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 87-92 - Like watching paint dry

Oh, we're so close ... it's right there, within view ... but yet, we ... aren't .... there .... yet. It's so close that for the first time in this project, I feel like I'm waiting. For this whole time, since the project started in late June, I never really felt that impatient. Everything was "ongoing" and I didn't get too caught up in wondering when it would be done. But now, I know what has to be finished, and it isn't all that much - so it's just the waiting and watching. Like watching paint dry.

Which is appropriate, since this last week has been filled with a lot of ... painting. Painting is not easy to live through - they're everywhere, prepping, sanding, painting ceilings, trim, then finally the walls. I know I already mentioned this, but our living space is still getting smaller (didn't think it was possible!) before it gets bigger. For this past week, the kids have been back in their bedroom, but Tim and I have been camping out in the basement. Wish I thought it was as "fun" as the kids did the week before!

When I last wrote, we were out of the house for the weekend while they finished the wood floors on the first floor. Well, we returned home Monday morning and caught a glimpse of the gleaming finish just as they were laying down the red rosin paper.

Lusvi covering newly finished old floor in living room

New floor in office/guest bedroom

All under wraps

And on Tuesday, there was another big milestone:

Now you see it ...

Now you don't!

This is sort of like one of those "What's the difference" pictures in magazines - everyone notice the storage container in the driveway is GONE?! We were able to move all of our stuff into the garage and have that lovely hunk of metal hauled away - gotta get to this driveway before the ground freezes.

Also accomplished this week - LOTS of plumbing hookups and electrical connections. We've got working sinks upstairs and flushing toilets. We've got HEAT (phew, just in time - temps have dipped into 30s!). We've got lights! Here are a few examples:

Overhead drum pendant in master bedroom

Ceiling fan/light in Carys' room

But back to that painting. I do have a few shots of our freshly painted bedroom ...

Benjamin Moore "Pale Oak" in bedroom - all dressed up with some lighting and a new door. Oh, and check out the w/d in their new home on 2nd floor!

In the spotlight ...

Here we are at night:

Days 69 and 70 - Trim and Tile

Many hands on deck starting this week! Byron and Ervin have been working on interior doors, window trim, baseboards, etc. Carlos and Lusvi have been tiling and grouting the mudroom and bathroom. Julio and Reuben have been finishing up the side deck and steps, and pulling up the wood flooring in the 1st floor hall and family room area.

Byron working on trim around laundry closet doors

Carys' bedroom turned into workshop!

Laundry closet w/doors

Campfire?

Old floor stripped, ready for new

Carlos laying down mudroom floor

Sweet!

Corner bench in shower

Days 63-67 - Sideways

OK, so what's with the long breaks between blog posts lately? I know, I know. Let me just say that last week was totally consumed by paint color selection. This is embarrassingly ridiculous. I have not sweat many of the bigger decisions of this project - and yet, I was completely stressed out by trying to choose interior paint colors. I just don't trust that I have any skills in this area - and even though paint color can always be changed, let's be realistic here. After going through all this work this summer, do we really think I am going to impulsively repaint any of these rooms? Nope.

The good news is ... a) we have finalized our paint colors, and b) we are at the point in this project when they are painting the walls! That is awesome - we appear to be getting really close to wrapping this thing up! But I digress. More on paint and painting later.

Last week, Byron and the guys put the Hardie siding on the kitchen side of the house. This was the second of two "old sides" (the part of the house that did not get renovated). They replaced the trim around the windows, added trim around the corners of the house, and started rebuilding the deck/stairs off the kitchen door.

Hi Byron!

Outside view

Siding is up

Steps in progress

And another shot of the back, showing the completed soffit and siding, tying in the old roof line with the new roof line - well done, guys!

Days 60-62 - On the side

While the plaster is drying inside, Bob's guys have been busy outside the house. Byron and Ervin finished stripping the old shingles off the remaining two sides of the house, and they demoed the old deck and stairs by the kitchen door.

Back, stripped down

Hello, Byron! Replacing the window sill ...

Halfway there

Done!

Here's the before shot of the side:

Watch those steps

No sweat for Byron!

And here they are in the front yard? (on the way to the dumpster!)

Byron and Ervin stripping the shingles

Now this side is ready for the Hardie plank

Meanwhile, they've also been painting all the trim on the exterior, which often means balancing at the top of a very tall ladder while holding a paint brush in one hand ....

Help! No fear of heights here!

Days 59 and 60 - We got plastered!

Well, the walls, that is.

Alberto and a crew of about 7 plasterers showed up first thing Wednesday morning. Now, it's just not every day that your living room is filled with a bunch of guys wearing stilts, plastering the walls, and speaking only in Italian. I felt obliged to text a few of my single friends, just to let them know ...

Alberto is a super nice guy - I really enjoyed chatting with him about Italy. Turns out he is from a town very close to Terracina, the town where my grandmother came from. He and his guys did a great job, and plastered the whole house in two days.

Taping and prepping walls (I love it when they smile for my pictures!)

They hit the seams first

Finishing up living room/family room area

On Thursday, they were back and headed upstairs to do the second floor. Before they started, Byron took down the temporary door that was separating our living space from the new hall and bedrooms. I love to see it all open now - the longer hallway makes it feel so much bigger already. But we will miss living in our little "bubble." We are now all as one - old house, renovated space, new addition.

The "wall" comes down!

Here's the hallway, opened up and plastered

Master bedroom 

And for those of you who were asking for some video of the plastering goings-on (and you know who you are), here you go: