The latest big house project has been hiring a crew to put on a new metal roof (standing seam) and then we had some solar panels installed on the back dormer roof (the flat one).
New roof!!!
We’ve only had the solar on for a week and of course it was very rainy and cloudy last week but we’re generating electricity more than we use (which is great since this solar is only enough to cover approx 40% of our annual usage. So summer it covers us, in winter it won’t until we put more panels up in future.
Hard to see but there are the solar panels up on the dormer roof
And secondly last week (a month after we ordered it) our new fridge came! Technically Fridge and Freezer as they are separate units – like our old house! I didn’t want to wait until our kitchen renovation to buy them – I would rather use them now! They are installed and running great and I love finally having space in the fridge for everything!
dont’ mind the kitchen mess this was late when i finished installing it
I had to remove the cabinet that was above the old fridge so everything that was in that cabinet is now just sitting on the fridge. Luckily when we redo the kitchen we can customize our cabinets 🙂
This post is long over due but we moved in as planned and we’ve been a bit busy since then! We had a few weekends off between a wedding and then camping but a little house work progress has also been made.
First – the floors were finished, the painting was finished, the electrical was finished (minus a few lights in these pictures but most are now done).
The first piece of furniture was moved in
Not a lot was done in Bella’s room once the floors were finished. Shoe molding was installed in all rooms, a few minor painting touch ups. The closet door still needs to be re-hung but it’s more convenient not having doors on closets at the moment 🙂
Another view of Bella’s room finished
The first night we were in we had no doors hung and with Bella not being a good sleeper in general plus no doors – we were all up at lot. The next day we hung those doors immediately 🙂
Bella’s room moved in!Alex’s room finished!
Alex’s room is also missing closet doors – hers actually have to be made still. Initially we didn’t have her light or fan installed yet, her fan is in now but not her light (it comes next week – this is the third try ordering a pink chandelier – they kept sending white ones!).
The other side of Alex’s roomThresholds
Ryan made the thresholds for the 2 doors but they haven’t been sanded or poly’d yet (they aren’t actually installed either, we’ll do that after they are finished). But they are made at least! He made them out of leftover cherry flooring.
Alex’s door and threshold – neither are finished
Another project we did the first week we moved in was outfit the kitchen with some new temporary cabinets and a new counter top (not finished yet)
Temporary cabinets
We won’t be re-doing the kitchen for a while now so this makes it much more usable. We can fit most of our stuff in the kitchen now and I was able to unpack the kitchen once I put my large rolling shelves in the pantry.
The next project we did was the first weekend we had lived here. We went out to boston for a wedding saturday but when we got back on Sunday Ryan and his dad finished the siding on the dormers!
Dormers have siding
This weekend we promised the girls some family time so we spent most of Saturday doing fun activities with them (a trip to the museum and then to Huck Finn’s playland). Ryan and his Dad spent the rest of the weekend finishing installing the trim around all the windows!
Widnows (upstairs) are completely done!Front windows oneSide windows
The outside is almost buttoned up for winter. We still have doors to replace but those will be spring projects.
We took our annual ‘birthday week’ off between Ryan’s and my birthday. It sure is a bit different having kids though – and not living in the house we are renovating yet. I haven’t updated in a while so let me just update by project.
We’ve been working on Siding before this week off … the dormers got new siding – the fronts and one side. No progress over our staycation as we had inside projects to focus on but it looks great!
Siding matches the old stuff great!
Sheetrock – Alex and Bella’s rooms are both almost done with hanging sheetrock. They both have small sections that need rock and then all the taping/spackling. We held off on totally finishing as we knew we had to jack up Alex’s room and put in some better supports under the floor (we’ll do the same to the master). So over staycation we did the jacking up part but before that we made good progress on the sheetrock:
Alex’s room has 2 pieces of sheetrock left to do (small sections)
I don’t have a picture of Bella’s room but hers is done except for her closet!
Over vacation we focused on some more heavy lifting type projects. Kitchen ceiling project – jacked up and added to the main joist holding most of the weight …
Jacked up
New blocking and supporting that one floor joist and the floor upstairs is MUCH firmer! And raised up quite a bit.
Blocking
Another project as the washer/dryer closet. We had to widen the opening on a load bearing wall as well as build a new bathroom wall since we’re pushing that back to make room for the washer/dryer. This is in what will be my sewing room/office.
New openingAnother view
All that demo (which was what we did on Monday) – also got trecked over to the dump – no dumpster this time around. Cleanup is done though and looking good. Not too much left to demo in our house – just a few ceilings, the rest of the kitchen eventually and the livingroom when we get to that.
Since we demo’d the kitchen ceiling and I had to move a bunch of wires around anyhow – I installed some new kitchen lights – functional but not pretty 🙂
Much better for cooking though!
Thursday was sheetrock day – the little bathroom! Ryan and his dad got sheetrock hung on all but 1 small section that we are waiting on plumbing on (just moving the tub spout);
Bathroom rocked
We are in pretty good shape. A tiny bit of sheetrock left to hang then taping time. I’m hoping to start taping this week. Our big goal is now to finish the 2 kids bedrooms and the small bathroom so we can move in to those and finish the rest once in – no longer trying to get the whole upstairs done. Things will move faster once we move in (and slower too). We’d really like to move in for memorial day – not sure if it will happen but hoping 🙂
