Today is the day when things are starting to really come together. There was a flurry of activity going on at the house. Counter-top installers, soffit going up on the back porch, plumbers moving the two claw-foot tubs into place and the stairs are looking better and better.
What a fantastic way to end the year. Not moved in, but darn near close. Tomorrow the heating contractor is coming out to check the heat pumps and see what is making the bills so high. Then on Monday the flooring contractor will be coming and putting in the laminate flooring in the utility room and small 1/2 bath and finish up the master shower. Plumbers and electricians will be in after that to install the water heater, cook top, oven, sinks and tubs and a bunch of other stuff.
How am I going to spend my New Years Day? I will be staining stairs. Now that aught to be a sight. Lets hope I remember some of the stuff I learned watching This Old House, Norm Abrams, and various other DIY shows. Plus if I reach way back to the late 70’s when I worked in a cabinet shop, I might remember a thing or two from then.
Now for some pictures.
Looking from the pantry toward the kitchen. Waiting on the dishwasher & trash compactorLooking toward the breakfast nook. New counter tops and my cast iron sinkLooking toward the soon to be oven and microwaveThis is our little sandwich board
Now for the baths. Oh, and the faucets and chrome lines were just delivered by the UPS guy today. Wahoo!!!!
The long tub in the main bath upstairsThe shorter tub in the guest suite
This last picture is just for Jodi, my sweet co-worker that will be viewing this tomorrow. My Christmas cactus still lives 🙂
This is for Jodi. My Christmas Cactus finally bloomed after a year. Lucky it thrives on neglect.
More blog to come as this project gets closer and closer to completion. I will have a hard time sleeping tonight.
I know this is a little late for Christmas, but I still feel it in the air. Been busy packing and working and painting and caulking… on and on. Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas spending time with family and friends. That makes for a beautiful Christmas’. We didn’t really celebrate much this time as we are in the middle of finishing so many projects. Hoping that we will be able to move into our new house sometime in February.
That progress at this time is: Most of the trim is down and waiting on the counter tops and some flooring. The counter-top will be installed on Tuesday the 30th. The guys have been working on the stairs and they are going to look amazing. All the appliances have to be installed and the 2 claw-foot tubs have to be installed. The faucets and plumbing items are purchased and should be delivered by the 5th.
My son Steven will be coming to stay with us for awhile so he can get registered and, hopefully, accepted into the nursing program at WWCC. It is his dream to be a nurse, and I want to do all I can to help him recognize his dream. Bonus is, he will be a lot of help around here. Never realized how limited we have become in this past year. Everything seems harder and seems to take a long longer to accomplish. Just need to set goals and keep working toward those goals.
I did get a rude awakening when I got my power bill this month. It was $799+ for one month. It went from $139 the previous month to $799. To say that took my breath away, would be an under statement. The power company along with the heating company will be coming out to see what is going on. I knew the bills would be higher, but I was not prepared for that. Needless to say that has put a tremendous damper on things around her. Holy molly, cross you fingers and hope it is a malfunctioning meter.
Now for some photos: We will start with the tile in the shower.
Another view of the showerVinyl combo with tile for the tub surround
Still now finished, but I am sure the flooring guy will be a fixture in January.
Then there is the staircase. To say I am excited for the stairs is an understatement. It will be the focus of the house. Lots of natural light and something I can decorate next Christmas. Oh, boy I can’t wait.
Yet another view of the stairs. They will be stained after they are installed.The railing is going up in the reading nook
Stairs are going in
The guys also installed the French pocket doors in the upstairs bonus room (aka man-cave). Also, I found an entertainment cabinet that I am going to use as a wet-bar sink. Our little wet-bar is only about 3X4 and I had to get creative. Excited about how it is going to turn out. Not much of a drinker, but it could be a coffee bar. I love coffee.
Interior French pocket doors
A media center will be our new wet-bar
While working all the time, leaves little time for anything else, I did take a moment to snap a few photos of our really muddy April. She is our little yard ornament and can’t figure out what the fuss is about. Looking forward to spring when everything greens up and we have warmer days. Then we can look out our front windows or sit on the front porch and watch her play.
Dirty AprilApril wanting to know where the carrot is hiddenApril looking for Papa.. He’s her favorite
She has a stable mate, Buckwheat the llama, but he wasn’t having anything to do with the photo shoot.
More photos and more blog through-out January. Hoping our move-in date will be real soon 🙂
Its Friday and tomorrow is the beginning of another painting weekend. We have had the worst weather with freezing fog and freezing rain. So I have been slipping and sliding through the last 3 days. Though, I did make it over to the house to take pictures of the cabinets.
Jerry’s Custom Cabinets did a fabulous job on the cabinets. He was just short a piece of molding around the upper cabinet but that will be along. Another item that we will be doing tomorrow is going and picking out the knobs/handles. I really wanted to see the finished cabinets before I picked out the hardware. I love the simple lines and all the additional items like the lazy-susan’s and the full extension draws and pull-out shelves. They are very high quality and craftsmanship at its best. I will highly recommend him to anyone that asks.
They will be measuring and making a template for the granite counter tops on Tuesday. They are darker and will complement the lighter cabinets.
It is starting to sink in that this is almost done. It is so unbelievable and we have waited so long. Paying a mortgage on your dream home is well worth it. Rather than living in a house with a mortgage and trying to build your dream house with what is left over. That meaning: money and energy.
Now for the pictures:
This is the upper next to the refrigerator, aka Lynn’s sandwich cabinetThese are the doors to that cabinetLooking at the uppers installed to the right of the window next to the oven cabinetThis is the glass cabinet I wanted for my dishesThis is the cook top peninsulaThis 1 of 2 lower cabinet lazy-susan’sThis is the upper lazy-susan. Humm what am I going to put in there?
More pictures to come when we get the counter tops. In the meantime they will be finishing up the trim and in January will be putting in the stairs and carpeting. Completing the plumbing and electrical. Stay tune and thanks for following my blog.
This is what I call my approach to decorating our new/old house. Definitely Victorian outside, but my husband tends toward the Midevial. We have had a few conflicting words over this and I have lost, at least in his man-cave bonus room. Compromise, that is what I call it.
But with the decorations and vanities and lights, it is definitely Eclectic. I believe that a house is just a structure until you add your personal touches and move in, then it comes alive. Have you ever noticed that when a house sits empty it falls into disrepair quicker? Houses definitely have a feel in them. Such is the little house that we live in now. When we bought it, it was in bad shape on the inside and outside too. But when I stepped inside it felt warm to the heart. I could see past the holes in the walls and the rundown condition into what it was before and could be again. At the time we purchased it, our intent was to fix it up and sell it. Instead we fixed it up on the inside and then moved in and have been living here about 12 years. It is a very comfortable little house, but we were still building our dream house next door. So temporally, our attention was diverted to this house. We are now focused on the Dream Home again and it is getting closer to being finished. So this little gem will go on the market or be rented out.
It still needs a little TLC on the outside and the yards are in need of a sprinkler system and sod.
Back to the Dream House.
Well they have been installing the vinyl planking in the bathrooms and laminate flooring in the kitchen; breakfast nook; and family room. The dining room and entry will also get laminate flooring. The rest will be carpeted after the doors and trim are installed.
The electrician has been tenacious in getting all the light installed. He will be returning when we get the cabinets.
It is really getting exciting. I have to get my trusty little paint brush out and get ready to paint all that trim. I am really excited with how far it has come. We may possibly get it completed just shy of 20 years, so I can be patient for another few months. Now for the pictures. I took most of these tonight.
Light in the upstairs main bath.
Entry Chandelier. This is one that we bought years ago and it was still in the box. I don’t like it as much now as I did then. But with the budget dwindling, it will do.
The chandelier will look much better when the stair railings are installed. The space is starting to breathe. You see the windows? Well we have 44 of them. Love lots of light.
Family room closet, laminate flooringFamily Room, Laminate flooringDear hubby insisted on chandeliers in the master bath.Lights in the master bath over the vanity when we finally get it in the houseFront door with side carriage lights.Main upstairs bath. Vinyl plankingSmall bath room in the guest suite. Vinyl planking
Well that’s all folks for now. More updates posted this coming weekend.
Spending time working on the home that we live in. Getting it ready to go on the market. Spend the morning pulling weeds and getting some much needed yard work done. I will be glad when I only have one place to keep up. Even though it will be 7 acres, many of the acres will be pasture and maybe we will have some more livestock to help keep the mowing to a minimum.
Now to the Dream Home. The plumbing and electrical are being installed. Also Grassi Refrigeration is installing 2 heat exchangers and I think one heat pump. That is so out of my realm of expertise, I just let them do their thing. They are a sub-contractor for S & K Mountain Construction. The plan is that one unit will supply the heating and cooling to the upstairs and the other will supply the heating and cooling to the main floor. The duct work will be in the ceiling in the upstairs and in the floor on the main floor. The duct work is wrapped and insulated. The house will have insulation in all the walls and in the attic and also under the floor. I sure hope it makes for a cozy home. We have a total of 44 windows to let in the light.
The master bath has the tub framed-in, just waiting for the insulation and drywall to be installed then the hydro-tub can go in.
Master Bath Tub Framing
Here is another picture of the Master Bath. The shower will be a curbless, and sandwiched between two closets. This has a vaulted ceiling. Actually the bathroom is larger than the Master Bedroom. Never gave it too much thought, but who really needs a bathroom that big. Though it is nice.
Master Bath, Vaulted ceilings. The shower will be where the ladder is
We did make the laundry/utility room 4 foot deeper and that is a good thing, as that is where the heat exchanger will be for the main floor. It is going in quickly. I have a more complete photo that I will post tomorrow. Here it is beginning to go in.
First floor furnace goes in.
Off of this utility room is a back porch. Done in redwood, it looks wonderful. Can’t wait to stain it. I like it stained redwood. Which is what I want all the decks and porches to be on the house. The main back deck has grayed since we put it in 2012, so I need to power wash it and stain it with the redwood stain. Not fond of the gray patina. They are also beginning to put in the upper deck which has been waterproofed so that it doesn’t leak onto the below deck. I believe that will be a porch where we will spend a lot of time.
Porch off the utility room
Tomorrow I will post some updated photos. These are about 2 weeks old.
I can’t say enough good about the contractor we hired. S & K Mountain Construction has been wonderful. Their work is top notch, and they are great to work with. Gabe their foreman stays right on top of things and he has an awesome memory. We try not to make many changes as we don’t want to exceed our budget.
See you tomorrow. Taking this Monday off work to catch up on many of the things I need to get done. I guess I’ll rest in December 🙂
A three day weekend. Don’t we all look forward to those? Well it has been such a long time since I have just done nothing on the weekend. It appears it will be a little bit longer. So let me fill you in on how this 3 day weekend progressed.
Friday, a day off, yeah. Got up late about 7:30 and went grocer shopping. First things first. When we came home about noon I went over to get the shakes finished for the house. Have one more coat of the red around the edges, then two coats of the sage green. It’s warm but tolerable. That took most of the day. 70 shakes are done. I hope that is enough.
Wanted to get to painting the house, but decided to primer some of the railings on the porch of the house we are living in. It needs to go on the market as soon as possible. Which means that I need to get the back porch finished. Just some painting then we need to put the ceiling in. Geez, no rest this weekend.
Saturday, the 4th of July. I may be driven to get these things done on my days off, but Lynn is having cabin fever so we need to take some leisure time. On the three holidays of the summer; Memorial Day; 4th of July; and Labor Day, we like to go to Sumpter Oregon to a city wide yard/flea market. It is an old mining town about 27 miles from Baker City. Lynn still isn’t getting around very well and has lots of pain in his back and legs. But, if nothing else, he gets to go on a road trip. About 170 miles from home. Beautiful day, a little warm but not too bad. Our treasures weren’t much. I found a foot stool for $20 and we bought a couple of baseball type caps. Although we did enjoy a very nice early dinner at the Sumpter Junction Restaurant on the way back.
Sunday. Got up about 7:30 again, turning into a lazy hillbilly sleeping in that late. It is going to be in the mid 90’s this afternoon, so not a time for working in the heat. First things first. Need to get that post in the paddock reset and the gates hung. That is the post which was knocked over when we had some work done this winter. We had a busted pvc irrigation pipe break in our pasture in the same hole. It was attached to that post. Fixed the pipe earlier in the spring, but hadn’t gotten back to resetting that post. It’s a large 10 ft. post (railroad tie). We did get that set, but Lynn just wasn’t doing well so we didn’t get the gates repaired and hung. Maybe later.
I decided that I needed to get the back yard of the house that we are going to sell trimmed and watered. It is Kinzie’s playground. Our beautiful collie. The back yard has 1 pear (Bartlett); 1 plum; 5 apple trees; and some champagne grapes. There are also some elderberry plants too. This year it appears we are going to have a bumper crop of all of them. Got them sprayed early for the coddling moths which decimates them, so we may actually get to eat some this year. We also have two very large black walnut trees back there that need trimming. Have to build up the courage to use the chain saw again. But at least I can get the clean-up work done, if I take lots of water breaks and not overdo it.
Then there are the domestic duties. A bit overwhelmed. But when I see progress it is all worth it.
And I promised some photos of the inside of the house. It is all skeleton at the moment but that is part of the transformation that I want to show you. The plumbers were here working this week and have some hot and cold pex type lines coming from underneath. The electrician was also there and has started roughing in the electrical. It’s good that they can work inside some this week as the inside of the house is a little cooler than outside and I do have a fan in there for them to use.
The entryway (foyer) looking in from the front door
Looking down the stairs.The kitchen and dining room and the pantry
This is the first week having the contractor on site. Amazing what strong healthy people can get accomplished. Especially when they know what they’re doing. The front of the house is almost done, and the east side of the house is complete. I am loving it. It appears that they will work on the back of the house this week. S & K Mountain Construction is amazing.
East side of the house. Kitchen side on 6-22-14
Looks like I have a whole lot of painting to do. That is my job. Did a little this weekend under the front porch. More pictures on that later. Spent yesterday putting a second coat of white under the eves of the front porch. That is coming along really slow.
Today I spent the morning cleaning up some of the rooms inside, waiting for the sun to move around to the east side of the house. The contractors has a mess that they came into with the house. They did an amazing job cleaning it up. I was just going over some of the rooms that we still had stuff in that needed to be moved to the shop. We left a mess for them to come into. But is is coming along better now.
In the afternoon, I taped off some of the eves and put on a coat of primer. Some of them had actually been primed and painted but the primer didn’t hold up. That was before I found the Kilz Primer. I won’t use anything else, now that I have tested it on the posts and on the shop trim. The placement of our house faces south and that is the extreme weather side. We get strong winds and rain coming out of the south and it is very hard to get paint to adhere to the wood. Over the last 25 years I have had the occasion to try many primers and Kilz is the only one that has held up.
Front finished except for the shakes on the gables 6-22-14Front of the house on 6-22-14
One of the things I am going to have to work on is the posts. Remember they have to be taken apart and a solid core put inside and then glued together and sanded, bondo, and more sanding, then priming and painting. They are very labor intensive, but that is what happens when you think you are getting a bargain and you are just buying something cheaply made. The glue didn’t hold up and they began coming apart. That is when we found they were also hollow. They are much stronger when redone. That means I have to set up an area where I can work on them. Which means that I will be venturing into my husband’s man-cave. But first I need to clear a path, into this sacred space to be able to set up my saw horse table. Ugh, that will take a weekend in itself. Stay tuned.
Back of the house. Will probably be completed this week.
I will take some photos of the inside of the house next week. This way we will have some before and after photos to record this amazing journey.
15yearsandcountingdream 