Catch Up December

We are almost done. I need to catch you up to speed because apparently someone hasn't blogged for over a month.

Where to start....
Oh yes, last I posted here they had started on my kitchen wall.....

Well the finished taring that out while the drywall crew were at mom's house mudding the place.
Then the mudded my kitchen and in the spirit of progress I said "Sure go ahead and mud on the day before Thanksgiving." I didn't realized what that involved. I was kicked out of my house from 9 am to 6:30 p.m. the day before Thanks Giving. When I got back in, my whole house was covered in a thick layer of sheet rock dust that was near impossible to get out. Enough about that fun.

They also finished the exterior of the house.

What do you think?

Next the painters came in to mom's house and primed the walls and added the first coat of her paint. The walls are a lovely warm white. You can see them in the photos to come.

As soon as the painting was done, Eric and his boys started in on the floors.
Mom chose tile for the kitchen, bathrooms and entryways.
Here is the kitchen tile when they started it.


While they were working on the floors at the first of December, the stone mason came in and worked up mom's wood stove area. Not sure what you call that, the Hearth, Anyway it is lovely. They used the leftover stone from the outside of the house. When she gets her stove put in it is going to be beautiful.



Next came in a lovey big pile of boxes of mom's wood floors. She picked a wonderful reddish honey colored oak flooring that is pre-finished which saves time on installation.

Here is a peek at the finished floors.

They also installed the heat and air system too keep the house at a constant temperature for the wood floor. It is set at 65 deg F all the time but it is very warm and toasty inside with the foam insulation mom had them put in. I am amazed at the difference it makes in her side of the house.


While all the business was going on at mom's I have been busy painting my side one bucket of paint at a time.
While mom's house is a nice quiet white to be a blank canvas for her beautiful artwork. My house only has one painting so I decorated my house with wall color.
My entry is now a warm Marigold to greet you when you come in.

My prodigious pantry is a lovely shade of Eggplant.

My kitchen is green but you will see that later in the post.

Now the tile floors are all in at mom's house and you will see them in the next few photos. The wood floors are mostly done and the stairs are in and just need to be stained to match the house.
The exciting part now is that the cabinets are in and will be finished up this week. The granite counter top at mom's has been ordered. It is black with large brown flecks in it. It is very beautiful and really shows off the color of her cherry stained cabinets but enough talk. Here are the pictures of her kitchen, entry, sewing room, and bathrooms so far.

Kitchen


Her cabinets are clear alder with a light cherry stain to match a china hutch she already has.
Stairs they are a wider than normal.

Hall Storage between bedroom and sewing room.

Laundry room. The cabinets are coming this week.

Sewing table/computer desk. This is mom's main work area.

Bathroom Linen storage and tub installed. They are going to tile around the tub to make it work as a shower for mom too.


Entry with the bench/ storage thing.


These are the cabinets in my kitchen. They are too beautiful for me. They had them in and done while I was gone to work on Friday. I cried when I saw them. Aside from my babies on their birthdays, it is the most beautiful thing I have seen. I am still in awe of them. They are knotty alder with a cherry stain like mom's. They have bead board in the doors. It was a cheaper option so I picket that and am so glad I did. They are too beautiful for this girl.

I love my pear green walls with them.
My stove goes here.

I think it looks kinda Mission in style. When Miyuki cam and saw them she lay her head down on the counter and just loved on them. They are so smooth and silky. They will pale with comparison to mom's when the granite comes in but for me and my house we love my counters. The tops are laminate and just happen to look a lot like stone mom picked. That wasn't intentional but was interesting.

Well there you have it. I have caught you up to speed at mom's house. Sorry I didn't post sooner. Life is so busy here these days. I worked on this post all day with many important interruptions along the way. If I don't get to post before Thursday, I would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas.

Mud and Stucco

Lots of little things have been happening this week.

The Sheetrock is pretty much done and the finishers have started mudding at an alarming rate. They had the floor covered, taped and had started the ceiling and mid wall tape before I left with mom this morning at 10:00 a.m. to go visit the Dr and do some fun shopping.



This is mom's living room all mudded. They will adding bull nose trim to all the corners and and egg shell finish to the walls.

I came home from work yesterday morning to a big surprise. I knew they were working on the wall outside my kitchen but I didn't know they were tearing out my kitchen right at that moment.

I came home and my upper cabinets were gone. I spent the rest of the day madly trying to box up the rest of my kitchen so they can take out that wall tomorrow morning. They finished the ceiling insulation today so we won't freeze to death tomorrow when the wall comes tumbling down.
Time to break out the bread machine and the crock pot for dinners. My kitchen is going to be out of commission very soon. YIKES!
Jeddie was very worried about the wall shaking.

He really freaked out when he saw the saw blade come through the wall.


When mom and I got home at about 5:30 tonight we found a real treat!! The stucco man came and start to apply the final coat of stucco. Mom was really not liking the gray under coat. She said it looked just a little too "San Quinton".

Here I caught her checking out the new color. It was still wet.

Here you can see the "San Quinton" gray and the "pancake" stucco side by side. The new color is fabulous but will take a couple of days to get used to.

While in Joplin today we checked out the wood stove store (Joplin Fire Place) They had some very beautiful stoves there. They guys there were really great and asked what she needed one for and what her intent was in using it and quickly directed us to the two stoves that would suit her needs.

The buck stove model 21 is nice and small and easy to clean up and to use. It's drawback is that it only has a 6 hour burn time and heat time.
The Hearthstone stove was gorgeous and I think someone fell in love with it. It is a soap stone stove that will hold soak up the heat and radiate it out much longer. It's burn time is 8 hours and it's heat time is 12. That would keep the home warm through the night. The house does have a heat and air system that is fabulous but you can't been the warming capability of a crackling fire. I love the windows in the doors. I love to see the fire burn.
This will probably require a lot more investigating but I know which one mom likes best. It is a thing of beauty. The stove they had on the floor had shinny black enamel cast iron. The one in the picture has the sea foam enamel. I think mom likes that color better. It is beautiful. I know what I want to save my pennies to get. They had a slightly larger one that I am loving very much. Someday.

Stone

The stone work and stucco are well on their way now.


Mom opted for faux stone at the corners of the house. They are made of concrete and look like river stone in colors that mom chose.

This is what they look like from underneath.

Some of the stones are specially shaped to go around corners.



Here is some detail at my front door.


They have also been putting up the sheet rock.

This is in mom's store room upstairs.


This is a close-up of one of her cubbies. (she wanted to see what they look like)


They are almost done with the downstairs now too.


Here is an outside shot of the work so far. It is looking quite marvelous.
Now just to pick cabinets, flooring, and paint colors.

Fluff and Stuff

Ok Ok here are some more pictures.

Since my last post, here are the things that have been going on.

1. Stucco is started.


They had to put the mesh stuff on the walls for the stucco to stick to. It has felt paper underneath to help reduce moisture. You can see the little bit of the stove pipe sticking out of the chimney.

2. The insulation guys came and put fluff and stuff everywhere.

After reviewing all the insulation options available, mom opted for the sprayed foam. It had the best R factor for what we had to choose from. The spray it on the walls and it puffs up to 100 times in size.

Mom had it put in the ceiling upstairs because it is the only efficient insulation for the type trusses we used. She also had it sprayed in all the exterior walls.


This is the room upstairs. It was amazing how silent it was up there. I couldn't even hear the crickets outside. The rest of the house is really quiet too. (if you notice there is a nice stack of sheet rock just waiting to be put up on Monday)


They put batts everywhere they couldn't do the foam. All the walls of the garage have insulation to protect the houses from the heat and cold.

3. I saved the best for last!!



Eric is now our hero because he was actually able to get a dumpster so we can start cleaning up in earnest. What is so special about that? Well since the tornado of May 10th it has been near impossible to get a dumpster here. Lots of the construction crews have been near impossible to get too. Everyone has been backed up this year trying to get roofs on the tornado victims and building new houses to replace those blown away.

New Doors

Yes I know we are over due for a post here. The work that has been going on isn't all that photo worthy. Just more electrical, heat and air and stuff like that. However, there were a few interesting bits this past week and I will post those pictures now.



Saturday, Diana came over and we cleaned up the work site and sorted all the trash. Sorry, I have too much of Dad in me and had to save what is still useful for kindling, scrap wood, and such. We even saved the old shingles and siding from my house to re-do the chicken coop, very Dad. We burned the boxes that were left.

Eric worked on getting some of the new doors set as we cleaned up the place.
Front Door

Laundry/Mud room door. We recycled the window from the girl's room upstairs for this room.

Back door off mom's kitchen to her patio and porch.

Pocket Door in mom's Pantry.

The stucco man also brought samples of the stucco colors we were interested in and the rocks for mom to choose from.

Theses are the colors we picked for samples.

We had over 300 to choose from.

These are the colors of stone we had to choose from.


So.... What color do you think she picked?...










She picked this Rosy beige color called Pancake. It was narrowed down to this one and the yellow one in the middle.

She picked river stone in all the colors shown above. They are going to be really beautiful the the blacks, browns, reds, yellows, and greys. I can't wait to see what it looks like done.

Electricity

Things are moving quickly on mom's house but they are little things so the pictures of big changes are not going to be as often.

Here is what they have been up to this week.



Soffit is up on the porch.





They put the floor in the room above the garage.





Heat and air ducts are in and the can lights have been started.





The electrician is working his magic hooking up the house with plenty outlets and lights per the wishes of the queen herself (mom, not me you silly!)