August 11, 2012

Below are some random pictures of finishing drywall.  

Carter and Carlee think the stilts that Kevin is wearing are pretty cool!

Carter's first lesson on spotting screws.

Carlee, Jay & Kevin on break.

Had to show my favorite rounded corner beads.  We did these in our place in Medford and I really loved them.  Not what they did back in the day, but I chose them anyway.

What this guy will do for me!  :-)

3rd coating

Tomorrow or Monday, we (meaning Jay) is planning on spraying.  Thanks to Kevin Friedel, who put aside this past week to help us out.  We can't thank him enough!!


The past couple of days I've been working on paint colors.  Thanks to Tracy Lang, who has been helping me make some decisions on that end.  I always seem to choose my "safe" earth-tone colors, so I needed somebody else's opinions.  It's nice to have fresh ideas.  Plus, I got an evening of going out to dinner and shopping without the kids...now that's REFRESHING!    

August 8, 2012

Day #3 of hanging drywall.  Kevin came to help out again and they were able to finish up hanging today.  Tomorrow, first coat!

Living Room (southeast room)

Living room ready for the first coat of mud.

Closet to the left

Upstairs hallway.  Don't mind the spots in the picture....it's actually from dust particles floating in the air.  We've had plenty of that lately.

Tomorrow they will be applying the first coat of mud.  Kevin is so graciously coming back again.  We'll have some exchanging of labor to do once him and Connie buy their house.  :-)  

Also today, Mark came in and did some more electrical work.  He updated our basement's wiring also.  It feels weird going down there and not having a switch where I'm used to.  It's just around the corner instead.  All of the switches feel so good!  I still can't get train myself to remember to turn the switch on in my bedroom.  I always go to the closet and turn the light on instead.  Hopefully soon I can remember to do that.  Well, it's been three years without one.....it's a little hard to get used to!  

Seeing the drywall mess reminds me of why Jay's business was called "All White Drywall".  It's white everywhere and we haven't even mudded yet!!

Time to start thinking about paint colors!

August 7, 2012

Indeed, we have the drywall!

Jay teaching David Ross how to stock the drywall in the house.  I think they both received quite a work out here. 

Before the drywall can be started, Jay needed to create the arch in between our current kitchen and the front entry.  This is how he did it:  nailed a few nails into the plywood and traced the arch.  I had him move the nails just a few times to my liking, because I wanted it "just right".  It was well worth it too.  So glad I had him do this!

Here's just after the cut.

Ya hoo!!  There's our new arch!

Jay's cousin, Kevin Friedel, helping out again.  This time to help hang the drywall.  He's probably happier doing this than tearing out that chimney!

Trying to level out the joists to make certain our ceilings don't bow.

All the ceilings were hung yesterday.

How pretty!

Inspector Gadget making sure it's all going to be alright.

Upstairs ceiling hung.

Day #2 of hanging drywall.  WE HAVE WALLS!!

I think the drywall dust is getting to him already.  

Blows me away, how different this is looking!

Office

Downstairs bathroom. (No this is not painted, it's the drywall.)  Carlee thought I painted it....lol  

Upstairs bathroom

Well, that's about it for now.  I really feel like things are taking shape here.  I'm still hoping for a running toilet in here by Carter's birthday, but  I think we're running out of time for that.  Not sure...what do you think Chris??  That might not be so much the problem as much as getting our bathroom door in time, that hasn't been ordered yet.  (Jay has said for two days now that he will contact Norb and it's just been a phone tag game right now.  Norb will probably read it on here before they actually talk!)  Next is the taping and finishing.  I think I'll have to spot screws very soon.  That's about all I know how to do when it comes to drywall....lol  After that comes the flooring!  

I believe we have officially worn Carter out of the camper.  It's been "the place to be" since he's been out of school for the summer.  Last week we decided to sleep in the house for a change, and now everyone is preferring to stay in the house, even with the mess.  I think the kids really missed sleeping in their own beds....can't blame them....so did I!

Has to Get Worse Before it Gets Better!

May 2012

I decided to tackle the "storage room" myself. (I'm not sure what everyone else called this room, but we stored bins of everything and anything in here.)  This is the room we are in the process of turning into the upstairs bathroom/laundry room.
Here is a picture with just one wall of plaster removed.  That next morning, I was lifting Carlee up into the wagon and I felt a terrible pain from my neck (just behind the ear) all the way down to the front of my collar bone.  Very, very painful for about a week.  

Meanwhile, Jay decided to get his cousin, Kevin Friedel, in here to finish up the job. At this point, Kevin and Dave Fitzl (Kevin's helper) helped out tremendously.  They even tore out the chimney from top to bottom and patched the opening on the roof.  What a dirty, messy job that was!  Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of this.  Kevin and Dave also gutted the entire hallway upstairs as well as finish gutting the southeast and northeast rooms on main level, which still had lath on the exterior walls.  All of the exterior walls required a saw to remove all the lath.  It was like cement!

Gutted out southeast room. (That stair way railing was just temporary for the kids....Jay even sanded it off so no one would get any splinters from the wood.  What a good daddy.)

This is the northeast room on the main level.  Once finished, will become the office.

Picture taken from the front entrance.  Look how open it is!  Lovin' it!

Obviously, a picture taken going up the stairs.  Can see how EVERYTHING is gutted.

Jay just cleaning up the soon-to-be bathroom space.

Future bathroom/laundry room.

This picture taken at the top of the stairs is looking towards Carlee's room (northeast room).  I don't think I mentioned this in an earlier post, but there were two closets, one for each room (northeast and southeast rooms), that were located just where you see the floor ripped up (in front of the wall straight ahead).  Those closets were removed in January 2011 to extend the hallway and open it up just a bit more.

This picture looks towards the west.  You can see where the rounded wall was on the left side of the picture, according to how the floor is ripped up.

I can't believe how long it took us to change this mailbox.  I'm sure it was nice in it's day, but it's definitely seen better days. Don't ya think?


Old Mailbox 

New Mailbox
I took these two pictures yesterday, realizing I didn't take any yet.  Although, the mailbox was finally replaced right around Memorial Day this year.  What a nice job Tom Pietrowski at Rib Falls Fabrication did with the post.  Doesn't it look great?

So, in a nutshell, this is what was accomplished last month.  


I'm starting to catch up......