Oooh boy! I’ve been waiting for this post for EVER!!! While the inside of the house is still a skeleton with its guts hanging out, the outside looks…. so much closer to finished! I still have to replace the old fence, stain the deck and finish its trim and handrail, pour a new cement walkway and resurface […]
I always think I like painting until I begin actually painting. I kind of always end up forgetting how tedious it is – especially all the cutting-in, and how you have to prime before you can even get to the satisfying part, which is watching the final coat gradually quickly up the old worn surface with big swaths […]
I should have mentioned that I made some progress on the inside as well before starting the painting outside. In fact, the painting outside was pretty well timed because after I finished all this work here, the electricians took over and I was without power entirely. They’re supposed to finish all their work at the […]
With the siding almost finished, all that was left was to finish up the cinderblocks underneath. Last week I realized with some anxiety that by the time we got back from our upcoming Thanksgiving vacation, temperatures would be in the freezing range. That meant I needed to get the paint on now now now – and I had only 3 […]
The siding is finally going up!!! After having its old broken cement shingles ripped off, the house has been sitting here like this for weeks: Sheets of tar paper slowly peeling off like skin after a bad sunburn. The sad sunburn of neglect. So I’m betting the neighbors were glad to see this: They got […]
Making one thing pretty at a time. I refinished that basement door! I used citristrip, an environmentally-friendly stripper that works really well, especially on water-based paints. Glopped it on and the paint bubbled right up after ten minutes or so. It was super easy to scrape off. After all the remaining goop was washed off and the […]
First semi-finished wall surface is (almost) in place! Before: After: Since the inspector can see the inside of this wall from the other side, I went ahead and covered up the outside with some 1/2″ insulation and beadboard. It’s amazing what a visual difference a finished looking surface makes, even when it’s not yet finished […]
The plumber visited today! Just to make his materials list, but… it means we’re getting close to the finish line! The bathroom framing is all done. I mean, it had ALREADY been done…. until we decided to flip around the back bathroom at the last minute. This is what it looked like before: The TV […]
If I’m picking out tile, the end is in sight! The bathroom has been framed and the plumber’s going to let us know when he can come out next week. Time to prepare for when he’s gone! Dreaming of the day when the bathrooms are ready to be tiled, I went to my local tile/flooring wholesale […]
First to put down the subfloors: I had to install blocking between the rafters in order to erect the wall between the bathrooms. I also had to remove the now-obsolete attic stairs and replace the joist that they had interrupted – that was not a fun morning. But it got done. I was using the cement boards […]