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!
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
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...
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.
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
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.
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
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
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?
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
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.
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