Laurie's World

OK…so that took me a few days more than I thought to get back on here to post an update…But I have a few minutes this morning before Big John, and crew, comes by to start installing the gutters…WAHOO! The only thing I have to think about with this one, is how much is he going to wreck my new topsoiled and seeded lawn with his ladders?? Yes, we are in the process of getting a yard back. Except…that is one thing I do not have a picture of…I will work on that

So Manuel and Giovanni have been here working on the yard…brought in 22 cubic yards of topsoil and a bunch of rock, some peat and grass seed and we are all good. Decided that it make a bit more sense to just have these guys come and do this than try to do it myself…They rototilled the 3 way topsoil in and raked and rolled twice, spread the seed, put down peat (from CANADA–as I think almost all spagnum moss is), created mounded beds (that I need to bark in the spring), planted the shrubs I bought…and now my big job is to water twice a day. So that I can handle. They are also building the block retaining wall around the back patio as well as moving the existing block wall forward about 4 inches (sounds crazy, but had to be done to match and look right). We got referred these guys from our pal Rick in Reintree. He is also using him for some similar things in his yard and was pleased. So far so good.

Jose (drywaller) was here yesterday as there are many many places where the drywall needs to be fixed. Not so happy with the end product of this company…Lots of fixes and it is taking them too long to get out here to do this. Jose understands but he is just an employee…it is John that needs to deal with me on this…SO anyway, Jose was here and got all the mud on, word on the street is that John will be back on Sunday for sanding and texture. He better be!!

We got our main fridge and our range installed on the 4th…got some pix of that…Wow…very nice. Need to have the warranty company come out though and make some adjustments though. I guess the $500 I spent to have the fridge installed does not include adjusting doors or hose attachments…SIGH. The $500 I spent to have the range installed was worth every penny though…no problems there. Actually the whole bill was worth it as these were some heavy appliances…the fridge weighs close to 800 pounds and took 5 guys to get it in the front door, and the range 650 lb (they brought that one in the back)…so we would not have been able to do that ourselves!!

Now the sad news…there is something wrong with my floor. Not sure what…but the finish is cracking lengthwise down the boards…just some of them, but enough that I am not going to accept it. We are waiting for the "inspector" to call and set up an appointment to come out and have a look to determine the cause. Our fate is in his hands…I am not looking forward to this fight…

Now for my granite issues…FineLine Pacific only has three slabs of my colour choice (Butterfly Blue) left. It is being discontinued apparently (how does this help me??) So this should be enough to do the areas we need, other than when I went down there to look at the slabs, they have big (ready for the technical term?) "eggs" in them. For those of you unfamiliar with this jargon…this would be the dark colour splotches (my word) that are in the granite. So I have 2 choices…live with it…or pick another colour. So I have requested a drylayout of my template against these slabs to see what it looks like. If it is OK, then we go ahead, if not then we go to colour choice #2, Sapphire Blue, (which is more expensive–go figure!) Hopefully, this does not impact my Sept 21st installation appointment (which I have waited 5 weeks for).

Here are the Trex Deck covers Troy is making to cover our Septic tank access holes as well as the clean-out T for the Septic and the electrical box for the septic…

And here is the BBQ/smoker area…It is all trimmed out, but I have to call Mario back to finsh the painting. he has the four columns to do as well as the front door and the french doors in the back…Note our beautiful morning sun

Here is our pile of bricks for the retaining wall that is going around the back patio…

and the wall they are moving forward…

And our front…

Well…Here we are going into our second week of school.

I do have some action (some good and some bad) to report and some pictures to post.

Check back in later today…I have to run out Costco Home to deal with granite issuesBut I just wanted y’all to know i have not forgotten about you!

We are back from vacation…

I took some pictures tonight after borrowing a camera from Kim (kind neighbor). This is how the place looks (and will until Sept 21st when the granite gets installed). We have our template appointment on the 7th and the install happens 2 weeks later–no earlier and no later–

Here is the sunroom…

And here is the work that the brick guys did in the front on the colums on the porch and also the back BBQ area…they just grouted them today and are working on completing the caps…

The range and built in fridge are scheduled to be installed Sept 4th, so I will have a fridge in the house finally…the range will not have ventilation, so we will have to cook carefully…but we will at least be able to cook something

There is so much to do…I have to finish the hardwood up the hall to the front door, do the tile inlays at both doors, remove the old oak floor in the mudroom and do the tiling there, refinish the cabinets and install the new faucets in the powder room, power wash and seal all the concrete, mark and get John to fix all the places where the drywall is not right, paint, paint, paint, get the carpets installed, order and have Leroy install all the window wraps and trim for the main floor, install the hardwood in the girl’s dormers, paint them and get Leroy to do the window wraps and trim in the girl’s rooms, put the girl’s rooms back together, paint the inside of the front door, get the trimout done on the four colums, have Mario come back and paint the outside of the french doors and the front door and the four colums, have Dave come back and patch the concrete where it needs it, fix the house where he made holes from the forms and splattered concrete on the new paint, get the gutters on (this should be done on Sept 6th by Big John)…and this is just what comes to the top of my head…so do y’all see why i am in my PJs in the fetal position

Well…We have been busy aound here. I took some pictures of the progress…Here is the porch…As you ccan see the columns still need to be framed, trimmed, bricked out and painted…but here is my porch. Jackie took this pictureSo this is actually her view.

Note the amount of yard repair

Troy and Brooklyn built a fence on the West side of the house last weekend. It is to hide all the pool equipment and store the deck boxes and garbage cans! It is VERY very nice…and I am so gald we did this! The tile saw is John’s…I still have it and am cutting away at the slate tiles, so that if he needs it back on short notice, then i have all my big work done

Here is the entrance all painted…needs one more coat probably though. But you get the idea.

Here is the back patio with the BBQ area and the back patio. Mom…look at that one struggling goblin that decided to make a go of it during this…that is an original from the seeds you gave me.

Still no pool open…but when we get back from Oregon…

So all those tools are Leroy’s. He is the fellow who is installing our cabinetsSee that is really our news of the day, “we” are ready to start the cabinets. NOW we have some progress!! We started laying the hardwood last Sat (with the help of Doug). It is very tricky to get started. Especially when someone (that would be me) wants to do a framed tiled inlay and has a flushmount register 2 inches away from that. But none the less, we made great progress and I have been chipping away (not literally) at it Mon and Tuesday while Troy was at work.

It is amazing to see the dust in this place…It shows up the photos so much more than what we see when we just look at it (which is enough). The wood that we did on the weekend is all covered up…But you get the idea of our progress and what it looks like…

SO Russill comes tomorrow, we are so excited…but hoping he is not too shocked at what he will have to endure here…

Long time no blog…Bad Laurie!!

I laughed when I opened this blog up and saw that I said on July 26 we were close to painting…We are just now getting the painting finished up…Tomorrow John is going to paint the foyer…I put 2 coats on the ceiling on the weekend and John sprayed a third coat on Monday…I painted the living room wall last weekend also…So we are getting there…

We brought the flooring over on Monday night…so it is here "aclimatizing" (not sure how to spell that word). We should be able to start the install on the weekend. Hopefully Doug will come over and help us with Hardwood 101

John (drywaller) has lent me his amazing Italian tile saw…so i am working away getting my copper slate tiles ready for install. I am doing a point to point (diagonal) install at the front door, the french doors and the mudroom. I am also using the same slate for the backsplash, so I am working on getting a bunch cut down to 6×6. Amazing tool…I would LOVE to have one–not sure what for, as when I am done this tiling I won’t have much left to do (other than the master bath)

The concrete is all done…PHEW! The porch and the last pad in the back was poured on Tuesday…I REALLY do have to get a picture of the porch and show y’all that. It is GREAT…very happy!!

What else? What else?? I think that is it…drywall, paint, tile, hardwood, concrete…yup…That’s it!

Well…it has been 3 months and 1 day…So when you think about it like that…It has not really been that long since this all started. BUT…We have been wthout a kitchen since the third week of May and it is getting a little old…OK…VERY OLD! So I am excited about the progress around here lately. First of all…we are very close to painting the walls…The drywallers are muddin’ and sandin’ fools. This is very defintely the most messiest part so far…Drywall dust is the finest whitest fluffiest stuff that is impossible to sweep and even more difficult to vacumn…so DUST IS US!! Drywall John’s daughter (Ashley) and niece (Madeline) came over to play with my girls today…although Jackie went to Whidbey Island with Vicki B for a couple of days, Rachael and 2 of her friends were here…so they had a blast playing around. I also got a very important call today…my flooring (my beautiful prefinshed Brazilian Cherry lite 3 1/2″ plank–in case you were wondering what kind of floor I ordered) is IN…I am going to pick it up tomorrow so it can start to aclimatize to our house (5-7 days). I would have had it delivered, but that costs an extra $200, so I can certainly drive into Seattle for less than that. I will have to very careful with my precious load as it weigh 2100 lb…Anyway, the timing is perfect as we will start the install next weekend once the walls are sealed, textured, primed and then painted…speaking if which I better pick a wall colour eh??

Mario, the painter, is making some very good progress on the outside of the house. He says he will be done on Sat (except for the 4 columns and the front door–which he will come back to do after the cement is done and the columns are framed and trimmed out)…I love the colour, even though it is lighter than I thought…it is SO HARD to pick colours off a little chip the size of a quarter…but I really do like it…It may and I say MAY…have yellow undertones…which I swore I would never paint my house!! Mario is plasticing the windows and undoing as he goes…which is nice as having the windows sheeted over makes living inside very rough…it gets very hot and humid when the windows are blocked off…so he is trying hard to get the plastic off as soon as he paints the trim.

The concrete looks great…just like I said before…

They were also here today jacking out the “bad” patio in the back…NOW this is the way to remove a patio…It took less than 2 hours to break up this whole patio…and then they used the bucket on the bobcat to load all the chunks (except for what I moved to the back to save for stepping stones) and hauled it all to Cadman to be recycled…2 loads…

Well…Oh happy day! We got some concrete today…Dave got here about 9am and his crew showed up about 10:30 and they worked hard to get everything ready for the 1:30 pour. Well, the biggest boom pump truck in the world showed up at 1:30, but just sat here at $125 per hour until the concrete truck showd up at just before 3pm. YIKES!! So anyway Dave called Cadman and made a stink and apparently, they are going to credit us some money on our next pour…SIGH…

The girls made stepping stones from the oversplatters…which will be a nice souvenir

That boom reached from the road in the front of the house all the way over the top of the tallest part of the house to the back yard…WOW eh? The operator asked me if i was nervous about my house seeing that go over the top like that…and I said “Should I be??” I wasn’t until he said that!

We did a NICE job of completely blocking the street to cars between the pump truck and the concrete truck…Sorry Peter!! I did see you had to park a ways away…

This is how we are dealing with the access to our septic tanks…we made these circle risers out of styrofoam and then the concrete will be poured right up to it and then removed to create a void. Troy is going to make lids (out of something clever and durable) to slip right into the circle holes in the concrete and then it will all be flush with the concrete…

Here is the side of the house where the pool equipment is…we have put in posts for a real cedar fence that we are going to build around this area to obscure the pool equipment and the garbage cans etc…

And this is where the sidewalk will join the driveway in the front.

It was way too dark to take pictures when they finally finished up at close to 9pm tonight…so I will take some in the morning and post so you can see the finished product…It does look great though!

The drywallers were also here again today…now this i am helping them out with quite a bit. Not hanging sheets, but with taping and mudding…it is kinda fun actually and it keeps me out of the bar…which is looking pretty good at this point

I also forgot to take pictures of what that all looks like too, and I am feeling a bit too lazy to get out of bed to go down and take pictures of tonight…but I will do that tomorrow also…

Oh yeah…and Mario the painter is starting tomorrow…so I am excited to get the lights up on the outside of the house and getting gutters etc…

ALSO>>>honourable mention to my pal Vicki…who provded her camera to me today to get these pictures as mine is acting up again…ARGHHH

Well, the drywallers (John and Jose) were here yesterday. It seemed slow, but I think it just took them a while to get in their groove. Also, they started with the skylights…which has got to be the most difficult part of the job. So…I will wait to make a complete assessment but I can tell that Drywalling is not their speciality…that is OK…as long as they do a good job and come in on budget. So today, John has been here all day do far…Jose popped out for a bit to get a pal to help out and Jeff came just before 1pm. So they are into the ceiling on the old part of the house, so it goes much faster (as the framing is more regular) and they can use full sheets…

This is the last we will see of our good friend "BEAM" forever (hopefully!)

Cement Dave was here today…The schedule is set for the "bad pour" concrete in the back patio to be jacked out and removed this Sat, all the aggregate to be done in one pour on Tuesday and the back patio to be repoured on Sat (the 28th). I am nervous about the pour on Tuesday, but Dave says he has 5 guys, so it should be OK. I will let you know…

Mixed reviews for today…

The inspector came and signed us off…we are all good to "enclose our framing". ie: we can drywallThe drywall was delivered too late in the day for them to start today, but none the less it is here for them to get going first thing in the am (8:30am to be precise).

So being on the main floor of the house is like being in a padded bubble now–very weird! All the sound is so muffled–I was not really aware of how echoey it was until now. The vapour was expertly done by MOI…Plastic vapour barriers are not mandatory here to meet code–they seal the drywall instead with a PVA primer (which i am going to do also), but I felt better with the plastic–so i did it myself

Oh Yeah and The siders are finally "done"

So that is the good news…now for the crummy part of my day…

The siders came to collect–as they believe they are done–So now that fight begins…

The HVAC/gas guy also came by with his bill…SIGH! Can you say "almost twice the estimate"? I can, and it makes me very cranky…

That and cement Dave has not come back yet to keep working on the patios etc…so not sure what to think of that. I reserve judgement at this time…

Well, the insualtors are hereThat is good news. I have called in the inspection for tomorrow…although I am hoping they can come this afternoon–probably tomorrow though.

They use stilts to reach the attice—how cool!

The siders are here…they claim that today is the day of completion. They do however need MORE white wood to
finish the trim around the dormer windows. I think I have made no less than 7 runs for materials for them…It has been confirmed however, that they are not going to clean up their own garbage. I came right out and asked Bryan. This disappoints me greatly! BTW the company name is Build Design & Develop. So I guess I will put up a note on Freecycle for anyone who wants wood scraps and/or cedar siding scraps. This may get rid of some of it…SIGH

Neils came by also this morning to finish up the controls for the pool light and cover. We had him move them to be recessed into the siding and wall so that they look better than they did before.