we received our sink in the mail today... KitchenSink

its a big sink...it will just fit the 36" wide cabinet (here is a picture of the sink cabinet with the sink template)
now we can finalize the granite order, it shouldnt be long before that comes in.



i started tiling the tub surround in the 2nd floor bath...the tiles are "rustic" and have irregular edges, so i rely heavily on the laser level to make sure that everything is aligned!




i love to install tile. i sit on the edge of the tub, with everything that i need in the tub with me, listen to the radio, drink my vitamin water and glue tiles to the wall...its very relaxed and therapudic. a calm that is broken every now an again by the sudden outbursts of "mudding" frustration coming from the next room!

all those shims are just holding up the bottom row of tile...i am afraid that without them that i would come in tomorrow and find that all of the tiles have slid off of the wall into the tub--its just a precaution. leaving a shallow space below the last row of tiles allows for an ample bead of caulk.

easy peasy...

installed the radiant floor mat in the 2nd floor bathroom....


sooooo easy! if you have some basic knowledge of electrical wiring (like installing switches/outlets), you can easily do this yourself.


we ran a separate circuit for the radiant floors in both bathrooms, the controls are easy to wire, and the mat is easy to lay out! for a couple-hundred dollars, someone will have nice warm tootsies when they get out of the bath!

since i am not allowed to mud (my rule), for the next week while scott is mudding, i will be tiling!

here are a few photos that i took a few days ago...
we are currently "mudding" all of the drywall and that will take a few more days!


here is a photo from the living room towards the front door...there used to be a full wall there, but now you can see through to the dining room:


this is in the basement (all new walls and ceiling here...lots of mudding to do!)
this is a view from the "playroom" looking towards the office/exercise room beyond:


here is the basement office/exercise room:


this is the linen closet at the 2nd floor landing. its a deep closet, but as you can see- not much vertical space! can you tell where the old ceiling height used to be?:


these are the closets in the master bedroom...note the round white thing centered on the angled wall above the closets...


that is a conduit that we installed in the wall for media cables...we are going to mount a flat screen TV here- a perfect viewing angle from the bed. (the "conduit" is just some PVC plumbing supplies--a couple of 90 degree elbows and a straight run of pipe):


this is a view inside the closet...we installed an electrical outlet and a cable outlet...the wiring will come through the wall, through that conduit and not be visible!


this was a later addition to the scope...when we started thinking about moving in and keeping this house for 2 years.

drywall school!

an excellent resource for the do-it-yourselfer...from a pro!
(he makes it seem so easy-maybe it can be)
http://www.drywallschool.com/

granite shopping

today we went to the stoneyard to select the granite for the kitchen countertops.
we selected a granite called "tan brown" which looks really good with the white cabinets and slate that we are using for the flooring. they will come to template the cabinets on tuesday, so we should probably see the countertops in about a week and a half.

we came to the realization that we are really professional shoppers who do contracting work on the side.

the other day when we were in lowe's a woman asked us if we knew where the lightbulbs were...we responded with the aisle number! yes, the lightbulbs are in aisle 1.

we rented this drywall lift today at home depot--it was only $32/day


it really makes installing the ceiling panels alot easier! one person can handle the job.


basement progress:


master bedroom progress:


we have one more day of installing drywall...then we have to finish mudding (plastering) the joints. as you can see, we got the first coat done...two more to go!

today we were browsing the clearance aisle at lowe's (as we always do!) and we came across this whirlpool duet dryer---it was $300, marked down from $1078! it only had some scratches on its top surface.

so we bought it for the house! (it even came with a 1 year warranty)--so now we just need a matching scratched up duet washer!





in addition to shopping, we almost finished installing the drywall on all of the wall surfaces on the 2nd floor...here is the master bedroom

first floor bath progress...

when we added a 2nd bath upstairs, the waste pipe for that toilet had to drop below the ceiling in the 1st floor bath...so we had to enclose those pipes in a soffit that will be just above the new vanity.



we also installed 3" recessed adjustable gimball lights within that soffit.


the first floor bathroom walls are done...we are renting a drywall panel lift from home depot to install all of the ceiling panels (to hopefully make it a bit easier!)

we received the shipment of drywall today...straight from the truck right to our front door

we are expecting a large delivery of drywall tomorrow (over 100 sheets!)...so
this weekend we wrapped up some loose ends (because once that drywall comes, we wont have a chance to do anything else!):

scott installed the exterior outlets:



i was installing the cement backer board in the bathrooms when i noticed a plumbing leak in the first floor bath!

the plumber used both pex plastic tubing and copper and i have to say that i wouldnt use the pex again...many leaky joints---this one was at a connection between the copper and the pex. its a good thing that we caught this one before the walls were buttoned up!

the cement board in the 2nd floor bath is installed (that is the tub under the cardboard):



the kitchen cabinets are all in place, we just need to install the filler strips and crown moulding.


here is a view from the dining room:

kitchen cabinets

today, we started to install the kitchen cabinets

it was inevitable!

the 92 camry is going to be laid to rest...

to be replaced by this 2008 rav4!

today, we bought a car...instead of working at the house.

we will be back on track tomorrow when we install the kitchen cabinets!

we have lights in the kitchen!

and we laid the tile subfloor...we are ready for the cabinets, but we still might wait until after the holidays to install them.

insulation

the new gas furnace and heating system is complete


and the air conditioning unit is installed

we passed our rough electrical inspection

here is some of our fancy wiring...

we received the shipment of kitchen cabinets, we might just get them installed before christmas!

oh..and a picture of the roof edge, after the ice dam was chipped away and the snow was shovelled! the ice is building up again, so we will have to do this again.

update...

long overdue post, i know...but there hasnt really been anything to photograph yet. we are just doing electrical work and we started insulating yesterday.

we had a text book ice dam this week too, very exciting. because there was no insulation in the roof, the 12" of snow that was packed on the roof was melting from below (from the heat of the house) and this causes the melting snow to drip off of the eave. as it drips off of the eave it freezes and not only creates lovely icicles, but the entire length of the roof edge was solid ice--about 3-4" thick! that ice, as it expands, works its way back under the shingles---and as more snow melts, it finds its way inside the house!

we caught the ice dam in time and scott went outside to chip away the ice...so a major problem was diverted. if you have a well insulated roof/ceiling, then you shouldnt get ice dams...so we have started to insulate, now that the wiring is done.

because our blog has been empty lately we joked about posting a daily injury report -nothing major, but we get some pretty nasty boo boos on a daily basis (no photos, just imagine). like puncturing my head on a roofing nail that was sticking through the plywood in the crawlspace...or, repeatedly puncturing the back of my hand on those same damn nails! or how about this one...when working over my head my hand slipped and my thumb whacked against a ceiling joist---no biggie, except that there just happened to be a nail or splinter sticking out of that joist in that very convenient location and it jammed its way under my thumb nail-pretty deep! (eee, that still makes me cringe) and of course, the classic hammering of the fingernails--kind of boring as far as boo boos go, but i got a nice blood blister from one! and did you know, that if you are on a ladder all day and you lean your shins into the next ladder rung for stability...that you get pretty uniform bruises on you shins? i have a 3" horizontal purple and blue band on my legs--about 12" up from my feet!!! nnnice!

time capsule...

i was fishing wire through the wall today...i opened up a small hole at the base of the wall (where the future baseboard will cover) and out popped a small wooden toy traincar!


then a plastic dart and a baby with no head...


and more and more and more....

inspections

rough framing: passed
plumbing: passed
gas: passed
final deck: passed
1992 Camry emissions: failed

The exterior is pretty much finished...just in time! we just need to figure out what to do with the cracked concrete walkway (hopefully we will have a couple of warm days this winter so that we can tackle that project)


we need another warm day so that we can paint the side door;






here is a photo showing the heating/ac ductwork at the 2nd floor;


we are getting our rough plumbing and gas inspected tomorrow...so we hope to have heat soon (we have been working without heat ever since we started this project!)