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!
Trim installedLights 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.
Linen closet!New archway
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!
Our contractor continued to come work on the livingroom the week before Christmas, getting the 1/2 walls built, the beam up and helping my neighbor sheetrock on Friday. Everything was moved to the basement (well most tools were), and the room was cleaned up. All in time to use the room for Christmas!
1/2 walls built and sheetrocked!Another view
On monday I got the room cleaned up, vacuumed, mopped etc. Then Tuesday we got the tree and set it up – Christmas Eve 🙂 The room has been a great play room and it’s not even finished yet! We’ll empty it back out next week, and start the process of getting it finished! Counting down the weeks now I hope!
As he hoped our contractor was able to finish laying in the floor by the end of the day Tuesday! So the floor and the sheetrock in the cupola are done! And it’s not even the end of the week yet, we still have Friday (and today) for more progress. Our contractor is coming back today most likely to start on the 1/2 walls and a few small areas of floor that need patching. Friday hopefully most of the sheetrock can be finished in that room entirely and even part of the front hall. Then we’ll take a break on progress so we can have our tree up and use the room for a week or two. Then we’ll get back to finishing the room (taping/spackling/trim etc).
Floor finished – all original flooring from this spot and upstairs that we removed previously.
I’m very excited to use the room for xmas. And pretty soon we’ll have a fully useable finished playroom!
Saturday our neighbor finished up sheetrocking the cupola, it’s great having that done in time to put up a xmas tree this year! Our contractor got the rest of the floor cut out in a feathered pattern for re-installation.
Cupola sheetrocked
Sunday during naptime I got the lights in the livingroom wired down to the panel box and switches and pigtails all installed so there’s work light now after 4pm 🙂 I also put a temporary light in the diningroom which has had no light for a while 🙂 I cleaned up some wiring in the basement too although that’s an ongoing project. Eventually I’ll do a full panel box clean-up, make everything nice and tidy. I think we’ve finished wiring pretty much everything that is downstairs, except the microwave outlet. So anytime I have a free day with daylight to do it I can do that project.
Flooring progress at lunch time.
Today our contractor is back and he’s putting in the floor again. We have the saved stuff he pulled up (what was saveable) as well as what we saved when we pulled up the upstairs diningroom. It’s going great so far for such a tricky fill in job. He has to leave early today but he’s coming again tomorrow and I think based on the progress he’ll be able to finish tomorrow no problem. I think our neighbor is coming over Friday to start taping maybe, that would be great.
Our plan is to get our tree on next Monday and it will only stay up for a week this year so we can get back to finishing this room. Luckily we’ll be home a lot that week to enjoy it at least.
The contractor and neighbor were back over today while I worked from home. They got the ceiling of the cupola prepped and sheetrocked and then my neighbor started the walls while our contractor planned out our 1/2 walls he’s going to build and went and got materials.
We ran out of sheetrock so that’s item one for my neighbor tomorrow, then finishing up the walls in there. Our contractor is going to start working on feathering in the floor again. I plan to do some electrical work and maybe some grouting prep?
Ceiling done – well done!Wall on left of cupola is done3 walls mostly done (ran out of sheetrock) 🙂
I’m very happy to see progress on the weekends again. I think we can see an end in sight (far away) again, it was looking dismal for a while!
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.
Floor repairs startedPrep for drywall done and this corner drywalledShower tile progress from SaturdayStarted the floor Saturday
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.
Floor repairedAnother view, ready for insulation.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!
Shower left wall doneShower right wall doneFloor 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!
We had a very full weekend! Saturday morning we cut up the branches from the halloween storm and took them to the dump. Then we worked on the built-ins – first installing the bookcases and then building and installing the face frames for the bookcases. They look great and will look even better once the crown molding is installed across the top, it will really tie it into the rest of the room.
Bookcases with face frames installed!
The bookcases just need to be sanded and then primed and painted before we can install the shelves (which are adjustable and need to be ‘built’ still 🙂
We ended the day by taking out the last 3 livingroom windows and getting them sanded/prepped and primed on both sides. This is a very tedious task and luckily with both of us working on this we got them done by 10 I think, just in time to pass out for the night 🙂
Last three windows installed after getting primed and painted!
Sunday I cleaned up the livingroom (since the built-in work gets kind of messy/dusty) and then put the first coat of paint on the outsides of the windows while Ryan bagged up some of the leaves in the yard (this is a huge project and needs to get done before it snows again!).
Then since I had the paint out and the driveway side of the house really needed a new coat of trim paint (some damage from a fallen branch and I believe 2 of the window casings never got a second coat last year), I first cleaned (with a wet cloth) all of the trim on the driveway side and then gave it a fresh coat of yellow paint – just before dark.
A second and third (depending on the part) coat of paint on the trim - ready for winter!
It was getting late so I couldn’t take too long of a break for dinner before getting the final coat of paint on the exterior of the livingroom windows – that itself goes very fast (about an hour I think). While I was doing all this painting, Ryan was working on hinges/doors for the built-ins. He created a jig and then routed out the spots for the hinges for the cabinet doors. He got 4 of the 8 doors installed although they still need to be trimmed to have a matching gap all around but so far so good!
2 of the 4 cabinets have doors installed!
We also looked up what we have to do to build all the drawers for these built-ins (10 drawers that we have hardware for). It’s a LOT of work and I think we want to order a jig that will save some time on installing the lock mechanisms at least. The drawers are inside the cabinets so at least we don’t have to line up the face frames or anything. The slides are Blum Tandem plus Blumotion (they have slow close and are full extension). If we like them we’ll use the same for our kitchen drawers when we do that renovation ‘someday’ 🙂
We ended the evening by putting the windows back in. The best part was that between painting the final coat and putting them back in I ‘had’ to take a 5 hour break 🙂 So I read – currently reading Tasha Alexander’s ‘Tears of Pearl’. I accidentally read the 5th in this series and this is the 4th so I had to go back and read it of course. Almost done and need to pick something new to read over Thanksgiving!
Well the weather did not agree with our weekend plans but we blustered on (pun intended). Saturday we ran errands to start and planned to put the copper over the diningroom windows but the rain started early. So instead we stuck with just doing windows this weekend.
We took out 3 of the 6 livingroom windows, covering the spaces with plastic (which didn’t hold up so well) and sheets to keep the heat in. We got the sashes sanded and primed (inside and outside).
Sunday, after a night worrying about losing power (and heat) with 3 windows taken out (didn’t get much sleep), we ended up having power all day. We got both coats of exterior paint on the 3 windows and by 7pm we were putting them back in (thank goodness).
Besides snow cleanup and the painting Sunday we really just relaxed, I got a ton of stitching done on my autumn maiden (she still doesn’t look like much yet though). And I got packed for CA (including some stitching).
Now it’s bedtime with a very early wake up call to make my flight!
3 of the cupola windows, back in for winterRyan replaced the drain with an oil-rubbed bronze one he found online so it matches our faucet finally!
I feel like this has been the focus of my life for the past 9 months or so – but finally it’s over – we have insulation in our livingroom, diningroom and front hall/stairway! That’s most of the downstairs completed now – everything but the kitchen and backporch – plus a tiny bit of the upstairs. What a relief! We should notice a big difference in how long the rooms downstairs retain heat now, I can’t wait – I turned it up to 60 immediately to find out!
So without further ado – here is a walk through of our downstairs 🙂
Bags of leftover insulation, they took most of them this time.diningroom insulatedclosed up window in livingroom now insulatedlivingroom cupola insulatedgaps sprayed with cansView of the front wall of the houseunder the stairwayFront closetstaircase wallCloset wall and stairway wall at front of house
Wow – can’t believe that’s done. I have some cleanup to do, they were having trouble with static making it hard to clean up too well so I’m going to have to go over it one last time, then move some of our stuff around to make the space more usable again. Maybe we can get the gym cleaned out this weekend to work on it again. *big sigh*.
