Our Saturday

This is what we spent most of yesterday doing: sheetrocking (me), corners and some taping/mudding (Mark). Doesn't that sound like a fun Saturday?

Well, here are the pictures I took of our progress.  I added some descriptions to help you put it all together.  Enjoy!

The one thing that freaks me out is under all that white powder and dust, sheetrock and tools are my wood floors!  We plan on refinishing them once all the other remodeling is done, but yikes! They were bad before, I hope we don't ruin them to a point that is beyond repair!

Ok, freak out over.

We made a Home Depot stop (we probably go there 4 times a week) today after church and Mark got what he needs to begin and finish all the mudding and taping. His goal is to get that done this week as his work is a bit slow. I love when remodeling moves quickly! Let's hope it keeps up!  

A welcome back surprise and remodel update

When we got home from Arizona, we were greeted with this little surprise!

I guess we are going to have new neighbors for sure this year! Workers have been busy leveling, building up the property, and just this week the foundation guys were out there getting everything ready for it to be poured.  It'll be interesting to see how the whole process works out.  

Meanwhile, back at our house...

...the Sheetrock is being hung!  Our rooms are actually beginning to feel like rooms, which is a huge improvement over a gigantic kitchen-bedroom-not yet bathroom-bedroom-hallway we had going on before.

Today, I actually finished all the nailing while Mark did some other things (the pictures above do not reflect this). My right hand is stiff and I've developed a nice callous on the heel of my hand - ouch!  But that was a big accomplishment for me, and it allowed Mark to do some other "prep things" for mudding and taping, which may begin as soon as tomorrow.  I'll be showing pictures of our completed Sheetrock tomorrow, along with any other progress we make.

Wondering if we've made any "finishing touch" decision lately?  Well, we actually have! We've decided on the style of our new interior doors.  They will look a lot like these:

 

link

We decided to go with a more early to mid-century style.  They are special order, so they are a bit more expensive, but I really love them so Mark agreed to it. What a nice guy!  I've always wanted these doors...now I'll have them!

And we're back!

Hello!

It's been a while. But we are back and better than ever!  Well, I'm not sure about that, but we are back! We had a great time in Arizona. It was warm and sunny and visiting with family and friends was wonderful. I was sad to leave, but our cat and house (oh, and jobs) were waiting for us to return.

Here's some show and tell of our vacation...

We are refreshed and ready to keep the remodel going (like we have a choice at this point!).  Pictures of what we've done since we've been home are coming soon!

Let's just say, Mark was playing with mud today. (Hint, hint...)

Off

Mark and I are off for a few days to visit my family in Arizona. It is rainy, windy and grey in Portland - I can't wait to feel even a smidgen bit warm!  The remodeling will resume when we return, but maybe not with as much gusto as Mark has some jobs lined up.

Happy Birthday, Dad!!

Thank you, Mel, for watching Cliff!!

My Wall

On Saturday, I built my toilet-hiding wall with just a little help from Mark. It wasn't very hard - I just had to make the cuts correctly and make sure everything was square and level.

My saw and my first 2x3...the toilet-hiding wall is coming out from the back wall 30", so I cut two 30" pieces from this stud.

Then I cut the two end studs to fit. We squared and leveled all four, and once it was perfect, we nailed everything together and to the floor and ceiling.

I then cut my last stud, measured 16" from the back wall and put it in it's place. And, there you have your toilet-hiding wall!  Obviously a little more went into it, but those were the basic steps. The hardest part was probably squaring everything and leveling all the studs.  But, Mark was there to help and we have the huge 5 foot long orange level (seen in the foreground here) that did a wonderful job.

With this project out of the way, what do we have left to do? Haha...funny...a LOT!

Mark started sheetrocking some of the master bedroom ceiling, and once all the ceiling patching is done, he will start on the walls.  I think he has a bit more plumbing to do in the master bath, too.

I still haven't found kitchen cabinets. When we get back from Arizona, that will be my mission. This is kind of what I'm going for:

(source: www.kraftmaid.com)

I'm liking the sleek, not too traditional Shaker/Mission style cabinets in medium brown to chocolate brown. I'd like to go for a lighter granite (we're doing granite slabs), backsplash and flooring. It all depends on what is available near us and our budget!

Day 3: Remodel Man on a Mission

Mark is going to town on this thing and for that I am very grateful! All the walls are down that are coming down, and all the new walls are framed in.  Mark is currently working on the electrical and then he is going to start on the master bathroom plumbing. I will be framing (all by myself!) a pony wall (using 2'x3's, not 2'x4's) that is going between the toilet and the vanity. I will definitely take pictures of "my wall". It's a bummer that "my wall" is a wall next to the toilet.... :o(

Before last night, our construction zone was a mess. Mark is not generally known for his cleanliness.  I know that remodeling is messy, but I know that you can do some things to make it not so awful. Last night, when we got home from Lowe's, I got to work. I swept, stacked scrap wood, organized tools and swept some more.  You could actually see our wood floors again, albeit under a thin coat of dust, but they were there!  (I have no documentation of this "clean moment" as Mark went back to work cutting the holes for the can lights this morning, but cleaning from here on out should be a breeze.)

This morning I made a "clean room" out of our living room.  I put a big sheet up over the entrance and hung a sign (for Mark) that says "CLEAN FEET AREA".  All I want is one clean room!!!  The couches are covered in blankets, I dusted, and I moped the floor.  It feels clean. Now, if it could just get out of the 50s, I'd be super happy!

Here are some more pictures of our progress:

No more stairwell, wall, or old exterior wall!  It felt like one gigantic room for a day. Now that the new kitchen wall is framed in, you can kind of get a feel for what it is going to feel like in the kitchen and the master bedroom (sorry, no picture of that yet).

I'm in the master bedroom looking toward the will-be window seat, hidden behind the sheet. We calculated our master suite is about 350 sq. feet. Considering one of our rentals in St. Helens is roughly 500 sq. feet, we're feeling pretty much like a king and queen right about now!

Buh-bye stairs!  It's pretty inconvenient right now not to have stairs inside the house. I haven't done any laundry yet...and I really need to. I might have to force myself to do that today.  Plus, I need to get a pic of the biggest mess that Mark has ever made (at least during our marriage)!

This was my kitchen until last night's major clean.  The floor is now visible, the plastic is gone, what dirty dishes we had are now clean, and everything is wiped down.  However, knowing that wouldn't last, I covered our clean dishes, clean oven, etc. with bath towels. Everything is now covered in a new fine layer of dust.

Ah...they joys of remodeling!

Day 2: More Master Bedroom

Mark has been a busy man this week.  The lull in business right now makes it the perfect time to sledgehammer through walls.  I have been working so I haven't been able to help much (I'm a weekend helper), but he has managed very well without me...and in FREEZING temperatures.  Well, not quite freezing, but as I type, it's 54 degrees in here because we had to disconnect the heat.  We have a boiler and very attractive (um...not) pipes running along the floorboards of every room, many of which have been ripped out in the remodel process.  We do plan to put a very nice high efficiency heat pump in soon (March).

Marked worked on more demo and more reconstruction in the master bedroom.

Here is a look at the new entrance to the bedroom from the inside of the wood room.  It's now the doorway to the master bedroom (see the header at the top of the picture?).  In the center of the picture is the new doorway to the master bedroom closet. Try to look for the other header and that's it.

Mark also framed in the now OLD master bedroom closet.  We haven't punched a hole in the other wall yet to make the new closet doorway. Soon, very soon.

Here's another shot of our new closet from an angle. The wall in the left in the picture is coming down...but not quite yet.

Sorry for the awesome crooked picture.  This is a cutie little linen closet we were able to make...it is on your left across from the new master bedroom closet as you walk in through the new bedroom entrance. Make sense?

And, last but not least, the wall to the NEW master bathroom is up!!  This I am very excited about!

I am getting to the point where I am overlooking the mess (I'll tell you what, it's a lot to overlook!) and starting to see what this might all come together to look like soon. I hope it's soon!  It's exciting...and stressful...and fun, all rolled up into one very messy package.  

And we're only just getting started!

Day 1: Master Bedroom

This is going to start so nice, so clean, so simple.  It'll change. Trust me!

So, here is part of our master bedroom.  What you're looking at is the entrance to the room (far left) and the master bedroom closet.  The space between the current entrance and the closet is going to become the NEW entrance to the bedroom.  The closet is going to be walled off and used as the closet in the next room over (we get to make a new opening for it in the other room).  The current entrance is going to become...part of the NEW master bedroom closet.

Let's take this wall down. Mark is ready, are you?  Or should I say, am I?

And so it begins! The saw is peeking through, doing it's thing. (If you are wondering, we checked to make sure that Mark wasn't going to be sawing through any electrical wires....always be safe and know before you do!)

Mark is in the other room kicking the sheetrock. I am up against the back wall screaming as pieces come flying at my head. I did manage to eat an apple at the same time.  Anyway, if you are thinking, "Wow! This is sure getting messy!", you ain't seen nothing yet (as the song goes)!

Success!  "Hey in there!"  We successfully have no more wall...but we gained a mess!

Next, we have to remove the studs...so that is what Mark is doing above. (All the white dots in the picture are dust particles swirling around us.  I, too, was wearing a mask.)

"Huh...I hope this was the right decision!"

To begin...

Before we start, we need to prepare.  It doesn't take much for us.  If it were up to Mark, he wouldn't worry about the mess. He'd just "git r done"!

However, since I am also in the picture, we prepared for this mess remodel by the following three things.

(1) Plastic...lots of it...

(2) Cleared out rooms,

(3) And face masks!

Cliff sure missed out

Too bad I didn't see this before Christmas, he might have gotten a new playhouse!

Isn't this too funny?  It's from Urban Outfitters ... there is also a firetruck playhouse. Aren't they great?!  I wonder if he would actually fit in it...

Poor guy, doesn't know what he's missing!