Ahoy!

Good grief it's been awhile! Yes, I am aware of my slacker ways. I have made excuses for myself on here in the past, but this time I won't even pretend to try. I am a blog slacker. When I sat down today to write this I had planned to stagger the time stamps of the various posts to give a better time line and break up the progress into smaller bloglets; however, I then realized it has been four months since I last posted and I have no idea when we did certain projects. So for those of you gasping in horror that I would cheat on a bloglet entry, fear not. I will lay it all out on this one large colossal blog entry. We've been busy bees upstairs (and by we, I really mean Ross - I mostly supervised)! Hold onto your socks folks! Here goes!

When we last left you the large window in the middle of the two rooms had been removed and closed up, and the new wall dividing the two rooms had been erected (the wall I would like to remind everyone, I totally helped build!!). It's difficult to photograph, but the doorways were built next.

This is a picture of the doorway to the room on the left. If you look to the right of the picture you can see the edge of the second doorway.

Here is another view from inside the larger room looking toward the future site of the closet in the small room.




Here is a rough sketch of the upstairs layout. I'm talking about the ones on the right.



Ross did some ingenious framing to create just a little more space in the smaller room. Installing sheet rock in there will be a blast! Oh wait...

Anyway I digress. Below are some pictures of the new window installation on the back of the house. Each room has a window that faces the backyard now.

Here is a video of Ross opening up the hole for the window. It was very stressful to watch a hole being cut into the side of our house! But now that it's all done I am very glad we did. It looks great! And looking at the back of the house now, one would never know it didn't start out like that!!



(Ross with his magic level!)



First window in!



Installing window #2...



All done!!



This was done over a few-week period of time, but you get the idea. :)

Ross decided that he didn't like the way the shingles looked from the first patch job, so he replaced them with new ones and painted them to match the rest of the house. (OCD much?) Here is what it looks like now!

So pretty!! Hard to even tell there used to be one window instead of two!

And now, onward and upward, scouts!  We move back inside to watch the transformation of our little rooms!

You've seen all the magnificent framing Ross did.  Now it's time for some drywall!!  I've come to both loathe and love this step.  It's the step in remodeling when things finally begin to look like you've done something productive, and less like savage beasts have been inhabiting the space and tearing it to shreds.  And yet, it is a very messy, upper-respiratory system taxing, patience trying, hurry up and wait process.  I'm not a big fan.

I can't seem to locate the early pictures of the drywall installation.  Things got a bit chaotic at that time. It's probably just as well. Any pictures taken at that time might not have portrayed Ross and I in the best light.  You see, I learned a lot of important lessons during this stage of remodel. The most important of those being that I am not capable of single handedly holding a peice of 4'X8' drywall up on the ceiling.  I am very wimpy.  That little experiment cost us a sheet of drywall and a few ibuprofen to reduce the swelling of the bump on my head where it fell.  Apparently it's time to hit the gym.  Or find stronger people to help. (I vote for the second one).

Here are some of the mid-way through pictures of the drywall installation and texturing process.

(We *heart* mudding!!!)

This is the nifty texture hopper we bought.  Makes quick work of the texturing process!!

Look how pretty that closet area looks! :)

Here is a nice video of Ross texturing.  He makes it look so easy!!

After that came the painting.  I wasn't allowed access to the rooms during that process.  Here are some pictures of Ross emerging from the rooms after spraying them.

Hee hee...

So after the paint dried Ross did installed the carpet, and created the molding around the windows and floors.  I can't seem to find the pictures of the carpet installation right now which upsets me.  I'm sure I'll run across them at some point.  I hope.  But anyway here is the final product. 

 Drumroll please............!!!

Oh wait, just kidding I forgot the new doors!!  They're beautiful and absolutely worthy of an honorable mention.  Here is a picture of the doors looking from the top of the stairs.  

This was taken pre-carpet and molding (obviously).  

Okay now for the drum-roll for real this time....

Here is our new spare room!!!

We moved the treadmill in there for now.  Pretty fancy, eh?

This is the closet door in the spare room.  I *heart* these doors!!!  Eventually I would like all the doors upstairs to match.  

And now on to the craft room.  A quick disclaimer: 1) Creativity thrives in chaos.  2) This room became the staging area for the bathroom remodel and has not quite yet recovered.  This room may look like total pandemonium to the untrained eye.  In reality, it's organized chaos.  Creativity lives here.  And creativity is happy in the mess.  (And yes, Dad, the door can still close.)

My shelves :)

My closet :)

My sewing table :)

 I will have to work to get a better picture of the window frames.  They are absolutely exquisite.  Ross has really outdone himself with them.  This window is my favorite!  It's beautiful!  This picture does not do it justice.  I will try to have Creativity move out of the way so I can get a better picture.  

Alas!  The neverending project finally ended!  And it ended beautifully!  We're so pleased! Yes, yes, blah blah blah...I know what you're thinking.  Well you want to know what I have to say abou that?  It's my blog darnit and Iwill brag and gloat and drip praises for myself and Ross all I want.  So there.  But admit it, it looks good, doesn't it? :)