Is that Peacock on Your Ceiling?

And the answer is - Yes. Yes it is. Two coats, as a matter of fact.

Mike brought home the paint as scheduled on Friday and put on one coat that night and a second one on Sunday morning. I'm looking forward to slappin on some wall color soon - the ceiling looks incredible!

Joist For Fun

We seem to be moving right along with this bathroom project - after completing the window installation on New Year's Eve, Mike moved right along to the ceiling. Within two evenings of work, he's completed and installed all new joists.

Check that one off the list!

Pole Wrapped

Yesterday was a perfect day for pole wrapping. Sun, fair temps, low wind... heavenly fall to say the least. And within a few short hours, the three guys had finished 4 poles!!! They would have even finished the last and final fourth pole, but this one is currently holding up our temporary steps... which, we're still in need of at the moment.

Plus, Timmy had a marvel idea. (And once I explain this, you'll see why I just love him to death!) You see, to fit the posts, the white pre-primed wood needed to be cut down by just a smidget. Obviously, that leaves us with a bunch of scrap smidgets. Trash, you ask? I would have thought so too. That is, until Timmy held one up to the ceiling where the trim meets the bead board. USE THE SMIDGETS TO TRIM THE CEILING! Oh my god, it was a revelation and it looked fabulous! So simple, but we never would have thought of it. We would have just gone out and spent hundreds of more dollars on trim, then burned the smidgets come January when burn season opens up.

Timmy, once again, saved us some big bucks. So I was so happy and excited to write him out a big check that very afternoon. (And, he never asks for any money... usually refuses it, actually. Which made me all the happier to finally be able to give him a substantial amount.)

Anyhoo - check out the new frontal view:

 

 

 Pretty swank, isn't it? (I forgot a pic of the smidget trim - I will try to grab one tomorrow.)

Once the poles were finished, the guys attempted to complete the trim up on the gambrel. (At the peak there.) However, something about having the wrong saw or no blade or something like that prevented them from completing it, and they ended for the day.

Plans for next Sunday - the steps begin! Concrete will need to be poured for the step footings, which I had never realized before. Once it cures, the steps can be built. Then - duh duh duh duh - railings. With the Halloween season upon us, I'm hoping to get an early jump on the railings. I have these crazy imaginings that I'll order them and have Mike pre-assemble all the sections so we're ready to slap them up as soon as possible.

Whether he'll be hip to that idea is another story. Hopefully, (oh please oh please) his new truck will be arriving via pro vehicle transport tomorrow. And once it's in our driveway, he's going to do nothing until he installs the needed fuel pump.

But I warned him last night! I said, I'm going to need the electrical on the porch hooked up for Halloween lighting. And I'm going to need it like, this week. On the shopping list there: all the outlets and a new breaker. With the truck arriving tomorrow, we should actually go out and purchase those like... oh, I dunno... NOW.

Halloween Party is Nov 6th.... the race to the finish is ON!

Blue Paint and White Trim

Last weekend, recall that Mike brought home blue tinted primer for the newly completed porch ceiling. What you may not recall, because I didn't get around to publishing the post, was that we received a brandy-new materials list from Timmy last Wednesday. 8 pre-primed 1x10's.

Thinking he had no time to have Morse Lumber deliver the goods, Mike went to the DeepHo on Friday night. (Much to my dismay, believe me - since it would have been cheaper at Morse.) But after being gone for what seemed like ever, Mike called in angst. The HD had nothing worthwhile. The boards were VERY poor quality, pre-primed gray and not white, and $30 a pop. He came home with nada.

So Saturday morning he called in the order to Morse and I went in a rush to pick it up at 9am, since they close at noon on Saturday. Lucky #1, Mike left me his truck. Lucky #2, the guys at Morse agreed to load and strap it for me. And though all that was lucky, it was still a bit stressful because our one man painting crew, Richard from across the street, was due over at 10am.

Sure enough, there he was, right when I pulled home in the driveway. And with a coffee for me to boot. (I needed it!)

After that madness, it was pretty much sooth sailing. Richard painted until he ran out of paint... we should have bought two gallons.  I suppose it was Lucky #3 that he was able to even round the corner.

You can pretty much see where the paint ended in this pic.... and honestly, the far end of that paint job was a real stretch and a half. Once we finish this coat of primer, we'll fill all the holes with caulk. A little backwards from our original plan - but it's probably better that way.

Why you ask? Well, Sunday the guys were over again bright and early to start trimming things out. They used up all of the wood we bought, cutting it down as needed to box in the top of the porch where the ceiling meets the framing. (Thus avoiding the larger cost of purchasing large boards, small boards, medium boards, etc etc.) And, they attached everything with the stronger framing nails. (Here's where I'm getting to the benefit of not-caulking.)

Very true, finishing nails would certainly leave less of a mark - but to the expense of strength. Better to hold it tight and use more caulk then to watch it fall some years and years down the line.

Already it looks so beautiful on the inside. We need to purchase some moulding to fit where the ceiling meets the trim to finish it off, but other then that, this is how it will look.

A portion of the front facing (outside) trim was also completed... until we ran out of materials of course, and looks similarly awesome.

Timmy and Richard left around 2ish, but Mike wanted to keep working. First he cleaned up the area, throwing out all the trash and just tiding up tools and whatnot. Then, he removed a few pieces of siding at the top where the ceiling meets the house and attached strapping. This had to be done so trim could be later attached there.

He also decided to trim out the front door - a decision I was personally psyched about. Especially since we had enough trim boards "in-stock" in the basement. We'll have to purchase some moulding to round that out too, but check another long standing not-done off the to-do list.

Up for this week - complete the primer coat on the ceiling and caulk. Purchase more materials - we have a new list, plus the moulding. Timmy is also going to bring by some samples of post trim, to give us an idea. Mike kinda wanted to increase the width of the posts - by a lot. Like double. Like 8" posts. I don't know if I'm hip to that. I hate columns. And wide posts would remind me of columns. Too masculine for me. I'm hip to a little bit of an increase - but no beefy posts por favor.

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Beautiful Beautiful

The ceiling is complete... and it is beautiful. I can't tell you how happy I am to just stare at it - and it's not even painted yet.

Look at it!! All the angles coming together... the trim pieces.

The guys were all over on Sunday again to finish it - and, honestly, made quick work of the remaining pieces.

More would have been accomplished, but Timmy got called into work. No big deal. I didn't even think we'd get any trim up! In fact, I didn't even realize that the trim would be simple thin cuts of the same bead board. Simple - economical - genius. Looks amazing, even at the joints where the bead board changes direction.

Mike purchased the primer on Saturday and tinted it the very lightest of blue. (Blue, as you recall, is traditional for farmer's porch ceilings. Blue like the sky!) I wish I was painting it at this very moment. Unfortunately, I've been booted off the painting crew. Let's face it, I'm stuck as Senior VP of Baby Management. But it's not so bad - and with my jelly arms, I'm not so great at painting ceilings anyway.

First thing's first - the filling of all the nail holes. Mike may or may not remember to bring home caulking tonight. (There are so many bad an inappropriate jokes I could make here regarding filling, nail holes, caulk, and up - but I'll leave it all to your imagination. I'm sure I'll hear enough of it from the guys.) Once that's finished - paint away!

And a new materials list wouldn't hurt either. We didn't even end up purchasing new materials over last weekend - but did manage to make a couple of good purchases in other areas, so no complaints.

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Wired!

Wiring is complete! Mike finished it up last Friday night. Saturday, I even cleared the porch of all I could so that construction can commence whenever possible. I still can't believe it'll be happening soon.... imagine... a ceiling as early as this week. It just doesn't seem possible.

As you can tell, I'm in pretty good spirits. After last week's downturn, our luck returned over the weekend. Mike finished the wiring, I discovered my Sat night plans were not ruined because of stupidity, we salvaged that important document we lost, bids started flying on both my ebay auctions... then some no-feedback ding dong cancelled his winning bid on 4Runner #1 in the last 20mins of the auction. What an incredible idiot!

And it's not just like, "Oh, that's fine - I'll just list it again." No - selling vehicles on ebay is actually tricky business. I can't just plop it back up again - the same 4Runner shoppers from last week will likey still be there... and now that they saw my 4Runner make it up to the reserve amount.... they know what that amount is. And they won't bid.

I had a similar problem when selling a motorcycle some years ago on Ebay. Some crafty fellow slapped on a high bid, just to see what the reserve was, then retracted the bid. After that, the auction creeped up by pennies, because everyone knew what that reserve was and they were all clammering for a deal. Those swine. It's like they're all in cahoots.

Anyway. I read him the riot act. THEN he had the nut to tell me that since I'm an experienced Ebayer, I should be used to people doing this sort of thing and know how to handle it. That response did not dignify a response-response from me. (And by the by, this particular situation of having to file a claim with Ebay to cancel the transaction and that sort of thing - has never happened to me in all my many years of Ebaying.)

At least the soft top sold with no muss 'n fuss. Phew! Plus, I have a whole bunch of response to my craigslist ad for 4Runner #1... including a gentleman who is so near-to-sure he's going to purchase, he'll come to my house on Monday with a flatbed to pick it up if no one else has purchased yet. Hey, maybe that Ebay ding dong was just meant to be.

So, returning you once again to home-matters - I'm even more super psyched because the guys are supposed to come over tonight to begin work on the porch ceiling. Today's time is ticking by super slowly just to twazz me out. I cannot cannot wait.

Mike warned me in advance that we'd probably be getting another laundry list of materials from Timmy as progress progresses. No problemo man.

It's going to be finished before the end of this month. I can feel it.

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Boxed, Fixed, Ordered, Delivered

Yes, I finally got my box!!! And now the soft top is packed up, taped up, and ready for weighing at my local postal office. I cannot wait to get it back up on Ebay tonight.


Also ready for posting - 4Runner #1!! I detailed it on Saturday, Mike completed all the final repair touches on Sunday, and just this morning I took all the photos I need to sell. Posting will commence tonight. Another weight soon to be off my shoulders and out of my driveway.


But the biggest and best news of all came late Sunday afternoon. Mike and I were on the porch, discussing all things electric, when our neighbor Rich pulled into the driveway. Apparently, Timmy (who did our garage roof) was asking about the porch - if we had wired it, if we had ordered the materials, if we were ready to go on it... because he was available and ready to work.


I didn't hesitate. "Mike can get all the materials tomorrow," I told Rich. 

Mama don't mess around when it comes to availability. Timmy made us a shopping list a while ago, plus, we now knew what we wanted in wiring. "Just go down to Morse Lumber tomorrow and order it all," I told Mike after Rich left. And he did.


The unfortunate news is that we couldn't get exactly what I wanted for the ceiling. The traditional thing to get is that bead board stuff - you know, like wainscott, 2 1/2 inch wide wainscott bead board, whatever you want to call it. But I really wanted something a little meatier - like a 4 inch or even 6 inch wide bead board. Something different, you know? Well, Mike investigated all the options this morning and discovered that there is a HUGE price difference between the normal 2 1/2 inch vs wide board. We just couldn't go wide. For all that we needed, the 2 1/2 inch was about $680. The next level up jumped to $1300.... and the next after that.... around $2500. Ouch. For just the ceiling!!!! Ouch ouch!


So, traditional it will be. And, in case you didn't know, it's also traditional to paint your farmer's porch ceiling blue - like the sky. I'm not sure if Mike got the pre-primed white stuff or the true-wood stuff or the fake-wood stuff. If it's pre-primed white stuff, I'll definitely go with the lightest tint of blue. If it's true-wood or fake-wood, I may go with the rustic, wood look. I'll find out tonight since Mike's order will be delivered today.


And at this very moment, Mike's on his way to the DeepHo to pick up all the electrical. We decided on one fan to go over the fat section of the porch and 10 outlets, to be distributed evenly, about one every 10 feet, across the perimeter of the porch. No additional lighting. Why? The outlets will be so much more versatile. I can string holiday lights, (which normally come in 10' sections, hence the 10' spacing between the outlets) rope lights, pendent lights, and so much more depending on the season, holiday, event, or occasion.


That, and I want to purchase these nifty railing cap lights.  (PS - This dekor website, linked to the left, has all sorts of nifty lighting. I like the "deck dots" too.) They'll be great for stairways, especially (Speaking of which, I am SO looking forward to having proper porch stairways.)

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Excitable Me

How happy was I to see Timmy in the driveway when I got home from work last night?! He and Mike were on the porch... with a tape measure. A tape measure! I could have cried tears of joy.

And suddenly the entire world was filled with hope once again.

Mike just has to pick up some flashing and some ice and water for the garage roof. Tim will be over later this week some day after work to bang it out. The whole thing! In one evening. I'm overjoyed.

For the porch, we have an initial materials list in terms of wood 'n stuff. Our to-do list includes wiring and ceiling decisions. And, while Tim was over, we made another big decision regarding the porch steps. One set of steps is easy - it will lead straight out from the front door area to the lawn. Yippee. The other set of steps is not so easy.

Currently, the temporary side steps leading to the french doors jut right out into the driveway, cutting off massive parking potential. Not the ideal situation considering our vehicle situation. We need as much driveway as we can muster! But, stairs to code would land in near to the same spot. The solution - twist 'em! Yes, rotate those stairs 90 degrees, so they'd be parallel to the house. This will still cut into the driveway, but not as much as a straight out, smack-ya in the face stairway.

One problem - solved in an awesome way. Love it!

And the electrical? It won't be a big to-do, in my opinion. But we do want to wire for speakers, lights, a fan, and outlets to be placed in the ceiling. (Why outlets?! Think xmas lights and other cool decor, my friends.) We already have some wiring in-house, plus some other materials that may come in handy.

And the ceiling? Tongue and groove pine board or whatever it is would be totally swank.... but totally expensive. And as much as I love that 2" wainscotting... I'm not too hip with that on my ceiling either. I'm thinking maybe a similar pre-fab product with a wider design. Something along the lines or 4" or maybe even more. I'm going to see if I can get the Lowes-down (get it?) for some idears.

Once that decision is finalized, we'll order all the mat's from Matt over at Morse Lumber. Our plan for the time being is to complete the ceiling, stairs, and all trimblies essential to the exterior of the porch. Yes, I know it's all exterior - but you know what I mean. As in NECESSARY not DECORATIVE. Railings and such can come at a later date if need be. Although we'll see how it goes. Timmy is very much like Mike in so much as when he's working - he works like crazy until the job is done. And he gets it done quick. And he gets it done right.

So as you can imagine, I'm just going crazay. I can't believe it's all about to happen!

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Slow Progress

Have you ever felt like things are moving out of control around you, yet you're just standing there in slo-mo and can't get a thing done? That's been my holiday season so far. So much to do, so little time.... and I seem to be making no progress no matter how much I get done.

We've been picking away at things around the house - or I should say Mike has. I've been busy making cookies and Christmas cards etc etc. He finished the ceiling and closet paint in the downstairs bedroom. (And yes I did get those outlet covers and installed most of them.)

He installed my magic hanger (for brooms and the like) up in the mudroom closet next to the washer/dryer too. And he's been going around the basement trying to plug up air leaks.

Now that I type it out it all doesn't seem like very much does it? But it's felt like a lot for some reason.

I hate to say it, but I'm sure we'll be continuing to pick away at these small projects into January. There's just no funds for anything else. Winter-time blues at their finest, for sure.

Losing Steam

No dump. That was the one thing I was really looking forward to and the one thing that we didn't get to do over the weekend. And honestly I can't help but feel that we're losing steam.

Sure, the guys worked Saturday and framed out the porch ceiling - thus ending work on the porch for now. And sure Mike was good enough to put up the new hanging tool storage solution I bought for the garage last week. Looks fabulous - and organized!

And as for me, I cleaned the house. Woo-2Da-Hoo.

It may be partially because I've been feeling rather useless lately. I haven't been able to do a dam thing around the house except for garage cleaning - and that did feel good, don't get me wrong. I just hate stagnating.

And today I paid off the DeepHo card - had to. One of my 0% interest gigs was expiring 8/3 and I knew I wouldn't have another opportunity to pay it all off before then... There goes another $962.28. But it's paid. Phew. A relief and a bummer all at the same time.

As for the coming weeks - progress is unknown. Siding and roofing are next... a lot depends on a lot of other stuff. As usual, nothing comes together easily. I have to wait until my ebay auctions end, Mike has side jobs, we both have bbq's 'n other summer events to attend...

I'm going to try and be pushy, but we all know how that usually goes. Not well. =)