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!

ICE DAY!

We had the day off from work today because of the ice storm... We woke up and there was about 3/4" sheet of ice on the driveway.  As we were standing outside with the dogs the tree top on the tree right next to the driveway snapped off and dropped to the ground... you know that was my favorite tree on the entire property!  We went back inside and continue to hear the snap and crash of tree branches... Of course it happened to a majority of the "nice" trees that we saved in the backyard... Now they will all have to be cut down...   :( so sad!  Hooper was extremely nervous about the trees falling... He came inside and hid under the table... then when another one crashed and we went to the window he came out and started shaking... He wanted to go upstairs so we let him up and he seemed to calm down a little... poor thing!

We got some work done today... Tommy worked on caulking all the crown molding in the foyer.  His dad came down and continued his spackling job in the basement... I spent the day doing the touch up paint in the dining room, master bedroom and sitting room.  At the end of the night Tommy nailed up all the pieces he made for the entrance-way to the sitting room that I had painted earlier.  While I was doing the touch up paint in the dining room Otis was messing with me... barking and climbing on my legs... I started talking to him and then he jumped in my lap but he fell out and went right into the paint tray... Ooops... poor thing had paint on his head so I had to dunk his whole head under the faucet.

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.

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...

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!

CROSSING OFF THE TO DO LIST

Today I caulked a few more things in the morning and then I moved on to painting them. I finished painting the crown in the family room, the crown in the master bath, the window in the sitting room and then I painted the wainscot in the laundry.

Tommy installed molding in the skylight, he trimmed the top piece of the window over the toilet in the master bath... He also trimmed all the doors upstairs to the correct height. He also fixed both the closet and master bathroom pocket doors. Then he moved on to finish the hardwood floor in the princess bedroom, but didn't finish before I was ready to start the hardwood floor in the Front J&J bedroom. We got about 10 rows finshed before the rubber on the hammer was completely ruined and we dented a good piece of wood trying to get it in... We really need to order a replacement rubber piece for the flooring hammer...

Master Bath

The master bath has recently been primed, the ceiling painted and also the walls. We also laid down the the top layer of plywood over the radiant floor. Installed the lights and some switches...

FRONT DOOR TRIMWORK

Today Tommy finished the moldings on the window and sliding door in the kitchen. I then caulked, puttied and painted the rest of the crown in the kitchen and the window/sliding door. Did two coats of paint on the crown molding for the master bedroom. Tommy put the extension jambs on the circular window above the front door, curved the plastic molding and built the trim above the door. Then I painted the arched windows in the dining and office.

Almost all the trimwork is finished on the first floor!

ELLIPTICAL MOLDING

Tom worked on curving the plastic molding for the elliptical windows in the dining and office. He used the extension jamb that was provided with the windows and used the heat gun to warm up the plastic. With a little coercion the plastic bent around the extension jamb and after it cooled down he was able to nail them up.

I painted the 24 additional pieces of casing that Tom's dad picked up and dropped off for us the other day.

MOLDING MORE

We worked on Monday and today on the molding. We finished putting together the pieces that go above windows and doors and then I started to caulk and putty them and eventually put a coat of paint on them. Meanwhile Tommy put some of the original "tops" on the garage door and porch door and then worked on the family room windows some more. Everything is coming along!

FAMILY ROOM WINDOWS

Tommy was working today on the family room windows. Because they have the arched transom window they are a little more difficult. He got plastic 1x6 and routed the one side with a tongue and the other with the half round profile and it is acting as an extension jamb and the bottom piece of the crown molding top. He realized the other day that all the transom windows came with molded trim pieces and with the extension jambs and the molded piece of trim it looks pretty nice. Once he got that transom in he was able to put the little wings to match and then the casing went up to that. Then he cut MDF for the top piece. All four windows are at that point. We just need to prime the MDF and put the crown on top and will look like the rest of the door tops.

I spend the day painting. I did the front jack and jill bedroom and the jack and jill bathroom (door jambs, trim and doors) and painted the crown in the top foyer. We also got some doorknobs so I started to install those on some of the other doors that are finished.