D Day

Our "D Day"...ahem....Drywall Day has come and gone, and boy, does it look different!!

Yesterday, about 5 drywall contractors came and completed 90% of our drywall hanging in one day!

Last night, Gabe and I took his truck to the house since they needed about 16 more sheets of drywall and different buckets of "mud" for the next step.  I was excited-- I didn't think I would get to see the progress so soon!

It was dark when we got there and the contractors were still there cleaning up the site.  We found a totally different looking space:

Looking towards the front door from living room

The living room:

Fireplace wall

Angle from the kitchen

We now have a kitchen:

The niche to the right is to recess the frig in our compact kitchen

The 2" track on the ceiling is a soffit footprint for the cabinets

And a dining room:

Another shot looking towards the living room entry wall and coat closet:

Moving into the upstairs space, which wasn't lit at all:

Stairwell shot

Looking into the master bath:

           From the hallway                  From the master bedroom

Master bedroom:

Large windows!

Vaulted ceilings! 

Looking down the hall from the 2nd bedroom:

More pics to come when there is better light.  As you can see from the above picture, they also need to finish some parts of the upstairs.  Not to mention the mudding, sanding and finishing of the drywall.

It is a good thing it is on the warmer side these past few days.  One logistical thing I have learned from this process recently, is the delivered drywall mud can't be subject to freezing or else it will be ruined.  In the cold of winter, in an unfinished or renovated home, it will not be heated at this point.  The HVAC duct work doesn't get connected and turned on until after the dusty business of drywalling is done---no one wants drywall dust in their ducts forevermore!!!  So we are among many who must think of how to keep the drywall mud above freezing before it gets installed....and after as well!!  It will be an interesting week.

Look at our full dumpster!

Beyond this, we had about 8 friends come to the house Saturday morning to support us in moving 130 sheets of drywall.  That was super fun, since we really haven't had a group come out to the house since last February.  The guys finished up moving all of the drywall in about an hour and a half while us ladies toured around the little historic town.  Here's a few pics of our fun morning:

As you can see us ladies tried our best to stay out of the way:

Silly Angela!!  :D

We went exploring:

An old school being restored

And at an old house that looked to have been abandoned for some time:

That afternoon, our buddy Mark stayed a little bit later and helped walk me through measurements for trim and discussed door trim details.  He has been so helpful!

We had plenty of little things to do before the drywall was to be hung on Monday.  We must have been there until 8 pm working on those last pesky things!

The soffit bulkhead had to be clad with plywood:

Shower shelf needed to be roughed in:

Windows and doors needed to be properly sealed:

the excess foam was also cut off

Refrigerator water line had to be re-jigged:

And last, but not least, the window and door frames were adorned with scripture before they were to be covered over with drywall  :D

If you can't read my chicken scratch, this one quotes Psalm 127: "Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.  Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchmen stay away in vain.  It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for He gives to His beloved sleep."  I put up a few others as well: Deuteronomy 6: 4-9, Psalm 1: 1-3, and Numbers 6: 24-27.  I thought it nice to later remember these verses behind the walls.

Apparently the siding contractor had been there yesterday as well, since we are having warmer days.  Hopefully the siding will get done today too!!

That's all for now....

Ringing in the New Year with Drywall

A lot has happened in December.  And has not necessarily been us working on the house!  I finished up my semester with a 4.0, we got Gabe's sister Eva married off and spent a little bit of time with Gabe's side of the family in Michigan recuperating.

The last I wrote, we were putting in the second to last window and were waiting for the front door arrival.  The porch construction was making progress and we were rushing to get the house "buttoned up" for the winter months.

I was very busy finishing up the semester in the first two weeks of December.  Gabe got out to the house whenever he could, working around my schedule, and I managed to squeeze a couple hours in as well.  The first thing to speak of are the porch stairs, completed by our framing subcontractor, who did a nice job.  Here is a picture Dad took during the week of the progress:

It's not completely secured, but good enough for now!  We still have to decide on the design of the stair rails.  It is better that we do this in the spring anyway, when it's warm.  (we will be able to get the drywall in the building a lot easier too, if the rails aren't in the way)  It sure is nice to not have to monkey up the rails anymore! :)  It can also be seen that the window closest to the road is installed.

Various contractors worked during the week to accomplish many things.  The porch's metal roof is now completed:

The hardi-plank siding that has clad the back of the building (addition) still needs to be added to the front right corner of the building.  The electrician finishes the first floor wiring.  We decide to add two more pot lights to the living room; the vanity light needed to be raised a couple of inches...adjustments are all part of the process!  The framing contractor tied up loose ends, such as cutting the hole for the front door, since we are moving it over five feet to give more livable space to the living room.  He also framed in the entryway with a cased opening.  This will give the area some distinction, and provide a little bit of protection from drafts.

On Tuesday, we had an unusually warm day, so Dad scheduled grading to be accomplished.  Mom worked hard on Saturday to plant grass seed on the muddy ground.

Dad and Gabe worked that day to install a window in the old door hole.  We still didn't have the front door, but needed to make that progress, so we just used the french doors in the back to lock up.

How's that for progress?  :)

Within the next week, I had finished up my classes.  Friday, Gabe and I went to Home Depot to finally pick up our front door!  We also had to make arrangements to gather all the insulation.  We had in mind to finish up the insulation and schedule drywall by the end of the year.  I met a high school friend at Home Depot who helped us to gather all the necessary insulation and by about 4 we were on our way to the job site.  Mom & Dad had been at the site for a while getting some things done.  By the time we unloaded everything, it was about time to turn around and go home!  We had a Christmas play to clean up for in about an hour, so we jetted back to Mom & Dad's to get ready.  The play was a local production of A Christmas Carol, a treat we got to enjoy at a nearby performing arts center converted from an old barn that Dad designed and had built using my uncle's amazing timber framing skills.  It was the first time I had ever seen it, and it looked great!

The next day got started with Gabe working on preparing the front door to be hung, and Mom & Dad working together to get the insulation hung in the second floor.  I drove back to Home Depot to gather the remaining insulation.  It was a chilly one!  We definitely had the propane heater on that day.  Mom also worked to get the place organized so I could spray the floor with Bora-care later that afternoon.  These are some of the final things that needed to be accomplished before we could get the space drywalled.

Getting it nice and clean!

Here is Gabe working on preparing the opening for the front door:

And it gets glued:

And there it is!  It's a little hard to tell here, but it is hung!

Working on hanging insulation upstairs:

Check out Mom monkeying around on the scaffolding!

Later in the afternoon/evening, we are all working on insulation.  Gabe doesn't have too far to reach to do the ceiling!  That's kinda nice.

One room completely complete!

And that concludes the pre-Christmas activity on the house.  Gabe and I left for Michigan Tuesday morning the 18th, and returned the 28th.  We helped decorate for Eva's wedding on the 22nd, and rested a good bit while we were there.  I even beat my father-in-law in Settlers of Catan!  I won't mention all the times I lost at Ticket to Ride though.  Hanging out with our little nephew was a joy as well.  My little VW Beetle got some repairs too while we were there.  It would have cost twice as much in DC with all the work that we had done!  We managed to get 50 mpg on the way home...how's that for efficiency??!?

Since we had a bit of a hang up with car repairs, we couldn't get home in time to work on the house with Mom & Dad on Friday the 28th, which was our plan.  They ended up doing some more insulation by them selves, dodging Dad's flu sickness somehow.  Saturday was a family reunion in Harrisonburg with the Buckwalters.  We were feeling like we needed to do our share on site, so we stayed out until Sunday and worked a few hours in the afternoon (trying not to make a habit of this!!) to finish up the insulation, so Dad can get it inspected in the next week.

Here we are finishing up the insulation task:

Living room corner, adjacent to the fireplace

We had a propane heater again that day because it was mighty cold again that day...or else I had been in Michigan too long and was chilled to the bone :)

Notice the blue sprayed floors that was done a couple weeks previous, and didn't get finished since there was something blocking the sprayer from spraying.  Once we get that cleaned out was can finish the task.

Here are the two new pot lights we added:

This made my day, seeing Mom's determination to get the insulation done and done well:

Another shot of the ceiling insulation upstairs that we finished up that day:

Mom working on the insulation in the kitchen/dining room:

Gabe, scaling the heights of the stairwell

We finished up around six on Sunday evening.

We scheduled drywall to be hung on Monday, Jan 7th.  The plan is to have 130 sheets of drywall delivered to the site on Friday, since the drywall can't be dumped inside due to the close power lines.  So, we will have to move it ourselves!!  What we do to save a buck!  Gabe asked a couple of guy friends to meet us there on Saturday morning to move the boards.  We will also be there to finish up all the last minute things before drywall is hung.  Should be fun!