Quick Pic of the Exterior

Lots of Action. Little Blog

There is a lot going on, but I didn't really realize it.  Doors, trim, paint, sunroom, and stone...oh my. Following the drywall, window and door trim was installed and then the upstairs walls were painted.

The foyer gets a light blue.

Master Bedroom - Brown-Grey

Julie's Frog Green

Valerie's room gets a lavender treatment

The sunroom finally came down.  The new framing and roof is in place.  We want to use a wall as the railing, but don't want to block the view.  We are still kicking around ideas on how to do this.

All that is left is the tile.

From the path

From the neighbors.

With the sunroom going up, they should be able to finish the exterior of the house.  The stone veneer went up on the columns.

This week will be tough as they will be scraping the popcorn ceiling down and smoothing it out.  The wood floors are scheduled to be refinished this Thursday.  Both of these will make a big mess.  The wood flooring will force us all into the basement for 2 days without access to the other levels.  No oven, refrigerator, and only 1 bathroom.

The floor install for the foyer and upstairs bathrooms are also scheduled for this week.  Once the bathroom floors are in, we can get the vanities in and get the countertops measured.

Where did this dust come from???

Well, actually I do know where it came from.  The drywall is up and sanded.  Despite putting plastic up, the drywall dust has settled on everything.  The good news is that we're on the downside of the mess (if you don't count refinishing the wood floors). 

Foyer

Stairwell

Hallway looking towards girls' bedrooms.

Val's Bedroom

Master Bedroom

With the drywall up, the kitchen cabinets went back up.  We added a kneewall in the kitchen to open up the space more.  When you come in the front door, you can see out the back door towards the lake.  We might have power and an oven by this weekend.

Looking from front door over kneewall out back door.

The old bedroom door, now closed off.

Kitchen with cabinets up.

These Are The Times That Try Men's Souls - The Kitchen

The big move, i.e. the kitchen, began on Oct 27, with the plumber tearing down walls and ceilings to locate the pipes to the old kitchen and locating pipes for the new.

Where's that pipe? (Small bedroom)

Here it is. (Basement)

Once the piping was in, the cabinets were removed.

and the wall was removed.

Julie's last dance in her old room.

The electricians were next and they encountered a mass of spaghetti that required all of the drywall to come down.

Some people have asked whether we are living in the house.  Yes we are.  This certainly brings a family closer together, but NO kitchen for a 2nd weekend.  What a Paine?

Sleeping in the basement. The ceiling that was torn down for the plumbing is to the left.

Our Living Room and Kitchen

Insulation & Chimneys

We have had about a 1 week delay waiting for a mechanical permit.  Before the delay we got most of the insulation in and the chimneys got extended.  I also had a request for a current shot of the front and back.

I think the bricklayer did a good job matching the existing brick and they also added a little pizazz to the top.

We have most of the insulation in.  The walls and dormer ceilings are all done.  Flat ceiling areas will be blown in after the drywall is installed.  We needed the mechanical permit and inspection before putting up drywall.  The permit and inspection is all taken care of, so drywall begins tomorrow.

Val's Dormer

We have a really nice view out of our Master Bedroom window overlooking the lake.

Next...where did the kitchen go?

Our Own "Chilean" Rescue

I was planning to get caught up much earlier this evening, but I got sidetracked with our very own "Chilean" rescue.  Ellie and Valerie were talking in the kitchen when they heard a faint "meow".  Yep, our big fat cat, Clara Belle, obviously got freaked out, ran up the new stairs, down into one of the holes cut out for the plumbing runs, and limboed underneath 2 of the floor joists to get herself stuck in the ceiling.  After searching for at least 30 minutes and finally determining she was in the ceiling, I was forced to cut a hole in the kitchen ceiling.  It was either the ceiling or the floor and I think a circular saw would have really freaked her out. It took quite a bit of coaxing to get her down as she is a fraidy cat.  It wasn't carried live on CNN, but we have a few pictures. 

On the house front, we did get the roof on late last week and place all of the metal posts that are a major part in holding all of this up on Monday.

Four metal posts in basement.

Metal posts main floor.

Also on Monday, the picture window was replaced with a new one to match the style of the house.

Don't worry, the black shutters are going to go.

We picked the carpet for the upstairs, a surprise for the runner for the stairs, and narrowed down our flooring selection for the foyer.  We had a very good experience with Bo-Bud's flooring contractor, Saeed, from Capital Commercial Flooring.

Windows & Doors Are In

As I said earlier, the windows were delivered on Tuesday.  The windows for the new parts of the house went in today along with a door that magically appeared today.

The windows are dark green exterior clad.

Master Bedroom looking towards the lake.

Val's window looking toward the street from the dormer.

I guess we need to pick out some hardware.

In other news, the stained glass window was redelivered today after showing up damaged the 1st time.  The folks at StainedGlassWindows.com (http://www.stainedglasswindows.com/index.php) did a great job with the design and repair.  A big thanks to Rae, Dan, and Tom.  Quality work and great customer service.

Stained glass from inside foyer. Outside currently protected (see 1st picture for location).