Some bathroom progress

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Still doing prep-work before we can water proof.  I got more spackling done this weekend, a little each day, finishing what is basically the last coat Sunday morning (although touchups may be needed after sanding).  Ryan got thinset down on the floor and around the window and shelves in the bathroom where the cement board was uneven and tiling wouldn’t have worked without the leveling he added.  Unfortunately the thinset on the floor particularly wasn’t dry on Sunday so we just kept up working on the walls/ceiling until that dries, can’t waterproof until it’s completely dry.

Floor leveled a bit, there was too much of a gap from floor to tub on this side, Ryan raised it up a bit.

The shelves and window all stuck out a bit around the edges so they had to be feathered back to match the walls.

Sunday afternoon Ryan sanded what he could of the walls and ceiling.  Some of the spackle wasn’t dry yet so there’s a bit left to sand in the corners.  The outside corner particularly needs to be sanded and then touched up one last time I think.  So no waterproofing yet.  It’s all prep work.  We’re hoping to have some time in the evenings this week to get this finished up/waterproofed.

Weekend and vacation day

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Well I was supposed to take last friday off to paint/work on the house but Alex got sick Thursday night and had to stay home friday so I worked while she watched Thomas on TV most of the day (not the WHOLE day, although she did that most of the morning) 🙂

Anyhow, so the weekend came and we made some progress on the bathroom, Ryan got the last small pieces of cement board cut and installed around the window in the shower.  We caulked all the joints in the shower, we got the first coat of spackle/tape on the ceiling and walls and I did a little painting (touchups at the peak and the half moon windows).

The peak is finished!!!

I took today off of work (mostly) since I missed last friday.  I got another coat of spackle on the bathroom walls/ceiling and then got some paint on the outside of the porch soffit/posts.  I didn’t get very far on the porch, I had to caulk most of the posts on the outside first which slowed me down.

Bathroom – coat 2

Another view

 

Where i stopped painting

The part I finished

 

The halfmoon window I got painted was re-made by our neighbor.  He stripped down all the wood, put it back together and cut new (re-used from other windows) glass, then glazed and primed it.  He’s working on the last half moon window now, the front one I just kept installed and did a quick fixup job in place.  This one he did came out MUCH nicer!

Half moon window, painted and ready to go back in the attic!!!

This weekend we hope to get the shower water proofed (red-gard), and the walls/ceiling finished (spackling/sanding).  The following weekend hopefully we can tile then.  Let’s see how that plan goes.

Perfect

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This was one of those perfect weekends, lots of family time, lots of house progress – just perfect all around.  Aimee, Jason and little Jason came up on Saturday.  The guys worked on the bathroom, Jason getting the rough-in plumbing finished up and Ryan getting the cement board up and both of them installing the tub.  The bathroom is really coming together quickly after this weekend.

Jason also got the rough-in for the laundry room done and Sunday our neighbor came over and helped ryan finish sheetrocking the bathroom.  I think we have just 4 small pieces of cement board around the window to do, then we can red-guard the tub/shower and it will be tile ready.  In the mean-time I’m hoping to have time to tape/spackle the ceiling and walls.

Some redi-tile shelves in the shower

 

Shower plumbing ready to go

The other side of the shower

 

Right before the last wall went up. I had to get the wiring done so they could get some light in here 🙂

On Sunday I got the upstairs all cleaned up and vacuumed and then went out and got a coat of paint on the window and trim on the front.  It needs 1 more coat and some sections of crown need to be touched up (filled holes) but it’s all yellow so it looks like the finished product now.

The window is yellow now! And our neighbor restored one of the other 1/2 moon windows (working on the last) so we’ll have all attic windows in before winter and closed up – amazing!

Aimee and I took the kids to the park Saturday for a long while (and again on Sunday for a short while) and they had a blast.  Alex built up a lot of confidence on the structures having a kid close to her size show her how to do everything and Aimee convinced me to allow her to go down the big slides by herself – I had a heart attack each time but Alex had a blast!

Cousins!

me having a heart attack!

Swings!

To really make the weekend perfect, Uncle Pete, Aunt Erin and gang all made it out Saturday for dinner so the kids got to see more family and we got to catch up – it’s too long between visits with busy schedules on all sides!!!

 

Wonderful weekend

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What a wonderful weekend weather-wise!  And everything-wise, we had a great weekend in general.  Saturday morning we got out to the outlet mall for a couple of hours, getting Alex new shoes and clothes for the fall (hello after-school-has-started sales) 🙂

During naptime Ryan and I worked on the house, I got the first coat of red paint on the peak, and touched up the red molding (after filling the holes).  Ryan worked on the porch soffit (caulking) on the right side of the house where the hill is (his sister is afraid of heights and that was too much for her).

First coat only…

A soffit view, this was just after finishing up rounding the corner.

Then I got one railing primed – so we can finally see what they look like yellow, awesome!  After naptime we ran over to home depot and the grocery store (lots of errands to run!), so painting was done for the day.  Good progress though for just naptime (I also continued painting during after-nap-snack).

Sunday we went out to our favorite breakfast spot, then a stop at the park to get the crazy energy out.  At naptime it was just me out there painting (football season has officially started so Ryan was on kid duty for the rest of the day).  I got the second coat of red on the shakes, finished the prep on the porch soffit, then primed the last 2 sides (right side and back side on right), so the soffit is all yellow now.

The 2 sides I primed today (the posts aren’t done because i can reach them from standing). This is the one railing that is primed as well.

Finished shakes

I also repaired the crescent window up there, I still have to glaze it but the wood putty needs some time to dry so hopefully some day this week I can glaze the window and then next weekend get it painted along with touching up the trim up there.  Getting closer to calling something done!

Friday off

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I’ve been saying I was going to take a day off to paint all summer and finally the weather was nice, someone else was here so I felt safe working up on a ladder and it all worked out.  So I took today off of work and got some painting done.

Maribeth has continued her work on the porch all week.  She got the soffit and posts of the porch all prepped all the way around, all primed and the inside painted too.  We hope to finish it up ourselves this weekend, putting the bathroom on hold just long enough to finish this one project.

For my day off I decided to tackle the front peak.  The prep work took most of the day, stripping paint, sanding, scraping, filling holes, caulking etc.  This window I’m repairing in place so I got it stripped and removed the cracked glazing.

Prep work done

The other side

After that I took a late lunch and then went up to prime.  I got everything primed in time to make it over to Alex’s school for her Fall Festival where she got to touch rabbits, chickens and a goat.  🙂

And primed (need to buy glazing still so the window isn’t done).

The other side.

The forecast calls for a dry weekend so I’m hoping to get this peak finished up completely (including the window??) and the porch done.  It would be a good stopping place before winter on the outside if we don’t have more time (not giving up but being realistic).

Some outside work

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Well we went camping for labor day weekend so no house progress but on the way back to NH we picked up my sister-in-law and she’s out for the week to work on the house!  Ryan took Tuesday off and the two of them finished up the paint removal on the porch soffit/posts that the painter last year never finished!

Front peak just about finished

The tops of the posts (the detail work) looks great!

 

The side

Driveway side

This is a lot of work – the porch is huge.  Today Maribeth is filling holes and caulking so far.  Next up is sanding.  Hopefully tomorrow she’ll get to actually paint (much easier than prep work) 🙂  Ryan and Maribeth worked through the rain yesterday but the weather is looking great for the rest of the week!

Bathroom work

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This weekend was the first free weekend in a while that we could get some work on the bathroom done (and by we I mostly mean Ryan because someone has to occupy the little one).  Ryan had to work last weekend so he was happy to have a free weekend and jumped right in to projects.

Saturday afternoon we got a start on things, we all ran to home depot after nap time.  Some new wood and some sheet rock and we were back.  I decided to take Alex to the park and our neighbor came over to help Ryan unload the wood and work on the bathroom for the afternoon.  The final wall by the tub was framed in, the firring strips screwed in and the blocking for the vent/fan was installed.

Tub wall done – we bought some redi-shelves to install so we can tile some shelves into this wall of the shower.

Ready to install the fan.

Sunday Ryan got to work on the hard part – installing the vent for the fan.  He went with the soffit which was trick since a) it was insulated already and b) it’s a tight angle.  It was messy/yucky work but by lunch time he had the soffit vent installed and was ready for me to wire up the fan so he could finish the installation!  It came out great and hopefully it works great (and better than our downstairs one).

 

Soffit vent installed, i didn’t get a picture of the inside before sheetrock.

In the afternoon our neighbor came over again so he and Ryan got the rest of the prep work for sheet rock done (installing the boxes for electrical and making sure the firring strips were all ready).  Then they got the a/c outlet installed and went to work on sheet rock.  While they sheet rocked the ceiling Alex and I ran to home depot again for a few tools and some more sheet rock, then we went to the park again (I love having a park within walking distance).

They finished up the sheetrock (just the ceiling) in time for Ryan to meet us at the park for some Alli time 🙂  The hardest part is done (ceiling) and the bathroom is starting to come together.  If I wasn’t traveling this week I would try to get the electrical finished up but as it is I’m traveling and then this weekend is booked so no progress until after that.

Ceiling up!

Boxes installed (fan/light switch, then vanity switch/outlet, and vanity light above).

Another ceiling view.

Next up on the bathroom list, is to finish the rough in plumbing and electrical.  Then install the tub, sheetrock and go!!!!

Outside work complete (contractor work)

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I came home yesterday to find all the work we contracted out completed!  The top crown molding was installed and the small side pieces of moldings on the windows by the driveway side were all installed!  Now it’s up to me to get to painting so we can really call it done!  We have work to do on both porches, we’ll see if that’s going to happen this summer or next.

The front of the house – with all moldings installed!

The troublesome outside corner and the small molding which he may have had to take off and redo to get the angle right (the previous contractor last year installed the crowns at the wrong angles).

They are hard to see but the window caps’ molding now wraps around to the sides (we had installed the front piece previously). Just need to paint the front of the moldings red and these windows will be done!

Awesome.  We are well and truly broke but the house looks great 🙂  Time to re-build our savings 🙂

 

Weekend work

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This weekend was a mish-mash of work.  Saturday Ryan finished the third wall of the little bathroom (the doorway) and started the wall next to the tub, however all hour wood is now warped so he got frustrated very quickly with that.  Unfortunately a trip to home depot Sunday was no good, all their wood was warped (no new stock).  So that was left unfinished for now.

Outside I got the small section of siding on the front primed and then painted.  I also got the shakes around the little porch all stripped off so we can start to figure out what to do with this porch.  One corner of it is rotting out (carpenter ants) so there may be more rebuilding than originally planned.  First though we need to fix the support underneath, the 2x3s are just not enough to support the porch weight.

Siding primed/painted and molding up.

Shakes all stripped off

Our contractor today got the red molding up under the soffit.  He also worked on the top crown piece, he was having trouble with getting it to match up the outside corner so he has the pieces cut with the right angles but hasn’t put them up yet because he’s trying to figure out that corner first.  He has to meet up with the old crown that was installed last year.

Friday work

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Well friday was a rain day so moldings were not going up on the roof line.  Instead our carpenter got the moldings up under the porch and then primed more window sashes (only 1 window not primed now!).

moldings installed

moldings up on the tower

After Alex went to bed it was not raining so I went out and primed the siding on the front.  Hopefully this weekend I can get the paint on there, checking one more thing off the list!