Scratching Things Off and Finding Character

We'll go ahead and start with character.  When we took possession of the house, a question was asked along the lines of "Y'all are just going to gut the place, aren't you?"  I think we've answered that question with a resounding No.  I grew up running in and out of this house and riding 3-wheelers on this property.  Bobby, Peggy, Rob and Chad came every Sunday to eat lunch with Uncle T.A. and Aunt Mary.  I was usually there by the time they got through eating lunch.  As we have worked on the house we have found many things that are recorded history of my family.  Here are a few examples...

 

I can't imagine how many times this chain was unlocked and left swinging to rough up the door facing this way.  This is character.

 

 

Here are a few spots on the wall that appear to have been caused by a Coke exploding from the kitchen.

 

Here's a hand print on the ceiling in the new Master Bedroom.  I guess I need to get Rob and Bobby to compare their hands to the print to find out who left it there when they replaced the roof 20 years ago.

 

You have to look closely but there is a boot print on this ceiling board.

 

And this is something I spotted today.  It appears to be marks from a suction cup.  My guess is Rob, Chad or Trey was shooting a suction cup dart gun trying to get the darts to stick to the ceiling.

 

Character... it is what makes a house a home and it also tells stories that likely have been forgotten.

 

Speaking of character, both of our children have been involved in JROTC at Arkadelphia High School.  It is a great program that does as much to build character as any I've seen.

 

Here is a shot of Cole carrying our Arkansas State Flag, leading the Clark County Fair Parade down the parade route.

 

 

 

On to scratching things off.  I'm not talking about scratch and sniff stickers here.  When we bought the house, we bought a new stenographer's notebook and made a list for each room of what all we needed to do to get it ready to move in.  When we looked at the list, we thought "Oh, this isn't too bad.  But how much more naïve could we have been?  It ended up taking us much longer than anticipated but the list is getting shorter and shorter.

 

 

The weekend before last, we spent nearly all day Saturday finishing out the trim in the kitchen, dining room and living room.  It is amazing just how much time it takes to do the finish work.

 

 

While the stain was drying on the kitchen and dining room quarter round.  I got started on the transition strips and red oak quarter round in the living room.  The tile wasn't quite 3/4" above the hardwood floor, so I ripped the quarter round to 5/8" creating a flat top to meet up with the tile.  I stopped ripping it at the base of the bar to transition back into full quarter round to continue around the living room.

 

 

I ripped the transition strip in the hallway to 5/8" also.

 

We decided we wanted to put quarter round around the hearth, so I laid out the quarter round the way it was before.  This wasn't going to work out.

 

 

While I was trying to figure out how I was going to wrap the hearth and make it look right, Deb asked about putting a brick in the space between the cabinet's toe kick and the hearth.  (Yes, I do have a brilliant wife.  Thanks for noticing.)  She found a matching brick and I busted it down to fit.

 

To keep the piece of brick from sliding back in to the hole, I took a scrap piece of plywood, cut it to length and slid it in behind the piece of brick.

 

And viola, looks like it was always there.

 

Here is what we ended up with.

 

 

 

Sunday morning, I got started cutting and placing backer board in the bathroom.

 

 

I wanted to use as many full pieces of tile as possible so I snapped my chalk line against the wall by the door and worked my way in.  AFTER I had all the tile cut and laid out, it dawned on me I couldn't put the tile down working from the doorway in so as I picked it up, I traced the tile against the vanity so I could work my way back out.

 

I picked up each piece of tile and laid it out exactly as it was to go back into the bathroom and called it a night.

 

While I was working on the bathroom tile, Deb was hard at work polying the base boards and quarter round in the kitchen, dining room and living room.  The new oak quarter round matches the 55 year old oak flooring perfectly now.

 

 

After work Monday, I got the tile stuck down in the bathroom.  I think it looks pretty good since I had never laid a piece of tile before that day.  (Remember, Gina wouldn't let us touch the tile in the kitchen...)

 

The rest of the week was a bust.  Deb had to go out of town for a couple of days.  So I decided to catch up on some stuff at the trailer.  (I think I really needed moral support when I started grouting the tile.)

 

I took off work this past Friday afternoon.  After a quick trip to Hardman's for a little more lumber and grout sealer, we decided to get going grouting the bathroom tile.  We managed to get it grouted and cleaned up in time to get ready to go eat and then on to watch Cole march with the band at the Badger game.

 

 

Saturday morning, it was back to trim work.  We ordered a really nice pine pre-hung door from Hardman's for the closet but decided last week that we never close our closet door and that it would just stay open in front of the shelves in the closet.  So we decided we can use the door on another room and just chalk the unused frame up to experience.

 

We started out cutting out the door frame for the closet.

 

 

While Deb sanded and stained the door frame, I got the quarter round for the bathroom laid out, cut and numbered.

 

 

We figured as long as we were trimming out the closet, we might as well make the hanging rods match the rest of the wood in the room.

 

 

Here are the base boards for the closet.  Laid out, waiting for the door frames to dry so we could get the last two pieces of baseboard cut to fit tight against the door once we got it up.

 

Somewhere along the way, Deb snuck inside and finished staining the bathroom door frame.

 

Mid afternoon or so, the quarter round was dry enough to nail down in the bathroom.

 

Sunday morning started off cutting and staining the crown molding for the master closet.

 

Some of the stainable crown molding had very interesting grain patterns.

 

 

We had about decided Saturday to forego the quarter round in the closet.

 

The base boards looked pretty good without it.

 

But then while Deb was staining, I decided to cut a few pieces, since we had plenty, and lay them out to make the final decision.

 

And the final decision was.... it just didn't look finished with out the quarter round.  We did elect not to bother with it against the walls where hanging clothes would cover it anyway.

 

 

Deb decided to poly the crown molding before we nailed it up.  It was another wise decision on her part.  While she brushed on the poly, I nailed down the quarter round.

 

 

I wish someone could have been there taking pictures of us tangled up on two ladders trying to get the crown molding nailed up.  That was rather funny and awkward.

 

Once all the trim was nailed in, it was all detailing and clean up work.  Deb cleaned base boards in the bedroom in preparation for carpet.

 

 

And I finally put the toilet together and installed it.

 

Yesterday afternoon, Ty came out and measured the master bedroom for carpet.  It should be done by the time we get off work today.  Deb and I spent the rest of the evening cleaning the beams and walls in the master bedroom.  This project is closer than ever to being done.  Hopefully, we will be spending Deb's birthday moving in.  Maybe, just maybe, we can celebrate her birthday by spending our first night in our "new" house for the first time.  All that is left is plumbing the toilet into the sewer line, splicing the bathroom water pressure into the existing copper lines, replacing the counter tops in the kitchen, and putting up the back splash.  There will be ongoing projects for a while to come, but these 4 things are the only things I can find that I want done before the move.



I'm going to try to do better.

I knew it had been a while since I posted on here, but it wasn't until I went looking for a picture a couple of days ago that I realized how far behind I was.  We are getting really close to finishing this house up and moving in. 

 

Labor Day weekend we got quite a bit more done on the bedroom and bathroom.  We put a floodlight outside the bedroom door.  Worked on finishing the bedroom walls.  And tried to get started trimming both rooms.  And then my back went out...  I had the first tinge of pain Sunday evening as we were finishing up.  I got up Monday morning and got started working on the trim while Deb had her coffee and got woke up good.  She wasn't up there long before I almost found myself face down on the floor.  So, while she finished the painting in the bathroom trim and bedroom walls, I spent my day on the couch.

 

 

We were able to salvage more of the original tongue and groove vee boards that were removed to build the bathroom.  So, we used them to finish the wall around the outside door.

 

 

The bathroom is almost finished.  We still have to lay the tile, hook the water up, and plumb the toilet into the sewer.  Once the tile is down and the closet door is installed, we can order our carpet and the bedroom will be finished.

 

 

Somehow we managed to keep up with the original window trim and after trimming each piece down 1/4 inch, sanding them and restaining them they fit right back into place.

 

This was our first go around with crown molding.  After a half an hour of trial and error, Deb found the settings for the miter saw on Dewalt's website and it went fairly smoothly from there.  Any slightly off cuts were easily covered up by caulk.

 

We got the shower rod and curtain hung as well.

 

After spending two days off work laying on my recliner, I spent the rest of the week babying my back and waited until the weekend to get back after it.  Deb worried over me all weekend trying to keep me from doing too much.

 

We decided to trim the top of the bedroom/bathroom wall with a faux beam to match the beams on the vaulted ceiling.  I had just finished cutting it out and was sanding it when my back decided I was through for the week.  She got it and the baseboards for the bathroom sanded and stained and left them to dry until I was able to climb a ladder again.

 

I had to work Saturday morning.  Neither of us felt very good Saturday afternoon.  I was still a little weak and Deb was fighting an ear infection for the 3rd or 4th day.  However, we did manage to get the faux beam nailed into place.  We also located the trim we took off the door we removed to build the bathroom and nail it up around the new outside door.  It was a perfect fit.

 

 

Sunday we cut the rest of the baseboards and trim out.  Deb got them sanded and we left them to dry.  Tuesday we managed to get all of it nailed into place.

 

 

 

I had two of the trim pieces from the beams over the bathroom which we were able to trim and put back up over the entry way.  A little bit of stain where the were cut and they should look like they were put there in 1960.

 

 

 

It looks like this weekend is going to be another down on our knees set of projects.  We have a hundred or so feet of quarter round to get cut, stained and nailed down.  And we really need to get the bathroom tiled so we can get on the schedule for carpet.  So, off we go.  I hope you have enjoyed another episode of Corey and Deb's house renovation follies.  Be back soon!