Its a long road... but we're on it!!

Tom worked a VERY long day yesterday, got home at 8pm.

He is working again today for Kokosing in Ohio.  Blech.  He is bummed but hopefully, maybe, in another month or so his project there will be done and he can have a shorter commute and not work 4x 10 hr days + 1 normal 'salary' Friday.  Its just been a very long summer for him - funny that it was timed perfectly with us buying this house.

Updates on the house:

• Fired our electrician Monday!  Still looking for one - let us know if you know of one, please!
• Josh, Rick, and Dave have been working diligently on the house.  The woodwork is 95% done.  They finished the 2nd floor, and finished the dining room yesterday.  I can't wait to see it!
• Got $5k worth of plumbing done - that was a cost we didn't know we would have!  It looks great, glad that Matt Mertz Plumbing came in and GOT IT DONE!!  Now, we need an electrician to do that!
• Got custom stain from Sherwin Williams.  Kept working on it.  Still not exactly what we want, so I think we are going to customize the custom stain!! :)

Finding the right stain - quite a bit of work!!

So, I found this a while ago on one of our demo days.... It is proudly displayed on our mantle right now.

Can you tell what this says?  I feel bad painting over it... but, I mean... um, yeah.  The kids in this house last, their names were Dean and Stormy.  I actually got some mail the other day for Stormy.  (yes, I am hiding my true feelings)

...

Oh, and on a side note - the melanoma is all gone!  :)  Yahoo!  But, I have a chunk missing from my arm and a 2 inch scar!!  :/

And, the baby is developing well!!  15 weeks today :)  A little afraid this one may be bigger than the other one :)

Here's to a weekend of productivity!! :)  Have a great day.

Busy days

Well, STILL, all we are doing is woodwork.  Really.

If we could go back in time, I don't think we would have decided to refinish all this woodwork.  It is a cost we will never recoup in the house.  Probably going to end up costing us between 7-10k.  Really.  (all labor cost)

We sold our gas cooktop to a guy who is also renovating a house, a house built in 1845.  He was amazed at the woodwork restoration - and said he would NEVER do it!  Ha!

The woodwork in the master bedroom

Mary's room woodwork

They are moving and groovin!  Each window takes a day to strip, roughly, and probably at least a couple hours to sand.  Then you have to go through the nooks and crannies and get the paint out.  Seriously tedious process.

Baseboards and door plinths.  This house was SOUNDLY built.

Josh taking the paint off one out of FOUR french doors that go to this patio.  It took Tom one whole day by himself to do this (while the paint on the flat, large surface of wood was already removed).

Tom and Josh tackling the paint.  I respect them both very much for working so diligently on all this!!

Seems like 6am is the only time I have to update this thing!  Wish I could update more.  But, now off to buy some clearance items from Lowe's.

Happy beautiful Monday ya'll!!  

3 months later... an update on where we are

Life gets in the way, always, right?  (this post may be more about life than the house...)

I have 4 doctors appointments this week.

I am pregnant! :)

I have been diagnosed with skin cancer :(

I am going to be okay.  We caught it really early - I am very fortunate and feel very blessed.  But, I do have outpatient surgery this week - and usually that's no big deal to me, but... I'm pregnant so I worry.  (PSA:  I did do some indoor tanning when I was young and dumb.  DON'T do it.  You are 87% more likely to develop melanoma if you do it before the age of 35).  

Baby should be here in mid-March! :)  We are 12 weeks along.

So, as far as the house...

We have owned it for 3 months now.  Plumbers coming next week.  Our electrician is still not showing up.... :/  We have hired 2 more people along with Josh.  They all worked last week, and made TONS of progress.  I think almost all the paint is stripped.  This week, on to sanding it all.  They made great progress with sanding last week too!  

I took a door with the original wood color to Sherwin-Williams last week.  I'm going to buy gallons of stain this week! :)  I promise to take more pictures this coming week.

The door I took to Sherwin Williams.  I mean really, who takes a door with them somewhere?

Isn't that a pretty color?  Those two doors are our only examples of what the original woodwork looked like.

  

Spent my Friday with this beautiful little girl!

Tio Marco.  We went to Columbus on Fri/Sat. to see some good friends.

 

Mary and her cousin Jacob enjoying some ice cream.  Went to his 2nd birthday party on Saturday.  What a fun little guy!

Happy early Monday ya'll!!!