Thursday, 10/28/10

Today a ton of work got done. The brick repair guys came this morning and finished around lunch time. They worked way faster than I thought they would. Shown here is the kitchen window, which was resized. They filled in brick here, around the window that was in the shower, and above the crawl space door. They also added new mortar to anywhere that bricks were loose.

While they worked on that, Johnny and I worked inside. I started the day by putting in fiberglass insulation into the holes we riped in the walls, giving special attention to the bathroom. Working with fiberglass is terrible by the way. It gets everywhere and makes you very itchy, even with long sleeves on.

Johnny finished up the plumbing in the crawl space, which included fixing an old pipe that had come loose during our work. After that we both worked on putting down the kitchen floor as well as the closet floor. Besides for photos showing all of this, I am also posting one of how the green and big the grass has gotten. I will mow it as soon as it stops raining.

Wednesday, 10/27/10 Emails, Sanding, and the Dump

Wednesday was a day with many different things going on. In the morning Josh and Parke were finishing up sanding the ceilings (it is finally done), while I sent emails and made some phone calls. I also met a drywall guy over at the house and talked through everything I wanted done. He will get back to me soon with a price. After Josh and Parke finished sanding, they loaded up the truck with trash -- specifically old windows and pieces of wood -- and made several trips to the local dump. I also spent some time on Home Depot.com looking at bathroom mirrors, lighting, and trim.

Dave, the electrician, also worked on Wednesday and finished up everything that needed to be done before drywall work was done. This work included putting in boxes for smoke detectors in the hall and both bedrooms. The hallway box is shown below. Also shown are the scraped and sanded doors, which are ready to be touched up, primed, and painted.

Tuesday, 10/26/10 Scraping and Sanding

Today was mainly about scraping and sanding. The focus for the interior of the house is to get everything ready for drywall repair. So, doors were removed then scraped and sanded. The door jams were given the same treatment. Outlet covers, door knobs, and hinges came off and were thrown away. Even the ceiling continued to be scraped and sanded, hopefully that will be done tomorrow. Other small projects like removing the shelves from the closets were also seen to. Working today was Josh, Parke, and me.

Monday, 10/25/10 Exterior Work and More Planning

Shown here is a picture of the new kitchen window. The old window was too low, it went past the counter weight. So this new window was picked to be higher and to make space for wall cabinets. Although both of these photos are of things not done today, I thought you would like to see them anyway...

This morning started out really well. Johnny was working on getting the exterior ready for some brick repair, aka removing bolts and other strange things that were on the house. While he did that, I finished making my to do lists and even ordering them by what needs to be done next. For some reason that seems to take way longer than it seems like it would.

I also had to take my dog (Lucy) to get her stitches removed. I just adopted her about two weeks ago and had her spade. So it was time to get her stitches taken out. Well it turns out Lucy gets car sick, or is just super nervous about being in the car. Either way after coming home from the vet, I spent a large part of the early afternoon cleaning dog vomit out of my car. Not how I had hoped to spend my afternoon...

My window guy came by later in the afternoon to fix a small problem with one of the windows Johnny and I put in. It wasn't serious, just a spring in one of the latches was broken. Johnny also started working on installing the kitchen floor.

Below is the opening in the bathroom that is now sized for installing the glass block. We are treating it like a window and installing a sill and molding on the exterior to make sure it will not leak.

Friday, 10/22/10 Organizing and Shower Window

Sorry for another day with no pictures. I promise to have some very soon for you to look at. Friday was a day that I spent most of it organizing and planning while Johnny worked at the house.

In the morning Johnny and I went to Home Depot to buy more supplies, after talking over the next few steps at the house. The main things we bought were for the shower window and for replacing the crawl space door frame. When I bought the house, there was a nice window in the shower. It was really weird looking, not to mention a great place for water to seep into. So I'm replacing part of the window with glass block and tiling over the rest. Johnny spent most of Friday resizing and then fitting the opening to be the perfect size for the glass block.

After Home Depot, I spent the day trying to get organized for the rest of the remodeling. I worked up new lists and the like for what still needs to be done. Monday will mostly be me finishing those lists and getting them in the right order.

Thursday, 10/21/10 Kitchen Window and Vapor Barrier

Thursday was a day that I really didn't get anything done. One of my good friend's grandfather died and the funeral was yesterday. Since it was in the afternoon, I did not do much work on the house personally. But going to see my friend and his family was much more important than working another day on the house.

While I was away, Johnny and Josh did get some work done. Josh spent a while down in the crawl space installing a vapor barrier, which means he was just unrolling a massive piece of black plastic. He was also helping Johnny whenever Johnny needed help.

Johnny worked on installing the kitchen window. Since the new window was a smaller window, he had to build a new frame to put the window in. After he finished building up the frame and installing the window, he started removing the window from the bathroom. That window is being replaced by glass block.

Wednesday, 10/20/10 Crawl Space and Dump

It seems to be that I am getting in a habit of being late in putting up posts and in putting photos with them. Anyway, yesterday Parke and I were the only ones working. We spent a while cleaning out the crawl space. I did some of that with him and then switched to getting up the remaining kitchen floor. This was only the edges that had be chiseled out. That seemed to take a very long time to do. While I was doing that, Parke was continuing to clean all the random junk and piles of cinder blocks that were in crawl space. The reason for him even bothering was so we can put down a vapor barrier. When we finally finished, we took a load of trash to the dump and the day was over.

Tuesday, 10/19/10 Cleaning Up Cont.

Today was a day of mostly cleaning up. The day started out by sanding the rest of the ceiling in the master bedroom while Parke and Josh scraped the ceiling in the second bedroom. My friend Garrett also joined for the day and helped us do random stuff.

After I finished sanding, we started cleaning up the rest of the house. All materials and tools were brought into the master bedroom and organized. Then all the trash (there was a lot) was collected. We will take it all to the dump tomorrow. Josh and I also finished ripping up the old floor in the kitchen (well almost, a few small pieces are left).

Now the house is cleared out and ready for more work to be done. Oh and I also have a good amount of grass!

Monday,10/18/10, Cleaning Up

Hey, sorry for another day without any photos. Today nothing big really happened. Josh and I just spent the whole day cleaning up the two bedrooms. Well, we spent the morning doing that, and also finished scraping the cleaning in the master bedroom, starting sanding it, pulling up staples from the hardwood floors, and also taking some nails out of some hardwood flooring pieces that had been ripped up. And yes, that was a long sentence. Tomorrow is much of the same. I am trying to get the two bedrooms most of the way prepared. The house has also gotten messy and filled with trash/tools again. So the next two days will be continuing to clean up so that more work on the house will be easier.

Friday, 10/15/10 Windows

So Friday was a pretty simple day. Parke and Josh are still not working (they start back on Monday). Johnny and I spent the day putting in more windows. It actually takes way longer to get the old windows out than it does to put the new ones in. The old brick molding is very hard to rip out. We got all the windows in but one. The last one that needs to be done is the kitchen window which is being resized. Soon the rest of the exterior work can be done.

Thursday, 10/14/10 Windows and Electrical

Today we got in windows! After picking them up, Johnny and I spent a large part of the day installing two windows. The first one took a very long time. First we had to go to Home Depot to get molding and such for the window. Then we had to work out exactly how to install these specific windows. The second window went very quickly and they both look great.

While we were there, Dave was doing electrical work. He has been spending a lot of his time in the attic and the crawl space. I am very glad that I'm not doing what he is...

Tomorrow will just be more windows.

Wednesday, 10/13/10 Electrical

Hey so I have been in Knoxville for Monday and Tuesday, so I haven't written a blog. I did actually do some work on Monday at my parents house, just organizing and sending emails. I know it sounds like a ton of fun...

Well today, Dave the electrician was at the house. I spent some of the day going through everything on the house that needed to be done for the electrical work.

I also went to Home Depot (I know a big surprise) and bought the under cabinet lighting. Dave needed to know what sort of electrical hookup he needed to do for that lighting.

I didnt have Josh, Parke, or Johnny today. Josh is sick, and hopefully will get better soon. I think he is feeling much better than he was, just still weak. Parke was doing music stuff all day long and so he couldn't work either. Finally Johnny was driving the truck for the greenhouse today. He drives a delivery truck for this random greenhouse every now and then.

Tomorrow should be a great day that a lot gets done.

Friday, 10/8/10 Home Depot

Friday was a day of running to Home Depot and Lowes. I feel like I spend as much time at Home Depot as the employees. But its nice to know where almost everything there is. Johnny and I started the day by going to Home Depot and getting a few more plumbing odds and ends and some 2x4's. It seems like 2x4's just randomly get disappear.

Later I also ran to Lowes to look at some lights and to try to find a water shut-off valve for fridge ice maker. (Home Depot didn't have it). They didn't have one either and the other sizes that they had were not the style that I prefer to use. So I went back to Home Depot and bought one and bought a step down to go from 3/8 to `1/4 in.

While I was out running around, Johnny was hard at work. Above is the water heater installed -- although he did that Thursday. He ran copper and pvc to where the kitchen sink will be, as well as hooked up the drain to the washer. The pvc has a loop in it that holds air and allows the water to always drain properly.

Josh got back from being in Knoxville for the week (and now Parke is gone for a few days). He worked in the afternoon scraping the ceiling and moving the water sprinkler. Its still hard to see, but the grass is coming in very well!

Thursday, 10/7/10 Tile, Windows, Budget, and Hot Water Heater

Hey sorry, so no photos today. This morning I went and bought some windows. Hopefully I will be getting them in next week. After that I went to Home Depot and a flooring place with my interior designer. We made some decisions, especially about the tile for the house.

Most of the rest of the day I spent trying to update my excel sheet for budgeting and ended up just fighting with my computer. It kept shutting off me every now and then just because it felt like it. I finally managed to get it working right, but it took up a good amount of the afternoon.

At the house Johnny had been installing the drain for the kitchen sink and putting in the new water heater. While he did that, Parke cleaned out the house. A lot of junk and scrapes were building up in the house, and it was about time to get rid of most of it. I will have a photo of Johnny's work tomorrow. And maybe see if I have any of the tile I will be using.

Wednesday, 9/6/10 More Shopping and Planning

Hey sorry there are no pictures today. Today was a day that I spent a lot of it at Home Depot and Lowes. I ordered some doors from Lowes and looked at lighting for the house at both. For some reason going to either ends up taking a pretty long amount of time. I also got the plastic for the vapor barrier in the crawlspace (it weighted way more than I thought it would).

Besides for that, I finalized everything for the windows. Tomorrow morning I am going to sign some papers and get my order in. Hopefully I will have them in the next week, two at the max. I should have ordered them earlier, but I can't change that now.

Johnny spent the day ripping up part of the kitchen floor (some of it was rotten underneath where the sink was) and working more with the plumbing. It was a day that stuff got done, but it didnt really seem like it.

Tuesday, 10/5/10 Shopping and Stuff

Today was a good day of running around and shopping. Parke drove me around everywhere since my car was getting fixed for the third and hopefully last time.

First, we went to Southeastern Salvage and bought these 12 glass blocks shown here. These are going in the bathroom where the window (that is in the shower) is now. It will look really cool with glass block and will not have to worry about water leaking into the walls and such from the window.

After that Parke and I went to look at more tile, faucets, and hardware. I am narrowing down the options of what I will be using, so hopefully by the end of this week I will have most of those decisions.

After taking lunch, I worked some on budgeting stuff. Yea its not very fun... We then went back to the house and Johnny was there. He only worked a half day today, but he managed to finish getting the floor down in the bathroom and several other small things. We then ran to Home Depot to pick up more fittings and PVC that Johnny needed for plumbing.

The grass is already starting to come in! You can see a little bit of green in the photo below, but soon there should be a nice green yard to show off.

Monday, 10/4/10 Cabinets

Once again my car has failed me. I was hoping to be able to get my emissions test today and then get new tags, so I wouldn't be driving with expired tags. But instead my check engine light came back on for the third time this morning. So I took it back to the same place and they knew what was wrong already. They have been trying to save me some money by not completely taking everything apart and cleaning it (Im not getting enough airflow from the exhaust or something). But now they have to do what they were originally going to have to do. That's happening tomorrow morning. Another day without a car. Awesome.

Anyway, I just decided to take my chances and go drive and get some stuff done. So I first went to Southeastern Salvage -- where I'm getting the kitchen cabinets -- and had them design the kitchen on the computer from my drawings. It took a very long time so between that and looking around the store again, all of my morning and even a little of my afternoon was taken up.

I then shopped around for a water heater. I need a lowboy (it has to be able to fit in the crawlspace) so there aren't too many options. Ended up just getting on from Lowes. The one in the house right now has the bottom rusting out.

Back at the house Johnny had been pretty busy. He had gone to Home Depot and bought a fair amount of supplies. He had begun putting new sub-flooring in the bathroom and hall closet. He screwed it down since we are putting tile down and we need no movement in the floor. Also, Johnny worked on putting up the new wall between the hall and bedroom closets. We choose to go with a 2x6 wall so that the dryer vent can run through the wall.

Lets not forget Parke. Im sure he had a great day of scraping the exterior trim. He seemed very excited to do that for most of the day, with breaks to move the water sprinkler. Actually the grass is already starting to come up in some places, really excited to see what happens in the next few days. Having a great lawn will make a huge difference for how the house looks.

Friday, 10/1/10 Not Much

Sorry, it seems like I keep getting behind on getting these blogs up. But anyway, here is a better picture of what the living room/kitchen looks like now. The change is huge, although I'm already getting used to it and forgetting how much better it has become.

Well to be honest Friday wasn't a very great day for me. I had things such as going to get final prices on cabinets, look at windows, and all that fun stuff that takes lots of driving around and is hard to get a lot done in a day.

But before I could get around to that, I had to get new tags for my car, which meant getting the title changed into my name. (It has been in my dads name since he bought the car, although I have been driving it for about 6 years now.) But since in Nashville an emission test is needed to change the title, I have not been able to change the title. My car's engine light keeps coming on, and so I ended up taking it back to the car place again on Friday. A wasted day for the most part.

I did meet with my electrician and interior designer and get some more ideas in place and figure out lighting. So that was one good thing.

Johnny managed to do some things such as capping the plumping for the washer and dryer and installing shut off valves for the bathroom sink. He also completely removed the hardwood and sub-floor from the hallway closet.

I don't really remember what else happened on Friday. (I know that is terrible to admit, but I'm not quite sure what all Parke did.) Well I gave him a list of things to do and I know he worked on the list, but Friday is blurring in with what happened today (aka Monday).