Transferring My Flag (aka Moving In!)

As of this past Monday (Jan. 4), I'm living in my new house! Frank and Kenny helped move my bed and elliptical trainer from my parents' house, and I spent my first night here. It was a great feeling, but also a very very strange one. Essentially, the house has been a job site for me during the last two years. So imagine the weirdness of taking off your clothes and taking a shower at work! It just felt wrong somehow. :)

I'm still adjusting to everything, but it's coming along fine. I've slept great every night. The kitchen is still in a hybrid condition: some of the countertop contains food and stuff I'm putting away, and other parts still have tools and toolboxes laying around. That conversion is going to be a slow process. I had a lot more stuff to move over than I first thought. Not big stuff, but boxes and boxes of little everyday things... stamps, staplers, old folders and binders full of papers, financial records, CDs, and a lot of other things. Trying to put it all away and develop an organized, logical system for where I put it is tough to do. It's like information overload!

I've spent a lot of time (and money) at stores this week stocking up on food and buying items I discovered I needed right away. I've also been bringing over more boxes from my parents' house a little at a time. I still need to move the printer over here.

I've enjoyed sitting and watching TV and just enjoying the house as a place to live (and not work). I'm also setting up the new computer with software that I need for doing all my geeky things. It's also a weird feeling to walk around the house without shoes on. I've learned that the tile floor is cold when you're just wearing socks. Time to shop for those area rugs!

I've been doing some cleaning. All the surfaces in the house needed a good dusting. I'm getting to them mostly as I need to use them. I also replaced the air filter in the return air duct and cleaned the electric filter system in the attic. Actually, I discovered that the electric system wasn't even turned on until now, so I should start getting air that's filtered much more thoroughly.

One thing in the house that I haven't used yet is the air tub. I'm looking forward to that. Another thing I haven't done yet is bring Luci (the dog) from my parent's house to live here with me. That's the plan eventually. There are still a couple of things I want to complete before I try to move her here. Tomorrow I plan to bring her over for a few hours to start getting more acclimated. She's been here several times now, but just for a few minutes each.

Well, it's late! I'd better go get some sleep!

Carpet and Office Furniture Installed

The carpet was installed just before Christmas, and the office furniture was installed on December 30! It really feels like home now. I'm finishing up the closet shelves that I'll need in order to move my stuff in. I'm also setting up my new computer in the office and bringing stuff over here little by little. I moved most of my books and DVDs in the last couple of days. I've got my receiver hooked up and the DVD player mounted where I want it. The infrared remote repeater is installed and working, too.

I had an unpleasant confrontation with my trim carpenter last week. He and his helper were here to finish up one piece of crown above the stove and the fridge. I also had 2-3 cleanup items for them to correct, and I asked if he had any ideas on how to handle a tricky problem with the crown on top of my cabinets. (The cabinet guys have no clever ideas for it.) They finished the work, and he said he would come back to do the cabinet crown if I wanted him to. Then we talked about the final balance...

He had already taken back a $500 discount he extended for not having to install my cabinets. He took it back after he installed attic stairs and some cove moulding in my back garage, claiming that he hadn't counted on doing work back there. I thought it strange because I know we talked about it on the original walk-through, and I couldn't imagine it being $500 worth of extra work. I was already miffed about that.

I also remember him saying his price included closet shelves and fixtures like towel holders, etc. I'm doing the closets and the fixtures myself. His attitude really turned when I asked how much he would take off for not having to do that stuff. He said that he wasn't really charging me for that work. It was just included in his price... Huh? When I pressed him on it, he said that closets just don't take long to do so they wouldn't amount to much money. He rambled on about how my job was taking so long and he couldn't make any money on all these return trips. How I was holding up thousands of his money by taking so long. Are you kidding? Sure, there were long periods between phases of his work, but I paid him for the work as he did it.

I was the one who had to wait on him for the most part. He'd drop off his helper who did maybe 6 hrs of work that day, and then I'd be waiting days for them to come back and do some more. Meanwhile, he'd be out of town on a hunting trip where his phone didn't work. And in the end I've had to come behind them and fix their work: re-doing doorstops that weren't attached properly, caulking oversized gaps in window casing, and other details.

He did relent and take $150 off for the closets and fixtures. At least it's something. And it's a lesson learned for me to always have an agreement in writing. But you live and learn. This guy was married to a cousin of mine when I hired him (they later divorced) and my cousin recommended him highly.

Building Closet Shelves

I'm trying to finish up any other work that will make a mess in the bedrooms before I call for the carpet. I got the dresser home, and we've painted it. Before I fix it to the wall in my closet, I'm installing shelves above it. I've finsihed the shelves in my broom closet so that I can start putting things away instead of leaving them strewn about on the master closet floor.

It's surprisingly fulfilling to be installing the shelves. Finally, it looks like it can be lived in! I can put stuff in it's place!

I'm also planning to complete a bulk of the work on the master bathroom wall tile before I get the carpet. Most of the tile is being stored in the master bedroom right now. So I want to get a good bit of it on the wall and out of the way. I also know that I'm going to be tracking through my bedroom a lot to get to the bathroom while I'm doing the job, so I want to avoid making a mess on the new carpet.

The nail holes in the baseboard are filled in the bedrooms, and they have been painted over.

Filling Nail Holes

This week, I've started filling the nail holes in the baseboard trim. I'm starting in the bedrooms so they're ready for the carpet. I still have to get the dresser home and paint it for the master closet before the trim can be installed in there.

I don't know if I mentioned this before, but I've also setup my DSL modem and network router in the past seeral days. I can now surf through my own connection rather than bum off an unsecured neighbor's! I've started finalizing the layout of all the components in my structured wiring panel and putting some of those cables in place.

This week, I also finished installing the in-ceiling speakers. The last ones I did were the master bedroom and the office. I'm in the process of hanging the left, right, and center speakers around the TV.

Legally Done!

I just picked up the "Certificate of Completion" from the parish building inspection office. This completes the process and allows me to live in the house! I'm still going to wait for carpet in the bedrooms before I move in, but that should come very soon. I've already picked out the color, and I need to call for the guys to come out and measure.

I've ordered the bed and nightstands I want for my room. They will come unfinished and the cabinet company (Wood-n-Things) will finish them for me. If that takes longer than the carpet installation, I can still bring my current bed over and sleep in one of the spare rooms until my bedroom is setup.

Passed Final Inspection!

This morning, the parish building inspector signed off on my final inspection!! No silly items to hold me up. I can now go pick up my occupancy certificate.

It's a very happy day!

Also, the window shades were installed today. One shade (that was supposedly cut to size by the Lowe's employees) wasn't cut at all. I need to bring it back.

I've also started searching for the carpet colors I want.

Lots of Final Details - Range Hood, Floor Trim, Sofa

Many of the small (and not so small) things are coming together now. Last week on Tuesday, the cabinet guys came out to put the fridge cabinet and work desk in place. That allowed me to move the refrigerator in place. So no more fridge in the TV room! They also started putting the trim moulding at the top and bottom of the cabinets. Thursday and Friday, the trim carpenters were there to install the base moulding throughout the house. They were also working on the three pocket doors, and they discovered I had the wrong size doors. They were too wide for the openings. So new ones have been ordered. Door knobs and door stoppers are also in place.



I have a lot of base moulding left over. About 15 strips. I can't return them because they're already painted. I'm not happy about that because whichever vendor did the estimating should have had a number closer to reality than that. But the material wasn't TOO expensive, so I guess it could be worse.



I also finished the backsplash on one kitchen wall this week. It's grouted and sealed. That allowed me to install the range hood. As far I as know, I'm now ready for the final inspection! I tried calling for it today but ran into government thinking... They were booked for today, and I couldn't have them come out Monday due to other commitments. They don't schedule out past one work day so I need to call back Monday in order to schedule it for Tuesday...



Tuesday will also be the day for the installer to put up all my window shades. I'll finally be able to take the cardboard and black plastic sheeting off all the windows!



My office furniture should be coming from Dallas on Monday or Tuesday. I'm in the final stages of picking a stain color for that.


Oh, and I almost forgot: my sofa and love seat were delivered last Tuesday! I hosted my first movie night with some friends on Sunday night. We watched Star Wars (episode IV). It was really cool having people over to my own place.



Here are some of the latest pictures. The only thing outdated here is the wall behind the stove. I don't have a pic of the range hood yet.

Waiting for Final Backsplash Tile, Painting Baseboard

While I'm waiting for the rest of the beige tile to come in for the kitchen backsplash, we spent some evenings this week painting base moulding. (Thanks go out to Kenny for helping with that!) I called the trim carpenter to start lining up his return visit to install it. He said that late next week would be the earliest he could plan on.

I had less bas moulding than I remembered. This is probably because we already painted some of it and he installed it already in the bedrooms. I decided to put two coats of paint on the base since it will be prone to scuffing and scraping down next to the floor.

The cabinet company is ordering my office furniture soon. (I thought it was already on order, but that's the way it goes sometimes...) Torrie came out to finalize a few details this week and get a deposit from me. She's not sure if she'll give the job to the same carpenter in Dallas that built my kitchen cabinets because he's been so backlogged with work lately. She may assign it to another wood furniture company they deal with that has started to do more custom work. I'm also looking at getting the dresser to go in my master closet. I need to tell her tomorrow to go ahead and order that piece.

I've been visiting a lot of furniture stores recently to look for a bed with nightstands, a coffee table, an end table, a kitchen table, and possibly an entertainment center/pedestal. Ugh, a lot of decisions in all of that. I plan to visit one more place tomorrow. It's across the river close to my cabinet makers. I'll stop by their shop again to look at their tables and other things.

Tiling the Backsplash

I've worked on the tile backsplash in the kitchen for several days now, totalling about 21 hours. It's a much slower process than I assumed it would be. I guess I should have expected this because of how long it took to tile the floors. But what makes it even slower is that each and every tile needs to be cut. This is due to the pattern I've chosen to use and the cramped, oddly-shaped space between the counter and the cabinets. A space that's also disrupted by the window and the rectangle "frame" desgin that's going above the stove.

I'll have pictures soon. So far, I'm only working on the one wall with the stove. I want to finish that first and then grout it so I can hang the range hood. At this point, I've finsihed under the cabinets from the fridge to the little window. I still have to finish the whole space where the range hood will be.

Touch-up Painting

The tile I ordered for the kitchen backsplash isn't supposed to get here until next weekend. I had planned to have it earlier, and I would have worked on that this weekend. Since I couldn't, I concentrated on touching up walls and ceilings with paint. My mom's cousin also came over to patch up the sheetrock where the plumber had to run the second line. He also did small touch-ups where there were lines or defects in the original sheetrocking job.

My dad worked on the endless job of touching up the crown moulding: filling nail holes with putty, sanding, and painting over them. I touched up the walls of four rooms in the house. That leaves 4 or 5 others to go.

I also hooked up the blu-ray player to the big TV. I wanted to make sure the picture was good both when I looked it up directly to the TV and when I hooked it up via the long HDMI cable I have running over to the media closet. In both cases, it worked great! Good thing, because it would be really difficult to run a new cable now. The foam insulation in the attic makes it very difficult to get to the conduit running down that wall.

I also sealed the grout in the TV room and foyer tile, along with 4 closets that hadn't been sealed yet. With the TV and blu-ray player in place, I got to do this job while Star Trek II played on the big screen! Ahh, life's simple pleasures...

Office Cabinets Ordered, Backsplash Tile Chosen

On Tuesday of last week (9/22), I finalized everything for my office cabinets and put in the order! Torrie came out to get all the measurements and talk through the final details. I'm excited about the office. I like the J-shaped desk configuration because it puts everything conveniently at arm's length. Here's a Google Sketchup version of what I ordered. These images show only the cabinets and the drawers that will be suspended under the countertop:

I also settled on the tile for my kitchen backsplash. I placed the order today, so hopefully I'll have the material by this weekend. I may take a whole day off work Friday and start the project. This is the last big project for me to do inside the house. Then I can mount the range hood and call for the final inspection!

I'm still making some decisions about drawer cabinets for the master closet, cabinets in the laundry room, and whether or not to let the cabinet people make wooden panels for the front of my kitchen island.

Water Pressure Fixed, Dishwasher Installed

The plumbers were at the house Tuesday and Wednesday this week taking care of odds and ends as well as running the new line from the attic to address the low hot water pressure.


They put the dishwasher in place and hooked it all up. Now that it's in the hole, I have to complete my idea of putting the legs back together with the brackets we made. It's going to be a tight squeeze getting my hands under there. I'm going to try it tonight. We can't test the unit until the legs are back together and the top is screwed to the wood plate to keep it from jumping around.



On the spa tub, they hooked up the replacement control pad and attached the air pump. So we were able to fill the tub and run it with the bubbles for the first time! That was cool. The pump was loud, but that may change. I still have to complete the cement board and tile panels around the front of the tub and create a access door to close off the opening in the closet that provides access to the pump. So I can probably do some sound insulating things there to muffle the noise. I had forgotten a feature I learned about early on: that the air pump comes back on a few minutes after you turn it off. It waits to give the water time to drain, and then it comes back on to dry any remaining water out of the conduits. This is supposed to keep mold and bad smells from creeping in.



Regarding the new hot water line, the guys started the work the first day, but ran into doubts about whether the new line to the master bath would fix the problem. They cut the sheetrock in the wall and started to cut pipes, etc. Then they started asking me if I had any more pictures of the pipes behind walls in other bathrooms. Hmm... I started to get a little worried! It turns out they were just being cautious. It was their boss who had told them where to run the line, but they weren't sure why.



They came back the next day having gotten a deeper explanation from him. Apparently, there's a problem with lines running under the slab between the half bathroom and the laundry room fixtures. We know this because the laundry room sink is the first place you begin to see a difference in hot and cold water pressure. But it's not really obvious until you run both the laundry room sink AND another fixture in the master bathroom, which is downstream. So, the course of action chosen was to run another hot water line directly from the tank in the attic to the master bathroom where it joins up with the existing system again. Here's the diagram:

The old line from the laundry room to the master bath is still hooked up. So the hot water system is kind of weird. It's being supplied at two points. One thing I need to keep an eye on is: assuming there's a kink in the line between the half bath and laundry room, it COULD develop into a leak years down the road. So I could potentially have a leak under the slab that's not near the outside perimeter. Meaning it won't be accessible to fix!

Pictures of Office Floor

Here are some pictures from the process of installing the laminate wood floor over the weekend:

Office Floor in One Day!

Last night, I laid out the underlayment for the office floor. Today, I started and (even more satisfying) completed putting down the laminate wood floor!

Pictures to come soon. It was a joy to complete something like this in essentially one day. A friend from church came over to help (thanks Stephen), and it made the job go faster and smoother.

The planks were simple to link together side-by-side. The only detail that took some attention was having someone watch the joint between the end of two planks as the other person tapped the block to push them together. The trick is to tap them just enough to close the gap but not so much that the joint starts to buckle and protrude upward.

The one part of the job that I thought would be very tricky wasn't at all: laying the last row against the last wall. The instructions gave you a complicated procedure of planing off the tongue and groove to make it easier to slip in and filling the gap with wood glue. But when we got to that wall, the only thing different was cutting the plank lengthwise to fit in the space. Once you did that, you slipped it in and it locked in place the same as the others.

Ah, one tip I can offer: you always want to end a row on a straight wall. I have a bay window in the office, so there are two wall segments at a 45 degree angle. Without thinking ahead, I started at the back wall and worked my way forward. My last plank was cut at a slant to match the wall, and I couldn't easily use the pull bar to tap it into place. From that point, I always started a row at the front and moved back. This way every row ended with a flat-ended piece, and it was easy to use the pull bar.

After the months-long saga that was laying tile, this job was fun and exciting! Stephen wanted to come over so he could learn the ropes. He's about to lay more than one room with laminate wood in his house. We had a good time.

Ordered Window Shades, Office Underlayment Done

Yesterday, I placed the final order for my window shades at Lowe's. Kathy, the designer who works there, has been a phenomenal help! She's spent time helping me pick the right colors and types of shades. She's really good at that. And she came in on her day off so she could finalize my quote in the computer and get the order processed. If anyone from Lowe's is reading this, your employee Kathy in the home decor department at your Metairie, LA store is one of your real treasures, and you should treat her well for it!

On another note, when I started this house process you'd never have convinced me that it would cost me over $2,000 to put shades in all my windows. I think that's insane. But I'm getting nice ones. Not the generic mini blinds, but a variety of types from a reliable manufacturer. I'm just glad I caught them on sale! It never occured to me that this would be a high cost area.

Ok, so enough of my budgetary woes. Tonight, I laid the underlayment down in my office. This is the padding/moisture barrier that goes under the laminate wood. Tomorrow, I plan to lay the flooring. I guy from church is coming over to learn with me so he can put down the floor at his house. It should be fun.

Grouting in Progress, Second Front Yard Chain Wall

I only have 4 more tiles to lay in my pantry and I'll be done with that! In the meantime, I started grouting the rest of the tile floor. The foyer and A/V closet are done. At that point, we changed gears to build the second chain wall in my front yard. I wanted to take advantage of what was supposed to be "cooler" weather. It wasn't as cool as a couple of weeks ago, but at least it was down into the upper 80s!

I neeed to call the plumber back over to put the dishwasher in now that I've got the legs cut and it can be slid into the hole.

My sofa and love seat are in at the store, and they're going to hold onto them for me until I get the floors grouted.

I also need to chose my tile for the kitchen backsplash and get that done. Then I could mount the range hood. After that, once I get the cabinet guys to stain the wood for the front of the kitchen island they can come out to finish the cabinet trim. Then the fridge goes into place, and I can call for my final inspection!

Here are some pictures from yesterday when we were preparing to pour the new chain wall:

Tiling All But Done!

I'm so releived to say that all I have left to do is lay a few more tiles in my pantry and then I'm done with ceramic tile for (hopefully) a very long time! I have all the tiles cut for the pantry, but I need to order one more carton because I need one more full tile to finish the job. That's okay, because I want to have a few spare tiles in case one cracks or whatever down the road.

I ordered the laminate wood that will go in my office. Eleven cartons of Brazillian Cherry from Kronotex. It matches the darker parts of my front door. I also picked up a can of stain for the office doors. My dad can start working on those during the day while I'm working.

For the front of the kitchen island, I picked up the maple plywood and 1-bys that will be used. We will have to route and cut the pieces to fit. Then I'll take them across the river to the cabinet guys to stain and varnish so it will match the cabinets.

Last night, we cut the frame of the dishwasher so that we can slide it into the hole. We didn't test the fit yet. The idea is that cutting the frame at these points will allow it to flex in the right way to get into the hole. We've got metal brackets and bolts ready to put in place after it's in that will restore the integrity to the frame.

Nearing the End of the Tiling Saga

I'm ready to be done with tiling. That's an understatement. Fortunately, I'm almost finished! As of last night, all I have left to do is finish the AV closet and then tile the front coat closet and the pantry. I'll worry about finishing the bathroom wall later.

Have you ever spent a long time preparing and cooking a meal only to find that you have no appetite for it at the end? I've done that a few times. You enjoy the smells while you're cooking, and your mouth is watering. But by the time it's done you're too tired to eat and too saturated by the smells and the thought of the food to be able to appreciate it. I'm hoping that effect doesn't dampen my enjoyment of the house.

If I had bought a house, there would be that special day where I get the keys and then move in and unpack when would all still be new in my mind. In my case, that won't happen. I'm there every day, and it's a job site. I have hours upon hours of memories of the place being a big sweaty, time-consuming project. It's already been 2 years since I started with the empty lot. When I move in, it won't be on a magical day. It will be the final days of a long journey when I may be too tired to really enjoy the homecoming.

Don't get me wrong: I know I'll still be excited, and I'll definitely enjoy living in the house. I'm simply pointing out one of the consequences of building your own place and doing a lot of the work yourself. I guess I'm just grumpy from laying so much tile!

Light at the End of the Tile Tunnel

Last night, I laid the last of the tile in my house that didn't need to be cut. All that's left are tiles that need to be cut around the border of the TV room and in closets. I'm about done with the whole "on-my-knees-for-hours-at-a-time" phase. Yay!

The countertop guys never came by to look at the dishwasher height situation. My uncle, who was in the Formica countertop business for years said there wasn't much I could do. He said they'd likely break the slabs if they tried popping them off to install them again with the plywood underneath.

Ready for Final Inspection

I called the parish yesterday to ask what needs to be completed before my final inspection. The plumber got his done last week, so the overall final is all that's left. I wanted to make sure I knew what's included in the overall final.

After we talked, he said it sounds like I'm ready. They look for final lot grading (for water drainage), and safety things like hand rails on stairs, etc. He said I don't need to have the chain link fence installed, and I don't need to have the flooring finished. Wow, I would have thought that every last detail would be scrutinized. A friend who built in another parish told me they wanted all his interior door knobs installed before they'd pass him on the final.

I still want to cover some items before I call for the inspection. I've got some outlet plates to put over receptacles and stuff like that. But maybe this last inspection won't be as big a deal as I feared.