| The drywall is completely done. Well, it's all up, It still needs to be taped & mudded and finished, but all the board is up. It really seems like a house now. And there is white dust everywhere! |
| OK, a really positive thing. Copper. We really lucked out on our timing with copper. The price of copper has gone up 600% in the last two months. We got our copper plumbing and copper wiring in before the prices started to go crazy. That's a big WHEW!!!! Our electrician discovered that Home Depot had raised their prices on copper wire, but Lowe's hadn't yet, so he went around and bought up all the copper wire he could at Lowe's. |
| We are having some water infiltration in the basement storage area, where the walls meet the floor. It's on the high side of the house, the side that has the most earth pressing against it. So, if we were gonna have a problem anywhere, that's where we would have it. But, we've got a warranty on the work, so we'll see what they want to do to fix it. |
| More good news; the supplier took fireplace #2 back, without a re-stocking fee. Yeah! |
| And oh my do we have slugs. ewwwwww. In the backyard. A few on the patio, but alot in the backyard. And I don't understand it, because there isn't anything there for them to feed on, it's mostly bare clay with few weeds. There are lush plants growing in the buffer, why don't they stay there??? |
| OK, so I need to revise my Hot tub entry to hot tub..... hot tub...... No more caps. It's soooooo good. We had our inanagural soak on Monday night (after the final episode of 24, Day 5. Jack! ) and all we have to say is ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.....ohhhhhhhhhhh...... It's wonderful. One seat focuses on the lower back, one seat focuses on the upper back, and then we have the recliner seat. You lay like you would in a recliner and there are jets all up and down your legs. I also really like the foot massager in the other corner, you can hold whatever body part over it you want, it gives a very intense massage, it's so multi-functional. We do have to move how the cover opens as it's blocking a bit of the view, but it's completely private. The stars came out last night and it was lovely. |
| Drywall started today. We have a ceiling. And my sewing room has walls. All I can say is Wow. What an amazing difference. Everyone said that the house would get smaller with drywall, but it's really just gotten more real. It's like putting the top crust on the pie, the inside isn't ugly, but it's not pretty, but it's just finished so nicely with the top crust in place. My sewing room is the first room completely done, and it just makes it, well, it makes it feel like a room. A real room. A room that I'll be spending lots of time in. |
| In preparation for drywall, Mark finished all the insulation on the main floor, and I helped some on Monday! I did some of the pipe insulation with the funny foam tubes that go around the water pipes. It was an interesting exercise in 45 degree angles. |
| Our mortgage broker came out and looked at the house. He expects it appraise for significantly more than the bank currently has it valued at. Right now, at the current value, we're at 20% equity, but we could be as much as 30% or 40%, depending on what it appraises at. This is very, very good. I was really worried that we were overvalued, but looking at what other houses are going for in the area, our house has so many other plusses. |
| The past two nights we've gone for a dip in the hot tub, and with the sewing room drywalled, I'm beginning to really get that glimpse of House, of Home. Place where we will get to be. Place where we will live. Place where we will raise a family. Place where we will have family and friends over. Place where Garrett and Parker and Jakob will want to come and play. Place where kids will run around and adults will enjoy themselves. Our place. We've been waiting so long, it's really starting to feel real. |
| This week Mark was down south with Jim earning some money (instead of saving us money) so not alot happened with the house. He did get to buy a paint sprayer for that job, so our house will benefit from that too. Cool. |
| The drywall got pushed to Monday. Delays, delays. Delays are killing us. 85 days till close of loan. eek. |
| The city came out on Friday to turn on the water, which is cool, except for a key issue. The fire sprinkler system works and passed inspection, but the intake water pipe from the water main is not yet connected to the fire system valve in the house (I know this doesn't make sense, just go with me on this). So the fire sprinkler company was supposed to come before Friday to put in the missing piece of pipe from the intake to the valve. And they didn't. And the city turned on the water on Friday. Well, on the bright side, we did want to wash the floor downstairs. But not soak the wood, insulation, and ruin some staged drywall. So we have to dry out the basement........ Again. We had to give Dad's fans back cuz he needed them for work, so I we may be renting some, and just take the cost right off the Sprinkler system bill. Seems fair to me. |
| OK, some good news. HOT TUB!!!! Part of why we were trying to get the water hooked up (other than obvious one that the house needs water) was that the Hot Tub was being delivered on Saturday. HOT TUB!!!!! Had to take my suit with me to work on Sunday so that we could try it out Sunday night. Now Mark won't need me to use the massager on his back every night! HOT TUB!!!!! We had a Hot Tub at the boathouse and used it alot, and really enjoyed looking out at the view, and how it made us feel, and yes, I know it's cliché, and not part of a new, old house, but I don't care. HOT TUB!!!!! Thanks to Mike Sexton (electrician), Greg Bruley (UBuildIt), and my Dad from helping out with the delivery of the tub. From what I understand that sucker was heavy. I had a previous engagement that day, so I couldn't be present. darn it. HOT TUB! |
| The faucet & bathroom accessory order came in, and the faucets are beautiful! The handles on the roman tub filler do match!!!!! Yeah!! The tub spout is beautiful, except we won't be using it as we're having the ceiling tub filler. The accessories (towel bar, etc) are as well made as the faucets are, so we're very happy. That and everything matches. Oh, and the bar faucet is an exact match to the pantry sink faucet that we got used at Second Use. So, the pantry faucet is not quite as old and vintage as we thought, but oh well! |
| The drywallers came and dropped off materials (staging) and they will often times move things out from between the studs to move the big sheets of drywall through the walls, but they ripped out alot of the electrical work, and didn't put it back, or it got put back all sloppy and crooked. They'll be getting the bill for the electrician to fix it all deducted from their invoice. Once again, seems fair to me. |
| We're having a but of water infiltration in the basement storage area where the walls meet the slab (see pics). We have a warranty on it, so that's another phone call we'll be making. |
| We passed our insulation and rough framing inspections so we are green light for drywall. They're starting on Wednesday, so we're right on track. |
| The fireplace chimney pipe, top & all the pieces came to just over $1300 at Direct Buy. I can only imagine what it would've been through the local supplier. And frankly, I am happy to spend that money to get the fireplace we want. The fireplace is the focal point of the room (other than the view), so a second-rate fireplace just wasn't going to cut it. We're building a dream house, not just a house, so it needs to have items of a consistent quality, and the fireplace was definitely a lower quality. Several of the contractors have mentioned that... "in a house this nice..." or "in a house like this..." we need to keep things up to a certain level. It's just too bad we didn't come to this realization before fireplace #2. |
| Went over to M&D's for Mother's Day, and as I walk in, I see a piece of the fire sprinkler pipe sitting on the end rock next to their walkway, charred quite a bit (see pics). Apparently Dad & his blowtorch had some fun. 45 seconds of direct blow torch contact on the pipe only resulted in heavy charring of the outer layer, hardly any loss of thickness, and the inside of the pipe is pristine. Good to know! |
| We ordered our kitchen cabinets on Thursday and took a trip to Canyon Creek on Friday to check some of the final details. We also ordered my vanity for the spa, the corner china cabinet for the dining room, and the china cabinet for under the stairs. We're still trying to decide on what to do in the pantry. |
| The matte nickel finish clawfoot tub contraption came and it is beautiful! I returned the polished nickel kid bath faucet today and re-ordered it in the matte nickel finish. When the woman timidly said, 'you know there is a 15% restocking fee?' I said no problem, it certainly beats the restocking fee on the $700 item. |
| The framing for the deck is finished. I somehow managed to not take a picture of it yet, so that'll be next. |
| So, I'm doing two posts at once, so I suggest reading the 5/10 post first. It'll give you more context. |
| Fireplace. Mark went a picked up fireplace #2 early Thursday morning. Mark and Cody and the chimney guys uninstall fireplace #1, and install fireplace #2, and install all the chimney pipe. OK fine. Except. It sucks. It sucks big time. It's just bad. The fireplace is small, it's shallow, the 'brick' looks fake, the 'floor' doesn't even look like brick, the log-holder is crappy and permanently installed. We hate it. So on Friday when I'm out at the house we try and talk ourselves into it, 'it's the solution, it'll work' etc, etc. It's not working. A few tears... who shed them isn't important... OK. So, we wake up Saturday morning and when I ask Mark how he slept, he said fine until he woke up at 7:30 and decided we were going to buy the more expensive chimney pipe and was I OK with that, and I couldn't say yes fast enough. So he was already going to Direct Buy to finish our kitchen cabinet order, and so he ordered the chimney pipe as well. The drywallers are starting on Wednesday, so the plan is to leave a section right above the fireplace open that will be covered by the mantle so we can access the top of the fireplace, and leave the niche in the bedroom open so that we can access the chimney chaseway. We should be able to install the pipe either from the roof (screw two pieces together, and lower them down, screw next piece on, lower it, and so on) or from the bedroom. The 'non-drywalled' section in the bedroom will be an art niche so we can finish it separately, or beadboard panel it, or do some other finish. So, waiting for the chimney pipe won't delay the drywall. We ordered it from Direct Buy and got it for about 2/3rd the price we would've got it from the dealer we were working with. And we are happy to pay it. So yes, we installed a fireplace, removed it, installed a second one, removed it, and re-installed the first one. |
| The insulation is done. The downspouts are done. The deck frame is done. Things are getting crossed off the list. |
| On Monday, they came to do the fire inspection. They pressurize water into the pipes of the fire system and make sure it holds. Well, our installer forgot to glue one of the joints, so the basement got quite wet again. (turn it off! turn it off! ) That's OK, it dried before, it'll dry again. So, they fixed it and then came back on Tuesday and the sprinkler system passed inspection. Yahoo!!! The one thing we've installed in the house that I hope to never use. |
| The fireplace. So, the other smaller chimney pipe, that will fit, will be $1400 just for the pipe, not including installation. The fireplace was just $700. So the solution is switching to a smaller fireplace, with a few less features, that uses the smaller pipe for a total of $600, installed. But, we may get stuck with the current fireplace, unable to return it. So, maybe we'll use it as an outdoor fireplace. Which is cool, except that we're kinda being forced to do it. Or, maybe we'll eBay it. We'll see. |
| We are at 96 days until our loan closes and we need to have an occupancy permit. The occupancy permit doesn't necessarily mean that the house is finished, but it means that it's safe to live in. Ubuildit says that it's generally 100 days from the start of drywall till you finish. So we are hot on the trail to get drywall started next week. The insulators are due to start working Wednesday afternoon. |
| We spent Tuesday evening spraying down the mold with bleach. We forgot to order up the mold abatement guys before the insulation started, and if we delay them, it'll push us back over a week to start drywall and that's time we can't afford to give up. Now that the house is dry, the mold isn't growing anymore. Hopefully this isn't a decision that we live to regret. |
| Wednesday the insulation started, they started working on the deck, and the drywallers are scheduled for Monday!!!!! |
| Have I mentioned the deck? The 'patio' off the kitchen/pantry (as opposed to the 'backyard' down by the hot tub), ended up having a really low level of dirt, compared with the level of the doors, like 4-5 feet lower. It would take several truckloads of dirt carted around the house with a wheelbarrow to get it up to the right level. So we're having a deck that will come out from the two patio doors about 8 feet, and then have steps down to the ground level. And since Jean wanted decking on the patio and Mark wanted a concrete patio, this is a nice compromise, a little of both. |
| Spent the day yesterday at the house cleaning up. It took me 8 hours to vacuum the house. Now, that was with the shop vac. I did the floor, between the studs, and got all the sawdust, wood chips, nails, screws lying around. It was a big job. While I was doing that, Mark framed in the opening to the entertainment center. It's cool to watch him work, he even looks like he knows what he's doing. =] |
| Apparently, I must do a good job of 'blocking out' problems because I forgot to write all about the newest big issue. The fireplace. OK, first we wanted this really large one, but it wasn't approved for installation in Washington State, so none of the installers would touch it. OK, fine, we understand. We could've ordered it direct through DB, but we didn't want to take the chance that it wouldn't pass inspection. Trying to avoid the need to 'rip out' anything, you know, we don't really like negative work. So, we found another fireplace, approved, but still really large. Ok good, bought it, Mark installed it to save $$ and then we met with the installers yesterday to do the chimney. Well, the chimney won't fit. The chimney pipe is made of two pieces, 10" inside diameter, 15" outside diameter, plus a 2" clearance all around, so a total of 19". OK, so we can fit it from the main floor to the top floor (have to do some trimming/re-working of studs), we can make it work on the top floor (loose niche for artwork, allright, OK), but the final chaseway up to the top of the roof/chimney is only 14" wide. Not gonna fit, not even close, there's talk of ripping out roof and siding. Uh no, big NO. Now, the fireplace has to do with well, fire & smoke and I don't really mind following the fire codes, in fact, I'm quite happy to follow the fire codes. So, this leaves us with a couple of choices; 1) get a smaller fireplace (smaller chimney pipe), 2) line the upper portion (14" part) with custom-made sheet metal and then just have the center 10" pipe running through it (this will work), or 3) we found some way more expensive chimney pipe that is 10' inside, 12" outside, that is zero-clearance so we don't need the 2" exterior buffer. So, we'll probably do option 2 or 3. We really don't want to get a smaller fireplace, and we'll have to figure out if option 2 or 3 is cheaper. The irony is that option 2 may be cheaper because the 15" pipe the installers have is $17.00 a foot installed, but if we end up doing the sheet metal thing, we only have to do the 10" pipe, which is way cheaper by itself, so the reduction in cost of the pipe may cover the cost of the custom sheet metal. Maybe. We still have to do some research, we need to talk to the inspector. And we need to do it fast. This will hold up drywall big time. |
| Remember the Roman tub filler 'handles that don't match the sinks' - well I talked to the company and they claim it's a mis-print in the catalog. OK, we'll keep our fingers crossed that that is true. |
| Hope I'm not getting too ranty. I'm trying to present a clear picture of the process and all the stuff we're going through. Everything is overcome-able, but it usually a question of expense. Sure, you throw money at any problem, and you can solve it, but we do have a budget, and that budget has an end. I realize that some of the struggles we have may seem trivial in the broad scheme of things going on in the world, but I'm trying to do two things with our website; 1) keep people informed (and perhaps a bit entertained) about the progress on the house, and 2) I'm trying to keep a diary for Mark & myself of what this process was like for us. When you get to the end of something this big, it's hard to remember all the little things that happened, that went into it, and we want to have a good record. There are alot of day-to-day struggles that Mark goes through in managing the project that don't make it to the website. The other thing is it's like customer service, if it goes smoothly, you don't notice, if it gets screwed up, it's a story. I'm trying to keep an accurate reporting, but sometimes it skews towards that drama side of things. |
| OK, so on that note, some good news: We bought out kitchen countertop. $2000 for the four pieces that will make up the counter top, budget line item has $5800 in it. We need one more small one in the laundry room, and to buy the butcher block for the island, but we are way ahead on this line-item. Yeah! |
| Gutter guy was out putting the gutters on. They look pretty good. Struggling a bit with where to put some of the down spouts, but we're managing. |
| OK, so now for the satin nickel vs. polished nickel drama (warning, this may get confusing and boring). So, you may recall that I bought the clawfoot tub contraption in polished nickel. We're doing satin nickel in all the other bathrooms because we found the company that made high-quality inexpensive faucets and accessories and they don't offer polished nickel (found them after I ordered the tub contraption). We've been having a hard time finding accessories to match the polished nickel of the tub thing to all the other things (faucet, towel rack, etc.). So, we're at Direct Buy today, and I'm looking through the folder of purchases we've made and I notice that the tub contraption was ordered in satin nickel, not polished nickel, like I thought. One part of the order says 'nickel' and one part says 'matte nickel' so we double-check and yes, it was ordered in the matte nickel. OK, so I panic for a bit, and the gal at DB puts in a request to change the order. Ok, good. I don't know where I got confused, I don't know why I didn't remember what I ordered, I usually remember stuff like that pretty well. So, then we discuss it some more, and realize how much easier it would be just leave it all satin nickel, everything would match, it's cheaper, and easier. So we decide to just leave the order as it is. So, this means that we have to return/re-order the faucet from Home Depot in the other finish (15% restocking fee is cheaper than changing the DB order). That, and the Kohler toilet handle will have to be changed/re-ordered as it's coming in the polished nickel. But I think that when we get the clawfoot tub feet nickel-plated that they can do that piece as well. Oh good lord, such drama over such small details. My life is rough. |
| We have power!!!! Yahoo!!!! They came, they installed. Our meter is at zero. |
| The plumbers finished up everything they needed to do for drywall. |
| Someone asked how close the neighbors are so I've included a panoramic picture of the house and the closest neighbor so you can get an idea of how close they are. Check out the May pics! |
| So, now all the 'little things' are starting. Mark & I are both pretty easy going, reasonable people. But, we're pretty particular about things on the house, and especially finish work on the house. Up until this point, things didn't have to be pretty. Yes, the light switch needed to be in about the right place, but how the wiring to it looked didn't matter. So, we're having more changes, and 'little things' to fix, now that we've gotten to the finish stage. We both take great care in home improvement stuff that we do, and we do a nice, high-quality, attention-to-detail type of job. We get the excess glue off the edges, we make sure things are straight, we keep a straight paint line and touch-up any goofs, that type of stuff, we care about the details. The contractors don't care quite as much as we do. For instance, one of the knee braces got put on crooked, it was one of the corner ones so when you looked up at it lined up with the side of the house, it was a good 4" out, so we asked them to fix it. There are a couple more that aren't perfectly straight, but by small amounts, nothing glaring, we're not asking them to fix those, we're reasonable. Well the really-crooked knee-brace was notched into the fascia board, so when they moved it, they had to re-notch the fascia board. But they didn't fix the now empty original notch where the knee brace was originally. It doesn't look good. C'mon guys! One of the belly-boards (horizontal trim) wasn't lying flat against the side of the house because of something sticking out underneath it. Mark asked them to router (carve) out behind it so it would lie flat. But instead, they just cut off part of the belly board that was causing it to not be flat! So, now the piece that they cut doesn't line up with the piece that it's next to. Good lord. It's gonna be a long three months. |
| We found a cool faucet for the kid's bathroom. We ordered the clawfoot tub shower contraption in polished nickel, but we've been having a dickens of a time finding an antique-looking polished nickel faucet that isn't $500. So we found this kinda cool one at Home Depot, check out the picture of it in the pics. |
| Spent half the day at Direct Buy on Friday. I about blew my stack. We'd find a faucet that we liked in a satin nickel finish (1 of 4 finishes), but then the matching accessory line (towel rack, robe hook, etc.) isn't made in that finish, but only two of the four finishes. OK fine. Try another manufacturer. We find one that we like, affordable, nice finish. OK, we have to buy the Roman tub filler (what they call the faucet for the tub), but the frickin' handles on the Roman tub filler don't match the handles on the faucets in the same 'line.' ARGHHHHHH!!! |
| Oh, gee, I forgot to mention the obvious. The power company didn't come to hook up the power on Friday. So the hole filled up with water in the rain on Saturday. Right now they're due to come on Tuesday. Breath not being held. |