Home Renovations – Page 15 – nicole.groudasfamily.com

A little crown

Wow it’s been over a month since I posted! That’s because it’s been over a month since we really did any work on the house. After our vacation/staycation we had a few relaxing weekends and then a couple of travel weekends for birthday parties.

Finally this past weekend we had some time to work on the kitchen again. Since vacation I have managed to get the rest of the new trim caulked and nail holes filled but it all needs to be sanded/primed and painted still. So I started with just the window, I got it sanded and prepped during Alex’s Saturday morning nap. During her afternoon nap I got it all primed.

Ryan had more time on Saturday and started working on the crown molding. First he made a bunch of the base pieces for all the crown and then got the little alcove outside the bathroom completely done. He also started by the oven/hood vent towards the back hallway and got a few pieces in.

The crown is tricky because we still need to build up the cabinets around the fridge and then the beam between the kitchen and diningroom needs wood before crown. But now at least the pieces are all constructed which is the messy/loud part for sure!

We have so much sanding and painting of trim left to do – I just need to do it in small parts I think and it will go easier. If i had some evenings free from work I would get started but so far my evenings are packed with working late once Alex goes down.

We have a crew coming to work on the house starting next week so we’ll have some work progress made without having to do anything except prep (move furniture etc.). We’re getting new windows installed in the second story and siding replaced for the same. Hopefully in 7 weeks only the back of our house will be unfinished!

The rest of vacation

Sorry for the lack of posting, we were up till about midnight every night Wed, Thur, Fri with working on the kitchen and birthday party prep. I’ll try to recap how the rest of the week went.

Wednesday I finished filling nail holes and caulking the installed trim. Then I stripped the last 4 rosettes. When Ryan got home he put up the last bit of door trim and baseboards (caps haven’t gone in yet though).

Next up we got the backsplash finished (tiling) and this time I got to help so I did some cutting and some installing – it was just the top half of the one wall left to do so it went pretty quickly.

Thursday was recycling metal day (2 trips to recycle stuff in the yard -old pipes etc) and i lost count how many trips to the dump. Ryan did all that while I cleaned the upstairs of the house and started on the downstairs. In the afternoon and evening we got the fridge installed which was NOT easy!

But totally worth it! I ended the night Thursday by sealing the floor grout right before bed. It was one hour and was exhausting at 11pm but no worries for the party now!

Friday was more cleanup, Ryan installed the toe kicks, I installed the dishwasher (finally screwed in!), Ryan grouted the backsplash and installed the window apron so the window looks trimmed out now. I started the tool room cleanup and by 9pm the diningroom and livingroom were cleaned up for the party.

So we got enough done on the kitchen that we could enjoy the party! By 9pm I was able to start baking the cake and cupcakes for the party and my sister arrived shortly after and helped with all the party preparation (thank goodness, I would have gone crazy trying to do it all). One more late night but Saturday went off without a hitch thanks to the hard work of everyone. No one tripped over a saw or loose nail (thank goodness) and we had a TON of people stuffed into our mostly unfinished house 🙂

Here’s a view of one of the unfinished areas we used for the party – livingroom diningroom where most of the adults hung out – this is after cleaning but pre-decorations:

pre-decorations – the front area is cleaner than it’s been in a year!

I’m so glad it’s over. Now we can just relax and finish up the kitchen (painting and crown molding left) and get started upstairs on the bathroom!

Monday Funday (and tuesday)

We got a slow start on Monday, needing to sleep in (well Ryan slept in, I had to take boo boo to daycare at 8am), but then i settled in to read for a bit, sinus infection only a little bit better than the night before.

So we got up and did some errands, we went over to the lumber yard where we get our trim and stocked up on cap moldings for the baseboards and returned a bunch of stuff to home depot. Then home to get back to work on the tiling project.

Ryan worked on the backsplash while I cleaned out the thinset between the floor tiles. This is very slow work and grouting didn’t happen until it was time to pick up Alli boo. So Ryan did the grouting while I fed Alex and put her to bed, in time to help with some of the grouting.

Backsplash progress – the bottom is done, just the top left!

By bedtime we had the floor completely grouted and managed a little relaxing time.

Floor grouted – I didn’t get a picture until this evening when we’ve been working in the area so I don’t have a complete picture

Tuesday started the day with a dump run (had to stay off the tile until 1pm), and some other errands. Then I stripped a few rosettes (6 of 10 done) while Ryan worked on trim for the kitchen. The archway is all trimmed out now, the apron for the window sill has been coped on the ends and the door frame that stuck out too far has been cut back flush with the drywall. I primed some of the cap molding for the baseboards and started the long process of filling nail holes and caulking the trim (the window is done). Pretty productive day considering we had to be done by 5pm to pick up Alli boo.

archway and bathroom door both have trim now – two more doors to go and then some baseboards

Tomorrow will be a little different, Ryan has an appointment in the morning so I’m going to take the truck in for some service and do some work work. I’m hoping we get back to trim work in the afternoon because come Thursday it’s time to start the cleanup process.

Tonight is for relaxing, I have a date with my sewing room, not sure yet what will come out of it.

More tiling on Sunday

Ryan and his Dad got right back to work on Sunday and had the floor completely tiled by lunch time on Sunday! Everyone needed a break by that point so we relaxed, giving backs a break (and nursing my sinus infection – perfect for a vacation!).

The back hallway finished! The blue tape marked tiles that were finished the night before and could be walked on carefully.

A view of the fridge area since I couldn’t get in there the night before

And a hopefully closer view of our backsplash behind the stove

After Ryan’s parents headed home we mostly just relaxed the rest of the evening. Ryan was sore from tiling and my sinus infection was killing me.

Check back tomorrow for Monday’s progress!

And the tiling continues

Ryan and his dad worked like crazy today. The floor of the kitchen is almost done in one day! Mostly the back hallway is left. It was a lot of work, we went with a 12×12 surrounded by 6×6 tiles surrounded by 12x12s. Seems simple, but it means a lot of cuts.

Also done today, the backsplash section behind the stove is done! The design from the other wall will continue onto the rest of this wall and butt up against this pattern on both sides.

I don’t think you can tell in the picture (I couldn’t get close without stepping on the floor) but the 4 center tiles have a design on them, looks great!

The picture is a little blurry because I couldn’t stand on the kitchen floor to take it (obviously). Tomorrow the rest of the floor gets tiled, just a small section in the bathroom hallway area (they did half of it so we could still get to the bathroom and tomorrow they’ll do the other half and we’ll walk on today’s tile to get to the bathroom.

The stove is in place, the fridge/freezer will have to wait to go back in until we grout because the pattern continues under the fridge. This evening we went out to dinner (Alex did great, even with an ear infection – again – and being exhausted), then over to home depot to pick up more thinset and some grout so we are ready to grout on monday. I’m really looking forward to having this week off, we’ll get the house ready for Alli’s birthday and maybe get to relax a bit too!

The tiling has begun

Ryan’s parents came out this afternoon for the weekend. We did a little clean up and prep and then went over to pick up miss alli boo. A quick trip to home depot with Boo to get a few supplies and we came back to a pile of cut tiles, and a pattern laid out and ready to go.

A few hours later and the long wall of back-splash is completely done already! Then they pulled out the stove and dishwasher and got the tile laid tightly under those (not in our planned pattern, just to fit tight), so we can put them back in place tomorrow and just tile around them (they’ll be at the right height). That means we just have to move the fridge and freezer out tomorrow and get the floor tiled. I think they plan to finish the back-splash first while the stove is out though, then the floor.

I was wondering if we’d get it all tiled in one weekend, there is no doubt now – it won’t be a problem.

Under the window the apron will cover the blank spot that’s still there.

Come monday we’ll be grouting the floor, probably grout the back splash on Tuesday since we used mastic on that.

Been a while

Yikes I guess it’s been a while since we did much on the house. We’ve been a little busy with traveling to NY for Easter etc. In the evenings we did manage however to get the last 2 sections off the kitchen spackled and sanded and Ryan got the long piece of baseboard scribed and installed.

The back hallway, ready to be primed and painted!

The bathroom hallway off the kitchen, also ready to be primed

We still need to finish the trim installation in the bathroom hallway on those 3 doors and the arch but this weekend it’s time to tile the kitchen! I think Ryan wants to get the plinth blocks installed tonight first but we’ll see. Depending on what is being worked on I may get the priming done, that at least protects everyone’s clothes from getting plaster dust on them when they rub against the wall 🙂

Next week is our vacation week to work on the house so I’ll try to update with pictures more often and boo boo is turning 1 year old on Wednesday – unbelievable! The little munchkin just amazes me every day 🙂

A 1/2 weekend

We went back to NY last weekend to meet our new little nephew who is adorable! He is also the quietest little newborn ever, didn’t make a peep the whole visit, just loves to snuggle!

We drove back home on Saturday night so we had all day Sunday to do regular weekend things. We hit up our regular breakfast place where Alex is always admired and she loves to see the new decorations each time we go. Then we did some home depot shopping (got our tile for the kitchen!) and a little work on the house. Ryan got the kitchen window trim all made up and installed.

The apron underneath will go on after tile. Then he got the plinth blocks and the start of the trim around the archway done. The rosettes still need to be stripped so we’re just waiting on me to have time to do that so we can move forward with the trim there.

I started the process of cleaning up the tool area, it’s been a lot harder to organize tools without my back hallway and bookcase to store most of them. So i’ve had to get creative and still keep track of where everything is. For now our hutch is taking on a major roll in tool storage (actually both hutches, the built in one and the standalone). With family coming up this weekend (and my almost 2 year old nephew), I’d like the diningroom to be usable for breakfast at least and safe for a toddler.

Wood

Just a little vent… so a couple of weeks ago Ryan went over to Home Depot to get some more 5/4 select pine wood, we use it for our plinth blocks as well as for window sills on the inside. He was actually buying it for a new door frame (which we’ve used it for before as well). Turns out they stopped carrying it! We called around and all of the home depots (we have 3) and lowes (we have 2) stopped carrying select grade, they only had knotty pine. This does not work for us!

So in the mean time we decided to just buy a new door for the basement instead of making a frame and using an existing door – mostly because it would be easy and it’s next to a new door off the back anyway so it didn’t bother us. We really like the new door we picked and if we weren’t refinishing our original doors we would probably go with this door throughout the house.

This brings us to last weekend when we needed 5/4 for plinth blocks, no getting around it. Luckily we had one small piece left that got us a few blocks (5). We couldn’t make the kitchen window sill however which was another thing we hoped to do.

So I’ve called around and found one place that carries select 5/4 still – down in MA. So hopefully i can ‘swing by’ on my way to work one day this week – it’s not open very long hours unfortunately but we’ll make do. We’re stocking up that’s for sure!

Oh and that 500 board feet of poplar we bought way back when – running out already! We use it for everything (our baseboards, our built-ins, our crown molding (base piece), our trim upstairs). Considering we have the whole upstairs and the livingroom/diningroom still to do, i think we may need another batch! I never thought i’d see the day!

A very productive weekend

It’s been a while since we had one of those but we found ourselves home unexpectedly this weekend because Alex got sick again! This is actually a secondary illness (ear infections) so she was feeling fine mostly, just couldn’t sleep at night but with antibiotics she is doing much better.

In the meantime, rather than spread our germs to our new nephew, we stayed home and worked on the house. First Ryan finished the mixer lift (adding the shelf and adjusting the tension).

Next up he got the beam in between the kitchen and diningroom so that we can do crown in the kitchen when we have time and 2 people.

And then it was on to the back door and then trim. He got the new back door installed, the last 2 pieces of cement board in and then trimmed out both new doors and started on baseboards. The last baseboard piece in the back hallway needs to be scribed so we quit there.

It is amazing how much warmer it is in the kitchen with these doors in! And safer for Alex of course. The next big project will be tiling the kitchen floor, probably the first weekend in April. I can’t wait – soon Alex can safely crawl around the kitchen and she will be very happy to not be cooped up in the livingroom. She’s definitely learned that she can crawl out of the livingroom so we have to keep the doors shut or gate off a section of the kitchen she can play in…

She escaped the livingroom but alas the kitchen was walled off 🙂

And Sunday we went to our regular breakfast place and then the grocery store. Of course the time change through us off (we had no idea it was coming) so we just pretended there was no time change for the day! We ended the day with a nice walk – it was a big chilly but Alex loved it, it’s been too long since we got outside!