A flurry of activity.....

A flurry of activity....

March 28th -- Whoa, for about 15 minutes near the end of the day the framers, painter, tile setter and plumber were all working on various parts of the house simultaneously.   A new record.

At 8:00am the framing carpenter crew arrived.  Their task today was to put siding and trim on the greenhouse; finish the railing off the rear-entry back porch; finish trim on the front porch; put siding and the decking on the deck off the master bedroom, and put lattice trim on the decks....they were able to complete about 85% of this work.

Here is the new railing and lattice trim on the back porch, rear-entry to the house.

Here is the detail trim work on the newly decked front porch that will be painted when the rest of the exterior painting is completed...probably before the end of April.

The deck off the master bedroom is a bit tricky because it is over "living space" (the gathering room) which means there are various codes that have to be followed, especially weather-proofing.  Below you can see that the siding was installed, that will be painted, and a TREX deck was installed.  The painters will need to do some further caulk work and painting here.

The greenhouse now has siding on it and you can also see the skylights on the roof.  A gutter will be installed eventually.

Here is the front door of the greenhouse with a glass panel next to it and siding around it.  

The plumber was also here and installed two hose bibs...this one shown in this photo is outside of the greenhouse on the south side of the house, and the second hose bib is on the north side of the house.

The second bathroom on the upper-level is still a work in progress, and even that room is coming along.  The drywall work is done and the tile setter laid the tile today.  This tile looks like wood planks but it is really ceramic tile.  The tile setter will remove the little white spacers after the tile adhesive has dried and  tomorrow he returns to apply the grout.  Both of these photos show the tile in the bathroom, proper.

These photos show the same tile that has been set in the closet that is adjacent to the bathroom.

The painter texted that he wanted to stop by at the end of the day to pick up some materials and do a bit of touch up. 

 He explained that because the tile was set only today (it was supposed to be set on Tuesday) and will be grouted tomorrow, that he won't be able to work on sanding and texturing the walls this weekend.  

My plan this weekend is to begin an initial level of clean up, starting  in the basement.  I want to attack the dust and dirt with a brand new shop vac as I begin to systematically remove the first layer of dust and dirt before the whole-house cleaning process begins.

The framing carpenters will need to come back to complete the lattice trim work.  The plumber will return to set the plumbing fixtures in the second bathroom on the upper level.  The finish carpenters have baseboard trim, hardware, and assorted fixtures to install, including an adjustable shelving system in the greenhouse where I hope to be starting plants from seeds sometime in the near future.

A flurry of activity that gets this old house closer to the completion of this project.

So close, yet so far away....

So close, yet so far away....

March 23 - 27 --  We are into the last phases of this project where the end is so close, yet the number of "little things to do" makes the completion of this project also seem so far away.

The contractor and I have started the "budget reconciliation" process, and even though we have a few things to sort out, it is looking like this project is very close to coming in on budget or just a bit over.  There are no photos of that process!!! 

The electricians were here for the final inspection of the electrical work done in the garage, and that inspection passed.  We discussed adding two circuits to the greenhouse and they will also install some outlets on the pergola, but that will happen after the rest of the greenhouse is completed.

On Tuesday, the final inspection for the plumbing took place, and that one also passed.  The final inspection for the HVAC system and the fireplaces was also on Tuesday and again, we passed with flying colors.

Today the roofers came to work on the greenhouse and determined that the flashing kits that were delivered for the two roof skylights will not work and instead they ordered a new kit that will work better.  Those two flashing kits will be returned by the contractor.  Once the new flashing kit arrives, then the roofers will return and shingle the roof around the skylights, but today that laid down the roofing paper.

Tomorrow the tile setter will return to put in the tile floor in the second upper-level bathroom.  The painter has already told me that he intends to work this weekend on the walls so that he can texture them before we select a paint color.

Also, tomorrow morning the crew should come to finish the decking for the porch off the master bedroom and to install trim there,around the decks off the dining room, the rear entry, and the greenhouse.

In the meantime, the electricians installed the light fixture for the dining room which was back-ordered and finally arrived.  The fixture is in the center of the room, and it hangs from a chain.  Once the antique walnut dining room table gets moved back into the dining room, the chandelier will be lowered and positioned over the table with a ceiling hook. 

On Tuesday all the materials around the yard that were deemed "trash" was carted off and what is left of my backyard was "raked."  Any building materials that were deemed "usable" were neatly stacked, including boards that I will use to build raised beds for future vegetable and flower gardens.

The raked yard now looks like this:

But, it used to look like this:

I can only hope that when this area of the yard is landscaped I will grow veggies once again, but in raised beds with NO LAWN.  I have decided that growing lawn is such a waste of water that I will have a hardscape with native grasses and other water-wise shrubs.

Now the back of the house looks like this:

I only have photos in my mind now as to what the back of the house will eventually look like.

The windows will be washed early next week.  As soon as the second bathroom is done and the finish carpenters have made one last pass, the house will underdo a thorough cleaning to remove as much of the construction dust as possible -- this is called "house detailing".  Then, whatever is in the "old" rooms of the house will be moved so that the floors in those rooms can be refinished and the walls painted.

Finally, the refrigerator debacle has taken some interesting turns and is currently in deliberations among the architect, kitchen designer (and the owner of his company) and the contractor.  Once that situation is resolved, I'll share the outcome.