I'm a happy girl... :)

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves!

The Stairs ... With Treads!

Wow - what a day! When we came home this afternoon after work the stair guy (we should really find out his name!) had all the risers and treads on the stairs. It looks so nice!

There's not much else to say ... I'm enjoying having real stairs :)

The Stairs ... Before

Here is a picture of the stairs before the stair company started work on them ... as well as a picture of our balusters that we've come to know pretty well as we applied two coats of polyurethane to them.




The batteries on our camera died this weekend, but I'll try and get some pictures as soon as we get them replaced of how the work is progressing.

I'm getting sleepy ...

We are definitely not used to working as hard or long on the house as we did last night (unlike in the early days!), and my bleary eyes this morning are evidence of this fact. We got the wood for the stairs on Tuesday night, and after we got home at 9:30 we worked until 11 getting stands made for the balusters and sawhorses.

Last night we got right to work after supper finishing the pieces for the stairs. It's very easy to do, and you can sit and listen to tv or music while you do it, but it's very time-consuming. We worked until 1 a.m. and managed to get a coat of poly on: 86 balusters (yes, I was keeping track! - only 18 left), all 15 treads top and under the nosings, the nosing around the top of the stairs, half of the skirt boards, and all the handrail (except a couple of small S-turn pieces). As we had to get up at 5 this morning we decided we should head to bed at that point. Tonight's plan is to get the first coat on everything we didn't get done last night and then sand what we finished last night so it's ready for a second coat. Hopefully we can get a bit more sleep tonight, too. I don't think I'll make it tomorrow otherwise!

It is very interesting to maneuver downstairs through all the stair pieces as they dry - I'll try and get a picture tonight!

Finally!

You may remember a few weeks ago, when I actually kept this blog up-to-date, that I mentioned that a guy was coming to tile our tub
surround. Well … that guy ended up not working out (Mom always said if I can’t say anything nice … ;) ) so we finally got someone else to come
out today. This guy was a bit more expensive, so to save a bit of money we decided we would grout it ourselves.

You may also remember that I said our wood stairs place said we would get the pieces for our stairs in “lots of time” to get them finished before they come to install them next Monday, June 12th … Well, we finally called today after not hearing from them for a few weeks, and apparently “lots of time” translates to 6 days. Do they realize that we have day jobs?? Anyway, if anyone reading this is really bored, we’ll have about 100 balusters at our house tomorrow to get three coats of poly on before next Monday … ? Or, if balusters aren’t your style, can we interest you in some handrail, nosing, or treads? lol. After tonight that will obviously be our focus for the next week.

We have done a minimal amount of work on the house as of late for some reason. I finally got the guest bedroom primed on Saturday. We also got 4 coats of varathane on our bed and put the mattress back in its rightful place last night. Our bedroom looks so much bigger without two queen-sized beds set up!

A friend at church loaned us his pneumatic flooring nailer the other day, so we’ll have that to get started right away on the hardwood floor once the stairs are in. Exciting!

Disappointed but busy

Well, none of our contractors have come through for us this week, but we won't talk about that right now ;) I'm not such a happy girl about all of that. In spite of that, I've managed to lay about 80 sq. feet of tile in the past couple of days and I'm pretty happy with how it's turning out. I'm just getting ready to grout, but thought I'd put up a few pictures of what it looks like now.

It never rains but it pours

This is true both literally and figuratively around here lately ;)

After several stalled weeks on house progress we've had a flurry of activity yesterday and today. Yesterday we booked the company to do our hardwood stairs. We decided to finish them ourselves after seeing the exorbitant cost of labour to have someone else do it. Wish us luck! The installers will be putting the stairs in from June 12th - 19th, which means we will have to get two coats of polyurethane on them before that. We haven't heard when we'll be getting the pieces yet, but the guy who we talked to said we would get them in "lots of time." I'll let you know how much time in days that works out to ;)

In addition, our electrician called yesterday to say he's ready to come finish up the electrical work. Last night I spent an hour or so making sure we had everything well-marked for him as we won't be able to be there. Hopefully when we go home all the lights that are currently in boxes on the floor will be hung (in the right spots)! We're looking forward to being able to use the rest of the outlets in our bedroom and bathroom :)

Last night we also had an electrician out to get measurements for a quote on putting power to the garage. He should be ready to perform the work early next week. Yay!

And finally, the guy who's going to tile our tub surround is coming over tomorrow to do that. That will be very exciting. Peter has to get the plywood screwed on the surround tonight in order for everything to go smoothly tomorrow.

Whew! See - lots of progress, although not much work being done on our part! We did move quite a bit more out to the garage last night, and I did lots of clean-up inside the house. We moved the kitchen table over to where it will eventually sit for good - it looks so nice! It also looks really empty in front of the wood stove. We don't have any of the furniture we want to put there eventually yet so we'll have to figure something out there :)

That's about it for us. I'll let you know how everything goes over the next couple days (maybe even some pictures :) )

Checking things off ...

Last night we actually had a good night of working on the house. Tuesday night wasn't so great for me. Peter got his crack-filling done that night, but all I managed to do was get the second coat of paint on the office door. I find it hard after having a break from working on the house to get back into the mindset of working after supper ;0)

Last night we were both moving quickly. Peter got another coat of crack-fill on the guest bedroom and it's really coming along. I washed the grout haze off the tiles in the back hallway (finally!) and got the second coat of paint on the top half of the hallway.

On the docket for tonight - get the doorknob on the office door, hang the half-bath door, clean out third bedroom. Those are the "must-do's" for tonight. Other things I'd like to get done include: hang drywall in third bedroom closet, paint bottom half of hallway, another coat of crack-fill on guest bedroom. Obviously we can't accomplish all of that tonight!

The reason I'm focusing on the third bedroom is that Peter has tomorrow off of work and he's going to spend his vacation day crack-filling (what a good man!). We don't want him to run out of rooms to crack-fill so I'm going to make sure that third bedroom is ready to get a first coat tomorrow (at least the main part of the room if not the closet as well).

Nothing much has been happening that we can take pictures of lately ... sorry! lol

Weekly schedule ...

Our weekly goals are quite lofty this week after the dismal progress over the last couple of weeks.

Tuesday, May 9

• Crack-fill 1 coat in guest room
• Paint second coat on office door
• Paint second coat on top half of hallway
• Wash more grout haze off tiles in back hallway
  

Wednesday, May 10

• Crack-fill guest room
• Clean out third bedroom
  
• Hang drywall in third bedroom
• Paint second coat on bottom half of hallway
  

Thursday, May 11

• Crack-fill guest room
• Crack-fill third bedroom
• Install doorknob on office door
• Clean remaining grout haze off tiles in back hallway
• Sand the bed in preparation for varathaning
  

Friday, May 12

• Crack-fill guest room
• Crack-fill third bedroom
  

Saturday, May 12

• Varathane (first coat) bed
• Hang door to half-bath
• Move tools to garage (yippee!)
  

We finally got our taxes back, so we’re in the midst of scheduling the electrician to come out and put power to the garage along with finishing up inside the house. There are still a few things that aren’t ready to be done yet, but we can finish those up later. I can’t wait to have my light over my sink, as well as the lights in the master bath on a switch! Currently we have to go down and switch the breaker on and off every morning ;) Getting the tools out of the house will be a huge improvement in being able to get (and keep) things cleaned up.

Another day, another paint colour

Here is our main hallway / landing area upstairs with one coat of each colour on the wall :















I'm quite happy with the way it turned out, although it's not even close to what I had envisioned in my head. I did the top colour first and definitely wasn't convinced with just that colour, however when I added the lower colour tonight it started to grow on me.

I'll post our weekly schedule tomorrow - time to watch 24!

I'm impressed ...

I logged in this morning to check our goals for the week and see how we're doing, and realized that we're doing quite well! Tuesday night we hung the rest of the drywall in the guest / front bedroom and I made a first draft of a list of things for the electrician to finish up.

Last night I grouted the floor in the back hallway and painted the ceiling in the upstairs hallway. Tonight the plan is for Peter to get the first coat of crack-fill on the guest bedroom while I get the first coat of paint on the upstairs hallway walls. I'm so excited - we're doing a chair rail and shadow striping, so lots of fun!

Peter also lined up a locksmith to come out and fix the handle on our front door (anyone who's ever tried to open our front door knows what I mean!) and install the lock and handle on the garage. Guess what that means ... we can start moving tools! I'm so excited. Now if our tax return would just come back so that we can get the power hooked up out there!

Weekly Plan

I tried to post this yesterday but was getting errors from Blogger - seems to be a common occurrence lately :(

So .. this will be a short post as I have to get to work in 5 minutes.

Last week we didn't get anything done on the house unfortunately. This week we're still pretty busy with non-house-related stuff, but we'll try and make good progress during the time we do have. So, our goals for this week are:

1. Hang rest of drywall in guest room
2. Get a good start on crack-filling guest room
3. Grout floor in back hallway
4. Paint hallway (ceiling and walls)
5. Make list of things for electrician to finish up

We should get started on our list tonight :)

Weekly Schedule

As much as I would like to catch up after not doing anything last week, it doesn't look like that will happen this week either. We should be able to make some progress, but not as much as we could with a completely free week and weekend ... Our goals for this week are:

1. Hang remaining drywall in guest room (front bedroom with two windows).
2. Get a good start on crack-filling guest room.
3. Grout flooring in back hallway.
4. Paint upstairs hallway.
5. Hang door to half-bath? (maybe)

Ugh. It seems like so little when I type it out ;) Hopefully we can at least get that much done.

Weekly Schedule

As much as I would like to catch up after not doing anything last week, it doesn't look like that will happen this week either. We should be able to make some progress, but not as much as we could with a completely free week and weekend ... Our goals for this week are:

1. Hang remaining drywall in guest room (front bedroom with two windows).
2. Get a good start on crack-filling guest room.
3. Grout flooring in back hallway.
4. Paint upstairs hallway.
5. Hang door to half-bath? (maybe)

Ugh. It seems like so little when I type it out ;) Hopefully we can at least get that much done.

The Masterpiece

A long time ago on the blog I mentioned that Peter and his friend Bob were building us a four-poster bed. Well, tonight was the night that Bob brought it over and they set it up in our room. It exceeds all my expectations - it's beautiful! Take a look ...

Ch-ch-ch-changes

Despite being away for part of this weekend we managed to accomplish quite a bit with the time that we did have. Friday night Peter sanded the upstairs hallway / landing area while I laid the rest of the tile in the back hallway downstairs. Now that hallway just needs grout and it will be all set for flooring!

Saturday morning we got up bright and early and washed down the walls in the hallway. Peter drilled the holes for the pipes in the vanity, set it in place, and Derrick came over and helped him get the countertop attached. While they were busy there I primed the upstairs hallway - what a difference that made! Peter also got out and split some of our firewood - a good excuse to spend some time outside in the sun :)

This week is pretty much a write-off as far as housework is concerned so I won't really post a weekly plan. Our goals for the week are:

1. Call the plumber and get them to hook up everything that's left :)
2. Touch-up crack-fill in the hallway. There's very little to do here - mostly nail holes that aren't quite filled in.
3. Reprime the crack-filled areas
4. Paint the ceiling in the hallway
5. Hang the rest of the drywall in the front spare room
6. Get a first coat of crack-fill on the front bedroom
7. Grout back hallway
   

We'll see how we make out.

Busy night

Well, we had a busy night last night. Peter got the last major coat of crack-fill on the hallway upstairs while I cleaned out the back hallway and tiled over half of it! I was amazed at how quickly they went down since I didn't start actually laying them until around 8. Here is the back hallway when I finished last night. I should be able to lay the rest of the tiles (including the closet) tonight and grout next week - yippee! Notice our trim piece is in place ;) There's a rubber cover that goes to cover the edges of the laminate and tile that we'll put down once I'm done grouting. When I was measuring out last night to make sure we had enough tile (we hadn't originally planned to tile this hallway with those tile) I thought we were 2 tile short! Thankfully I found another box, so we should be good to go tonight.

I have a (bad) picture of the back bedroom / office with the paint on:
When I took the picture last night at 11 I thought it looked more close to reality than it does. Oh well, at least you can see that it's all painted and our desk is set up :)


And a few more pics - these are of the master bath - can't wait until it's finished!

This weekend we are hoping the hallway will get primed, and as I said I'm going to finish tiling the back hallway. Peter is going to get a start on crack-filling the guest room (one in front with two windows). Our time is very limited in the next few weeks, so we have to make the most of every minute!

Oh yeah - our Benjamin Moore store is having the sale on paint so I'm heading up there to pick up the rest of the paint at lunch - yay!

Our first "trim" pieces

No, we didn't go pick up stuff for window or door casings or trim. At lunch we went to Maritime Flooring and picked up all the trim that will be needed to transition between flooring types in the house. Hopefully I'll get to make use of some of it tonight - I plan on laying some more of the tile in the back hallway.

For those of you paying attention - I know flooring's not on the plan, but I'm waiting for Peter to finish crack-filling the hallway and want to make myself useful ;) Hopefully he'll finish up the hallway early tomorrow night and we can start priming / painting. I heard on the radio yesterday that some Benjamin Moore stores are having a buy 1, get 1 1/2 off sale, so I have to check and see if our local store is participating. If they are I'll go pick up the rest of the paint that we need!

We were a little curious to see how much one of our neighbours is selling his split-entry house for (same total sq. ft. as our house) and he's looking for $220k! I was really surprised since we're not in the city. We'll see how long it takes to sell :)

Weekly plan :)

I've had a few comments from people I saw over the weekend that they missed the weekly plan last week - who knew?! In spite of not posting a weekly plan, we did have one and got quite a bit accomplished. We got the back bedroom all painted and almost the rest of the crack-filling in the hallway done. We also got the front bedroom cleaned out, and the frame built and attached for the vanity. We still need to attach the countertop and drill the holes for the pipes in the vanity before we're ready for the plumber to come back, but it shouldn't be too long. We also got our first quote for doing the stairs - a bit of a shocker but it could have been worse. We're going to get a few more quotes before we settle on someone to do the work.

We have pictures, but they're still on the camera - sorry!

Our evenings aren't completely free this week (in case you're wondering why we have such small goals ;) ) So ... our weekly plan is:

Tuesday:

• Finish clearing out back hallway
• Break up some mortar where tiles pulled up in kitchen

Thursday:

• Crack-fill hallway (last bit)
• Begin installing shelving in back bedroom closet (yippee!)
• Drill holes in vanity for pipes

Friday:

• Sand, wash, and prime hallway
• Continue installing shelving in back bedroom closet
• Move clothes into back bedroom closet

Saturday

• Paint hallway - haven't completely decided on plan for this area yet
  
• Begin crack-filling guest room (front bedroom with two windows)
  
• Begin clearing junk out of second front bedroom

There you have it! If you're looking for us you know where we'll be :)

Weekly plan ...

Last week was a write-off as far as housework goes, as Peter and I were preparing to lead worship at a youth retreat over the weekend. Everything went well with that and we're now back to full steam ahead on the house. As a result of that, last night was very productive. Peter spent the evening leveling the tub surround and cutting and attaching exterior grade plywood around the lip of where the tub will sit. I primed the master bath (what a difference!) and put the second coat of varathane on the vanity. We also picked up the vanity countertop yesterday. Needless to say we fell into bed exhausted last night.

Our plan for the week is as follows:

Tuesday

• Fix uneven spots in master bath (they really show up after a coat of primer, and since we're using semi-gloss paint we want everything really flat)
• Varathane vanity (last coat)
• Build base for vanity
• Crack-fill in back bedroom

Wednesday

• Crack-fill back bedroom

Thursday

• Paint master bathroom
• Sand back bedroom (?)

Friday

• Wash walls in back bedroom
• Crack-fill hallway
• Clear out back hallway

Saturday

• Prime back bedroom
• Paint ceiling in back bedroom if no patching needed
• Paint walls in back bedroom if no patching needed
• Crack-fill hallway

As always, this schedule is subject to change when reality sets in ;)