My Blue Door. Take Two.

It was about this time last year that I decided to paint the original front door blue. However with all the new construction that took place, the old front door ended up a little too small for the door frame, and rather drafty. We bought a new door (again about a year ago), and for some reason it has remained unpainted this whole time. That was until this weekend.....

After a month of visitors and minimal DIY, this weekend we had some time to get back to house projects. On the top of our list was paint the doors and windows before Winter arrived.

I got to work painting the front and back doors blue, Chris started painting the window frames white. The exterior is starting to look so much better than it did in the Spring. We plan on putting trim around the windows the same colour as the front door - thats on the list for next weekend!

The front door, as it has looked for about a year - note the plastic is still on the glass!

Back door prior to painting - note silly hand rail we had to install in order to meet 'code'.

Deep Royal paint - certainly looks brighter than the sample - hopefully it will be less bright once dry, otherwise we'll have one colourful house!

Finally - my blue front door!!

Lovely blue back door and a welly boot!

Chris painting the purple window frames white.

Chris using a razor blade to remove paint from window.

We have ordered a new garage door, so hopefully the plywood door, will be gone very soon!

My front door matches my French 332 sign!

White window frames!

Stucco

The outside of the house has been a complete wreck for quite sometime. Where the old house met the new foundation - quite a few patches appeared in the stucco. Plus adding and removing windows played a little havoc with the exterior. So we hired Sergio to fix it. The outcome was average. However with a nice new paint job, the house looks much brighter and cleaner than before. We plan to add trim around the doors and windows and paint them all blue. Should look nice!!!

Patchy and snowy

The outside had this black paper up over the winter - which kept it waterproof - but ugly.

New stucco going around the old stucco - pulling the old down and starting with a completely clean canvas would have been the ideal situation, but unfortunatley not in our price range!

Not a big fan of the texture!

New paint - starting to look better!

I spy Chris fixing the venting

Looking clean and fresh with the new paint - just need to get a garage door!

View from the back of the house - hazy background is smoke from the wildfires in AZ - its been like it all weekend!

Progress.

February 5th - this is how the house is coming along thus far.

• The whole of the upstairs has been drywall, primed and painted. There are a few touch ups we need to do in the kitchen but yesterday we finished the living area and corridor - colour True North - another off white!!
• The kitchen is here - most of the cabinets installed correctly (we need to move two cabinets down an inch - doesn't sound much but its a process!). All the appliances are here and in place - but not installed. 
• The template for the granite counter-top has been taken and is in production! 
• Washer and dryer here - again, in place - but not installed. 
• The lack of installation is due to the lack of gas and water. All pipes are in and heating system/hot water tank are in, but gas and water meters are not - therefore we continue to wait! 
• Carpets are installed in both bedrooms. 
• Home-made bathroom vanity is almost finished - just a little tiling left to do and the trim!
• Garage has been drywalled. Just need the fire door - and then its all enclosed!
• Banister around stairs is in. Whether it would withstand 200lb of force - as the 'code' requires, is another question!! Handrails cut to length -just need to screw in place!

The wonderful apron sink caused a few problems during installation into the sink base cabinet - but after a little stress and some resourceful DIY skills from Chris - we saved the sink base - and also got the sink level, sturdy and in place!!

Kohler sink - a wonderful retrieveful of Christian from a posh house in Vail!!

Banisters and guard rail up- the gaps have now been filled and it looks great.

The stairs were enclosed with dry wall

Mechanical room to the right - everywhere else storage right now!

Home-made vanity getting closer to being finished  - I glued all the small tiles to tile sheets - it only took about 15 hours!

Painting the corridor

Corridor painted

Living room painted - the blue tape is now off the window frames!!

 
The biggest thing that is holding us back is the gas meter - after three weeks of waiting - a lady from Excel came to the house yesterday. Apparently the meter is in an unsafe place -snow could fall off the roof and injure the gas-man who reads the meter - or ice could build up around the meter and cause a gas blockage - therefore even though for 40 plus years this wasn't a problem - we can't put the meter back. Our options were to build a 5ft by 3 ft roof over the meter - or remove all the snow that has built up against the house (probably 5 ft high and 3 ft wide) from the meter to the back of the house (approx. 30 ft). Then pay the gas company to dig a trench (into frozen ground, which would therefore need to be heated); and extend the gas pipes to the back of the house. We would also need to then pipe the pipes inside the house which are currently to the original meter, to the back of the house - an estimated cost of $4,000!!!!!! Therefore my wonderful husband busily got to work building an ovesized birdhouse roof to cover said meter!! With over 8 inches of snow last night, and its still coming down - erection of the roof is on hold. Hoping it will be completed by the end of the weekend - and we can then get the gas-man to come out and install the meter - without risk of getting hit in the head with a slab of icy snow off the roof!!

Once we get gas - we get water and heat!!!!!  That day cannot get here quick enough.

Bathroom

We are still waiting for water. The hold up is the gas meter. Until we have the gas meter we can't have gas. We need gas for the heating, and until we have heating in the basement, we can't have water, because the pipes will freeze! Pretty long winded, but hopeful we will have water by the end of the week.

While we wait for water, we have been working on the bathroom. Drywall, mudding, priming, painting, red guarding the shower, laying the hardi-backer, and starting the tiling. We came to a stand still with the tiling because when we went to use the tile cutter - we realised we needed a water supply - not just plastic bottles of water (which we used for the mortar). So we wait.

Chris sanding the drywall in the bathroom- nasty job

Starting to prime the walls - the red on the right is the red guard in the shower (waterproofs the cement board)

More priming

Starting to paint - colour - silver tradition.

Two coats of paint later and ready to mortar - and lay the hardi-backer

Hardi-backer down

Starting to lay the lovely limstone tiles!

Pleased with the outcome thus far.