Almost completed kitchen

Finally I have posted some completed pictures of the re-model of our house.
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Getting Closer to Completion

No words. The work keeps going; the house has to get done and it is.

Drywall...yes it finally looks like the room it will be!

It is exciting to see the drywall go up. Finally we get to see what the room will look like. At least an idea of what it will look like since the island, appliances, doors, glass block, cabinets, counter tops, color on the walls, wood floor and furniture will all need to be installed to get the final look, we can see more than the bare bones. I am so glad that we have the photos of the process. It's probably like childbirth, you don't remember the process as much as the end result. The floors have been ordered and will be delivered next week. They need to sit in the house and get acclimated before it gets laid. I am excited to see that process. The sliding door, for some reason, did not get shipped with the back door from Wisconsin. It put us a little behind schedule, but hopefully not too much.

Insulation and new steps poured.

It's been about 2 weeks since I last posted. We are seeing progress. Slow but sure as the saying goes.
There are a lot of pictures of the insulation that was put on the walls. The inspection of the insulation was not required as long as photos were taken. Every inch of the walls have insulation on them. I didn't feel comfortable around it. Memories of my childhood returned. When my dad added the back room of our house I spent a lot of time watching him work, and probably bugging him with my incessant talking. One day there was a pile of insulation stacked up just high enough for me to sit on and guess what I did...Yes, before my dad could say anything to me, I sat on it while wearing shorts. Fiberglass on my backside. Though I've grown, those memories are vivid and painful. My poor mom had to figure out how to relieve the pain...soaking in the tub is all I remember.
The back steps look good. I kind of wish we had done rounded corners, but they look great! The brick work will be done after the new slider goes in.

New steps, panel and air conditioner

Finally, a few new pictures. In the last post I talked about getting a new electrician. Well apparently not only did he not complete what he was supposed to, he didn't have enough breakers in the new panel. Only 18 when many more were needed. The new electrician purchased double breakers now there are 40. I think 35 were needed since the whole house was rewired. What was the plan, to replace the single breakers with double and not return them? Ask for more money from the GC to replace them? Who knows. I am just glad the project is back on track. So stressful to watch the stall then see it start again, wait for the inspection; inspector not showing up! AHHGH. Once the drywall is up we will really be able to see the room and probably begin to use the air conditioner.

Update

The first electrician is out and a new one is in. Yesterday my GC Juan came by to see if any electrical work had been done. No, nothing had been done in a week. He had gone to Palm Springs for a long weekend thinking he had told us, I suspect he confused us with another client. He contacted the first electrician and let him know that he would be hiring someone else to finish the job. Electrical work needed to be finished so we could get our next inspection and then go on to the drywalling. Well the first guy never showed up and put the whole project on hold. One week of nothing. Frustrating! Apparently there were words between our GC and the electrician that I had to be told about; legal action considered, but I feel positive it won't happen and now we just move on.

Today the new electrician has worked all day. Figuring out what was done so he can complete what needs to be done for the inspection. Crazy, crazy!

New HVAC and lights

This has been a slow week. The contruction has been delayed due to a sad anniversary and an electrician who has not completed his tasks to get the inspection completed. I had to drive up to Sonoma for a funeral and thought I would find some progress, but to my chagrin I found the opposite. I didn't quite understand until played a message on his phone for me and it all came clear. Tomorrow the schedule is supposed to start again. HOPEFULLY!

Though it seems slow, there has been some progress. Work is done every day. Sometimes it is loud, like today. Jake complained that at 9:00 a.m. he was awakened by the sound of the saw. Oh well, now he knows what he missed while he was in school. Today they are replacing the wood removed from the floor so the holes could be dug for the footings. 4 yards of cement total, 1 for two and 2 yards for the other. FYI: A minimum cement content of 6 bags per cubic yard of concrete. So there are 6 bags of cement per footing and 12 for the other. Good thing, those footings are holding up those big beams!

The skylights are going to be great! Even with all the lights that will be in the kitchen and dining room, these will be terrific. The dining room was so dark with only the light from the fan.

We are off to San Diego for the 4th. No noise, no dust. Looking forward to the day. All of you have a wonderful Independence day.

Copper pipes and new wood.

I haven't posted in a while although the work has continued. The plumbing is done, and all the old wood that needed to be replaced has been replaced. Slow but sure things are coming together. The best part of this stage is the water heater. Finally our large bathtub can be filled with hot water. Our last water heater was degrading and would have needed to be changed soon anyway, so now it is big and wonderful!

This is so fun to watch. These beams were put up over the weekend and now the new joists are being put up. Juan, our contractor is still on his honeymoon, he should return either tomorrow or Friday. His dad has been running his crew and the work has progressed. Jake and his buddies got out of school early and wanted to play some music. I wasn't home and apparently Juan's dad asked them who they were. He later told me, "you weren't home and I am responsible for your property while I am here." It made me feel good since I once heard of someone who was robbed while their house was being painted because someone just walked into their house and none of the workmen paid any attention. That is one big reason I am almost always here despite the noise and dust. When the power and water is shut off, I leave, otherwise you will find me here. Thank goodness for my craft room.

The beams go up!

Many of you have asked what we are doing in the way of cooking. Without a kitchen we are at the mercy of the microwave, our refrigerator and our water dispenser. We can also plug in our toaster and our crockpot.

Today the beams went up. They are huge - the reason for the cement footings. Slowly but surely there is progress.

The Ceiling is Gone

The ceiling is gone in the family room. It is amazing how much work is done while I am in the house. This was done on Friday the 2nd of June. The day I stayed out of the house for the whole day.

My DSL vexation!
I was frustrated with Verizon who I repeatedly called trying to get our disconnection repaired. On Friday I was given a ticket and assured that someone would show up on Monday. On Saturday a recorder message called the house and told me that the DSL line was cleared and working over the weekend Well actually, they were in the process of sending us a new modem because the one we were using was no longer covered by the company. It took me about a total of 7 calls to the company to get someone out to look at our line. When the repairman finally arrived on Tuesday he, of course found that the wiring was done incorrectly and within 5 minutes he had it working.

On Monday I spent more time at the coffee house keeping up with e-mails, etc. Tuesday 6/5/07 our contractor left for his honeymoon in Jamaica on a red-eye. I wanted to remember that he worked all day on this day and even called us on his wedding day (Saturday) to make sure there were no problems. His dad will oversee the construction while he is gone. The concrete pad was poured for the new water heater and I will take photos of that in the morning.

Pouring the concrete

Today they are pouring the concrete. They arrived early and were waiting for the cement truck to show up. I left at 7:10 to take Jake to school and so far I have not returned home. I took photos of the holes they drilled ad the wood that was laid down. I am assuming it is so they can put down the wood floor more easily instead of just gluing it to the concrete. They are also pouring the footings. Lots of cement, lots of work. I took photos this morning of the footing holes and the holes they jackhammered into the family room floor yesterday. I was able to escape to Greg's house. The electricians are working slower than they thought because they have to wiggle under the floor and it is partitioned with very small crawl through spaces. As of last night we still had no switches, the internet was not hooked up correctly and only one tuner of the television was hooked up. I shouldn't complain, but there are very few comforts in the house right now. I am currently sitting at the local coffee house but I gotta go now.

3 weeks tomorrow

It will be 3 weeks tomorrow from the beginning of this project. 3 weeks of no kitchen can you believe it. I barley can.
We got back from New York to find the electrical wires pulled in the front rooms. We were without phone, internet and Direct TV. Mat had to find another place to watch the Ducks game. The inspector passed the first inspection with the exception of the steps leading out of the family room. There in a new code which requires a 3 foot landing out of the house which measures out to be the two existing steps. We have to add another step. We also have to decide if we are going to re-install a similar sliding door in the family room or put in french doors. They will be stuccoed in instead of put in like the old doors. Juan did put in the new two by fours around the floor of the room since the old were rotted. There is now wood that is treated to be more termite resistant. Untreated wood was used before. Comments on the shoddy work of the re-model that was done previously were heard. It seems that the ceiling was lowered for some reason. I suspect he had a roof leak and tried to fix it and only made the problem worse!. Look at the previous post's photos and you can see where newspaper was stuffed in spaces instead of insulation.

Wednesday they pour the footings and the new family room floor. After the footings are poured they can take down the existing walls when they put up the new beams.

There should also be new canned lighting in the two front rooms and the living room very soon.

My house is changing

I love blogging. It's a diary of my life in some ways. I can keep those memories at my fingertips and I can share them with my friends and families.

A big transformation is going on in my house. We are living through a remodel. Dining room, kitchen and family room. I have chronicled it in photos. I plan on continuing to post pictures and writing about this experience.

Right now every room in affected somehow.