Weekend News

The electricians have installed the rear lights at the house. They look pretty good.


We have stripped the old paint off the outside of the cast-iron tub and have started priming it. It will be white when we are finished.

We've spent most of the day loading the PODS for our move. The dogs stayed in the garage for part of the packing process. Not surprisingly, they wanted out.

Husband and doggie say goodbye to the old couch.

Contractor Update - June 18

The plumbers, drywall subs, electricians, and general contractor all worked at the house today. The plumbers started roughing in the PVC pipes, the drywall subs started taping and mudding the ceiling drywall, the electricians started rough wiring the addition and kitchen, and the general contractor framed in the new walls in the upstairs guest bathroom. They'll all be back on Tuesday along with the insulation contractor who's going to start insulating the attic.

June 12th Update

During the past week or so several things have been going on at the house. Here's a brief summary:

The roofing subs worked on the copper for the new box gutter on the addition. They've finished all of the metal work except for the downspouts which will be added later.



The windows for the addition have been installed. There's only some minor trim work left to do.



We sanded and primed the small back bedroom. There's still some touch up work left to do.


We also received our first mail at the house today. Not surprisingly it was all junk mail.

Small Stained Glass Window

The small stained glass window has been removed to be repaired.

Drywall #2

The drywall subs finished hanging the drywall in the old section of the house. Next week they'll tape, mud, and sand everything.

Drywall #1

The drywall sub-contractor started hanging the ceiling drywall in the old section of the house. They've completed about half of the old section. On Friday they'll finish hanging the drywall and then start taping, mudding, and sanding everything. The kitchen, guest bathroom, and addition drywall will be done later after the plumbing is roughed in and the rooms have been wired and insulated.

Deck #1

The builder started working on the back deck.

Memorial Day Weekend Projects

We worked on several projects over the weekend. The back yard has been cleaned up some, with many rocks removed. The remaining wall repair and compound application projects were also completed. We should be ready to sand everything in the next week or so.

Our kitchen will have exposed brink from the chimney over the range. In order to get the brick ready, we had to sand off any plaster still sticking to the brick. Thank goodness for power tools.

After cleaning the chimney, we coated it with polyurethane. Below are a couple of pictures, although the final result isn't included because the camera batteries died before the chimney was finished.


The doggies also got to spend some quality time at the house this weekend. Just look at those precious faces!!

Dad's cartoon

For more cartoons, go to Prewarcar.com.

Rock Harvest

We have a bumper crop of rocks in the back yard. Husband has been harvesting them at a record pace. The more rocks he digs up, the more that bubble up. Too bad pet rocks are out of fashion.

We also have a few plots of poison ivy ("PI") growing in various and sundry locations around the house and yard. Our local hardware store, Lowe's, has been kind enough to supply us (at a small price) with some Round Up to apply to the PI to hasten its demise. PI wreaks havoc on Wife's skin. It must be eradicated. Immediately.

Our other project for Memorial Day weekend has been the cleaning of the exposed brick in the addition and on the chimney in the kitchen. The brick in the addition was painted in the past and some of the paint has begun to flake. We have to remove the flakes before we can repaint the wall. This paint removal business is just as fun as wallpaper removal and sanding.

End of May Update

Here are a few more pictures of our progress on the house. The siding on the addition is nearly complete. It cannot be finished until the doors, windows and cornice are installed, which should be soon.

We continue to sand and prime a room at a time. Most of the upstairs foyer is finished. We still need to work on parts of the stairwell, but since they are so high and unreachable without a big ladder, we've been putting that off. Pictures of the foyer:

Now that the main structure of the addition is complete, work will start soon on the deck. In order to do this, the builder graded the yard. All of the yard. The yard is filled with lots and lots of rocks. We are going to have a rock harvest this weekend. Kinda like digging potatoes.

Before Wife knew it, the grading of the yard resulted in the plowing under of the wildflowers. Fortunately (for many reasons related to both landscaping and marital bliss), there are a few wildflowers growing along the left side of the house. Hopefully we will be able to transplant these to another area of the yard next spring. Wife is trying to block the 2007 Wildflower Massacre out of her mind and shall endeavor not to speak of it again.

The Crew

The crew: Walter, Steve, and Brian.

Addition - Siding

They started putting the siding on the addition.

Addition - Roof

More pictures of the progress being made on the addition roof.

Addition - Second Floor

On Monday and Tuesday the builder framed in the interior walls on the second floor of the addition and started working on the addition roof.