Ciraulo Construction Zone

Time to Party!

2009-04-30T10:48:00.000-07:00

Sorry we have been silent for so long!

Now that we've finally been able to nail down a date, we want to share our joy and excitement about the completion of this project with a party - and you are invited!

Really, this project would not have been possible without the encouragement, support, help and prayers of YOU: our friends and family. Please come celebrate with us at an Open House:

Date: Saturday, May 16th
Time: Between 3pm & 7pm
Location: Our House, of course!

Stay for as little or as long as you want, enjoy some hors d'oeuvres, see the remodel in person and tell us what you think.

We look forward to seeing you there! (Please contact us if you need directions.)

We're There

2009-03-16T21:05:00.000-07:00

We can now get clean in more than one room of our house!

We had our glass shower doors installed a few weeks ago and have really been enjoying our new shower! It is wonderful not to have to dodge bath toys! I wasn't sure how the shower dimensions would be; whether it was wide enough or big enough to fit two comfortably. I didn't have any previous shower design experience to base our plans off of so it was more of just a shot in the dark. Well, after the inaugural test run, we love it!

The shower glass install was very interesting to watch. Definitely something to leave to the pros until you've seen it done. The frameless glass design leaves virtually no room for error. To watch them get the glass plumb and level in 2 dimensions while maintaining a consistent 1mm gap between the door and the adjacent fixed panel and keeping all 3 panels aligned along the top was quite impressive! Anyway, it turned out great and adds the final touch to the bathroom.

Since then, we've been taking it a little easy on the house and only working on the weekends. It has been a nice break. We are gradually chipping away at the little details like getting the crown caulked and painted. We still have some trim to finish painting and general yard and house cleanup, but it's definitely time to PARTY! Look for an announcement coming in the near future about an open house celebration so you can see it all first hand!

Oh, and by the way, now that we have all this extra space we're working on filling it up. Ciraulo baby #3 is due in September!

Signed Off (But Not Signing Off)

2009-02-10T19:50:00.001-08:00

All our inspections are done and it's official!

We got our planning sign-off for the tree we planted. All they required was that we email them a picture for verification. I guess we could of just gone to a neighbors house or taken a picture of another tree in our backyard, but we really hope the Bay tree takes. Once planning signed-off, we went down to the building department and had them give us the official final sign-off on our permit. It is now closed with the county and we officially have a 1300 sq/ft house!

We are still wrapping up the details. This last weekend we got most of the interior doors hung. This involved two sets of sliding bypass doors for the closets and the pocket door for the bathroom. All these doors needed to have their length trimmed down to fit, which is the reason we hadn't installed them sooner. To do this we made a zero clearance guide for the circular saw. This guide, when clamped to the door, would allow a precise, straight cut free of any tear-out.

The doors definitely add a finished appearance to things. It also makes the bathroom more convenient to use in the morning since you can close the door and then turn on the light and not wake anyone up.

The tasks we have left are getting the shower glass installed (getting quotes now) and caulking and painting the remaining trim. Then it's time to party!

The Home Stretch

2009-02-02T21:27:00.000-08:00

We passed our final inspection!

We had our progress inspection a few weeks ago. We used the opportunity to understand exactly what was required for the final inspection. It turns out that the list of requirements was pretty short: grout the shower, install the toilet, connect the sink drains, install the smoke detectors, install an air-gap on the dishwasher drain line and add a few more boards to the landing outside the sliding glass doors in the back.

There were a few things that we wanted to get done first even though they weren't required for the final inspection. Before we installed the toilet we wanted to get the baseboards done in the bathroom so we wouldn't have to work behind the toilet. Once those were in, we installed the toilet, hooked up the sink drains and installed the mirrors. We also turned on the heat in the bathroom floor and moved into the bathroom. We can't use the shower yet, but everything else is functional.

Next we wanted to finish the laminate floors. We needed to get the transition pieces for where it met up with the carpet in the new bedroom and the old hardwood floors in the exiting bedrooms. After a trip to the East Bay where a Lumber Liquidator had them in stock, the floors went together fairly easily. It is so nice to have them finished! It really makes the house look nice.

The next weekend we got the remaining items for the final inspection completed. Grouting the shower was the biggest item and took most of the day. It was also the most rewarding. I was really looking forward to finishing the grout in the shower because it really makes a big difference in how nice it looks. We also installed the air gap on the dishwasher drain, installed the smoke detectors in the master bedroom and the hallway and built out the landing on the back porch.

We had our final inspection last Tuesday. It went really smooth and everything passed without any problems. The only thing that kept our permit from being closed out completely was that we need a sign-off from planning because they requires us to plant a new tree in place of the one we cut down at the beginning of the project.

In our plans we specified we would re-plant a Bay tree. We did this because they are native to the area and grow abundantly on my grandparent's property. So, this past weekend my grandpa and I hiked around his property to find a nice tree that we could transplant. We found a nice, tall and straight one that wasn't too bushy. It was surprisingly easy to get it out of the ground. I think it was partially due to the lack of rain. The soil was very loose and dry which made it easy to dig.

We got the tree out of the ground and wrapped it up. We planted it in the back yard
as soon as I got back to our house. Hopefully it will survive the transplant and take.

So now we are just waiting for planning to verify the tree and sign off on our project. Hopefully that will happen this week!

We will continue to wrap up the remainder of the items over the next couple weeks. We need to get the new doors in: the pocket door to the bathroom, the closet doors and a new door separating the hallway from the great room. We need to get the shower glass installed. We need to get the rest of the trim caulked and painted as well as install a few more baseboards.

Just In Time

2009-01-13T17:01:00.000-08:00

We are not finished with the remodel yet, be we are starting to enjoy it more. We've now spent three nights in our new bedroom!

So let me back up a little bit and fill you in. The week before Christmas was pretty hectic. We tore up the old floors in the living and dining rooms, moved around the furniture and started laying the new floor. This knowing that we were going to be home for Christmas Eve and Christmas morning for the first time ever! So it was a push to make sure we had the floors finished so we could enjoy a nice Christmas Eve dinner in our dining room and Christmas morning opening presents in our living room.

We got the floors finished in the living and dining room just in time to take a quick shower before we headed to church for Christmas Eve service. After the service we moved the furniture back into place and brought in the Christmas tree while Stacie finished up dinner preparations. Talk about cutting it close, but what a joy to have it finished for Christmas! Then we took a break and spent a few days with Stacie's family in the Fresno area.

Next we returned to finishing up the trim in the bedroom so the carpet could be installed. We had carpet installers coming on the Tues. after Christmas. We got the trim finished just in time and the room really started to transform once the carpet was in. Then it was off to Tahoe for four days over new years with some good friends (the girls loved their first trip to the snow).

Once we got back we had a few days before bedroom furniture was going to be delivered. In that time we needed to get the baseboards painted and installed in the bedroom. We painted them before installing them so we wouldn't have to do as much painting against the carpet. We still needed to do caulking and touch up, but again, we got it all done just in time - the night before the furniture arrived.

That brings us to this last weekend. My parents came up on Saturday to help us out. We started by putting up the shelves and hanging rods in our closet. Then my dad and I tore out the rest of the old floors that we are going to replace in the entry way, hallways and closets and started installing the new flooring. While we were working on that, Stacie, Vicki and Erin started moving our things into the new bedroom as there was no reason not to start sleeping in the bedroom.

My dad and I hit a snag on the floors. I thought the height of the carpet would be enough to cover the ends of the laminate flooring that we were laying. It's not so we need a reducer strip which I didn't have. Since the floor has to be locked together in a certain order, that brought the floor to a halt. We completed a few other trim tasks and called it a day.

That night we spent the first night in our new bedroom! It was so nice!

We need to have an inspection soon since we have a max of 120 days between inspections. We aren't totally ready for our final inspection yet, but it will be good to have the inspector come by and tell us the things we need to finish up before he can sign off. The main tasks to finish up before the final inspection are: finish the floors, finish grouting the shower, get the shower glass installed, get the toilet installed and get the bathroom sink plumbing hooked up. The other things like painting the trim in the living area and putting the rest of the baseboards on can wait until after the inspection.

Laying Plank

2008-12-18T12:30:00.000-08:00

Tuesday after Thanksgiving we were hoping to grout the bathroom floor, but the after letting a sample of the grout cure over night the color wasn't right. Instead we started grouting the shower. We got one wall done that night.

Then we realized that we really wanted to get going on carpeting the bedroom. It would be much easier to paint all the trim before the carpet was installed so we wouldn't have to worry about protecting anything. So we switched focus to getting all the trim in the bedroom puttied and caulked so we could finish the painting. The rest of the week was spent caulking and caulking and caulking.

On Saturday my dad came up to help us out. It didn't seem like painting trim would be the best use of his help so we started working on the flooring in the living room and dining room. My dad started tearing up the old wood floors while I worked on cleaning up the master bedroom so we could get to the flooring.

Once my dad had torn up a good bit of the old flooring we encountered the hard part - the figuring. The issue was that we already had some of the new floor installed in the new kitchen. We needed to meet up with this floor perfectly so the laminate would all click together right. The problem was that the flooring installed in the new kitchen wasn't parallel to the main walls of the living room, dining room and hallway (it was off 1/2 inch over 8 feet).

We probably spent at least an hour trying to figure out what was and wasn't parallel and how to handle it. Our options were 1) take out the appliances in the kitchen and see if we could twist the floor to make it parallel (since it is laminate it floats and isn't physically attached anywhere), 2) start the flooring against the wall we
want to be parallel with and when we get to the kitchen tear up the floor and re-lay it or 3) just keep laying the floor based off the kitchen and don't worry about parallel.

As we started playing with the layout based on the assumption that we would still meet up with the existing kitchen floor we realized that we could flex the floor quite a bit.Over 8 feet we could easily move the floor more than 1/2 inch. We realized that we could build off the existing kitchen, but flex it so that it would be parallel when it met up with the walls. So, after spending a long time figuring everything out, we actually got started laying the new floor.

We didn't get too far since there was a lot of cutting involved in getting started. But we got the hard part done and once we get back around to working on it it should go much more quickly.

For now, it's back to working on getting the trim in the bedroom finished so we can get carpet installed and finishing the floors that we started in the living and dining rooms.

We hope that during this Christmas season you are filled with wonder and awe of a God who put a plan into motion that would require Him to send His Son to this earth as a baby, born in the most humble of circumstances, for the purpose of suffering death on a cross so that we could have the opportunity to be in a personal, loving relationship with Him forever.

Thanksgiving Progress

2008-12-10T10:22:00.001-08:00

We took some time off over Thanksgiving to work on the house. We spent Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Monday working on our big push and we got quite a bit done!

Wednesday we finished trimming out the closets by building some shelves and clothing racks. We also started preparing for crown molding which we started on Friday.

Friday my dad came to help us out. The plan was to try to get all the crown molding done on Friday and Saturday. I built a jig for the miter saw that allowed us to make all the crown molding cuts with simple miter angle cuts rather than compound miter angle cuts. This saves a lot of time. We actually were able to finish all the crown molding before dinner time! We put crown in the master bedroom and bathroom, hallways, entry way, living room, dining room and kitchen. The trickiest part was taking the crown around the outside corners (we had 5) because we used rounded drywall corners.

Saturday I had help from my soon to be brother-in-law. Since the crown molding was all done, we started by finishing the molding above the kitchen cabinets. There is not a lot of molding there, but the ends need to be scribed to fit against the crown molding. It's also nice not to see the exposed plywood anymore.

After that, we moved on to finishing up the closet units. I needed some special hardware to finish a vertical hanging piece that will support the lower clothes rod. The challenge was hanging this vertical piece that stopped well short of the floor but could support the weight of a rod full of clothes. This vertical piece is bolted to the shelf above, doweled to the horizontal upper shelf support and doweled to the lower shelf. Hopefully this will be enough.

After that we tore up the rest of the linoleum from the old kitchen. This needed to come out before the new floors go in and we are quickly approaching the point when we will start working on the new floors.

We still had some time left in the day so we installed the radiant heat mat in the bathroom that will heat the tile bathroom floor. The mat gets glued to the floor using thinset - the same cement based adhesive that glues tile to a substrate. The mat went down pretty easily. The key is to make sure you are careful not to nick the the wires.

Monday my dad came back to help again. We rented a tile saw to try to finish up the bathroom tile work. We needed a tile saw to make some long straight cuts that are visible on the shower curb and half wall. The curb, half wall and shelf took much longer than we anticipated. All the cutting time really adds up. Even with two people working, we spent most of the day working on the shower and only got to starting the floor a little before dinner time.

The floor tile goes down a little differently than the ceramic wall tile. We used travertine on the bathroom floor which is a porous natural stone. The edges are sharp corners rather than an eased edge like on most tiles. We decided to install the tiles with a very small grout joint (1/16"). With a small joint and sharp corners it is very important to get the tiles level with each other. Any irregularities will be obvious to the touch, especially when walking on the floor with bare feet.

To do this the process is a little more involved. You need to start at the highest point in the floor. You can always add more thinset to the bottom of a tile to build it up, but you can't (easily) lower the floor to make a tile line up. After applying thinset to the floor with a notched trowel in the normal manner, thinset also needs to be applied to the back of the tile. This serves two purposes: to fill the voids in the porous stone so that it is fully supported and won't break and to add an appropriate buildup to keep the tiles all level as you move away from the high point of the floor.

We only finished about a quarter of the floor on Monday. The rest would have to wait until the next weekend. In fact, getting the rest of the floor installed was all that we've gotten done since then. The following week only afforded us one night to work on the house and last weekend was Natalie's 3rd birthday party and the Yahoo! year end party.

Over the Thanksgiving week we also had the exterior of the house painted. I highly recommend David & Co. Painters. They did a great job and pay great attention to little details that really make a difference. We just had the new parts of the house painted since there is a lot of work to do on the old parts before it can be painted. We'll get to that after this winter and then have the rest painted to match.

The next steps are grouting the tile in the bathroom, installing the toilet, caulking all the moldings and casings, painting the trim work and starting on the living and dining room floors.

Getting There, Thankfully

2008-11-27T18:09:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving! I can't believe that November is already coming to an end!

The last several weekends have felt like a broken record: tile the shower, tile the shower, tile the shower. It is looking really nice, and it will be worth it when it's done, but we certainly didn't make it easy! The design adds a lot of cutting and that just takes time. Fortunately, our time is less expensive since we haven't had to rent a tile saw for all this work. A friend of ours who has done a lot of remodel work let us borrow his. This has been a huge help.

A typical Saturday over the last few weeks has consisted of:
- 1 hour of prep, setup and planning
- 8 hours marking and cutting tile to size
- 3 hours setting the tile
- 1 hour of cleanup

Then on Sunday morning we would pull out all the tile spacers from the tile that was set the previous day. We would wipe the tile down to get any thinset off that had gotten on the tile or filled the grout joints before it fully cured. The girls loved helping with this part. They also discovered that by squeezing a tile sponge in the middle it could look like a Minnie Mouse bow which they would then hold on the top of their heads.

Since it takes so long to setup and cleanup the tile work, we've been working on other projects during the week. We've installed the door jambs for the closet doors, trimmed out the closet openings and the windows, installed the bathroom sink faucets and installed the tile backer board on the bathroom floor in preparation of the floor tile.

This Thanksgiving break week we are trying to make a big push. We hope to get all the crown molding installed, the tile finished in the bathroom, the closet organization units built and installed and have the house painted. After this, all that's left is the doors, floors, toilet, painting the trim and any touch up paint.

Nearing the Home Stretch

2008-11-05T09:39:00.000-08:00

The last few weeks haven't been as productive on the house because of busyness at work, but we are still nearing the home stretch.

Despite having to work over the weekend two weeks ago, we managed to get the bathroom vanity installed. This is necessary in order to completely tile the shower as well as the bathroom floor. The cabinet and counter-top went together pretty fast and it looks good in the bathroom. It will be so nice to have more bathroom counter space!

This past weekend my grandpa came over and helped us work on tiling the shower. We tried to focus on the tiles that didn't need to be cut. It gets expensive to keep renting the wet tile saw and we didn't want to be paying for it to just sit in the driveway. This is definitely not the most efficient way to lay tile, but we got a pretty full days work in between figuring out the layout and setting the tile.

Here and there we've also been picking away at the little things: getting electrical outlets installed, installing the ceiling fan, grouting the shower floor, etc.

We're now working on getting things lined up for a big push over Thanksgiving. We need to get our interior doors, casings, moldings, toilet and heated floor mats. We're also leaning towards having the exterior of the house painted (just the new parts until next spring/summer).

Let There Be Light!

2008-10-20T20:45:00.000-07:00

Again, despite my best intentions, here we are a month since our last update.

In our last update we mentioned that we were going away to spend the weekend at Stacie's parents house. Thank you to those of you that prayed for us. While a difficult and challenging weekend, I think it was healthy to be together in that place.

Since that weekend we've turned on the after-burners. We are really moving on the house and burning the candle at both ends to do it! I'll try not to make this update too long despite all the progress we have made.

Now that the drywall taping was done we needed to get the texturing done since the drywallers left the floors covered. The majority of the work was masking everything off that we didn't want overspray on. This was a big job in the living room, hallway and entry where we were re-texturing all the ceilings and the walls.

We got the master bedroom done before the weekend which was helpful so that my dad's wife could paint when they came up to help us on that Saturday. Vicki primed the ceiling and walls of the bedroom while my dad helped with tiling the shower floor. I didn't expect the tile to take us all day, but it did. There were a lot of cuts, and not many of them were straight, but it turned out really well. We also tiled around the window opening in the shower since this would need to be completed before the wall tile started.

The next week was spent texturing the rest of the house which included the master bathroom, the hallway, the living room and the dining room. We also spent some time choosing paint colors. Since we were painting so much new area we took the opportunity to reconsider the existing paint we had. We decided on a slight change in both ceiling and wall paint which meant we needed to repaint everything.

We wanted to get all the texturing and painting done by the end of the weekend and we barely made it. We sprayed the bathroom and hallway before the weekend since it didn't require as much masking. We masked and sprayed the texture in the living/dining room Saturday morning. Then primed and painted the bathroom and hallway. By that time the texture was barely dry enough to prime the living/dining room. Sunday morning was spent painting the dining room, living room and kitchen. We finished up just in time to head to my aunt's 50th birthday party.

This last weekend was spent getting all the electrical hooked up for the lighting. It seems like it shouldn't take all day, but it did (8am to 11pm). This included a trip to Home Depot and Orchard Supply to pick out the lights for the hallway and bathroom. It also included rewiring the halway lights once I was done. The switches we have for the hallway have to be wired in a very specific order, but it is worth it having a 3-way switch for the hall lights that is dimmable at both ends. We also had to install the bathroom lights twice because a trip to Orchard later in the day revealed better fixtures than the ones we had already bought and installed from Home Depot earlier in the day. We finished up by installing the kitchen lights tonight because the parts we needed weren't available on Saturday. It is really nice to have all the lights hooked up. It makes the house so much more warm and inviting.

This week and weekend we will be installing our bathroom vanity and getting ready to paint the exterior of the house. There is so much prep work to paint the existing exterior that we might just paint the new parts to get by this winter. It will look a little funny with the new half painted in completely different colors, but then we would have the time to prep and paint the rest next spring/summer. The other option we're considering is to pay to have it painted.

Picking up Steam

2008-09-25T22:21:00.000-07:00

I had really hoped to get back in the habit of weekly updates. Oh well...

We are getting back in the rhythm of getting a lot accomplished on the house. We were starting to get used to having more time together as a family so it is a little bit of an adjustment to get used to spending so much time on the house. But you will get to benefit from this with lots of progress pictures!

Picking up where we left off - we had a drywall inspection shortly after the last update. We passed the inspection without any issues. We used the opportunity to get some information about what was required for the shower pan inspection. That was the next job.

The first step was adding blocking between the studs at the bottom of the walls in the shower. This supports the shower pan and the bottom of the tile backer board since it can't be attached at the bottom or else it would puncture the shower pan liner.

The next step was building a pre-slope so that water will flow to the drain. This was made by mixing sand and concrete at a ratio of 5:1 and adding only enough water to clump when you squeeze it in your hand. This was then packed onto the shower sub-floor over a layer of felt paper and metal lath. It was packed with a slope of 1/4" per foot from the walls of the shower to the top of the lower half of the drain assembly.

Once that hardened we installed the pan liner. This is the waterproof layer. I used a PVC membrane for the pan liner since it is readily available and easy to install. It comes on a big roll and you buy it by the foot. The liner is placed in the shower over the pre-slope and wraps up the walls. It is folded so that it creates a waterproof pool with no holes or punctures until several inches above the shower curb. The exception is the drain hole which is clamped between the two halves of the drain assembly to ensure a proper seal ad no leaks.

With the pan liner installed we did a 24 hour leak test by filling the whole thing up with water and insuring the level didn't change. Once we were sure we had a leak-proof shower pan we called for our shower pan inspection. This is where they make sure the shower doesn't leak and, when the drain is unplugged, that all the water flows with the appropriate urgency to the drain. We passed this inspection and now the only inspection we have left will be our final inspection!

While all this was going on we also had some decisions that we needed to make. We needed to decide what to do for a vanity and counter top in the master bathroom and what to do for tile in the master shower. After a few days and several hours in Home Depot we ordered a dark burgundy vanity with an engineered top, that should arrive in the next week or so, and picked out the tile for the shower. You will get a better idea of what these will look like in the next few updates.

Back to the real work, it was on to the tile backer board in the shower so the shower pan could be finished. In order to do that we first needed to put up a moisture barrier. This is to protect the framing since backer board is porous and absorbs water. We also made sure that any flat surface in the shower, if exposed to water, would drain over this moisture banner and make its way down into the pan liner and eventually the drain. Then it was time to start the backer board. This went up pretty easily, but it was killing my hands. Cement just sucks any moisture right out of what it comes in contact with, so I started wearing latex gloves to keep my hands from drying and cracking so much.

With the backer board up we taped all the joints with fiberglass tape and thin-set. We also needed to form the shower curb, the window ledge and a shower shelf that we built into the top of the knee wall between the shower and the rest of the bathroom. These are formed over the wood using mortar and lath to keep from putting any holes in the water proofing layer underneath. It also allows the surface to be sloped toward the shower so water doesn't find its way out of the shower.

The tile design we came up with is a little more complicated than just a basic, one tile shower. It has some parts that need to be set before the main wall field tiles are set. We started setting some of these patterns once the joints dried.

Now that the backer-board and curb were finished it was time to finish the shower pan. The backer board needs to be put up first because the final layer of the shower pan captures and supports the bottom of the backer board since it couldn't be screwed to the wall without puncturing the pan liner. The shower pan is finished off with another 1.5" of deck mud (5:1 sand to cement just like before). This sandwiches the pan liner between two layers of hardened deck mud creating a totally waterproof layer without any holes in it.

On another note, last Friday we had a drywall guy that was recommended to us come by to look at the house. He gave us a quote on Monday and showed up with 6 guys on Tuesday to do all the taping. It turned out that our project coincided with a day and a half where they had no work. They got most of it done on Tuesday, with so many guys. Yesterday two guys came and worked all day. Today it only two guys less than half the day to finish up. Wow! Those guys rocked! And it is really nice to not have to do any taping!

This weekend we are heading down to Kingsburg so no work on the house. You can keep us in your prayers, though, as it will be our first time down there since Stacie's dad died. I'm sure it will be a difficult weekend.

Once we get back we will be working on texturing and painting the drywall, prepping to paint the outside of the house, tiling the shower and installing the bathroom vanity. It will really start looking finished over the next few weeks.

Drywall is Up!

2008-09-08T09:18:00.000-07:00

I wrote this last week, but wasn't able to get it out until now. Therefore, "last week" = "two weeks ago".

As you can see from last weeks pictures, we were able to get most of the drywall finished up last weekend. All that was left was patching all the gaps in the ceiling that were left when we tore out the interior kitchen walls.

It sounds easy, but it was miserable! It was really hot last week so our house was about 88 degrees when we were working in the evenings. We had to cut the ceiling openings straight so we could easily hang drywall in the openings. While cutting the openings there was insulation and drywall dust constantly falling down and sticking anywhere that was sweaty, which was everywhere. But we got it done and there's no more plastic covering the holes in the ceiling!

This past weekend was focused more on getting some other things taken care of around the house. The priority was getting rid of a huge trash heap in the backyard that had piled up from all the demolition. My grandpa came over with his truck and both of our parents were here to help. By lunch time we had made one run to a house recycling place to recycle the old doors and windows and three runs to the dump. I'd say we took about 9 cubic yards of trash to the dump, and that's after pulling out anything that we could burn in our fireplace this winter! It is so nice to have that huge pile gone from the backyard!

We also had a garage sale on Saturday to get rid of some other clutter. Stacie and her mom did a great job enticing hesitant buyers to take that thing that they really don't need home with them anyway. Anything that didn't get sold was listed on Craigslist or left by the street with a "Free" sign. All that is still left is the old dishwasher and crib.

The afternoon was spent splitting wood (the oak tree that we cut down in the first post over a year ago when we started the project) and assembling our new BBQ (a Christmas present that has been waiting for an opportunity to get out of its box). We didn't quite get all the wood split because we had a failure with the hydraulic valve. It blew an o-ring; which we found severed when we took the valve apart. After a trip to the hardware store for some new parts, we started it up again. A few minutes later we severed the new o-ring. Something was definitely not working right so we called it quits on the wood splitting.

On Monday my grandpa came back over with the schematic of the valve. After some more analysis, we were able to determine that a few parts had deformed allowing the o-ring to be severed. We fabricated a spacer to to keep the warn parts from hitting each other and causing the o-ring to fail. We fired up the splitter again and it hasn't failed since.

Still on Drywall

2008-08-26T21:23:00.000-07:00

Over a month since our last update and we are still working on drywall!

Admittedly we have had a lot going on: work, family vacations, birthday parties and taking advantage of opportunities to spend time with my sister, brother-in-law and nephew who are visiting from Brazil. I did get my brother-in-law to help us out a few weekends ago on in probably the only Saturday we've worked on the house since the last update. What else could we do but hang more drywall?

We got the drywall in the bathroom finished up, as well as a few pieces in the kitchen. We started with getting the kneewall built between the shower and the rest of the bathroom. Then we finished the drywall that the sinks will be on. After that we finished the wall between the the bathroom and the bedroom. Finally we finished the wall between the bathroom and the kitchen. This included tearing out the old drywall on the kitchen side of the wall and soundproofing the wall before covering it with new drywall. The soundproofing was done in the same manner as described in the previous post.

We also got rid of the old kitchen cabinets. We have quite a bit of junk piling up in our yard from the demo work. Some of the biggest was the old kitchen cabinets. My brother-in-law and I moved them out to the street and put a "Free" sign on them. Surprisingly, they were gone in a day.

This coming weekend my grandpa is going to help me make a few dump runs to get rid of some more of the junk. We also have a few appliances we need to put up for sale on Craigslist. If you or anyone you know needs a basic gas range or a dishwasher, let us know.

That's all for now.

More Drywall

2008-07-22T21:48:00.000-07:00

So, you might think that progress has come to a screeching halt on the house. You wouldn't be quite right. It does feel like things have been moving pretty slowly lately, but they are moving... Plus we were on vacation for a week and a half in Oregon which meant missing two weekends of working on the house.

Anyway, we're still working on getting the drywall finished in the house. We finished most of the bedroom, which was mostly the closets inside and out and included soundproofing the wall between the master bedroom closet and the existing bathroom. We have a steel tub in that bathroom and the noise from the shower water hitting the tub is quite loud. In order to do some soundproofing, without sacrificing any space to a thicker wall or staggered studs, we filled the stud bays with insulation and additionally placed sound dampening board between the studs. It is now MUCH quieter when the shower is on. Once there are clothes in the closet and closet doors that can be closed we won't be able to hear a thing.

We left drywall off of the wall between the master bedroom and master bath. The only reason is because we only have natural light to work by and we haven't finished the drywall in the master bathroom yet. Once that wall is covered it will be fairly dark in there and the heat generated by 500W work lights isn't the most pleasant during the summertime.

This past weekend we started on the drywall in the master bathroom. We're using fiberglass, moisture resistant drywall. There is no paper on this stuff that could absorb water or support mold growth. The downsides are that it's fiberglass, so it's itchy, it's heavier and it's pretty flimsy (even though it's the same thickness as the other stuff). This last part presented the biggest problem when trying to hang the ceiling pieces alone. It took a good portion of the day just to figure out a clever way to raise the drywall to the ceiling and support it in place while it was screwed in.

We did finally come up with a method involving a door hinge, an 8 ft. 2x10 and an 8 ft. 2x4. One side of the door hinge was screwed into one end of the 2x10. The other side of the hinge was screwed into the top plate of the wall about 3/4 of an inch down from the ceiling. This left the 2x10 hanging down to the floor. Then we could lean a full sheet of drywall against the 2x10 and lift the drywall by lifting the 2x10 underneath it. Because of the hinge, this swung the drywall up to the ceiling supported down its center by the 2x10. Once it was up to the ceiling we could wedge the 2x4 under the far end of the 2x10. The drywall could then be maneuvered into just the right location and attached to the ceiling joists.

This enabled us to get the ceiling drywall hung. Prior to that we replaced the drywall in the hallway to our master bedroom. The old drywall on one side (used to be the kitchen wall) was pretty beat up. Since I overestimated the amount of drywall we needed by 5-10 sheet I figured it would be easier to replace it than to fix it. It also allowed us to replace the old electrical that was in the wall that services the outlet and light fixture in the existing bathroom.

We still need to finish the drywall in the master bath along with soundproofing the wall between that bathroom and the dining room. There are also lots of places where the ceiling drywall needs patching - all the places where there used to be walls. Once all the drywall is hung it's on to mud and tape and then working on finishing the bathroom. The bathroom will involve floating a shower pan, tiling the shower and bathroom floor, installing the vanity, plumbing the sinks and installing the toilet.

Tearing Down Walls

2008-06-27T21:08:00.000-07:00

The house project has had to take a back seat lately to a busy few weeks at work, but we are getting back on track now and it's payoff time, baby!

That's right, the last of the demo is done! The last of the framing is done! We have a dining room! It's like a whole different house.

Two weekends ago my parents came up to give us a hand. My dad and I got a lot done! We started by leveling the low spot in the floor as best we could and getting the post in place. There was no getting it perfect since our 50 year old house is nowhere near perfectly level.

Next we built the wall that encloses the new hallway to the master bedroom. The wall went up pretty quick once we had the location marked out on the floor and the ceiling drywall cut where it would support the ceiling joists.

Then the real fun: tearing down all the existing walls that made up the old kitchen. What a gratifying experience! It was a messy job getting the old walls out, mostly due to the blown attic insulation that would fall from the ceiling when we pulled the top plates out, but it was sure worth it! The space feels so open. We have lots of room to sit around the dinner table now.

Since then we've been working on getting the drywall up. We also have insulated some of the interior walls for sound reduction.

For the next few weeks we will be working on getting the drywall and soundproofing done. Then we will need a drywall inspection. After that we're considering having someone do the drywall mud and tape this time.

Stuck-Oh

2008-06-04T15:18:00.000-07:00

It's been a busy few weeks, unfortunately, not on the house. But we have gotten some major things completed; most notably - stucco!

Since I last sent an update we now have our house stuccoed! It was a two day process that started a few weeks ago. The stucco guys arrived on a Thursday morning and went right to work. Two guys working most of the day stuccoed the house by hand just troweling it on. They would push the stucco on with a trowel working it behind the stucco wire. Then after a little bit they would come back and scratch grooves in the stucco for the future second coat to bond to.

A week and a half later they came back to do the second and final coat of stucco. Nowadays there are usually three coats of stucco with the final coat being a color and texture coat. Our stucco guy said that our house, built in 1952, was a standard two coat job and he could match it best with two coats. For the second coat they followed much the same procedure to trowel on the stucco, but they spent much more time getting it smooth and looking nice. To match the texture they used a wet wallpaper brush that they brushed the surface of the stucco with. This left the larger grains of sand standing proud of the surface as it washed away the finer sand and cement leaving a rough, even texture that matched the rest of our house.

While that was being done, we made some progress ourselves, though nothing that looks as cool. We have gotten some more drywall up in the master bedroom. Most of the bedroom walls are now covered. And we are gradually jacking up the house on the footing that we poured a few weeks ago.

The big job we got completed is relocating the tankless water heater to the attic. This was a huge job since it involved running a new gas line to the attic, running new plumbing lines to the attic, re-working some of the existing plumbing under the house and disconnecting and capping the now unused gas and water lines that previously fed the water heater and the old kitchen range. Fortunately I had a helper for some special "daddy and Railey time". Surprisingly, Railey loved working under the house and didn't want to come out despite the dirt and spiders that we saw.

Anyway, the water heater needed to be moved since the previous location will be in our future dining room and the water lines were run inside a wall that needs to come out. Basically, a ton of work to free up a small space on the wall.

The next steps will be to do some soundproofing in the bedroom walls, finish putting up the drywall in the bedroom, get a post under the low spot in the floor that we are currently jacking up and build the hallway wall.

Firm(er) Foundation

2008-05-15T07:58:00.000-07:00

As we alluded to previously, this past weekend was quite productive.

We had our stucco wire inspection on Friday and passed so hopefully the stucco work will get started this week.

Saturday my grandpa came up to help. The first order of business was to get a new footing poured under the house. The reason is that there is a low spot in our existing floor where we want to tie in a new wall for the hallway to the master bedroom. The low spot is due to an engineering flaw in the design of the original house. There is a load bearing beam that has no support on one side whatsoever. As a result this beam has sagged the floor and resulted in huge cracks in our sheetrock. Instead of just propagating this problem, we are going to fix the root problem by pouring a new footing under the house, jack up the house to level out this low spot and add a new post to support this point load.

So, we cut a hole in the floor of our old kitchen so we could access the area where we needed to dig and pour the footing. We dug as much of the footing as we could with a shovel. This wasn't much since there wasn't much room to maneuver the shovel in the hole that we cut in the floor. The rest was dug under the house with a camping multi-tool and hand loading a 5 gallon bucket with the dirt. It saved a lot of time having some help. Without my grandpa I would have been crawling back and forth through the hole in the floor every time the bucket got full of dirt.

Once the footing was dug we mixed some concrete (4 - 80 lb. bags for all you who like the details) in a wheelbarrow and used the same 5 gallon buckets to transport it to footing and dump it in. In reality, this only took us a few hours which was quicker than I expected.

After that the other big project we tackled was hanging the ceiling drywall in the master bedroom. This is definitely a project for more than one person as we learned in the kitchen, so it was a good project for a day when I had help. We got the ceiling in the master bedroom and closets done by dinner time thanks to some additional help from another friend. After that we called it a day.

This week hopefully the stucco will get started. Our stucco guy said he planned on starting by the end of this week. We will also be working on running a new gas line to the attic so we can relocate the water heater up there. Finally, now that the
cement in the footing has cured we need to get that low spot in the floor fixed up.

Hopefully you are still finding these updates interesting after over a year on this project. Thanks for your continued support and encouragement.

So long, farewell

2008-05-12T09:31:00.000-07:00

To our old kitchen!

I've been trying to get to this update for two weeks now and have had most of it written for a week. Well, I'm finally getting it out. We no longer have two kitchens which means we no longer have to climb over the old kitchen sink to get to the new master bedroom! How nice it is to use the door!

Three Saturdays ago my parents came up and my dad helped us tear out the old kitchen. It went much quicker than I expected. We probably had all the old cabinets out in less than an hour.

We decided to frame the door opening into the bedroom which was where the old sink used to be. There was some plumbing in the way (hot water, cold water, drain and vent) that we were working around. I was cutting a nail holding an old stud in and after I cut through the nail I just kept going into the water line (I couldn't see it from my position). So after a dash around the house to turn off the water main we decided it was a good time to take care of removing the old plumbing. It was going to need to be done sooner or later anyway.

We removed the old water lines as well as the drain and vent line and finished framing in the new doorway. It looks quite a bit different with the kitchen cabinets out and the doorway framed in!

Next we moved on to installing the pocket door frame for the master bathroom door. This was more difficult than it sounds since I framed the rough opening too small. It was 2 inches too short and 2 inches too narrow. When I framed the opening I didn't know there were different standards for pocket doors. After we fixed the rough opening we installed the pocket door frame pretty easily and called it a day.

We didn't get too much accomplished the following weekend since we were at a family retreat with our church. I have received a few bids on the stucco and once the I pass the inspection for the wire that will get started.

The next things are to get the stucco wire inspection, work on pouring a new footing under the house to support a sagging spot in our floor, add a dedicated gas line for the tankless water heater and relocate the water heater to the attic. This past weekend was very productive, but I will save that for another update.

I should also mention that we recently passed the 1 year mark on this project! It was May 3rd, 2007 when we received our building permit. Happy anniversary!

Wired

2008-04-22T21:48:00.000-07:00

Stucco wire that is...

We were able to get most of the stucco wire up last week. The hardest part was breaking out about 6 inches of the existing stucco out of the existing stucco wire so that the new wire and old wire could overlap and tie together. The sledge hammer was the most effective tool, but is was hard on the walls. There is one spot inside the living room where the drywall blew out from the pounding on the outside of the house. In the end, the combination of a 4.5" angle grinder (not 4"!), a hand sledge, 3 different sized cold chisels and a pair of channel lock pliers got the job done.

Then there were lots of little things to get done: trim out the crawlspace openings, cut out the crawlspace vents, put mesh wire over the crawlspace vents and finish sealing up some gaps in the paper.

After overlapping the old and new paper to make everything watertight, it was on to the stucco wire itself. Fortunately we had some help on Saturday getting the wire up. It would have been really tricky to attempt alone since it is pretty much one continuous run around the whole house. The first course may have been manageable, but the second and third courses would have been impossible.

We just nailed the wire up enough to keep it on the wall. This week or weekend we will rent a staple gun so we can attach it to meet code. It went pretty quickly once we got going. The slowest part was cutting the pieces and cutting out all the doors, windows and other protrusions.

There is still a little more to finish on the wire. We need to finish the tops of the gable walls and get wire in all the eaves. We should be able to get this done this week and move on the tearing out the old kitchen.

Electric Co.

2008-04-17T19:45:00.001-07:00

So, I haven't updated you in a while because there are no new or exciting pictures to show.

The last few weeks have been getting little things done to facilitate moving completely into the kitchen. Things like caulking the joint between the tile backsplash and the counter top, hooking up the hot water to the new plumbing in the kitchen, getting all the shelves set-up in the cabinets, etc. Plus we had a farewell extravaganza for our worship pastor. It was more of an evening of live music at the Little Fox theater in downtown Redwood City and we were part of the live music. At the time that we started our house project I stepped out of an active role in our Sunday night worship band as well as playing in the Matt Nightingale Band. Last week I got to be a part of both of these bands again for this last farewell and it was a lot of fun and very refreshing. I certainly miss some of these things that we have chosen to say "no" to for this season of our house remodel.

Anyway, we did make some progress on the house yesterday, though. We had our panel inspection... again. We didn't really change anything and it was the same inspector we had last time and he passed us without hardly a question. I think he might be new. Last time he didn't pass our panel because he didn't think PG&E would like it, not because of any code violation. He gave me a list of things he didn't think was right and told me to look it up in PG&E's "Green Book". I did this and there was nothing in there that supported his objections. He must have gone back and looked it up too.

We are moving ahead with getting the stucco going on the outside of the house. We have to make the old stucco such that they can tie into it. This involves breaking (not cutting) the old stucco and getting it out of the chicken wire so the old wire can be tied to the new wire. We also have to get the new paper under the old paper to create a good water drainage plane. Finally we need to trim out the crawlspace openings.

Hopefully this weekend we will be putting up the stucco wire so we can work on finding a sub-contractor to do the stucco. If you know of anyone you recommend let us know so we can contact them for a bid. Also, if the weather is making you want to spend some more time outside, we could use a few helpers on Saturday to put up the stucco wire.

Oh, Yeah!

2008-04-02T09:07:00.000-07:00

So, I know we didn't give you an update last week, but we'll make it worth your while. This week you get the kitchen money shots! But before I get ahead of myself...

The glass tile we were waiting for a few weeks back came in two Thursdays ago. That meant we could get the tile set that weekend. On Saturday we rented the tile saw and spent the day getting the tile set. It was pretty straight forward with the exception of a spot where the tile had to wrap around the outside corner at the end of the wall on the peninsula. The glass tile was a little more tricky working with. It is see-through so you have to take additional measures to make sure you don't get any air bubbles behind the tile that will be visible later.

We were able to get all the tile set on Saturday and we had a nice Easter on Saturday with family.

I took the day off work on Tuesday to do the grout work and spend some extra time with the family. The grout work went pretty well and we were able to get it finished by lunch time. The only problem was that the grout stained the granite. It is going to take some work to get it out. I should have protected the counter top before I started the grout. I didn't think that it would stain. I tried at the beginning to wipe it off to make sure it would come off ok, and it did. But once it sat for a while, the haze really got set into the granite. I didn't realize that granite was so porous.

Anyway, once the grout cured for a few days we were able to seal it so we could be ready to move in the appliances on the weekend. This past weekend my parents came up to spend the day with us and my dad helped me get the big appliances in. We started with the dishwasher. It went pretty smoothly, we just needed to figure out the best way to route the water line and drain line to under the sink.

Next we installed the range. It didn't go quite as smoothly. The range had pretty tight tolerances and it was almost exactly as tall as the cabinets with the finished counter top. This would have been fine except the floor wasn't perfectly level so some of the cabinets needed to be trimmed down to make the counter top level. That plus the thickness of the finished floor and the range ended up being too tall. To solve the problem we had to cut out the flooring where the range contacted the floor allowing it to sit lower. After quite a bit of finagling we finally got the range installed.

Next we moved the refridgerator into it's new location. We needed to take apart one of the door frames to get the fridge through the door from the old kitchen without having to take off the doors. The fridge fit without any problems and it looks nice in the cabinet that extends the entire depth of the fridge.

The final major appliance to install was the microwave. We had already put it in its location, but we didn't set it up to vent the fan outside. This was necessary to use the stove top. Since the microwave had already been mounted it didn't take long to pull it down, install the vent and put it back up.

Somewhere in there we also installed the sink faucet.

That evening I got all the doorknobs installed on the cabinet doors and the doors hung on the cabinets. Monday night I got all the cup pulls installed on the drawers and the drawers installed. And last night I got the garbage disposal installed and hooked up to the sink drain. The kitchen is now ready to move into... almost. There's currently no hot water in the new kitchen so I need to hook that up under the house. THEN we are ready to move into the kitchen!

Moving into the new kitchen is a big milestone for us. It's very exciting and we wouldn't have been able to do it without all the help and support of you - our family and friends. Thank you!

This week I need to finish getting the grout haze out of the granite and hook up the hot water. Then I need to get the electrical panel setup to pass the inspection and get going on the stucco.

Four on the Floor

2008-03-18T21:56:00.000-07:00

This weekend felt really productive and we have a lot to show for it!

We started the tile backsplash in the kitchen. Since we had some tiles that needed to be special ordered we couldn't do everything. To avoid having to rent a wet tile saw on two different days we just set the tiles that didn't need any cutting. Once the other tile arrives we'll rent the saw and set the rest of the tiles.

Without any cutting, setting the tiles went pretty quickly. After that we moved on to installing the floors. I've installed real wood floors before, but this was my first experience with laminate. The pieces only come in three different lengths so it takes a little more work to make it look random. Also, since the pieces lock together end-to-end and side-to-side you are quite limited in where you can use an off-cut piece. Other than that, it is pretty easy to work with. It floats on the sub-floor so there is no gluing or nailing which makes the work go fairly quick.

We're getting excited about moving into the kitchen soon! We were hoping the other tile would come in by today so I could take the day off tomorrow to finish setting all the tile. That would have given us a chance to move into the kitchen this weekend. But.. the tile didn't come in today, so this weekend will be finishing the tile setting. Hopefully we will be able to get the grout work done the following week and move in the following weekend.

Window Work

2008-03-13T10:12:00.000-07:00

This weekend was a good reality check that I'm not as young as I think I am. Not because of work on the house, but because of a football game that interrupted my usual Saturday routine, and a flag football game at that! It was a blast, but man was I sore the next day! Aside from hobbling around the house this weekend, we did get some work done.

The wall around the kitchen windows is now painted a nice, rich red. It adds some nice color to our otherwise black and white kitchen. We also had my dad's help on Saturday getting the trim installed around the kitchen windows. I really like the trim that Stacie picked out. The kitchen is really starting to have a finished appearance.

We got the kitchen light trim kits installed so we now have kitchen lights! Much better that the work light I've been using the last several weeks!

Our microwave is now in place, though the vent isn't connected. Once we start using the stove we will need to connect the microwave to a vent that will vent the exhaust through the back wall. We are waiting on that since it could introduce leaks until the stucco is on.

We also picked our tile for the kitchen backsplash and the flooring we are going to use. We are going with a white subway tile backsplash that will have a band of glass tile running through it to add some visual interest. For the flooring we chose a nice plank laminate with a hand-scraped appearance. We went with a higher end laminate for durability/value reasons. It will stand up to abuse better than any other option (though it can't be refinished) and is much cheaper than solid wood.

This week it's on to the tile and flooring work. This weekend I hope to get all the uncut subway tiles set. The glass tile was a special order and will arrive next week. So, next week I will rent the wet tile saw to do all the cut pieces and the glass tile. After that I will start working on the finished flooring. Once the flooring is in we can install the appliances and move in! It's hard to imagine that we are actually that close!

Counter Tops

2008-03-06T11:27:00.000-08:00

Well, our new kitchen looks quite different - in a really good way!

We got our counter tops installed on Thursday and they look great. It really makes the kitchen look good! It was a little crazy getting up to that point, though.

I got sick and was layed out for most of Sunday and Monday. Originally the counter tops were going to be installed on Tuesday, but we wouldn't have been ready so we pushed back the install to Thursday. Even still it was busy getting the bookcase built and installed and getting the plywood on top of the cabinets. We finished getting everything ready Wednesday night about 11pm. Just in time for the installers to arrive on Thursday morning at 9am.

The installers worked all day getting the granite installed and did most of the fabrication on site. I was amazed by the fact that the only power tool they used was an angle grinder! I thought they would have all kinds of special tools to cut, grind and polish the granite, but it really came down to a handful of attachments for your typical 4.5" angle grinder. Crazy!

This past weekend we spent some time with Stacie's grandparents for her grandma's 90th birthday! And her grandpa's 91st is this week! They are truly amazing! The only work we got done on the house this weekend was cleaning the garage - no small feat! It's not totally finished, but it took all day Sunday. It had gotten to the point where it was just too challenging to find a tool or access the laundry. Now that it is more organized we can get on with the construction.

This week we will hopefully finish painting the kitchen, trim out the windows and get ready for tiling the backsplash. We still need to make decisions on some of these things like the tile, floors and trim we are going to use.

Kitchen, Here We Come!

2008-02-26T13:37:00.001-08:00

It's about time for another update. I've been working on this one for a week, but I just haven't been able to get it out. We've made some good progress lately and things are moving along.

A few weekends ago my grandpa helped us get the new electrical panel in. It was a little nerve wracking working with the wires coming into the house while they were live, but according to PG&E and my grandpa's uncle who was an electrician, that's what they do. Basically we had to cut the wires coming into the house while they were hot. Once we had those cut and out of the way we took out the old fused electrical panel. Then we ran new service wires from the roof to where the new panel would go to support the upgraded service. The 3 wires pulled through the 1 1/2" conduit much easier than expected considering each wire was 1/2" thick!

Once the service wires were in place we closed up the wall since the old panel sat inside the wall and the new one sits on the outside of the wall. We pulled all the wires for the new circuits through the siding and ran them into the new panel. Once we got the panel mounted we hooked the wires back up at the roof and hooked up the existing house circuits just as daylight was fading. It was time for the moment of truth as we turned the main breaker on.

I wish I could say that everything worked perfectly, but it didn't. Most things worked as expected with the exception of the lights. None of the lights were working! I spent some time double checking the connections and making sure it wasn't a bad breaker, but couldn't figure out the problem. I decided to give up for the day and resort to a romantic, candle-lit evening. The next day I discovered the problem: the original wiring in our house does not run in pairs of hot and neutral wires like wiring does today. The original wires have two hot wires sharing a single neutral. Once I discovered this I was able to hook up the wires correctly and got everything working.

Since Monday was a holiday, I spent the day getting the panel organized and getting the rest of the wires for the new circuits hooked up.

This past weekend was spent getting the cabinets ready for the counter tops which will be installed this week. There were a few base cabinets left to install that I was putting off since they intrude into our existing dining room. The existing heater register is also in the way of where these cabinets go. So, with the help of a friend, Saturday consisted of tearing down the rest of the wall between the old dining room and laundry room, moving the heater duct and register, removing some of the hardwood floor so the base cabinets could be set on the sub-floor, and installing the two final base cabinets.

We were originally planning on having a little overhang with bar stools on one side of the peninsula that extends with these cabinets, but last minute decided on a bookshelf for cookbooks and things. We started building this as well on Saturday and are trying to make it match the cabinets. We need to have it completed and installed in time for the granite installers on Thursday.

So, this week the counter tops will be installed which should make for some exciting pictures for the next update. To finish the kitchen we need to trim out the windows, tile a backsplash, install the finished flooring and install the appliances. Hopefully we will be in our new kitchen in March!

Finally, Another Update

2008-02-08T19:26:00.000-08:00

Well... I guess it's about time for an update. Things are still moving a bit slow, especially with all the rain, but we are making progress. Here's what we've accomplished over the last few weeks.

Got almost all of the kitchen cabinets installed. There are only two base cabinets left to be installed and that is because they will interfere with our current dining room. We will wait to install these as long as possible. Probably until the counter top is installed.

There were two tricky cabinets that we installed and are worth mentioning. The first is the refrigerator cabinet. This cabinet fully encloses our refrigerator and ties into a cabinet above it. The standard depth of the refrigerator cabinet that we received from the factory is 24". The standard depth of a refrigerator is ~30". This means that 6" of the side of the refrigerator would be exposed beyond the edge of the cabinet. We felt that this would not look as nice as if the cabinet extended the full depth of the side of the refrigerator. So, we modified the cabinet to make it extend 29 1/2" from the wall. We also had to build out a platform to attach the cabinet above the refrigerator to since it has to be moved 5 1/2" out from the wall. Basically this cabinet alone took my dad and I the majority of two days to complete, but it looks great and I think it will be a nice touch to hide the black sides of our stainless steel refrigerator.

The second tricky cabinet was the sink cabinet. We are putting our kitchen sink in the corner overlooking the backyard. The sink cabinet itself isn't really a cabinet, but a cabinet front that attaches to the two surrounding cabinets. In also has a cabinet floor that needed to be cut to fit installed so that it matches the height of the cabinet floors of the surrounding cabinets. Finally a toe-kick had to be built for the false sink cabinet so that the space underneath the cabinet was not exposed.

The other thing that we have been getting finished up is the drywall mud and tape. With each joint requiring three coats of drywall compound, this job got old pretty quickly. The ceiling corners were the hardest to mud cleanly. It took several tries to get one side of the corner smooth without messing up the other side of the corner.Fortunately these will be covered up with crown molding.

Once the mud was done it was time to sand. We used a sander with a vacuum hose attachment. This worked quite well as long as we kept the vacuum filter clean and it really helped cut down on the dust inside. The sanding was finished up in half a day and it really made a difference to see the walls so smooth. Too smooth,though. We needed to rough them up with some texturing. We borrowed a texture gun from a friend and had a go. It doesn't match our original texture perfectly, but it's close and looks good. Texture is really nice since it hides all the imperfections in the drywall.

Wanting to get our living room back to normal sooner rather than later, we moved on to painting this week. We primered the walls and ceilings, painted the ceilings white to match the existing and painted the walls around the sliding doors the same brown color as the rest of the living room. We also painted the walls that will be inside the kitchen corner sink since it isn't actually a cabinet as well as the inside of the refrigerator cabinet since it wasn't completely white due to the modifications we made. We still need to paint the walls around the kitchen windows, but we're not sure what color we are going to use for that.

That pretty much brings you all up to speed. The next few projects include getting the new electrical panel installed and hooked up, getting the outlets and switches installed in the areas that are finished, installing the kitchen lights and putting up the stucco wire to get the house ready for stucco.

Still Dry

2008-01-08T20:03:00.000-08:00

Not much to report this week. We had our first real storm that dumped some serious rain and we are still dry! Our neighborhood flooded, but our property stayed dry. There are still some areas without power, but I don't think we had more than a brown-out or two. The rain started Thursday night and continued through Sunday with Friday being the worst of it.

I was out of town briefly this weekend for a friends 30th birthday so we didn't make a whole lot of progress. We got the first coat of mud and tape on the drywall in the living room. We had previously done this in the kitchen, but since the focus was on getting the cabinets in we let the living room go.

This week we hope to finish up the mudding and continue getting the cabinets in. There are a few tricky things to figure out with our refrigerator cabinet that should keep us busy.

Picking up the Pace

2008-01-02T20:15:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone! Sorry for not sending an update in a while. With the holidays, having time off work and the kitchen cabinets arriving the day after Christmas we've been in turbo mode to get things ready. We've had 3 inspections in the last couple weeks and it's starting to feel like things are really moving along.

We finished up the electrical and all the other odds and ends and called for an inspection on Wednesday the 19th. This was the BIG inspection that checks all the framing, electrical, plumbing, gas and HVAC. We had one main issue come up in the inspection: in a few places, the guy who did our waste and vent lines for us took the 2" cast iron vent pipe through the 2x4 framing in a load-bearing wall. Having a hole this large significantly lowers the bearing capacity of the stud and the inspector called it out. Fortunately, this didn't hold us up. The inspector said that he could verify that the problem had been resolved when he came out for our next inspection.

We scheduled the insulation inspection for Christmas eve which gave us the weekend to get the insulation installed as well as have the plumber fix the issue with the vent pipes. I had some good help that weekend. Stacie's brother was in town for Christmas and he helped me get all the insulation installed. It was pretty miserable doing the ceiling insulation; working above your head with little fiberglass particles constantly raining down on you. My grandpa and dad were also around and they were a huge help in making a dump run and restocking us with firewood. Anyway, we got everything done and passed the insulation inspection and we were getting closer to being ready for the kitchen cabinets.

The rest of Christmas eve and Christmas day we spent with family at my parents and grand-parents houses. It was a good time with family and quite a joy watching the girls open their presents.

Then it was back to work the next day with a lot of help from my grandpa. We first needed to move the washer and dryer to the garage and take out the wall between the laundry room and the new kitchen. This didn't take too long since we had already prepared space for it in the garage and we weren't actually hooking anything up. Then we needed to get the drywall over to the kitchen. This involved getting it from the new bedroom where it was stacked, out the window and around the house to the new kitchen. We were just getting ready to start hanging drywall when the kitchen cabinets arrived. Obviously, we weren't quite ready, so we had them stacked on the patio. We had a drywall inspection for the kitchen scheduled for Friday so we could hopefully start putting the cabinets up after that. My grandpa and I spent the rest of the day getting all the ceiling pieces of drywall up, which were the hardest.

Thursday and Friday morning was spent adding blocking between the studs in the kitchen to attach the cabinets to and then finishing getting all the walls covered with drywall. The inspection went well and we spent the rest of the day getting the kitchen drywall taped up. This had to be done before cabinets could be installed and my grandpa was coming again the next day to help start hanging them.

Saturday we started hanging kitchen cabinets! Boy were we glad for the blocking - it would have been a pain to locate each stud and mount the screws directly in them. We got all of the wall cabinets up that day. The first few went pretty slowly as we figured everything out, but by the end of the day we were moving along really well.

Monday we needed to get the laundry hooked up again so we could have some clean clothes for 2008. We got that taken care of only to find out that the dryer wasn't heating up. I rechecked all the connections and everything seemed to be hooked up and working so I figured it must be an internal issue. By the time I figured out how to get the machine apart so I could see if it everything inside appeared to be working properly, it was working properly. Go figure.

Tuesday was spent installing the base cabinets. I didn't get them all in, but the kitchen is definitely starting to take shape. When you stand in the middle of it you can really see what it's going to be like - and it's going to be night and day compared to what we have now!

Sorry this update has been so long, but we've made a lot of progress and I needed to use a lot of words so I could fit a lot of really cool pictures! Thanks for all your help, support and interest.

Creeping Along

2007-12-12T15:47:00.001-08:00

A short update this week because there's not much to show for the work we've done. Just more electrical.

We've got all the low voltage wiring done: phone, internet, cable. We also ran speaker wire in the wall from the corner where the TV will be for future in wall wiring for audio. All the recessed lights are installed and wired up. We just need to finish up the wiring in the bathroom and run the rest of the power from the panel to the correct locations. Actually, as I think about it there are lots of little odds and ends to wrap up before the inspection. We need to plumb the shower valves, install the bathroom fan, install the vent ducts for the fan, add blocking in the kitchen for the cabinets, add blocking in the bathroom for towel rods, build a half wall for the shower, install bocking for the shower pan, ...

Hopefully we will be able to finish all these little things up this week for an inspection early next week.

Room with a View

2007-12-05T14:04:00.001-08:00

I know I said I was going to get back to regular updates and here I left you hanging for two weeks. I guess I'm easing back into it.
Thanksgiving weekend Stacie's family was here and we had the first Thanksgiving at our house despite the construction mess. This meant that we had helpers! We got a lot of the wiring done that weekend, though we still need to get the new electrical panel and do all the runs to the panel. We also got the gas lines finished up and pressure tested. We thought they were done last time, but when we pressure tested them we found a leak. We were able to find its location with some soapy water and get it fixed.

This past weekend really felt good though! We made some serious, visible progress. Our sliding doors arrived last week and we got them installed! I had Friday off of work because they were moving our office so we started the demo then. My grandpa came by to help us get the stucco off the outside, the drywall off the inside and we picked up the doors and the new header (a 3.5" x 11 7/8" manufactured beam for the 12' opening). We also replaced the entire rim joist that was totally rotted and got a temporary supporting wall built to support the house when we opened up the wall.

Saturday morning we had Natalie's second Birthday party. We went to our neighborhood park for food and fun. It would have been more fun if it hadn't been the coldest day of the year so far. After the party I again took advantage of all the helpers that were around and we started opening up the house for the new sliders. We took out the existing door, window and most of the entire back wall of the house. Our living room felt more like a covered patio or porch than an inside room.

We got the beam in and the siding on before dark, but we still had a long way to go and it was getting cold! Once we got the stucco paper on (after trips to two different Home Depots) we were ready to start installing the doors. The doors went together smoothly, but took a while since there were four panels and this was our first time with an exterior door. Gradually we started closing the wall back in - trying to keep some of the heat from the fireplace inside the house - until finally around 9pm we got the last door in.

Sunday we finished up with the weatherstripping, flashing and door hardware. What a difference these doors make! The entire pack of our house is glass with a great view of our backyard. This has definitely been the first part of this entire project that we can appreciate and take advantage of now! Thanks to everyone who helped out, hopefully you have thawed out by now.

This week we are trying to finish up the electrical and low voltage wiring. We need to get our next inspection soon and keep moving since our kitchen cabinets will be delivered this month.

Back At It

2007-11-21T19:10:00.000-08:00

OK, it has been way too long since the last update! I will do my best to bring you all up to speed on what's been happening over the last month and a half.

The week after our last entry we were able to calculate how much drywall we needed. This was important because we wanted to get it into the house through a window opening before we put the last window in. This helps because I don't have any garage floor space to store it and it would be a real hassle to carry every sheet through the house.

I built a rack that I had the drywall delivered on. I built it the same height as the window and attached it to the house with legs that extended to the ground for support. When the drywall came that Thursday, I had the guy put it right on the rack with the forklift. That way it could be pulled right in the window and set on the floor without having to go in and out. I had a friend who was able to help me get it in and put in the last window. We finished just in time to head out of town for a little getaway for our anniversary. This was a milestone because it meant that the house is now weather-tight!

We took the weekend off and got away to Bass Lake and Yosemite without the girls. The day after we got back was the day that Stacie's dad died. We headed back out of town to be with her family for the next week and a half.

Since then it has been slow getting back into things and there aren't many pictures to show for it. We've been planning all our electrical, choosing and ordering our kitchen cabinets and deciding on appliances. We realized that we needed the details around these things to know exactly where to put our outlets, rough plumbing and gas lines. We also revised our plans to add a double sliding door to the outside at the back of the house.

Now that all those things are figured out I've been getting back to making some progress. The rough plumbing is mostly done. The gas is now done and I have started on the rough electrical. Hopefully I'll be getting back to regular updates to this blog and will have more to show for it.

So, where things are headed: we need to finish the electrical and then we're ready for our next inspection. The only tricky part of this is that we need to put in a new panel and I'm not sure if it will fit where the old panel is. Then it's on to insulation followed by another inspection and then drywall. Our sliding doors will be arriving at the end of this month and we need to install them before our next inspection. Our kitchen cabinets are scheduled to arrive in mid December. And we can't put them in until the drywall is up. This is in the midst of the holidays and Natalie's 2nd birthday so it should be a good bit of craziness.

Thanks for sticking with us and for all the people who have been interested in how we are doing.

September 17, 1949 - October 8, 2007

2007-10-19T15:27:00.000-07:00

Staying Dry

2007-09-25T14:38:00.001-07:00

We were able to stay dry last week! It looked like there was going to be thunder showers on Wednesday night and Thursday, so Wed. I got back up on the roof and finished things up. Turns out we didn't get any rain Wed. or Thurs. Oh well, it felt good to have the roof sealed up anyway.

Friday our windows were delivered and we started putting the stucco wrap on the house, but didn't get very far.

Saturday we woke up to rain. How disappointing! My grandpa came over to help and we worked the morning in the rain getting a lot of the house wrapped up. It was pretty miserable work in the rain. We were working close to the walls and since we don't have any gutters on the house all the rain was running off right onto our backs. By 11:30 I was soaked and ready to quit for the day. We decided to break for lunch, dry off and see what the weather would do.

Fortunately by the time we were done with lunch there was only the slightest sprinkle and occasional drip off of the roof so we decided to get back to work and see how long the weather would hold out. Turns out that was the end of the rain and we got the rest of the house wrapped and all except one of the windows installed. We purposely left the large window to the bedroom addition out. We are going to have the sheetrock delivered first so we can bring it in through that window. That will be much easier than carrying it through the house!

So this week we're working on calculating what we need for the next stage which is rough electrical and plumbing. We also need to calculate the sheetrock so we can have that delivered and get the last window in. Then we will be weather tight!

Roofing - A Pain in the Neck

2007-09-18T11:43:00.000-07:00

The roofing is or was going really well. The materials were delivered Thursday morning and it was an exact match to our existing roof. We started papering the roof on Wed. and got as far as possible with the paper on Thurs. We couldn't paper everything because the new roofing bundles were stacked on the new roof and there's no way we were going to move it all just to get the paper on. So on Thurs. we stated laying some roof. It went really well and is quite satisfying work to see the transformation.

On Friday our plumber came out to put the sewer vents through the roof. We needed this in order to put on the flashing and shingles. We continued to make good progress on Friday even though it is fairly slow going working alone. By Friday evening my back was letting me know that it didn't appreciate all the bending over.

Saturday was a big push and we had some help to get most of the roof finished. Probably 85% done. The weather was perfect - not too hot, partly cloudy and a slight breeze. Things also went more quickly with two people working. Saturday afternoon my body was starting to object to the constant stand-up, sit-down, hunched over routine, but I had to push through the rest of the day. That night I was in pain - especially my neck.

Sunday I was so stiff I couldn't move my head and had a hard time finding any position that was comfortable. I've been layed out since and am on a course of prescription muscle relaxants and chiropractor visits. Each day gets a little better and today I have been able to spend the morning sitting up without much pain.

It looks like there may be rain in the forecast so I really hope I'm able to get back up there and finish the roof in the next few days. We're also hoping to get the waterproof paper on the outside walls before then. Our windows should be delivered soon so the house may look a bit different by the next blog entry.

Framed!

2007-09-13T20:35:00.000-07:00

I know it's almost Friday and I haven't sent an update yet. This week has just flown by. But the big news is... The framing is done!

Last week we got the beam in that will support the existing ceiling and roof when we open up the wall into the new kitchen. Once that was in we started on the framing of the ceiling and roof of the new kitchen. It's a pretty small are so you would thing it would go real quickly, but this was my first time building a hip roof and it is definitely more complicated than the gable roof that is over the bedroom addition.

Wednesday we had some help from a good friend and we got the ceiling up, the ridge set, and the common and the hip rafters on. The hip rafters took a while to figure out because of all the angles and the fact that they lie in a different plane than the common rafters. Fortunately, my geometry came back to me pretty well - SOH, CAH, TOA.

Thursday we got all of the jack rafters in that connect to the hip rafters. That took a while too. I was trying to use a "common difference" (a length that once figured out you add to the length of the previous rafter to get the length of the next rafter). Only after I cut them all and started to put them up did I discover that they weren't right at all. In the end I just measured each one and cut it individually.

Friday we had 3 generations of Ciraulo men finishing the roof over the kitchen. My dad and grandpa helped me get the plywood on. That part went pretty quickly so we moved on to some smaller miscellaneous things that needed to be finished up.

Saturday my grandpa came over with his truck and we took a huge load to the dump. We had been piling debris in front of the house for weeks and it had gotten pretty big. Stucco from tearing the siding off, eaves and gutter from cutting them back for the framing, roofing that had been torn off where the new roofs tie in, and a ton of off-cuts from all the framing. It sure felt good to get rid of that big pile even though it was a chore to load and unload.

Just this past Tuesday we had our next inspection. I thought this inspection would be for the framing, but it was really just to verify the nailing on the siding and the roof. We passed under the condition that we had to add some more nails on the roof where it attached to the blocking at the eaves. The framing inspection will happen with the plumbing and electrical so they can see and holes or notches that are made for pipe and wire.

So we are now free to cover up the house and get it water tight! I can't believe we are already there! We will be starting with the roof. The roofing was all delivered today and we have started putting it on. That's what the focus will be the rest of this week and weekend. I could sure use 2 or 3 guys this Saturday to help with the roofing, so let me know if you are available.

What's Up? (cont.)

2007-09-04T13:47:00.000-07:00

Last week was more work on the roof. After the main roof was framed up we added all the blocking between the rafters at the top of the walls. This needed to be done before the plywood could be put down on the roof. We also added a trim detail to the outside rafters to match the existing house.

The plywood went down with the help of my dad and father-in-law. It took two evenings to get it done. Since the addition is fairly small, there weren't that many sheets of plywood that didn't need some sort of cutting. Right before the last of the plywood went down we cut open the existing roof so there would be access from the existing attic into the new attic.

There was some serious prep work that needed to be done before the roof could be started on the kitchen addition. Since the existing exterior wall will be removed between the new and existing kitchen, there will be a beam added which will support the existing roof and ceiling. However, the existing ceiling joists are insufficient because the ends bear on interior walls that will be removed later on. To solve this problem we needed to replace the existing ceiling joists with new ones that span the entire distance that will be open. This was complicated by the fact that we have old knob and tube wiring that is run through our attic and passes through the middle of the existing ceiling joists and is buried by nasty, blown-in insulation. This last weekend, after a few miserable days in the attic, we were able to get the wiring all re-routed and the ceiling joists replaced.

We can now move on to building the roof over the kitchen addition. This week we will be installing the beam that will support the existing roof and new ceiling joists and building the ceiling and roof over the kitchen addition.

What's up?

2007-08-28T14:30:00.000-07:00

The roof now, well... at least part of it. Last week was a little slow until the lumber arrived on Friday. During the week we got the rest of the wall sheathing up and just got things ready to start on the roof. A little break is nice sometimes. It gives us a chance to get organized, clean the garage, clean up the site, etc.

But once the lumber arrived on Fri. it was full speed ahead. Friday evening we got the ceiling joists installed over the bedroom addition and tore the existing roofing off where the new roof will tie in. This went really quickly since it was just a matter of cutting the joists to length and nailing them to the top of the wall.

Saturday we started raising the roof. First we needed to get the ridge boards set. This took a little figuring since we have two gable roofs that come together into one at the end of our bedroom. We had some help getting the ridge up and the first rafters attached. It would have been quite a bit more difficult to do alone. Cutting the rafters and figuring all of the angles was the most time consuming and confusing part of framing the roof so far.

To cut the rafters took 5 cuts and a lot of measuring and marking. It went like this for most of the rafters: mark, cut, measure, measure, mark, mark, mark, cut, cut, cut, measure, mark, cut. Then with all the angled and beveled cuts where roofs meet at valleys or walls meet the roof I would get so confused. More than once I cut a board only to get it up there and realize that I'd cut the angle on the wrong side or in the wrong direction.

But at the end of the day, it is quite satisfying to see it go from a plywood box to something that looks more like a house. The roof over the bedroom side is pretty much framed up now. This week we will be adding the eave blocking and then putting the plywood sheathing on. That will hopefully be complete by midweek and then we will start on the roof of the kitchen addition.

Walled In (cont.)

2007-08-21T11:11:00.000-07:00

Last week we continued getting the walls up. We demoed the exterior of the kitchen addition and got those walls up. This went much the same as last week except that the walls couldn't be built on the sub-floor as easily. This was due to the rough plumbing that was in the way as well as the fact that the floor area was not large enough to build the final end wall. Fortunately we had help this weekend from Stacie's brother and a friend of ours.

Once we got the final three kitchen walls up, we moved on to installing the second top plate on all the walls as well as all the fire blocking which is also used for attaching the sheetrock. This went pretty smoothly and we even got as far as installing the exterior wall sheathing on the kitchen addition.

We also ordered our windows and doors last week. The girls were real troopers, but it wore them out (as you can see).

This week we will be finishing the exterior sheathing on the bedroom addition and
this weekend we will hopefully be starting the ceiling and roof. Our lumber is coming for this at the end of this week.

Walled In

2007-08-14T21:07:00.000-07:00

Well, the walls are going up and it's pretty exciting to see!

Last week was busy trying to prepare for raising walls so that we could take advantage of the help that we had on Saturday. The first part of the week was spent getting the site prepared: final grading and spreading ground cover. The lumber was
delivered on Wed. and Fri.and it was a chore moving it all into the backyard. Talk about a forearm workout! Then it was back and forth between tearing the existing stucco and siding off the house before the girls went to bed and laying out and marking the top and bottom plates of the walls after they went to bed (noisy vs. quiet work).

On Friday I was extremely fortunate to have a neighbor who was willing to help me out. We were able to get all of the stucco and siding torn off of the bedroom side as well as get the existing kitchen window removed. Friday night we were able to cut all the lumber for the bedroom side walls so we could be at peak efficiency on Saturday.

On Saturday I was fortunate to have the help of my dad, grandpa and a good friend. We got all the walls on the bedroom side framed in addition to making two dump runs to get rid of a bunch of debris. My dad was a huge help in doing all the loading for both of the dump runs - not the fun work! The second run was to get rid of some concrete and remaining dirt
from the foundation excavation. The load weighed in at 2.17 tons! Taken to the dump in my grandpa's 1/2 ton pickup!

Saturday went more smoothly than expected. Since all the lumber was pre-cut the night before, framing was pretty much a two man job. My grandpa helped while my dad loaded the truck for the dump. Then my dad helped after my grandpa left. Then my friend showed up right about when my dad needed to leave. All in all it was a very productive week and we couldn't have done it without everyone who helped! There are lots of good pictures from last week so be sure to check out the photo album.

This week we will be focusing on the kitchen side. Same process: tear off siding, layout wall plates, cut lumber and frame the walls. There are only 3 shorter walls on the kitchen side so it should go fairly quickly. The only question mark is what kind of damage may be hiding inside one of the walls. If you recall we had to fix a leak in one of these walls previously and we're not sure how much damage we are going to find when we open it up.

Floored

2007-08-06T13:55:00.000-07:00

We just returned from a much needed vacation and are ready to get back to work. To follow up on the last post, things went better than expected and we were even able to leave on our vacation early!

The insulation went in very quickly. Just lay it in the joist bays and your good to go. We installed some netting to keep it from falling through and the insulation needed to be cut for any non-standard width bays. Otherwise it was pretty simple and we could have finished in an evening and bumped up the inspection by a day, but better safe than sorry.

The inspection went quickly since they only want to verify that the insulation is installed and then it was on to laying the 3/4" tongue and groove sub-floor. This also went quickly and was finished before noon on Saturday. The master bath was the most complex area with all the plumbing cut-outs. The nail gun came in really handy on the sub-floor. It would have taken quite a bit longer to nail it by hand. The bump-fire trigger (hold down the trigger and every time you depress the nose of the gun it fires a nail) on the gun is perfect for this kind of work. We also glued down the sub-floor to keep it from squeaking in the future.

The girls have really enjoyed their new "dance floor". I think they would be happy just to leave it as is... but we're moving on. This week we will begin raising the walls. The lumber is being delivered on Wed/Thurs which gives me a few days to prepare the site. Last time we put all the lumber in the back corner of our lot. This kept it out of the way with all the tractors and earth moving, but made it more work to carry since it was on the opposite end of the yard from where it was needed. This time we'll stack the lumber near the addition which should make it a little easier.

Just a reminder, don't forget to check out our photo album linked here. Each week there is a new folder added full of lots of pictures that aren't posted in the blog entries.

Plumbing (without the crack)

2007-07-25T16:03:00.000-07:00

We've got you all trained to expect updates on Tuesdays so you are probably all wondering what's going on with the project. Well... It's been a long week and weekend preparing for our second inspection which took place today. This inspection was a below floor inspection checking out the floor joists, rough plumbing, drain/waste/vent and HVAC. In order to get to this point we had to finish the floor joists (the new kitchen and
all the blocking), install all the rough plumbing and install the new heating ducts.

The floor joists were pretty easy and old hat by now. The plumbing was miserable because I had to spend hours and hours under the house - hot, dirty and cramped (and muddy because I discovered I had forgotten to solder one joint when I turned the water on!) The HVAC was not that difficult once I found a place that carried the basic supplies. I sub-contracted out the drain/waste/vent lines. This was a good call because after looking at the finished product I definitely couldn't have done it as well (or as fast).

So, all this to say that we passed the inspection and we're moving on. We will be installing insulation tonight and tomorrow night for another inspection on Friday. Then, hopefully, this Saturday we'll get the subfloor down. After the insulation inspection Friday, we don't have another inspection until all the framing is done! Should make for some good progress pics over the next several weeks.

Wood!

2007-07-17T13:40:00.000-07:00

Houses are made of wood and now ours has some!

This week we were able to get the mudsill and much of the floor built. This part actually went pretty quickly and was fun. It is encouraging to see it starting to take shape.

This week we will be finishing the floor joists and doing the rough plumbing (the prices for copper are painful!). Hopefully we will be ready for our next inspection early next week.

Form Foibles

2007-07-11T15:19:00.000-07:00

This week was less productive than we had expected. The main reason was that the form stakes would not come out and the forms would not come off!

The first step to removing the forms was to remove the 4 ft. steel form stakes that we rented. It didn't take long to figure out that these do not pull right out! After attempting several methods of removal, my grandpa and I were able to use the following system with moderate success: break the stake loose by twisting it with a pipe wrench, cinch a chain around the stake and use a pry-bar over the foundation to raise the stakes. This sounds a lot easier than it was as evidenced by several broken chains, broken bolts, bent stakes and a bent 6 ft. steel pry-bar! With help from my father-in-law I was able to finish getting the stakes out on the 4th of July.

The next step was to get the forms off. Again, this proved to be more difficult than expected. They did not just pull off. The problem appeared to be that concrete had pushed up around the bottom form and now held it securely in place. The bottom forms, if you remember, were 20 yr. old used forms that were badly deteriorated. Any prying on them only caused them to break apart. We were able to get all of the top half of the forms off and decided to just bury the old ones since we couldn't get them out and they were well underground.

The foundation is now back-filled. We were hoping it would use more dirt to fill all the trenches since we have piles everywhere, but we weren't counting on the forms taking up much of the space. Also, we fixed a leak in our laundry room. The drain for the washer was rusted through inside the wall and had rotted some of the floor joists that I need to tie our new floor to. Now that the leak is fixed I can proceed with fixing the old floor and building the new one.

This week I will be setting the mudsill and building the floor. The progress may again be a little slow since this Saturday is my brother's wedding.

Forms Filled

2007-07-03T08:58:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that it worked out, but we poured our foundation this past Saturday! Again, it couldn't have been done without the help of many friends and family and God's sovereign timing!

Last Monday we got a few friends to help set the last of the wall forms and start setting the rebar in place. We scheduled an inspection for Thursday figuring this would give us enough time to finish the forms plus enough lead time to order the concrete for Saturday if we passed.

Wednesday a whole crew of guys came over to help out. We worked on getting more of the steel rebar in, building and setting the forms for the 3 piers under the master bedroom, clearing some dirt in the way of the concrete truck access, etc. We got quite a bit done considering there were 11 of us!

Taking a step back, Tuesday afternoon we found out from the County that the inspector would require a certified letter from a licensed surveyor to confirm the location of our forms. This was a surprise and an obstacle since after calling our surveyor we discovered he was out of town for the week. We tried several other surveyors on Tues. and Wed. and weren't able to get in touch with any of them. We rescheduled the inspection for Friday hoping to have more time to get this required letter and still pour the foundation on the weekend. Thursday we finally found a surveyor who could write the letter for us, but he would have to redo everything and the cost was much higher than our original survey. We decided that the extra cost was not worth saving a few days in our schedule and we would wait for our surveyor to return. We kept the inspection to make sure there were no other issues of concern.

Thursday evening and Friday morning we finished getting everything set for the inspection. This is where God's timing comes in. On Friday morning at about 8:30am we called the County to find out when our inspection would be. We were hoping for amorning inspection so just in case the inspector passed us without the survey letter we could still order the concrete for Saturday. We was told the inspection window was 1:30 - 3:30. Bummer. Until... about 9:30am we got a call from our original surveyor saying he was back in town and could come by in 15 minutes! What!? No way! At a little after 1pm he called saying the letter was ready. At about 2pm the inspector came by, found our letter and forms satisfactory and signed off on our inspection! After calling a few concrete places that were all booked up for Saturday we were able to find one with availability. The pour was scheduled for Saturday at noon!

Saturday the pour went extremely fast. We finished pouring 10 yards of concrete in about 1 hour! The guy who was running the concrete pump also ran the hose for us. This is not typical and was a huge help since he really knew what he was doing and having a fourth person made a big difference. Once he really got going it was a raceto keep up with him. He filled the forms and we did our best to level and smooth the concrete and set the anchor bolts before the concrete set up. Foundation done!

This week we will be removing the forms, bolting on the mudsill and starting to build the floor. We also need to fix a leak that we discovered under our existing laundry room. There are some rotted joists that need to be replaced so we can tie the new floor joists to them.

Got Forms?

2007-06-27T08:16:00.000-07:00

Well, it's really starting to look like something! With a ton of help from my brother-in-law, dad and grandpa, we got almost all of the forms built and set this weekend!

My grandpa had gotten a bunch of pre-built forms that were used for a housing development in Saratoga. Since we had to dig so deep for our foundation, these forms weren't tall enough to use by themselves; we needed to build additional forms to add on top of them. Friday evening my brother-in-law and I got most of these additional forms built.

On Saturday we started setting the forms. It took us a little while to figure out the best way of getting them staked in and lined up since they were so big. (After having to dig so deep the walls of the foundation are over 3 feet tall.) But we got into a rhythm - set the form in place, dig out any area of the trench that is in the way, line up and drive the stakes, attach the forms to the stakes a little high, pound them down to the string line, attach the form to the previous one, brace it and move on to the next form.

It went like this pretty smoothly for most of the day. We finished the forms on the side of the house and got half way done on the back of the house. My goal this week is to finish up the forms, get the steel rebar set in place, get an inspection and hopefully be pouring concrete by the weekend.

Dig, Dug, Done!

2007-06-19T16:08:00.001-07:00

At least with the digging! That's right, we were able to get all the digging done this past week. It's been hard work digging those trenches and I have a new respect for the guys who built our railroads with nothing more than a pick and a shovel! Now it's on to building something.

Our first load of lumber came today which contains the steel rebar for the foundation, the wood to build the forms and the lumber required to get the floors built. This week we'll be building the forms for the foundation. Once that is finished we need to get an inspection and then we will be pouring the foundation.

The Big Dig (cont.)

2007-06-12T08:39:00.000-07:00

So... Friday morning, after talking with a building inspector, we learned that we needed to dig down an additional 18" for our foundation footings due to "expansive soil". This was the first of what I'm sure will be many roadblocks during the course of this project. It was just so disheartening since, after having some friends come and help during the evenings last week, we thought the digging was almost done.

As a result, the pictures will look much the same this week as they did last week. The major differences being the stump from the oak tree is all ground up and the piles of dirt are much larger now.

Being faced with the challenge of needing to remove so much more dirt I decided to rent another tractor; this time an excavator. It made quick work of the digging, but was difficult to maneuver into the positions necessary to dig all of the foundation. There is still a lot more digging to do and we're starting to run out of places to pile the dirt!

We are only a few weeks into this project, but I just wanted to take a moment and thank those that have made an effort to come out and help. It has been a real joy spending time with you, getting to know some of you and your families better, and not having to work alone. The encouragement and support that I've felt from someone coming over to help, even if for a short period, has been an unexpected blessing.

That said, we can always use some more help, especially right now with the digging since it just goes so slow. I spend almost every evening and Saturday working on the project, so please let me know anytime you are interested in helping out.

The Big Dig

2007-06-06T08:55:00.001-07:00

This past Saturday was quite productive with the help of some industrial equipment - a bobcat and a 90 lb. jackhammer. We needed to remove a significant amount of dirt and concrete to have an adequately sized crawl space under the addition. We had a bit of a rough start. We had to break out about 50 sq/ft of concrete patio in our backyard where the new kitchen will go and discovered that the concrete was at least 10" think in some places. It was clear that the builders of the patio did not try to level the ground before they poured the concrete. They just filled all the unevenness with more concrete. Anyway, after switching to a more powerful jackhammer my dad was able to get it all broken up. I have to give him a huge thank you for spending all morning doing the most labor intensive job. The bobcat made quick work of removing the concrete and dirt and by mid afternoon we were starting to dig the trenches for the foundation footing.

Unfortunately, I don't have any action shots of the work on Saturday. I need to get better about taking pictures. Here are a few pics showing how things look now.

This Saturday I will be digging the trenches for the foundation footings. If you want to get dirty and do a little back breaking manual labor, come on by. I'll be starting around 9am but you are welcome any time. Bring a pick, shovel and gloves if you have them. There will be food and drink for all.

Timmmmberrr

2007-05-30T15:43:00.000-07:00

Sorry it has been so long since an update. I had to go on a last minute business trip to India and as a result missed 2 good weekends worth of work. My body is still adjusting back to California time. I did get some work done before I left, however.

The weekend of May 12th my grandpa helped me cut down a large oak tree that stands where our new master bedroom will be. There were a few touch-and-go moments as the tree had many large limbs that were hanging over the house. Also, it was a little unnerving scaling the upper limbs, cutting with the chainsaw above my head, not totally sure which way a limb was going to fall. We did quite well with controlling all but a few using various ropes. We took out the phone line on accident and broke one window. All in all I would call it a huge success. Attached are some before and after pictures.

This weekend I'm renting a bobcat and will begin digging for the foundation. I'm also working on getting a blog up documenting the project. The content will be the same as these emails, but it will provide the opportunity for you web savvy folks to leave comments. Also, anyone who has missed any of the emails will be able to catch up from the beginning of the project.

This Friday night we will be having a little ground breaking/dedication for our project. We wanted to do this before we started, but it is never too late and it has been on our hearts. If you are interested we would love to have you join us this Friday, June 1st at 7:30pm for a short time of prayer and dedication (and some sweets). We understand that many of you will not be able to make it on such short notice and that's OK. We appreciate your prayers and support just the same.

Here are some of the things we will be praying for on Friday (and throughout the project):

Protection and balance for our marriage and family with the added business and stress of the project
Safety for all who come in contact with our project
Favor with the county and inspectors
Speed, efficiency and diligence in completing the work

I'm sorry that this email has gotten so long. You can be assured that future updates will be much more brief.

The Beginning

2007-05-03T15:37:00.000-07:00

It's finally here! The County of San Mateo has decided (after a mere 1.5 years) to let us proceed with our modest addition by granting us our building permits today, May 3rd 2007!

Many of you have expressed interest in our project and have even offered to lend a helping hand. We have greatly appreciate your support, prayers and help up to this point and we are only just getting started. We would like to use this email format to keep you up to date with our progress as we begin work on our house. We will do this with pictures, updates and info on upcoming work in case you are interested in lending a helping hand.

If at any time you wish to be removed from this distribution list please let us know and we will remove you (and we won't take it personally). Also, if you know of someone who would appreciate these updates that isn't receiving them, let us know that as well and we would be happy to add them.

We'll be in touch!