Day 85 -- The Dustbowl

I cannot believe how much dust there is around this place all the time. It doesn't matter how much I clean or if I mask off a room. There is dust everywhere. Today they started sanding the final coat of mud on the drywall on the main floor. They've decided not to finish the floors until after they finish painting and putting up the crown moulding and baseboards...a good idea, I think.





They also put the new tile hearth down today. Luckily, they were able to find the exact same tile that we used before. They could only find 18 in ones though, so I made them cut them down to 12. I know, I'm too picky. But it looks just like before. Remember, they had to rip up the tiles because the new hardwood floor was about 1/2 inch higher than our old hardwood.

They also ripped down the bricks that they put up over the door. They did this for two reasons: 1) they didn't do a great job in the first place. When you stood underneath it, it felt as if they were going to fall on you. 2) they needed to rewire the light to hang from the center of the overhang.

We're hoping for a better job the second go round.

Day 84 -- Opinion Poll: On The Ledge

Okay, we need some help here. Currently, we've got this ledge as you go downstairs. We can't get rid of the ledge because there are HVAC ducts running through it. I had originally envisioned the wall to go straight up at this point and not to have a ledge at all. They drywalled it like this and I'm not sure if I want them to change it. Just wondering what other people think. I'm sure you could put some sort of decorative stuff there...might be kinda cool. I know exactly what Brian is thinking..."I know what would be perfect there! A life sized bust of George Washington!" Let me just say no in advance. I'm just concerned whatever we put there would just collect dust.






The baseboards got delivered today for the main floor. Could it be that we're actually that close to putting this place back together? They want to get to a point where they can install them next week. I hope it all goes well enough for that to come to fruition.

Otherwise, the progress was more of the same today...more mudding on the main floor in preparation for refinishing the floors.

Day 83 -- A Long Day Of Drywalling

Yesterday, they were able to fix the electricity in the basement. They also put one coat of plaster over the posts in the walls. Today, the drywaller got here at around 7:30 this morning and worked until around 6:30. He put a second coat on the posts in the walls.
He also got all the drywall put up on the ceiling in the hall and started mudding that along with the mudroom area.
And finally, he got all the drywall hung in the kitchen area plus the ceiling downstairs....Like I said, he got a ton done! (He may have had help during the day, but I only saw one guy.) They want to be totally done with drywall -- final coat and sanding and all -- by Thursday. The plan is to put the first coat on the floors Friday. I can't wait!

Day 79 -- Now We're Really Camping

A few months ago, I mentioned that I thought that renovating was my camping. Now, I'm sure of it. When we came home tonight, we walked downstairs, flipped on the switch in the hall and.....nothing. Hmm...that's weird. They must have the breaker off since they were framing in the ceiling around the ducts. Nope. Breakers are all on. Oh, well, don't need that light anyway. Lets go in the TV room...flip....nothing. Oh great. The whole basement is without power. Darker than a sack of....um.....well, Dad, you know.

Izzypop, of course loves it. What kid doesn't? I remember as a kid I loved it when the power went out and we broke out the candles and played card games. Luckily, it was about time for bed anyway. Iz of course, loved the prayers by candle light. Now when the power goes out, it only reminds me how much I rely on it and how unnatural it seems without it. It feels like I'm missing my right arm. I find myself thinking: "Oh well, I'll just turn on a lamp and read a book...wait, no." and "Since the TV isn't working, I'll just plug in the mini DVD player...uh, no, not that either".
Even tonight, I booted up my computer thinking, "I've got enough battery to blog tonight." But alas, I logged on only to find that I couldn't connect to the internet because my modem is plugged into an outlet that doesn't work. D'oh!!! So how, you ask am I blogging now? Aha! The power is working on the main floor, so I've run the mega long heavy duty extension cord that the construction workers are using from there down to my TV room. Ahhhhhh.....sweet, sweet electricity. I feel much better now that I've got my fix.

Please excuse the quality of tonight's pictures...It's the best I could do in the dark with my crappy flash. Today, they framed in the ceiling and the plumbing that is running upstairs.

Day 77 -- Pick A Color, Any Color

Okay, so they've asked us to pick an exterior color. They gave us this. Now, I appreciate having a variety of choices, but when I say variety, I didn't mean the whole color spectrum. Well, we know we want some sort of tan color, so let's narrow it down that much.

This is only one of the several sections of "tan". Ugh. We went through several iterations of "this one is too yellow", "this one is too dark", "this one looks like poo", and "I can't even tell the difference between these two".

I took them outside in the sun and held them up against the house, trying to imagine what they would look like. In the sun, most of them looked exactly the same...which made me feel better. At least if I chose the wrong color, there was a good chance it would look like the right one anyway. We chose "Knott".







They were able to install the deck drain system today. There is a PVC pipe that runs from the corner of the balcony floor, through the floor joists under the master closet and out the south side of the house. I believe this pipe will run directly into the rain gutter.







They also did another coat of mud and put up the metal outside corner supports. I love the finished edge of the dormers. It's starting to look almost finished!....Almost.

Day 76 -- Construction Faeries

I haven't seen a construction worker in a few days now. They get here after I leave for work and are gone by the time I get home. It's starting to feel a bit like I have construction faeries that sneakily come and do work when I'm not around. Today the faeries finished the first coat of mud and tape on most of the upstairs. The only thing left, it looks, are the outer corners.

They must have brought some cleaning faeries with them, because the back patio was swept and organized. The balcony was also cleared off and swept clean. I cannot tell you how much I appreciate the little things like this. It's pretty hard living in chaos for any extended period of time. Just a little bit of cleanliness is such a relief! Now if I could just find myself some cobbler elves.

N.B. The comments expressed in this post are solely the ramblings of my brain and should in no way be taken as an attempt to question the manhood of anyone working on this house. :)

Day 75 -- More Demo?

I knew they were going to do this, but it's just so hard to see more demolition when I'm literally aching to see things starting to be finished. They tore down the ceiling in both the main floor hallway and the basement storage room because it was going to be harder for them to patch it than to redo the whole thing.


They also started mudding and taping the upstairs. They've still got a long way to go though.

Day 73 -- Whoa! Walls!

We stayed at grandma's last night so we didn't get to see the progress from yesterday until today. When we walked in the door, the first thing Izzypop (who just turned 3 a couple weeks ago) said was "Whoa! Walls!" I agree. The space does look a lot different now. It feels like we're getting close. Yesterday they got almost all of the drywall hung for the whole house. The upstairs is finished. Here's the master bedroom and bathroom: