Gearing up for End-of-Year Activity

A lot will happen in the next two weeks. The weeks surrounding Christmas and New Years will see the trim starting to go up, more electrical finishing work, the garage doors being installed, and the appliances being delivered. I'm taking vacation days from work during these two weeks, so I'll also be able to get a lot done myself.

My electrician is supposed to come this Friday and Saturday. He says I'll have power hooked up to the house temporarily when he's done. It will be nice to have real lighting to work under. This will also allow me to call out those contractors that need power in order to complete their next steps. The security company and the A/C guy both need power to finish and test their installations.

We've finished painting the doors and door frames. Last night we started on the crown moulding. The Trim caprenter is scheduled to start installing the doors and crown next week starting on Tuesday. My garage doors are due to be installed on the 29th, and the appliances arrive on the 30th. I'm hopeful that the doors do get put in on the 29th because I really want them in before the appliances arrive. My appliances may have to sit in the front garage and if the doors come after them, they will be open to view while the doors are being installed.

And I've got a to-do list of my own for these two weeks. There's still lighting fixtures and other things to buy, finish work of my own to be done, and more decisions to make! I'm trying to finalize how my circle driveway will be laid out in the front yard. It seems so narrow. But I have to submit a sketch with measurements to the parish to get the permit.

Underground Conduits in Place, Painting Doors and Trim

You know, there are times when I wonder why I started this process. It doesn't happen often, but occasionally I hit a low where it seems like this project will never end! It may last a minute or a few hours, and then I'm back on track. One of those moments occured on Saturday, Nov. 23 when I rented a mini excavator to dig the trench for the underground conduits. The conduits will hold the electrical, telephone, and coax cable running from the utility pole to the entry panels on the house.

The reason this got me down was that we worked non-stop 6 hours on Saturday and another 8 on Sunday, and this only got us a trench with no roots blocking it! We had to come back again to complete the laying of conduits in it. The problem was all the roots from two big trees I had removed at the front of the property. I tried digging a trench straight across the yard, but this went right through the tree stumps. Even when I dug a bit of a zig-zag around the stumps, we still had to deal with all the roots. The trench for the electrical conduit had to be at least 30 in. deep. We had to get down with shovels and electrical saws and whetever else it took to get through each root. That's what took the time.

It was fun operating the machine, but can you believe it: 2 days to dig a 50 ft trench? During that weekend, it just didn't seem like I was making any progress. All the painting was at a standstill and a whole weekend seemed wasted... But I'm all better now! ;-)

We're painting doors and trim inside now. It's a slow process to prep each door frame. First you need to remove any protruding nails or staples from when it was assembled. Then there's filling the holes and scuffs with wood filler. Once that dries, you sand it down. Finally, it's ready to paint. And it takes two coats to do the job. At least the doors won't have nail holes to fill when we get to them.

After the doors, I've got a LOT of trim and moulding to paint!

Rapid-fire Miscellaneous Tidbits

• I found out tonight that the trim carpenter prefers to start before I tile
• I have to go tomorrow to pay for the tile before they order it
• The house is all painted, except for a couple of closets. A bathroom needs a second coat on the walls.
• I finalized my kitchen cabinet design today! I gave her a deposit. She's going to write it all up as an order and let me know when she sends it to the builder.
• The plumbers connected my sewer line to the house today. They had to dig and axe their way through an old tree stump, so they were not happy to see me when I came by! Nah, they like me. But they joked about not wanting me to talk to them.

Rain Delays, and Entering Home Stretch Before Insulation

I went by to take pictures today, but my camera batteries were out! So I'll try to go back after work today.

It rained all day yesterday after about 11AM. I went by in the morning. The guys were there setting up bricks around the back garage. I reminded them about how I want a solier course up each side of the front gables. I assume they understood. It sounded like he was already aware of it. They didn't lay any bricks. They must have left after setting up around the garage. It did not rain today, but they hadn't been back today as of 11:30 when I went by.

The insulation guy called to see if I'm still on course for next Friday (5/30) to start. We talked about what I have to get done before then:

- Electrical & framing inspection
- Vinyl in the overhangs, patio and porch
- Hole through the roof for stove vent
- Sheetrock on one side of each wall that will be sound-proofed
- Running remaining alarm wires (mostly needed before sheetrocking)

I've got one quote on the vinyl overhangs, etc. I can't get my other preferred contractor to call me back because he's busy. My friend who did the electrical work said he would quote on the job also. The insulation guy told me they can come out and do the walls on one day and come back to do the roofline another day. This would give me more time to get the overhangs done.

So that leaves the inspections and the sheetrocking to get done so we can proceed with the walls. I spoke to my sheetrock guy today. He indicated he could start the full job next week. He also said he could do the one side for the soundproof walls. That was no problem.

For my garage door frames, since no one seems to know how to do them with vinyl, it looks like one of my last options is to go with stucco here. Uggh! I do not like stucco and that's one thing I was glad that I wasn't going to have. My friend says they use a concrete substance that makes it completely hardened against dents and what have you. Looks like I need to start calling stucco contractors!

Keeping Brick-layers on Track

The guy who runs the brick-laying business and his son haven't been around since the first week of the job. The exception to this has been when they want me to give them a check to pay their workers. I've been trying to contact the head guy about a few things and I can't get in touch with him. His mobile phone goes directly to voicemail without ringing, and he apparently does not check his messages. I've left him two in the last 24 hrs.

I need to tell him that the address plaque is here and show him where I want it installed. I could just show the workers, but none of them speak English well enough to give me a good comfort level that the conversation will be productive. I've also got to ask him about the lop-sided arch on the garage. It's not their fault, but I want to know if he's seen occasions where something like that has been corrected after the bricks are laid. My framer says it can't be corrected from his end...

As I passed by yesterday afternoon, I noticed the workers had done the soldier course over the middle window in the front bay window. They had done it like the other soldiers on the house (with the bricks standing up and showing their long side). But I had covered twice with the owner of the business that I wanted that bay window done differently. I wanted the soldiers on these 3 windows to have the bricks showing their short end instead. This is why I wish the owner was around more often.

I went over first thing this morning with a photo of another house to show them what I was looking for. They seem to speak English well enough, but then something happens in the conversation to make you walk away and wonder if you just got your point across. I asked if their boss was there. "No." Was he going to be coming? "Maybe Friday." I showed them the photo and explained what I wanted. They understood. Then I asked if it was going to be hard to change it since they had already done it the day before. "Yes." But he said it in a tone that seemed too polite for the context. So I asked if they would be able to change it. "Yes." So I had doubts if I got my point across. Well, they changed it, so I guess it wasn't too bad! It looks fine now!

My dad and I went over and put a few more pieces of wood in the walls where towel racks and toilet paper holders will go. We also spent a good deal of time cleaning the mortar and debris off the back patio. It's amazing how much extra mortar gets flung everywhere! When it's piled up in big clumps and dried, it's hard to get off the concrete. When it's just a small splatter, one hit with a hammer breaks it up. So we got it all off and hosed down the patio. It looks nice again!

I had a guy come and look at the exterior trim and gutters. His quote was $8,100. There's another guy I've been trying to get. He's busy and hasn't come over yet.

Over the next few days, I'll start looking at the columns I'll need for the patio. The trim guy said I should find out what the new codes are for how those get fastened. A neighboring parish makes you do all kinds of things with it to resist uplift in high winds.