Slowly scrapping away..... Countdown to Baby 2012, B-50!!

October 3, 2012

After a brief break from the house due to a baby shower in Chicago, we are back to work! (and by "we," I really mean Alok). 

He has literally been standing on this crazy contraption very, very slowly scrapping the side of the house.  Fun times. Here is his progress: 

You can see the progress on the lower left of the tan area

In a bit more exciting news, work is being done to prep the inside of the house for the new floors. We purchased unfinished oak for the apartment area and finished oak for Alok's office from Bayview Building Supply.  So, Alok will have to refinish the floor in the apartment area, creating the last major bit of dust, but it saved us as lot of money.  The floors should be delivered tomorrow.

In preparation there was cement laid and the apartment area was cleaned.  Here it is:

Cement around the fireplace.  Tile will be laid here eventually. There is still a hole into the basement, so I'm not sure how that works.  

The window trim is also up in this area, which is exciting.  We are now just missing rosettes, hopefully to be purchased tomorrow, along with the floor trim for the nursery and master bedroom (and maybe my office).  

Here is the trim (and the window sills Alok crafted):

The apartment area has also been cleaned in preparation for the floors:

We also received an exciting delivery of a crib.  Woo hoo:

So, it's still in a box.

So, as of today we still have 23 items on our prior list.  Since I'm having nightmares about having the baby early and/or having him without the house being liveable, I am cutting down the list :-)  

Here are the items that were complete:

1) The trim was added. We will add rosettes/ floor boards as time allows (those are really quick)

--> DONE

2) The sink wasn't repaired, but it was taken off the wall to repair (as seen in the last blog). We just need to make that area a bit safer.  Here is the prior picture:  --> DONE

3) Hang trim in our bedroom.... as well as the other rooms upstairs (at least the bedroom and nursery before we move in) --> DONE

The floor boards can wait

4) Nursery trim is complete.... just floor boards are needed (not in this pic) --> DONE

5)   Make/paint window sills for all windows in order to seal them.--> DONE for all windows that this was planned for

 

Here are the items that remain:

I cut it down to 11. 

1) Get as much done on the outside siding as possible 

 Work on the outside will continue until the paper is born and will stop then.  Not such a big issue, except that Alok has to scrape the tan that still exists on the west side and front.  

2) Lay the floor in the apartment..... being done this week!

3) Make this safe

4) Make the other areas pet safe (e.g., covering hazards, cutting nails that are poking out, etc).

 

 Either fix or at least put up a door so the pets can't escape in this unfinished area under the stairs

The lack of pocket doors are a perfect place for dust/pets to hide

Attic stair top needs to be capped so that a pet doesn't get injured jumping on it

 

 

An escape hole for the cats into the wall

 

5) Fix the stairs. We will paint them right before we move in. 

 

 

6)  Hang the stained glass window here.  We have a quote for the glass/installation and can get it done soon.  Alok has to build some sort of crazy vented frame first. 

 

 

7) Hang doors in the dusty/unsafe area.  They are being stripped as we speak:

We aren't finishing the hallway bath either, but we are hanging a door.

Hang a door on our new furnace room

8)  Lay a new floor in Alok's office area.  It has been ordered and will be delivered/installed this week or next.

 

9)  Repair the drywall in Alok's office area.  It's too dusty to do it later.  This is in progress

10) Hang closet bars in these two small closets. The rest will have to wait.

They are bought and should only take a few minutes to do. Unfortunately, I don't have the leveling ability to do it.  This will be our closets until we do our master closet later.

11) Make the attic stairs more solid, carpet them, and put up a railing. We will do the carpet right before we move in.  

 12) New basement outside door/windows.

We will do what we have to for safety purposes prior to move in.

Here are the items that I am cutting for now and putting at lower priority: 

 

1)

Hang up the butler's pantry doors after stripping the paint off the hinges

 

2)

Get a door for this bathroom..... Ah! Who needs doors ;-)

 

3)  Cover up the window wells. They will have the original trim refinished eventually, but for now, there are just exposed dusty weights--> I will actually put this at low/high priority to be done ASAP after the other items are complete.

 

4)  We are not finishing the bathroom, but should hang a door in order to keep the dust out/pets out of this area (this is our master bath)

Ah, who needs doors!  OK, this is a high priority after everything else.

5) Repair the hole in the master bedroom chimney

This probably really should be complete before we move in, but hey.

6)  Rip out these old electrical heaters in Alok's office..... This can wait but I would think this may be part of the floor installation

7)  Repair the chimney hole in the yellow bedroom, ah, it can wait

8) Cut a door for the attic bath, or we can just use a shower curtain for now ;-)

9) Fix the plumbing in the sink.  It drives me nuts, but isn't critical (the garbage disposal is on the wrong side).  The plumber is called, but it may take awhile to get us in. 

We are obviously not going to make our target move in date of next weekend.  We are still hoping that the house will win in the house vs. baby race.  Anyone want to help make it happen?  We will be at the house Saturday until about 4pm, Sunday at probably 10am-?, and all weekend the following weekend. 

We would owe you.....

That's all for now:

Jessica