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Welcome to The Kester House & Garden Project!

This site has been created to document our rather in-depth home renovation project. Friends and family ask about the status from time to time, so this will serve as a place to keep track of our progress. I also use the site as a place to store photos, plans, and technical information (like paint colors, etc.) so I can find that information when I need it.

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The bedroom has something other than plastic covered insulation for walls!

If you're visiting the site for the first time, after having a look at this Welcome page I recommend reading the House and Inspiration sections before you dive right in, so you'll have an idea of what we started with and what we're hoping to end up with. I've been writing about the project in the order we've been working on it, so the Garden sections would be next, followed by the Exterior sections and finally the Interior sections.

I often add new information or photos to various sections, so the News section below will always have links to the latest updates. There's also a Table of Contents at the bottom of this page with a brief description of every page on the site. Additionally, if you're looking for information about a particular project, you may find the table available on the Project Timeline useful, since you may click on the project name to go directly to the information regarding that specific work.

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2024.07.20
The House: With the walk-in closet/laundry room mostly finished, the next step to make progress on the interior was to move all of the tool & supplies bins and the stack of Ikea® bedroom furniture boxes in to the living room to leave the bedroom clear for wall work. I then got all the gypsum wall board for the bedroom and tokonoma walls installed, and started taking care of plastering everything to ready the bedroom for finish work. The work order is to get the plaster work done on the bedroom side of the closet and bathroom walls, then get those walls primed for wallpaper (which will allow me to get the last of the wallpaper up in the closet/laundry room, as some of it will wrap around onto the bedroom side of the closet walls). Before I can get the last of the wallpaper up however, I need to finish the bedroom perimeter walls with textured plaster, paint, and glaze, which is what I'm working on now.
This workflow has been slightly delayed for a couple of reasons: The first was that I received two summons for jury duty this Summer! The first was for the Massachusetts Superior Courthouse up in Lawrence, MA in the middle of June, then I received a second summons for the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts in Boston, which is an on-call summons that runs for three weeks starting on July 7th. Joy. After spending most of a day waiting at the Lawrence courthouse, those of us that were left were let go by mid-afternoon after they had selected enough jurors and alternates to proceed with the trial the next day. Even though I had fulfilled my service for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, that doesn't qualify one to be excused from the U.S. District Court summons unless one is impaneled and serves for five or more days. That meant I had to call the district court office each Friday to determine if I was required to report the following Monday for service. I didn't have to report for the 7th, but when I called on the 12th I was told to show up at 8 a.m. on the 15th (and getting to the courthouse in Boston would require leaving before 6 a.m. to catch a commuter rail in to Boston, then a subway, and then a bus - not fun). Thankfully, I received a call from the district court office on Saturday telling me that the case was no longer going to proceed, and that my U.S. District Court jury service had now been fulfilled. Phew!
The other delay/diversion from wall work was that I got a call from my friend with the pick-up truck to say he was going to be around for a couple days while the rest of his family extended their stay with relatives in the midwest, so he thought it might be a good time to get all the 1/4" plywood for the ceiling, and run everything through his table saw while his kids weren't around. A couple days later I had a stack of 15 sheets of 1/4" plywood that had all been cut into 16-inch wide strips and proper lengths for all the finish ceiling work for the bedroom and living room. With all that stock available, I could adjust my interior workflow a little to really make some good progress for the bedroom and living room. Once the bedroom wall paint and wallpaper work is done, the new plan is to then install the finish ceiling in that space, which will then allow me to install the finish flooring for the closet/laundry room and the bedroom. That will allow me to then install the remaining trim for the closet, and all the trim for the bedroom - which means I'll finally be able to assemble and place all the Ikea® furniture and stop moving those damn boxes all the time!
So, I now spend time each day getting stain and clear coat applied to a few of the ceiling panels (I can't do them all at once, as there simply isn't anywhere to work on more than a couple at a time inside the house, and it's way to hot and humid to do finish application to this stuff out side). Then I spend a little time sanding and plastering the bedroom walls to get those ready for paint. Things are moving along slowly but steadily, and I expect to start wall paint work before the end of the month. All good progress.
The Site: Other than this rather lengthy status update, the only real change to the site this time around was to create a new News Archive page to get all the 2023 News Updates off this welcome page. That is all for now.

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2024.06.30
The House: It's been a busy couple of months getting most of the work done for the walk-in closet/laundry room. It started with a visit from the building inspector to ensure the new bearing wall between the closet and bedroom is correct (it is). Next, all the wallboard was installed, and it also got the full "textured plaster" treatment on the ceiling and the two perimeter walls. Everything was then primed and painted, using my glazing method to bring out the plaster work (and finding glaze was no picnic, apparently faux finishes for interior walls are no longer in style). The partition walls between the closet, bathroom, and bathroom also got their grasscloth wallpaper applied, then I milled up all the trim and got that finished and installed. All this stuff allowed me to finally get the washer & dryer put into their "final" position, then get the wall cabinets installed on the wall with the laundry equipment. The only thing left for that room now is to put down the new flooring and install the baseboard trim – although that work will have to wait until the wallboard work is done for the rest of the bedroom, and likely for the finished ceiling to get done in there too.
The latest on the replacement VW Vanagon is that it's pretty much done. We need to take the Cabriolet in for some brake work next week, and we'll get the Vanagon as a "loaner vehicle" for a few days while the brake work gets taken care of. The only thing left for the Vanagon at this point is to give the undercarriage a coat of P.O.R. 15, then hit it all with some undercoating. It'll be interesting to see if I remember how to drive a Vanagon – it's been a few years!
The Site: All the latest work for the closet/laundry room has been added to a couple of new sections in the Bedroom page within the Interior section. The wallboard work is briefly described in the section on Gypsum Wall Board, then I added lots of description and photos of the Wall & Ceiling Finish Work, followed by another section regarding the Trim & Cabinet Installation. Of course, I've also updated the Project Timeline and the search index.

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2024.04.29
The House: Yeah - it's been a while without an update. We both went through a long cold/flu for most of February and March, although multiple tests showed it wasn't COVID, so that's good I suppose. I did manage to get all the stuff organized and stored in the attic to get the closet/laundry room all cleaned out, and also started putting up the Gypsum WallBoard (GWB) for the rest of that room. I used up the last of the fiberglass-faced, moisture proof stuff I had available on the wall between the bathroom and laundry room (and no one seems to sell it around here anymore), then the rest of the room got regular lightweight GWB. I'll need to get the local building inspector to stop by for a look at the new wall and header between the bedroom and closet/laundry room, then I can get the rest of that wall covered with new GWB and get busy on the wall and ceiling finishes for the closet/laundry room.
I've had no update on the replacement VW Vanagon for many weeks, although I'm sure it's still moving along well enough. I did deliver the title for the old vehicle in early February (so they could scrap it), and also put down a decent deposit to help with the cost of parts for the replacement. Because I still have no vehicle, I'll likely be heading off to Home Depot this week with my friend with the pick-up truck to grab a dozen sheets of GWB and bucket of mud so I can start getting GWB up in the bedroom too. Hard to believe I'm finally covering those plastic-covered, stud walls after all these years. Progress!
The Site: This update is only to say I'm still here and (now that I'm no longer sick) still making progress on projects. I've grabbed a few photos of the GWB work, although it's not very interesting stuff (and possibly my least favorite task — I thoroughly enjoy doing plaster work, but I really dislike the mess of cutting and hanging GWB). I should have an update together fairly soon that shows the progress on the GWB work for the closet/laundry room, but this'll do for now.

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2024.01.22
The House: We're still mostly working on organizing all our stuff into properly label storage bins and making good progress on that project. All the stuff from the old "hardware store" closet/laundry room (that isn't bothered by freezing) has been moved to the attic. We also loaded eight bins with books and family photos from bookshelves we cleaned off recently and got all that stored up there too. I'm still working on the last of the wall insulation work in the closet/laundry room, and also started going over the existing vapor barrier for the living room and bedroom exterior walls to ensure it's all well sealed before starting wallboard work. While going through the "hardware store" bins I found I had a little extra CL-2 speaker wire and a few keystone wall plates, so I decided to also add some more audio wiring to the living room wall before the plaster work begins. This gives us the ability to add front, in-wall speakers someday if we ever decide to get rid of our bulky, free standing floor speakers.
I also got an update on the replacement VW Vanagon, with news that the engine swap is finished and they're now working through the rest of the vehicle to bring over all the little goodies from the old vehicle before it goes away.
The Site: This is a fairly small update, with a little new text on the Energy Efficiency page within the Mechanical section regarding the wrap of the work to Insulate the Exterior Walls, as well as some information on the Wiring page about the Front In-wall Speakers prep work I took care of before sealing up the front wall vapor barrier. I think the most significant progress was to get some decisions made regarding the attic hatch while Working Out the Attic Access through a new set of plans, with information available in a new section on the Living Room page within the Interior section of the site (there's a link to the PDF for the plans on the Specifications page and Project Timeline as well). I've also updated the search index, which will take care of this update.

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2024.01.11
The House: The attic insulation work is finished, so the work in the attic is done after nearly two decades! The only thing left up there is to get the new entry hatch built, which I'm starting to plan now. We're also working on "round 2" of organizing all our stuff into properly label storage bins (which we took our first stab at back in July) so all that stuff can go back into the attic and clear out the place to get started on gypsum wall board (GWB) installation. I'm also taking care of the last of the wall insulation work in the closet/laundry room to get that space ready for GWB as well.
No news on the replacement VW Vanagon yet, but I expect to have a progress report for that project soon.
The Site: The final attic insulation work information has been added to the Energy Efficiency page within the Mechanical section, with a new section of text and photos for the Last of the Attic Insulation installation over the kitchen and living room perimeter. I also added a couple new titles from Lost Art Presslink opens a new windowto the Specifications page that Santa left for me under the Christmas tree this year. This new stuff has been added to the Project Timeline as usual, along with an updated search index.

For past chronological updates, please see the following pages:
     2008 News Archives.
     2009 News Archives.
     2010 News Archives.
     2011 News Archives.
     2012 News Archives.
     2013 News Archives.
     2014 News Archives.
     2015 News Archives.
     2016 News Archives.
     2017 News Archives.
     2018-21 News Archives.
     2022 News Archives.
     2023 News Archives.

Using the Site

Visitors should check this page to determine the most recent updates, or browse the sections listed in the navigation menu on the left. I'll try to always have a picture of the most recent project or the house itself on this page too.

Navigating the Site
The navigation menu will expand when you hover your curser over an item with a down arrow (↓) in the name. The section you are currently visiting will display in a different color than the rest of the menu so you hopefully won't get lost. There's an up arrow (↑) near the bottom of each page that will return you to the top of the page when clicked. Links in the body text will display in a different color than the rest of the text. All internal links (links in the body text or nav menu sections) will replace the contents of your browser's current window with the target's content when clicked, so you may navigate using the 'forward' or 'back' controls of your browser. External links (links to other sites) are in the footer and will open in a new browser window (or tab) when clicked. If an external link is placed in the body of the page, it will be indicated with an icon: link opens a new window.

Receiving Updates
If you click the RSS feed icon ( news icon ) in the News section above, your browser will open the news feed page that I usually update whenever I update the site. In order to have it display in your browser, it simply runs a little code to allow it to show up, but no longer provides a means of subscribing to the feed. In order to automatically receive updates, you'll need to use a dedicated RSS News Reader application (or browser "add-on"), then copy & paste in the address of our feed: http://kesterhouse.com/rss/kesterhouse.xml into that reader. If Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge get their "Collections" and "Follow" stuff worked out, perhaps I can get rid of the code and go back to just loading the XML in the browser.

Searching the Site
When you click the 'SEARCH' item in the nav menu you'll be presented with a search box to enter the keyword(s) you'd like to find. Hit your 'enter' key or click the little magnifying glass and your browser will load the search results page with your search terms highlighted. When you navigate to a page from the link provided in the search results, the search terms will also highlight in the new page to make them easier to find.

'Lightbox' Image Viewing
When you click on a photo it will enlarge in the browser window and the background around the image will darken to allow better viewing of the image. If there are additional photos on the particular subject, you will find controls to view those additional photos below the bottom-right corner of the image. You may also hover your curser over the image to use the Next and Previous buttons when there's more than one photo in the group you're viewing, or view the set as a slide show by using the Play and Pause buttons below the image. To open an individual photo in a new window (in case you wish to bookmark the image, or copy it for appropriate use), click the small Expand icon in the top-right corner of the photo. To return to the normal page view, click the small X below the image, or click anywhere on the background around the photo.

The Footer
The footer contains a link to send us an e-mail if you'd like to make a comment or suggestion. It also contains external links (they all open in a new window) to other sites I enjoy.

Creating the Site & Compatibility
I've created the site entirely with a text editor, since I'm still a member of the 'old-fart school' of web design. I'm using a lot of Cascading Style Sheet design controls, as well as a fair amount of Javascript to make the page do what I want it to do - some written by me, but mostly I'm using the wonderful jQuery library with plug-ins I've found here and there. If you've got Javascript disabled in your browser, the site should degrade gracefully and remain functional, although it's not going to look very nice.

I check the site occasionally for functionality with a smart phone or tablet, although I generally write everything in anticipation of having it read on a laptop or workstation. I have the latest versions of most Windows 10 browsers installed and have verified the pages display correctly with those. As stated above, Microsoft Edge is currently having issues with RSS feeds as they implement some new news reader features, so I'll tweak the XML as needed when and if they get it all worked out.

What's in the Sections

Here's a description of what's included in the sections - some are more complete than others but it's all getting there.

 

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