Day 180+: Flooring & Bath

While I was in Singapore, the hardwood floors on the 1st floor were re-fineshed and matching floors were installed in the new family room, you can see this room has been painted too! This past week the tile has been installed in the shower and on the bathroom floor. Check out the wainscoating in the bathroom. This was salvaged from the old porches which was on the ceiling. The new floors look awesome and we are trying to prevent them from scratches in all of this mess. The small hexagon tiles were put in the laundry room downstairs. The marble is in the bath upstairs.

Day 160+

We are knee deep in painting. John sprayed on the primer and ceiling paint over the last week or two. Thanks to our friend Susan we have finished two rooms now! The picture here is one of the upstairs bedroom being painted and the finished product. We also finished up one of the downstairs bedrooms. John resumed installed hardwood floors upstairs. All the interior doors are now hung (then taken down for painting). We are getting most of the work done at nights and on weekends. It has been extremely busy. Check out the crazy scaffolding to get at the ceiling in the stairway.

Days 130-160: Everything Going On!

The last 30 days have been insanely busy. Just about everything imaginable happened in the last month. Here is the running list: drywall texturing, stucco, roof and gutters, HVAC completed, electrical final, plumbing - gas test passed!, this was mostly the contractors. John and I have been doing many, many things with some friends help. Between installing moulding & trim, caulking, painting, staining, installing closets, picking out tile, picking out cabinets, finalizing contractor payment, cleaning up the yard, moving temporary walls, re-installing temporary walls, cleaning, installing flooring, moving stuff from storage to the basement, filing police reports since my bike was stolen (not a cheap one either), sending out windows for stained glass, figuring out landscape plan, trips to home center; I have not had time to blog. And that day job gets in the way too. We prepped and stained/painted nearly all the new 13 windows/door (this took forever!). Thank you so much to Jeff B. for helping us out. A picture of the french doors in the master bedroom are above. You can also see the crown molding and trim around all the windows has been installed. Thanks Ron! The outside of the house needs some paint around the windows and corbels put in and we are pretty close on the outside. The picture of the 1st floor you can see the drywall texture, etc. We started to install the hardwood flooring in the master closet yesterday. Time to get back to work! (If you want to help out we have lots of painting to do, please call!) LL

Day 126: Drywall Up!

The insulation and then drywall was installed in late August. Here is John taking down the ceiling in the dining room in our living space. We are now at the point where workers are invading our area. We took down a temporary wall in the dining room so they could tie in the ceiling, now that leaves the bathroom accessible to them and coincidentally the porto potty was removed. The arch shown is where the old sliding door went into the porch. Now that goes into the new family room. Woo Hoo! We expanded our temporary living/kitchen area into the full living room! Our little space was getting pretty cramped. John broke his little toe on the ottoman, ouch.

Day 114: Blah, blah, blah

Overall we passed a major inspection today! All is good with a few minor corrections, the inspected the framing, plumbing, electrical, etc. We can proceed with insulation and then drywall. The first picture is the back of the house with the first coat of stucco. They will not finish stucco until drywall is completed (or else the drywall guys crack the stucco, the house is in for some pounding!). Take note of the beautiful backyard of dirt, which I have to walk thru to do laundy in the backyard. I like to call it laundry acrobatics given all the items to jump over with a laundry basket in hand, meanwhile trying not to drop anything. I still can't believe we are living thru this mess.

The second picture is John and neighbor John digging a trench for the sewer line, not sure how John talked John into this one, but he sure helped out! Thanks John! I was going to post a picture of the clog in the sewer line but thought it was too disguisting. I am pretty sure we got to the "root" of the problem. Two 45 degree turns in the old original 1937 clay sewer line did not help. One of them had some major roots in it (and some other stuff...). If I get enough comments/requests to post that picture I will, but only if you are ready.......

The last picture is the basement, the walls were stucco'd and all the rough electrical is done! Enjoy! LL

Day 105: The latest

The roof is wrapping up! The first coat of stucco is on the house too. The inside picture shows the future kitchen. You can see that the electrical is being installed as well. As for the picture of those beautiful bundles of shingles.... Well, I spent an entire weekend pulling/pounding every single staple out of those shingles (and this picture doesn't even show all of them...). They once were on the house and we saved them for re-use on the garage. I even bundled them up nicely. Given all the slivers I got at least I saved some money out of the deal. Still not sure if that was worth it, but I guess I can chalk up an A for being "green"! LL

Day 94: Roofing

The roof is being put on now! The scaffolding is up for the stucco to be put on next. On the inside the electrical is being installed and the plumbing is all completed. After the electrical, the drywall will go in! We are in the process of picking out kitchen cabinets now too. LL

Day 83 - Framing Almost Done

Framing crew is almost done, a lot of odds and ends at this point. The fix is done for the front left window that was too close to the roof below it. All the roof sheathing is in place. The bldg inspector was out yesterday inspecting the shear walls, and since roof sheathing was already done he approved that as well, which was a nice bonus.

Stucco scaffolding is up. Working with SMUD to get utility moved along the fenceline so we dont have wires across the backyard... week and a half and counting waiting for the beaurocrats.

Rest of the upstairs windows are up. Plumbing mostly done, and electrical boxes and lighting cans are mostly in.

Day 78 - Windows and Scaffolding

Most of the windows were installed. Didn't install upstairs French door because waiting for drywall to be loaded in first. Roof decking mostly completed.

Stucco crew has put up their scaffolding. Plumbing drains are mostly installed and started working on water supply lines.

Day 74: Making Flooring

The house is coming along. Most the windows have been installed now and the roof should be sheathed now. Sorry I do not have any pictures of the windows installed right now. We left the construction for a week and are in Wisconsin/Michigan now. This is a tad scary leaving a construction site... In Wisconsin John's dad is making the rest of the oak flooring for the upstairs and kitchen. Here are some pictures of the work in progress at the mill. The pictures on the right is the oak planks that came out of the kiln and are ready for planing! We decided on 4" planks for the kitchen and the upstairs is 2 1/4" width. LL

Day 69: Dormer & Decking

The dormer started to get framed up this week. Also, the roof is getting decked. The drain lines for the plumbing are going in too. The electrician came this week and moved the panel and re-mounted it temporarily in a different spot, so the wall could be sheared up under the panel. Oh and the basement was stucco'd over a week ago. Looks great! John is working on installing the window in the basement. The house windows will be installed this week too, John is holding one up in the photo.

The air quality has been horrible in Sacramento from all the fires. My temporary wall is doing little to keep it out! But we are still surviving in our little living space :)) Have a great 4th of July! LL

Day 60.5 - Designer's Concept

Designer Ted stopped by to look at the situation. Here is Lisa's idea and his sketch of workaround solution for the window on the left side of upstairs. Some work to do on the design with the engineer but I think this is what we will be doing. JM

Day 60: Roof lines!

The front half of the roof structure is going up! The last picture is the upstairs master bedroom looking up at the coffered ceiling. We ran into one major issue so far. The upstairs window on the left is too tall for the space once sheathing and roofing is added. So we have a few options: 1) new window; 2) move the window to the left; 3) raise the window and pop it into the roofline. Number 1 costs money, 2 is not feasible as this is a shear wall & it costs money (damn CA, crazy laws), and 3 also costs money. In any event the designer came by today and we will attempt option 3 and 1. I have a schetch of option 1 and it looks pretty cool. LL

Day 54!

Check it out! We have roof rafters going up. It is nice to see how the outside of the house is going to look. Hopefully OK.... The designer stopped by yesterday to figure out the stair design. Also, tomorrow the inside walls of the basement will be stucco'd. Lots of decision making going on. It all is going quite well. John and I haven't disagreed too much (of course he is out of town, so that makes it easier) :)) Over and out. LL

Day 51

Framing for all the walls is done and the house is being sheathed. Of course there was more demolition involved though. The middle bedroom walls and ceiling were all completely gutted. I hate that part. The stairs to the 2nd story are in! The second story is framed and next they will start framing the roof and all. So exciting. And the subfloor is all done on the 1st floor now too!

Days 45 & 46

Day 45 & 46: The second story walls started to get framed up these days. Pretty cool to walk around up there. On the left is a picture of what the back of the house looks like and the one on the right is the 2nd story sub-floor already in. Also on the picture on the left you can see our one of our newer windows from the downstairs bedroom had to be takend out (leaning against the fence). We need to reuse that window, but it cracked upon removal. Will have to get new glass in there! LL

Day 44 - 2nd Floor Framing

On Monday Day 41 the 3 framers started laying out 2nd floor beams and joists. They started off by tearing open celing of dining room and our middle bedroom (shown) to remove existing 2x4 ceiling joists to make way for new 2"x14" LVL beams.

On Tuesday Day 44 they completed framing out the floorplan for the 2nd story, including the cantilever on south side. 2nd story walls should start popping up next. -JM

Day 42 - Decking and Walls

The framers started work on Friday Day 40 and made a lot of progress in a few days. On Friday they installed sill plate on the basement wall and silent floor girders for the 1st floor addtion.

2 guys worked on Sunday and got the 1st floor walls up, including fitting some of the support beams in existing walls to support 2nd floor.

On Sunday one of the framers accidentally nailed his foot to the floor. He was wearing steel toe boots, but he accidentally bumped the nailer just past where the steel toe ends. His buddy pulled the nail out with a pair of pliers. Once we got his shoe off we were amazed that the nail missed bone and tendons, and only went through meat next to ball/knuckle for the big toe. Lisa came home at that time and cleaned him up and bandaged him and I gave him a fresh pair of socks. He insisted on continuing work for a couple more hours. Tough dude.

Anyway, can now start to see the outline for the new kitchen and family room - JM.

Day 39.75

Just when you thought demo was over....it continues. I am in awe at how much of the house is really gone. You are looking at the picture which used to be the kitchen & laundry room, left side and part of dining room... or the future kitchen & new basement wall! I heard framing is starting tomorrow (Friday) & on Sunday! We get to listen to more Euro Trash Disco ! We are living behind the temporary walls on the right. It is not very airtight but I put up some plastic to keep the dust out. Also, not sound proof either. I hear all the construction guys' jokes when they think I am not around. So hilarious! Much talk about vibrators, caulk, etc. LL

Day 39 - Final Demo

Final concrete poured yesterday, incl. filling basement walls, basement floor, and all the retrofitted footings and piers to hold up the 2nd story (about 8 of seperate locations). Will add pix later.

Today the demo crew is finishing up what they started last week. Neighbors just sent over this picture. If you look through the back door and windows you can see there is nothing behind them, just a facade at this point.

Also since we dont have enough destruction going one, I have also asked the demo crew to tear off the garage roofing. It has shake roof that is probably 40 years old or more, so I will replace this with shake torn off the house, which was only 4 years old and in good condition.

Day 34 & 36-37

Day 34 I arrived back from Singapore to a completely demolished house. Kitchen, roof, etc. I still can't believe we are actually doing this. Actually I think the driver who dropped me off was more in awe than me!

Day 36-37: On Memorial Day we listened to "Euro Trash Disco" all day. We somewhat helped out by BBQ'ing for the guys. Nearby the back steps were being demo'd right next to the gas meter, it only got hit once from what I saw... (as I nervously flipped burgers next to an open flame). Meanwhile John was waiting to come out of the hole for lunch. I finally got him in there!

The forms for all the footings were completed, giant holes under the entire existing foundation. Today the forms passed inspection. Pouring tomorrow!