Moving outside

After a little hiatus we are back at it!  We had the entry way sandblasted and then began scraping by hand. After many days, Brad and I were already ready to be done with the exterior siding project!  The woodwork is so intricate, it took a lot of time to clean it up. Then we washed it off and primed it.

We haven't painted the entry yet, but instead moved on to scraping the top portion, which is also decorative and will not be replaced.  I spent five long, long, long days up on the lift.  At the end, I managed to finish removing most the paint from ONE side of the house. And remember, we're only talking about the three foot or so section nearest to the roof line!  

I did earn some battle scars up there....

I may have broken a light...or two.

And I also may have been up on the lift during a rain storm...with lightening!

So, after five days, I ran out of time and energy.  We turned to some painters Brad knows and turned over the job. Meanwhile, Brad and I started tearing off old siding.

And then we started wrapping.  We asked a friend to help out, which he gladly did.  He neglected to tell us, he doesn't like heights!  Needless to say, after we found that out, I took over.

Finally, Brad has been working hard in his shop.  As always, his work is amazing.  Here is the trim to go around the windows.

The house is now stripped, wrapped and the windows are framed, but now we are at a standstill.  Why? You may be wondering? Because ABC Supply ordered the wrong siding for us!  So, after WAY too long of going back-and-forth with them, our new siding has been ordered and should be arriving in a couple weeks.  Maybe in my next post I will rant and rave a bit about the siding, but right now, I'm just tired and going to bed.

Paint Samples

Paint. Paint. Paint.  Ugh!  An important lesson I learned during the renovation of 319 Somonauk Street is that paint samples are a necessity.  While I knew what color I wanted to paint each room (more-or-less), I had a hard time actually getting those colors.  

After buying sample after sample of Sherman Williams samples, which are WAY too big and too expensive, I learned the color of the swatches NEVER matched the color on our walls.  Apparently, it is necessary to use the "suggested" gray primer.  It would have been nice if the sales reps would have told me that!  So, even though our walls were newly primed, they were primed in a beige Sherman William's primer.  

I got so disgusted with Sherman Williams, I ended up having Lowes color match all the S.W. colors in to Valspar paints.  I am happy to say we love all the colors we have chosen.  

Guest room & downstairs bathroom are a sage green

Office is a custom mixed burgundy

Oraya's room is painted to match her quilt

Our master bedroom is a purple-gray

The mudroom is a stormy blue

The master bathroom is a silver-gray

The kitchen is a rusty orange & the living room is a khaki beige

City Inspection #1

It's been crunch time around here.  We have been putting in late hours at 319 getting it ready for our city inspection.

Electric...done
Plumbing...done (kind of)
Safety measures...done

So, how did it go?  We were given a laundry list of 18 items, ranging for very simple to very silly. There are some plumbing issues on the list and one for the electrician.  Brad has taken care of everything else except for the biggest (and silliest) item.  Well, second silliest.  This one, is by far the silliest (see photo).

Those ducts extending off the house are for the exhaust fan in the bathroom and the drier.  They needed to be extended 36" because they were too close to the windows.  Really?  It's not carbon dioxide for goodness sake, it's poop fumes!

The second silliest item can also be seen in the above photo.  Do you see how the trim was removed to put in the new windows?  And how a couple windows have been closed up?  The weather barrier is visible...and has been for almost three years.  NOW the city has decided the house must be "weather-proofed" with plywood and caulk!  When asked why, they said that we might get complaints about the appearance of the house.  When asked if we had gotten any complaints, the answer was "no."  So, after nearly three years, the city is now worried about the outward appearance of the house.

As you can imagine buying, cutting, and installing plywood around 28 windows and doors will be costly and very time consuming.  Therefore, we are not going to do this item and see what happens during our next inspection.  Pure silliness.

Woodwork & Cabinets

Where should I start?  Mikey, the plumber is working night to finish up our plumbing. KC from Swedberg Electric came through, finishing up the wiring.  Now, Brad and I have ceiling fans and light fixtures to hang...which should be interesting considering every time Brad does electric there is a lot of swearing and it takes quite a large chunk of time.

Don't get me wrong, the man is amazing.   His skilled carpentry work never cease to amaze me.  For example, take a look at the beautiful wainscoting he designed and built.  It is made up of four different layers of wood! Oh, and by the way, he made the stairs as well.

Brad has also built three (That's right, three!) staircases.

Main stairs going in

Main stairs profile

Main stairs done!

Attic Stairs

He also built wainscoting for the underneath side of the attic stairs.

Did I mention Brad also made my tub beautiful and replicated the original panels under all of the windows?

So now, all of the base trim, casing, and doors are painted or stained and installed and look fabulous!  Did I tell you about our base trim?  It was a nightmare!  

The first fiasco with it was when a helper stained the base trim the wrong color.  We then made a poor choice and re-stained it to try to fix the color.  Now, not only was it the wrong color, but it had way too much stain on it.  The mishap that sent us back to square one, though, was this....

Brad took a week off from work to finish trimming the house. At a friend's shop, we had stained, polyed, sanded, and polyed again all of the casing and trim.   This was weeks before Brad was going to need it and it had plenty of time to dry.  About a week before he was going to start installing it all, he stacked it face-to-face and plastic wrapped the ends together.  Then, he transported it back to our house.  When he unwrapped it, it had stuck together and the finish got ruined.  

Our options were to spend $1300 to reorder all new base trim, have a special knife made for a sander and have the stain sanded off, or have it chemically stripped and the lightly sand it all.  We went with the last option...what a pain in the butt! After one set back after another, the base trim was done...finally! 

Just when we thought we were done staining and polying, we ordered and received our newel posts, rails, and spindles for our staircases.  Since I have proved (on multiple occasions) that I am incapable of polying without runs or bristle marks, my job is staining and sanding, and Brad is in charge of polying.  Late one night while staining, I came up with a catchy tune (sung to the (( Bottles of Beer on the Wall" tune)..."99 wood spindles to stain, 99 wood spindles.  Take one down, stain it brown, 98 wood spindles to stain." And when it got REALLY late and this happened (see below) all I could do was laugh...a bit hysterically.  

1 down 98 to go

Domino effect

Since I started writing this post (and didn't post it), the spindles, hand rails, and newel posts have been installed and look beautiful!

In my last post, I talked about the kitchen counter tops, but failed to mention the obvious fact that the cabinets are also installed.  

Countertops!!!

Bar in Dinning Room Before

It was an exciting day at 319 Somonauk.  Today, our counter tops were installed.  Lonnie's Stonecrafters from Rockford did a fabulous job.  We were very pleased with their selection of stone, service, and prices.  I knew I wanted a cream/beige based stone to add warmth to the cold granite.  We went with a stone that incorporated specks of copper and a reddish colors to tie in with the kitchen's copper light fixtures and rusty orange wall color.  The cornices holding up the eating peninsula were a Kane County Flea Market find.

Bar  in Dinning Room After

Eating Peninsula Before

Eating Peninsula After

Kitchen Cabinets Before

Kitchen Cabinets After

Now that the counters have been installed, Brad is taking the next two weeks off (whoowhooooo!) to finish trimming downstairs.  Hopefully, we can also get our plumber back to hook up the kitchen sink and downstairs bathroom plumbing.  We're also waiting to hear back from one of our painters to see when his crew can come and spray our upstairs trim and doors.  I'll keep you posted!