The drywall is done! It's all down hill from here...I think.

It took 6 days for the drywall to be hung, taped, and textured...and we lived through it.  The two older boys did not sleep in our room like we thought.  We ended up moving the mattresses into our room in the morning and pulling them back out at night so that they could continue to sleep in the family room.  It was a pain, but totally worth it for everyone's sanity.  The drywall guys did a great job keeping the mess to a minimum.  There were only two of us who stepped in a glop of "mud" during the week and it would be the two who are home most of the time (yeah, me and CET).  The guys ended up working on Saturday to finish up the job so that we would be able to start painting on Monday.  They got here in the late afternoon and finished by 10:30 pm....luckily, we had a birthday dinner to go to that night in Alameda for my grandmother's 93rd birthday, so it worked out just fine.

So, now it's time to paint. CT bought a new spray painting gadget (insert the sound that Tim the Tool Man Taylor makes) to make painting faster.  He actually bought it a while ago to paint the exterior and it works fine.  I'm a little afraid of how much mess it will make in the interior, but really, there is nothing to ruin...the floors can be white.  I haven't finalized the paint colors, but I've got two down for sure, well...maybe just one for sure.  CET wants green walls in his room, and I'm leaning towards blue.  KWT will have khaki walls and an army green accent wall.  We ordered a new quilt for CAT that will come in tomorrow, so I'll be able to pick out colors then.

In the meantime, I photographed the wood floors, stain finishes for the cabinets and countertops if you want to take a peek.  In the next blog, you should be able to see what paint colors we end up with!

CAT's room with the drywall hung.

The "office" area and the entry beyond.

Here is the kitchen taped and textured.

Our wood floor (bottom), the stain for the desk and quartz countertop. Quartz is Cambria, New Quay.  Wood flooring is Pacific Pecan in Mocha.

Wood floor, stain for the kitchen island (perimeter cabinets to be white), quartz countertop (Cambria, Torquay) and subway tile backsplash.

Ignore the carpet...Amtico vinyl flooring for the powder room with the stain for the powder room cabinet and quartz countertop.

Again, Amtio flooring, the stain for the two bathroom cabinets and the countertop.

This is for the laundry room.  The cabinets will be white for easier clean-up.  Just in case you are wondering why there is so much of the gray, swirly quartz...we had to purchase the entire slab, so we though we would use as much of it as we could. The quartz is maintenance free - so I'm good with using it everywhere!

We've almost reached the climax of this ride....

I can't believe another two weeks have gone by.  Where did the time go?  I feel like all I have been doing is moving our stuff from one place to another...and really, that's all I've been doing.  After this weekend, we will be down to one bedroom for about a week and a half.  Yikes!  The drywall will be installed starting on Monday.  I've heard it's yucky and we don't want to be around here when it all happens.  Our contractor even told us we should consider staying at a hotel for a couple of days while they are mudding.  The drywall contractor seemed to think we would be fine and they would clean up after they leave every night.  So, I guess we will see and play it by ear.  If it gets too much, we might stay at my parent's house.  It will be fun getting up early to take the kids to school in the traffic (I don't know what would be worse - drywall mud or traffic).
But enough about us...take a look at the house!  I love coming home and looking at the exterior.  The shingles are nearly done.  Just a few more spots at the corner of the garage and then above the entry. I absolutely love it!  CET's room was worked on in the two weeks, a section of the garage was worked on to create shelving for the garage, the electrical and lights nearly done, the kitchen window installed, the walls got insulation, new ducts were installed, the framing for the pocket door was created and a section from the entry to the laundry room was closed off (no more short cuts into the new addition) and the cabinets ordered.  We are coming to an end...I can almost feel it...even if it is another six weeks or more.  So far, it's been worth the ride.

The new addition get shingles.

Here is CET's room.  Finally, it's a reality for him.

The new kitchen window!

This section of the garage was supposed to be extra room for bikes, but because of the foundation and the wall is holding part of the roof up, it had to stay.  Once the drywall goes up, we will just turn this into shelving.  We can all use more of that.

The drywall gets delivered.

Insulating the walls.

From this view, the house looks done.

The progress on the entry.  The columns were supposed to be shingled, but we decided to do something a little bit different to give it more of an "entrance". 

Here is the view from standing in the house.

Just a closer view of the entry.

Wall from entry to laundry is closed up.

This will be the new kitchen.  See the three chairs together?  That is were you can sit at the island.

It's a mess, but this is the view of the family room and dining room beyond.  Really, nothing much has changed here except those darn walls are now gone.  Daisey will even get a new doggie door next week!  It will be where she is currently eating in the photo.

Framing for the pocket door for the laundry room.

Just one of the bedrooms with insulation.  It's made a difference in the house so far with the weather being so cold in the mornings.  At least now we can turn our heater on to about 60 degrees!

Happy Halloween!

Hope you all had a great Halloween.  Once the contractor left that evening, we had to kick it in high gear and carve our pumpkin and decorate the outside of the house.  Our next door neighbor gave us caution tape that we used to cover the porch, since the ramp to the house was taken down and there are no porch lights on the exterior of the house.  Got it all done - the kids dressed in their costumes and even had dinner too in a little over a hour.  CET got the hang of it this year.  He ran from house to house following the heels of CAT - said his "Treat or Treat" and "Thank yous".  It was great.

The fire insert was also installed on that day.  It was a tight fit, but it's in and looks great.  The two older boys had to sleep in the family room that night.  It was nice for them to wake up in a not so cold room and the fireplace running.  I almost want one in my room since it's so pretty to look at...plus the fact it keeps you toasty!

The shingles came in today.  The contractor will start putting it up tomorrow....but we hear it's going to rain on Thursday, so he may not be able to finish it by the weekend.  We will see...cross your fingers for no rain.  I would love to see the exterior done.

Kenny from South Park (no, he has never seen that show, but his friend told him he should dress like Kenny since he has an orange hoodie) and the two ninjas...ready for Halloween.

Caution!  Do not enter!

Not much decoration, but hey, we only had an hour!

Our new fireplace!  There are clear glass beads inside.

CAT trying to wake up in the morning.