House Interior, Fall 2013

We have not been working on the house, and will not get back to it until early next year, but these pictures of what the house currently looks like.

Below, a picture of the stairs from the front door. There isn't much of an entry - it's almost immediately stairs. There is no railing, and the walls have not yet been trimmed out. The stairs are just the plywood base, no treads and risers yet. The windows and doors are not trimmed out yet, either.

Stair entry. The kitchen is at the top of the stairs.

Time Out: Bathroom Remodel

We started this year doing a complete remodel of a bathroom at Stephen's uncle's house. And I mean COMPLETE. Not only were the walls taken back to the studs, but damage to the floors required that Stephen replace part of the subfloor, and discoveries about the old plumbing required him to replace all of the existing plumbing in the room. He also had to make some changes to the electrical. However, all of the fixtures went into roughly the same places they came out of. The toilet was the only part of the original room that was saved.

This picture shows the new wall and ceiling finish, the new light fixture, the window and the tile work.

Time Out: Kitchen Remodel

We've been taking the year off to do a remodel, and here are some pictures of the kitchen, which we just finished. It isn't officially part of the Owner Built project, but at least it shows what we've done with our time. Stephen moved a door frame and I assembled the cabinets before we started the remodel, which started with a complete tear-out of the existing kitchen on a Saturday, and the work was done the next Saturday, except the floor, which I did during the next week while the owners were at work during the day. Stephen took a week off from work to do the project.

Awesome Tools for the Ladies

I do not have a long history with tools, and largely find power tools to be a little frightening after some experience with table saw kickbacks and arc welding fiascos. That being said, I have a number of tools that I find particularly easy to use, and not at all frightening. They are:

November 20th, 2012

Stephen got in the stove on Thursday. One of the ovens needs a screw to shut all of the way, but otherwise, it's awesome. Everything works. Notice in the photo that I put the microwave under the washtub - I've had enough microwave for a long, long time.

3rd Week November, Wood Stove

I tiled the stove pad over vacation before we put in the wood floor. Then Stephen made some trim for around the tile a couple of weeks later. I cut the trim with the miter saw and installed it, then taped it up and grouted the marble tiles. Why doesn't a miter saw ever cut angles precisely? After I took off the tape and sanded, I carefully stained and polyurethaned the trim with a little brush.  Then I sealed the tiles and we moved the stove onto the pad. We had the stove pipe professionally installed last Thursday, and we used it on Tuesday.

3rd Week November, Kitchen

Sink wall, before

I thought I was going to get better about posting when we got back, but I haven't gotten back into the habit yet.