Living In The Construction Zone -
I’ve eluded to a few house projects we’ve had going on lately, but the level of the construction surrounding our every day life is kind of ridiculous…things here have been loud and messy. We decided to forgo the waiting period, jumping right into the work we wanted done. We won’t be saying “Oh we wish we would have done this sooner!!!”, not this time. No way.
So first up was some pre-planned brick work done as soon as possible.
We hosted a master brick crew for about a week of drilling, scraping, anchoring, and giant-ceiling-hole-cutting. The hole was just a bit bigger than we anticipated…
Shockingly, this giant hole wasn’t what bothered us the most. The brick work was enjoyable compared to the month-long gas line project we never knew would happen. Right in front of our house.
We knew there was trouble when we noticed the “pretty colors” painted all over the street. Good thing Finn is a flexible sleeper, because every day involves a different napping situation to avoid noise and vibrations coming from the drilling and digging going on 10 feet from our front door. Sometimes there are three dump trucks and two backhoes right outside the front windows. There have been times our whole house felt like it was moving! The already limited parking is shut down every day till 3:30, which scared us to death, but turned out to be not all that bad. I just cannot wait till its over!!
I’ve distracted myself from the construction (and daily news reports) by removing wallpaper and painting the kids room. They’ve chosen a space theme, it’s going to be great. I’ve got some artwork to hang and a few finishing touches before sharing more, but here’s a peek…
And this weekend we had the windows cleaned, something I was waiting to do until after the brick dust had settled and didn’t think would be a big deal, but it ended up taking two whole days. Our windows were SO dirty, the extremely patient and thorough gentleman with many years of window cleaning experience said he’d never seen such filth. Now that they are done, we have 10 times more sunshine lighting up our house…best money we’ve spent so far. I walk around singing, “I can see clearly now…” all day.
PSA: Have your windows cleaned!!!!!
Final project of the month, the back fence. It was extremely flimsy when we moved in and managed to start falling down a couple weeks ago. The old brick wall running across the back of our yard made it tough for a normal human-size person to fit through the back gate, especially when carrying a bin of recycling, so we asked our brick guys to use their giant scary saw to cut it back a bit. More noise, more destruction, more mess. But progress. The new fence goes up this week and will be a drastic improvement.
It’s weird having all these non-diy-able things done around the house, maybe that’s why it was easy for me to get going on the kids’ penthouse suite so soon. I needed to get my hands on something!! Next on my list of things to do myself: the living room walls. They need some paint to make the pretty pretty molding pop.
Next huge mess? The third floor bathroom. It gets gutted next week and we can’t wait to see every inch of it go bye-bye. Yet another project that was hard to let go, but we decided it made sense to hire the whole thing out. Honestly, getting all the demo down the three flights of steps alone is almost worth the extra cost. I’m committing to shooting lots of gross befores (let I forget as usual) in all the leaky-moldy-nasty-grouty glory so the afters are even more fun.
Stu keeps saying things like, “Well at least the worst part is over!” but I know better. These bathroom remodels are going to be yucky. Wish us luck.
from → Craftiness, DIY Projects, Home
« Finn: Almost Three
Finn Turns 3!! »
Great work on progress! Looking forward to seeing your future home projects and its progress photos. Thanks for sharing!
Mandy Yanga permalink
Undeniably it’s a mess, inside and out whenever there’s a construction going on for the house. But the hassle cannot surely compare to the finish product! Surely it will look great!
Obserr permalink
It means so much to me you took the time to explain in detail what the article is about. Do you accept guest posting
Living In The Construction Zone -
I’ve eluded to a few house projects we’ve had going on lately, but the level of the construction surrounding our every day life is kind of ridiculous…things here have been loud and messy. We decided to forgo the waiting period, jumping right into the work we wanted done. We won’t be saying “Oh we wish we would have done this sooner!!!”, not this time. No way.
So first up was some pre-planned brick work done as soon as possible.
We hosted a master brick crew for about a week of drilling, scraping, anchoring, and giant-ceiling-hole-cutting. The hole was just a bit bigger than we anticipated…
Shockingly, this giant hole wasn’t what bothered us the most. The brick work was enjoyable compared to the month-long gas line project we never knew would happen. Right in front of our house.
We knew there was trouble when we noticed the “pretty colors” painted all over the street. Good thing Finn is a flexible sleeper, because every day involves a different napping situation to avoid noise and vibrations coming from the drilling and digging going on 10 feet from our front door. Sometimes there are three dump trucks and two backhoes right outside the front windows. There have been times our whole house felt like it was moving! The already limited parking is shut down every day till 3:30, which scared us to death, but turned out to be not all that bad. I just cannot wait till its over!!
I’ve distracted myself from the construction (and daily news reports) by removing wallpaper and painting the kids room. They’ve chosen a space theme, it’s going to be great. I’ve got some artwork to hang and a few finishing touches before sharing more, but here’s a peek…
And this weekend we had the windows cleaned, something I was waiting to do until after the brick dust had settled and didn’t think would be a big deal, but it ended up taking two whole days. Our windows were SO dirty, the extremely patient and thorough gentleman with many years of window cleaning experience said he’d never seen such filth. Now that they are done, we have 10 times more sunshine lighting up our hous
e…best money we’ve spent so far. I walk around singing, “I can see clearly now…” all day.
PSA: Have your windows cleaned!!!!!
Final project of the month, the back fence. It was extremely flimsy when we moved in and managed to start falling down a couple weeks ago. The old brick wall running across the back of our yard made it tough for a normal human-size person to fit through the back gate, especially when carrying a bin of recycling, so we asked our brick guys to use their giant scary saw to cut it back a bit. More noise, more destruction, more mess. But progress. The new fence goes up this week and will be a drastic improvement.
It’s weird having all these non-diy-able things done around the house, maybe that’s why it was easy for me to get going on the kids’ penthouse suite so soon. I needed to get my hands on something!! Next on my list of things to do myself: the living room walls. They need some paint to make the pretty pretty molding pop.
Next huge mess? The third floor bathroom. It gets gutted next week and we can’t wait to see every inch of it go bye-bye. Yet another project that was hard to let go, but we decided it made sense to hire the whole thing out. Honestly, getting all the demo down the three flights of steps alone is almost worth the extra cost. I’m committing to shooting lots of gross befores (let I forget as usual) in all the leaky-moldy-nasty-grouty glory so the afters are even more fun.
Stu keeps saying things like, “Well at least the worst part is over!” but I know better. These bathroom remodels are going to be yucky. Wish us luck.
from → Craftiness, DIY Projects, Home
« Finn: Almost Three
Finn Turns 3!! »
Great work on progress! Looking forward to seeing your future home projects and its progress photos. Thanks for sharing!
Mandy Yanga permalink
Undeniably it’s a mess, inside and out whenever there’s a construction going on for the house. But the hassle cannot surely compare to the finish product! Surely it will look great!
Obserr permalink
It means so much to me you took the time to explain in detail what the article is about. Do you accept guest posting