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Saturday, September 6, 2014

Pre-baby update

September 6, 2014

During my last post, I mentioned a few goals that we had before baby #2, which is now T- 6.5 weeks or less.  Here is what we (mainly Alok) has accomplished this far:

Office/guest bed bath= complete! (Almost)

Before:

























Progress:












Alok put everything on the front porch. Very confusing to have a toilet on the front porch when we have a son we are potty training. Fortunately, we found a vets group in Quincy that took everything away within a few hours.









After:



Much nicer! The only thing left to do in this area is to complete the shower part. Gold door are gone, new doors and ready to be bought, but we are awaiting plumbing help for a new fixture to replace the old.


We also got Alok's office (aka the guest room) finished as well:

Before:






Progress:



















After:






Trim is complete, walls are painted a nice gray, everything else is out, and there is a bed!  Magic!


In other good news, Alok made a lot of progress on the yard. The 6 foot tall weeds are gone (you're welcome, neighbors) and although there is just a lot of mulch right now, it already looks better.


Before:



Progress:


Putting down paper/soil pre-mulch


Pre-mulch, post weed pulling


Filling the rocky area with mulch



Tired guy throwing mulch out of the back of the truck


Kieran checking out what daddy has been doing

After:



Mulch filled area

More yard pics later. He also mulched the entire sides of the yard, but I apparently failed to get pics thus far.


We also have been living without doors. We literally have doors on 2 bathrooms (1 other bath has a shower curtain and another has no door) and no doors on any bedrooms, etc.  Getting a few doors put in is another goal.

First, Alok completed this door:



Notice the lack of trim/gaps, etc before

Here it is after:



These two doors were also put in: 1 is the bathroom under the stairs (which has had a shower curtain only) and 1 is the nursery room room:






Notice anything missing?  I think we need some opaque class.

The fun part here is that none of the doors are labeled. These were obvious since they had glass.  They were all covered with multi-layers of paint, have been stripped, and now just need to find their rightful place and get hung. We also have to polish/clean up all of the hardware.  Step by step.

Alok had a little helper for part of it:








Kieran watching daddy cut off the bottom of the nursery door that he carried up, realized was too tall for the current floor level, carried down, cut, and carried back up/hung:





 Next up, Alok is working on the hall bath:

Before





Alok getting some help moving the claw foot tub, from both Eric and Oliver the cat.  This is now placed in the laundry room until he can tile the bathroom: 



Current progress:


New shower base laid. Now, just off to start tiling! 

So, in our goals to complete 3 baths and the laundry room pre-baby that were stated in July, we have 1 bath 99.9% complete (just requires shower doors and faucet), 1 more bath in progress, and may or may not get to our master.  I think we can give up the dream of the laundry room :-)

That's all for now.

Jessica

Friday, July 18, 2014

More to come....

As I mentioned before, people always wonder what happened to our blog.  Again, we haven't really do anything on the house. But with baby #2 coming in October, there is a push to get things done.  Those include:

Finishing 3 bathrooms. Yes, that is our goal.

They include this lovely gem in Alok's office:


















Plan for this bath: get new flooring, toilet, sink, shower doors, shower fixtures, trim, and paint. Shouldn't actually be too difficult (which means there will be some catastrophe).

This bathroom in the upstairs hall that is so jammed with stuff that I could barely open the door (and that's about the 2nd time I've opened that door in 1.5 years):


















Plan for this bath: We have ordered the shower doors and base. They will arrive in early August.  Alok will have to tile the wall, we need to tile the floor, re-do our existing claw foot tub, get a vanity, toilet, etc.


And our lovely master bath:



This one's a mess. We went to order the shower base and realized that when they did the shower walls, they didn't square them.  Hmmm...... Proper angles are kind of necessary for a shower. So, Alok get's to totally fix the shower walls.  After he does that we will order the base, he will need to tile the shower, and tile the floor/whirpool tub area.  We already have all the fixtures and vanities.


We also have a credit to purchase the cabinets for our laundry room.  This is just a matter of measuring, designing , and ordering:



Plan: White storage cabinets throughout, a sink to hand wash items,  and countertops.   


We also need to turn this lovely guest bedroom into a nursery again.  My goal is to actually have this one ready before the baby comes.  (I may have started sorting baby stuff already)


Plan: Move out the furniture, organize, and move in baby furniture.  


Tackling these 6 foot tall weeds.  It's never ending.  Our goal is to have the outside ready by the fall.  


Plan: Get the yard under control, finish the porch, plant some bushes, etc (low maintenance stuff)


Oh, we also still have no doors.  Some of those may be nice. They are stripped and need to be stained/sanded.  And matched to their existing opening since they aren't label. That should be fun.


We have lots of goals. Bets on what will happen?

More to come......

Jessica

Thursday, May 8, 2014

Historic Home Tour

May 8, 2014

So, whenever I see people who read this blog, they ask why I no longer post. Here is my answer: Whenever we accomplish something on the house, we post.  That should tell you how much we've done in the past 18 months since Kieran arrived.

Recently, we had some motivation because Alok signed us up to be on the Historic Home Tour. While it's for a great organization (Quincy Preserves), I was less than excited due to the condition of our house.  Not the fact that it wasn't done, but the fact that there was literally stuff everywhere.  People's suggestions: shove it in closets.  That's hard when you have no doors!  Literally, everything we owned that wasn't in our storage room in the basement would be viewable.  The prospect of 600 people walking through your house is enough to force motivation.



Prior to historic home tour, I took some pictures for a virtual tour for all of you. We hung pics to show the improvement in the house and I took pics of the pics too :-) Here it is (I've included the pics from the prior blog home tour we did before we moved in in January 2013):


 Outside of the House

The progress





The foyer

The progress






January 2013

May 2014


January 2013

May 2014



Front sitting room/front parlor
The progress






January 2013

May 2014

Dining Room

Progress





Front parlor

Progress




January 2013



May 2014

Apartment area/butlers pantry
January 2013

May 2014




Apartment bath

Progress




January 2013

May 2014



Apartment area

Progress




January 2013

February 2014

Apartment/foyer hallway



Progress




Butler's pantry

Progress



January 2013

May 2014


Apartment media area



Progress





January 2013

May 2014

Kitchen

Progress





January 2013

May 2014


Kitchen

Progress 


January 2013

May 2014


2nd floor hallway 




Progress



January 2013

May 2014


Under the stairs bath

January 2013

May 2014


Master bedroom

Progress
















May 2013


January 2013




May 2014


Master bath



Progress


January 2013

May 2014





Nursery




Progress








January 2013


May 2014



Upstairs back hallway

January 2013

May 2014


Laundry room

Progress






January 2014



May 2014



Attic


Progress



January 2013


January 2014



Spare bedroom



Progress







January 2013

May 2014


Attic bath



My office




Progress





January 2013

May 2014


For the tour, we also displayed some of the items that we found in the house. Here are the highlights:












So what's missing and what's next?

Alok's office/bathroom hasn't changed and the cats were secluded there for the tour so it wasn't pictured.  We also still have a hallway bath that wasn't pictured.  The next steps are: 1) Alok's office bath; 2) Our master bath; 3) Turning the spare bedroom into a nursery.

That's all for now!

Jessica