White Sand and Box Beam Beauties

A little out of order:
We decided we needed a little break from the house in March but knew we need to keep moving on the house. So we scheduled a painter... and a trip to Mexico.

Liesl shopping for fresh fruit in Tulum.

At the ruins in Tulum

LD in the surf behind her castle...

White sandy beaches. And then come home to an incredible paint job on the ceiling and walls in the dining and living room.


Brilliant if I do say so myself.

OK... so we may have been a little preoccupied for the last 4 months?

As many of you know our house project had a pretty substantial deadline. Our first baby was due at the end of July (and of course the old house had sold) so we needed to GET MOVED IN!

We continued to take pictures of the work on the house. Just haven't kept up on posting...

We're going to do our best to get caught up here if we can. The progress of each step may get abbreviated a little to get it all in...


So here goes:
As we got closer to the closing date of our old house we had to really move fast to get done (enough to move in at least!)

When we figured out that the wood floor in the dining room and living room was beyond repair we decided to replace it with a similar look. We decided to go with a quarter sawed White Oak to kind of stay with the period and match the kitchen cabinets. A few buddies, beer and a dumpster got the old floor pulled down to the sub floor. It was hard knowing that we were tearing out hundred year old Siberian oak... but one wiff of the 'pet stains' and we remembered why!

I screwed down the entire sub floor (ship lap on the diagonal) to make it tighter and reduce creaky spots. The sub floor doorways to the outside needed to be replaced along with a few broken spots.

I took a class as a refresher on how to install hardwood flooring and rented all the equipment to do it.

Here is Liesl laying out boards of the new flooring. Yes 7 months pregnant! (What a trooper!)

Installing around the fireplace.

Nice straight boards!

Piece of cake...
;)

Deck Ducts and fresh paint

Remember this one? Grimy stairwell to the basement.


A fresh coat of paint makes a big difference!


We had new furnace duct work put in a few rooms that didn't have it. Here is the supply and return running up to the office in the attic. It worked out well to have these ducts come through right next to the chimney. This will be behind the wall of cabinets and shelves to the right of the stove.


The kitchen also got heat for the first time. This is the ductwork before it pops out under the cabinets in the back of the kitchen.


Fresh new ducts heading to the bedroom and living room. The old ducting was likely 50 years old or more and leaked really bad.

There has been an immediate effect in the house since all this work has been done...

MUCH WARMER (imagine that)

With the smell of fresh paint and cozy temps... it is actually starting to feel like we could live there.

After getting the plumbing and ducting completed and ready for inspection we cleaned up the basement. Even IT felt a little bit cozy.

Ready for plumbing inspection

Thanks to the handy work of my dad... the kitchen is ready to call in for plumbing inspection!!!
Basement plumbing looking very sharp (and hopefully ready to pass inspection)
AS IF I NEED ANYTHING TO SIDETRACK ME...
The guy at the paint store told me about this environmentally friendly paint stripper I should try...
So I bought some and and gave it a go on our french doors.



With some pretty good success...
These doors are going to be great when they are all done!!!!

Lots to catch up on

NEW KITCHEN WINDOW IS INSTALLED!!!
Kitchen is painted and ready for cabinets (as soon as we get the floor down)
Blue paneling is tile backer board. A few more pieces to go up...
The best part of the this pic is my cute wife!
The kitchen has been primed and painted with its final cream color before the cabinets get installed.
The living room ceiling has been primed thanks to a GREAT group of friends that came over last weekend and helped out. We are so thankful to have such wonderful friends giving a hand on the house! Five pairs of extra hands can get a lot of painting done!!! Thank you SO much.

In one weekend we primed the whole kitchen, living room,and dining room with TWO coats of primer. We also finished painting the upstairs office and the bedroom...

Next week the final paint will be done in the living and dining rooms...

Dining Room ready for final paint.

Adventures In Header Replacement

So as we got closer to having all the drywall hung we realized that it was time to do something about the sag in the header over the opening between the dining room and living room.

Not so easy to see above but here you can below.

At nine feet long and about and inch of sag in the middle we had to fix it.
Hmm the trim was level... because of the nice stack of shims...

So we were offered some help by friend Scott Craig (who by the way if you were at our wedding... made the incredible chocolate coffee beet cup wedding cakes).
We built temporary walls on either side to... er hold up the... uh ceiling.

Yes. This is me saying 'Now you are sure this will work?'

The answer is yes, with a BIG new beam .

The next few bits of this project we were not able to take pictures...
mostly because our hands were rather full.

The gist of it was cutting the old beam out. (for a good laugh everyone 'hid' behind the kitchen wall and gave me a 'very insuring thumbs up' while a cut through the old beam). My dad and I built the new beam and put it up with the help of a rather large sledge hammer.


New beam up, but still waiting to take down the temp walls
Dad pulling apart the temp wall.
Rather ominous at night...

But in the morning...

A new (and quite straight) header. Good Stuff.









Have I mentioned how much fun we are having?!

Dry wall is coming along in the kitchen

the view up at the wires in the ceiling of the kitchen
getting covered up

Bob Villa would be proud.


Getting the seams and holes all taped and covered with joint compound (mud really does sounds better huh?)
This will be our mini nook/ bar/ kitchen book shelf/ liquor cabinet area at the end of the stove wall.
A little more work and we will have it painted and ready for cabinets to go up!

Speaking of cabinets...
We got to see ours this week! They look incredible. We chose the stain and finish colors for both the cabinets and the floor. It is a heck of a mouth full but this is what we are getting: Flush mount, inset face, French White Oak shaker style cabinets with euro hinges....
As soon as they are up we then have the task of picking hardware.

All we have to say is if you need a recommendation on cabinets or other wooden furniture, we have THE guy!
Doug Vincent Furniture. Go no further. Their work in top notch and Doug is a fantastic guy.

Been a while...

We have been hanging drywall...


In the dining room.
Inspector Al has been keeping us honest.
(seems like just the other day it looked like this... oh wait... it did)

The Genius of Panel Lifts

Who ever invented this contraption is freakin' brilliant. Can you imagine lifting sheets of 5/8" drywall over your head to screw them to a 9 foot ceiling?

I can.

And I am REALLY glad I didn't have to do it.

I rented this panel lift and in a few hours had all the drywall fastened to the ceiling in the kitchen. By myself!

The best part is that the kitchen is really starting to take shape (literally). It is hard to imagine a space when you can see through the 2x4 framed walls and ceiling. When it all gets covered you can see it actually being a kitchen (imagine that...).


The dining room buffet wall getting covered

Just needs a 'little' tape and mud...
Recessed lights will be above the counters and work spaces.