Well we had planned to hire someone to sheetrock but they never got back to us and after missing our first appt we didn’t like the track record of having to re-schedule or re-reach out ourselves (I did reach out by email asking about the quote and got no response) so I guess he didn’t want the job and we didn’t have a lot of options around here.
So this weekend Ryan picked up some sheetrock so he and his dad could start the project. I’m trying to get in the mood and excited about taping and spackling – I really don’t mind doing it, it’s just tough to find the time with the kids.
First up this weekend Ryan and his dad put down the new subfloor in the bathrooms – new plywood which really stiffened things up then hardi-backer. They also built the stand for the tub in our bathroom since we have the measurements.
Master bathroom tub stand and floor doneSmall bathroom floor donePlumbing for shower started
Next up Ryan and his dad started hanging drywall in Alex’s room. First they re-screwed the existing ceiling and then patched in the section we had cut away. Then they did most of the dormer – until they ran out of sheetrock. A good partial day’s work!
Sheetrock!There are lots of angles in this room!
During one break (nap) I got the rest of the subpanel wired up so our closet can also be sheetrocked when ready.
No progress this coming weekend as we have family fun planned. Ryan does plan to work a bit in the evenings at least tomorrow for sure.
Progress continues quickly as we finished up all the prep work for insulation and they came out last Wednesday to start the job (they are finishing up today with a few small touch ups and cleanup). We are seeing a huge improvement in heat retention even with the heat turned off this weekend (we turned it off so we don’t get any of the insulation spray fumes in the air handlers/filters). We used the fireplace this weekend and today it was still 50+ degrees on both floors! Once we start running the heat again it will barely have to run!
A few pictures I took last week…
My sewing room
All 2×4 walls have 1.5″ of closed cell, then open cell to fill. The 2×6 (new) walls in dormers are just open cell. The attic and basement rim joist were also all sprayed. The only part of our house without spray foam is now the addition section (over the slab) which is the livingroom, washer/dryer room and the un-insulated garage.
Downstairs bathFront entryPlayroomKitchen
Ryan and his dad worked on the house this weekend. They got the ceiling between the old ceiling and new dormer section firred out, ready for sheet rock :
Ready for sheetrock
They also got all the rest of the frieze board/trim installed on the dormers as well as the front of the soffit corners covered with white aluminum!
Dormers ready for siding
The hope was to do siding last weekend but the siding that arrived was the wrong kind so we are now waiting 2 weeks for a special order siding. In the mean time we are getting ready for drywall upstairs – our plumber has started running the lines for the bathrooms and Ryan is finishing up the last bit of framing. I have a tiny bit of electrical (hooking some lines up to the panel box) and we should be ready to go. I think if we were doing the drywall ourselves we’d just be going on it already – our hold up is that we hoped to hire someone because the taping/spackling would go so much faster if it wasn’t us doing it. We’re not hearing back from the one person we found that could do it so we may just have to do it ourselves and hope we can do it quickly enough.
I’ve been very neglectful in updates because I didn’t have pictures and I haven’t been there for 99% of the work that’s been done… partly because Ryan’s dad has done so much for us! One afternoon he went over and demo’d all the exterior walls because we had decided we’d do that and spray foam… next day they were done and in the dumpster already… amazing!
Another afternoon it was the bathroom floors (with all the tile) – all removed and cleaned up!
Ryan and his dad have been hard at work getting all the framing done – including adding firring in a lot of the new closets to allow for more spray foam/higher R value and to cover the joists to get barrier. We’re going to go with an inch of closed cell then filled with open I believe in a lot of the areas. It will be a big investment but worth it in the long run.
Wiring/electrical continues when I have time. I’ve got the last bedroom ceiling fan/light installed and working along with a light in the small attic space and one closet done. There’s a lot to do left – just in Alex’s room alone I have to do light in the dormer, light in the other closet, smoke detector, outlets (add new and run a new feed in general), cable run. Pretty much repeat that for the other rooms and the bathroom I haven’t even started. Plus i need to do a subpanel still.. currently we’re just running lights off the old feeds that fed the whole upstairs (it was a 3 wire). I have no outlets upstairs currently wired.
Framing, demo, electrical – the upstairs is coming along. We’ve got a tiny bit of framing left, electrical to do, then it will be spray foam and sheet rock. We’ve done planning – got the master bathroom layout decided and I convinced Ryan on built-ins anyplace I can fit them 🙂 Ryan’s dad actually came up with a great idea for built-ins/desk in Bella’s room – we exposed extra space at the back of the room that we’re going to put some cabinets and shelving in for her. Here are some pics…
The framing for the master bedroom dormer wall – the two sides will be built-in cabinets with some shelves on top and the closet itself is ready to go once it gets a light!Our new master bathroom wall – that’s a small closet to the right, we will have a tub on the right hand side when you walk in, the vanity will be straight across from the door and the shower and toilet will be to the left – where they were originallyBella’s room… that little nook will have 2 cabinets with space between to form a desk (with a top of course) – then some corner shelves in the corner you can’t see – behind the closet. Storage storage storage! That’s the space above the livingroom past her room – we hope to cathedral the livingroom ceiling some day and use that space!Alex’s room – Dormer is open, closets on the sides of the dormer will have doors.Another view of the left side – that door way to the left is the entrance to the small ‘attic’ storage space we will have unfinished – it was original to the house like that so we are maintaining it and going to use that space for storing decorations etc.
It’s exciting to see so much progress. Now I just need time to work on electrical.
First off – Ryan did an amazing job closing up the second dormer quickly. On the following Saturday he finished the roof on it (Nov 14) while I was out of town.
The windows arrived last friday and that night Ryan got the first one put in already! He put the second one in on Saturday and got them sealed up with trim on Sunday. He also installed the small window over the garage so Alex’s room has 2 new windows now! Both dormers have plywood flooring now too.
New window friday nightFlooring in dormerOther dormer floorWindows installed on both dormers!
I was away with Bella Saturday night through Sunday but got photo updates as the trim went up!
Window has trim!The second with trimThe small window replaced with new trim
We are using Azek for the trim around the windows. The brown siding is vinyl and we haven’t found a perfect match yet (we found matching style but no colors match perfectly) so we haven’t pulled the trigger on new siding yet for the dormers.
Our HVAC equipment is all here and Ryan’s cousin is starting on duct work this week (and they got the attic unit up into the attic last night). Progress everywhere – hopefully soon the outside stuff will be done and we won’t be so weather dependent – it has been COLD on the weekends!
We got hit with rain this week – especially on Wednesday which was the day Ryan and his dad hoped to finish up the dormer. THey worked in the rain but they couldn’t finish the roof shingles in the rain so they just finished up the soffit (closed it in) and Ryan got the window cut. They also put down plywood for floor in the first dormer so that floor is nice and solid now.
Hmm I didn’t seem to take pictures once it was all closed up so here are some pictures from Monday’s progress when they ad started the roof (ran out of shingles) – after this they closed up the front and as I said, as of Wednesday the soffit is closed up and the window is cut and everything is sealed. Just waiting on windows and siding now!!!
Dormer 2 roof going onA side viewOur new (to us) cherry flooring!
I’ll update again after this weekend – Dormer should be finished up (until we get windows which may be next week!) and Ryan will hopefully take a little break sunday as the girls miss him on weekends quite a bit!
It’s not really a surprise that dormer number 2 is going a bit faster than the first – lessons learned and all that! Ryan and his dad worked 1/2 of Saturday and all day Sunday this weekend on the dormer. Saturday morning Ryan went and picked up the wood we had milled into flooring – it’s cherry we got for free from someone my dad knows, and we had it milled – it came out beautiful! It should be plenty to do both of the girls’ rooms! The person that milled it also may be able to get us another chunk of cherry for a decent price to do our master bedroom too so the whole upstairs would be cherry. He also recommended ash as an option for downstairs because it’s very hard and takes stain well and we can get it cheap. That might be our plan now!
Anyhow so the dormer went fast! Ryan had pre-built the front wall so it was a matter of doing all the cutting, then putting the wall up, and doing all the flashing Saturday. Sunday they put up the side walls with plywood, then did the support post in the original roof, and all the roof beams. Ryan took tomorrow off and hopes to get the plywood on the roof before it rains on tuesday. Then Wednesday is a holiday so he hopes to do the shingles since his dad also has the day off. Next weekend will be the buttoning up I’m sure. I can’t believe how different the front of the house looks!
I love it! And there’s so much added room in each of the bedrooms!
Tomorrow I will work from the new house so I’m there in case of emergency since Ryan will be working on the roof by himself! Luckily we have internet at the new house now 🙂
We didn’t start dormer 2 this weekend – due to the supposed rain on sunday – that never came and it was beautiful on sunday – all well! Ryan got a few things buttoned up on the first dormer and built the first wall for dormer 2 so it’s ready to go next weekend.
Window cut and seams tapedAnother view
We also got more brush burned and a tree taken down (dead one) for firewood this winter. We have a few more dead trees we’ll take down to burn and another pile of brush to work our way through still. We had a visit from a heron while we burned wood:
They drain the lake down in the winter so by our dock is just mud with a little water in the center. It’s a great opportunity to clean up our area and get some downed trees and branches out – just need to bring my mud boots next weekend!
This past weekend Ryan replaced the rotted sill plate under the front door and finished securing the smaller beam in the basement! Jacking up work is done!
New sill plate piece
On Sunday with the help of Ryan’s dad they got the rest of the demo done in preparation for putting in dormers. I had to unwire/rewire a bit and we will need to do cleanup (dumpster) eventually but for now we are ready for dormers as soon as we get good weather on a weekend!
Smaller bedroom – ready for a dormermaster bedroom ready for a dormer
We were hoping for no rain this weekend (3 day weekend) but that’s not going to work out so we’ll have to work on another project this weekend instead and hope the weekend after is better.
Evenings and weekend work has continued at the new house, we have a dumpster now so it’s a bit easier to cart everything out. All the doors have been removed, all carpet except for a few stair treads has been removed. 2 walls have been removed in the bedrooms where the dormers will go.
Master bedroom – dormer and closets will go here.Downstairs smaller room – carpet removedDownstairs larger room carpet removed and evidently we’ll be removing this particle board stuff too!Staircase – carpet removed from most of it.
Last weekend was busy as we had a family pig roast to attend out west and then we spent sunday with family and out buying a boat (lots of driving!). Next weekend we should have our new (to us) boat and we’ll also be spending the night at the new house, and a 3 day work weekend on the house. The basement work will get started next!
Even though the blog has been quiet it’s been an eventful 2 months. First off – our second little one arrived almost 3 weeks early (like her sister) – June 11 – Isabella Georgiana. She was 6lbs 10oz and was healthy as could be. She’s 6 weeks old now and growing like a weed. Her sister just adores her and that particular transition went better than I had hoped!
Also in June we closed on our Nashua house – it’s officially in new hands now that will hopefully love and appreciate it as much as we did. We’ve actually been in touch with the new owners a bit via email answering questions.
Around the same time we found a new house that we couldn’t pass up – it’s 2.5 acres on a lake, very private property (surrounded by trees) with large yards. It’s a cape cod style house – 2 floors, 3 bedrooms upstairs with 2 baths upstairs (one master). It was built in 1974 and has never been updated so it has some work to do but nothing like our last project!
Our first night owning the house and we had already unloaded a trailer full 🙂
This weekend Ryan started right in on some projects! First he mowed the lawn, our trailer makes it easy to borrow his dad’s mower so he had a rider and it still took quite a long time.
We won’t move in right away, we’d like to get the upstairs renovations done before we move in so that is done and we have a finished space to live in, no moving beds around. We will spend nights there so we are moving in to certain rooms – the kitchen for one is a future renovation so we’re moving in there, and the livingroom and diningroom will be a livingroom and bedroom most likely while we do renovations. The garage and basement will store tools and other items and we’ll keep one storage unit for sure while we work on the house.
The first project Ryan did was tear up the carpet upstairs, it’s hot up there but he got all the carpet and most of the underlayment up. He’s going to finish that up today.
Master bedroom – sans carpetBack bedroom sans carpetFront bedroom sans carpet
I’ll do some more posts with more pictures (before pictures) of the house and what we plan on doing. Upstairs though we plan to put in 2 dormers (master bedroom and front bedroom), adding closet space to the master and light to the front bedroom. We’ll replace the doors and trim and windows throughout. We’ll add ceiling fans and add a new heating and a/c system throughout. We’ll put down new wood flooring throughout and we’ll completely renovate the bathrooms.
Once those projects are done we can move in and start work on the downstairs projects more. There’s some structural work that will happen very early on and other downstairs projects that will happen because it makes sense at the time to do things all at once but the kitchen, livingroom, bathroom, washer room downstairs will all wait until we move in.
