More Insulation (12/30/13)

Today while I was doing some mudding in the master bedroom I noticed the mud from the day before along the back outside wall had not dried and there was even a little ice build up in the corner.  Mike went up in the attic of the old house, cut in an access hole to the new part of the roof and pushed the insulation into that area and along the whole back of the house.  Hopefully that solves our issue!

Mike started laying out the plumbing in the trenches downstairs, doing lots of figuring and I'm sure we'll need a lot more pieces to get this completed! 

Indoor Sandbox! (12/29/13)

Today Mike dug out the trenches we made downstairs for the plumbing to go in.  He put all the extra dirt that will eventually go back in the trenches in the back bedroom.  The kids got to play in our lovely indoor huge sandbox!  They thought it was pretty cool!

Digging the tub and toilet holes & trenches in the new bathroom

Trench down the hall in front of the new bathroom

Trench coming out of the new bathroom

Hole/Trench under the new bathroom sink

Trench going to the main tie in

Soffit & Sheetrock (12/28/13)

We had an unseasonably warm December day today so Mike was able to get the rest of the soffit put up on the ceiling of the front porch.

He also put up some more sheetrock in the dining room.

Master Bedroom Door (12/26/13)

Tonight Mike put in the door to the master bedroom....it's like a secret room cause the only way you can get in is through Evan's room!

He also hooked up the dryer in it's new location in the new laundry room.  He had to move it since one of the plumbing trenches went right where the dryer was sitting.

Pocket Door in (12/24/13)

Mike got the pocket door put in for the closet in the master bedroom today.  He put up the rest of the sheetrock too and I did some mudding.  I'm excited to finish the mudding in this room so it will be a "finished" room and we can move Evan in and tear apart his room some more.  

Pocket door in and opening for the main bedroom door

A view from Evan's side and a cute little kid all tucked in :) Notice his new shovel and tool set he got for Christmas!  Also some new work gloves!!  This kid loves being put to work! He broke his last shovel the other night shoveling out the concrete downstairs.

I do have to say these kiddoes sure are good and flexible with all the construction and craziness going on in the house; they embrace it with minimal complaints and mostly think it's pretty cool :)  <3 them!

Master Closet Pocket Door Framing (12/23/13)

Mike framed in the pocket door for the closet in the master bedroom.  

He also put up some more sheetrock in the master bedroom.

Back side in dining room

And put in the door on the front closet.

Jack-hammer & Dust (12/22/13)

Mike finished the rest of the concrete cutting downstairs today.  He also rented a jack-hammer to bust out the concrete from the trench section.  Evan and I loaded up all the large concrete pieces into buckets and shoveled out the small pieces to clean out the trenches while Mike hauled them out....we're quite the team :)  It was a big messy dusty job, but it feels so good to have this part done!  

Trench for the new kitchen sink plumbing

Trench down the hall

Trench in the new bathroom

Trench past the furnace going to where the plumbing ties together

Downstairs Concrete Cutting (12/21/13)

Today Mike rented a different saw to cut the trench for the plumbing downstairs.  It worked way better than his circular saw.  He got the trench cut in the new bathroom, down the hall, and down past the furnace.  Just one more section is left going to where the washer and dryer are currently located (this is for the kitchen sink plumbing).

Evan's BIG Room (12/20/13)

Tonight we took a wall out of Evan's room.  It's the old outside wall of the house, so now we officially have all the old windows out!  We are going to put in the final wall to the master bedroom so then we can get the sheetrock finished and use it as an actual room.  Evan's room will then turn into 2 closets and part of the bathroom so we will probably move him into the master bedroom once the walls are finished.

Old window removed

I finished the final coat of paint on the front closet, feels good to have another thing finished!

Light Switches (12/19/13)

Mike did a little more electrical work today so now we have working light switches in the dining room and mud room!  No more ghetto extension cord to plug in the lights!

I did some more mudding in the dining room and master bedroom.

Front Closet First Coat of Paint (12/18/13)

Today I put the first coat of paint on the front closet.

Mike did some more concrete cutting in the new bathroom downstairs.  He burned out his saw while cutting and didn't get done what he was trying to.  We figured out we need to do something different with this concrete cutting, its going to take way too long to do it the way he's doing it now for the amount of cutting we have to do.  He's going to borrow Al's saw again that we used to cut the retaining wall blocks for the egress windows, but that saw is gas and will suck to use in the house.  He's also going to check and see if Home Depot or ABC rents an electric one.  So hopefully this weekend we can have something figured out that works faster and get it all done at once.  I wanna move on from this bathroom plumbing!!

Front Closet Primed (12/17/13)

Today I put a coat of primer on the front closet.

Mike wired up the new electrical panel and put in a couple light switches in the new dining room and mud room.

Mud Mask

Today, and mostly everyday, I did some more mudding......but today I got a little present drip right off the ceiling!  Ugh is this house done yet????

I did get the closet by the front door finished and sanded tonight, so now I can prime it tomorrow.

Mike finished up putting the bolts in the beam upstairs, there are 3 beams that are bolted together. 

I cut some holes in the floor in the dining room and our bedroom with the jigsaw for the heat vents coming in through the floor.

Mike bent some sheet metal and put it up for our laundry chute and he also put up another sheet of sheet rock on both sides of the wall.

Ceiling Scraping (12/15/13)

Today we scraped the popcorn from the ceiling in what used to be Kate's room.  Messy messy messy!!  But it's done!  YAY!

We had to wet the ceiling to get it to scrap off better

Inside snow angels!

Done!

 Mike broke out the concrete in the bathroom downstairs for the section where the toilet goes.

Downstairs Bathroom Concrete & Electrical (12/13/13)

Tonight Mike cut out more of the concrete floor in the new downstairs bathroom.  There's a lot to cut and it's not very fun to cut so he's taking it a little at a time until it's done.  

Sink area

Cut out for toilet

So we were potentially going to get a bathtub from Mike's friend, Jason; so Mike cut out the hole in the floor for that tub.....the drain for the tub upstairs that we were originally planning on bringing down is on the other side.  We found out today that his friend doesn't have the tub anymore so we will be using the tub from upstairs.....no biggie but oh joy he gets to cut more concrete now!

I wrapped up some of the electrical that we did in the back addition downstairs and Mike hung the new electrical panel.

Cabinet Maker (12/12/13)

Today the cabinet maker came over to measure the actual spaces vs. the drawings.  We also looked at the design and made a few tweaks where we thought it was needed.  Exciting!!

Mike put up a lock on the back sliding door up high so the kids can't unlock it.  Jonah had been randomly unlocking the door and opening it....solved that problem :)

Small Kitchen Wall (12/11/13)

Tonight Mike put up the small wall that the kitchen cabinets butt up against.  Tomorrow our cabinet maker is coming out to measure the kitchen and finalize things so they can get started on building them.

Concrete Cutting & Closet Door

Tonight Mike cut out more of the concrete in the new bathroom downstairs; he cut out the section for the bathtub.

He also put in the closet door by the back side door.  It's not painted but we wanted to hang it so we can use the closet and continue to work on the walls back there and not have all our stuff get dusty.

Downstairs Bathroom Plumbing

Tonight we put up plastic around the new bathroom downstairs for a little dust control so Mike can start cutting the concrete floor to do some plumbing.  He cut out a section and found the main sewer line and clean out which is exactly what he had hoped to find; this is really good so he doesn't have to do extra cutting to find it.

Mike also put a shelf and closet rod in the back closet.