More paint!

Vicki and Buck, Molly and Fred came this weekend and added the last bits of textrue and paint to the house. There will be touch-up of course - maybe a second coat in places - and lots of trim to paing, but it is substantially finished! Sprayre make a huge difference - i in the hands of experts. I did not take any work pictures this time, sorry to say. But you can look at some of the end results.

Old doorway between the rental side and our side being closed.

Closed - from the rental side.

Doorway with drywall mudded.

Now - no doorway at all!

Looking up.

View from the top of the stairs - all white!

Bath, too, is white - tile is almost finished!

Baths and wheelie bins

In order to get the rental side of the house finished we have to tear out the old bathroom there - the one we use. So we must finish A bathroom in our side of the house first. That's where Bill and Rick have spent most of the last week - and Mike is there a bit in the near future. It reminds me of a billboard near my folks' house "Coburns (or whoever) Plumbing Supplies - We've been in the bathroom for 36 years" But the tiny shower bath should be usable by tomorrow night!! And Rick is working away on the big one upstairs too. We also got wheelie bins!! Finally. Well that's what they called them in England when we lived there and I like that "evah so much bettah" than "garbage can".

Let there be . . .

Today we left and returned to find that even with both of us going hi-ho-hi-ho-to-work, there were several things done when we returned. More tile was laid today. We WILL get the little bathroom finished before too many more days. Also, there were window balances put in and one more window has trim now.

One more thing happened today - EARLIER than promised. The pictures below are of our part of the house (not the rental side). So can you figure it out? (Please ignore the spots on the camera lens. I'll have it cleaned AFTER construction is finished!)

Bill kept working while we were gone, and has continued to do so since we're back. The things done don't look that big, but they are significant. I will post later a photo of the floor of the small bedroom since I forgot to take a shot of it. However, all of the floors are in except the tile ones, and those are only in the 3 bathrooms. The little bath downstairs on our side is coming along but the big ones both have a lot to go. We're doing as much as possible on the air conditioned side since we're in the same heat wave as most of the country. What is getting done now is trim, doors, and tile in the little bathroom.

Finished the upper block boards in the whole house now!

Using the borrowed trim for the storage area in the rental hall.
We're re-using old doors in the house. Fran, you'll have a door when you come!!

My 1 project is glazing the windows of the interior French doors. I'm learning!

Before we go

We will be traveling for a few days and so we will be surprised by the progress as much as you are when we return. Today we found cabinets that we'll use in our kitchen, bought a toilet, got wood for the small rental bedroom and Bill finished the living room floor. Can you tell where the old corner was??

PASSED!

Well, there has been a good bit of progress, posted below, but the most important thing happened at about 4 PM today. We passed electrical inspection. That means we should soon be able to get electricity on both sides of the house. It means we don't have to do anything more with electrical stuff - though we'll probably do a bit more. It means we can soon have a working fridge, etc!

Finished beam in the kitchen.

Frame around the closets.

Nicely grouted kitchen.

Bill working upstairs in the heat - on the side without electricity.

Floors nearly all laid in our bedroom!

No, the kitchen's not in - but we're playing with spacing!!

Yep, it's coming

Well, I've talked with different ones of you about things that are happening, but I've not had time to post lately. One reason is that I was actually busy doing things myself. Another was that I was helping supervise volunteers, and another was that my dad's been in the hospital in Baton Rouge. HOWEVER, reasons are not excuses, so I'll try to make it up by posting a bit now. With the help of some volunteers and of our carpenter friend and our other friend from church - who mainly does floors but is ready to do anything we want him to do - we are coming along on lots of pieces of this project.

Hard working volunteers ready to leave.

Sydnie must really love us!! She's neat and hates dirt but was content to be in her room - and the house - covered with dirt!

Today an overhead beam got nicely encased.

Tile was laid in the small bathroom.

Our kitchen has tile! Tomorrow grouting!

Not a current project but soon, we'll clean up the fireplace in the rental bedroom. As we discussed this with Courtney who will fix it, he found some of the original hooks for holding cooking pots.

More help

After the frantic push, though we've worked long hours, it has seemed a bit more managable. And we've seen progress. Now, given that, you need to understand that Mike has worked 8 hour days at work for the last week, then comes home, puts on work clothes, and finishes his other 6 hour a day job - 4-10. He's been under the house (plumbing and a little electrical) on ladders (lights and fans) and walking around putting in AC vent covers and light switch covers.

Light in the rental kitchen

Same light from outside

Our kitchen fan and dining area light.

Bill has the board in for us to tile.

We have had 2 different groups of volunteers come to help this week, and we appreciated all they did. In fact, one group returns tomorrow, and they were great!! They cleaned, sanded and painted windows. They scraped putty off windows and cleaned bricks. They put up my new house numbers. Awesome help!

Volunteers doing clean-up

Awesome young man!

Cleaning bricks! Who would EVER do such a thing for you??

H. sings while she works.

Shutters

Today Bill, our friend and carpenter, got all of the shutters for the 6 French doors up and we love them. The hinges were hand made by a man in Tickfaw, and they, like the windows and these shutters, have been sitting in the house waiting for us since some time in 2005 or before. The smaller window shutters still have to be painted, but step by step it's coming. We also have some of the electrical work finished, including a couple of fan-lights. As Mike says, these days we are seeing progress each day!

So what do you think? Shutters open?? or

Shutters closed? Which do you like?

See the great texture on the walls.

Ignore the choppy wood but enjoy the fan light!

Busy Weekend - Final

Your choice: read as you see these, or jump down 4 posts to Busy Weekend - Beginnings and read bottom-up in chronological order. Sunday, while the Florida crew were supposed to be on the 10 hour trip back home they were, instead, painting the outside AND the inside. By the time I left for church, they had a first coat of exterior paint on. By the time I came back, amid more steady rain, the outside was finished and most of the walls and ceilings were finished. By 4 PM these miracle workers had most of their equipment packed, were chatting with passers-by, and getting ready for a few hours seeing the French Quarter and crashing on the floor. Incredible guys! Incredible weekend!

Busy Weekend - Rain

Well, I thought these guys - including our two local ones, Bill and Matt - were really fantastic by Saturday morning, but then the test really began. RAIN! Off and on all day. Though we were all a little discouraged, the guys quickly just shifted to the inside of the house. Once started there, they worked like machines to finish texturing (which I'd never seen - throwing mud on the wall!) and priming the entire downstairs of the house before quitting - at 10 PM. Their reward? McDonalds supper at 11 PM. Pitiful, huh?