So Much House Stuffs!!!

We have been oh so crazy busy with the house this past week. That's actually the reason we haven't posted anything for so long - no time to write! So here's my attempt to capture it all in dis here blog post. So grab a drink and hold on, this will be a lengthy post. Or you can just look at the pictures, I guess.

Last weekend Leslie's parents came down to help out with the house. Our main objectives were for Leslie and her mother to finish cleaning while Leslie's dad and I replaced the old, rotted beam with a shiny new one, and then for us to start some painting. Well, long story short... mission accomplished! The beam replacement went very well. I had been cranking the jacks up ever since we put the temporary supports in place a month earlier and I had managed to get the floor to basically the perfect place. We cut out the old beam with a reciprocating saw, which was like cutting through French defenses because the wood was so rotten. We then moved the old out and the placed the new in. I had gotten 18' LVLs from a local lumberyard, so we cut them to size and then put them up there. From there we had to pound in some shims to make up the difference from the 16" width of the LVLs to the floor boards above. Once we got those in place the temporary supports were basically loose, which meant that they had been extended to almost exactly where they needed to be. Now we still need to put the siding back on and do a few things with some wooden trim, but the major structural issues that were the point of this project have been taken care of.

Old Beam

New Beam

After finishing this milestone of home repair and rehabilitation, we moved inside to start painting. We got the ceiling done and a first coat of paint on in the laundry room. It's a nice small space, so we figured it would be a good place to start. That was all we got done on Saturday (although saying "that's all" makes it sound like we didn't get much done) at the house before Leslie's parents left and we went to a few stores and picked out some light fixtures. On Sunday (happy Mother's Day!) we went back to the house and finished painting and put up a new light fixture in the laundry room. We also started painting ceilings in the dining room (soon to be office) and our bedroom. I don't have pictures of the painting ceilings because... well, they still look like ceilings. Not exactly exciting. But the laundry room looks good!

New and Improved Laundry Room

Monday through Thursday (with a break on Tuesday for the New Girl season finale) was mostly spent painting ceilings. I also put up a new light fixture in the diningofficeroomthing once we finished the ceiling in there. It's nothing super fancy, but it looks pretty neat. We managed to finish ceilings in the dining room, our bedroom, and in the kitchen / family room (which was very important because we needed to get the kitchen painted before appliances were brought in). There were a few other things we did during the week, like such as mowing the lawn and patching drywall, but that was about it.

Another New Light

Then on to this past weekend. I took Friday off work because my dad and grandpa came down to help out while Leslie spent the weekend with some friends down in Brown County. We worked all day Friday and then most of Saturday (they left around 4pm). We got quite a bit accomplished. The first thing we did on Friday was get a first coat of paint on the walls in the kitchen. The appliances were to be delivered the following day, so we wanted to get the walls paint before then. After that we worked on getting the garage door opener back on and working for the door with the new beam above it. We got it mounted back on the ceiling, but needed to pick up some stuff from the store to finish the project, so we hit the pause button on that and moved back inside to finish painting the kitchen. After finishing that we trimmed some trees - I'm really looking forward to being able to mow the lawn without getting whacked in the face by low-hanging branches. We then looked at the fence to see what we would need to do and what we would need to get at the store. By then it was getting to be a little later and we couldn't do much else without picking some stuff up first. So we headed out and went to Menards to pick up supplies for the next day (and a few other things for around the house).

Kitchen Colours

Freshly Trimmed Maple Tree

Freshly Trimmed Crabapple

Saturday morning we went out for breakfast before starting on the house. Love me some eggs and pancakes. Yummy. We then started off at the house by fixing the fence. There was a section of it that was broken out, but the panel was still mostly intact. We got it set back into place and secured to the posts without much trouble. We also fixed a gate on the other side that no longer closed. We had to cut part of the gate at an angle so that everything would line back up. We also replaced a few of the pickets that were damaged with new ones we picked up the night before.

Looking Like New!

Finally Closeable!

Appliances were also delivered that morning. We now have a new refrigerator, range, washer and dryer in the house. So yay for the kitchen finally looking like a kitchen and the laundry room not being empty!

Now We Can Cook!

And Do Laundry!

Our next projects was to add a ledge to the top of the stairs. Basically we wanted the carpet on the steps to have a bullnose finish, but there wasn't anything on the top landing for them to tuck the carpet under. We added some wood and secured it with wood glue and a bunch of nice long screws.

Strong Enough to Support Elephants

We also finished getting the garage door opener working again. We had to monkey around with the safety sensors that go at the bottom and also with the distance control that dictates how far up and down the opener moves the chain. But, in the end, we got it adjusted perfectly and it opens and closes easily.

Open For Business

And one of the other things we did was to put a first coat of paint on walls in half the living room (where the ceiling was already painted), as well as the hall and around the pantry. This will give Leslie and me a nice head start as we finish painting specific areas this week. Another thing I had wanted to do was to put some screws into the subflooring upstairs in some creaky areas. We got the carpet ripped up and started putting screws in, but with no effect. Seems the creaking is coming from something below the subfloor. A little creaking isn't a big deal to us, so no need to rip into the subfloor to figure it out. Removing carpet that's going to be taken out anyway? Sure. Destroy the floor to figure out a little creaking? No thanks.

One Coat Down

Mission: Unaccomplished

And there you have it, the last week of work for us. It has been incredibly rewarding so far. It's amazing how much difference a new coat of paint or a brighter light fixture can make. Sure it's a lot of work, but it's our house - something we can take pride in. There's obviously still a lot of work to do, but things will be easier once we move in (which is next weekend!). In the meantime, if any of you want to volunteer to come help out with the work like our families have done (thanks Dave and Kim, thanks Dad and Grandpa!) we would love to have the extra hands.

That's all for now. More to come soon, I'm sure.