Catching Up...

Progress over the past month... or two... has continued on the house but much of it has been behind the scenes.  Going through a couple month worth of photos though there has been some visible changes though.  

The electricity, once Robert and his friend Fred got into the attic and started looking into it they  realized the wiring was going to need more work than originally anticipated.  And isn't that the case with any remodel project.  So after a number of long weekend in the attic they have rewired much of the house and added a bunch of can lighting and a few outlets in the process.  

The game room has lighting now

Master bedroom lighting

Exterior lighting 

We have also started to modify the back of the house.  We are adding a couple of doors to the back of the house and due to the new master suite arrangement we needed to move the window. The window is moving from its existing location, which is now part of the master closet, into the new bathroom.

Opening up the walls

All the openings ready for new doors and window installation 

Filling in the holes

New South Elevation 

New bedroom door

New living room door

Then there is all the other stuff, the miscellaneous projects that have been tackled.

TV

We are going to be using one of the hall closets as an A/V room and since we won't need a tv stand for all the equipment,  Robert decided to build a pocket into the wall for the TV. So when finished we hope the wall will have a nice clean finished appearance.  

TV pocket framed out

WALLS

Trying to plan ahead we have installed blocking throughout the house in anticipation of hanging pictures, lights, handicap bars you name it.  We are hoping to be prepared for anything.  

Blocking installed

BATHROOMS

We also decided to not use an insert for the shower pan, since we no longer needed to conform to the prefabbed size, the guys decided they might as well make the shower a little larger.  But since the plumbing had already be installed for the smaller shower size the change required a little more demo to move the wall and vent that was already installed in the wall.

Expanding the shower

We are getting far enough along that we are starting to play around with flooring ideas.  The previous owners left some tile out in the workshop and we think there will be enough in there to use for the guest bath.  

Getting flooring ideas

THE UNEXPECTED

And don't think there isn't still a new fun surprise from time to time.  There was some bowing of the ceiling drywall. So as Robert began to add some additional screws to the drywall he discovered that the ceiling texture wasn't exactly adhered.  We know there had been some moisture damage and we suspect that this is just a result of leaks that occurred prior to the new roof installation.  

Texture flaking off the ceiling

HVAC

The latest projects Robert and his friends have been endeavoring on is installing, repairing and sealing duct work.  The existing duct work had not been sealed and although you can't really tell from this picture the finger jointing connections had to have let a lot of precious AC out into the attic rather than making it to the actual house.  So there has been many painstaking hours spend back in the attic sealing the existing connection as well as installing new flex duct to the new master suite.  

Unsealed duct joint

OUTDOORS

We never really got around to building the raised garden so Robert was nice enough to get my plants into some dirt.  The peppers may be struggling a bit, but the tomato plants and herbs seem to be taking off just fine.  Hopefully in the fall we can plant a bigger garden.  

Potted garden

A couple windy days eradicated all my hard work from a couple months ago.  So this is round two of spring raking.  We LOVE the trees in our front yard, but that doesn't mean that I am not slightly fearful of what fall raking is going to entail.  

Finally, the simple pleasures that didn't require any work on our part.  We were really happy to see a couple weeks ago that the last tree in the back yard was starting to bud.  This is the bigger and prettier Pecan tree in the backyard.  The rest of the trees, including the other pecan, had already begun to bud so we were beginning to worry, but it looks like it's coming to life.

They are small but there are buds