Craigsirk

Ok, I have not updated my blog in a while so here come a lot of pictures!

Mostly we have been tiling.

Here are pictures of the 3rd floor master bath. Man did we put a lot of tile in there. (Thanks Kristens family for all the help!)

Looking at the back wall and the tub surround:

Completed back wall/tub surround:

Recessed Medicine Cabinets over the vanity:

Bathroom Entry:

Shower Area:

Finished Shower Area:

Finished Shower Area:

Grouted Area above toilet:

Grouted area above bath tub:

Grouted Shower Area:

Now for some 2nd floor bath pictures.
This is the start of the back wall/tub/shower surround:

Back wall, these are very nice glass subway tiles:

Shower Area (Kristen did not like the blue tiles in there, so they were removed):

Shower Area:

Window in the Shower area:

Finished Shower Area:

Back wall/Shower area:

Kristen Grouting the back wall :)

Cleaning the grout off of the wall:

Completed Back wall:

We started tiling the 3rd story bathroom this weekend. Our builder is working hard to get the greenboard up so that we can finish tiling. Hopefully it is finished now.

They have also installed most of the windows and doors. Here is a picture of our new french doors on the 3rd floor, leading to the deck.

We are moving full steam ahead :)

They have finished framing the basement and 1st floor. They have paved the basement. We got our windows in and they are installing them. They have added the stairs. We have ordered our tile and hardwood floor. We have ordered our cabinets.

All is going at a great pace right now. They are starting on the electrical and hopefully soon the plumbing.

Here are some pictures:

I have completed putting up the old columns, now we just need to finish painting them (hint hint if someone wants to help)

First Floor bathroom.

Basement:

It has been a long time since I have updated our status, so here is what has happened.

To start with, we have obtained all of our windows. Well, they have all been ordered and are scheduled to arrive in a few weeks. The major project of this was the French doors. Kristen found a really cheap set of really nice doors on Craigslist, about $3,000 off the original price. The only problem was getting the doors to our house as they were about an hour away. So I borrowed our contractors (C&D) truck.

The first problem, that I guess I was a little naive about, was how much this thing weighted. It is literally about a ton. I mean, we had 3 people and we could not lift this door more than about 8". We had to lift it, put bricks under it, lift it again, ect. until we got it high enough that we could back the truck under it. Then the next problem is that a 10' x 7' door does not really fit in a truck. We had this huge door hanging off the edge and back as I slowly drove home. Kristen had to drive it into the city the next day to drop it off. Everything turned out ok, but I do not think I would do it again.

They also dug out the basement. On inauguration day, I had a group of guys come and dig. They got the floor about 8' down, so when we pave it, we should end up with about 7'6" ceilings.

I also started sanding and finishing the porch columns. I have completed one, and it is up. The other two are rough sanded so I just have to run a quick finish sanding then paint, then put up. Here is a picture of the unfinished column.

Katie has also moved in with us so, we had to clean out the extra bedroom and put all the stuff we have bought in the living room. We got ride of our couch, which helps, but we still have a lot of stuff in there.

And we have finally picked out our kitchen. We even got a deal on the island. It was a floor model. $1,000 less than new cabinets plus it came with the butcher block counter.

Here are some new pictures from the house. They have completed the 3rd story, completed the roof and completed most of the framing of the 3rd and 2nd story inside.

3rd Story:

3rd Story vaulted ceiling:

2nd Story:

It was nice coming back from a long trip to Michigan and seeing our house have a brand new story! Yay!. They are really moving fast on this. It is great!

Here are some pictures, they are a little dark because we went there at night when we got back.

Looking from the street. You can barely see the addition.

Here is the actual new addition. This is our new master bedroom.

This is the 2nd floor. Those are now 11 foot ceilings baby oh yea!

Ok, I have been quite bad at posting updates recently. This is partially because of my new job! Yay!

So first, I have taken a position with Booz Allen Hamilton as an IT consultant. It is quite a nice job. The pay is not much more than what I am making now but the opportunity cost is soooo much greater. I will get my Top Secret clearance, it is a very large company (about 1,500 employees) which gives me greater room for advancement, plus I will get to use my Masters degree and actually work on software development. I do not know a whole lot about what I will be doing yet but it has something to do with the DOD. Hopefully they will tell me more once my clearance comes through.

Our house is well underway, finally. We now have power to the house with some temporary lights and plugs. Our contractors (C&D, which has been great so far) and working hard at creating a plan. Currently, they are planning to take the roof off tomorrow :). That means we will hopefully have a 3rd story by Christmas!

While they are are working on the house, Kristen and I have been picking out fixtures and things. Our guest room is now completely full of lights and fixtures and vanities.

I spent a good day or so at the Restoration Hardware Warehouse Sale and picked up some great deals on the plumbing and lights. It is great to get $500 hardware for 70% off. We really did not save any money because the sale prices are about what we would have paid if we went to Home Depot, but I feel the quality of the Restoration Hardware is so much greater. The cheaper Kohler or Home Depot brands just feel flimsy. I mean the tub faucets we bought are like 5 pounds of solid metal.

I also picked up some vanities. We got one for the first floor and the 2nd floor. The 2nd floor one needs a sink and top but I think we can get those fairly easily from Home Depot.

We got this one for the 2nd floor bath. We even have the same faucet.

We got this one for the 1st floor half bath. We even got the sink. We have the white one tho.

We got other things as well like mirrors and a few lights.

Kristen also got a great deal on our lights through Y-lighting. She convinced them we were contractors and got 20% off the entire order. It saved us about $3,000.

Yay we finally got our building permit!

I completed laying the floor for our new porch yesterday. I had to first prime all the boards which took a while. Now I just have to buy some molding and railings to put around it. Then finish the columns and we are done!

Kristen and I went to the Restoration Warehouse Sale on Sunday. We have never been there before and did not really know what to expect, but we are definitely going back to the next one in December.

They had vanities, furniture, lights, fixtures and lots of stuff at about 80% off. We could not find many things because we went on the last day of the sale and apparently, there are more things the earlier you go.

We were able to pick up a couple of faucet sets for our bathrooms. We picked up $500 sets for around $180. We almost got a vanity (although I do not know how we would have gotten it in our little car) but it was nabbed by someone first.

We got this faucet for the 2nd floor bathroom.

This one for the first floor bathroom.

And we got one similar to the 1st picture for the basement bathroom (it was used but only $50!) but it has a different faucet handle. They have the cross shape instead of the straight handles.