The light is getting bigger

Deb and I noticed a couple of weeks ago that the light at the end of the tunnel is getting bigger.  What started out as a project we knew we could do, turned in to more than we were expecting.  I guess we were a bit naïve, but that hasn't stopped us and we have tried to take our time and do things right.  Deb is hard at it this week, getting her cabinet doors poly urethaned before she starts back to work tomorrow.  Cole and I spent the weekend finishing up the framing of the master bathroom and wiring it while Deb was out of town at a conference.  Now that the living room and front bedrooms are done, we are ready to begin moving stuff in as we work on finishing the back half of the house.  Like I said, the light at the end of the tunnel is growing with each swing of a hammer, each screw sunk, every stroke of a paint brush, every run of wire and every connection of a pipe.  I keep telling Deb we are getting really close to finishing this thing up.

 

Here are half of the cabinet doors, the pickling (white washing) is done and the first coat of poly drying before sanding and the second coat.  We ordered some different hinges that should be here by the weekend.

 

 

Except for the original bathroom, the front of the house is done.  We finished reinstalling the trim in the sewing room last week.  We will be moving her sewing stuff in ASAP.

 

I got the quarter round for Cole's room cut to fit, Deb painted it and I nailed it down last week.  His new black furniture has started arriving piece by piece.  His room is liable to be set up by the end of the weekend.  We ordered a mattress in a box.  If you haven't seen them, go look them up.  They come vacuum shrunk and expand when you cut open the bags.  There is a standing ultimatum from all three of us that we all want to be present for the opening of the mattress.

 

I took another long weekend last weekend. Thursday, Deb and I got the shower leveled up and installed.  Then we had to go spend more money.  We had picked out a vanity and medicine cabinet on Lowes.com, so off we went.  It ended up taking the rest of our day.  We changed our mind, color wise, and ended up getting wood grain instead of white since we will be painting the bathroom.  Then the medicine cabinet they had in stock didn't have the hardware in it.  So Donna called around trying to find us one and ended up just giving us credit for the one we had bought before looking in the box.

 

Friday and Saturday, Cole and I framed the ceiling and finished the wall framing in preparation for sheet rock.  Saturday afternoon, Cole and I pulled wires under the house and into the breaker box and started deciding on light, fan, outlet and switch placement.

 

 

 

 

Here is the scab work we did to fill in above the ceiling joists.  It may or may not be "right" but I am betting it is still there 50 years from now.

 

 

 

By Sunday, Deb and I were both pretty well pooped out but we managed to get the bathroom wired and ready for sheetrock.

 

We decided we will probably need a light in the entry to the master bedroom and put three way switches on it so we wouldn't have to walk in the dark an extra 5 feet.

 

 

Deb plans to put a small vanity table against this wall, so we put an outlet in it and put a switch for the light over the shower.

 

 

Switches for the main light, vanity light and fan will be above the vanity and outlets will be opposite them on the other side of the medicine cabinet.

 

Fan is ready to suck the steam and stink out of the bathroom.

 

 

 

Vacation Time

Deb can tell you, I rarely take anytime off work.  Other than the occasional Friday for a weekend get away, I just hate taking time off work.  The last 4 or 5 years there have only been two of us in the parts department, so I really have felt guilty about leaving Ronnie there to handle the place alone.  A month or so ago, the company I work for made the hard decision to close the doors on one of our stores. My boss offered the store manager at that store the opportunity to stay with the company and come work in my store.  So, Ronnie and I have an extra man in the parts department now and I don't feel guilty about taking a few extra days off.  Since I didn't have to work Saturday, I took Thursday and Friday off as well to get some serious work done on the house.  The light at the end of the tunnel is much larger than it was.

 

I just realized it's been 3 weeks since I updated the blog.  The last time I updated, Joe was working on the floors and since then we went on our annual camping trip on Degray Lake with Rob and Gina and their parents.  Normally, we stay two full weeks but we chose this year to stay over two weekends and the week between them  to get more done on the house before heading out to camp.

 

So here is the update.  Joe finished with the floors and HOLY COW they are awesome.  I can just sit and study them for hours.

 

Here's a nice before and after of Samantha's room.

 

Before

 

 

After

 

We got started Thursday filling in the siding where the chimney used to be on the back of the house.  Then with Cole's help we got the outside door installed in the bedroom.

 

 

Then, just when I thought we were done for the night, Deb was pretty sure we had time to replace the kitchen door as well.  Turns out she was right.  Since I had the steps fresh in my mind, Cole and I went for it.

 

Old door removed.

 

 

Cutting the brick molding down flush with the door frame.

 

Blowing the sawdust off the door.

 

Everything lined up nice except the dead bolt.   Here I am grinding out the bolt plate to fit.

 

Door installed and ready for trim.

 

Cole tries to steer clear of work, but when we can get him up to the house to help, he really is quite handy.  He is also really hard to get a good picture of, but this one is Facebook profile quality if you ask me.

 

Friday morning, Dad and I got started early building the roofline out where the chimney was removed.  It was bad hot and we didn't get much done after that.  We ended up making a trip to Hardman's for lumber, plumbing supplies and bathroom accessories.  I really need to walk through Hardman's warehouse about once a week.  For a local lumber yard, they have almost everything you could possibly need to build/renovate a house.  Every time I am in their warehouse I think to myself, "Crap, I didn't know they had that."

 

 

Deb had tried painting the vent hood over the stove but the paint bubbled up on her.  So she had to scrape and strip the old paint off and try something different.

 

Mark Burhnam hooked her up with some rust stop primer and paint.  It took three days of work but the vent hood is done and looks great.

 

 

Scraping paint off a hand made metal vent hood is dangerous work...

 

First coat going on.

 

 

And the final product.

 

I like the way it turned out.

 

Most of the day Saturday was spent repairing the floors in preparation for building the master bathroom.  We had to build up the floor where the hearth was removed and there was a spot that had rotted all the way through the subfloor from a washer drain leak.

 

After repairing the floor issues, we had time and energy to put the first wall up for our new bathroom.

 

Checking for plumb.

 

 

Approximate shower/tub placement.

 

Today, we built the other bathroom wall.  We drew out a plan, cut out the lumber and laid it out on the floor.

 

 

Then we nailed it all together.

 

Then lifted it into place, checked for plumb and square, and nailed it all together.

 

The bathroom is now roughed in and ready for the pocket door kit to be installed.  We originally planned to use a 30" door, but because of space constraints had to go with a 28" door.  So we will have to return the 30" door slab to Hardman's and get a  28" instead.

 

So that was our four day weekend.  I'm sure some people would have accomplished more but I like to know exactly what is to come before I start each phase.

 

OH YEAH!  The floors.  I guess everyone would like to see the finished product...

 

Here is an up close view of one of my favorite boards.  The way the poly urethane pulled the grains up still baffles me.

 

 

Looking down from the living room down the front hall.

 

Excuse the mess, but here's the living room.

 

Cole's room.

 

Sam's room.

 

Deb's sewing room.

 

And the side hall.

 

That's it for now.  Lots of little things to do now.  Like I said earlier in the post, the light at the end of the tunnel is getting bigger.  We can now see the end of this undertaking and are more than ready to get finished and moved in.