Our trip to Milton in the beginning of July

On June 30, we traveled to Milton to work on the house one last time before we move. We stayed there for about 10 days working on the upstairs of our new house. During the week we Carl and I laid the unfinished oak flooring, pulled carpet out of Preston's room (the last of the carpet to be replaced upstairs), sealed/enhanced the slate floors in the kitchen, Carl started working on the new banister on the stairs, we laid carpet pad and Carl cut the carpet remnants that I purchased, so they will be ready to be stretched in the bedrooms. I also painted the molding in the bedrooms, and we added beadboard to the baby's room. We did a lot of work, but we are excited that the upstairs is looking good. While we are here in Medford, we are having the floors sanded and stained, as well as, having countertops installed in the kitchen. We are so excited to move back there in a few weeks so we can see our kitchen with countertops and a sink, as well as finished floors! It will be great to have a kitchen as well as to be able to move our furniture (that is all in the basement and garage currently, since we have moved most of our belonging back there already) into the living and dining areas. There will still be plenty of projects to work on when we arrive back (and Carl will be tackling most of these since I will have a new baby to take care of (whom should arrive any day now), as well as Preston. The bathroom upstairs is ripped up, although we have a functioning bathroom downstairs, and the stairs and banister will need to be finished, as well as having to stretch the carpet, and other finishing work like molding, a back splash, trimming out the door and windows in the kitchen, etc. But we look forward to all of the changes we are still to make upstairs and then we will be able to start on the downstairs remodel as well.

Carl is amazing at tackling all of these projects, whether he has done it before or not. He has a great talent and his work always turns out so wonderfully! It is amazing how much he has done on our new house in just a few trips that we have taken back there!

Preston loves to try to help him and plays with tools frequently. For a 2 year old, he knows so many names of tools. He can tell you different names of wrenches, for example, he remembers the difference between an Allen wrench and a socket wrench. Although he used to call it a loud drill, now he refers to it as an impact driver. He "helped" tap the wood into place as we put the wood floors down. He is a great help and wants to do everything like just like his dad. You know he is used to remodeling houses when we can go and fall asleep for a nap and sleep for hours, while we are nailing down wood floors, using the miter saw to cut the end pieces or when Carl is using the impact driver to put screws in the floors so that we don't have any squeaks.

New banister, with rod iron balusters, newel posts and railing that we will stain to match the floors. As you can see the old railing is still on the stairs (for safety) and once we arrive back in Milton, our stair treads will be stained so that Carl can put them on the stairs, and then add the new railing to match the landing.

Working on the balusters

No railing

Stair railing before

In the kitchen looking out

We are having our floors stained and here is the color

In the corner of the living room, looking back to the kitchen

Dining room with a newly painted walls (mirrors used to be on this wall)

Our beautiful unfinished oak floors

Around the fireplace, the wood is turned to highlight it (I think it was a nice design choice that Carl came up with)

A picture of when we first started the wood floors

Our bedroom with freshly painted molding and carpet pad that I put down

Here is a picture of the molding before painting

Here is what our carpet looks like that Carl will lay once we are back in Milton

Preston's room with freshly painted walls and molding (and new carpet pad down). The carpet will be the same as in our room.

Picture of Preston's room with old carpet and non-painted molding

Baby's room

Although hard to see, here is a picture of the baby's room and it has beadboard up. We still have to add the molding (chair rail and base to it). The carpet in this room will be just barely lighter than our and Preston's room