Bathroom window

I thought we had the wrong one, but I was convinced otherwise.

The framers got the thing installed, but it looked terrible so i had to start again using the Norm Abram methods I learned from watchin a lot of  New Yankee Workshop.

The window - tired and rotten frame and double hung window. Very hard to keep water out of it from the shower. That's probably why it was tiled over.

Let's get that window out, then.

We need some lumber

And a new window

Lots of mitred joints, caulkding and care and we end up with a nice 'un

Raising the ceiling!

(Steph writing)

The guys who replaced the roof are back today to raise the ceiling in the now open-plan dining living area.

Here it is with the old beams removed:

And here it is with the beams reused for the new ceiling shape:

And a quick aside: it is December 15th, sunny, not a cloud in the sky, 70 degrees F...crazy!

Trash no more

It's gone and we are very pleased. For weeks there has been a steeply accumulating pile of bags and bits of wood outside the house in the back yard. It was an eye-sore and was slowly starting to rot and smell bad.

Then the dumpster came so it was time to move all the crap up the sloping drive piece by piece. It took 2 of us about 5 hours to move it all and it was exhausting, but the reward is in the yard that now feels twice the size.

So much trash!

Somewhere to stash it

Gone! And what a relief

Grandma Sue is Coming to Town

(Steph writing)

Chez Hill is filling up. We've got Steve's parents/laborers/saints in our basement bedroom, while we two are on an air mattress in the living room. Everyone shares the one operational bathrrom, which you have to go through the bedroom to get to. It's...cosy.

We also have my mom arriving tonight or tomorrow, so have been hard at work upstairs getting one room semi-functional for her to sleep in (air mattress again-- sorry mom!) as well as a functioning toilet and sink in the upstairs bathroom. Sadly, our window mix-up is preventing us from tiling around the shower, so we will all have to share downstairs. Chez Hill is a little downmarket these days, but hopefully will improve over time.

Steve screwing drywall in to the bedroom ceiling.

Rob measuring the next piece.

Rooney doing his part to keep Steve's sweatshirt warm.

Cutting.

Did you know apes can drywall? Apparently they're really very good at it...

Professional Shopper

(Steph writing)

It seems that my role in the project involves daily trips to Lowes (like B&Q) and whole weekend days spent at IKEA. This is what my world looks like now:

Good news is, after an 8 hour (no, I am not exaggerating) day at IKEA we now have our kitchen, and managed to get 20% off to boot.

The staff at Lowes have started saying 'see you tomorrow' now instead of 'have a nice day.' I think I might get an invite to their company Christmas party...

More bathroom

We're gaining on it, but due to a mis-order, we still don't have a window.

The old lead pipe for the sink. Too old and weird in size to fit anything new so we had to get rid of it and the section of fibre-glass tape holding it together.

Repaired with some handy bits from Lowe's

Dad making progress. Floor is done and, as you can see, the sink is in

Bathroom progress

Slow progress. Cutting and measuring tiles is slow work, but here it is:

it begins

Still working on it. just need to measure and glue the remaining tiles.

More work...

My crew have helped speed things up so we've managed to get some trades in to move the gas pipe to allow the kitchen to be deployed

we ordered new windows, continued the drywall and got on with the bathroom floor

Gas pipe relocation

nice new windows. The picture isnt super-clear, but the new one is double glazed, high reflectivity and doesn't look shite.

me, working on the kitchen

New windows - sadly, most of them are 3" too small due to the existing windows being an odd size. I will have to make a tweak to the frame to make them fit. Not sure what to do yet...

Mum cleaning off paint

Overview