The One Without Carpet

The very first time I saw the house it had this carpet:

Jim ripped out all of the carpet in the house
to reveal these lovely wood floors:

And now they are being sanded and will look beautiful soon:

Funny story about the guy who is refinishing the wood floors, Little Eugene who works with Alex. I guess he's called that because the plumber's name is also Eugene and he's super tall, because Little Eugene is not a little dude. Anyway, Little Eugene was at the house during the framing stage and he was there when the windows were installed and now he's my floor finisher. He's always super hard at work and I've never so much as heard him say a single word, so I assume he doesn't speak very much English since most of these guys are from the Ukraine and their English is a bit spotty. One night after work I went home to drop off my stuff and I went through the back fence, as usual, which puts you behind the garage of the new place. I get about three steps in and realize there is a construction worker peeing right there behind my garage! So I turned around startled and said I was sorry and Little Eugene says to me in perfectly clear English, "I'm sorry for watering your garage." So I replied, "No, I'm sorry for not having a bathroom for you to use." All while he's still peeing. And we're dialoging about the peeing. Needless to say, he doesn't even make eye contact now.

The One With the Butcher Block

So, there is this family that lives just a few blocks over from us whom I adore. I'm always welcomed, even when I drop in unannounced, which is one of my favorite things. They are super encouraging, fun to hang out with, and have a couple of the cutest kids on the planet. Plus, they feed me delicious food and I, in turn, like to feed their children sugar, and the kids like to come over and feed Louie (my fish). I'm so glad we get to stay in the neighborhood and they will always be just a few streets away. Caleb has all these crazy carpenter skills tucked away and offered to install my butcher block kitchen counters. Look at how beautiful they are! I love them with an everlasting love.

The One With Color

All of the walls are painted! Thanks to wonderful friends and their paint skillz once again. (This house is a community house already - it's taking a village to put it together!) We even painted the concrete floors in the basement. We did a lot of prep work Friday night: sweeping, vacuuming, mopping. It was previously painted with oil-based paint, so we had to put the same on again - and boy does that stuff stink! It was like spreading glue on the floor, but it went quickly. I started cutting the edges and Molly rolled. My co-worker, Heidi, joined us in the smelly basement and soon enough Jeanne joined in the fun. Everyone wanted in on the paint fumes! No pictures since we can't walk on it for 48 hours, but you'll have to trust me that the floor looks like a gigantic swimming pool full of chocolate pudding. I hope they turn out well... the suspense is killing me!

Betsy's room is pretty wild and we decided it's the color of a J. Crew sweater.


And then there is the living room. Electric! But I like it a lot!



We still have doors and window frames to paint in the basement, plus both stairways and the doors of the main floor. Oh, and the cabinets. But the house just looks so much more livable with a fresh, clean coat of paint on the walls. I love it!

The wood floors are going to be started tomorrow. I can hardly wait to see how they turn out!

The One With the Tile

Bathroom tile is complete - YAY!

The One With No Time

I just want to throw up a couple of quick photos for y'all. No time to write... lots of work to do!
Basement family room painted in a soft seashell color. All of the main living spaces are painted with recycled Metro Paint.

Laundry Room

Molly's Bedroom

Lindsay's Bedroom

Dining Room (my favorite!)

The One With Paint

Another long day of painting! Dad and I each spent 27 hours at the house this weekend. That's 54 hours of labor, not counting the many people who came to help. That's insane. I need to go to work just to get a break! I wish I had pictures to post, but it was dark when we finished, so no pictures. But it's nice to finally see some color on the walls!

Sara came back this morning to paint ceilings. And my co-worker, Tammi, the self-proclaimed professional edge painter, worked all morning, too. After lunch we had Bob and Leah drop by to paint the family room. Molly and Betsy tackled a bedroom while Dad and I did the other. Then we had to get more paint for the bedroom colors, but Betsy finished off the basement by painting the laundry space "sweet corn" yellow while we got paint. We also got a coat of paint on the attic ceiling, which is no easy task over the perilous stairway.

I'm so thankful for everyone who came to the house this weekend. We got so much accomplished! Woohoo!

The One With All the Primer

My dad flew in yesterday. He's here to help with the enormous task of priming and painting EVERY ROOM IN THE HOUSE. INCLUDING THE CEILINGS. It started out very slow this morning with prep work and getting everyone's stuff labeled (I'm lucky enough to have friends and co-workers loan me their tools so I don't have to buy them!). Plus it was just Daddy and me, and I was beginning to wonder if it was going to be the two of us all day.

Thankfully, a couple of future occupants of the lovely new basement, Molly and Sara, came to work. Even K-Ro stopped by for a couple hours of painting fun! We primered our little brains out! And tomorrow I'll be even more especially thankful that Jeanne came to paint... she got her second wind after dinner and pushed us all to primer the living room after we tackled the dining room. We got so much accomplished. The attic and entire basement are primed. I can hardly believe it.

The One Where I Want to Quit

The drywall crew came on Saturday and put up all of the sheetrock in one day. I couldn't believe it! They finished today, so we're going to start cleaning tomorrow and we will be ready to start the primer on Saturday.


Look at how great the wall turned out between the kitchen and living room. I couldn't be happier! I absolutely love this new wall. Jim, the son-in-law of the woman who lived here previously, came by to take a look this weekend and he really liked the new wall, too. He couldn't believe how much work we've gotten done in just three weeks.


These cabinets are going to be the death of me. We've been sanding, sanding, sanding, sanding and I'm ready to give up. Unfortunately, I don't have the money to give up, so these are the cabinets we're living with, but I'm really tired of sanding.


Notice we took down the paneling that was on the soffit. There is a gaping hole next to the fan. Kinda wish we hadn't taken that awful paneling down just so we didn't have to deal with one more thing (but don't tell anyone I said that).

Have I mentioned that I'm tired? Because I. AM. TIRED. I really want to be done. Everyone keeps reminding me that there are only three more weeks left. Which seemed great until I realized it's only been three weeks and it seems like seven... I still have that much more to go? And I'm exhausted, so I have three more weeks to go after being into it three weeks. I'm cranky and fighting back the tears every other minute and I don't want to make any more decisions. Ever again. And I want to be able to garden and actually make meals again and maybe catch up on laundry or see a movie.

And then I think of these kids. Geez! I need a little perspective.
(And some sleep.)

They live in such a different world. I miss them.

The One With the Change

I made one minor little change when I found a light fixture I wanted in the main bathroom. I asked Alex if it was a big deal since it would be one box overhead instead of two on the side (which had already been put in place). He said it was no problem.

But the problem was that we were in the basement when I asked him about it, and we walked into the bathroom so I could show him what I meant. I repeated a few times that I didn't mean the basement bathroom. Only the main floor bathroom would be changed. I bought the light and put the box in the main bathroom, just so it would be super clear that I wanted that fixture changed.

I came home to the basement bathroom being changed and not the main bathroom. Ugh! Something so simple has turned into a pain and I feel really bad about it. But the light is so perfect for the main bath! And the others were perfect for the basement! I'm totally being a brat about it, but I really want it the way I want it. Just wish I had seen that darn light fixture before they started the electrical. Oh well.



Today was insulation and setting the windows in place. The insulation wasn't completed like it was supposed to be because the truck that does the blown didn't show. Hopefully they get it worked out before the inspection tomorrow.

The One With All the Work

Looking from the basement through the new egress window.


Concrete window wells for the two basement bedrooms.


Plumbing!


Basement shower pan.


Wiring in the kitchen wall where the range will live.


Electrical panel in the basement laundry area.


Patching to fill in some of the major imperfections
of the siding before painting.


French drain that Scott is putting in around the perimeter of the house.