Year 2 - Day 219

Yesterday



Today (ta-dah!)


Wow, I ache a bit from floor laying yesterday - must've done a million squats or at least that's how it feels.

Back to the kitchen flooring today. The sheetrock guy is coming tomorrow (Saturday) so extra impetous to get it finished and then get the room ready for him.
Had the floor all laid by about 2:30pm then added some insulation to one of the walls, checked the height of the under-cabinet lighting wires as they looked high, repositioned them and put down drop cloths. It's all ready for sheetrock.

Then I started prepping the DR for flooring in there. There was a chance Jeff might've needed the compressor back - it is so nice - who ever invented pneumatic tools deserves some kind of prize. I also used his face nailer as once I got near the wall the nailer didn't fit in/wasn't enough room to swing the hammer.

Cut the bottom of the door jambs etc in the DR with the snazzy Shark Saw - that thing is very cool - not sure if it is Japanese but it just oozes Japanese sensibilities. A very delicate saw if that is possible to say.

Have to figure out how I will do the transition/reducer up to the DR floor height - might have to have to it "go into" the kitchen / "wrap" a little around the door jamb, so it would be cut like a fat, fat "T" with a wide trunk and very spindly short arms if you can even picture that from my crap description. Then I have to snap a square chalk line as I have nothing to go on. Kitchen was nice as I just carried on from the existing boards. It'll be a my first chalk line - I will feel very "pro" when I do that. Will feel very "am" if line is not straight and floor looks crap. Ha, ha.

Year 2 - Day 218

The laying begins. Slow at first as I had to shave down the varnish on the old boards that had run down into the gaps.

Took today and tomorrow off from work to lay the kitchen floor. Jeff loaned me his compressor and I rented a flooring nailer from Home Depot. ($37/day for the nailer). Jeff's loan of the compressor saves me $38/day - thanks Jeff!) Laying hardwood flooring is just steady - you can't go fast and you'll back after an hour and think "christ, is that all I've laid?!"

Anyhoo - I got a little better at it and managed to get about 2/3 of the kitchen done.

Better yet Adelson, our sheetrock guy came around. He is coming to sheetrock on Saturday - fabulous! And then he'll come back Monday for a mud etc etc. That is great timing.

Year 2 - Day 215

Insulation is done. No more prickly wrists.




A very exciting week is coming up: cabinets are on the truck! Appliances are being shipped to the retailer. Finished the plumbing and the insulation this past weekend. Bob was a superstar on the plumbing - we cut the holes for the pipe just a tad low in the stud (my error I believe - didn't think about the drop we needed) and he hand filed and chiselled it to the correct height so that we had a nice drop on the pipe. Temptation was to not do the whole job but I kept saying to him "think of your blocked up sink and think how 30 minutes more now will save all that smelly bother". And on (and on) he filed. Bless him.

I finished the insulation. So this morning I am waiting for the building inspector and hoping he'll give us the sign-off to sheetrock. Called the sheetrock guy (via his friend as his English is not good enough to understand on the phone) and he is coming over again for a last look as we will need to use 3/4 " sheetrock on some walls to match up to the old plasterwork and then 1/2" on the walls that are totally new.

I think I'll be taking a few days off this week to lay the hardwood floor so as to keep things moving along. Still a ways to go but quite exciting as everything is really coming together and we can see the end in sight: the list of to do's for this room is getting much shorter! The pile of tools that we have amassed doing it is getting taller!

Also called another guy to give a quote on installing the cabinets. I'd like to give it a try but we have a slightly tricky boxing in / fake door situation to cover up the vents in the corner and I think by the time we get to that stage of things we might be more than happy to pay someone to do it and get it done efficiently. Current quote is $3600 - how can installing cabinets cost so much? They'll help install appliances so we won't have to incur that (which BTW is also another big gouge - $125 to install a D/W?) but I'd like to get it down a little if possible.

We've had some good price karma recently: the Samsung French Door fridge arrived from Lowes. We had bought it when they had a $150 gift card rebate so that saved us some $$. Then when it arrived there were some tiny scuffs on the door. We tried to buff them out but they were not budging. They are sort of those imperceptable yet you know they are there things. So we called Lowes and they said "well either send it back or we'll give you 15% off". 15% = $270. For that we could live with it so we got the fridge at $420 (23%) off retail.

Then we happened to be shopping for shelving for the FR and ran across some rugs on sale in Pottery Barn. I usually can't afford them but the colors on this rug worked and it was on sale reduced from $479 to $299 for an all-wool 5' x 8' rug. Bought a swatch ($20) to check it worked colorwise, got home and called the store to check they had it in stick. Went over and told the assistant that we'd take a 3' x 5" (advertised price $179, $129 on sale) and a 5' x 8' ($479, $299 on sale). So she kind of fussed around a bit and kept telling us we'd ordered the 8' x 10'. And then rang it up saying "OK, the 3' x 5' is $69 and the 5' x 8' is $129." I thought maybe there was another discount that we hadn't seen as there were 50% off signs all over the store. Then she kind of paused and chatted with a colleague and the colleague said "no, if you told them that then you have to charge them that" so I guess she did get confused and we got the $179 rug for $69 and the $479 rug for $129. 2 rugs, value $660 for $198 (a 70% saving). Pretty soon we'll have saved enough on dings and screw-ups to make ordering the induction stove top a "push"!!

There was one other nice deal we got but I can't remember what it was.

Still to do:
- Desqueak the sub floor (us)
- Lay hardwood floor (us)
- Finish hardwood floor (us)
- Sheetrock/mud/prime (Adelson)
- Paint the bits that show - ceiling and backsplash (us)
- Have Ray (HVAC guy) come and install duct for toe-kick register
- Pick cabinet installer (Briganti or MPR)
- Get cabs and appliances delivered
- Get cabs/appliances installed
- Decide if we really do like that cabinet hardware we ordererd. (I do, Bob is not so sure.)
- Take moment to stand back and admire sexy cabinets and applaud/breathe out!
- Call countertop guy to come and measure
- Call electrician (needs to install outlet in end of 'L', put in boxes for appliances and finish up)
- Measure and buy sink
- Countertop guy installs counter/sink/stove top
- Take moment to stand back and admire sexy kitchen and applaud/breathe out!
- (Hope that this is it) Oh wait ... un pack all kitchen crap back into new kitchen including Bob's birthday All-Clad pan set - nice!

Somewhere in there I'm sure there's one or two more sign-offs from the inspector.

Year 2 - Day 201

Before



After - New Window R.O is boarded up with primed plywood 'til the window arrives.


Crikey. Using all my childhood years of Erector set experience, Crossword puzzling, Sudoku mashing and any other problem solving skills (or was it just blind faith?) I finally tackled moving the living room window. It took 2 days to work up the courage and the plan. Gotta say the SawzAll, the Miter Saw, the Circular Saw and the PowerDriver have more than earned their keep. Prize for best $12.96 ever invested goes to the meek Stanley Super Pry Bar.
I still went to bed hearing every creak of the house and wondering if it was about to all crash to the ground. Just need to frame in the sill plate.

Yr 2, Day 201

Before



After


Crikey. Using all my childhood years of Erector set experience, Crossword puzzling, Sudoku mashing and any other problem solving skills (or was it just blind faith?) I finally tackled moving the living room window. It took 2 days to work up the courage and the plan. Gotta say the SawzAll, the Miter Saw, the Circular Saw and the PowerDriver have more than earned their keep. Prize for best $12.96 ever invested goes to the meek Stanley Super Pry Bar.

Year 2, Day 199

So, it has been a while again but not for lack of being busy. Cabinets and appliances are ordered. Heating ducts are done. Plumbing is done until cabs are in. Electrical is 80% done and only stopeed because couldn't get a frigging carpenter to return my call so Bob and I are blocking up and moving the windows. We almost killed each other yesterday - not literally but he wanted to go out to dinner and the project wrecked it.

So today he left for LLWS and I got on with stuff - removed the "thermostat" column as we call it and installed the joist hanger. Bit of a precaution as the beam is built into the chimney column but for $5 for the hanger and a box of nails I consider it a bargain. Of course it wasn;t straight forward. I took off the remaining top plate of the wall we removed and it was hiding a double joist. So there was a double joist up to one side of the beam at 90 degrees a joist and then a single beam on the other. So I blocked out the single side and installed the hanger. When the inspector comes I'll have him look at it again.

With the column removed I could remove the stud at the wall junction so that I can block it and line up the outside corner for drywall plus I learnt a dandy way to get the toenailed nails out so that then you just lean the stud over and it pulls off the nails at the top plate. So now the kitchen looks even more vast (it got considerably vaster Friday p.m. when I took up the linoleum and plywood subfloor (revealing the original subfloor - nice long boards - on the diagonal - good quality stuff).

Then I turned my attention to the window to be blocked up - it was quite easy - three studs cut and inserted into the opening lined up with the joists above. Then I checked if the 2 pieces of OSB left by the roofers from last Fall were big enough and together they fit the space perfectly with out cutting - very wierd. Like they had just been sitting ont he porch waiting for that moment. Then ran to Lowes for some black tar paper - that is up and at least that window is good. I will check with Mac at work - do a quick framing consult with him on the other more involved window project and then the electrician can come back. Once that is finished the inspectors can come and do their thing and I can repair and lay the floor.

Cabs and appliances should be here within 2 wks so need to hussle. I am enjoying working on the house but not fitting it around work. It;s slow right now at work so potential to leave early exists which gives me longer evenings but nothing beats a asolid two0day weekend working on that stuff.

Laters.