too much stuff to mention

It's out of hand. Moving, building, demolishing, reconfiguring. Nobody would build their own house if they knew about some of this stuff.

Positive things that stand out:

- The stair railing. It looks flippin' awesome.

- The shed. Again, awesome. Who knew a shed could be awesome?

- The stairs themselves. They make the house. Bravo Paul and team.

- The tile. Thank you, gruff Eastern European tile man of few words. You are making our house incredible.

- The white. Who-hoo! It's amazingly white in there. Just wait until we more in and dirty it up. ;-)

Here are some photos:

More photos:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/25768433@N02/sets/72157626984176301/

Negative things that stand out:

- Packing

- Moving

- Being nomads

Oh well. It's only 3 more weeks.

Lake Oswego forever!

Or at least for a couple of weeks.

Well, we no longer live in Milwaukie. We are staying with Betsy until we can move into the house. Maybe 3 weeks? (Please God, let it only be three weeks--we are dying to be in the new house.)

Lots of things are happening:
- stair railings
- trim painting
- tiling
- shed roofing
- vanity cabinet and countertop building (go Greg!)
- closet door painting

I've taken a bunch of photos but they are on my phone. I'll upload and share at some point. Until then, just imagine an emerging masterpiece.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Tile, trim, marmoleum...oh my

Tile is going up like gangbusters. Goooo tile guys!

Also, our powder room now has our Asian Tiger orange marmoleum from the other house. It's my one way to have a piece of the old house in the new house.

Oh, Greg wants you to know that it took an astonishing 100 gallons of interior paint to paint the house walls and ceilings. Yikes. And the trim isn't even painted yet. Remind me never to paint the interior again. I think it's possible that the paint subcontractor under-estimated a bit (seriously, that is a heck of a lot of white paint). And be assured, it looks WHITE. Delightfully so.

Greg and Drew worked on the shed this week; hopefully it'll be ready to receive garage cabinets and various goodies soon. Starting tomorrow, Greg starts to put up kitchen cabinets.

A few additional pics here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/25768433@N02/sets/72157626987086512/

In the White Room

We've been looking at interior paint colors this week. We want white. Not offwhite or cream or linen or cloud or barely [insert color here]. White-white. It has become clear that most paint companies don't make white paint. I find this extraordinary. What is more classic than white? Rodda has an entire collection of "whites" and none of them are actually white. Heavy sigh.

I believe we found something we can work with: Behr Ultra-Pure White. It's BRIGHT WHITE. Not yellowish or rosey or blueish. Just white, thankyouverymuch. Check out the color shown on the brick wall here. That is white. Those other colors shown on the walls and trim. Not white.

Now, why was that so hard?

(Note: I realize that I'm coming off as a bit pissy. I think I am growing weary of bulding our house; now I'm ready to simply live in it.)

Tripping

I'm out of town on a business trip this week, so I'll be missing out on a week's worth of project work and progress. My understanding is that work will be going on related to the walls (initial painting, I hope) and potentially the tile crew will start work on the bathrooms. Hopefully when I get home next weekend, there will be new wonders for me to behold.

Greg's working on packing up some kitchen stuff this week so that we can move cabinets soon from one house to the other. That may be next weekend's adventure.

Given that I have no other valuable info to share, I will now entertain you with photos from my trip.

Totally floored

We've hired a crew to install our hardwood floors (and refinish the ones we saved in the bedroom wing). I think they get started later this week or early next. Floors!

A few more things on the horizon:

- Drywall mudding/taping (this week)

- Bathroom tiling (2 weeks out?)

- Painting

- Trim work

- Carpet

- Stair/landing railings

- Move the kitchen from house 1 to house 2 (yikes!)

Andrew, you have your work cut out for you. That list makes me tired. And frightened. And excited.

Here's a reminder of how beautiful the front of the house is when the sun is shining. Flowering spring tree, sub-contractor vehicles and port-a-john are bonus items. ;-)

Sunny day, sweeping the clouds away...

It's remarkable what some sun and warmth can do for your attitude. Oh, and some brand-spanking new drywall, paint and balcony railing.

Massive progress has been made. We have walls! Walls, people.

Did I mention how nice the house looks when the sun is shining?

Here is a full set of pictures for you to peruse at your leisure: http://www.flickr.com/photos/25768433@N02/sets/72157626686147642/

Feeling kinda blue (the good kind)

The house is blue! An oh-so-subtle shade of blue. I have mentally dubbed it "air". Love, love, love it. Love.

Also, pieces of our stairway are going into the house.

And...we now have a railing on our balcony.

It's almost too much for words. Andrew, you are my hero of the week (well, at least so far).

More photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/25768433@N02/sets/72157626686147642/

I'm not waiting on a lady, I'm just waiting on a friend...

...or a house painter. Due to a combination of slow pace and intermittent rain, our lovely grey-blue has not yet been sprayed on the house. Sigh.

BUT we're getting a balcony railing early next week, and drywall is being delivered Tuesday. Walls, people!

Paint!

Paint should go on the house today (please, God, let paint go on the house today). It's primed, masked, caulked, ready to go!

The paint color we chose is light blueish grey and is called, appropriately enough, Mt. Rainier Grey. You'll see it in its full glory soon.

For now, a primed house:

Doors, siding & sun

We actually had some sun this weekend. Boy has that been a long time coming...

We have interior doors at the house; a few were hung late week. Siding is almost done. Here's a flickr album that shows some recent pics:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/25768433@N02/sets/72157626571820434/

Exterior painting starts tomorrow, as does insulation inside.

Go, go, go!