~ flipNdesign ~: Exterior Work and Interior Painting!

So much has happened since I last wrote. I have emerged from the first trimester of pregnancy, and have more energy to start helping at the house again. There was a while where I was so tired and didn't have much to offer in the way of physical labor input. I have finished my school semester a couple of days ago, so my focus has turned to packing and preparing the house for us to move. The last I wrote, we had just embarked on a small vaycay to Myrtle Beach for a few days with a stop to Greenville, SC for a cousin's wedding on the way home. We got to see many of Gabe's side of the family, which was a treat--including some special bonding time with two other pregnant gals-my sister-in-law and cousin.

So, that puts us back a month to the second week of April, when it started getting warmer outside and could begin some of the outdoor projects that had been held off for so long!

One of our contractors worked on finishing up the exterior window and door trim:

Notice that the only trim that still needed to be done were the windows enclosed in existing stucco siding. The other windows were trimmed last summer when we had the lapp siding put up.

Don't worry, the existing stucco stains will all be painted over soon!!

Here is the back patio door trimmed out:

Front door trimmed out

The next weekend, I was gone on an all day field trip to New Jersey on Friday, so I couldn't be there while Gabe worked on paining prep for the upstairs. We had planned for some friends to come out on Saturday to paint the walls of the upstairs rooms before the carpet would be laid. Gabe worked to do a final patch, sand and wipe down job before our friends would come the next day. I think he managed to go over the walls three times--so the walls were very ready for paint!

We had 4 friends come out: David & Angela:

Joseph:

And John, who had been around to help a couple times before:

I didn't stick around while they were painting just taking precautions not to be exposed to any toxic fumes while pregnant. Even though the paint is low-VOC (volatile organic compounds), I still wanted to be careful.

But before I left, I did take a few pictures of some of the other progress that had been made while we were gone:

The fireplace tile installation was finished:

Dad had worked on the stairwell rail balusters:

Trim was finished downstairs:

Outside, Rene, our subcontractor, had started in on patching the holes in the stucco, something that had to be done before we could re-paint the stucco sections:

Looking at where the stucco meets the stone foundation on the road side of the house, we saw that it needed a little bit of patching before we could add the trim. Rene added some concrete behind the trim so it would remain varmint-proof:

Next Saturday, we got to see the gutters that had been installed during the week:

The electricians had installed the exterior light fixtures:

Lots a-happenin'!! We had a parking lot full of cars today with a couple of different contractors at the house. The painters were upstairs painting the trim and doors: