Walk this way...

Onto our brand new steps. The makeshift steps are out and we're back to a nice walk up to our front door.

Another project finished

We finished the exterior painting today. Both the back and side walls were finished. We kept the chimney unpainted. You can't see it all that much from the street plus it's huge and would have required a lot of effort to paint. But we think it looks good unpainted. Pretty productive weekend for us - windows all replaced, painting finished, and the old hvac ducts were capped off. Plus Kristin mowed the lawn and we stocked up at Home Depot for the next few weeks worth of projects. Up next are running the new hvac ducts and getting some of the electrical roughed in.

A new skill

We've been thinking about whether to sub out the HVAC rough-in or just do it ourselves and yesterday we made a partial decision when we got tired of waiting for people to get back to us with quotes.  We started taking out some of the extra returns and supplies that went to the second floor and the old kitchen and dining room.  We sealed off a couple of the vents and bought our new materials so we'll run the new ducts for the first floor over the next few weeks.  We may still sub out the second floor installation at some point but the first floor, at least, will be all our own work!

Windows are done man

We finally finished all the replacement windows. We did the last two today. All that's left is to paint the trim. Still a ton more to do, but at least we have most of the 3 day weekend left. We're hoping to get some of the hvac and electrical rough in started as well as the exterior painting finished.

Porch progress

More progress on the front porch today. The decking was mostly finished yesterday and they're making short work of wrapping everything in the pvc material. And the best news is we finally got our AC unit hooked back up so we're not roasting in the house anymore.

Siding finished

The crew finished up the siding and they're currently installing the porch decking. The porch trim will be finished up by the weekend and the outside of our house will be pretty much finished!

Painting Day

We tackled painting today and tried out our new paint sprayer on the side wall.  It took a bit of time to prep the wall and tape up the band board and windows (or window, since three of the four on that wall still need to be replaced and so could be painted over) but using the sprayer made painting much faster than just using the rollers.  We still did one quick coat with the rollers to even out the paint but all in all, using the sprayer was a big improvement over painting it all by hand. Also, I managed to not fall off anything today so I'll consider that an improvement over yesterday!  But you might notice that Brian is the only one on the ladder...

A new view

We replaced the big front window today. Big thanks to Dan who was our guest DIY'er for the heavy lifting. The old windows barely opened and were very drafty. Plus we found a huge ant colony making a home inside the trim and brick. Some Raid took care of them and we demolished their little home so they won't come back. That should take care of the ant problem we had in the kitchen last summer. There are only two more old windows to replace so we'll probably tackle that next weekend.

We're hoping to get some more painting in tomorrow if the weather is nice. Once painting is done we can start adding the trim to the replacement windows which should tie them in to the new ones nicely.

Kristin fell and bruised her leg... it is unclear why she decided to walk down the makeshift front steps on the side that isn't attached to anything. She's considering suing the installer (me), but honestly I don't think she has a case. I mean, the steps are clearly makeshift.

Zoning Update

Our wall check plat was accepted by the Arlington Country zoning office yesterday so we are OK to continue work. Oscar can call for the framing inspection and then finish up all his work. Hopefully we'll soon have our porch and siding completed.

Holding Pattern

We're in another holding pattern this week. We're waiting on approval of our wall check plat from the zoning office before Oscar can call for a framing inspection. Hopefully we'll get that in the next day or two and then Oscar can finish up the porch and the siding.

Not sure what the weekend will hold for us yet, but most likely replacing the large front window and knocking out some more of the exterior painting.

Framing finished

The crew finished up all the framing inside. We now have a half bath and pantry framed out where the old kitchen was. We're still waiting on our wall check survey before we can get the framing inspection. Once that's cleared Oscar can finish up the porch and he's done. We'll take over the project and start all our rough ins.

Kitchen demo complete

The crew finished the old kitchen demo today. We're going to put a half bath here along with a small pantry. You can see how the area leading in from the living room opens up nicely to the dining room (to the right) and kitchen (to the left). Both french doors open up to the outside so they don't impede on either space.

Check out the wiring that was buried in the wall... yikes!

Kitchen shuffle

We removed the remaining half of the kitchen to a temporary spot. The old kitchen gets totally demo'd tomorrow and a half bath gets framed in its place. We'll leave the gas hookup for our stove so we don't have go without one for a few months. The next few weekends of work for us will be painting the exterior of the house and finishing up the remaining replacement windows.

We have most of the material for the electrical and plumbing rough in. For plumbing we're using a home run pex manifold system. It's very efficient and relatively easy to install. Pex is flexible tubing that has special crimp connections. More on that in a few weeks when we start rough in.

Tear down this wall

Not quite the same effect as in 1987, but dramatic none the less. No more temporary wall separating the construction zone and the living zone. It's now all construction zone. Yay? You can see our teeny tiny half kitchen we've been dealing with the last few months. We're going to move it out of the way so the crew can finish framing this area.

We now have that open kitchen and dining room we always wanted. Well, minus a sink, floors, walls, electricity, a/c.... but it is open and quite airy.

Beam finished

The crew finished the beam that holds up our master bedroom over the new kitchen. Other than that we're in a bit of a holding pattern. We needed to order a few more pieces to finish the siding so that should finish up by the end of the week. At some point soon we'll have to take our the old kitchen so they can finish framing the downstairs. We're going to try to finish the painting and then move onto the patio so the outside will be pretty much complete in a month or two.

Exterior painting

We painted the front of the house since it was raining and that's the only part covered. So far so good. The paint is covering well and it matches exactly. Now the house is really looking different!