Week 16

I am very happy (and relieved) to report that Week 15's misery stayed in Week 15, and Week 16 brought huge progress!


Monday

They started rebuilding the walls upstairs on Monday:

They also put in the heavy duty structural pieces that will allow us to have the wide pass-through in the kitchen:

And the uninterrupted 12-foot opening downstairs:

They also made progress on the south wall downstairs:

Tuesday 

The south wall upstairs went up:

As did the west wall, where the windows will go:

And speaking of windows, they arrived on Tuesday:

Wednesday

Wednesday was a little rainy, so I think that slowed things down a bit, but they still made progress. Here's half the framing for the roof:

Thursday

When we got home on Thursday, we were greeted by the most wonderful sight: a completed roof!

They also framed the low wall that the countertop will go on -- that's it, there on the right, in the foreground.

Progress was made on the north wall downstairs:

And here is a shot of how the shear wall bracket things work in pairs to keep the first & second floors happily married, with a heavy bolt that travels up through the framing:

Friday

More progress on the north wall:

Now you can see clearly where all three windows will be.

The west wall, where the doors will go, is almost complete:

Plywood is almost everywhere on the outside now:

Meanwhile, the debris pile grows & grows:

That blue thing on the right is a sheet of plastic or linoleum that is printed to look like tile -- it used to be in the kitchen, under the sheetrock. 

Saturday

Much to our surprise 5 guys showed up bright & early on Saturday morning to do some more work. It's pretty much been 2 guys all this time, doing all the work I've been posting about, by the way. Anyway, Mr. Bunkport tells us that they're making a push to have all the framing completed this week, & that's why they were here again on a weekend. 

By the time they left, they had completed the north wall upstairs:

The back steps aren't officially open for business for us, but those 5 burly guys were going up & down them all day, so we figure two small people & a medium sized dog can surely use them without causing them to fall over or anything. This means that the days of having to bring the dog to the yard through the front door & garage door are now over!

The wall between the garage & new room also got its plywood on Saturday:

Here's a view of the wall from inside the room:

This photo is actually very close to straight (those blue supports are set up crooked). It has a funhouse look to it because of the way the original foundation was built -- to deal with the steep hill we're on (about 16% grade), the foundation goes from a couple feet tall on the left, to less than a foot on the right.

They will be cutting out the section of the foundation under the door -- you can see the cuts in the concrete, if you look closely.

After admiring all the hard work that was done, I spent the afternoon enjoying the sun in the sunroom for the first time in 10 weeks (when the floor was accidentally demolished).

The view -- the kingdom of debris -- leaves something to be desired, but hey, I'll take it.

Meanwhile, Pickles, who has been *very* dismayed by the lack of walls in the kitchen, actually came in to enjoy the sun for a few minutes:

The Tyvek housewrap stuff flapping in the wind proved to be too unnerving for her, though, & she went back to the couch in the living room. Soon, Pickles, soon! Soon, you'll have your favorite room in the house back!

Next week, framing should finally be completed, exterior finishes will begin, and a roofer is coming to finish the new sun room roof. The plumber hasn't been able to finish reconnecting the kitchen sink because he's had to wait for the framing to finish, so the end of that blue plastic hose should be soon, as well. And the end of framing also means that reconnecting the washing machine should be around the corner, as well!

Week 15

This was a dark week on Mars. Perhaps the longest week ever.

It started last Sunday, when I turned on the heat for a few minutes to take the chill out of the house, & neglected to remove a candle that had been set on top of the heater. The wax dripped into the heater & caught fire -- we were quick on our feet & put it out, but the fire department came to check everything out, & the entire affair was both horribly scary & horribly mortifying. But no damage to anything except my pride, so all's well that ends well.

Getting the heater cleaned out on Tuesday turned out to be complicated, however -- the heating contractor wouldn't proceed with the job because he felt that the old flue was a carbon monoxide risk, & said that it needed to be replaced before he did the cleaning & left us to our own devices. So, that's going on Mr. Bunkport's list, which means we're without heat for...well, some time, because floors, walls, & the washing machine are just higher priority. Sorry, AJ. I'll buy you a new wooly summer hat.


Monday

More lumber!

The first blind wall got its fire resistant sheetrock panels, and then was bolted into place:

This required cutting the kitchen sink drain for (allegedly) one day, so that it could be rerun on the inside of the wall (yes, instead of the outside, where it is now).

Very exciting development -- the cribs started to be disassembled:

Tuesday

Cribs gone!

And stacked in the yard:

The framing on the south wall was bolted into place (but honestly looked a little odd to me):

And this board was put across the room:

I thought to myself, great, how long am I going to have to be ducking under here when I bring the dog to the yard?

And on Tuesday, these holes appeared in the kitchen wall:

The same holes, from the outside:

This is how I felt about these holes, which happen to be perfectly sized raccoon doors:

I had a similar attitude to having to do dishes in the bathroom:

I was going to get paper plates, but no, the guy said that the kitchen sink would be back the next day, so I didn't bother. You can see where this is going.

Wednesday

Goodbye cribs!

Planks were put over the holes from the cribs, while we all wait for them to be filled in with concrete.  They probably did this to make it a safer worksite -- all I know is that these are no longer two huge litter boxes to drag the dog past:

Speaking of public litter boxes, Pickles' Snack Bar finally went away:

And that was the extent of the good news. We learned many bad things that day. First, the crew that built this north wall & the south wall in the photo above screwed some things up:

That work needs to be redone. Great.

Also, Mr. Bunkport informed us that the structure of the back porch is so compromised, & there are so many complications associated with evening out the floor & roof, that it would be best to just tear it down & rebuild it. Great.

Still no phone/internet, by the way. The electrician couldn't get the phone working, so they had to call out the phone company to come the next day. 

AJ, Susie, & Pickles had a great time at the beach on Wednesday, though:

Happy dog! Happy people!


Thursday

The big demo happened on Thursday. Back porch/sun room totally gone:

Crap.

Meanwhile, we asked Mr. Bunkport about whether we can just open up that low ceiling in the kitchen. He said it wouldn't add much to time or cost, so we asked him to go ahead:

A tiny bright spot. It will look better in there when this all is finally finished, & it saves us having to do that later, when we eventually redo the kitchen (which makes redoing the kitchen basically just a cabinet and appliance swap).

Or maybe we should leave the kitchen as-is. Open air kitchens are all the rage, aren't they?

Meanwhile, we now have an excellent view of the new third story our back neighbor is putting on his house:

People all over the neighborhood are up in arms about this added height reducing privacy and eliminating views, & about the fact that the project description that went out in a city-mandated notification now seems to have been intentionally misleading about the scope of the project. The heightened level of concern & distrust associated with this project has blown back onto us, unfortunately -- we've fielded a number of calls & emails over the course of our project from neighbors who are concerned that we're secretly making radical changes that will ruin their lives & property values. It's been disappointing, because we thought that we had built better relationships with our neighbors over the past two and a half years, but I get where they're coming from.

On Thursday, I received a call about the destruction in the backyard that was very stressful, and then on the heels of that, I received a note in the mailbox saying that the post office was holding a certified letter for me. Convinced that we were getting sued, it was a very long night & day before I could go pick up the letter. Turns out that it was just a legal notice from the concrete company. PHEW!

More good news: we did got new wiring on Thursday, replacing the last of the ancient knob & tube wiring going into the house:

And the phone company fixed the phone/internet problem. Apparently it was several things, including a problem with the line that runs into the house from the telephone pole, & it wasn't entirely the fault of the construction crew after all.

But still no kitchen sink.

Friday

Friday was mostly a cleanup day: 

Seems like they may have cleaned out some of the materials Mr. Bunkport was hoping to save and reuse. Oh well.

Meanwhile, Mr. Bunkport put in this fancy temporary hose thing for the kitchen sink, since it still hasn't been reconnected:

Saturday

Good morning, World!

Mr. Bunkport set a whole bunch of guys loose on the house on Saturday, to try to catch back up. When we got back in the evening, here is what we (AJ, Pickles, & dear friend Susie) found.

Bathroom wall on the left hand side:

Another view of the bathroom wall:

A fixed north wall:

South wall was also fixed.

And most exciting, the floor above is finally back!

View from the yard:

View from the kitchen:

As you can see, we have a floor, but still no walls. So, until we get some walls & get the steps fixed to the structure, we're still having to take Pickles out to the yard through the front & garage doors. Sometimes, you just want to be able to go out to the yard in your jammies, you know? Sigh.

But we continue to make the best of things. Here is Susie taking advantage of the opportunity to cook al fresco with us on Saturday:

This week, the plumbing will be fixed, the bathroom fixtures will be ordered, and the rough re-framing of the porch/sun room will (hopefully) be completed.