Baby room

Our baby room is painted!

I worked hard today to get the color up and, if I do say so, I think it looks awesome.  

Yes, we are having a girl, but I wanted turquoise walls.  I think her room is going to be so cute once we get all the furniture and finishing touches in there.  

The color we chose is Behr's Jamaica Bay.  We got it 50 percent lighter than the original sample.  I love, love it.  I've put a lot of work myself in this room.  I'm the one that ground the cracks out, mudded them, sanded them, mudded and sanded again...  Todd used the paint sprayer to put the primer on, but this paint job is all me!  

The only thing left to do in here is clean down the closet and paint the baseboards and trim white.  Technically, I should do the window trim too, but we didn't get around to priming it earlier and right now I just don't care.  We can touch that up later.  

At the moment I'm content to just sit with my feet up on the couch!  

The big push (on house renovations)

We're making progress.

Why the big push to get stuff done, besides the obvious "I'm tired of living in half a home"?  Because my whole family will be here at the end of the month to throw us a baby party, which means we need a functioning upstairs to manage all of us as they stay and our party guests!  The timeline is shortened a bit because Todd leaves for elk camp the week before everyone's arrival.  So, we effectively have about 1.5 weeks left to get 'er dun.  

Let's do a walk through!

Here is the front entry.  Looking pretty good!  Todd and I came up with the tile pattern and then he cut and laid all that tile himself.  I'm so proud of him!  Don't mind the dusty footprints on it though.  It's just the way things are around here until we get the drywall dust up.  Let's see what's behind that door...

That would be our back hall.  That first room there will be Little Kittel's...

Here we are looking in her room!  Very soon (hopefully) it will not look like this.  Currently, it is being used as construction storage and until this last weekend was a guest room.  That furniture has mostly been carted downstairs to one of the two pending guest rooms that will be down there...

Unfortunately, we won't have time to reno her room before she arrives.  Technically, what is happening in the master bedroom should happen in here.  But we figure we'll wait until she wants pink or rainbow painted walls and attack this room then.  Until then, we'll just grind out the cracks in the plaster, fill them, and then simply paint.  And we'll all have to live with the horrid ceiling tiles with glitter flecks...

That turquoise paint sample on the right is the color her room will be!

Ok, let's keep movin' down the hall.  That's the bathroom on the left, then the master at the end...

The bathroom.  As expected, this room is taking us the longest.  We're getting so close!  But still lots left to do.  The mudding and sanding on the drywall will be done in here tonight/tomorrow (fingers crossed).  Then it's on to texturing, priming and painting with our new fabulous paint sprayer! Todd's friend Ken scraped the thinset out of the cracks in the tile over the weekend, to prepare it for grouting and sealing.  The toilet needs moved in, Todd needs to finish his vanity project, and I need to figure out how to keep the claw foot tub project chugging along.  The wainscoting also needs painted (with that awesome sprayer) and installed.  We will likely not have a working shower in here by the time my family arrives, but toilet and sink should be a go!

This blue will be the color of the bathroom, but probably knocked down about 25-50 percent to lighten it up  just a tad...

And the master bedroom.  Not much to sand in here!  Just the seams on the walls and ceiling and the closet. Then it's texture, prime and paint and we're IN!   

Here is the tub project.  I have gotten all the paint off the inside and now am working on the outside, which is a CHORE.  There isn't just one layer of paint.  There is a layer of paint and some kind of adhesive under it which nearly refuses to budge.  I have been coating it with paint stripper, scraping and blasting it with the pressure sprayer and...nothing.  At least precious little to show for it anyway.  Ugh.    

Keep checking things off my three-mile long to do list!  

Labor Day indeed

We are working our butts off around here trying desperately to get our big house projects done before the end of the month.

No rest for us this holiday weekend!

Here is what our Labor Day weekend has looked like:

Let's take a peek in the upstairs bathroom!  Here is Todd mudding the seams of the drywall.  I have already sanded the mud on the seams and screwheads and here Todd was going over it a second time.  Now, it has to be sanded once more and it's ready for texture, prime and paint!    

Another look at our new walls.  This entire room we have gutted and rearranged - meaning Todd moved all the plumbing so it made sense and the electrical followed.  What's left for the bathroom before we can make that first celebratory flush?  The walls need textured, primed and painted.  The wainscoting needs painted (it's already primed) and installed.  The vanity, which Todd made himself, must be finished with putty, sanding, and varnish.  The clawfoot tub (see below) must be finished.  The tile must still be sealed and grouted.  And there is still a strip of tile in the doorway that needs set.  These jobs will make the room FUNCTIONAL.  There will still need to be some finishing touches.  (Don't mind that blue sample in the pic. The room will be painted blue, but that sample turned out horrible!  On to option no. 2.)

Here we are entering the master bedroom.  That wall in particular has had spray foam insulation AND batting put behind it.  Why both?  The spray foam was to help insulate, yes, but to also help stabilize the 90+ year old plaster wall on the other side that is in the living room.  The batting was to provide an additional sound barrier...

A view across the room toward the closet.  We got that mostly drywalled today also.  Only a few more boards and it will have complete walls!  Tomorrow evening I will mud all the screwheads.  That window there?  Before that wall where the window is was spray foamed for insulation (there was none, not a lick, in that room), Todd had to re-mortar brick in around the window to fix a shoddy job done who knows when.

So, what else needs done in here?  I have sanded all the seams (minus the ceiling, which Todd will do) and screw heads.  The seams and corners all need one more coat of mud and to be sanded one last time.  Obviously, texture, prime and paint.  We have to reinstall the heat.  We are going to put crown moulding in here and the baseboards need attached.  The closet needs finished.  But, we are not worrying about the moulding or baseboards before the end of the month...

This is looking back down the hall from the master.  The bathroom is the next room to the right and that room at the end will be the nursery.  I share more on the nursery another time...

Here is Todd cutting a chunk of drywall...

What else have we done this weekend?  

Well, we spray painted the frame we will be using for the bathroom mirror.  And we started removing the old paint from the clawfoot tub we are using for the bathroom.

Todd has a power washer that we started with...

A lot of the paint flew right off, but there are still some stubborn pieces that refuse to budge.  So, we'll have to find a way to scrape that off without damaging the enamel on the tub.

What's left here?  Finish scraping the paint.  Then we will turn the tub over, lightly sand the outside of the basin and prime and paint the tub gray.  We are going to remove the feet and either have them chromed or, most likely for the time being, we'll just remove the white paint leaving them the bare metal.  They will have to be sealed, however, so we have a can of clear coat we will use to protect them.  We already have the fixtures, so that just needs installed.

And now, after a long weekend of working on the house, we are watching a movie and trying not to pass out!