Institutional Grey

Now it feels like we're getting somewhere! The primer went on tonight and I am bursting at the seams to take the next step and get real color on the walls. *Giggle* I just noticed that the pile of plastic near the hearth makes it look like the shop vac is spewing smoke! :0) Anyway, I just took a few "perspective" shots.

Glory be! Today the 2 barriers in the hallway came down! For almost a month, we've lived with a plastic curtain and then a sheet further down. It made cooling efficiency a real bear.

Andy particularly likes this view. Standing in the depths of the hallway and being able to see all the way to the hearth!

I really like these 2 recessed lights on dimmers that light the passage out of the hallway into the living area. It's where we think the traffic pattern will be... We're getting there! Thanks to Mom and Larry for stopping by with Jimmy Johns tonight so we could push through with the priming. The latter part of this week will be a real push to get the flooring in so we can empty the POD before pickup Monday or Tuesday!

Hello From Chaos

Heat, humidity, and a bit of frustration 'round here today. The recessed lights are in, but there are some wiring issues that have Andy stumped. He spent almost the entire day in and out of the oppressive attic. I am so proud of his work ethic and drive, but sometimes I worry about him needing to take a break. The kids' behavior today had us both about to the breaking point, even with an offer to take them to the park for a picnic. Tonight, a storm moved through right as I put supper on the grill. It was a multitude of downpours, tons of lightning, and thunder galore. We ate our supper at the card table in the garage watching the light show. Back to mudding and sanding tomorrow... Maybe I'll post more pics when we get some color on the walls...

Baseball Ends on a High Note

Today was the Rookie League tournament. The team really showed their stuff! We were 2 members down, but the defense was the best it's been all season! Joel got to play 1st base the entire game, and he did a super job. His quick catches and sense to stay near the bag allowed him several outs. He even caught a pop fly again today. We are so proud of him! The coach treated the team to Dairy Queen after the game and each boy received a cool trophy. We got word today about a fall league and he is definitely pumped about that. Way to go Joel-bean!

Will It End?!?

Today--more of the same...joint compound and more joint compound! I'm really getting sick of this part. Tonight, we did chalk lines and mapped out the cabinet/island layout on the subfloor. We also mapped out/marked the placement of the recessed lights and ceiling fans. Getting those installed (at least the boxes and casings) is on the agenda tomorrow, as well as another round of ceiling painting with the "spew paint everywhere" sprayer. Then the parade...a fun diversion--weather permitting. Monday should be spent sanding and HOPEFULLY I can start priming the walls Tuesday. Whew!

Lengthy Stage

Andy broke through to the garage today and got the pantry door installed. Our pantry will run most of the width of the garage. A little unorthodox, but it will be roomier than our old one and won't take up our newly opened kitchen space.

I feel like I've been taping/mudding drywall forever! It's definitely the longest haul in the process so far. Tape--mud--add corners--mud--dry--sand. Repeat until you have carpel tunnel! I think we'll be very happy and surprised if we can start priming by Monday, especially with a ball game Saturday and the Fishers Freedom Festival Parade Sunday.

This is going to be our "unique" corner. We have to creatively drywall this and had to add a tiny half-wall (didn't we just destroy all of those???) to allow for some electrical. It will end up being a useful entry/mudroom-type area though.

Today, I pushed myself pretty hard because a blessing from above came knocking on our door around 10:30. One of Joel's 1st grade classmates lives just down the road and we are friends with the family; 3 of the 4 kids I've had in school. Mrs. R showed up and kidnapped J and H for the day. Later, she called and said, "How about a sleepover?" Ummm......YEAH! So Andy and I had uninterrupted work time this evening. I know, it still doesn't look like much has changed, but we barely stopped for supper. Here's hoping this stage is almost over, Joel has a great bball game tomorrow, the kids are tucked in all snug and blissful, and we all get some good sleep! :0)

Almost Time for Color

Just a couple more pieces of drywall, a once-over with more tape/mud, and we'll be ready to paint. We're deciding exactly how to navigate the area where the front coat closet was. It should be dealt with tonight. Yesterday, I ran out of the joint compound, so I'll have to work on it tonight after we re-supply. The fun part of tonight's excursion will be picking up the paint for the kitchen/front room, livingroom, and hallway. I guess we can start calling it the "great room"! Today, I plan to start spraying paint on the ceiling (not looking forward to it...). After we FINALLY paint, then we can get on with the flooring--yeah!

Baseball and Flooding

Last night was Joel's final regular season game and he did great. Here, he just made contact for a decent hit--made it on base. He's really getting proficient at switch-hitting. The highlight of his game was a super pop fly catch at third base, which he played all night. The opposing team's coach told him, "Now that's baseball!" as he gave him a high-five. We're hoping they offer a fall baseball league. Joel's really taken to it and his skills are developing well. We should've put him on a National League Rookie team, but he didn't have experience, so we signed him up for American League. Now we know! Andy said he'll probably go ahead and coach next year. I think he'd be terrific!

After an night full of thunderstorms, we woke up to this flooding in our neighborhood. It's the worst we've seen it since we've lived here. Our lilacs are sure getting drowned! We saw a ladder and a tire floating past the kids' play fort here in our backyard ditch.

This is the front area of our neighbor's yard. Driveway is under water.

This is the view from where our street intersects with the main neighborhood access. The ladder and tire ended up out there past that mailbox and had to be rescued so it wouldn't stay in the middle of the street. Also discovered was the kids' telescope from their fort in the backyard!

This is looking the opposite way to the other cul-de-sac, which is completely flooded. I just checked outside again and the water seems to be rising as I record this!

Small detail--Big deal

Much the same as the doors, this post will probably not impress most people; but the family who know our livingroom well may be a bit more inclined to celebrate with us. This house was equipped with bulky, tacky looking, dark brown beams across the livingroom ceiling that invited snags and cobwebs. They were yucky. Now, they have been reduced to the 2 x 6s that were hidden underneath (couldn't remove those). It may not look like much, but this is what I've been busting my shoulders with the past couple of days: hand-spackling these things with a 2" putty knife in order to allow them to blend in with the existing textured ceiling. Granted, the ceiling has not been painted yet, but when it is, this will look mahvelous! We are happy with it!

Him

Friend...husband...brother...caregiver...hard worker...soother...massage therapist...jack-of-all-trades...chef...math guru...problem solver...partner...listener...jungle gym...coach...cheering section...tangle remover...builder...sounding board...calming
influence...disciplinarian...model...humorist...reader...thinker...theorist...tekkie.........FATHER. Happy Father's Day to my beloved. Happy Father's Day to friends and family out there as well!

Some Progress and a Hairy Situation

We're making slow progress at the drywalling. Even slower at the ceiling patching/spackling. We're getting there, though. We lost some precious time tonight dealing with Hanna's little hairbrush mishap. After bathing, she apparently decided to use my brush to "curl" her wet hair while Andy and I were working. In response to some whining and shrieking...well you can see for yourself what we found. I started working on the rat's nest, then Andy took over since he has way more patience than I. Hanna ended up losing a good sized hank of hair, as Andy had to slice it off the brush! We are tired and frustrated these days, but this too shall pass.

A View Emerges

The view from our future island/cooktop.

Taken from the front door...

Taken from the back door...

Tonight was a bit challenging as we worked to get the headers up. After some choice words, they are up and Andy ripped out most of "THE wall". I love being able to see from the front door to the back of the livingroom. This process taught me that a) I need to trust that engineered beams are totally capable of being load-bearers, and b) I am a weakling. Holding them up while Andy tried to secure them was a real bear. But it's done! Now we can really feel what it's going to be like! Okay, my turn in the shower and an early baseball game in the morning, so...more later.

Oh! Big news this afternoon: Baby Ronna finally made his appearance late this afternoon! Wendy dealt with a stubborn and long, slow labor...Ryder Allen is doing great! We are happy to have another cousin to spoil!

Love A.C./ Very Much Dislike Drywall

Hallelujah folks, the air conditioning is running! We drywalled the ceiling where the little half-walls were and got some tape/mud up late tonight so we could finally turn the air on. Blessed relief (not over the top, mind you, but enough to take off the edge of this expected 90+ degree weekend).

Today we were busy running all over creation to pick up our flooring and cabinets. Doggone, that's a lot of flooring to install (43 boxes of bamboo!). Tomorrow, the engineered beams are delivered so we can finally move forward and "tear down that wall"! Lots to do!!!

Update

I promised someone I would try to keep up on the pics, so here are the latest...
Here's the booger branch that targeted my car! Looks innocent enough, I know...



The new front door is awesome. To most folks, these doors are nothing special, but anyone who knows what we had before understands just how excited we are to have these. Andy picked the color!

Back door to the deck...we chose to leave it as is. We'll paint the inside to match/compliment the livingroom color. Our interior has always been so dark. These doors really allow great light to stream in and, with the knock-out of the main wall, we are "beginning to see the light"!

Here's a shout-out to my mom...Happy Birthday! Also to Wendy...little baby Ronna #2 is coming Thursday and we can't wait to find out all about wee one!

Remodel Wordle

Here's a wordle I did as I waited my turn in the shower late last night. You know, we could really do without the ceaseless pattern of hot-humid-thunderstorm! By tonight, we'd like to get the place sealed up so we can turn on the air. 90+ degree weather coming this week... Oh, and the windshield is costing us over $200. Guess that blows our fantastic appliance deal!

Demo Day 4

For those that are counting, it's technically Day 6 of the project, but we did nothing on Wednesday evening (bball game) and Friday evening (dinner and grocery shopping). What a week! I've got quite a story from tonight, but I'll ease into it with pleasant news first. Our cabinets are coming soon, our floor is waiting to be picked up this week, and we have 2 out of 4 appliances. We went with Clark's scratch & dent stock and found both the cooktop and wall oven we were looking for and saved over $400.00! The oven was still in the box; just in as a "changed our minds" item. The cooktop scratch is on the underside where it will go unseen, so we felt really good about those two steals. Still need to get the fridge and dishwasher.

So today, we worked hard to basically finish demolition, with the exception of the main wall frame we're removing. We have to wait until next weekend to bring home and install the engineered lumber beams that will replace the wall. Everything else is down to the bone and ready for reconstruction. This evening, we worked to install our new front and back doors. Here's the whammy..... The back door went in with no major issues and looks fine. It just needs finished off with some trim work. We took a short break for supper and then decided to go after the front door. Just as Andy removed the old door and threshold, a severe thunderstorm blew in from out of nowhere and slammed us for all we were worth! We scrambled to close windows and put something in the doorway (the 2 old doors propped up!), then ran to the driveway to get the oven we'd picked up this afternoon out of the truck and into the garage. By then, we were experiencing straightline winds and I came around the driveway to see Andy looking fit to be tied. A branch had just snapped off of the neighbor's tree and done a swan dive, butt end first, into our car's windshield. Down in the bottom corner, it was shattered like a golf ball had hit it. Poor Andy was beside himself; I just kept telling him, "this is something we can deal with... It was out of our control..." We waited out the very worst of the squall line and resumed the door installation in some steady rain and occasional power flickers. After a much more difficult installation, including many references to how jacked up and non-square our house is, we finally got the front door in. It looks super; just needs some paint! By the time we were cleaning up to prepare for bedtime, the windshield had gotten worse and spidered much further. We put in a request to Safelite to see about getting it replaced tomorrow. What a bummer.

So today's our anniversary...what a memorable day! Last night, we did squeeze in our annual dinner at The Melting Pot and it was fantabulous! Can you believe it's been 12 years? I love him crazy and I know that, one day, we'll look back on this remodel and all its little quandries and laugh about them! Well, it's late and I could get a wake up call from the glass repair fellas in the morning. I'll try to get some end-of-demo pictures up this week before we start on drywall.

Remodel Part I

A few "before" shots of this1970's masterpiece!

Here's the nasty linoleum found under the laminate (shame on the previous owners!).

Tedious labor!

Welcome to our temporary kitchen in the garage!

We just tucked the kiddos into bed and Joel, who's been keeping abreast of the looming storms expected tonight, says, "You guys just be available tonight when the storms come, okay?" Cracked us up! Anyway, we made some decent progress this PM on demo. Andy got home around 2:30 and we ripped up the livingroom carpet down to subfloor. There are a few things they don't warn you about on DYI programs: no one ever shows the homeowners meticulously pulling staples out of the subflooring. I mean, someone went WAY overboard with those staples! Also, you rarely expect multiple floors to rip up in the kitchen. We encountered laminate (easy), followed by a vintage linoleum (a real pain in the tushy), finished off with a stubborn USB board (the devil's spawn). Andy worked VERY hard tonight to finish the kitchen. I've accepted my job as wingman (running refuse to the dumpster, pulling nails, cleaning up, and throwing my weight into some pulls as needed). Demo Day 1 and we're down to subfloor in 2 of the 3 rooms. We'll take it...

Play Ball!

It's been all about baseball around here this weekend. Friday, we attended a team cookout, where the boys got a chance to play and the parents worked on the team float for the Ball Day Parade on Saturday morning. This was our first year participating in Optimist Baseball, so Ball Day was a whole new thing for us. Amid questions about looming weather, the parade Saturday morning went off without a hitch. I loved seeing so many of my music students in their floats as they wound through town. The only downer was that some of those kids had squirt guns and, when they saw me, unloaded them on me. After a few instances, Andy decided to let them know I was around by shouting, "Hey look, it's Mrs. Walton!!" Needless to say, I was soaked even before the rains came. The kids had a blast! Right after the parade, the skies opened up and it was a hot, humid, and miserable afternoon with many of the day's games cancelled. We headed home to keep packing for the remodel.

Today, we went to Victory Field to see the Indianapolis Indians play. It was a super day! Many of the family members came, as it was baby Trevor's quasi-first birthday party. We spent the afternoon on the left-field lawn and Joel enjoyed seeing "experts" play. Most of us got a touch of sunburn, but it was a most enjoyable day. When we got home, we kept working on the house. See a theme here?

Monday, the Pod arrives and this remodel will be put into high gear. We've already chucked the kitchen cabinets in the dumpster and most of our daily life has been packed. Not looking forward to meal prep and dishes without a kitchen. We'll be doing lots of grilling, crockpot, and electric skillet meals. Joel and Hanna are enjoying the fact that we moved the livingroom TV and Wii to Joel's room. The computer is in our bedroom, along with the piano. Feels weird typing while sitting on a step stool between the bed and dressers! Soooooo much to do! As soon as we get the furniture and boxes out and in the Pod, I'll snap some pictures so I can keep track of the before and after. We are SOOO looking forward to the 'after'! Better stop for now...may not blog again for awhile; chances are we'll be falling into bed each late night. Wish us luck!