Paint by Numbers (Painting: Day 4)

Days: 4

Pizzas: 2

Parents Roped into Helping: 3

Beers: 15 (estimate, probably low)
Gallons of paint: 14
Square feet painted: 6160 (440 sq ft per gallon); 0.14 acres

Square feet of ceiling: 2714

Painters tape applied: 1620 feet; 0.3 miles
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Holy crap am I tired of painting. On the bright side, we did actually accomplish all of our goals. Every surface that is going to have a light installed on it has had two coats of paint (and a coat of primer) applied to it. We actually have some significant painting yet to do, but this certainly got us most of the way to the finish line. The only thing that we still need to paint in order for the construction company to finish their work is the trim in the bedroom and bathroom which should be more of a one-two day project. The bathroom is done, the bedroom is done, the great room ceiling is done (so . . . much . . . ceiling), the closets are done. Eventually we need to finish the greatroom and repaint the stairwell and the guest room, but let's not dwell on that right now.

Painting: Day 3

Today was productive, but not quite as productive as we had hoped. I can certainly say it was not from a lack of effort though. Here's a quick recap: the bathroom and two of four closets are completely done; the master bedroom is primed, taped, and ready for its first coat of color; the greatroom is half primed (we ran out of paint). Tomorrow the bedroom will get color and the greatroom will get two coats of ceiling paint.

Colleen's dad took the day off from painting to hunt. To fill in for him, we brought in my mom. We got quite a few pictures of her today, but none of her face. I think that's because she spent almost every minute here facing a wall putting down tape or paint. That's her on the right (guess from which side of my family I got my height).


Our electrician was here working hard for at least 8 or 9 hours and still didn't get everything done. Again though, there are some highlights: the kitchen and master bedroom are completely wired (including our awesome new ceiling fan); elsewhere all of the switches and outlets are in, but few of the lights have been installed. The lights that are installed look pretty sweet. Hopefully our electrician will be back again soon to finish up.

Painting: Day 2

What better way to celebrate with your family on Thanksgiving than by making them do manual labor? Colleen and I put together some lofty goals this weekend and to meet them all, we needed some help. The electrician is due out tomorrow to install the electrical sockets, switches, and lights. Since lights are annoying to paint around, we wanted to get as many of the ceilings painted as possible before he arrived. He'll also likely install the vanity light which means we'd like to have the bathroom painted. And in the great spirit of 'while you're at it' we decided to try to get primer up in the great room and the master bedroom. Colleen's parents have been a big help the last two days and my mom is due to show up tomorrow.

So far we're doing okay on our goals. We have at least one coat of paint on all the surfaces that lights will be installed on. The kitchen, bedroom, and bathroom ceilings are done, and we hope to have the bathroom wall and one or two of the closet ceilings done by the time the lights are installed tomorrow. See some highlights of the fun below.

With no light, painting at night involves worklights and creepy shadows.

Paul powered through the entire ceiling of the great room in one shift.

Rhema performs what has become the least favorite activity: cleaning the walls.

This was just as comfortable as it looks.

Count(er)ing Our Blessings

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Before I get into the new addition news, let me just say that Colleen and I have a lot to be thankful for. Clearly we do some whining on the blog, but it would be a little boring if every blog entry was 'Things are Great!' We really are blessed just to be able to do a project like this and it has been a great adventure. Moreover, we are truly blessed because we have such great friends and family to support us (some of whom are literally helping us out right now). Okay, enough sappy stuff, let's get to the news!

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At last update we were priming the kitchen in prep for painting. We got that all done (except the ceiling) and it looks very nice. It's a good thing we got it done too, because Tuesday was a very counter productive day. Usually that's a bad thing, but not this time. A small army of guys showed up to install our counters on Tuesday. Because we got Corian, the largest section was all one piece (a big selling point for us since it means no seams for water and germs to collect). I was at work, but Colleen got a great shot of the counter when it was still vertical.

It took them about 3 hours to install and they look great (again, please ignore the floor).

We've spent much of the last two evenings shelf papering and putting dishes in our new cabinets. It's extremely satisfying to finally be reversing the flow of stuff by taking it out of storage and putting it into the kitchen. We are doing lots more painting over the holiday weekend and quite a few things are slated for next week. We should get our appliances and sink faucets installed. I'm hopeful the thermostat will finally be installed so we can get some heat in the addition. Also, our tile is due to be 'produced' on Monday so it might arrive before the end of next week.

Optimal Prime

As you can see from the picture below, we officially started painting today. Colleen is busy priming the kitchen for paint and I'm (supposed to be) washing the walls of the master bedroom and taping them in prep for painting.

Just because we are painting, don't think the addition is done, it is just to the point where painting needs to happen so that other things can happen. In the case of the kitchen, the counters are due to be delivered soon (about a 50/50 chance of having them here before Thanksgiving). The bedroom ceiling has to be done so they can install our light fixture so that we can get our plugs and switches installed (so that we can do more painting).

On a general note, it is not often that things go more or less right for a few weeks in a row, but we are definitely on a good streak recently. My November 7th post made some bold predictions about things that I hoped would get done, and nearly all of them are done or on schedule: The cabinets are in; the countertops were measured last Monday and due in soon; the grading was done despite the heat pump; the vast majority of the trim has been finished; and Colleen and I are in fact painting. Hopefully that momentum can continue for a few more weeks. Lots of important stuff is due in soon.

Cabinets!

In the up and down excitement of building an addition, this is definitley an up day! About half of the cabinets are fully installed and the other half are sitting where they will eventually go. They look really nice and everything fits perfectly (so far). I'll let the pictures do the talking (please try to ignore the half painted walls, dirty floor, etc . . . just focus on the cabinets).

Happy 4 Month Birthday

I like the format of my blog a few weeks ago where I basically do lots of mini-blogs. Mostly I like it because it's easier on me, and ultimately, that's really what its all about. So hold on to your seats, here we go again rapid fire style . . .

Tile Death Do Us Part

(New favorite blog title). Seven weeks ago Colleen and I went to the flooring place and picked out the carpet for the bedroom, the vinyl flooring for the bathroom, and the tile that will go around our shower and tub. For the tile, Colleen wanted something in a beige marble look and I wanted something in a white marble look. I think beige looks dirty, she thinks white looks like a museum. We found a white tile with beige veining which satisfied us both and we were very happy for that.

Four days ago I got a call from the flooring place saying that they had just gotten word from our PM to go ahead and place the order and that our tile was backordered by six weeks. The irony is of course that if the order had been placed when we picked it, it would have already been here. Anyway, they asked us to come in and pick something else out. So Thursday, Colleen and I headed back into the show room certain they would not have anything else to satisfy us both. The bad news is, they didn't; the good news is, she caved so we are getting white marble:-) The other bad news is that the next day we got a call saying that this tile was back ordered by more than three weeks! By this point, we were tired of picking tile, so basically we are just going to have to wait a little longer to finally use our shower and tub.

Making the Grade

So you loyal readers out there may remember that the rationale for not having heat the B and B Party was that they couldn't put in the heat pump until they had done the final grade. This made sense to me since the heat pump should go about two feet above where the ground currently is. The current date for grading is Monday morning. In a little twist however, the heat pump has already been installed. Unfortunately the thermostat has not. What this means is that the heat pump is in the way of grading AND not providing us any heat. Awesome. I'm anxious to see how they do the grading now since they are going to have waaaay too much dirt unless they uninstall the pump, move it while they grade, and then reinstall it (see the weekly update picture below).

On Deck

Our PM says that not only is grading scheduled for Monday but that our cabinets are due to arrive Monday afternoon. I find this fascinating based on the current state of our kitchen: the old washer/dryer plumbing is still installed, there are huge sections of undrywalled wall and ceiling etc. Anyway, Colleen and I are packing up what is left of our kitchen this weekend so they can take out the old and put in the new. I'm hopeful that the new cabinets will be installed within the week and the counters within two weeks of that. I'm sure in three weeks I'll be rereading this blog thinking, "I was such a fool."

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Although I haven't been told this specifically, I think they are going to do the final trim work in the great room and bedroom sometime soon. This will allow Colleen and I to paint which will allow them to put in the flooring. At this point, I don't know when all the addition work will be done, but I do feel like I can see all the steps lining up to get it done, and that's exciting.

Glimpsing the Future

The addition hosted its first party this past weekend! B and B Party XII was a big success.

Our PM did get a cleaning crew out here on Thursday and they did a heck of a job (they even cleaned the windows for crying out loud). I also took the day off to help turn the addition from a construction zone into a suitably hospitable environment for 35ish people. It was actually great to see the place (mostly) cleaned up for just a few days and get some hints of what it will be like when it is all done. For the first time ever we took the plastic down between the kitchen and the greatroom. The greatroom is definitely a great room to hold a party. Just think what it will be like when it has electricity! The new bedroom got its first use. We slept five guests in the new bedroom (and two in the guest bedroom, and one in the living room). Here's one picture of the master bedroom. Notice how big it looks even with a king air mattress in it. I'll post some more good addition pictures as I get them and have more time.

In other addition news, the tub arrived early Friday morning and was dragged upstairs today. It still isn't inside it's little box yet, but they did put some cement backerboard around it where it will go so that it can be tiled once its in. Gutters were installed Friday. I have a feeling that we could be getting our new cabinets this week, but our PM has been MIA since Wednesday, so it's a little hard to tell. Stay tuned. . .