First half of June

 

Now that we have a flooring finisher selected and are on their calendar it’s time to clear everything out from basically everywhere. The cat was not amused by seeing itself in a throw pillow.

I was not amused by seeing this

Out with the old…

In with the new! The finish used is Rubio monocoat, 5% smoke

It helped that one of the days that we couldn’t walk with shoes was our 5 year anniversary, so we were out anyway. Now that we have flooring again furniture can start coming back out of hiding and the house looks inhabited again. This table has been in storage since the second half of October and we were glad to have it back again.

I somehow managed to get the entertainment center back in without damaging anything or knocking the TV off of it.

Cabinet installation is coming up soon and the sink, faucet and all of that stuff showed up on the front door. We looked at a half dozen quartz samples before picking out the right one.

Second half of May

More appliances came in along with the LED lighting! We also discovered that Miele was soon going to release their new lineup and there were big changes coming to the ovens. Really this should have been completely obvious because by that point they were released basically everywhere but the US. We weren’t going to have cabinets until right around when the new ovens were already out there so we changed our order so we could get the new models.

I also started working on the pantry shelving. It’s made from white wood and put together with a biscuit joiner I bought from Harbor Freight. It works surprisingly well. I finished it with some leftover Willow shaded stain and polyurethane we already had and in just a few days the pantry had its first new resident.

The first of the LED lighting went in. The downside was that it drew attention to a big spot on the wall that needed to be reworked.

A fresh new sample of wood flooring came in to finish up the month and it was perfect!

First half of May

The big news was that the cabinet company is closing down. Cabinets can’t go in until the floors are finished. We’re on hold because I keep hearing more promises about when the sample will be available, and promises are always broken. At mid-month I’ve had enough and I found someone else.

In the meantime I decided to work on something else. Summer is fast approaching and some of the bushes people planted in the past were a terrible choice. All of the landscaping was, really. The best way to fix it was to get out the chain saw.

I also need to figure out the front door and sidelight situation so I removed the trim around the sidelight and start making measurements. I wanted to buy a front door + sidelight with only a plain slab door installed since just the jamb material is unavailable. This also ended up being a huge waste of time since everyone said they could provide it, gave dates and then nothing came to pass. At least I was able to come up with a decent pantry layout.

Second half of April

All flooring, all of the time! We need to choose a finisher. One doesn’t do oil based finishes so they were eliminated immediately. The second company was basically ready to go and gave a couple of samples, but we weren’t thrilled with the color and asked to see what another shade made by the same company looks like. The first batch of appliances also finally arrived so that was yet another thing to store somewhere safe.

Everything keeps getting pushed farther that direction, which doesn’t speed things up any. By the end of the month I had only a couple of odd corners left to do.

First half of April

Now that drywall is finished and I’m not framing anything anymore I can work on something easier, like painting.

Paint was my last obstacle before I could start installing flooring. I learned a lot about putting hardwood in from reinstalling it in the formal living room the year before. It took easily an hour or more before I could put in the first piece.

A day later I was only a dozen rows in but starting to move faster. Every time the shape of the area to have flooring installed in changed I had to stop and remeasure everything to make sure the new, wider area was installed in line with the rest of the row. Also I kept having to move the entertainment center around and the thing weighs a ton. The oven had to go away so we’re back to being able to cook only with a microwave, toaster oven and water boiler. We live in a giant dorm room.

Second half of March

Joists and subfloor are finally done, framing for the half bath doorway completed, breakfast area lighting that was centered conveniently above a bar and fishtank that previous owners took with them was removed, and drywall went up. It took a long time and they finished in early April.

First half of March

We haven’t had lighting in the family room in two months, but I finally have a plan and LED bulbs so it’s time to put those in. It’s starting to look slightly more like a place someone would live in.

Also we have insulation for the first time in what seems like forever. This is another thing that we really needed a month or more earlier but all you can do is get on someone’s calendar and wait patiently. After the insulation was sprayed in the flooring arrived! The long pieces are over 10 feet long. I could carry only two bundles at a time.

I can’t put it in though until the joists are complete so that became a high priority. These are the ones installed with the addition but they were far enough away from the rot to be reusable. I sistered in new wood to make them stronger. At this point we were working towards having drywall again. Sometimes it helps to prioritize.