A little progress on lots of little things

This week, I managed to get the second coat of wax on the countertop. All we have to do is caulk the gap at the back of the countertop (between the wall and the countertop) and it will be DONE. I also finished screwing down the plywood in the master bedroom. We had to pull up the existing floor there because it had asbestos, which left it lower than the rest of the flooring. The plywood is to level this room with the rest.

I haven't managed to get any fencing up around the front yard, but I do have the materials. I also went to a few stoneyards to price material to pave over the median strip between the sidewalk and the street. These things cannot happen soon enough! After 6 incidents in 6 days of people leaving dog poop on the median strip or our front yard, they kindly took Sunday off and didn't leave us another "gift" until Monday morning. I found another today. Slobs! We are seriously considering installing security cameras to catch people. I would LOVE to blow up poster size pictures of people leaving dog poo for their neighbors to see. I would also love to find out where some of them live and try to get the city to fine them the maximum of $250 and charge them with a misdemeanor.

The dilemma we are having with the stone is whether to get something cheap, quick and temporary or try to do a permanent fix now. We want to use slate and concrete in the front of the house. Slate is somewhat expensive, so if we did it then that would be our permanet solution. It wouldn't be quick though, and the dog-poop-leaving problem is really out of control (8 times in 10 days). My original intent was to find something just to cover over the median strip quickly, but now we're not sure.

I had my final electrical inspection today, or at least the first of what I suspect will be many tries at passing it. We had 7 corrections, some of which were not too bad and some of which were more major. I did appreciate the inspector coming up with alternatives to me opening up the walls again. We have one place in the kitchen where the outlets are 6 feet apart and by code they can only be 4 feet apart. He suggested installing a strip of plugs hidden under the cabinet rather than tearing the wall up again. Some of the corrections I think the electrician should have caught, so I'll see what we can work out. Part of the problem is that the job has dragged on for so long that the code has actually changed during the permit period. Ugh, talk about trying to his a moving target. I think they should hold you to the codes that existed when you took out your permit.

Rude people suck!

Today I went outside in the late morning to find that for the 5th time in less than 4 days someone has left dog poop at our house. Usually they leave it on the median strip out front (the grassy area between the sidewalk and the street), but this time they let their dog walk about 8 feet up the driveway then about 2 feet onto the lawn. The nerve! It happens several times per week but this is a new record. We live in a neighborhood with lots of dogs, and it is a problem for everyone but we get it much worse than anyone else. I think people just look at the house and it doesn't look good so they think it's okay to leave it there. By the way, we live in an area where it is a fineable offense not to pick up after doggy. Nice. The funny thing is, the place had nobody living in it for a while before we purchased it, and the guy that owned it before us was a slob! There were junked cars everywhere and piles of trash strewn all around. But the dog poop leaving has gotten worse since we moved in. I really think it is symptomatic of the "anything goes as long as you don't get caught" mentality in the US today. It is very disheartening.

The dog poop leaving has become such a problem we've decided to change our landscaping plan. We were going to leave the median grassy and just have plants bordering the front lawn. No anymore! We are paving over the median strip and fencing the front lawn. I hope those disgusting, inconsiderate sub-human slobs are pleased with themselves. The neighborhood has lost some grass and open space.

One small benefit is that it has helped me decide which house project to tackle next. We have to address the front - even if just temporarily to get this problem under control. I went to Home Depot (no weekend is complete without a trip there!) to look at paving stones and cheap, temporary fencing. I just need to get the yard contained immediately and fencing, like all things house, is a complex choice.

I found some plastic mesh and wood stakes and was able to get material to temporarily fence the yard for about $30. It won't look great, but it will keep the dog-poop-leavers' dogs off the lawn until we can get nicer fencing. I also looked at pavers, and unfortunately couldn't find anything I could do for under $500. This is way too much for a temporary fix, so when I got home I started looking online for concrete solutions since we've now worked with it and it is cheap. I found molds that let you make your own pavers, but after buying the molds, concrete and some tooks, it would still be quite expensive and very labor intensive. We could also easily make our own square or rectangular molds, but it will be labor intensive no matter what. So, I'm not sure what to do. I am going to hit a few stone yards this week and a salvage yard to see if I can find a cheap and simple quick fix. But if I can't find anything, then I may just invest in slate or flagstone and C and I can lay it. Ultimately, it's what we want out front anyway, and the median strip is probably a good place to learn. We'll see.

A day off for real

Today we took a day off, and since we were off yesterday too it was the most relaxed we've been in a while. Ahhh........

Our First thanksgiving

Well, we had a simple, but nice thanksgiving with just a few friends. We made chilli in the slow cooker and rice in the rice cooker and our friends brought dishes as well. It is amazing what you can do with a little creativity and no kitchen! I'm pleased to say this was our first meal (other than microwaving stuff in a bowl) on our new countertops and they held up well!

Here is a shot of the countertop which is now finished. Well, it needs one more coat of wax, but that's a minor thing.



Here is a shot which shows the color and "terrazzo" look better. I love how glossy and reflective it is. It feels like porcelan to the touch. It is really smooth.




Here is the beginnings of our first dinner. I got to use my appliace area, which I designed. All the appliances are stored underneath and this counter has an outlet where we can use them out of the way of the other cooking/prep areas.

1st coat of wax done

Today I managed to finish the first coat of wax. I used the first pad I got after machine washing it and went back to the auto parts store and bought a second one. Just one coat of wax to go and the countertop is done! It has been really nice to have countertops though. Just having a place to put a bowl while you make dinner is a huge thing. I went grocery shopping, and could put the bags on the counter while putting the food away. It's funny the things you take for granted, and how I have a new appreciation for each thing as we get it.

The contractor again no showed due to scheduling problems at another job and then a traffic problem. The plumber also never called so we have no cooktop, oven or sink. It will be a simple thanksgiving here tomorrow.

Another frustrating day

Unfortunately, frustrating days are the norm. My tolerance for disappointment and frustration has gone up. I wasn't even that upset at how badly the day went.

I started by working some more on waxing the countertop. When C left for work he thought it would be done when he got home but I wasn't so sure. I did manage to get another section done, but the wax builds up on the pad very quickly so each pad only does about 9 square feet. Fortunately, they can be washed so I just need to get 5 or so to be able to do the whole countertop in one shot.

The inspector showed up at about 3 pm, and didn't want to do our final electrical inspection because he hadn't done the rough inspection. In a way, I understand his concern, but shouldn't that have been sorted out before he came out? When he got his schedule in the morning, why wasn't it addressed then? I think he was trying to be helpful though - he found 3 corrections without even looking and 2 of them would have required the walls to be opened up again and he said he didn't want us to have to do that. I did tell him that I need and inspection by 11/27 in order to keep my permit current, so he agreed to record today's visit as a "site visit" which indicates that he was here and work is continuing. He said to call and reschedule the inspection and then go to the office in the morning and arrange with the inspector who did the rough to switch with someone so he can handle it. Unfortunately, I called to reschedule and the city is now 9 days out on inspections so this will be a long way off.

The plumber neither called nor showed, so no sink yet. The contractor called and rescheduled for tomorrow.

Tormented by countertops!

I think the countertops are tormenting me on purpose!

I was greeted first thing in the morning by beautiful, gleeming countertops. The sealer didn't cloud up or peel overnight. We are almost done! All that's left to do is wax. I started out by spending an hour cleaning the granite tile inlay. It had a film on it, probably from the grinding water and the sealer. I tried scraping, duct tape and a wire brush to no avail. I finally used 0000 ("4 aught") grit steel wool that did the trick. I was glad I had used it before and knew of it and had some because I don't know how I would have known what to use otherwise. How do you figure this stuff out if you haven't done it before?

I had purchased a buffing wheel for my grinder at a stone place that sells stonework supplies. They claimed to be well-versed in concrete countertops and told me this was the buffer I needed. The buffing wheel was hard packed fabric with edges and no matter how hard I tried, I could not buff the wax without getting gouge marks at the edge. I tried doing it by hand and that didn't work. After spending several hours on a 2' x 2' area, I decided to go to the auto supply store and get a buffing pad. I've seen huge, puffy things that look like gigantic powder puffs and I thought this would be perfect. I couldn't find what I was looking for and asked a salesperson who pointed the buffing pads out to me. The only thing I could find was a thin terrycloth cover for my pad that didn't seem thick enough. He insisted they didn't have what I was looking for, which seemed strange to me. I should have asked someone else (and I should have taken it as a bad sign that he didn't even remove his headphones to talk to me)........

Since we are on a time deadline, I really needed to get at least one coat of wax on today. The plumber will be coming to put the sink in and the contractor will be putting the cooktop in and we want at least one coat on the entire surface when these things are dropped in. I braved rush hour traffic and went to Home Depot, where they didn't have what I needed either. I had the grinder with me, and there just wasn't anything that would work, and the salesperson in the tool department didn't know how any of the buffing attachments attach to the grinder. Ugh....

I ended up finding a fabric wheel that can attach to a drill. You have to buy a special bit to attach the wheel to your drill. The bit looks like a big screw - it has a head and a threaded shaft. The head keeps the pad from flying off the shaft. I didn't understand how this could work - wouldn't the head touch the surface you are polishing? The guy insisted there was a recess in the other side of the pad that would keep the head off the surface. I asked three times and he insisted, so I purchased it.

I got it home and connected it to the drill, and I find out there is no recess! The pad an inch thick and the side is the part that polishes the surface! Ugh.... if you don't know the answer, just say so; don't make stuff up! I didn't like that the actual polishing surface was so small (compared to the area of a 5" circle) but I tried it anyway. The drill just doesn't have the power of the grinder, and it froze up frequently under almost no pressure. It also had very low rpm's, which made the process slow. In the end, I had to give it up because the drill just didn't have enough power to buff the wax.

I decided to go back to the auto supply store and buy the terrycloth pad cover. At least it would be better than what I had. As long as I could get one coat on tonight, I'd be okay. I can look for better solutions when there is time. I get to the store, and find out they had the big fluffy buffing pad in the size I needed all along! How annoying to have wasted all that time only to find out they had what I wanted and the salesperson couldn't be bothered to do his job.

I purchased the pad and managed to get one small section of the countertop done. I then called it quits for the night. The contractor isnt' coming until 11 a.m. tomorrow, and if the plumber shows up early, I can always just do the rim of the sink hole. At least C will have some counter space to use when he gets home and makes his dinner.

No wekend is complete without Home Depot

Although I wish it was....

We did get some time off today, but we had to do a few last minute things for our electrical inspection. We had to make a Home Depot run to pick up some things for the inspection and for the countertop seal and wax. The electrician was here all weekend getting us ready for final electrical inspection. C and I had to attach plates to where the phone and cable tv wires come out of the walls. Even though this isn't within the scope of the electrical inspection, the city where we live is really strict and the electrician said he's seen people fail for less. We also had to patch around a few plates that the contractor hadn't gotten to yet. Again, the inspectors will fail you if they can see any hole around the plate. If they fail you, they write a list of corrections and you have to have another inspection to have the corrections signed off. The problem is that the new inspector usually reinspects everything and often comes up with his own corrections. It's a hard cycle to break.

We also had to seal the countertops. We purchased a food-safe sealer for them (especially made for concrete countertops) since concrete is so pourous. If you don't seal, you end up with what can be called a "patina" which means a lot of stains that show the wear. I actually like wear and tear on concrete - I love the look of a polished garage floor that shows some cracks, patching and yeah, a stain or two. I'm not so sure I'd like a big spaghetti sauce, or olive oil stain on my wine-colored polished terrazzo countertops. (Terrazzo is the name of concrete when you polish it down to reveal the pebbles in it). The sealer will also help keep the color rich, dark and "wet" looking. So, we sealed the countertop, and once the sealer has a chance to set for a day, we'll apply carnuba wax. The wax is a food-safe plant-based wax made especially for countertops. It will give additional sheen and stain protection.

In terms of maintenance, we'll have to wax once a month and seal once a year. Some people think that sounds like a lot, but I'm fine with it. The initial sealing took about an hour and a half because it was two coats. Future coats should only take 30-45 minutes. We'll see how long the waxing takes, but I'm not worried. Have you ever seen someone wax a car with a buffing wheel? That's basically what you do, so I don't think it will be too bad. It's really a trade off - granite, butcher block and some of the manufactured stones need to be sealed and tile needs to be sealed and occasionally regrouted (in addition to having to wipe grout lines every day). So, there's no free lunch on countertops. I've come to the conclusion that there is no perfect answer for countertops even if you spend a lot of money.

We were a little worried when the sealer went on so cloudy. We were really hoping that it would be clear when it dried. It would stink to have something foul up the countertops at this point. We were also concerned that the countertop needed to be resurfaced - that is a real pain involving using an acid solution to burn off the top layer and going all through the grinding and polishing again.


Fortunately, the sealer dried clear and glossy, just the way we wanted it. We got our first glimpse of what the finished countertops would look like and we were very happy! We went to bed thinking that if we get up tomorrow and they still look this good we are home free!

Wiping, patching and hand sanding

What a glorious day! We untarped the kitchen and vacuumed all the dust we've been living with for over a month. Our food can go back into the cabinets, and we can stop foraging through grocery bags on the floor. The contertop looks great, and we patched and hand sanded today - no grinder and no water everywhere! I couldn't believe how much better it felt to have the tarps off.

The electrician was here working as well. He is finishing the last details to get us ready for final electrical inspection (i.e. powering up switches and plugs, etc).

Here is a shot of the countertop. The white-ish film on top will go away after we wipe it down with distilled water a bunch of times (distilled water will make sure any minerals in tap water don't add to the film). The sealer will also help with the film. We dry-fitted the sink to make sure it works and that we leveled the cutout enough and were pleased to find it fit perfectly.



This shot shows the sheen and reflectivity of the countertop. I still can't believe concrete can look like this.

A short session of grinding

Today we did a short session of grinding (about an hour). C worked on removing any circular "gouge" marks due to the edge of the grinder and also touched up the edges to get them really smooth. The suface is looking really good - it's glassy and reflective. It is really amazing that concrete can look so good.

Windows patched this week

While C and I were working on the countertops this week, the contractor had one of his guys here patching the exterior of the house where we replaced the windows. He finished today and we are so happy because we can now paint the outside. This will help a lot with the junkyard look of the place.

Here is a shot of the windows fully patched.



Here is a closeup of the patched window.




A funny site - the lawn had turned completely into a patch of brown, har-packed dirt. We have been using this faucet to rinse things under, and just from the little bit of runoff, the lawn has sprouted a small green patch again!

Almost done grinding

We didnt' work on the countertops last night because the work is so taxing physically and mentally that we needed a day off. Tonight we worked until 3:20 am, and we are almost done! Yay! There is little enough left that I can finish it by myself tomorrow. There is a small amount of surface area and then some edges and sides to do. C is better able to do the surface because of his height. I am better able to do the sides because of mine. Teamwork!

Disappointment

Tonight we were hoping to be done with the grinding. We had slurried (patched) on Saturday night and the slurry had to set for two days. We were to do a pass at 400 grit, which is where we left off before slurrying, and then continue on to 800 and 1500. The 800 and 1500 should have been fast because those are truly polishing and not removing any material.

We were pleased that we don't need a second coat of slurry. The airholes filled up nicely, and aside from some spot touchups we don't need to do a full second coat. This really should have been an easy night, but the slurry proved hard to remove. We probably used too thick of a slurry mix and left too much of it on. You are supposed to use a sponge to wipe off any surface residue (the slurry just stays in the holes) and we think we left too much on. After starting at about 10 pm, we finised at 3:15 and didn't even finish the 400 grit. This means tarps, mess and no kitchen for at least a few more days. Ugh.

Our electrician (who moved 8 hours away in June) is coming this weekend to finish the job and get us ready for final inspection. I called to get the inspection scheduled for next Monday thinking that it is too early anyway, but I wanted to see what day they were up to in the scheduling. The standard of the building department where we live is next day inspections if you call early in the day. Sometimes it is 2-3 days out, but next day is their standard. I wanted the inspection for next Monday because the electrician is staying in town until Monday night, and he was going to come over and fix anything they find before he left. Imagine my shock when the earliest inspection I could get was for Tuesday 11/21! That's 8 days out! How frustrating. I'm also against a time deadline - if I don't have an inspection by 11/27, my permit expires. Wow. I'll go to the office tomorrow and try to do something about this.

A day off

Today we had a rare and wonderful day off. We took a walk, went to the bookstore, hung out, and had no obligations. What a treat!

Slurry today

Today I had a meeting for a community board I am on, so I had to be up at 7:30. Not so fun after going to bed at 4 a.m. I got home at 3, and we started at 3:45. I foolishly thought we would be done by 8 or so and would be able to enjoy the evening. Boy was I wrong!

Our goal for the night was to slurry. Slurry is a patching material the same color as the concrete used to patch small air holes. We had to get through at least the 400 grit to use it. Since we finished with the 50 last night, we had to get though 100, 200 and 400 grits. I didn't think this would take much time since the 50 grit is really the shaping and removing material grit. I thought we could just pass these other grits over the surface and be done. Not so!

The successive grits were a lot easier than the 50, but they still required a lot of work. It took about 8 hours to get through all three. I thought we were home free after the 400, but the slurry process took more than an hour. I was so tired at the end that I was falling asleep standing up. Have you ever seen someone nod off in class and their head jerks up when they realize it? I was doing that on my feet. I've never fallen asleep on my feet before. Needless to say I wasn't using dangerous power tools. After slurrying, I finally quit at 1 a.m. and C worked until about 2.

Granted this was a really hard night, but it was worth it to push through to have a full day off tomorrow! Yay! The slurry has to cure for two days so we can't do any work tomorrow. At this point, we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Monday night we'll grind the slurried surface at 400 (where we left off) and then 800 and then we'll reslurry. Wednesday we'll grind at 800 and then 1500 and then we're done grinding. That will be such a relief. After that, we have to seal and then wax the countertop, and then we can use it. I can't wait! It is so hard to make something to eat when you've got to hold your bowl with one hand and add food to it with the other.

Here is a shot of how the countertop looks now. It is wet, which simulates the sheen it will have when it is sealed. It's been funny to tell people about our concrete countertops because most people have never heard of them. I think people picture a rough, grey sidewalk or a stained garage floor so they think we are kind of strange to want this for a countertop. Everyone who has seen it really likes it though.


Here is a shot that shows the aggregate (pebbles) in the concrete. These are revealed by grinding away concrete. The section at the back has bigger pebbles because it was high and had to be ground down more.



This is the appliance area, and the black square is a granite tile inlay that sits flush with the surface of the countertop. It will be handy for pie or pizza dough (which I've never made in my life). You can also cut on it, but I probably won't. I was in a tile store looking at these tiles, and the salesperson pulled out an exacto knife and cut some paper right on the tile. The inlay does look really cool though!

This is a shot of the side of the counterop during the slurry process. You can see the air holes in the center section which has not been slurried yet. The darker sections on the right and left have been slurried.

More grinding concrete

Today was our best day of griding yet, which does not mean that it was a good day. Grinding is a lousy job. But what made today better is that we got through the 50 grit grinding pad, which means we are done shaping, leveling and removing material. From now on out, we use successively finer grits to smooth and polish the surface. We'll go through 50, 100, 200, 400, 800 and 1500 in the process. Generally, grinding is considered to be using pads up to 800 grit, and over that is polishing. The glass-like finish of granite is obtained using grits of 3,000 or higher and special buffing compounds. It isn't good to go over 1,500 for concrete because the sealer will not adhere well.

Another thing that was good about today's grinding session is that the tarping was much better. There were no major leaks, and I was able to leave the tarping in place, which saves about 2 hours per work session. It's also much better for the floor. We also discovered we can use a lot less water. The water serves two purposes - it catches the dust so we don't breath it and it keeps the grinder and the countertop cool so there are no burn marks. Instead of having lots of water spraying everywhere with just a little dust in it, we use less water and let it get sludgy before removing it. So there is a lot less water and it sprays less - it is the texture of mud.

We finally finished around 2:30 a.m. Not fun!

Countertop nightmares!

They'll never be done!!!! We have an inspection deadline, thanksgiving is coming, my kitchen is covered in tarps, and I got less than 4 hours of sleep! I feel like I can't take it anymore!

Tonight was our second late night in a row. The grinder seems to be failing on us. We purchased it new, and it is a heavy-duty, professional grade tool so there is no reason for it to be failing after less than one job. We used it for over 12 hours on Sunday with no problem. Tonight we used it for about an hour and it got hot so we took a break. When we went back to work, it quit after 11 minutes.

We pulled the instructions out to see if we could figure out the problem. I was/am really concerned about this. If we have to exchange this tool, it will delay us at least a few days and this will cause permit problems. Trying to fix the grinder was quite frustrating. The instructions were horrible. Why is it so difficult to write decent instructions? It described a part called a carbon brush, which wasn't a brush at all, but a block of carbon on a wire. The instructions said if the carbon brush wears down too low, it will cause the grinder to fail. What's too low? What does the brush even do? How do you know if it is the brush? After following the poorly written instructions on how to take the cover off, we found the brush and decided to try replacing one of them which had a lot of countertop gunk on it (some of the water from the grinding got in to the tool carrying concrete dust with it). We pulled the wire to remove the brush as instructed and it came out of the brush! Now the brush was stuck in a four-sided bracket (think about a block inside a box just big enough to hold it). There was no way to pry or tweeze it out. We ended up having to get a drill and drill the block to disintegrate it, while not damaging the drill. We got the new brush installed and cleaned the inside of the grinder with a new paintbrush.

I think the tool has a bad design and doesn't tolerate water well. It is a wet grinder and is supposed to be used with water, but it doesn't like getting wet. How do you keep it dry when the very action of the grinder sprays water everywhere? Also, the case comes in two tubular pieces, a front and a back piece. The pieces fit together with a slight overlap (like the sections of a vacuum cleaner hose). The spraying water is at the front, so the smart design would be to have the front piece fit over the back piece (as opposed to slipping inside the back piece) so the water wouldn't have an easy way in. Instead it is designed with the back piece fitting over the front, so the water spraying from the front hits a seam. It's really frustrating to buy a tool and use it for it's intended purposed and find out it doesn't work very well for that purpose.

We finally finished fixing the grinder a little before 2 am, and the grinder had to dry out before we could use it again so we were forced to quit. We got almost no work done on the countertops. It was discouraging because it takes about 2 hours to tarp for a grinding session, so to get nothing out of that was a bummer. We are going to have to do another late night work session tomorrow night.

On a plus note, we are learning with each session. Tonight was my best tarping job yet. Also, we learned that we can use a lot less water by turning off the grinder's water feed and using a squirt bottle and squeegie to keep the area wet. By using the squeegie, I can recycle the same water over and over until it is too sludgy with concrete dust to use. As C noted, the way we were doing it before was at cross-purposes. The grinder was constanty spraying water and I was constantly squeegie-ing to remove it. This makes any leak a lot worse and requires us to stop and empty the collections tubs and wring out the towels a lot more often. We think we'll be a lot more efficient this way.

Grinding sucks!

What a lousy night. Since we can only work on grinding together (one to work the grinder, one to deal with the water) we scheduled a late night work session tonight. (C gets home quite late). After spending 2 1/2 hours tarping, we finally started grinding at 10 pm. I am a morning person who does not like late nights, particularly working at night so this is especially bad for me.

45 minutes into the grinding, we took a break and discovered 1/2 " of water in front of the fridge. Ugh! It is so frustrating. No matter how much and how carefully you tarp, it's just impossible to make it watertight. But I am getting better at it. Each time I have to tarp, I learn something. We cleaned up this mess, and when I went to empty the shop vac, the clamp holding the top on gave out and the dirty water spilled all over the place. I wanted to quit so bad, but we really can't due to schedule pressures to get this done.

We got back to grinding, and discovered that the tarping around the fridge had leaked again! I wanted to just take a jackhammer to the countertops and put in plywood! There was a lot less water than the first time though, so we decided to go ahead with a few more hours of grinding. The kitchen does have some tolerance for water, and we make sure it dries out between grinding sessions.

At 2:30 a.m. the grinder finally quit and we had to call it a night. After cleaning up and bathing, we got to bed around 3:30. Not fun.

More recovery today

Today I still felt sick, and C was still really sore. So, not much happened today. We hope to get a late night work session in at least once this week on the countertops so we can finish sooner. It's really hard to work on alone, so we're limited to times when we are both here. C works a lot of hours, so that doesn't leave much time. There is one step in the finish process that requires a two-day wait, so we hope to be done that step by Thursday so we can work on Saturday. We may have to do that step twice as well. It's a patching process called slurrying, in which you use a patching mixture to fill all the tiny airholes in the concrete that the grinding revealed.

One setback from today - the contractor is working on the second (and final) coat of stucco patching. He discovered that the first coat was done with the wrong material. All 13 windows (and one opening for a moved window) need to be chipped out and redone. Some even had the final coats on already. What a bummer. He still expects to be done by the end of the week though.

Recovery today

Today both of us were exhausted, dehydrated, and sore from the weekend. It's really hard on both the mind and the body. I felt like I was getting sick, so aside from some cleanup and house chores, I didn't do very much.

The contractor was here working on patching the windows. The exterior stucco had to be chipped away around each window to allow for the new window to be placed properly. He expects to be done tomorrow, which is really exciting because that means we can have the house painted!

13 hours today

What a Sunday. No day of rest here! We started at 1 pm and worked until 2 am. We thought we might be done with the grinding today, but we are still on the first of 6 grits! The levelling and shaping process takes a lot of time. Also, the concrete is somewhat harder now than during the first 10 days, so we are fighting that as well. It's hard because we can only grind when we are together, which leaves late at night and weekends. This was a lame weekend. We didn't go out at all or do anything fun.

Here is the kitchen in the middle of grinding. The tubs catch the water that runs down the tarps.


Here you can see the aggregate showing in the concrete. The back has been ground down more and the pebbles are larger.


Here is an ingenious water collection system C thought of. We have plastic taped to the openings. Water flows through a pinhole in the plastic into a bucket underneath.

7 hours today

C and I worked for 7 hours today on the countertops. The tarping alone takes about two hours, and then we used the grinder for another 5. C has been doing the grinding because he is much taller than me and has a longer reach. He's very good at it! Grinding is such a mess! Water goes everwhere and we have tubs on the floor to catch the runoff from the tarps. We take our shoes off and stand in the tubs (note: the grinder is designed to work in wet conditions).

One of the reasons it is taking so long is that we have two cutouts for the sink and cooktop which need to be perfectly level so the sink and cooktop can fit nicely. This takes a long time. You have to find each place where it is not level and figure out what to do - i.e. how much material and where to remove it. Then the actual grinding takes a while when you are trying to remove lots of material.

The other thing is that we are trying to level the surface as a whole. It doesn't have to be perfect, but we have several places that are pretty high. I think a more experienced person could have trowelled a more level surface. This pass with the grinder (50 grit) is the most important and time consuming due to the shaping taking place. Once the overall shaping is done, we will simply have to pass the remaining grits over the surface. We started the day naive enough to think we may actually be able to get through all the grits tonight, but we didn't even get through the first one! Maybe tomorrow if we can get a long day in.

On the plus side, the countertop looks GREAT! I keep looking at it in disbelief that we created it. We got really lucky - the pebbles in the concrete we bought are beautiful. There are bits of green, which I would have choosen if I could. There are also bits of peach, and a few other colors.

Here is the kitchen ready for grinding. It looks like a quarantine site!


Here's another shot of the kitchen.


We cut a resealable trap door in the tarp for the microwave. By undoing this and the tarp "curtain" in front of the fridge, we can at least make meals. We have to prepare ahead and order in while we are grinding because we can't even get this much access then. In addition to a having to retarp, anytime you disturb the tarps you have to deal with all the water.

2nd grinding today

Today I worked on my second session of grinding the countertop. What a mess! It's wet, dirty and takes a long time. I can't even imagine when it will be done. It's difficult to live with too - the whole kitchen has to be tarped. I do the refrigerator and microwave last .

People can be so rude it really amazes me. People see the way our house looks and assume it's okay to be a jerk. Last week, two people in less than a week left dog poop in our front yard or on the median strip between the sidewalk and street. Then on Saturday morning alone, two more people did it. Not only is this rude, but it polutes the water and is a fineable offense under local law (if only someone could catch them). I finally hit the roof, and decided I would not pick up any more poop. I put each poop on a large yellow piece of paper taped to the sidewalk (off to the side, so nobody would step in it) and put a very nasty note on each piece of paper. People are still leaving poop, but the notes generate a lot of interest and everyone who has spoken to me agrees with the notes. Someone dumped a shopping cart in front of the apartment building next door, and somebody had the nerve to push it in front of our house. I pushed it right back. How obnoxious! I've been taking care of stuff like this, but not anymore. I pushed it right back. (Edited to add: I ended up having to push it back a total of 5 times. Someone finally had the cart removed). Finally, last week someone decided the didn't want to park half a block away and moved my trashcans from the street while they were waiting to be picked up. I couldn't believe it! They put the cans up on the sidewalk where they would not be picked up. How can people have such blatent disregard for others? I would NEVER do that. Last trash day, someone again decided that they didn't want to park half a block away, and moved the trash cans again. This time they put them partially in front of my neighbor's house and partially blocking my driveway. Nice.

One great thing that has been happening is that C is getting into the remodel. In the beginning, I was the one more into the tools, projects, etc. I always thought it would be fun to work on things together, so I was thrilled when he started taking a much bigger interest in the remodel and started doing lots of the work. He's really good at it too! He's gotten really good at using power tools, and he is really good at solving problems and being patient.

These days I feel like the remodel is taking a really long time and I honestly can't begin to guess when it will be done. People always ask, and I really can't answer. It's hard to even say what "done" is - does it include window, door and floor trim? Window treatments? The new bed we want to buy? Organizing the kitchen, since I just threw everything in to get it out of the garage? At what point does the remodel turn into just routine improvements? Even if I could define it, I can't even imagine when it will be done. I mean that sincerely - I can't say if it will be 6 months or 10 years. I can say it won't be within a few months.