Too much to keep in

Normally I post Sunday nights but some people have been requesting more pics! You know who you are. Basically the fun stuff is happening now and it's cool to look at so here are some weekly happenings so far:


Yesterday the back yard was regraded with 64 tons of black dirt, fully seeded and mulched. It looks so much better than the lumpy drainage pit that it was. Now everything has a good flow and things should work better for fence installation and garage construction next week. The neighbor's drain is surrounded with an erosion sock.

Here's a view of it from the deck.

Here is our new Frigidaire stove.

Here is our new Kenmore fridge.

Here is the inside of it.

Here is the drywalled soffit that I built around the plumbing for the upstairs toilet.

Here is the painting I did in the "toilet nook" and pedestal sink areas so I can install them this weekend. The color is Fling Green. It matches the floor tile detailing.

Here is another view of the bathroom today. The shower is almost fully tiled. We have a couple bullnose tiles on order to finish up. Then it can be fully grouted and i'll put the fixtures in.

Here is the green subway tiling upstairs. The tub deck is nearly completed. You can see the access panel tiled at the end of the framing. The drain stack still needs to be furred out and then everything will be grouted.

Here is the stepover curb for the shower stall.

Here is a closeup of one of the shower walls.

Here is the shower stall with the biscuit tile detail band.

And there you go!

Yo G!

Carrie and I have purchased some gDiapers (at the recommendation of our good friend John Downing.) We have 4 of them and like them so far - not having used them for poop yet obviously. They have a flushable, bio-degradable insert that you remove from the outside cover. You can check them out HERE. I think we're leaning towards them, but we'll try some pocket diapers too, at least to start. Check them out!

Soooooooooooooo cute!

April showers bring May showers

Well, it's raining here again - more on that later. Only worked at the house Sunday this weekend because there was much to do at William St. It started pouring this afternoon at 2pm and rain began entering the basement again. I moved a lot of things and started working on that but that's kinda boring so i'll update what's done at Ronalds:

Here is a view of the new downstairs bathroom floor. It's pretty much complete as is the shower floor. You can see Carrie's concept in full-effect. It looks even better in person. The paint color for the walls will be similar to the blue you see in the detail squares. There will be a yellow band around the shower that matches the center of those squares.

Here is a closeup of the detail square.

Here's what the upstairs bathroom looks like at the moment. The floor is in and grouted and the shower base is completed. The denshield backing has been placed on the tub and the tiling for that and the shower will begin tomorrow. They also have to tidy up the drywall in here tomorrow but it's getting very close.

Here is a closeup of the pebble-tile shower floor upstairs. This is also a Carrie idea that turned out really nicely. The pebbles match the gray tile flooring in the main room.

Here is a cast-iron grate that I purchased for the air diffuser in the kitchen. Now that the floor is complete, I put the grate in.

Here is what the kitchen floor now looks like - much better than the green vinyl flooring of yesteryear.

Today I finally got off my Duff and installed the brown aluminum storm door I purchased to replace the total crap one that was on the back door to the stairs. It took a long time (getting storm doors nice and tight in 1913 houses can be tricky) but it's pretty well good to go now and looks a zillion times better.

Here is the fancy lockset I installed on the door and will put on the other 2 storm doors. These are lockable with a keyed outdoor entry which is nice for locking up but not using the main door.

I have to take a bunch of stuff to the recyclers now. I'll try to do a basement update at some point.

We also got new appliances this week. The stove is in the house and the fridge and the dishwasher will be this week. Also coming up this week:

Black Dirt, Regrading and Seeding the backyard.

Tiling the showers in both bathrooms.

Drywall finishing up for the upstairs hall, bathroom and the downstairs bathroom ceiling.

The week after this: hardwood floor refinishing completion, installation of new wood flooring upstairs and beginning of the garage construction.

Yellow Pine

There are more pictures coming soon - of tile and partially finished bathroom spaces. For now, however, I have included some pictures of the floor refinishing on the first floor. This is fully sanded and covered in 1 coat of polyurethane. It will get buffed and get 2 more coats before finishing but for now, I have the tile and shower guys working and I needed the flooring fellows out of the way (as well as the drywall contractor.) Both of them will have to come back later and finish up.

This is looking from the dining room into the living room.

This is looking out the front bay window in the living room.

Here is the now-beautiful stair landing that was covered in crappy tile and adhesive.

Here is the ceiling that I dropped in the downstairs bathroom. The new ceiling is about a foot lower than it was.

Here is the bathroom fan that I installed in the downstairs bath. It is ducted through the floor in the upstairs bathroom.

Here is the soffit that I framed out in the computer room next to the downstairs bath. This is the plumbing for the toilet in the upstairs bathroom. Both of these dropped areas will be drywalled and covered later on.

More soon...