Thursday, December 31, 2009 - End of the Year, A Long Way To Go

The start of the workday came early this morning and seemingly all at once 12 workers were on site. We had the foreman and his crew of drywall hangers, the drywall delivery guy, the brick masons, and the electrician all battling for space inside and outside the house. Cars in the front yard, trucks on the curb, cars in our driveway, cars in the neighbor's driveway, delivery trucks in the street, trash trucks unable to get in driveways, FedEx unable to get to the front door, electricians stuck in the mud (twice). What a glorious mess...until about 11:30. That's when everyone broke for lunch.

The brick masons came back from lunch and promptly called it quits for the day. The electricians came and went most of the day (when they weren't getting pulled out of the mud), then left about 2:30 with only half of the needed work completed. Drywallers can only get so far when there is still electrical work to do. On a day that started out with such promise, it fell flat on its face by mid-afternoon.

So, as 2009 came to a close so too did the work on our house. Under our original plan we should be one week from completion. We are, instead, at least five week away...probably longer. We might have a small crew here on New Year's Day, but later in the day after a long night's recovery, I'm sure...if it happens at all. No mention about weekend plans, but I am certainly expecting them. Here is to great progress and the successful end to this project in (early) 2010!

Wednesday, December 30, 2009 - As the Dust Settles

Today was an exciting day, but a frustrating day. Let's start with the frustration. I had an early morning conversation with the foreman who wasn't aware the basement was to be finished out. I am not sure where the disconnect came on this one. We are not finishing out the bathroom and the kitchenette/bar area, but everything else is to be finished. For the next year it will be Daniel's bedroom. Of course we want heating and air down there. Did you think we were going to drywall the area and then close it up and leave it? I just don't understand why he doesn't understand. I am glad I was home to have this conversation before the drywall went up.

On the less frustrating side, I had barely exited my bedroom this morning before I was struck by the clanging of scaffolding and the humming of the mortar machine. The brick masons had arrived. This is probably the one part of the project that I have anticipated the most. It gives an almost-finished look to a project that is still a month or more away from being finished. Regardless, it is looking more like a house being built instead of a house being destroyed. One side of the house is bricked with two more to go on Thursday.

All of the demolition has been completed as well. Now I can enter our garage and see 75-feet straight through to the other side of the existing house. A wall will be put up tomorrow to limit this extended view. Of course when walls go up, that means drywall mud and drywall dust as soon to follow. All of the workers tend to wrap things up at 3:30, and that is the time my new Shop-Vac goes to work. Things will only get worse over the next three or four days once the drywall is installed Thursday and the three-day ritual of mudding-sanding-mudding-sanding-mudding-and-sanding begins. With a holiday and a weekend factored in, who knows how long that process will actually take.

Bracing for a busy day on Thursday...

Tuesday, December 29, 2009 - As the Dust Begins to Fly

Back in 1981, right after President Ronald Reagan was shot and was recovering from surgery, Secretary of State Alexander Haig burst onto the national scene with a simple three-word statement "I'm in charge." Really? Did he really think the line of succession skipped straight to him? If Reagan had been incapacitated for any amount of time, then-Vice President Bush (King George the elder) would have been next in line. Anyone who has ever taken grade school civics (like, everybody) knows this...except maybe Al Haig at the time.

I am often times left scratching my head as to who is really in charge on my worksite. Sometimes I am told to call the contractor. Sometimes my contractor tells me to talk to the foreman. Everybody else on-site will usually point at someone else. Well, for the next six days I will call upon those infamous words of Al Haig - "I'm in charge."

On Monday, the foreman said he would be back today to do some demolition work inside the house, and then two hours later the contractor came by and said that they would be at another job today as we waited on the structural inspection. Since today is the one day this week I was going in the office, Cara breathed a sigh of relief...especially since we hadn't moved everything out like we needed to. Well, the call from Cara came about 8:30...they were ready to break through the walls. So I was home by 2:30 to make sure all the shortcuts they were taking and all the things they told Cara they were going to do, were going to actually be done correctly. She just simply makes a list and let's me take it from there.

I have a strange feeling everybody will be very pleased to see me go back to work next week. I don't think they enjoy me just barging in and checking in on the work they are doing to my house.

But the dust is beginning to fly in the house, in more ways than one, so I just have to keep reminding everyone of who is really in charge here.

Monday, December 28, 2009 - A Very Cluttered House

Big inspection coming on Tuesday. If we pass, and we should, then they start busting walls out to move into our existing structure. That being said, most of today was spent packing up two bedrooms and our family room and moving everything into our dining room. With a successful inspection will also come the start of the brickwork (hopefully on Tuesday) and the start of installing drywall (hopefully on Wednesday). We have been told it won't take long to tear out the back wall that will now lead from the existing structure to the new one, and frame out the new entrance. One side of the back-to-back closets will be closed in and made into one larger closet in Clayton's new bedroom. The desk and cabinets will be moved into the expanded area of the family room. Lots more to come on that over the next couple of days.

The front porch was finally completed late this afternoon...or as completed as it can get at this point. It still needs to have the brickwork placed around the posts, which should happen as soon as we pass inspection. The handrails will be installed at that time as well. Since it is too cold to paint, that will have to wait for a warmer week. Staining the flooring will have to wait until spring. The overhead light should be in within three weeks and, with a little luck, the new front door will be installed before the end of the week.

The contractor still feels like we can be finished within three or four weeks. My money is still on five or six weeks, but I will be more than happy to be proven wrong.

Thursday, December 24, 2009 - No Porch for Christmas :(

Well, the front porch for Christmas didn't quite come to pass. The workers were here early hammering on it and it looked like the rain was going to hold off for them to complete. However, they were also anxious to cash their checks before Christmas, and since the bank upon which the checks were drawn is located only in Lebanon, it was off to the bank before lunch for the laborers, never to return again. Okay, so they will be back on Saturday to hopefully wrap things up on the porch. Although we are excited about the completion of the porch, we also need to get the new front door installed to complete the new look of the front of the house. Time to get our contractor on the move to purchase and install the door so we can not only use the porch, we can have easy access to it as well. Now it's time to go behind the workers and batten down the hatches since we have 25-35 mph winds moving in for the next two days. Merry Christmas to all!

Wednesday, December 23, 2009 - Front Porch By Christmas?

All inspection hurdles have been cleared with the final a-ok given on HVAC, electrical, and plumbing. One more general inspection scheduled for Monday, then I don't think there will be any more inspections until the final walk-through. Insulation was delivered and installation of the insulation has begun. The rest should be squeezed between the studs on Christmas Eve. The only other work that will be done before Christmas will be the front porch. The roof is on the porch and the shingles been nailed down. The porch is really starting to take shape. Because we were uncertain about the decking to be used, they started from the top instead of the bottom, so it looks a little strange.

There has been mostly one guy working on the porch, Grover - who looks like the undercover "hobo" detective, Sergeant Michael (Mick) Belker, from the '80s police drama Hill Street Blues - so it has been a little slow-going...not because he looks like Belker, rather because he is flying solo. I think the porch ended up being a bigger project than our contractor originally planned. Grover told me he has framed a 1,600 square foot house faster than putting on our porch. However, with a little bit of luck we will have a porch for Christmas Day. He is scheduled to come back Christmas Eve and work until the rain and the wind shut him down. Only wish we had our new front door ready to install. Not quite sure where we are with that.

Our architect stopped by late in the afternoon to check out the front porch and discuss what is to be our back door. Due to the architect's junior designer trying to find a way to squeeze a kitchenette into the drawings along the back wall of the basement, he narrowed the size of the back door to 30 inches. That size is not real conducive when it comes to being able to move furniture in and out of it. So, it will take a concrete saw and a half-day of labor to cut into the core-filled concrete wall to extend the opening by six inches. Some recently installed electrical elements will have to be moved as well. Hopefully just a very minor setback.

The in-laws came by Wednesday evening and took a walk-through the addition this evening and seemed impressed by the mess of wood and wires and pipes and rubbish. They are anxious to come back and see the final product. So are we. Six weeks to go...maybe?

Tuesday, December 22, 2009 - A Beautiful Wreck

It is a little strange to look out the windows at six in the morning to see new the addition hidden by a thick mask of fog. As the sun struggles to peek through the haze, a light frost can be seen upon the new shingles. I still struggle to figure out why one window remains uininstalled, but I can envision how the brick structure will appear in May, with freshly planted grass bursting through the ground and flower boxes placed all around the patio. It should actually be finished in February, when landscaping will replace all thoughts of construction. Until then it's contractor delays and mud everywhere...still a beautiful sight.

Monday, December 21, 2009 - All I Want for Christmas...

The Winter Solstice, or what we know as the first day of winter, occurred today. Factually it is the shortest day of the year, when the sun appears in the sky less than any of the other 364 days of the year. The workers didn't seem to notice that their workday may have been shortened by a couple of minutes since last Friday as they worked feverishly on the addition. They continue to struggle to remove the current front porch before starting on the new one. With the rotten wood apparent to the naked eye, caused by years of an inadequate 18-inch section of gutter that did nothing more than collect water and spill it over the edge, one would think it would not have taken but a real strong wind to rip it off. I guess that is one of the pluses of having a well-built house from the 1950s. Hopefully the porch demolition will momentously turn into porch construction on Tuesday. My contractor, knowing the in-laws will be here starting tomorrow, has asked permission to work continue working through mid-day on Christmas Eve so they can try to complete the porch. Who can argue with that?

Monday also brought two of the three mid-construction inspectors to the site. All three need to sign-off on electrical, plumbing, and HVAC before the interior work can continue...primarily installing the drywall. No problems with the HVAC inspection, but there was a slight snafu with the plumbing inspector. Apparently he has decided he does not like the water pipes being on an exterior wall, so they had to scramble to drywall and put up a thin faux wall so there is officially "a wall" between the exterior wall and the plumbing. Go figure. Hopefully the plumbing inspector will be back today and will bring along the electrical inspector to approve all the wiring so we can move along to the next stage.

Oh, and just as soon as we had figured out all the lighting fixtures, we go and change our mind on the bathroom sconces. We have sent the lighting sales rep a list of four lights we like better and hope that he can track down one of them on Tuesday so we can place our order before Christmas. How come lights and bedding and vanities and tools seem to be the only things we are getting for Christmas this year?

Friday, December 18, 2009 - Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For...Wait, There It Is

As I sat at home ready to assist with questions and provide my two-cents worth to the contractor and his sub-contractors, the rain and cold pretty much washed everything out on Friday. Not a minute after the guy working on our front porch unloaded his tools, hooked up the compressor, and fired up what was probably his tenth cigarette of the morning, down came the rain. He did work for about 90 minutes and was joined by another contractor and then the plumbers. Everybody pretty much halted work and hauled ass out of here shortly after returning from lunch. Once they left, however, it was time for us to get to work.


We spent the better part of the afternoon, nearly three hours, with a very patient sales rep at Hermitage Lighting Gallery. We had no problem picking out sconces and a large, modern hanging fixture to be placed above the landing of the stairwell. Twenty minutes tops to pick out what we liked and it all fell within our budget. Then came the front porch light. We looked through about a dozen books, and checked prices on almost as many lights. Tired and frustrated we asked the sales rep what to do after we had narrowed our choices down to two, but just weren't ecstatic with either of them. With about 300 more books to possibly go through, we asked the rep to bring out two more books before calling it quits. Well, what do you know? The last book we decided to peruse had exactly what we were looking for. There was no doubt about it. Then, we hunkered down as the sales rep left to check the price. I just knew it was going to be the most expensive. Although it was plain in its overall design, the glass has more of a leaded glass look in a clear checkerboard-type pattern, that I figured would set us back upwards of $500. He came back with a price well under $200. Cara and I jumped to see who could say "SOLD" first.

Probably won't be able to get any of the lights order and shipped until mid-January, which is probably a week after we would first be able to install them, but still probably three weeks before the project is complete.

The other news we received is that the workers will not be busting through the back wall to do work inside the house until after Christmas. That's good news from the standpoint of now being able to put up a Christmas tree without fearing that it would be covered in drywall dust - although that might give it a nice snowy look. It also allows us to get the house ready for the in-laws without having to worry about the inside of our house looking like the disaster area the backyard is. The bad news is that I was hoping they would get the drywall installed in the addition and so I could start painting while I am off work. I figure 1,200 square feet of new space isn't going to be something I can prime, paint, and knock out overnight. Plus, we will have at least three rooms in the current house to paint. Maybe I will get a jump on the 160 hours of PTO time I will get next year and use some of that time in January to get some painting done. That should probably ensure I use all of my PTO time next year as well.

Thursday, December 17, 2009 - The Front Porch Blues

The front porch has been a point of contention for a while. I know, I have had several points of contention since this project started. The front porch, however, is a part of the project I thought could be knocked out early in the process when the workers had a little bit of time to kill. Let's see, there were several days when they sat around doing nothing waiting for the inspector to make an appearance. There was a day or two when our architect, contractor, and newly hired engineer sat around trying to figure out how to attach the new structure to the existing house in order to appease the aforementioned inspector. There was also a little bit of down time while the plumbing was installed...and another wait for an inspector.

So, I was excited to learn they were finally going to start on the porch today. We are again waiting on inspectors to come look at the electrical and the framing, but the contractor has decided to use the down time to demolish the old porch, which is less than a porch and more like a waterlogged overhang. Then the call came from the contractor, not long after I arrived at work. After special ordering wood for the porch, which by the way was another delay, he realized that the plans didn't call for cedar. Cedar cannot be painted real well, which sort of defeats the look we were going for. The contractor said we could simply just use the cedar posts and then wrap the post with thin planks of composition wood that could be painted, which would cause the posts to be much wider than originally planned. Luckily, our architect stepped in and said this was completely unacceptable, and contacted the foreman who seemed to understand our dilemma better than our contractor. I came home tonight to a half-demolished front porch, and I'm not quite sure if they have stopped work on it or are simply waiting for more wood to be delivered.

On the bright side, we do have almost all of the electrical outlets and wiring for lights and fans in the correct place. Everything seems to be in order with the exception of one light whose placement will be tough, squeezed in between a door frame and drop-down area hiding the ventilation.

Speaking of ventilation, our new HVAC was delivered and installed. Tax credit! In fact, we are looking at tax credits for the HVAC, the new tankless water heater, the new windows, and any insulation they use. Not too shabby as long as the contractor keeps up with all of the paperwork and receipts for us.

We also had five pallets of brick delivered today, along with a pallet of mortar mix and 2,000 pounds of sand. Not sure if they can start placing the brick on the house before the inspections or not, but that was thrilling to see under the dim light of a flashlight with failing batteries. Friday should be interesting. It will be my first day at home with the workers since this project started. I'm not just a phone call away for guidance, I am mere footsteps away to answer any questions. It will probably rain.

Wednesday, December 16, 2009 - Planning Is Everything

The call came from my contractor early this morning. The tub was being installed in our new master bedroom this morning and he needed our faucet and fixtures ASAP to get everything installed. WTF! Does he think we can just stop what we are doing and run and get these things at the drop of a hat? What part of "give us a couple of days notice before you need anything so we can purchase or order" does he not understand?

This is the third time he has done this to us. The first time was with the tub, the second time with the front door, and now it is the bathroom fixtures. Tell me what you need and when and I will buy it for you. Part of doing this addition is because we don't have enough space. We don't have the room to simply store a new bathtub, two vanities, four ceiling fans, closet doors, two entry doors, tile, light figures, etc.

We meet with a lighting vendor Friday. I hope our contractor can wait that long. Speaking of lights, the lights and fans being installed in the addition are still not placed correctly. Grrr.

Tuesday, December 15, 2009 - Who Is Babysitting the Contractor?

Every now and then my excitement with this home renovation project is tempered by a dose of reality smacking me in the face. How is it that I can have a conversation with my contractor and come home expecting things to have been completed based upon said conversation, yet none of it is done just quite right?

Last night I laid out a perfectly good lighting plan, put Post-It Notes on roof beams inside the addition to show exactly where things should go, and lights were still misplaced. I even talked to my contractor after sending the plan to him. Downstairs is a completely different story. We told him simply that we wanted two fans downstairs with eight can lights placed around the perimeter of the room. I get home tonight and there are 13 lights in the room. Really? I ask for eight lights evenly spaced throughout the room and you haphazardly install 13 lights?

I would never, ever pretend to be an engineer, an architect, or a contractor. Sometimes I am amazed that I can even switch out an outlet or install molding around the baseboards. But to me it made complete sense to first install the wiring boxes for the fans, and then place the lights after that. It's really quite simple and the math not all that difficult: The room is 24-feet in length. Divide the room in thirds. Come in eight feet from the back wall and place a fan. Come in eight feet from the stairwell and install a fan. Presto, you have eight feet in between fans and everything is spaced evenly. You then run the lights down the side of the walls and you're done.

I work just 10 miles from home and can usually get home easily if I'm needed for a quick decision. But this week has been pretty crazy at work and my car has been in the shop so I haven't been able to run home at the drop of a hat. (By the way, I could probably start a new blog about my car repair debacles, but I will spare you that one for now.) But that is why we have a contractor. He is supposed to be the ringleader managing this whole circus, listening to what I have to say, reading the plans correctly, telling us what we need to buy and when, and striving to get the project done in a somewhat timely manner. But who is babysitting the contractor? I didn't think that was something about which I would have to worry.

Monday, December 14, 2009 - Electrical and Lighting Plan

It is a process that will drive you crazy, but one that will fill you with excitement as well. As much as I feel like I often have to direct this project from my office 10 miles away, I am excited to see the progress made each and every day. Each time I walk out of the back door of our house I look back over my shoulder at the addition and am amazed we are getting closer and closer to being finished.

Alright, closer and closer is technically correct, but we still have a long way to go…at least six weeks. I won’t be able to tell until daylight breaks Tuesday to see if they were able to match-up shingles correctly. Instead of ripping off a five-year-old roof, we asked our contractor to match shingles the best he could. The first set brought over Sunday was too light. He decided to go to Murfreesboro without one of current shingles to get something darker, and came back with shingles too dark. He made another trip back to the ‘Boro and hopefully found something close since he shingled the roof with them. In just a couple of hours we will see if he was right.

The biggest frustration Monday came wit our electrical/lighting plan. We walked through the house with our contractor on Saturday pointing out exactly where we wanted every light, fan, and electrical outlet. When I came home today, about half of the lights and wiring for fixtures was incorrect…even after I presented him with a detailed list the night before. My case was certainly bolstered by my architect coming by tonight as I was climbing out of the addition with my list. We walked back through and he confirmed what was out-of-whack and even pointed out a couple of other things that need changing. So, I have just finished writing out a new list of changes and have spoken to the contractor to make sure everything is fixed and placed correctly on Tuesday.

Hopefully the basement will get completely wired as well Tuesday before it gets called in for codes inspection. Unfortunately, with all of the great progress we have made in the last 10 days or so, we could come to a great big grinding halt waiting for the inspector to stop by. A day or so delay won’t be a big deal. That allows us the opportunity to check and make sure everything is exactly how we want it before the drywall goes in. Anything longer than two days will pretty much render us done for the week.

Saturday, December 12, 2009 - Extra, Extra, Read All About It...

I don't normally write a Saturday entry, but this weekend I am making an exception. And if future weekends are as productive as this one, I will write on those days as well. Excitement was building throughout the day as things began to look a little less chaotic around our backyard. Wood was burned in a giant backyard bonfire and everything else disposed in the awkwardly placed dumpster. Still a lot of dirt and mud everywhere, but no more trash and construction remnants...for now. The contractor's father came by and very efficiently built the interior staircase. No longer must we struggle up a little ladder perched tentatively through the window of our new master suite to take a look around the inside. Like other civilized people we can now tread through the mud into the opening framed for a new basement door at some point.

We walked through the addition with the contractor to plot out the placement of canned lights, ceiling fans, electrical outlets, cable TV ports, and telephone jacks while it was still a little too cold this morning. Since he took no notes along the way, Cara and I get to spend Sunday writing it all down to send to him to make sure everything is placed where we need it.

Saturday afternoon was spent wondering through stores, looking at items we need to buy, and in the end we purchased nothing. We did work out a deal with our contractor to purchase the front door and the tub with his contractor's discount. Hopefully he will be able to do the same with the back door and the interior doors once we settle on those. We also looked fruitlessly for lighting at a local gallery where our contractor has a big discount. While we found some lights we liked, nothing was quite exactly "it." We need a new hanging light for the soon-to-be-built new front porch, a new hanging light for the landing of the interior staircase, and sconces for the master bathroom. Prior to the start of this project, I am pretty sure I had never used the word "sconce" before. So we scheduled an appointment with a lighting expert and will hopefully finalize the lighting plan next Friday.

Late in the day on Saturday, the roofer came to drop off his scaffolding and a few other supplies, and will be back again on Monday to start hammering away. I'm disappointed that the roof wasn't completed today, but that will give me something to look forward to on Monday. We did get a pretty good schedule from the contractor - shingles and bricks early next week; HVAC, plumbing, and electrical completed by mid-week; and possibly interior demolition by the end of the week. After that it is drywalling, hardwood floor installation, and painting, which is how I will spend most of my time off the last two weeks of the year.

Overall it was a very good week despite one day lost due to rain. We now truly have a structure that resembles a house and I feel the excitement once again that I had when we saw the drawings of our finalized plans several months ago. My fingers are crossed for a good inspection from the bank this week to say we are right on track with where we need to be. After that it will be dust and chaos indoors, but at least we will finally cross the midway point and start heading downhill toward the finish line from there.

Friday, December 11, 2009 - Windows and Shingles and Dumpsters, Oh My!

Windows are in. Shingles are delivered and will be installed on Saturday. Stairs are also scheduled to be built Saturday. A dumpster has finally been delivered, so our backyard will begin to look a little less like a landfill and resume being simply a mudpit instead. Brick is to be delivered Monday for installation on Tuesday. Contractor is coming by Saturday morning to discuss placement of electrical outlets, cable lines, phone lines, etc. Will also discuss allowances for plumbing fixtures, tub, doors, lighting, etc. Time to buy, buy, buy...music to Cara's ears.

Come back Saturday for a special posting about the day's activities, especially if you are wagering as to whether all of this will happen Saturday or not.

Thursday, December 10, 2009 - How It All Ties Together

Quite a whirlwind of a day. The best news of all is that the new roof line now connects to the old roof line. It is officially tied together at the top and the bottom. The worst news of the day came in the form of a couple of additional, unplanned, and unbudgeted expenses. Due to the plan redesign due to the issue with the steps, a lot of the ductwork and intake for the new HVAC unit will have to be extended and redirected. The original plans called for the staircase to simply be framed in with wood, and the ductwork could have simply been directed through any of the large gaps. Once it was redesigned and the base of the staircase became solid concrete, well, it was time to find another way around...and that comes at a price. Maybe worse than that, now that the old and new are connected as one, it is time to pop out the windows on the former back of the house. First the brick, now the windows. Well, only one window was removed and plywood put in its place on what will be a 14-degree evening. But no windows have been installed yet on the addition, so it might as well be open to the whole world...and Mother Nature. Forgot to add "heater running all the time" to the remodeling budget.

Wednesday, December 9, 2009 - The Windy City

The city of Chicago was gracious enough to lend its nickname - The Windy City - to Nashville for a 24-hour period, from about 6:00pm last night until 6:00pm today. Because of that, I slept with one ear open last night, listening for any creak, crack, snap, crackle, or pop that would come from this enormous half-built structure being buffeted by 40 mph winds. But I woke up this morning with the addition firmly in place as it should be. The wood planks were added to the roof beams and will be finished and tied into the rest of the house Thursday. The final concrete pour on the steps took place today as well. They also took the brick off the back of the house, so there is nothing protecting us from the great outdoors but 3/8-inch drywall. Tomorrow the existing windows come out and plywood will be put in their place, adding to the minimal protection from the cold outside world until they can insulate and install the drywall on both sides of the wall. With more cold weather moving in, this isn't the best of news, but we knew it was coming at some point. What we didn't expect was to have a cable line cut and power knocked out to half the house. I guess they must have hit a junction box without noticing while knocking the brick off the house. No lights, no television and no clock in the bedrooms. So if I'm late for work in the morning, you know why.

Tuesday, December 8, 2009 - Cancelled By Rain, Again

Today's work was cancelled due to rain. Lots of rain. But hopefully this is a one-day event and the crew will be back on-site Wednesday morning to finish the roof and start knocking brick off the current structure so we can attach the new structure to the old one. All I know is that it might be a very chilly week or so between the time they knock the bricks off the backside of our house, including our current bedroom, and the time they finish attaching the addition, install insulation, and put in the drywall.

Knowing the rain was on the way today, my contractor called me late last week to ask if it was okay for the workers to work last weekend. They had made great progress last Thursday and Friday, so I was excited they were going to keep the momentum going and send work over the weekend. On Saturday, however, that only involved one worker swapping out some incorrectly ordered wood for the correct lumber...and that was it. A couple of guys came over Sunday to lay drainage pipes and backfill with gravel and dirt, which wasn't the toughest of jobs, but needed to happen before it rained again. In the meantime, the backyard became a mudpit once again as the tracks of the front-loader decimated any remaining grass that was still around. After two inches of rain today, it looks even worse.

I dream of green grass again someday. On the bright side, when this project is all said and done, we pretty much get to start with a clean slate in the backyard, so maybe I can actually plant some grass to mow next spring instead of just mowing weeds as I do every other year.

Monday, December 7, 2009 - It Was 22 Years Ago Today...

Cara and I met at the Ivory Tusk in Tuscaloosa on December 7, 1987. My friend Jack and I were invited to an informational party at our favorite bar in Tuscaloosa for a new fraternity trying to get organized on campus. It was a Monday night close to the end of the first semester and I had nothing better to do. That may be a lie. It was right before final exams, so if I didn't really have anything to do, I should have had something better to do...like studying. I'm sure about that time I had some thought in my mind like, "Why start studying now?" Neither Jack nor I had any real desire in joining this fraternity, but we were certainly interested in the two-plus hours of free drinks we were offered. I, in turn, found myself quite interested in a little co-ed who just happened to be friends with a couple of the guys forming the fraternity. Needless to say I was gentlemanly enough to let her beat me at pool that night, and it wasn't much later than that before she won me over for good. It's hard to imagine that 22 years later we would embark on an adventure such as putting an addition on our house, and today saw almost the entire roof go up over our master suite. It has been long overdue and well worth the wait, and the wait, and the wait. This blog is jokingly entitled How to Ruin a Marriage in 120 Days, but if it hadn't been wrecked and ruined so far, this won't do it either.

Friday, December 4, 2009 – Early Delivery

So, how much more will my neighbors take before they start complaining? We had a 6:00 am sand delivery for concrete mix several weeks ago (after the driver realized that a 2:30 am delivery in a residential neighborhood was not quite kosher). This has been followed by workers showing up (when they decided to show up) at the butt crack of dawn and letting their diesel truck motor rumble on until everyone shows up. This morning’s dawn, however, was broken with another delivery of wood at 6:20 am. Nothing quite like struggling to put on a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt to direct the deliveries through blurry eyes so early in the day while our contractor is probably still enjoying a warm, comfy bed in his quiet confines.

Within the next 10 days we still have a load of bricks to arrive, roofing materials, drywall, and at least one more delivery of wood. In addition we still have machinery to be delivered that will move gravel and dirt in order to backfill the walls of the basement, grade around the lower-level entrance, and move the remaining dirt to grade the rest of the property. So, I am hoping my neighbors are more patient with these early deliveries than I am.

Maybe I am blowing this all out of proportion The average age of my neighbors is probably 80 years old, so they may be deaf to all of the noise and hubbub going on around them anyway. Maybe I won’t hear a thing from them unless one of the workers plows over a mailbox with their trucks, or takes a leak behind their carport…both not really out of the question at this point. My neighbors are pretty nosy anyway and might even like all the commotion in the neighborhood, so it probably provides good fodder for their occasional conversations.

Thursday, December 3, 2009 – First Steps

I arrived home Thursday from my first trip ever to Orlando that did not include stepping on a Disney-owned property. I was tired from a long dinner the night before, working until 2:00 am, managing on but four hours of sleep, and meeting all day Thursday with a vendor before catching a late flight home. I knew I was coming home to good news. The workers had been there before Cara left that morning, and she had provided me with periodic updates throughout the day. Cara said the workers worked diligently throughout the day dressed like Eskimos against the cold breeze that had moved in overnight. I feel very little sympathy since there were many nicer and much warmer days where very little was accomplished.

I arrived home and headed out back to see the four walls raised on the new addition. I maneuvered across a ladder placed almost parallel to the ground into one of the window holes of the upper level. Over the past month I had certainly scrounged around enough in the basement portion, both when it was just a dirt floor and after they poured concrete last week. But it was a nice sign of progress to see the upper level, our new master suite, coming together. I walked down the short hallway that will lead to the stairwell downstairs as well as to the master suite. I walked through the basic door frame into the bathroom, then into new walk-in closet. From the inside-out, I peered out the small windows that will be above our bed once it is in place, and I looked out the window on the opposite side of the room. I looked out the bathroom window, then drew a breath of fresh winter air and hoped it was big enough for us.

It looked big enough for us on paper, and we even wondered aloud as to whether it was too big or not. I know it will be the perfect size once we add furniture and bathroom fixtures and start to finish it out. I walked around the outside, and it certainly looks big enough from that angle as it juts out into the backyard. Over the past three or four days, I have really looked forward to coming home and seeing the progress, or getting that mid-afternoon call from Cara with construction updates.

Several weeks ago I joked about adding a nanny-cam or webcam to the opposite corner of the house so I could see if there was actually anything going on during the day, because it certainly looked like nothing was moving. Now, I am seriously considering putting a camera up so I can check in throughout the day and see what’s new and what’s been added. It will be hard to sit around the office over the next six weeks resisting the temptation to drive home at lunchtime to see what else has been completed. Beats the hell out of coming home and seeing only dirt and cinder blocks.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009 - Name Change?

Today was a rain day, but I am hoping for big things on Thursday. Lots of hammering, sawing, and other construction noise is expected. When I spoke to my contractor today, he said that despite everything he thinks that the house will be done in six weeks. We are 60 days into the project and he thinks we will be done in 42 days. If that's the case, I better go back and rename this blog "How to Ruin a Marriage in 102 Days." I had kind of figured we were about six weeks behind due to rain and laziness, so to think we could wrap up in six weeks is mind-numbing. I still think we have 8-10 weeks...and I am leaning to the high side of that figure. That would cause the blog to be renamed "How to Ruin a Marriage in 150 days."

Tuesday, December 1, 2009 - Smells Like Home Depot

After stuffing my face at Las Palmas tonight, we arrived home and as I was unlocking the back door Clayton remarked that it smelled like Home Depot. You know what? He was right...and it was a beautiful smell. The scent was undoubtedly fresh cut 2x4's, 1x6's, and plywood, just to name a few. Yes, Virginia, there is a home being built. With rain on the way, I guess the workers decided to come out of the woodwork, so to speak. It started by being blocked in as I needed to leave for work, which is always a good thing. Then, since I had to drive past the house twice today, as did Cara, we decided to have a contest to see who could spot the most trucks in the driveway. I counted four while Cara counted six. Either way, we both won. With the basement floor in, it was time to put in the main level floor and connect to the house. As long as we are limited to rain just on Wednesday, our contractor hopes to have the walls up this week, along with steps, windows, and maybe even a roof. The biggest disappointment was to see them start on the new front porch, but not be able to finish. In fact, they didn't even come close. They ripped out the off-centered concrete steps and porch and then went looking for the porch posts only to later find out they had been special ordered. That means no movement on the front porch until the posts come in, so watch your step.

Monday, November 30, 2009 - High and Dry

As you have learned from my blog, October 2009 was the second-wettest October on record in Nashville. Conversely, November 2009 was the second-driest November in Nashville history. In fact, it was heading toward being the driest November on record until one-third of an inch of rain fell on November 29. With as much rain as we had in October, we were happy to see so many dry, sunny days in November. But one thing led to another, and although progress was made, it seems as if just as much progress was made during the wet month as their was made in the dry month. The last couple of days of November, however, have been more active than the rest of the month. Concrete has been poured and today saw the delivery of all of the wood to be used for framing. Hopefully the first week of December will bring completion of the drainage work, backfilling the foundation, and the start of framing. With rain on the way for Wednesday (maybe more than an inch) and some freezing temperatures the rest of the week (rain /sleet mix on Thursday morning???), let's hope for a productive Tuesday.