Exterior Painting: Done

Sooo.... got the exterior painted and stained! How did we do it so fast? Easy, hire the pros.. Fresh Paint did the interior and so knowing that they were very good, we went ahead and engaged them to do the outside also.

Here's the front:



And the back:



Eventually, we'll do something about the doors (have them stained the natural cedar of the upper level), but this is about as much home improvement as we can manage for now...

Pretty close to done

There are just some tiny details left (besides the back deck, which they're currently working on at the moment).

Above, you can see one of the bathroom faucets, the drain for the shower, the nice pendant light we got from Schoolhouse (you can't see the lovely design on the glass shade), the twin sinks, the cute additional storage for the custom cabinet, the cheapo fixture from Ikea for the front office, the last little bit of molding, the toilet and the view from the new bedroom.

Left to be done: the nice oak topper that will go on top of the wall overlooking the stairs and the glass shower door. And a couple of the drawers in the bathroom cabinet had to be shortened (to accomodate the sink trap -- no biggie).

And the deck, which is proceeding along really well.

The contractor says that we can move upstairs next week.

!

It just doesn't seem possible...

Tad and I bought some closet organizers from Storables (they had a huge sale in January. I wasn't willing to go all out, but we got a few basic pieces that we'll cobble together with some existing drawers, etc, to make the space usable and add to it as we go along).

Soooo... very..... close....

The work inside is winding down so the contractors have moved onto the back porch. For the last six months or so, we haven't been able to step out the back door (the old porch was torn down and it was a bit of a step down to the ground).

Now they've framed in the floor and the roof of the new porch!



Here's the underside of the new porch roof:



The upstairs is all painted now. The tile guy (Rob) is currently working on finishing up the tile soon.

You can see the remnant marble slab that they put in for the countertop.

Yay!

Getting close! (we hope)

Here's the upstairs. The lovely hardwood floors are covered up in preparation for painting the trim.



The bathroom. The sconces were originally way too low so Mike moved them up for us as they bothered him like that. We're getting a custom cabinet and a piece of remnant marble is getting cut to fit on top.



New stairs! I'm so glad I got talked into agreeing to move the stairs. They're WONDERFUL. They new
banister is just lovely (and surprisingly complicated).



There was some collateral damage done to our existing bathroom (a support beam had to go right through where our original medicine cabinet was, so that had to be replaced with one that wasn't inset into the wall (and moved to the right to allow door clearance). We repainted with a golden yellow which actually looks lovely with the bright white contrasting over it.

I'm planning on sewing a sink skirt, to cover the plumbing (but I can't find the &^%@#$% iron, so that little project will have to wait a while).

So, coming right along!

Another Progress Report

Here are some more photos.

The new stairs. You can see the new front closet and the green color that will be the main family area color.



Tile for the bathroom. It will be hex tile for the floor and subway tile for the walls (not shown). Both of these are really inexpensive, but also classic and simple). The one tile splurge was the natural stone for the floor of the shower.



Bedroom. The color's really not as warm as shown -- it's more taupey. The hardwoord floors look nice!



The family area as seen from the top of the stairs. The floors look so nice we might have to institute a no shoes policy (our downstairs hardwood floors are trashed from wear).



We're actually quite a bit farther along than this, but I'm a little behind on posting.

Things are taking quite a bit longer than expected (the original optimistic estimate had this all done by Thanksgiving), but there were a few bumps along the way; it's not like the contractor hasn't been working hard to get things completed.

We're really looking forward to having it be done, though! The computer's had a completely nomadic existence, moving from spot to spot as needed (we've had to do work on the downstairs as well, because of putting in the support beams in the walls and also to fix some water damage on the ceilings).

More to come...

Progress Report

Well!

It's been FAR too long since the last update!

It's been busy and the computer kept on moving from place to place, so things were difficult for blog updates.

Here are some photos -- more to come, I promise!



The top of the stairs. Those windows really bring in a ton of light to both floors....



The view of the shared family space from the hallway to the master bedroom. Those are just the drywall walls, they've since been mudded and more.



Here's the laundry room with some of the paint swatches we were looking at.

Halloween

Ethan (aka the Duct Tape Warrior) is menaced by zombies Colin and best friend Elijah...

The zombies did their own makeup (and did a great job). Ethan designed and created his own duct tape shield and knife.

Totally scored on the candy, venturing up towards Mount Tabor, finally locating the legendary Jaciva's house (where they give out amazing chocolate suckers). I sidled up to the door hoping that they might be generous to a nice-looking mom, but no such luck... the boys have been resistent to bribes and threats.

Stairs!

So the facades, front and back, are done!

(that's Ken, putting in an extra day on Saturday)



The cedar will remain on the new upstairs. On the lower part, the shingles will be painted the same color as the rest of the house.

On the inside, they completed the new stairs this week! There are windows at the top of the stairs, bringing in a lot of light to a previously dark part of our house.

Advantages to having a deaf cat

When we were first talking to the architect about how our remodel would affect our lives, I asked her about the cats and she told us bluntly: "They'll run away."

Dang!

Luckily, as it turns out, that hasn't happened.

Gus (above) is nearly stone deaf and, honestly, doesn't seem much affected, other than having to regroup if his cat bed gets moved.

Joey is pretty mellow and, while the noise occasionally startles him, he has taken it in stride.

The contractors have been working on putting the pretty details on the back of the house.

Before:

And now:



On the front, he's removed the siding from the area right under our original roofline, exposing the natural 100-year old wood. This will be covered with new shingle.

The addition, above, is being covered with cedar.... pretty!



Here you can see the lovely cedar a bit better... The siding guys place each shingle up to make sure that there is a pleasing, random-looking arrangement before nailing it down.

So moving right along!

Siding is on two parts of the addition. Next week, the roof gets put on and the rest of the siding. Then they move inside! We may be getting a new staircase soon.... yeah!

So much progress!

It's been too long since my last post.

The contractors have done a GREAT job since! See the upstairs really taking shape? They've added the decorative swooshes on the top and brought the roof forward to match the original roof, below... it looks wonderful!

Remember our dark, low, crowded upstairs?

The same viewpoint a few months later, when all was stripped down:

And now today... the ceiling is lots higher and there are fresh, lovely walls all framed in:

And, way back when, the back of our house:

And here's the back of the house now... you can see the new upper part. They are making it pretty now:

And another shot of the front of the house. You can see how the angles and decorative finishes are mirroring the original structure nicely:

Upstairs all framed up!

We left for a long weekend and Mike and his crew had completed framing up the upstairs.



That last little bit on the end will remain. It used to be part of the playroom and will become either a mini-office or storage. It will stay to make the house look cute still from the front.



Above, Ethan hanging out the window that will overlook the new stairs.



And Colin joins him hanging outside the window.

Trusses going up!

Yesterday, the trusses started going up.

Mike's working on a third of the house at a time, demo'ing one section, putting up the walls and putting up the trusses. Today, he'll cover the trusses.



Here's the view from the back of the house:



It's really taking shape now! Seeing the windows really makes it come to life.

Roof coming off!

At long last, despite rainy weather, the roof is coming off!

Mike's really been looking forward to this for a long time...

His plan is to stage things so that the roof comes off a third of the house at a time, starting with the Eastern third of the house.

We can only get in through a window at the front of the house now. Below is a view of the upstairs looking from the front to the back of the house:



You can see sunlight where the roof is gone. The new walls are on the sides, held up by supports.



Above is the wall on the south side of the house. The two windows on the left will be our bedroom windows. The little window is the one that goes over our toilet in the new bathroom.

With the windows in place, it's easier to see what the dimensions of the rooms will end up looking like.



Here's a view looking back towards the front of the house.

It's finally happening!