Amber and Dave hitting the prime time

                 Gary and his crew finished up doing an amazing job on the drywall Friday afternoon.  I would highly recommend his company.  They are fast, friendly and the seams disappeared after only one coat of primer.  If you need any drywall finishing done the following is a link to his business page on facebook.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Garys-Drywall-Finishing/101556803221465
                  With the walls ready to go Amber and I spent Friday night vacuuming up every bit of dust in the house, scraping the floors and getting ready to Prime the walls.  Which is exactly what happened on Saturday morning.  We mixed up five gallons of primer and set out to get things done.  As far a the painting went it was really really fun and exciting to actually be painting at the beginning, then slightly less fun because of the monotony, then really really fun again because of all the paint fumes.  After the weekend though we ended up getting the majority of the upstairs primed and ready for paint as well as a decent portion of the downstairs.  The goal is to have everything primed and ready for paint by Wednesday, and all the paint work done by or before the end of next weekend.

Beautifully sanded drywall

Drywall is Done

Setting up to Vacuum

Primer Stirred and Ready

Primer!

Prime like a number

Amber Priming  the walls 

Priming the Vault

Rolling like Rick Astley

Long Hours

The past week has been spent putting down the cement board in the kitchen and bathrooms during the evenings, while Gary's Drywall Finishing muds and tapes during the day.  With the exception of a few leaks in the water lines (soon to be fixed) things keep progressing on schedule.  The paint was ordered this evening as well so some point soon we should have 30 or so gallons of primer and paint, color "falling snow".  This week I am hoping to get some brick work started on the basement stairs in the evenings.  Other than that it looks like painting the interior will start sometime in the the next week or so.

Taping in progress

Cement Floor for Stone Tile

Bathroom Cement Floor 

Gary's Gear and Handiwork 

Progress

Leaks Fixed and Cement down in upstairs bathroom

Finishing the drywall, time for the drywall finishers!

     The past weekend was one where everything finally came together.  The weather was great, Amber Doug and I timed the tasks correctly, and for once we accomplished more than we had set out thinking we could.
      First and foremost all the drywall is hung and the finishers should be in mid week.  That being said there was a lot of detail that went into getting to that point.  Amber worked all weekend filling the first of two dumpsters with the scrapped drywall and making sure the floors were clear of tripping hazards, while I finished framing in a closet and the archways.  Once the Dumpster was filled and the arches built we last piece of wall was put up, then we danced the drywall dance and got drinks.
     What really made the weekend though was today was as productive as yesterday.  Amber measured and cut all the corner beads while I went around and tacked them in place.  I had initially thought this would take quite a bit of time, however we had it finished in a few hours and got a chance to take back a pile of returns that had been building up the past few months.  But wait there's more.  Since the sun was out and it was still early afternoon we went room by room gathering up tools, screws, nails, trash, lumber, and anything else under foot, organized it and then moved it out of the way of the finishers (to the basement).  It is a very strange thing, but the spaces are open, all the walls are in place, and probably by the 21st we should have the painting started.  So nights and weekends with great help do move mountains.

Amber filled the dumpster without an inch to spare

An Excellent Dumpster company to rent from extremely helpful and accommodating

Entry Way Barrel arches

Closer look at the arch

Entry Closet

Building the Arch

Installing the arches

Putting up the "Last" piece of drywall (it turns out that it was actually the second to last)

Unfinished interior doors

Lonely sawhorses

Corner Beaded Drywall

More Corner Beading

Drywall & Sheet Rock

The past few weeks have been concentrated on putting up the remainder of the drywall.  My goal this weekend was to have all the drywall finished so the corner bead could be put up in the up and coming week, but I will settle for what we did get done (Two bathrooms and the remainder of the ceilings).  Hopefully this week the remainder of the gypsum can be placed since there are only about forty or so small pieces to go.  So the past few weeks have been more or less the same as the past few months, but with the weather breaking all the gaps should fill in in the evenings after the 9-5.  Which means that the drywall finisher can get in mid april and Amber and I will have it painted by the end of the month (fingers crossed)

Upstairs bathroom cement board tub enclosure

Upstairs bathroom mold resistant drywall

Downstairs bathroom shower stall

More shower stall

Standing back looking at the peak

Ceiling of the great room finished

Windows, Work, & Negative Space

     Friday after work Amber and I started on what may be the last part of the house that needs to be torn out.  By eight or so in the evening all the windows were out and the frames were prepped and ready to go.  Since the old frames could be reused on the second floor it drastically reduced the amount of time needed to put in the new ones.  Doug manned the ladder and kept the windows from falling outwards while they were screwed in place from the inside.

     Once the windows were in we started putting in the roof vents.  It isn't particularly showy though it needed to be finished and the weather was perfect for it.  So the remainder of the morning was spent on the roof cutting out new vent holes, repairing areas where old ones were, and taking down the chimney stack.  At about this point Doug decided to test the water pressure in the lines, and discovered that there were a few places where the ends weren't capped.  At least it was relatively warm for the shower though.

    We ended up making a little progress on Sunday, but everyone was pretty worn out, it was cold, and at about four the hail started.  Today though is threatening to be a beautiful spring day, so I think the day off will come later this week and I will work at finishing up some exterior brick repairs tonight. 

First window out

Pulling out the old windows

Rotting trim coming out as well

Getting out the bottom window

The structure without windows

A cyclops for a house

Filling in the empty sapces

Cyclops to biclops

Remains of the old chimney stack

Only the carbon shows where the old stack was

looking out some great new windows

repairing the exterior

Men & Women at work



 Over the past week there have been any number of substantial changes to the project.  On paper they sound more or less like the past few posts...we put in drywall and put up walls, ceilings... etc.  Which is indeed what we did, but things are flying now and the past week has garnered a great deal of progress.  Amber has been a good sport shimming out walls and stuffing insulation into all the cracks around the windows and doors.  Doug has shown up here and there as well to help put up the ceilings in a few of the rooms.  Beyond that, a lot of wall went up in the past week and even an exterior door transformed into an interior wall.  I had a few exciting moments, like falling off a ladder for instance or having a pile of lumber fall on your hand.  Lots of fun but wouldn't recommend either for it for most people.  We keep on keeping on though and here is the proof:

Putting the last piece of ceiling up in the Dining room

Damn fine ceiling

Finished up most of the Laundry Room though we have to reroute some of the internals

Still finishing the SOB Dining room ceiling

BAM used to be the Den's Doorway now its on the way to being a Kitchen pantry

The Sheathed Ex-Den Door and also in the foreground is the pile of wood that decided to fall and take a sizable chunk out of my hand (picture post fall)

Our new bathroom faucets have arrived!



Uninterested in work Chess is living(sleeping) the dream