While working on Saturday we started to hear a marching band coming closer to the house. We had forgetten about the 125th anniversity of the borough we live in. Which is kind of funny considering our house is one of the first houses build in the borough. All the fire & rescue from the surrounding areas had a truck, car, motorcycle, or boat in the parade. So we took a quick break to see some of it (plus you can imagine it was quite load with all the sirens going off). It stopped raining a bit at that point which was good.

While the boys were putting up the last rafter I put up the last ceiling light & wired the rest of the plugs in the laundry room.

The boys taking a second to look over their work.

All the drywall got finshed up that day too.

Towards Front of the House

View to the back of the House

Today while Jeff was catching the Phillies/Orioles game, Gregg & I spackled the rest of the laundry room. S0 we now have a full first coat on the walls. Hopefully we can sand & get a second coat up before the weekend.

Towards Front of the House

View to the back of the House

During the work week each of us came home and worked a little bit. Some of use put up the last of our first batch of drywall, some did spackle, some finish running the electric cables to the amp box. It was just a little here & there but hopefully that will continue to get us closer & closer to being done by the 4th which is our personal goal right now.

Start of the spackle

More spackle this stuff is going to be everywhere

Day 3 (Sunday) & Day 4 (Monday)

These 2 days we seemed to make the best head way to our final goal. Jeff was gone most of Sunday babysitting but we actually finished the drain pipe which didn’t take as long as we thought. I think we spent more time getting the pipe to the the spot where it had to go though the basement steps then we did to actually connect the drain to the main pipe.

Day 3:

A little blue stuff

Drain Pipe under the floor though the rocks

Drain pipe by the Numbers

When Jeff did get back home he helped us put the air pipe up though the roof.

Day 4: While I was away at work Jeff & Gregg put up more rafters & some drywall.

Rafters

Drywall on part of the ceiling

Drywall behind the washer & dryer

Then I get home

To put up a few more lights

More Drywall by Jeff & Gregg

Day 1 (Friday) & 2 (Saturday) was spent getting water & making holes, putting pipes together under the floor. Gregg & Jeff started work on Friday & I chipped in starting on Saturday. We made a huge trip to Lowe’s on Saturday to get more pipe, flooring, & even a few pieces of drywall should we get that far.

Gregg in the hole with the pipe

Another Hole

How Many Holes can you Make in one floor?

Long Hole for the Drain Pipe to get closer to the Basement

Congrats to my friend who just got married June 6th! So while I was away the boys did a little work on the laundry room. They started the plumbing for the washer & sink. We still need to put in the drain pipe & a vent to the roof.

Pumbing

Some of the blue stuff, plus a sink hook up

Gregg even got the dryer vent cut.

Dryer hole

Dryer Vent

This hose hook up will be nice since right now we only have one that is up in the front of the house on the side. They would have had the pipes running to the washer hook up but they didn’t get enough easy connectors. Another trip to Lowe’s, where does all my money go?

Washer Hook ups

Hose Hook up for outside

For the last couple of days instead of working on our house we have been helping Gregg’s parents with their beach house. Their shed doors needed to be mostly replaced & they thought their skylight was leaking. Gregg also helpes his dad clean out the gutters which were pretty nasty.

Today we should be able to put up insulation in the closet in the Laundry room plus we picked up three pieces of dry wall Gregg’s Sister had left over from their basement redo. So if we can do that we are moving along quite nicely & maybe this year I will get my Laundry room so that more of my kitchen will also get a redo & be closer to all the decking I want in the back of the house.

Update: We were in fact successful.

What a little Drywall can do

If you notice the insulation isn’t the standard pink this stuff is DOW SafeTouch & it’s blue. It’s no itch, which I personally love. It’s only maybe a dollar more but if your like me & can’t stand the itch from the fiberglass insulation this is what you should pick up. We picked it up at Lowe’s.

Since it was a small space after helping cut the insulation I went outside & started trimming some of the trees in the backyard. They thought I did too much but I don’t think these trees have ever been trimmed before I started when we moved in. But then they started calling me a tree killer.

It looks kind of bad but trust me I shouldn’t have to touch these trees for a few years & that makes me happy plus it will make the truck easier to get in & around. Plus I trimmed the tree out front so it will be easier to get the tractor in & around to cut the grass with out having to bend over while mowing.

Forgot to mention that we are going to try to grow a few veggie plants in the back. I hope to get a few tomatos anything else will be gravy. There is a green pepper plant & a strawberry plant.

This was going to be a working weekend so we made a to do list knowing we wouldn’t be able to finish but really hoped we could do most of it. And I have to say we came close to finishing it.

To do List

It doesn’t look like much but we put a lot of this up in the mudd room plus the wiring

Gregg & Jeff finally got the rest of the ceiling done plus put up a couple of lights. That part of the house hasn’t seen that much light since we took off the side of the house years ago.

Even got a couple of extras done too. Gregg’s Mother gave us the cow bell. And the coat hook were used in an old apartment to hang fireplace tools.

Cow Bell

Coat Hooks

I have hated this one bush in my backyard since I saw our house but no one else really thought anything about it even if I mentioned it a few thousand times that it had to go.

The Bush’s Death	It’s final resting place is going to be under a car
Kind of like this

So hopefully some time in June we will get some more stone & the third spot will be Jeff’s (Gregg’s Brother) regular spot while he stays with us. The truck will live where it used to beside the creek.

On another note, since Gregg had me get some nylon to pull the bush out. He used the rest of it to make a swing for his niece & nephews.

Gregg putting up the swing

Swing Baby, Swing

Happy Belated Easter to Everyone!

Since Gregg had Good Friday he decided to take a few more days off to get somethings done around the house. Especially with family coming over on Sunday. His brother Jeff is now living with us because he lost his job. So today when I came home from work I actually came home to some work being done to the Mudd room.

They finally started putting in the drop down ceiling so we can run things up there instead of trying to dig up the floor.

I was told when I got home that I can’t have a bathroom but they started building a closet instead.

Here are the pics I said I would post last night…
They aren’t the best but at least you can see how we spread the stone around. And see that we can now park there again rather than getting stuck in the mud.