Woodwork is Done!

Our woodworking brothers came over and did a bunch of stuff.  They finished off our cabinet tops, sides and some mouldings on the floor.  They finished the mouldings in the bathroom.  They finished the dining room built-in with the original wood from the original built-in.  They finished in 4 hours and did a great job - but now we just have to get back in the home improvement spirit to caulk and paint!

Built-In Before

Built-In After

Bathroom Window Before

Bathroom Window After

Cabinets Before

Cabinets After

Cabinets Before

Cabinets After

I was so very happy with their work - fast and good!  If anyone around here needs woodwork done - give me a call and I'll give you these brothers number to you.  They were outstanding!

Waiting & Woodwork

So, yeah, the siding for our house is behind on the shipping front.  Or maybe that's just what the contractor told me to stall coming back.  Either way, I don't really care - because once it's done, we'll have to worry about tackling that front yard.  Don't get me wrong, I'm excited to have a better looking front yard than the disaster that is out there now, but I really don't want to do any of the work to get to that point.  The siding should be in June 1st and they'll be over after that. 

In my spare time, I've been scraping the lead paint off the ceiling of the porch.  We're not in too much of a rush to finish it, but it will be nice when it's done inside.

On the flip side, we're excited that the wood guys are coming Saturday.  They are going to finish up our kitchen cabinets, our half bath moulding and some mouldings in the dining room.  Hopefully that will make a big difference and after some painting - it will be safe to say that everything on the first floor besides the front hall way will be "done".  And yeah, we're getting rid of the blue in the kitchen because it just isn't for us.  We're going to try a light brown.  We'll see how that turns out.

Stairs Are Almost Done

So even though the guys said they weren't coming back today, Mother Nature decided to plop some rain on us tomorrow, so they swung by today to do a lot of the steps to stay ahead.  They were only here for 4 hours, but got a lot of the stairway knocked out.

Part of the way we tried to "save" money is to have them not finish off the inside of the porch.  We'll get to that whenever we can.  We have our work cut out for us:

A Door and Some Wood...

The men were back today to do some more stuff.  Apparently there was a little confusion with our porch - they thought we wanted the whole thing sided, but we really wanted white wood all around the windows.  Well I honestly didn't really care, but that's what James wanted.  So I fought for my husband (I actually just told the guys that we wanted it to look different than originally planned....).  So we had to shell out a little more money for "fancy" wood but in the long run, it will be fine.  On the flip side, when we got an estimate for the porch, we told them not to include a new door - but today, a door was delivered!  So I say it sort of evens itself out with the door and the wood.  Here are the latest updated pictures:

Since they can probably finish the stairs and the siding in one day, they probably won't be back until the siding is in (earliest would be Friday - unless we get lucky).  They've said they have had the siding come in earlier than expected, right on time, or even a few weeks late.  So honestly, who knows when they'll be back.  I know they will be back though - I still owe them money! 

The Windows Are In!

The porch guys were back this morning to get to work.  A good surprise happened:  The windows came in today (they were suppose to come in next Friday).  So the guys got them in.  They also started the staircase.  They are taking the weekend off and will be back Monday morning to finish up almost everything but the siding.  Here's what the porch looks like now after today's work:

Porch Update

The guys came back to do more work on the porch today.  They were successful in digging 4 ft. holes according to our town's building inspector.  That's good to know.  They poured the concrete yesterday so that was pretty boring.  Today they started framing in the porch and got rid of our walk way - which has made me realize that we will have a lot of landscaping to do once all is said and done.  Here are today's pictures:

Here are the guys jackhammering the walkway away.

Framing has started and they took away the supports.

They'll be back tomorrow to finish up the framing and start the stairs.  They went to get the siding today - but didn't realize how "old" it was and had to special order it.  That won't be in for 2 weeks so once the framing is done, we'll have to wait a week or 2 for the windows and siding to be put on.  Maybe James can throw in the outside light during that time since that is suppose to be done before the final inspection.

New Front Porch - Day 1

The contractor guys came today.  I could have sworn they said they would be here at 8 - but they were here at 6:30.  They got the front porch torn apart and started building the floor to the new one.  Tomorrow, some inspector guy has to come and measure some holes to make sure they are to code - so the guys won't be back until Wednesday or Thursday.  They said they should be done (for the most part) on Friday or Monday - but unfortunately, the windows won't be in until next Friday - so it will be about 2 weeks until everything is complete. 

Here's some pictures of the work they did so far:

Here's our old porch in the dumpster.

One angle.

Ooohhhh....

Ahhhh....

Front Porch Preparations!

We are very excited - the first "major" home improvement that we hired someone to do is starting this coming Monday.  The new front porch!  We decided to go with an enclosed front porch since we could really use some extra space to store shoes, coats and toys.  Even though we really like the open porch - we aren't really "sit on out there and drink lemonade in our rocking chair people."  So enclosed it is. 

I'm really freaking out about the aesthetics of this project.  This project could totally change the look of the house and I really don't want it to look all ghetto.  So we surprisingly didn't go the "cheapest" route with some things.  My "big" issue with this porch is the windows.  I want real windows.  James wants the door to line up with the real door - and I personally wanted the porch door centered.  I let James win that fight.  He in turn supports my need for flower boxes some day. 

These are my last "pre-construction" photos:

Oh - and then I let out a little aggression with the Sawsall...I told the contractor he could just get rid of that big bush.  He said "no problem - they'll cut it first thing and throw it in the dumpster."  I couldn't pass up the opportunity to Sawsall anything:

One thing I will miss about the new porch:  It won't be held up by tree trunks.  That is really keeping it old school, but I think current building law says that concrete is stronger than tree trunks these days:

Under the current porch.

A close up of one of the beloved tree trunks.

I'll take pictures during construction because I'm gay like that.  I'm excited.  I just hope I stay that way after the finish product is unveiled. 

Plaster Time!

The other day, we had a plasterer come by to finally finish off the Dining Room and some misc. holes we had around the house.  Here are some pictures:

He said for the best outcome, wait at least a week to paint.  That's okay - we'll wait a week because we have to do the mouldings.  Actually - we're very excited because the plasterer we found knows some cabinet brothers.  They came on by and gave us a great estimate to finish off our cabinets and other misc. wood work around the house.  We only justify hiring these people by this simple rule:  If James works a Saturday (at the present time, he works every Saturday...), it's time being away from home and spent on home improvements.  So for every Saturday he works (there have been MANY)...we justify it in our head that as long as the job costs less than what he gets paid for a Saturday, the person or persons are hired!  This is a great mentality we have developed...