Taping and mudding progress

We're back with another update.  Mark made quite a bit of progress this week, finishing up all the taping and mudding of the hallway and master bedroom suite.  All he has left to do is the last sanding (blah - I hate sanding - dust gets everywhere!).  Pretty, eh?

Do you see rooms taking shape? I do!  I will be in Cincinnati all next week and by the time I get home, I think that Mark will have textured and leveled the floors (he has some spots to fill because we moved walls).  

On that same note, I think by the end of next week the house next door will probably be done!  I'm exaggerating just a bit, but they are building it so quickly!  I'll show pictures of the progress soon (maybe later today), but they've moved the driveway, poured the foundation, poured a retaining wall separating our property, and today are putting up the walls on the first floor.  It's going to be a very nice looking house when complete - a cool, old PDX style (see the Palazzo Custom Homes website).

Back to our project...what is really exciting is that once we get the texturing done and the floors leveled out, we can start patching up the wood floor (with wood we've recycled from spots in the house)...and then...once that is done...we can start putting in things like the bathtub, toilet, and vanity. We can also build the window seat, paint, install carpet, add the cove base (base trim), hang closet and bedroom doors...and be done!!!  I have a feeling that our master suite will be livable very soon which is pretty exciting!  The bedroom next to us is going to house all our constructions supplies, so we're not finishing that one completely yet.  

After the master bedroom is done, we tackle the big kahuna - the kitchen. We haven't picked out cabinets yet :o(  but if we have time today, we are going to look at a few more cabinet places in Portland in hopes to find the perfect style in the perfect color.  

I'm a little scared to tear out our kitchen...it's already been hard to use it with the bit of construction that has affected it.  But, we hope to get everything ready to be put back together before we even do the demo on it (have the cabinets assembled downstairs, granite ordered, flooring ordered, sink, refrigerator, and dishwasher bought, etc.) to make this very disruptive part of our remodel go as smoothly and as quickly as possible.  

For now, my life is filled with dust, dirt, flannel sheet window and door coverings, and plastic doors.  It's sooo attractive...

I probably won't post again until I get back from my trip (unless I show you a peek of what's going on next door).  I'd appreciate prayer for safe travels - the weather back East isn't too great right now!!