What is the price of caulk?

Friday night I got a call from my parents asking to have their chainsaw back after I had borrowed it a week or 2 ago to chop a tree down that was growing right next to the foundation of our house.

Well, after some needling, I convinced my dad to come up and pick it up himself and help out around the house with the primary current project, laying the floors in the 1st floor bath and laundry room.

So he came up Saturday morning and we headed off to Home Depot to pick up some plywood and framing lumber to work on the floors and shore up the joists supporting this area of the floor that will have to support the weight of the stone and washer/dryer. We got back home and began messing around near the laundry room door trying to figure out how to fix a section of flooring that had obviously sustained some water damage over the years... One thing led to another and the more we tore back, the more rot we found. The rough framing of the door had even rotted at the base! EEECK!

So we headed back to Home Depot and picked up a new door and a new reciprocating saw (I might have to start a tool rental business to finance all this!). Once we had the door out of the frame and had started tearing old flooring and rotten framing members out, it of course started to rain like mad. Just great... doesn't the weather always seem to know when you have a leak in your roof or foundation or a giant hole in the side of your house? So we rigged up a rough shelter over the door with a couple of 2x4's and a tarp (like something you'd see on Survivor) to shelter us as we continue to try to fix what is now a gaping hole in the side of the house...

Needless to say, it was not the work I had planned for the day! Keep in mind we were planning on having the door replaced when we have the windows and siding done, but I can't work on the floors or get ready to tile the laundry room when the floor is rotted-out!

I took some pictures after we were done, but we were too busy and freaked about possibly being there all night to take any "in-progress" pictures...


So "what is the cost of caulk?" Apparently it must be more expensive than a new door, floor, rough frame opening, and a whole day's work, because I can't imagine why someone wouldn't take the couple of hours and 25 bucks worth of caulk to protect their home from the elements every 10-15 years.

But, we did get some of the original planned work done on Sunday (despite the distraction of the Bears game and offers of jambalaya and apple pie by my parents). I managed to get the 2nd layer of plywood installed in the bathroom as you can see here. The piece closest to the door had 6 cuts and took me 3 tries to get right... took a whole sheet of plywood for just that one piece! YIKES! But about 200 screws later, the floor in the bathroom was ready to go. Now "all" that's left is to install the water-proofing isolation membrane and the stone... We're getting there but it's easy to get distracted by 100 other things that need to get done around the house!

Pictures of Hawai'i

Well, we finally got around to downloading our pictures and putting some of the highlights online. What a beautiful and unique place. The snorkeling was great, we got to swim with sea turtles, and we had an all-around good time. Norwegian Cruise Line is just "ok" in terms of service and food, in our opinion. It is also quite a different crowd on a Hawaiian cruise versus a Caribbean cruise. Much older crowd, not as much nightlife going on, etc. But we had a great time and we're already excited about possibly going on a Wronski-family-cruise in the Spring. Click on the picture to go to the photo-stream of our Hawai'i pictures...

Textured paint and why you should never use it...

Sorry for the long delay in posting. Coming back from Hawaii we've had to play catch-up with various everyday things like work, lawn care, etc and that isn't nearly as exciting to read about as demolition of construction news...

Textured paint might be the single worst thing ever invented. If you are looking for a house and see textured paint, walk away. If you are thinking of using it in your home... don't even think about it unless you think you'll NEVER want to change the color or style. In order to remove this heinous material you actually have to sand the walls flat. "Not so bad" you might say? Well, it took us 2 straight nights of solid sanding to sand the walls and ceilings of a 5x6 bathroom. We'll see how it comes out after a new coat of paint, but SHEEEEEESH! Our arms, shoulders, abs and back are all sore from this tiring task, so keep that in mind when you say "doesn't that look nice" the next time you see a Tuscan plaster finish in a magazine.

In other news, as we get to the point of tiling and laying the floor, I decided I'd better seek and find a little more how-to help on laying this tile and getting some opinions on ways to go about laying the subfloor/underlayment for natural stone and I happened to come across the John Bridge Tile Your World forums. Having been an early adopter of the internet, I've been surfing as long as anyone and this is by far the most helpful, courteous, and accurate professional forum I've yet to find. There are professional experts in tile laying, plumbing, structural issues, and general construction everywhere on this forum, yet it is actually geared towards the knowledgeable DIY'er. If you are considering doing a DIY tile project, I recommend you read this forum religiously and ask any questions there, because their answers will be more complete and knowledge/experience-based than anybody you'll ever find at a tile store or worse yet, one of those big Box stores (HD, Lowes, Menards, etc). I also recommend getting his book on tile as a complete guide to laying tile and all that goes with it like planning, design, layout, etc. You can find the book on Amazon.com or at the Tile Your World On-line Store. Do your research, plan your project, get your materials and go to it.

And once you've laid out your plans and have your materials, give me a call to borrow my tile saw. I did a little quick math in my head and decided it was time to think about buying a wet saw. Since we're figuring on remodeling this current half-bath/laundry room and 2 other full baths, at $45-50 a day for some worn-out saw/blade that might not be produce as quality a finish (particularly important with natural stone), I decided to buy the Felker FTS-150 tile wet saw and got a much better deal on a far superior saw to anything I would ever be able to buy at a Home Depot or Lowes type of store. This saw is able to cut up-to 19" tiles (or a 13" tile cut diagonally) in addition to making delicate cuts and custom corners like adding a bullnose finish to a square edge (instead of paying 2 or 3 times the normal price per tile for a prefinished bullnose tile).

If you are ever in need of a wet saw, let us know and you can rent it from us for about $50 for however long you need it (assuming we don't need it). This just covers the cost of a blade, nothing else, so it's not like we're trying to make money off our friends, it's just to keep the saw in the best condition possible.


A few other updates from our various homeowner adventures:

After attacking and stinging both Chompers and Dusty at different times, it was all-out warfare on the wasp nest in the ground when I decided to take Jenni's uncle's advice and light that bad boy on fire. One night I took a can of lamp oil and poured it down the hole and lit it on fire... Ain't seen a live wasp/hornet since! Justice fo' tha DOGS!

We initiated getting a second quote on our windows and siding. We found a guy through Lee Lumber and Marvin windows who seems very professional and knowledgeable about just about everything to do with windows and doors. We'll see what the price comes back as, but it's a toss-up between him and the guy who did my parents' house at this point. Hopefully we will have a decision in 2 weeks or so and work can get started as soon as they receive the materials.

The company I work for is in the news a lot right now. There is a huge battle on-going for what would be one of the single largest leveraged buyout transactions in recent memory. Several investment firms are bidding to buy the company back from the shareholders in a move that would make the company private instead of public. What this means for me isn't quite clear yet but I don't feel it would affect my job status, but it may have some financial ramifications to it, most likely good, but as of yet, undetermined. Our stock shot up $7 per share You can read about it by following any of the links here: Freescale (FSL)

Once the bathroom fixtures arrived, we officially became hillbillies since we have a toilet both in the yard and the living room!

The chipmunk warfare has begun. Chipmunks have steadily burrowed and caused sinking in the foundation of our patio and before we think about getting it mud-jacked back to being a level surface, we need to do something about the cause of the sinking. This morning I trapped and killed our first of what will likely be many chipmunks. Rest in peace, little guy.

Sorry still no pictures from Hawaii or of the latest "state of the house". Will have some soon.

Back from Hawaii, basking in the glow of our tans...

We returned home on early Tuesday morning from our fantastic 7-day cruise of the Hawaiian Islands. I'll have pictures and stories later, but as you can imagine, after missing a week and a half of work makes one a pretty busy person in catching up.

Some highlights of our trip? Snorkeling in Honalua Bay on Maui, renting a Mustang Convertible in Maui and driving the Road to Hana as well as making the full loop of the island, the Volcanoes National Park tour was pretty amazing as well, and the Cruise ship pulling just offshore of the active volcanic activity on the Big Island at night was a spectacular start of the cruise.

Aside from that it was a lot of relaxing, seeing the sights, and trying to get in as much "feel of the islands" as possible. It was a great trip and Jenni and I have our list of things to do if we ever get back.

In terms of the house? Well, we haven't received the toilet and lavatory we ordered before we left, but we've yet to pick out the stone tile as well. We're still trying to adjust back into our routine at home (and the LONG grass that needs to be cut in the backyard)...

More later.