Last Few Weeks

These past few weeks have been, to put it mildly, crazy for us here at the Martin household. We're scrambling to get the Telford house into at least liveable condition before we officially move there on 12/28. It won't be finished - Andrew still has some finishing work to do - but we will make it work. I have also been preoccupied with packing our entire house up for the big move. What a task! But...what a blessing in disguise to have had so many boxes already packed from our three or so "supposed" moves back in 2007 that never happened. I can't imagine the job if I didn't already have about 50 or more boxes packed in our garage! So, all in all, it will be a hectic month for us but we'll survive and we're excited for what 2009 will bring once we are all moved.

Here are the boys "helping" me pack.

And here are a few current photos from Telford; I took the boys for a short visit this morning to see what's been done all week. Ben found out that our painter was working there today so he wanted to bring his own paintbrush and wear his white cap (since our painter always wears a white cap). Here is Ben in front of the master vanity that Andrew and a friend recently installed. They had to rework the plumbing and the vanity and faucets are new so it was fun for me to see it out of the box, installed and in working order.

This bathroom previously had horrible lighting. Talk about shadows in all of the wrong places! So, Andrew installed 4 mini recessed eyeball lights. What an improvement!

Here's the master bedroom again, this time totally finished and the drop cloths have been removed from the floor so you can get a good feel for the final outcome of this room. The only thing missing is the french doors between the bedroom and the sitting area; they were painted and just need to be reinstalled.

Last but not least, here is the finished stairwell that Andrew hand-built going up to the attic. We'll be getting the whole attic area carpeted as soon as possible, now that the stairs and landing are rebuilt.

More Progress

I'm not able to get over to the house to do work very often since I usually have the kids in tow, but with our move quickly approaching I decided to get up really early this morning and head over myself to get a few things done. So I was at the house by 5:45AM this morning. Seriously. Yes, I know this sounds certifiably insane to most of you but it works out so that I can get in a good chunk of time without the kids and without cutting into Andrew's work time as well (and also without having to pay a babysitter). So I got 6 hours of work in before lunchtime!

What I did is thoroughly scrub down the kitchen and powder room cabinets, line the kitchen drawers and powder room drawers with contact paper and do some other miscellaneous tasks. Believe me, this is a dirtier and more tedious job than it sounds! We do have our babysitter coming next Sunday and now that I have everything cleaned up, I will plan to start bringing over some boxes of kitchen things and other odds and ends for the built-in cabinetry so that we can get some stuff moved prior to Moving Day on 12/28.

While there, I was able to check up on Andrew and the painters' progress these past few days. Here are some photos:

The master bedroom is just about complete. They just have to touch up the woodwork a little, paint the inside of the closet and rehang the french doors and it will be done. Here are two photos. It looks so nice newly painted with the refinished floor!


Last but not least, here is Andrew's project of the week, truly the last piece of minor construction that needs to be done: he is rebuilding the stairwell to the attic (guest room and loft). I didn't even know you could do this, but Handy Andy knows best! The problem was that there was no landing at the top of the stairs and the way the stairs were layed out was quite dangerous. It needed to be reworked at a different angle.

As you can see, Andrew and his friend Joel who helps him a few times a week have hand-built the two stringers on either side (are you impressed that I knew that word?). Then, the stairs and the risers are laid on top of the stringers, making a new staircase. We will be keeping the door off at the base of the stairs to make this guest area feel more a part of the house and less closed off. There's a door in the attic into the actual guest room so privacy shouldn't be an issue. at the base of the stairs, we'll add an extension railing to the few extra feet that the new stairwell now sticks out past the banister. Andrew should get this project done over the next day or two and after that we can get all of the areas in the house to be carpeted, including the attic, done at once.

Final Countdown

The final countdown is on until we move in to the house - just a few more weeks to go! The place will not be entirely finished by that point but it is definitely fine to live in while Andrew finishes up the rest of the work. With today's real estate market being the way that it is, we didn't have the option to be selective with our closing date when an offer came up. So, we'll make do.

The painters are at the house for the next few weeks finishing up the majority of the rooms. They have just about completed Nate's room and have painted one side of the master suite. Here are some photos of those two and I will hopefully have some more this weekend.

Master bedroom in Danville Tan.

Nate's room in Hawthorne Yellow.

We're Moving!

We are very happy to announce that we have a buyer for our current house and are just in the processof finalizing the paperwork. They want a 30-day closing so we are scheduled to close on 12/31. So that gives us a few weeks to get packed up and move our stuff over to the new house. Andrew is getting a few more gray hairs than necessary trying to finish it in the next three weeks :). It's not entirely finished but we could definitely live there comfortably at this point so we are trying to remain calm and collected as we start this phase of our journey. We will keep everyone posted on Andrew's progress these next few weeks and also on our move!