A different 3 day weekend

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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.

 

And this beam is also done

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

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

Livingroom cupola baseboards

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!

Front hallway

Towards the door

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

Front closet

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.

Saturday progress (these 2 cabinets)

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!

Looks much better now!

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

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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)

The front of the room!

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!

Windows trimmed out!

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

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!

Back hallway is primed 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.

Columns!

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!

 

One coat of paint on door

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.

 

Working on a nursery – but not ours

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This weekend Alex and I went down to Aimee’s house to work on their new nursery (for baby #2!).  Alex wasn’t much help but luckily Grandma was there to entertain the kids so I could help on the nursery.  Jason got the wallpaper off, I scraped around the trim and then skim coated 2 walls.  A good start!  Gotta get this room done before baby girl arrives!

Wall number 2 after the scraping was done, the first wall was mostly skim coated at this point.

And after the skim coat – looks great!

Hard to get a view of the first wall due to the lighting

Meanwhile back at our house on Friday the work continued, our contractor continued work on the ceiling boxes and our neighbor got the front hallway walls taped.  I haven’t gotten pictures yet so will post that later on.

 

 

 

Kitchen, Diningroom and Livingroom progress

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This weekend was full of progress on various things.  Friday our neighbor taped the diningroom (the part we can tape) and our contractor started on the cofferred ceiling boxes.  On Saturday they both were installing the boxes and we have the sides on for most of the boxes (just the bump out part is left).  This friday the plan is to finish up the front section and start on the bases of the boxes.

A view from the kitchen

Same thing from the livingroom.

My project this weekend was to get the crown molding in the kitchen primed and then painted.  It needs one more coat of paint but I got the initial coat on and the ceiling and wall touchups done.  So one more coat and we can install the crown on top of the cabinets finally.  While doing the crown, I primed the trim on the 2 doorways in the back hallway and I got a coat of paint on the window (so that needs just one more coat to be done now too).  Coming along!

Crown with a coat of paint!

And another section

I also got the bathroom door sanded and primed, so now that needs 2 coats of paint and we can have privacy in our upstairs bathroom 🙂

Ryan worked on the front livingroom, first he finished up the trim on all the windows, they look great!

Windows all have trim now!

Next he framed out the archway to the front hall and started trimming that out.  We’re back to the point of needing to strip some rosettes 🙂  And to do the other side of the arch we need to get some matching trim made so that’s on the list.

Archway – first he framed it in narrower so the switches don’t interfere with trim, then he lined the inside with poplar and installed the first parts of the trim!

Finally he got started getting the plinth blocks installed so the baseboards can go in next.  After baseboards it’s crown molding and wainscoting (shadow box style).  There is a lot of finish work in this room but it will hopefully look great!

My focus is to finish the painting in the kitchen and the bit of baseboard installation (caps and quarter round) in there, then i’ll start the livingroom painting work (by then the trim should be installed and ready).  So that should work out well!  The diningroom won’t go too much further because we are leaving 1/2 the ceiling exposed for plumbing purposes but I do hope to do the exterior wall (install window trim) and maybe get that part painted at least?  Fun stuff!

 

Window trim!

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Another great weekend of house progress.  Our contractor and our neighbor were over Friday and Saturday, they got the sheetrock finished in the diningroom (the part we can do), the first round of taping in the upstairs hallway (and stairwell!) finished and the archway in the livingroom stripped the rest of the way!  Woohoo!

Upstairs hallway taped!

This is the ceiling from the ground floor.

Then the real fun began.  Ryan started working on the window trim in the livingroom.  Saturday he made all the window sills (he actually made 2 for the diningroom too!), then he made and installed the filler strips, then installed the side pieces of molding and the window aprons on Sunday.  The tops couldn’t be done because the rosettes had to be stripped.

Window trim! And you can see the arch here too.

Check out all those windows just waiting for rosettes and top pieces!

Which brings us to my participation.  I stripped all the rosettes for the livingroom Sunday afternoon (that was 12 total) – fun stuff 🙂  So many left to go though still!

And my final participation this weekend was getting the crown molding sanded in the kitchen, ready to be primed.  I also finished sanding the trim in the back hallway around the doors.  The mini hallway outside the bathroom still needs sanding but I ran out of time.

Crown is sanded and ready to be primed!

Another little project got completed as well, the outlet in the microwave cabinet cut-out got in-set (Ryan cut out the piece of cabinet and sheetrock so I could install the outlet back about an inch).  The means the microwave fits nicely now (the plug sticks out so far the microwave wouldn’t fit nicely.  So now I just have to wire that outlet to the panel box and paint and install the nice trim we have for the outside of the cutout.  Then we’ll have our microwave installed permanently as originally planned.  Can’t wait!

I’m hoping to focus on finishing the kitchen as much as the front livingroom.  Our main goal is to have a playroom, finished kitchen and almost finished? front hall before Alex’s birthday part!  We’ll see!

Front Hallway/Stairway

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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 🙂

Stairwell from the top

The wall of the stairwell

Our closet wall at the top of the stairs

Outside Alex’s room at the top of the stairs

The window 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

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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 sink!

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

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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!

Ceiling by the front door

Other part of the ceiling

Stairway

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).

All ready for sheetrock!

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!

Vanity installed!

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

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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.

Baseboards all painted!

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

Wall all firred out

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

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Friday our contractor finished the upstairs hallway flooring!

Hallway floor

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.

Linen closet

Closet sheetrocked!

 

A view of the baseboards primed

Door trime!

 

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!