NEW FLOOR

Over the weekend we installed our new floating floor on the 1st floor. We still have a few bits here and there to install which Kristen's dad will install today or this afternoon when I get home, but it's pretty well complete. We cut most of the baseboard and dry-fitted. We'll install that today as well once that last couple of pieces of the floor are in.

Floor Before:


Floor After:


Floor with baseboard fitted:

NEW WALL AND DOOR

This is something we've been planning for, but it was to be done later. Initially, the toilet was going to be open with a small, waist high wall for privacy. Then once all was said and done we would close it in. We decided to go ahead and close in the toilet completely. We've framed in the walls and hung the door. By end of this weekend the drywall will be up and mudded so that priming of the walls can be done on Monday.

For Mark Lee - PAINT!

I was told that Mark Lee really wanted to see pictures of the painted room. Kristen worked hard today to get it done for him.

PAINTING HAS BEGUN

Kristen couldn't wait. She had to have a least some primer up on the walls.

"MUDDING" is well under way

It's been a slow process due to not having time (nor desire) to "mud" the walls. The first floor is pretty well complete and Kristen plans on painting shortly (maybe even as early as tonight).


The upstairs is taking longer due to the amount of corners (and my lack of desire to do it).


We also now have a door in the bedroom leading to our new master bath!!

Drywall Party - September 19, 2009

This past Saturday was our dry-wall party. We had a few friends and neighbors over to help out. A big "THANK YOU" goes out to Mike, Bill and Carl (our neighbors) and to Mike and Greg (friends). I'd also like to say "THANK YOU" to Dino (our next door neighbor). He felt bad about not making it early to help with the drywall so he cut my grass. THANKS TO ALL!!


Kristen's dad rented a lift to help us with the ceiling panels. He rented it for two days, but we were able to get it done quickly so we were able to return it later Saturday. We worked from about 8am to 5pm and got almost all of it done. The only remaining pieces are more trim work and small pieces that one person can handle. We'll hopefully have this all done by the weekend and then can have the inspector in on Monday to okay the work. Then we can start taping and mudding.

Even Alexis got in the act! She was our official "Line Snapper". We marked the studs with a chalk line and she was the person to pull the snap the string.



With the drywall up, the rooms are truly starting to take shape and look like rooms. We can't wait to get this done!!

INSPECTION PASSED!

On Monday, we had the inspection for the mechanicals and we passed. We are now frantically working to get the insulation done on the second floor. We have to have done Thursday night as the inspector wants to come back and check it on Friday. We can't put up the dry-wall until he's okayed it.

That being said, we have a dry-wall party planned for Saturday and have quite a few people signed up to help. Keep your fingers crossed!

DRYWALL PARTY AT OUR HOUSE!! EVERYONE'S INVITED!!

We are having a drywall party at our house on Saturday Sept 19. All are invited! Pizza and beer AFTER the drywall is hung!

As stated in an earlier post, we had hired two guys to put in ventilation fans/lights in our two existing bathrooms. They never showed and never answered any calls nor did they respond to any voice-mails. That has put us about a week behind schedule now. We've had to move forward and do the work ourselves.

The upstairs bathroom fan has been installed and is working. The downstairs fan was worked on over the weekend and should be finished up early today. Hopefully the inspector can then come this afternoon or tomorrow morning.





Sunday morning, while everyone was at church, I managed to knock out the insulation for the the first floor. It is now ready for the drywall.





I will start this evening on the upstairs and will hopefully have it fully insulated by Thursday. Then it's time to get the party started!!

WHOO-HOO!!!

Another inspection has been passed. The rough-in electrical inspection was held today at noon and it passed. According to Papa B, it passed with only a couple of pointers from the inspector.

On Tuesday, the guys who are putting in our ventilation fans in the bathrooms are coming. Once that's done we'll get another inspection on the "mechanicals". This should only take a 1/2 day for the work and hopefully later Tuesday or at least on Wednesday we can get that inspected.

Looks like we can start the insulation! WHOO-HOOO!!

WIRING IS MOVING ALONG QUICKLY

First, I want to appologize for the lack of updates. When the work is on a smaller scale, it takes awhile for it to really stand out.

Second, we want to really thank Papa B for all the work he's been doing on the house. We could never have done this without him and what little work we've been able to help out with is really teaching us a lot. THANKS PAPA!!

Third, we also want to thank Greg R for stopping by on Sunday to help out. Sorry we couldn't use you more, but we promise the next time you'll get a work out!!

So, to update all on the progress....

A lot of the wiring has been laid. Thursday or Friday of this week, we have someone coming in to install new ventilation fans in our two existing bathroom. Once that's done we should be ready for the inspector to come give us the okay. When we get that, then the outlets and such can be fully hooked up and we can start the insulation and drywall.

Speaking of drywall, did you know that they have to inspect the screw pattern when you put the drywall up???

Here's some pics from the last week or so.

HELP!! I'M BEING EATEN BY MY HOUSE!! (or Days 51-53 of our project)

We're bAAAAAAAaaaaaaaack......

Sorry for the lack of posts the last couple of weeks. Not much has been done until recently. We've all been a bit busy with trips and family visits and such. This week we got back into it.

So, to begin, I was eaten by the house...


Okay, not really. We started doing some wiring in the new addition. I had to crawl (no pun intended) into the crawl space. The wire then fed down to me and through the wall into the basement. It was not the easiest thing to do as to access the crawl space you go through the old basement window. On the plus side, because the crawl space is so new, no bugs had moved in yet.

We now have one working outlet in the first floor part of the addition. This works on a switch that was already there that worked an outside light. This is helpful as we have the ducts for the AC closed off in there so now we can use a fan.


We've also run a lot of wire and put in some boxes. Still have some holes to finish drilling and running the rest of the wire. Our friend Greg has experience with this so he's going to stop by on Sunday afternoon to help us finish it.

DAY 39 - DONE!!

DONE!!

They're done!!

Whoo-Hooo!!


Oh wait...this means now we have to do the work....

Okay, here's where we stand as of this morning. Dumpster is still on our driveway, but should be removed sometime in the next couple of days. That will fully finish the contractor's job. Next up is wiring. With the help of Kristen's dad and hopefully our good, dear, wonderful, outstanding friend Greg (you know who you are), we'll get the wiring done. After that we have to put a new vent/fan in our first floor powder room (never had one as it had a window to the outside; window is now gone so we have to have a fan). Then we move on to insulation, drywall, yada, yada, yada.

We won't be starting anything until Monday at the earliest so be sure to stop back for more. Also, there probably won't be daily updates as we'll be moving slower.

So who wants to start a poll on when we'll be done with the inside?!?!? I'm guessing two weeks...okay, maybe by Christmas we'll be done...

DAY 38 - SO CLOSE!!!

We are SOOOOOOOOOOOOO very close to having the outside work completed. They have a "couple hours of work" to do today and then they are finished (we hope!). We will start the inside work next week.

Yesterday they finished most of the work on the front of the house...


Looks like I missed at party at the house yesterday as this big truck showed up...


The big truck was delivering the topsoil for the grass reseeding. That is a lot of dirt they put down so hopefully the grass will take off as we were having some issues anyway...


And this is what I came home to...I was so happy to see it....Means they are almost done....



Now the bad news...The @#$%@)#(&% dumpster is probably going to be on the driveway for another 4-5 days. According to our contractor, the company that takes care of the dumpster could come at 4am to pick it up or could come in a week. It's whenever they have a truck free to come get it. No telling when. I was hoping to blacktop the driveway this weekend, but that's not happening.

DAY 37

Okay, as posted we said we were having a bit of a row with the contrator. We were assured by the partner that they would finish up yesterday (Tuesday). Well, they got most done, but didn't quite finish.

All of the siding is now done....


...but they didn't finish the front gutter or finish the moulding.


I'm a little leary of the way they are just covering the dental moulding. I was under the impression they were taking it off. If they were clearer about covering it I would have got up there one last time and painted it again to help seal it. Oh well, nothing for it now.

Kristen had a final walkthrough this morning (Wednesday) and listed out all the items we had issues with. They are supposedly correcting them today once they finish the moulding and gutter work.

Top-soil was also delivered today, but the Bobcat hadn't arrived by the time Kristen left. Hopefully they got all cleaned up and the Bobcat has arrived and they are putting down the new topsoil and re-seeding.

Called to have the dumpster removed and could take up to 5 days or so before they can get out to get it. Of course the contractor said they could also come at 4am tomorrow to get it as well. We just won't know until it's gone.

DAY 36

No pictures today.

Had another big leak last night. Now we are mad. Not a good conversation with the main guy we are working with. May end up having to fight with him. His partner seems to be more easy to deal with.

Supposedly they are to be done tomorrow (Wednesday) which will include new topsoil and grass seed. I'll believe it when we see it.

Project already 2 weeks over schedule. Contractor gave us sob-story about how he's not making any money and we shouldn't hold his last payment, yada, yada, yada...

He'll get his payment once we are satisfied everything is complete. Based on what they got done yesterday (which didn't seem to be much), we do NOT have confidence that this will be fully done tomorrow.

Final walk-around at 8am tomorrow.

DAY 33

Friday was Day 33 of our little project.

They finished the siding on the back...


...as well as put the new siding on our side porch.


New scheduled finish date is Tuesday. They still have to put up some gutters in the back, fix a couple minor issues and then do some siding on the front of the house as well as clean up and seed the yard with new grass. Hopefully Tuesday afternoon the dumpster will be gone from our driveway.

Unfortunately there are suppossed to be some thunderstorms today so I'm thinking Wednesday may be the last day.

DAY 32

Did a bunch of siding and roofing yesterday. Maybe they read my blog and it got them motivated.

MAXWELL OF CASSWELL IS BACK!!

Oh yeah, I also found this peering at me when I got home yesterday.



More to come on this....

DAY 31 - WHEN THE CATS AWAY....

...THE MICE WILL PLAY!!

Okay, that's what it kind of feels like right now. We are in the home stretch with the contractor. He was suppossedly going to finish up this week. However, nobody is home during the day this week (kids are with Grandparents and cousins all week and we are at work). Seems to me that the work is going really slow the last few days and it makes me wonder how long they are actually working each day. Oh well, I'm not paying them by the hour. Just want to get the yard cleaned up and that monster of a dumpster off my driveway!!!

So, here's what was done yesterday. They did a minor amount of cleanup in the yard. What really gets me though is that I came home and in the dumpster were at least 3 full bags of unused cement (useless now as the bags ripped open) and a bunch of concrete block. What a waste and WE PAID FOR IT!!! I grabbed some block out and put up a note saying to save all unused building materials going forward.

Other than the minor clean-up, they did a little bit of sideing on the back (around the window in the new bathroom).



Here's what still needs done:
1) Re-do the roof on the existing addition to match the new shingles.
2) Put siding up on the remaining portions of the new addition.
3) Replace siding all around the house.
4) Replace all gutters.
5) Replace all sofit and facia.
6) Remove dental molding on front of house and replace with siding.
7) Fix the issues with the gutter they have already put up.
8) Clean-up the yard.
9) Re-seed the side and back of the yard.

How they expect to get this done today and tomorrow is beyond me, seeing as how the work seems to be dragging out this week.

DAY 30 - SPOT THE DIFFERNCE

Today we are going to play a little game. It's called "Spot The Difference"! The object of the game is to spot what is different in the two pictures below. We are trying to figure out just what was done yesterday. We are having trouble figuring it out.

Picture 1:


Picture 2:


Can you tell what's different??

Okay, I'm just being a little facetious today. As you can see a little bit of siding went up on the side of the new addition and a tiny bit of Tyvek was added on the back. They also put the shingles on the other side of the new roof.

Day 26-29

On Day 26 (last Friday), they closed off the upstairs and installed the new window in the bathroom.


They also removed the window in the existing bathroom...



...and took out the bedroom window and framed for the new door into the master bath.



On Day 29 (yesterday), they installed shingles on most of the roof.