Our River House Fixer Upper - Week 18

Where does the time go?  Weeks are flying by and August is almost over!  Initially we thought we would be done with most of this house by July...surely by August.  Then certainly by September.  Nope, not going to happen.  Can't say why our initial time frame was so off base. 😕

More scraping

I have plugging along with the continuous trim work.  Started and finished the large window in the dining room.  My mom keeps asking me "what have you done this week?"  and I keep telling her "still painting".  Which is then followed by "the house is not that big, you have been painting for months", which is then followed by "I know!"  

I wish the process was that simple...just paint it.  But it is the prep work with the trim that takes SO LONG!  It's a tedious job and my wrists are tired.  There are 19 windows in this house and each one was painted with latex over oil based paint without primer in between.  If you have been following, you will remember that means most of the paint has to be removed, because latex does not adhere to oil base paint if not sanded/prime properly first.  Whoever painted it previously just slapped the latex on without any prep and I suppose it looked good for a short while, but IT DOESN'T STAY ON!  I have completed 10 out of 19 windows.   Oh, and the trim around doors and floors and ceilings must be done too, because 'whoever' painted that as well. 😧😧😧

Window trim scraping

Floor trim

More of the same, it goes on and on

That is why is takes so long.  I scrape as much of the paint as I can get off, then I sand with coarse and fine sandpaper.   I can then tape off the area and get ready for priming with a primer made for latex over oil based paint.  It is then ready for painting!   I am surprised I have come this far since April!

We finally made a choice for our counter top, and ordered it this week.  Should be arriving in about 10 days.  The captain has been working on our kitchen island frame.  It is SOLID!  He tells me that if we have a tornado or hurricane, the inside of the island is our "shelter".  Tells me "one of those huge pecan trees out back could fall on it and it ain't going anywhere".  Ok, so we know where to go in case of imminent storm threat.

Island beginnings

Another view

Progressing along

Making sure it is level

It is not cabinetry style built, as the shape along with the post (which is a structural support for the back of the house) prohibits having cabinet storage underneath.  And our range will be housed in this island.  So really, cabinets would have been very time consuming and extremely hard to match the new kitchen cabinets.  But we will have a decent sized island, with plenty of surface area...(and somewhere to hide out in case of severe weather threat! 😉)

I park my car there sometimes!!

Joking aside,  we did have a storm pass over a couple of nights ago.  Lots of rain and lightning and apparently some wind.  Woke up to this large limb in our driveway.  This limb fell out of our neighbor's pecan tree and it's a good thing I did not park in the drive that night!  Our other neighbor asked to remove it as he is going to use the wood for his smoker/cooker.  So good use of the debris.

All in all, a busy week.  We are coming along and although it is hard work, we are enjoying our accomplishments.  

Until next time...

Enjoy!