Progress to Date - Upstairs Addition

We have a list of little things that still need to happen, but the biggest job is the final electrical work. The electrician has been rather unreliable as far as showing up goes. Ray has been after him, but I wouldn't be surprised if it takes another two weeks before it's done. With the refinishers coming soon, we want to get the wallpapering done, and we have yet to paint Dan's room. Still, we're getting close.

We have one more coat of paint to apply to the bathroom and the new master. We decided to wallpaper the lower 36" of wall in the master, and we've bought the paper and border for that. We have not painted in Dan's room yet, but we can't put that off much longer. We also have a jungle print border that he wants for his room.

We're discussing paint and wallpaper for the bedrooms, so we'll prime everything, and have them install the floors while we figure out what we want to do. We picked out the tile for the bathroom floor and tub area, so that can also be worked on.

We're trying to figure out the best way to schedule the hardwood floor refinishing in the bedrooms. All three need it done, and the current master, which will become Mandy's room, needs new wallpaper or paint as well. The contents of the master bedroom and Mandy's bedroom need to be switched, leaving each room empty long enough for the refinishers to take care of the floors. This is really cutting into our sailing time.

The bedrooms have been rocked and are in the process of being taped. Heating runs are in place, and the bathroom run has been moved from its silly location right behind the door. Rocking of the bathroom should be done in a couple of days, but Ray is going to hook up our outside water faucets so we can water the garden. Since temperatures are into the seventies now, he's having the A/C guy come and reconnect the compressor unit next week.

Things are still pretty chaotic in the rest of the house, but we're putting things away as we can. Soon the closets will be usable, and that will really help out. Ray is very good about cleaning up at the end of each day, but the cat always finds the ladder.

And here we have two shots of the bathroom, with out almost-functional sink and vanity. Ray had to return the first top he had picked up - it had some scuffing along one side. By the time that was done, there was no time left for the plumber. You can see a little of the jacuzzi tub with fashionable plastic sheet curtains. Since we have no faucet with a shower stopper yet, we plugged the tub spigot with a rubber plug and secured it with duct tape. Now we can take showers with no trouble.

In the second bathroom photo, the toilet is sitting right where the old back wall of the house used to be. We've more than doubled the floorspace in the bathroom, and it feels huge. Pretty soon, we'll be ready for electrical and plumbing inspections. Then we can see how well the jacuzzi works.

Julie picked out the countertop, but isn't telling me what it is. She said I'll see when it comes in.

There was a little delay getting the custom trusses, so while he was waiting Ray ripped out half the old kitchen cabinets and put new ones in. He reconnected the sink over an old piece of countertop so we'd have use of it. The downside is that my couch, dining room table, and a card table are covered with boxes of kitchen utensils, plates, cups, and everything else that was in the cabinets. But the old back wall of the kitchen will come down Friday or Monday and the rest of the cabinets will be installed. Then we get to put it all away.

My living room is also crowded. The dining table is covered with the contents of half the kitchen cabinets, with overflow spilling onto a card table. The new kitchen appliances were delivered today - the oven sits next to the dining table. The fridge is in front of the emtpy space were the old fridge sat. Quite a place to live.

Ray thinks the roof will be finished this week. If he gets stuck waiting for materials (the vaulted ceiling trusses have yet to be delivered), he'll take out the old oven, stove, and surrounding cabinets and install the new stuff on that wall (pictured at right).

Now that the snow is melting, I find the front yard covered in dog droppings. Once the house is sealed and we can use the back door, I'll have Ray put up a temporary fence between the house and garage so I can let the dogs out back. I spent 45 minutes picking up on Saturday, and only got half of it; the rest is still frozen in the ice. Yuk.

So I left a message on Ray's machine, returned a few minutes later by his dad, Ray Sr. Senior works for/with Ray Jr. and Junior spent the day in bed with the flu. According to Senior, the block layer digs out the rest of the dirt by hand, apparently needing more precision than can be had with a backhoe. I'll trust the experts in this case.

Just so you have a reference, here's what our house looked like from the back before. Julie had just ripped down a little siding from the right side. The dust cloud is from Ray cutting the patio with a diamond-edged saw.

Below you see Dan going to town on the siding, and Mandy wanting nothing to do with it anymore.

Went to Sears and spent *LOTS* of money on a refridgerator, oven and water heater. Delayed delivery on all, of course. Julie bought the Jacuzzi yesterday - yes, we get a Jacuzzi in the bathroom. Gotta love it.

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