LET THERE BE LIGHT!

I was able to go home last night and use a light switch to get actual lights upstairs (well, in all but 2 rooms). No more LED headlamps and single-bulb lamps run off of a 75' extension cord. Yay.

I have an incredibly patient wife

Saturday we began phase 2 of the house project which involved combining two rooms from the first floor into a new master bedroom "suite". We didn't go overboard and tie it into the bathroom, but the doors to the bed and bathrooms are literally 3 feet apart so it isn't really necessary. Going into Friday night the rooms weren't even empty enough for us to think about cutting through a wall and framing in new closet space. By Saturday morning at about 8:30 a.m. we were cutting through the wall. We ran into some minor re-wiring issues which held us up, but we did manage to get everything framed and cleaned up by around dinner time. Still, we have slept in a construction zone with open framing the last two nights. Dad is hanging sheet rock today and the plasterer is coming tomorrow so we're working fast to get it back together. Paint will be held up a bit by the amount of stuff that's still in the rooms, but I'll find a way to work around it even if I'm painting one wall at a time.

Upstairs painting is nearly complete also. One more room to finish before the carpeters show up. No ETA on that yet, but I'm going to try and finish painting by tomorrow just to be sure.

Still no pictures downloaded... sorry folks. Just keeping up with the work has been bad enough. I'll get them all up eventually.

Pro Painting Tip

Picked this one up from the real painters working on my house: Paint the hinge edge of a door the color of the outside space (hallway for instance) and paint the latch edge of the door the color of the inside space (bedroom for instance). That way when the door is open, you see the same color as whichever side you're standing on.

Oh, and always take the time to do good prep work... casings that appear seamless look so much better.

I'm down to just needing to paint the walls in 2 smallish rooms and 1 largish closet. My work on the ceilings, trim, and bathroom are done. Still no time to stop and take or load pictures... trust me it looks great :) I'll get some soon.

All work, no show

This weekend I traded off documenting the work status for contributing to the progress. I had signed up for some of the finish work to save some money and here we are at the finish work stages. So as not to be the gating factor on my own project, I figured I better get to work. Between the real painters and myself, here's where we stand:

Outside - 95% done (couple of touch-ups)
New bathroom - done except baseboards which won't be installed until after tile
Tim's room - 1 coat complete
Max's room - 1 coat plus edges of second coat complete
Sam's room - edging for first coat done
Doors - done, both sides
Trim in hallway - done
Ceilings - done
Spare rooms - trim first coat done

A lot of this is changing at this very second and I expect most of the pro work to be done today. I'll probably be up late tonight doing my part. Electrician should also be there now and we are likely to have lights up pretty much as soon as the paint is dry. Carpet and tile are selected and that order should go in today. We're really getting down to the bits and pieces... cross your fingers for us.

Color by numbers

I sort of did have to create a color-by-numbers map of the inside because we have multiple colors involved. In any case, the painters are hard at work and the exterior is very close to done. I'm pretty sure interior work was starting today. I have a couple of pics of the outside in progress and I should be able to get one tonight of it completed (I hope) and maybe some of the inside. There could still be a delay in loading/posting them. Things continue to come together quickly. Lots of details still to work out.

Sneak Peek

Snapped a couple of quick shots tonight of the interior progress. Enjoy.

From Busting at the Seams

From Busting at the Seams

Please someone, knock on something

Things continue to go almost too well. All the interior doors are installed and all the window and door trim is complete. The plasterer is supposed to come back today to touch up anything that needs it and the painter is scheduled to start next week. The boys have picked out/been assigned their rooms and got to pick their own colors so they're excited. We still have a list of things to pick out and we're going to try to knock some of it off tonight. If I get lucky I'll have a few minutes to throw up a few interior pics with all the doors and trim done. If this continues, the boys will be trashing the new part of the house in no time.



Oh, and as a side note, all the feedback from the neighbors is great. Fortunately we didn't manage to piss off anyone by putting up some overwhelming monstrosity that they hated. Last step is to see if they approve of our color choices for outside :) Don't worry, we didn't do anything crazy so the odds of that are low.

Just a few recent pics

The chaos of the house and life in general is keeping me from updating everyone on the house and life in general. Here's just a few recent shots to hold you over. I'll link to an entire album at some point.

Finish work starts this week. Doors and door/window casings are here and ready. Paint colors are being selected. The vanity was picked out today. Hopefully the momentum can continue.

From Busting at the Seams

From Busting at the Seams

From Busting at the Seams

From Busting at the Seams