Now we're getting somewhere!

After that scary bathroom 'discovery' on Friday night (see below), we had a pretty successful weekend. Saturday we got a lot of priming done of the walls (we're having a 'painting party' this weekend to get the bedrooms painted). Joe did a great job fixing that pesky corner!! Here is a picture of pre-primer and after (this is the corner that had about an inch gap around it...it gave him a lot of headaches).

Saturaday night we tried to get the kitchen really prepped so we could start on the cabinets and ceiling on Sunday. First, we did get to celebrate Easter (on a smaller scale). We got up at 5:30am for a sunrise service (we went on a short hike with our friends Dan and Natalie to this mountian top that has a beautiful view).

Then after our regular church service we headed out to the house - super motivated to get our 'list' done. Joe did some patching while Myra painted the ceiling (talk about a crick in the neck)! Then Myra started to prime all the kitchen cabinets. Joe said 'Oh, I doubt those will take more than 45 minutes to prime'...and went out to mow our 'field'.

Two and a half hours, after Joe battled down the yard, Myra was still working on those cabinets. Then another hour and a half later - she was done! Painting some of the corner ones involved some special manuvers.

Joe did another coat on the ceiling and we were excited that we got what we wanted done (for once!)! :-) Here's some more pics.

Another 'Do we really want to go there?' moment

Well, Friday night started out just fine, we had some 'goals' set out and were on our way. Then we thought 'Hey, let's take a look at this tub wall'. That's where things started going bad. Since the inspection we were a little worried about water behind the wall under the window. So we started out just removing a few tiles around the window.

Then we discovered that the tiles under the window weren't attached to the wall anymore, just each other!! The plaster behind the wall was just dust. Well, the next 'logical' thing to do was to figure out how much was really bad.

After a lot more wall came down (man that is A LOT of tiles), scared, we decided to just walk away....After a good nights sleep we realized that it was probably for the best - we are starting to get excited about what it will look like once we are done with it!

We did get some other priming done too...but this was the 'highlight'....

The Walls Came Crumbling Down, Slooooooowly

Well, we decided that as much as we REALLY wanted to just paint over the walls in the guest bedroom, it was probably best to try to remove the 'junk' that was there.

Two of the walls were covered in some sort of dust/old glue that was fun fun fun to remove - a mere 8 hours later we were down to the textured walls - phew! Here's a silly video clip that Joe didn't know Myra was taking: VIDEO. Here's Joe with the oversized toothbrush we were using.

Myra tried her hand at this expanding spray foam to insulate the holes from the electrical work - guess they really mean it that you don't need to fill it more to 1/3 way - it oozed just a little..

Meanwhile Joe attacked the cracked guest room corner for the 3rd time - and no, 3 times ended up NOT being the charm, the entire patch feel off again! Frustrating!!

After finishing up the scrubbing of the wall, the next project was texturing the small bedroom walls. For those of you who have never used textured paint before, it is basically paint with sand in it - and it not a lot of fun to put on...you use this crazy loop roller that splatters everywhere. You need to stir it really well first, as demonstrated by Joe. Then two gallons of paint only did 3 walls and Myra!

The good news is, we are that much closer to priming and painting! Its starting to look like a house! Here's a few more pictures is you are interested.

Look Dad...it's a Craftsman!

So the lawn was getting a little out of control, it was time to purhase a lawn mower (or a hay bailor at the rate we were going). We were heading up to Portland to get an AWESOME vanity (just wait till the house is done...you'll see if in the 'finished' photos!) from a guy on 'craigslist'. So we found a couple other things. Got a great deal on a brand new mower (in the box) from a guy that bought it but then moved into an apartment. Then we made a third stop to get a ceiling fan someone was selling. We've saved a ton getting the house fixtures like this! Anyway Joe got busy plastering (whats new) and Myra mowed part of the lawn with our new self propelled mower. Its great...and it's a Craftsman (Dad will be proud).

They're bbbaaaaaaacccckkkk!

So I can't really say why, but Jeremy and Carri and John and Sarah all came back again this weekend to help us with the house! Jeremy & Carri on Friday night, and John & Sarah on Saturday. Let's see, Friday we got a whole lot of random stuff day, a few plaster touch ups and then Jeremy put a second coat on some of the living room walls. Carri was busy getting the contact paper out of the drawers (better her than me!). We started refinishing a kitchen lamp we found at a resale store and then started sanding the kitchen cabinet frames. It was a long night.



Saturday we got back into painting (living room and kitchen cabinets). We had a whole bunch of things we crossed off the list, thanks to the help. Painting, plastering, removing paint from the cabinet hinges, relocating a light fixture, and then plaster, plaster, plaster...will it never end! Don't ask why Sarah's enthralled with the brush...I really don't know ---------->

John was getting a little unsettled so we sent him out to relieve frustration by ripping down the old fence!




We wouldn't be nearly as far as we are without friends! CLICK HERE for more pics from this weekend.


We spent the rest of the night sanding and plastering. Joe was opening up some of the cracks so that there was more surface area for the plaster to stick too, but when Myra walked in she was a bit suprised.

When Irish Eyes Are Smilin'

I forgot to post something OTHER than the house from last weekend. We took a short break to celebrate St. Patricks Day with our Young Marrieds group. Joani organized a great meal of corned beef, potatoes, and cabbage....oh and Mt. Dew! We could only stay for a little bit, then it was back to HW (yep even on Sat. night). Luckily we had some good stuff to wear (we were told everyone was dressing up...jokes on us!) that was leftover from a failed attempt to New Orleans 6 years ago! Remember that Shelley?

POWERhouse

The electrician came out this week to relocate the service (why did they install it there in the first place if it wasn't within code!!) and to replace the old fuses with circuit breakers. We were having a few switched put in too and then we are going to install some GFCI's and three-prong outlets ourselves. Although when we went to run the wires we found out that not only our exterior walls are cinder block (read below for when we found that out!! Its kind of rare for the wood-rich Pacific NW) but the lots of the interior walls are too! All-in-all....we live in a bomb shelter! Makes it hard to recess an outlet or an electric panel in the wall doesn't it. Surprises just keep coming, but so far nothing bad, just interesting so we're thankful for that!


Can't wait to see what we get done this weekend!

Dan & Natalie come for a day of PaInTiNg

We can't really say why we decided to move towards painting some of the rooms except we want it to have time to cure before we starting redoing the floors and filling the house with dust. The living/dining space was all patched and retuxtured so we started to paint (makes us feel like we're actually getting things ready to move-in too!). It all started by painting our walls pink...its all the rage these days.

JUST KIDDING, thats just a tinted primer so that the eventual crimson color will look like it should. Throughout the weekend and some of this week we got the ceilings painted in the living/dining room, hallway and guest room, and the walls in the living/dining room and entryway. Progress in baby steps. Thankfully our friends Dan & Natalie came and helped us out on Sunday! Thanks guys!!!!!

Raise the roof ...

Well we've been doing lots since we had time to post yet. Myra's been sanding, preping, and priming all the kitchen cabinets (it didn't seem like so many when they were still hangin'). Joe's been getting a lot of practice in patching plaster cracks and holes and taking many attempts to match the original wall texture -- a rather impossible task.


We spent lots of time the other weekend trying to repair the ceiling in the small (blue) bedroom. There was a sag in the one corner where the plaster & backing (theres actually no lathe; just a thick cardboard backing) pulled away from the ceiling joists. After many trips up and down from the attic and pulling away the insulation we found the spot and used plaster washers and drywall screws to lift it back into place. It worked fairly well, except we were limited in where we could reattach it (i.e the joists are on 16" centers). So theres still a little bulge but nothing like it was. Now its time to plaster over the cracks we made and over the plaster washers! Lets hope it works!

Investigation

So we set out to find ourselves some mold. At least we were preparing ourselves for it. The one corner of the house where things are a little 'shifted' had a hint of mold in one small space on the wall under the wall paper. So we starting chipping away so that if it was dry rot, we could fix it. We chipped, and chipped, and chipped...and found concrete. The house is cinder block, sandwiched by stucco and plaster. Interesting ...

On to the bathroom. A small section of wall under the closet and adjacent to the tub was molded too. So we starting tearing out the plaster and thankfully it was only surface mold, the plaster wasn't wet on the inside. Hurrah! So all in all, demo was a success and a relief! I couldn't get Myra to stop puching holes in the wall -- too much stress I guess.

Thank God for friends (i.e suckers who help us work!)

First Jeremy and Carri, now John and Sarah, we'll have this done in no time! John & Sarah (& Linus!!) came down for a day of fun this weekend. John was mostly stuck ripping off the last remaining pieces of wallpaper in the small bedroom and Sarah was taking off cabinets for HOURS! Our realtor (Melanie Marshall) also stopped by to drop off a nice housewarming gift! Things are really coming along.

Linus got a little bored, guess next time we'll have to put him to work.

Here's some more pics...
March 3

What lies beneath ....

So on Friday we started our demolition. Our friends Jeremy and Carri (our first guests!) came over to see the house and got stuck ripping down wallpaper for hours! Thanks guys!

They started on the bathroom and it wasn't long until they had the place paper, fixture, and lighting free! They also stumbled upon quite a find. The wall behind the toilet looked like it was the bathroom stall in a middle school, just covered in graffiti. The comments on the wall even dated back to Nixon. Myra's favorite saying though was "Never graffiti with your feeti!"

Don't worry Myra and I did some of the work too. By the end of the night the four of us got most of the way through the three rooms that had wallpaper (actually multiple layers of wallpaper and paint overtop)

We worked the rest of the weekend too so stay tuned!

FULL ALBUM OF PICS FROM THAT NIGHT