Holiday Lull

We hope that everyone had an enjoyable Christmas.  Not having to work for about a week and a half has been nice, however progress on the house has been slow.  The contractor shorted the sheetrock order by 30 some sheets.  He then ordered more and shorted the reorder by 10 sheets.  Come on man.  Its not rocket science.  Now the sheetrock hangers won't come back to hang 10 sheets so I guess the contractor will have to do it.  Great, now I get to hear him whine some more.  Below are some shots of the sheetrock after initial taping and mudding.  Happy New Year folks!

 

 

Dennis Suite.

Living room.

Fireplace in dining room that I put cement board (Durock) on.

In living room looking towards stairway and front of house.

 

Ashley daydreaming of actually being able to live in the house.

Mantle I've been working on.  A co-worker brought it to me from Tazewell, VA.  Its poplar, came out of an old barn and has some nice hand hewn marks on it.  My neighbor and I cut the ends off a bit with a chain saw and then we used his sawmill to square the back up nice.  I'm going to brush the dirt off of it and leave it natural.

Well, here is ole Rocky the 7 week old mini weenie dog.  My wonderful in-laws "surprised" Kennedy with him for her 7th birthday.  There was no consultation with us whatsoever so we were quite surprised as well.  I have to say this is a pretty sweet breed.  He about the most loveable animal I've ever had and has such a personality already.

He loves wrestling with the couch.

Drywall Update

As I predicted in the previous post, the hanging of the drywall has was not completed today.  They were 20 sheets short.  Hate to say I called that one.  Regardless, its pretty freaky seeing sheetrock in place of the old plaster.

Dennis Suite.

Looking towards living room.

Looking from dining room towards kitchen and living room.

Dining room.

Upstairs hall.

Alex's closet.

The pile is about gone!  The bad news is that its just moved to the other side of the barn.

On a sad note, I must inform those few that actually read this blog that we sold the Rally Racer last Wed. night.  I had a lump in my throat as she was hauled off.  The new owner is a 15 year old boy and I'm pretty sure he's gonna rice the hell out of the poor car.  Oh well, at least she had a dignified last 13 years.

Almost 100hp of pure driving excitement.

JD, recognize the hole punched in the bumper??  Good times...

Insulation, Drywall and Good Friends

A big THANKS John and Jessica who came to visit this past weekend.  John and I (Jessica was shopping... mm hmm...) completed several small jobs that I had been meaning to finish.  Ashley and I had a great time at the Shroom.


**EDIT**  Jessica did throw a few boards out the mudroom door.  Thanks Jessica!


I'd like to thank Neil as well for the generous donation of nearly a thousand feet of CAT 5 wire.  There is plenty left and I ran extra just in case.

The exterior wall insulation has been installed and as of today there is a crew hanging drywall.  Word is they'll be finished hanging and begin taping by Friday.  However, I'm skeptical as very little has gone according to plan thus far.  The giant pile in front of the house should be gone by weeks end as well.

This is the finished mudroom wall. Hey John, the contractor is adding a 2x4 under the ceiling joists as the other 2x2 support was somehow removed.

Here is some blocking I installed on either side of where the stove will be.  This will make hanging of our open shelving easier as we won't have to look for studs to nail to.  There is also some blocking on the other side of the wall for mounting the TV.

This is similar blocking upstairs in the master bedroom for hanging the TV.

Unloading the drywall. The truck actually has another house's drywall on it too.  The driver said that with both loads of drywall, the truck weighed about 55,000 pounds.  I'd like to say a big ___ you to the dumpster company that was afraid to bring a loaded dumpster across the bridge.  It handled it just fine.

Them's some big sheets of drywall.

Hallway along stairs looking from downstairs bath to living room.

Looking into kitchen from dining room.

Master bedroom wall insulation. Wink.

Gas insert and fireplace.  I'm going to try to hang the concrete board and obtain an old beam for the mantle this weekend.  John, can you come visit again?