Pace of working picking up steam

We jumped right into a flurry of activity upon returning from St. Louis for Thanksgiving. Jenni and I caught some kind of food poisoning or flu (likely with Jenni's little cousins being around) and were sick as dogs Saturday and Sunday after returning early enough to get a bunch of work done in the garage before the windows and siding were to be delivered. So, needless to say, the drywall in the garage is still sitting int he middle of the floor next to the windows and doors that are jammed into the garage.



But, all was not lost. After the windows, siding and dumpster were delivered, Marek (our contractor) re-hung the Laundry room door so I could start tiling the laundry room floor in advance of the new washer/dryer being delivered (cabinets were also delivered Monday). So, after laying the Ditra (see my previous post about the bathroom floor to learn about Ditra) on Monday night, we laid the floor last night. Voila:



The workers didn't waste any time either. In one day all the siding was gone and the house was covered in Tyvek. They even covered most of the windows, so it was a bit like living inside a paper bag, especially when the wind was blowing.



Yesterday we had the first 3 windows hung and the siding started going up on the front of the house! Take a look (click to see a bigger version):

One last update before Turkeyday

Just wanted to give one more update before heading to St. Louis for Thanksgiving. We have been working feverishly to try to get the garage ready for the acceptance of the windows/siding delivery as well as to clear the garage out for our general sanity.

Saturday we went out and returned 18 sheets of 5/8-inch fire core drywall that was only 8 feet long when we needed to have 10 foot sheets. In addition, we purchased the drywall for the rest of the garage ceiling and walls and the insulation to line the garage attic with. It was quite the event as it required renting a truck from Home Depot and moving all of that drywall ourselves, just Jenni and I. Jenni was about to collapse by the time we finished but we made it...

Here is how the garage is starting to shape up after installing the drywall along the shared wall with the house:

We're waiting on the windows/siding contractor to re-hang the laundry room door but as soon as that's complete, we have to tile, grout and seal the stone floor ASAP. We are having the Washer and dryer delivered in just a little over a week and it's crunch-time!

Have a happy Thanksgiving and make sure to take a nap after eating all that food, like these 2 jokers:

More updates, big work about to start

I haven't blogged in a couple of weeks because we hit a little bit of a stand-still with the large-scale work we were doing. We had our patio and driveway mud-jacked, our chimney crown replaced, a tankless water heater installed, we power-washed and sealed the patio and driveway (risky bidness in early November I might add), and we've been working on finishing the garage. We found out today the windows and siding are going to be delivered on Nov 27th and work will begin immediately. Hope to have it all completed before Christmas!

The mud-jacking was pretty sweet. For those that don't know what that is, it a process that includes drilling a hole in the existing concrete and injecting a mud/concrete mix below the concrete to level or raise it. In our case, it was an entire day's work for about 6 guys. The patio was really the bulk of the work, as it included leveling off about 12 slabs of aggregate that were terribly uneven (lips of 2-3 inches between them in places). The finished product is shown here:


In preparation for "fire" season, we had our chimney crown replaced and the chimney tuck-pointed. We also went an bought a new screen, tools, and log-holder for the fireplace but those are on order. Here is a picture of our first fire, though:


A lot of the work we've been doing is also related to trying to finish the garage. I installed a new lighting system in the garage and ran dedicated circuits to the breaker panel for the garage outlets and the lights (separate circuits). I also bought new garage door openers for both doors (only one had an opener) that I also will install before we finish the garage out with drywall and an epoxy-based floor coating. Here is a pic of the lights in action:


The tankless water heater is pretty sweet. The old tank was on its last legs and this was a good investment from a resale perspective. Tankless water heaters have a 20+ year life expectancy as opposed to 6-10 years for a tank. Not only that, but it is more energy efficient as you don't have a pilot light burning gas all the time or 40-60 gallons of water to keep hot all the time. The electronic ignition only fires when there is demand for hot water and you will never run out of hot water. The company we used was VERY professional and did a wonderful job including all the plumbing, gas and electrical need for this nice clean and professional looking install job. Not only that but they stand behind the work for 10 years and it can be extended to 20. If they can't fix your unit if it ever breaks, they'll replace it in full THAT DAY. Not only that, but they carry commercial units from 5 companies that are far more powerful and versatile than you can get anywhere else. The company is called Imperial Tankless and that's all they do.


We're REALLY excited about the windows and siding starting soon. We have been waiting to finish the laundry room floor for a long while (door needs to be re-hung) and the cabinets and washer/dryer are arriving the week after Thanksgiving as well!

Check back later, should have more soon!

This past weekend's repairs

As usual, our weekends are planned around the weather and trying to get as much done as possible between various social outings. This weekend we had our annual Halloween party to attend courtesy of our friends Dave and Anne. You can see the pictures by clicking on this picture of Jenni and I in our costumes. We also celebrated Jenni's grandmother's birthday Sunday and somehow found the time to replace a very picky and odd-shaped basement door.

The exterior entrance to a basement sounds like a great idea, but in reality, all it does is create a new entrance location for water and vermin. The existing door was wood and had deteriorated to the point of rotting. You could see light coming through all the way around the door and a good rainfall resulted in water actually flowing under the door and into the basement like a River. This was due primarily to the fact that the concrete landing at the base of the stairs was sloping towards the house! So the first thing I did after removing the door was to create a new concrete slope by laying a special thin-layer concrete atop the existing concrete to slope back towards the drain that leads to the waste pit. You can see the door and the concrete in these 3 pictures:

Unfortunately, the door we purchased didn't quite fit into the rough opening, but it was as close as we could come in an off-the-shelf door. In fact, the pre-framed door had to be sanded and trimmed down as well as doing the same to the rough opening. The results are pretty good, but it was a lot of work and a real pain in the ass to try to wedge that door in there and get it hung properly. I'm glad it's over. We still have to caulk and finish the door but it's already a million times better than before, as you can see here:











We're trying to finish the electrical in the garage before this weekend's party for Jenni's dad's birthday, but we have quite a bit to do yet. It's starting to get pretty cold and we still haven't started hanging drywall in the garage. Hopefully we can get that done before they deliver the windows in the next few weeks!