Outside Project

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As I mentioned before Mark has been working on some outside projects around here while his tractor is here.  The lake front looks amazing with all the clearing he did!

Hello fall 🙂

As you walk up the side of the house you can see the huge pile of dirt we have going…

This will be used for filling in behind retaining walls – and hopefully down by the lake if we get permit approval for that wall next year.

And the excavation by the house is coming along.  This will be a big project – we have to build retaining walls on either side, a door for the basement (install that) and also insulate, put in drainage, some footings or something – I don’t know there’s a lot!

While we have the dirt Mark has been putting it up where we’ll split the driveway so it will run down by the side of the house here.  Probably where we’ll build something for the boat some day.

This past weekend Ryan finished up the trim on the outside of the sliding doors so they are ready for winter.  He also got the baseboard done around the built-in on the right side.  Not bad for one day of work.  Most weekends will be about 1 day each until his vacation in November when we hope to finish up the office I think (and also probably work on this basement door project).

Built-Ins Started

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Some great progress on the house this weekend.  Ryan has been working on the built-ins in my office/sewing room (I’m so excited!).  The base cabinet pieces are now done.

The bases were done last weekend

This one even has baseboard around it

And the right one – just needs baseboard.

Note the wires – we had to move the outlet that would have been down below/behind the cabinet.  Luckily the wires are long enough that they can just be re-located up in the bookcases that will be on top – we can’t put the boxes in because they will go directly into the bookcase backs so for now – loose wires.  (Electricity is off to this room of course).

And while ryan did that his dad worked on our back yard/lake front area with his tractor!  It looks amazing.  It’s even better today after 2 more days doing cleanup and raking it out.

This was Monday progress

Current progress

And separately Mark has also been starting the excavation that will allow us to put an entry to the basement on the side of the house.  We planned on getting a back hoe but so far this has been working pretty well 🙂

Washer/Dryer closet

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A little more progress this past weekend.  Ryan picked up the doors we had ordered from home depot (finally they are in).  This includes the basement and bathroom doors as well as slab doors for the washer/dryer closet and pantry closet (Ryan will build the door jambs for those double door closets).

I emptied out the closet that will hold the washer/dryer (it had been holding the kids crafts) – and he got the base built (minus the top).  Then he installed the basement door.  Progress progress!

Stand for washer/dryer – there will be a drain in case of leaks.

Basement door

Trim and update

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It’s been a few months since I really updated (partly because it’s been that long since we did much house work other than slowly chipping away on trim).  This weekend Ryan got a bunch of the doors and arches trimmed out (he had been working on them slowly but got a bunch done this weekend) so I have pics to show.

Also last week we had our well drilled an extra 200 ft as we were having issues during the drought running out of water.

Here’s some pictures!  Don’t mind the house mess it’s pretty crazy here on weekends.  Note all the tops will get caps but he will do those all in one go once we’ve finished all of them (waiting on a few doors to arrive and install before they can be finished).

Playroom doorway

Kitchen doorway from hall

Kitchen to diningroom beam. This will get more trim at the top and then crown molding so no cap on this one.

Other side. Again in the diningroom we’re actually doing a coffered ceiling – so there will be fake beams running down the middle then trim around the inside of those and crown so the top of the beam will be hidden by all of that.

Sliding doors trimmed out.

Archway to my office. The door to the basement there is one we are waiting on from home depot.

There are a few more but they got a bit tedious since they look the same.  I’m sure there will be more pics after this weekend!

 

Floors!!!

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First off Ryan got a lot more trim done in the ‘playroom’ – all except the crown molding is done –  but we immediately filled the playroom with everything from the ‘office’ which is twice the size of it so I never got a picture and now you can’t see the wainscoting at all.  I’ll do pics once we empty that room again to paint/finish it.  The reason we were rushing was that the main goal was to use the playroom as office/playroom while the floors got finished in the real office during the end of Ryan’s paternity leave (now over).

Ryan with the help of his dad got the new floors installed in the office, front hallway and diningroom – that’s it for our flooring.  The kitchen and livingroom will be tiled.  We had planned to have enough wood for the kitchen too but it didn’t work out that way and tile will be easy enough (no long delays and needing to leave the house like we did for the wood floors).

Office floors installed

Hallway

Diningroom

This is all Cherry just like upstairs and we did a clear satin finish.  The finish was tough because we had to get the kids (and ourselves) out of the house for a week so on Monday I moved the girls over to my parent’s house for the week.  Ryan sanded the floors with some help from my dad on the drum sander.  He had finished by about 4:30 pm so we decided to test out Evie taking a bottle for the first time and he took the girls to gymnastics and then to mom and dad’s for the night.  I stayed and vacuumed and put down the first coat of poly.  Evie took the bottle splendidly.

First coat – still wet

Tuesday night we swapped and Ryan did the sanding/vacuum/poly.

Wednesday Ryan was back to work so we decided to tackle the rooms together late at night using babysitters for the kids.  Luckily we have awesome grandparents on both sides that helped out with piano lessons and the baby duties.  Ryan and I got the floors sanded, vacuumed (twice) and poly’d and back by just after 9pm (basically 3 hour job).  Evie did great with her bottles again (and no issues going back to nursing – yay!).

Office floor finished!

Hallway finished!

Diningroom finished

We moved back in kind of on Friday but then we were away for 1/2 of the weekend so we really moved back in late Saturday night.  We’re keeping the floors empty for now although we are using them, just no furniture – giving it until next Saturday when our new diningroom table arrives before anything heavy goes on.  The office will stay pretty empty so Ryan can work on trim in there and we can hopefully completely finish that room!  Once that’s done we’ll empty the playroom again and finish that room (including poly the floor in there which is still waiting).  We shouldnt’ have to move out for that at least as we can close that room off and open windows to air it out quickly.

Lots of house progress and now it’s getting toward summer and yard work.  Ryan got a new mower and has started the process of seeding the lawn to make it look nice this year.  I’m going to clean up the gardens next to the house and use them as a veggie garden this year (just a little bit – nothing major) – maybe next year we’ll actually put in our real gardens but for now it will be good to have a little something as our kids LOVE fresh veggies.

Trim Progress

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I haven’t posted house progress in quite a while.  Things have been slow but thanks to paternity leave Ryan has some more time and he’s started with finishing up trim in the playroom and the kitchen windows to start.  This progress was just the last 2 days, prior to that was just recovery time from Evalina’s arrival/hospital stay/not sleeping 🙂

Door trimmed out in playroom

playroom windows

Door trimmed out

Kitchen windows trimmed out

We also ordered our new sliding glass doors for the office and diningroom and they arrived so hopefully that project is next week!

Welcome Evalina

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Our newest little one Evalina Gabriella joined us last week.  She made it longer term than her sisters – to 38 1/2 weeks and came a day after Alex’s birthday!  We had to spend an extra day at the hospital due to her jaundice – also like her older sister but she’s doing great and her sisters were so happy to meet her friday evening and dote on her all weekend!

Without further ado… here are some pics!

Little Evalina

Home

Alex loving on Evie

Bella loves Evia

after her first bath

Kitchen Progress

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After a much deserved (and needed) break from house work we made a little progress this weekend (and by we I mean 95% ryan).  I came home on Sunday to most of the upper cabinets back off the wall!  He had been wanting to shift the stove vent over about 1/8 to give it space next to the cabinet to make it not rub when opening.

So he took down the 2 uppers and the hood.  We got the hood back installed and finished the install this time (hooking it all up).  Then he re-hung the 2 cabinets as well as the end bookcase so that wall is finished now.  It looks great and it’s really great to have light right over the stove now that the hood is all hooked up.

Uppers finished

 

Another view

It was very exciting to use the vent!

Happy New Year and a New Kitchen

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It took 2 months which actually is quite good considering how large this kitchen is AND considering Ryan was in horrible back pain a lot of that – but the kitchen is back to useable shape.  Not ‘done’ but done enough we could enjoy it for the holidays!!!

The counters came a week before xmas and they did not disappoint at all!

The 3 large slabs

The smaller one in the diningroom

We had to give it 24 hours to cure (glue) and then I was up on the counters installing lights, switches, outlets etc.  Brad came over and hooked up our sink and dishwasher shortly after (YAY!!!!).  Friday night Mark came over and helped me to get the final pantry cabinets in, the fridge/freezer moved into place and then all the cabinet pulls installed!  It was perfect!

Saturday afternoon Brad came over and installed the stove for us (gas line) so we were cooking by xmas!  The ovens got used for cookies and then xmas eve we had a roast in there.  We love the kitchen!!!

Pantry cabinets and fridge in place

New lights all installed

Cabinet hardware installed and moved into the kitchen!

More cabinet hardware

These pictures are friday night so the stove wasn’t in yet.  I’ll get a stove picture when we finish the hood install which isn’t done yet.  Right now we’re taking a break and just enjoying the kitchen!

A small checklist of must do’s soon :

  • Install Island outlet
  • Finish pantry (still needs a bit of spackle/sanding/painting etc plus we need to order doors for it)
  • Install the range hood officially
  • Hang the bookcase on the end
  • Flooring
  • Trim
  • Build shelves above fridge

Not too bad and some of that will be sooner than other parts (flooring will be spring time).

Ryan had his back surgery right before xmas so is on recovery but doing well.  The kids had a wonderful xmas and I’m enjoying spreading out into a diningroom – the office has become a bit of a play room for now but playroom finishing is ‘next’ on our list of rooms to truly finish!

Kitchen Ovens, Uppers and Counters

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2 weekends ago we focused on getting the double ovens installed and the hood and upper cabinets.  The first project was cutting the oven cabinet opening to the right size.  Then installing the brackets and wiring the ovens to the wall box.  The ovens didn’t get lifted in and set until Sunday when we had some people over to help but the hard part was all done on Saturday.

The other project for Saturday was upper cabinets and the hood vent.  The first upper went in, then Mark and I got the hood hung, followed by the left 2 uppers.  The bookcase on the end is not yet hung.  On Sunday I put in the shelves and the doors back on all the new cabinets – it’s starting to look really finished!

Uppers in

Other than kitchen progress the girls and I cleaned the downstairs as best we could (cluttered mess) – and got the christmas decorations out.

In the afternoon I got the electrical prepped in the basement for the electrician we hired to put in a new sub panel and clean up our main panel box.   The electrician came during the week when I was in CA so I got to come home to a new sub panel and an awesome looking main panel!

This weekend I emptied the diningroom and kitchen of all tools.  The girls and I moved all the toys from the livingroom to the office now that we have a diningroom again.  This gave us room to get our xmas tree!

Finally I was able to get the final installation of ovens completed – racks in, doors on etc.  Ready for cookies!

Today the counter installers came!  The kitchen looks so much more finished with the counters!  In a couple days we’ll get the sink/dishwasher installation finished but now I can clean out the cabinets and start filling them at least!  Merry Christmas to me!

I hope to get a few of the outlets hooked up and working maybe tonight.  I have to buy knobs and pulls still for the cabinets and that will be a fun project to install all of those.  The only other ‘major’ project is to wire up the outlet to the fridge/freezer and move those in before xmas – the cabinets on the sides will be a january project but I’d like my fridge/freezer in the kitchen for christmas!