Dining Room

HOORAY! The dining room is finally finished. Not only was the molding completed, but the ceiling medallion was finalized and installed. We will be moving all of the furniture back into place today so holiday festivities can begin.

THANKSGIVING

The first little snow of the season... another thing to be thankful for. Wishing our friends and family a very happy Thanksgiving- especially those who we can't be with today. HAPPY THANKSGIVING !!!

Shed 1

We were thinking that this weekend might just be the last of the balmy weather for 2005 and decided to take advantage of it. Ken and Chris built an extension off of the garden shed for additional storage of things like lumber, ladders, etc., while Suzan sanded and painted the trim for the dining room/living room. Chris was scaring us with his radio station choice, until Suzan took control of the situation. The evening closed with a fast and furious bon-fire of scraps and a truck load of stuff that Chris brought over. No time for marshmallows, but it was toasty just the same.

Kid's bath 1

Tonight, the kid's bath vanity was cut for plumbing and rough-set into place. Painting is getting high on the priority list... but we are not sure if we have any of the current cream color left for the patches.

Multi-tasking

Another super productive evening. Aside from the toilet and wall cabinet in the kid's bathroom, many of the trim projects downstairs were finalized. In order as shown: the half walls received their finish molding, the kitchen wainscoting and moldings were finalized and the powder room molding air gun holes were puttied and touched up. Thrilled to be finalizing so many incomplete projects!!

Potty Kids

Earlier tonight, the big boys ripped out the old toilet and installed the new kohler into the kid's bathroom. Little helpers were on hand to strip off the mega-adhesive manufacturer stickers. Thanks Ada, Merrit and Hayden!

A busy night

Last night, the super-heavy hearth stones were brought in and rough-placed. It took 4 of us to carry the two larger ones (can't see it all in this snapshot). Chris and Anthony- you don't have to go to the gym this weekend, complements of the Knotts. Chris and Ken made other notable progress, such as almost completing the base molding in the kitchen, the shoe-molding installation in the powder room and various spackle efforts. The kitchen ceiling patch is slowly being disguised by a regimen of spackle-sanding-spackle-sanding. There are rumors that Chris is addicted to the process.

Trim and things

Chris and Ken put in some more time last night on the kitchen ceiling, the kid's bathroom "prep" and molding cutting while Suzan primed and painted trim. Now all we need is for the world to stop for about a week for everyone else but us (and a few willing helpers).

Finishing touches, demolitions and repairs

More was accomplished tonight. Layer #1 of the base molding was installed in the powder room, another coat of spackle was applied to the kitchen ceiling patch and the kid's vanity was pulled out! We'll have to share our sink for a little while, but that's ok, they are cute invaders. No photos until we pick up new batteries for the camera. Sorry!

Weekend work

Work was done this weekend with the various spackle posts around the house, as well as sanding, puttying and painting the kitchen chair-rail and moldings between birthday festivities. Happy birthday little bear!

Houston, we have a PROBLEM

The change of the weather this past week has ushered in newfound duties for all family members: BUCKET PATROL. A pretty major leak in the roof has the knotts a little stressed out this week. THANK YOU Chris for running all the way out to our house during 1/2 time to check the status of things while we were away!

Kitchen

Last weekend Chris came and chipped away at a few things, including prep work to finish off the kitchen chair-rail trim.

Stone Wall 2

More progression on the wall this evening. The kids must have had big fun today, as they are sleeping through the loud hammering of Ken nailing lath onto the hearth.

Stone Wall

Progress was made this week on one of the most notorious knott projects... the fireplace wall. Ken mortared in more stones and was able to head up to Rolling Rock to pick up the hearth stone with the help of Chris.

Taking Flight

Although the garden shed cupola is not yet complete, last night Ken found an awesome temporary home in the lofted ceiling of our bedroom for one of our favorite things... the copper geese wind vane.

Kitchen Ceiling 2

The most notable new progressions (among many little ones) has been the staining/coating of the wood in the interior of the firebox. It is almost ready for an autumn wood "load up". The other is the patch work that has been started on the kitchen radiant heat panels and ceiling. The hearth stone was ordered and should be ready within a week or two.

Chipping Away

Sorry- no photos this time, but wanted to post an update regardless. During the past week there has been a few more efforts to take some of the existing projects toward completion. In the basement. Ken has been spackeling and painting the workshop. New security spotlights and wiring, etc. have been installed (thanks to Fred). Once again, the lights pop on when you drive up to the house. No more "memory walking" your way to the front door when we forget to turn on the porch light. I guess we'll also know when a big buck or or late night groundhog pass by (oh, or an intruder).

In addition to the lights and basement, there has been a little more spackel and sanding work done in the kid's bath and the "horse jump" half walls between the living and dining rooms. Like the title says... we are "chipping away". Celebrating the baby steps, right?

Kitchen Ceiling

The scary leak from the master bath shower was repaired and the replacement heating panels were delivered and installed thanks to the assistance of Uncle Fred. The children were more than happy to kick us out of their bathroom. We still have a hole in our kitchen ceiling, but at least it is a somewhat tidy hole now!

Powder Room 2

It has been almost a month since our last post. Several parts of several projects have been tinkered with and then there was the BIG project... Removing Ken's gal bladder. So now we are back on track. The powder room has received much attention; the chair rail was installed and painted, the sink was installed, the toilet was lined to prevent sweating onto our wood floor (the jury is still out on that DIY project) and the BIG NEWS is that the plumbing and faucet were installed and we have RUNNING WATER in our little petal sink. YAY! So now we actually have a fully functional bathroom (not counting a few aesthetic details such as base molding). Just in time for our exchange student from China to arrive.

ICE anyone?

After years of replacing plastic hoses gone bad on the back of the refrigerator, and finally giving up for a while, a copper hose coil was put to good use. Yesterday, ken and hayden worked as a team to install and test to success. The day closed with an occasional happy little kerplunk sound of ice being made. ken, (Mr. "more ice please" was quite content. Perhaps he'll have ice for breakfast! HAPPY FATHER'S DAY TO ALL OF THE DADS!!

BIG NEWS - it bloomed!

This is not home improvement news, but worthy of a little cyber space of its own. The Chinese Night Blooming Cereus plant that we have been waiting for 14 years to bloom FINALLY had it's big moment tonight. It probably had a complex because it has been banished to the laundry room because the plant itself is... well... NOT pretty. It was a BIG event and we are glad the kids were able to see it. It is currently 9" accross (1am). Here is the address to an interesting time-lapse of a cereus bud opening i just found: http://www.bol.ucla.edu/~rfovell/cereus_bloom.html
The detail in this flower is so amazing, there is no doubt who the master designer of this wonder is!

This + That

Several projects were attacked tonight. Coach Mark spackeled the living room/dining room 1/2 walls and kids bath wall. Then Mark and Ken successfully (except for one corner) popped the big mirror off of the kid's bath wall to prep for the double-vanity and new mirrors. There was a surprise under there! (see photo)... looks like there was another mirror and different light fixtures at some point. Speaking of surprises, Ken decided to address the kitchen ceiling leak stain from the master bath. Cutting the dry wall away, he discovered that the shower drain coupling had come loose over the years and had not only wrecked the ceiling, but did quite a number on the radiant heat panel, which had to be removed (see water damage photo). The hunt is on to find a replacement.

Fireplace Log Bin 3

Ken and Fred made great strides on "the box" today... actually, short of some stain, a rubber seal and a bolt latch with lock, it is complete! The inside was lined with insulation, then oak. The door swings up as a "roof" to keep snow and rain out while loading. Looking forward to using it this winter!

Gardens

This afternoon, ken wrangled the renegade bamboo that strayed from the pack. It is a little late in the season to be transplanting, so we stuck it in a big bucket of good soil along with an orphan yellow rain tree and put it in the shade. We'll move it later if it survives. Hayden and Suzan conquered the out-of-control (especially the mint) herb garden and added some new parsley and rosemary.

Powder Room

The new corian counter top has arrived and was installed yesterday. We are not pleased with the cut job of the right wall side, so we will paint and silicone on a little finish molding to crisp up the wall edges.

Memorial Day

We took a little hiatus from our house projects for the memorial day weekend and took on other important construction matters. Thanks for a fun weekend Mom + Dad!

Fireplace Log Bin 2

Fred and Ken chipped away at this project all evening. Here they are trimming with the cedar... smells yummy. Next, they plan on finishing the inside with insulation and oak, then build the door and shingle the roof. Does this mean we have to start chopping wood?

FINALLY!

It is official. The new powder room corian vanity top has been ordered! Kenny sent in the template and they should have it done and delivered mid next week. The painting, hardwood floor and crown molding are complete. For room completion, we just need to install the vanity and sink/plumbing, build the mirror frame and install the chair-rail. Here is the current view of the lovely vanity.

Fireplace Log Bin

OK... this neat idea of ken's is actually becoming a reality. He has created a way for us to load the wood from the outside of the house without trekking the loads through the arbor, into the front door and across the carpet. This photo shows the inside arch construction and outside structure that he and fred started to build on saturday. The plywood outer-wall is just temporary. insulation and cedar are to come.

We have to start somewhere!

Many projects are being assessed. The ones that are rising to the surface and getting some attention this week are the fireplace log access "port", the powder room and the gardens. Weather for the week looks to be on and off sun, clouds and rain. perfect for the grass seed in the front field!