Laurie's World

OK–so yesterday i said something about having real walls…now I want to take that back–TODAY we have REAL walls! Doug and Dion were here from 7:30 to 3 today and they got a lot done. They got the sheeting on the floor of the entrance area, framing and sheeting for the kitchen area as well as the sheeting on the walls in the sunroom. They also waterproofed the foundation. (You can see it is painted white in the pictures) That was actually interesting…it was this super thick goopy white stuff they painted the outside of the foundation walls with. All the better to keep the moisture out with I say—WaHahaha—that would be my big bad wolf imitation

Here is the view from "inside" my new kitchen looking out my "windows"

I went out there and "played" in my new kitchen after they were gone…marked the floor where my imaginary sink and cabinets will be…Admiring what a lovely view I will have when I am doing the dishes—correction—when the children are doing the dishes. I may have some trouble getting used to allowing other people to touch stuff in my new kitchen…but I am sure I will get over it.

This is the view from the current dining room into the new kitchen…looks kinda cool…

And the sunroom is all sheeted now…

These are the windows that are going away and this will be the access from the current family room to the new sunroom.

For those who are wondering why the walls do not connect yet…that is because they can’t connect them until the roof is off…and they will be taking the roof off in a week or so

Spoke with the folks over at Pacific Crest Cabinets today–they seem nice…Debi is coming here on Thursday morning to measure and discuss. Apparently she has some concerns about making the corner apron front sink work—sigh–I am not letting this go. I know it is possible and I am going to make this work! If I have to go over to Katarina’s and dig around under her sink to see how she did it, I will!! Debi says 4 weeks for delivery, so if we can get this going, I will be in good shape.

Hired Troy Services today to do the plumbing, electrical and HVAC. No relation to my Troy of course–and the name had no impact in my decision–the fellow’s name is Jim…I am sure you will hear me talk about him again! He is VERY talkative–so I am going to make sure it is not a time and materials gigBut he has asked me twice to have Troy (my Troy) stop giving me those cute pills–so I may have to avoid him when he is here…

What else??? What else?? I think I forgot to mention that we bought our other fridge on Sunday…pretty exciting stuff eh? We are going with the Samsung Quattro Fridge–has four doors (thus the "quattro")–all with their own temperature control…just want to be able to make sure that Rick and Eugenie can get cold wine quickly when they are here

Working hard tonight on narrowing down the choices for roofing/siding/windows as these all need to happen in tandem–SIGH–so much to do.

Until tomorrow…

So the highlight of my day was when Doug and Dion tilted up that first wall of the sunroom—with its four big beautiful window openings–but I am getting ahead of myself…

So let me go back to the beginning of the day when the guys showed up and started banging away finishing up the floor joists on the entrance area…it was about 8:30am, so not too bad. Below is how this looks now…seems like a lot of fuss for 4 feet, but it will really make a world of difference to the inside I think…

BTW the rotten beam is all going to be replaced anyway due to the hip on the roof having to be shifted because we are extending the front out by two feet and not the side, so the angle will be different therefore the whole thing gets redone anyway…so no biggie there. Just throwing throwing this out there in case anyone is losing sleep thinking I had some real problems here…

They worked away for a couple of hours getting everything lined up and then the inspector came by. I think he was over 7 feet tall. He basically finished up with Doug before I could even get out there, and the only comment he had was that the guys were wondering when i was going to open the pool for them…Hmmm…may not happen! He also very chatty about the Dec storm…so apparently we have nothing holding us back from full on framing now!

Doug and Dion got busy with the walls of the sunroom…they framed it out and lifted it up….had to call in my guy (Troy) to help them lift it up. They did not ask me–which is kinda weird–‘cuz anyone who knows us knows I am stronger than TroyThe one little hiccup today was Andrew discovered when they started to rip off the siding that our home currently has 2×4 outer wall framing NOT 2×6 (whiich is today’s code requirement-and also what the plans were drawn to require) SO we have to fur the walls (Hey—who knows what that means?–maybe I won’t tell you until tomorrow to keep you tuning in!!)

So this is how the place looks now…The room feels great…bigger than I thought it would…There are going to be 4 3×5 windows across the back and 4 2×2 skylights across the top. So this room will have lots of sun–thus the sunroom title.They are going to be cranking through the rest of the walls in a couple of days.

Apparently the beam is coming on Wednesday. It needs some welding when it gets here so that will take a day or so. The trusses won’t come until Monday or maybe Tuesday, so the plan is to wait until the trusses come and use that delivery boom truck to help install the beam in stead of renting another crane or something…sounds logical to me! BUT that is when they rip off the roof, back walls etc–so that is when it gets REALLY exciting!

SO…today was jackhammer day (again!) Andrew and crew showed up by 7:15 am and started to jack hammer by 7:30—now this seems awfully early you say?? Yes indeed…but I do happen to know that the sound is WAY worse inside the house than outside..so I let them go ahead. Who am I to stand in the way of a group of hardworking guys? Andrew tried hard to get our underfloor inspection for this afternoon, but since our inspector (Randy) is out of the office Fri and Monday, the fellow covering his projects is a little busy. So we have to wait until Monday for that, but it is still the plan to have the access holes cut and the floor joists all framed today to be ready for morning inspection on Monday. I was out of the house by shortly after 8, so missed most of the noise…Troy did not say it was too horrible, but then again I did not ask the specific question

The floors did indeed get their joists though…so NOW this helps the "visualizing impaired" (that would be me–and I do not mean vision impaired–VISUALLY impaired means I can not see things that are not there like some people can). SO now I feel closer to having real rooms "out there"…soon they will be "in here"…

I got Doug and Drew to pose for pictures today, so scroll down for that. I think I may be driving them a bit crazy with my camera and videoing…but they don’t say too muchI did ask Drew today if he makes the guys wear hearing protection when they are jack hammering (even though I know the answer is no-‘cuz I can see with my own eyes they are not wearing anything) And he paused for a second and then said (like he could not hear me) pardon?? So I guess I gotta let that one go…But I did tell him it was the mum in me that worries about things like that!

I worked hard on my cabinet design today! Gotta get that going by mid next week.

Also…it has been mentioned that Brooklyn’s "comments" are the highlight of this blog–so I better step it up!! (Let’s see what response this gets from her)

This is Andrew–although apparently only his Mum calls him that (according to Doug) So I am trying to get in the "Drew" habit

And this is Doug (Douglas to his Mum)

Hi…today is Thursday and I was not home much today to see what was happening. BUT, I think Adrew and crew had a fair amount of trouble getting the access holes cut between the new and old crawl space. They are supposed to be cutting 2’x2′ holes in three places through the existing foundation wall so that we have can acces to, and run plumbing, electrical etc through to the new areas. The initial plan was to "score" the concrete from both sides with concrete saws and then it should be able to be popped out–sounds simple right…well this only works if you can actually cut the concrete from both sides which quickly became an imposiibility when they realized how much smoke, debris and toxic air the saws created as they sliced through the concrete. There was absolutely no way they would be able to SAFELY operate the saws down in the crawl…so that left them with cutting from one side (the outside) only and the saws did not have big enough blades to cut all the way through the 8" foundation. They tried a few different tools, but the consensus at the end of the day was they needed more jack hammers…SO…that makes tomorrow another VERY noisy day…Oh well…I won’t be home to have to listen to it!

WAHOO! we are pumpin’ again. I am sure all the neighbors who have hosed down my kids in the last few days are glad to hear that we have our septic fixed. At $5 per shower per kid, it was getting a little expensive for me

Now I have said this before, but today really was a kinda quiet day. They stripped the forms off the cement foundation walls–they really are little walls about three feet high. There is a place where the wet cement bulged out the form and so the wall looks like it is pregnant. This is at the front door. You can see it in the second picture down in the post from this morning where the white section is bulging out. Kinda cool…makes me realize how heavy that cement was and the forms were at least an inch thick. The cement has to cure another day or so…but the lumber is getting delivered tomorrow for the framing–SO that is great! Andrew thinks we are going to have our under floor inspection on Monday, walls up by Wednesday and MAYBE tearing off the roof and bringing the steel beam in by early the following week. Maybe he is going so quickly bcz he is not happy here…hmmm…can’t imagine that

What else happened today??? I went down to Costco and worked some more on my cabinet design. I actually wanted to look at the lighting, but got sidetracked by the cabinet department…Tiny hiccup in my plan as I have my heart set on my corner sink (that is actually already sitting here in my living room–but it is a 33" apron front sink–and apparently not all cabinet manufacturers make a corner sink base that will hold a 33" apron front sink-HUH??) SO, since it is not an option for me to not have it the way I want it…the search continues. Needless to say, I did not get to lighting today.

Sheri came by to tour the construction zone today–that was nice! She is old hat at all this, but she was sweet and smiled and nodded at all the right times.

All this and I have been working every day this week proctoring the WASL at Bear Creek…you locals will know what that is. For the rest…it is the yearly state mandated standardized testing that our kids in grades 3-10 have to go through…

Till tomorrow–

7:40 am

UhOh–It is early and we may have maxed out our tanks!! Lauren B was over this am and asked if there was something wrong with our toilets as it was making a funny noise.Haven’t heard back from Andrew yet with whether the electrician is coming or not!!

It sprinkled a little last night, so it is muddy today…we are supposed to have some sunny breaks though so hopefuly not too bad for the guys today.

This is what the foundation looks like this morning…

Sunroom

front porch

Kitchen area

Well April showers (last night) made for a few puddles in the footing holes. Since we have no proper drainage on the back–or the front– of the house, the eaves are running striaght into the footings holes…that and the rain in general made for some muddy work today. But not my problem right?? Other than the muddy footprints from the garage door to the washroom. (only a few steps really) We are letting the guys use our washroom to save the neighborhood the beautiful view of a honey bucket. Well 7:30 am came early when the guys showed up and started using their power tools and air compressors to finish up what they needed to do to get the forms done for the inspection. The pump truck and cement delivery were scehduled for 3:30 sharp. So the inspector came–named Randy–hoping this is not a sign of anything ominous. He is a real joker actually—knows all about our project, he knows our neighbor, AND he knows Andrew–which is great–he barely even glanced at the work…so I have lost my eagle eye, which I was kinda counting on as i am just a lowly homeowner who knows nothing more than the 22 books i have read to date on footings, foundations and framing

So he said all he needs is some pictures of the work in the crawl space (when it is complete) as he has complete confidence in Andrew’s skill set–he has NO intention of going down there. I told him we have a very nice crawl space…he passed on the opportunity!

They spray the wooden forms with diesel fuel so that the wood will separate from the concrete easier when they are stripping it. OK, I understand the motivation to salvage as much of the wood as neccesary as apparently it is $35 per 2 foot section (or something like that), but THAT SMELLS. Troy says it smells like the shop in Dawson…but I can think of lots more ways to take him back to his childhood than this. How about cookies in the kitchen or something??

The BIG event of the day was the very cool pump truck event. I took some video and Brooklyn swears she can teach me how to put it on this blog…so that may come yetPhotos do not do the event justice…video may not either. There was this ginormous (is that a word) truck with a long boom that was down on the road on the west side of the house at the bottom of the hill. It had what had to be a 100 foot boom on it with a pipe that reached all the way across our property to pump the concrete out of a tube into all the foundation forms. The guy who brought the truck had this little joystick box strapped to his belly and he moved the boom with the flick of his thumb while he walked around the yard. He ws pretty excited (NOT) about me video taping…but I am just a homeowner–what can I say! As always, I am easily impressed by big sexy powerful tools, so this was way cool. Then the yucky part—Andrew got to play in the concrete–Dave manned the tube and where it was spewing concrete, and Andrew got to spread it out and level it. We had a fun little discussion while we were waiting for the concrete truck (and Dave) to arrive about the foundation being level. He assures me it is all going to be level, he has a "chalk line" on the form to follow that he laid out earlier in the day after they were built. We also did discuss the reality being, that since he has to frame on his own foundation, the motivation to have it level is pretty high. Hmmm…I will let you know how it ends up

What a nice quiet weekend–from a construction perspective–we were busy with the gym all weekend (maybe I should start a blog for that too)

Basically today was all about getting the forms put together for the footings and foundation…the day did come and go without an electrician fixing the switch for the septic pump…Hmmm…that is OK…the kids are still showering at the neighbors!!

Andrew has a little bit to do to get ready for the inspection in the morning before they pour the concrete.

Day 3 started at 8am…so a little earlier. I was up and already showered though as I was unsure when the sewer pipe to the tanks would be out of commission. As it happens, it was not cut at all today as they spent a good chunk of the day getting ready to cut the pipe. They had to core drill through the existing foundation where the new exit is going to be…They rented a 4" drill and the pipe was 4 1/4", so they spent a bunch of time chipping at the hole to make it bigger. They did however bust up the electric switch that controls the tank pumps…so while we technically HAVE all the plumbing…we have to use it with caution until the switch is fixed bcz the tanks are not being pumped out to the field, and if they fill up…we are in a bad spot. It will be Monday at the earliest…could be longer. Had a an window place and another electrician out today for quotes…We have to make some of these decisions…particularly the windows as they can take up to 5 weeks to be manufactured. The guys cut out at 6pm today…so a little early HAHA. I am such a mean boss…the jokes are flyin’ about getting me my own hard hatIt will be quiet here for the weekend, but a very aggressive time schedule had been set for next week…so we will see how they do!

Here is what the house looks like from the front street…no pillar, just some fancy 2x4s holding up that porch roof

Here is the house from the side…see what I mean about my poor lawn!

Day 2 got off to a slow start, they guys came about 11 am with 2 jack hammers. The plan was to jack hammer out the porch as well as the thick part of the patio in the back that they could not get out with the Trac Hoe yesterday. OK…this is the noisiest thing I have EVER heard. it is in stereo…I can’t even think!! So the back is all done in about 2 hours, and I go and look in the front and there is barely a corner chipped on the porch. It is so very thick! So the 2 guys worked on the front and did not finish it until after 8 tonight. We are talking about a 7×5 square of concrete…but 3 feet thick…they found the septic waste pipe coming out the back of the house and developed a plan to reroute it so it comes out the side of the house instead of the back. Dave is so great with the Trac Hoe…what talent…they have dug down to the foundation level in all three areas by 8:30pm, but there is a lot of hand digging to do now for the footings and all down by the drain pipes etc. They plan to come back by 8am as the material package for the footing forms is being delivered at 10:30 am tomorrow and they plan to finish the forms by Tuesday so they can get the forms inspection and be ready to pour (monopour) for Wednesday. Strip forms Thursday–and start framing on Friday. I am overwhelmed with all the things I need to do to keep this train moving…