MOMMY-TO-BE'S PARENTS TOLD

Today Tommy worked on the crown molding in the foyer and I painted some touch up spots.   Then we started our trek down to the Tile Shop in south jersey to return the remainder of the tile from the master bathroom.  We were able to return it all, a whopping $900 back!  awesome!  We then went over to GPs to take down her Christmas decorations and were able to tell her our good news!

Then we went down to Jess and Dan's to see the progress with finishing the basement.  Jess cooked everyone dinner and I set the table with a little bit of a secret... When everyone was finished I started picking up the plates to clear the table and when i lifted them there was a napkin under each plate that said "Baby Blyskal Oct 1, 2011"... When everyone realized what was going on there were lots of hugs... Good times!

CROWN MOLDING IN THE FOYER

Tom worked on the arched column area in the sitting room.  He created the ledge tops and made a molding to seperate the blue color of the sitting room with the beige color in the master.  I just have to paint them and then he can install them. Then he started the crown molding in the foyer today... It is a bit difficult because it is high.  He was able to install all the crown in the main section of the foyer, including the basecap. He just has to finish up the two long pieces along the staircase section...

While he did the crown I worked on sanding and priming all the spackle spots that I made fixing up some boo-boos in every room.

SPACKLE

Tom's parents came down today...His mom cleaned up the basement from all the sheetrock mess and his dad put another coat of spackle on the walls in the basement.

Later on Tommy worked on finishing up the crown molding tops on the columns in the master sitting room... they look nice!

DADDY-TO-BE's PARENTS TOLD

Today we stayed home from work... Picatinny was open but we had so much snow it took until about 11:30 to clean it all up...

Tonight we went down to Tom's parents house to tell them the good news.  His dad made dinner so we sat down to eat... After dinner he asked if we would like drinks and Tom said " Definitely, we need to celebrate, because Laure is pregnant"   The response was pretty much "What?" but everyone seems pretty excited for the first gran-baby!!!

MASTER FLOOR

Today Tommy finished up the hardwood floor in the master bedroom... I put 1 coat of primer and one coat of paint on  the remainder of the base molding...Tommy put a second coat of tung oil on the mantel...I went around to all the screw pops in the sheetrock and spackled them up... Then we started the hardwood floor in the master closet and some of the base molding...

Hooper and Otis are doing pretty good... They are playing a little rough at times, but are starting to be a lot more mellowed out and ignoring eachother at times... We don't have the heat up very high in the house while we are working, but it is a little cold (especially with this weather) for Otis....we set up his bd in the corner of the radiators an h is much happier...

BABY!!!

Today we found out that we are having a BABY!!!  Due date is Oct 1, 2011!  I won't post a pic of the positive pregnancy test, but there was one!  We are super excited!

BASE MOLDING

Yesteday we got a decent amount of work done before heading to Beata's for another housewarming party.

We did not know what time it was all day!  Our cellphones were all screwed up saying that we were in Houston and an hour earlier than it actually was!

Tommy worked on the base molding downstairs today and finished it all.  I was able to caulk it all too!  I also painted some crown molding for the foyer...

Tom's dad came over and put a majority of the first coat of spackle in the basement.

BASEMENT SHEETROCK

Today Pawel and Taj came down and finished up installing all the sheetrock in the basement. They even framed out the area for the entertainment closet underneath the steps.

When we got home Tommy used the roto-rooter in the clogged pipe.  The roto-rooter was borrowed from Michal and thanks to that we are all cleaned out now.

HOOPER and OTIS

We got another puppy!  Monica and Katie brought over a 12 week old terrier.  Monica and Dad have the sister, Lily... we decided to name him Otis.  They are getting along decently well... they just want to play!!!  hopefully they fall asleep eventually!

 

 

 

Otis is a "big dog, only little"  This bone is about 10" long and he dug it out from Hooper's stuff... Hooper has never touched it but this little baby was munching on it for a while...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESS!

Thismorning on our way to work in t he icy rain... the battery and brake light showed up on the dashboard... a bit later we lost the heat and the power steering... we pulled off 287 and figured out that the drive belt broke... so we were able to make it to Napa Auto Parts and Tommy was able to install the belt in the FREEZING rain... fun times!

Then this evening we went to Jess and Dan's for a surprise party for her birthday... We had pizza and cake.

SEWER!!!!

We got connected to the sewer in the street today!!!  How amazing!  The guys showed up at 7am this morning and they were packed up and gone at 2pm.  Turns out there were TWO sewer pipes in the street and they had to call the Municipality to come out and tell them which one to connect too.  Go figure...  After they were all connected Tommy went down to the basement and drained one of the clean-outs...  then him and his dad pulled out the inflated ball in the lower clean-out, it wasn't too bad though!

Tom's dad with a little bit of help from Tommy installed the kitchen sink and dishwasher and then they installed the toilet and faucet in the powder room.  I had to go to Home Depot to pick up the wax ring and while I was there i picked up the towel rack, toilet paper holder, and towel ring and when I got back I installed them.

Tommy finished the Dining room floor in the morning and worked throughout the day on the base molding.  He started with all the larger pieces in the entire first floor and just has to go back to all the smaller pieces.
 
I painted the crown and basecap for the foyer and some shoe molding... and I sealed all the tile in the master bathroom with one coat...

In the evening Tom went downstairs to mop up some of the water that came out of the pipes... he looked inside one of the clean-outs and it wasn't pretty... turns out that even though he told me not to I "may" have rinsed out buckets of grout in the master tub... well now the pipes are half way filled with sludgy sand... OOPS... Tommy managed to clean out as much as he could and a service call was put in to his dad to get a roto-rooter...   OOPS!!!

Hooper was exhausted by all that work!

LAST DAY W/O SEWER

Tom worked in the family room finishing up the hardwood floor.  He had to do some routing of the kitchen floor tile because it was a little off at the entrance to the family room... He straightened it out so that the piece of hardwood wasn't tapered.  He also rounded over the tile to make the transition a little better.

I grouted the tub in the J&J Bathroom... and cleaned the tub in the master bathroom (it was really dirty from grouting)... and I wiped down the tile walls and floors in the master bath so that I can seal tomorrow.

Tom's dad also came down with some more sheetrock.  He spent his day in the basement putting little pieces of sheetrock on the ceiling around the pipes..

Then we made another trip to Home Depot to pick up a toilet for the downstairs bathroom... why?  because we are getting connected to the SEWER tomorrow... can you believe that?  I really hope they come... they cut the pavement on the street on friday and delivered a large backhoe so we should be good, but you never know... With the luck we have had so far with regard to the sewer I am not holding my breath...

BASEMENT SHEETROCK

Today was a busy day... First thing thismorning we had propane delivery... FUN!

I cleaned up the stairs... just in time... because the stair guy showed up to show us some railing samples and take measurements for nosing... He asked what kind of railing we wanted and when I said " I don't know, I haven't really looked"  he was shocked!!! Because when we got the stairs I had pictures printed and told him what I liked from each picture... This time I was unprepared!!!  But he showed us some books and I told him what I liked... and Tommy agreed.

Meanwhile, Tom's dad and Pawel arrived.  They worked in the basement all day putting up sheetrock... They got quite a bit done with occasional help from Tommy.  They used all the sheets that we had...

Tommy worked in the office and finished up the pieces of hardwood along the walls... The office hardwood is done and he got a good start on what is left in the family room.

I worked on grouting the floor of the master shower... Grouting is officially DONE in the master bathroom.  That is great!

Afterwords, I worked on sanding the mantel to get it ready for finishing...

Then we went to Home Depot and did some returns... a bunch of plumbing stuff... the lady wasn't happy!  and then we spent it again...

When we got back Tommy put some Tung oil on the mantel... it looks fantastic!

INSULATION...YUCK!

Tonight when we got home from work Tommy worked on running some wires up through the "chase" area in the basement to the wall in the family room .  This is because we decided that we want the option to have the TV on either side of the family room... so he ran some ethernet, coax and speaker ire to that area and also ran a chase in case he needs anything else.  This was done because we won't have access after the "chase" is sheetrocked.

Meanwhile I cleaned up the basement... 

Then we we put insulation in the chase area so that we reduce the amount of heat loss in the heating pipes before they get upstairs...

All ready for sheetrock!

SNOW DAY 2!!!

We had another snow day today... YAY!  We spent the day working in the family room and office doing the hardwood floor.  We finished everything except for the edges along the wall, Tommy will get to those later...

Tom's dad was able to make it down and worked some more framing out the basement to get it ready for sheetrock.

FAMILY ROOM FLOOR

We got a little bit of the floor done in the family room done today... and Pawel and Tom's dad continued to work down in the basement... they put in some chases for future "ideas" and finished with the framing.  There a few more things that need to be done and then they can do the sheetrock. 

 

 

 

 

 

There are a few rules about ladders... The first rule is to never ever leave anything on top of the ladder! hmmm.... The second rule, maybe the more important rule is to never move the ladder without checking if there is anything on the top of the ladder... Let's just say both were broken, poor Tommy... He went to check something in the basement and a piece of pipe on top of the ladder fell on his nose when he moved it.

BASEMENT FRAMING

Today Tom's dad and Pawel came down and helped us out with some work in the basement.  They worked on framing out around some of the pipes... There were a lot of little pieces to frame out... This will allow us to put insulation around the pipes to get the most energy out of them and the boiler room will then be able to be sheetrocked. 

Tommy and I worked on some of our own tasks.  Tommy worked on finishing the hardwood floor in the dining room.  I painted some base molding and caulked the base molding in the front and rear J&J bedrooms.  Then we cleaned up the family room and office and got ready for hardwood floor... We had a few rows done before we headed to bed.