget anything because we got a LOT done.

In the morning (after dropping the car off for service and hitting the grocery store – after which we COMPLETELY forgot the groceries in the trunk all day and most had to be thrown out – UGG!!)… anyhow…

We got right to work. I finished up the trim paint on that back section while Ryan went to check into the rental of a lift. I finished up just as he got back with the news we could get a rental at 4pm but it had to go back friday by 4:30pm! Yikes. We’ll take it but that’s not long!

This section is now completely finished!

Next up we started stripping the soffit over the other area of porch and managed to finish it, sand it and caulk it before lunch so the caulk could dry.

After lunch Ryan installed the top cap over that front porch, then primed all the soffit and the window in that section. Meanwhile I finished prepping and then priming under the porch so that’s all primed!

Soffit primed, window primed and under the porch siding and trim all primed! Great progress!

At this point it was 4pm and Ryan had to go pick up the lift, I got most of the other side of the house (the small section that’s left) primed, everything I could reach with our smaller ladder since I can’t move the big ladder. The electrical wires didn’t actually scare me but the huge freaking spider hanging out on the cable wires did! I knocked it down with a broom (since that’s step one before painting, get rid of all webs!) but never found it below so the whole time I was jumpy and edgy waiting for it to crawl up after me!

The top few pieces of siding need to be done still but it’s close!

Ryan got home just as I was cleaning up to go pick up Alex and he got right to work with the lift. He’s still out there in the pitch black with a lantern stripping paint off the soffit of the peak. By Alex’s bedtime (7pm) he had the left side soffit all done and was starting the peak. He’s been out there another hour and a half, I think his goal is to strip the whole soffit of the peak so tomorrow we just have to sand it, prep it and work on the shakes. I’m excited! We’ll be painting with the lift tomorrow and putting in our half moon windows again! Rain please hold off another day!!! Pretty please!!!

Painting

Well it was cooler than yesterday but still warm enough to paint today (so far we are lucky!). Please hold off rain!

Ryan continued painting the porch soffit and posts the front is now almost done!

Porch soffit and posts almost all painted in the front

Then we got a coat of paint on the siding on the section we started yesterday and a coat of yellow on the soffit and crown and frieze boards (still need to do the windows and all cutting in since the green was still wet). Paint took longer to dry today (cooler plus primer dries faster).

Then we got the primer on the siding on the rest of the driveway side. We decided it was more important to protect the siding before winter in case we run out of rain free days but we do hope to get the soffit done too. Ryan finished the day with getting primer under the porch on the siding after I stripped the baseboard under there. Under the porch we can finish up rain or shine but we’d like to get everything done.

There is a little green primer left to do (just the edges of the siding under the porch where I caulked and it didn’t dry fast enough). So we’ll get that done tomorrow. We may rent a lift tomorrow and/or friday for working on the peak, mostly it depends on the weather but it would be helpful for sure!

Vacation!

It’s that time again – staycation! We started our vacation with a long weekend back in NY. Heading to NY Friday night, going to our niece’s birthday party Saturday then heading down to NYC Sunday morning!

We stayed with PJ and Erica in the city and on Monday spent the day at the Bronx zoo. Alex had a good time, although she was pretty tired since we skipped her nap for the day (she slept on the drive back north and then for the bedtime drive home too). She enjoyed seeing the Giraffes, Sea Lions, Gorillas, Bears and Polar bear the best probably. It was a good day and Alex really did great especially off schedule!

We got home late Monday night and Alex let us all sleep in till 9am! A great start to our staycation portion of vacation. After breakfast I took Alex to daycare (and by the way she went right back on schedule – not sure how they pulled that off!). Ryan and I got a start right away working on the outside.

We worked on the small section that has a roof to stand on outside the back bedrooms. We got the soffit all stripped down, sanded and prepped. Caulking and holes all filled, gaps filled with wood putty. Prep prep prep. Then we got a coat of primer on both the siding and all the trim/soffit! It should finish up very quickly tomorrow (or the next rain free day) and we’re on to the next part.

I love priming with tinted primer – it looks so much more finished!

Once we finished that section for the day I got a coat of primer on our second half moon window our neighbor restored for us! It also came out great and he took pictures as he restored them so I’ll do a blog post on just windows soon. Ryan continued the porch painting along the outside soffit while I went and picked up Alex. Lots of outside progress since it was a beautiful day for painting!

Second window – can’t wait to put these in!

3 more full days to go, hoping for no rain but even with rain we’ll get some work done (under the porch and tiling the bathroom). Now it’s time to relax and catch up on TV from the last week and a half!

Weekend and vacation day

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).

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.

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.

Perfect

This was one of those perfect weekends, lots of family time, lots of house progress – just perfect all around. Aimee, Jason and little Jason came up on Saturday. The guys worked on the bathroom, Jason getting the rough-in plumbing finished up and Ryan getting the cement board up and both of them installing the tub. The bathroom is really coming together quickly after this weekend.

Jason also got the rough-in for the laundry room done and Sunday our neighbor came over and helped ryan finish sheetrocking the bathroom. I think we have just 4 small pieces of cement board around the window to do, then we can red-guard the tub/shower and it will be tile ready. In the mean-time I’m hoping to have time to tape/spackle the ceiling and walls.

Right before the last wall went up. I had to get the wiring done so they could get some light in here 🙂

On Sunday I got the upstairs all cleaned up and vacuumed and then went out and got a coat of paint on the window and trim on the front. It needs 1 more coat and some sections of crown need to be touched up (filled holes) but it’s all yellow so it looks like the finished product now.

The window is yellow now! And our neighbor restored one of the other 1/2 moon windows (working on the last) so we’ll have all attic windows in before winter and closed up – amazing!

Aimee and I took the kids to the park Saturday for a long while (and again on Sunday for a short while) and they had a blast. Alex built up a lot of confidence on the structures having a kid close to her size show her how to do everything and Aimee convinced me to allow her to go down the big slides by herself – I had a heart attack each time but Alex had a blast!

To really make the weekend perfect, Uncle Pete, Aunt Erin and gang all made it out Saturday for dinner so the kids got to see more family and we got to catch up – it’s too long between visits with busy schedules on all sides!!!

Wonderful weekend

What a wonderful weekend weather-wise! And everything-wise, we had a great weekend in general. Saturday morning we got out to the outlet mall for a couple of hours, getting Alex new shoes and clothes for the fall (hello after-school-has-started sales) 🙂

During naptime Ryan and I worked on the house, I got the first coat of red paint on the peak, and touched up the red molding (after filling the holes). Ryan worked on the porch soffit (caulking) on the right side of the house where the hill is (his sister is afraid of heights and that was too much for her).

A soffit view, this was just after finishing up rounding the corner.

Then I got one railing primed – so we can finally see what they look like yellow, awesome! After naptime we ran over to home depot and the grocery store (lots of errands to run!), so painting was done for the day. Good progress though for just naptime (I also continued painting during after-nap-snack).

Sunday we went out to our favorite breakfast spot, then a stop at the park to get the crazy energy out. At naptime it was just me out there painting (football season has officially started so Ryan was on kid duty for the rest of the day). I got the second coat of red on the shakes, finished the prep on the porch soffit, then primed the last 2 sides (right side and back side on right), so the soffit is all yellow now.

The 2 sides I primed today (the posts aren’t done because i can reach them from standing). This is the one railing that is primed as well.

I also repaired the crescent window up there, I still have to glaze it but the wood putty needs some time to dry so hopefully some day this week I can glaze the window and then next weekend get it painted along with touching up the trim up there. Getting closer to calling something done!

Friday off

I’ve been saying I was going to take a day off to paint all summer and finally the weather was nice, someone else was here so I felt safe working up on a ladder and it all worked out. So I took today off of work and got some painting done.

Maribeth has continued her work on the porch all week. She got the soffit and posts of the porch all prepped all the way around, all primed and the inside painted too. We hope to finish it up ourselves this weekend, putting the bathroom on hold just long enough to finish this one project.

For my day off I decided to tackle the front peak. The prep work took most of the day, stripping paint, sanding, scraping, filling holes, caulking etc. This window I’m repairing in place so I got it stripped and removed the cracked glazing.

After that I took a late lunch and then went up to prime. I got everything primed in time to make it over to Alex’s school for her Fall Festival where she got to touch rabbits, chickens and a goat. 🙂

And primed (need to buy glazing still so the window isn’t done).

The forecast calls for a dry weekend so I’m hoping to get this peak finished up completely (including the window??) and the porch done. It would be a good stopping place before winter on the outside if we don’t have more time (not giving up but being realistic).

Some outside work

Well we went camping for labor day weekend so no house progress but on the way back to NH we picked up my sister-in-law and she’s out for the week to work on the house! Ryan took Tuesday off and the two of them finished up the paint removal on the porch soffit/posts that the painter last year never finished!

The tops of the posts (the detail work) looks great!

This is a lot of work – the porch is huge. Today Maribeth is filling holes and caulking so far. Next up is sanding. Hopefully tomorrow she’ll get to actually paint (much easier than prep work) 🙂 Ryan and Maribeth worked through the rain yesterday but the weather is looking great for the rest of the week!

Outside work complete (contractor work)

I came home yesterday to find all the work we contracted out completed! The top crown molding was installed and the small side pieces of moldings on the windows by the driveway side were all installed! Now it’s up to me to get to painting so we can really call it done! We have work to do on both porches, we’ll see if that’s going to happen this summer or next.

The front of the house – with all moldings installed!

The troublesome outside corner and the small molding which he may have had to take off and redo to get the angle right (the previous contractor last year installed the crowns at the wrong angles).

They are hard to see but the window caps’ molding now wraps around to the sides (we had installed the front piece previously). Just need to paint the front of the moldings red and these windows will be done!

Awesome. We are well and truly broke but the house looks great 🙂 Time to re-build our savings 🙂

Weekend work

This weekend was a mish-mash of work. Saturday Ryan finished the third wall of the little bathroom (the doorway) and started the wall next to the tub, however all hour wood is now warped so he got frustrated very quickly with that. Unfortunately a trip to home depot Sunday was no good, all their wood was warped (no new stock). So that was left unfinished for now.

Outside I got the small section of siding on the front primed and then painted. I also got the shakes around the little porch all stripped off so we can start to figure out what to do with this porch. One corner of it is rotting out (carpenter ants) so there may be more rebuilding than originally planned. First though we need to fix the support underneath, the 2x3s are just not enough to support the porch weight.

Our contractor today got the red molding up under the soffit. He also worked on the top crown piece, he was having trouble with getting it to match up the outside corner so he has the pieces cut with the right angles but hasn’t put them up yet because he’s trying to figure out that corner first. He has to meet up with the old crown that was installed last year.