Bones to Beauty

You know, things had been going really well with the remodel, so we should have known. Let me start with the good first. We were able to get the landing built outside of Ciera’s bedroom into the Atrium. We will be putting a door in the other side as that connects to the garage (meaning walk in garage = more Halloween decorations). Chad needs to texture; paint and we will put up railings which will hope to give a New Orlean’s feel. While we were cleaning up, we decided to pull up the floor under the landing as it was HORRIBLE, so walking on a little bit of concrete for a while would be much better. Well, that is what we thought. Upon pulling up the first plank of the floor, we see brick – same brick that is on the outside of the house. Then plywood floor but when you looked between the plywood and the brick, it appeared to be dirt. Sigh. Chad drilled a small hole to find they actually made a wood box to fill in the space. Well….we all know what is next on the list to be fixed correctly. We now know what we have waiting on the other side of the hall because when Chad remodeled the bathroom on that side, he claimed he could see brick. I doubted him but now know we have another mess on the other side. Here’s to no dull moment in this house!

We have accomplished a lot and I have not updated this for a couple of weeks; therefore, I’ll apologize for the long post. The entry way is DONE (meaning painted), new stairs are installed, and the last of what needs to be painted upstairs is primed, so will be completed by end of this week. We can then say we are 95% done with the upstairs. Why 95% and not 100%? Well, the one banister we will not finish until we take the brick off of the living room wall downstairs (they will need to match – which will make sense when we get to that point) and we are going to add a floor upstairs where there isn’t any (above where you see the scaffolding in the last post). Since there isn’t a floor there now, technically the upstairs then would be done. BUT as everyone is probably figuring out, that is not how we roll. LOL!

Entry way is DONE! White walls, gray trim and yes those are weights on the stairs. Last of the stair project and waiting for the glue to set.

Stair landing has its new floor!

This is to show that the old steps were too thick for the flooring I picked out. We had to pull up the old steps, put in new steps so that the flooring would work.

New steps! Yes, the one at the top got fixed as well. 🙂

Last of the hall which will be completed this week. Yahoo!!!

Ok, so the entry way isn’t new, but it is going to feel like it is new by the end of next weekend. We scrapped the popcorn ceiling and textured it this weekend. By the end of next weekend, the ceiling and walls will be painted. I’m not going to press my luck by saying the crown molding will be up too, but I cannot wait to get rid of this icky yellow color! As you all have probably noticed the remodel slowed some over the past month or so. This is because I was working on starting a business. No, I’m still working at Optum but started a business where Chad will be my main employee and hopefully this will put less stress on his body. I’m calling it his retirement job! Check out the business at: http://www.acetechstx.com. Needless to say, we have a lot going on! If you come to this site and no update, know we are still working on the house, but may have had to delay as we are focusing on the business.

prepping…

more prepping, this one took a bit as we had to move the scaffolding a few times, but it is all done!

We have been busy with “life” over the past few weeks but getting back to it. I think I last left with getting the door in Ciera’s room and crown molding up. We did get that all painted, the shutters in, and painted the closet. We have all of the new closet shelving to put up, but watching paint dry, is like watching a pot of water boil… Next weekend that will probably be the only thing accomplished as next Saturday we are going to a sandcastle competition. We are not competing, that would be hilarious but cannot wait to see what the competitors come up with. I hope all have had a great Easter! We did take some time to do our normal egg dying and Ciera and I are trying a new blue raspberry sparkling wine. Gotta say, it is good!

goodbye icky dirty walls!

It was one of those weekends where you know you accomplished a lot, but when you are asked, you can’t remember exactly what all you did. That is how the weekend went for me. We did a lot of little things. We sold the cart, so now we have space again in the garage, planted most of the flowers in the front bed, painted Ciera’s ceiling and decided to put the ‘garage’ flowerpots on a different timer, which meant running new waterlines in the attic, punching out a new spicket out the garage and adding a timer. We also sat down to order the new AC/Heater individual units for the upstairs. We are taking out the new AC (don’t ask) and now each room upstairs will have their own units with individual temperature controls. That means there should be some fun coming in the next few weeks. Get exited!

These are rose trees in the back. They are to have burgundy and white roses; the front rose is pink.

Same pink roses at the back with a little gem magnolia tree. The pink and white daisies are yet to show up that will be in the middle and front.

water pipe that comes down from the attic, out the front side of the garage for the spicket for the flowerpots.

This was a half-half weekend, meaning half of the work inside and half outside. We did get the door installed from Ciera’s room that will go out into the Atrium landing area. The ceiling in her room is primed and when Chad was doing that, thought he would just give it all a fresh coat of paint, so he is redoing the whole room. Whatever, silly boy. We also ordered the plants/flowers for the front flower bed which should come in this week. So excited as if it looks as good in person as I have in my head, I will be super happy! However, the flowerpots around the garage needed flowers, so found what we wanted for them and got those all planted too. Not a busy weekend, just steady.

See that pink – he is redoing it for whatever reason, but this is the door from Ciera’s room that will go out to the landing. If you look closely on the other side there is a hole in the wall, that was to mark where the door will go into the garage. Chad was going to punch out the wall this weekend but got him to wait until Ciera’s room is all done as then we can build the landing correctly and be able to stand on something really solid to put in the other door. We have to move some supports in the garage (and re-support it) so more than just a quick punch and hole and put in a door.

This weekend it was all about atriums! We started Saturday with going to a reptile convention to find an Egyptian Tortoise. Unfortunately, Ciera did not find her tortoise, so that search is still on. On Sunday, we spent an hour or so in the backyard tilling up Ciera’s garden and put down grass seed. Chad spent a little bit of time putting the finishing touches on the cart (he actually got it all running last weekend and I forgot to mention that). Now he can put it up for sale. Yahoo! Then it was time for demolition which is the most fun ever! We are putting in door from Ciera’s room into the atrium which we will build floor and put a door into the other side (which is the garage, so then you can walk into the garage which mean BIGGER HALLOWEEN (and more) DECORATIONS!!!! So excited!

This pic was when we moved in. If looking to the left is the garage and to the right is Ciera’s room that has a window.

Ciera’s window into the atrium.

Ciera doesn’t think this is safe – makeshift floor (only about 4×6). This is why I have life insurance on Chad. hee hee

Window is out and now we will cut it down about 4″ as that will match her floor and put in the door. We will naturally then have to add wall to the top. It is going to be awesome!

Ciera’s room was done minus the closet and getting the popcorn ceiling off. Naturally it makes it a lot easier when she isn’t under the roof to demolish her room. 🙂 We took this weekend to get the popcorn ceiling down and have the ceiling retextured. Depending on how the week goes we can start to prime or that will be next weekend’s adventure. Then we will move down the upstairs hall and entry way (removing popcorn ceiling) and once we paint the upstairs and stairway/entry way; the upstairs will be done. We also took a small amount of time to install new tanning bed bulbs which makes only me happy!

such thick popcorn

no more popcorn but included this for the slanted side. The original builders did not put any tape on the slants. Like, come on man!

new texture, now we wait for it to dry.

That means, it was a perfect weekend for me! We sent our stuff in for our taxes, got the items under the stairs reorganized (it was a mess after the 2 holidays), got a consultation scheduled for new siding, and got the tree guy called to come make the front tree beautiful (needs trimming). We also fit in moving sprinklers (since we put in the landscaping bricks), the pots all put where they need to be, put down grass seed, and got the stair handrail and sides all caulked so I can paint them.

I know my last entry said we would be back in a week; well, it ended up being 2 weeks. I ended up scratching my cornea last week, so it was a very bad eye weekend last weekend and that meant if anything was going to get done, it was up to Chad. He did move some rock into the flower beds and this weekend, we only had Sunday to work, but were able to get the side boards installed on the steps and the new middle handrail to the steps. Slow weekend, but we are getting there one weekend at a time!

The middle handrail with the trim below and then this is one picture of the side stair board which naturally is on the other side and the other set of stairs that comes up.