Done!

After 5 days of hard work, and 3 days of LOTS of painting, its finally done.  I am SO, SO glad we did not attempt to do this ourselves.  I'm posting the before pics again so you don't have to scroll down.

Remodeling the deck has moved up the project priority list.

Big Progress

Wow, they've spent 6 days getting it to the point of being ready to paint.  There was a lot of work involved in getting rid of those stupid wood shingles.  Now there is a lot of sanding to be done on that trim paint.  They had to take it down to bare wood in a lot of places.

All of the windows are covered.  Its nice that they can't see inside the house anymore, but its fairly dim in there now.  

No, we are not painting it brown, and whatever that other color is there.  They do a base coat of whatever odds and ends they have, mixed together.  It acts like a primer before they put the actual color on.

The guy told me they've had several people see a brown base like this and want it for the final color, but they can never match it exactly since its such a hodge podge.  I told him he didn't have to worry about that with us since I think its ugly.  But still, THERE IS NO MORE YELLOW!!

Progress

The siding was in really bad shape on the garage, they had to replace most of this side, and the back.

No more hideous wooden shingles at the peaks!!

Another future project is replacing those octagonal windows.  I may need to learn to do stained glass and do it myself.

Time to get busy

We didn't do much to the house over the winter, too much else going on.  We did decide that painting the house has to be the next big project, we just can't take it anymore.  Here is a reminder of what it looks like now:

The brown does not look like chocolate to me, it looks like poop.  I don't really care for the wooden shingles in the peaks, and they are in pretty bad shape anyway.

We knew hiring someone to do this job would be expensive, and we really considered doing it ourselves, because we are tightwads.  In the end we just couldn't face it though.  This is a lot of hard work, and not fun at all.  So we hired Peak to Peak Painting, and were told it would be about 6 weeks before they could start.  Plenty of time to pick colors...

But then they called and said they can start 3 weeks earlier, which was the next day.  Oh crap, guess we'd better get busy on those colors.

We're thinking of green or blue, so I went and got some samples.

I like this green a lot.  It looks better in real life, too hard to make it look right on the computer, but this is close.  The problem with green is that there isn't any contrast with all of the green trees, bushes, grass, etc.  Its just a lot of green.

I like this blue a lot too.  I worry that it will stand out too much and just be too much on the whole house.  Our house doesn't have much privacy from the road right now, and I'd rather not draw everyone's eye to our house even more.

So the next option was a brown.  I like this brown, very earthy and southwesty, but in the end, its still brown.  Like every other house around.

The kids really like the blue, and we both like it, so blue it is.

The sample sizes are pretty big, so I decided to slap some up on the chicken coop to get a better idea.  Blue for the main body, brown for the accent color, and a light trim, similar to this trim on the coop.


Its always so much fun to tear into stuff on this house, because we literally have no idea what crazy stuff we're going to find.  Take those shingles on the side for instance...

Climbing the ladder to get up there is what I really didn't want to do myself.

Under the shingles on the sunroom we have plain tarpaper.

Over here we have some lovely OSB and plywood.

And on the other side we have some vertical siding.

So glad I don't have to do cleanup!

Dishwasher update

The dishwasher saga finally ended, but it took the BBB to get it resolved.  After 6 weeks of dealing with this, the store finally agreed to refund my money and take the dishwasher back.  BUT, they wouldn't come get it, I had to take it to them.  Since I have a truck, and dishwashers aren't that heavy, I didn't argue the point, I just wanted to get it over with.  We now have a Samsung dishwasher that we LOVE!  We got it from Best Buy and had no problems whatsoever.  I never knew a dishwasher could be this quiet, we can be in the same room with it, and not even realize its running.

Oh, and I'm over the whole issue with the holes in my bathroom cabinet.  They have been well patched, and its not like I sit there and stare at them, lol.

It's Done!!

Actually, its been done for several days now.  The only thing left is a very few, nitpicky punchlist items.  ABD has been fabulous to work with, and we are VERY happy with everything we got.  Except for those holes in our master bath cabinet.  It will take me awhile to get over that one, but on the whole, I would absolutely recommend ABD to a friend.  I have no pictures because the instant the job was done enough, I filled the space with boxes that we've never unpacked.  It will be a long while before its clean and organized enough to want to share pictures.

The dishwasher saga with Appliance Factory Outlet is a completely different story.  Don't EVER shop there!!!  Our dishwasher was installed more than 3 weeks ago, leaked right out of the box, and has never been fixed, despite 3 visits by the repair guy.  The issue is still not resolved, as AFO keeps telling me over and over, they can't do anything, the manufacturer is responsible.  Bullcrap, I didn't pay Electrolux, I paid Appliance Factory Outlet.  I'm so sick of the 'pass the buck', 'I can't do anything' line of crap I just want to puke all over them.  Its a huge saga that I won't go into any further here, but suffice it to say, learn from my horrible experience, and don't give them a dime of your money.  I intend to file complaints with the BBB, Attorney General's office, and leave all of the complete reviews all over the internet that I can find.

Day 49

We got the vent covers installed finally, now it looks finished downstairs.  The last thing we need for final inspection is a step to go under the bedroom window.  The window is 4 inches too tall for the fire safety code.  The step was built and stained today.

Day 48

Big, big news - the kitchen is done!!  The range hood was the last big thing.  It didn't go in easily, but it is in.  I love, love, love how this project has turned out.  I really meant to get a photo in better light this weekend, but we were too busy trying to put stuff away and finish moving into it.

The laminate transition pieces finally came in and got installed, as well as the baseboards, and the corbels under the bar.

The bathroom mirrors were installed downstairs.  The painter also finished caulking all of the baseboards and trim, and finished touching up the paint.  It all looks great!

Day 47

This is the existing upstairs bathroom, where we had the shower doors installed.  There was a miscommunication somewhere, and see-thru doors were installed by mistake.  Today we got the translucent doors that we wanted.  Having lived with both, I know the translucent ones hide water spots much better, so I don't have to clean them as often.  Yes, I am that lazy.

The other big thing that happened today was getting new insulation blown into the attic.  What was there was in pitiful shape.  Between the new windows and insulation, we ought to be nice and toasty for a lot less money, which always makes me happy.  It doesn't make for exciting pictures though, so you'll have to take my word for it.

Day 46

Not a lot happened today, but what did happen was significant.

We got the top doors!!  We couldn't load up those shelves until the doors were on, so now there is nothing holding us back.

I can't remember if I've already posted about what's inside the cabinets and I'm too lazy to go back and look.  Those upper doors are for these two awesome pull out cabinets, accessible from both sides.

The lower unit has our pull-out spice rack, and 2 or 3 more adjustable shelves that go in there.  That square on the bottom is an access panel to the water valve for the refrigerator.

There are 2 lazy susans, one on each side of the stove.  It seemed to be the best use for those hard to reach corner areas.  This one has all the coffee stuff right under the coffee maker.

Next to the lazy susan are these 4 drawers.  I love that they pull completely out, so you can even dust the top of the back wall, if you are anal enough to care about that.  I'm not, but I like to see everything in the drawer.

This is the tidiest it will ever be under the sink.

Pull out drawer under the microwave to hold the microwave cooking stuff.

Pull out bins for trash and recycling.  This is the door that was up too high yesterday, fixed now.

The doors next to the trash hide two more pull out shelves.

Day 45

Backsplashes are now grouted and caulked.  I love them!

The flooring is almost done, we just need the trim.  That laundry room might be next on the project list after we finish getting unpacked.  For now I can just close the door, lol.

The toe kicks were installed today and look wonderful.  Yes, that door on the left is too high and will be repositioned.

Now that the tile is grouted, the shelves were installed!  Those are the new dishes we bought.  The old ones belonged in a cabinet, not out in view all the time.  We are finally to the point where we can move back into the kitchen.  Its so nice to have a fridge with water and ice in the door again!

Although the new fridge does freak me out a little, it looks like a giant eye back there, watching my every move...

Day 44

I didn't think anyone was going to come on Monday, but the tile guy showed up, which was great because I really needed to talk to him about the kitchen.

He got both of the downstairs backsplashes set and ready for grout.

Upstairs we needed to talk about how to finish off the inside of the window frames.  We did these little triangles so we could get the bullnose finish on both the top and front sides.  Now the kitchen is also ready for grout.

Day 43

Overall, Day 43 was a very disappointing day.  I'll get to that after the positive stuff.  I don't have a picture, but the original upstairs bathroom got an exhaust fan installed!  This is such a pet peeve of mine. I think building codes should require exhaust fans, operable windows are NOT enough.  Coming from a climate of extreme humidity (stinky towels), and seeing a lot of mold in my rental apartments here in Colorado, this issue is a big one for me.

Downstairs got all of the quarter round put on.  That's the piece at the bottom.  It covers the gaps by the floor and just makes the taller baseboard look more finished.  Now it needs the painter to come back and caulk it, and finish the touch up painting bits.

The Water Closet got its toilet paper and hand towel holders.  Now it just needs the mirror over the sink, and the fitting where the drain pipe goes into the wall attended to, and it will be done.  Oh, and the exhaust fan.

Hand towel holder in the master bath.  I'm thinking that eventually we'll replace those electrical outlets and covers with the oil rubbed bronze color.  That's a minor detail though, and I want to get over the sticker shock of this job first.

Toilet paper and towel holder in master bath.  We debated placement of that towel holder for awhile.  The shower is to the left, but we couldn't move it to the left because the shower door would bang into the towel holder if we weren't careful, and it would be awkward to reach behind the open shower door for a towel.  Over the toilet was no good because it would also be inconvenient to reach, and would have to be mounted pretty high to avoid having the towels lay on top of the toilet tank.  

I'm not too sure about this double towel rack.  It seems like if you put two wet towels on it, the one in the back still isn't going to get dry, even with an exhaust fan.  We shall see.  We'll probably still hang one towel over the shower door wall anyway.

But here comes the big frustration for the day - we specifically redesigned the bathroom so that I could mount the toilet paper holder to the RIGHT of the toilet.  No one made sure that the guy who was actually mounting the toilet paper holder knew that, so he put in on the end of the cabinet, like they usually do, but which is to the LEFT of the toilet in this case.  ARGHH!  I was hoping that for the enormous amount of money I'm paying for this job, details that are of utmost importance to me would not get overlooked.  Now I have 4 holes in the side of my beautiful cabinet, and they are right where I can see them Every. Single. Day.

And here comes more frustration, which is NOT ABD's fault.  I've been losing more and more patience with the kitchen, as it gets harder and harder to live with the kitchen in the living room, the constant mess, can't find anything because half the stuff I need is packed away, and there is no good place for what I did keep out, etc.  Its really getting to us and I finally started to lose it and begged our foreman on Monday to get our kitchen to the point where we can move in by the weekend.  It sounded doable at the time, but then the snowstorm hit and we lost the whole day on Wednesday.  Okay fine.  They tried to get at least the dishwasher and oven in by the weekend.  Ron was working on it Friday, and got the dishwasher in (purchased separately through Appliance Factory Outlet) and the darned thing leaked!!  I called the store manager who gave me the service department, which is actually a separate company they use.  They can come Monday, which is the best I can expect at 3pm on Friday, but they won't give me a 2 hour time window until Monday morning.  WTF??  I have to block out yet another entire day for an appliance.  I am livid.  Ron took pity on me and tried to at least get the range installed, but he didn't have a gas line.  He went and got a gas line, only to come back and find out that my power had gone out YET AGAIN (3rd time since the snow).  Then he discovered that the gas fitting the plumber installed is actually 3/4 rather than the normal 1/2 inch, due to the 3/4 inch gas line I guess, but whatever, he still has to go back out and get the right size fitting.  He did, and got the gas line installed, but by now it was too late to actually haul the range up from the garage and get it installed.  So, moving into the kitchen isn't going to happen this weekend.  And one more thing, the darned plumber never did caulk the kitchen sink, so now I still have to be careful about getting water around the sink while I still have to do dishes by hand.  Ron was going to caulk it, but just ran out of time.  I might end up doing it myself this weekend, darn it.  The kitchen tile isn't going to be grouted until Tuesday, so the shelves won't go up before Wednesday.  The doors *still* aren't fixed for the spice cupboards, so we can't load those up.  We can't load up the lower pantry because the water line for the refrigerator still has to be run in the bottom.  So, we can put some stuff on the counters, and load up several of the drawers, but we are still in kitchen limbo.  Truly, I do understand that mine is not the only job, and the day we couldn't work really threw a monkey wrench into the schedule, but it seems like we are so close and it just isn't getting done.  Still, I have to say, the workmanship is SOOO much better than whoever did the previous kitchen and additions, that I know I will be very happy indeed when its all over.  Except for those holes in my bathroom cabinet which will bug me to the end of my days unless they become totally invisible.  Really, what the heck to you put on the end of a cabinet to hide flaws??  Its not like I can hang a picture to cover it.  I'm going to have another margarita...

Day 43

We had a snowstorm this week, and lost power for most of a day, so nothing happened on Wednesday.  Thursday was Day 43 of actual work, and we are now at 8 weeks since construction started.

The electrical trim out got finished today, which included hanging our new pendant lights.  It was dark outside when I was taking pictures, so I'll have to get some lighter ones.  That tile wall was finally finished today!  That was a whole lot of tile cutting.  I think it looks fabulous.  It will get grouted next week, and then the shelves can go up.

Down in the basement the rest of the doors were hung, and hardware installed.  This is the mechanical room door.

This is the freshly painted quarter round that will line the baseboard in the rooms with laminate.  It covers the gaps where the floor isn't level.

Our office closet doors.