Mud, Sand, Repeat

During Charlotte's naps, Alyssa has been working on the new drywall at the top of the stairs.  The main thing left to do is work on smoothing out t he wall where the old wall with the door was.  Tonight, Colin chipped away at the left of the two ridges.

The other area of work is the old doorway at the other end of the hall.  There are some big holes on the hallway side that need filling (that you can't really see in the picture).

Stairway Ceiling

This weekend, Colin started to install the stairway ceiling.  We used the same material as in Alistair's room.  The different sloped sections make it a bit tricky to cut the wood.  The new ceiling looks great, and we are glad that we don't have to look at the ugly plywood anymore

Shedding Snow

The new standing seam roof is doing it's job of shedding show.  The gable above the side stairs keeps the snow and dripping water off the stairs.  It also made an interesting snow curl, which Colin knocked off to Alistair's delight.

Reassembling the Hallway Upstairs

Today Colin continued working on the hallway upstairs.  This weekend we started taping and mudding the drywall we hung last weekend, and we are getting the top of the stairs ready to nail in the wood ceiling.  It dawned on us that we have not had a proper ceiling at the top of the stairs in about five years or more.  We took down the horrible ceiling tiles and then realized that the roof was leaking, so we decided to wait until we replaced the roof.  That took a while.

Colin also finished demolishing the old archway that was between the hall and what we are now calling The Blue Room, since we are thinking of painting it Benjamin Moore Mill Springs Blue. 

 All of this demolition has left us with a lot of plaster and lathe and garbage.

Little Helper

When Alistair heard that Colin was going to hand drywall today, Alistair wanted to help.  We're not sure he knew what drywall was, but he was more enthusiastic than Colin was to hang the drywall.  We were on the phone with Grandad when Colin needed help with the first sheet.  (Lucky Grandad was able to hear the whole thing.)  Alyssa screwed in the first couple of screws, and then Alistair wanted to help.  He put the screws on the magnetic tip of the screwdriver and wanted to help Colin drive them in.

Later in the afternoon, Alyssa sneaked up to help Colin with the sheet at the top of the stairs.  (We have been looking at that exposed lathe for literally several years.  After we tore down the ceilling, we realized we had a leak in the roof, so there was no point putting up new drywall that was going to get wet.  It is good to see it finally covered up.)  After Colin drove in the first coupld of screws, we here this little "I want to help," as Alistair climbed the stairs.  He passed Colin screws.

While Colin was working hard hanging drywall, Alyssa and Alistair were decorating Valentine's Day cookies (see our other blog).  As it was getting dark, Alyssa and Alistair went upstair to let Colin know there was extra frosting that would be a yummy dip for pretzel rods.  Alistair wanted to help again.  As we tried to get him back downstairs, he replied, "I'm busy now.  I'm cleaning up this big mess you made."

Wallpaper

We have found some interesting (and sometimes very ugly) wallpaper in this house over the years, but this is probably the oldest.  We found this wallpaper directly on the original plaster on the wall outside the front upstairs bedroom. It was well protected under a stud for many, many years. The wallpaper has vignettes of buildings or other outdoor scenes.  It is similar to the paper we found at the top of the stairs, which also had vignettes of steam trains and outdoor scenes.  The background to that paper was gold and the colors more bold.  We often think about what this house was like when it was first built in 1864.  Maybe this wallpaper is a clue. 

Goodbye Door

Colin attacked the door at the top of the stairs.  When we first bought the house, this door was painted a light purple.  The door was the interior door for the upstairs apartment, so we don't need it anymore.  We couldn't believe how wide and open the top of the stairs is without the door.  We haven't figured out what exactly what to do with the transition, but like everything else, we will.

Plumbing Finished

Shawn came today to finish the plumbing for the new bathroom.  He connected the new pipes (the vertical ones in the photo) to the rest of the plumbing.  He also finished installing the new Grohe valves.  We're ready for cement board.

Project Handover

Except for the final plumbing hook ups the plumber is supposed to finish tomorrow, the scope of work that Chris was doing upstairs is complete.  The mudding is done.  They are handing the project over to us. 

We have a lot of work to do.

Exterior View of Upstairs Construction

We haven't posted an exterior picture of our new upstairs windows, so here it it.  To be honest, we haven't really had a chance to look at the exterior.  The two pieces of siding below the middle window are from the old dryer vent.