Upstairs Hardwood Floors...Everything Old is New Again!

Our lovely contractors finished everything they could do for us and were on their way a few weeks ago.  Although we were sad to see them go as they are two of the nicest men I have had the privilege of spending time with, this to us means that we are very close to being done and officially moving in. 

The biggest job we have had to wait to complete has been the hardwood floors upstairs.  With numerous tools and people around we did not want something to happen then have to fix our work.  Better to just wait.  This past week and into this weekend we were finally able to get these done.  First we needed to sand the outer edges with the palm and mouse sanders.

This took FOREVER with the hand held sanders but it needed to be done this way.  We knew we were going to rent the large floor sander and it can't get too close to the walls.  Renting the floor sander was some of the best cash we have spent.  One full day and we had the majority done.

While all this sanding was going on, we also needed to remove the screws and nails that were from the plywood/carpet that someone ages ago decided was a good idea instead of leaving the hardwood.

Once all the screws and nails were removed and everything was sanded, we needed to fill the holes that were left with wood putty.

There was no better way but to lie on the floor, and fill each whole individually.  This job was a little messy, and VERY tedious.  By the end I was SO done with it.  William caught a photo of me and Atlas filling holes and you can just tell how much I wanted this to end!

After days and days of sanding, pulling, filling and feeling like you've smoked packs of cigarettes from all the dust here was the final look of the wood.

Sorry to say but we were still not done with this little project.  From there, we needed to vacuum up as much of the dust as we could, then mop up the remainder.

Finally today we were able to varathane the wood.

First room done.

And here is the hardwood with its first coat of varathane.

We have coated with a second coat of varathane but I forgot to bring my phone with me to take a picture, and now we are waiting for it to dry.  We are planning on three to four coats total.  Finished pictures to come.  With this done we are feeling like we are in the home stretch!  Fingers crossed we will officially be Indian Head residents by the end of the month!

Bathroom is Officially Done

I can't even begin to express the joy of having a full functional toilet.  The entire time we have had to drive down to the Co-Op and it has been a huge inconvenience. With this little house luxury we can now stay overnight.  My lovely husband poured us glasses of bubbles to celebrate.  After a long day of working on renos you can see he wasn't really up for having his picture taken.  But that never stops me. ;)

As the actual tile work was all done, we needed to just finish the grout.  William took a grout remover to get rid of any excess tile glue.

While he was doing that I did the grouting on the tile around the tub.

And here is what it finally looks like!  The one tile that is missing is actually on a magnet so if we need to access the tub's motor we won't need to break tile to do so.

After that the last thing that needed to be grouted was the shower floor.

With all the grout done the shower doors and the vanity could finally be put in.

The issue now is that our hot water heater is not working.  Although I have my tub up and running I can't sit and soak till I can find someone to find out what the issue is.  It's always something!...

A VERY Busy Four Day Weekend

This past weekend was a 4 day weekend for us.  William had his scheduled day off on the Friday and Monday was a holiday.  I made sure to get a ton of stuff done so we could both dedicate the whole weekend to our lovely "little" renovation.  We were so lucky as the weather was perfect!  We have really enjoyed watching the changing of the seasons.  Looks like the farmer's crops are almost ready to harvest.

Other than taking the Saturday off to be with family, we spent the entire time working on as much as we could.  We finally finished the doors we stripped and sanded.  Other than waiting for the blacksmith to finish some hardware these babies are ready to be put up.  And if I do say so myself they look amazing!

Bare wood

With the varathane

We also sanded and varathaned the wood for the pass through.

We also had dirt delivered for the yard.

But the BIG project was sanding/painting the front windows and power washing the siding. 

Sanding off the old paint.

Replacing old calking and filling up holes.

Painting the window sills.

Scraping paint off the windows (this is like popping bubble wrap if you have never done it.  Satisfying!!)  This picture is the inside of the window.  I didn't want to take pictures from atop the ladder.

Power washing the siding.  It makes me really sad how this building had received no real TLC for AGES.  There were huge clumps of spider webs, dirt, bugs and just years of nastiness washed away.

In this next picture the first two sections have been washed and William was about to start the third.  It's a little hard to see just how dirty the building was and the difference it made to wash it.

We also began to rip off the parging/stucco that is so cracked it is really just falling off.

 

We haven't finished this job yet as when we started it, it was end of day on Monday and we were both exhausted and decided it was something we could come back to.

And here is a picture of the front of the church with everything done.

An extremely productive long weekend.  The next big/messy job is the hardwood floor from the front door to the stairs going into the basement.