Here's something I didn't think I'd be saying several months ago: I'll be really glad to get back to doing things ourselves.
Really. After the months (years) of DIY work to do the demolition, the subfloors, and the framing (et al), I was more than ready to have some contractors come in and work. But last night I handed the drywaller the last two hundred dollars of his fee and waved him out the door with sheer glee. I'm so tired of dealing with other people! Scheduling them, supervising them, PAYING them, dealing with fallout when they don't show up, pointing out their mistakes, getting them to FIX their mistakes, getting them to show up at all... I'm so over it.
We have just one more contractor to decide on and deal with: hardwood flooring. We have two estimates in, and two to go - last week's snowstorm derailed us a bit, with two appointments rescheduled and us stuck at home for a full week. Fortunately - and I don't mind a bit of a plug here - we live in Baltimore County, not the city, and our snow removal was beyond excellent. Our street was plowed early on for both snowstorms - the only thing stopping us from getting out was our own effort in shoveling the driveway. And the taxes are lower in the county, too. I'm just saying.
Anyway, we've got appointments today and tomorrow with hardwood flooring estimators, and we're hoping to make a decision over the weekend and get started as soon as possible. Once the flooring's in, we'll finally be able to live in most of the house again, which will be a new and different thing. There's a comfy couch sitting in a box in my in-laws' basement, waiting for me to take it out and sit on it. I'm very excited by the prospect.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Thursday, February 04, 2010
downstairs drywall
After many snafus, most of which have been documented in hysterical detail on my Twitter feed, the downstairs drywall is done. Here, have some pictures.
Standing at the foot of the stairs, looking into the living room and dining room:
What's making that weird circle of sunlight on the floor, you ask? Why, it's the awesome round window we installed in the stairwell! (Which, I might add, the drywallers did a really good job dealing with - it was definitely a challenge the way the window people installed it.)
In the corner of the living room (opposite where I stood to take the first picture), looking at the dining room and the doorway into the office, as well as a glimpse of the stairs. See that corner under the stairs? Don's parents' standing piano is going there, as soon as we get moved in. I'm excited about it (so are they - they want it out of their dining room).
Today we've got somebody here spraying primer downstairs. I've got appointments with three flooring companies, and will be making two more. Moving forward!
Standing at the foot of the stairs, looking into the living room and dining room:
What's making that weird circle of sunlight on the floor, you ask? Why, it's the awesome round window we installed in the stairwell! (Which, I might add, the drywallers did a really good job dealing with - it was definitely a challenge the way the window people installed it.)
In the corner of the living room (opposite where I stood to take the first picture), looking at the dining room and the doorway into the office, as well as a glimpse of the stairs. See that corner under the stairs? Don's parents' standing piano is going there, as soon as we get moved in. I'm excited about it (so are they - they want it out of their dining room).
Today we've got somebody here spraying primer downstairs. I've got appointments with three flooring companies, and will be making two more. Moving forward!
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
whoa
In what seems like a whirlwind compared to their previous effort, the drywallers have been here all three days this week and the downstairs drywall is practically done. Seriously. We took delivery of the materials on Monday, the hanging crew hung it all on Tuesday, and the taping crew just left after taping and mudding the whole thing today. All that's left is a day of drying time, skim-coating (probably Friday), and sanding (probably Monday).
And, of course, fixing the problems. You didn't think it was all smooth sailing, did you? Fortunately, there's nothing so egregious downstairs as the window issues upstairs (beautifully fixed, by the way, for more money, of course). The biggest issue is that in the half-wall that divides the kitchen from the dining room, there's a little plastic thingie that protects the gas line that goes to the stove. The hanging crew didn't notice it, and just slapped drywall up over the top of it without realizing that it makes the wall bend out - and, more drastically, back in. The result is a relatively drastic curve in the wall that's going to make hardwood flooring an issue. We're going to try to get the drywallers to fix it, either by taking down the sheet and re-hanging it or, I suppose, by using copious amounts of mud to sculpt it back into shape. Whatever. That's really the only issue I have, although Don is dubious about a couple of other things. We'll see how things go.
Depending on how all this problem-solving goes, we could potentially be putting primer up on the walls as soon as next weekend, which is shockingly fast. I mean, shockingly fast for around here. I hear there are other renovations that get done in LESS than four years, can you believe it?
And, of course, fixing the problems. You didn't think it was all smooth sailing, did you? Fortunately, there's nothing so egregious downstairs as the window issues upstairs (beautifully fixed, by the way, for more money, of course). The biggest issue is that in the half-wall that divides the kitchen from the dining room, there's a little plastic thingie that protects the gas line that goes to the stove. The hanging crew didn't notice it, and just slapped drywall up over the top of it without realizing that it makes the wall bend out - and, more drastically, back in. The result is a relatively drastic curve in the wall that's going to make hardwood flooring an issue. We're going to try to get the drywallers to fix it, either by taking down the sheet and re-hanging it or, I suppose, by using copious amounts of mud to sculpt it back into shape. Whatever. That's really the only issue I have, although Don is dubious about a couple of other things. We'll see how things go.
Depending on how all this problem-solving goes, we could potentially be putting primer up on the walls as soon as next weekend, which is shockingly fast. I mean, shockingly fast for around here. I hear there are other renovations that get done in LESS than four years, can you believe it?
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
drywall pictures!
So the drywallers are, in theory, done upstairs. In practice, they're not - they still have to come back and re-hang those window walls, which should be happening today or tomorrow. Then they'll be done. In any case, they're done enough to take pictures, which is what I know you've all been waiting for.
Looking in to the master bedroom from the landing:
Standing just inside the master bedroom door - when I took this I was basically standing in the doorway to the master bathroom, which is directly opposite the master closet, which is the door you see in the picture below (yes, the closet has a window!):
The master bathroom - or at least some of it. The drywallers have to come back here, too, to finish the area around the tub. The master shower is to the left of the picture - it doesn't all fit in one frame. The drywall in here is greenboard, which is a specific kind of sheetrock used for rooms that can get wet, like bathrooms. It's not the same as durarock, which is the cement board used behind tile (that's what's in the shower):
The middle (and smallest) bedroom, which will be a nursery - hopefully by the end of this year! (No, Mom, no news):
The back bedroom, which will be the guest room. Hard to take pictures of - I stood in the doorway to get as much in as I could. There's a sizeable nook in front of the closet you can see on the left, and the window is centered in the room, so that should tell you how much room didn't fit in the picture on the right:
And finally, the guest bathroom. Small, but serviceable. The nook behind the bathtub will get some sort of shelving built in for towels and toiletries, as the sink that's going in here is a pedestal to save room.
Looking in to the master bedroom from the landing:
Standing just inside the master bedroom door - when I took this I was basically standing in the doorway to the master bathroom, which is directly opposite the master closet, which is the door you see in the picture below (yes, the closet has a window!):
The master bathroom - or at least some of it. The drywallers have to come back here, too, to finish the area around the tub. The master shower is to the left of the picture - it doesn't all fit in one frame. The drywall in here is greenboard, which is a specific kind of sheetrock used for rooms that can get wet, like bathrooms. It's not the same as durarock, which is the cement board used behind tile (that's what's in the shower):
The middle (and smallest) bedroom, which will be a nursery - hopefully by the end of this year! (No, Mom, no news):
The back bedroom, which will be the guest room. Hard to take pictures of - I stood in the doorway to get as much in as I could. There's a sizeable nook in front of the closet you can see on the left, and the window is centered in the room, so that should tell you how much room didn't fit in the picture on the right:
And finally, the guest bathroom. Small, but serviceable. The nook behind the bathtub will get some sort of shelving built in for towels and toiletries, as the sink that's going in here is a pedestal to save room.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
a somewhat convoluted update
So, the drywall upstairs is nearly done. It looks super cool - if you follow me on Twitter, you may have seen a couple of fuzzy cameraphone pics. I'll take better pictures soon. The drywall process is as follows:
-Stock (bring it into the house, an event which can take a whole day by itself)
-Hang (attach sheets of drywall to walls, cut around electrical outlets, lights, etc)
-Tape and mud (stretch tape over each seam, use joint compound to make a smooth wall)
-Mud some more (fill in big dents, make corners sharp, generally make walls)
-Skim coat (make it pretty - check for last imperfections, fill in)
-Sand (after all mud is really, really dry, sand it so it's perfectly smooth)
The upstairs is currently past its second mudding, and is slowly drying (the drywallers did the first and second coats all at once, so it takes a while to dry). In theory, they could come in tomorrow and skim coat, let that dry, and sand on Friday so that we could move upstairs this weekend.
But.
The windows in the two guest rooms (back and middle bedrooms) are kind of badly framed in, in that the framing for the windows juts out into the room a bit. So currently the drywall is cut around it, and it looks kind of icky. Ordinarily one would just fix this by hiding it with trim, but the framing is significantly wider than the windows themselves and we really don't want huge trim around two random windows! So the drywaller was over today, inspecting his crew's work and delivering some materials, and he suggested a solution: add another layer of drywall. It'll make everything even, covering the framing and going right to the window. It might not be the simplest solution (which would be, I don't know, ignoring it? Attempting to spackle?), but it'll be the best one. If we want it done right, this is what to do.
So now the plan is for the crew to come in and skim coat the rest of the upstairs. Either they or their boss will come in and hang, tape, and mud the two window-walls before the weekend, and the new drywall will be skimmed on Monday, with sanding on Wednesday. So far it seems like a good plan to me - not only can we take a break this weekend (poor Don has already worked 120 hours in this 80 hour pay period, with two more days to go!), but it'll give us extra time to clean up and move next week. I might even be able to get the electrician to come in and turn the electricity on up there!
The only drawback? I made this decision totally unilaterally - Don's still at work and has no idea. Eep! Let's hope he agrees with me - and is willing to pay for the extra sheets of drywall!
-Stock (bring it into the house, an event which can take a whole day by itself)
-Hang (attach sheets of drywall to walls, cut around electrical outlets, lights, etc)
-Tape and mud (stretch tape over each seam, use joint compound to make a smooth wall)
-Mud some more (fill in big dents, make corners sharp, generally make walls)
-Skim coat (make it pretty - check for last imperfections, fill in)
-Sand (after all mud is really, really dry, sand it so it's perfectly smooth)
The upstairs is currently past its second mudding, and is slowly drying (the drywallers did the first and second coats all at once, so it takes a while to dry). In theory, they could come in tomorrow and skim coat, let that dry, and sand on Friday so that we could move upstairs this weekend.
But.
The windows in the two guest rooms (back and middle bedrooms) are kind of badly framed in, in that the framing for the windows juts out into the room a bit. So currently the drywall is cut around it, and it looks kind of icky. Ordinarily one would just fix this by hiding it with trim, but the framing is significantly wider than the windows themselves and we really don't want huge trim around two random windows! So the drywaller was over today, inspecting his crew's work and delivering some materials, and he suggested a solution: add another layer of drywall. It'll make everything even, covering the framing and going right to the window. It might not be the simplest solution (which would be, I don't know, ignoring it? Attempting to spackle?), but it'll be the best one. If we want it done right, this is what to do.
So now the plan is for the crew to come in and skim coat the rest of the upstairs. Either they or their boss will come in and hang, tape, and mud the two window-walls before the weekend, and the new drywall will be skimmed on Monday, with sanding on Wednesday. So far it seems like a good plan to me - not only can we take a break this weekend (poor Don has already worked 120 hours in this 80 hour pay period, with two more days to go!), but it'll give us extra time to clean up and move next week. I might even be able to get the electrician to come in and turn the electricity on up there!
The only drawback? I made this decision totally unilaterally - Don's still at work and has no idea. Eep! Let's hope he agrees with me - and is willing to pay for the extra sheets of drywall!
Monday, January 11, 2010
glamorous action shot
The upstairs drywall is about three-quarters of the way hung. Due to some sort of delivery snafu, the hanging crew ran out of drywall on Friday. So, being practical fellows, they left. More drywall has, I'm told, been ordered and should be delivered today. I'm told that the upstairs will be completely finished by Friday - mud, tape, sanding and all. I am dubious.
Should it actually happen, Don and I will move all of our stuff upstairs this weekend (PS anybody who feels like coming over for some heavy lifting let me know) and the crew will start work on drywalling the downstairs next Monday. If it happens like that, awesome, but I'm not holding my breath.
Thursday, January 07, 2010
submitted without comment
Mostly because the only comment I've got starts and ends with exclamation points.
Friday, December 04, 2009
seriously?
The insulation is in, and that is the only good thing I can say about this last week. Let's do this in timeline format, shall we?
Early November: I call the drywaller, and agree to find my own insulator when he tells me his has retired. After much calling back and forth, I find an insulator and call the drywaller back and schedule our drywall to begin November 30th. He puts us on his schedule, or so he says, and tells me to call him if anything changes.
November 27th: I'm getting nervous, as I haven't gotten any sort of call from the contractor asking if we're still on, or confirming anything, or even saying anything about signing a contract, which we haven't done. I assume he'll bring the contract with, on the first day of work, but STILL. So I call him, the day after Thanksgiving, and, predictably, get no answer. I leave a message saying that I'd like to confirm that we're still on his schedule for Monday, could he please call me or Don back, and leave our numbers (although he should have them).
November 30th (Monday): Don takes off work so that he can do a walkthrough with the drywaller when he arrives. We wait, and wait, and he fails to show up. I call his cell phone at least five times and leave a couple of messages.
December 1 (Tuesday): He finally answers his cell phone in late morning. I say politely that I had thought we were supposed to be on his schedule this week, and that I'd been trying to get in touch with him. He says he was out of town, makes no mention of getting any of my messages, and says he can PUT us on his schedule for the week, just let him call his hanging guy and see when they'll be done that day, he'll call me back in a bit. I wait until nearly 5 PM, then finally call back. He says he was going to call me as soon as he got into the office, and that the drywall will be delivered on Thursday and hanging will commence on Friday. I ask if he can come out for a walkthrough, as there are a few trouble spots that weren't there during the estimate (plumbing, etc). He says absolutely, he can come out around 2 PM the next day, he'll give me a call when he's on his way and oh, he'll bring the contract with him.
Wednesday: He doesn't call. Don takes the afternoon off of work to be here for the walkthrough. The drywaller doesn't show up. We call several times throughout the afternoon. Finally, Don leaves a message on the guy's voicemail saying, essentially, either call us back or we'll be moving on to another contractor. Rather predictably, he doesn't call.
Thursday: Shockingly, no drywall is delivered. I call the other drywall contractor we got similar quote from in August, and leave a message asking if the quote's still good and if not, can we get another. He calls me back and says he'll check.
Today: New drywaller calls back again - meaning he is officially two phone calls higher in my estimation than his predecessor - and tells me they can do the job for the same price he quoted me in August. I ask him to come out for a walkthrough. He says he can come out on Monday, and will give me a call. I have limited hopes.
This whole thing has been... just... why wouldn't you put forth the simple basic minimum effort and call somebody back? Clearly the guy didn't want our money. And, it seems, may not in fact know how to check his voicemail. In which case, uh, good luck with that business of yours.
So now I don't know if we'll have drywall by Christmas, and I'm kind of depressed about it. The entire experience has left a decidedly bad taste in my mouth, and I'm so sick of waiting for phone calls I could spit.
Early November: I call the drywaller, and agree to find my own insulator when he tells me his has retired. After much calling back and forth, I find an insulator and call the drywaller back and schedule our drywall to begin November 30th. He puts us on his schedule, or so he says, and tells me to call him if anything changes.
November 27th: I'm getting nervous, as I haven't gotten any sort of call from the contractor asking if we're still on, or confirming anything, or even saying anything about signing a contract, which we haven't done. I assume he'll bring the contract with, on the first day of work, but STILL. So I call him, the day after Thanksgiving, and, predictably, get no answer. I leave a message saying that I'd like to confirm that we're still on his schedule for Monday, could he please call me or Don back, and leave our numbers (although he should have them).
November 30th (Monday): Don takes off work so that he can do a walkthrough with the drywaller when he arrives. We wait, and wait, and he fails to show up. I call his cell phone at least five times and leave a couple of messages.
December 1 (Tuesday): He finally answers his cell phone in late morning. I say politely that I had thought we were supposed to be on his schedule this week, and that I'd been trying to get in touch with him. He says he was out of town, makes no mention of getting any of my messages, and says he can PUT us on his schedule for the week, just let him call his hanging guy and see when they'll be done that day, he'll call me back in a bit. I wait until nearly 5 PM, then finally call back. He says he was going to call me as soon as he got into the office, and that the drywall will be delivered on Thursday and hanging will commence on Friday. I ask if he can come out for a walkthrough, as there are a few trouble spots that weren't there during the estimate (plumbing, etc). He says absolutely, he can come out around 2 PM the next day, he'll give me a call when he's on his way and oh, he'll bring the contract with him.
Wednesday: He doesn't call. Don takes the afternoon off of work to be here for the walkthrough. The drywaller doesn't show up. We call several times throughout the afternoon. Finally, Don leaves a message on the guy's voicemail saying, essentially, either call us back or we'll be moving on to another contractor. Rather predictably, he doesn't call.
Thursday: Shockingly, no drywall is delivered. I call the other drywall contractor we got similar quote from in August, and leave a message asking if the quote's still good and if not, can we get another. He calls me back and says he'll check.
Today: New drywaller calls back again - meaning he is officially two phone calls higher in my estimation than his predecessor - and tells me they can do the job for the same price he quoted me in August. I ask him to come out for a walkthrough. He says he can come out on Monday, and will give me a call. I have limited hopes.
This whole thing has been... just... why wouldn't you put forth the simple basic minimum effort and call somebody back? Clearly the guy didn't want our money. And, it seems, may not in fact know how to check his voicemail. In which case, uh, good luck with that business of yours.
So now I don't know if we'll have drywall by Christmas, and I'm kind of depressed about it. The entire experience has left a decidedly bad taste in my mouth, and I'm so sick of waiting for phone calls I could spit.
Monday, November 23, 2009
briefly
Don got in touch with the new HVAC guy over the weekend. He said he'd come out late today and do the work. He called this morning and said he wouldn't be able to make it until tomorrow. Whatever.
I've scheduled the insulators to come on Friday. Assuming the HVAC guy actually shows up, and Don can get the data rings installed for the speaker wire relatively quickly, all should be on track for drywall next week.
Surgery recovery is going very slowly - I'm not good for much these days. We're looking forward to Thanksgiving, and I'll be at Darkover selling jewelry over the weekend - hopefully I'll be pain-free by then.
I've scheduled the insulators to come on Friday. Assuming the HVAC guy actually shows up, and Don can get the data rings installed for the speaker wire relatively quickly, all should be on track for drywall next week.
Surgery recovery is going very slowly - I'm not good for much these days. We're looking forward to Thanksgiving, and I'll be at Darkover selling jewelry over the weekend - hopefully I'll be pain-free by then.
Friday, November 20, 2009
a minor update
So, I had my surgery last week. For those of you who follow me on Twitter, you know already that I was stuck at home up until yesterday, recovering and being very bored. I'm now back to driving, though still no heavy lifting and various other restrictions. It's all very annoying.
House-wise, we are (as usual) having communication issues. We found a nice new HVAC man - our old awful one has now disconnected all of his phones (!) - who agreed to come put in vents for our bathroom fans and install the last bit of sheet metal from the downstairs return out to the wall (it's set back from the wall, and needs to be connected to where the vent on the wall will be). He gave us a very good price, told us he could get it done this week, and promptly disappeared. We would be happy to give him his money if we could get HOLD of him.
Other things that need to happen: Don has to run to Home Depot and pick up some data rings and install them in all of the places where he and his sister's boyfriend ran speaker wire - it won't take long, it just needs to get done. Also, we need the electrician to come back yet again and fix a couple of things - a matter of ten minutes, really. Then the insulators can come - they've already called me once, wondering when we're going to schedule them.
The drywallers are scheduled for November 30th, and I REALLY don't want to change it. I have no idea how we're going to get this stuff done before then, particularly with the upcoming holiday, but I am determined.
House-wise, we are (as usual) having communication issues. We found a nice new HVAC man - our old awful one has now disconnected all of his phones (!) - who agreed to come put in vents for our bathroom fans and install the last bit of sheet metal from the downstairs return out to the wall (it's set back from the wall, and needs to be connected to where the vent on the wall will be). He gave us a very good price, told us he could get it done this week, and promptly disappeared. We would be happy to give him his money if we could get HOLD of him.
Other things that need to happen: Don has to run to Home Depot and pick up some data rings and install them in all of the places where he and his sister's boyfriend ran speaker wire - it won't take long, it just needs to get done. Also, we need the electrician to come back yet again and fix a couple of things - a matter of ten minutes, really. Then the insulators can come - they've already called me once, wondering when we're going to schedule them.
The drywallers are scheduled for November 30th, and I REALLY don't want to change it. I have no idea how we're going to get this stuff done before then, particularly with the upcoming holiday, but I am determined.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
disaster of the day
We have carpenter ants. Lots of them. With wings. And they think my desk is really, really interesting.
The exterminator is coming tomorrow. I spent most of today huddled upstairs while Don killed ants downstairs.
The exterminator is coming tomorrow. I spent most of today huddled upstairs while Don killed ants downstairs.
Tuesday, November 03, 2009
crawling forward
We've picked an insulator. The quote came in at a fairly reasonable price - or reasonable enough, anyway - and I just called him and accepted the proposal. The only thing that has to happen before they come is getting us wired for sound. Our order of speaker wire came in yesterday, and Don's sister's boyfriend should be coming over either this week or this weekend to run it and put in data rings and whatever else he says we need. I'm hoping I can get the insulators in on Monday or Tuesday of next week, but if I have to wait until after my surgery, oh well.
The really exciting thing is that right after I got off the phone with the insulator I called the DRYWALLER. He is scheduled to start on November 30th. Seriously. For real. Actually happening. Holy crap.
The really exciting thing is that right after I got off the phone with the insulator I called the DRYWALLER. He is scheduled to start on November 30th. Seriously. For real. Actually happening. Holy crap.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
who wants to take a bath?
The master bathroom tub has finally been set in place. I'm pretty excited about it. For those who are curious, we went with the five-foot Kohler Archer tub, with 'air massage' as opposed to whirlpool jets. (And for the even more curious, Lowe's prices are actually pretty significantly lower than the listed prices from Kohler - worth looking into, plus they offer delivery, and the delivery guys carried it all the way upstairs.) The only thing now missing is the faucet for it, which will actually go in after the tile is set on the tub deck (so that it can be installed neatly through the tiles, instead of trying to cut them to fit around it and having lots of ugly grout lines).
We are going to have to find a tile person soon.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
connection
I just finally got hold of the drywaller - I was right, his message service isn't actually delivering my messages. He said he called me, too, and never got any voicemail or anything, so there's some sort of phone line mixup going on. Whatever. I have a new number for him, and I'm keeping it close. In the meantime, he told me that he can't insulate the house -- his insulation sub has retired from the business, and he hasn't gotten a new one yet. So now before I can get him to come in and drywall, I've got to find an insulator. Don is going to say we should just do it ourselves. I really, really don't want to touch it. Time to call for quotes!
Saturday, October 24, 2009
of course
Something has finally gone wrong. I cannot for the life of me get in touch with the drywaller. I talked to him on Tuesday, and he promised me a callback the following morning with a quote to add insulation to our existing drywall quote. No call, so I called and left a message later that day. Still haven't heard back. I am fairly sure that their phone line goes directly to a voicemail service that he picks up pretty regularly - but I know for a fact that their messages were screwed up a couple of months ago, and I'm wondering if it's happened again. I don't have another number for him, unfortunately.
It's very disappointing - we were hoping to schedule the drywallers/insulators to start on November 2nd, and we're completely on track to be ready for them. But if I can't get hold of him, that's pushing the start date further and further back, because they usually run their schedules about two weeks out.
In any case, the electricians are done with the rough-in, although we need to ask them what we're supposed to do with a couple of things -- there's no box for either the master bathroom tub or the data cable terminus in the office. The plumber's coming on Wednesday to set the tub and fix the sink rough-ins in the master bath. Don ordered several rolls of speaker wire last night, and his sister's boyfriend will come over and wire us up for sound as soon as it comes in. After that, drywall, if I can get hold of the guy!
The real problem with this drywall issue is that I am having my gallbladder taken out on November 12th. If they were able to start on the 2nd, that would give them a good week plus to finish before my surgery, which should be fine. Pushing it back much further may mean we have to delay quite a bit - having drywallers around while you're recovering from surgery is not so practical. All things considered, though, I'd rather reschedule the drywall than the surgery. We'll see how it goes.
It's very disappointing - we were hoping to schedule the drywallers/insulators to start on November 2nd, and we're completely on track to be ready for them. But if I can't get hold of him, that's pushing the start date further and further back, because they usually run their schedules about two weeks out.
In any case, the electricians are done with the rough-in, although we need to ask them what we're supposed to do with a couple of things -- there's no box for either the master bathroom tub or the data cable terminus in the office. The plumber's coming on Wednesday to set the tub and fix the sink rough-ins in the master bath. Don ordered several rolls of speaker wire last night, and his sister's boyfriend will come over and wire us up for sound as soon as it comes in. After that, drywall, if I can get hold of the guy!
The real problem with this drywall issue is that I am having my gallbladder taken out on November 12th. If they were able to start on the 2nd, that would give them a good week plus to finish before my surgery, which should be fine. Pushing it back much further may mean we have to delay quite a bit - having drywallers around while you're recovering from surgery is not so practical. All things considered, though, I'd rather reschedule the drywall than the surgery. We'll see how it goes.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
lists
Things the electricians are installing in our house:
-Outlets
-Recessed lights
-Ceiling fans
-One chandelier
-Bathroom fans
-Cable wiring
-Telephone wiring
-CAT5 wiring
Things Don and I have argued about placement of:
-Outlets
-Recessed lights
-Ceiling fans
-One chandelier
-Bathroom fans
-Cable wiring
-Telephone wiring
-CAT5 wiring
Arguments won by me:
-Ceiling fans
Arguments won by Don:
-CAT5 wiring
-Bathroom fans
Arguments won by the electrician:
-Outlets
-Recessed lighting
-One chandelier
-Telephone wiring
-Cable wiring
-Outlets
-Recessed lights
-Ceiling fans
-One chandelier
-Bathroom fans
-Cable wiring
-Telephone wiring
-CAT5 wiring
Things Don and I have argued about placement of:
-Outlets
-Recessed lights
-Ceiling fans
-One chandelier
-Bathroom fans
-Cable wiring
-Telephone wiring
-CAT5 wiring
Arguments won by me:
-Ceiling fans
Arguments won by Don:
-CAT5 wiring
-Bathroom fans
Arguments won by the electrician:
-Outlets
-Recessed lighting
-One chandelier
-Telephone wiring
-Cable wiring
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
yet another picture of don swinging a hammer
Over the weekend we got the last few bits of preparation out of the way for the incoming flurry of contractors. We worked on cleaning up and condensing our stuff, since it's going to get moved around a lot. We took five huge bags of clothing and some other stuff to Goodwill, and cleaned out everything we could from the basement. We condensed my craft and business supplies down to two tables instead of three, and cleaned off our desks. All very exciting.
We also added two inches to the header in between the dining room and the living room:
Don wanted the header to be exactly the same size as the one separating the dining room from the kitchen, so he hopped up on the scaffolding and added a 2x4 to the bottom of it, which did the job. He also built a small wall in the guest bathroom, something we decided to to in the hopes of making the room feel a little less slanted - it cuts off the very back of the room, where the eave slants down almost to the floor, and makes the room feel bigger.
The electricians are here today, making lots of noise and getting lots done. The plumber is coming by a week from today to do the final rough-ins in the master bathroom. I'm trying to get in touch with the drywall guy - once the electricians and plumber are done, believe it or not he's the next step! Hard to believe we might have actual walls soon. I'm waiting for something to go wrong.
We also added two inches to the header in between the dining room and the living room:
Don wanted the header to be exactly the same size as the one separating the dining room from the kitchen, so he hopped up on the scaffolding and added a 2x4 to the bottom of it, which did the job. He also built a small wall in the guest bathroom, something we decided to to in the hopes of making the room feel a little less slanted - it cuts off the very back of the room, where the eave slants down almost to the floor, and makes the room feel bigger.
The electricians are here today, making lots of noise and getting lots done. The plumber is coming by a week from today to do the final rough-ins in the master bathroom. I'm trying to get in touch with the drywall guy - once the electricians and plumber are done, believe it or not he's the next step! Hard to believe we might have actual walls soon. I'm waiting for something to go wrong.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
wiring coming soon
Yesterday we signed a contract and handed over a check. The electrician is starting next week!
Thursday, October 08, 2009
electricity
Today I emailed an electrician and accepted his quote for doing all of our electrical work. I got quotes from several of them last week, and though we're not thrilled about spending yet another large chunk of money, we've agreed that having somebody come in to do the electrical work is the best idea. They'll be able to get the work done MUCH faster than Don would, and they include a very great deal of work in their proposal that would take Don even longer than just the rewiring. Not to mention they, uh, know what they're doing.
The electrician we eventually went with gently pointed out that the way that Don ran the temporary lights was "the way they did it fifty years ago." Makes sense, given that Don learned from his dad, who learned from HIS dad, who was an electrician - fifty years ago. Sigh. So our new electrician will get it done both quickly and correctly, and we'll be able to move forward.
Speaking of moving forward, check out the vanity we're going to buy for the master bathroom one of these days. Snazzy, no? We may hold off on buying it and just have our drywallers drywall everything but the bathrooms. It'll be annoying but we can afford it. We still have to find a contractor to do various bathroom things like pouring the shower floor and tiling. I'm beginning to feel like calling contractors is my full time job.
The electrician we eventually went with gently pointed out that the way that Don ran the temporary lights was "the way they did it fifty years ago." Makes sense, given that Don learned from his dad, who learned from HIS dad, who was an electrician - fifty years ago. Sigh. So our new electrician will get it done both quickly and correctly, and we'll be able to move forward.
Speaking of moving forward, check out the vanity we're going to buy for the master bathroom one of these days. Snazzy, no? We may hold off on buying it and just have our drywallers drywall everything but the bathrooms. It'll be annoying but we can afford it. We still have to find a contractor to do various bathroom things like pouring the shower floor and tiling. I'm beginning to feel like calling contractors is my full time job.
Monday, October 05, 2009
pocket doors
Pocket doors. They're awesome. Most of you have seen them, somewhere, sometime; they're doors that slide into the wall rather than swinging out into the room. They save a lot of space. What you may not have seen is the framing that's involved in installing a pocket door. When we first decided to put them in, we knew nothing about how to install them or frame for them. After a great deal of research, we discovered that they are SO EASY. All you have to do is leave a blank hole in your wall that's double (or so) the width of your doorway. Then you buy a kit -- we bought ours from the best in the business, Johnson Hardware. In fact, we bought five of them. The kit comes in a giant long box, and contains a header, studs, and all of the hardware to install them, plus of course the track for the door itself. You provide the door.
So. You've got your gap in the framed wall. You hammer in a nail at each end, at a prescribed height. Then you just hook the header onto the nails, rotate it into place, make sure it's level, and bang the nails the rest of the way in, adding a few more for good measure. Bang, header in place. The studs are, essentially, half-studs; they're metal-clad 1x3s. They slip into a metal bracket, which spaces them the right width apart on the floor. You attach the tops of the studs to the header, nail the bracket into your floor, and bam. You've got a pocket door frame.
Once the kit's installed, it's best if you can put in a little bit of framing above the header, just for the sake of structural stability. It's not too hard to bang in a few header studs. Overall, installing pocket doors is crazy easy. We've put them at the entrances to the master bathroom, master closet, and guest bathroom upstairs. We also decided to put in a double set of pocket doors downstairs, between the dining room and the office/library, where we had originally planned on leaving a large opening instead. We like the idea of being able to close off the office a bit - and the deciding factor was when we realized that we could use the antique doors we found in the attic as the double sliding doors. They're solid wood, with dozens of squares of antique beveled glass set in them. I'm looking forward to refinishing them and hanging them; they're the perfect entrance to a library.
In the picture below, you can see the double pocket doorframe we installed downstairs. It's not much more complicated than installing a single frame -- all you have to do is slice off a bit of one of the headers and hook it into the other one with a special bracket, sold separately. Then it's the same procedure.
It may be a little hard to distinguish everything, what with the giant construction mess and scaffolding behind the doorframe. Sorry, not much I can do about it. I'm looking forward to getting rid of it as much as you are!
The drywallers will cover up the studs, of course, and leave the wide doorway open. When it warms up a little, I'll strip the doors and refinish them, and we'll hang them up and be done. The upstairs doorways, incidentally, are also getting antique doors -- we saved all of the original doors from the house and will be stripping, refinishing, and re-hanging them. The master bathroom and master closet may get replicas instead of the originals (or maybe we'll be able to find something at an architectural salvage shop), as they are new openings that weren't in the original house. For the time being, though, we're just going to be living without doors. Not a huge hardship, given what we've lived without so far!
Got any questions about installing pocket doors? Leave them in the comments, we'll try to answer! With the obligatory disclaimer, of course, that we're not experts and you probably shouldn't really take our advice on anything, but whatever.
So. You've got your gap in the framed wall. You hammer in a nail at each end, at a prescribed height. Then you just hook the header onto the nails, rotate it into place, make sure it's level, and bang the nails the rest of the way in, adding a few more for good measure. Bang, header in place. The studs are, essentially, half-studs; they're metal-clad 1x3s. They slip into a metal bracket, which spaces them the right width apart on the floor. You attach the tops of the studs to the header, nail the bracket into your floor, and bam. You've got a pocket door frame.
Once the kit's installed, it's best if you can put in a little bit of framing above the header, just for the sake of structural stability. It's not too hard to bang in a few header studs. Overall, installing pocket doors is crazy easy. We've put them at the entrances to the master bathroom, master closet, and guest bathroom upstairs. We also decided to put in a double set of pocket doors downstairs, between the dining room and the office/library, where we had originally planned on leaving a large opening instead. We like the idea of being able to close off the office a bit - and the deciding factor was when we realized that we could use the antique doors we found in the attic as the double sliding doors. They're solid wood, with dozens of squares of antique beveled glass set in them. I'm looking forward to refinishing them and hanging them; they're the perfect entrance to a library.
In the picture below, you can see the double pocket doorframe we installed downstairs. It's not much more complicated than installing a single frame -- all you have to do is slice off a bit of one of the headers and hook it into the other one with a special bracket, sold separately. Then it's the same procedure.
It may be a little hard to distinguish everything, what with the giant construction mess and scaffolding behind the doorframe. Sorry, not much I can do about it. I'm looking forward to getting rid of it as much as you are!
The drywallers will cover up the studs, of course, and leave the wide doorway open. When it warms up a little, I'll strip the doors and refinish them, and we'll hang them up and be done. The upstairs doorways, incidentally, are also getting antique doors -- we saved all of the original doors from the house and will be stripping, refinishing, and re-hanging them. The master bathroom and master closet may get replicas instead of the originals (or maybe we'll be able to find something at an architectural salvage shop), as they are new openings that weren't in the original house. For the time being, though, we're just going to be living without doors. Not a huge hardship, given what we've lived without so far!
Got any questions about installing pocket doors? Leave them in the comments, we'll try to answer! With the obligatory disclaimer, of course, that we're not experts and you probably shouldn't really take our advice on anything, but whatever.
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