Door love

Yesterday, our interior doors were installed. A friend of M's came to help (he owed her some hours for some work she did for him) and after they were in he said, some thing to the effect of, 'you know, this won't be good for Karen to see. Once the doors go up, everyone thinks moving in imminent.' He's partially right. It feels like we're so close, yet still so far.

Powder room door, installed w/o knobs

Ok, not the best photo, but you get the idea. 5 paneled doors all around.

I've been "moonlighting" as a painter at the house after work. When 5 o'clock comes around, I drive over, change my clothes and get to work. It's been fun and the audio book on my iPod helps! Last night I painted around the windows and doors in the main living areas (so M can trim them and we won't have to tape off the trim). I didn't do the big expanses b/c she's still planning to spray paint the trim and the living area is the biggest place to do so. We think there'll be a bunch of overspray, so I just stuck to around the openings that will get trim.

Here's a status for this week:
Guest bath: painted, tile in. Needs grout, flooring, fixtures, wainscotting, and all accessories (lighting, towel bars, etc).
Master bath: painted. Tile plan in place. Needs everything else.
Powder room: painted. Needs flooring, wainscotting, fixtures, all accessories.
Office: partially painted. Needs window trim, flooring, accent wall color
Mudroom: partially painted. Needs flooring, cabinetry, window trim, flooring
Laundry room: painted. Needs flooring, cabinets, appliances, window trim, everything.
Kitchen: needs cabinets (due week of August 6), flooring, countertops (back to debating this one), window trim, appliances, backsplash to be laid (tile is in).
Livingroom: needs window trim, paint, flooring, furniture.

Wow, it feels like a lot more work when you look at it this way. That's ok. We're making progress every day, even if just little bits. M has some other-people's tile jobs to do soon, and we've got some other irons in the fire, so we just keep chipping away as best we can.

I still hope to be in by Thanksgiving. How many days is that?

Color!

We spent part of Saturday in the new house with our hundreds of paint samples, trying to figure out what colors we might want to paint the rooms that weren't going to be "house neutral" (the color we're calling the grayish taupe we're planning for many of the main living areas.

We decided on the color for the powder room (above the wainscotting), the master bath (a major accomplishment!) and the guest bath (again, above the wainscotting, and it's a small room, so not a ton of color.)

After going to a local orchard for a fruit festival (peaches are just coming into the peak of their season here) we trundled off to Home Depot, confirmed our colors, and bought paint. I spent the afternoon painting the master bath (pale blue) and the powder room (a bold, bold color, one I would've not thought I'd pick!). The powder room is ready for wainscoting and crown moulding (we have 9 foot ceilings there, so it makes sense). The master bath still needs to have the ceilings cut in (not my forte) but we like the color. The roof angles are tricky there so I'll leave it to M to do that finishing.

We're in the midst of a major fire here (well, close by--about 10 miles or so?) that is now 2400 acres. it started on Wednesday, and has grown each day. The smoke at night has been choking, even this far away. So far only one home has been burned, but many people are evacuated. We're not in any danger here (it has not jumped the north fork of the American River, and then there are two highways in between us, and it's traveling away from us due to prevailing winds. BUT, the smoke has been bad, there have been hundreds of fire fighters in town, and everyone's feeling badly for the folks affected.

On a brighter note, our trim and doors were delivered last week, and tomorrow the interior doors go in. They're really pretty sitting in the garage, and I can't wait to see them in place!

It's hot

It was supposed to be 103 today, and M's working at painting the interior of the house. Did I mention we have a behemoth furnace, but the AC is not in yet? Yikes. I would wilt. At this temp even a dry heat (insert finger quotes there) is pretty intolerable. We look forward to sundown when the temps drop.

The primer we tinted (that's used to seal the brand new drywall and texture) was not a success, color-wise. It looks like bad Cover Girl. So we're toning down the pink and trying a slightly grayer tone. We shall see.

As per the usual irony, the guest bath was the one room we couldn't settle on: color, tile, etc. And not surprisingly, it's the one room M started the tile on. It's beautiful and very economical. Of course, that means that while the largest wall of the tub surround is complete, the other two walls aren't. Not because M hasn't tried, but of course, Home Depot is out of the tile, and won't have it in for about another week. Typical. And so she paints . . .

We picked up our kitchen backsplash tile and master bath accent tile on Saturday. It wasn't cheap, but those two spots were our splurge. That's why the guest bath is getting a pretty, but cheaper treatment.

We ordered our kitchen cabinets on Monday--they should be here week of August 6. So excited. We also settled on what to do for the non-island countertops in the kitchen (the island will be marble). I wanted dark gray counters, and really wanted Quartz, but it's so expensive. So, to get the same color tone (if not the exact look) and to save more $$ I think we're going to try concrete. M's done them before in two houses, so she's experienced.

The garden is blooming (zinnias, M's dahlia garden, sunflowers) but still the tomatoes are not thriving. It's HOT back there!

Here are a couple photos of the guest-bath tub surround in progress. There's no grout yet, so the space between the tiles looks darker than it eventually will. Pretty huh?

Hard to tell that's a light green glass liner above the gray

Detail of green glass and metallic liner

How on earth . . .

has another 3 weeks gone by? Well, productively, for one. Here's our progress:

Insulation: Check!
Drywall: Check!
Taping: Check!
Texturing: Check!
Paint/primer color: partial check!
Downstairs main rooms flooring: Picked out, paid for, and waiting for delivery (shhhh, you'll see it later).
Kitchen Backsplash: Picked out, trying to locate (ack! We have our hearts set on this one, so wish us luck).
Kitchen counters: Island top chosen (in theory) but need to purchase. Countertop color picked out, but material not finalized
Kitchen cabinets: we're getting close. M is making tweaks to the design and trying to save us some $$$
Master Bath: Counter tops purchased (still looking for vanities), tile chosen for floor and shower, trying to locate some of it (same company as kitchen backsplash)
Guest Bath: still working on this. Should be the simplest room, but trying to decide on completely neutral (i.e. Karen can change colors at any time) or some pops of color.

Still to be discussed, thought about, researched, etc???
Laundry room cabinets, flooring, countertops, appliances
Kitchen appliances
Powder room colors
My whole office
Bedroom carpets, paint, etc
Master bath paint
oh, and about 1000 other things. This is the fun part, though. We still won't be in for a few months, but it really is starting to feel real now.

Happy Friday. Pix to follow.

INSULATION DAY!

Yesterday was insulation day. And today it was finished. Yes, all the blocking, cleanup, and little electrical things were completed and the insulation crew is at the house today doing their magic. Wow, I guess we DID meet my end of May deadline! Wahoo!


It was a bit of a mad dash to get all the last bits of blocking, wiring, and cleanup done (thank goodness M's parents could help!).

That means that drywall is coming next. We thought it would be mid-week next week, but now they want to stop by tomorrow with some of the materials. Might they work this weekend?  WOWZA! I think I might be in love with the drywall guy and his quest to get started! There are more pre-drywall tasks to do before he starts, so I'm headed out again this evening to help. I never knew I'd enjoy cutting 2x4s to correct lengths. And my "boss" thinks I did a good job. Thank goodness!

Here are some drywall pix to tide you over until the sheetrock comes.

Blocking the stairwell ceiling. 

Scary stairwell ladder placement

 

 

 

 

 

Kitchen, partially complete. I thought it would be pink!

Stairway ceiling, looking down. I cut those blocks!

It's uncanny . . .

. . . The way that after nearly a month exactly has gone by, I get that inner nudge to come on over and write a post. And then am shocked it's been another 4 weeks!

We spent almost a week in NYC in late April, a fabulous trip. Then I've done some travel for work, and tile jobs have now been completed.

So, have we made progress on the house? Yes and no. The electrical is still nearly finished, and we're close to insulation and sheetrock. At least we're trying to get insulation installed by the end of this month as soon as we can. Every time I put a deadline on it, it seems even more elusive, so I just hope for the best (and if you ever worked with me, you'll know how difficult this is for my project-planning mind!)

We have, however, moved the work outside and made great strides in the yard. We've installed over 70 Dahlia tubers in what's now being called "M's Dahlia Farm" and we've planted a mini orchard. M's spent many hours on irrigation to both of those + my refurbished veggie garden, and we're just about finished with drip lines and emitters. Oh the joy (and may I say thank goodness for the tractor!) Last summer much of the veg watering was by hand, so this will be a godsend, especially since it's still a 10 minute drive between where we live and where we will live. I know it doesn't sound like much, but after a long day at work, it's hard sometimes to get excited about driving to the new house to drag a hose around.

I've got about 1/2 of my tomatoes in (varieties and counts later) and still have peppers, squash and a few other things to plant. My sugar snap peas are producing like crazy! And the volunteer sweet peas are wafting their sweet scent--it's a nice place to be weeding!

Ok, hope to be back before another month goes by. Stay tuned!

Delay redux

Well, nearly another month has gone by. There has been gardening (in between all the rain we've had) but that's it. Oh yeah, and a little more electrical.

M's been bogged down in tile work and it's been very wet when she's been in between jobs. And we're getting ready for a trip out of town for a few days. Maybe May will bring more progress.

Back in a couple weeks . . .