Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Better Late Than Never

The spackle "crew" never showed up last Wednesday.  {Who is surprised?  Anyone??  Anyone??  Yea, me neither.}  Someone called out sick, but they promised to make the time up on Friday by brining in another man.  They claimed they'd have the whole house double-coated before the end of the day.  When the hubby and I arrived at the house on Saturday morning it was very clear that did not happen.  There was barely a speck of spackle on the walls, and not even everything was taped. 

Our contractor showed up at the house a couple minutes after we arrived.  I {foolishly} got a little excited thinking him and/or the spackle crew were going to get a days work in on Saturday.  W-R-O-N-G.  He was just there dropping off supplies for the crew that was MIA.

So three scheduled work days came and went without much progress.  Our fingers were crossed for better results come the new week.

During our lunch on Monday, Pete and I headed to the house to check on progress.  We pulled up to see that our supposed "crew" was, in fact, a single man.  {No wonder there was not much progress on Friday...the one day he showed up.}  But hey, I'll take anyone working on the house at this point.  One man is better than no man.  We inquired whether anyone else would be joining him for the rest of the week and he said he'd have a partner joining him Tuesday and Wednesday.

After stopping in on the job today, I can see that is not the case.  It's still just our lone man on the job.  Whatever.  At least their is forward progress...even if it isn't as fast as we'd like.

Here are some pictures from day #1 and day #2 of spackle.

Main/family bath after day 1 of spackle.

And again.

Hallway towards bedroom #2, former doorway for original bedroom #3 and master bedroom after day 1 of spackle.

View towards the kitchen after day #1 of spackle.  Cabinet doors are removed for sanding and priming.

Kitchen ceiling after day #1 of spackle.

View towards screened-in porch after day #1 of spackle.  The ceiling patch didn't get touched yet.

More patches in the kitchen and dining room ceilings after day #1 of spackle.

View from the master bedroom, towards the ensuite area, after day #1 of spackle.

View from master bedroom, towards my closet area after day #2 of spackle.

View from master bedroom, towards Pete's closet area after day #2 of spackle.

My closet area after day #2 of spackle.

Pete's closet area after day #2 of spackle.

Master bath vanity area after day #2 of spackle.

Master bath shower area after day #1 of spackle.

Master bedroom wall after day #2 of spackle.

Repaired crack in ceiling of master bedroom after day #2 of spackle.

View into hallway from master bedroom after day #2 of spackle.

Former doorway for original bedroom #3 after day #2 of spackle.

View from kitchen after day #2 of spackle.

And again...different angle.

View towards the front door after day #2 of spackle.

Monday, November 28, 2011

Glorious Gutters

Our wonderfully white, seamless gutters and downspouts were installed on our house last week.  I know I'm a bit late posting about them, but I kept forgetting to take pictures while it was light out {stupid sun setting at four something in the afternoon!!!}

Just to remind you...this is what our old gutters and downspouts used to look like.  I know they're tough to find because they blend so well with the house color and dense plant life, but I swear, they are there...in all their ugly glory.





And now for the pretty, new results.  Sooooo much better!






And yes, the rotten corners of the fascia are going to be replaced...I'm just not sure when our contractor plans to get around to it.  Hopefully before this amazing mild weather takes a turn for the worse!

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Drywall Love Continued...

Our house is totally drywalled!!!!  Well, except for a smidge that needs to be done around the door that leads from the garage into the basement.  But let's be serious...who cares about that small piece, because the rest is all done and ready for spackle!

Speaking of spackle...the crew that is tackling our job will begin today.  We are hoping that they put in a day or two on Friday and Saturday, and then they'll wrap up early next week.  I cannot wait for this step of the process to be done.  Once completed, our tile floors can start to go down, and then comes our bathroom fixtures!

This Thanksgiving, I will not only be giving thanks for my wonderful family, the health of that wonderful family and all the blessings that I have been given in life...I will also be giving thanks for a soon-to-be-functioning bathroom back in our house!

Main bath doorway is now widened!

No more tiny doorway.

We have walls in the main bath!!

Our shower/tub combo in the main bath.

Area for the two main bath vanities...and my hubby trying to plug a light in.

Main bath.

Main bath, view towards the doorway.

My master closet, totally drywalled.

Master shower walls getting prepped for tile.

Garage header installed and drywalled so we can properly put fire collars around the PVC pipes.

Back of the garage wall, mostly drywalled.

Other side of the garage wall, mostly drywalled.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone! :)

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Taking Shape...

In my earlier post, I mentioned that I could not wait to see what our master suite would look like once the framing was covered in drywall.  Well I must say, I am loving what I see so far!!

View from our master bedroom towards our master closets and into the master bath.

View from the master bedroom towards my closet.

View into my closet...4 ft. x 7 ft.

View from the master towards my hubby's closet.

View into my hubby's closet...3 ft., 2 in. x 7 ft.

View towards our master shower and my closet.

View towards the master bath vanity area and Pete's closet.

View from the hallway, showing the original 3rd bedroom's door, now closed off.

The areas are tight, so it's hard photograph and get a real feel for everything, but believe me when I say it looks great!  We're so excited!! 

Monday, November 21, 2011

Love Me Some Drywall!

Our hard work tearing down the garage ceiling was all worth it when the hubby and I arrived at the house on Friday night.  Although the following pictures are super dark and creepy looking, don't let it fool you...our garage's appearance and function is much improved now that we have double 5/8" drywall on the ceiling!  And all the new insulation that was added will ensure our new master bath pipes won't freeze in the winter, and we'll be toasty warm in master suite for years to come.






Still on the to-do list for the garage...1) Getting the drywall prepped and ready for paint, 2) Finishing the light installation, 3) Cleaning up the remainder of the messy wires, 4) Installing new {insulated} garage doors and garage door openers, 5) Painting/drylocking the garage, 6) Finishing the garage floor off, 7) Repairing the taped up insulation around the HVAC duct and 8) Installing a header/fire collars around two plumbing pipes.

Plus, we'll eventually want to add some shelving/storage/organization stuff down the road.

I used to shudder at the thought of having to be in the garage for a second longer than it took to find a paint brush or my gardening gloves.  Now, it's really starting to come together.  I can't believe how far our garage {and house for that matter} has come!