day forty-eight

Tuesday

Chris showed up at 8:30am (yay!!!!) and got started on finishing with the installation of the baseboards.

The part on the bottom right corner has to wait until they install the newel posts/fix the stair. 

*Newel post update: they are supposed to arrive Friday! No work will happen over the weekend with us hosting two big events, but hopefully Tuesday morning we can get going on the banisters. 

Chris then installed all of the knobs. The pulls will hopefully go in tomorrow- I need to get some longer screws for him. 

The electrician came and finished installing sockets where we need them, the electrical for the double ovens, microwave and undercabinet lights. He also installed our pendants over the island. I LOVE them!

(I had fallen in love with these months ago and Dave liked them too, except for the price... In June we happened to find them on clearance when the Great Indoors was going out of business. That was a happy day!)

First one in

Then two...

All three! The drywall hasn't been fixed yet, and we are painting the ceiling ourselves, 
so that will have to happen later. 
(If you come over please don't look at the ceiling, 
just the pretty lights!)

All lined up. They will look centered with the island once the counter tops are installed... overhang etc...

Love them!

And the under-cabinet lighting :)

Counter tops are going in Thursday morning. Lots of people coming to work tomorrow... 

It is finally feels like it is getting close- 

day forty-seven

Monday

Today the new head-handy man showed up. His name is Chris and from what we have seen so far we are happy with him. Dave, Chris and Vince went over everything that needs to be done and Chris worked on baseboards all day. They need holes filled in, a second coat of paint, and to be caulked but they look great!

The baseboards are the one thing I am letting slide-- they will not be perfectly the way I want them. I would love them to be an inch taller, but that would cost a lot more and we have been dealing with so many other big issues this doesn't seem super important. They are an inch taller than what we had and they look much better than the ones around the rest of the house. 

Rounded corners are such a pain with trim! Chris's cuts and attention to this detail look great, hopefully he is this way with everything!

He just needs to do the baseboards around the stairs :) We are hoping furniture can go back in tonight or tomorrow night!

Over the weekend after realizing how long we are going to be without balusters we decided something needed to be put up to make it a little safer. Last night Dave put some screws in the walls and current newel posts and added some rope. It feels a lot safer when you are upstairs. 

 

day forty-six

Saturday

 The painter came and painted the second coat on the fascia. We will call him when the newel posts come in and he will paint those, everything will be installed and then he will stain and seal the handrails.

We decided (well I did and Dave thankfully was willing to work) it was a great day to finally put the play house in the spot we had picked out for it when we first moved. 

See the guys moving the playhouse? We called in some help from friends from church who live nearby. I was upstairs and they started moving it before I could get downstairs!

Now to put the carport in place. 

Then the mailbox

Digging the hole took longer than expected. The boys rand through the sprinklers while they waited... and then watched. 

Andrew helped out. 

A few more details need to be done 

(add a door knob, re-paint the white, bury the drip-line in front etc...) but it is basically done and the boys love it!

531 is for the ages the boys were when we got it and then Colby of course is our dogs name. 

day forty-five

Whew! Looks like there was drama behind the scenes and Roman is no longer working for Vince. Vince also thought Roman had finished a lot more than he had done... 

Today Vince was full of promises as usual and I am hoping he comes through this time. 

Potts came and filled in some holes in the floor and fixed some other spots.

Yesterday morning Dave took the balusters off in preparation for the new ones. We are also getting new newel posts and hand railings, but thought we would keep those on until we have the new ones ready to install. 

Scary with the kids! They have been really good about staying away from the edges and at night we put a line of chairs along the space below, which is near their bathroom. I also put a battery powered lantern on one of the chairs so they can see really well. Thankfully this part has been going a lot smoother than we thought- no one is throwing things over the edge, trying to look over the edge etc... We are staying downstairs as much as possible and not playing on the landing at all. 

Thank goodness. 

Last night Dave sanded and filled in holes prepping it for painting. 

Today our painter primed and painted the bottom fascia of the banisters white (the light wood part on the ground). 

One coat of primer and one coat of paint. 

Another hiccup: Vince brought over the newel posts to have them painted. This was the first we had seen of them and it wasn't good. I had given him pictures and this wasn't at all what I was looking for. (I am very detail oriented and he has since told Dave that he thinks he needs to pay attention to details more since a lot of people care... yup!)

In searching for ones we like and measuring things we found out that these one wouldn't work size-wise anyhow. They are 5.5" wide and the fascia is 5"... 

This is what he brought. 

Way too curvy and detailed for what I am looking for. 

We found these 5" ones online and Monday after Vince talks to the installation guy to make sure they will work (they have adjustable sleeves which will make it so they can be installed without a bottom trim piece), we will order them. The hiccup is it looks like we are without banisters for another week or two!  
 

Here is an idea of what they will look like. We are going to get a bigger (6 1/4" bottom) for the bottom of the stairs and then the 5" ones for the rest.



(For a point of reference the ones we have now are almost 
3 1/2", so the new ones will look a lot bigger)

The balusters will be square and white like the ones below. (These newel posts have an extra trim piece at the bottom that ours won't, but our hand rails will be stained to match the floor like these are.) Ours will also have the white fascia not wood like this one.
Confused? 

Wait a few weeks and I will show you :)

Vince says Monday is going to be busy and I sure hope so!