Now you see it, now you don't -- part 2

Now you see it, now you don't -- part 2

May 17th  -- Back by popular demand...

Now you see it,

Now you don't,

The pile of planter's mix soil is now officially in the raised beds, and all that remains by the back of the garage door is some mulch, which will be relocated after I get around to planting some shrubs.

Here are the raised beds, waiting for me to plant them!

:

In the mean time, I did get around to planting two blueberry bushes today

Tomorrow morning a new finish carpenter will come to work on replacing the shattered library door and if begin to work on setting the plumbing fixtures in the second upper-level bath.

Now you see it, now you don't....

Now you see it, now you don't.....

May 15th -- as the one-year mark is approaching, every bit of progress toward completion, no matter how big or small, is a reason to celebrate.

Now you see it:

Now you don't:

Yippie -- the portable toilet is gone!

May snowstorms bring.....

May snowstorms bring....

May 11 - 13th  -- The Mother's Day snow storm arrived as promised.  The wet snow started to stick to the newly budded leaves and blossoms.  Here is some snow on the lilac blooms, before I took a broom and went out to shake the snow off the trees.

There is a light dusting of snow on the raised beds...

But, the snow didn't stop Eric from returned to prep the floors and apply a coat of stain before he left for the day.  He told me to wait for about three hours before walking on the floors, and I could only walk on the floors with socks on my feet.


Here is the living room and a peak into the foyer...

Here is the view of the stained foyer from the stairs...

Here is the upstairs front bedroom/office:

Here is the upstairs sitting room:

Eric will be back tomorrow to apply the first two of three clear coats, with the final coat and buff to take place on Tuesday.

As predicted, the late spring snowstorm hit big time.  The temps plummeted to the mid-20s overnight, meaning that I had to drain the new sprinkler system, and the snow was wet, which meant I had to go outside at least 4 times over a 36-hour period to try to get the snow off the trees before the weight snapped branches.  The wind was nasty and although the storm brought much needed moisture, it cast a very wet blanket on the prior arrival of spring.

Here, the photos of the yard in the storm speak more than words:

However, the best part of the cold weather and the storm is that I've been enjoying the fireplaces!

Fortunately, the trees survived snowstorm and the lilac blooms did ok.

Eric came back today to apply the final clear coat and to finish the floors, which will have three coats of clear coat finish on top of the stain.  Tonight I can walk on the floors in my stocking feet and by tomorrow morning I can walk on the floors with shoes on.  By tomorrow afternoon I can begin moving furniture and I'll start by putting the desk back in my upstairs office

These photos really don't do justice to how amazing the floors look and what a great job Erci did.  Here is the living room:

 Here is the foyer:

 Here is the upper-level sitting room:

 And, here is the upper-level front bedroom/office:

With the building boom going strong, the contractor is having a difficult time getting the finish carpenter and the plumber back to finish the upper-level second bathroom and to replace the library door with the shattered glass.  He called this morning to tell me that he has found a craftsman who can do this work, and he will be here all day Sunday to finish up.

  I am keeping my fingers crossed that this guy is as good as the previous craftsmen and hope that this all works out. 

 If so, then it is a matter of getting the painters back to finish touch ups inside and outside.  There is still the issue of the refrigerator, which has taken on a story of its own and once resolved will receive its own exclusive blog post. Then I can begin the process of rediscovering all the stuff that has been stored in my garage for almost a year.  

In the mean time, the completion of this project is well in sight!

Calm before the spring storm....

Calm before the spring storm....

May 10th  -- A snow storm is predicted for tomorrow with between 3 and 8 inches of snow.  Really?  The warm spring so far sounded too good to be true.  Besides preparing for the pending storm, the house continues to inch toward completion.

I have been looking forward to the return of Eric, the floor refinisher guy.  He is a very pleasant and nice guy who did an amazing job on the new hardwood floors.  Today he is scheduled to refinish the floors on the upper-level sitting room and front bedroom/office.  Those rooms are shown in these photos:

BEFORE:

 The floors in the foyer and living room will also be refinished.

BEFORE:

Before Eric started, we had to semi-dismantle the computer desk and hutch in my office and we moved it into the closet outside the second bathroom.

The day before I had "sealed" as many doorways as I could that were adjacent to the rooms where the floors will be refinished.

Here are a few side-by-side comparison photos that really don't do justice to showing what a skilled craftsman Eric is:

Before:                                                                     During:

Before:                                                                           During:

 

Here are a few more "during" photos:

In the meantime, I tried to take advantage of the clam weather before the storm to erect the trellis, shown here.

I used three pieces of 10' 1/2" steel electrical conduit for the uprights; two rounded corners and a "T" to join the two 5' pieces.  I first pounded 1/2" rebar spikes that were 2 feet long into the ground and then set the uprights over the rebar.  I also secured the trellis to the chain link fence.  When I was done, the trellis was very solid and is not going anywhere.  

The trellis will provide a privacy screen between my neighbor's dining room windows and my patio and a view into the dining room and guest suite.

I will weave wire on the uprights so that foliage -- to be determined later -- will grow up the trellis to eventually become a living privacy screen.  In the meantime, I purchased some laminated burlap and a grommet kit and I will hang burlap panels from the trellis.  The laminated burlap will not block light into my neighbor's windows.

After I finished setting up the trellis, I decided to work on tidying up the greenhouse and doing some weather-proofing, especially since it will snow tomorrow and I have already moved some recently purchased plants into the greenhouse.

 I used some leftover flagstone to make a little walkway into the greenhouse.

 I purchased a piece of hard foam insulation that had a heat reflector surface on one side -- the piece was about 36" by 25".  My primary goal was to position the insulation so as to block the predicted cold and drafty air from entering the greenhouse around the window well that one of the greenhouse walls bisects.

You can see here that I cut various sized pieces and "jammed" them in to ward off cold drafts.

I also jammed some leftover bricks under the threshold of the greenhouse door.  When I have a chance I will buy a can of foam insulation and will spray that stuff in between the bricks and the foam insulation in the window well  to make a weather-tighter greenhouse.

By the end of the day the rain had started...hard to believe that this rain will turn into snow overnight.  I only hope that the typical wet spring snow doesn't damage the dogwood tree that is in full, glorious bloom,