Vanishing Act

Now you see it (patched up).

Now you don't!

The Hole

Finally got a call from the plasterer. He's coming tomorrow morning at 8:30am! Hubby works today and will have an overtime day tomorrow. We didn't want to have to wait any longer, so I'm taking a couple of hours off on Friday morning to be home for him and then will go in to work.

Remember this hole? It's where we took out the wall.

Tomorrow it'll be gone.

Life, movies and gardening

With the girl gone, the fireman and I have been going to see movies, out to eat and spending more quality time together when the boys are at their mom's. It's been a lot of fun. I miss her a lot, but it's nice having some one on one time with the hubby.

Last Friday, the fireman was at work, and I went to see Harry Potter by myself. It was great! Oddly enough, I always thought it'd be weird to go to a movie by myself, but it totally wasn't. I loved every minute of it. Great ending!

A Hiking We Will Go

Renovating: Saturday, after my fireman and I did grocery shopping we painted our livingroom the dark green. And last night he finished patching the ceiling, so we may now call the plasterer to come repair the hole

in our ceiling from tearing down the wall. I have no idea how long it'll take to get him in, but I am excited to see the ceiling all patched and done! 

Barn Wood, I Think I Love You

Dear hubby got the columns up to support the beam. Looks amazing! We still need to polyeurethane them to make them shine, baby! The bolts have to be drilled. It's nearly done!

Construction update

Our temporary braces are gone!! When the contractor came by to help put up the temporary wall for our job, he raised the dining room ceiling as well. Apparently, plaster starts to sag over time, since it's so heavy. So, our dining room table was pushed back close to the wall to make room for the bracing. The contractor came back yesterday and showed my hubby what to do in the attic and helped him brace the ceiling up. Apparently, you can use a beam to hold up your ceiling, or you can use a beam in the attic to tie the ceiling UP. So, that's what we did for the dining room. I'll update with pictures tomorrow.

We were able to move the table from the wall and I had LEG ROOM, people. :) It was great! That was part of the whole purpose of this. Originally, the dining room archway limited the dining room and no-one had much room.

Today, we are working on getting the columns cut and attached to the beam. Hopefully, we will be able to get one or more up today and I can attach pictures tomorrow!

Construction

We've been undergoing serious construction on our house. When my fireman asked me to marry him, we had to figure out how to fit 6 people under one roof. He had always planned on redoing the basement and adding some bedrooms and a family room as two of his three boys were sharing a room. Once we decided to expand the family, the job had to get serious. Last summer/fall we stripped the basement to the blocks and built 3 nice sized bedrooms, a bathroom, a nice family room and a laundry room. It's all carpeted and painted, the trim isn't done and there's no door on the laundry room, but hey, it takes time. We even dug out window wells on the side on the house and cut into the walls to give each room a window. Color the boys happy creatures. The girl got one of the bedrooms upstairs and the extra room is now a study where the kiddos can get online for fun or homework. There's an extra computer downstairs for the kids as well. Kids fight over things like that!

ANYway, our newest job, (except for the trim which we are waiting until summer for)(don't remind the fireman!) :) is the living room. We busted down two walls to the living room! Yay! Fun times! There was an archway going from the living room to the dining room that we opened up entirely (phew, arm room!) and the connecting wall that went down the hallway? The LOAD BEARING one? Gone. Course, we had to put up a temporary wall, cause it kinda holds up the house. So... we got this loverly barn wood that fireman sanded down and I polyeurethaned until it shines, baby! Gorgeous! It's finally up now, but then we decided instead of regular wood colums holding up the beautiful beam, we are using the same barn wood there too. So, when it's done the livingroom will be a nice open great room and already we have soo much more room! It feels like a different house. I already love it. We have a plasterer on call so that when the job is done, he is going to come over and patch up the ceiling. Cause, you know, when you take a wall down, there are like HOLES in the ceiling. I can see my attic! Gasp!
Weird.

My hubby made the black strapping that attaches the beam to the columns (when they make it up there). Apparently, the beam has to go up BEFORE we can put the column up. So, once we have them ready, we'll cut to size and jack up the beam a 1/4 inch and slide the column in and drop it on them. Drill the holes, bolt them in, and viola! Done! Easy for me to say, my fireman is doing the scary stuff! BTW, forgive the messy living room.

This picture shows a little more of the wood; it's on the hallway side. The picture is not very good, but hey, I'm learning. Pardon the Finding Nemo towel covering the window in the bathroom. We replaced the window in there and haven't put up any curtains yet. Nemo keeps our modesty from the neighbors.