nicole.groudasfamily.com

Bathroom almost done!

To see the whole journey go here: Downstairs bathroom journal

The Original Room	Current Progress: Almost done

This weekend we got the bathroom almost finished up. Aimee and Jason came out to help. Ryan and Jason worked on the plumbing, getting the shower fixtures installed, the toilet and sink. We also hung up the towel bars.

While Ryan and Jason did the plumbing, Aimee and I worked on stripping down the bathroom door. Aimee worked the heat gun and I used the scraper and we made great progress. I was able to finish scraping the door Sunday night and get some wood putty on it.

DSCN0220 — Bathroom door all stripped down

Since I had the house to myself (Ryan was in the office all day again), I did some spring cleaning. I got the curtains all washed, a decent dusting job done and a quick vacuum. After cleaning the house up and cooking some dinner I started stripping the trim for the gym. I got one side of the window trim done, sanded and holes filled.

Hopefully this week I’ll have some time to get the bathroom door primed and painted and some more trim stripped. We’ll see how it goes 🙂

Red Roses

Between the rain and the long hours working I haven’t gotten to check out my new roses blooming but I grabbed a quick picture as I got in the car this morning. The grass was too wet to get close so it’s a distant picture 🙂

We’re planning to have a great weekend. Aimee and Jason are coming out, we’re going to get the bathroom finished up (minus the actual door being done) and we might hit Rock n’ Ribfest. We have tons of around the house projects we can work on, I can’t wait.

New Windows arrived!

Ordering Marvin Windows – well each time we learn a lesson. Unfortunately we have not been that impressed with the people that work at the local Marvin place. Last time we worked with someone very knowledgeable but he dragged his feet and I’m convinced didn’t order our windows right away so there was delay. Also one window was ordered wrong (didn’t have the thick sill) so we had to glue on a piece to make it look the same.

This time we got someone less knowledgeable but more efficient at least, ordered immediately. Plus I handed her my order from last time to make sure we got the same types of windows with just a few differences (size, thick sills FOR SURE and no extended sills on the 5 for the cupola).

So this time they arrived in only 3 weeks (compared to 6 last time). And the sills are all thick as they should be. A quick lookover shows they look right. However they’ve been bought out by a different millwork place and evidently 5″ extended sills means something different to this place. Last time we were clear we wanted the sills to stick out 1 1/2″ from the end of the casing so we ordered 5″ (3 1/2″ casing). This time we ordered the same but didn’t clarify and we got sills that stick out 5″ from the casing! Those are some long sill horns!

Luckily our windows are wood so we can cut them no problem but it’s just another annoyance (much better than having to fabricate a thicker sill however). Plus 3 of the windows are surrounded by window boxes so we don’t have to even cut the sills since we need to extend them all around the cupola anyway. But lesson learned for next time!

Anyhow – here are the new windows all stacked up – 8 of them are the same 2630’s i believe and then the one large diningroom window is in the front (3630).

Front window is the big one for the diningroom

Julie Klassen (author)

It’s official, I really like Julie Klassen’s books. I got both her first and second books for free on the Kindle (Lady of Milkweed Manor and The Apothecary’s Daughter). They’re regency era and contain a lot of historical information on specific topics.

Lady of Milkweed Manor was about a young woman who gets pregnant out of wedlock and is then disowned by her father. She goes to the Manor to have her child and meets a man she knew years before who is now married (a doctor). Interesting details about nursemaids and midwifery are revealed as the young woman continues to follow a complicated path, trying to find happiness.

The Apothecary’s Daughter is quite different, following the life of a young woman who’s mother left when she was young and who has a perfect memory and many suitors. Details regarding apothecaries and physicians during the regency era is given which I found very interesting.

It’s always good to find a new author to follow. She’s got a third book out I will have to try soon and I’ll add her to my watch list!

Aimee’s house

We spent the weekend at my sister’s house, Aimee and I worked to skim coat the extra bedroom on Saturday.

While the guys worked on trees. Ryan took down the pine tree by the road. And they cut up another tree to take to the dump.

And Sunday Ryan, Aimee and I continued skim coating, we just about got a single coat on all the walls and I got a second coat on one section.

It was a good weekend and once we got home we did some shopping for the bathroom. The bathroom should be just about finished up next weekend so we had to buy a shower curtain and some finishing touches.

Friday night

When I got home from work friday night Ryan was working on removing the rest of the siding on the diningroom windows. We still need to remove the siding behind the electrical feed but otherwise we’re ready to start prepping the outside for the window replacement.

Question for Mom

I was poking around the garden for a few minutes when I got home – just as it was getting dark and I noticed a few things…

First – the roses from last year look awesome. I even cut 2 new pink blooms to bring inside as they go die so quickly outside and need to be pruned anyway after they’re dead.

Second – the grape vines that I thought were dead (looked like dead twigs in the ground) have green leaves! They’re not dead.. this is a horrible picture but as I said it was getting dark so I had to use the flash.

And in my perennial garden that mom planted last year I have 2 plants that I can not yet identify – no flowers. This area does not get as much sun as they need probably but based on the diagram here:

http://groudasfamily.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/perennial-cutting-garden.jpg

They could be either daisies, black eyed susans or echinacea. I took some pics in case Mom could identify them for me:

DSCN0183 — Questionable plant #1 - Becky Daisy!

They are different than each other that’s all I know 🙂 Now i need to run outside quick to water the veggies while dinner cooks!

More blooms

I came home last night to a wonderful sight – my light pink roses are popping!

The azalea blooms are dying off but the rest of the garden looks wonderful, even the marigolds in the vegetable garden are giving off some great color.

It’s so nice to have something pretty to come home to. I finally ran the vacuum through the house last night – it was just getting gross, probably haven’t vacuumed since I had friends over the first weekend in May. All’s better now though!

Memorial Day

I got a little distracted after lunch reading my kindle book. A couple of hours later Ryan got home (still reading). So that got me motivated to get the tile sealed while he mowed the lawn…

Finally done with the last tile related step! Unfortunately my book kept drawing me in so I finally went back to reading so I could finish by book. It was a new author – Julie Klassen’s Lady of Milkweed Manor. It was very different from what I’m used to reading and I really enjoyed it. Enough so that I started her second book The Apothecary’s daughter before bed.

I did also get started stripping the bathroom door a bit before bed. I’ll try to work on that project in the evenings this week.

Lunch break update

The day is going pretty much as planned. I’m just sitting down to lunch while the caulk dries. So far today I’ve gotten the paint in the bathroom touched up, the real switches installed and the caulking done.

Once the caulk is dry I will seal the tile and then it’s off limits in the bathroom until the sealer is dry.