Good Start to Week 5 - Drywall

MONDAY

Over the weekend we sent an email with a couple of pictures of the wall paint to the architect, along with our preference for the Sedate Gray.

The insulation inspection occurred on Monday and it passed. The builder was hoping that the sheetrock guys would start working right after lunch. He expected the sheetrock to go up in a day or two, but expected the tape and float to take the rest of the week.

We are going to send an email clarifying exactly what we want done with the countertops (including if we want the drainboard - still undecided) in the next couple days to make sure that the builder "places the order", and that the materials including the sink are available once the cabinets are installed. We also need to select a sink faucet and the cabinet hardware.

We flew back into town Monday evening, prepared to evacuate in the morning during the messiness of sheetrock installation.

Apparently all they did with the sheetrock was to deliver it to our house. We took some pictures of the walls with insulation stuffed in them.





There was some more collateral damage to the bathroom wall, probably when the framers moved the laundry/kitchen pocket door frame. The wall kinda buckled and cracked. At least the tiles are still intact.





TUESDAY

The builder and I briefly discussed the overall schedule this morning, at which point it became clear that he didn't realize that they were going to have to paint the living room walls (he was wondering why I put up paint samples all over the clean living room walls). He had thought that they were just going to paint the ceiling. I pointed him to the note on the drawings that called it out, and it seemed that we were on the same page. Of course, now all the bids he got for the painting are going to be wrong, and as far as we understand it, the sheetrock guys are the paint guys, and they're pretty much working on-site already.

The guy from the cabinet shop came by to finalize the order for the island with the builder, and take some more measurements, particularly as it related to the undersink cabinets.

I went by a design center and was able to pick up a couple samples of the cabinet hardware that our architect suggested - Omnia model 9153.
http://www.omniaindustries.com/cabinet.html

They put up all the drywall between 9am and 3pm. It looks SO MUCH better - it just makes you feel good, even though we're not really that much further along.


The doorway to the laundry room.



Wall where the fridge and pantry will go.



The framed out windows and the new door.



The walls where the sink and range will go.



Inside the laundry room with the exposed vent pipes.


Tomorrow morning they're hoping to get the drywall inspection done. As soon as that passes, they'll be taping and floating, which will require 2 passes, and will be followed by applying texture.

Week 4 Gets off to a Slow Start

MONDAY

They got a bit of a late start, but their plan was to get ready to install flooring by next Monday. Today was supposed to be the completion of plumbing (gas) and electric, Tuesday was supposed to be inspection, Tues/Wed insulation, Wed/Thu inspection, Thu/Fri to start sheetrock.

The builder had been working with the cabinet shop to come up with an island design made from the same wood as our cabinets. They emailed out renderings of two options - one with a couple of slabs for the legs, and the other was more table-like with four smaller legs. We forwarded it on to the architect, and indicated that we preferred the slab legs.

At the architect's request they swapped out our ill-advised can light over the dining table light for the MR16 can that the architect had originally specified.

The architect's PM sent an email back to us about paint suggesting that we pick a few colors then meet to go over them. Of course, this was exactly what I wanted them to take the first crack at, but we figured we'd give it a little thought and be ready to change it all up when we met with them.

At the end of the day we got an email from the builder's co-owner (who we worked with initially to get the estimate and contract in place) stating that plumbing and electrical inspections should be tomorrow. After work it looked like the gas for the dryer had not yet been run. And I noticed that the vent pipes had been run through the roof, but there was no flashing or vent caps installed. I called the builder, and he said they they would be running the dryer gas tomorrow, and that he didn't realize that they hadn't cleaned up the holes in the roof, but he would make sure that they took care of that first thing. He also mentioned that the inspection for plumbing and electrical got moved to Wednesday, since the inspector wanted to do plumbing, electrical, and framing at the same time. So that meant that the framers would be out in the morning to move the pocket door.


Hole in Ceiling/Roof with Vent Pipe


TUESDAY

Met with the builder first thing and discussed a few miscellaneous items. He said that the framers would be there right after lunch. We discussed painting the hallway. The drawings don't call for it, though they have opened up a few feet of the wall to get the pocket door frame in, which they will sheetrock over and have to paint. Also, they are pulling the house fan out of the ceiling in the hallway, and there's a blank switchplate that they installed where switch for the house fan used to be. He said they don't intend to paint the whole hallway - just paint the new sheetrock to match the rest of the hallway. Several years back I patched some cracks and bought some paint to touch it up with. You can pretty much see every spot I touched because the paint never quite matched; I don't know if I got the wrong finish or just am not a skilled painter. But we figure if they don't do a good job of matching it, we'll put it on the punch list and they'll need to fix it one way or another.

Came back at lunch and we met with the architect to discuss paint colors. We spent some time looking through some of the colors we chose, with some similar colors that he was suggesting, while looking at the cabinet door, countertop sample, and backsplash sample. I am AWFUL with paint and color, but we ended up with three different main options of color. There were a couple silvery grey colors that we both really liked, and some yellows that (I'm told) went well. A third option was a few different whites. It should be noted that all the colors were pretty light and neutral - the grey wasn't a dark grey at all.

We also talked about a few minor changes to the builder's proposal for the island. And we talked about hardware for the cabinets.

After 4pm I got an email from the builder saying that the plumber wasn't able to run the gas line for the dryer since the house gas pipes weren't large enough to support the additional BTU requirement. So we sent back an email asking how they came to that conclusion, since there are several old wall and floor heaters that are no longer connected. We also voiced frustration about this coming up at the end of the day before inspection, and several weeks after the plumber was supposed to start working. Plus the fact that we were already more than a week behind schedule, and it wasn't due to running into problems like the vent in the laundry space - it was due to the fact that no one addressed the problems until much later after they were (or should have been identified).

When I got home I was informed that the framers never actually made it out there either. So there's all sorts of holdups.

On the way home I picked up a pint each of our two top contenders of paint, so we'll put some of that on the wall in the next few days. On the bright side, with all these delays, we've got a little bit of time before we have to choose paint color.


WEDNESDAY

Met with the builder first thing. He was in agreement that even though a few changes have popped up, they should not have had the delays that they did. It sounded like he was a little frustrated with the lack of availability of their own forces (plumbers and framers).

The plumber was supposed to be working later today, and he was going to perform the calculations required to confirm our gas capacity, and the builder was going to forward the calculations on to us. We hadn't heard anything by the end of the day and hadn't snooped around to check progress.

Around 8:15pm we got a call from the builder, this time the on-site guy's supervisor. He indicated that he had seen the email about the gas plumbing, and wanted to talk to us to make sure our expectations were aligned. I was never really too sure what he meant about the expectations part, but I think he wanted to go over the remainder of the schedule. This was an opportunity to voice the fact that we had never got a corrected schedule, and we were just getting week-by-week reports about the upcoming work. It sounded like he was going to work with our on-site guy to get the schedule updated and disucss it with us. We talked about some of the difficulties that we've had, and he acknowledged that they were having some trouble. He said that it didn't look good for them to blame their trades, but he made it clear that they were trying to establish a relationship with the plumber and they were not having good results. He also indicated that our on-site guy is relatively new to that position, and the supervisor had intended to be more involved in our project. He indicated that he would be providing the on-site guy more support. He voiced one concern with the schedule - the windows. Their supplier was supposed to
have the windows delivered weeks ago, and the new delivery date is April 5th. The only issue would be with the framing inspection; if the inspector didn't require that the windows actually be installed, we could continue to make progress. But if they did require the windows, we wouldn't be able to do insulation or sheetrock or flooring until the windows were installed. It sounds like it's a somewhat vague area, and it is entirely up to the discretion of the inspector. So for now we'll just cross our fingers.

After the call we opened up our disposable paint kits (plastic tray with roller), shook up the quarts of paint, and painted up some big old areas of wall. I also did a little of the ceiling, as our architect prefers that the wall, trim, and ceiling all be painted with the same color. The room was pretty dim, since all our lighting isn't installed yet, but we were able to get a feel for it. The Techno Grey (my preference going in) seemed a bit darker and more grey, while the Sedate Grey was more of a silvery white. We both preferred the Sedate Grey, especially if we were going to use it on the ceiling.



Techno Grey on the right, Sedate Grey on the left.




THURSDAY

We were headed out of town for a long weekend and left first thing in the morning. Before we left I checked out the work area and noticed that they had run the gas line for the dryer. I asked the builder about it, and he said that the plumber had initially thought the main gas line was 3/4", but realized yesterday that it was 1", so there was adequate capacity to meet code. The builder was pretty much just waiting around for the inspector to show up before anyone else could do work.


Kitchen Sink Area






Laundry Area with Gas Connection!!!

We stuffed towels under the bedroom doors and made another assessment of the paints - now dry and in daylight. We were still leaning towards the lighter color (Sedate Grey).

I called the builder late in the afternoon for an update and he indicated that the electrical inspection had passed, but the framing inspector never showed up. The framers moved the pocket door.


FRIDAY

The builder said that the framing inspection went well and they got approval. They installed the insulation, and are now waiting on the insulation inspection before they can progress to drywall. So they aren't able to work over the weekend after all. They're hoping to get insulation inspection early Monday so that they can get started on drywall, else it will be Tuesday before they can do drywall.

He indicated that they had put together a schedule for the rest of the project, and we would talk about it next week. He also mentioned that the appliances had been delivered to the appliance shop, so we wouldn't need to wait on them at all.

End of Week 3 - Moving Slowly

For the remainder of this week things continued to go kind of slowly. They did some mechanical work, doing the venting of the over range microwave. They also installed the can lights in the kitchen. The halogen ones that the architect specified.

On Friday morning they removed the last corner casement window and framed it out for the new windows. They also stapled some black paperish covering over the exposed outside insulation - maybe because it is supposed to rain this weekend.




Since the interior framing of the windows was done, the electrician could turn the electrical outlets vertical in the kitchen. So those are all done.

They also brought by a halogen bulb to try in the living room. It puts out a decent amount of light and it dims pretty well. The architect had previously talked about using "wall washer" trim to redirect the light from going straight down, and instead to reflect off the walls. Seems like a good idea.

They installed our old back porch light next to the back door. I was thinking about having them install a different fixture that we have lying around. Maybe we'll suggest it next week, while the electrician is still around.

So, as soon as the windows arrive the framers will install them (and then finish the siding). And they'll move the pocket door going to the laundry room. Hopefully that will happen at the beginning of the week.

Once the plumbing and electrical is done they will get inspected; since they haven't run any gas lines yet, I assume they're quite ready. Once inspected they will do insulation. Once that's inspected (I think there's an inspection for it), they'll put up drywall and paint. Once paint is done they'll put in the flooring, which is supposed to be pretty stinky and nasty from the adhesives. So we'll want to be out of the house for it. They are hoping to start the flooring by the end of next week, or at least they were shooting for that before work started on Friday. I don't see how that's possible, but they definitely need to pick up the pace some.

Of course we haven't selected paint yet. We sent an email to the architect asking him to select a few paint colors for us to choose from. I'm no good at that sort of thing, and it's a little overwhelming to flip through the entire Sherwin Williams color collection.

Not much to do over the weekend, other than getting ready to move everything out of the living room when they do flooring. I have no idea where they're going to put all the furniture...

Getting Warmer

Having not heard anything by the end of the day, I called the architect. He indicated that the project manager had gone by the house earlier today and met the builder to discuss the laundry plumbing issue. It sounded like the idea being tossed around as a solution is to move the pocket door out towards the kitchen to give us another 2-3". I'll claim partial responsibility for that one, as I asked both the builder and the PM if that was an option. Apparently, since the cabinet shop's pantry was 6" smaller than the plans originally showed, moving the pocket door out kinda brought the design back in line more with the original spacing. The architect wasn't sure if there was going to be cost involved in moving the door, though he hinted that it couldn't be nearly as expensive as they were talking about for moving the plumbing.

We also talked about the lighting a little more. The builder is going to continue to find a dimmable CFL solution that will work with the cans that they already installed. It was suggested that if they couldn't find a solution, they ought to be responsible for fixing it (which I assume would be to go back to the original design). Of course, if they find a dimmable CFL solution and we just don't like it (i.e., the quality of the light isn't good, or they don't dim all that well), then it may be more of a shared problem. Seems fair enough.

The other topic that we eased into was backsplash. He suggested avoiding having any type of accent tile. Much like the PM when we talked about it with him, the idea is to just have the backsplash fade into the background. The way it really started to make sense for me was when he pointed out that we would have nice natural woods (the cherry of the cabinets and the bamboo floors), and those should be the real feature.

About an hour after our discussion the architect called back to say that the builder will resolve the laundry room plumbing issue by moving the pocket door. And there will not be a cost impact! Great news, just wish it hadn't taken over a week to figure out.

Over the last week we pretty much settled on the counters and got a quote. Then I asked about adding an etched drainboard, and the counter guy said it would be a $500 adder. Talk about sticker shock! The different templates that he sent were a bit fancy, so I asked if he could just do 5 parallel lines and threw out a number. He was OK with it, and we'll go see a sample drainboard tomorrow.

After meeting him at the cabinet shop we plan to go look at tile again, this time with both of us in attendance and without a toddler. I'm hoping we can come to a conclusion, so that we can get the architect's buy-in, and then move on to the next decision.

I swear we're going to be picking things out until the last friggin' day of construction. We still have backsplash tile, paint, cabinet hardware, island material, and a sink faucet.

Start of a Bad Week

Started off Monday morning with a meeting with the architect and the builder but... no plumber. Now that people are finally listening to our suggestion that they move the vent over (instead of trying to tuck it magically into the wall), I think we might get somewhere. Of course, without any input from the friggin' plumber, it's all just a dream.

It looks like the electrician can't finish up his work until he coordinates with the plumber, so he's kinda treading water. Of course, now the electrical is all up in the air, too. We noticed this morning that they are planning to install the wall outlets horizontally above the countertops. Last week they called me and asked how high up to put them (or something strange like that), and I indicated that we might want to have a thin strip of accent tile material, so they should go under that. And I guess that turned into horizontal outlets. This morning I found out that we are very much opposed to horizontal outlets, so they'll need to reposition them. Of course, they can't do them all because they haven't fully framed out the corner window yet. They're waiting on the windows, which are supposed to arrive on Friday. So we need to tell them to swap the outlets to vertical and put them wherever one normally puts them.

Then the lighting thing blew up. The architect who developed our design gave me a call - we've been mostly dealing with his project manager. He asked a few questions about the lights that they installed and told me a bit about quality of light, and said that the builder had called to tell him they wouldn't be able to fit CFLs in the fixtures that they installed. We agreed that the best next step would be to wait on installing any fixtures in the kitchen area until the light bulb thing was resolved.

Later in the afternoon we talked again, and we got into a lot more detail about it all. We agreed that for the kitchen they should go back to the original (halogen) design. I got scolded (appropriately) for not copying the architect on the email I sent to to the builder about changing the lighting. And I wished I'd never mentioned anything about it in the first place, because it seems like a MESS. He's going to try and figure out a solution with the builder, though I have 2 points that I feel pretty strongly about:
1) I asked the builder to have dimmable CFL lighting. I didn't tell them which fixtures to use, and they chose some that wouldn't work for that purpose. Not our fault.
2) The architect shouldn't spend much time messing with this, because two hours of his time probably costs as much as all the damn lights that have already been installed.

So, our laundry area plumbing resolution is still completely up in the air. The living room lighting is in question, and the kitchen lighting has been put on hold until they get the stuff that the architect specified. Couple this with the fact that last week was slow, we're starting to move in the wrong direction.

At least we were able to pick up the countertop sample today. Hopefully tomorrow we'll go look at tile and maybe even make a decision.

Week 2 - Electrical, Siding, and Plumbing

So we never quite got a real schedule out of the builder (our on-site guy was supposed to do it but his computer got a virus that rendered it useless, though I have no idea why someone else couldn't just update it for him). But he did tell us that week 2 would be siding, electrical, and plumbing.

On Monday both the electrician and plumber were tied up with inspections on another job, though the siding on the back deck (around the new door) got done. Also, one of the City building inspectors came out to look at something. Not a lot of construction going on, but that was OK since the family was at home a bit during the morning.

It's kind of hard to see in the photo, but the siding to the left of the door is a bit crooked - I mentioned it to the builder and he agreed without even going around back to look at it.




During lunch we looked at some solid surface options at Home Depot, though they didn't really have much to see. We have 3 possible finishes that we're considering: sea foam green, light to medium gray (like a concrete color), or an off-white with some texture. It's going to be a balancing act finding a color that we like with a texture that we like. And I don't think we'll be able to hold to our budget.

After that I went by The Tile Guy, and talked to them a bit about backsplash. They had some penny round and small hex tiles, and it turns out they were from the same manufacturer that we ordered the samples from. He also suggested considering some unglazed porcelain tiles, which was from the same line that our architect had suggested. They had some cool thin, horizontal, green glass tile strips of varying lengths, which we may be able to use as an accent near the top of the backsplash, similar to the simple band of color that was around our old tile backsplash. The guy that I talked with pretty much said that we should choose our counters first, then bring in a sample and figure out the backsplash.

So I called the cabinet shop and spoke with their countertop guy. He said there were 4 or 5 different solid surface lines that they rep, and he was going to make sure that they had some samples in the showroom so we could come by later in the week and have a look.

After talking with the architect, he agreed that the small wall that had been built parallel to the pocket doors was unnecessary - had they not been able to get the support beam up in the attic, it would have been required. So I guess they're going to have to rip it out at some point before the cabinets get here. Good thing we're watching the job so close, else there'd be a handful of things not in line with the architect's intent. Guess it's better than paying the architect to spend a bunch of time out at our house.

Not a whole lot else visually exciting got done during the week. The electrician installed the can lighting in the living room. They had some trouble finding CFL bulbs that would fit in the fixtures specified by the architect without sticking out. I was able to find some online, but they seem like semi-specialty items (and they're over $10 a piece). We'll see how that works itself out. Looks like normal CFL bulbs are a little longer, but the "cold cathode" versions are designed for smaller spaces.

Here's a picture of a couple of the cans that got installed. They put 30W incandescent bulbs in a couple of them, as well as 50W and 60W equivalent CFL bulbs in two of them. The 30W bulbs just aren't bright enough, and the CFLs don't dim well at all (one does a bit of flickering) even though they were marketed as dimmable.




There was an HVAC duct in the attic over the location where some of the kitchen lights were supposed to be installed over the sink, so the electrician suggested moving it closer towards the sink/wall. He also thought it would be better to have the light directly above the sink, as opposed to over your shoulder while washing dishes. The EXACT point we brought up with the architect, but were rebuffed on. Well, it looks like we'll get our way on that one!

We spent a couple hours at the cabinet shop looking at countertop samples on Wednesday(?). It was fairly long and painful. We brought the cabinet door, and were able to determine that we preferred the white colors to the greens and the grays. And the one that we liked the best was in the least expensive line of solid surface material. We got a quote and it looks like it will be within our allowance.

They included a stainless sink in the estimate - we've decided that we'd prefer stainless with the white counters, as opposed to cast iron. Plus, it's more involved to install and support the heavy cast as an undermount. I think for the cost of the sink that they are proposing (without really giving us any info about it other than stainless, 50/50, 18 gauge) we could probably get one from an Ebay store that is a heaver gauge with some sound reduction coating stuff. There were a number of posts to the GardenWeb kitchen forums about buying no-name stainless sinks from one or more Ebay stores and getting a really good deal on a decent product.

The plumber finally made it out Friday afternoon, and he looked at the vent pipe. He said that they could move the pipe back into the wall some, but it would only save us 1"-2" and would need to take the bathroom out of commission for 2-3 days. In talking with the architect afterwards, he thinks it shouldn't be a big deal to replace the pipe with PVC and move it off to the side if it won't fit in the wall. The architect is supposed to come out Monday morning to meet with us and the builder - hopefully the plumber will be there too.

Here's the piping exposed, with the little walls taken off the outside. Right in the middle of our tiny, tiny laundry room.



At 7:50 am Saturday morning there was a lot of doorbell ringing going on. Apparently (without any warning) there were a couple of guys here to empty out the dumpster that was made on site with plywood, at the end of the driveway. We moved our car out of the driveway. They were talking about needing to cut off one of the branches from a (partially dead) pecan tree in order to get their truck down the driveway. But I expressed a little concern, and we were able to move most of the branches out of the way with minimal damage. It took them about an hour and a half to pick up all the debris and put it into their dump truck (the builder generated a lot more debris than they anticipated, and the dumpster box was overfilled). Luckily, the neighbors on the other side of our driveway were up and off to breakfast by 7:30 (they've also got a toddler).

In the previous entry I mentioned some of the collateral damage in the bathroom. Here's a couple photos.




This weekend we'll change the return air filter (I'm sure it's disgusting from the demo) and tighten up the sealing of the barrier plastic, since they'll supposedly be doing sheetrock next week and that might get a bit dusty (at least during the tape/float part). Plus, we need to go borrow a washer and dryer for a few hours. But we're rolling with it.

The Rest of the First Week

Day 2

The second day started with trying to remove the last layer of flooring, and it was super-slow going. They had one guy working on it, and I believe they gave up on this after half a day.

They also removed the corner walls that used to house the fridge, opening up most of the space to the living room. They installed the support beam in the attic space. They pretty much ripped out the ceiling along the path that the beam ran, then cut some stuff out and put it in place.













Day 3

The framers didn't get started until the afternoon, though our new back door and the pocket door were delivered first thing in the morning.

They figured out that there was another layer of plywood (in addition to the subfloor) associated with the last layer of floor. So they cut the floor into strips and pulled it out easily. They removed the back door and the window on that wall and framed up both of those spaces, then framed the space for the new back door and installed it. One of the things that we had been concerned with in the design was how close the back door seemed to the countertop and to the deck railing out the outside, like there wasn't much room to get through. Since the cabinet shop's pantry was smaller than the one shown in the design, they wanted the door centered between the pantry and the counter, which meant it got spaced a little further from the counter. When walking through it, it seemed to be in a perfectly reasonable spot and it didn't feel weird as opposed to the old door. Of course, there's no cabinets in there yet either.

When I got home they were wrapping up and mentioned that they had installed the door but didn't have a lockset, and asked what I wanted them to do. It sounded like they just wanted to leave the door there with two holes in it for locks. Now it wasn't all that obvious, and someone would have to walk up onto our deck and navigate the sea of wood pieces and framer tools if they wanted to get in. But then they'd have their pick of all our worldly belongings, especially since we weren't going to be home. I suggested that they take the locks off the old door and install them on the new one. It sure sounded like that hadn't occurred to them, which was a little disappointing. They moved the locks to the new door, though it took a little while.






Day 4

Our architect came out to have a look at the progress, and he seemed pleased with what they had done. He was particularly interested in the new beam that they put up in the ceiling, and they must have done what he wanted. He agreed that they could do a better job of sealing off the workspace, so we asked them again to try and tighten it up.

We talked with the architect about counter, tile, and paint selections, and got a slightly better feel for the process. Mostly they seemed to echo a lot of what we were already thinking, though he did say that if our counter had any sort of appearance of texture, then they would suggest a very simple and plain backsplash. Unfortunately, one of our favorite tile contenders probably has a little more going on than they would like. So we're still thinking.

I sent an email listing the things that we expected for the weekend, since we were planning on moving back it. Things like removing debris from the living space, making sure the electrical was safe and back on, and doing a good job of sealing up the work space with the sheeting. By the evening they had done a much better job, pretty much by running duct tape along the sides and top/bottom.






Over the course of the day the big window area was framed, though they didn't cut open to the outside; they just framed it out on the inside. The closets in the hallway were demoed.




During the design phase with the architect we mentioned how the closets in the hallway were not of the same depth in all locations. We mentioned the same thing to the builder at some point before we had a contract. Well, once they had demoed those closets out, you could see exactly what was going on. There was a column running up the height of the wall which came out about 6-8 inches from the wall, and was about 8-12 inches wide. The builder was pretty sure this was a vent for the bathroom. Next to it was a slightly shallower box that only went about 1/3 of the way up the wall, but was about 2-3 times as wide. This is likely for the bathroom plumbing.




Of course, the vent is right in the middle of our laundry area. And we're so used to that hallway being the length it was before, that now that it will be shorter, it seems really small. It's pretty unlikely that a washer and dryer could fit in there with the vent column, even if they were stacked. So I discussed it with the builder, and then sent email and left a voicemail for the architect. I get the impression that the builder will just re-route the vent, though I have no idea where (there's really not many other options).

Day 5

Today they installed the frames for both of the pocket doors. They removed part of the corner casement window - they left the side that was facing the street, presumably in order to keep the siding facing the street looking respectable for longer. They also framed a little spot between the fridge and pantry, which I thought was only supposed to have cabinet pieces in between. I may bring it up to the architect next week, but I suppose it's not a big deal to rip it out if they have to.








Ever since I lived here the house has had mint green vinyl siding, which isn't nearly as horrible as it sounds. It's actually fairly subtle and pleasant. The only problem is that I have no idea where it came from, or when it was purchased. So matching the siding is pretty much impossible. When we had the deck built they needed to do a little siding modifications, and they harvested siding from the side of the house that isn't really visible, then bought some white siding that was similar in shape and painted it. He made it clear that vinyl siding was not meant to be painted, and we would likely need to repaint it every 5 years or so. Well, it looks like there's going to be another harvesting episode. Heck, at this point I ought to just have them re-do that side of the house in white!

We planned to move back into the house on Friday, so I got home ahead of everyone else in order to do some clean up. A wet rag was able to pick up the dust from most of the surfaces, though several things look like you rubbed them with a dirty wet rag (go figure). Then there was some serious vacuum cleaning, including moving the furniture around in the living room. And a damp towel on the hallway wood floor, which has dust tucked into its nooks and crannies, likely for a while.

During the hour or two that I spent in there each day during the week, it had me completely congested. But we were able to live in the house over the weekend without my nose being completely stuffed up from the dust. We figured out how to rearrange the dining table and fridge to be a lot more useful. All in all not too bad.

There were a few other surprises, though. As you may have noticed, our guest bathroom and shower share a wall with the kitchen/laundry area. It looks like when they shoved in the frame for the hallway pocket door they busted up some of the sheet rock in the bathroom. Nothing major, but there were some new cracks and a wavy spot. Then in the shower area there were two slits in the wall above the tile tub surround that must have come from a framer's demo tool of some sort. I mentioned it to the builder in email, and I assume they'll just patch and touch up the two areas.

On Saturday morning when we went into the living room the top of the divider had come down. Later that day I got some "Gorilla Tape" and did some serious re-taping. I wouldn't quite call it air-tight, but I think it will hold for more than a couple days. Then on Sunday I tried to suck up most of the dust in the construction area with a shop vac. It was marginally successful - that small dusty junk would clog up the filter, plus it would just shoot out the vac's exhaust straight into the air. I had to clean out the filter and dump the contents a few times to keep it sucking, but in the end there was a LOT less dust lying around. Even though it was something that the builder probably should have taken care of, I think it will benefit us a lot in the long run, and I don't really see a builder putting that much effort into cleanup in the middle of the job.

So our house is livable, and the kitchen looks wasted! Awesome!

Start of Construction (Destruction)

We got the kitchen packed up and put away over the weekend. An updated schedule was sent showing completion in mid-April, but we caught a few errors (it shows cabinets installed before flooring) so it's likely to change a bit.

Here's the last word in "before" pictures of the kitchen. The living room now has even more stuff in it, so it's not really picture worthy.






It actually looks pretty darn nice with all the junk out of the way and with the natural light coming in. But I don't think we're going to give up the project just yet... The new design should do an even better job of using the natural light.

Work started in earnest this morning. Questions about material storage locations, port-a-potty location, breaker boxes, water cutoffs, etc. The first minor incident has been resolved pretty easily. The water line for the fridge has always looked a little sketchy to me (the way it was connected to the water pipes under the house). When they went to move the fridge they didn't initially notice the water line, so it may have been stressed a little. It started leaking from upstream of the valve in the kitchen. The good news is that there was another valve for it in the crawl space, and that stopped the leak. Small victories...

So these guys are taking off the old tile countertops and the tile backsplash. It looks like that stuff is a lot tougher to come off than I realized. They can't just pop them off - they pretty much have to smash them to bits. So be it.

At the end of the first day they have removed all of our old appliances, the cabinets, the pocket door that we intend to reuse, and 2 of the 3 layers of flooring. It was pretty crazy to see them pull off a layer of flooring and subfloor, then have another floor underneath it.






The house, in particular the living room and hallway, is covered in a thin sheet of dust. They didn't put up the plastic sheeting to separate the work area until after 1pm, and it's just tacked up loosely in a couple places - not exactly the sort of thing that is likely to contain a whole lot of dust.

This serious demo and framing work should go on for the rest of the week and hopefully be complete on Friday. It was pretty loud in the house today, and the builder tells us it's going to get louder when they start running saws and air compressors and nail guns.

Between that and the fact that we don't have a kitchen, it looks like we'll be spending the next few nights with family.