Getting my living room back in order today. One of the things I had to do was re-hang the blinds. The original blinds came with phillips head screws. I remember hanging them originally and having issues stripping the heads. Getting them out wasn't easy. I'm rambling here but my point is I got square drive head screws to replace the old ones. They are awesome. I'll never go back to phillips again.

You did a good thing paying abit more after getting an efficient, perfect job.

Put window sills in all the big room windows. Haven't been any in 10 years.

Stained and installed the last of the lattice work for the deck. The deck is now officially complete. Woohoo!

Do you have a "before" picture for the window sills?

It's looking really good Bigger!

Thanks!

Started on the living room/kitchen door trim and baseboard. Lacked a lot of WIM today. I probably did an hours worth of work in 5 hours. The front door and back french doors are going to be challenging. The edge of the door frame doesn't line up with the sheetrock. I'm heading to lowe's to see if there is some sort of special trim or maybe shim trim that might work. I'll post some pics later.

Continued with trim and baseboard. I'm in the process of turning a 1 day job into a 3 day job.

I had just finished up for the day and I got a phone call from someone at work. As soon as I saw the name, it hit me. I was supposed to go into work yesterday. Yikes! Completely forgot about it in the middle of trying to get all this trim work done. Anyways, went in this evening and have to go in tomorrow (was going to take the day off). aye aye aye

Finished the trim and baseboard today! I spent a ton of time on the front door. Down below is a pic of the back doors where I had to put a piece of 1/2 inch "shim" along the door frame because the door wasn't mounted correctly. Yeah, by me. The back was at least the same all around the frame. The front wasn't at all. I went from 1/2 inch in some places to none in others. I ended up getting a piece of trim and shaving it down where I needed it with my planer. ugh. But I think once I caulk it, it will be fine. I had a helluva time with the trim. Nails kept shooting into the door without me realizing it and when I opened the door to check everything, it ripped the trim right off. The whole thing was a major pain.

Anyways. I'm done with the trim. I put down paper in preparation for painting. Hopefully the cats won't tear it all up. Tomorrow I'll caulk. This will be an all day job. Lots and lots to caulk. The house is so uneven everywhere that the trim just won't go together properly. My plan was to have it all done and painted this weekend but there's no chance of that happening now.

Got everything caulked. Gonna wait a day or so to let it dry. I gave the doors a first coat of paint. I think I can drag this 3 day job out for a couple of weeks.

In other news - got the porch plans from the engineer. I still need to put the porch on my house drawings. They require this stuff in some stupidly large size like 11 x 18 or something that my printer can't handle so I have to go to a printer. I probably won't get all this done until next week.

So, does that mean all you need to do is lodge the documents with the bureaucrats?

Well, after spending probably a couple of days getting things just so. But, yeah - I think.

Put a second coat of paint on the doors. All that is left is trim and baseboard.

I've been debating what to do next. Obviously the front porch is at the top of the list but after that I'm starting to lean towards getting my koi pond built. My koi have been in a stock tank in the garage for over a year.

My thinking on this is I'm just ready to do something that will bring me a little more happiness when I'm done. Although it's nice to get trim and all in, to me that's just doing what should already have been done. It isn't a nice to have. The koi pond will be more rewarding. But, it's a huge job and tackling that means the bathroom and back bedrooms don't get done as fast.

I dunno.

Put first coat on baseboard/door trim.

It's apparent to me that if I just work weekends this will take years. So, I'm going to try to do the interior work on weeknights after regular work. ugh.

Just do not do too much - that you begin to hate it.

Life is for the living BB - all work and no play...

Too late.

But yeah, I hear you. Last night it caught up with me. I was exhausted and slept 10 hours - something I rarely am able to do.

So today I decided to try to get all the paperwork together for the city.

When I reviewed the engineering plans I couldn't see any mention of the steps. The plans are quite extensive but they are almost in a different language. I'm having a really difficult time trying to decipher them. I sent an email to make sure the steps were covered.

Then I started reading the document the city sent me. I still have no idea what they want. For instance, this sentence "label any additional reviewer-specific paperwork accordingly". I have no idea what they mean. There's a lot of this sort of vague language that I don't understand.

The other thing they say is to provide 2 sets of full sized drawings and 1 set of reduced sized drawings (to a specific scale). The drawings the engineer gave me were 8 1/2 x 11 but he assured me this was sufficient.

Google sketchup is a really cool tool at making the drawings but getting them to print properly is pretty difficult. Everything I've read supports this. My problem is trying to get them to print on 11x17. My printer won't print these big pages so I have to take the drawing to a printer. But, if it doesn't print right, back to the house to adjust, rinse, and repeat. Not looking forward to it.

Anyways, I shot off a lot of questions to Michael and Renee about exactly what I'm supposed to give them.

Well, I'm pretty much done with the living room/kitchen/hallway. I still have some little projects I want to do but the trim and baseboard is finished. It looks really good. I don't think the pics do it justice.

I thought I had some better before pics but I can't find them. I tried to put a before/after pic but I guess I didn't take that many befores.

One thing that just doesn't come out right is the kitchen cabinets. They are a really blonde maple. They are really nice but they come out a lot darker in the pictures.

Anyways, I'm feeling pretty good today about getting this done.

Front door before



Front door after



Ceiling damage before



Ceiling damage after



Sheetrock above door before



Sheetrock above door after



French doors after



dining area after



hallway after

I'm starting to do a little planning for the pond and the back yard.

Here is what I'm working with. Yeah, it's a big mess. That hole in the ground is where my pond used to be.

Outstanding!


So what are your plans for the backyard ex pond?

Thanks!

I plan to put a perimeter of stone walkway (concreted in) around the pond to keep a sort of neat look to it and make it easier to remove debris/leaves. Fairly wide so you can walk around it easily.

Then various planters around the walkway. Outside of that I'll probably stick with crushed granite walkways.

I still have a lot of yard behind and on the other side of the garage. I'm not sure what I'll do with that but I'm in no hurry. I rarely ever see it. I'm sort of shooting for a relaxing nice area on/near my deck that is visually appealing. Also, the pond really cools the area down in the summer.

So you had to fill- in the pond, to rebuild it properly?

No, that's the original hole. It may not look like it, but it is close to 3 ft. at it's deepest.

aaahhhhhh k