The Daring Young Man...

He flies through the air, with the greatest of ease....
Don is patching the plaster in our stairwell. These photos say it all.

The wall with the big area that lacks plaster had a big bulge in it. When Don is all finished it will be smooth.

Plaster dust - yeeeccch!

Once again Don is going through the mud, then sand, mud then sand process to fix the cracks in the lath and plaster walls and ceiling. It is about 17 feet from the main floor floor to the ceiling in the stairwell. Sami suggested that we might want to have a professional do the job, but of course Don wanted the challenge.

A Long-Legged Cat

The area around the cat door was always dirty from our kitties dirty paws. We hope to hide some of the soil with this decoration. Now, the only thing left in the kitchen entryway is to prep and paint the walls.

Detals

Don finished the kitchen entryway floor and now Sami is applying a second coat of paint to the trim  and prepping the walls for paint there.

Don has been working on a detail for the kitchen. It is a blackboard....

Sami designed it to use a brass heron as an apron hook. The heron is cousin to the owls used in the under-the-stairs closet, which we have dubbed the Harry Potter memorial closet. What's the point of doing all this work if we can't have a little fun along the way?

November

The year is coming to an end, but our project is not. However, we are determined to finish in 2017! 

Don is on his hands and knees scraping the old adhesive from the stair risers in our kitchen entryway and preparing to lay the floor there. It is back-breaking, detailed work.

Sami has her hands full with a bunch of other projects including coordinating the Oregon Battle of the Books program at grandson Olive's school, which included fundraising for books and supplies.

She is also knee-deep in plumbing issues at the other house we care for, Spindrift Cottage. 

 
But today she is determined to post a photo of some actual work she will do on THIS REMODEL!! Stay tuned.

Slow Speed

Our last post was over two months ago. Our progress slowed this summer, because we took a few little trips and had company off and on, plus it was a banner year for the garden, and that took a lot of Sami's time. Plus, Sami is neck deep in a volunteer project for Oliver's school the "Oregon Battle of the Books." A wonderful reading incentive program.

Don did solider on, dealing for almost two months with doors. Counting the screen/storm doors, there are five doors in the kitchen entryway and two in the living room going out to the deck. Most of them had layers and layers of paint. We let a professional remove it by dipping them in chemicals. After that, it wasn't just a matter or repainting them, some of them required extensive work, rebuilding and refinishing. This morning we finally made four new check marks on our tasks list. (don't ask why there are four checks for seven doors, we aren't always good at counting). It is a little hard to see all the work Don put into them, after all a door just looks pretty much like a door, but they are defiantly new and improved. 

This door to the back deck was one we did not have "dipped." Don sanded it inside and out and added new parts to the wood where it was designated. He installed new panes of glass where needed and installed a special closing mechanism to the new storm/screen door he added. The outside of the door was in such bad shape he had to paint it to make it look good. He was able to salvage the wood inside and stain it, to match the wood trim throughout the living room.

 

The four new check marks means that our part of the remodel is now 70% complete!

Crawling

A built-in wine rack and stemware holders are nestled in the recessed shelves.

Summer activities have slowed our progress to a crawl, but we are not stopped all together. Don finished the built-in shelves that go in the peninsula alcove yesterday and Sami has begun to move cookbooks and other things into the space.

Milestone

We passed a milestone on Tuesday. The city inspector visited, and signed off on all of the final inspections. Plus, Corey, our contractor and friend, completed his final task; fitting the oak side on the cabinets below the peninsula and the accompanying quarter-round trim.

His exit means the rest is completely up to us - scary!

After everything else is done, the wood floor will be refinished.

We have had a busy couple of weeks apart from the remodel, so our work has slowed down considerably. But, we are still making progress. Don is building the shelves that go behind the peninsula alcove. The vertical pieces will be a finished oak and the horizontal pieces will be painted black. It is turning out to be a major undertaking.

Don built and fitted all of the pieces together completely. Then, he completely deconstructed the unit and is putting on finishes, one side of one piece at a time. It will probably be another two weeks before they are complete and installed.

After all of the appliances were hooked up Sami was unable to go back down to the basement and cook on the hot plate. Using the new kitchen is such a joy. However, the BIG move-in won't happen until all of the plaster work on the main floor is finished and the dust cleaned up.

The kitchen was done just in time to deal with all of the fruit and vegetables the garden is producing.