My Adventures Where in the world is ….

Well we are really beginning to see the end – at least for the contractor – there is still a lot of work ahead for us – a great deal of painting (living room, dining room, hall and stairs walls and all the trim throughout the upstairs), staining our new railing, and general put it all back together stuff.  Before we can paint Dad has to lift the heater coil/pipe up so the carpet will fit under it (the carpet is our almost last step in all this – the front porch fix up being the very last).  We also have some fix up stuff to do.  Dad has been busy early mornings and evenings finishing the install of our new hose for our water softener and cleaning up the garage and getting the front porch railing ready to go into the dumpster before it leaves on Friday.  He had to cup up the old railing from inside as well so it would fit easily into the dumpster.  So much to do!

First some pictures of what we have been living with.  When Dad finished with the attic we brought down all the wood he had been using to lay on while he installed the baffles – it sat in the hallway for several days.  One night I came out of our room to get a drink and jammed my toe (the one I broke last summer) into the wood – I was more careful after that.  It doesn’t show here that I also had to step over it to get into my room.  Also here are some pictures of how we are living right now – not such a pretty picture.

Dad’s wall is beautiful – it is amazing what a careful and knowledgeable person can accomplish.  It is so smooth and even – a masterpiece for sure.

So on Wednesday, May 23rd our tile was put in and we really like it a lot.  The tile guys really liked it as well.

Thought you might also like to see what our attic looks like now – almost empty!!!!

So on Tuesday of this week the railing guy came and started our railing.  It was a more involved process than he expected.  He had to find out why there was a bump – turns out the wood shrank over time but the wallboard supporting the edges did not.  So he had to cut back the wall board.  The floor is not perfect but is better than we had hoped.

 As you know Dad has the title of frugal king and it shows in our dumpster – you cannot even imagine how much stuff he has stuffed into crevices in the dumpster to get as much of our old junk in as possible.  To get our carpet in and to save on the charge of having the carpet guy take it out and haul it away, Dad measured the dumpster and cut the carpet into the exact size needed to be able to stack it in the dumpster – so that stack is all the carpet from our house except a few small pieces he saved to save his knees as he works on the heater coils.  Pretty amazing!

 So the deck is now finished and it is much nicer than we ever imagined.

Today when I came home this is the new railing that greeted me.  Notice the new hand railing to the basement as well.

So the outside of our house is almost all finished – just a few last details.  Tomorrow he will finish up inside and perhaps have a little to do on Friday.  We are truly happy with all that we have had done – it is now like a whole new house compared to what we moved into 26 years ago.  Wish we could have done some of this sooner but it is almost done now.

After being in a mess for so long it is great to see some real progress happening.  It has been moving all along but didn’t always feel that way.  Monday, Dad finished in the attic and even vacuumed it – it is cleaner than it has ever been but we were so tired we just went to bed and yesterday between visiting teaching and other things we didn’t move anything back up but hopefully we will do that tonight since I am staying home.

Yesterday we had rain all day but our contractor put in our new bay window anyway and today our tile was put in.  So here are some updated pictures to see.  The grout will be put in tomorrow (it is a sand color).

So now we actually have siding around our whole house and shutters on our bay window so here is how it looks right now!

We are definitely seeing progress now – but oh so many details to finish.

As you can see all the front windows are in except the living room.  The octagon over our door has been replaced with an energy efficient window and the siding is done on all sides and the back.  As soon as the living room window is replaced the siding will be completed also.  Then there is all the trim to put on inside.  We really like the look of this new siding.  Then they will also be adding the dark red shutters we have ordered.

It is hard to believe how much trash this has resulted in.  The contractor and Dad have been busy compacting wherever possible.  Also, we have stuffed corners with stuff from the attic.  Mostly I have been freecycling as much as I can (it is truly amazing how many people this our junk is a treasure).

Our new sun room is amazing.  On Friday the electrician came to do most of the installation.  The fan is beautiful but he has to return as he didn’t take notes and he didn’t do exactly what we wanted – we have rocker switches throughout our house (many of which he installed when he did the electric four years ago) but he didn’t put them on the porch even though we specifically requested them.  Also, we now have a light in our attic (on a switch – very cool) but he was supposed to put in two so both sides were lit.  Anyway, here is our new fan and you can see the bright color we chose for our sun room.  Also, we laid out some of the tile (to be installed this next week) so you can see how it looks – it will be much better when it is actually installed, and yes, we are putting it at an angle.

As with all our projects there is also a side project for Dad.  There has been a bump in the wall next to our front door since we moved it.  It was hidden for many years by the paneling but when the paneling came off it glared at us for years.  The man who is putting in our new wooden raining said it needed to be flat for his installation – so Dad is removing the wallboard and reinstalling it with flat wallboard.  So far we have no idea why it had the bump.

Other than the small details that need finishing and a lot of painting (the whole living room, dining room, hall and stairs), after the railing and all the painting is done we will be ready for new carpet.  We need to move all the attic stuff back up (and Dad is almost done up there so we can), and then we will move all our furniture out into our new sun room while the carpet is installed.  The new deck doesn’t have a railing or stairs yet but I know it will.  I think our contractor may be done in two weeks time (even with Memorial Day weekend in the middle of that time.  Then we need to finish painting (and that includes all eight of the new doors we finally have added).  We also need to paint around our front door (outside) and paint the front door and the garage doors (house and car).  Hopefully we will be done long before we head to Houston for the reunion in July.  When we come home I hope to just enjoy some summer vacation.

Well our renovations are going well.

The siding is mostly on all three sides.  The front will be done next week after the front bay window is put in.

Here are some pictures for you to see how it is coming.  We will also be adding dark red shutters on all the windows except the back and the new sun room.

Despite the fact that Dad has suggested that the he is liking the blue on the front, the gray looks so good.

Here is also a picture of the new windows in the dining room and in the computer room downstairs.

The day I came home and walked in the dining room with the new window it was amazing how light and airy it felt.

I love all the light we now have between the window and the sun room.

We put the first coat of paint on the sun room tonight (we primed last night).

Dad will put on the second coat tomorrow morning before starting work.

Our contractor will be working on the trim on the windows tomorrow.

The electrician will be coming on Friday to install our lighting, our electric outlets and our ceiling fan.

Next week the tile guy will hopefully be coming and our sun room will mostly be done.  We will still have to paint all the trim (but we might get that all done on Friday) and the doors, but mostly it will be done.

Next step will be to move all our living room into the sun room so we can rip out the rest of the carpet and paint there.  Our new railing will go in on the 28th (assuming we get the piano out before that).

I can finally see a light at the end of the tunnel here – but there is still more to do, if only putting our house back to right.

You can all then come and visit.