Channeling my inner Martha ...

Yay for progress. We can check off half of item 1 on our list from the previous post. Peter and I spent the evening building this:


So ... my next job is to translate this:



... into organizational bliss on our closet shelves. I'll be sure and post the after pictures! lol. I feel like I'm on a TLC show!

Frantic and Frenzied

Well, we knew this day was coming ... the bank called today and it's time for another visit from our friendly appraiser.

For those who aren't aware, while we're building the house, the bank requires an independent appraiser to visit the site every three months to ensure that work is progressing. This appraiser is also the one who holds our fate in our hands - she determines when we've hit the magical "milestones", at which points the bank releases a certain percentage of our construction loan to us. The milestones were explained to us as such: Draw 1 occurs when the house is basically weather-tight (i.e. roof on and windows and doors in); Draw 2 occurs when the drywalling is (basically) complete; and Draw 3 occurs when the house is 97% complete.

To date we've received Draws 1 & 2 and are anxiously working toward that magical Draw 3. Draw 3 is magical because once it is received we can convert our construction loan into an honest-to-goodness mortgage! Most people would not be as excited about signing mortgage papers, but after basically carrying around a huge line of credit for 18 months, we are more than ready to get those papers signed and settle into a fairly predictable repayment schedule.

The appraiser last visited us in August (I know - the bank has been lenient on the 3 months thing, which we appreciate). At that time she said we were 93% complete ... so close! After that report, the bank (have we mentioned we're big fans of our bank?? CIBC in case anyone's wondering) actually gave us a little "advance" on Draw 3, so the amount we're waiting to get from them isn't significant, it's the mortgage itself we want to get settled. Anyway, at that point we had not fully completed the hardwood. The kitchen area was not tiled. Many of our cupboards were not yet built or installed (no upper cupboards or the tall unit with the oven). We had no trim in the house, and I don't believe the downstairs bath had a door. The nursery was not crack-filled or painted.

Peter asked the bank if we could have another 2 weeks before the appraiser comes. In those 2 weeks we hope to:

1. Finish the shelves in the office closet and clean up that room and the yellow bedroom!! I know this doesn't really make the house more finished, but it will certainly make a better impression.
2. Finish installing and get at least a coat of paint on all the window casing and trim.
3. Install the door to the electrical room and finish trim downstairs (interior door and baseboards left).
4. Paint the nursery closet (it's primed and will be painted white, so it won't make a big difference - just nice to get it out of the way)

If we can do that, when the appraiser comes we will have the following things unfinished:

1. Drawers and cupboard doors in kitchen.
   
2. Bar counter - this one is a biggie I think, as it's one of the first things you see when you come in the door.
3. Two closets not painted (one basically crack-filled, one not).
   
4. Closet doors not installed in bedrooms.
5. Shadow-striping and chair rail in upstairs hallway (I don't think this one is a big deal, since those things are optional).
   
6. Door and baseboard trim throughout upstairs.

What do you think?? Do we have a chance? At least knowing that we have a deadline of two weeks should give us some motivation!

Panels and painting and trim, oh my!

Wow - 2 posts in a week. Don't die of shock!

In my last post I forgot to mention that Peter built his first raised panel over the Christmas break! It looks so professional - he should go into business. It still needs to be sanded and stained.



Saturday Peter and I went to pick up our piano. However, I did manage to paint the nursery as well. I bought the paint a long time ago and was a bit concerned it wouldn't be appropriate for Baby M's room. I am very pleased with the colour, though!



Other than painting the nursery we didn't get much done this weekend. Last night Peter got a second coat of crack-fill on the master bedroom closet. He also measured and calculated what we needed to trim the rest of the house. Today he picked up the rest of the trim that we need at Home Depot at lunch. When I came home, this is what I found:


Looks like we have our work cut out for us!

Finally an update!

I'm finally ready to sit down and give an update on house progress over the past few months, including a few pictures :)

So ... let's see. The last update was showing the window trim on the main floor. I am still plodding away at caulking and painting those. It seems to take forever for each window, but it looks so good when it's (almost) done:


Peter has also built the returns (sills) for all the upstairs windows. The window in our bathroom is installed with the trim and caulked with one coat of paint. Two other windows have a coat of paint on the returns but are not installed with the trim yet. There is no hurry to get them installed as I'm still working on the downstairs ones.

Over the holidays Peter built and installed the rest of the kitchen cupboards, along with our microwave / vent hood combo (notice the pregnant belly sticking out there!):


Also over the holidays Peter installed the trim around the exterior days. They still need to have their corners finished, be caulked, and painted, but they look pretty smart just as they are:



The final thing we've been working on is the nursery! Yay! I don't have any pictures yet, but Peter has finished crack-filling the room and I got the primer on this week. The goal for the weekend is to get the ceiling painted and the first coat on the walls. I would also like to get two more windows caulked. We'll see.

Have a great weekend!

Quick note ...

Happy New Year!

Sorry for the lack of posts! There has been lots of progress on the house thanks to Peter over the last 6 weeks or so. He got the rest of our cupboards on the wall, installed our microwave / vent hood combo thing, is currently building the window returns for upstairs, and finished crack-filling the nursery ... Good thing, since we're going to need that room in about 5 months! We are expecting our first little one on June 9th. We are very excited!

As a result of this turn of events I have started a blog just to blather on about whatever comes into my head, which is most often cross-stitch, baby stuff, flylady / housekeeping stuff, and to do lists. Anyway, if you're interested in those mundane things you can pop over to here.

I will try and take some pictures of Peter's progress over the weekend and put them up.

GO CANADA GO!!!

No time for talk ...

... just pictures of Peter's progress over the last week :)

Getting back into it...

Unfortunately we've been pretty busy the past few weeks, leaving little time for the house (or anything else!) Although we're still pretty busy in the next couple of weeks, I *really* want the downstairs trim finished by mid-November, so I'm posting our plans on here for the world to see ;)

My short-term goal is the finish tiling the kitchen. It's half done and I should be able to finish it with one more day of work. Peter's short-term goal is the finish crack-filling the back hallway. So ... here's the schedule for the next week or so:

Saturday, October 14th

• Angela - tile rest of kitchen with help from Marsha

Tuesday, October 17th

• Angela - grout kitchen and two remaining tiles in upstairs bath
• Peter - coat of crack-fill in back hallway

Wednesday, October 18th

• Peter - coat of crack-fill in back hallway

Saturday, October 21st

• Peter - finish crack-filling hallway, build router table (needed for trim)
  
• Angela - cut out extra insulation around windows downstairs, measure for downstairs trim

If (and that's a big if) we can get that stuff done next week, which is a very busy week for us, we will be in good shape for finishing the trim on time.

Oh yeah, I've been "tagged" by Katie
So ...
5 Weird Things about myself ...

1. I eat all kinds of things I really don't like because I know they're good for me (by all kinds I mean things like bananas, yogurt, etc ...really normal stuff for most people)
2. I'm a devoted follower of Flylady , so much so that some family members think it's a cult!
3. I hate my food to touch, too!
4. I'm not that fond of chocolate.
5. I used to make Peter go to the movie theatre and buy their popcorn just so I could have some while we watched a movie at home ;) What a great guy!

That's all for today!

Long time ...

Long time no update! Peter posted some pictures of our new cupboards (and my oven! yippee!) last week, but other than that I've been pretty slack with keeping up to date. Unfortunately, over the next few weeks there won't be much work accomplished - Peter's pretty tied up with other commitments.

Last weekend I managed to lay over half the remaining tile. Once I get the rest of that laid (next Saturday, the 14th) we will have all our flooring finished! That will be a huge item off our to-do list. We also spent some time last week hanging most of the remaining drywall. We still had a couple of closets to do, of which we finished 1.5 - not sure why we didn't finish it all at once! Hopefully we'll have time to finish that in the next week as well. Peter began crack-filling the hallway by the back door last week. That's the last spot on the main floor that isn't painted. It will be great to get that finished!

Our short-term goal is to get the downstairs trim on (which means we'll be pretty much done downstairs) by mid-November - in time to decorate for Christmas! I'm so excited to get to really decorate for Christmas this year. Last year we had a tree and that was about it. Oh yeah, and the outside lights! This year my big decorating "purchase" is going to be some greenery garland to do the handrail on our stairs. Mom always does that with ribbon and lights and it looks soooooo pretty. Anyone have any ideas on where I can get somewhat real looking greenery without paying an arm and a leg??

That's about all that's going on around here. I've started making up my Christmas list (gifts to give, not get ;) ) and I only have 1.5 total gifts left to figure out. Not too shabby! Now to start actually buying some of them. I have two major shopping trips planned in the next month, so I should be able to put a big dent in my shopping by the end of October. Then November is decorating and Christmas cards, and December will be for relaxing and baking in my *new* oven! Have I mentioned how much I love my oven??

Oooo yes ... don't forget that Monday starts the official Christmas-music-listening season for anyone interested ;) I come by my Christmas excitement honestly ... right, Mom?

Until next time ...

More Cupboards

Well, we finally finished some more cupboards, and have them attached to the wall. Oh ... ya, and more more thing .... we can now use our OVEN !!!!! mmmmm cookies mmmmmmm :-)

Tiling Tips

I think I've figured out the problem I described here with the tiles lifting up. I believe it happens when the mortar has a higher spot in the middle than on the corners. The lifting always started as a hollow sound when you knock on one corner. Sometimes when spreading the mortar a high ridge can form between two passes with the trowel (similar to when you're shoveling your driveway ...). Sometimes this ridge will hold a corner of the tile up. Now that I've figured out what was causing it I can hopefully prevent it in the future.

Other tips I've learned while laying around 750 sq. feet of tile (only 150 left to go!):

• Mix more mortar than you think ... mixing mortar is one of the most time-consuming aspects of laying the tile. I always kick myself when I only mix enough for 4 or 5 tiles.
  
• After you lay the tiles, try and go over the grout lines (that don't have grout yet) with a wet cloth to clean them out as much as possible before the mortar dries. This saves so much time if you're messy like me.
• A guy I met who is doing his apprenticeship to lay flooring of all types said the best way to know if the mortar is the right consistency is to lay a tile, lift it, and check the bottom of the tile. I think he said somewhere around 80% of the tile should have mortar stuck to it. The method I use now is: when I'm mixing it with the drill and the drill hole mostly retains its shape when I pull it out of the mortar I know it's about right.
• Pay more for the good gloves :) Pick a set of clothes to tile in and expect that you will throw them out when you're finished. Likewise with the rags.
• Make sure to change water often when grouting - it really does save time in the long run. I always go back to the start after grouting and just shape the grout lines and scrub off the harder grout on the top of the tiles. Then the next day I'll go for a second wash and start working on the haze.
• The best thing I've found for shaping grout lines is dollar store sponges :) The ones sold in the home improvement stores aren't flexible enough to get the grout lines right (or at least that's what I've found).
• A good score and snap saw is worth its weight in gold. I think tile nippers would have been helpful, but we don't have any.
  

Anyone else have any good tips for laying ceramic tile?

On Saturday I got all the tile behind the stairs laid (yay!). Last night I got it grouted and washed it once. Tomorrow night my goal is to wash it a second time and get the laminate finished to meet the tile. I can't wait until that's done!

Peter has been working on the pantry and oven cupboard. Despite running into several glitches (we won't talk about those ;) ) he's ready to bring it into the house. He's going to build the section over the fridge in place as well as attach the face frame to the boxes. It will be too hard to move after it's all together.

I'll try and get some pictures - I think we've done lots of flooring since the last ones.

The monster list ...

Big Items Left to Finish

• Urethane on stairs
• Hang drywall in third spare room
• Hang drywall in back closet
• Hang, paint and install doorknob on door to half-bath
• Crack-fill, prime, and paint third spare room and second spare room closet
• Crack-fill, prime, and paint master closet
• Crack-fill, prime, and paint back hallway
• Finish laying and grouting tile in kitchen
• Build and install pantry and oven cupboards
• Build and install upper cupboards
• Build and install shelves and drawers in kitchen cupboards and master vanity
• Build window returns
• Install trim throughout

This is just a reminder for myself about what our "short-list" looks like for the next couple of months. Anything not on this list is just gravy. Things like telephone jacks, cable jacks, fixing little things that aren't quite the way we want them...

90 Percent!

Just a quick post before work starts for the day :)

The assessor came out last week at the bank's request to get an update on what we had finished. We knew going in that we didn't have the 98% done that was needed in order to get our third and final draw of money. The assessor echoed that sentiment as she was leaving, which was fine.

When we got back from vacation on Monday there was a message on Peter's phone at work that she had set us at 90% complete and the bank was offering to release 2/3 of the remaining money. I'm so excited! It was totally unexpected but will be very nice to pay down the line of credit.

Other than that good news, things around the house have been moving very slowly. It doesn't look like we'll get to do much more until Saturday this week due to various commitments. Last week I tiled the rest of the entryway (yay!) - it's waiting for grout along with a small section of tiles by the stove. I guess I'd better get some more grout. I'm going to try and get those two sections grouted before Saturday and then spend Saturday laying the tile behind the stairs. Peter is working on the face frame for the pantry and oven cupboards - the unit looks so nice even without them!

Paint Transition

I ran across a question from someone on the www.houseblogs.net forums about a way to transition paint colours between two rooms that share a common wall. Since we dealt with this issue last fall I thought I'd post a few pictures of the "finished" product. Please disregard the mess - we're still spending more time building than we are organizing and it shows!

The door in the first two pictures is the same ... it's impossible to get the whole wall in one shot...




I

Frustration

We managed to put a good night's work into the house last night. We cut the bottoms off the two doors, Peter put the wall up, and I started to clean the mortar off the tiles in front of the wood stove.

I got about halfway done the tiles when I noticed that one of them was cracked ... very strange. I figured I'd have to take that tile up, remove the mortar, and retile it on the weekend. Well ... once I got that tile up I noticed that the tile next to it was loose ... this spiraled into 6 loose tiles and more on their way. Has anyone ever had this problem or have any ideas on what's causing this? We laid it in the late fall, when the concrete was cold and before we turned the radiant heat on. I thought maybe we weren't mixing the thinset properly. I found some places online that said if the thinset is too wet or dry this can happen (they sound hollow when you knock on them). However, I don't think I've changed anything and all the tiles I've laid recently have been fine. Anyway, we got the 6 tiles up, we're just going to grout over a few others that we should probably lift (I figure it's not much more work to take them up after grout than it is now), and we're really hoping the rest of the tiles are good and solidly stuck. Our other thought on why this happened is that we didn't grout it right away...

So ... I didn't quite get all the tiles cleaned and ready for grout, but that's ok, because I'll spend Saturday replacing the tiles we took up as well as laying some more in the entryway. I'll probably lay some more tiles on Monday and then grout everything on Tuesday.

Enjoy your long weekend all you NBers!

Weekly Schedule

I was reading back over some older posts and I am completely amazed at what we managed to accomplish in an evening. I think this was due in part to having a plan posted so that we had to be accountable if we decided to just sit on our butts and do nothing instead of what was on the list ...

So here is our plan for the next few days:

Thursday

1. Cut bottom off doors to master bath and office (they are too long now that the hardwood is in place). Hang doors
   
2. Clean mortar off tiles by stove. Get ready for grout.
3. Paint 1 coat on door to master bath.
4. Finish framing closet in back hall.
   

Saturday

1. Lay tiles we removed and some in entryway.
2. Hang remaining drywall in spare room and back hall. That's all for drywall - yay!
   
3. Cut remaining panels for pantry and oven cupboards.
4. Start putting together boxes for pantry and oven cupboards.
   

Monday

1. Lay more tile.
2. Put together boxes for pantry and oven cupboards.

Tuesday

1. Grout tile.
   
2. Work on face frames for pantry and oven cupboards.

I have purposely made these goals very attainable so we can feel a sense of accomplishment by actually completing our list ;) Maybe we'll even be able to exceed our expectations!

Back in the groove

After a few unproductive weeks, Peter and I are ready to get back in the groove of finishing up the house. I've noticed we tend to cycle like that and I think it's necessary for our sanity!

We did manage to finish up the hardwood last week (yippee!) and we also cut out some of the panels for the pantry and oven cupboards before we ran out of plywood. We have an order in for 3 more sheets that will hopefully come sometime this week. We took some time on Saturday to clean up the garage and move the remaining plywood from the kitchen to the garage.

This week our focus turns to tiling downstairs and finishing up the pantry and wall oven cupboards. If the wood doesn't arrive on time I may be able to convince Peter to do some crack-filling. We shall see ...

Tomorrow night I plan on cleaning off some of our tiles that were never grouted in the kitchen (they were hiding under the plywood). I think just getting the mortar off will take all night. We laid these tiles before we got into the habit of keeping it neat in order to avoid the painstaking hours cleaning the mortar off the tiles ;) Thursday night the plan is to actually grout those tiles, and then on Saturday I'll get back to laying tile in the entryway. We're on vacation next week and will have several full days to work on the house - look for progress pics!

Eye Candy

Getting the flooring laid in our bedroom has allowed me to see the potential for finishing this house someday - what a difference! I love how bright our room is.

Our schedule for this week is sort of up in the air, but the goal is to finish all the hardwood by Friday night. We only have one complete room and a few end rows in other rooms to finish.

As for after the hardwood is finished, our focus will turn to our next big project - finishing the flooring downstairs. Not one I'm looking forward to, but it is the last really large "quality of life" project we have to undertake.

While I'm tiling downstairs Peter is going to build a closet organizer for the closet in the office and then get to work building the pantry and oven cupboards for the kitchen.

One day at a time ...

Flooring pics :)

Here are some pictures of our work over the long weekend!

Let's be realistic ...

So ... now that all of you who have actually laid hardwood before have had a good laugh at the progress we expected to make during our first attempt at installation, we'll revise our goals to more closely model reality.

What actually happened on the weekend was we got almost 2 sides of the hallway (our hallway is shaped like a U) done, we painted the front wall in the hallway, and burned some scrap lumber.

So ... our new schedule looks like:

Tuesday: Peter - finish laying hardwood on first two sides of hallway along with a few rows into the office and guest room. Angela - teach a friend how to lay tile.

Wednesday: Worship team practice. Possibly lay some hardwood once we get home.

Thursday: Lay hardwood in guest room.

Friday: Lay hardwood in office (finish guest room first if not completed).

Saturday: Hang door in master bath. Lay hardwood in office. Lay remaining tile in master bath and laundry room (just a few tile - maybe 10 total).

Monday (yay - holiday!): Grout tiles laid on Saturday and tub surround. Lay hardwood on third side of hallway.

Hopefully this schedule is reasonable. I'll let you know ;)

The Finished Product!

Aren't they purty?

What a great night we had. As you can see below, Peter got started laying hardwood while I got the first coat of paint on the guest room.

I realized that we were getting much more done when I was posting our schedule every week, so here's our hopes for the week:

Friday: Lay hardwood in hall. Second coat on guest bedroom.
Paint coat on front wall in hallway.

Saturday: Lay hardwood in guest room. Second coat on
front wall in hallway. Clean up :)

Wednesday: Hang door to master bath. Lay remaining tiles in
laundry and master bath.

Thursday: Lay hardwood in office. Work on tiling downstairs.

Friday: Lay hardwood in hallway. Work on tiling downstairs.



Saturday: Lay hardwood in master bedroom. Work on tiling
downstairs.

Monday: Lay hardwood in master bedroom. Work on tiling
downstairs.