upstairs bathroom – nicole.groudasfamily.com

A different 3 day weekend

Last weekend I took Friday off of work (kind of, I still came home to work all evening but the intention was there and I had the *DAY off) 🙂

My friend Sarah recently just bought a new house and had a few projects she wanted to do so I went down there to help her out. The main project was sanding down the railings and adding a coat of poly since they were so rough. We did a few other projects too but she’s having the whole house prepped and re-painted so that didn’t have to be done.

The weekend it was back to working on our own house. Saturday we drove around all morning looking for trim we liked and ended up finding something decent we are happy with. This is for the chair rail and shadow boxes in the livingroom. While we were gone our contractor and neighbor were working away. The vertical posts were covered nicely and then baseboards installed in the diningroom.

See that beam on the left of the knee wall.

Baseboards are in (still need cap molding but we dont’ have it yet).

Baseboards in the livingroom were started (cupola mostly done).

And our neighbor finished spackling the front hallway and closet. So spackle wise we have one section of the diningroom being left un-done for now and the upstairs hallway left. I hope this weekend to have him sand and prime what is done on Friday!

Stairway (just the bottom 1/2 is done, my neighbor is afraid of heights!)

Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning Ryan’s project (with my help) was the moldings on the cabinets. As you see, the taller cabinets have a very complicated multi-piece molding. It’s kind of crazy actually. We even modified it and removed 2 of the backer pieces by lowering the very top molding or it would have been an inch taller than it is now! So first Ryan got one tall cabinet done, then he did the smaller cabinets that just have cove moldings.

Sunday progress – these 3 lower cabinets – just 1 more cabinet to go!

During naptime Saturday I also got the molding on around the microwave cutout, we completely forgot we bought this molding but it was in with all the cabinet crown!

And finally my last project for the weekend was getting the final coat of paint on the bathroom door! It’s all ready to hang now!

Door done, my little helper helping to put hinges on

All in all a very good weekend. If my neighbor is good with priming walls, then this weekend we’ll start the chair rail and shadow boxes! I need to pick the next door to start refinishing (probably a tvroom door) and we have some electrical to do (I need to hook up that microwave outlet and remove a bunch of knob and tube just sitting around).

Progress everywhere

It’s been a few weeks since I posted progress from the house so we have a few updates. On top of that fact, my in-laws came out this weekend and extra progress was made with their help!

Let’s start with the Diningroom! Our contractor has finished up the beams/boxes for the cofferred ceiling and they look great! They will have crown installed around the inside of each box and it will all be painted white. But for now here they stand:

This is the kitchen side, so the ceiling isn’t sheetrocked (leaving plumbing exposed)

This past weekend Ryan installed the window trim on the diningroom windows, he had 2 sills he made along with the livingroom windows so he just had to make the big sill and install the trim. I stripped rosettes for the windows on Saturday during naptime as well!

Ryan’s dad did some painting for us, more specifically priming but it’s great. The cupola in the livingroom is now primed!

And then he moved on to finish up the sections off the kitchen that have been un-primed for almost a year now 🙂 That’s tinted primer, so the walls are tinted green and the ceiling is an off-white. Just needs a coat of paint now!

Small hallway by the bathroom is primed!

Our contractor has been working on the knee walls since he finished up the ceiling boxes. First he installed these caps of oak which we will stain to match the floor (which will get stained when it’s refinished). Then he installed the columns and wrapped them with wood. We are going to put quarter-round in the corners to match our porch posts and then some decorative trim around the top and bottom most likely.

Another view so you can see a column and a ‘half’ column up against the wall.

And I’ve been getting paint onto the bathroom door, so far one coat on each side is done and both are sanded and ready for coat 2!

I’m on the hunt for door knobs and once this door is done I have a line of doors ready to be painted (prepped and painted), from the linen closet doors, basement door and all the doors we had stripped/dipped. I need a better painting station though, the upstairs area I’m using has no light and only a small window. I think if I move my setup downstairs I’ll paint more often and only being able to do a side at a time makes painting doors slow work.

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 🙂

We have WATER

I can’t really say a fully working bathroom JUST yet because we are waiting on some minor necessary things like a toilet seat (Thurs), Shower curtain rod (Fri) and we need to buy a mirror. However the bathroom is partially useable and Alex even took a bath in her new tub last night which she (and I) were very excited about. THANK YOU JASON for fitting us in on a weekday!

Jason came out and finished up the plumbing, it included hooking up the drains and faucets and toilet, but also hooking the drain up to the main drain in the basement and venting everything up the original vent stack out the roof. It all looks and works great!

Working shower/bath and toilet just missing a seat cover

So most things are either here and need to be hung (rods) or ordered and on their way. The mirror however we need to buy, we originally got a medicine cabinet but it’s a bit too large to let the lights work right (maybe we should have hung the lights higher?). Instead we’ll return that and get just a simple mirror which will look great. If this wasn’t such a crazy busy week at work I’d say maybe by end of week it will be ‘finished’ but I’m betting more on next week because both Ryan and I are working till midnight each night this week with no real end in sight until the weekend.

Still looking forward to the weekend work of sheetrocking that is supposed to happen! Very excited to see if that works out, that ceiling over the stairs is going to be super hard!

Weekend Progress

Our contractor and neighbor came on Friday and Saturday again this week so lots of progress was made!

Friday our contractor started stripping the archway in the livingroom. Even though there is no lead paint in this (we had everything tested so we know where the lead paint is – upstairs mostly), I wanted the fumes to be cleared out before Alex got home so this isn’t something I can do on a weekend when she’s here. The arch can’t be moved outside to get done 🙂

The back of the arch is just the top, we have to make sides for this part of the arch since it’s so narrow on this side.

And the front side, some great progress for one day!

Our neighbor worked on the front hallway, getting the ceiling and a few missing pieces of sheetrock filled in. The front hall is now ready to be taped/spackled!

Those bottom pieces on each side of opening were filled in Saturday morning after I wired up the last outlet there. Alex is mopping up for us Sunday night 🙂

On Saturday the sheetrocking continued, our contractor firred out the wall at the top of the stairs, outside the nursery so it is ready for sheetrock at some point (soon). Our neighbor started sheetrocking the diningroom and we got the outside wall of the diningroom ready to go too (baseboard removed and pipes cut out from radiator).

Inside wall of diningroom is done! No more cold air coming up through that old chimney causeway. We left it so the sheetrock only has a screw in each corner and can easily be removed to finish plumbing etc later. But it’s closed up to make the room warmer for now!

We can finish one side of the diningroom without interfering with plumbing so they got sheetrock up on the first ceiling section.

On Sunday, Ryan installed the vanity in the bathroom so it’s all ready for Jason to finish up the plumbing this week hopefully!

Another view now that the light switch covers are all installed.

I didn’t get a picture but Saturday during naptime I got the crown molding in the kitchen all caulked and holes filled, ready to get sanded and primed! I also finished up the electrical in the diningroom Saturday so sheetrocking could commence. It was a great progress weekend and we mostly relaxed on Sunday with Alex. I cleaned Sunday and then let Alex continue to ‘mop’ after I got everything cleaned up. We get to use the house for a week and then it gets dirty Friday/Saturday and I clean on Sunday. But progress is being made and I’m NOT complaining!

Next weekend will be interesting, we may have them attempt to sheetrock the ceiling above the stairs! That one project is definitely stressing us out a bit so that would be great to get done.

Trim Painted

The last two evenings after Alex went to bed I painted the trim in the bathroom. This was a LOT of cutting in but it’s done! Now I just have some touchups of wall paint to do from caulking mostly and we’ll install the vanity tonight probably. Jason is going to come out any day now (snow held him up today) to do the finish plumbing and then we’ll have an upstairs bathroom again! Unbelievable.

Door trim all painted… not much trim in a bathroom!

Our contractor came over on Monday while Ryan was home and started getting the diningroom prepped for drywall. He firred out the wall by the built-ins and put up the rough nailers for the beams/boxes we’re going to have on the ceiling. All that is left is to finish up the electrical in the diningroom and then we can get that sheetrocked mostly (we’ll leave some of the ceiling open so the plumbing can be finished later on).

Nailers for beams all up so you can see the shape of our future coffered ceiling

Hopefully this weekend will see some more progress in the livingroom, i’m anticipating some trim work? Our contractor should be back friday to strip the paint off the archway in the livingroom, and our neighbor should be coming over to do some sheetrocking (front hall?). Looking forward to it!

Friday Saturday progress

Friday our contractor finished the upstairs hallway flooring!

Our neighbor finished spackling the livingroom over Friday and Saturday and got the linen closet sheetrocked. Our contractor got the closet door installed and Ryan finished installing the bathroom trim. I sanded and primed all the trim on Saturday evening.

Small bit of baseboard on the sink side.

I’m hoping to get some work done in the evenings this week, specifically some electrical so that our neighbor and contractor can sheetrock the front hallway (finish sheetrocking it) on Friday. We hope to continue with 1-2 days a week of their time so things progress along more steadily than when it’s just us working!

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!

Going to be a great year

If the rest of the year continues on like New Years Day anyway 🙂 Ryan spent the whole day working on grouting. Most of that was cleaning out the grout lines which was no small feat. After Alex went to bed we grouted the shower and floor. All that is left in that department is caulking, then it’s on to trim and final painting. Then final plumbing and we’re done! I see a finish line!

Shower grouted. I love our tile choice even more now that it’s grouted

Ryan unfortunately caught the cold Alex and I have had all week, just in time for his time off of work (today and tomorrow). He may have to take it easy a bit today, it’s a tough cold that lingers a long time. I know he hopes to get the trim done though and start on painting. We’ll see where today goes!

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!