In some ways I am glad it's winter outside

Now that the cold weather has arrived things seem to be progressing on the house. Summer is great and we love the weather but it is really hard to get motivated to do inside work. Heck I even have time to blog again....hopefully we will be able to update everyone more often in the coming months.

Kitchen update:

Everyday there is less and less to do. Right now the kitchen is 90% finished with some small details left. Over the weekend we finished the tiling and grouted the entire floor. I also replaced a large section in our maid drain pipe as it is old cast iron that had cracked.

To do:

- touch up some of my dents and dings in the drywall
- install the backsplash....which incidentially are a very nice glass subway style tile....hopefully over Christmas.
- paint ceilings and walls
- install door, window and baseboard trim
- build built in wine rack and bookshelf
- buy and install new kitchen stove...our Christmas present to each other.
- some more drywall and mudding....this is mostly connected with finishing the living room.

Living room

My current project is now the living room, I have spent the last week ripping up the old tile floor and subfloor exposing the original softwood flooring. We are about halfway done that. I have also installed our new dining room casement window, reframed the wall around it and insulated it as well. The pillar containing the mechanical for the second floor has also been framed and is ready to be drywalled.

The house has now been almost completely rewired, I have one bedroom with an old wire feeding it and one bedroom with old wires in the circuit both of which will be fixed when we begin expanding the bathroom.

To do:

- tear up rest of old floor
- patch drwall holes
- mud all new drywall (ceiling and walls, way too much)
- re-work the heating ducts to the second floor and living room
- tear down old stairs
- build new stairs
- lay down new plywood on the living/dining room floor
- install tiles in front foyer
- install bamboo flooring
- install railing and banister system
- lots and lots of little finishing details



Here are some additionla photos you might find interesting:

The beginning of the tiling process. I had to work around an opening in the floor which allowed me access to our drain pipe.






The finished product. All done tiling and grouting....I still love our stainless steel kickplate.








Here is a photo of our shared wall under the stairs to the second floor. We have added sound and fireproofing and are about ready to drywall and mud it.

One thing we are waiting on, is that we are now planning on building a trapdoor over the stairs to the basement. this would give us some more useable floor space as well as take car of any railing issues. One idea we are currently working on is to have the trapdoor lower and raise electrically with an actuator. If any one knows anything about motors and actuators as well as hydraulics please drop me a line (theroltz 'AT' yahoo 'DOT' com). We have gotten one price but it is a little out of our ballpark, we are now looking at used motors as well as other suppliers.