putting things into place

Yesterday was another wet winter day in Julian--but we kept busy and warm (for the most part) in the house.

We put the kitchen range into its place, lifting it carefully over the pretty new floors.Matt showed off some acrobatic skill getting it plugged in.
Emily climbed into its hole to try to corral the cord into place so it'd all fit nicely...
and then showed her acrobatic skill in getting out before it slid into its final place.
Nice, eh?
We put up all the final bits of window and door trim, and Mom worked hard getting them all sanded and ready for lacquer.
Emily and I put up the rest of the baseboard--now it's all in place. Even behind the laundry area and in the closets. :)
Matt started hanging the lovely new shower door downstairs--the doors in place, but the tile-cutting bit wore out before he could get the side panel installed. It's gonna look great, though!
And, again, Mom worked at conquering the muddy disaster that has become of our entryway. Now there's plastic dropcloth protecting it. And, someday, hopefully, our walkway paths will make travel from the street and the garage a little less muddy...
As Mom and Dad left, the snow began to fall. Matt and I stayed to lacquer the new wood trim, and by the time we left, there were 3" of snow in the driveway. It was coming down fast, in giant clumps!
We're happy to report that the window and door trim is all installed and lacquered, the baseboard all in, the pump that recirculates hot water all wired and functioning, stairway trim partway done, appliances installed...and we're nearly ready for an inspection. Perhaps one more weekend of clean-up and odd jobs and we'll be ready. :) Then (inspector willing) we'll be ready for a real electrical hookup. And we can turn the heater on. Ahhh...

Plus, Dad's been hard at work on cabinet doors and drawer fronts in his home workshop. Soon we'll be lookin' like (nearly) finished house.

a muddy day for details

Welcome to the house: with gorgeous wood floors, and the tile floor we're sure glad we installed in the entryway. 'Cause look at that mud...
It was rainy all day today, and chilly in the house, but we enjoyed some time together, anyhow. The lemon meringue pie was good, too! (For evidence of this, look at the brightness of Dad's smile as he dishes himself a piece...) The kitchen's as clean as it's been, thanks to Mom's cleaning and sorting.

In the garage, Phil got to work lacquering the baseboard, while Shan put polyurethane on some oak trim pieces.
Dad took care of lots of little jobs, including detaching the range cord so it can be shortened.
Shan sanded the trim around doors downstairs, getting them ready for lacquer. We ran out today, but things are all ready for next time.

Shan and I started installing baseboard, getting creative with the strange angles in the big room's walls. It's looking pretty nice!
Here we are toward the end of the day. We'd thought we were past the point where saws belong in the house, but the rain and the mud between the house and garage convinced us that the big room makes a fine workspace for the time being. :)
Phil got some vent covers in, trimming the floor to make it work. If only we hadn't had to move the stairs (almost exactly a year ago!), this would have been less work today, too...
Matt and I also installed the upstairs bathroom vanity--another antique dresser transformed into a vanity. Now, given that it has a door and toilet paper, the upstairs bathroom is definitely the finest one to use. Thanks to Mom for cleaning it all up and getting it ready to use.
The big (unexpected) excitement, though, came from our attempts at getting Matt's truck out of the mud. It was convenient unloading the vanity from so close to the front door...but not so convenient to get the car back to the road. Here's a few fun pics of the project--toward the end, you get to meet our new neighbor, Bob, whose pulley figured prominently in the eventual solution. Thanks, Bob!

floored

The big job this past weekend: finishing the wood floor.

Matt and I went up on Friday to do our last bits of sanding and prep work, put down the sanding sealer, and get the first coat of polyurethane down. If you look closely here, you can see the reflection of Matt in the left window, as he puts the finish down. :)We finished the first coats on the floor, admiring how good the oak looks with a clear coat on top!
On Saturday, Mom and Emily came up with us, to sand and add another coat of polyurethane, and to do a bunch of other jobs. Now, the electrical box is well-labeled, the wall patch in the bathroom is repainted, the hot water pump is mostly installed, and the step up to the front porch is done and stained!


See, it makes us happy...
Today, Matt and I went back for the final coat--here's Matt just before sanding the floor. We definitely got better--or else we did a better job of estimating how long things will take: the last coast took less time than we figured.

This is a new phenomenon for us.
The floor is looking great, and we look forward to it getting nice and hard before next weekend, when we'll return for more fun!

ready to finish

Okay, so the whole project isn't quite ready to finish, but the flooring is now ready for finish. We had a few nice days of work this weekend. We confess that we had a hard time getting back in the swing of things after a lovely Christmas break (including a family trip to Hawaii...), but it actually felt pretty good to get back in the project.

Josh came with us on Saturday, helping get the stairs all ready.The floor looks pretty lovely. Just no one touch it until it's all sealed up...
While Josh and I were inside sanding and vacuuming, Matt got to work on the step up to the front porch.
And we moved the kitchen range into the t.v. room so we can finish the floor underneath. Matt and Josh had a deep conversation about electrical voltage standards in USAmerican houses. I learned that it's a good idea to wear gloves when lifting heavy appliances that have sharp metal edges. We all discovered that carpet scraps, carpet-side-down make a nice slide to scoot heavy things across precious flooring.
And finally, just because they're lovely, I thought we should show off the stairs. Matt finished installing the risers on Friday, and we got 'em all sanded and ready for finish on Saturday!
For the time being, you should know that there's a very strict "no dirty shoes in the house" policy. Actually, as far that goes, I think it's a "no one in the house at all, unless they're putting down wood sealer" policy.

Soon enough, we'll be able to entertain guests...

Christmas break?

Matt and Phil have been working hard over the last couple of days, making good progress on the house! See, it wore them out:
Matt's been installing flooring on the staircase, making it all look quite lovely.
Phil's been installing doors and trim and things.
Now, nearly all the trim is in place in the house!
I'm told the Mom put the doorknobs on, though, while she was there Monday.
I think the stairs look quite gorgeous in photos, and look forward to seeing them in person.
The plan had been to sand and begin finishing the flooring this week, but the sander we rented had electrical problems--it wouldn't run for more than a few seconds without blowing a fuse--so other projects moved up the list, and sanding will have to wait.

Monday, carpet was installed upstairs and in the front t.v. room. A nice change-up from the plywood, don't you think?
Phil also got to work on constructing steps up to the front porch from the side, digging a nice footing. (And we thought we were done with digging footings... So naive...)
Here's the step he built up to the garage's side door.
Mom tacked a herculean challenge: sorting out the garage. It was kind of messy anyhow, but then because a disaster zone in recent rain and snow storms, when we just dumped stuff in as quickly as possible and shut the door. See, before:
And after.
Much better.

stepping it up

Matt's in the middle of finals, but has been tempering his study time with some building time; yesterday, he prepared flooring for the stairs. Don't they look nice, all piled up?
Of course, they'll look even nicer on the staircase!
Thanks for the hard work, Matt.

nailing down things

This week, we finished installing the wood flooring; now it just needs to be sanded and finished. Oh, and installed on the stairs... So basically, we're just done with the big flooring nailgun, but that's a good step. And the good news is that it looks lovely. Matt and I went up Friday afternoon, and worked 'til midnight, nailing it all down.

Matt had also gone up for a quick visit earlier in the week, to check the fit on some flooring pieces that needed to be customized, and he installed the second toilet. Now, if there were only doors on the bathrooms... :)

We didn't get around to taking any pictures, though.

Instead, I'll share these pics from Thanksgiving weekend, taken by Shan.
The snow was so lovely through the windows.
We all stopped for a snow-watching break, upstairs.
And then, looked down for a floor-watching moment. It's gonna be cool.