Saturday, July 16, 2011

The end is in sight

In The Money Pit, the house is always guaranteed to be done "in about two weeks."  So I hesitate to say it, but we may be ready to move in "in about two weeks."  July 31 is looking likely.

We also had two anniversaries to celebrate this week.  I don't remember the exact date, but it was about 1 year ago we moved in with Amy's parents.  And yesterday Amy and I celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary with a trip to Bob's Furniture and Walmart.  Good times....

Work has continued fast and furious every day since school ended.  Today was only a half day since Amy went to see some country concert with her dad and sister.  It took me 5 hours to hang the last two doors (one was cut to fit the roofline between the closet and laundry room, the other opening was the only framed in the house by Milton and he made the door opening 1" too short).  Got to spend the rest of the day with the kids.  Very fun.

Laying the pine floors is underway.  Old fashioned square cut nails apparently aren't used much.  I bought all 17.43 pounds C&S had left.  Ran out of those and bought the only 16 pounds that Koopman's had (theirs were in one pound boxes).
Took a day off to spend my birthday at the lake with the Lefebvres and family.
The array of tools used in laying the flooring.  This is the last room I did, so the pile of boards is all that was left at this point.
Some help with the measuring and cutting.
Some help with setting the nails.
Sean, dad, and I set every nail in just about 3 hours.  Sean also came back yesterday and spent the day helping me hang almost all the doors on the second floor.  Thank you, thank you!
Crocs, the work shoe of choice for the professional carpenter.
During the nail setting, the granite counters were installed in the bathroom and...
...kitchen.
Fuel.
With the granite counters in I was able to install the rest of the upper cabinets and finish the over- and under-cabinet lighting.  This is the LED strip under the counter.  0.1" thick so it's invisible and came in a 16' roll that can be cut in 1.5" increments.  Very cool.
The edger.  I hated this thing.
The drum sander.  I hated this slightly less.  I rented both last Friday at 3 pm.  Sanded until midnight.  Sanded the next day from 6 am to 5 pm, but was only through 2 of the 4 sand paper grits.  Extended the rental for another day.  Sanded 15 hours on Sunday and quit when I hit the cord with the edger at 11 pm and tore up the paper and cord.  Returned Monday at 7 am to finish the last three feet and return the sanders by the 8 am deadline.  Tired.
Using the edger.
One of the four barrels of sawdust removed by the sanding to get all the boards to a uniform height.
Help cleaning up the saw dust before urethaning.
Testing the hearing protection.
Amy filling nail holes with her little helper.
Relaxing and taking a break on a refrigerator box.  There's nothing more comfortable...
After the second coat of urethane we took a trip to IKEA while the floors dried.  WAY overloaded Paul's truck.  But we were able to get bunk beds, dining room table and chairs, closet wardrobes, and every mirror needed.  Plus a cup of coffee and coffee roll for $0.69.
Loft Before.
Loft After.
Picture taken by Annika to show off the newly urethaned floors.
Master bedroom floor urethaned.
The vessel sink and fixture that will be going in the bathroom.
Tiled the backsplash and space behind the range hood.
Charlton Well came to tie the wells into the house!!!!!  The pipe crew came the next day to connect to the geo units and found they had all 1" fittings.  The piping is 1.25".  They'll be back Monday.  Should have fully functional HVAC by Tuesday.
After dad painted the window and door trim I trimmed out the rest of the kitchen, including the cove molding at the ceiling.  I also started the bed moldings at the tops of the cabinets. 






Back to work tomorrow.