Party Time

Here are photos from our party Saturday, compliments of my Dad, Mark:



We mostly finished in time for the party Saturday (working right up until party time). We still need to finish hanging some crown moulding, put up the trim around the windows and doors and do some deep cleaning.... but it looked wonderful on Saturday and we are happy to have our house back!!!

Mid-week Hussle

Here is the progress we made this week. We have been working hard every night after work, and were lucky to have some mid-week help from family and friends.


We are done painting. Tomorrow Eric will put up the trim and we will do touch-up work. We also have A LOT of cleaning up to do and putting the house back together again :) We can't wait to show it off on Saturday! Hope to see you then.

Week 17

"It's the final countdown"

This weekend was exclusively spent working on the house and we are making great progress!

I am not feeling very linear tonight, so here are some photos and notes.

Here is Eric working on sanding the ceilings.

As you might recall, we scraped all of the popcorn off the ceilings, but in the living room and kitchen areas the popcorn was painted over and difficult to completely get off of the ceiling. This posed a problem for the finished product, so Eric went back over it with a sander (taking MANY hours) and the finished product was well worth it. It looks smooth and normal and fantastic! My Mom was a great help on Saturday painting doors (in the background of the picture above).

On Friday we put up the LAST wall and decided to leave a gift for the next homeowner-- One of our wedding beer koozies, an empty Pabst and a photo of us with a little note. Egotistical and fun. Here she is:


So Saturday we got the rest of the house ready to paint, and Sunday we had help from friends Heather & Jesse and Nick Martin. We finished priming the main living room, and got the first coat of paint up!
Here is Heather:

... And Nick and Jesse:

Here is the wall in the living room painted. The trim around the windows will be white. The wall color is butter.


Yay! Color!

Week 16: 3 rooms finished!

With a concrete goal of finishing by November 15th, we are really pushing to get things done.
Last week we worked almost every week night, and worked all day Saturday. Sunday we took a break. We went to the Seahawks game and celebrated my birthday.

In the last week we painted, installed trim and painted the trim in the 3 bedrooms.
Here is the office:

And the front bedroom:


We moved all of the furniture into these bedrooms, so we could work efficiently in the living room and kitchen areas. Saturday we finished hanging the last drywall in the kitchen hallway, and will be working to prep the drywall, apply the texture and then paint.

Here is a photo of the fireplace, with the new drywall:

Here is Eric hanging the last of the drywall in the kitchen:


We are still deciding on a paint color for the living room and hallways. Which do you like best?


We expect to have another busy week of working each night, so we will try to post again this week as things move along.

Also, everyone is invited to our house re-warming party on November 15th! Call or email us for details.

We had a ton of fun this weekend, too, celebrating my birthday. Here are some photos from the Seahawks game on Sunday, and dinner with my parents on Friday:

Weekend 15: paint, trim, generous friends

Where to start?

Friday we picked out paint colors (with the help of Christina's Mom, Barbara). Here is what we choose (colors vary by computer screen):

From left to right, the colors are for the living room (beige), office & bathroom (green), kitchen area (this color is not as pink, but more orange or brick-like), front room (blue) and bedroom ('latte').

Saturday we were up bright and early. We had help on Saturday from Christina's parents Mark & Barbara. Saturday we:
- finished the texture in the front bedroom
- finished the drywall prep in the living room
- primed the master bedroom and office!

Here are some photos of Saturday.

Mark & Barbara - painting (and cleaning) pros!

And here is Eric flipping pizza dough for lunch.


Sunday we accomplished:
- fully painting the master bedroom and office ('latte' and 'cypress' respectively).
- purchased trim & started putting the trim up
- primed the front bedroom

A HUGE thanks to our very generous friends:
Jim (who brought fancy tools for the trim)
,
Kate , Heather & Nick.

Here is the crown molding (primed, but not yet painted):

Below is Eric painting a second coat in the master bedroom, and the master bedroom fully painted:



Below is the office fully painted. Trim will be installed, so we did not need to paint right up to the ceiling. We are doing a floor trim, trim around the doors and windows and crown molding.


Here is a photo looking out from the front bedroom. We took down the old paneling around the fireplace and will put fresh drywall around the existing structure.



We heart our friends and family!

Exterior Design

It's never Halloween season without the ceremonial carving of the pumpkin.
Here is my creation this year, with a special thanks to the handy dry-wall saw which totally trumps the usual kitchen knife (although the pairing knife was handy at the end). Thanks, dry-wall saw--- I never knew what I was missing. (and, no... I did NOT use a cheesy kit or stencil for my work of art... lol).


The pictures look way cooler without a flash, but to get the whole affect, you have to also see it with the flash, so you can see that it is attached to a stake with a pirate bandanna :)

Upteenth weekend-- lots done :)

As promised, we got a LOT done this weekend and we are finally starting to see a 'light at the end of the tunnel.' With the help of Don, Eric's Dad in town from Richland WA, we accomplished our goals for the weekend and put in upwards of 16-20 hours.

#1: Don installed the new french doors connecting the living room and third/front bedroom. This was quite a project, as the doors were not pre-hung. Don framed out the door, and hung the door 'from scratch'. They look great. Here are the steps:
a) frame out the door.

b) make all of the measurements and install the frames (a lot more work than I am describing here!)

c) make any last adjustments (ie: for the floor not being straight, etc).

d) - hang the doors! Don is a pro, so they hung right (about) the first time. Here is Eric, excited.

e) install drywall around the door opening:


#2 Get as much drywall prepped as possible (ie hang, mud, sand & repeat x3).
We finished most of the house, although there is still a bit to go. Here is Christina working away (while taking a break to pose for the camera, of course---- and yes, we do tend to wear the same work clothes each weekend... lol):


#3 Start to Texture/Spackle Walls!
Eric texturized the master bedroom and office, so now we are ready to paint and install trim in those two rooms! We are getting so close!!! The new air-compressor was at use --- and so was Eric:

Here is a (blurry) sample of the ceiling texture:

#4: Don fixed a small plumbing annoyance in the sink. Once again, Yay Don!!! (he fixed it so when you run the full disposal the waste doesn't sneak up into the left side of the sink...)


We also got to play a little this weekend.... we took Don to Uber (our favorite pub) and watched the Seahawks (loose) at Paul's tonight. Eric helped me cater a work event on Friday. And, despite our house being a complete mess... we ate like king's... as usual :) it's wonderful being married to a first-class chef :)

Start of a Big Weekend

Eric's Dad, Don, is in town from the tri-cities this weekend, so we are expecting to get A LOT done this weekend!

Our goal is to frame out the new french doors (and by 'our' I mean Don, Eric's Dad), to finish the drywall prep in the front bedroom and living room area, finish hanging and preping the drywall in the hallways that are still bear, and start texturizing!!!

We'll post how we did on Sunday night....
Cheers

An End in Sight? Goal is Nov. 15

The last couple of weeks we have been working on the walls: applying a layer of joint compound ('mud'), letting it dry, and then sanding it smooth. This application is done 2-3 times on each seam, so it is taking a while!
Below is Eric Sanding:

We have set a goal of finishing by November 15th!
We are having a party that day so hopefully everything WILL be done by then!

Video Tour

Please excuse the house mess. Oh, and I had just gotten up ;)