Minor Flaw

The light for the Pantry is a little small for the space so we added a celing medallion to make it seem larger. And we like medallions; at our last house every bedroom and the entry had medallions.

 After painting it the same white as the light it was time to go up.

Oops, either the medallion is not perfectly level or the ceiling is not perfectly flat. I am sure it is the medallion our construction would never not be right.   You can see a shadow on the right that shows the little bit of a gap. No one else would probably ever see the gap but we would know it was there. Bill can fix anything that isn't perfect.

Here he used the ladder and a bar that ratchets to the length you need and scrap lumber. He put the adhesive on the medallion and this provided the pressure needed to hold it flat to the ceiling until it cured. The bar is one I got him for Christmas several years ago to hold things in place in the bed of his pick up. I don't think he has ever used it for that purpose but he finds all kinds of other uses for it.

Better Than TV

Who needs a television to watch. Our grandkids get to come to our house and watch a concrete mixer go round and round. It's pretty sad that we all get really excited getting to things like this.

The best part was when it was poured out; it looked and sounded like body waste falling into the wheelbarrow. How much fun is that for 9 and 7 year old boys.

Another Step Done

The walls are looking more and more finished. Bill went home and sprayed 5 and a half gallons of primer on the walls we textured. Ran out with about 10 feet left to do in the West Wing hallway.

 Next coat in the Pantry will be the yellow. Can't wait to see how this room turns out. I think I am more excited about it than any other room in the house.

The back hallway won't get any more paint until we have built out the rest of the house. I don't know what color we'll be using and there is no reason to waste paint or time since we would be redoing it. Bill added color to the primer so it is a nice soft brown color. He went to our store of left over paint cans and started throwing color in. He did a very good job.

Painting the ceiling medallion to go on the Pantry ceiling. The light fixture we are using is a little small for the room so we are adding the medallion to boost it.

Neccessity is the Mother of Invention

When you are texturing your ceilings the mud goes everywhere. It covers everything within it's reach; including your lights. We wanted to have the lights on but didn't want the hot bulbs to get covered with the cool mud. My husband is always thinking outside the box. He is the one you want to be with if there is a Zombie Apocalypse, he will save everyone with just a ball of twine and some duct tape.

He created this nifty little tool with stuff literally out of the trash.

A piece of scrap OSB, a foam cup, and painters tape.

It covers the light bulb for the short time the hopper is spraying mud where the bulb is. Ingenious!

Still Leveling

The concrete guys worked on getting the garage floor to level out the elevation difference between the two buildings. You can only do so much before it is evident that there is something strange.

With the walls up in the living space that was built in the garage we can fool everyone into believing the floors are level.

First order of business is buying a concrete mixer. We have always wanted one. Well, I have always wanted one. Bill lays the concrete while I am the one who always got the privilege of using a wheelbarrow and hoe to mix the concrete. Now we have the tool to do it for us. We will be using this baby a lot as we progress. We will need to cut out the Residence floor to lay additional sewer and water lines. After installing the new lines we will need to put concrete back in where we just took it out.

Bill poured  the hallway floor first. The floor is now level with the Residence floor and you can't tell that is is higher than the garage floor because there is a doorway between the two floors. It is so funny after living for a year with the difference in elevation we find ourselves almost tripping on the level floor. Our muscles have memorized that you have a 2 inch step down or step up and our minds and legs still try to do the memorized movement.

 

He poured the concrete in the Pantry along the side one day and finished it the next. He needed to be able to get in with his leveling boards to be sure everything was how it should be.

The Cleaning Closet floor is not leveled as of now because we suspect there may be some water seeping in from somewhere and we don't want to hide a problem before correcting it.

How Much Mud Does a Mudder Mud

The last six weeks we have been taping and mudding the garage wall, back hallway, West Wing hall, Pantry and Cleaning Closet. Yesterday we textured the walls.

The walls have received 4 coats of mud. Each coat goes wider that the previous one to smooth out the joints. After each coat has dried you sand the mud. The first coats you sand to get the chunks off. The last coat you sand it all smooth then wipe the walls down with a damp sponge to get all the sanding dust off. Then you are ready to start texturing.

 Garage wall

Pantry walls

Next step is to mix the mud and add water to make it the consistency of pancake batter. You use a drill with a paddle on the end of it to mix it up.

 All Bill's building drawings are about to be covered up. No building plans mean you just draw what you are going to build next on the wall.

 We are starting the texturing in the coat closet so we can decide exactly what style of texture we want. The beauty of texturing is that after you have put it on you can scrape it off, if it hasn't dried yet, and start over if you don't like it.

 Bill has to be a pretzel to get the ceiling of the small closet sprayed.

The part you put the mud in is called the hopper and it sprays our through a  nozzle. It is powered by the air compressor. This gets the texture on the wall without having to do it all with your arm muscles.

 After spraying we decided we (me) wanted the texture smooshed down and swooped. I use very technical terms. The amazing part is that when I say these words Bill knows exactly what it is I am expressing.  After 39 years of marriage he really does understand me.

 This is what the texture looks like before the smooshing and swooping.

 Going high in the pantry. This is extra storage for who knows what above the coat closet. We didn't know the Pantry walls would be 10 feet until the framers were finished. You can never have enough places to stick stuff.

 These are all the boxes of mud we have gone through in the last month and a half. That's 12 boxes of mud going up on the walls.

 

 It's amazing with just the texture on the walls they start looking finished. You don't see the drywall joints and everything is almost the same color. Now on to laying the tile floor, putting up the shelf supports, painting the walls, installing the shelves and the cabinets, and putting up the light. Then we will be ready to move in the freezer, stock the shelves and unpack almost all the kitchen boxes.

Out With the Old

Out with the old and in with the even older.

The previous owner had a hanging table in the kitchen. It was cute, but not easy to live with. The height was wrong even for bar stools and it wibble wobbled every time you got up and down from the table because it was not supported on the bottom.. At first we thought he must have had poker parties but the middle pole was in the way of dealing cards. Cool to look at; but it needs to go.

Bill is in the attic unscrewing the iron posts hanging down. They are covered with brass piping to look pretty. No idea how heavy these are going to be. Don't let them fall to the floor. There is a mark already where the previous owner obviously dropped  one when constructing this thing.












Mallory is protecting me from falling pipes.The girls were told to get out from under the table because we didn't know if it would fall and Mallory came over, wrapped her arms around me and said, "I protect you Neena,"  Brynlee thinks it's great fun having Neena on the floor with her.

Sutton is waiting to jump into action to give me whatever is needed hold this thing up.

  

  

One down, two more to go. The high chair has been brought in to work; pillows on top of its arms to make it high enough to hold the tabletop level. We have discovered this whole thing is super heavy.


So glad we have superman as our grandson. Wyatt does a man's work when it comes to anything needing muscles.

 

It was a puzzle to take the pipes off the table. You have the iron pipe that goes through the table top and then the brass pipes that fit over the iron. The table has to be kept perfectly level or the pipes won't slip through. You can't just pull the brass off, they are taller than the ceiling height when you have to pull them off the iron ones. We had to lay the table on its side and roll it to places that had no walls to have the length we needed to get everything off.

Oh look, we have more holes in the ceiling now. We will just stuff insulation into them until we have time to do a drywall patch. One more step to making this place dust free.

 We are saving the table set up and it will ultimately go out by the pool. It will be a cool pool/bar table.

These are the two sets of pipes. They are just over 8 feet long which is why we had to be creative to get them off the table.

Look at all this space. You see the high chair and bar stools piled with pillows to help keep everything up and level.





We have this old table and chairs that we will use for awhile. This table was bought more than 23 years ago. We've used it, friends, family, and the rock yard have used it. The new house will need a table that is too big for this space. This table has a leaf to add to it when needed and lots of chairs in my chair closet.

We will probably paint the table legs to up date it a bit. And put a table cloth over the top to hide the scratches. No more worry about grand kids falling off bar stools or pulling the table down getting up and down from the stools.
This high chair was used by our girls.