House Updates (August 2012, part II)

Swanky was home this weekend to run Hood to Coast (I'm obviously out of commission... ) and try and finish up the electrical work in the library. Much to his surprise David had been working in the room for the past two weeks! Here's a progression over the past few months.

 



June 2012 - with the hardwoods refinished

Early August 2012 - plaster repair and electrical in progress

Mid August 2012 - skim coated walls, wood trim repair in progress

He had already skim coated the the walls with an additional coat of plaster and put the headers back on top of the doors and windows... WOW!!

So between David and Joe, there is working electrical, smooth walls and trim almost ready to be painted!

I'm home in a few weeks for my shower and looking forward to seeing all our friends and family as well as this room!

House Updates (August 2012)

Earlier in August, we traveled back to Portland to celebrate our 4 year wedding anniversary and of course, spent a few hours working on the house... Swanky spent, actually, the majority of the weekend working on this room as he missed it so much (seriously, I'm not kidding)!

What were we working on? The Library room, which was almost done with the electrical rewiring and needing some serious plaster repair. Here's how we left it on Sunday - all roughed in (just need to land the circuit) and walls patched (just needed some sanding)...

What else does the Library Room need? It's missing some trim across the top of the window and door headers, and lots and lots of paint.

In other news, the banister paint striping and restaining that my cousin David has been working on is BEAUTIFUL!! And we also discovered some old wallpaper that was hiding behind a hideous paint job in the entry.



weeked update - a quick one

our friends have a leaky roof, so we're jetting off to go help them! but quickly - bedroom ceiling and walls have been painted! now we're in the process of trim paint. curtains and rods ordered today online (target is having a great sale online!) and here are progress photos.

The Front Bedroom

As an attempt to provide updates more frequently, here goes!

The Front Bedroom was our master bedroom for the first two years we were in the house... as-is. It was selected as it was the most set-up to be a bedroom. Why? because it had a working power outlet. Yes, ONE outlet. So a power strip and extension cord later and we were rocking!

Since we finished the true Master Bedroom and moved into that, we've started to work on the front bedroom and bring it up to speed. So after this weekend we will be ready to paint! Which means the electrical has all be updated (hooray for multiple outlets, on multiple walls!), the aluminum windows were replaced with Marvin Tilt-Pacs, the trim is repaired and the cracking plaster has been patched.
Progress photos...

the sink plumbing is still in the closet, oh well.

the closet floors will get refinished someday, but not now

overall view of the space
a few test colors around the window frame

similar to the closet, these floors will eventually get refinished

but we need to muster up the energy to do the whole upstairs all at the same time.

this photo also grosses me out on how dingy and dirty the walls are. bleah!

secret family recipe for patching trim
(mix these two evenly, you'll love it)

2011 Catch-Up

How did it become the middle of March already??

February seemed to slip by as Swanky and I were both traveling 3/4 weeks for work. Separate cities, different states. What a life it has turned into lately! My travel was a little more glamourous than Swanky's... one trip included 2 weeks in Israel!

Needless to say... not much work on the house - but the hubby is a rockstar and has managed to finish the electrical work and trimwork in our old bedroom. which means, next step... prep and paint!

This was his first pass at doing trimwork on his own, and i would say it turned out grand! what would you say?



In case you are wondering... we took the baseboard off when we first moved into the house to run new electrical wiring behind. The baseboard was in bad shape to begin with, and the room had only one working outlet, so it was the best of both worlds to get more electrical outlets/ updated wiring and good looking trim. Sometime before us, the headers to all the doors and windows were also removed (I've heard that was the 'in' thing in the 70s)... so those have now been replaced as well.

Last thing to eventually do is refinish the hardwoods... but we'll do it for the whole 2nd floor when we do, so that won't be until next year at the earliest.

2011

i'm trying to be better about posting and the smaller things done around the house... while still moving forward with my stinking exams. this weekend i will be full throttle on studying for an exam on monday. my treat? watching the BCS championship game with OREGON playing Auburn that night! GO DUCKS! (and how i wish we were going to the game!)

while i'm studying... swanky plans to hang two more light fixtures to replace our generic $5 home depot specials... here's a peek at one of the fixtures!

What're your house plans this weekend?

the making of an office...

First coat of paint went down on the floor today, 2nd coat tomorrow.

I think we'll wait two weeks to let it dry before putting furniture on it.

It's going to be VERY hard not to want to move things next weekend. Maybe we'll go shopping for a little heater for this room, to distract from the temptation. It's a little chilly!

Still have no decisions on curtains... all I know is that we're (I'm) ready to make this an office and get more organized. It's been 2 years of an ad hoc office and I am wearing thin. Can we say, perfect timing?

next project

Master Bedroom Sunporch!

This photo is of our painting progress this weekend. One last coat of trim paint and we'll be ready to paint the floor a nice gray. This room is off our Master Bedroom and we'll be using it as a private office retreat. It's a bit quirky and our budget is basically large enough to pay for paint (aka $0).

Visions for this room? Some low cabinets/ bookshelves under the windows, a big comfy chair for reading and some major desk space for both Joe and I to spread out and for all my crafty things to have an organized home. Oh, and Joe wants to put a small coffee maker up there for his insane coffee drinking habit.

The quirks of this room? The windows are hap-hazardly installed on 2 sides... the trimwork is mix-matched... there is no heat to this room... and the floor has a large crown (roughly 1" in the middle) where it straddles the exterior wall of the house below.

The previous homeowners of the house had this room as a bedroom for at least 1 person. Talk about COLD in the winter! You might remember this room as our temporary kitchen when we first moved in. You know, where the coffee pot froze...

Master Bed/ Bath Progress

We spend all our time working and no time blogging...

Labor Day weekend marks the 1 year anniversary of when we started to demo the Upstairs back bedroom and pink bathroom to create an updated Master Suite - complete with electricity!
Here's our progress and hopefully next weekend we'll be moving furniture in!

The bedroom is awaiting paint touch up and cleaning of the floors, Sunporch is ready to prep for paint and the bathroom is waiting for fixtures to arrive as well as the glass door.

the upper private sunporch (Future Office) is now cleared for paint prepping and paint,

as well as home to our 400 lb claw foot that is too heavy to move easily.

the shower just needs the frameless door to be installed,
i am in love with the marble.



view looking into the corner where a pedestal sink will one day sit
(they're on backorder, of course)

an overall view of the bathroom

And then, there was light

Don't worry, this light is only a placeholder

It's a big day. The circuits have been landed and all systems are a go - the Master Suite has working power and lights. This is the first time ever, for that part of the house since we've moved in! Our alarm clock will no longer be powered by extension cord...

Master Bath Progress

David is kicking B-U-T-T when it comes to the carpentry and trimwork. We help were we can. Next will be installing the flooring and waterproofing/ tiling the shower. The waterproofing kit we ordered came with some missing pieces... so we're trying to make progress while we wait for the loose ends.