Week 6 - Floors and Cabinets - Oh My!!!

MONDAY

Monday they were to replace the siding on near the new windows and put on the spray texture.

They sprayed in the texture throughout the kitchen, laundry area, and the part of the hallway where they put up new drywall over the pocket door frame and the ceiling where they removed the house fan. They also repaired the cracks in the bathroom and shower area, and textured there as well.

There was a bit of overspray in the hallway, on walls that they weren't planning on painting. We had wondered how they could blend in the new paint on the piece with the new drywall with the existing paint. Turns out a bigger issue is that there's now texture on other parts of the hallway. So maybe they'll end up painting the whole hallway after all...

I sent the email to the builder stating the paint colors and finishes to use, and asked if they had any door hardware to propose.

Mid-morning the builder called to ask about siding trim out for the new windows on the outside of the house. Our existing windows had aluminum siding around the sills and a 6" frame or so around the entire window. He indicated that it would take some time to get something similar built for the new windows, as it would need to be fabricated on site. The architect PM suggested something about having a wood sill, but I'm not interested in something that would require maintenance, especially when the entire house has vinyl siding. Another option would just be to have the siding butt up against the window frame. This seemed like the simplest and most pleasant to me. They took a picture to let me get the idea.



The builder and the PM had the initial conversation, prior to the builder calling me. I wanted to talk to the PM before making a decision, but we didn't end up talking until the end of the day. So they didn't put up any siding.

I went on a mission to look at faucets - went to 3 showrooms and saw a bunch of them, but nothing that really struck me. We had seen pictures online of the Hansgrohe Metro faucet with a loop control (instead of a stick), and I really liked it. Unfortunately, the model must have been discontinued since the only place I could find it was eBay and Amazon. The good thing was that it was about half the regular price - those Hansgrohe are crazy expensive. We would not be willing to pay regular retail for those.



We spent the evening cleaning up the living room, removing everything except furniture. Since they were going to start flooring in the morning, they wanted to move everything out of the living room. We also packed up to go stay with my folks for a few days, since the floor glue was supposed to be pretty nasty.


TUESDAY

We had the whole living room cleared out by the time the builder showed up.

Looked at one last plumbing showroom during lunch to try and find a faucet, but there wasn't really anything new. I emailed one of the Hansgrohe Metro eBay sellers about expedited shipping, and it sounded like they could get it to us within a week or so. So I just went ahead and ordered it online.

I called around looking for our cabinet hardware, but wasn't able to find anyone who stocked it. The original place that we went to (and were able to take home some samples) was definitely the most expensive, but they contacted the manufacturer and indicated they could have the knobs drop-shipped to arrive in about a week. I passed the quote on to the builder and gave them the thumbs-up to make the purchase.

And with that, we were done with all our selections!!!!!!!! At long last.

After work I went by the house for kitty patrol and to gather up a few things. They had moved almost everything out of the living room, torn out the carpet, and removed the plastic partition. This was the first time I'd seen the entire space since they opened it up and it was CRAZY! It was just SO different! Sure, it didn't have any furniture or cabinets (or much floor), but it just didn't seem like our house. They had put flooring into about 1/3 of the living room.


View of living room with some flooring installed.



View of kitchen with some flooring installed.


It's really starting to take shape.


WEDNESDAY

Went by the house in the morning and noticed that there was a bit of a hump under a couple of the floorboards in the kitchen. The builder showed up before I left for work, and I mentioned it to him.

The tile store called to say that our backsplash tile was in and ready for pick up.

Over the course of the day the framers installed the new siding on the side of the house with the new windows, and used scraps and harvested from the far side of the house to fill in around the small window on the front of the house. The builder mentioned that they also straightened the crooked pieces next to the back door on the deck.


Front windows.


All new windows.


The flooring guys fixed the uneven surface in the kitchen, and also finished putting in all the floors. Apparently they scratched a few boards moving the fridge around, so they'll come back in the morning and replace the scratched boards.


Living room floor complete.


Laundry room floor complete.


Kitchen floor complete.

Tomorrow the cabinet installation begins.

End of Week 5

WEDNESDAY

Sheetrock inspection passed at some point, and the guys got out to start taping and floating mid-afternoon.

Sent a handful of emails out about concerns to the builder, and some to the architect including one asking that they tell the builder exactly what paint they should use.

THURSDAY

Continued taping and floating.












The builder was discussing the coming weeks (flooring next week, then painting the following week) and suggested that they would pack up the living room early next week and leave it packed up over the following weekend. We were prepared to be out of the house for a few days in a row when they put down the floors, but definitely not for a week and a half. Also, there may have been a misunderstanding, but it sounded like they were suggesting that we were going to move some of the furniture or take the TV off the wall.

So I came home in the middle of the day to meet with the builder and we got their co-owner on the phone. By then the plan had changed back to us being out of the house for three days next week, then they would move the furniture back into the living room away from the walls to make room for painting. And we might need to be out for one or two nights during the painting of the living room.

It seems like our on-site guy tends to bring things up to us before he's thought them all the way through, and since he's relatively new to his role, he's got a fair amount of thinking left to do. It would be much easier if he just had it all figured out and just told us what would be done - I believe that may be part of what we're paying them for...

On a more positive note, the windows arrived!


FRIDAY

Called the architect's PM since he hadn't responded to our emails about paint. The builder had requested that we finalize our paint selections over the weekend, and I was hoping the architect would give them direction via email. During the conversation he suggested that I send the email, and he kinda walked me through the selections. There were a few things that he suggested that I talk to the paint store about, which kind of frustrated me because the whole point behind requesting that he send the email was so that I wouldn't mess anything up when trying to convey the paint info. Guess I'll be spending nap time Saturday afternoon at Sherwin-Williams...

They finished up the tape and float in the kitchen and hallway area, but didn't do anything in the living room (patching cracks) or the bathroom (collateral damage) as they had suggested they would. Oh well, it will get done before they paint the living room, or else it will end up on the punch list.

The windows got installed, and they look nice. The one thing that is a little disappointing is that they seem smaller that we thought they would be. Part of it could be that about 1/4 of the opening of the window is taken up by the vinyl framing. Plus the new corner casements are considerably smaller than the old ones - this was done to match the size of the new windows on the side wall, but I think we had mentally assumed they would all be as tall as the old windows.










Actually, now that I've taken another look at the architect's plans, the windows were supposed to be taller - about 6" - 8" taller based on the scaled drawing and a indication of the window opening (though the part number may not have matched). The window submittal was passed around and approved by the architect, and the builder had noted that this was the closest standard size. Either the architect didn't notice that it was that much smaller, or they didn't realize the visual impact, or they didn't think it would be that big of a deal. But we would have REALLY liked another 6 inches of windows across the bottom...

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.