Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Pre-work staining...E polyurethaning

Usually I'm the Market "opener" meaning I get to work at 7AM. Every once in a while something's going on and I'm the "closer" so I get the morning to do other stuff. Today it was staining. My coolest accomplishment today was the first section of railing off the master bedroom:
Let's look at it again from another angle:
I also stained the steps into the groovy room, they look like cedar in this picture:
And the door crowns to the master bedroom and the laundry closet:
Eric got another nice day and put a coat of polyurethane down on the back porch:
He also re-attached the gutter that our carpenter removed to construct the porch and never replaced. And we took a desk to the house in the morning...so we're SLOWLY moving!

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Still on task...

Meaning another piece of furniture made it to the house today. The wine rack from the kitchen:
Now in the new kitchen in the little space between the basement door and the arch:
Eric took advantage of the latest dry spell and slightly (50s) warmer weather to finally get a coat of polyurethane on the front porch:
And from the side view (that really red strip is new):
After work I stained more trim. The window in the groovy room that overlooks the living room:
The window in the upstairs hallway that overlooks the backyard:

Monday, March 24, 2008

Another day..another piece of furniture moved...

Day three of our task to bring a new piece of furniture to the house per day. We're on a roll, but I suspect that after a week of this it's going to get a little trickier about what we can sacrifice at the other house and still keep it functional. Today's pick, one of the bookshelves from the study. Eric adjusts the shelves:
We'll have to think about whether we really like it there or if it blocks the window too much, but for now it stays:
Then it was on to our new perpetual job of staining woodwork. These photos are for Suz, "Any new photos? I guess photos of stained woodwork probably aren't that interesting, huh?" You wanted them, you got em! Here's the master bedroom just awaiting polyurethane (now poly drying is REALLY dull)!
It's nice to compare how the stain really warms up a room. Case in point, the HVAC box before:
And now with blue tape and red oak stain:
And the window in the groovy room also got stained yesterday:
A couple hours of that and we deserved pizza. Homemade in our new house...our first "real meal"!

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Easter Weekend Progress

We worked on Saturday morning before heading up to Cleveland for Dad Mac's birthday dinner. More staining of woodwork was involved. We finished up the French doors:Here's the dormer windows in the master bedroom:
The little window in the master bedroom that overlooks the park (if you're tall enough):
And you can see in a couple of the above pics that we stained the little "cubbies" on either side of the room. We've decided to try to bring a piece of non-essential (at the old house) furniture each day on our trip to the house. Saturday morning we transported this dresser out of the dining room and into its final resting place in the guest bedroom:
And on Sunday afternoon we brought this desk out of the guest bedroom at the old house and think it works rather well with the color scheme in the groovy room:
Sunday afternoon we installed some cabinet hardware on the linen closet and the "cubbies". We found the backplates in a bin at the Habitat for Humanity Build-it-Again-Center and the knobs we picked up at Great Indoors. The linen closet:
A close-up of the hardware details:
Our architect warned us of a couple things we'll need to pass the final inspection, like house numbers. So we picked those up at the Great Indoors too and put them up:
Eric is meeting Justen at the house tomorrow to go over the final details of the trim work...and maybe paying him if he's done. And then it's all us. Since it was nice out today I took a new exterior shot:

Thursday, March 20, 2008

Entering the final stretch

We've been to the house the last couple of nights to stain the woodwork. We're starting in the master bedroom because once that's done we can gradually move our stuff and ourselves over here. Last night I taped off all of the woodwork on the second floor to prep for staining the rest of it (necessary since all the trim is up and we don't want to remove it) while Eric continued staining in the bedroom. And not all of the trim "channels" have been sanded enough to start staining (no more splinters please) so it's a little patchwork right now. We've not actually seen our carpenter since the day of the party (when he was literally still working on the porch as our first guests arrived). This is a good thing. He's apparently coming in when we're out and finishing projects like boxing in the heating duct in the groovy room, putting in the trim piece missing in the closet, and stuff still on his list. I'm going to have to take a "if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything" approach and simply avoid him. I'm still upset about the pre-party-family-picnic-preventing-my-cleaning-chick-from-doing-her-job-so-I-have-to-spend-two-hours-cleaning-when-I-just-PAID-someone-else-to-do-it-fiasco so it's really for the best that I not see him. He did nicely install the over-the-stove microwave yesterday so he gets warm fuzzies from Eric for that.

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Virtual touring time

Sister Heather requested MORE photos of the house to vicariously view from the Bay area. So here's a photo tour for all of you who couldn't make the party. The front porch (all new) and two front doors stained by Eric:
Approaching the main door and the glow of my favorite porch light:
In the front foyer/entry/dining room on the right is the mantle and the coat closet (glass door):
On the left is the chandelier over the bar (one day to be a dining room table) and the French doors to the study:
A wider shot of the fireplace, mantle, coat closet and on the left is the main arch into the kitchen:
To the far left of the entrance are the pocket doors to the living room. View of the left half of the living room including the new exterior door on the far left:
A view of the park from the picture window:
The full view of all 4 windows facing the park on the exposed brick wall. The eyebrow is in the cathedral ceiling where we removed the original ceiling:
We exposed the brick fireplace and had the firebox rebuilt...now we need to get an insert...that's for another budget!
Back out to the dining room:
View from the entry/dining room through the arch into the kitchen (we've still gotta figure out how to paint the arches):
View into the kitchen from the archway. The full panel glass back door is new too:
View from the back door through the kitchen into the dining/entry room:
Lovely flowers in the photos by Market Blooms. View from the basement door into the kitchen:
View from the entry room into the den/study:
Inside the study the door to the guest bathroom (we painted the WC):
Into the guest bedroom from the hallway:
Into the guest bathroom from the other side in the bedroom:
Sorry- I didn't post guest bathroom photos again because I figured you'd seen enough and nothing is new. Here it is in progress if you need a refresher: http://martineaubungalow.blogspot.com/2008/02/return-of-plumber.html
The hallway to the second floor:
A single shot of the master bedroom because it's just hard to get a good angle:
The master bath from the shower:
The master bath from the sinks:
The hallway on the second floor. To the right is the master bedroom and a closet with the laundry. To the left is the bathroom. Past the railing is the steps down:
From the hallway into the groovy room/den. The window goes to the living room:
Stepping further into the room:
Our fun and funky seating area in the groovy room. Watch your head when you stand up. According to Brian, those angles can be concussion-inducing!
Back down the stairs:
And back to work! Tonight we started staining woodwork in the master bedroom. Eric worked on the French doors while I did the eyebrow windows above:
He also hit the little window next to the doors a bit. Yeah, the photo is upside down:
And those eyebrow windows are tricky and will require lots of touch-up painting for the walls:
The hounds are happy that they are once again permitted to accompany us to the house. Here they are in their favorite room that overlooks the park:
They are also willing to snuggle on the futon:
Bogart doesn't "get" this photo-taking thing: