We Could Get a Lot More Done...

If everything didn't take so long.

We managed to make decent progress this weekend. Not quite as much as I'd hoped, but not terrible.

The waincscoting panels are now all up. The drywall is completely finished (YAY!). And the built-in cabinet is essentially finished. I'm a little sad that the pictures don't appear to show much progress, but that will change soon.



Michael contemplating the space for the last wainscoting panel:


And it's up!:



(the window still needs its top & bottom trim, and no I that is not what they will actually look like when they are finished.)

Today when I get home I will either start staining the built-in or priming the drywall, whichever sounds more exciting to me.

We also have the supplies I need to work on the bathtub. I'm excited to see how that turns out.

I guess it's still possible we could start moving in the weekend of the 12th, but it's probably more realistic to think the weekend after. But I will still tell myself the 12th to try keep my motivation up. The same way I like to keep the clock in the car a few minutes fast to try to get places on time. But based on that philosophy I shouldn't have to use too many tricks because we thought we might move in 3 months ago, and that clearly didn't help all that much.

Well never mind about the built-in then!

After the overwhelming response, we have decided to leave the built-in as is, as far as the top part goes. I just really want to finish the bathroom and decided I was crazy for suggesting any extra work.

We are trying to pump ourselves up for a big weekend of work. I think we could make some awesome progress if we could put in 2 eight hour days. I would still like to move in in the next few weeks.

Most of the wainscoting is up, we haven't started the mouldings yet. But I really think this weekend we can finish the built-in, finish the wainscoting, and I can start priming and painting... that of course still leaves cleaning up the tub and laying the tile. I might be psychotically optimistic, but I'm hoping we can do that NEXT weekend. Then we could actually move in the weekend of the 12th (which is the same day the bar exam results come out, so now no one needs to ask about that).

Here are a few photos of our progress...

The bathroom window trim that is taking FOREVER to strip:



The sorry state of our back porch: (Neighbors I am truly sorry and I have been trying to clean it up.)



Our new wainscoting, it's beadboard paneling, and it's actually not bad. We went for the slightly better stuff that actually has some depth instead of those yucky flat panels with tiny ridges for the beads:


And the built-in yet again. It's a great thing to have, but I will be very glad when it's done:



Wish us luck this weekend, I will try to document our progress and hopefully be able to do a triumphant post on Monday :)

Michael explores the world of carpentry

Well, the last of our guests have left (it was fun Peter!).

I managed to be some help to Michael last week, I made an effort to go after work and help put up some drywall. And today Michael started making the built-in cabinet he designed. I can't believe how far along he came in just one day - it looks so great already! And it gives me hope that we may finish the bathroom sometime in the next month... which of course is very exciting :)

Here are some shots of the general progress on the bathroom, the built-in is where the second door used to be.








Our plan is to work on the house Friday evening & most of Saturday, and then take the rest of the long weekend off and camp at the local lake with our friends. We should be able to get the rest of the drywall up pretty easily, and then my job will be sanding/taping/spackling etc. while Michael continues on the built-in.

Which reminds me - we really need to choose a color, or two I guess since the first four feet of the wall will be beadboard. I actually kind of like the look of the green drywall, but I'm pretty stuck on green for the kitchen now. We've talked about doing the bathroom in a turquoise or something like that, I think it could look really good with the black and white tile.

Then on to the tile. But we won't worry about that yet.