Prime Time

The picture is of the kitchen...all primed. You can also see that our kitchen cabinets also arrived today. We had to bring a couple of the cabinets in just to see what it looked like. Sunday was a very productive day. Travis and I were able to prime almost the whole upstairs. We went through about 23 gallons of primer. It has got a light tan tint, which is a couple shades lighter than what we are actually using throughout the house. We did buy a paint sprayer which made the work much easier. Can you imagine rolling on 23 gallons of paint? No thanks! I did not get a whole lot of pictures of the paint because it isn't the actual color. It was definitely nice to see a different color on the wall though. I was nervous getting primer on the wall because that is when all the taping imperfections would show. We were pretty satisfied with our taping and texture. There are a couple spots here and there that we want to go back and fix, but overall I think we did a good job. We have a couple more areas to texture downstairs still but we think we may be able to get back on schedule just by judging how quick priming went.

A Non-Texture Update

Our master bathroom cabinets have been delivered. I got a sneak peak of them at Lowe's the other day. We got a chocolate glaze on them to add some more dimension and we were pretty disappointed in the amount of glaze on our cabinets. We talked with the cabinet company and we have to send them pictures, but they may have to replace all the door fronts.

The kitchen cabinets get delivered on Monday which are the same style as the bathroom, so hopefully they have more glaze on those. The remaining cabinets are being delivered on Wednesday. It's really exciting to get the cabinets in, but I think I would be a lot more fun if we were ready for them.

We also have been talking with a contractor from the home show who is going to put up gutters and our deck for us. I think they are starting with the gutters next week and the deck the week after. Our house needs a lot of gutters...554 linear feet of them. The deck is going to look really cool too. We only wanted to have two pillars, but it needs to span over 20 feet. The contractor found a beam that would hold the weight and span that stretch. The two pillars are going to run up to the railing height and we are going to rock the pillars. We are going with a composite decking called Rhino Deck. I'm excited to see the finished product and I'll be sure to take lots of pictures because decking pictures are way more fun than texture pictures.

Speaking of texture, we are hoping to be done this weekend. We are so sick of taping and texture that we can't get motivated to do anything at the house right now. We did the great room ceiling last night and today we just need to do the bathrooms and a couple more stretches of walls. Then we have to do a quick sand of all the textured walls so it isn't so scratchy then it is time for a major cleanup before we paint. There is so much dust and dried clumps of mud on the floor.

We think painting will take at least a week between priming coats and then actual colors. We checked out the cost of renting a sprayer and it is going to be cheaper to buy one. We are behind the original schedule that I put together, but I had us finishing before July, so I think we will still be on track to move in for early July.

Oh So Close

Travis' parents were up again yesterday to help us texture. We got almost all of the basement textured. Most of the bathrooms still need textured as well as a couple ceilings here and there. After a very accomplishing day yesterday, Travis and I went out today to finish up. Unfortunately all the mud we put up yesterday hadn't dried yet today, so we couldn't finish today. We are just using the torpedo heater for heat right now and it puts out so much moisture that the mud takes forever to dry. It made a good excuse for us have a day to rest and relax though:) While we were out today, we did take measurements for how much rock we would need. We are in the process of trying to decide which rock we like best and what price we want to pay for that.

Also on another note, we were out looking at houses under construction and a lot of the newer houses are putting red windows in. I would just like to note that we were on the forefront of this red window fad!

Steady Progress

I don't have any more pictures, but I thought I better let everyone know of our progress. We are still in the taping and texture phase (big surprise, I know). Almost all of the walls are textured upstairs and we have started on the ceilings. We still have some final touch ups with taping downstairs as well as a whole bunch of sanding. Then we can texture away and downstairs should go a lot quicker than upstairs. We are going to have to work hard, but we are hoping by the end of next weekend that we will be finished with taping and texture for the whole house. If all goes well, I can have pictures of paint on the walls in a couple of weeks!

Texture

This is a close-up. I was hoping you could see the texture, but I don't know how well it worked.

After weeks and weeks of taping, I can officially say that rooms were textured today. One of Travis' friends came up to help today, and we owe a HUGE thanks to him. Taping is such a fine art and those with experience make it look so easy. Eric and Travis were able to texture almost all of the walls in the "north wing" and it looks great. Being able to put texture on the walls today actually made it feel like we were finally making progress again. It is hard to tell how the texture looks in pictures. It looks sort of funny because some of the mud dried faster, but I promise it looks good:) Thanks to Eric we are still on track in regards to our timeline...July here we come!

Taping and Texture

We were out at the house working again this morning, but after a long week, we were pretty tired and headed home around 4:00. After a nap, I finally found time to update the blog. Last weekend, we were able to almost complete taping out the basement (with a lot of help). Today we met up with Paul and were able to find a texture that we liked and more importantly that we could do ourselves. We used the hopper with a bigger spray and then knocked it down. It helps to give it the more of the actual hand texture look. We did most of the walls in the dining room and kitchen. After realizing that we could texture and that we could replicate it, we made a plan for the next couple of weeks and headed home. Tomorrow, the plan is to prep more of the house by fixing any nicks or imperfections in the walls and taping off the windows and doors. Once that is done, we will be able to texture pretty quick. On another note, we ordered our cabinets the other day. Doing something different made me that much more excited to finish taping. The cabinets won't be in for another month, but I can't wait to see them!

The Hardwood is Here

We found a hardwood sample that we liked here in Helena, but we ordered it for much cheaper online. It was delivered out to the house yesterday and we were really happy with our choice. This is just the 5" width, but the picture sort of shows the color variations and the look of the hand scrape. On another note, we are still taping. The upstairs is basically done, and we are hoping to have the downstairs completed by the end of the weekend. We created a timeline of all our projects to make sure we finish the house before July. Right now we are on schedule, so here's hoping it stays that way:)