Panels are primed

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Well the bumpout panels are all installed and primed (tinted primer).  A good amount of work for the morning and just in time for some more rain – yup – raining again.

Also done today, they got the copper installed over the kitchen window and the caps and frieze board installed over the 2 vinyl windows above that.  I assume if it isn’t raining tomorrow they plan on getting the siding up on the back part of the house. Then they can move the pump station over to the bumpout to do the window caps over there.

The pictures are not great, it was raining and I was holding Alex.  Also you can’t see that the primer is actually yellow, it looks white in the pictures – it’s not.

Panels on bumpout finished and primed!

Window caps and frieze board installed, and copper on lower window.  We’re not doing copper on the high windows because the soffit protects them.

It looks like AM showers tomorrow, not sure what that means for the crew.  Considering all the rain, they’ve really only worked on the job 6 days now total, so this is great progress.

Panel progress

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Well the bumpout is going very smoothly so far.  They got the panels all boxed out, the MDO all cut to approx size and pre-primed.  They have to fussy cut the MDO to install it next but I’m impressed by one day of progress.  The goal is to get this part of the bumpout finished, leaving the high part for later (caps and the peak).  Next they’ll work on the cupola panels as well as siding the backside.  Once the backside is sided they will move the pump station over to the bumpout so they can do the caps and peak with that.  The staging will get moved to the roof for the higher part of the cupola.  I think it’s a good plan.  Hopefully our attic windows come soon (due some time next week), because they will be ready for them by then for sure unless it rains a lot.

Panels all framed out, all the way up. It’s hard to see but there are 3 rows of boxes between the windows. Next up will be MDO to put in the flat sections.

It was hard to get a picture of the sides, but I like how the thin vertical section will still have 3 boxes to match the other sections.

They rebuilt the structure and patched in the bottom of the soffit nice and tight and puttied it up. Looks great. Scraping has moved around to the bumpout portion now. Coming right along!

They are waiting on paint until they see some good dry days which makes sense.

Also they did 2 dump runs and a recycle run and the yard doesn’t look too bad.

Monday progress

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Tuesday got rained out again but Monday the rain held off so they were able to get our bedroom windows all installed and a good start on scraping down the soffit over the backside.

Soffit scraping started, coming along nicely

Back side of cupola window progress

Front side – looks good!

Bedroom windows from the inside. They did a good job removing the trim and not really messing with the plaster. This is good because it may be a while before we get to renovating our bedroom.

Now the inside work is done, they are starting on panels on the bumpout today.  At the pace they are going i’d say they may get all the panels on the bumpout done, maybe not the window cap only because it’s tricky?  I’ve got some molding to paint tonight (I want the bed molding to be red and it’s easier if it’s pre-painted).  Everything else will be yellow so it’s up to them when they add the molding, they could do it after painting the rest if they want, I just want to make sure I’m not holding them up.

 

 

 

Weekend progress

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We got a little work done on the kitchen this weekend, mostly Saturday during naps (since she takes 2 2 hour naps on Saturdays generally).

First I cut out the hole for the microwave to go, and then wired up the outlet.  We need to get some trim to trim out the bare edge of the cabinet and I think I want to in-set the outlet instead of just flush mounting it.  The microwave fits but it’s off-center due to the plug, if we inset the outlet even 3/4 of an inch (just cut out the back of the cabinet and drywall), the microwave will be centered nicely.  That’s for another day though.  That outlet isn’t yet hooked up to the panel box.

Microwave cutout and you can see where the crown ends.

Next up I installed the outlet on the end of the peninsula, this one is hooked to the panel box and I got the GFCI breaker installed for the kitchen now that the last outlet is in.

Outlet in the end of the cabinet, now I can use my mixer that is in that cabinet!

Ryan worked on crown molding.  He got the back hallway completed, he got the filler above the fridge all in and the first board up that will make the coffered ceiling in the diningroom so we can bring the crown all around the kitchen continuously.  We are actually short a piece of crown we have to pick up before we can finish.

Back hallway crown is done!

Here you can see the cabinets now go up to the ceiling, with the base piece for the crown installed. Ryan had to put a filler strip behind this piece because the bumpout on the left sticks out 1/2 inch from the cabinets and he wanted to run the crown straight across. Also you can see the flat board between the kitchen/diningroom. The crown will continue right across that and that will later be turned into part of the coferred ceiling.

I also did some various sanding of trim in the kitchen.  It’s slow boring work, but the window primer has been sanded so I can put the first coat of paint on the window trim whenever.  The back hallway door trim has been sanded, but I still have the basement door trim, the archway and the 3 doors going towards the bathroom.  Lots and lots of trim to sand before I can prime all of that!

Rainy day

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No pictures because it’s raining too hard to go out and take them.  I wanted to quick document the progress they made yesterday.

The 2 vinyl windows in the back are trimmed out with sills/casings and the caps were made but not yet installed (the frieze board has to be installed first and the caps modified to fit tightly).  On the bumpout they got the sill extended all the way around so the panels can be started using that as a starting point.

The cupola siding is about 1/2 torn off, then they covered what was exposed with tar paper in preparation for the rain.  Everything was cleaned up and covered for the weekend, with the rain coming they knew they wouldn’t be coming by today to work.

Monday the plan is to get the panels on the bumpout started, the rest of the cupola siding and windows removed (so our bedroom needs to be emptied out so they can remove windows).  Then our bedroom windows will get installed and the panels finished up on the bumpout and then the siding on the back part done.

The whole front of the house minus the actual screen porch will get finished by then, we’ll do the porch ourselves either this summer or next but it’s in decent shape.  The hard part is deciding what to do about the floor of that porch and adding drainage before we can re-roof the full wrap around porch roof.

Looking forward to next week’s progress!

 

The cupola revealed

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Replicating the original cupola in some form or another is going to be very interesting.  I was very excited to get a hint at what it used to look like this morning when they got the aluminum mostly off.

Last night I ran over to home depot after kiddo was in bed and Ryan was home and I ordered some vinyl replacement windows for the attic part of the cupola.  We were waiting to see what was underneath and once we knew it was panels and could be rebuilt we just ordered new construction windows.  Hopefully they come closer to 10 days instead of 2 weeks.

Day 2 – windows are in

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It sure was nice to come home to some great progress!  They got 5 windows flashed and installed today.  They also removed some more siding so we could see what the original cupola panels looked like – very interesting.  I’m a little worried we don’t have windows for the top of the cupola yet.  I’ve been having trouble getting such small double (or single) hung windows.  I’m going to talk to our contractor tomorrow about calling Harvey windows and see if they have any, but even then it’s 2 week lead time.

Looking good!

bumpout windows are also in!

Interesting panels revealed

And the interior….

Bumpout (this will become the master bathroom.

Laundry room (left) and bathroom (right).

 

 

Hiring a crew

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Well clearly we are not getting work done on the house lately since there have been no blog updates 🙂  The small amount we did get done last weekend was in preparation for our new crew to start work.  We hired a crew of 3 to do the exterior work (replace windows and siding) on the right side and front of the house’s 2nd and 3rd stories.  This is a HUGE job and the price certainly reflects that.  They are hoping to complete in 5 weeks or less although the cost is a fixed price for labor.  Since we’re not getting work done I might as well blog about the work other’s are doing 🙂

Day 1 –

Removed aluminum siding on 2/3rds of the bumpout and the back section.  Removed the wood siding/paneling on same sections.  Removed 4 windows.  Reframed 2 windows for smaller vinyl replacements and closed 1 window up.

Siding removed on this section (aluminum and original) as well as 4 windows on the right.

Close up of the shingle damage – those are going to need to be replaced unlike the other side 🙁

You can see how far around they got removing siding – started on the cupola.

 

Attic staircase window closed up, the other 2 windows framed in

Debri was all cleaned up, aluminum is piled up for us to recycle and tomorrow they will start putting up staging so they can access the bumpout and cupola more effectively.

Debri all hauled off already!

Inside shots…

Attic staircase window closed up

New windows popped in backwards for the night (temporary). The left one is our laundry room, the right one is our bathroom. The bump out window just has plastic over it for now.

I’m very happy with the pace they started with, getting the cruddy work over with quickly and cleaning up in the same day.  The overall estimate is 5-6 weeks for this job, we all know the finishing work is the slowest part and they are going to be going all the way to caulking and painting with the new siding (as well as scraping any old soffit that remains).  So even though things start out fast, they will slow down eventually.  For now though the progress is astounding and fun to capture.

Plus – it gets done while I sit at my computer working all day 🙂

 

 

A little crown

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Wow it’s been over a month since I posted!  That’s because it’s been over a month since we really did any work on the house.  After our vacation/staycation we had a few relaxing weekends and then a couple of travel weekends for birthday parties.

Finally this past weekend we had some time to work on the kitchen again. Since vacation I have managed to get the rest of the new trim caulked and nail holes filled but it all needs to be sanded/primed and painted still.  So I started with just the window, I got it sanded and prepped during Alex’s Saturday morning nap.  During her afternoon nap I got it all primed.

Window trim primed!

Ryan had more time on Saturday and started working on the crown molding.  First he made a bunch of the base pieces for all the crown and then got the little alcove outside the bathroom completely done.  He also started by the oven/hood vent towards the back hallway and got a few pieces in.

Crown in the alcove is done.

Kitchen/back hallway crown is started

The crown is tricky because we still need to build up the cabinets around the fridge and then the beam between the kitchen and diningroom needs wood before crown.  But now at least the pieces are all constructed which is the messy/loud part for sure!

We have so much sanding and painting of trim left to do – I just need to do it in small parts I think and it will go easier.  If i had some evenings free from work I would get started but so far my evenings are packed with working late once Alex goes down.

We have a crew coming to work on the house starting next week so we’ll have some work progress made without having to do anything except prep (move furniture etc.).  We’re getting new windows installed in the second story and siding replaced for the same.  Hopefully in 7 weeks only the back of our house will be unfinished!

The rest of vacation

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Sorry for the lack of posting, we were up till about midnight every night Wed, Thur, Fri with working on the kitchen and birthday party prep.  I’ll try to recap how the rest of the week went.

Wednesday I finished filling nail holes and caulking the installed trim.  Then I stripped the last 4 rosettes.  When Ryan got home he put up the last bit of door trim and baseboards (caps haven’t gone in yet though).

Gym door has trim

TVroom door has trim

Next up we got the backsplash finished (tiling) and this time I got to help so I did some cutting and some installing – it was just the top half of the one wall left to do so it went pretty quickly.

 

Backsplash tiled

Thursday was recycling metal day (2 trips to recycle stuff in the yard -old pipes etc) and i lost count how many trips to the dump.  Ryan did all that while I cleaned the upstairs of the house and started on the downstairs.  In the afternoon and evening we got the fridge installed which was NOT easy!

Fridge finally installed

But totally worth it!  I ended the night Thursday by sealing the floor grout right before bed.  It was one hour and was exhausting at 11pm but no worries for the party now!

Friday was more cleanup, Ryan installed the toe kicks, I installed the dishwasher (finally screwed in!), Ryan grouted the backsplash and installed the window apron so the window looks trimmed out now.  I started the tool room cleanup and by 9pm the diningroom and livingroom were cleaned up for the party.

toe kicks installed!

backsplash grouted

window apron installed

more backsplash grouted

So we got enough done on the kitchen that we could enjoy the party!  By 9pm I was able to start baking the cake and cupcakes for the party and my sister arrived shortly after and helped with all the party preparation (thank goodness, I would have gone crazy trying to do it all).  One more late night but Saturday went off without a hitch thanks to the hard work of everyone.    No one tripped over a saw or loose nail (thank goodness) and we had a TON of people stuffed into our mostly unfinished house 🙂

Here’s a view of one of the unfinished areas we used for the party – livingroom diningroom where most of the adults hung out – this is after cleaning but pre-decorations:

pre-decorations – the front area is cleaner than it’s been in a year!

I’m so glad it’s over.  Now we can just relax and finish up the kitchen (painting and crown molding left) and get started upstairs on the bathroom!