Days 93-97 - The last stroke

They are finished painting. Wait, what? Yep, that's what I said. When we started this week, I thought we'd be in decent shape by week's end, but certainly not done. I was hoping for the end of this next week, when we're scheduled to have the driveway done. Bob clearly lit a fire under someone's behind because after a few really long days of very hard work - they walked out of here on Friday afternoon and took their paint brushes with them. And all of a sudden, I could see all of my house - there were no piles of tools, no buckets, no gallons of paint, no red paper covering the floors, no sheets of plastic dangling in doorways, no clumps of joint compound on the walls.

As in, you can move your stuff in now .....

Just what went down this week? Well, they were working in pretty much every room of our house - except for the kids' bedroom and the bathrooms. Carlos, along with either Lusvi or Leo, was painting the living room, first floor hallway, dining room, kitchen, stairs, and upstairs hallway. Byron was back to do some closets, door hardware, attic steps and other assorted carpentry. Mike the electrician and/or his guys were by to hook up more lighting and finish up some thermostats and other outlets and switches.

Finishing trim around pocket doors

Prepping dining room/ kitchen area (there goes my work space!)

Sanding with the shop vac (much appreciated!)

Byron switching hardware on mudroom door

At this point, it was Thursday - Halloween! - and with a bit of "encouragement" from Bob (ahem), Carlos and Leo worked like crazy all day. They were just cleaning up at the time we were getting ready to take the kids out trick or treating.

Leo cleaning up after Carlos banged out the dining room in a day (notice the new shade of green?!)

A pink kitty and Army guy ready for some candy!

After leaving my house at around 5:30pm Thursday, Carlos was back at 7:30am on Friday to finish it off. And that is exactly what he did!

Happy to be trying out her fancy shoes on the new floors upstairs

Carlos pulling up the paper on the first floor

All cleaned up!

The mudroom, all ready for our stuff!

Gleaming!

Living room/family room

So, what's left? Well ... the exciting (albeit a little daunting) task of moving in! And, punchlist stuff for Bob and the guys - a few things here and there. Plus, Julio will be back to do a new walk to the mudroom before they do the driveway later in the week ....

Stay tuned  .....

Days 71 and 72 - Nothing muddy about it!

As the week went along, the guys kept working on the interior trim, including the doors, baseboards, window sills, etc, as well as finishing up the tile in the master bath.

Byron and Ervin working on doorway casing - oops, pink car in the way!

Shower tile all done - thanks, Lusvi!

One of the most exciting things that happened this week, though, was when Chris came back to put in the custom cabinets in the mudroom. This is like Christmas morning to me! To have a designated spot to put all our shoes and coats and bags when we walk in - previously, we had a small coat rack by our front door and a black plastic boot tray. So, you can see - this will be life-changing!!

Cubbies! (will be painted white)

Bench with shoe storage underneath; shelves at garage door for keys, mail, etc.

Chris even brought his puppy with him to help!

Day 22 - The Garage

Four guys were here early today - ready to get that garage framed. And that they did - here's how it went down (or up, I guess):

7:00am

11:00am - Go Byron!

3:00pm - zoom!

Around the time that Tim got home this evening, there were thunderstorms in the area once again. Good thing he went around checking the tarp - one "isolated t-storm" decided to park itself right over our new garage. Few rumbles of thunder around 7pm, and two minutes later - torrential downpour! Thankfully, all stayed dry.

Aw, there she is again with that camera!

Here are a few more shots of some of the new spaces in progress:

Carys at the doorway to new bedroom (that's the front gable)

In new master, looking at old door to bedroom - at right is entrance/wall to new bedroom

Tim in doorway of 1st floor guest room (off of mudroom)

Day 8 - Dig in

Well, today was a mess. I mean literally, of course.

"Yeah, that's right - we have trucks in our yard!"

The guys were back first thing framing the mudroom, banging away. They framed out the entrance to the bedroom/office on the first floor, and added some of the ceiling and the floor of the room above, including the overhang above the new entryway:

Kids and friends standing in doorway of bedroom/office off of mudroom

The kids and I headed out at around 11 - Bob said, "Excavators will be here soon." Got home at around 3:30pm and this was the scene:

"Boy, do I want to go run around in that big dirt pit!"

"We went sledding down here 4 months ago!" (good thing the sleds are packed away)

After tomorrow's rain, how muddy do you think this will be?

Day 7 - While we were out

On Saturday, we headed up to Sunapee, NH to stay with some friends for a few days ... it was a great little getaway. Perfect way to escape the 5-day heat wave here (not to mention the fact that we are now officially living in three rooms of our house - more on that in another post)!

So, as we headed home late Monday night, exhausted after a full day on Lake Sunapee on the boat we rented with our good friends, I was wondering what Bob and crew were up to while we were gone.

This is what we did on Monday:

This is what they did on Monday:

New Entryway

New Mudroom