Long Overdue Update

In trying to make progress on the house, lots of travel plans, and a new job, I have kind of fell off the wagon on my posting. The last I reported, we were just finishing the master bedroom and things were getting going on the new porch. Where do we stand now?

With the exception of decorating (that's the last thing on my list), the master bedroom is complete. Thankfully, we purchased bedding and furniture a LONG time ago, so once the bedroom was painted and carpet installed, we could pretty much get set up and move in. For some reason, I don't have any good before photos, but for the after photos:

We used a dark sage green on the walls, then went two shades darker on the same paint swatch for the fireplace color. We are pretty happy with how it looks, and we are happy to finally have a master bedroom.

As far as the porch, the contractors built the structure for us, and we have roofed it and installed some trim around the outside. Their only part left is to install gutters and a window where the door used to be. The rest (ceiling, lighting, paint) is up to us. We do think it's a major improvement. For this, I do have a much-needed before photo.

Before:
Now from the yard:
Now from the porch (my favorite view):
We worked yesterday on installing crown molding around the outside of the upper overhang. It needs wood filler, caulk, and paint before gutters can be installed by our contractors. We found lights and beadboard ceiling this weekend, so this fall looks like it's going to be pretty busy. We are happy with the outcome, but are really looking forward to enjoying the space.

The Stars Aligned Today

Two major developments today! 1. Our contractor returned to begin construction of our new back porch. 2. Our master bedroom is painted - all surfaces and all coats!

To elaborate, we have been put-off by our contractor for several weeks on a start date for the porch. First we had to wait for our special order columns to come in. Then we had to wait for the crew to finish up work on other job sites. Thankfully, they reappeared today with columns, lumber, and tools to build our porch. To save on cost, they will be doing the structure, and we will be doing the roofing, lighting, and beadboard ceiling ourselves.

I haven't taken many pictures of the master bedroom transformation because I've just wanted to get it done. I did a touch-up skim coat (after the first sand by the rented sander) and a second sanding by hand, and the walls looked pretty nice. So, throughout the week last week we were able to get the walls and ceiling primed. On Saturday, Chad painted two coats on the ceiling while I primed the trim. We were able to get two coats of paint on the trim yesterday and one coat of color (medium shade of sage green) on the walls late last night. I finished up the final wall coat today.

We really hit a set-back on Saturday with priming the trim. I only budgeted a few hours, but this room is 27 feet by 14 feet, with 1 foot wide baseboard, 1 foot wide crown molding, 5 windows, 3 doors, and a ton on trim on the fireplace. Priming it took ALL DAY Saturday and even a few hours Sunday morning. Thankfully, the painting of the trim went considerably faster, completing one coat yesterday afternoon and the other last night.

The only painting left to complete is the fireplace and its surround. The wood mantle and trim (very decorative and detailed) has a coat of latex paint that needs peeled off before it can be primed and painted. Then, I will be painting the wall above the fireplace a different shade of green than the walls to help it stand out. This should be done soon, maybe by the end of the week, but we'll see.

As a small "break" on Saturday, we ordered our carpet for the master bedroom. It should be installed in 2-3 weeks, after which we can move in to our master bedroom, our first official master bedroom in 10 years of marriage. We are super-duper excited.

I will have pictures SOON of the bedroom and the progress on the porch.

Skim Coat and Sand

While waiting on the porch to be rebuilt, we re-focused our attention back inside to our master bedroom. I finally finished stripping the wallpaper, which wasn't that painful and didn't take that long. It was just a matter of me realizing it wasn't going to get done without a few days of my attention. Over three days, I was able to strip the remaining 3 walls and wash them down.

Once I had the wallpaper stripped, I skim-coated all of the walls to hide imperfections and wallpaper sizing. The room is 13 feet by 27 feet (with 10 foot ceilings), so this took the better part of 2 days. Before sanding, though, I did a little research. I feel like there must be a better and cleaner way to sand that kind of wall space. I found the Porter Cable electric drywall sander. It's basically a 9" orbital sander on a pole, with a dust collection system. The cost was a bit more than we could spend ($450), so we were able to rent one from the local tool rental for $30.

I'm not a real good skim coater, but I can get the job done with a couple of light sands. We used the drywall sander for the first sand, and it did pretty well. I admit, I was hoping for perfection with the first sand. But, it did as well as a first hand-sand would have done, but Chad was able to sand the entire room in 2-3 hours with very little dust. I am going back in (as I always do after a first sand) and even out the low spots, gauges, and air pockets. We returned the sander this morning, so our next sand will be by hand. I do think, though, that the sander saved us valuable time on that first sand - it's always the worst. I would have liked to have had the sander for the next sand as well. In all, I think it probably works as well as hand sanding, but much faster and cleaner. For a big job, I would rent one again.

Throughout the week this week, I will continue to touch up areas on my first skim coat, plus do a second sand if possible. I would like to dream that in the next couple of weeks, we might have a finished master bedroom. Ahhh.

Update on the porch rebuild - the columns are in, and we are about a 1-2 weeks out from making it back on our contractor's schedule. It looks like we could have our new porch by the end of summer.

Taking Matters Into Our Own Hands

So after we finally got an estimate for the re-build of the porch, we had to reevaluate our plan. The estimate came in much higher than we had expected (and much higher than we can afford). We started looking at some of the labor costs on things we can do ourselves and realized we'd save about half if we did some of the more basic labor ourselves. We have decided to frame up and build the porch floor, lay shingles on the the roof, and install the beadboard ceiling.

We also found a more cost-effective option for the floor. We were going to do a tongue and groove floor, but we were worried about its exposure to the elements and its cost. We were able to find nice decking boards at Menards and decided to go that route.

Over the last few weekends, we installed the floor supports and joists for the decking. That took us about a day and a half, about what the contractor estimated it would take them. Call me crazy, but I would think a professional should be able to do a job quicker than me.

Over the following two weekends, we installed the porch floor. It's 350 square feet, so it took us quite a while. Plus, the weather on some of those days was unbearable. Since the joists run two directions, the flooring does as well. We did the straight side first, and it was pretty easy and quick. It's just the size of the space that took us awhile. We did the diagonal side second. Once we figured out the angles (one against the deck boards, one against the house), it went pretty quickly. Here is the finished floor on the straight side, then on the diagonal part:
Now we are waiting for the contractor to come back, and that will happen once the support columns come in. The contractor will build the supports and and framing for the roof and ceiling. Once that is done, we can complete the project by shingling, wiring for new light fixtures, and installing the beadboard ceiling. It puts our schedule behind a little, but it will be well worth it cost-wise. This process reminded us why we do all of our work ourselves - sticker shock. I'm just glad we were able to come up with some cost effective options so we can still have the porch we want, but at a price we can afford.

Screeching Halt

So, we have come to a complete standstill on the porch project. They finished demo about 2 weeks ago, but we have been waiting on drawings and an estimate on the re-build of the porch. We got a loose estimate and drawing yesterday, but aren't ready to start the construction of the porch until we have something a little more concrete. So, we wait for a better idea of what to expect cost-wise before we give them the go-ahead to get started. Hopefully that will come in the next couple of days. We may end up doing some of the work (laying decking and roofing) in order to save a little money. I am confident we'll get moving along soon - maybe next week.

They did come back today and hook back up a couple of electrical circuits they left from the demo. Our entire upstairs and front entry hasn't had lights for 3-4 weeks. When I came home today to see lights I was elated. It can finally look like someone lives here.