Time to Catch Up!

Well I fell victim to the stresses of licensing board exams that come with 4th year of dental school and this poor little blog sure did get neglected! Dental licensing boards are something I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. It was the most pressured, anxiety-filled situation I have ever experienced. But I am now finally on the other side with official passing status.. Woo-Hoo! Just a few more signatures and a walk across the stage before I'm an official D.M.D! 

So now, with my full undivided attention back to the project site, it's time to give you a little update on what's been happening over at Project B in my absence!

Remember this project list? 

We are getting things checked off little by little, although it seems things somehow keep getting added as well. But with a move-in date looming in the near future we are working on this list full speed ahead to try to get this place in move-in condition! 

Here are some of the things that have been happening lately:

1. B Street experienced it's first (to us) major snow and looked beautiful! 

2. My Dad has been hard at work on some major building projects around the house. Here are a few sneak peeks of what he's been working on:

3. We went to the "Southern Home and Garden Show" hoping to get some ideas on our upcoming projects. It's really kind of sad how excited we got about this show. It's a huge convention center full of vendors such as flooring specialists, granite companies, patio services, electricians, and even some delicious food samples that we may or may not have made lunch out of. :) We left with tons of great ideas and some free consults. We also were able to make a decision on the granite company we want to use for our kitchen counters and decided on a slab color (I think.) We even scored a free upgraded fancy edging on the granite just for attending the home show.. score! 

4. My brother-in-law, Robbie, spent a few afternoons helping us with some electrical work and we are forever grateful! I've learned that electrical work is not cheap but also not something to try to "DIY" if you don't know what you're doing. (Apparently the risk of fires and electrocution are just not something you leave to chance.. ) Robbie works in Athletic Facilities department at Clemson and knows a thing or two about electrical work so he offered to help us out! We were able to re-wire some things, add a few light switches, and even install some brand new can lights which I am pretty much obsessed with. (Blog post to come.) We also started getting a lot of our fixtures hung back up after we took everything down for the ceiling work back at the beginning of this project. Something about having light fixtures hung has made the house start feeling a little more like home rather than a construction site! 

So that's what's been happening at Project B the past few weeks! We are working hard at getting some of these last few projects finalized and we have a few more big projects left including hardwood floors and some kitchen work that we plan on doing before move-in. Check back soon! 

Picture Molding, a Chin-Up Bar, and the Final Popcorn

A few weeks ago we had a carpenter come out and do some odds and ends tasks for us!

Picture Molding:
The crown molding in our living room had this really odd look in that it was not flush with the ceiling but was instead dropped from the ceiling about an inch. When I first noticed it I thought it was at one time intended to be flush with the ceiling and things had just settled over the years causing the strange gap. Turns out, though, that this type of molding is a real thing that people install intentionally. It's called "Picture Molding" and it is commonly seen in houses of this age.

Our carpenter told us that years ago walls used to be made out of plaster and that driving a nail into plaster to attempt to hang a picture was pretty much impossible. So instead, they would install their molding with about an inch drop from the ceiling, just enough space to attach a hook onto to hang their portraits. Oh the trivia you can learn form old houses.

No worries, our walls are NOT made of plaster, and there is definitely no longer a need for this type of molding, as I don't think I'll be hanging any pictures from it. And although it is a neat story and probably does have some character value, the one-inch gap was really just not appealing to me. So we decided to have it taken down and replaced with a more traditional crown molding. 

Our ceilings/dry-wall guy took down the molding while he was doing the dry-wall work: 

And a few weeks ago we had Chris put up some brand-new crown molding:

Completely flush with the ceiling!

And the painted finish:

The Chin-Up Bar:

The entry way to our kitchen had this lovely bar going across the top that the previous owners used to show off their tea-pot collection. :) 

During one of our many brainstorming sessions on what all we wanted to do with this house, we came up with the idea to fill in this entry way and frame it in with a casing. Although Adam was really wanting to keep this bar as his own personal chin-up bar, he got overrode on this one. We also decided to continue this crown through the kitchen since the top trim on the cabinets had started to settle in some places and come away from the ceiling. 

 Here is Chris knocking down the old trim.

 And the lovely popcorn ceiling underneath.

 You can see where the cabinets have settled creating a separation.

The bar knocked down and filled in with dry-wall!

The brand new crown and casing in place!

And the painted finish:

I know most of you were really on the edge of your seat wondering why I left that top piece of trim the original cabinet color when I posted the painted cabinet pictures... now you know why!!

The Final Popcorn:

When Drywall Steve smoothed our ceilings there was a small spot above the hallway linen cabinet that he knew would be impossible to smooth. For some reason, the cabinet was built just about 4 inches short of the ceiling and it was impossible to reach any type of tools into that space to get it smooth. So we decided to conceal this final section of popcorn by extending the cabinet to the ceiling with a larger piece of crown molding. 

And the painted finish:

Looks like it has always been there!!

We used Chris Moffatt for all of these projects. He was great to work with and we were really pleased with his work. I would definitely recommend him if you need any trim carpentry work done in the Upstate area!! Let me know if you would like his contact info! 

We are slowly but surely getting things checked off that project list!!