Flooring and Details

So when the project was just a thought in our minds, we had hoped to refinish the floor throughout the house. We love the original fir floor though it had obviously seen better days. Fir is an extremely soft wood and is susceptible to great damage if not sealed correctly. After multiple parties and the forces of our cats' claws, it was apparent that our floors needed some help.

Upon closer inspection, however, we found that our floors had been sanded to the end of their useful existance. So we decided upon bamboo as a replacement material. It was a close match in color with even more vibrance. It's a sustainable building material and should withstand the force of our most out of hand dance party.

Here's the old floor (notice the water stains and general disrepair)



Here we are down to the subfloor, I repaired some squeaks and made sure that everything was holding up well.



And then the new floor installed!



Corner Border Detail:



And finally I put in the recycled glass tile backsplash. Now to grout.

Looks like a Kitchen

Countertops installed!



And the blue tiles will be our backsplash. They are recycled glass tiles produced locally. Some of them are stained glass bits, some are Sky Vodka Bottles mixed with window glass. Pretty great.

Here's the new view from the dining room. You can see our beautiful new pendant fixtures and the shiny fridge.



Next is our "super cabinet" fully stocked!



Our DISHDRAWERS (which I intend to use tomorrow.)



Finally, here is the other countertop installed at the wash sink. Which is currently leaking, but I'll fix that tomorrow.

The Trash Debacle...

Ok, so we all know that this has been a huge learning experience for Julie and I. Lesson #139: if it's too cheap to believe, you might not want to believe it.

So we've had a huge pile of trash sitting in the backyard for a while now. Old lath, sheathing, flooring, linoleum, and the old back door. It made for some fun bonfires and the scrap wood came in handy as i built things.

But finally we near the end of the project and it's time to clean up the mess. The roofers were coming last Wednesday with a big dumpster so I wanted to get the trash hauled away on Tuesday. In retrospect, I should've just negotiated an additional cost to the roofers to haul it away. Their crew has been extremely motivated and efficient. And they already had a dumpster coming.

BUT we decided to keep our money even more local and hire one of the "We'll haul your trash" trucks which we see parked on the neighborhood streets all the time. These are pickup trucks with high plywood sides and spray paint to display the phone number. Sure, a little sketchy, but it seems simple enough. Couple of guys, a truck, take the trash to the dump... Right? Wrong!

Julie negotiated a price with the guy. They came to look at the pile and then brought the truck around. After loading the first truck load, the owner came by and renegotiated the price. I agreed with him that the original bid was ludicrously low and agreed to a higher price (still a good deal for me). Long story, short: It took 5 loads in the truck and he finished around 11PM. By the end, I felt pretty bad for the guy (who had bitten off more than he intended). But the reason I hire people is to use their experience to understand what a job entails.

So in the end I pay the guy and head to bed. The next day is when things get weird.

It turns out that the worker I paid, decided not to share this money with the owner. They had a confrontation later that night, and the worker pulls a gun. Thankfully nothing happened there, but when the cops show up at his house he makes a run for it! Predictably, this ended with a night in jail...

So I got to talk to Officer Cooper this afternoon to verify that a job had occurred. Crazy!

Next time, I may get a dumpster and hire some guys myself.

On the brighter side, I'm putting up the ceiling in the breakfast nook and praying that the rain stops soon. My basement flooded a few times this morning and I spent much of the day dealing with that. Also the roof work came to a standstill due to the downpour.

Also our cool new pendant lights came today. Exciting!



And we ordered the lights for the nook:

A Buzz of Activity

When we last checked on our intrepid builder, the cabinets were finished and we were waiting on countertops.




Stil waiting. The 2-3 day estimate that Lowes sold us turned out to be a 2 week estimate from the countertop vendor. So we've asked, informed, and threatened and everyone is aware that Dec 6 is the drop dead date for countertops. They assure me that it won't be a problem. I sure hope so. That gives me two days to install the stove, dishwasher, and faucets and get it all working before our party on the 8th.

So I've moved on to other parts of the project. The first job was to finish installing the oven. It's done and it works and it's beautiful! I ran a full cleaning cycle. Unlike my old oven, that worked, the inside got hot, and the outside stayed cool. Awesome!



Installed the pot filler faucet over the stove. This was my favorite new addition. No more carrying pots full of water from the sink to the stove, no more finding a glass to add just a bit of water to steam/saute. It's fresh, filtered water right at the stove.



The roofers are here. Day 0 consisted of the masons coming to look at the chimney. We all knew that the chimney was falling down and in need of massive repair. These guys came in, set up and twenty minutes later had tuck pointed the whole chimney with new morter, waterproofed the brick and fixed the shoddy job that the furnace installers had done with the chimney pipe. Awesome.

After a little snafu anent skylight specifications we're moving forward there too. I've framed the skylight openings and the roofers are going to have everything they need by Tuesday to finish the project.



The roof tear down was amazing to watch: shingles raining down on all sides of the house as a crew of 5 just went to town! As expected, we found some rot in the fascia and soffit boards. Carpenters are fixing that right now.

I missed the most exciting bit of the day but Julie watched. They attempted to weave a huge crane load (plywood and felt) from the street onto the roof. Over one set of wires and under another set! In the end it couldn't be done and I'm watching the poor roofers carrying 4x8 sheets of plywood up ladders. Better them than me, but I still feel bad.

The windows and sliding door are fully installed now and the insulation is complete. I'm finishing the last electrical and plumbing bits tonight.

So we're actually right on schedule for a December 8 Birthday Party. Wish me luck!

Up and Down

So the cabinets are in. Level, Plumb, Stable and they all fit! YAY!
Only a couple of little glitches but over all they went right in. Now I need to wait for countertops (which Lowes said would take a couple of days and the vendor said will take a couple of weeks). Enter Julie, who will do her best to get a lot of money taken off of the bill. Thanks sweetie!

In the mean-time I'll be framing the breakfast nook ceiling for some skylights, getting a new roof, and working on the breakfast nook walls.

Walls & Floors

Julie and I spent a half hour at Lowes picking paint colors. We started out agreeing on "orange" but on completely different ends of the spectrum but wound up agreeing on a great color.

Here I am painting:


Then i put in the bamboo flooring. I love pneumatic nailers!

Check it out:

Walls!

Check it out:

New Garden Window going in


View from the inside


Amazing new patio door


Ready for the final coat of mud and time to paint


You can also see our new casement window. Much better than the first window.