Sunday, July 10, 2011

Family visit & other updates

Phew! It has been awhile. We were on vacation for a week, and it has been hard getting back into the groove of things. Things are moving right along with the subcontractors; the plumber is in the middle of installing plumbing, the AC guys are in the middle of installing the ductwork, and the electrician (AKA- my Dad :) will be up in the next week or so to complete the electrical! Ken has some guys working on the roof today, and we may even see some house paint on it! I swung by Sherwin-Williams yesterday to purchase the exterior house (green) and trim color (almond).


Going waaaay back, here are some photos snapped over the past 3-4 weeks:


Concrete surrounding plumbing pipes had to be chipped out

I definitely should have worn a mask; all that dust messed with my sinuses for two days! I learned the hard way.

Once we placed the tubs, this is what the hole looked like

Front deck building underway. 3 weeks later, it still looks like this :)

Back patio view. The shed is growing on us. It creates this pretty nifty wind tunnel and makes for a nice breeze back there.

 Another plus: it's always shady back there!


In other news, the orchids are happy. Since this photo was taken few weeks ago, this sprout has grown a lot!

 Lots of Ken's family traveled from Maryland for our St Augustine trip, and we gave everyone a tour of the house 2 weeks ago:
Ian hanging out upstairs

Checking out the master bedroom

Tyana hamming it up

Kelsie tight-rope walking it high above everyone

Ian & Tyana checking out our new windows!

Bird's-eye view from the bonus room

Ken giving his sister the grand tour


Last Sunday, after an entire week of relaxing on the beach, we hit the lot to do a burn while everything was still damp from all the rain we got. Fortunately, we had help: 
 Rosario was a huge help in whittling this trash pile down to nothing


 Kathy played photographer and took the following pictures:











 Rosario kept an eye on the fire from the garage

 I hope she was wearing the camera strap around her neck... 





Ken and I placed electrical switch boxes where we wanted them, and they measured 48" from the ground.


I'll hopefully take more photos today to show more updated progress. (And will hopefully be more prompt about posting them!)

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Wrapping & Cleaning

I am behind on blogging, so please forgive me. Things have been hectic with house stuff, pre-vacation stuff, and just everyday stuff. A week and a half ago, Ken finished framing the master bath shower (wahoo!):


Here is one last look at the "wood" house, pre-wrap:


 Before we got started, Ken asked me if I wanted to paint anything on the house before covering in plastic. Um, yeah!
Side of garage



Side of house. I went to town with that spray paint!

Then we got to business, wrapping the house with this stuff:

A shot of our progress, mid-job. The wrapping didn't take much time at all...maybe 30-45 minutes to wrap the entire house? We used one full roll of Lowe's wrap, then the rest of a roll given to us by Richard (big thanks!). We made that last so we were able to return a full roll back to Lowe's ($80!) Hey... every penny counts :)


After wrapping right over the doors and windows, the plastic had to be cut:



View of inside 


More progress



Foyer


Master bath


Ken, cutting out the back patio door


Then came the garage. Due to the height, it was obviously more challenging and required a ladder.


My tools. Those cap nails were used to nail the plastic to the wood to reduce tearing.


View of wrapped house after we cut out the windows & doors. Notice the dormer over the garage had not been wrapped yet. At this point, we were out of wrap and had to collect scraps from around the house cut from windows/doors to wrap this little section! Somehow Ken made it work so we didn't have to crack into the brand new roll of wrap...



On Sunday, we returned to clean the house. It was a serious mess from sawing:
 Sawdust and wood clippings everywhere


The garage was the worst, and I failed to take a before photo. There was a bunch of wood of all different sizes that needed to be moved and sorted, then swept around. While I did all this, Ken was high above, tying more hurricane clips in the trusses.



Moving the wood, tossing it all into the trash pile, then sweeping took about 2 hours. Talk about a sore back when I was through! 


But it was definitely worth it, because once it was spick n' span, Ken laid out the entire kitchen in pencil, so we could start the process of cabinet ordering. 

It is ridiculously hot now. I honestly can't remember it being this hot in June. It's like 100 degrees every single day, and it doesn't help we're going through a serious drought. I learned that a fan really does make a difference while working. 

The windows came in today, and Ken and Nat installed every single one of them in just a couple hours! Here's Nat, peering out her freshly installed bedroom window:

I swung by after work and it looked like a different house. The roof was ordered couple weeks ago, and should be in in the next week or so- at that point it will REALLY look like a different house! We are still debating on whether to sub it out or do it ourselves (and by "we" I mean Ken, because I will likely be no help up there). Electrical will be started in the next two weeks. We got a quote for the kitchen from Lowe's, and it is way over budget. Therefore, we will likely check out other places. We started shopping for kitchen/bath faucets and stuff, and I'm especially excited about the jetted tubs :) I'll hopefully post stuff from last weekend in the next day or so! 

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Inspection passed...

today- wahoo! It was a quick inspection, as only the pattern of nails was looked at. (Nails had to be 3" apart on the border & seams, and 8" on studs). Guess all that nailing and hammering finally paid off!


Next task is "wrapping" the house in plastic. 


Stay tuned :)

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Wood

This was a HOT weekend! Ay yi yi. I am just thankful we have a roof on so we didn't have to work in the sun 100% of the time. We got a lot of little things done, and we're pretty much ready for plumbing. Windows were ordered (muntins!) and will arrive in 2-3 weeks!

Ian put hurricane clips on the roof/trusses.


Nat washed the cars


I finished last weekend's project of nailing and hammering


Ian had to play Spiderman to reach some of the clips...




He was hardly afraid of being up there all day!


Ken worked on the staircase & bonus room




A wall had to be placed somewhere underneath that staircase, so we turned that little space into extra storage


This is where I spent most of my time


Finished this entire side while I still had shade! (big feat...)




Kevin and Jenn passed by to check out the progress, and they brought their adorable boys, Tyson and Levi!


They were so cute and ran around inside like it was a playground, haha. It's pretty cute how they both fit between the studs :) Hopefully you'll come back and visit again!


This is why we keep Ian on payroll...who else could fit up there?


View from bonus room


Bonus room


Finally done with hurricane clips and making his way down


Utilizing those new stairs!


Nailing portion of staircase ceiling


On Sunday we placed more wood above the future ceiling to reinforce the trusses/top of the house. Ken worked above while I cut wood as needed. Fortunately for me, I didn't have to do any hammering today. Luckily we didn't work until 7pm (like we did on Saturday), and we were still able to get some pool time in!