The Windows are Done!!!!!!

Time to celebrate!  We finished finishing the windows!  Yahoo!  It has been two weeks this past Friday since we started this part of the project and we are sooo happy to be done!  We even broke out some champagne and brie! (Some of you know what a big deal that is!)  We even used our wedding champagne flutes! It was two weeks of nonstop 10 - 12 hour days (oh, we did take two days last weekend to do other project related things - apart from each other - it was a very necessary break). We are ready to take a day tomorrow to just clean up and catchup!  The back porch will finally be a back porch again as we return the tile saw to Bob (THANK YOU, BOB ) and stack the extra wood elsewhere!  Yahoo!!!!  Now to find some furniture for out there!  (And lights, I want some of those string lights!!!)   We also washed some windows (Annie, the inside of the windows will be ready for you in two weeks!) and the patio roof.  Maybe the best news it that the other morning we pared down our to-do list from 6 pages to 5!  We're getting closer!

The old "to-do" list with some of the tasks crossed off in red.....

has been replaced with a new 5 page list!  Yahoo!  I think the font is even bigger!!!!! 

One of the doors to the upstairs deck before we finished them!  Nice
insect control with the Puffs Plus,  don't you think!  Now they
actually have door hardware that works!

And what it looks like now!  (Sorry for the night shot!) No more insects coming
in through the holes! 

We used the upstairs deck as the workspace to finish one of the
guest room doors!  Nice place to have to work!  Hope our guests
enjoy it as much.

Each window had several little nail holes that need to be
filled before the windows could be finished!  No wonder my back
hurts!  We got pretty good at it - well, we should have figuring there
were more than 1200 holes that needed to be filled! 

Man, those holes were tiny!  But thanks to a tool we found in
Alfred's tool box, it went fairly well!

This red ladder became a staple in the living room!  Lovely decor,
don't you  think!  It's gone as of this afternoon!  Yay!

We decided this benchmark deserved a celebration!  Bill went and got us
a bottle of champagne and some brie!  It tasted great!

We even used our wedding champagne flutes - I think for
maybe the third time!  Not a good record, huh?

So, tomorrow is cleanup day! This is what the living room has looked like for
the last few days.  We covered everything with plastic drop clothes to protect it
from all the sanding dust.  It will be great to get back to some sense of "normal."

LOOK!  Clean windows - well at least on the outside.  Being that we didn't
want to have to borrow "the plank" we used to climb up on the porch again,
I decided to wash the upper living room windows today while Bill finished
the last of the inside window finishes.  Well, once I got started it was hard to
 stop so....  Didn't get even half done, but Bill claims the brightness is blinding!
Our friend Andi turned us on to a product called "Squeegee Off," it works great!

Well, once I got started on the windows it seemed like a good time to clean
the patio "roof" (for lack of a better term) also.  It is plastic material that was
covered with needles and yuck before I started, now it lets all kind of light in!
Nice change!  That wood is all the cedar paneling we pulled off the interior
walls, just waiting for Bill to turn it into a kayak for 10!

And here is the contraption we set up to clean the upper windows and the patio roof.
Ladder, plank, ladder!  It actually worked pretty well.  I even got pretty good at going up
and down it without Bill's help!  He was kind enough to do all the inside work that needed
the 12' ladder . And there is so much more light under the roof now! Time to find some
outdoor furniture!  

Momma told me there would be days like this or....

It's been a while and we've had our ups and downs (hence the title), but all in all things are progressing nicely.  We've kept more than busy this month with finishing the insides of the windows (more info with the pictures below), tiling the entry way and the finishing touches in the bathrooms, installing the "closet system," trying to figure out exterior paint colors, etc, etc, etc.  After too long without a break we took yesterday "off" and limited our project work to picking up some paint samples and hanging mirrors.  It went so well we decided to approach today in much the same way.  Well, I did get to do some bill paying and bill built some steps for the dogs, but we didn't even try to do another window or door!  Yahoo!  It's hard to believe it is halfway through August!

A birds-eye view of me in the entry prepping the underlayment
for the slate tile.  It was the last major tile work to be done
and went fairly painlessly considering.  

The slate as it looked when we first put it in.  The white
hole in the back if the picture is for a floor mat that will sit
down in the tile.  That way it won't interfere with the door
opening and closing.  We'll find (or have made) a tray to fit
beneath it. 

Ta-da!  Done except for the final sealing (we have to wait
bit for that) and trim.  We still have the funky old front door,
but will probably wait to replace it until we build the porch roof
next spring.

The other tile work that needed to be completed.  Trim in the master bath.
Love all those spacers - they crack me up.  Still have to grout and caulk this .
Put mirrors up in here yesterday - what a difference.  It's a lot brighter and I can
actually see how bad my hair looks rather than just imagine it! The only
problem with the mirrors is that when we look in them we can see how bad the
side yard, which needs to be graded,  looks! 

Ah, the windows.  The thing with buying the windows the way we
did is that we have to finish the inside of each window ourselves.
Didn't seem like such a big thing when we ordered them, but!!!!!
It means taking each operable window completely apart - first you
take it out of the "frame" and then all the hardware has to be
removed - before you can start with the actual finishing.  That in
itself includes wetting it, filling holes, sanding, applying the finish
(we used ZAR water-based exterior polyurethane that was recommended
by our painter) and then repeating the sanding/finishing process one or
two more times.  We can do 4 windows a day max!  It's slow and tedious,
but they look great.  We would recommend Zar in minute.

All the hardware and weather stripping for 4 windows.  We had to develop
this layout system so we got everything back in the right place.  We didn't do
it for the first window and let's just say the project hit a low point as we
were trying to get it back in place.

So this is one of the operable windows with the "window" removed.  It is
actually pretty slick the way the window pops in and out.

This was the typical scene all week - we'd leave for a walk or a meal and lock
the front door only to look at the window to the left and see that it wasn't there!
The back of the house was wide open about 1/2 the time!  Daily habits are
hard to break.  It provided some well needed laughter!

The office windows done!  They look great!  

Can't say the same for the office!  We had to move all the desks, etc. in order
to get to the windows and it's still a mess!  Oh well!!

The master bedroom slider done!  Man that 3' door is heavy, but it looks great.
It had to be taken out and the hardware removed just like the windows, but
now I know how they work! Now to finish the 4' one in the living room - might
have to go to the gym fora few weeks first!

The left side of the master bedroom closet installed!  We bought our system
via Easycloset.com which is a handy online way get a system.  It's cheaper than
a lot of competitors, but you have to do the design and installation yourself, so....
I need more hanging space for long things, but we'll get it worked out.

Bill putting the finishing touches on the right side of the closet where all the
hanging clothes go.  We thought this was going to be the easy side to
install, but it ended up being a little longer that the space (watch those
crooked walls when you measure) and it was a painful end of a day.

Ta-da!  The closet.  Not organized yet, but at least we can
sleep on the bed (where we had piled all the clothes
during the installation!).  Nice to have a place for shoes
where they aren't buried under the hanging clothes.  

The big exchange or 12 hours of .....

So today was the day.  We were finally able to plan on a day of sun and we took advantage of it by "flipping" the garages.  You may remember that one of the main reasons we bought this place was the third car garage that could be turned into a shop.  During the past few months we have been using the main, 2-car garage for a shop and staging and we used the third-car garage for storage of a lot of our stuff.  Well it was time for the big swap and today was the day.  All I can say is that, contrary to my husband's belief, we have waaaaaaay too much stuff.  That said, we are doing our best to pare down and got a fairly good start on it today....  there is a lot more to do, but.......  And on another front we have a new teenage neighbor, Anna, who was  looking for work and she worked on the yard today while we worked on the garage.  She was so fast that she ended up helping us for the last 1/2 hour!   It was great!  Thanks, Anna!

Drat!  See those boxes, they  are invading the house from the garage again!  The good news is we are already
sorted some of the cook books and some are ready to depart!  

All those boxes on the left are full of books and you are just seeing the first row!  There are three of them.
Anna asked if we'd ever heard of selling them.......  LOVE IT!  Bill just chuckled.  

The view from the garages!  Oh my, where did we get all this stuff!  And, maybe more important, WHY!?!?!?!?!

The third-car garage cleaned out and almost ready for shop equipment!  Yahoo!  It looks so light compared
to the dark cramped space it was all winter!  I should have take a before picture!

The two-car garage before the exchange.....  And we'd already put a lot of stuff in the driveway!  I found
myself fondly remembering my Uncle Fritz and and Peg's basement and shop - so CLEAN!

Anyone want a 'speed bag platform' and bags.  Bill finally
agreed to give it up today.  The previous owner's family
had no use for it so it was just left in the garage.

Okay, so it isn't spotless or well organized yet!  It is such an improvement already.  Some of those old kitchen
cupboards are going to be moved in soon so there will be better storage! (And we'll have access to our
back porch! Yahoo!)

The view from outside!  Looks better from here!

And the two car garage with all the stuff from the third-car garage sorted (house stuff, garage stuff, for sale
stuff, and stuff waiting to be picked up) and ready for distribution.  It will be better soon - as Bill build cabinets and shelving/storage and we reorganize the cabinets to the left.  Ah, it's been a long day, but it feels great!
(Oh yeah,  I have to confess to an hour swim with my friend Becky at Lake Padden this afternoon!  It was great and sooooo refreshing!  I came bak in a much better mood and reinvigorated.)

It's been a month!

Wow!  Time does fly and it has nothing to do with having fun!  Well, maybe a little.  We moved on June 7th and 8th and then fell into a coma for a couple of days before getting back on the horse and tackling the next jobs.  More trim work, finding (Kate) and installing (Bill) cabinet handles, unpacking more boxes from the garage - there are still plenty there :-( ,  tiling the upstairs shower, cleaning up the yard and actually planting some annuals!

We've already had a few guests.  My former roommate, Carol, came from Oregon with all kinds of energy, which was just what was needed at the time.  We shopped for a new microwave, toaster and some other miscellaneous items (if you know how much I hate to shop you know how much I appreciate her help), weeded the peony bed (what a job that was), and, unpacked a ton of boxes!  She said she wouldn't come if I wouldn't put her to work, so..... That may be a warning to the rest of you!  She left and we finished tiling the upstairs shower just in time for Maria, Ava and Meredith to arrive for a few days.  We really did stop work for a few days while they were here and that was GREAT!  Ava took me swimming twice in one day - LOVED it!  And Maria got me out on the golf course - we are still wondering what happened to that promised beverage cart!!!!!!  We are in the midst of grouting the shower as I  write this, so I better go and add the photos this evening!

The master bedroom closet - with temporary clothes rod.  This
house has almost no storage space, so I have a feeling this space
will be holding a lot more than clothing. Nice to have some stuff
out of the suitcases.

Our laundry room vinyl that we installed in a morning.  Interesting
stuff in that it is fiberglass backed and very flexible.  It doesn't require
and adhesive for installation and if you do get a knick you can cut it out
relatively easily and add a new piece.

Finally - a couple of shelves, albeit temporary ones, in the
laundry room so you can actually see that vinyl.  It's a tight space,
but I am getting used to it.  With the entire house only 24 feet wide
one has to get used to narrow rooms.

Bathroom cupboard knobs and pulls!  Yahoo, no more broken
fingernails!  Even though my fingertips are still numb most of
the time, they don't hurt so much from trying to open drawers!

Our extremely stylish living room sconces!  Okay, so we aren't quite
there yet with them.  Bill's thrilled that we are using LED
lights.  Now to figure out what to do for covers!

The cork flooring (and Bill's feet) in the loft.  Bill installed
it all by himself.  It was best that way after it didn't go
in as easily as advertised! It will be a great surface I think.
We have a little stereo up there and surprisingly it sounds
great throughout the whole great room.  I am sure someone
could explain why, but ......

A view of the loft from the walkway.  The beautiful weaving
is a gift from our friends Paul & Becky.  The colors are GREAT
with the house.  The storage unit in the background is from
IKEA and will someday hold yarn and other supplies.

Our new microwave and toaster!  The weirdest thing about the offer the buyers
made on our old house was that they only thing they wanted was our $79 microwave....
We threw it in the deal and forgot about it until we moved in and I would say to Bill,
or he to me, "just zap it for a few seconds" and there was nothing to zap anything in!
We traded in the toaster over for a real toaster........  Thanks to my friend Carol for getting
me to go shopping without a panic attack!  Well, it isn't that bad, but....

The master bathroom is looking a little kookie these days.  We found the
curtain track we wanted (IKEA) but finding a long enough (both ways)
shower curtain has proven a bit of a challenge so far.  Nice window curtain, huh?

We're getting there. We grouted this today - with epoxy grout.
It is a good team project and with my previous grouting partner,
Meredith, out of town Bill stepped in.  It went well.  We need
to finish one of the short walls and the floor tomorrow.  If you have
a good tiler do anything to hold on to him/her and it you are married
to one (hey, Angela) you are one lucky person!

Pete, the previous owner like gardening and pink, so we have 22
peony plants, most of which are light pink.  Thanks to our friends
Harriet and Andi they produced great blooms this year.

Some dianthus in the rock garden - they need some company!

And there are a few darker peony plants.  I hope to add more
variety to the fold.

And lots of strawberry plants - we need to tend them better so that we beat the
birds or worms to them! 

And a little rose peaking up in the back!

The white garden around "the rock."  You can see the peonies in the background,
well what is left of them,  We finally cleaned up the side yard a bit and moved
the picnic table there.  Ahhhhh, it's starting to feel like a home, not just a project.

Ava helped me choose the plants and plant these pots near the entry.  She
positioned them as well - saying they will be good for greeting guests. I finally
got some annuals in the planter along the walkway, too.  It felt good to work
outside again!