Progress!

Posted on by jsudar

The breakfast nook is done. The furniture is moved in! The bathroom needs a little work. It needs a new wax seal on the toilet, a wall area patched and painted, and eventually the tile board taken out of the shower stall. It will be replaced with tile to match the rest of the shower stall. Otherwise, it is usable.

I brought over 99% of my craft stuff today too, and began to organize the studio. The baker’s rack shelf needs a little adjustment before I can use it. The wardrobe is filled, and oh my… I had forgotten I had so much fabric.

Dan did some work downstairs as well. He is beginning to set up his office space. I still need to bring my desk over, but that won’t happen until we have internet.

The next two days will be sort of ‘light duty’ as we have a meeting on Tuesday. Lots of good thoughts about the job would be appreciated. We have work up in Castle Rock on Thursday. However, I’m feeling so much better about what we are getting done. My next big task will be arranging the kitchen. Aieeee-ya!

Snow!!!

Posted on by jsudar
Today was a good day. It snowed! We needed the moisture, as this has been a very dry and mild winter.

Plus, we got the rolling cabinet, and all three wardrobes over to the house with a little help from our friend Doug and his dad. The wardrobe in the basement just made it! The little wardrobe is safe in our bedroom, and the wardrobe with the mirror doors is in the studio! It looks good. I plan to store fabric, supplies and project boxes in it. I decided to put the ‘bakers rack’ in the studio as well. It will give me bookshelf space and drawer space. This was something I was going to be short on as Dan has my big black book case.

Tomorrow after the Democratic county assembly, I will be moving more of the sewing stuff over. My mom will have 45% of her living room back for the first time in a year.

We organized the tool room today as well. That was a 3 hour undertaking. We’ve had all these boxes with bits and pieces in them because when we packed, anything went in a box. Now we get to sort it all out. I think I have enough little boxes to sort things into. While Dan took the last of the tools downstairs, I put the chairs in the breakfast nook. Then he helped me move the table in. It is a little bit tight, but it will do for now. Eventually, we may put a bench and tables in instead of the little round table.

The picture below is of the same room and table, but different chairs. Plus, my sons and nephew. Starting at the bottom right, Erin, Bryan, Stefan, Dayne and Daniel.

Show less

Yet Another Milestone! (or 6)

Posted on by jsudar
We’ve been busy on a number of levels. March 9th, we ran sound for a celtic group called Runa. Good music, and the start of getting ready for the Celtic Music Fest in September. We took a break on Saturday and went up to Pueblo West to have fun with our SCA friends. It was a well needed break.
The house is coming along. We got a lot of touch up painting done. The bathroom, hall, kitchen, and breakfast nook are all finished. I was going to do some dark blue trim on the quarter round in the kitchen and breakfast nook, but there was just no way to do it neatly. I painted the china cupboard to match the pantry and will be using the remainder of the blue paint on the floor trim.
we’ve made some great leaps forward, and are now being held up by one or two little things. Hinges for example. Many of the hinges were paint choked. I’ve hit them with citrusstrip, but… now we have to soak them in a solvent to get rid of the paint that worked its way into the hinges. Argh!

Then there are the cupboard doors. They needed wiped down with solvent, and then sanded. The solvent makes me wheeze and dizzy, so Dan wiped them down and then sanded them.
We cleared the studio and sanded off all of the paint drips as well. The amount of paint that ends up on the floor even with drop clothes is amazing. Gahhh!

While Dan worked on taxes, I washed some of the windows, and painted cupboard doors. Then I decided that I could put the china cupboard back together. It took a bit and involved a ladder, but I got it done!

Then I had the fun of unpacking boxes! I have all of the Noritaki china in the cupboard as well as some of the other bits and pieces. Some of the cupboards in the kitchen got filled as well. Herbs, tins, and other bits and bobs. I’ll get the doors on those cupboards in the next day or so.

My biggest challenge is deciding where to put things. In many ways, I have less storage than I did at the other house. This is making me look very carefully at everything I put in the kitchen. While I was cleaning, I had visitors. Two friends of ours came over. They have a propane stove, some dome lights and a sink if we want it. 🙂

Today I finished painting all of the cupboard doors. Wheee! I painted the trim on the floor of the breakfast nook, sanded up paint spots, swept, mopped and oiled the studio and breakfast nook, organized some of the paint and painting tools, and then I unpacked boxes.

Some of the boxes were kitchen stuff. It’s funny, but I don’t have the same amount of storage I did over at the other house. I will be doing some sorting to weed out things we don’t need. Granted, I’ve been doing a lot of this. The ARC thrift store,the library,  and a local foods group have been getting lots of donations.

One really big box had kitchen stuff, office supplies and DVDs. I found 5 more duplicates, and then tried to sort them into a kind of order. Too tired to think! I stacked them on a rack so that they weren’t in a box. Oh my we have DVDs! I haven’t counted, but I think we have close to 130 now.

Tomorrow I hope to put cupboard doors up. We have 8 frozen hinges to work on, and hope that they work. We have three lights to put up as well. On Friday, we have a friend helping us to move the big awkward furniture. Wardrobes, and the rolling cabinet will help figure out a lot of storage.

That smell…

Posted on by jsudar

We knew we cleaned the entire house, yet we kept smelling just the slightest whiff of something. Most times it was as we opened up the basement door, or were headed downstairs. Cat? Mold? Something. We checked everything. Especially as we had a cat get back into the house about two weeks ago. Nothing. I just figured it was a ‘ghost’ stink. Dan on the other hand…. kept looking.

He’s been mapping the house in order to understand where everything is, goes and relates to. For example, the kitchen, breakfast nook, part of the dining and living room and hall all wrap around two chimneys that are side by side. It makes for an interesting ‘space’, that you might assume is a dead space. It isn’t. He checked the laundry room and chute. Yes, it has a chute that goes from the upstairs hall linen closet to the downstairs laundry room. Yes, all of my boys went down it at one time or another. It’s musty, but that wasn’t the smell.

Finally, Dan realized that the basement has one space he hadn’t looked at or inspected. The basement stairs has a right angled turn. four steps, two triangular steps turning right and then four more. While we replaced the top four, my ex and co. replaced the bottom four. He could only stand under the top four as the bottom are closed off. So, he pulled one tread, thinking he’d be able to look under and see what it was like.

Meanwhile, I’m upstairs working in the kitchen. We got the breakfast nook 95% done. I was working on cupboard doors when I hear him cuss. Then I hear boards being removed and Dan hollers for a trash can and bleach. Yes, he’d found the source of the smell. Trash, dirt, mold, a plastic crate they’d used as a step, and of course… cat shit. 90 minutes later, the area was shoveled, swept, and sanitized. Then he put the stairs back together.

Unbelievable.

Paint, paint, paint, paint, PAINT!

Posted on by jsudar

Life has been busy. Work for Dan, a school board conference and Saturday workshop for me, and lots of little interruptions. However, we’ve made progress on the house. We still have a lot to do, but in other ways we are so close to unpacking the rest of the boxes!

Since I last updated this blog, we have painted. Painted a lot. We had to go get more paint. Some for the touch ups in the hall corners and then more for the living room. I went ahead and did a crazy thing. I painted the dining room. With a really soft roller. It took about two hours, but… it looks beautiful. Very bright. 🙂

I’ve been stripping the cupboard doors and drawers in the kitchen and breakfast nook. I sanded a few, and realized that it was crazy. Since then, I have decided that Citrusstrip is my best friend! Ecological, smells nice, and it does not make me wheeze. I’ve done 11 drawers and I’ve done 9 of 16 doors. Tomorrow I will be doing the second coat of paint on the breakfast nook and kitchen. Oh, and stripping more doors.

Today I was on the ladder a lot. I cleared, cleaned and hung the light in the studio. I put up a curtain rod and attached the plate for the fire alarm. Pretty good for someone who has intermittent vertigo!

Here are some of the latest pics.

Of lumberjacks and interior decorations…

Posted on by jsudar

Today while I installed fixtures in the bathroom and tidied up things, Dan and Dayne cut back branches on two trees. We are due to have 60 to 80 mph winds tomorrow, and both of the trees had branches that rubbed on the house. I was sorry to have to trim them, but… it was needed.

Tomorrow while the wind blows and Dan fixes computers, I will be doing touch up work in the bathroom and begin to ready the kitchen and breakfast nook for paint! Once those rooms are painted, I can start unpacking a lot of boxes! Wheee!

Books, Books, Books!

Posted on by jsudar

I’ve begun to unpack the boxes and boxes of books. Granted, I can’t find one box and that is making me twitchy. (Pratchett where are you?) We will be acquiring better bookcases, but what we have is a start. I have two closets full of books to sort through as well. Meanwhile, the library and Friends of the Library will be receiving all of the unwanted books.

Perfect!

Posted on by jsudar

We’ve been painting and repairing things at the house. Not new news, I know, but… We are actually getting somewhere. 🙂 The master bedroom is painted, has new electric plugs, plates and switch. It even has some furniture in it!

The bathroom is nearly done. We have to touch up the corners near the ceiling and put another coat on the inside of the shower stall. I’ve started painting trim. Yes, it is green, but it is a 1930’s kinda green, not neon lime. We still have a few wall repairs to do, but they won’t delay the painting.

The library… Paint. New electric plugs, plates and switch. Floor oiled and mopped, and… Furniture! We had a table at the old house that my grandpa had made out of a door and drills from the coal mine. We took it over to this house yesterday, and it looks like it was made to be there. Wow! Perfect! 🙂

I moved boxes today, and will be moving more furniture tomorrow. I’ll put three bookshelves in the library and start filling them with books. Ahhhh!

Visitors!

Posted on by jsudar

Yesterday was cold! We got about 4-5 inches of snow, and the sun slipped in and out of the clouds all day. Yet we had a wonderful surprise. Visitors! Granted, they were rather shy and just walked around the yard, but it was great. Pics below.

It was cold in the house today, and we lit our first fire in the fireplace. It was a little smokey, but we figured we’d need to clean the fireplace. Dan finished fixing the stairs, so the trip to the basement is no longer an accident waiting to happen. The paint in the library dried, and I will need to do a second coat. The bathroom needs a second coat as well. Once that is done, and a few touch ups are made in the guest room, we will begin to move things into place. Book cases, books, and furniture. We will be moving tools into the furnace/tool room as well. The house is really looking good.

Nearly There!

Posted on by jsudar

For the last few days, I have been helping Dan clean the furnace room. It’s taken longer because there was so much stored in there that belongs to my sons. We finally dragged it all out and began to pressure wash and bleach it.

Today we finished up bleaching and pressure washing the laundry room, hall, furnace room and the stairwell. I sorted through books too. It was very hard to throw some of the damaged ones away. I hope I can find replacements. I also took about 15 to the library for the FOL. (Friends of the Library)

Tomorrow, we finish! Well, at least the cleaning part. We still have a mountain of trash to get rid of, and lots of painting and repair work. However, we are getting there!

We had a surprise too when we got home. My Auntie Janie sent us a set of teacups and saucers to go with the teapot! I can’t wait to have a cuppa on the balcony!

Aunty's prezzies1 Aunty's prezzies2