Passed rough inspection on windows

YAY! WOW! We could be almost done. We're not, and won't be for a while I am sure, but the fact remains that it is now within the realm of possibility. I was so excited to pass our inspection without any corrections. That is very rare in this city! We have a notorious building department.

I am still continuing to declutter and/or organize one thing per day. I really enjoy doing it and it helps the house feel less awful. The nice thing about doing one thing a day is that I really look forward to doing it, and when I am done I always want to do more, which means that when tomorrow rolls around I'll be itching to do it. Today's decluttering project was to get rid of a bunch of those promotional address labels charities send. I get so many of them and had accumulated more than I'd ever use. I hardly mail anything, so I use only a few a month. A friend had given me new address labels as a gift when we moved in here, so I really don't need the unsolicited ones. I spent a few minutes and shredded a pile of them. It felt really good. Charities are you listening? Stop sending those labels! I don't want them and will never send you a donation in return for them.





decluttered address labels today

electrician today

Because of the new windows and door, some of the electric had to be re-routed and disconnected. The electrician was here today to reconnect everything and wire up the lights for the new back door. Code requires outdoor lights for a back door, so he had to wire the lights and install a switch. It went well.

New door today - looks great!

The new back door went in today, and I am pleased to say it looks INCREDIBLE! It adds so much life to the house and is a real upgrade. I love the door I picked. I can't believe this house is over 50 years old and nobody ever thought to put in good backyard access. When we got dinged at inspection for not having large enough windows, we decided to go ahead and turn one of the windows into a door. We had planned to do it later on our next permit, but the inspector said it was okay to do it now. I am so glad to have this door! I must have told C 50 times today how much I love this door. It makes the room look beautiful - You look out and see green (well green weeds for now, but eventually grass). From outside, it is so inviting. The house and yard feel connected in way they never did before.

Prior to installing this back door, to get to the backyard you could go out the side door, down a flight of steps, and climb over a retaining wall. Or you could walk out the front door, turn sideways and squeeze past the car(s) and then walk back. We always envisioned adding a back door so anyone outside wasn't so separated from everyone inside. We had originally wanted to put the door at the end of the central hallway (there's a large closet there now) and I was disappointed to find out we couldn't do it without a lot of construction and big bucks. Now that I have seen the door installed where it is, it is really growing on me. We also may be able to squeeze in a half bath in the closet we were going to lose in order to put the door at the end of the hall. If we could squeeze that additional bath in, I could be happy living here with no more construction. We have talked about as a long term plan, relocating the garage and doing a two story addition which would give us an attached garage with a master suite on top. C also made a point that putting the door at the end of the hall would give us 6 more feet of essentially useless hallway space. By converting a window to a door, we lose no useful square footage.

A final advantage of this placement for the door (aside from a HUGE amount of money and hassle over the alternate location) is that if we can do a half or three-quarter bath in the closet, we could have a great master suite to market if we ever sell the house. The room with the door is one of the two bigger bedrooms and has the largest closet. Add to that deck access and a private bath, and well, that's a master suite.

I am please with how fast the work got done this week - this must be what it is like to work with a real contractor! They simply did the job with minimal effort by me (some of the contractors I've hired needed a lot of babysitting and asked me questions that made me really question their competence).

Here is the opening for the door:



Here is the door in place. It is hard to tell how bright it makes the room because the light sensor on my camera darkens the room when there is high contrast like this.

This is a "before" shot from the back of the backyard. Looks as inviting as a fortress.

And now, come on in! It looks so inviting.

more new windows

While I am bummed about the painful way this window project has unfolded, I do love the new windows! They are just so big, bright and beautiful. They bring so much light into the house, even into the hallway. The view out is much better too. Today the crew was able to do the two windows in our bedroom. I think they are getting faster now that they have done one window and know what they are dealing with. They've tripped the breaker in each room though by trying to plug in tools. We have AFCI (Arc Fault Circuit Interupters) in our bedrooms as required by code. These are super-sensitive circuits (more so than GFCI or Ground Fault Circuit Interupter that have to be installed near water) that will trip the breaker at the slightest power surge. A power tool has a brief surge when it turns on that is too much for the circuit.

Our two bedroom windows are adjacent to each other on two walls that form a corner of the room. The crew installed the windows at a height of 38" and leveled the windows from sill to sill. What we didn't realize is that the floor slopes so badly that in the span of about 5 feet the floor to sill height differs by 1/2"! Wow, that is some slope.

I was quite productive today, and worked on lots of little things - I worked on the towel cubby int he bathroom, I cleaned the paint and stucco splatters of the bathroom window, I filled the yard waste can with cut ivy, and did some organizing and decluttering. I really love to organize, and declutter so after I get done a bit on each to-do list, I use that as a reward. It's a good system because the reward is something that is productive and benefits the house progress.

Here is one of the new windows framed. You can see how much bigger it is than the old one.




Here is the outside of the house with one new window framed.

Here is the finished job. The room looks dark in this photo due to the way the light sensor works on my camera.

New window today

Today the new contractor started. He was only delayed two days which is great! The crew was able to replace the office window already. They are really fast compared to our last contractor. We had very low expectations and assumed it would take weeks to get one window in like our last guy did, but low and behold it is in. Unfortunately, I didn't take any good after pictures, but I will once the windows are all done. The difference is dramatic! While I don't like how the process unfolded, I am happy with the new windows. They are much bigger and let in much more light to an otherwise dark and outdated house.

One thing that slowed the workers down was finding improper framing on the window. A window opening should be completely framed and self-supporting before the window assembly is put in. In other word, you could take out the glass and sills and have an empty opening without lowering the structural stability of the house. I was not happy to see this window improperly framed, and hope there are no other hidden framing problems. (Update: there was no problem with the other windows we replaced.)

Here is a picture of the bad framing. This is the top of the window. You can see the header at the top of the opening and then short studs up to the ceiling. Normally this header would be supported by studs called jack studs that go all the way to the floor. Thus, any weight borne by the header is transferred to the floor and ultmately to the foundation. In this case, you can see there are no jack studs, so any weight the header is bearing is being supported the horizontal nails used to attach the header to the studs. Yikes!

Contractor delayed again

The new contractor was supposed to start Monday and got delayed twice now. I'm still hopeful my confidence in him is not misplaced. It is a contractor we are talking about here, a group not exactly known for being reliable.

Contractor delayed

The new contractor was supposed to start today but got delayed until tomorrow.

Doing things right

Generally, I am one to do things right and thoroughly. People sometimes confuse this with being a perfectionist, which I am not. There are lots of things where "good enough" is best way to do things in terms of the effort-reward balance. My best example of this is making our bed, which I do every day. I really like a made bed, but I don't fee the extra time to do it perfectly is worth it.

Today was an interesting example of this for me. Because of the ongoing renovations, some of the things that belong in the house are in the garage and vice versa. Granted, the shop vac is much more logically stored in the garage, not the living room but when you use it every few days and the garage is difficult to get to, jam packed and disorganized then the living room starts not to seem so bad. We also adapted to living in construction mess, thinking it was only temporary and that we would fully finish unpacking and put everything away when construction was done. Well, we moved in almost a year ago, and the end to construction is nowhere in sight. So, I have started to try to properly place one thing a day by moving it from the house to the garage or vice versa. Within the house and garage, I try to put the items away as best as is possible right now.

Today's item was a suitcase to be moved from the house to the garage, and inside it I added a bunch of small tote bags (carry on bag, briefcase, backpack, etc). The problem was, this suitcase was covered in thick drywall dust. My inclination was to do it "right" and clean not only the suitcase but the tote bags as well. That led to me wanting to clean the cabinet in the garage where luggage is stored, which has sawdust from the nearby table saw on it. That led to me wanting to remove all the luggage from the cabinet, clean it, clean all the luggage, go to IKEA and buy doors for it (the cabinet is leftover from the kitchen and doesn't have doors yet), move the table saw, clean all the sawdust, and reposition the table saw elsewhere. That led to me wanting to clean all the tools in the pile near the table saw and organize them. That led to....... and so on and so on, you get my drift. Granted I am very much looking forward to living in a neat, clean space that doesn't look like a construction zone, and in fact am looking forward to doing all these tasks, but this is a long way off. After getting really overwhelmed by all of this, I decided to put the suitcase away dirty. Ugh..... just thinking of it bothers me, but I think it was the better choice for now. I cannot wait to really dig in and organize everything and really unpack. I look at pictures of neat, organized, functional garages with such envy and cannot wait to do mine. Not to mention the house too!

Along these lines, I have also been decluttering and organizing along the way, two of my favorite things to do. As a reward for losing some of the weight I put on during the remodel (take out food and stress) I used a gift certificate to buy some new clothes. I immediately came home and got rid of the same number of items. It wasn't easy because I just did a big closet purge when I finally finished unpacking all the clothes, but it is worth it not to have clutter accumulating. My thinking is that if I didn't have the same number of things to get rid of, I must not really need what I bought.

Yard work and more waiting

We are pretty much in a holding pattern waiting for the new contractor to start. So much hinges on getting this permit closed. It reminds me of the saying that MBA's use (I am one, so I am familiar with all the trite phrases they use): Just because one woman can have a baby in 9 months, it doesn't mean that 9 women can have a baby in one month. Remodeling is truly a process, and things have to be done in order.

I did do some yard work today. The very back of our backyard is overgrown with ivy, which I spend about an hour a week cutting down. That's about how long it takes me to fill the jumbo yard waste bin I have for weekly trash pickup. I am making progress, and it is quite gratifying. I actually enjoy cutting the ivy. It is slow work, and not too difficult but with immediate gratification. There's no wrong way to do it - I just grab a handful and start cutting until I can remove that handful. Sometimes I do have to strategize to remove certain large, well-rooted pieces. Then it become a mildly fun, not too difficult, brain teaser kind of thing. I also mowed and edged the median strip between the sidewalk and the street. Since it is all weeds, it may seem futile, but if I don't mow periodically the weeds grow to over 2 feet tall and start to encroach the sidewalk. Plus the edging takes time. Each week I can clean up what I did last week and go a little further. Over time, I'll get the whole thing done and that will make it look better right now and it will make life easier when we go to plant grass or plants out there.

I may never go to Home Depot again!

On the advice of my old electrician, I went to Lowe's. He uses a different one than the one I usually go to, and to my delighted surprise, it only took 27 minutes to get there. Given that I drive 15-30 minutes or more to get poor service and bad selection at Home Depot, I was thrilled to find out how close it was. The store was spacious, not crowded and had lots of employees. I was shocked when I asked where something was and the guy actually thought about his answer before saying it. He actually put quite a bit of effort into making sure he gave me the right answer instead of just spitting out some random aisle number to get rid of me. The selection was excellent - they have a whole section of outdoor fluorescent lights and I was able to match the one out front exactly. While I don't love the fixture, it is contemporary and inexpensive and will pass inspection. Some day, when I finish the millions of other tasks in the house, I'll search of a beautiful light fixture. I was even able to buy the exact lockset that Home Depot was out of stock on.

I hate Home Depot

How do they stay in business? If Lowe's wasn't over an hour away, I'd never go to Home Depot.

I got there in the late afternoon which is prime time - contractors and homeowners are all stopping by at the end of the day. They had not one cart to take in the store! I can't imagine that this is rocket science to keep carts available during heavy shopping hours. One item I wanted to get is a lockset for the back door that matches the ones I bought for the interior doors. Out of stock!!! Ugh. I also wanted to get two exterior light fixtures for the backdoor. Our local building code requires them to be fluorescent or on a motion detector. Home Depot carries NO fluorescent lights. Not one in the 150+ light exterior light fixtures they have is fluorescent. Not only that, but they don't carry anything I would call "contemporary" which is my style. I asked the guy working in electrical about it, and he looked at me like I was weird for asking for fluorescent lights and proceeded to tell me that wasn't required by code. Ah, yeah, it is. I hate it when people spout off about things they know nothing about. If you don't know, don't act like you do. Besides codes issues, what if I just wanted fluorescent because I like it or wanted to conserve energy? I ended up calling my old electrician from the store who told me to he got my front door fixture at Lowe's.

I also needed a gasket for my hose, and had to ask the requisite minimum of 2 employees before getting to them. Finally, I need a hand towel bar and toilet paper holder for the bath and they had nothing I liked in the finish I need. What a lousy trip to Home Depot. I think this location only stays in business because people don't have a choice short of driving far away.

Cleaned splatter today

One project I've been working on is getting current on filing. Since we moved in last May, we haven't had a proper office and thus no place to file anything. I moved in the banker's boxes holding our files, and have gradually been working my way through almost a years worth of filing and shredding. What a job!

I also worked on cleaning up paint and drywall mud splatters in the bathroom because our prior contractor has not heard of tarps! It is really unbelievable how much splatter there is throughout the house because of his failure to use tarps. One of the reasons I choose this task is that the bathroom is the closest room to being done, and the splatter makes it look like it is still under construction. Also, we have a wooden towel cubby built into the tile where our bathroom towels will be stored. The sooner I get it cleaned and put a finish on, the sooner we can use it and free up the space the towels are in now for something else. This is the way our "move in" has gone. The organization is spreading very gradually. Little things like this really help my frame of mind. I've been keeping anything that can be cleaned very clean for this reason. When you are an organized minimalist living in a chaotic mess, it helps to have a few islands of clarity in the sea of confusion.

Cleaned for door and window job

What fun on a Sunday (NOT). We cleaned and moved furniture around so the contractor can start work. We had to do it on a weekend because I needed C here to help, and the contractor may start as early as this week if he has time (if not he'll start a week from tomorrow).

Contract signed

The new general contractor who will be installing the windows and door came by today and we signed our contract. All went well, and was the same as the emails we've been exchanging. Yay.

For the next few days, I'll be working on moving things around for him to start work.

Windows and doors delivered today

I had deja vu today when the windows and doors arrived. We have so many extra now that we'll have a whole set when we're done. Not good. We hope to reuse some of them in the garage though. Right now there are no windows or doors, so we'd like to add them.

I had a moment of sickness when I thought we could have used smaller windows to meet egress, which would save any future engineering we may need done. After checking the company literature I realized I was wrong and did use the smallest possible windows. Egress is complex! I can't believe the city can't give me anything in writing on it.

Window and door order in - Yay

I got a call today from the door store - the window and door order is in, I just need to schedule delivery. The order is actually on time - what a surprise!

It's like moving 5 or 6 times

Due to ongoing projects, the "right"place to put something x months ago may not be the right place now. It is frustrating and gross to live in such a mess for so long (I am a minimalist and hate clutter). Just dealing with our belongings is the equivalent to moving 5 or 6 times I think. For example, I have two piles of Ikea shelves left from the kitchen. They are shelves that I don't want to install now, but have already paid for and will probably install in the future as I use my kitchen and see what my needs are. The piles of shelves are in the house (ugh, even the idea of piles of stuff in my house stresses me out). So, why not move them to the garage right?

Well, I'd love to but that is probably an 8-hour job. First, much of our stuff is still in the garage, along with normal garage things like a lawnmower, tools, etc. We also have lots of detritus from the remodel - extra lumbar, trash cans left by a contractor, spare tiles and grout in case we need to make a repair, etc. So, the garage is pretty full and there isn't great storage solutions like shelves and racks (we will get to that, but just can't do it now). So, in order to get the shelves in, I have to rearrange a bunch of stuff including a stack of plywood, which is very hard to move around in a small space. Since I am moving the plywood, I wanted to get all the pieces scattered around the house and garage together and label them for thickness. Once that is done, then I need to do some rearranging and stacking of boxes, move some things into the house and move somethings out to the garage. Then I can get rid of those piles of shelves.

Every project is like this. It's not like I can look at something that doesn't belong in the house and simply move it out to the garage. I really think it is going to take years and years (at least 10) to sort all this out and get to a point that the house doesn't look like it is being remodeled and all of our belongings are stored properly. It reminds me of those puzzles where you have 15 numbered tiles in frame that would hold 16 tiles, like this online example, and moving one small thing means backtracking, strategizing, and planning ahead multiple moves. I am getting a bit stuck sometimes in that I can't see the forest for the trees and am getting blinded to things because I live here and see it every day.

Like cold molasses

There is no other way to describe the progress, it is just really slow. Now that we have a sick dog, I'm slowed even further. I feel like we've made no progress recently and it is very distressing and overwhelming. Each thing is so interconnected with everything else.