It seems that as soon as March 1 came a switch was flipped and it was instantly Spring. No complaints here- I’m not a huge Winter season loving person. Our focus in March was to get the master bathroom complete to finish out the plumbing permit. To get there I had to use weekends and take 3 days off work to keep the progress bar moving. Here’s what we got completed: Tiled, sealed, grouted and caulked the master shower Had…
As we’ve noted in prior posts, progress has definitely slowed as we’ve settled into more normal routines. Our house projects now feel more akin to the “weekend warrior” projects Amy and I have made our hobby for almost 20 years. As we’ve focused on many of the most frustrating things that were still undone, our home has steadily become more livable, and we’ve been able to really enjoy the features and amenities. (I think we ran the wood burning fireplace…
Oops! I really missed the deadline on this one as we’re almost a week in to March. Read on about what we got done LAST month. Shortest month of the year but we got an extra day thanks to leap year. We still managed to squeeze in a fair bit of work. I’m definitely looking forward to spring so we can get back outside. I really want the yard finished and to make progress on our screened-in porch as I…
Whoa! A whole year of monthly progress. It sure looks and feels different around here. Definitely has a “home” feel and less “still under construction” like it was even just in early November. The new year has reinvigorated us to begin knocking out more interior projects. This is what we were able to get done for the first month of 2020. Finished the bottom set of stairs up to the landing Miss K turned 11 and for her birthday got…
Well, I’m super late with this post, mostly because the holidays are such a busy time for everyone. I had predicted we wouldn’t get much done around the house this month and I was right. There were just too many festivities to spend our free time on. But we did get a few things started/completed this month. We had almost two full weeks off but unlike last year, we knew we wanted to relax in addition to making progress on…
Winter came early here in central Illinois by snowing on Halloween. Then again on Veteran’s day. We were glad to have finished the outdoor work (mostly) the first week of November. The only saving grace of an early winter is being able to start using our fireplace! Moving inside for work means some great wrap up of projects that languished as finished outdoor work. Here’s what we got done in November: Finished exterior fascia, soffit and siding the gables Finished…
When we first began this project we decided we would give ourselves a little motivation to stay safe on the job site (now we call it “home”). We’ve been referring to this as our “Safety Reward”. The kids initially wanted treats (donuts or ice cream), but eventually we all agreed on a long weekend to Wisconsin Dells. It’s less than 5 hours away which made it seem more accessible than other trips we could have taken. I was also a…
The classic 80-20 rule posits that you can get 80% of the results in 20% of the time. The last 20% takes 80% of the time or effort. I’m not quite sure if that applies to a project like this one, but the long deceleration is unmistakable. After the first week of August I almost immediately dropped from spending 40+ hours per week working on the house to spending an average of 12 or so. Furthermore, as we’d long known,…
Sorry for the delay folks. Fall= crazy. Also time change is kicking my butt. Ugh. Fall. It’s so beautiful and so.stinkin.busy. I feel like we didn’t get very much done this month. But what we did accomplish is still moving us in the right direction. Our focus has been on getting the house ready for winter. Finished siding on garage, breezeway, and back door area Installed shelves in the 1st floor linen closet Unpacked like 8 or 9 boxes of…
Well August was our first month in the house. And we definitely slowed down on our progress compared to before we moved in. But slow and steady wins the race so bit by bit we’re getting there. But here is what we WERE able to accomplish this month: We got our car into the garage!!! We finished the hardwood floors in the dining room Hosted our first BBQ with friends Hung temporary blinds in several rooms Installed siding on the…