We managed to get a start on the tiling! Sunday we had until 1pm (Pats game) so Ryan started tiling after breakfast and at naptime I joined him. We made some decent progress. I would estimate that if we had a full day with Alex at daycare we could finish and we just so happen to have that day coming up next week! So watch out for tiling next week!
We’re going with 12×12 tiles throughout (floor included) and this mix of ceramic/glass tile for a band. The shelves will also have that glass tile mix on the back I think. We’ll do the bottom row last because it has to be cut around the tub.
I love the tile, with only one more coat of paint to do, we’ll soon have fixtures installed too! I think our vacation next week will be a mix of painting outside and working on the bathroom if it rains. Soon we’ll have an upstairs bathroom again! (one year later) 🙂
I’m still working on the post about last weekend (we got a lot done!) but I haven’t taken pictures yet so I will hold off on that. Hopefully tomorrow i’ll take pictures since this weekend we’ll be making more progress!
In the mean time we’ve been getting things ready for this weekend, doing plans, finalizing decisions because this weekend we will be making at least 2 of our huge purchases. Appliances (the 10% off sale ends monday) and Cabinets (10% off sale ends Wed).
So the kitchen layout has changed a bit, we fit in more cabinets and we’ll find out this Sunday how much these changes will cost us! Then I also planned out the electrical because this weekend we hope to get the lights installed (recessed and boxes for pendant lights etc). I can also get the electrical outlets for the fridge and microwave installed since that wall is demo’d. Actually the fridge outlet will be what is currently the microwave outlet, just shifted a bit.
For fun I also grabbed some 3D shots from the program i’m using for these layouts. Keep in mind the cabinets are generic and appliances are not accurate looks wise, just size wise.
Kitchen Cabinet layout with details for ordering the cabinets.The electrical layouts (for lights/switches) in the kitchen.The kitchen as viewed from the back of the house ‘entrance’ hallwayThe kitchen as viewed from the diningroomThe kitchen and diningroom as viewed from the livingroom – a very open layout.
We actually haven’t finalized on our cabinet look yet. We are going with Home Depot/Martha Stuart cabinets but are going back and forth between ‘painted’ cabinets (they use a shrink wrap, not a paint which is making us very wary) and stained cabinets. If we go with stained we’ll do a tile floor, if painted we’ll probably refinish the wood but there’s some major patching between kitching/diningroom that will have to be done that won’t be fun. Decision will be made on Sunday!
Well last night when Ryan got home we moved the final items that needed moving so we’re all set for the insulation now… just waiting to see if they come today??? If I don’t hear from them by 8:30 I’m calling them, we’re not exactly on a flexible schedule (and they know that) so hopefully they show up soon!
[UPDATE] – Insulation guys are here as expected! So happy everything is on schedule!
My Aunt and I have a few quilt kits we bought together over the years and finally we’ve made one of them – it’s Japanese fabrics and I showed the blocks we did a few weeks ago. Wednesday night we finished the blocks and put them all together with sashing. All that’s left is a border and then quilting! It’s a small little quilt and I love the colors. I think this will have to hang in the tvroom when it’s finished (both it and the tv room finished) 🙂
Blocks all done!
The paper piecing really helped with the points not getting chopped off – but it took me 20 minutes to pull all the paper off the back when done 🙂
Today is kind of a busy day, between work, haircut at lunch time and a show tonight in Boston I’m all over the place. My friend’s mother couldn’t go to see Mary Poppins with her tonight so she offered me her now extra ticket – I couldn’t be more excited about this last minute surprise but I’m sorry her mom couldn’t make it and hopefully she’s feeling better.
Then the rest of the weekend I’ll be working on the gym! Saturday we’ll put up trim and baseboards and Sunday I’ll be painting while Ryan works! In 2 weeks my Dad might come out to help us finish up the floor, that should be the last thing no the list besides a coat of paint on the walls by then – can’t wait!
It’s about halfway through Friday which means it’s almost time for the weekend and we have quite a weekend planned! Lots of family to see throughout the weekend and progress to make on the gym.
Current projects include:
Patching the gym floor (where we remove the radiator pipe)
Patching the floor all around the edge
Installing the door frame (and making one or stripping one down)
Installing the door trim
Installing the baseboards
Finishing the ceiling (spackle the corner, prime it, paint the final coat on the whole ceiling)
Sanding and caulking the crown molding
Priming and painting the crown molding
Sanding and caulking the window trim
Painting the window trim
I doubt we can get all of that done this weekend but Ryan has monday off so he may continue to work on projects after the weekend is over!
No house progress this weekend as we were back in NY visiting family however we did get a date for insulation – this coming friday! Which means I’m going to have some busy evenings getting this ready (need to move things out of the way, need to get all the nails out of the wall, need to make sure wiring is out of the way and need to run one last switch).
It’s very exciting and I do hope it does not get delayed!
On the quilting front, I got mom’s quilt all quilted and gave it to her this weekend, I did not do the binding because after talking to her she said she could do that part. I have some curtains to make for my sister up next, then some shades and a valance. It’s good practice for my own house which isn’t quite ready for shades/curtains but I do plan to make them eventually!
Well this 3 day weekend to work on the house couldn’t come along soon enough! We should be able to wrap up the electrical now that the exterior lights arrived and we’ll be ready for insulation. And none too soon because we just filled our oil tank after one month of using the heat consistently and that was 344 gallons of oil over December – yikes!
We have someone coming today to give us a quote, hopefully they can do the spray foam when it’s this cold out. If we can’t get it done soon I may be convinced to put up some fiberglass insulation temporarily – anything to keep the breeze down in here 🙂
On a side note – hello winter – we got a raging snow storm this week. And of course our snowblower wouldn’t start! So all day Ryan tinkered on and off with it and I shoveled on and off a bit (front walk and bottom of the driveway). Finally we went and got a new sparkplug and that fixed the problem – we also changed the oil as it needed it. So by 5pm we were snowblowing the 2 ft of snow that had fallen – not an easy feat! But alas it was done and now our snowblower is happy again (we hope).
So 3 day weekend here we come, got some old projects to wrap up (wiring) and some new projects (demo the closet) all in prep for insulation. Hopefully we’ll get a little relaxing time too. Man my hands are cold – back to work!
Two trips to home depot today and we made some good progress on the electrical. We got the front hall light circuit feed run.
Front hall feed goes to a triple box
The blocks for the outside lights put together (Ryan got to use his pocket hole kit).
Blocks for the outside front lights
We also ordered the front outside lights (the one we bought originally for the side was discontinued so we had to pick something new). We went with these:
Then we put up boxes and wired the sconce lights in the stairway. We still need to connect them to the center light at the top of the stairs but that involves getting up in the attic so we put that off until Sunday or Monday.
Sconce light boxes installed in stairway
The checklist is finally getting smaller. Sunday we’ll remove the porch ceiling in the front that’s still up, that way we can run the wire for the exterior fan. We may wait to put up the exterior light boxes until the lights show up to make sure we get the right type of box installed. We still have to run the cable/ethernet lines in the livingroom as well but they’re pretty short since they’re right above the patch panel. We ordered a new wireless router too that I’m hoping to put in the basement (it’s much stronger), can’t wait for that to come Monday too!
A good New Year’s Eve day! Now I just need to bake a pie and clean up the house a bit since my brother is coming over Saturday night after our family Christmas celebration. Then we’ll watch a movie until midnight (very exciting) 🙂
It’s been a slow 2 days around here this vacation. Wednesday started out strong with some electrical work, we finished the outlet circuit in the livingroom. I then planned out the lighting circuit for the front hall which is pretty complicated because it goes up the stairs with a 4 way switch.
Ryan’s cold was hitting him hard so we took the rest of Wednesday to watch movies and relax. Today we finished up some shopping for Groudas Family Christmas this weekend. Then Ryan made his router table while I baked some cookies for the neighbors that plowed our driveway while we were back home for Christmas.
Router table, just needs its wheels
Tomorrow we will work on the electric some more and I’ll get the house cleaned up a bit. Saturday is our extended family christmas and then we have Sunday and Monday free to work on the house and relax before it’s back to work!
And already we’ve made 2 trips to home depot 🙂 Although Friday night’s trip to home depot was to just get some weather stripping for the front door and some putty for the outside electrical entrance into the house (to make it water tight).
Today Ryan started removing the baseboards in the livingroom so we could wire, the sections that he removed and then drilled, i cleaned up and wired. We’ve got one more section (behind the radiator) to do and the livingroom outlets will be done. We also measured and bought the wire to run to the attic subpanel. We decided the diningroom doesn’t need any outlets on the small section of exterior wall if we keep the current outlet locations in there.
What will be the fourth and fifth outletsFeed and first 2 outlets
We made a trip to the dump to finally get rid of the last of the wood from the porch project that’s been laying around.
I ended the day by getting 3 boston butts brining (to slow cook tomorrow for pigging out at work!). Then I made up a chocolate pie for tomorrow (just to enjoy).
Hopefully we can run some more wire tomorrow, finish up the tvroom outlets, run the subpanel wire and maybe wire the door bell. Next weekend we can start on the front hallway/staircase which is mostly lighting. It feels good to be able to work on the house again!
