Holiday Stress and Disappointment

Week 27:Well it was another week of progress. It seems to be slowing down, but we know that the end is near. The holidays are playing havoc with the scheduling and Mike is not sure if we will be ready to move in before Christmas. We were hoping that we would be able to spend the first days in the house before Christmas. The world will not end if this does not happen. I trust Mike will not rush things just to get it done. The floors will take roughly 4-5 days to sand and stain. While this is happening, no other interior work can be done so that puts a damper on the schedule. The doors will also be coming the third week of December. Between the floors and painting, the schedule is tight. This week we saw the near end result of the siding. We had mostly dry weather, so the guys concentrated on getting the siding and trim up. We only have a small area that is yet to be done since we are awaiting more supplies and they should be delivered the first week of December. Joe then started the interior trim work. He has finished the master suite and will be working his way downstairs. The special order tile for the girls bathroom arrived and Ralph was back to finish up the girls bathroom shower. He is almost done with the master shower as well. We received the new lights for the foyer and John will be installing those this next week so Ralph can then tile the foyer. The bathroom vanity for the girls bathroom was also installed this week. Joe also started the ceiling over the balcony, but ran out of supplies there as well, so we should see some more boards soon. Mike is out of town this week and he worked hard to get everyone scheduled this week. We have the landscapers starting Monday on the final grading, but we are still waiting for the fence company to come remove their fence. We will have John working on the electrical, Joe continuing on the trim and Ralph tiling. There may be more but I will have to wait and see. The painters are starting the week after Thanksgiving and we will have the final measurements for the shower doors as well. We are getting a good push to the finish line.

Trim work around the windows. It will mimic the style on the exterior trim around the windows.







Another angle of the window trim.








Baseboard trim.








Tiling in the girls shower.








The girls new vanity.








Here is one of the sinks for the girls bathroom. Just dry fitting to see where to center it.







Here is Ralph installing the subway tiles in the girls shower.








Here is a close up of the decorative tile in the girls bathroom.








Siding on the west side gable. The round vent was also installed.








Here is Joe working on the back of the house. The only issue we had was that the spray foam insulation squeezed through several spots and he had to cut the house wrap and then remove the dried insulation to make the wall flush.





Here is one of the cuts he had to make to remove the insulation. He then taped it back up and installed the siding.







Almost done in the back of the house.








Final touches to the back.








The back is finished.








Here Joe is working on the front of the house. It was a very chilly and windy day.








Here is the completed front of the house.








Another shot of the front siding. Looks like a nearly completed house.







Here you can see some of what is left to do on the siding.








Here is one of our covered exterior outlets. It is right next to the front door and will be perfect for hooking up the snowman for Christmas.






Here is the start of the balcony ceiling. He is about three quarters done.







The electrical has been run to the garage, but still needs to be hooked up to the outlets and lights.







This is the water stack. It was a little too low and Mike was afraid the landscapers wouldn't see it so he had it raised a bit.

Descion Fatigue

Email from contractor the other day included this list:

Selections that are needed listed in order of priority;

1. Final selections on exterior material.
2. Ordered all light fixtures.
3. Finalize stair material and selections.
4. Finalize millwork material and selections. (Interior doors, door hardware and trim)
5. Finalize hardwood floor species and Stain color.
6. Finalize tile layout and selections. (tile and grout)
7. Finalize interior paint and stain locations and color selections.
8. Finalize kitchen and master bath counter tops materials and color selection.
9. Finalize carpet selection.
This entire list should be completed by October 17.

And this article explains one of the reasons I have been eating too many Oreos: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/21/magazine/do-you-suffer-from-decision-fatigue.html?pagewanted=all

One more look at ceiling fan catalogs tonight and I'll be resorting to this (image courtesy of Jasongraphix):

More of the Same

Week 11: Another week, more storms. Here is a link to what we have gone through this past month. It has been the rainiest July on record. This past week we had two storms at night that brought torrential downpours, thunder, and lots of lightning. We had highways that were impassable and more people losing power. Due to the torrential rain, we had rain come through the window wells and fill up the basement. The sump pump was going when we had power and ran for a few days. Now we have a bit of a cave in with the dirt so that will have to be cleaned out. Our external drainage system also came lose so we had water going in the system and then dumping out right by the window well. Need to get that adjusted. On the days it wasn;t rinaing, it was hot as an oven. We did have a couple nice evenings with temperatures in the high 70's or low 80's. The past few days have seen no rain and things are starting to dry up just before more rain is forecast. Anyway, this week we received both the kids bathtub and the master bath soaking tub. Both had been scheduled for the previous week, but one was not delivered and the other was damaged by the carrier. This round everything looks good. Also, we had the roof re-shingled with some nice black architectural shingles. We also decided after conferring with Ferd and Mike to remove the bulk of the cinder blocks and replace with standard framing. This was done mainly to ease the connection of the new addition to the old. It is a little tougher when you are trying to tie in cinder block with wood. We also decided after receiving a proposal from the mason to re-do the cinder blocks around the windows and to clock in the chimneys that were removed. It is more affordable to demolish and do it in wood. The house now looks like it is on stilts because of the framing and a few rows of cinder blocks. Next week is the rest of the interior framing, the windows (yeah) and sheathing on the sides.


Here is where we had a little cave in. Underneath the dirt is where the drainage system came undone. It will be repaired next week.







Here is more progress on the stairwell to the second floor.










Here the stairwell is sheathed and next there will be windows.






A close up view of the new skylight.









Here is the framing for the new closet in the foyer.








Here are the architectural shingles that will be going on next.







Here John and his concrete crew are starting the removal of the cinder blocks. We left a few rows that were filled in with concrete and will hold a framed wall on top.







Here the cinder blocks are gone from the front of the house.








Here they are gone from the back.








The house of stilts. The framing was done to solidify the structure while they removed the cinder blocks. There will be another framed wall as well.







More house on stilts.







This is a closer view of the concrete they poured over a few rows of the cinder blocks and then create a flat bed to frame the new walls on.






Here is a shot of the shingles post install. Hard to see how good they look.







Here is the new addition with the new shingles. They also painted the exhaust pipe black to match the shingles.







This is the deck and is getting ready for the floor.

Wild Weather - Redux

Week 10: Well it was another wild weather week. The week was mostly in the high 90's with high humidity. It felt like the low 100's for the most part. Night was just as hot. I went over to the old house to grab some of the window ACs we had in the garage. We got them to fit the rental windows so it is a little more comfortable here. The heat made for a tough week for Joe our carpenter. Had to have frequent breaks and try and keep hydrated. Have to move much slower so we did not get a lot accomplished this week. Then just to make things interesting, it decided to have another heavy rainfall. The airport had nearly 8.5" in one day. It looks like La Grange had about 3.25". Then to top it off, it decided to rain another couple of days. So the basement decided to flood since the window wells are not covered and we do not have windows yet. Luckily, the electrician had hooked up an outlet and the plumbers hooked up the sump pump which was working for a few days to pump out the water. It looks like the water got about 3-4 feet high. Now we are back to a few days of sun to dry it out and then more calls for rainstorms this weekend. Can't we just have a few weeks of normal weather??? We decided after confering with Mike and Ferd our Architect, that we will be reframing the structure downstairs and removing the cinder blocks. This will help tie it in with the new structure. There would have been too much work to do for the mason since the headers over all the windows needed redoing and we still would be framing the walls. This will allow us also to have a little more insulation downstairs. Joe also started the bump out for the new stairway leading upstairs. He also installed the new skylights.










Here is a shot of where the cinder block wall was and the new framing to replace it.







This is the closet of the foyer at the top. Underneath will be the hidden duct work for the HVAC.







This is a shot of the framing around one of the windows. The cinder block will be demolished.







Hear is the proper way to frame around the window with the proper header , Jack, and King studs with the cripples for proper structure and support.






Here is a shot of the complete wall. The cinder block will be removed next.







Here is the Skylight over the new laundry room.








Interior view looking out of the bathroom Skylight.








Here is the new staircase leading up to the second floor. It will be cantilevered with metal bars holding it in place.







Here is another view of the staircase.








Her Joe is starting to create the structure upstairs for the new staircase.







Here is the new sump pump that Mike had installed, just in case it should rain. He must be psychic since the rain came soon thereafter.






Here is the first floor after the first wave of rains came. Not too bad until..







Here is a shot of the basement. Since the window wells are not covered, the rain just came on in..and in and in...until...







it got to this level, which is about 3-4 feet. I was afraid that the electricity was going to go out and the sump pump would die. The power did go out soon after the first rainfall so it took awhile for the rain to be pumped out. There is some cleanup that needs to be done and hopefully we will get the windows soon.