Sunday, March 8

Last Thursday, it was time for Bruce and me to get busy and do some painting. Whew, nothing like a little repetitive motion to remind you of your age! Our elbows and shoulders are sore. We primed the 2 bedrooms, bathroom, and hallway, and have painted all but the north bedroom so far. We will finish up today and be ready for whatever Monday brings!

 

south bedroom

 hallway from garage angle

hallway looking toward door to rest of house

hallway from same spot looking toward garage

 hall bathroom

 handy little niche coming soon!

 Bruce, hard at work in north bedroom

Mar. 2-4

Well, the work has continued, but I haven't updated as much because the focus has been floor prep and drywall work, and the result is varying shades of white or brown, a lot of dust, and nothing that looked too dramatic through the camera lens. But now, the changes are pretty cool.
Oh, and we also got new windows. We were surprised that it took extra effort to get windows that were not white on the outside. With a brown house, that would have looked bad. We did have to settle for white on the inside.

Windows:

      front bedroom (yes, we'll paint the trim)

 Master bedroom

Drywall:

Once there was a door...

 Now there isn't!

Texturing:

We had 3 surfaces to choose from. Yes, this is a photo of them, but it's not too helpful. 

We opted for the highest texture level, based on the recommendations from the experts. We are happy with it!

still drying, but it helps to see it.

Bathroom tile:

Crispin has worked hard several days in a row. It is taking shape! You also get to see the new window in the hall bathroom here.

 Putting on the waterproof sealant.

Feb. 16 - 19

We are definitely moving into the "remodel" aspect and out of the "demo" phase! Very exciting!!
This week the electrical work has been completed, and our circuit box is now on the outside of the house instead of in the back guest room.

 The circuits in the panel will be labelled when all the electrical work is finished.

The rest of the old flooring is out and there is new plywood in preparation for the bamboo flooring to come.

 Front bedroom from pocket door entrance.

The sheet rockers came today and got all the walls done. Tomorrow they'll tape, then begin applying the mud and texturing.

 Back bedroom

 Front bedroom, minus a doorway!

 Back hallway from the garage.

Feb. 9 - 11

We have had a few days of "down time", since we are waiting for some inspections to happen.  Bruce and I decided to clean up the outside space on the north side of the house. There have been 2 large random piles of firewood out there, for, well, they've been there several years, actually. Our former renter told us that the unstacked stuff was the newest, so we haven't been in a big hurry to do anything with it.
As well as the piles of firewood, we had the remains of the "pump house" to clean up, since workers have put the new hot water heater and pressure tank into the garage closet. Might as well take care of that too.
We spent 2 days on it, and this is what we got done.

Before:

AFTER:

So, just one example of the progress so far: two weeks from one viewpoint in the back bedroom:

new door is framed, electrical panel is on inside

New door installed

electrical panel is worked on

View through the door now that wood piles are gone.

Day 6

The plumber came today, so the pipes for hall bathroom are in, and so is the tub.

He and his crew were also going to move our pressure tank from the old outdoor shed into a closet in the garage. They discovered a leaking bladder inside the old one, so now we have a new pressure tank as well as the new hybrid hot water heater we bought last summer. Here you see that the old shed is gone. You can also see the new exterior door off the back bedroom.

Here is the new location for the tank and water heater.

 This closet was formerly the germination room for a renter's "cash crop". We decided to leave all the great insulation...just in case it comes in handy for something.

Here's an interior view of the new door off the back bedroom. That opening to the crawl space below the house will be relocated soon!

The carpenters continue to work on getting old flooring up, and to frame for new doors.

This will be where a new hall closet will go near the entrance to the master suite.

Demo Day 5

The front bedroom now has a framed opening for the pocket doors, one window will be a bit larger, and much of the carpeting is out.

(pretty soon we won't be able to take a photo from here because the doorway will be gone)

The back bedroom carpet and hallway flooring is also gone. Turns out there is some particle board sub-flooring that has to go as well.

Days 3 & 4

On Jan. 30, the new window for the hall bathroom was framed and all molding removed from the hallway.

On Monday, Feb. 2 (Happy Groundhog's Day!!!) the bookshelves in back bedroom were pulled out and new exterior door framed.

Then the work to remove some of a wall in the hallway began. This will become a double pocket door into the front bedroom.

We are saving some minor costs by doing the clean up at the end of each day.