Upstairs Hallway

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Our contractor was here all week.  He got the hallway subfloor patched and prepped, got the double door removed from our room so he could frame in the back of the linen closet and got to work putting down the new flooring in the hallway.

End of Thursday progress. We reused old flooring for that small section, then the new stuff for the long hallway.

And it goes all they way down to where a new wall will be built later on.

Our new closet door arrived today too (for linen closet) so Ryan will probably install that tomorrow.

Our neighbor is back today spackling.  Livingroom is coming along nicely.  This weekend we will finish up the bathroom trim, get the vanity installed, ready for our plumber 🙂  We’ll get the door hung for the linen closet.  And someone will be coming hopefully to buy the radiators, getting those out of the way!  Looking forward to the weekend, and I know Alex is looking forward to her myGym class since she thought we were going there today and kept saying ‘myGym’.  Sorry kiddo, just going to the gym at school to run around 🙂

Taping

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The front livingroom now has all been taped, our neighbor got out of work early yesterday so he came over and taped the vertical seams.  Moving along nicely!

Alli boo makes an appearance 🙂

Cupola ceiling, the main room’s ceiling we left in place since it was in good shape.

The livingroom

It’s great!  Our contractor is here today, working on the upstairs hallway floor project this week.  After this week we’re hoping he can commit to one-two days a week to continue different projects at a pace we can keep up doing our parts (the things we want to do).  Diningroom ceiling I think is next on the list (putting up beams).

 

 

Ryan mini vacation

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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 installed

Lights 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!

 

Going to be a great year

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If the rest of the year continues on like New Years Day anyway 🙂  Ryan spent the whole day working on grouting.  Most of that was cleaning out the grout lines which was no small feat.  After Alex went to bed we grouted the shower and floor.  All that is left in that department is caulking, then it’s on to trim and final painting.  Then final plumbing and we’re done!  I see a finish line!

Shower grouted. I love our tile choice even more now that it’s grouted

Floor!

A view of the shelves

Ryan unfortunately caught the cold Alex and I have had all week, just in time for his time off of work (today and tomorrow).  He may have to take it easy a bit today, it’s a tough cold that lingers a long time.  I know he hopes to get the trim done though and start on painting.  We’ll see where today goes!

Livingroom sheetrocked!

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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!

Floor finished

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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!

More progress

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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.

Friday sheetrocking

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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 done

3 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!

 

 

Progress Weekend

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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 started

Prep for drywall done and this corner drywalled

Shower tile progress from Saturday

Started 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 repaired

Another 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 done

Shower right wall done

Floor 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!