Taping Update

Through the rest of the week, we continued to put in long hours. Even with the tools, the corners take a long time. The upstairs is almost all taped with the exception of the office ceiling and the closets and bathrooms in the master. It still feels like we are doing so much in a day, but it's very time consuming because of all the corners. Travis had to work today, so I met Paul at the house this morning for taping. We got a lot more of the wall seams done downstairs, but I think the long hours finally caught up to us today. Travis came out to the house after work to find Mocha and I asleep in her dog bed. We decided that taking the rest of the weekend off would be a good thing. Travis has Monday and Tuesday off of work so we will back taping and working hard again soon. I'm thankful for a small break since I feel like I find sheetrock mud everywhere I go. Plus cleaning the tools seems to be a two hour process. As much as I complain about taping, I really do enjoy the process because the house really feels like it is taking shape.

Taping Pictures

Media room and great room downstairs

Kitchen

Hallway to the master (notice the bullnose on the corners)

Travis on stilts...what's wrong with this picture??? I'm sure you'll be happy to know that Travis did later put the stilts on the correct leg:)

Siding picture from last Friday.

As promised, here are some taping pictures. As I take pictures and post on the blog, I feel like we did so much for the day. But, when I look around while we are working, it seems like we have so much left to do. We have so many corners in the house, which takes a lot of time, and I keep asking myself why we put so many corners in. I often have to remind myself how good it will look in the end and that all this hard work is worth it. You can also see all the screw holes that we have filled, but again, all I can see is all the ones we still have to fill...and then go back and refill them all over again. Travis has the rest of the week off to tape and Paul is going to come help out tomorrow night, so I think there will be a lot of noticeable progress again tomorrow.

Next Phase - Taping

So, I don't have any new pictures, but I can promise you, we have been working hard. Travis had Friday off of work and was able to do more siding. The garage is almost sided, so there is just a few other areas and we will be done with siding. Over the weekend, we moved to taping the sheetrock. We rented some tools, so we wanted to make the best use of our rental. Travis had to work this weekend, but we still put in quite a few hours after he was done...probably 11 hours between the two days. The taping tool is called a Bazooka and we were out to prove that taping is all in the tools. Well, the Bazooka works really well, but I also discovered that Travis' friend from Lowe's was a great tool too. His friend used to tape fancy homes around San Francisco, so he knew what he was doing. He was a great teacher to show Travis and I what to do (and what not to do). So a huge thanks to Paul for helping us out! We managed to get a lot of the seams on the walls taped for both floors and filled what seems like a gazillion nail holes. Today we started nailing up the bullnose corners so that we could have rounded corners all around the house. Travis has the next week off of work, so he is going to continue to hang the corners and tape the seams on the ceilings. Probably about Tuesday, Paul is going to come back and show us how to do inside corners and how to work the tools for the second and third coats. So far, we have had a lot of fun taping. I'm not sure if it is more fun because it is different than siding or if we just like taping. Anyway, I apologize for no pictures, but when we were leaving at 9:30 tonight, that was the last thing on my mind! I will try to get some pictures taken (and posted) tomorrow.

The End is in Sight...for Siding

Travis, his dad, and I had another successful day of siding on Sunday. We have started to wrap around the garage. Now all we have left for siding is the front side of the garage, a little left on the front of the house, and a couple strips in the back. It still sounds like a fair amount, but most of what's left is rock and trim, so it should go pretty quick. We also rented some taping tools which should be here shortly, so the end is in sight (for siding) and it's almost time to start on something new! I intended to take more pictures, but I forgot my camera on Sunday, and when I went out on Monday to take pictures, the insulation company was back and I didn't want to interrupt. So, on another note, we got insulation blown into the ceiling. Travis' next day off is Friday, so their probably won't be another update until this weekend.

Still Siding

The sheetrockers were able to finish up on Saturday. Having that all done makes it really feel like there is a lot of progress on the house. Now all the rooms actually feel like rooms and it makes it a lot easier to picture living there.

Our weekend was spent siding and we managed to get another three faces done. We did the really long one on Saturday with help from Trav's parents. We thought it was going to go a lot quicker because we'd be using really long boards, but the clips that hold two boards together weren't as easy to deal with as we thought. This morning started out pretty good and it was actually fairly warm out. You would think we want warmer weather, but it made for an absolute muddy mess. It's nice to think that we are finally getting close to being done with siding.

The Week of S's

The garage

Dining room and front entry

The great room and nook. The height of the ceiling is really deceptive. We think the ladder looks tall and the ceilings look short in the picture. Just to give you an idea, the ladder is an 8' ladder. The room feels a lot taller in person.

The office (with 11' ceilings)

More great room with the double vaulted ceiling.

Putting sheetrock around the curved staircase has proved to be quite a challenge.

Another picture of the curved staircase from the hallway leading to the great room and kitchen.

Travis had Monday and Tuesday off of work, and was able to get a lot more Siding done. We are now working on the front of the house. There's a lot more rock on the front of the house, so it should go a lot quicker than the back. It is also going to go quicker because we will be able to work from the ground again.

We went out to see the progress on the Sheetrock after work today. As you can tell by the pictures above, they are getting close to being done. They think they will be all finished up by Friday night!

Our plumber continues to work at his slow pace, but we now have the Shower valves installed in the master bathroom.

The weather in Helena warmed up the past couple of days (it was 50 degrees when I left for work this morning), so all the snow was melting. So, of course, our driveway is just muddy Slop. Mocha stepped out of the car and wasn't happy because she was getting all this slop clumped in her paws. We all made it inside without sinking to far in to the mud and we were talking to the sheetrockers when we looked over and Mocha was taking a S*!* in the kitchen. She must still think this is a construction site and she can go anywhere, but she's gonna learn differently real quick if she keeps that up:)

Overall the progress is going good and Travis and I both have the weekend off, so hopefully we get a lot done this weekend.

Back to Work

The kitchen and nook area are all sheetrocked

This is the jack and jill bedroom/bathroom setup

This is the hallway entering from the garage. Straight ahead is the kitchen and off to the right is the laundry room and a bathroom. Almost all of this area is sheetrocked.

Look how far the siding has come!!!!!

Happy New Year! We are back in Montana and Travis has been busy working away on the house. We were a little disappointed when we returned to find out that the sheetrockers hardly worked at all while we were gone, but they probably could have used a Christmas break too. They were back working hard this week and the plumber also managed to set a couple of our tubs. Travis spent Tuesday and Wednesday working on the siding and I was able to go out there today and help him. We got three faces of the house done today, which we figured was about 42 boards. The morning wasn't too cold, but then the wind and snow came and it started to get a little chilly. We felt like we made a lot of progress today though. We probably won't be able to work on the house for another couple of days due to work schedules, but I will keep you updated as we progress.