Our House

So close....December 31

2007-01-02T07:07:00.000-08:00

We are not 'officially' done but close enough I guess. We have our furniture back in place and a few things up on the wall. The inspection should be sometime this month after we get the last few things done. I bet the contractor we would not be done by New Years and I won (I also bet him about Thanksgiving and Christmas). Was it worth it? Yes, the new layout is FAR more usable and comfortable than before.

Painters are in

2006-12-20T08:45:00.000-08:00

I took some shots on the way out of the house this morning. One, to give you an idea of where we are in the project and two, to how why there is no Christmas Tree up in the living room. We might be able to put our furniture where it goes by the weekend!

Lots of little work to be done

2006-12-15T11:23:00.000-08:00

Besides painting there are a lot of smallish things to be done. What I have done here is take photos of the various rooms with lights on/off, hardware close-ups, pait close-ups, and a few other random shots. I still have to finish the pantry, add skiting to the windows, add blinds, run the cable and probably a lot more things before I am done.

Counters are mostly in.

2006-12-05T07:09:00.000-08:00

We came home Monday to almost all the counters in. Just the top part of the island is missing. Theresa said they seem to plastic looking. I told her that with a bit of wear that they will dull down slightly and get the look that we saw at the home improvement stores. Our counters are NEW and with anything that is plastic/resin base NEW looks shiney. Give it time. I think they look nice.

No word from the contractor when the carpet will be removed from the driveway or when new flooring will be put back in.

Disaster in December

2006-12-05T07:05:00.000-08:00

If you have been wondering why there have been no posts there have been 2 reasons: smallish, almost hidden work being done and a major disaster. Seems there was a slight over sight in NOT putting in a sump pump nor gutters. St Louis got hit real hard by a freezing rain then show storm. There was so much water it didn't have anywhere to go - but our new basement. Theresa and I then spent the rest of the weekend, after the contractor came and installed a pump, moving stuff to higher ground and removing all the carpet. Our next task is to inventory all the damaged goods.

Here is a walk through of all the damage.

November 21

2006-11-22T07:56:00.000-08:00

They finished the landing as well as put up most of the lights. From here on out it looks to be a lot of little jobs.

November 20

2006-11-21T09:20:00.000-08:00

There actually has been a lot of small detail work going on but there aren't a lot of photos to show. We found a table we liked and the kitchen lighting was mostly finished yesterday. The delivery guys announced to Theresa "We are here to deliver your thousand pound table." To which she replied "That is why we paid for delivery!".

The carpenters also have to rehang the doors - there was a 1" gap from the bottom of the doors to the floor. They also have to square the entranceway to the office. The carpenter told us this morning that the top of the entrance to the office was wide enough, the bottom was almost an inch short. He has to cut 1/2" off each side of the bottom of the door lined up to take nothing off of the top. What is bad is that the floors are in place.

The electrician is hanging the chandelier in the dining area and then the ceiling fan/light in the office. We have spent more on lighting than I would have guessed.

We also have found a knob we like. It took many folks visiting 2 states to buy the 50+ knobs we needed from Target. Why not buy them on-line? Shipping for the complete set would have been nearly $130!!!

November 13

2006-11-14T07:29:00.000-08:00

They finished putting in all the cabinets. Today they are working on the crown molding and aligning the doors.

November 12

2006-11-13T14:19:00.000-08:00

The cabinets are starting to get attached to the walls. Hopefully they will be done today. Mike, the carpenter in the 3rd photo, helped us understand the process and the concept of 'reveals'. He really knows his stuff. I look forward to seeing them all in place.
Theresa and Kasey leveled out the backyard, planted a bit fo seed, and moved the yard furniture back. Looks nice. Theresa is sore and Kasey got bored.

November 9

2006-11-10T09:36:00.000-08:00

The patio was poured yesterday. Came out nice.

November 7

2006-11-08T11:27:00.000-08:00

The cabinets are here! Well, in boxes. Theresa also took some more photos of the floors and rooms.

November 5

2006-11-06T12:05:00.000-08:00

The flooring wasn't done but we had to move back in. They got all but the final coat on. We retrieved Lady from our friends house after almost 10 days there. Bill and Trudy O. were the folks who took Lady for the lion share of the time. Kudos go out to them! Thanks a ton. We have yet to get our hampster or fish back - hope that happens tonight. We put runners down to try to protect the floor. Neither the contractor nor us can get ahold of the flooring folks to see when they might finish. The cabinets are due in tomorrow. The flooring might have to be refinihed when all is said and done.

November 1

2006-11-06T12:03:00.000-08:00

The installation was finished and the finishing begun. We have moved Lady from a kennel to another friends house as this was beginning to look like it was going to take a bit longer than expected.

October 27

2006-11-06T12:01:00.000-08:00

The floor was being installed. It was very LOUD in the house. We had decided to move to my sister-in-laws for the few days this would take. Lady went to a kennel, chip and dale went to a friends house.

October 23

2006-10-24T07:09:00.000-07:00

While we moved ourselves out the flooring folks moved in. The office is filled with the boards! We decided to go with 4" vs 2 1/4" boards. We really didn't want to have the look of a basketball court or bowling alley. The flooring folks also came out and cleaned the floor in preperation of getting it ready to go down today. It will be an interesting site tonight.

October 20

2006-10-23T13:04:00.000-07:00

What a weekend. It was the last time for Lady to lay on the rug and Theresa to help with homework on the rug. Yes, no table anywhere near since the entire floor needed to be cleared out. Theresa and I tore up the carpet, Kasey and I cleaned off the padding, Theresa and I marked and fixed all the sqweaks in the floor. We have the primer done in the kitchen as well as the office.

October 18

2006-10-19T12:39:00.000-07:00

Dust, dust, and more dust. We have white dust everywhere. And now we have an empty house too. Gordon P., Micheal P, and Bill O. came over and helped do some seriously heavy lifting to move all the furniture into a POD. The flooring folks hopefully will start on schedule Monday.

October 11

2006-10-12T12:29:00.000-07:00

The tapers and mudders got to work. Nothing too thrilling but a lot of dust.

October 10

2006-10-11T08:20:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday to my wife!

Dust, dust, and more dust. The drywall is finished and now it is on to the taping and mudding. They showed up at 8am this morning and the guys went right to work. They hope to have all of it done by Friday. The photo with the umbrella handle gives you an idea of how dusty our house currently is. The handle was clean the day before.

October 5

2006-10-06T12:11:00.000-07:00

The drywall folks came out and got a heck of a lot done. They hope to have the lion share done today (10/6) and leave any fine work for Monday. Cool.

September 29

2006-10-06T12:06:00.000-07:00

We have been waiting and wating on the inspections and they all came through. All but the Valley Park Fire Department one. That took a long time. Apparently they take 7-10 days to get out to a site after they get what information they need. A few things didn't pass the first time around but the contractor was on site the next day when the marhsal came back out to make sure EVERYTHING passed.

September 19

2006-09-20T08:42:00.000-07:00

They are so close to getting all the siding down. They are doing a GREAT job of putting on the facia. Cabinet folks are coming out tommorrow to measure.

September 18

2006-09-19T07:06:00.000-07:00

They finished the siding on the two outside walls and around Amanda's windows. They still have to caulk around her window. They should get the back wall done today.

September 15

2006-09-18T08:27:00.000-07:00

OK... so these were really taken Monday the 18th BUT they were taken in the morning before much work was done. The inspections passed last Friday so drywall should be going up some time this week. They moved Amandas window but need to finish the detail. And the entire thing should be sided today. It ought to look like a real addition!

Drywall was delivered

2006-09-13T08:07:00.000-07:00

There was a big truck in the street when I got home. I took photos of the inside but they were garbage so I will retake them tonight.

August 28

2006-09-12T09:55:00.000-07:00

I had these on my drive and forgot all about them!
I'll take some new ones this week - promise!

August 24

2006-08-25T10:54:00.000-07:00

More...

August 23

2006-08-25T10:44:00.000-07:00

More framing. Electricity. And more...

August 22

2006-08-23T09:50:00.000-07:00

Lots of dust all over the place. Lots of framing, moving things, adding things. I need to take photos of the rest of the house as we have basically lost our garage and our front room to storage.

August 16

2006-08-18T12:56:00.000-07:00

Lots of framing. They ended up boxing in Kasey's window and having to move Amanda's. The floor in the basement was poured too. We decided to leave the ceiling in the office vaulted. It will make that large room look even larger.

August 15

2006-08-18T12:54:00.000-07:00

More framing. They smoothed out the rock in the basement for the floor. They started putting the truses on.

August 11

2006-08-18T12:53:00.000-07:00

The wood was delivered and they started framing the addition.

August 9

2006-08-09T19:49:00.000-07:00

A crew came out to start spreading gravel around the floor of the basement. Seems to me they put down a tad too much gravel. They were here for about 3 hours tonight and will be back in the morning.

August 5

2006-08-09T07:19:00.000-07:00

I spent the morning powerwashing the inside walls. Photo soon...

July 26

2006-07-27T12:18:00.000-07:00

A very busy day and the most change we have seen in a few weeks. Not only did they drop rock into the basement for the future floor they also dropped rock around the basement and where the future patio will go. Then they rough graded the yard. Another crew worked on putting on the flooring. It was a toasty day. The glue smell permeated the whole house for the better part of the eveing. Theresa fired up the whole house fan to clear it up. Now we sit for a few days to let the rocks and dirt settle. Rain would be good now. I now need to power wash the inside of hte basement cleaning off the old wall. Any volunteers?

July 26

2006-07-27T12:16:00.000-07:00

Today they came to seal the basement as well as dig the hole for the future sump pump. They put drain tubes all around the inside and outside of the basement. Hopefully we won't get ANY water with this much drainage!

July 24

2006-07-24T08:14:00.000-07:00

Just a post but no photos. What we are waiting for now is the walls to cure/set. They are going to pour the floor sometime this week as well as fill in around the wall. Theresa and I have been out looking at cabinets, counter tops, and paint. Kevin and Amanda at Midwest Kithen and Bath have been a great help. Amanda has a definite eye for color co-ordination. I'll take some photos of the bits of scrap we have of the choices we made and post them later.

July 18

2006-07-24T08:11:00.000-07:00

They poured the walls the other day but no one took photos of the truck so no photographic record of it. What we have here is the form walls being removed and some prep work done on the wall between the new and old basements. You can see where our front lawn is also taking a beating by the trucks being driven on it. My neighbors appreciate my rope fence so they don't get a road on thier property too.

July 14

2006-07-24T08:08:00.000-07:00

They put up the form for the walls. I thought it was cool that they put in the windows right now too. I thought they would put in an outline and then add the windows later. This seemed much smarter.

July 13

2006-07-13T19:29:00.000-07:00

A very busy day. The concrete folks came out and poured the footers. The inspector came out and gave them the OK. The kids enjoyed watching the pumper truck work. Try to remember these photos are being taken mostly by an 8 and 11 year old! Amanda is really getting into documenting this work. I am really only posting about 10% of the photos.

July 12

2006-07-13T19:27:00.000-07:00

The folks who put the footer came out after the ground dried enough to put the framework in. Now all they have to do is wait for the St Louis County inspectors to come and do thier part. Not too many photos today...

July 11

2006-07-13T19:24:00.000-07:00

It rained all the night before but managed to dry out enough for the guys to finish digging out the basement. Luckily we didn't end up with an in ground pool! We also got the official permits posted on the house so the neighbors can see that we are serious!

July 10

2006-07-11T08:16:00.000-07:00

The guys were quick digging out the new basement. There was a LOT of dirt but NO rock! Whoo hoo! It was rather mesmerizing watching the digger and the guy in the small front loader work.

Deck removal

2006-07-11T08:01:00.000-07:00

What a long day! Luckly, besides my wife, 2 friends, Bill O and Gordon S, came to do some serious work! I started at 11am and with thier help was done by 9:30PM.
Update July 14: I found some photos of the deck before the destruction and added them here.

First Post!

2006-07-11T07:06:00.000-07:00

Ok...this is merely a starting post to get this site going. Our family is going to be adding some space to our house. This is going to be the site that records that event. Our daughters, Kasey and Amanda, will be doing the lion share of the photography.

Enjoy!