Grand Banquet Hall Insulated!

First of all, let me say when people come to visit, we want them to write on the walls, and we keep forgetting to have them do it.  So, if you come over please remind us to write on our walls!  Ummm, these would be the INSIDE framework of the walls, not the actual walls.   So disappointed I didn't have everyone write on them on Easter.  I even had the marker out and I forgot. 

  

  We spent part of the day on Friday insulating the walls in the living room/summer room/grand banquet hall.  Those are all of the names that this room has been called.  We need to think of one and stick with it!  At our house in town that we sold, we called the new room we built on, the "new room" forever! So this room is going to have a dining room table in it, couch, chairs, etc.  It's kind of a living/dining/sitting area.

 

 We plan on putting a tin ceiling in the grand banquet hall/summer room/living room.  Do you know how hard it is to figure out a tin ceiling when it all has to be special ordered?   It comes in all different sizes and designs.  We put these faux' pieces up to try to decide on a size.  I think the 'four square?' size or the smaller size would look good.  I don't care much for the large square.

 Insulation 

finished

in living/summer/grand banquet hall room!

Cindy

Changing plans, moving doors, finishing rooms, working hard!

 We have been working on the house so much, and cleaning out rooms, and preparing for Easter that I haven't had time to put pictures up of what we've been doing.  I don't know what my assistants have been doing, but they have not been helpful. Oh wait....I don't have any assistants!

Let me warn you this is probably the longest house post ever.  

First let's talk about when I returned home from FLorida....and I did not get pics...darn it!

 Dave surprised me by closing off the den with drywall and osb, so I would have an idea of what it's going to look like.  But then I've been cleaning out another area and moving furniture and it went in the den and I forgot to get pics before I filled it up.  (sigh)

So here are after pics...

 We call it the den...or the winter room.  The cozy room where the fireplace will be and it's right in front of our bedroom. 

 The den has a door that leads outside onto a porch.  So when I can't sleep at night in the winter, I can come in here and turn on the fireplace and read.  If it's summertime, I'll sit on the porch!

~NEXT~

 The reason the den is full of boxes

 and the closet is full of tubs,

 Is because I have taken all of this stuff that was moved from the other house, and dumped into this room last year, and took it out of cardboard boxes and put it in tubs and moved it out of the way, so we can work in this room.

 BadaBing!

BadaBoom!

Cleaned out - I wish it were that easy!

 Not only is it now cleaned out, but

 

it is completely wired and ready for insulation and then drywall!

 

~NEXT~

OK, let me try to 'splain.  See this door to the left (above)....and see that new looking wood (above)  Well, before Dave put that new wood up, the door would open and hang over the opening of the entry in to the living room.  You can kind of get an idea with the picture below.  It's really something I think an architect should have found.  And if the house were finished by someone else, it would have been one of those things that "we would do different next time".  As it is...we can change these things now. 

So we made the entry way to the living area smaller by a foot, by adding more wall (frame)

and now when the door opens it won't hang over the wall.  I know it's hard to envision without a complete wall there, but in house building you have to visualize alot, of what it will look like when it's finished!

~NEXT!~

(I Know - I told you we've been working hard!)

This is the entry into the kitchen...what?  Doesn't everyone store their bikes in the kitchen?

The original plan was for french doors.  But here's the other thing you have to do when you build your own home.  You have to think...is it convenient?  If I had french doors in the kitchen they would ALWAYS be open. I got the idea for the french doors in the movie It's Complicated.  She had french doors in her kitchen. It's a movie...it's not real life. So I changed it to a dutch door.  French...Dutch...what's the difference?  Kidding.  Big difference.  Dutch door allows the top half to be open and the bottom half to be closed to keep the dog out!

 

So when we made the entryway to the living room smaller (left side of below pic) and the entry way to the kitchen smaller (below pick right side) it provided a nook that would probably have been used for nothing.

 So, we came up with the idea to put a coat closet there.  We already have a coat closet in the foyer to the right of the ladder, but you can never have enough storage.  We can use the 'old' coat closet for blankets, sweeper, etc.

 

and the new coat closet for coats!

 

Closet finished!

~NEXT~

 and I think last....

if you look between the ladder and the door way, on the bottom you will see a new piece of wood.  That is the laundry room and that new piece of wood is where the entry to the laundry room used to be.

 The laundry room is a 'pass-through' room, and has a doorway in the center on the other side.  So, stay with me here....if you have a door way on one side against the left wall, and a doorway on the other side in the center, you have one wall (on the right) where you can put the washer and dryer, and the left side is basically wasted space.  Because when you open the door on the left side

and IF you had a washer and dryer or slop sink there, then you would walk into it.

 

 So Dave moved the doorway in the center so that it matches the other doorway, that way we can use both sides of the wall for appliances and cabinets and such.  Get it?

Jeesh...What do I need to do, draw you a picture?


Now do you get it.  See the bottom picture...You open the door, walk in and "OOOF" walk right into the washing machine.  (and actually the door would open out, not in, but you would still walk right into the washing machine - I'm not drawing another picture!) The top drawing..you open the door, and walk right on through to the master bathroom which leads to the master bedroom, so you can put your clean clothes away....once you get all those tubs out of the closet....sigh....
OK so I think that is it.  Sorry for the long post.  We've had a lot going on besides working on the house.
We moved his Mother again, from one assisted living facility to another.
Dave hurt his foot a few months ago, and after three Dr.'s,  one of them finally did an MRI.  We found out he tore his achille's tendon and has to have surgery.
We had to clean up the mess from the tornado last fall, which I failed to get picture of....I suppose I could get an after pic because I know I have before pics.  And we worked hard to get it cleaned up before having everyone over for Easter!
And people wonder what I do all day.....
Dave told me he plans on being upstairs by next Easter!  It's very exciting seeing this part of the house come together.  It's a lot of thinking ahead and a lot of work, but we're getting there!

Cindy Bee

Insulating the closet, bedroom and den

Around the first week of March, we decided to start in the closet, bedroom, den area.  Dave finished the wiring in those three rooms.  The closet is back where you see the four light bulbs hanging down. 

 Then the two of us worked together and got the insulation hung in about 2-3 days. You'll notice he is wearing a hat and coat.  It was cold up there when we were working on those rooms. 

 This is our bedroom, the closet is through the door below. 

 The reason we hung insulation on the interior walls in the bedroom is for sound, more than anything else. You don't usually hang insulation on interior walls.  Above where it is going every other direction is because it was easier to hang that way due to the outlets and wiring.  You would not do that on an exterior wall, such as below.

 Above still the bedroom.  We are going to have sconce lights on the sides of the window in the bedroom.

 

And this is the den.  The insulation is hung and we put osb on the wall where the fireplace will go.  Osb is wood chips glued together.  We hang it on the wall when we feel like we might need something a bit sturdier than just studs.  For example, we are probably going to have a mantle on this wall and a tv.  It's easier to hang those items with osb as a backing, then we will not be limited to where a stud is located. 

 I have some catching up to do on this blog, but this is enough for today!

Cindy

Electrical, tub surround, and Man vs. yard tools!

 I haven't been blogging much lately, even though we have been working on the house, because seriously, how many pictures of wire can one person see?  

These plans make absolutely no sense to me...

all I know is when Dave says...where do you want outlets,

 I have to think through every little thing I might be doing, where I might put furniture,

 where a door might go, what way it swings open, where might I want a tv, a lamp, a table, a couch, a chair, a ceiling fan, an overhead light, do I want certain outlets switched (turn off and on with a switch) how many lights in a closet,

 do I want sconce lights, do I want a drywall, bead board, car siding....you get the idea.  Then he runs wire, and we change our minds!

 We've taken to drawing things on the floor, like which way the door will swing open, and where to put outlets and tv's and such, because after we discuss it for what seems like the tenth time, we can't remember what we decided!

 And because wiring and plumbing has to be run in the walls on the main level, to the upstairs bathroom and bedrooms, we had to go buy a tub and toilet for the upstairs bathroom.  So, the other day Dave was just going to stop and get a tub.  He didn't think I'd care what he came home with, since it was for upstairs but then I explained otherwise.

 The tub surround comes in three pieces, the tub is in one piece.  The boxes they came in were huge.  We decided to open the boxes, unpack the Styrofoam, and take the panels and tub out piece by piece, because we had to carry it all through the garage, the mudroom, the foyer, and up these stairs.  If we left it all in the box, I would never have been able to help carry it.  It was just too heavy.

We got the tub upstairs - no easy task.

 

 We also got the two panels up the stairs.  Then when we took this one out of the box

we noticed this crack.  Which will probably get worse with time, not to mention it wasn't cheap.  So, at 3:00 am this morning, when I looked over at Dave and asked him what he was thinking about, he said, "I'm wondering if we are going to have to carry all of those tub pieces back downstairs and pack them all back up, or if I can just return the one panel."  

I'm wondering.....

do they have quality control inspectors anymore?  This was KOHLER brand by the way.  You know what...I'm going to start saying it like it is.  I'm tired of these companies providing cheap crap at expensive prices.  Maybe someone from their company should have to come and pick it up!

 

OK, I'll get off that rant.  I have a funny story to tell you.  

When we were walking through the breezeway I commented, "that's dangerous."  It was a scythe on the floor, with the sharp part pointing up.  Then I commented on where my bike was and how I didn't appreciate it.  Well, it set Dave off!  And I started to yell back, but then I just didn't say a word.  He's tired.  He's working too much.  He knows it.  So I'm on one side of the door, that will not open all the way because of this mess (which the scythe was in)

 

.....and suddenly I hear....crash-clank-clank-blam-boom-psshhh-clank-clank....then the door opens, but not all the way.  These tools are behind a door.  The door quickly closes and I hear....clank-clank-crash-blam-bloom-clank-clank....again the door opens, but not all the way.  Peeps, I'm just standing there listening on the other side of the door while he fights yard tools.  After the third fight, he finally got the door to open wide enough.  And here's the thing.  He worked 10 1/2 hours yesterday, he was tired, and it's about 15 degrees up there.  So we are all bundled up in our winter coats, hats, and gloves trying to move the tub, only to find out after packing the last piece, it was broken.  But today, every time I think about all the noise coming from behind the door, I want to laugh!!!  And laugh!!!  And laugh!! I'm laughing about it now.  I wish I could have seen him!  I really think it would be something funny for a movie.  I'm visualizing arms flying and tools getting in a worse tangle.

Anyway, while he was at work today, I went upstairs and straightened it all up.  I'm not going to say anything.  I'll see if he notices.  (How many rakes and shovels does a two person household need anyway?) 

Cindy