Jeff has been busy putting the kitchen back together. This weekend Jeff, Dad, John and Joe worked on the cabinets and floor in the kitchen. It looks great so far. The cabinets are assebled and the uppers have been hung. The sub floor has been installed and the laminate floor is 65% finished. I was home with a headache but it sounds like they had fun and got a ton of work done. CHECK OUT THE PHOTOS BELOW!
The bathrooms are almost done and we have plans to wrap up all the floor coverings soon. Painting is going to be finished up in the next two weeks the we can focus on finishing all the trim. I ordered stain to match the existing trim in the house.
In terms of the exterior of the house, we have run into an obstacle. We had been under the impression that powerwashing the old siding would remove most of the old paint. This week when Jeff fired up the powerwasher he discovered that it wasn't going to do much. The old paint is lead based and it has been built up over many years, so its thick and rubbery. If only part of the paint comes off with the washing, then there will be deep ridges that will be easily seen under the new paint job. We've considered all the options and determined that vinyl siding is the best way to go. We plan to save money by painting the cedar shingles at the top of the house. It will be nice to retain the character of the cedar shakes, and if its a little bumpy, no one will be able to see that from the ground level. As it turns out, the vinyl siding is going to be just a little cheaper than having the house painted by a professional! So the obstacle is going to save us money but not time. The only problem is that we've just added more work to the long list of things we have to do to finish this house. Tomorrow morning Jeff is giong to order the material for new vinyl siding. It could take up to three weeks to get the siding in so we'll be busy finishing up the kitchen while we wait.
Wow, its been a long time since we posted anything. We've been really busy with the house. Steph came to us from Olympia and she stayed for about two or three weeks. She and I stripped the kitchen window and then she tiled the bathroom and worked on the wood trim upstairs. I've painted the closets and the upstairs bathroom. Summer and Scott helped out at the house too! They finished up all the demo in the mudroom and they helped with some sanding. With all the help we've been getting, things are really beginning to change. Jeff has been the constant driving force behind the changes. He is a super project manager and such a hard worker. He is so great at telling the helpers how good their work looks, everyone has such a great time working with him. We are getting so excited about finishing this house. I'll try to be better at keeping you all updated on our progress.
Peace.
-Jen
