Hello again, OutStandish Readers! Chris has been hard at work getting the kitchen and upstairs bathroom, as well as the laundry room and linen closet, ready for the new flooring. He painted the rooms their assigned color, a simple cream color in most areas, except in the kitchen. The kitchen received a coat of light grey. Special Thanks to Howell's Carpet for laying the new linoleum flooring! The installer was professional, on time, clean, and dependable. Working with Howell's Carpet was one of the better experiences that we've had so far.
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Hello, OutStandish Readers! It's been another week, and work continues to progress at the Standish House. Amanda's father, Chris, is now retired and making 'Standish' his full-time job. Since he's been back, Chris has been hard at work trying to wrap up the installation of the windows. He just finished the ones in the master bedroom, and he's been working hard in the bathrooms, getting those installed as well. Amanda's grandparents,Tom & Gwen, have been making regular trips to work on the house, working on continuing to strip paint from the staircase, pocket doors and trim throughout the house. Lately, they have been having better results than we did using Multi-Strip chemical stripper on the staircase. Last week, Lowes delivered our new appliances to the house. Thanks to Black Friday sales, we bought our stove, microwave, dishwasher, refrigerator, washer, and dryer. Special Thanks to the delivery guys from Lowes that unloaded the truck, and even brought the new washer and dryer upstairs. Thanks to the Habitat for Humanity ReStore where Amanda picked up a few window weights for the house. During the installation, we've noticed that some of the windows were missing their weights.
Finally, Special Thanks to Historic City of Jefferson Architectural Salvage for letting Amanda come and look through their inventory. While there, she bought a couple more weights for the upstairs windows. Hello, Outstandish Readers! I am so sorry for not updating this in so long. We've been encountering some issues with the contractors, which held up the progress on the house. We finally decided to not wait around for them, and ended up doing some of the work priming the priority rooms ourselves, in preparation for the delivery of cabinets and appliances. Amanda's father, Chris, has spent his extended Christmas vacation working on the house. In addition, Chris is retiring next week and moving to the area, so he can continue working on the house full-time and figure out what's next for his life. We welcome Chris' help on the house and are grateful for all the long hours that he's spent working so far. This week, besides priming some of the rooms, Chris has been busy installing the upstairs windows. So far, he's gotten most of them taken care of. Last weekend, we had another family work day. While Amanda took turns between staying at home with Vivian and working at the house, we were joined by Chris, my parents, and Amanda's grandparents. Amanda worked on glazing the last window sash, which was broken, while I sanded the upstairs window frames so we could get the windows reinstalled. Chris continued on installing windows, and Amanda's grandmother prepped windows so they'd be clean and ready for him as he worked. My dad worked on various projects around the house, including patching a hole in the hallway where a vent used to be. My mom worked on cleaning up the drywall dust that the contractors left behind and did some much needed tidying. Meanwhile, Amanda's grandpa continued his work on scraping the woodwork. He has taken it upon himself to get the staircase back to its original woodwork. On Christmas Eve, our kitchen cabinets were delivered. They arrived in a series of twenty-something boxes. We've currently got them in a staging area in the dining room. This Friday, we anticipate the arrival of our new appliances, bought over Black Friday weekend. The appliances and cabinets will reside in the living and dining rooms, until the kitchen and laundry room flooring have been installed. Since purchasing the Standish House, we've noticed a lot of groundhogs in the backyard. We borrowed a live trap from my grandpa, and have begun efforts to capture them. My grandpa says Juicy Fruit gum is the best bait for a groundhog, but for our first attempt to capture one, we opted for some old fruit, kiwis and oranges, that we had lying around the kitchen. The next morning, we ended up not trapping anything. We will continue setting the trap and hopefully control the groundhog population. With the priming of the walls wrapped up, we are entering an exciting new phase of the house. Soon, rooms will begin coming together and look how we envisioned them! Hello again, and Sorry for the late update, OutStandish Readers! With the birth of Baby Vivian, we've been spending some much needed time at home, as a family, getting adjusted to parenthood. That being said, it felt good getting out of the house these past couple weeks and working on the Standish House again. These past couple weeks, I was able to help mine and Amanda's dads continue their work on the windows. Last weekend, I spent the morning helping my dad as he created the windowsills. To do this, we cut wood to the appropriate length, and ran the pieces through a table saw to notch the lip so it would fit where the previous sills existed. Last Thursday, Amanda and I welcomed the birth of our daughter, Vivian Rose. She was born, weighing 7 pounds, 3 ounces, and 19 inches long. We're really excited to add her to our family, and eventually all live in the Standish House together. Being in town to see his new granddaughter, Chris, spent a couple days at the Standish House working on the window restoration project. During his stay, Chris finished priming all the trim that was created a few weeks ago. Then, during his last day, he began rehanging the front windows. Being a touch-and-go project, Chris completed hanging the front window, and plans to return next weekend to continue this project. While we've been focusing our efforts on bringing Vivian into the world, William Foley and his crew have been working hard on the interior of the house. So far, they've completed laying the new drywall, and patching/smoothing out any imperfections throughout the house. Next, on their agenda is painting the walls and ceiling with primer.
This weekend, we anticipate working again on the windows! Hello Readers,
This week, for the most part we took the weekend off from working at the house. We did this for a few reasons. 1. It was Thanksgiving weekend, and we were spending time with family members. Chris did put in a few hours at the house, continuing to paint the trim pieces we created the previous weekend. 2. This allowed the contractors some space as they've been working hard finishing up the drywall, scraping the loose paint, and laying down a skim coat on top. 3. This allowed us much needed time to clean our current home in preparation for the upcoming member of the Standish Team. We'll talk more about her next week! With contractors hard at work on the inside of the house, we were able to get in the house and get a lot of work done over the weekend. For part of the day, we were all working in the house, both our family and the contractors, each on our own projects. During that time, the contractors were able to take advantage of our dads being there to address areas that needed correcting. Most notably, this occurred in the doorway of the hall linen/game closet. While hanging drywall, the contractor noticed the doorway wasn't hung square which would've made an awkward looking hallway. This area was soon corrected and people were able to continue working on their respective projects. This weekend, I helped the dads as we created the stops and parting beads for the insides of the windows. Since they had the power tools and woodworking equipment, we were able to purchase untreated decking boards and create our own for a fraction of the cost. To create the Window Stops, we first started by cutting 14 ft boards in half, giving us two 7 ft boards, giving the length we need for the finished product. Then, we fed the wood into a router giving one of the sides a rounded edge. Next, the desired thickness of wood for the stop was cut using a table saw. The process then continued until all the boards were processed through the assembly line, and we had the number of pieces needed. To create the parting beads, we used wood that was double the width needed, and cut it using the table saw, cut strips of the wood. Then, again using the table saw, we split the lumber in half, giving us two parting beads. After all the lumber was cut, we ran everything through a planer, giving the wood and smooth, even look. Amanda's grandparents, Tom & Gwen came to town on Saturday and continued painting the wood windows. They both worked hard and got a lot done. It started off as a cold day, so cold in fact, that Tom used the Speed Heater to keep Gwen warm as she was busy painting. Through the course of the day, they managed to get a good portion of the windows painted. Amanda's dad, Chris, decided to stay for a few extra days and work at the house during the day. During this time, he put in long hours to finish painting the windows, and also prime the window stops and parting beads that we created earlier. With the windows painted, and ready to go, the next step in this journey will be finally re-installing the windows. While Chris was on-site this week, he also worked on repairing a window frame with epoxy that was in great need of repair. This week, the contractors continued their work. They wrapped up laying the drywall, repairing holes and other areas on the second floor. With the second floor ready to begin drying, the contractors are now turning their focus on laying drywall in the kitchen. In closing today, I want to wish a Happy Thanksgiving to all our readers, fans, contractors, family members, and everyone that has had a hand in working on the Standish House. We are eternally thankful for everything you've done.
Welcome Back, faithful readers! Last week, I introduced everyone to our new contractor, William Foley, and his crew. Last week, was their first full week working on the Standish House. They started their work in the upstairs bathroom, demoing more of the plaster so they can lay whole sheets of drywall and installing insulation. In addition to the drywall work in the upstairs bathroom, William has recruited David Keating to help with lead abatement during the scraping phase of the project. This includes tarping the work areas with plastic sheeting, as well as covering any vents to ensure lead paint doesn't get inside the new ventilation system. Hello Everyone! Last week at the Standish House was a light week. Last weekend, we spent our time at the house getting the house ready for the new contractor, who I'll talk about later on. They needed us to move all the big items into one room of the house while they worked. Amanda's father, Chris, was also on hand over the weekend. After helping us move things around, he continued working on the windowsills, getting them ready to be replaced in coming weeks. The rest of Chris' weekend involved helping with painting the windows in efforts to get them re-installed soon. Tom & Gwen came down again over the weekend, making their third trip to Jefferson City to help work on the house. Gwen continued painting the windows, making great progress on them. Tom continued his work with scraping the paint on the doors and doorframes. As a closing note, we want to welcome William Foley to this project. He did a lot of work on the neighbor's house and came recommended. William and his team are working on laying drywall in the upstairs bathroom, kitchen, as well as patching cracks and holes in the walls and ceiling throughout the house. Plus, they plan to scrape paint and get all the walls primed and ready for us to paint.
Keep reading as we'll go over the rest of this week's happenings...
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