Week of February 2nd

I know, I know - those of you that have been following the blog have wondered - "what's happening... there haven't been any posts" so here goes. The week of Feb. 2nd was a busy one!!!

With the Living Room finished we moved all of the furniture we had moved into the Dining Room into the Living Room so that the Dining Room floor and carpet on the stairs could be installed during the week.




Our first priority for the weekend was to give the boys haircuts and boy were they happy to get them. Here you can see their "before" and "after" photos.


Hershey - before and after. He is our little guy only weighing about 12 pounds.


Denver - before and after. Our big boy weighing 18 pounds.
Aren't they handsome boys!!!!

Now that the boys have their haircuts Forrest and I get to work. We got the vinyl in the three season room down and the baseboards in.





Since we already had the saw out we put the baseboards up in the Dining Room too.




Of course the boys supervise the work and Hershey said you never know when you might need a toy break, so he always has one close by.

Week of January 26th

It was another busy week at the Troutman house!!!
Monday the flooring was installed in the living room.


The boys approve of the new wood laminate (which is one of the reasons we picked it).


I forgot to mention that last week we got one coat of paint on the walls of the Three Season Room. The walls are T-111 and for those of you not familiar with it - it is typically used as an exterior wood and has grooves - which means this week I had to go back with a paint brush and paint all of the grooves.

During the week I also touched up the crown molding in the living room from the nail holes when we put it up.

The weekend was busy - we installed the baseboards in the living room and I puttied and caulked them.


Of course the Boys provided moral support while we worked.


After that we moved down to the Three Season Room and put a second coat of paint on.


Then we proceeded to put insulation in the ceiling.


Hershey slept in a bed in the new lower room outside the Three Season Room door - just in case we needed him.


After the insulation was in we started on the ceiling. The ceiling we are installing is called "Ceiling Max", unlike traditional drop ceilings the grid attaches to the ceiling joists so you don't loose much height. The grid goes up first - which calls for lots of measuring.



We decided to put in dimensional ceiling tiles with a "sand" type texture.



Because we are putting in dimensional tiles we had an extra step of cutting all of the perimeter tile edges so they would drop down - once again more measuring. By the time Forrest had cut the 20th tile he was getting really good at it.


Thankfully we finished the ceiling Sunday evening.



Next weekend we hope to get the flooring and baseboards installed.

The week of January 19th

I'm not sure if anyone is still out there is trying to keep up with what is going on but here goes. The week of January 19th was very busy.

Since flooring will be installed in our living room soon we decided to take advantage of it being empty and repaint the walls and ceiling. In addition we decided to add crown molding - while I am happy I won't have to cut in the walls I now realize it is causing a tremendous amount of caulking and puttying.

We moved all of the furniture from the living room into the dining room. Hershey isn't too sure about the new furniture arrangement. You can see him on the back of the couch.



With the living room empty I got started painting the front window. You can see the "before" and "after" pictures... this is the last window in the house that was stained. We had already painted all of the other window trim white in the rest of the house. What a difference it makes having this large window with white trim!!!



It took several coats to paint the front living room window so while that was drying I worked on caulking and painting the windows in the three season room and painting the crown molding we were going to put in the living room.



Once Friday arrived we were ready to paint the living room walls and ceiling. The boys were always near by for moral support.


Our biggest challenge for the weekend was the crown molding. We wanted to get that hung before the flooring would be installed on January 26th. On Saturday January 24th, Forrest realized he couldn't get the blade changed on his chop saw, the stop was broken and it soon became apparent that there was no way to change the blade - so off we went to get a new chop saw. We knew we were going to be using one a lot in the coming weeks to put in all of the baseboards.

Finally on Sunday - after getting the saw set up we were ready to start putting in the crown molding.


Crown molding starts going up - starting with the longest wall first.

The boys once again give us moral support.


Finally we work our way around the room and get the last piece in. If you have ever hung crown molding you know this is no easy feat.


Our efforts realized!


After a long day we remove the temporary carpet we had down (for the last eight years) so that the new floor can be installed tomorrow.


Denver is not too sure about removing the carpet.

Week of January 12th

The lack of posts on the blog are only due to the lack of time I have had on my computer. Once again I am behind.

Here is what happened the week of January 12th.

The dumpster finally left.



During the week I continued to paint.
The stairs will be carpeted but the sides had to be painted.



Friday they came and did more grading. The rest will have to wait until spring when the ground thaws.



Over the weekend we did touch up painting and put a second coat on the accent wall in the dining room.



Sunday evening we removed the protective coating on the windows - what a difference that made!!!!