Another few weekends working on the house, some good times, some trying times, and of course pictures...

The new sconces above the kitchen sink.

The new ceiling fan in the living room.  Everything else in here including the paint is all done.  You can also see an old antique chaise lounge.  Our old neighbors gave us that and fixing it's the next project once we finish the house.

Finally we have a working sink!  The dishwasher's all hooked up too.  The only things left in the kitchen are the tile backsplash, crown molding and some touch-up painting.

Sarah finishing up the painting of the big kitchen window...

The TV niche is all done.  There's a lot going on in that little wall...plumbing, electrical, a conduit for TV cables...so nice to see it all done.

Just for fun we pushed the dresser in its final spot...and it just fits with about a half inch on each side.  

And this past weekend we tackled the decking for the downstairs deck...

And last but not least the bathroom is finally all closed in and primed.  Now it's time to install the shower, tile, and we'll almost be done with this place!

It's been a while since we've given an update, so here are some pictures of what we've been up to the last few weeks.

We worked on trimming out the columns...

...and here it is almost finished.

The decks have been recently removed.  New ledgers are going up which are now properly flashed and fastened to the house...definitely don't want these things coming down!

Not the best lighting, but here's a shot of the new sink and counter top.  If you want a farmhouse sink get the one from Ikea...it's nice looking and very cheap compared to the others out there.  It's a little tricky installing these though.  Most cabinet brands don't make a cabinet for these, so what we did is use an over-the-fridge cabinet on a 4" built-up base.  We then used filler panels to fill in the areas around the apron.  If it sounds like a lot of work it is, but in the end, like most things that are difficult, it's worth it.

You might notice we FINALLY have working downlights and wall outlets.  We found the perfect electrician so if anyone in the Richmond area is looking for one let us know.  Also many thanks to my sisters Mary and Berni & Mom for helping out with the painting...

...and to Dad for working out in the heat helping to fix the foundation wall.

And to make it feel like a finished space we installed our new (guess it's still new but it's been sitting in storage for 2 years) refrigerator!!  The end is finally near in these two rooms...we still need to finish up the pendant lights, under cabinet lighting, microwave install and crown molding above the cabinets.  Then it's onto the bathroom, but hey that's the last room so how hard can it be??

After a couple weekends we finally have some big milestones.  First off, we finished installing the hardwood floor in the living rooms and kitchen.  We saved quite a bit doing it ourselves, and other than a few mishaps here and there, it was pretty easy.  We also had some help from Sarah's parents and sister last weekend priming and installing trim in the living room.

The stained glass window has also been installed, something that we've both been waiting for some time now.  Every week that passes the house feels a little bit more, well, like an old house should.  When we moved in, the house was little more than a museum of bad design decisions from the 70's and 80's...a pandora's box of dark brown carpet, vinyl that smothered original ironwork underneath and fake wood vinyl flooring, all with a smell that would even drive away squatters.  So one of our main missions was to peel away these bad decisions and bring out the house's true character, all the while discreetly bring it into the 21st century.  We're getting closer to that goal...

Finally taking a break after finishing up the floor

I took this picture while working in the AC...I felt a little guilty, it being 105 degrees outside, but I'd rather be guilty than hot.  Many thanks to Sarah's sister Amy and mom Liz for helping.

Sarah helping her dad install baseboard.

...the stove fits!

...installing casing at the back kitchen door.

...getting the rough opening ready for the stained glass window.

...and it's finally in!.  There's still some clean up to do (the vertical lines are wood blocks holding the window stops as the glue sets) but overall it's looking great.

And this is what we meant about the house feeling like an old house should...something as simple as a stained glass window can completely change the feel of the house.

Sorry for the big delay in getting pictures up recently.  Things have been busy at work and we've had other commitments this spring besides the house...and even managed to fit in a beach vacation recently.  That being said, we have been working hard on the house, so here are the pictures to prove it.

Sarah nailing up some trim to cover the semi-ugly LVL beams and connectors.

The top of the beam along with the rest of the living room will get crown moulding at some point in the future.  Next we'll need to box out the columns.  In the background you can see the new hardwood flooring just waiting to be installed, but first we had to let it acclimate to the room's humidity for about a week.

The next step was to lay down 15# roofing felt.  This will help keep moisture from coming up through the subfloor into the hardwood.

...and here we go on the installation.  We're laying down 2 1/4" wide oak flooring.  We were going to go with an exotic wood at one point but A.) it's much more expensive and B.) we didn't like the idea of having a non-native wood in our old house.  So oak it is.

Here's my new toy; a pneumatic flooring nailer.  It's a Numax off of Amazon...only about $140 bucks and hasn't had a misfire yet.

By the end of the weekend we had about 75% of the living/kitchen area done.  We had a few mistakes to correct along the way, some minor, one major, but it should all be done fairly soon.

This weekend was trim weekend.  No explanation needed; here are the pictures:

It's been another busy couple of weekends.  We've been tearing out the bathroom downstairs which has turned into a bigger project than we imagined.  Whoever renovated it last didn't build the floor correctly, so rather than live with a trampoline-like floor in the new bathroom we decided to tear everything out.  Yes, the floor joists in the picture below are 2x4's!!

Once that was all torn out it was time to re-frame everything, this time with new 2x8's...

The area to the left will be where the new shower goes.  That part will be recessed so we can eliminate the curb.  We'll see how it goes, because A. I'm not a plumber and B. it's a different kind of drain, a linear trench drain which is harder to find info on.  

Here's the old plumbing....nothing's tied down and it's coming straight up through the floor, not out from the wall.  So, like everything else on this renovation the only solution is to tear it out and redo it.

The toilet plumbing was moved to the other side of the room to free up some space.  We have to squeeze out every bit of room we can get.

Since we had the bathroom floor out of the way we decided to clean out a bit down there before we put the vapor barrier down.  It seems like every time we go digging down below the house we find some interesting things.  A few weeks ago I found an 1865 Indian Head penny under the house, and this day, while digging out old bricks and clearing out some old wood we found a huge pile of old trash.  Most of it was broken glass and plates, but there were some cool finds too:
- an old French's mustard jar from early 1900's
- a couple old soda or beer bottles with the corks still intact
- a large Richmond Dairy milk bottle
- an old liquor bottle
- a bunch of small perfume or spice bottles
- an old wooden door knob
- an old key...who knows, maybe it fits the front door knob

...and then we found these...

...an old pair of leather kids shoes.  One pair looked like small boots, the other just regular shoes.  Now I've seen enough horror movies to know that it's always a little kid that haunts a house, so hopefully that's not the case here.

Here's a broken plate with a date of 1923.  Not sure what kind of plate it was but it has a small calendar of each month around the border.

Time to insulate...the new plumbing for the sink and toilet is in the background, and coming out from the wall like it's supposed to.

I can't find a picture of the bathroom from today but we put the floor down.  Next week we're planning on starting the shower build out.  Can't wait until this thing is DONE!