Doors, lighting and duct work

Ok, so I said we'd talk lights and doors....and even though I'm not really in the mood to talk lights and doors, I'm not really in the mood to talk duct work either!  

This is what you have to think about every time you put a light switch up....

 Which way is the door going to open.  

When you open the door, will it swing in or out.  

If it swings in to the room, will there be anything in the way such as a toilet, or a table or whatev...that the door might bump into.

Then after you figure out the door swing, the light switch will generally go on the side where the door opens, as long as there isn't anything in the way.  If there is, you start over with...which way is the door going to open!

Then, what lights do you want to turn on with this switch?

Do you want them to turn on and off on both doors, if there are two entrances in the room.

If so, what way will the other door swing?

You get the idea.

You just have to THINK about every little detail, including door swings and light switches.

Which makes me understand why housing additions pick about three styles of homes, and build them all the same!

Some other stuff...

When you hire an architect, he generally will put a "chase" in a room where all of the duct work and pvc tubing and such will go.

Our chase "room" isn't big enough.

See there...no more room.

Dave labels everything, which I love.

So, we are going to put the freezer (this is the mudroom by the way) where the coat closet was supposed to be.  The ladder is in the closet at the mo.

 

The closet is now going to go to the right, against that wall, so..more re-doing.  It will hide the chase that way. 

 

Dave also had to lower the ceiling in the master bathroom in order to have room for duct work.

This is the ceiling in the master bathroom.

And this would be me....squeezed in the closet, trying to wrap and seal duct work.  I got to the very last piece and cut my finger.  VERY VERY VERY LAST PIECE!

While Dave was working on duct work he decided I need a bit of heat in the closet.

Back to the bathroom.....Dave did get a linen closet installed. 

We are very anxious to move upstairs.

That's pretty much a wrap.....I've been talking and meeting with people about kitchen stuff.  I'll share with you next time. TOO many choices!  Get ready to share ideas, suggestions, etc. about your favorite kitchen haves and have nots.

Cindy

Master Bathroom

We've been working on the house, mostly Dave with me throwing in a helping hand now and then, but it's all behind the scenes stuff which is hard to show in pictures.  I mean, you've seen one wire or pvc pipe you've seen them all, right?  And, I can't get a full picture of a room to show you the difference between before and after.  So imagine, the master bathroom on the main level was an empty room with studs, and a few plugged holes in the ground for drains.  

Dave built and put up a few walls....but remember,

 we had to decide where everything was going, way back when.....two years ago....while we were working on the basement bathroom.  We had to have plumbing in place before we closed up the basement walls.  And of course, now I wish we could change it.  I decided I wasn't going to stress on this kind of thing anymore.  It's a bathroom.  So, see where all of those pex (tubing?) are coming out of the ground, and the tall pvc pipe.  Well, that was before we put up

this wall.  The shower goes on one side 

and the tub goes on this side. (where the ladder is)

The tub area now looks like this...below...with a little shelf that will be behind the tub.

Hidden, will be a special note, under the shelf,  just for me (I'll know it's there!)  and he changed the date without me telling him to!  HA HA!  Our anniversary is on New Years Eve.

Now, about the part where you have to figure out where everything goes on the next level.  We had to figure out where everything was going on the 2nd floor bathroom, a couple of weeks ago, even though we are working on the main level master bath.  It didn't take long because you only have a few choices.

See this pipe below......it is in the ceiling of our bedroom and it is coming out of the toilet of the 2nd floor bathroom.  It has to be gently sloped (for obvious reasons)

 

and it has to run in between the studs, not through them.  So that doesn't give you a lot of options.  The pipe has to come out of the toilet above, and run in between the studs below, lest you weaken your bedroom ceiling/second floor flooring.

It goes across the ceiling into the next room, which is the bathroom,

then you can see where it connects in to the plumbing,

that is also connected into the plumbing in our basement, that we figured out a couple of years ago.  I bet you had no idea all of this was hidden in the walls of your house, did you?  I sure didn't!

I'll talk about doors and lighting next...I don't want to post too many details at once! 

Sweet!

At Christmastime I had some friends over and they wrote on the inside Kitchen walls.  I love having people do that.  Someday.....years from now.....if this house ever comes down, someone will see all of the love that went into building it.

Cindy

Barn wood reclaimed

A few weeks ago Dave took my by this barn.

 He thought since there was an excavator in front of it, the barn's life was doomed.  He had stopped a couple of times and knocked on the door to the house next to it, but never got an answer.  So, he came home, looked up the owners on the internet and called them.  A lady answered and said her son was taking care of the barn, and she would have him call.  

We waited.  And the weekend before Thanksgiving, on Friday morning, around 8:30, Dave's phone rang.  It was her son.  He said if Dave could get there, he was going to have a meeting and talk about the barn.  He said there were others that wanted wood.  I couldn't wait to hear what the meeting was about.

  

The guy was very nice.  The only people there was Dave and another guy.  Both wanting wood from the barn.  The owner said they could have whatever they wanted off of the barn, or the house, or inside!  His only stipulation is if they found something cool, or money, they had to call him.

Dave came home and got me and you can imagine my excitement getting to go through the house.  On the outside it didn't look too bad.  On the inside....

 

it was a wreck!  I didn't take a thing.

But the barn.....oh that barn.....

Oh yeah, the thing was...we only had that weekend.  It was coming down on Monday.

So Dave got to work immediately!

 

Can you just feel the life?

I was going out of town that weekend, so of course I was concerned for Dave working by himself at this barn.  He worked mostly on the second floor, and there were holes in the flooring as you can imagine.  Plus, oh how I wanted to help get that wood!

 He worked hard all weekend long.  He let everything go but that barn.  The other guy had a "crew" with him!  Dave worked alone, and he got all of this tongue and groove pine wood.

He also got just enough of this wood that was also inside the barn.

 And he got this trim off of the house for me!  I LOVE IT!

He was working in the breezeway at that particular time.  And he got to thinking...wouldn't that red wood look nice

 on the ceiling.

 

As a result, I learned how to use an electric nailer.

 When we got to the very last piece, we wrote this on the back...

Here's what it says.
 This wood came from a barn a couple miles southeast of here.  The barn was built around 1890.  It's being demolished November 2014.  We tried to salvage what we could, so part of that barn still lives!
  Maple is who owns it now.  Dave and Cindy

TaDaa!!!  Here is the ceiling!

 

 

He also outlined this access area and breaker panel with some wood.

And I just had to show you this.....The date on it is July 18, 1926.  I can't quite make out what it says.  When I run across it again I'll try harder!  We've been a tad busy!

Cindy

PS  Told you it was going to be a cool post!
PPS  Dave said he went by the site and you would never know there was a barn there.  I haven't been by it since that weekend, but I'll go by and get a picture.  (Sad face)

Caulking the Entryway and Mudroom

A couple of weeks ago, before Thanksgiving actually....I caulked around the ceiling in the foyer and in the mudroom.  It was a lot of climbing up an down the ladder, but more than that...

but more than that....

it was about 25 degrees outside.  Made it about 35 degrees inside.  And brrrrrrr.....my hands froze.  This was through gloves.

Cindy

PS - My next post is being prepared and is pretty awesome.  Just warning you!