Ants, Sidewalks, Sanding and PRIMING!

We had a slight issue with ants crawling up a tree and onto the house. Jonny took a few minutes to remove their route.

The concrete trucks are back again, this time for the sidewalk.

Our new sidewalk! They had to tear out about 10 feet of newly poured driveway to do this- something about the slope not being quite right.

The pad in front of our steps.

The sidewalk after drying a little.

The pad from the other side.

Between Jonathan and Sarah, they have sanded every single wall and ceiling in the house in between the coats of primer. As you can tell, their arms are tired.

Not to mention finger cramps!

The first floor, all primed and ready for paint!

Next time you see it, expect some color!

So far we are at 50 gallons of paint and primer. It's great when you walk into the paint section and ask them to shake up 20 gallons of paint. They always give Sarah a funny look when she tries it, like "Can you even lift a 5 gallon bucket of paint?"

THE WHOLE HOUSE IS NOW PRIMED. COLOR HERE WE COME!

Drywall De-Dusting

So far one of the nastiest jobs has been removing the drywall dust from the walls for priming. Here are some pictures of the battle raged against the dust (PS. We won).

Jonathan, dressed for battle.

Looks like the dust was winning for a while.

We could make a shopvac infomercial. Sarah waged war against the floor.

Jonathan uses his long arms on the ceiling.

Using those calf muscles...

Jeff, worn out from spraying primer on the house.

"What is spraying like?"~Us

"It's like going into a cage fight, only one of you will come out alive." ~Jeff

The end result of the cage fight, a primed basement!

Get out your paintbrushes!

The upstairs primed (stairwell unfinished in the photo).

Master bedroom.

Jonathan and Sarah put up potential room colors. Conclusion: Frosted Lemon and Thar She Blows.

The power of directing traffic around the driveway project.

Jeff paints the first ceiling.

Driveway Part 2

We poured the first part of the driveway on Wednesday. The second part went in today.

The new driveway!

Finally, no more turning your ankles on big rocks!

What a beautiful sight!

Now, if only that big pile of dirt would go away.

Hmmm, I never would have known if the sign didn't tell me!

Drywall Progress and a water problem

The drywallers finished last week, so around the driveway project we're also working on the walls inside. We've primed a few rooms upstairs and only have the lounge and first floor left to de-dust.

This is what happens when you de-dust the drywall... Ghostly isn't it!

The dust gets stuck on every single hair on your arms and anywhere else it can!

The primer: so far we've put 4 gallons on. Here are the next 25!

The downstairs - It looks like a real house inside!

Having two houses on one lot is complicated. So to hook up the water in the new house, they disconnected water where we are living for "6-8 hours." The plumber and excavators did all their work, but the American Water people never showed up to move the meters. So we haven't had water in our house for almost 24 hours and their is still a huge trench in our yard.

The cause of all the problems...

The trench is still there.

Every few months we need a backhoe in the driveway. 

It reminds us construction is still going on.

Driveway Part 1

The day we've been waiting three years for: WE HAVE A DRIVEWAY! Or, at least the first half!

Jeff trimming the tree in anticipation of an electrical wire.

The chainsaw in the tree...

And the backhoe under the porte cochere. 

The driveway being prepped (they dug out two dump trucks worth of gravel).

Pouring the driveway.

A lake of concrete: NOT for swimming!

The driveway!

Hooray!

The siding is DONE!

Hurray! The siding is all done!

They finished the siding Tuesday, and then we washed the side of the house and did touch up work. Today the scaffolding came down and you can see what it looks like! The drywallers are finishing up too, so start planning your day trip to join Sarah's highly selective painting crew. To join, you must be able to hold a brush with your right hand and move it up and down...

Jeff holds up the last piece of siding.

Toby installs the last little piece. Ta-da!

The finished house!

Jeff, with the back of the house in the background.

The East side of the house.

We said goodbye to the port-a-potty today. I guess we'll never know how many people in the community used it in an emergency...

Jonathan, taking down the scaffolding.

Jeff looks tired of taking down the scaffolding.

If you think this looks hard, remember this is only half of the scaffolding that was up...

The back of the suburban makes an interesting mirror.

The back of the house, sans-scaffolding.

Jeff carries the scaffolding to the trailer.

Jonathan looks down imposingly.