Hardwood flooring upstairs

It's been awhile since I've posted on this blog. 

We...

in the proverbial sense....

whatever that means....

seriously...

I don't talk that way....

who does?

DAVE...(not we)

has been laying hardwood flooring upstairs.

After he painted this stairwell...all by himself.

I won't even say how he did it.

Because I can't explain it, nor can I find any pictures that I took.

Which I know I did.

One thing I have been doing, is carrying flooring upstairs.

A little bit at a time.

It's heavy.

It's hard to tell because we have most of it covered,

but he has two bedrooms finished.

 

 and is working in this closet.

 I have been doing other things around the house.

I decided to do some bathroom decorating.

I  took this spaghetti jar

 

and painted the inside of it with Coral Belle paint.

(I still have half a gallon of this paint)

 I've had the jar of cotton for the last ten years, at least. I used it in the bathroom at the house in town, before it was popular (or not) to decorate with! I grew it and picked it myself, back when I was VERY into gardening.

 So this is the shelf by our bathtub.  

I still need something on the wall above, but it will come.

I think I'll go soak in the tub and enjoy my little bit of decorating....

as it's hard work carrying flooring upstairs.

 
 Cindy

Priming the walls upstairs

Finally!!!  We are priming and painting the walls upstairs.

 This is the front bedroom...the one everyone wants because it has a balcony.

 And here is a hint for you.  When you are painting new drywall, use a primer first, and have it tinted.  But make sure you only tint it a portion of the color you will be painting.  For example, we are painting the walls all the same color in the house.  Creamy.  I know...boring.  But if you've made the decisions I've made in the last few years....
So, we had the primer tinted 80% of the Creamy color.  Now when we paint with the Creamy paint, we will still see where we painted, and it will go on smoothly because we primed the walls first.  If you don't prime first, you'll be painting two coats with paint because the first coat gets sucked up into the drywall, and primer is cheaper.

Have a great day!
Cindy

Drywalling the upstairs bedroom

 While I was on vacation, Dave started dry walling the upstairs.  Which he knew I wanted to hire done.  So, I'm guessing he waited for me to leave, and asked Vickie's husband, Robert, to help him carry it upstairs....

 and he spent the week  hanging drywall.  This is the front bedroom.

 Which is where the balcony is located.

He's been up there every day since I've returned.  Hanging drywall.  I'm staying downstairs because one person dragging drywall dust through the house is enough!

Cindy

Upstairs cozy nook and behind the scenes

I'm going to show you a secret!  When you go to someone's home, and you see a partial wall sticking out, such as this one (below), it's usually  because there is something inside it such as plumbing or heat duct.  Sometimes you will notice a "box out" along the top of a ceiling.  That's usually heat duct.  This is in the closet that we enlarged upstairs.  We had to run some plumbing from the bathroom below it, which is right below it.  So we had to make a box out.   I'll show you more after it is dry walled.

 The other side of the box out.

 

 Behind this closet door is alllllllll attic.  Lots and lots of attic.  With lots and lots of insulation.

 Had we decided to enlarge this closet, and it was in the original plans, we wouldn't have had to add to it later.  As it were, we had to add a partial wall,  (we- as in Dave!) which was a bit tricky.  We also had to remove the original 2x4's the carpenters installed and add support beams below the floor.  I tried to find that post from a couple of years ago, but couldn't find it.  We had to do it before we enclosed the ceiling on the main level.

 Anyway, Dave loves a challenge and he finished the wall.

I thought I would show you some of the behind the walls stuff that goes on in a home.

Lots of wiring. 

  Lots of plumbing

Also lots of duct work, and insulation.

 This is a space that he made for a cold air return, which will be in the upstairs foyer ceiling.

 And here is the closet now.

 It looks very much like a cozy nook, and I love it!  Dave reinforced the support beams across the top.  He calls that "putting the love into the house."   

 This is from standing inside the closet looking across the foyer.  The bathroom is across from the closet.

 That's it for now.  There is always so much behind the scenes stuff that goes on to building a home.  I know it's a bit boring, but if we didn't need wiring, plumbing, or heat, or support beams it would go a lot faster! 

Have a great weekend!

Cindy

And PS - Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Starting on the Upstairs!

Yes I realize it's been a long while.  Here's the deal.

Dave has had a very rough winter.

He got that cough/flu thing that was going around.

Then it went away...for about two days.

Then it came back.

Then it went away while we were In Florida...

Then it came back with a vengeance.

Two rounds of steroids and two rounds of antibiotics later he's finally healthy again!

And he's started on the upstairs.

Come on up!  The lights are on.

I've helped a little bit with insulation.

 So this is the front bedroom.  There are two bedrooms and a bathroom in the middle of them.

 bathroom

 Back bedroom.

 As you can see, lot's of insulating going on.  But before we insulated, he wired all of the rooms for lights and ceiling fans, and he plumbed the bathroom.

 The ceilings are going to have a slight vault in the bedrooms.

 This front bedroom has a balcony and lots of windows.  I think we'll probably sneak up here to sleep now and then for fun!

 Just a picture of the back bedroom full of insulation!

This room is a closet.  Behind that door is attic.  Most of our upstairs is attic.

 That's all for now....It's exciting to see the walls going up in the closet.  It was actually a very small little linen closet and we decided to blow it out into an upstairs storage closet.  Why not?  There's a LOT of attic space.  Hope to be posting more soon!

Cindy