Two days off in a row!

We took, gasp, a second day off in a row today and even managed to get in some hiking. Wow, what a treat. I really feel so much better after some time off, although nowhere near back to myself.

This is a picture C took of some flowers we saw. Photographing nature is a hobby we like to do together. He is a really good photographer and very capable with the technical aspects of photography as well. This small version of this picture doesn't do it justice - but it will really pop when it is cropped and framed.

Finally, a real day off

We both took the day pretty much completely off today, except for the inevitable every-conversation-ends-up-being-about-the-house syndrome. It was really nice, and I felt so much different afterward.

A little breathing room

Things are finally slowing down a bit. I can see a light at the end of the tunnel, and am beginning to see a decrease in my workload and stress level. Not that either is anywhere near manageable yet, but there has been an improvement. There are fewer things on my to-do list and they are smaller and less complex in scope. My deadlines are easier to meet and all the critical things are done or in the pipeline.

This week and last week have been good weeks because we've had a lot of visible progress which is quite satisfying. Today I let one of the contractor's guys in at 8, and then took off at 8:30 to do some other chores. At 11:30, I went back and had to wait for the plumber to come and install a heat duct in the bathroom. It's the last one and they had to wait for the bathroom ceiling framing to be done in order to do it. While I was waiting, I was digging up the mystery pipe in the back yard. See

April 4, 2006

http://mandcremodel.blogspot.com/2006/04/days-fly-by-and-more-rain.html

and

April 11, 2006

http://mandcremodel.blogspot.com/2006/04/another-slab-mishap.html

for an explanation of the mystery pipe. I worked for about 40 minutes, and then the plumber called to say he was running late so I stopped and went to get lunch. I went back and dug some more while he worked.

The digging wasn't so bad, even thought the yard is firmly packed. It's the darn ficus tree roots that make it really hard. It reminds me of the song from The Music Man "Pick a little, talk a little, pick a little, talk a little" except for me it was "dig a little, cut a little, dig a little, cut a little." I was using a really small shovel (easier to work with in small spaces) and managed to scrape or shovel about 3 times before I had to stop and cut the roots. The landscaper architect assured us we could cut the roots without damaging the trees. Plus, ficus roots are notorious for spreading like weeds. Most of the ones I cut were between 1/8th and 1/2 inch thick. It was fun for a while. The exertion feels really good when you work on your own place. The mental tedium and slow progress are more difficult than the physical challenge of the job. I think the trick is to do about an hour a day and quit when it stops being fun. Fortunately, I can take my time with this task.

After the plumber left, I actually took a few hours to do much needed personal chores such as food shopping, post office, bank, laundry, etc. It was so nice to be able to do that.

More progress

I started today by running down to the permit office to make sure the plumbing calculations checked out and to find out how to get the correction to the pipe size signed off. I checked with both the head plumbing inspector and with the original inspector we were working with and both said we are fine. Yay!

Later in the morning, I called the roofer because we have some daylight coming through the roof around one of the vents. This means that water can get in. He's a really good roofer, and came out later in the morning and sealed up the problem area. For the rest of the morning, I worked with one of the contractor's guys putting together the Ikea cabinets. He ended up doing more than me because I had to leave to go to the dentist in the middle of the day. I even helped move some of the big, heavy ones. Nice to know I'm still able to move heavy stuff!

Here is the kitchen, where we've begun to store some of the upper cabinets.


Here are some of the tall cabinets stored temporarily in the living room.


Here are some of the lower cabinets stored in the "staging" area.

As we don't have a dumpster right now, we're storing trash in the back yard. Looks awful! I would have never thought of this, but dumpsters must be carefully managed! They cost money, so you want to make sure you can fill each one, but you only get 7 days to fill it before it starts costing more for each extra day. We want to wait until closer to the end of the project and then get one more dumpster. The delivery also has to be scheduled around street cleaning so they can put it in the driveway. For a while, I paid for street permits to have them out front in the street. Now that the wall surrounding the front lawn is mostly down, the dumpster can go in the driveway and save money. But, because the driveway is so narrow (it's only 2-3 inches wider than the dumpster) they need to deliver it almost straight in which means it has to come on a day when no cars are parked across the street and the driver can do multiple backups to get the dumpster pointed directly into the driveway. The only day I can be pretty sure of this is street cleaning day.


Here is the new bathroom window during installation. The waterproof membrane is up and the opening is ready for the window.


And here is our new window viewed from inside. Not that impressive yet, but wait until you see how it fits the design!



Finally, I ended the day with yet another trip to Ikea to return a damaged cabinet and two that came in the wrong color. I had to deal with a frustrated drone on a power trip who wouldn't take back the damaged one because he insisted "you assembled it, how do I know the damage didn't happen during assembly." Mr. "CSI-Ikea" concluded this because there were pegs in two pieces. What happened was that the contractor's assistant was assembling it and after a while, it becomes obvious which pegs go in which holes. So as he pulled the first two pieces out, he put all the pegs in before he saw the damage. I immediately told him to put it back in the box and that I would return it. We did not assemble it, and in fact, most of the pieces did not even come out of the box. So, had I said take the pegs out and then put it back we would have been fine. I was seriously pissed at Mr. CSI-Ikea. I purchased a huge quantity of cabinets, and he was sure I was trying to put one over on him. I pointed out all the other pieces, which had no evidence of having been screwed together and that the bag of fasteners had no wood shavings, tool marks or other evidence of having been used. I was trying to reach him in his CSI mode. He finally said that he couldn't accept it but that he had already called the manager down. Ugh! Why didn't he just say that in the first place and I would have just waited for the manager!

As soon as the manager arrived, he immediately lied to the manager and said "she wants to exchange this but she already assembled it" to which I butted in with "I DID NOT assemble it." The manager took a split second look at it and okayed the exchange. If only Mr. CSI-Ikea had been a little less confrontational, it would have been a lot easier.

Moving fast

Today we continued to show a lot of progress. This week and last week have been more satisfying because the work is beginning to show progress. The walls are beginning to look like walls! We started assembling the Ikea cabinets today. Here is the "staging" room as we are beginning the first one:


The plumber's subcontractor (who I really like) came out today to fix the undersized pipe. It went smoothly, and he even took the time to show me the calculations and where the thresholds for pipe sizes are detailed in his code book. It was really interesting to learn, and it gave me a feeling of accomplishment to understand this instead of being so in the dark.

This is the side of the house with the new bathroom window. The old window is closer and is covered with a mesh so it will take the stucco patching. The opening for the new window is just beyond it.

Here is a close up of the wire mesh for the stucco patching.

Plumbing drama

After arguing with me for days on this, the plumber finally relented today and said the pipe needed to be changed but "there will be a small charge for labor and materials." WHAT?!?!! "Why should we do the work twice?" WHAT?!?!?!!? I very carefully did not verbally rip him to pieces the way I felt like he deserved. But said, "I already paid you for that work. It didn't pass inspection. You need to fix it." He reluctantly agreed. Ugh. The sad thing is that I think some people wouldn't have known better and would have just paid it and been ripped off. Anyway, we have a tentative appointment set for tomorrow if his day goes well today - gee, thanks for gracing me with your presence. He was great until the first progress payment, and now he's just been annoying. This whole fiasco with the wrong sized pipes and missing calculations have really held things up. I won't be doing any more business with him after the conctract ends! It goes to show you no matter how carefully you pick someone you can still get a loser.

I'm still learning so much in this process. For a while, I thought I had forgotten to get a gas line for the dryer and that it would be big bucks. Fortunately, it's only adding a "T" to the existing line. This time I got it verified in the calculations first! I also noticed (not for the first time) that there is a 4" vent for the dryer that has to go behind the water heater. We had planned to hide the water heater in a 24" cabinet (it's 20 1/8" in diameter). I'm glad I caught it now while we can still easily solve it. The contractor said he would either do a cutout or pull the cabinet forward enough to accomodate it.

It's been a good week or so. We are making a lot of visible process and moving faster. The pressure is letting up and I am feeling less pressure. Fortunately, there is also less shopping to do. That is great news because I am so sick of shopping and decision making. One thing we still need is all new interior doors. The existing ones are really nasty.

This is the bathroom insulation:


Here is the framing on the larger closet opening in the office:

Here is a close up of the corner of the closet. There is a metal strip in place to protect the corner. The strip will later be covered with drywall "mud" which is a compound used to fill the holes and give a smooth finish.




Here is one of our new windows.




The contractor sanded away some paint covering the floor in a closet to show me what it will look like when it is done. Wow - I love it! The trim piece laying on top of it is the window and door trim. It is a plain piece of stain grade pine that will be finished with a clear or amber stain.

I hate the plumber!

I started the day by calling the plumber, who has been dodging me. He is refusing to make a correction to work he did that didn't pass inspection. I had him move a gas line, and he put the wrong size pipe in. There are calculations plumbers do to properly size pipes. The size of the pipe determines how much gas it can carry, and the pipe needs to be bigger for higher BTU appliances or long pipe runs. So, the plumber made a mistake and is refusing to fix it. His rational is that the inspector is incompetent and that the pipe size is right. I said if this is true, get me calculations to prove it and I'll take them to the inspector. I spoke to him Friday morning and he said he'd call by the end of the day. He didn't. He did the same thing today. How annoying!

I spent most of today (7 hours!) going through the mail and paying bills. I've been so busy lately that everything has slipped - cleaning, bills, laundry, food shopping, exercise, etc. I couldn't believe the mail had piled up so quickly! Part of the problem is that now that we're homeowners, we get an inch of mail almost every day and most of it is junk. Due to identity theft, I actually take the time to shred anything with a name on it and I think that's what takes a while.

The contractors cleaned and degreased the kitchen in anticipation for painting. It was really gross, and I had no idea how bad it was until the first swipe of cleaner was done. The white streak in this picture going from the upper left toward the center is from the cleaner. The rest of the brown, greasy color is just nastly film and splatters on the ceiling. Yuck!



I watched the contractors put in windows for a while. It is really interesting. This black paper is called "bituminous membrane" and helps to seal water out. It is sticky and gooey on the side that is stuck to the house and it self-seals when you nail through it.




This is what the membrane and raw window opening look like from the outside.

Stopped by

Today I went with C to check things out and work on the wiring a bit. We didn't stay too long, but it was nice to show him the progress.

The closest thing we've had to a real day off

Today C and I didn't do any actual work and we went to an Earth day festival instead. We had the minimum required 90% of all conversations were about the house, but it was a fun day.

A long day, visible progress

I started today by getting to the permit office at 7:20 a.m. The inspectors are available by phone 6:30 to 7:30 am and in person 7:30 to 8:00. It is really helpful to just be able to drop in and see who you need to. I brought in the calculations done by the plumber to make sure the gas line was properly sized. After looking at them, the inspector signed them and we could proceed with closing the walls. The process of seeing the inspector was pretty well organized. At 7:30, a guy came out with a clipboard and took everyone's name and who they wanted to see.

I went back to the house and we were cheerfully moving along, when I hear "The inspector is here" at 10:00. Uh oh, it cannot be good news when the inspector stops by uninivited. They are really busy, so even though they can drop in on any job with a permit out front, they haven't yet dropped in on me. It was the inspector I had spoken with this morning, and he came back to tell me that the calculations in fact meant the gas line was not properly sized and that the first 7 feet needed to be upgraded from 3/4" to 1" pipe. This may not sound like a big deal, but as the inspector explained, if the pipe is too small for the amount of gas your appliances use, all the gas can be sucked out of the pipe by the appliances. This can allow air into the pipe and the mixture of air and gas in the pipe can cause an explosion. Yikes! You don't have to tell me twice!

I was actually quite impressed that he took the time to come back for my safety. He could have easily blown it off and never got caught. He went out of his way during a very busy day to make sure I was safe and got proper work done. It really makes me have a new level of appreciation for the inspectors. One unfortnate thing is that we found out we need to have an insulation inspection even though only 12 feet of exterior wall has been opened. The city code says anytime you open an exterior wall you have to insulate it. We were going to insulate the whole house anyway, but we just weren't planning on getting it inspected. Oh well.

The appliances were delivered today, only two weeks after they were supposed to arrive. The all look good, although I haven't opened them yet. I noticed an odd notice on our gas water heater that it cannot be sold in our area after 12/31/07. I wonder why?


After the appliance delivery, I went to the paint store to buy all the paint for the house. I've finally decided on the colors, and for the most part I love them. I'm a little unsure about the master bedroom, but once it is painted correctly by the professionals I'll be able to change the color easily. When I got back to the house, I was asking the contractor where to store 15 gallons of paint. He said I almost broke the law - you can transport up to 15 gallons without a commercial license. Wow, who knew? They guy at the paint store didn't say anything. I wonder how often people break that law without knowing it?

While I was at the paint store, the sales rep from the plumbing supply place called and said there were some problems with the order I placed back in February! After dropping the paint off at the house, I headed over to meet with her. Two of the pieces I ordered that were supposed to be delivered in a few weeks were then delayed 6 weeks. The 6 week period ended Monday and they still weren't in. One of them is not being made in the finish I want - it was a misprint in the catalog. So I have to have it plated - whe knew you could even do that? The other pieces that are missing are really critical and still delayed. It's the bath sink handles an the handles for the shower and bathtub. The shower and tub handles should be here in mid-May and the sink in early June. Assuming the schedule is accurate, we should just be able to manage that. As long as we have the shower, we can manage. Hopefully we can use something else in the meantime if the parts aren't in yet (the general contractor thinks he can rig something up). It's a good thing I think ahead or I'd be in trouble.

I took another of my twice-weekly trips to Ikea and picked up the molding. I now have everything I need for the kitchen.

This has been a good week because we are finally having visible progress. Things are beginning to look better instead of worse!

This is a shot of the windows being prepared for installation. The black paper is a sticky, self-sealing waterproof membrane (called bituminous membrane).

Flower pictures

Ok, these have nothing to do with the remodel but I thought they were interesting and quite beautiful. C and I like to photograph nature together. We pick out shots of interesting things and we work together to set the shot up. He's really good with the settings on the camera (lenses, focus, etc) and can touch them up in Photoshop. I'm better with framing, angles, composition, etc. It's really fun, and I want to use the pictures to decorate the house. Here are two shots of roses I took on the way into our apartment. These small pictures don't do them justice.

visible change today!

I started today by spending 3 hours sorting and organizing the Ikea cabinets. I was very pleased that I not only had everything I thought I should have, but I had nothing extra. The place has begun to have visible change. The walls are getting patched and closed. Much of the work so far has had no satisfying, visual changes. But this week things are starting to look different.

People can be so disrespectful. I've had to have a porta-potty on site because we have no bathroom. At first I had it behind the house so only people who belong there can use it. That proved to be a problem because due to the narrowness of the driveway the service truck cannot make it in and they couldn't clean it. We had to move it first to the driveway and then to the front lawn in plain sight of anyone passing by. It seems that last night while nobody was around, someone did something really gross in there. Fortunately, the contractor's crew warned me and I didn't see it. Today is the regular service day, so it shouldn't have been that big of a problem except that we didn't get our service! It's the first time in three months we've really needed it and the first time it got missed! So my first task tomorrow as site manger is to track down the servicing. Today I have to get a padlock!

One of the plumber's guys dropped off the calculations on the gas line size, so I'll take that to the permit office in the morning so I can get them signed off. The contractor started putting in the new windows today, which is a huge milestone. Everyone in the neighborhood can't wait to see them, including us!

Here is a progress shot of the slab. This is the footer under the slab. 3 hours of jackhammering yeilded this 3" crevice and nothing more. It will have to be removed with a bobcat. It should be easier this time around because the yard has firmed up and dried out quite a bit.



I took this shot to show what the blown insulation looks like in the walls. It is something you usually wouldn't get a chance to see because it is inside the walls.

Here are just some of the piles and stacks of stuff from Ikea.


The start of the new window installation includes removing the old windows and leaving an open space.

The walls are getting closed up and patched.

This is the piece of recylced marble I scored from the salvage yard for one small area of the kitchen. I love the idea of reusing this, especially since it is from the earth. It was only a little more than a formica counter would have been.


Here are more paint samples. You can see I'm having trouble in this room (Master Bedroom).

hit the wall today

I started the day by meeting the electrician at 8 a.m. One of the contractor's guys spent four hours jackhammering the remains of the slab out back. Unfortunately, after demolishing the slab we discovered a footer underneath. It's about 18" deep by 18" tall, and is made of 3,000 psi concrete which is extra strong. Regular concrete cracks when jackhammered, and this concrete only gets a hole drilled where the jackhammer head was. After 4 hours, all they had to show was a 4" crevice through the footer. Ugh, that slab has been filled with unpleasant surprises.

I spent some more time fuming over paint colors. It is so hard to pick, but I am really close. In the afternoon, I made yet another trip to Ikea. I had something to return, and I could not find the receipt. This was especially frustrating because I am super careful with my paperwork. It's not like I throw things anywhere and then can't find them. I remember specifically putting this someplace where I would definitely have it when I went to Ikea and where it wouldn't be lost. Then I could not find it and spent about an hour looking for it. I ended up not being able to return my item. I am confident the receipt will turn up, and I'm sure I'll be going to Ikea again. While there, I also looked at closet doors. We don't have any at this point, and I am hoping to find sliding doors that look something like Japanese shoji screens. Ikea had some promising options.

After returning in the late afternoon, I finally hit the wall and just couldn't go anymore. I cancelled my evening plans and tried to relax for a few hours.

Another long day

I started today at 8 am and worked on paint colors for a while. I am getting closer, but it is a bit overwhelming. I ran to Home Depot to pick up missing trim for the can lights because the electrician is coming tomorrow to put them in. While there, I followed up on the refund from the cabinets I returned on March 28. I finally checked my credit card and realized the refund had never come. I was really worried that they would have no record of picking it up and wouldn't give me the refund. To my pleasant surprise, they had it on record and gave me the refund right away. Curiously though, the woman looked at my order in the computer and said they had been trying to get my credit card number to do the refund. In fact, my number was on the order and they had called me the night I returned the cabinets and asked for my card number. I called them back (in case it was a scam - you know, never give your card number out when someone calls you) and gave it to them. So, I'm not sure what "trying to get your card number" means, but at least I got the refund.

I met C for a quick lunch and then headed back to the salvage yard to get my marble and look for closet doors. I'm not sure what I was looking for in closet doors, but they often have interesting things. I spent part of the evening doing research on closet doors in non-standard sizes. I am hoping to get some sort of shoji-screen looking slider for the doors.

This is a shot of some doors I was looking at while at the salvage yard. It gives a little idea how much stuff they have there.

Getting caught up on blog entries

Hi to all of you who read this - Thanks for your interest. It means a lot that our project is interesting to you. I'm usually behind a few days, and often post several days at once. If you want to read all the entries, you can read back a few days until you've gotten back to a day you've read. You can also leave comments anonymously!

slab almost done!

I started today with a bad dream right before waking up. I dreamed my car was sliding out of control on ice. Another car slid on the ice and collided into me. C thinks I'm worried about the remodel going out of control. Hmmmm.... It sure wasn't fun.

In the morning, I went to the paint store and picked up another batch of paint samples. This was definitely one of the more fun parts of the remodel, but it has been trying to decide on paint without any furniture in place. That's one of the reasons I'm going with neutral colors. I am finding though that I do like the neutral shades - there are so many really rich colors.

Next, I went to the salvage yard to look at marble for a small area of countertop. I love going to the salvage yard. It's like a treasure hunt every time. There is just so much cool stuff there. They have lots of marble and stone slabs that are all recycled from other people's houses. Since we're using the slab in the kitchen, I hope it wasn't used for anthing unseemly..... The bad part of the trip was that it is a really long way to go and they were closed. Fortunately, the guy that works there is so enthusiastic about his work he not only let me look but worked with me a bit.

The marble is going into a 4' area of the kitchen I'm calling the appliance station. One of my favorite things about this area is that it is my original idea - I watch kitchen shows on TV, and I've never seen this idea. The 4' section is separate from the rest of the cabinetry and countertop. It has pull out baskets underneath to store appliances in like a slow cooker and rice cooker. When we want to use them, we can pull them out easily and set them on top of the counter and plug them in. That way they're out of the way while in use. The marble is for the countertop. It's a great surface to make pasty or piecrust on. It's also a nice contrast to the rest of the countertop.

On my way back to the house, a girlfriend called and said she was in the neighborhood so we grabbed a quick cup of tea. It was a really nice break. The contractor took out the first window in anticipation of installing the new one. The slab continues to be a neverending source of surprises, and not in a good way. We thought all the concrete was removed, and low and behold a footer was discovered. They really built the slab to last - the footer is 18" deep by 18" wide. It's going to have to be demolished with a bobcat again.

I am beginning to get really tired. I am tired of wearing grubby clothes every day. I want it done, and I don't feel like it ever will be. I had a moment of freak out today when the contractor mentioned that he expects to be done at the end of next week. I just can't imagine getting everything done that I need to do in that time. But, it was very exciting too! We hope to move on May 20, and that date still seems realistic.

Here's how the yard looks today. It's turfed up from all the bobcat driving. The footer for the slab is visible near the center of the picture. It's a small patch of cement in the dirt. The rest of the footer is buried in the dirt.


Here is a shot of the footer showing how large it is.


This is the window that has been removed to put the new one in.

a visit from C's parents

Aside from numerous, neverending house conversations, we didn't do much actual work on the house. C parents came up for a visit and to check out our progress. We worked a little more on figuring out the wiring box and the TV antennae. I was glad we could mostly take the day off. I really needed it.

no day off today

Even thought today was a Saturday, it was no day off for us! We went to the house and C got to check out the week's progress. We also looked at the paint colors, and C helped me finalize the colors for the living room. C also worked on placing the box where the hub for all the wiring will go. It's a little tricky to do - it's a bit wider than the space between the studs and we weren't sure when it should be installed with respect to the drywall.

We were waiting for our cabinet delivery from Ikea, which actually came early and had every piece it was supposed to - all 125 pieces! After the Ikea delivery, we went to the local hardware store and picked up some stuff C will need to staple all the wires in place. Then we went home and crashed. I was really exhausted from too many long weeks in a row.

C really got into things today at the house. He knocked out this last remaining cement wall with a sledge hammer. He also took an axe to some overhanging tree branches.

A long and busy day

After opening up the house for the day, I ran off to Home Depot to pick up the can lights. These are the lights in the ceiling that are recessed into the ceiling. As with everything I've done on the house so far, it was incredibly complicated. There are a ton of different options, and for each light there is a can, a trim piece and a bulb. In addition, you have to get a "new construction" or "remodel" can - the difference is how they install and if you have access to the space over the ceiling. In my case, I had to make sure to get "IC" or "in contact" type which means the light is designed to be in contact with insulation.

The guy at Home Depot pointed me to another local light store where he bought his can lights. He mentioned they carry a type where the bulb is less visible. It was tempting, and while I walked around the store picking up more stuff it started to rain hard. That made my decision to run to the other light store easy - it would have taken forever to get there, so I got the Home Depot ones. For once, I simplified things instead of complicating them!

The insulation contractor was supposed to come at 1:00, and while I was at Home Depot, they called and said they were on the way and would be there by 11:00. My general contractor was rushing to finish closing up the walls so the insulation could be blown in. Well, now the rush was on! They were in progess when I got there, and the general contractor had to rush to stay ahead of the insulators, but it worked out.

Later that afternoon, I headed to Ikea to place a cabinet order. It was a long ordeal, but we got it done. I had the plan my contractor had done which made it a lot easier. The guy who helped me was really great, and helped me by pointing out details I might not have caught. We scheduled delivery for tomorrow.

C made me laugh when he asked not "Are we working on the house this weekend?" but "What are we doing on the house this weekend?" That guy has been such a trooper! But we are really getting excited at the prospect of moving in to our new place.

Here is a shot of one room during insulation. All the small holes are where they blow in the insulation. The blue is where the wall sanding has revealed that the walls were painted a bright blue at one point (sort of a cross between aqua and royal blue).


This is the back of the insulation truck. The machine blows the insulation into a long hose and the hoses go into the holes they bore in the walls.

This is what the insulation looks like. It oozed out of the opening where the network and phone cables are.

Another inspection

Today was our 4th try at passing rough inspection. We did pass the electrical portion, and almost passed the remaining parts for our permit (rough plumbing and gas piping). The reason we didn't pass is that we are missing a calculation the plumber must do to make sure the gas lines are properly sized. There are formulas for how big the pipe must be and how that size is impacted by the number of feet the pipe travels. The inspector said we could present the calcs to him at his office and he would sign off. So, we're going to start closing up the walls! While I'm not quite relieved due to the pending issue of the calculations, it is a milestone. Things should progress more quickly from here.

In the "it pays to hire good people" file: I was really glad I have the electrician I do. During the inspection, the inspector thought something was wrong with the garage. He started asking questions I had no idea how to answer. I called the electrician on my cell phone, handed it to the inpsector and the two of them started talking. The inspector ended the conversation with "I'll get my code book." I thought once he looked up what he had a question about, I'd call the electrician back. Imagine my surprise and gratitude when the electrician pulled up in the driveway before the inspector even finished looking up his question. The two of them were able to sort it out in a matter of minutes, and the inspector acknowledged that he was wrong and the electrician was right. Is that good customer service or what? I guess it is good service on both of their parts really.

Later in the day, I went to Home Depot to pick up a box for C to use for the phone, network and cable tv wiring. Tomorrow is trash day, so I filled the can with trash left from the prior owner once again. I really thought this would be the week it was gone, but no! There was actually some legitimate trash generated by our crews in the can already, so I was left with one bag remaining. But that will be out by next week! Finally! We've been working on throwing his stuff out since January! Another milestone.

Progress on the bathroom floor.


The beginning of the framing for the new bathroom window. The new window is on the right.


We've begun closing the walls up:

a pre-inspection rush

Our next (and hopefully final) try at passing rough inspection is tomorrow, and today was a mad rush to get ready. The electrician was in all day, moving some things around and making last minute fixes (we changed our kitchen plan since he did the original wiring). The contractor's crew was hard at work loading the pile of rubble from the slab into the dumpster. It's getting smaller (both the slab and the pile). I went to Ikea to look some more at cabinets and to try to get ready to place my order.

another slab mishap

Today we continued to make progress on the house. The slab, however, has continued to vex us. Today the bobcat was being picked up, and it had a flat tire! The contractor had to repair it before pickup or be charged forit.

Here is the master bedroom closet, newly reframed. We opened up the closet surround as much as possible to get the best access to the space since we have only two closets in the house. We're going to put large sliding doors across it.


This is the beginning of the new bathroom window. The one on the left is being closed up, and the one on the right (just above the stepladder) is new.


The other big event of today was that we had a guy come out with a camera and locator to take look at the sewer pipe and the mystery pipe in the backyard. It's a really cool device - it's like a plumber's snake with a camera on the end. There's also a transmitter which he can read with a device that looks like a metal detector. It tells you exactly where the camera head is and how deep. He marked on the ground with spray paint all the places where roots were blocking the pipe and where it turns. He went all the way out to the city sewer main in the street. We got a VHS and DVD copy on the spot!

Here is a shot of some of the tree roots. We have to decide whether to snake the sewer line out or replace it.


This shot shows where the new pipe we put in joins the old. The new is the black pipe in the foreground. The old is the orange clay pipe in middle.

I found this marking on a stud that was original to the house in 1952. It has a picture of a horse and the words Heney Studs.


Here's the end of the mystery pipe in the backyard. No wonder it was venting water under the house. It was only capped with the ceramic bowl in the picture. The pipe came up in an area of the backyard where water pooled particularly badly.

Finally a break on the slab

After almost two weeks of trying to remove the slab, we finally caught a break today. The equipment rental company could not pick it up today, so we got to use if for a day free. We made some more progress today, but I really can't wait for that slab to be gone. It's funny because there has been a ton of work on the house since it was built in 1952, and not one permit has been pulled. So, a lot of the work is really bad. But the things I wish they had done a little better on like the electric and plumbing were done really poorly. This like this %$#@ slab, which I wish wasn't done so well, was built to withstand an onslaught of any force!

Believe it or not, we will be painting the interior soon. I wanted ample time to pick paint colors, so I ran to the paint store first thing today. Benjamin Moore makes 2 oz. paint samples in 260 colors that cover a wall area of 2' by 2'. It's really brilliant - I mean the colors always look different on the wall than on the 1" paper chip, and the only way to try it on the wall is to buy a quart. The samples let you try several colors right next to each other, and you can see how they look in the light in your room, how they look on different walls and at different times of day. I'm leaning toward an assortment of rich neutrals for the whole house. It's just too hard to actually pick a color without the furniture in place, and if I find the perfect couch on clearance I don't want to not be able to buy it because it doesn't match the color of the living room. I do like colors on walls though, so we may eventually change the paint.

An interesting thing about the paint store - I went to a small, mom-and-pop place and they have only a few parking places out back. It was filled with contractors. While I was in the store, someone double parked and blocked me in. Due to the small number of spaces, I learned this is normal there, and people who double parked expect to be called to move their car or truck. I asked a couple of guys standing outside if it was their car that was blocking me, and they said no, but one of the guys volunteered to find out whose it was. He went to the door and yelled "Who has a black toyota? The lady needs to get out." The driver came and moved it. I thought it was very sweet for him to recognize that I was new to the scene, and didn't know the protocall and volunteer to help me out.

Most of the rest of the day was taken up by driving over an hour each way to pick up new grout for the bathroom tiles. I already have some, but I wasn't crazy about it and later found the perfect grout. I'm much happier with the one I have now.

Here is how the slab looked at the end of the day:


Here are two of my paint choices for the living room. You really can't see the color very well in this photo.

Almost no work today!

Today we did very little on the house aside from the usual every-conversation-ends-up-being-about-the-house. We did do our taxes though!

We are both getting excited about moving in, and it feels like it is getting closer. We were talking about how nice it will be.

Working on a Saturday

Wow, today was a busy day and it was Saturday! I had two crews out at the house. The plumber was out to move a gas line (due to some changes in the kitchen we decided recently to make) and to remove a pipe venting water under the house. The general contractor was out with his crew working on concrete demolition. He also had a guy grinding away stucco around the windows. It was very noisy! I had a lot of supervision to do as they were both working on different things.

They managed to get a lot of the concrete out, and the new gas line is in and tested. In order to pass inspection, it has to be pumped full of air and hold 15 pounds of pressure for 15 minutes. The plumbers tested it and found a slow leak. After checking all the connections, they found out it was the gage that was leaking!

The mystery pipe that was venting water under the house is also fixed. It's a 4" plastic pipe that I suspect was meant to be a sewer pipe for the rental unit they planned on building on the slab we are trying to remove. The plumbers dug out some of the pipe and cut it off, then sealed the hole in the foundation where the pipe entered the house.

Here is a shot of the bobcat breaking into the concrete. Note that by pushing down on the scoop, the whole body is lifted up.



This is an "action" shot I'm very proud of. The end of the bobcat is coming out of the concrete and breaking it on the way out. The dust and debris flying is from the concrete breaking.



The yard is pretty turfed up from the bobcat driving over it. We don't even have our green carpet of weeds anymore. But the concrete is definitely dwindling!