This job was my most challenging so far!  The first day I wanted to cry....BUT! I dug deep and went to Lowe's and bought a fantastic gadget that made my life much easier!  A wallpaper steamer remover....a wonderful invention that truly works.  You have to let it warm up for about 20 minutes, but once it gets to that magic temperature it does the trick!  Wallpaper removal is a long and tedious job, but the reward is worth it.  The homeowner was so pleased once he saw the flowers and fruit gone and a beautiful gold color on his dining room walls.  Beautiful!  A total of three rooms were transformed from drab and outdated to bright and cheery with some redesign work thrown in the mix.  It was a most satisfying job and I am sorry that it is over.  I really enjoyed this project and hope that the homeowner at some point will hire me to come back and paint two guest rooms which could use a fresh look with color.  I learned a hard lesson these past two weeks......patience and steam are the key elements in removing wallpaper!!!!  :)

So glad that wallpaper is GONE!!!!

Look what is happening!  We have about three more days and the project will be complete!  It is coming right along.  Below you will see the roof going up and walls being prepared for the screens.  By end of this week the screens will be in place, roof complete, all electrical and fixtures installed, screen doors installed, porch floor stained and gas grilled hooked up!  Check back in a week and you will see a complete project!!!!!

Looking great!  The walls are going up and the deck is complete.  The brick wall is an awesome touch for the base of the walls. Once the walls are up for the screens to be attached to them the guys will start on the roof. Before the roof can be erected a 30' laminated beam will be placed on top of the porch walls to support the roof structure.   They still have a good week or more before the project will be complete.  The electrician has to get the outlets in place and the fans installed in the ceiling once the porch is completely constructed.  The owners want  track lighting between the two ceiling fans so they can move the lights to the appropriate areas of the porch as they need them. The plumber will make his way back to attach the gas line to the owner's new grill which he plans to place on his new deck.  We have the roofer to come and install the shingles once the decking is finished.   The very last detail will be the staining of the concrete and a finish coat of poly.  Beautiful it will be!!!  MId-next week more pics!

Got to make it perfect so it will fit!!!! 

As you can see the guys are moving right along with the project.  The brick wall will be complete tomorrow as well as the deck.   Next on the agenda will be to start on the walls of the porch.  They will be constructed on top of the two foot brick wall.  I cannot wait to see that started!!!  I took a picture of the etching on the concrete floor for you to see what it looks like before it is stained.  Check back with us by Friday and you will see another big change in the project.  Stayed tuned once again!!!!

Look at what the boys are up to now!   The guys set the posts in concrete for the front of the porch and the deck.  You may now be able to determine where the deck will be built.  On Friday the brick layer will be at the site and also the concrete guy who will score the concrete floor.  For those who don't know what that means is that he will bring a machine in and etch lines in the concrete which when he is finished it will look like a tile floor.  He is going to make a design all the way around the edge of the room and then etch the floor into 3' X 3' tile designs.  Once the porch is constructed he will come back and stain and seal the floor with a deep coca cola color.  Lots of red and brown shades in it with a swirl effect.  The brick layer will start building a brick wall on the concrete floor all around the edge of the porch that will be 2' tall.  The brick layer has been shown where the owners want outlets installed by the electrician, so he will need to install empty outlet boxes inside the brick wall as he builds the walls so the electrician can run the electricity to the porch at the appropriate time. Once that is complete then the guys will put a wood plate on top of the brick wall to build the screened porch.  So many stages to this project.  While the brick layer is working his magic, Aaron, Wes and Phil will be constructing the deck.  Check back by mid-next week and you will see a huge difference in this project!!!!

Here we go!!!! 
The fun stuff has just begun!!!  The boys removed some 260 16" X 16" brick tiles out of sand and muck and hauled them down to the barn to start the job.  They then removed sand and soil to prepare the ground for the footer and concrete slab.  Once the space was cleaned out they installed footers and then hauled in rock for the base.  The last piece to the puzzle was to install wire to keep the concrete from cracking once the concrete has cured.  WOW!  Lots of steps to go through to get some concrete poured!  Today the concrete was delivered which is the good news.  The bad news is that they had to get it to the site by hauling one wheelbarrow at time. The truck could not get to the site for fear of tearing up the owner's yard. The guys were dragging by the time they got it all dumped into place.  When I left them they were dragging a long board across the concrete to make sure that the floor was going to be level and found that they were going to need at least another yard of concrete to be delivered.  So.....that's when I left!  Phil was on the phone with the concrete plant and was ordering some more concrete to be brought to them as soon as possible.  I will update you tomorrow on how things turned out and have a couple of more pics for you to see the finished product!  NEXT.....check back and see what is next!!!!!  

Organizing is a huge task when lots of time has elapsed with working all day and all other duties that involve in being a spouse, caretaker, taxi cab driver!, and not being able to say NO when someone asks you for your help.  I started a job this week helping a family make sense of what seemed confusing to them.  They needed closet space and every inch of each closet was packed.  Some things not needed any more, some things just needed to be organized in a space that could be easily gotten to.  What ever the need was we got started and in three and half days we made great progress!  Of course, when you start a project like this, one thing leads to another...so it is not as easily done as one would think and it takes much more time than you can imagine.  But when that closet gets organized and you can go right to what you want without digging and pulling half of the closet out to get that one item....WOW....what a feeling!  You even find space to put those books, pictures and treasures that are laying around in your home.  If you are living in clutter and have bulging closets and don't want to tackle it by yourself, call me.  I would love to help you.  You will be surprised how happy and peaceful it will make you feel when your home is organized and free of clutter.  Make it happen today!!!!!