Day 80 - More stuff

Well, the dry wallers have been here every day. They've totally mudded and sanded the new dry wall. There is dust everywhere. Every day we sweep up dust and every day there is more and more dust. This isn't much fun to take pictures of since there really isn't that cool of progress to show.

We've had a bit of dramma with the fake/missing window in the bathroom. Andi said we were supposed to get a frame and plexiglass window so that we didn't have to worry about how stupid the tile work looked with a missing window. Well, it looks like the dry wall dudes got a little over zealous. They threw away the window and dry walled up the hole. Now it looks dumb and they've allready mudded and sanded, so apparently we're commited to this now. Kevin (from OAR) seemed to feel bad about this since it wasn't what they told us would happen. It sounds like either way OAR is going to work with us to get it right and that makes me feel good.

Today they also opened up the doorway in the basement and straightened up the edge. Now the opening is a lot cleaner. There's also a giant PVC pipe in the basement, presumably for plumbing.

And, good news! Our cabinets were delivered today. I wanted to post pictures of them, but sadly (and for a good reason) they're all boxed up. They fill up an entire parking space in our garage from floor to cieling. Perhaps when they prime the walls we'll have some pictures.

Day 78 - Dry Wall

Right when we were leaving this morning (6:45am), I noticed a flat bed truck drive by, heading east, with a huge load of dry wall on it. I knew this week they were supposed to deliver the dry wall, but I didn't think anything of it. Then, as we were pulling out of the drive way, the same truck sped past the house, going west.

As we caught up with the truck after our u-turn, they too, performed another u-turn and started heading east again. They pulled over and stopped to check addresses presumably. Andi and I both stopped (in separate cars) and thought that maybe they were looking for our house. Well, we just assumed they would eventually find their way.

They must have found their way, because when we came home, there were walls! Dust too. There are little white foot prints all over the house and dust every where. I imagine the dust will only increase after they mud and sand. However, right now it's looking like it's shaping up rather quickly. Who knows what will happen tomorrow, if anything.
Here's the back door/mudroom.




















The new eating area.














Looking east towards drive way. This will be the majority of cabinets, sink, stove and island.

Living Room Pictures

Here are pics from our painting project on Friday. The light and table are going at some point; we need an area rug, new throw pillows, install the cellular shades; move some furniture and not all the pictures are hung. But, for the most part, everything is done now.

Day 76

We got installation earlier this week (Wednesday) and, well, that's it. I've been told drywall should be expected next week. I guess with the crazy amount of rain that we've gotten in the last week that we got gutters before the drops began to fall. I'm getting anxious for this to get done.

Last week I got it in my head that I was going to get the living room painted and done. We taped at night and during naps (we aren't all that great at painting, taping is necessary and we do it in excess). Friday the boys spent the day with my parents and I painted. Brian came home early and we were pretty much done by bed time. The furniture has been rearranged and it looks awesome. We are so pleased. Tonight we hung the new curtains and I love it. It won't be completely done until we can move the table into the new kitchen and move (or sell) the hutch (haven't made a decision yet on that one), purchase a new area rug, and hang pictures. Most of that won't be done until the kitchen is done.

Day 71

Oh my God...are we ever going to finish this? Our timeline was three months. In nineteen days we will be at day 90; that's three months in my book.

While not having a kitchen hasn't been nearly as bad as I thought (we've only eaten out twice as a result of not having a kitchen!) I'm getting really tired of not parking the cars in the garage, crappy backyard, walking through plastic every time we go outside or downstairs, cleaning food out of the bathtub after washing dishes, using plastic silverware and paper plates, not knowing if people are going to be working or not, oh the list could go on and on...

I just want my house back.

On the flip side of all of this, there are a few things that I have enjoyed about this process. Whatever they did during the sump pump/water drama last week caused our sump pump to become almost totally silent (which it's supposed to be). We actually were getting a little concerned because we hadn't heard it go off and it's rained for almost four days straight. Upon inspection, it was working exactly like it should! The other little perk has been in our basement washtub. There was something weird with the pipes and faucet. Whenever we ran the water everything would shake and it would spit the water out in spurts. We tried bleeding the lines and never worked. Since the water was rarely run it was a problem that had not been addressed. I was rinsing something a week or so ago and realized there was no shaking. It was working like you'd expect it to. The plumber had been here but I have no idea what he did or what he was working on. Whatever it was impacted our possessed pipes going to the washtub.

Gotta keep looking for the positives!

Day 67 - Less drama

Not too much to update here, other than they broke through the basement and it's finally dry. They broke through the floor and connected the new basement to another drain tile in the old basement. This time they were able to drain everything and as soon as they did it, the sump pump started filling up and working overtime. Even with all of the rain we've had this weekend, the basement has managed to stay dry.

Now all they need to do is plug the hole.


















On Thursday, the siding people came over and....yup, you guessed it, they sided. Looks nice doesn't it? Everything blended so well together.

Day 65 - More drama

Today they came over and put up the gutters. Those are no fun and I don't know if you really want to see pictures of gutters. I also noticed (only this morning) they put up part of the ventilation duct for the stove. However, the whole thing isn't complete, it's only partially installed. They also cleaned up the pile of rubble and pumped out some more water from the new basement.

That leads us to the drama. For a long time Andi and I have been asking about the basement water. On no more than four separate occasions from four separate people, they all basically said "it's because you don't have gutters." Even the people who put up the gutters said that to Andi. I guess I didn't realize the importance of gutters. Still, we were both skeptical.

Then we get home last night and there's a message on the machine from Rick (from the OAR group.) "It's Rick, just wanted to let you know that we were there today, and we were testing your sump pump, pouring water into it. So if you see water around don't worry. There's something not right about your drain tile. It doesn't seem to be working correctly. We'll be there tomorrow to look some more."

(In George Costanza voice) AH-HA! We knew it. We knew something was wrong, but nobody wanted to believe us. Well, the contract we signed indicated a sump pump to be installed in the new basement anyway. We'll see what happens. Look for an update.

It is Day 64...

Before...should have thought to take the picture before we started painting.
New color! North Hampton Putty
Still playing around with odds and ends to decorate with but I think a new toilet is in order...don't you Brian?

7-10 days our new counter top will be in and can be installed with our new sink.

New back door

Bathroom window is ready to be covered up.

Hanging out in the new closet

A lot has been going on and today we had the electrical inspection. Tomorrow is the rough plumbing inspection and once we get the go ahead installation drywalling can start!

Exhausted...

The Weekend Warriors are exhausted. This weekend was spent painting the ceiling and walls in the bathroom and lots of shopping around for all the things we need to get this house in the same color scheme as the kitchen. I'm trying to get as much done as humanly possible before I go back to work (two weeks). There shouldn't be a problem getting the hallway and living room painted, it's just we won't be doing much else between now and then!

Pictures coming soon

Andi and I have been busy with bathroom remodel and painting and haven't got to post much in the way of pictures. There has been many new things to see today and yesterday. We'll get pictures soon, but here's a quick update.

Mudroom closet framed.
Back door installed.
Soffit framed.
Bathroom window removed, walled framed.
Basement window installed.
Basement opening created!

Pictures hopefully tonight if we're not too tired after painting.

Bathroom Project - No Turning Back Now!

On Monday replacing the counter top and sink in the bathroom was just an idea...

It must be done now...we painted the bathroom a color Stephanie picked out for us. No turning back now, the bathroom is getting a new look.

My Pleas for Decorating Advice Has Been Answered

...or much to my delight, done for me!


This morning (early) I mobilized the troops and got them packed up and ready to spend the morning at one of our friend's house. By 9:30 I was back home, quickly straightened up and was ready for Stephanie.

Stephanie is one of my favorite people right now (my other being Anna, who had the boys at her house). Stephanie is our designer and today she came over to tell me what I should paint everything. When I say everything, I mean everything. We picked colors for the stairwell, the mudroom, the kitchen, the dining area, the hallway, and two for the living room. Then, we discussed this horrible place in my house: the bathroom. It just wasn't in the budget to role the bathroom into the remodel but she gave me some great suggestions on how how to make it better. One of which is to just replace the counter and sink rather than the whole vanity. So, think we'll find the money for that. Our bathroom is awful and since the rest of the house is going to look awesome in a few months, it just doesn't seem right to have such a crappy bathroom.

Then, after I was done with Stephanie I had an appointment at Sears to pick out a microwave. This microwave is holding up the order on the cabinets so I'm glad I have it done now! Everything should be ordered today and be delivered in about 5 weeks.

Finally, I asked if our new island would be long enough to double as a breakfast bar. With a little tweaking it will! Whoo Hoo...Now we have a breakfast bar!

Slight Change in Plans & Electrical is In Place

Due to this whole soffit nonsense our plans needed to be modified just a little bit. Here is what the new drawings look like:

Above the refrigerator is the soffit that was our first unexpected problem.

New cabinet configuration

A much larger island is going to installed! Who cares about the soffit, we just gained more counter and work space!

In other Ranch news, our dryer is broken. For real this time. A few weeks ago I commented that I had a suspicion that something wasn't right with it. I guess I was right! We also need a new shower head since our current one is spraying water out of places where water shouldn't be spraying. Appliances and fixtures not connected to the project shouldn't be allowed to break during the project!

Day 53 - The Day of Power

Today started and ended with power. When I woke up to go running, I started the coffee like I normally do and then went to get ready. When I came back for my coffee and flipped on the light to see what I was doing I tripped a circuit.

!#@%

The "kitchen" and bedroom lost power. That meant no A/C and no alarm. Andi was non too happy with that situation. After some struggles with turning on the right circuit and resetting clocks, I headed out and finished a quick run. After I was done and the up and dressed, promptly at 7, Kevin showed up. Two minutes later the electrician showed up.

I thought they were only coming to take a look around and get a feel for the project. Noway, they were here to work. After a couple minutes discussing layouts of switches and placements of can lights, I had to leave. When I came home today, they had most of the power run as well as switch boxes and breakers installed. The can lights were delivered and would be they are next for installation. You can see them in the middle of the floor.

These pictures you most likely haven't seen. I am standing in the new part of the kitchen and the entrance is where the bay window used to be. The pocket door and wall separating the mudroom have been framed out too.

You can see the where the switches are going to go and just to the left of the window is where the stove is going to go. They couldn't move the fridge out of the kitchen because it was so huge and for the entire project they'll have to work around it.

The next picture is me standing behind the pocket door in the mudroom looking into the new kitchen. Next to the wall where the fan is, is where the fridge will go. The can lights are in the boxes. I'm not sure when they are coming back or even what they have to do, but hopefully it will be tomorrow and we'll have some kind of make shift lighting in the kitchen.

After I came home from work, this is the state I found the progress of the work in and I was pleased to see they accomplished a lot. When I walked into the bedroom to change, the clocks were blinking.

The power had been cut again. Figures.

Day 52...I've been led to believe 6 more weeks...

Yesterday the basement was cleaned out and continues to dry (water entered when the addition wasn't weather tight, no need to panic just yet). Tuesday, much to our surprise, our dishwasher was delivered. Good thing one of the workers was here because they had to sign for it! It wasn't supposed to be delivered until we called to arrange for delivery. Obviously, we aren't ready for it.

Today Kevin and Stephanie, our designer, came over to confirm measurements for the cabinetry. Brian and I got homework for the next few days: determine where we want cable (why?), phone and pick out a microwave. There needed to be a few changes to the plans because the dimensions of the addition changed a little. The good news from all of this is that we get a larger island...that should make Brian happy :-) The bad news is that the old roof line is *&^%ing up the "seam" between the addition and the existing house. The implications is that this happens to be right where our range is going to be with our amazing hood. It looks like we may get soffits (only 5 1/2 inch ones) back :-( Brian is super pissed about this...we'll post more once we fully understand the implication. Just in case you are wondering, I don't really care. At this point, I just want my kitchen back, for it took look nice and my AC.