1111 Granada Ave....The number on the clock you wish on

Paint and doors

2009-03-17T09:25:00.001-07:00

Paint has been going up and doors have been installed.

It's starting to look like a house.

Electric work

2009-03-17T09:20:00.000-07:00

Electric work is starting to happen. Outlets, switches and connections are in process and it's honestly really comforting to see something like an outlet cover.

Detail/finishing work is happy work!

Paint on the Ceilings and Bedrooms

2009-02-25T07:39:00.001-08:00

The master bedroom ceiling.

The ceiling in the dinning room and kitchen looking towards the living room.

Green color on a bedroom wall.

More green!

It's all coming together and having color on the walls really helps to make it start looking like a house on the inside.

Painting is Upon Us

2009-02-11T14:40:00.000-08:00

Paint...ah...color is so inviting and really helps as the first step in a home.

Our drywall is finishing up today. They are doing the last bit of sanding and touch up work.

Gerald is going to be cleaning up the house tonight and then paint will start tomorrow!

Time to get excited. Oh and I would post the colors here, but I gave the samples to Gerald. I'll post them when I have them back.

I am pleased to present...drywall!

2009-01-23T14:32:00.001-08:00

I am so incredibly happy to show you photos of the house with drywall in it! This has been a long time coming (like 6 months since it was delivered), but because of seemingly constant problems and set backs we are entering a new era for the house...one with walls!

On of my friends and former co-workers had said to me that when he was watching his house be built, he was surprised that the house seemed bigger with walls than without. I thought that it might not be the case with me since I'm so used to looking through the whole house, but Matt was right...it feels and looks bigger to me! Yes!

I took a lot of photos and so you get to see a lot too! Oh and all of this drywall was put up in one day. Yep. They were fast and they would have done more, but they ran out of drywall!

From the bathroom looking out into the hallway and living room.

The second bathroom.

The second bedroom.

The second bedroom.

Foyer looking into the coat closet.

Living room looking into the Foyer.

The living room looking into the kitchen.

The dining room, looking into the kitchen and into the living room.

The dinning room looking across to the third bedroom.

The dining room looking across to the master bedroom.

The dining room, looking through the kitchen into the living room.

The third bedroom.

The third bedroom.

The master bedroom.

The master bathroom.

The master bathroom.

The master closet.

The master bedroom looking past the master closet and into the master bathroom.

Drywall Prep - Floating out the Living Room Ceiling

2009-01-23T14:24:00.001-08:00

One part of getting the house prepped for drywall was to level out the ceilings. This is funny because only the living room ceiling needed it.

It turns out that when two layers of plaster, better known as cement, was removed from the ceiling that the relief of that much weight caused it to bow.

Gerald and Kevin spent a good amount of time leveling it out...which is called floating.

Framing Inspection Completed!!

2009-01-17T19:45:00.000-08:00

I am pleased to announce...that we have officially passed our Framing Inspection as of Friday morning!!

Drywall is going in and I'm so very happy that I can say that. Pictures will be coming soon and let's all bask in the glory of finally having walls that I won't be able to see through!

Inspection Delayed Because Gerald is Sick

2009-01-12T12:05:00.001-08:00

Yep. Gerald got very sick over the weekend and is still very sick today. I won't go into detail about what he is going through but it's not pretty.

He talked to the inspector this morning and the inspector is scheduled to come out tomorrow.

Another day...

Framing Inspector Drama Continues

2009-01-11T11:14:00.000-08:00

The framing inspector came out on Friday morning.

Apparently he wasn't in as good of a mood as he was the day before (everyone says his inspections are affected by his mood...which changes constantly).

He starting nit-picking about seals around pipes and other things, which Gerald says he has never seen anyone EVER say needed to be done, and then started to argue with Gerald about putting more micro-beams into the roof to hold up the front awning.

Well, Gerald had had enough. He was also up till 4:30 AM the night before reading through the codes book and pulling anything he thought this guy would bring up.

Gerald wasn't about to do more pointless, needless work just because this guy wanted to have a power trip so he started arguing right back at him! He told the inspector, who isn't even a structural engineer, that he didn't know what he was talking about.

Gerald is a structural engineer that is licensed in 3 states. He told him that and that he had read through the code book and started quoting reasons why everything was perfect. He also went at him about all the work he made him do earlier and how it was pointless work that was both a waste of time and money.

The inspector finally seemed to realize that he wasn't dealing with a normal guy and backed off all of the extra stuff except for those little seals that he wanted caulked...so he would feel like he still came out on top.

This work was going to take Gerald 5 minutes, so he asked him if he would just wait 5 minutes while he did it.

The inspector said he wouldn't and had already failed us anyway in the system so we would have to go down and pay $30 for him having to come back out the next time (the government just plays permits as a money game).

He is scheduled to come back out Monday morning now. Also, we finally have him on this inspection, he can't reinspect anything that has already been passed. This means all he can do is inspect those seals.

All of that to say that we will FINALLY be able to get drywall in. This may happen as early as Monday which I'm so very very excited about.

THANK YOU GERALD FOR PUTTING HIM IN HIS PLACE!!!

Framing inspection is happening tomorrow!

2009-01-07T12:42:00.000-08:00

Gerald called in the inspection yesterday and talked to the inspector today.

Looks like he is coming tomorrow morning for the inspection! Everyone keep your fingers crossed and say those prayers that we will pass!

We are so close to drywall I can almost taste it!

Plumbing inspection passed!

2009-01-07T12:37:00.000-08:00

I had gotten word from Gerald earlier last week and can't believe I forgot to post it!

The plumbing inspection is passed! Yes!

We are getting closer! Just need the framing inspection and then ... Drywall!

Structural Changes - Curse-ed framing inspector

2008-12-17T13:08:00.000-08:00

The framing inspector came and made us change a bunch of things. For a guy inspecting the structural integrity of the home, it seems strange that he doesn't have a structural engineering degree (which Gerald does).

He is making us add things that, according to Gerald, the house doesn't need. Apparently the guy is full of himself and everyone we have come in contact to has told us how everyone at the agency talks about him behind his back and how much of a jerk he is.

(This whole post has been edited as the words these people are using would not be appropriate for children to read or me to type)

Here is one of the fixes. Others will be posted as they are done.

Electrical inspection passed! - Part 3

2008-12-17T13:04:00.000-08:00

Yes, here is another photo to celebrate the electrical inspection being complete.

These are the boxes of the breaker box and equipment that was installed on the outside of the house.

Can't wait for the electric to be hooked up to the house!

Plumbing complete

2008-12-17T13:00:00.000-08:00

Oh yeah. That's right. Plumbing work is done. Blow torches were ablaze getting this job done!

No corners were skipped. This plumbing is solid.

All of the plumbing had to be replaced. All we are waiting on right now is for the plumbing inspector to come. Should be there today or tomorrow.

So close I can almost taste it!

Electrical inspection passed! - Part 2

2008-12-17T12:45:00.000-08:00

Here are some photos to honor the electric inspection being done!

I ran the cable cables. I also put those yellow and red caps on the wires and prepped a lot of those by stripping the ends. Yay for learning how to do electric work.

New front of the house

2008-12-17T09:39:00.001-08:00

You probably noticed this in the last post, but there is a new front on my house!

Oh yeah, we added an 11 x 4 foyer (with coat closet) and put a new structure to be a small front porch.

The hope was to keep the cottage look (and the homes character) while making it bigger and more efficient. I think it's mission accomplished. What do you think of it?

New Roof!

2008-12-17T09:33:00.000-08:00

That's right kids! Brian has a new roof that won't have to be replaced for 30 years!

Gerald and Kevin put this on the the middle of the blazing summer. It was so hot that the tar melted and they had to pull the shingles apart. Problem - really hot and hard for them to put them on. Benefit - tar then cooled after them being put on the roof and created a tight seal!

The roof looks beautiful and it's a blessing to have this house in the dry.

Notice the shingles on the left - they have to be trimmed. Notice the shingles on the right that are at an angle - they have to be trimmed too. The ones on the right confused me for a while as to why they looked like that.

Doesn't it look beautiful? Don't worry, the wood blocks will be taken off the roof. I'm not keeping them.

Scaffolding - The reason why

2008-12-17T09:26:00.000-08:00

We have a lot of scaffolding now. Gerald and Kevin have been using ladders for most of the project.

This was until Gerald fell 15 ft off a ladder and put his knee through a window. He had the ladder on sand and it shifted under him and he fell. There was wood, glass, nails, etc... on the ground below him and he got his legs caught in the ladder and he fell.

Needless to say that was scary for all involved. Gerald is a tough guy though and he was back at the house the next day working...although he was moving slower than usual.

He didn't go to the hospital, but instead just took pain killers and kept on going with a huge gash around his knee and other gashes on his legs. My hat is off to you Gerald. I probably would have gotten medical attention.

Yep. Gerald's knee did this.

Fence - here but on hold

2008-12-17T09:19:00.001-08:00

The materials for the fence are here. They have actually been here for a while.

The holes are dug for the fence posts. We were advised though to wait on putting it up until someone (ie me) is living in the house.

Reason - You don't want to just give someone cover to hid behind while they break in. Good advice.

The fence will be a stained wood, 8 foot tall privacy fence.

There will be 3 gates. One large sliding one for a car and 2 smaller hinged ones for people!

Electrical inspection passed!

2008-12-17T09:16:00.000-08:00

That's right faithful readers. Our electrical inspection was finally passed!

This was a long time coming and its good to see some red tape getting cut as we move towards dry wall.

Plumbing inspection and Framing inspection left before drywall can go up.

1 down - 2 to go!

A long time has passed

2008-12-03T17:53:00.000-08:00

Hello,

It has been a while since I've posted on here and I'll give you two reasons:

1 - This house has been unbelievably tough on me.

2 - It has been very depressing to write about it.

Though things are still moving slowly, they seem to be getting better and more importantly...I have photos that I want to share.

Welcome back to the blog and I hope you enjoy some progress.

June 20: Front Door

2008-06-22T23:03:00.000-07:00

My front door is installed on the front of the house. It looks good. I just have to decide what color it should be.

We are going to put side lights (those long windows) on each side of the door to open up more light into the foyer.

June 19: Garage Slab

2008-06-19T18:38:00.000-07:00

The slab for the garage has been finished. The first step of the second building is done. This was one of the smoothest things that has happened so far.

Except for the inspector making him disassemble the whole thing and lower it into the ground another 18" to meet a code that had passed a week before.

He is going to grade the yard for us, move all the trash into the dumpster and put in a french drain around the garage to keep water from standing around the structure. Good guy and he had two of his crews out there so it went really fast.

June 19: French Door

2008-06-19T18:35:00.000-07:00

That's right. There is a french door on the back of the house now.

June 19: Foyer

2008-06-19T18:23:00.000-07:00

When the front of the house was taken off we found that the cement slab that was poured was poorly done at best. This had to be replaced.

The question left was what to do with the front of the house. We could have rebuilt the original structure but Gerald said that it would be a termite haven and be expensive to build. So that was scratched.

We could have built just an overhang, but it would have made the front of the house flat and not as interesting.

Then a foyer was suggested. It wouldn't cost that much more and would provide extra square footage, we could put in a coat closet and would keep the entrance of the house from opening right into the living room. We would keep the same style of roof coming out towards it and then have a step down with a 3 foot overhang with posts to keep you dry when opening the door. It was the winner!

The closet will go here. It'll be 30" deep.

June 19: Replacement of the Front of the House

2008-06-19T18:09:00.000-07:00

The rest of the front of the house has been replaced now. It's good to see it all falling together.

The brand new front of the house.

There has also been some problems at the front of the house. When we opened up the front of the house, we found that the front 1/3 of the house was not attached to the foundation. That was an unexpected surprise however for some reason just seemed to fall in place with how the story of this house has gone.

The view of the house without anything connecting the house to the foundation.

There was one small thing connecting the front of the house to the ground. This piece of a tree was connected to a cement block. Yep...that was it.

June 9: Drywall Delivered

2008-06-09T18:59:00.000-07:00

Last week the drywall was delivered for the house. It was going to be hung on Friday, but we ran into the problem with the front of the house needing to be replaced.

We've also been trying to get a hold of the inspector that needs to look at the walls before we can hang drywall. We've been trying to call him for over a week and no response. I hate inspectors. They don't really do anything but slow you down it seems.

June 9: Replacement of the Front of the House

2008-06-09T18:36:00.000-07:00

It was a very dark day in the life of this project when we saw that there was a lot of old termite damage in the front of the house. So much old termite damage that the entire front of the house has to be replaced (about 1/3 of the exterior to be exact since it wraps around both sides).

I don't have much to say about this since every time I think about the situation it makes me furious. This has become an almost entirely new house because of all the bad wood that we've found that needs/needed to be replaced.

This is what I came to the day they told me about the damage.

What they didn't tell me is that when the roof is this unsupported, wind can get underneath the house and lift up the roof, knocking out those supports, and collapse the house. Luckily that didn't happen!

One side of the house is back to normal.

The other side of the house still needs work.

A sample of the wood destroyed by termites.

The front entry to the house is being taken out as well. We are not going to rebuild it the same way either. We will keep the roof pitch, but cut off one side so it matches the other. Then pillars will be put in. This will keep the entry way open so it's easy to see into and also Gerald said that they other design was a termite haven. We would have had to spray it down as we were building it to keep it from happening again.

So I guess it's for the best, but it's not been a fun process what-so-ever.

June 9: Tree Cut Down and a Foundation Begun

2008-06-09T18:16:00.000-07:00

On Friday there was a lot of activity around the house. Two groups of foundation labors (about 8 men) were at the house. They cut down a tree and took out the stump, dug a foundation for the garage and set up the base to be ready to pour.

They should be pouring the foundation on Tuesday if things go according to plan. I have never seen something like that happen so fast. It was incredible to see.

The back of the garage. This side will have the garage door.

The side view of the garage. The tree was on the other side about in the middle.

The back of the house looks completely different since everything has been torn apart.

June 9: Demise of an HVAC Unit

2008-06-09T18:06:00.000-07:00

My heating and air unit was destroyed about a week ago. The thieves ripped it apart for the copper tubbing.

A $5000 unit was destroyed for about $20 worth of copper. Ridiculous.

A new security plan is in place now to protect the next one. We are going to pour a concrete slab and put bolts into the cement. A steel cage will be fabricated and will fit over the unit and be bolted securely into place. If a service door is made a security trigger will be put on it that will set off the security system inside the house.

This plan will be put into place for both of the units that the house will end up with.

June 9: Attic Stairs

2008-06-09T18:00:00.000-07:00

OK, so they are not really stairs, it's more of a pull down ladder.

Regardless of what it actually is, it was a pain for Gerald and Kevin to put in. They had to rake back more insulation from the ceiling and pop out the whole ceiling. Then the ceiling joists had to be moved to accommodate the width of the ladder.

The springs on this thing are pretty powerful. They had to leverage it to get them on by putting a 2x4 under Gerald's truck. I wish I could have been there to see all of this.

We went with metal stairs because they are stronger than the wooden ones and don't cost much more.

It is in the hallway.

June 9: Hall Closet

2008-06-09T17:37:00.000-07:00

A closet needed to be put into the hallway for a few reasons. The biggest is that I just wanted to have a coat closet, but we gained some functional reasons as well.

The closet is in the hallway that backs right up to where the master shower is. You're supposed to always have access to the backs of the showers so you can fix the plumbing if necessary. The closet serves to hide that access point.

The closet will also house both tankless hot water heaters and the central computer for the security system.

June 9: Running Cable

2008-06-09T17:31:00.000-07:00

Cable companies charge $75 to run each cable box in a house along with other fees. We were going to have at least 10 of them, so it was decided that I would run the cable in the house myself.

It is actually a pretty easy process and was made even easier since Gerald and Kevin had already mounted the blue cable boxes where they were going to go.

All I had to do was drill a hole in the floor, run the cable under the house and secure it. I was filthy after crawling under the house, but it was worth it not to spend around $1000 for cable.

Drilling a hole in the master bedroom floor to run cable.

June 9: The Second Bathroom Saga

2008-06-09T17:11:00.000-07:00

We had always had plans to redo the second bathroom. We never imagined how much of a redo it would actually be.

To sum it up, we thought it would be cosmetic fix that would also include redoing the exterior wall because we would have to take the tub out.

That happened, but we also had to gut the floor and the hall floor and tear our the piping to plumb from the other side.

Story of this house's life, there was rotted wood that caused it, with a bit of mold under the flooring in the hallway.

Inside of the bathroom after the gutting.

Outside of the bathroom after the gutting.

New tub and window in a newly redone bathroom.

Here is the door leading into the bathroom. On the left is a linen closet that used to face out into the hallway. We reorganized the bathroom to have the linen closet inside the bathroom. Also, the door to the bathroom was bumped down to make room for a hall closet on the right of the door.

The hole for the toilet. You can see boards below. There has to be a box made to go around the hole for support as well as getting rid of those boards so the pipping can be run.

All in all, we did not expect to have to do this much to the bathroom. The bathroom is definitely better for the changes though. There will also be can lights put into the ceiling and the pedestal sink will be next to the toilet.

May 16: Security System

2008-05-18T13:59:00.000-07:00

I bought a security system from Advanced Alarm. They have the cheapest monitoring rates of any company ($10 a month) and you buy the system so while the system may cost more, you can take it with you, since you can buy a completely wireless one.

On Thursday they can to install the wiring for it. Once the doors, windows and drywall is in, they will install the rest of it for me.

Oh and if you decide to switch your service to them or buy a system from them, say that I told you. I'll get a few months of monitoring for free!

The security wire is ready for the sensor.

A collection of the security wires for the house.

May 16: Gas Fireplace

2008-05-18T13:55:00.000-07:00

The fireplace has cement around it. This makes it impossible to take of the bricks without defacing them like I had originally planned. So we are going to build walls around the fireplace so outlets and light switches can be put on the side of it. it will also make it look consistent with the rest of the house and allow us to put in the same granite that is being put in the bathrooms and the kitchen counter on it so it fits right in the with house.

No mantle place though. The front of the fireplace is reserved for a large painting my mom will be painting me!!

I also found out how expensive it is to run a gas fireplace. I'm going to keep the connection there, but I'm considering removing the logs and putting candles there instead. Seems like an economical solution to me. Though I do really love fires!

May 16: Small Kitchen Wall

2008-05-18T13:52:00.001-07:00

There needed to be a small wall that separates the kitchen from the living room so the kitchen cabinets are not just ending into empty space.

Here's that wall.

May 16: Master Bathroom: New Ceiling Joists

2008-05-18T13:49:00.000-07:00

The master bathroom's ceiling was not level. This is due to a lot of things, but the main thing is that the joists are from 1940 and have settled over time. To put a new ceiling in would look funny and take way to long with curved ceiling joists.

Solution was to rip out all the ceiling joists in the bathroom and replace them with new ones. This has now been accomplished.

May 16: Master Closet Ceiling

2008-05-18T13:47:00.000-07:00

The closet needs a ceiling. It's now in. The dimensions of the closet are 9' long and 5' wide. We thought that it would need two can lights to properly light that long of a closet.

May 16: Hall closet

2008-05-18T13:42:00.000-07:00

The hallway that goes to the second bedroom and the second bathroom is going to have a new closet at the end of it. There are multiple reasons for this closet:

The current linen closet is going to be moved into the second bathroom to service that bathroom.
There needs to be a closet to serve as a coat closet for the house.
There needs to be a closet to house the 2 tankless hot water heaters that will serve the house.
Most importantly, you have to have access to the backs of the shower pipes. This closet hides those panels that need to go there.

This is the future location of the hall coat closet.

May 16: Master Bathroom: Linen Closet

2008-05-18T13:37:00.000-07:00

The master bathroom didn't have a linen closet. This seems like a downfall to Gerald, Kevin and I. They came up with a solution to put one in and not lose the structure and flow of the bathroom and it looks like it will work.

I was going to have it be a half closet, but it seems to work well as a full closet.

The closet is between the shower and where the toilet will go.

The closet is 18" deep and 2' wide.

May 16: The Second Bathroom Is Gutted

2008-05-18T13:26:00.000-07:00

It was time for this bathroom to be gutted. It was in poor shape to be honest and needed a face lift. It's going to look like the master bathroom (same hardware, tile, paint, etc...) only smaller. It's having a lot of changes done to it actually:

The cast iron tub is being taken out (it needs to be re-finished) and replaced with a steel tub.
The window is being replaced along with the outside bathroom wall (which has water damage)
New tile is being put in.
A new vanity is being put in along with a medicine cabinet.
The vanity and toilet are being moved to the opposite wall so you won't have to weave through the bathroom.
The closet next to the bathroom is being arranged so it will open into the bathroom to make it a linen closet.
The door going into the bathroom is being moved down the wall so a closet can be built into the hallway.
There will be a can light and a fan put into the bathroom along with new lighting above the vanity.

This is basically a gut and redo, just like the rest of the house. Here are some pictures to show it off!

May 16: Master Bedroom: Fan

2008-05-18T13:18:00.000-07:00

The connection is in for the fan in the master bedroom. This will be the only fan in the main house because the ceiling height does not really work for fans in the rest of the house. The ceilings are vaulted in the master bedroom so a fan will work nicely.

I've always liked fans and in the last apartment I had, I used the fans constantly to keep a breeze moving in the house. I'm really happy that I'll have one in my bedroom.

The connection. It's centered in the master bedroom.

I decided to get a Hampton Bay fan. It can work indoors or outdoors. I think I'm going to get 3 more of them. 1 for outside and 2 for in the great room.

I found hardware in a lighting catalog that Gerald gave me that goes with the fan so it will fit well with the rest of the house.

May 16: Master Bathroom: Shower

2008-05-18T12:59:00.000-07:00

The shower is taking shape. We adjusted the dimensions of the shower to be 6' wide and 4' deep.

The beginnings of the shower. This was the process of leveling the base so the walls will be level for the shower.

The shower will have two shower heads in it. Because of where the door is in the walls we can't have angled shower heads. The water would probably seem around the door over time and cause damage over time. This means that we have to put in rain heads that come out of the ceiling. It will actually look more premium so it seems like a good idea.

Here is the whole outline of the shower. A clear glass door will go in the center and there will be half walls with clear glass on top.

On another note, I had ordered gray tile for the bathrooms. There are going to be 12" x 12" tiles on the floor and 6"x 6" tiles in the showers. It was supposed to be delivered 2 weeks ago and I got a call from Expo saying that they had lost the product in shipment. I got on the phone with them and they informed me that the trucking company had lost the shipment. It was last seen in Dallas, TX. We got it re-ordered though so I should be getting it next week.

May 2: Wii

2008-05-05T18:19:00.000-07:00

On Friday I went during lunch, with two people from the marketing department, to buy a Nintendo Wii. All three of us ended up buying one and I have loved playing with it.

This is of course the point that you are asking what this has to do with the house. I know it may be a stretch, but this has been part of my house plan for a while. At least that's how I justified it's purchase.

April 30: Green All Around

2008-04-30T20:00:00.000-07:00

I walked to the back of the house to see what it looked like with all of this improvement. All the trees have new leaves and the grass is green and it justed looks great.

It's nice to see it starting to look like a real house. I had fun day dreaming about what it would look like when it was all complete.

April 30: Master Bathroom Windows

2008-04-30T19:56:00.000-07:00

The master bathroom windows are being bumped over. They were originally installed when the room was 2' wider, so they were centered then. However, when we decided to cut in 2' to move over the closet 2' so the bedroom would be 2' bigger, the windows became off center.

Today that was solved.

April 30: Insulation To The Addition

2008-04-30T19:52:00.000-07:00

Insulation is being put in the rest of the addition. This is very positive and it feels good to be one step closer to having dry wall up.

This is the 3rd bedroom.

April 30: Fuse Box Move

2008-04-30T19:47:00.000-07:00

The fuse box was cut out today.

It has been residing in the basement, though it seems ridiculous to keep it there. I mean, think of when you have a fuse trip. It's always in the middle of the night when it is storming or at least cold. I don't want to be tramping under my house in the middle of the night when it will probably be raining outside, so we decided to move it into the master closet.

We thought there might be an issue with the box being out of code and my having to buy another box that can cost around $200, but we think it will pass!

April 30: Front Door

2008-04-30T19:42:00.000-07:00

Today my front door came in. Gerald went to Home Depot to pick it up and he said he got 3 or 4 compliments about the door as he was taking it out to his truck. Looks like Rachel helped me have good taste when she helped me decide not to spend twice as much on a custom door.

The outside of the door will probably be red and the inside will be white.

On a random note, the day that I ordered it, I saw it on a TV show that night. I thought it looked good.

April 30: Recessed Lighting

2008-04-30T19:37:00.000-07:00

Today the recessed lighting has started to be put in. The can lights will be going in the:

Master Bedroom
Master Closet
Master Bathroom
Dining Room
Kitchen
Living Room
2nd Bedroom
2nd Bedroom Closet
3rd Bedroom
3rd Bedroom Closet
Hallway
Laundry Closet

April 25: New Kitchen Floor, Part 2

2008-04-30T18:52:00.000-07:00

On Friday I walked into the house to see a much larger hole in my kitchen than I remembered from Thursday when Gerald and Kevin were going to set in new floor joists to finish it out.

Gerald proceeded to tell me a story of a disaster that had happened on Thursday. Here's how the story goes:

Gerald and Kevin had spent all day mapping out where the floor joists were going to go and creating a grid of string that would ensure that all the boards were level. After they had also spent most of the day with joists raised above their heads as they secured them into the rest of the house they were down to the last board. They installed the board and it pulled away slightly from one of the original boards. This isn't uncommon, so Gerald just took a hammer and knocked it back towards the other board. This is where the entire floor (that they just installed) collapsed.

Turns out that the original board was rotted. The floor that they thought was secure, was just supported by one or two nails, so it couldn't hold. I believe they threw a few items, said a few choice words and almost collapsed in tears.

The good news is that it happened then and not after most of the kitchen had been completed. They had to redo it on Friday, but they made sure nothing was rotted and supported it even more to make sure it would hold and that it was level. The result is a new level floor for the kitchen.

The hole. The section in the middle is where everything fell down.

A view through the hole into the basement. Notice how all the air vents and everything else is laying on the floor, this happened of course because the joists were supporting it and they collapsed.

The view of the beautiful, level floor after they finished.

April 25: The Ceiling Must Come Down

2008-04-30T17:43:00.000-07:00

I took off work on Friday to go to the house and tear down the ceiling to the master bathroom.

I was informed by Kevin that tearing out the ceiling was going to be the easy part. He was dead on.

In order to tear down the ceiling I had to rake back the loose insulation that covers the ceiling. Most of my attic has huge ceilings (upwards of 15 feet) however the area that I needed to rake back was towards the side of the house, so at the tallest point it was just over my height. This of course means that at the lowest point, it touched the ceiling. Most of my time was spent on my hands and knees, trying to balance on the ceiling joists to keep from falling through and either reaching out with a rake or using my hands to rake back the insulation into the rest of the attic.

It wasn't that hot outside (maybe in the 70's) but the attic was an oven of non-circulating air. Within minutes I was dripping with sweat, so after 3 hours and 2 nalgenes of water later, I was soaked through and through with dripping sweat.

I walked through most of my attic that day. Mostly because the piles of insulation would get so high that I couldn't get any more on top of the pile and I would have to move back to rake down that pile into the rest of the attic so I could keep moving more insulation off the area I had to knock out.

With the insulation gone, I balanced on the ceiling joists while taking a large crow bar and knocked out the ceiling below me. Balancing on joists with nothing below you is a bit more intimidating than I thought it would be, so I was moving slower than I thought I would.

Gerald helped make clean-up easy though! Though he did more of the work, we dragged the tarp, that I had put down on the floor before, out the front door and into the front yard. This was so much easier than shoveling out all the plaster, slats and dry wall manually.

I take off work for some tough jobs.

The view before I started working. The insulation is 18" thick, so there is a lot to move over a 10'x12' room.

The room during deconstruction. Notice the good idea of a tarp on the floor to make clean-up easy. Something I learned when I was tearing out the walls.

The new chandler. This little light hung on my its grounding wire even though it was being pummeled by dry wall, plaster and slats.

The ceiling half way through. It was such a messy process.

The result!

April 22: Electrical

2008-04-22T20:48:00.000-07:00

The house is being wired. They already have a few rooms done and it seems to be going pretty quickly.

Today I spent an hour or so walking through the house with Gerald and Kevin as we talked about where every can can light, interior and exterior light fixture, plug, light switch and cable outlet needed to go.

I also showed Gerald which lighting fixtures I wanted him to order.

Things seem to be going smoothly!

April 22: Graffiti

2008-04-22T20:41:00.000-07:00

My house was graffitied.

Apparently some kid was came through the neighborhood spray painting his name all over the place. It was on my neighbors fence, my foundation and they got into the house next to mine (also being renovated) and sprayed it on every wall they could find.

Gerald said that it was just cheap spray paint and can be pressure washed off. I guess it'll be gone soon. All the more reason for me to put a solid fence around the back yard.

April 22: New Kitchen Floor

2008-04-22T20:27:00.000-07:00

My kitchen floor is being replaced. Now, I'm not just talking about putting hard wood in like I planned. By a new floor, I mean a completely new floor.

I went to the house and my floor was gone. Gerald and Kevin had started laying new sub flooring, but the problem was that there was a floor joist that was not connected to anything and was cracking. This was causing a significant dip in the floor where the cabinets were going to go.

The original sub floor was also bad, so that is all ripped out and being replaced.

April 16: Master Bedroom Roof Part 3

2008-04-16T20:21:00.000-07:00

The house is soooo close to being in the dry. The master bedroom roof is almost completely done. Tomorrow Gerald is going to put the trim pieces on the sides of the roof and then shingles can begin! Yay for a dry house.

Having a roof really helps to show what the size of the room will be. I have a feeling I'm really going to like my bedroom!

Vaulted ceilings in the master bedroom will be 14' at the peak I believe.

This is the bedroom looking back at the closet. The vault will go up from the wall that the closet is on. On the left of the closet is a small hallway that goes past the entrance to the closet and to the master bathroom.

April 9: Master Bedroom Roof Part 2

2008-04-09T19:06:00.000-07:00

Most of the joists are installed and a tarp has been put up to keep out the rain.

Tomorrow the last of the roof joists are being put up and hopefully the decking. Almost there!

April 7: Master Bedroom Roof

2008-04-07T21:58:00.000-07:00

Today the roof over the master bedroom started. This is the last portion of the roof necessary to get the house in the dry. If its complete tomorrow (which Gerald told me it should be) then drywall will just be about a week and a half away!

The master bedroom is on the right of the image. It will form the vaulted ceiling that will be above the bedroom. It's supposed to rain on Wednesday - Friday, so I hope it gets completely done. I'm tired of the weather killing the schedule!

April 7: Honda Ruckus

2008-04-07T21:45:00.000-07:00

Though this is not only about the house, it does correspond to my move to East Nashville so it makes sense for me to put it up here.

On March 22nd, I went to the Honda dealership and bought a Honda Ruckus. A Honda Ruckus is a 49cc scooter that goes about 40mph on level streets (so about 45mph downhill). The benefit of having a 49cc motor is that it is the maximum engine size that I can have without having to get a motorcycle license. Since I moved to East Nashville I don't have to drive to work on the highway, it made sense to get one.

It gets 100 miles per gallon and holds 1.3 gallons. I filled up this past weekend and it cost me $2.67, which makes me very happy since I'm used to putting 22 gallons into the Tahoe which gets 14 miles to the gallon.

This way I can save money and keep miles off my car so it will last a lot longer.

I picked up the scooter on March 28th, so I've had it for just over a week and have already put 120 miles on it.

It is so much fun to drive and gets me everywhere I need to go in town. I didn't drive my car for 4 days this past weekend and it was wonderful.

I went with the metallic silver instead of the all black version.

I got a black helmet to go with it. You also get surprisingly cold when going 40mph, so I've had to wear jackets.

April 2: Roof Mostly Covered

2008-04-02T21:54:00.000-07:00

The roof is starting to be covered with sheets of wood. This is very positive in the unending quest to get the house in the dry. Most of the house is covered now. The master bedroom still has to be worked on though. The house is getting close to being in the dry, but close is only good in horse shoes and hand grenades.

Seeing the light go away is a wonderful feeling.

The third bedrooms roof is taking an interesting shape. This keeps it in the same slope as the rest of the roof and also keeps it at an angle that will ensure that the shingles remain under warranty from leaking. This is called a 312 angle (which means that for every 12 feet of length, the roof rises 3 feet).

The metal spacers let the roof expand and contract with the different seasons without buckling and showing through the shingles. When houses don't use them and it gets hot outside, apparently its possible to see every sheet of wood underneath the shingles. For $12 of spacers, it seems worth it.

March 28: A Roof Takes Shape

2008-03-29T22:35:00.000-07:00

It has been one of the most painstakingly long tasks ever to get a roof on this house. This is mainly due to weather, but at last the roof is taking shape.

Half of the existing roof is torn off so it's possible to see up into the attic, which looks pretty cool actually. The pitch of the roof line had to be changed to accommodate the addition.

Really though, pictures say more than words ever could.

Roof joists taking shape over the dinning room and the third bedroom.

The wall that used to separate the kitchen from the dinning room is gone now and I learned that the large beam that you see is called a micro-beam.

You can see into the attic over the master bathroom and I think it's pretty cool to see the difference in the old 68 year old wood to the new wood.

Looking out of the kitchen into the dinning room. The master bedroom is on the left and the third bedroom is on the right. There will be French doors in the center of the dinning room.

I like seeing into the attic and how the fireplace shape changes.

March 26: Break In

2008-03-29T22:29:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday night, my house was broken into.

None of the doors or windows were broken in and Gerald thinks that they got in through a hole in the floor that they had to go underneath the house to get to.

Copper wire, a drain, a cooler, 2 floor joists, a miter saw, a table saw and other little things were stolen. It looked like they were ready to steal sinks and other things, but they must have gotten spooked and took off. They had pulled a truck into the front yard.

Gerald filed a police report, but we have now removed anything of value from the house when someone is not there.

March 20: Exterior Walls

2008-03-20T18:48:00.000-07:00

Progress is wonderful and nothing screams progress like exterior walls! Gerald and Kevin are putting up the first layer of the exterior walls and it's really nice to see it taking shape.

Tomorrow the roof should start to take shape. I will be helping out since I have the day off.

This is an interior view of the side of the dinning room looking into the master bedroom.

The house looks so much bigger with the walls up.

March 20: Granite Counter Top

2008-03-20T06:32:00.000-07:00

For those that don't already know about Gerald my contractor, he owns a granite counter top company. Since I wanted to put granite counter tops into my kitchen, it was a nice to already have a connection that could help me decide what to get.

He showed me 8 large samples of his best sellers (including a man-made one that has an anti-bacterial ingredient in it that will kill e. coli in 18 hours I believe).

I had originally wanted something that was a darker green for the kitchen and he had one sample that he recommended to me called Ubatuba (which is a type of granite that's taken from a mine in South America). It is made of dark green, black and gold flakes. It had a good look to it and I decided that Ubatuba was the one!

The samples.

For those of you wondering what Ubatuba looks like close up.

March 17: Mailbox!

2008-03-17T19:44:00.000-07:00

It's been a long time coming. I had planned on installing a mailbox at the beginning of the project, but that was delayed since it didn't seem important at the time.

Now with less than 2 weeks remaining before I move out of my apartment, I need to start switching over my mail from my current address to the house address.

Last week (on Thursday), Gerald and I put in the mailbox post. It was pretty easy to do actually and I felt pretty good about it.

Sunday was the big day of finally installing the mailbox. The mailbox had to be installed twice because some of the metal pieces needed to be bent to fit, but its done and it looks beautiful! Oh the simple pleasures of home improvement.

March 17: Interior Walls

2008-03-17T18:49:00.000-07:00

Interior walls are taking shape. I have walls showing where the master closet is going to be, where the master bedroom is going to be and where the third bedroom is going to be (it was formally the laundry room) and the area where the washer and dryer are going to go.

Here's what happened with the laundry room:

Kevin and Gerald typically talk about ideas for the house while they are working. As they were looking at the laundry room, they were talking about the value of one over the value of turning it into another bedroom. One wall would have to be extended and a new home would have to be found for the washer and dryer. The washer and dryer would go into a newly created closet in the kitchen or in a hall closet and the wall for the bedroom would only have to be moved out about 32".

They said that moving the wall and creating the additional walls would cost about $50. The value of another bedroom was about $20,000 in resale. That seemed like a pretty good return on investment to me, so the decision was made. Third bedroom! Plus I might get another roommate or turn it into an office.

This is the third bedroom. It is on the back of the house on the other side of the dining room from the master bedroom. 4' closet.

This is the closet for the washer and dryer. It is in the kitchen area, but the closet will be insulated to reduce noise and then scabbed with the same wood used in the cabinets and have two custom cabinet doors that will close it off. Randy, my cabinet builder, is going to make the doors and wood match the cabinets he's building so it will flow seamlessly with the kitchen.

March 9: Lost Corner Cont...

2008-03-10T14:36:00.001-07:00

I went back by the house today to take some pictures of the house, since I lost the last photos due to a card error.

The roof has been ripped off and the floor has been leveled and decked.

March 9: Lost Garage

2008-03-09T15:03:00.000-07:00

I had plans to build a two car garage with a two car car port on the side and a loft on top of that. This would have been a 40 ft long by 24 ft wide by 18 ft high structure. However, after talking to Gerald about the project, getting part of the quote back and looking at how much actual space this would take up...I canceled it.

Instead I have a smaller, yet I believe better idea. I still have to have Gerald quote it, but it seems like an option that could work. Here's the basics:

It will be a two story structure that will be built 8 ft from the back of the house on the side of the house that the laundry room is on.

It will be connected to the house by a deck and the roof line of the structure will connect with the house so there will be a section of deck that is covered.

The bottom story will only have one entry point which will be a garage door. It will not be large enough for a car, but will be big enough for a workshop, to store a trailer and a scooter (that's right...I think I know which scooter I'm going to get!). The room size will either be 12 ft wide by 15 feet long or 16 ft wide by 15 ft long.

The top story will have 9 ft walls and a vaulted ceiling (with can lights and a fan). It will have 5 windows and a door that faces the laundry room. The room will be 12 ft wide by 15 ft long. It will serve as a separate space (dubbed a Brian Room by my Dad) and will be a space that I can put my TV and sitting area, my desk and probably a piano. It will basically be a space separate from the house that I can go and not bother anybody.

Off the end of the structure (facing away from the house) will be a large car port (probably 16 ft wide by 20 ft long). It will in all reality be a large deck with material underneath to keep water from dripping through. This will be the main deck for the house.

I like the idea a lot more than the garage and feel like this will suit the house a lot better than my previous plan. We'll see what happens!

March 9: Lost Corner

2008-03-09T14:59:00.000-07:00

Over the past week, the frame for more walls took shape. Also decking was laid down for the areas that were still missing it.

I was going to have some good pictures of the back corner of the house being gone (that is...walls and roof) but my camera's card messed up and I lost those photos. You'll have to use your imagination for that visualization.

The roof of that particular section was too low for us to be able to connect it with the rest of the house, so it had to go. That's really all on this right now. Next week the roof line should take shape.

March 4: Walls!

2008-03-04T09:56:00.000-08:00

Walls are going up! It's much easier to visualize what size the rooms really are when there are walls.

Also decided to vault the ceiling in the master bedroom. This will allow a really large window (probably two windows and an eyebrow window) to go in the wall opposite of where the bed is planned to go.

Kevin is aiming the nail gun at me and Gerald is on the side.

View from the back yard. The bedroom is the section on the right that is sticking out an extra 4 feet.

Nice to see it taking shape.

March 2: A Hood For The Range

2008-03-02T15:46:00.000-08:00

I've wanted a commercial vent for my kitchen for a long time. It's always been part of the plan and today I followed through with my dream and ordered one. It's the first thing (and probably the last) that I bought from Home Depot Expo. I couldn't find it anywhere for less, so I placed my order.

It's actually the hood liner and blower for the vent. The outside of the hood will be built by my cabinet builder, Randy, to match the rest of the kitchen cabinets. I'm excited!

It's a 36" GE Monogram Stainless Steel hood insert. Best of all the controller for the lights and fans can be taken off the unit and installed in the counter top if I want to. Could be cool...we'll see.

Doesn't it look great! The only difference is that mine will be set up for an island instead of being put next to a wall.

This is their example of putting the remote somewhere else. I would have to put it in the countertop if I decided to move it. Chances are it'll stay in the vent.

March 2: Slow Going

2008-03-02T15:20:00.000-08:00

It's been about two weeks since my last update and during those two weeks not a lot has been happening. Weather has been bad over the past two weeks. Rain, snow and sleet have all hit Nashville over at least half of that time have kept things from moving forward quickly.

A few things have happened though:

I no longer have one of the four corners of my house. I was told that the wood was rotted on part of it so more fell off than should have. Apparently part of the house was only held up by dry wall. Makes me feel good about ripping off the back of the house.

The floor below the corner that is no longer on the house has been raised off the foundation. This is done to level the floor so it will meet with the addition. It's off about 4 inches now and will probably raise a few more before this is all over with.

Floor joists and sub flooring for the addition have started to go in. This began on a Monday and then nothing happened for the rest of the week because of snow and sleet. Frustrating. The addition should have been in the dry by now.

The hole in the back of the house and the wood perimeter for the flooring.

This the the corner of my house and the floor that is jacked a good 4 or so inches off the foundation.

The sub-flooring is starting to go in. It felt really good to stand on it.

February 15: Hard Wood Floors

2008-02-15T13:33:00.001-08:00

In talking with my Dad, he questioned why I would want to create breaks in the flow of the house by stopping and starting the hardwood floors in the main living area (living room, kitchen and dinning room). His question was simple: Why don't you just put hardwood floors throughout the whole area?

A simple question with a simple answer. Yeah, that makes sense.

February 15: Lighting, Lots Of Lighting

2008-02-15T13:28:00.000-08:00

I have the responsibility to choose all the lighting in the house....I don't know a lot about lighting, but basic ideas of what I would like.

Gerald has a connecting with a lighting guy who gives him great discounts. Yesterday I received an encyclopedia size stack of lighting catalogs from Gerald that his lighting guy gave him for me to look through.

I could spend the next 8 hours just looking at lighting....hmmmm....maybe I will....

February 15: The Official Switch

2008-02-15T13:15:00.000-08:00

Last night I talked to two people whose opinions I trust without question...my parents.

I told them about my issue of wither or not to switch the master bedroom and bathroom. They had good advice. Switch them.

Reasons included:
Only the master of the house should have access to the master bathroom (I was considering having the master bathroom open to the back of the house as well)
As long as the master bathroom as one window it's fine
The master bedroom should have a view that's not the next door neighbor's house
The deck access to the master bedroom is a trend that is growing
Lots of light in the master bedroom is a good thing

Thus its now decided. The master bedroom will take the place of the master bathroom at the back of the house and the master bathroom will be closed off from the rest of the house.

Good call!

February 14: Switching Is Growing On Me

2008-02-14T10:08:00.000-08:00

The idea of switching the master bathroom and the master bedroom is growing on me, but I'm still not decided.

It would be nice to wake up each morning looking out of two double sets of glass doors into the back yard. I would probably extend the deck to be able to walk out of the bedroom onto the deck if I did this.

It would also be nice to sit in a tub and look out the windows at the back yard. Nice, open and bright.

I could do either. Thoughts? Let me know. I'm unsure.

February 14: Cabinets Through Randy

2008-02-14T09:37:00.000-08:00

This morning I talked to Gerald about the kitchen cabinets. I had wanted to get a few quotes on the kitchen cabinets before I committed and what I found is that Home Depot's and Lowe's cabinets are really expensive for what you get. I would have spent between $10,000 and $15,000 on the kitchen cabinets alone.

A custom cabinet builder who lives and works in East Nashville named Randy Farmer had stopped by my house for one of my friends to give him a check for refinishing work that was done to his furniture. I talked to him for a while and decided to have him quote the job.

The job includes:
16' of cabinets on one wall
11' peninsula of cabinets with a raised bar
6' of cabinet coverings for inset vents over the range and hibachi grill
3.5' x 5.5' island
3' of cabinets over the refrigerator
4' of built in shelves next to the refrigerator
16' of alternating bookshelves and pantry on one wall

The quote came back competitive and a lot less than I would have paid at Home Depot or Lowe's. Gerald said that it is a good deal for that large of a project.

The order was placed this morning along with 2 sets of 3 nesting tables and 4 small cabinets to go above the toilet in the existing bathroom.

Randy is going to meet with Gerald and I tomorrow to discuss scheduling. I think I'm also going to have him quote building a front door.

Progress feels good.

February 11: Contractor = Gerald

2008-02-11T13:33:00.000-08:00

In my posts I have been calling my contractor two things: my contractor or Gerald.

I did this because I didn't think anyone would know who Gerald was otherwise. However, I have decided that I don't like calling him my contractor. His name is Gerald Dulaney and I consider him a friend.

Because of that, from now on my contractor will be referred to as Gerald in my posts.

Please make a note of it. This is your fair warning.

February 10: Paint, Paint, Go Away

2008-02-10T21:59:00.000-08:00

I learned that the 20 paint cans that the previous owners left in the house could not be dumped into our construction dumpster.

I wasn't quite sure what to do about it (since I didn't want to pay to dump them) until I realized that I have a dumpster at my apartment that has no restrictions that I know of.

Today the paint cans made their way from my house to the apartment dumpster. Problem solved.

February 8: Insulation Begins

2008-02-10T21:47:00.000-08:00

The house never really had insulation to speak of in the walls. Sure the ceiling was great, but the rest of the house had plaster on the walls. Which means that there was nothing in the walls. The other section of the house that had been added onto only had insulation in some areas of the walls...which stumped both Gerald and I completely. Needless to say...good thing I took down all the walls.

Insulation is going in now. We will be energy efficient!

February 8: The Foundation Is Done

2008-02-10T18:02:00.000-08:00

I went by the house to see if the job was finally done and all I have to say is wow!

It's really to beautiful for words and it really starts to show what the house will start to look like.

There's a nice large door that will go under the house and might also be used to store things like the lawn mower.

I learned that these blocks are called split face blocks and are apparently a lot harder to lay.

These vents are pretty cool as well. There are metal slats on the outside and this mesh you see on the inside. Keeps all those pesky animals from crawling under your house and dying I guess. The contractor (Gerald) is going to see if he can replace the existing vents with these so they match.

February 8: A Foundation Takes Shape

2008-02-08T14:56:00.000-08:00

Today was a beautiful day! It was a perfect 60 degrees, the sky was blue and the birds were singing. The music to my ears though was that the foundation for the addition would be completed today.

After long weeks of being mad at the rain and at the so very slow tree guy, the real work can finally begin.

Honestly, I don't know what to say except that it looks so good to see walls there and the big smile feels really good.

The blocks are rough on one side, which just look so premium.

This is where the bathroom will rest on. The door is 4 feet wide to allow easy access to yard equipment.

The four guys who made the world such a better place today.

February 6: Foundation Workers Missing

2008-02-07T05:54:00.000-08:00

Two days ago a large storm came through Tennessee. It went north of town, which meant that the tornadoes, heavy winds and rain didn't affect me very much.

The next morning was a beautiful morning with a blue sky and birds singing. The foundation workers were going to start building the walls of the foundation at 7:30AM. Things were looking up.

If you note the foreshadowing of the last paragraph, you'd also want to note that the foundation walls were not built on Wednesday.

The contractor told me that the foundation workers live north of town (where the rather large storm with tornadoes went) and that he had tried calling them a few times but had no response. Are my foundation workers missing? Not to be cold, but I'd really like my foundation walls built.

February 5: 10 Tons...That's Right....10...Continued

2008-02-05T16:17:00.000-08:00

When I went to the house I saw my 10 ton pile of sand. Surprisingly it isn't as large as you might think...which was kind of a let down to be perfectly honest.

Though after looking at 10 tons of sand, I would imagine that each sand volleyball court has roughly 10 - 12 tons of sand in it.

I think I'm going to start saying that I had a sand volleyball court delivered to my house.

February 5: A Foundation Is Poised

2008-02-05T15:59:00.000-08:00

Due to rain the walls of the foundation were not built on Monday or Tuesday. Tomorrow however is a different story. The guys laying the blocks will be arriving between 7 and 7:30 AM to enjoy an unusually warm day for February 6th. They think it will take a day to a day and a half to finish the job. This of course means that the back of the house is close to being ripped off.

The good news from the contractor today is that he thinks we are only a week behind. My move in date is still good to go!

The foundation is poised and ready to be raised. Closest to you is the utility room, then the dining room and finally the master bathroom and walk in closet.

The blocks have one rough side, which I hear is a more premium look. The contractor got a great deal on the blocks too. Typically these blocks are $2.50 a piece, but I got them for $1 a piece.

Proof that yards don't like off-roading fork lifts.

February 5: 10 Tons...That's Right....10

2008-02-05T13:08:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I had sand delivered to my house. This is going to be mixed into the mortar which will ultimately end up between the blocks that form the addition to my foundation.

Apparently mortar requires a lot of sand. The addition that is being built requires 3 tons of sand. This is all well and good until I learned that when you buy sand you have to buy a minimum of 4 tons. This is actually fine, since we are just going to spread it around and fill in some holes.

Today I talked with my contractor and learned that when the truck came to deliver the sand he had 10 tons of sand with him. The contractor learned that after he delivered the 4 tons of sand we paid for he could either leave the rest of the sand with us or he was just going to dump it on the side of a road.

I now have 10 tons of sand next to my house.

January 31: Possible Master Bedroom And Bathroom Switch

2008-01-31T16:17:00.000-08:00

Currently the master bedroom is in the back-left corner of the house. Part of the addition would be used by the addition of a walk-in closet and a master bathroom which I would also have open up into the back of the house.

In talking to the contractor today, he suggested that I switch the idea by having the master bathroom where the bedroom currently is and using the new addition for the closet and master bedroom. This would save cost in the plumbing that would need to be run further to the back of the house since the kitchen, current bathroom and this bathroom would all be right next to each other.

Downside: The master bathroom would not open up to the back of the house.
Downside: The hardwood floor in the current master bedroom would have to be covered up with tile or ripped out.

It was an interesting thought that I'll ponder for a little bit, but I'm not sure how far it will go.

January 31: The Beginnings Of A Foundation

2008-01-31T15:37:00.000-08:00

I never thought I would see the day that the foundation would be dug and poured. However, this week, I dropped unexpectedly by the house after work one day and saw to my amazement that the foundation for the addition was being built!

This was a rather exciting moment for me, so I walked back to where the work was happening. There were two guys there and I started talking to the head guy when I realized that he didn't actually speak more English than perhaps hello. So, it was bit awkward for a moment until I realized that I could just walk away. So, I did. They seemed relieved and started working again, which seemed like a good thing to me.

I saw James at Bongo Java East and we grabbed Shannon and went over to the house to see the work being done there. We watched from the bedroom window though, so we wouldn't keep them from working.

The current plan as it stands is that the blocks, sand and mortar mix should be delivered tomorrow and the rest of the foundation should be built on Monday. Nice to see something happening other than material being ripped out of the house.

Day 1 of foundation (Wednesday): Dug out and rebar placed in trench.
Day 2 of foundation (Thursday): Filled with cement and reinforced with rebar.
Day 3 of foundation (Friday): Cement allowed to set. Blocks, sand and mortar delivered.
Day 4 of foundation (Monday): Walls built with blocks and mortar.

January 25-26: All The Walls Must Come Down

2008-01-27T18:25:00.000-08:00

January 23rd was the day that we decided that all the interior walls in the house must be torn down to the studs. Besides the added cost of doing this, there was also the time factor involved in all of this demolition.

As I am someone who does not like a project to get behind schedule if I can help keep that from happening, I took it upon myself to take Friday off of work and work at the house all day with Gerald to tear down walls.

I was there from 9 AM till 6:30 PM. It was a big day with a lot of destruction. The one thing that I did not do that I really should have was wear a mask. I had one, but just didn't think about it.

For those that are not aware of what happens when you tear off 68 year old plaster...it creates a lot of dust. I mean a lot of dust! It was 25 outside and we had all the windows open to keep as much dust out as we could, otherwise it was hard to see. Yeah...that much dust.

Well, I must have taken in to much dust into my lungs, because it really affected me. I started getting stuffed up, my throat hurt, my lungs hurt and my stomach hurt. Basically I felt like absolute crap. Friday night I tossed and turned and couldn't sleep well.

Saturday I went back to the house and Brian came by to help me out. This time I wore a mask. Here's some of my destruction work from that day.

I think all the dust ended up making me sick. I don't feel good today (January 27) and am not sure how I'm going to function or if I'm going to function tomorrow at work. I did learn that the lungs get the dust/foreign objects out of your lungs with tiny hairs called cilia that push the air through your lungs. They also filter out particles of dust by either pushing them up towards their ends so they are blown out when you breath out or by passing them through pharynx, where they travel through your digestive system (which would explain the hurting stomach).

All in all, I didn't get all the walls down (due to a 5 hour nap on January 27th because of feeling so bad) and I learned the importance of wearing a mask.

January 23: When A Tree Falls...Cabinets Are Built

2008-01-23T21:10:00.000-08:00

While the tree was falling at the house, I went to Bongo Java East and met with a cabinet builder named Randy. Randy lives and works in East Nashville, which I see as a cool thing. Local guy builds cabinets...at least he's close if something goes wrong.

I'm planning on getting 2 or 3 quotes on these projects that I need for the house:

Kitchen - 16 feet of cabinets along a wall, 11 feet of cabinets in a peninsula, 3.5x5.5 foot island, a cabinet to go above the refrigerator, wood for the book case that will be inset next to the refrigerator and facing for 6 ft of recessed industrial vents hung above the peninsula.
Pantry - 16 feet of cabinets and book shelves lining the wall on the side of the kitchen
Master Bathroom - Either a single or double vanity. Haven't decided yet.
2nd Bathroom - A single vanity and 4 small cabinets to be fixed above the toilet for additional storage
Dining Room - A 9 foot credenza under the windows that would have filing drawers, open shelves and wine racks built in
Laundry Room - Probably about 9 feet of upper and lower cabinets in 3 foot sections
Furniture - 2 sets of nesting tables that would have 3 tables in each set. The tallest table would be 24" high and the lowest table would be 18" high. He was really excited about building these. Said he might do them for free or just cost of wood. He said he'll comp projects that he really wants to build or needs for his resume. Glad nobody has asked him to build nesting tables yet.

Also I was going to have him quote what it would cost to refinish my bedroom set. This maple furniture is from the early 50's and was my grandparents wedding set. Great furniture that I've used almost my entire life. It has a bed with a foot board and a headboard, a bedside table, a dresser with 3 long drawers, a dresser with 5 long drawers and a mirror. This refinish is a present from my parents as a house warming gift. I'm excited!

Well, I ended up talking to him for 2 hours about all of these projects and I started to freak myself out again about these projects. They are big projects, which I didn't realize until I was talking through them with him. I'll have the quote in a few days. I'm scared.

I guess I'll find out what I can and can't do. He did think it was cool that Hickory Hardware manufactures hinges though. I liked that.

January 23: Ding, Dong The Tree Is Dead!

2008-01-23T20:57:00.000-08:00

That's right! The tree that has cheated death for 3 weeks longer than it should have came down today! This might not seem like a big deal to you, but because of weather and schedules, it turned cutting down a tree into one of the most frustrating tasks imaginable, plus we couldn't start adding on to the house until it was gone.

When Gerald was telling me on the phone how I was going to spend $2,000 more than planned because of knocking down every wall in the house, he asked if I could hear the chainsaw. That was the bright shining moment in the depressing state of that conversation.

I got over to the house after work and saw that wonderful man high up in his bucket cutting down the tree. Kevin had been watching him for a bit and pointed out that the guy was grabbing the tree with one arm and using the chainsaw with the other, then he would let go of the tree with his left arm and let it drop to the ground. We decided on the spot that we would not like to arm wrestle that guy.

A 60 foot tree falls.

January 23: With New Windows Come Many Surprises, Part 4

2008-01-23T20:46:00.000-08:00

This is the last part of this 4 part series...I hope.

Today, Gerald calls while I'm in a meeting and says to give him a call back. They had an issue he wanted to talk to me about. Well, I'm going to be honest, whenever the contractor calls and tells you that he's had an issue, in all actuality it means that I have to spend more money.

When I call him back he tells me that the plaster is cracking and falling off the walls from the windows and trim being removed.

What this means (and remember in part 1 when I mentioned foreshadowing) is that if we put the 1/4" sheet rock over the cracking plaster walls, like we had wanted to, that the walls would crumble under the sheet rock and cause the sheet rock to bow and bend. Which means on top of curvy walls that he would probably have to replace all the sheet rock in the house in a year or two.

That of course means that this weekend I'm going to get a crew together and we are going to tear out every single wall in the house down to the studs. Even though I was close, I didn't want to do a "to-the-studs" renovation, which has always seemed a little extreme to me, but is now a reality for me.

On the plus side, all of my walls will have insulation in them and real drywall.

Total additional cost: About $2,000

A small start to this new weekend project.

January 23: With New Windows Come Many Surprises, Part 3

2008-01-23T20:35:00.000-08:00

Windows have been being put in this week. Like he guessed, more of the areas around the windows had to be rebuilt.

I go over to the house today and Kevin tells me that they made "a small hole" in my wall. I of course don't think anything of this because I think he's talking about replacing the windows. So I walk back to my bedroom and have a little surprise that can only be summed up by this photo:

The "small hole" referred to by Kevin. This would be the side of the bedroom.

Kevin showed me a piece of wood that was completely rotten and said that it was the best piece from the wall. They knocked out out without using a hammer. On the plus side, there used to be a single window there, but I'm having them put in a double window.

Remember that first window we knocked out? This is it with a new wood frame and supports.

January 19: With New Windows Come Many Surprises, Part 2

2008-01-23T20:22:00.000-08:00

We get the 8 windows we bought for $1050 back to the house. Brian (not me) starts to work on tearing out my doors and all the trim all over the house (more destruction with Spartacus) while Gerald and I look at replacing the first window.

We rip out this window in a pile of debris and then he looks at the window sill. Well he notices that the first board is rotten, rotten as in it crumbles in his hand. Then he looks at the second board...yup...rotten. Overall the whole area around the window is rotted out from water leaking from that window.

Back to Lowe's for more materials....

We get 2x4's and plywood. At this point, like in the house when he kept knocking out piles of wood from around the window, I was having one of those moments of "what did I get myself into?!?!?"

We get back to the house and realize we couldn't get it built back and put in before dark since it was already 5. So we used the plywood we got to nail to the front of where the window used to be so nobody would kick it in and steal the other windows. A modern security system when it comes down to it.

On the way out he says that he guesses about half the windows will be in the same situation as that one...crap.

In case you were wondering, I didn't take any photos for this post because I was to depressed at the time to want to take a photo. It was a dark Saturday.

January 19: With New Windows Come Many Surprises, Part 1

2008-01-23T20:01:00.000-08:00

On Saturday I worked with the contractor on the house. By work means I spent a lot of money...and uncovered as well as foreshadowed the need to spend a lot more money. Also, I think I aided a drug addict.

That was the short story. Here's the long story.

I went to the house to help however I could. The contractor was also going to help since he had to go out of town for a day during the week. We looked at everything that was happening with the house and both cursed the existence of the tree behind my house. It had been roughly 2-3 weeks since it should have come down. It was blocking our proceeding on the foundation for the addition. In essence...doing anything else to the house.

With the tree still standing we decided we should start work on replacing the windows. Really it was the only thing we could do to the house at the moment. So we went on a 3 hour trek to find a good deal on windows. We drove all over town and found out that Home Depot charges $20-30 more per window than Lowe's. Naturally we went with Lowe's.

We were getting windows down from the shelves (36"x54" Pella triple pane, which means I can claim up to $500 on my taxes because I got energy efficient windows) when a woman walks up to us. She asks if I'm buying windows. As we are holding windows on a window isle, this seems pretty obvious to me, but I didn't have a snappy line at the moment so I just said "yep."

She continues to say that she had a $350 Lowe's gift card that her husband had given her. She says she doesn't know what to spend this on so she was going to buy air fresheners. So she offered this card to us for half price. She had also mentioned that she had left her husband so it seemed some spite mixed in there too.

Well I didn't have any cash on me so I told her that and she walked off. The contractor standing with me looks over and says "I have cash." What! Why didn't you tell me this?!? "I thought you were just trying to get out of it." Ok...that does actually make sense, but let's get this from her!

So Gerald (the contractor) and I go searching Lowe's for this woman. We end up finding her at the checkout buying: Gatorade, Air Fresheners, light bulbs and soap. She had used up some of the card so she had $327 left on it. Well, we end up buying it from her for $160 and did the transaction in front of a Lowe's employee.

This would seem normal. That is until the Lowe's employee tells us that what we were doing is illegal. I'm sorry? She proceeds to tell us (after we've given the woman the money) that a lot of drug addicts will sell these cards to people for cash that they can then go and spend on drugs. And actually the woman we bought it from did look like she could have been a disheveled drug addict.

For us having performed an illegal transaction, she didn't confiscate the card, call the cops or anything like that. Gerald later told me that it couldn't be illegal since they sell Lowe's gift cards on eBay. The transaction went through at the cash register though, so no harm done. It ended up saving me $167 on a $1050 window purchase....which I guess is something.

January 19: Endless Permits

2008-01-18T22:11:00.000-08:00

I had originally gotten a building permit for the house. That cost $140. What this gave me was permission from the government to do renovations to the house. It also meant that they now get to do inspections and if something isn't write by their books, then we have to fix it and they charge me $30 for another inspection. This did not include an addition, gas, plumbing or electrical work. What did the permit include then??? Exactly.

When I went in the first time, my contractor had called the permit office and they had given him suggestions for me to say in order to keep the cost low. Such suggestions were that I was doing all the work, the cost of the renovations was under $25,000 and there was not going to be an addition, new drywall, gas, plumbing or electrical work.

This had me a bit worried because when I got this original permit, they asked me very specific questions about exactly what I had been told not to say. When I asked what happened if I changed my mind and decided to add on...I would need to update my permits to include that long list above.

With the foundation supposed to be going in this week (which didn't happen because this one tree in my backyard seems like it will NEVER come down), I had a bit of a worry and decided that I needed to go in and update the permits.

Today I went in to the permit office and told them that I needed to update my permits. This is a quick process normally, however I didn't know that I had to have a drawn-to-scale drawing of the property with the new footprint of the house. I was also told that the house had to be 5 feet from each side of the property lines. My addition was not going to do that.

Result:
I had to quickly get the contractor to measure the property while I was at the permit office, so I could draw a really bad (not drawn-to-scale) drawing of the property with what I thought they were requiring me to put on there. It also meant that my house now has to be 2 feet smaller on one side of the house in order to fit their 5 foot requirement. Also I had to spend another $300 to update my permits.

Grand total of $450 for permits that get me inspections by the city. Seems like quite a scam to me.

January 15: The pile leaves

2008-01-15T15:25:00.000-08:00

Today the dumpster was delivered to the house. This of course was a good idea since there was a pile of debris next to the house that was higher than the windows we were throwing things out of.

The only problem was that even with the dumpster delivered, all of that trash had to make it into the dumpster and I really didn't want the contractor doing nothing all day and probably all day tomorrow except throwing trash into a dumpster. Fortunately, the universe provided a solution.

The solution came in the form of a recovering drug addict named Jeff. There is a half way house close by and this long haired guy with the name "Jeffery" tattooed to the side of his neck had come by asking if I had any work that he could do. Well, he let it slip that he was currently doing a job that paid him $18 a day.

All that to say that we paid Jeff (or Jeffery, according to his neck) $20 to put all the trash from the side of the house into the dumpster......

Best $20 I ever spent.

This photo is about 1/2 of the final amount of debris that ended up being next to the house.

Here's what it went into.

January 14: Mailbox and video

2008-01-14T21:51:00.000-08:00

On Saturday I saw the postal worker for my street. She seemed nice and when I saw her I noticed that I didn't have a mailbox. I had never noticed this before and this discovery brought a rather random question to my mind:

What happens to the mail for a house when their isn't a mailbox?

Well, I asked her and she told me that all the mail is returned to sender because there is not a mail receptacle.

Fortunately, I haven't changed my address for anything that would be sent to me, so I haven't had an issue because of it. Today though I decided to fix the problem and went to Home Depot and bought a mailbox and stand.

Let me tell you, there are more choices than I could have imagined for a mailbox and stand and they are all expensive. Why would I want to pay $300 for a mailbox and stand? Yet, I could have easily done that today. In the end, I didn't want a huge mailbox or anything that looked Victorian, so I got a simple black, square stand and black mailbox.

Also, I decided to upload a video of Brian and Spartacus doing severe damage to my closet wall. It was a random thought I had to shoot it and it turned out fantastically well to show what we were doing for 2 days.

January 12-13: Demolition Weekend

2008-01-14T20:47:00.000-08:00

It was a big weekend of destruction and mayhem. The contractor was out of town for the weekend so I took it upon myself to see that a few things happened to the house.

Tear down all the walls between the living room, kitchen, dining room, laundry room, laundry room closet and bedroom closet.
Tear down the back deck.
Take off the tile in the dining room and kitchen. Take out the carpet in the laundry room and both closets.
Take off all the floor boards and window trim.
Deposit all of the debris on the side of the house.

Issues I was not aware of:

The tile was really, really hard to take off. It was glued to the particle board underneath so when you tried to take it off, the tiles broke or tore part of the particle board off with it.
The walls are plaster. This means that with the heavy plaster to take off, there were also slats behind every inch of the walls to take off too. Also some of the walls had sheet rock on top of the plaster and slats. This was more material to remove than I expected.
The deck was attached to the house and had pipes wrapped around part of the board that was attached to the house. This forced us to thinking about how to remove it instead of just using brute force...which was fun actually.

Matt and Brian came out to help me with all the fun. We were working at the house from 9:30AM till 6:00PM on Saturday without a break and on Sunday from 12:30PM till 8:00PM on Sunday without a break. It was a big weekend! We ended the weekend with a pile of debris next to the house that was higher than the windows we were throwing stuff out of.

We had a sledge hammer throwing contest into the walls and Matt and I invented the ab kick. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the ab kick, it is a highly scientific technique used for removing floor boards from an outside deck.

The concept of an ab kick is a little complex so try to stay with me. When attempting an ab kick you put one hand on a joist and your other hand on the joist next to the first one. The is done while looking at the board you are preparing to ab kick. The next and most important step is to quickly contract your ab muscles as you pull your legs up and forcefully kick with both feet the floor board you want to remove. This is done repeatedly until the rogue board is free of all joists it is connected to. And there you have it! The Ab Kick!

Here are some photos of the construction and what it looked like when we were finished.

The deck is gone! I also shattered the glass in the storm door, my mistake.

The new view from the living room. Keep in mind all of those studs will be removed!

This is all that's left of the kitchen. Notice that the tile is gone! I was so happy to have that project done. I was excessively mad with that tile.

The back of my now free standing fireplace!

I also wanted to put up a few photos of us at work and play during the heat of destruction.

A typical sight of the weekend. The nails in the slats would stick into the soles of our shoes. They weren't long enough to push through to our feet, but I was happy to be wearing thick soles that weekend anyway.

Brian about to throw Spartacus through the drywall. It worked amazingly well.

One of our trusty mini-sledges that went through two walls when we threw it and stuck into this wall. It was truly a great throw...I was proud that I had such talent tearing apart my house.

Matt doing an incredible job at utter destruction and mayhem.

I looked like an alien, but when I got madder than hell...the tile couldn't stand up to me.