Laurie's World

We are close to the end now…YEAH! Leroy was here on Friday (and will be back tomorrow) to get the rest of the trim done. You will see in some of the pictures below that he got the door and baseboard trim done in the mudroom and the baseboards in the family and the sun room. Still to go is the foyer and the living room, Jackie’s window and one piece of floor trim in Rachael and Jackie’s room. He has a bunch of puttying to do as well as a few things on a pick up list for the kitchen.

Neils (electrician) was here today and he and Troy got a bunch more work done. Almost done with all that except for the undecounter lights, the light over the sink, the light in the foyer and getting the right circuits moved so they can be powered by the generator (should that be required) and the dishwasher. I think that is it…

Troy put the thing in the switch at the front door that you program with your longitude and lattitude and then it calculates when the sun rises and sets and turns the lights on and off accordingly. Kind of a fun little thing for $25

The girls were working on their pumpkins today…so we will start with that

The wall that looks white in the photo below is actually brown with a faux finish on it called "candlelight". It is a clear coat that kind of catches the light and makes the wall look shimmery in certain lights…so the flash must have caused it to reflect all light and make it look weird like that…kind of like a reflective coating on a road sign or something I am thinking…

Since we have the white table in the eating area now (until we get the proper one that will fit), Troy just put in one of the three chandeliers that will hang over the table.

I have grouted and sealed all the tiled areas in the floor and the back spalsh that are completed…I still have to do the backsplash behind the range, the small area created behind the raised bar in the island and the backsplash in the sunroom. BUT htis does not seem like juch compared to what I have already completed.

Still have to put the closet doors back on…but you get the idea!

We chose to use satin nickel plates on the outelets and switches in the kitchen. It looks really good and blends more with the slate that a white plate would…

OK…got a few things cleaned up today…so i thought i would take some pictures to show y’all.

Terry got the closet floor finished for me…so that is IT for hardwood…PHEW!

Got the table that held all the tools and junk cleaned up and moved out of the eating area…We had our first family meal tonight with us all sitting around the table like normal peopleAnd I made a decision about stools for the island, and I went to get them today and Terry put them all together for me…

And here is my tile all cleaned up…still not grouted yet though

and the view up and down the front hall…

So I spent yesterday and today finishing the hardwood in the closet and tiling the entrance at the front door. Yesterday and today up to 2pm was all about the prep…I laid 1/4" backerboard, and then screwed it down, then cut cut cut…Note the 5 decorative glass tiles in the centre of the centre row (not sure how to describe…)

I laid the tiles in about 2 hours…One thing I have learned with tiling is that it is getting ready that takes the time…They have not been cleaned or grouted yet…so ignore all the splotches and white stuff (thin set) in between…

Also, started the process to get Rachael and Jackie’s rooms put back together…

Terry took the cabinet, the toilet and the last of the flooring out of the main floor bathroom and mudroom hall for me today…No small task!! This would be the last plywood standing…and if i never see plywood again, that would still be too soon…

I would have taken pictures of the closet, but it has a drop cloth in there bcz Bonnie is painting for me

Wahoo!

I will tomorrow though…

Well, I can be very productive when I am left alone for a few days…Troy is off in Idaho for his yearly geek-end (yes I am allowed to call it that) so I am here just "working" on a few things

I decided to lay the hardwood up the hall and up to the front door…I had to learn to use Troy’s table saw…It is pretty much just like my tile saw except bigger and less wet

If you are wondering what the piles of wood are down by the door…they are holding down the last row that will go right next to the tile. I had to cut the tongue off so there is nothing to nail it down with, so glue is it

Need I say more??

and we have light in the sunroom

OK…now we are making some progress

"Kevin the carpet guy"…yes that is his company name…was here today with 2 guys to get the carpet laid. It took them a little over 4 hours to do the 2 rooms downstairs, the stairs and the hall upstairs. They also patched the hole in Jackie’s room from where her old heat register was relocated. So here are the last few pictures of our beautiful plywood floors (for the very last time!)

And here are the ugly old stairs and upstairs halls (with underlay only) Weird how they look like they are sagging in the middle…but it is just wear on the carpet…

And here is what the stairs look like nowLove ’em!!

I finished my tiling of the backsplash yesterday…It will be a day or 2 before I get to the grouting…I have to seal the tiles first, and before I do that I have to clean them…They are natural slate, so a lot of grooves etc, so not easy to get the dust out them, but I am persistant

I unpacked the rest of the kitchen today…and let me just say every nook and cranny is jammed…there are no empty cupbboards in Old Mother Hubbards kitchen. I thought the kitchen would fill up with gadgets…but in reality…it is food that is taking up all the room. It would appear that between the ketchup, BBQ and chocolate sauce noodles, and salad dressing, we are stocked for a while. I guess we lost track of what we had for condiments in the old set up…

So what is left you ask…well other than just putting the house back together, we have to finish the hardwood to the front door, finish the tiling at both doors and in the mud room/powder room, have Leroy come back to finish the base trim, have Neils come back to finsh the electrical, install the warming drawer, have the installation of the dishwasher completed (it needs clips, door panel and electric connection)…that is all I can think of right now…

Took me all day, but I am very happy with how this is goingOnce again….ignore the mess…SIGH!

Well…It was a busy week…Leroy and an assortment of helpers (some of whom I liked better than others) were here working until Friday about 4:30pm. They totally finished the kitchen and so I can really start to unpack now. Troy and I worked this morning (and Troy continued while I went to Jackie’s soccer game) to get the ventilation installed for over the range. Leroy has to come back in a week or two once we have the rest of the flooring installed and he will put the trim up then that is all done. We are missing one door and one drawer in the island that are being replaced, as well as the panel for the front of the dishwasher… but other than that the kitchen is done…oh yeah…Leroy has to assemble the pop up mixer stand and we have to install the warming drawer…but really…other than that the kicthen is done now. We got the second fridge in today…so that is nice…Thanks to Peter and Steve for coming over on short notice to help with that.So here are some pictures of the kitchen…please ignore all the clutter…I am working on getting everything put away…

We got the hardwood in the girl’s dormers so that Leroy and gang could do the trim in there. The girls have been living in crazy cramped quarters for a long time now and it has become a priority to get them their rooms back. SO we had Leroy do the trim in the girl’s rooms before the main floor base trim…Ahhh…the sarifices parents make for their children! Unfortunately we were short a piece of the window liner to do both rooms, so Jackie’s room does not have the window trim, but that will not stop us from putting the room together and Leroy will do that window when he comes back.

I would also like to show you my new "favourite" thingThe trim that I picked for over the doors and windows on the main floor…it is called architrave…and I am happy I went this direction…It is a nice touch and kind of decorative without being too ornate…

I have the doors all painted on the main floor, and all the hardware swapped out to satin nickel also…See I have been a busy girl…

Also…I wanted to show you the colour I painted the sunroom…which I have now officially changed the name of to the "coffee room" for a couple of reason…First I plan to drink a lot of coffee in there and secondly…it is the colour of coffee (not black coffee–but coffee with milk like I drink it)

So that is basically it…We are getting carpet on Tuesday (assuming the carpet arrives–which I have not heard that it has yet) and then Leroy comes back when we give him the call that we are done with the hardwood and the tiling…so that is all about me I guess. I also have to do the backspash before we can get the rest of the electrical to go live in the kitchen as Neils needs to set the outlet boxes after he knows the depth with the tile on…

OK…so when this all started, I did not really think I would be blogging in October…but here I am

I have some pictures of Rachael and Jackie’s rooms. We did some fun painting in there this weekend.

Here is the outside of the house…

and my grass

Leroy (and helper) are here working on the cabinets, trim etc. So they are going at it pretty hard and think they will only be here a few days…SO…that means we gotta get crackin’ on some stuff…mainly painting (so that would be me!) Which I got done last night. The flooring (which is a dilemna as to what to do with that wood still) but we are going to go ahead and do the girl’s dormers as there should not be a moisture problem up there–which is what we believe we are going to get as the final word from the lumber company. No…still not contact from them…I thought maybe when they got my chargeback form the credit card company, they would move a little fasterThe hardwood in the hall going to the front door and the tiling are just not going to get done before Leroy packs up his tools and goes home, so we are going to try to get him to come back after we are done to finish the trim work there.

That all for now…got lots to do