Oh no - the end of May

Cleaned up the main floor today so the floor guy can just start in on Tuesday. I have to take photos of it as it is completely empty.

Steve tried to finish up the electrical in the kitchen now that we have the final draft of the design figured out.

We went to Jerry's (local Home Depot) and thought we would just "pick up" some can lighting for the basement as we'll start this project next week. Luckily, super knowledgeable Kim was there to help us out. Thirty minutes later, I am just beginning to understand most of what Kim keeps explaining to us. Who knew? Guess I have not paid enough attention to the intricacies of these things. We finally ended up buying a box of 8 and I also bought a few "samples" of the colors we have picked out. I'll try and get them up on the wall tomorrow.

Trees

Worked on the trees today with our friend Mike the arborist. Steve finished putting up the stairs this morning and they are great. A full to-code 6'6" of head room. Nicely done. Now he is back over there working on the electrical. Tomorrow we'll spend the day cleaning up and getting everything off the floors. The floor guy is coming next week.

Cancer

Totally off the subject - but on my mind. To all you courageous people out there that are giving this disease a good fight - we love you and think of you every day.

Part Deux

We had two guys at the house today installing the new windows. They aren't completely in, but mostly in - which is good because it will NOT stop raining. We already have had twice the avg rainfall for May. Luckily we did have a few hours rain free - so the guys weren't soaked. I like them (the windows and not the installers) - one is smaller than the original to accomodate the counter and one is larger (over the sink) and I think they make it quite nice. We used Integrity windows by Marvin which are a recycled material that can still be painted. They are double hung like the originals - but, unfortuantely, don't look old. The other sad thing is that the old windows were cracked and broken when they were taken out.

Steve spent the whole day taking the stairs down. He got them down and the landing cut back. They are sitting on the floor and hopefully will get put back up tomorrow. (Right now he is getting a back massage from the kids so he can go back over and work some more.)

I worked on paint colors today and think I have them all. Because of the "openness" of the house I think we will have the same color in the living, dining and kitchen. Hope it is not too boring but a 40s house is hard to find inspiration for while keeping a feel of the 40s without being too "kitchy" (unless you go contemporary). Who knows, color is sooo hard.

Windows & Stairs

This weekend was a non-working weekend. Steve was at the hospital (a lot) and my dad and Terry were in town. We had ballet performances and brunch and birthday parties instead. Steve and I started prepping today to put in the new kitchen windows and to move the stairs back about 10 inches. The stairs have to be moved because they were built for very short people and I even have to bend my head sideways to get down. It shouldn't be as involved as it sounds but we did have to demo this hodge-podge closet-ey thing that was built up against the stairs. Not at all sorry to see it go, but the people we bought the house from thought it was very charming, so I feel a bit guilty. I will show the updates tomorrow. Also, the rain will not stop and it is killing me!

Plaster & Elec. Photos

Here are some photos to show how nice the plaster and electrical are looking. These are all the skim-coated walls and the kitchen electrical.

Wednesday

I finished the wallpaper walls! All the walls are now ready to be plastered. So many small steps that seem so minor yet hold up each progessive step. Steve is over there doing more wiring. If you can just imagine him over there with a textbook and printouts from the internet on wiring.

End of the day

Steve is still over at the house putting up the kitchen lights. He has them all rewired and tricked out in a new three-switch panel. Very impressive. He has worked on this all day - again. I spent the day finding lights and looking at cabinets and talking to the cabinet guy. The only other thing, and I will have to post a photo tomorrow, is that while I was talking with the cabinet guy the kids decided to open a window in the bedroom and crawl out. Usually not a big deal, but this is the window on the wall that was just skim-coated with plaster yesterday. Now it is all messed up AND muddy from those shoes that have been playing in the garden. Hope that guy can fix it.

Chicken update

So, the only other thing that happened yesterday was that I had to spend some time shoring up the coop. On the chicks second night out, a tenacious raccoon spent much of the night trying to chew the door off. I did not know this about raccoons and all I can think about is how terrifying this must have been. Doesn't look like he came back last night though. I wonder if we are doomed to be bird-less.

Plaster miracle

So the plaster walls have caused so much heartache. Seems nobody knows how to fix them anymore - I found two guys who are retired and didn't want to come out of retirement to help me. But the walls are in such bad shape that a painter said he wouldn't paint over them. I then researched and researched and figured the way to repair them is to buy several grades of white quartz sand and mix it into a plaster type material and then try to mix them to the consistency of the texture on our walls. Sounded like a surefire recipe for a terrible day. So, this guy who works for the company that helped us put in the new door is one of the few left in town that does this kind of work. He is going to skim-coat the entire bedroom that was wallpapered since there is so much damage. It only took him about 45 minutes to do one wall! It is funny how the things that you don't anticipate to be a problem can turn into the worst of the bunch. Pretty happy about it all.

Steve is still doing electrical work and trying not to drink too much Ninkasi while he is at it. He took this photo the other day when he was on break.

Sunday

Now that the weather has improved I don't think that any of us are still having thoughts of hating the new house. The sun really does do wonders. Steve worked both days this weekend but was able to put in several hours working on the electrical. He has to puzzle out how and why things were done originally and then how to update it without tearing too much of the wall down. Slow work but pretty cool. I am STILL working on the lasting effects of the wallpaper. Glue. I smell like vinegar and have lots of dots of glue balls in my hair that resemble lice. I also get to attack a tremendously overgrown plant once in awhile with the "lobsters" as Donovan likes to call the loppers. Steve has the next two days off.

Day 45

The Furnace is done! After all this time the van finally drove away. What an ordeal - and on such a beautiful day who cares about heating? It is not as cute and little as I had hoped, but it is out of the way and is updated and should be very very efficient.

This week saw Steve working on the electrical and a guy plaster in all the damage we have done so far.

Today was a glorious glorious day and so I am adding some photos from the yard. We also plan on letting the new chicks spend their first night in the coop. Let us hope they are not pecked to death in the morning. I guess there really is a "pecking order."

Plan

Well, this day did not go according to plan. Will we move into a house with a kitchen or not? Hmmmm.

OK, so I will add a bit of backstory - but reluctantly since I am still so steamin' mad. While Steve was gone for 5 days, and for us to stay on-schedule, I had to hire someone to move a door. This meant cutting out the new area and framing it in. So, the dude showed up and started in to work. No matter how many times I went by to talk to him he never had any questions. So, this dude, decided that all the wiring in the wall (5 major circuits) were unimportant and so he cut them off as short as he could and then shoved them into the ceiling or wall or floor as far as he could. He then proceeded to frame in the door.

Therefore, Steve spent the entire day that was meant for other work, pulling out the new framing and tearing apart walls and floors and ceilings to find all these circuits. And I mean ALL day. Awesome. I wonder what this dude is gong to charge us?

Back from the weekend

OK, after a few glorious days off - we are back. Let's see what we can get done today.

Kitchen

So the world is revolving around the kitchen. Found a really great cabinet maker. The kids and I hung out with him in his workshop the other night and he dazzled us with the art of cabinetry. Who knew? I'd love to take some photos of his workshop - maybe next time. We have a door being moved so that we can commandeer more space in the kitchen. That should be done tomorrow. I am learning about windows (found out there are cheap windows and very very expensive windows!) because we have to replace the two in the kitchen. I hope we are getting a countertop made of maple from our friend Mike who is an arborist and the floor guy came by to do a quick once over of the kitchen to see if it could be salvaged. It looks like they will be beautiful fir floors except for two long cuts across it from when someone installed the linoleum back in the 40s. All in all, looking like it may come together.

Thought I would end by adding an image from Steve's day. Ahhhhh.

Slow May

We are stagnating a bit. There has been too much work and a birthday and a visit from my mom. Making some minor progress but not much to talk about. The only funny thing is that there was a man complaining to our old-timey neighbor that "those people who just built a fence have fenced in some wild turkeys!" Luckily, the old-timer is knowledgable about these birds and explained that these birds can fly 50 feet up into a tree to roost and so we probably didn't capture anything. Happy Birthday Steve!