Visible progress!

Today I had an appointment canceled, which was great news as it put me a full week ahead. I wasn't going to be able to work on the windows for a week. I spent 4.5 hours today, but it was worth it. I once again pushed beyond my limits and got sloppy but I didn't care because the front door film is temporary and a vast improvement over the trash bags. Normally, I'm not a fan of temporary fixes. It's usually not much less time than doing it right, and then you have to do it again later. In this case it was a good decision.

My time to date on the windows is 234.25 hours.

The front door is done except for sanding and buffing. We are going to try the film for a few weeks or months. If we like it, we'll have it done permanently. We want to try it for a while though because we won't be able to see out of it.

I have 10 coats to go to finish the shellac. This includes everything - doors, windows and trim. It is great to be able to see the end when I couldn't for a long time. I couldn't even picture being done, and now I can lay out every task between now and done. The coats themselves, the actual brush time, doesn't take that long for each coat - perhaps 2-3 hours. What takes time is what comes between - sanding, buffing, prepping, installing trim, etc. My last coat was two full months ago (12/26/08), and I really hope the next coat is not so long off. If I can do one coat a week, I'll be done May 8. That is really ambitious, probably not even possible, but even if it's a month off that is still in sight.

In early October 2008, I made a 13 month schedule for Phase 2, which concludes with flooring and the front yard. It looks like we are pretty close to on time almost 5 months in. That would be so great to have flooring and front yard by year end! That would be a really big turning point, and the place would be much more comfortable. The infinite number of projects still to go could be done as we can get to them.

Here is the front door from the outside, before I put the film up:



Looks like crap, eh?

Here is the after shot. Much better, eh?


Here is the front door from the inside, before. It's hard to see because of the light making too much contrast in the camera.



And here is the after shot. Whew, much better.

3 hours on windows

Today I spent 3 hours on the windows bringing the total hours to date to 229.75.

I was unusually productive today and got to a good landmark in my progress. The bay window trim is done and I'm ready for my next coat of shellac, which will let me put the film on the front door. This will be so great because I can get rid of the trash bags, tape and cardboard covering it right now. The coat and the film should be done by the end of next week, so 9 more days of trashbags on the front door. Yay!

I worked way too long though, and ended up ruining two pieces of trim due to lack of focus. I really wanted to finish though and it seemed silly to put it all away and drag it out for onemore hour of work. I was really tired, but happy to have been productive.

Here is a shot of the bay area with the trim in place.


Here is a small job I did today. There are thousands like this around the house. Often, when I finish one job, I end up with several more on my to do list.

This cabinet houses the water heater. I had a handyman replace the solid panels with mesh so that the heater gets air for combustion. There was this little sticker on the mesh that had been in place since 2007.


I finally got rid of it today.

Behind on blogging again

Today is March 31, and I'm over a month behind on the remodeling blog. I am still here though, and I have pictures and lots to write about so I will get caught up at some point.

Window insulation

Today I spent half an hour on the window and door woodwork, bringing the total so far to 226.75 hours. I finished insulating the front and side door and only need to trim it once it dries. This is a low priority and I won't bother doing it until I am ready to add trim to the doors.

In addition to the expanding foam I used yesterday, I used some of this tubular foam as well. It comes in long lengths and helps fill large gaps around the door.

Progress on windows, feeling a bit of hope

Today I spent 1.75 hours on the windows, bringing the total to hours to date on the windows and interior doors to 226.25. I got 4 pieces of trim up in the bay window area. There are 3 windows with 4 sides each, so there is a total of 12 pieces. I am getting faster at doing trim - the living room window I did recently took 2 hours to do all 4 pieces. Today, these 4 pieces took about 50 minutes (but, since I didn't do all 4 sides of any window, it's not a fair comparison. The last piece takes a while to fit). I also insulated around some of the doors and windows before I cover them with trim. I used some really cool expanding foam that was fun to work with, but brutal on my hands! It peels the skin right off!

Here is the trial run I did with the expanding foam.


Here is the foam fully expanded in the crack around the door. It's hard to tell how much to squirt in to fill the crack but not overflow it. The foam can be trimmed with a knife once it dries. It takes a styrofoam-like texture once dried.



One project that I am close on is getting the front door frosted. It is getting so frustrating and can't wait to get it done enough to do some temporary frosting on the glass. Here is how it looks, which is horrible, but that's only part of why it's so bad.


It's covered with blue painter's tape and plastic bags to cover the clear glass. Whatever we put up the dogs rip down whenever there is something exciting on the sidewalk such as a 7 pound chihuahua or a pedestrian. They keep tearing the bags, so we had to put up the cardboard to cover the whole. It is futile to try to replace the bags - I finally gave up when I had to replace it 3 times in one hour. The cardboard worked well for a while, but then one of the dogs learned to easily knock it down so now it serves no purpose and we have a more or less permanent hole in the door cover. Eventually we want to pay a glass person to frost it, but in the meantime I'm going to use Contac paper privacy film. It will be quick and cheap and will allow us to make sure we like have a frosted door before we commit to it permanently. We originally wanted to put a shade on the door, but that was before the dogs showed their propensity to remove and destroy any door covering.

I cannot wait to get this done. The dogs are crazy with explosive barking every time someone comes by the house. When they can't see, they are quieter. I have to complete some trim and one more coat then I can sand and put the film up. It will look so much better in addition to improving our quality of life. I hate having to try to place the cardboard properly every time I leave.

I had several good sessions this week. I didn't make much visible progress but I can see it and I am probably a week from the next coat, which means the front door can be frosted. I still have a lot to do on the woodwork, but I could still make the goal of flooring this year.

Windows and decluttering

I haven't gotten much work done in the last week or so due to out of town company.

I did spend 1.25 hours on the windows, bringing my total hours on the windows to 224.5. I finished prep on the 3 bay windows in the dining area and put a coat on the surface where the trim will be nailed on the bay windows and side door. Since it will be covered, I only did one coat. I had to rip out a bunch of trim one of the contractors put in backwards! He put the wrong edge on the inside. Somehow, I managed to gouge one of the window sashes. It should be okay once I putty it.

I finished going through a big box of cleaning supplies from our move in May 2006. Things were so chaotic at the time of our move and in the time after that it wasn't accessible for a while. I finally am now getting to it. For a long time, we didn't have much to clean so I just bought what I needed. I also took care of an accumulated pile of things to go into garage. Due to dog issues, I let stuff pile up and then put it away in a batch. One dog cannot tolerate the evil garage door opener and tries to eat and/or attack the door. The other dog is puppy-ish and curious which is not a good combination in an unfinished garage. I got rid of two large boxes and put a huge trash bag full of stuff in the car for Goodwill. It's not much, but it is progress.

I'm still here

I am behind on blog posts, but I am still recording all the misadventures for anyone that might still be following our saga. I am posting this on Feb 27, but have lots of pictures and things to write about.

Company in town

I made no progress today and yesterday due to having company in town. It's a welcome break from all the hard work. I probably won't have much to report for the next week or so.

Cleaning up from leak

Today I spent most of my house time on cleaning up from the leak we had. I got half an hour in on the windows, which brings my total to 223.25.

Dodged a bullet (I think) on the roof leak

The roofer was here at 9:30 this morning as promised. He wasn't sure if the cause of the leak was a vent he put in over the summer or the satellite dish which has nothing to do with him, but he sealed the both at no charge to me. I'm lucky to have a really great roofer, although I guess the law of averages dictates that I have to have at least one or two good ones given all the bad ones I've had.

As of 7:00 tonight, there was no additional water even though it rained most of the day. There looks to be no damage to the drywall or bathroom light fixture. I am so glad I was here and able to catch and address this right away.

Terrible day!

Today I put my whiteboard up on the wall. It's been a constant in my life since very early on in the project. It's the only way I can keep track of the myriad of projects and their dependencies. It also helps keep my sane and positive when I can see just what needs to be done and have estimated times on the tasks.

Like all things house, it was more complicated than it should have been. The board comes with two hangers at the top, which I used in conjunction with drywall anchors. However, due to poor design, the hangers are not sufficient. The board move quite a bit and sticks out from the wall, neither of which is good. I ended up just driving two extra screws right through the frame. It is a junkyard kind of job, but I don't really care since it's not visible from most of the house and I really hope I don't need the board for the long haul. The board also is far from level - it must have shifted while I was marking my holes (it's too big to hold it with one hand while using the other to mark holes). But again, I don't really care.

I updated the window schedule in great detail. It's becoming necessary to stay efficient. If I work efficiently and do things in the correct order, I can save a lot of time. In fact, I figured out how to shave two coats off each window by putting the trim on in the correct order.

Since the main reason for hanging the white board was the windows, I am counting today's 1.5 hours as part of the window and door job, bringing the total hours to date to 222.75.

Here is a shot of my whiteboard:


So far, this day wasn't so bad... just normal annoying house stuff. When I got home from picking up the drywall anchors, it started to rain. Normally, I love rain and I was thankful I had no place else to go. I was looking forward to a productive day while enjoying the rain - Thursdays are my day to be home most or all of the day in my work clothes and I usually get a lot done.

Then I heard it, one of the sounds homeowners live in fear of - the dreaded drip! I followed the sound to the bathroom, and found a slow, steady drip coming out of the light fixture in my bathroom. I crawled up into the attic and made my way around in the only way possible up there - on my stomach with forearms and thighs balanced on two adjacent rafters. I couldn't see any leak and assumed it must be coming from the bathroom fan which vents out the roof. I called the roofer at about 4:30 in the afternoon, and he agreed to come early in the morning. I called C at work and brainstormed, and we decided I should go into the attic and disconnect the duct from the light fixture and put the end in a bucket. I assembled the tools I needed, climbed up, inch-wormed my way over, struggled to undo the duct tape (try laying on two rafters and holding your upper body up high enough to work with both arms for more than a few minutes!) and found the duct bone dry! Argh! (and a few other choice words!) I was stumped. I felt around the bath fixture and found more water and eventually figured out that it was in fact a roof leak. I had to wriggle way back to where the roof is really low over the rafters to see it. I put a bucket and towel underneath and am hoping it holds all night.

Not a fun day. I always laugh when people say "Oh, your remodeling a house, what fun!"

Window trim on one window

Today I spent 2 hours putting trim on one of the living room windows. Total hours on windows and doors so far: 221.25. Yikes, those hours are adding up fast but the progress is slow.

I really pushed through and barely made an appointment I had, but I wanted this window trim done really badly. This window just needs 3 coats of shellac on the trim then I can put a shade up.

Here is a close up of the trim:




Here is a before shot:

And here is the after shot. It's not much of an improvement given that we still need to get a shade and have the walls painted (for the second time thanks to a contractor screw up.)

Wiring on a Sunday

Today we got back into working on the wiring. Looking back at my notes, I saw it was April 2008 when we last worked on this. I cannot believe how fast the time goes and how slow the progress is. When we were doing construction, C had the excellent idea of wiring the house for phone, cable TV and internet so we have wall jacks in every room. He did the design and then we paid the electrician to actually run the wires since he had the proper tools and was under the house anyway. So the wires are in place, but we haven't actually finished the project and reaped the benefits. This is what our computer wiring looks like now:



On the left is a box we were going to use as a hub for the wiring but we've since changed our mind. Conveniently, there is a flue behind this in the center of the house from the old gas furnace we removed from the crawl space. The flue runs from the crawl space to the attic and we are using it for a lot of the wiring. The location is perfect as it is next to the office closet. You can also see the paint footprints left by the prior owner of the house. Nice. I cannot wait to get flooring in!