let there be bathing
took a while, but the tub and sink are done! the guy came late due to some scheduling issues but offered to stay late to finish up (didn't leave til after 9). the results are no less than amazing. the sink is ... white. real, honest to goodness white. the tub is ... white. and smooth. they really did a nice job. we'll let it cure tomorrow and reinstall all the hardware on Friday. which works well considering it is literally hard to breathe in there now ... them's some serious fumes. wow. here's some shots (including the Toby-proofing of the bathroom ... which reminds me, the blog world has never been introduced to Tobias the cat, maybe in the next post). 

i didn't get as far as hoped in the kitchen today, but making progress and thank goodness i'm done caulking (hopefully). since i can't get into the bathroom yet it works out ok. i did get stocked up on supplies this morning (switches, wire, etc.) so Friday should be a productive day up there. siding work continued also, north side today. 3 painters were out too. i think they're getting close to done on the windows except for some caulking and touch-up of the trim.

tomorrow (later today technically), there will be turkey. and there will be much rejoicing.
east side + new inside projects
well, our contractor had a slow stretch again ... weather (cold, rain, blah blah). back at it again today. working on getting the east caught up. here's where that is at along with a new shot of the west side in better lighting. hopefully they take advantage of the upcoming good weather ... we want it done!

i'm off this week and the week of Dec. 8 (needed to use some vacation time) so am working on some projects around the house. first task is finally finishing the kitchen. kind of burned out/procrastinated on it and didn't finish up that last ~5% last winter. so, the first part of the week has been dedicated to that. mostly little stuff like touch-up painting (incl. some cracks from the work going on outside), caulking trim/wainscotting (about 3 tubes worth), finishing door jambs, installing crown moulding, putting on the new pantry door and the false front over the sink, etc. my first crown moulding experience went ok (did that this afternoon). after i figured out how to accurately set my crown stops things went nicely. some corners are slightly off which i blame on non-square corners (i checked, they aren't square). the walls are actually miraculously not straight or square. i don't know how a wall gets to have so many ridges and valleys in it ... i don't care how old it is. but hey ... caulk! i hope to get the kitchen done (except the panty door which isn't out of the basement paint shop yet) tomorrow.
after the kitchen is done, on to bathrooms. the upstairs tub and pedestal sink are being reglazed (should be done tomorrow) and will get purdy new hardware after thats done, including adding an overhead shower (hanging curtain rod). the refinisher described the bottom of the tub as "looks like Mars". it appears that the wonderful past owners (or their tenants) dumped a bucket full of drain cleaner in there with a drain totally clogged, so the gigantic puddle of powerful chemicals just sat there and ate deep grooves into the surface. then (oh yes, it gets better), they painted over it. love them. love. them. anyway, it'll be fixed properly and be all smooth and shiny soon. in order to use that shower long term, i'll need to add an exhaust fan up there as we aren't fans of mold. we'll also do some misc. repairs (including some cracks and a hole from the siding project) and repaint, but come back later for the full workover (trim, reconfigured closet, floors, toilet, etc.). instead i'll move down to the downstairs bath and completely gut that room and start over (yeah, it's that bad there). had to wait for a functional upstairs shower to start ... and boy can we not wait to be rid of our "enchanted" shower. if you've had the pleasure of using it, you understand. we're planning on a small tiled walk-in shower ... new vanity, toilet, tile floor, trim, etc. we will in no way miss the old bathroom ... it was a poster-child of poor craftsmanship. i sum it up with "ugh".
so that's the plan ... i'll try to keep pictures and updates coming. for now, here's a pic of the kitchen crown. disregard the many nail holes in the upper right. the chimney is behind there and the ceiling very poor ... so couldn't get any nails to grab. again, "yeah caulk!"
west side almost done
... they just need to do the soffits to finish trimming out the top few rows. east side is about 1/2 done. north side is done to the soffits also. red accent on the window sashes is starting to show up. yippee!
siding update (let there be color)
last week the contractor was really slow ... a couple rain days didn't help either. they finished some misc sheathing/building wrap items (e.g. behind the electric panel) and got about a dozen pieces of trim up. today finally we had a good burst of work ... some more trim and a decent amout of actual siding! good to see some color hit the walls.
speaking of color, here's an "artist's" rendition of the finished product: