Hey look our names are on the sign out front!

Check out the sign that Ogden City put in our yard...kinda fun to see!

Progress inside the house

The kitchen continues to take shape as the bathroom is framed out, plumbing is added and a doorway disappears!

View from the front parlor

Upstairs, the future laundry room and master bath gets new subfloors and a bit of framing as well.

While demo'ing the walls in the laundry room, we didn't find any insulation, but found this massive wasp nest.   The shoe in the pic is an adult size 9!

Kitchen Inspiration - 1920's Style

So the inspiration for our new kitchen is the 1920's style kitchen with white cabinets, black countertops and subway tile backsplash.  Here are a few images I found on the web that give you an idea of what we're going for....

Notes from Lydia

PJ may have been traumatized by painting our house.  The first thing he says when he wakes up in the morning is "no more painting, I hate painting, I can't do it anymore!"  He has paint all over him.  In his hair, on his elbows, legs, clothes.  He thinks he washes it all off in the shower but then he'll go out the door to work and I'll be like "do you realize you have paint all over the back of your arm?"  and then he says "stupid paint, I hate paint!"

The Eclectic Victorian has left her mark on my husband, and it's only month 1.  I have a feeling he won't want to touch a paint brush after this exterior painting is complete.  Which means......Thanksgiving and Christmas breaks, I will be on my own painting the whole interior of the house.  That's okay....that falls into the "interior decor" category which is my favorite part.

So it's Sunday morning and we're off to the house.  Hopefully to wrap things up on the outside with the paint.  The weather will be cooling down soon, so I'm glad that we've almost got the outside done. We have three months left to finish this whole renovation project...our completion deadline is January 1st.   The plumbers have been in working all last week and they'll be back tomorrow to do a little trouble shooting. We've had so much help from friends and family that it'll take us 2 lifetimes to repay all the favors!  We need to get our kitchen cabinets ordered soon, but the cabinet shop won't do final measurements until we get more squared away in the kitchen, so I think that's probably going to be a priority this week.  Next on the list of jobs we're responsible for doing is tile in the kitchen and downstairs bathroom.  I think PJ will like the tile work better!

Happy Sunday everyone,
Lydia :)

Lots of Painting

It was a busy week, with lots of help and endless hours standing on the lift, but we are finally getting close to finishing the paint!

We also had lots of help cleaning up the backyard

I couldn't help but enjoy the view

Casualties

So sad, walking through the basement with our contractor and I hit my head on a low doorway, and a nail went through my sunglasses.   Luckily they were on top of my head, but still, that was my last pair of Smith's!!

The Inspiration.....

When we were first contemplating paint colors, we found this image online and really liked the house.  It's actually a house built in the 1980's made to look like an old victorian.  It's a B & B in California.

More painting photos....we're getting close to finishing!

It's coming along!

That's Les, PJ's Dad and he's still smiling....amazing!

PJ and his Dad on the Lift

Finishing the South side of the house

The Purple is almost all gone!

After 8 hours of dipping into the white paint!

PJ LOVES painting, he talks about it all the time!!! (insert sarcasm)

Carpel tunnel much?

Lookin good!

More painting!

Spent another day painting.   We almost have the south side all complete.   Today's big project was painting the wooden part of the addition, and getting the foundation cleared of ivy and coated with paint.   We have about 2 weeks left with the lift, so it'll be cutting it a little close, but I think we will make it!   Without the help of great friends and family we wouldn't be nearly as far along as we are now!

new sub floors!

While we toil away on pigeon poop and painting (with a small art brush, what is wrong with us!), our contractor gets to do the fun stuff, like add subfloors to the kitchen and start building walls.   After getting a feel for the size of the new bathroom, I decided we should use a pocket door.    I think it will look great and be more functional.

"It's not all sexy work" PJ Gravis - Attic demolition day

So on Sunday we decided to do some demolition in the attic to get it ready for the insulation to go in.  The attic, although at one point it was an apt., hasn't been used or lived in for years........except by pigeons and raccoons.  That's right folks pigeons and raccoons.  One might wonder how those critters got into the attic.  Well at one point there was probably a bad roof on the house and water damage caused the soffit and fascia to get damaged and eventually fall off, so basically the eaves of the attic have had big "spaces" along the perimeter that have been open to the outside.  Horrible for energy, great for homeless birds and coons.  So, after we put our masks on we went to work removing pigeon poo, drywall, tile, and pretty much a little of everything.  SICK! 

The view from the attic of the dumptruck that was positioned directly below the window so we could toss everything out!

Sick.  Just sick.

When in doubt, use a 16 gallon shop vac.

PJ had a large grin on his face as he swung the sledge hammer.  What a surprise!

More demo.  And dust.  Lots of dust.