More craziness

Over the last week, Reuben has been working hard on the walls and ceiling in our house. I have been working hard trying to keep my sanity. Patience is a virtue and I'm learning the hard way. Some advice to those in the same boat...if your husband is trying to finish the drywall don't try to talk about hanging pictures, gardening, paying bills etc as it will only remind him that you should be helping him sand. You don't want to have to help him sand...it's not fun.
Our drywaller came on Saturday morning (after our week of prep work) at 8 am. No sleeping in for this girl. He quickly and efficiently retaped all the drywall joints we had exposed by noon. I tried to stay out of the way but at one point, while trying to make Tiramisu for a party, I had to move all of my stuff to the other counter. There isn't one area of my house that doesn't have drywall dust or mud tracked through it or on it. I thought my livingroom would be a sanctuary but now all of the shoes and coats from our front hall closet are strewn about it. Last night, Andrew came again and did a second coat of mud and then they put up drywall on the ceiling in our dinette and front hall. I had to help hold it up while it was being screwed in place.
Despite all of this, the Tiramisu turned out and was enjoyed by all.
I haven't taken any pictures recently to show the progress.
Oh and also, our tulips have started blooming!!! And isn't it so cool how they close at night and open during the day!:) Amazing.

Wainscotting and drywall joints

This is what we've been working on the past week. In the picture below you can see what else has been taking place in the stairwell area besides potlights and a new ceiling. We've (Reuben) been scraping away at all the joints; taking off the old mud and tape. It's a thankless job and creates a huge mess on the stairwell. I wish I could sleep downstairs so I wouldn't have to walk through it every night/morning.
And on Friday last week, I had a day off from work, so I proceeded to take off the old beadboard/wainscotting in our front entryway. It was easy-peasy. It came off with little trouble. Now, all of the nail holes have to be filled and sanded and then we can paint! It looks like painting will take place in 2 weeks...to coincide with my birthday.

part 2

Here are the pictures...
First there are some from a party we had 2 weekends ago. Then of Reuben working on the house and then of the finished livingroom, well, the main wall anyway.

renovations and in-laws (or How I Spent My Easter Weekend)

I want to tell you all about our renovations...but I have no pictures...
So, I'll keep it short and add pictures in when I can...
Reuben's parents came to visit for the long weekend so lots of work got done on the house.

1. They(Reuben and his Dad) put up crown moulding and baseboards in the livingroom and diningroom....it looks amazing!
2. They also put 2 potlights in our stairwell...there was much fiddling around with 3-way switches!
3. They installed drywall on the ceiling in the stairwell and part of the hallway upstairs.

While they were doing that, my mother-in-law and I organized our basement mess. We had been chucking stuff down there ever since we moved in and it was really starting to bother me. Now, it's all organized and there's actually room to move around down there!

We also really started thinking about our kitchen and so we went to Ikea to get one priced out and then also to a higher end place...the price difference is pretty big. I think we're going to go with Ikea just because we don't want to spend more money on renovations than we'll get back out of the house when we sell it. Any improvement to the kitchen is going to be significant, that's for sure. We're planning to do it in the Fall.

So this week is looking like the beginning of more dust and construction in our house for awhile. We have to rip out all the tape joints in the stairwell, upstairs hallways and 2 bedrooms and then it all has to be taped and mudded. At least we're not doing both floors at the same time. While the livingroom was being done I could retreat to my bedroom and now that the upstairs is being done I can retreat to the living room. You should come over sometime and check it out!

My handsome nephew, Nethaneil

I knit that vest for him...