BUSY day!

Today is crazy at the house.  I had a tennis match this morning and when I got back to the house around 11am it was full of people.  This is definitely a good thing!  At one point we had Michael & Jason, tile guys, painters, granite guys, electrician, and window guys all at the same time.

 

  

The cabinet guys are still a no-show.  They have been holding us up for weeks now.  It's very frustrating.  Every time I'm outside rinsing out a pot with the hose I am silently cursing the cabinet guys (I've been trying to work on any type of cussing for Lent but does it count when you do it in your head??).  We can't hook up the kitchen sink until the granite is set and we couldn't template the granite until the cabinet guys set the end panel to the fridge (which they did on Wed. which is why the granite guys are here today doing the template).  But my painters are here today and will be back tomorrow but they can't paint the cabinets until they are installed by my no-show cabinet guys.   ARRGGH!!

On a positive note, my ever faithful plumber, Terry, was here today and it looks like I may be able to take my long anticipated bath in my claw-foot tub!!  woot! woot!

We finally have a surround to our fireplace!  Things are starting to come together!

 The majority of the house is now painted, including the foyer!

 Mudroom is certainly coming together.  Notice the space not painted?  Yep, waiting on the cabinet guys to put in our built-in cubbies.

I got the feeling from my parents that they were sad by all my negative posts about the house.  (think back to rotted wood, rusted-out electrical boxes, leaking doors and showers, etc.)  I tried to explain this is a blog about the "hardships" of renovating as well as the joys.  So the majority of this post has been about the joys.  Here's one negative: ANTS!  Two of the windows the guys replaced today were full of ants.  GROSS!  (sorry mom and dad - love you and LOVE the house but had to put this picture in here)

A Quorum

We have a quorum! There is nothing better (during a renovation) than looking out my new window at 9am and seeing several work trucks. It tells me work is being done today and we are that much closer to being done!!

 Here's how I spend most of my spare time...removing wallpaper.  I've become quite the expert!  It just takes a ton of time and a LOT of patience.  It's actually become therapeutic for me - I get the music turned on and with each piece going in the garbage I see progress.  We are keeping some of my mom's wallpaper - in the dining room and half bath.  But the rest is coming down - and it's my job to do it!

 Yesterday they moved my tub into the bathroom to dry-fit the pipes.  This took 3 guys to do and I'm sure their backs are hurting this morning.  I'm so excited to see that it fits well (good thing b/c I don't think the company I bought from in Canada takes returns....plus I can't imagine the shipping cost for this).  It was exciting to see it in there - although now it's on the back deck serving as a large birdbath until such time as it makes it's final move.

 The guys came to remove our granite on Wednesday.  We are keeping the granite but it needs to be re-cut to accommodate my farmhouse sink.  The 2 gentlemen pictured below were in rapid-fire Spanish as to how to move this nearly 300lb slab.  Finally I asked if they wanted me to get Michael and Jason from off the roof (where they were fixing the rotted wood of our dormer windows).  "Yes, Please!" was their response.  So 4 men were able to move it to the truck.  Good thing Jason and Mike were here!

 No kitchen sink makes for an added inconvenience.  Luckily we still  have a sink in the half bath that works (although not right now because the plumber has the water turned off).

I came up with the ingenious idea of using one of our old doors as a counter top.  It fits perfectly and even has the added ornamentation of a door handle.  I'm thinking this door counter-thing may take off and be the next hot thing!

When Helen saw we had no counter top this is what she said:

Helen:  Mommy, where'd the table go

Me:  It's called a counter top and we are getting a new one

Helen:  Are we getting a batman one or a princess one?

Me:  Umm...neither.

Though my parents built this house out of mahogany (which is a super strong hardwood), we've decided to go back with hardi-plank on the dormers because they are along the roof and are constantly exposed to water.  Although you can't tell in this picture, the new boards are not touching the roof line.  There is also flashing running underneath it.  Hopefully we won't have anymore issues with rotting wood here.

 This is what all the boards looked like - rotten.  None of the boards were sealed on the ends that had been cut and were exposed to water.

A smidge of progress...

Well, there's been a smidge of progress this week.  The most exciting thing (for me anyway) is my rustic wall in our new mud room.  These boards came from an oak tree that fell in Jiggy's pasture (our beloved horse that passed away when I was in college) many years ago.  My dad had a guy come out and plane out the boards.  They've been sitting in the basement ever since.  So I had Michael and Jason (our handymen) put them on the wall.  LOVE it!  He made the window sill wide enough for my future herb garden.

 The plumber has been here too.  I thought it would be so easy to move the laundry to a half bath.  Sure, why not?  There's already water lines in the wall...piece of cake!  Well, there's also water lines for the two sinks to the master on the other side in the same wall (which makes limited room for the lines for my washer).  Somehow Terry the Plumber made it work.  Also, moving the laundry involved running a new dryer vent to the outside, widening the doors to the bathroom to fit the washer/dryer, and moving/installing appropriate electrical.  I hope having my mudroom was worth all this effort (and expense!!)

 Michael and Jason also added trim work to the master ceiling.  We are having it painted white but you can get the idea from the picture below.  This is nice because the trim pieces cover up all the dry-wall tape that was peeling at all the seams in the ceiling. 

I thought I'd throw in a picture of our "dining" table.  It's an outdoor table covered with a blanket.  This is where jamey and i have our meals.  the kids sit at the island in the kitchen.  Notice the fireplace with the ripped out marble surround...nice.

Junkyard Dawgs

It's a good thing we don't have neighbors close by, or covenants for that matter. This place looks like a total junkyard! I know it's driving Jamey a little nuts to have things in such disarray. He's a bit of a neat freak and likes for everything to be in it's place and looking nice. Well, it certainly isn't looking nice right now.  You know things are bad when there's a toilet and a dumpster in your front yard.

My tub arrived on Friday and there it sits on the front side walk...all 440 pounds of it.  Yes, it's cast iron.  Next time I get 4 guys at the house at the same time, maybe it can make it's way onto the front porch.  Which brings up the ginormous mirror already residing on my front porch.  What does one do with such a huge mirror?  Maybe I'll stick it on craigslist for free.  That worked really well for my parents' old piano.

Our garage is serving as our staging area.  It's pretty empty now but come Monday we receive our doors and windows order.  Should fill up nicely.  I'm super excited about our farm house sink which is in the big box below.  Hopefully it will make it's way into the kitchen soon.