Wednesday, 2/9 Granite

Well I am finally posting pictures of the granite countertop. It has actually been in for about a week, but I have been sick so I am now just getting around to uploading the photos. Enjoy.

Thursday, 1/13 Kitchen and Front Awning

Some more changes have been made to the kitchen and the exterior of the house. There is a new front and back door that look so much better than old ones. The back door has a large amount of windows in it and really opens up the kitchen. Also, the crown molding has been put up on the cabinets, giving them a finished look.

Also Johnny and I designed and built a front awning from cedar. I am really pleased with the look it provides for the house. It gives the house a nice architectural detail on the front of the house. It still needs to be stained a red mahogany, and then it will be done.

Thursday, 1/13 Floors

So I have finally gotten around to posting again. I have been working all day everyday on the house. Johnny and I worked all last week on the hardwood floors. First we had to rent the drum sander, which does the main sanding on the floors. That took two full days as we had to start with very rough grit sandpaper because of how bad a shape the floors were in. Once we had the large areas sanded, we rented the edge sander (there is a small area against the walls that the drum sander can't reach). The edge sander and a small vibrating hand sander were used to get the edges and corners.

While the floors were being sanded, I was also putting wood filler in the cracks between the wood pieces. There were several places that had very minor water damage and the boards had pulled apart a little. The wood filler is stain-able and pretty much disappears after the stain is applied.

I bought several different colors of stain and mixed them together to get just the color I wanted. For the next two days Parke and I stained the floors. Finally Johnny put two layers of polyurethane on the floors.

The process took a whole week and was a ton of work, but the floors look amazing now! Here are the photos. The first two photos are how the floors began, then after they were sanded, then stained, and finally after the poly was applied (You might also notice some changes to the kitchen).

Thursday, 12/9 Small Things

Today it was only Johnny and I working. We spent a lot of the day talking through plans for the next few weeks. To be honest besides for planning, we do more small jobs around the house. I spent way too long putting a ceiling fan in the master bedroom. I have no clue why it took so long to install it.

Wednesday, 12/8 Buying Things, Doors, and Priming

So today wasn't the best day I have ever had. Josh and I spent about an hour waiting at Lowes to pick up a door I had special ordered. I have no idea what took them so long to bring it up to the front, but it was pretty annoying.

Anyway, besides for that it was a pretty good day. I bought a new mailbox and installed it today, as well as found a place that had oak crown molding in stock. I picked some up, and it will be stained tomorrow (its going on top of the cabinets).

Parke spent the day cleaning up and sanding the new front and back doors. They are going to look great, a huge improvement over the old doors!

My painter spent the day priming, mostly the window trim.

It was just a day of small jobs that needed to be done.

Tuesday, 12/7 Very Busy

First, I want to say that I'm sorry that it has been so, so long since I have written a blog post. Work on the house has been very hectic and I have been putting in very long hours this past week. Therefore I am just now getting around to writing a new post.

As you can see from this photo, a lot of work has been done. The whole house has been landscaped, which makes a huge difference in how it looks. Also the front lights have been put up. The river pebbles have been put down for the parking, giving the exterior an almost finished look.

I am putting a new front and back door in (actually bought them today). Once that is done, a front awning will be built, the mailbox will be put in, a small fence will be put on the right of the house, and finally the front landing will be painted. Then the exterior of the house will be done! Here are some pictures of the exterior:

The inside of the house has changed a lot! The main difference is that the cabinets are installed and stained, though the window trim is up and the ceilings are painted as well. Johnny and I spent two very long days getting the cabinets installed. Once in place they looked great and really made it look like a kitchen. The next day was spent staining all day long (once I got the right mixtures of stain to get the color I wanted). The cabinets looked great. Today my painter put a coat of poly on them and really made them stand out.

Besides for the cabinets, I also bought my appliances. I got range and microwave that are both convection cookers as well, and a dishwasher. All three are stainless steel. I only bought them this early because I got a great deal on them.

Johnny also got the trim up for all the windows, which looks great! Here are some photos, and please note that the cabinets look way way better in person (the flash made some of them look weird):

Again I'm sorry that it has taken me so long to update this blog. But a ton of work has been done, and everything is starting to come together to form a house.

Monday, 11/29 Painting, Organizing, Cabinets

Well I am back from a great Thanksgiving break and started working some more on the house. It was Darren (my painter), Josh, and me working today. Darren put second coats on some of the ceilings, especially the closet, while Josh worked on organizing the house. We put some plastic down on the back porch and moved most of the supplies back there (things like doors). This opened up the inside of the house and gave much more room for movement. Josh then spent the afternoon cleaning up the house, especially the floor.

I also went the paid for the cabinets today. Hopefully tomorrow when we pick them up we can begin staining them and seeing what they will look like. Im excited to see the house continue to come together.