hired crew – nicole.groudasfamily.com

Another busy/long weekend

Not really long as in longer than 2 days but long as in it felt very long. We got an early start Friday, hitting the road at 5pm and getting to the house by 8! I put the munchkin to bed and Ryan got started grouting the master bathroom! I cleaned paint off the master bedroom windows while he started and then by the time he was onto the floor I could help (not much help in the shower). We were up until 1am but got the entire bathroom grouted!

Floor view (next day when Ryan was doing trim)

On Saturday we couldn’t walk in the bathroom until after about 3pm so Ryan worked on various other projects throughout the house. He put up some trim in the tvroom closet (door and a piece of baseboard) and he put the trim up around the top of our columns in the livingroom – they look great!

Now that the master bathroom is done we had our neighbor hang the last piece of sheetrock and start taping/mudding the last section of the house!

Our painter had worked a bit during the week and worked all weekend again, trim is almost done, he’s coming again once this week and a bit next weekend and it should be done (what’s up already) – and if he has time we’ll add a bit more to his load after this weekend.

The stairway has paint now – looks great

I was pretty distracted with a toddler most of the weekend and never took pictures after this point (some time saturday afternoon) so the rest is choppy.

During naptime and kid free time I got the build-in drawers (tvroom) sanded and shellac’d so those can be installed (this is the 5 that weren’t in out of 10 total). I worked on the doorbell finally but may need a new button on the front to get it working. I got the back porch light installed and the back bedroom closet light wired up (needs a fixture but works as a light now).

Ryan worked on installing trim on the back porch using what scraps we have left once he finished all the trim in the master bathroom (3 windows, 1 door and baseboards) between Saturday and Sunday. Aside from one piece of cap molding in the master bathroom the upstairs trim is finished. The only trim really missing is the front hallway closet (inside) and some small baseboard in the back porch which Ryan will finish up next weekend. Ryan also got the little porch off the master ready for a new ceiling (added some strapping) and cleaned it up – it looks really nice. Once the ceiling is in and everything gets a coat of paint that porch will look great.

We stayed until 5:30 on Sunday, I got the last of the fragile kitchen stuff packed up while Ryan did a final cleaning of the bathroom tile with cheese cloth and we headed out with a truck load of stuff. Next weekend is the last weekend I’ll go out, the plan is to go kid free if we can and make the most of it. Then the following weekend Ryan will take a 3 day weekend and hopefully my dad can go out and they can do the upstairs floors – then the house is on the market. So close it’s unbelievable really.

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!

Window trim!

Another great weekend of house progress. Our contractor and our neighbor were over Friday and Saturday, they got the sheetrock finished in the diningroom (the part we can do), the first round of taping in the upstairs hallway (and stairwell!) finished and the archway in the livingroom stripped the rest of the way! Woohoo!

This is the ceiling from the ground floor.

Then the real fun began. Ryan started working on the window trim in the livingroom. Saturday he made all the window sills (he actually made 2 for the diningroom too!), then he made and installed the filler strips, then installed the side pieces of molding and the window aprons on Sunday. The tops couldn’t be done because the rosettes had to be stripped.

Window trim! And you can see the arch here too.

Check out all those windows just waiting for rosettes and top pieces!

Which brings us to my participation. I stripped all the rosettes for the livingroom Sunday afternoon (that was 12 total) – fun stuff 🙂 So many left to go though still!

And my final participation this weekend was getting the crown molding sanded in the kitchen, ready to be primed. I also finished sanding the trim in the back hallway around the doors. The mini hallway outside the bathroom still needs sanding but I ran out of time.

Another little project got completed as well, the outlet in the microwave cabinet cut-out got in-set (Ryan cut out the piece of cabinet and sheetrock so I could install the outlet back about an inch). The means the microwave fits nicely now (the plug sticks out so far the microwave wouldn’t fit nicely. So now I just have to wire that outlet to the panel box and paint and install the nice trim we have for the outside of the cutout. Then we’ll have our microwave installed permanently as originally planned. Can’t wait!

I’m hoping to focus on finishing the kitchen as much as the front livingroom. Our main goal is to have a playroom, finished kitchen and almost finished? front hall before Alex’s birthday part! We’ll see!

Front Hallway/Stairway

Our contractor and neighbor came over Friday and Saturday this week and we have a sheetrocked stairway now! It was not easy sheetrocking that section over the stairs, we left the original ceiling in place (there are only 2 ceilings in the whole house we are leaving, this one and the front livingroom). They sheetrocked right over it. Not easy since my neighbor is afraid of heights, that will be one section he is not taping 🙂

Our closet wall at the top of the stairs

Outside Alex’s room at the top of the stairs

There’s a lot of taping and spackling to get done now. The diningroom has some sheetrocking to finish up, then some of that will be taped, the front hallway, stairway and upstairs section. That will be the next couple of weeks. In the meantime I need to get some electrical done in the hallway upstairs and we’ll be able to start moving that way.

Ryan and I worked on finishing touches in the bathroom, I sealed the counter (because I noticed it darkened when wet so it probably would be good to seal), all the rods and bars were installed, the mirror was hung. It’s just about complete, we’re waiting on the shower rod to come tomorrow (although we moved the one from downstairs temporarily for now). I’ll get final pictures tomorrow when the rod is in. We have to paint the door and get that hung back up and then it will be really done, doors are always last in this house 🙂

Ryan mini vacation

Ryan was able to take a long weekend, taking Thursday and Friday off this week (new year!). This means house progress continued, especially since our contractor and neighbor were also here working!

Ryan got a good start on the trim in the bathroom, each piece had to be made except the rosettes which I stripped down on Friday (my day off). I got the final coat of paint on the walls and ceiling so that we could finish up the electrical in the bathroom Friday, including hanging the new light fixtures. All that is left now is to put in the last 3 pieces of trim (rosettes and top piece of trim over the door) and prime/paint all the trim. Then plumbing!

Lights installed. And yes that’sa new patch that has to be painted that we saw after the light was in 🙂 Always some touchups.

The vanity temporarily set in place so we could figure out baseboards.

Our contractor built a new archway at the top of the stairs, removing the old one that was in a less desirable locaton. Then he started framing out a linen closet that we’ll squeeze in at the end of the hallway next to the chimney. I’m very excited about this closet! Ryan also removed the last piece of wall that was next to the old chimney we removed. So next up is starting the hallway floor repair work.

Our neighbor came over Friday and started taping the front livingroom, all seams are done except the vertical corners so that’s coming along quite nicely!

Livingroom sheetrocked!

Our contractor continued to come work on the livingroom the week before Christmas, getting the 1/2 walls built, the beam up and helping my neighbor sheetrock on Friday. Everything was moved to the basement (well most tools were), and the room was cleaned up. All in time to use the room for Christmas!

On monday I got the room cleaned up, vacuumed, mopped etc. Then Tuesday we got the tree and set it up – Christmas Eve 🙂 The room has been a great play room and it’s not even finished yet! We’ll empty it back out next week, and start the process of getting it finished! Counting down the weeks now I hope!

Floor finished

As he hoped our contractor was able to finish laying in the floor by the end of the day Tuesday! So the floor and the sheetrock in the cupola are done! And it’s not even the end of the week yet, we still have Friday (and today) for more progress. Our contractor is coming back today most likely to start on the 1/2 walls and a few small areas of floor that need patching. Friday hopefully most of the sheetrock can be finished in that room entirely and even part of the front hall. Then we’ll take a break on progress so we can have our tree up and use the room for a week or two. Then we’ll get back to finishing the room (taping/spackling/trim etc).

I’m very excited to use the room for xmas. And pretty soon we’ll have a fully useable finished playroom!

More progress

Saturday our neighbor finished up sheetrocking the cupola, it’s great having that done in time to put up a xmas tree this year! Our contractor got the rest of the floor cut out in a feathered pattern for re-installation.

Sunday during naptime I got the lights in the livingroom wired down to the panel box and switches and pigtails all installed so there’s work light now after 4pm 🙂 I also put a temporary light in the diningroom which has had no light for a while 🙂 I cleaned up some wiring in the basement too although that’s an ongoing project. Eventually I’ll do a full panel box clean-up, make everything nice and tidy. I think we’ve finished wiring pretty much everything that is downstairs, except the microwave outlet. So anytime I have a free day with daylight to do it I can do that project.

Today our contractor is back and he’s putting in the floor again. We have the saved stuff he pulled up (what was saveable) as well as what we saved when we pulled up the upstairs diningroom. It’s going great so far for such a tricky fill in job. He has to leave early today but he’s coming again tomorrow and I think based on the progress he’ll be able to finish tomorrow no problem. I think our neighbor is coming over Friday to start taping maybe, that would be great.

Our plan is to get our tree on next Monday and it will only stay up for a week this year so we can get back to finishing this room. Luckily we’ll be home a lot that week to enjoy it at least.

Friday sheetrocking

The contractor and neighbor were back over today while I worked from home. They got the ceiling of the cupola prepped and sheetrocked and then my neighbor started the walls while our contractor planned out our 1/2 walls he’s going to build and went and got materials.

We ran out of sheetrock so that’s item one for my neighbor tomorrow, then finishing up the walls in there. Our contractor is going to start working on feathering in the floor again. I plan to do some electrical work and maybe some grouting prep?

3 walls mostly done (ran out of sheetrock) 🙂

I’m very happy to see progress on the weekends again. I think we can see an end in sight (far away) again, it was looking dismal for a while!

Progress Weekend

We hired our contractor and our neighbor to do some work part time for us on the front livingroom and they got started Friday, Saturday and Sunday this weekend so we have some great progress to report.

FRIDAY:

Our neighbor’s first job was to move a ton of stuff to the basement, clearing out the front livingroom, this took most of friday outside of any help he had to give our contractor.

Our contractor’s first job is to repair the floor in the cupola, it was slanting badly, very noticeable once the radiator was removed so he pulled up the floor friday, including the subfloor.

SATURDAY:

On Saturday Ryan finally had time to work on the house! After months of working weekends he had one off. So after Alex’s gym class he got working on tiling the shower. Our contractor had picked up materials to repair the joists in the cupola and my neighbor came over in the afternoon and started sheetrocking the livingroom outside of the cupola. Oh and I got to do some electrical to get the fan wired to the new switch.

Prep for drywall done and this corner drywalled

SUNDAY

Sunday we went out to breakfast (like usual) and stopped by home depot to get a new door for the bathroom. We decided to go with a new door because it’s an upstairs out of the way door and I wanted a smaller door since it opens out into the hallway.

Ryan then hung the door (i helped during naptime!). Our contractor continued work on the floor and our neighbor sheet rocked the other wall in the livingroom.

Bathroom door installed (although we then removed it to actually finish tiling) 🙂 So here’s the frame.

Next up our contractor insulated the floor and put down the new subfloor with help from our neighbor. Ryan continued tiling and I did some cleanup.

Subfloor almost done, just one small section to do and then replacing the flooring!

Ryan finished the shower tiling by Alex’s bedtime so once I put her down I helped and we finished the floor by 9pm. It was tough, and very cold outside cutting tiles but it’s done!

Next up on the bathroom is to get the trim done (including baseboards). Then painting trim and grouting, okay really we have to remove a bunch of thinset from the grout lines first in one section, that will take a while. We’ll see if we can get some prep done before next weekend so maybe we can get it grouted next weekend? Here’s hoping Ryan doesn’t have to work next weekend, that would be great.

Our neighbor is going to continue to work Fridays, they are going to sheet rock the cupola this friday, the goal is to have the floor fixed before xmas so we can put our tree in that area with sheetrock up (unfinished) and a floor! Then in January we’ll get that room finished up hopefully. Eventually this room will be Alex’s play room, i’m VERY excited!