Day Fourteen, Fifteen, and Sixteen: Getting back to business.

Okay, okay, I've been slacking on the blog. Inquiring minds need to know what's going on with the 2562 reno. So here goes...

Got back from the East Coast with the family. I'll allow their comments to give the feedback/impression on what I got done, because I'm sure I wouldn't be able to do them justice.

Day Fourteen: finished mudding the bedroom. Not very exciting, and not very photographically worthy. The main excitement for this day is the new windows were installed in the kitchen and the bedroom! They look great. See for yourself.

(photo above: kitchen windows)

The kitchen ones really open up the space to the outside, which in turn has moved the fence outside these windows a higher priority. Everything is a higher priority.

Day Fifteen: Today was spent priming the bedroom. Again, not very exciting, but for posterity, here are the photos. Also, I fixed the door to the bedroom so it now closes and latches.

(photo above: new window in the bedroom, and the wall is primed and ready!)

(photo above: other window in bedroom, wall primed)

(photo above: the door actually shuts, the walls are primed)

Day Sixteen: This was a landmark day. We painted the bedroom in a color named Potentially Purple. I don't see anything potential in this color, it's purple already. Looks great.

(photo above: the new window in the bedroom, with the new wall color)

(photo above: the other window in the bedroom, with the new wall color)

(photo above: you can't see it, but the closet is behind this door - that's just the bedroom door open)

The second big event of today was installing the half wall that will separate the kitchen from the dining room. Now we can get a better sense of how the flow will feel from one room to the other. You can already see from the photo (below) that we're using it to place beverages between the rooms. How convenient.


So now we're caught up. I've found with the family back, there isn't quite as much time for either the home improvement projects or the blog, but I'll continue along as best as possible and we'll see where that gets us. Now that the bedroom is painted, the next step will probably be window trim, door trim, and baseboard trim. At least the room can be used, and the younger one can move out of our bedroom and into her new palace.

I've also received requests for the overall floorplan and where all these changes are happening. I'll provide that info in the next couple days... thanks for hanging in there with me.

And the trip out. That's a blog in and of itself. I've got to write my letter to American Airlines about that one...

Day Thirteen.2: The 2 week recap.

Well, it's been a crazy thirteen days. So much to do, and only so many hours in the day.

Overall, I feel pretty good about the accomplishments. Walking through the house last night while I was cleaning, the flow feels really good. I especially like how now the private spaces of the house (the 2 kids bedrooms and the stairs to the master suite) are all at the back of the house, the bathroom is between the private and public spaces, and then the living room/dining room/kitchen/pantry/stairs to the basement are all up front. The opening between the kitchen and dining room is really amazing. Now that I took down the plastic, the flow between all the rooms is great. It makes going to the basement seem like less of a task of going downstairs and more part of the entire space.

Some photos of the new kitchen situation. Cabinets and wire shelves won't be there when it's finished, but you get the idea...

(photo above: Kitchen, looking southeast, from dining room.)

(photo above: Kitchen, looking southwest, from inside kitchen.)

(photo above: Kitchen, looking east, from dining room. Pantry will be off to left past the windows.)

Then there's the new bedroom as well. Still needs some joint compound, but a good start.

(photo above: Bedroom, looking north through doorway from hallway.)

(photo above: Bedroom closet, looking southwest from inside room.)

Yesterday was also a lot of childproofing, putting away supplies, and cleaning. Man, that house was dirty. Took like 3 buckets of water... it was disgusting. But it will be good to come home to a relatively clean house.

It will also be good to have the girls home in a bit over a week. I'm sure they'll be surprised by the changes, if they happen to notice. And it will be great to have my wife home to help with some of the projects. Before we left for our first east coast leg, we did the upstairs bathroom together. Just like old times, working side by side. Like Bonnie and Clyde. Or Moonlighting.

So that's about all I have for now. Be back in eight days with the review by the family. Have a good week off.

Day Thirteen.1: At the airport.

Turns out I'll have plenty of time to update the home renovation blog. My initial flight, which was supposed to leave at 6:30am, was delayed by an hour and a half. Which meant I'd miss my connecting flight.

So I was rebooked on a different flight. When I got to that gate, that flight was delayed by four and a half hours.

So I was rebooked on a third flight. So I had to go back to the ticket counter (outside security) to get my new boarding passes. Then re-entering through security, I was "randomly selected" for additional security screening.

So... it's been an awesome start to the day (at 4am, after getting to bed after midnight after all the cleaning and whatnot). And we'll see if my bag ever finds me and our destination.

More on the house later...

Day Thirteen.0: Done and done.

First, thank you to Shannon, Anthony and the whole family for dropping off dinner for me tonight. It was delicious (a 3 sausage platter from Gustav's).

Second, it's late, and I need to be up at 4am to get to the airport. "OH NO!" you're probably thinking, "how will I know what's going on with the 2562 Renovation?" Don't worry. I'm taking the pictures tonight, and I'll bring them with me. I'll write the blog up on the plane, and post it tomorrow night from the east coast.

But I'll give you at least one photo. Here's looking in to the kitchen from the dining room. The refrigerator is in the right place, but these aren't the cabinets we're using, and there's no sink... but this gives you a rough idea.


Okay, off to bed. You'll get the full scoop tomorrow or Tuesday about the last day before heading east to meet back up with the girls. Can't wait to see them (and be away from renovations for a few days).

Day Twelve: Here's mud in your eye.

Got both a question and a comment regarding the cookies mentioned in yesterday's post. There's a photo of one above, though by the time you read this it will probably be in my stomach (the cookie, not the photo).

Today started with the delivery of the appliances. They were due to arrive between 9 and 11am, and they got here shortly after 9am. Here's the refrigerator (photo below).

I would take a photo of the inside if there was anything good in it, but there's only a bit of milk, some bread, a handful of comdiments, and that's about it. Oh, and a PBR. C'mon, I leave on Monday, no point in leaving a fully stocked fridge. And along with the fridge is the oven.

Look at that... five burner solid surface, with one of the burners apparently able to crank out 3 million BTUs (which I thought was only gas, but what do I know) which can boil water in less than a minute. At least that's what I think the sales guy said. I was off with the kids, so I might have misheard. But I do know it has a warming drawer. So extra pancakes will stay warm, or extra slices of pizza, or potato pancakes. Basically anything round and flat, it'll stay warm for a good while.

Besides the appliance delivery, today was finishing hanging the drywall, then taping and mudding it. For those not in the know, "mudding" means putting the joint compound on the seams and holes. Why it's called this I'm not sure, but it is. I'm sure you don't want to see the same photos as before with joint compound on them, so I'll only post up one: the new bedroom wall.

On the right side of the photo is what will be the closet. Also, I sealed up the doorway that used to lead from this room to the basement stairs (photo below). I can't tell you how many times today I went towards that ex-opening to go downstairs. I need to relearn my traffic patterns for the house.

And I started cleaning up a bit. The house is a disaster, and I leave in a day. So tomorrow will be putting a second coat of joint compound on the areas that need it, cleaning up the house, and organizing the new kitchen so it will be functional when everyone gets home, sans sink. Until tomorrow, here's where I've been drying my dishes.

Day Eleven: The Inspector.

Today was inspection day. Not only did the inspector find the house, but he arrived early. Apparently this inspector had a better map than the guy on Wednesday. So he arrives, takes 5 minutes to walk through the house, and says everything looks good. That's it. I could be doing shipshod, slapdash work, and it'd probably get approved. Where's the justification for doing quality construction? No wonder craftsmanship is going to pot.

Then this evening it was on to drywalling. All those people who doubted I'd be able to hang the drywall in the new bedroom, tape and apply joint compound... you were right. After pulling out the remaining kitchen outlets, and the old sink, and moving the refrigerator and dishwasher and shelves, and started putting up the drywall, it was late late late (as you can tell from this post time). But I did make pretty good progress. Did the entire side of the wall that will be on the hallway side.

(the new doorway and wall, looking from the hallway)

(the new doorway and wall, looking from the hallway)

(the new doorway and wall, from inside the bedroom)

So to all those people out there who were expecting the room to be sheetrocked, taped and joint compound, I'm sorry I let you all down. I just couldn't go on any longer tonight. And for those of you who might not know, I'm heading to the east coast on Monday, then returning with the family in a week. So here's the schedule for the next 2 days plus some.

Saturday: Finish drywalling bedroom. Tape and mud this room, and any other places that can be closed up. Await appliance delivery. Frame kneewall.

Sunday: Get house child safe. If time allows, sand and mud bedroom. Do laundry and pack for trip (sounds like that could be the next blog). Clean this place up a bit.

Monday: Go east. Probably won't be any blog postings as I won't be working on the house. But you never know (about blog postings, I definitely won't be working on the house since I won't be here).

Following Tuesday: Return. Show off the progress to the family.

Following Wednesday: Resume construction and the blog.

Okay, I'm off to bed. And by the way, a big huge enormous thank you to Cynthia for dropping off some delicious dinner for me tonight. And I didn't even eat all the cookies in the box! Oh, and here's a closing image of the current kitchen situation.

Day Ten: The softer side.

First, let's get down to the progress report. It was mostly an electrical day today. I finished the second counter height outlets, except for the ones that will be on the kneewall between the kitchen and dining room. (photo below)


I ran the electrical for the dishwasher. (photo below)


And I ran the electrcial for the microhood. (photo below)


So the only other electrical is the light above the kitchen sink, and the light above the "island" next to the stove.

The only framing left is to finish the framing around the vent stack in the southwest corner of the kitchen (photo below) and then build the kneewall. I need to wait to get the oven (more on that later) so I can determine where to start building the kneewall.


So on to today's vent. I had received a call from Sears on Tuesday saying the new refrigerator and oven would be delivered Wednesday afternoon. I wasn't going to be home Wednesday afternoon, so I called them and rescheduled it for Friday morning. I specifically said "morning" because I knew I wouldn't be able to be home in the afternoon. So I get my call today and it's for Friday afternoon. Of course I'm a bit ticked off, so I call Sears. The first person (Melissa) says she can't help me, so I ask to speak to a manager. While on hold I get disconnected. I call back and talk to someone else (can't remember her name). She puts me on hold to get a manager and I'm on hold so long I get sent back to the start. So then I get Gabe. By this time, after being disconnected and on hold for a delivery I specifically said I wouldn't be home for, I let Gabe have it. I ask why they would take a preference and then not only schedule a delivery for the exact opposite, but think that was okay. I asked how I could guarantee a morning delivery. He said there wasn't a way. So I said, "you mean I need to keep rescheduling the delivery and hope one time it will come up morning instead of afternoon?" Oh, and they all said once the schedule is determined for delivery, there is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING they can do to move it. they can only reschedule it. At this point I got transferred to Ruth Ann, a manager. I explained my predicament yet again. And how I need to get the appliances. And the stupidity of their delivery scheduling software. So she asks if they can deliver it Saturday. They obviously promote the smart ones to manager. By this point I told them this was just another reminder of why I really hate Sears, and that next time I'll shop at an appliance store that has a bit more flexibility to their delivery system. And the fact that not only could no one help me, but no one but the manager thought to ask if it could be delivered on Saturday.

So the appliances are coming on Saturday. Stupid stupid Sears.

Okay, tomorrow is the inspection of my electrical handiwork, the structural stuff done, and the plumbing. Hopefully they'll find the house this time. Then, it's on to drywalling.

Day Nine: Open sesame.

The big news of today is the new opening has been made between the kitchen and the dining room. Check it out.

So I believe the heavy construction phase is coming to a close. There's still some minor framing to do in a couple places, but until the plumbers come back to do the finish work, and the window guys come to install new windows in the kitchen and bedroom, we're on our own.

But with the good comes the incomprehensible. I worked from home this morning so I could meet the city inspector to approve the plumbing. Thing is, the inspector never shows up. I get a call from the plumbers saying they got a call from the inspector who said the street address didn't exist. Now that's weird, because I'm pretty sure I live there. You would think an employee of the City of Portland might, just maybe, have a map of Portland so they can find addresses. Or a computer. Or this thing called www.portlandmaps.com, which coincidentally has my house on it. All the work I've been doing has been on an imaginary house. If only I had known, I could have just imagined all the home improvements.

We'll hopefully meet the inspector on Friday, and hopefully they will say what a great job I'm doing, take a little money under the table, and approve my work.

Talking about work, tonight was electrical night. I moved the overhead switch to a new home, but had to modify it slightly from my plan. Originally I was going to put a 3 way switch on the overhead light so you could turn it on coming through either door. But then I realized I'd have to run new wiring to the light itself, and it didn't seem worth it. So I put it on the north wall (photo below), under the windows, which is convenient if coming in to the kitchen through the pantry, basement, or dining room.


But that took a good while to run that cable. My arms need to be a bit longer. After that, I ran the cable for the oven. (photo below)

I also framed around the plumbing pipes and the electrical cable using a flat stud technique. Apparently that's the term for making a wall out of studs but having them sideways (as told by an architect friend), like my challenge that was overcome by the sweet, sweet sidecar junction boxes.

And I ran the electrical for the garbage disposal. (photo below)

The lower right is the outlet that the garbage disposal will plug into, the upper left is the switch that will turn on and off power to the outlet, which in turn will power the garbage disposal.

That's it for today. Running the cable took longer than expected. Tomorrow will be finishing the counter height outlets (except for the half wall that's going to go in the new opening between the kitchen and dining room, and probably some other electrical. Maybe a bit of the framing that's left as well. But we'll save that for tomorrow.

Day Eight: The best invention ever?

First off, if I forgot to invite anyone to this blog, my apologies... I did get a few email bounce-backs. Second, I'm not positive who S.A.D. is in the last posting's comments, but if I had time for dinner, I'd obviously have time for drywalling, or for blogging. People have time for eating? Thirdly, it's no secret I keep my hair looking just so.

Okay, on to the serious stuff. Today was a very busy day. First and foremost, behold the SIDECAR junction box in all its majesty.

(from left: sidecar box attached to wall with the plug actually fitting; 2 plugs that will be above the south counter; the sidecar box alone... wow!)

The wires for the outlet go in the little "sidecar" so everything fits nicely. Then the drywall just goes over the sidecar and poof! it's done. This means I've finished wiring one of the 2 kitchen outlet circuits. Check and check. Until it's inspected and I have to fix something.

Secondly, the plumbers finished all the rough in of the plumbing today. It will be inspected tomorrow, then we'll see the plumbers again once the cabinets and counters have been installed. That seems like a long way off...

Third, the new back door was put in. Unfortunately, this wasn't as smooth as I would have liked. I thought it was a blessing that they'd be installing it today instead of tomorrow. I was told (yesterday) to expect a call around 12pm so I could get home to let them in. At 1:3opm, I called the door guy. He said he was running behind (the scheduler did, not the actual door guy) and should be there by 2:30pm. He would call before arriving so I had time to get home. So 3:30pm arrives and I get a call, "um, yeah, I forgot to call you from the office, so I'm here at the house." Terrific. So I load up my work to finish from home and go to let the door guy in. When I arrive, he's unpacking the door. I notice right away that the hinges seem to be on the wrong side. I'm pretty observant, you know. So I call my backup, my wife. She said she thinks the same thing. So I'm talking with the door guy saying I think the hinges should be on the other side, and he shows me the bill of sale that states they should be on the left hand side, when looking at it from the OUTSIDE. We needed them on the left hand side when looking at it from the INSIDE. But, the door needed to get put in, so I called the sales guy we dealt with, let him know my predicament, and my squeaky wheel should be getting some discount. Better be, since they're also installing 3 windows.

So the guy installs the door and leaves. But as he's installing it, I also observe that the hinges are brass. Anyone that knows my wife and I knows that we hate brass. Hate it. We had asked for brushed nickel for the hinges, and a stainless steel sill plate. That wasn't there either. AND the handle was brass. So I look at my notes and there on the fax I sent to the sales guy it says I wanted nickel hinges. I can't tell you how many times I told this guy that. So now I get another phone call to them tomorrow, PLUS they didn't caulk around the door, OR put in the insulation and drywall like they were supposed to. I'd better be getting some hella scrilla back.

All this is to say: here's the door!

I think the hinges will work okay on the side they're on, but it will be hard to tell until the shelves w/ the food and the refrigerator are moved.

On to accomplishment #4... finished the wall for the bedroom. Behold.

(photo above: new bedroom wall, looking northeast from the hallway. The new back door is to the right - out of the photo.)

(photo above: new bedroom wall, looking south from inside the room. Nice place for the refrigerator, huh? The fridge is framed by what will be the doorway. A new refrigerator will magically appear in the new kitchen. Maybe we'll leave this one here for the princesses to get cold beverages and snacks...)

And I think that's it for today. Oh, I met with the contractor who will be making the cutout from the ktichen to the dining room. They're doing it tomorrow, so here's a last look at the view from the kitchen to the dining room with the studs still in place.

If the city inspector who checks out the plumbing can give me approval on the bedroom, I'll probably hang that drywall tomorrow. If not, I'll continue on electrical in the kitchen and call for the inspection on Thursday.

Did I mention the sidecar junction box? Brilliant!

Day Seven: Plug in and tune out.

I wish. Today didn't go as well as hoped...

It started out well and good. The plumbers arrived, I have them the briefing, and they got to work. They use this stuff called "aquaflex" which is flexible tubing for water. Pretty cool. Anyway, here's what they did today.

(photo above) Where the new kitchen sink will go.

(photo above) Rerouting the water pipes to the master bath so they go above the header that will frame out the opening between the kitchen and dining room.

So all of that was great (then again, I haven't tried the plumbing upstairs...). The problem came up when I started on the electrical. Well, first I framed in the south kitchen wall, the one with the 2x4s sideways (which will be a great segue into the next part, but first, the photo).

This part went fine. Then I ran the electrical cables. That took some work, as I had to drill holes through studs, the floor, and floor joists below to run the wire along the south wall (the one in the photo above). Then I hooked up a GFCI outlet on the first outlet in the run, which the refrigerator will plug into, then moved on to the plugs that are going to go on the south wall. Remember, I was so proud to find those shallow junction boxes because I thought it was going to save me so much time.

Ha.

The boxes are so shallow I can't fit an outlet in them. I have no idea what these things must be for, maybe a phone cable or tv cable... 'cause an outlet won't fit. See the photo below for proof.

Would. Not. Fit. I tried coaxing. I tried pleading. I tried swearing. I tried just jamming it in and trying to screw it in place. It just won't fit. So now I need to see if they have a junction box that's a bit deeper, or I'm going to have to put 1x4s or 2x4s on this wall to give it enough depth for the outlets. Nothing is ever as easy as it should be.

On the plus side, the plumbers should be finished tomorrow. The contractor is coming over to see what supplies she needs to put in the header on Wednesday. And the new back door is getting installed tomorrow (a day early, who ever heard of such a thing?). Once that door is in, I can finish the wall for the bedroom, run the electrical, and get it inspected so I can start drywalling it. Then I'll be back to the kitchen, while the joint compound dries, so I can hopefully get all the electrical signed off before Saturday. That way I can hang all the drywall in the kitchen and it will be relatively safe for the kids when everyone arrives home. But I'm being optimistic.

And thanks to everyone for their comments and support. It definitely helps on days like today when things don't go exactly as planned. Someone even offered to bring over dinner for me (thanks Cynthia!). The rest of you could learn a thing or two. At least drop by with a beer.

Day Six: Sink goes here.

Almost a full week into the project. The weekends are both a blessing and a curse. I can get more done in the day, but it just means even more hours of working on the house. Weekdays, I only have about 4 hours of time to do work on the house. Weekends, it's like 12 hours. I can see why construction folks call it a day early.

But the job must get done, and so I persevere. I loaded up the truck with most of the final load of debris, and pulled the carpet out of the future kitchen. Since I had to mark out where the sink, refrigerator and dishwasher are going for the plumbers (who should be showing up tomorrow), And it looks amazing. My wife, the home organizing guru and kitchen planner did an awesome job. Speaking of which, you may wonder how I have so much time to work on the house after work. Well, my wife and the kids are on the East Coast (technically Cleveland at this point) so the noise, dust, danger and disruption would only apply to me. It's been challenging being away from the family, but as I said before, the job must get done.

Actual construction started today. As I said in yesterday's post, I removed the door between the bedroom and the bathroom to use in for the new bedroom door. Here's what the doorway looks like now (left side is bedroom, right side is bathroom).


Since I had some insulation laying around, I threw that in between to help buffer the sound so the older princess can sleep without being disturbed by someone washing their hands.

After that, it was on to building the future closet for the bedroom. (2 photos below)


No, electrical wire is traditionally not supposed to be wound around the studs. Just putting it there until the new back door is put in so I can build the wall/doorway to the bedroom, and then put the switch on the other side of the door. So I constructed the closet, and rerouted all the electrical (it actually works!). Plus, I pulled the electrical for the range out of the wall so it will be ready to position in the next day or so.

I mentioned before the plumbers are coming on Monday. They're not only running pipes for the new sink, ice maker (we've never had one before... hello margaritas all the time!) and dishwasher, but also rerouting the water pipes that go up to the master bathroom (since they're currently running right through what will be the new opening to the dining room from the kitchen, as is evident in the photo below).


And now that the kitchen is all cleaned out, I'm going to start running the electrical tomorrow night. Will need to consult the electrical plans... there was a 3 way switch designated for the overhead light, but for simplicity, it might switch to a regular switch (how many times can you use "switch" in a sentence?). Here's the current state of the kitchen, looking at the south wall (photo below). Well, first I need to remove the door and frame that in, then the electrical. By the way, in an earlier post I said this wall had the 2x4s turned sideways and didn't know if they make electrical boxes that shallow. They do. Which is a good thing for me.

That's it for tonight. Tomorrw I'm hoping to see some plumbing progress when I get home, and some electrical progress before I go to sleep.