Vacation, Life and Fortunate events

               Though Amber and I have not posted lately we have been at work.  Well for the most part at work.  The Hiatus started with a long weekend and then turned into general life which is unpredictable.  The long weekend to visit family was amazing and took place in Orlando, (to boot the weather beat MI's).  Following up to that was the East Lansing art fair which is pretty much a holiday on its own.  Though despite it being a holiday we managed to get all the wood floors unloaded and stacked.  The curve ball and fortunate event was that Doug wasn't killed by a falling tree.  True he does have a fractured jaw..., but he walked away from underneath a 40000# tree.  That being said his studio was totaled and the family and extended family crew worked long hours scrapping and tearing down.
                 I am not sure where the pictures of the damage are, but I'm more about progress anyway so here is where the house stands now....

building the arch

keystone in place

curve in tact

spiral to match the stairs

pseudo wine cellar

the start to a great Gothic basement staircase

Lights

Painting is Done, Moving on to Floors and Fixtures

Between Amber Doug and myself we had the whole house painted by the end of Saturday afternoon and it looks great.  The paint covered in one coat and we ended up having a few gallons extra for any inevitable touch ups we might have.  With the painting done Amber started install the outlets and cover plates while I started wiring in light fixtures.  One of the best points of the weekend happened while Amber and I were looking around the place and realized that the trash being produced wasn't sawdust, or plaster, or chunks of drywall, but it was packaging.  Open and install kind of packaging.  The kind of packaging that indicates an end in sight.  Needless to say though we didn't stop on just plates and fixtures.  When Sunday rolled around we started to dry fit the granite tile and finished the majority of two rooms.  We have a few more pieces to cut and fit, but we should be able to get that taken care of this evening along with setting at least some of the rooms with mortar.  The new goal now is to have all the tile grouted by the end of the week.  

Stone Tile and Spacers

Amber's Paint Covered Hand

I know that there have been a lot of "white wall" type pictures lately but the distinction
of this one is finished fixtures and  Halos on the can lights

No more Gaping Hole

Outlet Covers

Switch Covers

Dry Fitting the Bathroom floors

The First Real Light of the place

Amber Setting Faceplates

Conduit Box Plate

Cutting Tile

Painted and Lit Up!

Spaced and Ready For Thinset

Laying out the Kitchen

Trying to find a straight line

The Pattern Emerges

Pieces Should be mortared some point this week

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