Wednesday's progress

It's Thursday morning and we enjoyed some rainfall around 6am, so the grass and trees will be happy for now.  It wasn't enough to satisfy the tanks, though.


Yesterday, Chris and Tony continued to plaster walls inside the kitchen and master bedroom.  They'll plaster the other master bedroom walls today, as well.

Tony builds the outside kitchen window lip

Tony starts to plaster one of the kitchen walls

Chris and Tony mix up another batch of mortar for plastering

The first layer of mortar is applied to the kitchen back wall

Tony and Chris build some form work before plastering one of the master bedroom walls

Tony "floats" the walls after plastering

Tony plasters one of the master bedroom walls

The master bedroom wall is nice and smooth after plastering

The outside kitchen window lip is finished

I'll post today's progress, tomorrow morning, since I have band practice tonight.  Stay tuned!

May Day activities

The weather started out to be mostly cloudy and cool, but turned out warm and sunny before the end of the day.  It was a good day to get plastered...if you're an outside kitchen wall, that is!


That's exactly what Chris and Tony did - plastered the outside kitchen wall, as well as the master bathroom and closet ceilings.  They also plastered one section of an inside kitchen wall, where one of the garage windows used to be.

Tony and Chris work on the outside kitchen wall

Tony plasters the outside kitchen wall

The outside kitchen wall is plastered

I managed to sort out a few boxes and get rid of more things that I just can't store anymore.  For some reason, we have a whole lot of extra bathroom tile and, after loading the tile into boxes, I brought them over here and stored them on the shelves under the stairs.  They weigh a ton!


This morning, the plan is to plaster the inside walls in the kitchen, master bathroom and closet.  The master bedroom inside walls are ready to be plastered, so that may also get started or even completely done today.

Another month gone by

Hard to believe it's May 1st already.  Things continue to move forward with the renovations and this should be the last month to update the blog.  I'll need to figure out something else to blog about when this project is finished!


Yesterday (Monday), all 4 guys were here in the morning, but only Chris and Tony stayed the entire day.  More patching up of the walls was done in the morning, then Chris and Tony plastered the side and front walls of the master bedroom.

The front wall of the master bedroom is plastered

The side wall of the master bedroom and bathroom is plastered

Before long, the inside walls of the room where I was previously located will be cut out to allow access to the kitchen and also make the new living room much bigger.  So, Kari decided she would draw some graffiti on one of the walls before it is removed!

Kari's wall decorations

I carried over a few more things to the new rooms, but had to stop again to try and sort some of the boxes out to make even more room.  One box with papers from my radio desk had all sorts of old papers in it, including receipts from the first ham radio I bought in 1975.  So, I was able to throw a lot of it out and condense it by more than half.  The only way I'm going to keep both rooms neat will be to throw away a lot more stuff that I don't need.  Of course, the only reason I have all this stuff is because I need it.... right?

Another step closer

This post is a combination of Friday and Saturday activities.  After all the moving, etc., I just didn't have the energy to post until today.

Friday was relatively quiet, with just Chris and Tony here for the day.  They removed the frame work for the various lintels, built and filled the previous day, and installed window frames for the kitchen and master bedroom.

Master bedroom window frames installed

Kitchen window frame installed

I continued to move a few more things over to the new rooms, but decided to try and organize some of the stuff I had already taken over in order to make more space available.

Saturday was supposed to be quiet around here, but it wasn't long before I heard the sound of the Bobcat in the yard.  I went outside to find Johnny moving the large cement mixer from the back of the driveway to the front parking area.  When I finally realized the guys were here to actually work for awhile, I went in to get the camera and snap some shots of the action.

The plan was to sort out the back yard, which meant Johnny needed to fill in the empty space along the outside of the master bedroom and build a new pathway.  It was interesting to see how he did it, starting from the back of the driveway and up to the back yard, filling in the empty space and building the pathway as he went along.

Johnny moves some of the block to the side of the driveway

Johnny moves more block to the front parking area

Johnny starts to create a new pathway to the back yard

Ryan and Johnny fill the empty space along the side of the master bedroom

Ryan fills the side of the pathway with soil

Johnny brings more soil and rubble to the back yard

Johnny distributes the rubble and soil in the back yard

Johnny continues to re-shape the back yard area

The back yard is level, once again

The new pathway to the back yard, alongside the master bedroom

While this work was going on outside, Tony was busy plastering around the window and door frames in the kitchen and master bedroom/bathroom areas.  The guys finished up shortly after 1pm, then I went back downstairs to play with all the boxes in the office.  When the phone rang upstairs and I had to run up the steps to answer it, I knew I needed to install the phone system in the office immediately, so that's what I did.  I cut and joined various wires together and, luckily, it worked the first time!

I'll get back to moving more stuff, this afternoon, and will find out what the plan is for the day, tomorrow morning.  Isn't Sunday supposed to be a day of rest, though?  Hmmmmm.......

Another Thursday report

The weather was very nice today, with a comfortable humidity level, so conditions were just right for working.  All four guys were able to spend the day here, but tomorrow is up in the air at the moment.


Chris, Tony and Ryan concentrated on building the form work for the various lintels, then filled each with concrete.  They also "pointed up" many of the open electrical openings in the walls to prepare for plastering.

Tony and Chris build the frame work for the kitchen window lintel

Ryan paints the back wall of the master bedroom with tar to secure against dampness

Johnny, as usual, multi-tasked all day.  He did some more plumbing and installed the tub in the master bathroom, pushed more rubble into the empty area alongside the back wall of the master bedroom and installed three shelves in the storage area under the stairs over on my side of the house.

Johnny pushes rubble alongside the back wall of the master bedroom

Three great shelves for storage under the stairs

Me?  Well, my entire day was spent moving more stuff again!  With a little luck, however, I should be finished that task tomorrow and then focus on where to put it all.  This evening, I ran an Internet cable up to the Sun Room and a cable TV line up to Kari's room.


I've been awake since 3:30am and now it's almost 10:30pm, so I think it's time to call it a day.  Troy is still out in the new kitchen area, getting all the electrical points prepared for the walls to be plastered.  I'd better go check to make sure he's okay.

Another good day

Everyone got busy with a couple of different things, this morning, while I continued moving my stuff over to the new rooms.  Chris, Tony and Ryan worked on the walls of the master bedroom and kitchen, and Johnny did some more plumbing work, then came over to my side of the house to caulk the outside door and windows in the stairway.  Some temporary staging had to be set up to get access to the upper windows again.


The guys had just gotten another section of the staging set up, when they heard me grunting as I carried a table down the outside steps.  Just as I got to the bottom of the steps, Chris came running down and asked me what I thought I was doing, then grabbed the table from me.  Well, at least I was able to carry it from the den, around the front yard and down the steps before I got a lecture!

Tony plasters the outside back wall of the master bedroom

After lunch, Chris and Tony remained, but Johnny and Ryan went to the new hospital project for the remainder of the day.  Chris returned to the stairway and touched up the paint around the windows, before removing the staging.

Chris touches up the paint around the front stairway window

Tony continued to build the outside wall of the kitchen and now all that's left to do is put some form work in place for the supporting lintel over the window area and upper sides of the wall.

Tony builds the outside kitchen wall

Only the supporting lintel remains to be built

Later in the afternoon, Chris and Tony concentrated on removing the support beams and upper plywood frame work in the master bedroom.  Some folks asked if the plywood was going to be taken down after the concrete pour and now we have the answer!

Chris and Tony remove the support beams and plywood in the master bedroom

All the support beams and plywood have been removed

Should be another productive day, tomorrow.  My guess is that the guys may start on the plastering, but we'll wait until the morning for John Sr. to designate the plan of action.  I wish I could say I didn't have to do any more moving to do, but there are still several items that have to make their way over to the new rooms.  At least the guys should be too busy to see what I'm lifting and there should be no lectures coming my way - unless Kari happens to catch me!

Officially in the office

Now that I'm sitting at my desk, with the computers hooked back up and the Internet still working, I guess I'm finally in the new office.  But, with all the boxes piled up in both rooms, it's like I never left the previous room!

I still have more stuff to move over and I have no idea where the rest can go.  My family will say it needs to go to the dump, but that ain't happening!  As soon as the other stuff is removed completely, I'll just have to focus on finding a suitable place for everything and get these two rooms back to looking nice again.

Today, I was reminded just how heavy the Mac and the Dell computers really are.  And, it took many trips back and forth to get all the electronic equipment into the office.  But, it's all set up and working.  I even got the Internet back online very easily, along with the wireless signal being generated upstairs as before.  The only problem is that I have a mile of cable on the floor and will have to wait until it can be cut and fitted with new connectors.  Then, I have to create a couple of junction boxes and run the cables to other points in the house upstairs.

It's time to close up shop down here and head upstairs for the night.  Tomorrow will be yet another busy day for me, continuing the moving process.  I should have had the guys build me a warehouse to store all this junk!