Weekend in Review: Cinco de My, Oh, MY!

Cinco de Mayo already! I was so sure we would have 507 finished and rented by May 1 when we started this project.  After all, Ornery and Super Ta Da! should have been able to renovate an entire house by themselves in 6-8 weeks, right?  No.  We may be a bit off track for our original goal, even with the excellent help we have had, but we are nothing if not flexible!  AND we are SO close we can taste the victory!

The hired contractor for drywall repairs arrived Saturday morning and started right in on the garage.  He finally left at about 5:30 and came back Sunday morning to finish up--he thought. He had LOTS to do in the garage, which looked like the whole ceiling was ready to crumble and fall on unwary visitors.  Once he was done, it looked like a typical garage, with a few flaws, but safe to work or park in.  He still has to come back to do a bit of sanding tomorrow evening.  He hasn't gotten paid yet, so I am pretty sure he will be back!


This weekend we:

Hall Bathroom:

• put the second coat of paint on the walls
• finished all the trim painting, including the window sill and door frame
• caulked the tub where it meets the tile with sanded caulk
• put up the mirror
• installed two new light fixtures
• replaced all the switch plate/outlet covers
• installed the ends of the counter back-splash and caulked
• re-installed and leveled the toilet
• put up towel rings and towel bar
• hung up the curved shower curtain rod
• washed the window and mini-blind
• cleaned up all the paint mistakes
• painted and hung the door (although this will need some work in order to close...)

We ended up having to make a quick run to Lowe's early Saturday morning to buy a light fixture for over the vanity.  We were going to recycle one Ornery took out of his mom's house when she replaced it, but we were missing some crucial parts.

 View from the door. New light, mirror, end caps for the back splash, and mostly cleaned up!  I am not sure I would choose that color again, but for now, it will be fine.

Remember the original?

I don't have a before photo of the shower, but it had the same tile as was around the sink around the top of the shower, which had a white fiberglass surround on the walls.  There was a gap between the top of the shower wall and the bottom of the first tile which would have let water get in behind the shower wall.  Hence the new tile job.

 View from the window wall looking toward the door. The only thing left to do in here is clean and fix the door so it actually closes... a nice feature on a bathroom, don't you think?

Kitchen:

• hung the last of the cabinet doors
• lined the last shelf and drawers
• painted the kick plate under all the counters (Elizabeth)
• drywall repairs

Other:

• Installed the new return vent covers
• tacked down the quarter round in the entry and hall
• finished painting the door trim in the halls
• painted a few passage/closet doors and repaired one
• worked on the water heater closet (The guys had a little mishap there with the pressure test valve and the circular saw.  No one was hurt, but they had to wait for the saw to dry out before using it again.)
• Michael and Jeff removed all the guttering on the front and side of the house--all that is left is the back
• got most of the fireplace insert built and painted--just needs to be installed (to block off the fireplace from being used as it is all full of cracks and would be dangerous to burn in)
• drywall repairs in the garage, all three bedrooms and the dining room

The front of the house after the gutters were down.  There is quite a bit of rotten wood that was uncovered by the old gutters... and some wood that has never been painted! Surely this isn't the original 50 year old paint job!?

I am not going to hold my breath on this, but I am pretty sure we will be done with everything except the exterior paint by next weekend.  Keep your fingers crossed!