Work...work...work...

Today we got some things done...

Tom's dad put the last piece of sheetrock in the basement stairwell and then sanded the walls and ceilings in the stairwell.

Tom's mom put primer on the sheetrock walls in the basement and has it ready for some "oops" paint!

Tom worked on the the bridge some more.  He got all the hardwood finished on the bridge and the curved sections the hardwood is glued down and will be ready to cut out the curve tomorrow.

I fixed up some cracked caulk on the crown molding and made some paint touchups.

ICY MORNING...

On Saturday Tom's parents and his uncle came down.  His dad and uncle worked in the basement... they sanded the other coats of spackle and put on another coat... everything is looking good... one more sanding and light coat of spackle when this dries and we are ready for primer and paint!

 

Tom's mom worked on painting... she painted each of the closets and cleaned up the paint and then she went around with ceiling paint and made some touch-ups... she won't let me take pictures though...

I puttied and caulked the entrance to the sitting room....

Tom's dad picked up the stair nosing yesterday from the stair guy so Tom worked on installing that today... it looks nice!

LONG DAY

I would say today was one of the longest days of my life... haha... i guess after the midweek break from work yesterday it dragged a little.

Tom's dad was at the house today... He put another coat of spackle in the basement... then he kinked the basement wall at the bottom of the stairs... When we had the stairs made a while ago we asked the stair guy to flair them so that it wouldn't be so closed in... so he moved that wall and installed the stairs... it looks good... Then he came upstairs and put sheetrock inside that little nook between the kitchen and family room.  We have decided that we at least want the option to be able to put the entertainment center on that wall and with that nook the wall wouldn't be long enough for that.

We got home super late from work because of traffic.  Tommy moved the fridge and re-hooked up the water...We think we may move its location again... We are trying to figure out the final layout for the kitchen appliances and we are having a hard time... It seems like wherever we put things the kitchen seems cramped or closed off... so we will leave it in its new location for a while and see how we like it.

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.

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.

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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tile Cutting

We spent the day cutting tile... We bought 12"x12" travertine tiles from Home Depot for the bathroom walls and we are cutting them into 3" x3" tiles... it is a lot of cutting and then sanding of the edges, but in the end it is worth it. Actually purchasing 3"x3" tiles is about 4 times more expensive so we get what we want this way if we put in the work...

Tom's mom spend the day weeding... we let the weeds along the driveway get a little out of hand so there was a lot of work to get it back to looking good... The neighbor even stopped by to talk to her and said that the house "looks good again"... ooops... they came out of nowhere I promise! She ended up with a full truck to the top of the roof rack of weeds!!!

Tom's dad was assigned a project in the basement... He is building walls in the basement to close off the furnace and hot water heater area...

SIDE YARD

When we got home from work I quickly went to the vet with Hooper. He had his first visit and come to find out he has pneumonia. The doctor new as soon as he touched under his neck and then he said " Was he one of the puppies from the Tractor Supply adoption?" Of course the answer was yes and apparently all the dogs he has seen as a result of those adoptions had pneumonia. So we left with no additional puppy shots and instead with antibiotics.

Tom's mom had been working on the lawn during the afternoon and Tom and I joined her this evening. We worked on raking the stones and chopping out the roots on the side of the house. Before it got to dark we were able to throw down some grass seed.

BEECH TREE MOVE

We finished the top tier of the wall out the basement. We moved the A/C Compressors onto their pads and then filled in between with the river rock. We also moved the beech tree into its place, planted some azaelas and junipers and some creeping evergreens... then we put mulch... this area is completely done...

HARD AT WORK

I am STILL taking a class at Ft. Monmouth so it took me a long time to get to the house tonight so Tommy worked by himself all night. He is working on cleaning up the little odds and ends on the basement side of the house. He ground 3 or 4 stumps that have been in his way over there for quite some time... cleaned up the pallets from the pavers and picked up some of the rocks that have surfaced out of the dirt... And he is grading the dirt on that side to keep his swale going and put dirt up against the pavers...

Our goal this week is to finish this side of the house so we never have to bring the tractor over there again... :)

PATIO BISTRO

This was a busy weekend. On Friday night I picked Tommy up from the airport at 11ish so after a whole week of not working on the house we were eager to start on Saturday morning. This weekend we built both of the 2nd tiers of the retaining walls for the walkout basement. We finished the gutter drainage for the back of the house out to daylight. We poured the slabs for the A/C compressor units and Tommy started to take dirt from where we will eventually have a patio in order to backfill the tiered walls. Also put some concrete along the pavers so that they cannot move out. And I got some vegetables (tomatos, peppers, cucumbers, zucchini and strawberries) and planted them in the flower beds made by the retaining walls. I will call it my Patio Bistro Garden... haha...

WE'RE LEGAL NOW...OMG

Today we got up early and made the last trip to Home Depot for the 6x6 pavers. We went to the service desk and the girl their got a guy to get the last pallet. I followed him while Tommy brought the truck around to the garden center. The guy found one pallet that GASP! already had the correct number of peices but he was looking for the other pallets (ummm yeah we took those last night and the guy helping last night must have gotten the last pallet ready in case we got there before they closed)... So all he has to do is shrink wrap it and put it on the bed of the truck.... 1 hour later we were finally on the road... The guy couldn't find a shrink wrap that worked, he needed to get the gates to block aisles but couldn't find enough, then he needed a spotter and a key carrier to open the gate to the side of the building!!! When he finally found all that he needed he said " OK we're legal now", but he couldn't even drive the forklift... So painful to watch. And of course as soon as we got to the house it started raining.

Thankfully the rain stopped and we went to down on laying down the pavers. I laid them while Tommy brought them over, as fast as he could bring them I laid them. We finished the full size pavers by noon... Then we went to Home Depot to return the 200+ extra pavers that we got (somebody can't count) and that took forever again... (normally our home depot is good but today they were terrible) We rented a paver saw and then we spent the afternoon cutting all the pieces along the border. Got some sand and compacted the pavers. Done by 5! This was just one of those days that besides the episodes at Home Depot was perfect, we got so much done.

So here is the patio...it is much bigger than we thought we were going to make it but we love how it turned out. So pretty!