As the days fly by, progress is being made on the house. The girls volunteered to tackle Joseph’s cabinets. The cabinets were sanded and now they are being painted: a total of three coats, one primer and two final.
You have to understand Saturday was not a cool day. But, I didn’t hear one single word of complaint from my incredible sisters. Way to go, girls!
Joseph designed a great way to hang the cabinet doors so the paint could dry.
Jesse caulked the doors.
The guys replaced windows.
The house is really taking shape!
In order to be able to access behind the shower during installation in the master bath, Joseph had to cut a hole in the kitchen wall so he could work there.
Hello! 🙂
Dad continues painting.
John drove his truck into the back yard, so Jesse could unload tile there.
Joseph working on replacing the shower faucet in the master bath.
The girls worked all day on the cabinets Saturday, finishing up the primer coat and applying the first real coat. It seemed there were no “new” pictures to take: they were often in the same position, doing the same thing! When the guys came in for dinner, the word they used to describe the cabinets was: “BEAUTIFUL!”
Christopher was a true blessing. If you know Christopher, you know how incredible he is to pitch in and do whatever needs to be done, adding his spark of life to it.
Jesse mixing thinset which goes under the Hardiebacker.
This one you might have to look at for a little while to figure it out. The shot was taken by putting the camera in the “trap door” hole and looking up. Joseph had crawled back in and was helping the shower to clear the faucet as it was lowered into its final position.
Very exciting to see the shower in place and the Hardiebacker on the floor ready to tile.
Dining room ready for tile!
“Behold, how good and how pleasant
it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!”
–Psalms 133:1
Great job everyone!!! Love seeing it all take shape! That “chocolate” color in the kitchen/dining room will look so awesome with the white cabinets! Can’t wait to see the end result! Thanks for sharing!
It’s really coming together. You guys are fast, and with the wedding in the fall, I guess you have to be! Keep it up.
I am getting so excited, I can hardly wait to see the finished house. I am excited to hear about a wedding date. Congradulations!
Go family- you guys are storming through this project. How many bedrooms is it? Is it split level or two story? I have been trying to see but i have been forgetting to read all the comments so you probably have answered it. :)Another great job Sarah, Thanks
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3 bedroom, split entry
As usual, I am in awe at what your family can accomplish as you work together! Elizabeth is one very blessed young lady to be marrying a young man such as Joseph who has such a wonderful work ethic and such a supportive, helpful family. Love the pics, keep them coming;)
Blessings,
Kelly
Great job, All! Amazing what gets accomplished when everyone pitches in! Will the upper cabinets get a coat of paint to match, or have Joseph and Elizabeth decided on a different finish? I have seen it done in magazines and various home tours here, and it turns out very pretty and gives cabinets a custom makeover look. I have also seen where you can secure decorative curtain finials to the bottom corners of the cabinet for the custom furniture look that is popular now.
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Currently the plan is white for top and bottom.
Everything looks great! I’m curious on the tile for the flooring. I was wondering how it is to keep clean and how tough is it when it comes to things being dropped on it? We’ve considered using tile but don’t know very much about it.
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Suzy, We really like tile. You don’t have to replace it like carpet. We did at Joseph’s house because it was a very poor install and it would have needed it soon anyway. Since we are the labor, it is cheaper than carpet. We have never broken a tile, because we buy porcelain. However, you are correct, if you drop a lot of things, a significant percentage of the things dropped will break, but not everything. Frankly, over the years, breaking something is a rare occurrence. We maintain it in a similar fashion to vinyl.
It looks like you all have been super busy.You have done an amazing job so far!I love seeing the progress of Joseph’s house.Thank you for sharing.
I love the way you all are tackling this huge job with such a positive spirit–the Lord’s love shines through each of you. 🙂 Sarah, thank you again for the wonderful job you do on this blog–your photos and comments are great!
p.s. In this summer heat, I hope all the workers are making sure to drink plenty of water. 🙂
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At least the inside work is air conditioned.
Thank you for sharing the photos of the progress you are making on Joseph and Elizabeth’s house. A great learning experience and keeping the cost down too.
Great pictures! We love seeing all of the updates. Thank you so much for posting them!
And…out of experience, I want to suggest doing a clear coat on the cabinets. We did a cabinet makeover about 5 years ago and by the time we got to the end, I decided to skip the coat. Well, after that amount of time, wear and tear definitely left their mark. So, I went to re-paint some of the spots and the paint color on the cabinets had aged as well! Time for a new paint match!!! Then, a friend sweetly came over and we washed and clear-coated all of the cabinets. Now, there are not as many worries that it will suffer more damage. Just my two cents!
Blessings!
Annie H.
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Thank you. Did you use latex or oil enamel on the cabinets?
Sarah, you are doing a fabulous job of keeping us all up-to-date on the progress of Joseph and Elizabeth’s home. I can only imagine that Elizabeth and her family were wishing to be nearer and hlep in the remodel too. For me, I look at all this work and it inspires me to get busy looking for our new home and jumping into making some changes, although I am not as talented in knowing what to do as your brothers are–they have truly been given a gift. Speaking of which, do Joseph and John still have their remodel business?
Mr. Phil is not doing well, and in fact, the cancer is now returned and worse than it’s been these past 7 years. He has two inoperable tumors and radiation did nothing to shrink them, and he is now on chemo every Friday (12-16 hours every Friday, and I of course, do go with him and stay with him.) We have 22 steps from our driveway to our front door, which is the only entrance to our home from the outside and the stairs are a problem, just as they were for mom, so we are looking for a new home with an inlaw (AUD, which it is now called). Zak, my son here in Seattle, is thankfully going to go in on the new house with us, and he will live in the AUD, which we are hoping is at least 2 bedrooms, and large enough for all his pianos, including his grand piano. It is an answer to prayer that Zak suggested/offered to put renters in his current home, and buy into the new home with us and live there too so I can get out once in a while. I still have mom I enjoy visiting a few evenings a week, my piano lessons, and errands in general.
I am so sorry this is so long.
Blessings, Mrs. Mari
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The boys have focused on their computer work for awhile now as it has much better returns for their time and is easier on the body longterm. We are very sorry to hear about PHil’s condition. We will pray for him.
I am amazed at how quickly it is coming along. Of course many hands make work light, and enjoyable when spending time with loved ones. We like to do all our own labor as well. My wonderful husband is willing to tackle any project, even if it isn’t something we have done before. Not only does it save money, but more so it makes time productive, and we all learn useful things to help others with as well. We haven’t gutted a house as far down as you have but always a possibility in the future – haha. Thanks for all the wonderful pictures.
You have done so much in such a short time! Great job everyone!
What tips can you give us for painting cabinets? Do you use oil or latex, gloss or semi-gloss? Also, can you tell us how you hang the doors to dry?
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We have had good success with Benjamin Moore Satin Impervo oil enamel. First, lightly sand, fill cracks with chaulk, sand if necessary, then primer. Either Kilz oil or latex. We prefer oil over the latex on this. Then Impervo. Then sand very lightly, then the final coat. Put a screw in one of the old screw holes, attach a wire to it and hang by wire over a bar to dry. When painting use Painter’s helpers which are pyramids which hold the work while you are painting. First paint the back and then flip over and paint front. When you pick it up by the wire you will need to slightly touch up the places that supported it.
I enjoy reading your blog for the positive message of family values it always portrays. What a blessing to have family all around to help with whatever is needed and no one argues or complains. Perhaps you all do not hear enough what a rarity that is in today’s world and your family deserves praise for this. I am on my own in the world with 2 small children and it is often a struggle so seeing your family does my heart good and I pray my children will have families like yours someday.
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If that means you are a single mommy, then I’m very sorry as that is a difficult road. We are blessed to know you are encouraged.
About the paint, it looks like we used latex. Now, I’m sure your family with all of your experiences know what is best to use. I can’t say that I do! We do a lot on our own around our home, and we learn a lot each time! 🙂
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We used an oil based enamel that has proven itself very durable.
Thanks, Sarah, for posting the pictures and the progress update on Joseph’s house. We are always encouraged by your family’s team effort and how much you can accomplish together!
With love and prayers from NJ
Lisa and Hannah
My husband and I have been looking at the pictures-really impressive. My husband pointed out that we wouldn’t be able to do most of this in the UK-electrics have to be done by an electrician, window frames by a certified installer and domestic gas by a certified contractor. This, plus the housing costs-average cost of a house is £161000 outside London (ie about $251500) and double this in London mean that it is very difficult for young people to buy, at all, let alone debt free. Not easy when thinking about the future for our children. Still, the Lord owns the cattle on a thousand hills.
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In the US if it is your house you can do the work and have it inspected by the city. You will find that young people can buy homes debt free as it is mostly dependent on the choices they make growing up.
I am really enjoying the posts about Joseph’s house. My husband and I renovated our house (the house was built in 1972 and when we bought it, five years ago, it had not been updates since 1972…so there was a lot of work to be done) and we did all the work ourselves with our two boys and some help from my in-laws. We were blessed to have access to my father-in-laws extensive tool collection and blessed to have the time and money to complete as much of the renovation as we did. My husband went back to school (after we bought the house) and he just graduated with an engineering degree and is working so now we have the means to finish the jobs we could not afford to do the first time around. Although we do not own the house debt-free like Joseph, we much preferred to wait until we could pay for the renovations outright rather than borrowing to do them. I appreciate the amount of work and discipline and skill that goes into a renovation like this. Also, we painted our cabinets the first time around because we did not have the budget for new cabinets, but now that we can afford it we’re having the cabinets redone with pull-outs and new doors. Not just for looks, though…the kitchen is very small and the pull-outs will improve our storage immensely. As always, I love to read your posts!
Julie