Shop vacs, cheap wallpaper and......

Well, we made it to the insulation prep phase, so a good cleaning was necessary. All those wood shavings, nails, screws, drywall scraps, etc., in between the studs in the wall had to go.  After vacuuming for 4 hours Sunday (and several sweeping Saturday) I have a renewed appreciation for janitors and garbage collectors.  I think it was Studds Terkel, in his book Working, that stated that you should think about the work someone is doing and the more you wouldn't want to be doing it yourself, the more your respect for that person and position should increase. I love that concept to this day.

I learned more than I wanted about shop vacs this weekend!  Basically, a cheap shop vac (day after Thanksgiving sale) is a cheap shop vac.  Good for dust collect in the shop perhaps, but...... Even though it is a bit smaller and the hose is easier to handle, it also gets block more often, making your vacuuming experience a slow and unpleasant one!  AND that wide end attachment they have may be great for sucking up water, but it is terrible for vacuuming up large areas of fine dirt !  Even the big shop vac isn't good for that.  I finally grabbed (at Bill's suggestion) our good old household Eureka Mighty Might portable and voila!  Those little wheels on the base of that attachment worked wonders!   I filled up the bag in no time and found we had no new ones!!!   Oh well, it was time to go home anyway.... the dust was getting to be too much (yes, we are wearing our masks!) and we knew Samson and Minnie wanted their walk.

Bill was hard at work placing blocking in the walls for all those towel racks (hmmmm, we could have used more free wall space!) and hand rails we might need in the future.  Oh yeah, my sisters say we'll be moving to a condo before we need those!  Well, someone will find them handy.  We also took pictures of the entire place sans dry wall so we can refer to them in the future and hopefully avoid any electrical wires or water pipes when, if ever, we want to do another home improvement project.

And my feelings on wall paper haven't changed!  In fact, if anything they have gotten worse!  The drywall person who came in to set up scafolding this weekend suggested that the cheaper the wallpaper the harder it is to remove.  Well, if that is true, the wallpaper in the dining nook was CHEAP!!!!  It may have been the remover I was using (far more expensive that the vinegar and water mix we used before, which was GREAT on the grass-cloth paper in the den, but it smelled a lot better). Whatever the reason, it wasn't fun.  If you are planning on doing this in the future I would try the vinegar and water solution on a small area first and it it works go with it.  Or our electrician (yes, our electrician) said Martha Stewart suggestion fabric softener and water.  That would certainly smell better, especially if it was Downy (my sister Ann had someone ask what the perfume she wore was and they discovered it was her Downy fabric softener). Leave those little bottles of the wallpaper remover at the hardware store if at all possible and use that garden sprayer I talked about early.  Much more economical.

This lovely wallpaper came off in two layers.  I thought the
first layer was bad!  Ha!!!!  The second layer was even more
feisty!  Argh!  

See those little score marks, they help the remover soak thorough
the paper so that it can work on the adhesive.  Yeah, well...........
It was great to see the last of the paper go.  Hopefully, the drywallers
can work their magic this week and this area will be ready for paint by
the end of the week!

Who thought toilets could be so........

So, I ask you, who knew toilets could be so complicated?  I mean, really, has what we used them for changed in the past 200 years?  Nooooo, but the design has changed immensely and the research is amazing.  Who knew?  The good news is that all the plumbing fixtures have been ordered!  Now onto light fixtures!!! Decisions, decisions, decisions!

Okay, onto more exciting news.  The framing crew (PM Construction), who also became the siding crew, left us yesterday - for good reason - they are done!  They did a great job and we will miss them a lot!  It sure was quiet at the house yesterday afternoon as we worked on cleaning up (our choice) after them, the electrician (Mike's Custom Electric) and the plumber (Klinton Moa) and removing the last of the wallpaper. (Oh, how I dislike the stuff!!!  Especially after that fall (not even off a ladder) - don't ask, just chalk it up to lack of coordination on my part.)  We're prepping the place for the insulation crew that will be there Monday to be followed Wednesday by the dry wall crew!!!!

Yay!! The siding is back in place and the new trim is on the windows,
well the new ones.  We are waiting until we live there for a  while before we
decide what to do about the ones in the dining nook (lower floor left).  Now
the poor neighbors only have to look at a patchy paint job!

See those lights in the ceiling?  We have lights and heat for the first time
in months!  Yahoo!  And and all those little black boxes in the wall
are the switch and plug boxes! See all the wormy scraps of wire on the floor?
See the next photo to see what happens to them.

All that wire is ready for the recycler's this morning. It's my new favorite 

haunt in town,  I take them garbage they give me money.  (You have 

to be willing to wait for a check in the mail these days, AFTER they do 

an extensive ID check on you! Hmmm, interesting.)  

We'll see what we get for it. This should be the last trip.

The siding is back!

It feels so good to see the window/door trim and siding go back on the house!  All of the doors and windows are in now and we're closing the place up!  It feels great. Better yet, we passed 4 of 5  of our inspections yesterday!  Hold-downs, rough plumbing, stack test (I now know what that is!) and last, but not least, ductwork.  And the 5th approval, framing, is just waiting on some information I emailed to the inspector yesterday! What a relief!  All in all, the  process went well and we even learned a few things along the way!

I took all the scrap wiring (coated) in for recycling this morning and along with the copper from old plumbing we took in a couple of weeks ago, we are up to about $350 in fun money! It's great, not only do we get some cash (well, they send you a check these days, and only after carefully checking your ID), but it kept all that stuff out of the landfill!  Always a good thing in our book.

At last, we're back to putting the siding back up and trimming the new windows.  It makes it feel  like we
are back to making progress.  This is on the addition and all the siding is new!  I am going to hate staining that
wood, it is sooooo pretty.  The doors to the deck upstairs were installed yesterday!  They look and feel great!

Creative priming and other progress

We're making progress on the trim work - what a relief!  It was so wet that, with limited heat, we were afraid it was going to slow us down.  Voila!  Bill has gotten creative with placement of the long boards and he's been priming like a mad man. The crew has been putting up the trim and prepping the house for siding.  Our electrician is cruising along and another crew put the vinyl covering on the cover second floor deck today that will allow for the last of the doors to be installed tomorrow!   I've been doing some bookkeeping and running lots of errands.  I even cooked corned beef and veggies tonight. (For those who know us well, you know how rare THAT is!)

Bill's priming system set up in the master bedroom!

Better yet, making use of the higher, hotter air by using the loft and old
window framing as a drying rack!

The new vinyl (read waterproof) decking material on the
porch outside the guest bedrooms.  Now all we need is the
railings and a couple of margaritas!

Mike, our electrician, rocking out and wiring away!  I'm sure
glad he understands all of this!

Okay, I know this isn't that exciting of a picture, but these windows look, and
will function, soooooo much better than the old ones!  These are the upper
windows in the living room.

One of the new windows with the new trim!  The old
windows didn't have any trim and looked pretty wimpy!
What color should we paint the trim?  How about the house?!?!

And they are in....

Big changes this week!  The new windows are in!  What a difference they make - they are so beautiful.  I must admit to being a little overwhelmed by the process, however. Remember when I mentioned that I thought we had turned the corner from destruction to construction?  NOT!!!!  Just when I thought we were progressing they pulled out the old windows to put in the new and what should happen?  Some of the siding  - make that a lot - needed to come off!!!  The amount that needed to be removed was more than usual because of the vertical siding.  The good news is that the re-siding can start as soon as the trim is primed and ready. (We're in the process of doing that as I write - well, let me clarify that, Bill is up at the house doing so as I type this.)

Additional good news includes the rough plumbing has been completed and the electrical is about half way there.  Who knows, we may be ready for insulation next week and drywall the following!  Can't wait!  Of course then there is the trim, the tiling, the flooring, etc., etc., etc!!!!  But I have learned to be happy with the completion of little steps!

Just when I thought that the destruction was done!  Whaaaaa!  We added some
windows to the loft to let more natural light in and made them operable to
let in some of that great pacific air.  In order to do so, they had to remove a lot
of  siding!  Sadness!  

The view our kind neighbors will have until next week :-{

The new view from the inside of the loft.  Lots of trees and even a sneak (read VERY little)
view of the Puget Sound to the right.  These guys really help flood the interior
with lots a natural light - no more dark interior!!

The before and after pictures of the windows and sliding

door in the "great" (actually small) room.   Before the

windows looked like they could fall out at any moment

and none of them opened!  Now they are more substantial

and all the uppers open to let air through.

Lots and lots of trim to be primed!  Argh!  It came really wet (remember where
we live) which was a bummer, but we turned on the furnace for the first time
and are drying them so we can get them all primed for installation next week!

The new bedroom door out to porch.  The porch was a "sunroom" addition that
proved to heat the outside better than the in - no doors between it and the bedroom and it had a
1/4" plastic ceiling/roof!  No insulation.  The new arrangement makes the bedroom narrower, but
we added some length to it with the new addition and it now has operable windows.
(Don't know if you remember,  but the only window in the old bedroom was in the closet!)

A view of the same windows from the outside!  We finally decided to just
do away with the funky sunroom/porch and do something else in the
future.  It was just too weird......  I love all the light it lets in the bedroom now!

The Windows Are Here!!! Yahoo!

So, the windows..... that's a long story.  We took a long time to make up our mind about the windows and that decision seemed like the ball that got the whole "you need to order this now" thing really rolling.  At this point it seems like its a huge snowball rolling downhill growing as it goes!  Lights, flooring, plumbing fixtures, .....  Argh!!  Actually, it is good, just a little overwhelming.

The windows are from Sierra Pacific Windows and we purchased them directly from the manufacturer.  They were great to work with.  They are wood clad to hold up to the northwest's damp weather, while still providing a nice warm feeling inside.  We received 31 windows this time around - there will be more in the future, but that will all come together during Phase 2.  I am thinking that might be in 2020........  

Not only do they manufacturer the windows, they deliver them right to your door.
The windows are manufactured in northern California and then shipped to Olympia -
Washington's distribution center.  Gary drove them up from there this morning along
with some others that are to be delivered in the area.  It was quite the process, but he was
great to work with and our "ground" crew was great as always.

The first window to be installed.  This is the master bathroom window, along side
the bathtub!  Nice relaxing view of the backyard out the window!

The master bedroom windows from the inside.  The wood will need
to be finished, but we already like the looks.

These go upstairs once the new steps are in!  Can't wait!!

Tonight's sunset overlooking the San Juan Islands (this was taken
about a block from the house).  Ahhhhh. Nice way to end a rather
hectic day.

It's Been a While.....

Sorry it has been so long since the last post, but we went to Mexico for a week's break and it has been a whirlwind catching up!!!  The vacation was planned a year ago, long before this house was in the picture, and when ya gotta go, ya gotta go! We had a great time, but also learned that taking a vacation in the middle of a remodel isn't a great idea.  Oh well, lesson learned!

So, the addition is on, roof and all; the subfloor has been lifted and replaced (very ugly job); the beam that supports the loft and allowed us to remove the wall between the kitchen and living room, is in place; the new furnace and water heater are hooked up and almost ready to go; the cabinets are ordered; the interior walls that define the new spaces are in and we are on our way. Windows come tomorrow!  Yahoo!  The crew has been great, we have found great subs!

Look at the pics below for more........

Upon our return from sunny, warm Mexico we found our home with no sub-flooring and
 freezing inside and out!  Believe it or not, not having a subfloor was a good thing.  The material
that was originally used was thought to be a "great, new  use of wood by-products!"  NOT!  We knew
about if before we closed on the deal, so we expected to have to remove it.  Nonetheless, walking
around wasn't my idea of a good time!  

Coming in the front door proved a challenge!  Without the board there it
was really tricky!  Peter said it discouraged trespassers!  The post for the
beam to in the center of the picture had to be moved to the left -
but all is well that ends well.

This is the weather that greeted us upon our return.  Bellingham is known for
its mild(relatively) winters so this was NOT welcome.   In fact, record cold temps
were set the week we got back!  The poor subs we had to meet to discuss bids!  They didn't
seem to mind it nearly as much as I did!  Those hot baths sure felt good at night!

When they removed the subfloor they also removed the old insulation, thinking
we might want to reuse some of it.  We did, but just a very little.  The remainder of the stuff
they removed had evidence of little four-footed pests!  Yuck!  Glad I was gone that week.

So here is our little dining nook - literally the only part of the
house that wasn't going to change, except for removal of wallpaper.
When removing the subfloor what should we discover, but that the
floor was actually floating on some porch pyramid piers!  Not even attached
to the house!  No wonder there was that wave in the floor! It is now
safely anchored to the house!

Just a picture of the neighborhood.  It was so nice this weekend - almost in the
50s which is usual for this time of year - just not this year when the highs have
been in the 30s or low 40s!  

Bill and Minnie on our afternoon walk!  It was great to see the sun and not
have to be bundled in 4 layers of clothing and all kinds of scarves and hats!!
That's Puget Sound (recently renamed the Salish Sea) in the distance.

The house today after the Merry Maids (that would be Bill and me) completed
one of their weekend cleanups!  Some day it will look even better!!  This is
a look from the corner of the kitchen into the living room (right), den (center)
and dining nook (left).

Another view after the Merry Maids' visit, this is in the opposite direction of
the one above.  That is the new wall between the kitchen and the entry to the
right,  our news stairs behind that (still in need of a little work), the hallway to the
powder room and laundry rom in the center, and the new framing that replaced the old,
behemoth wood-burning fired place between the living room and master bedroom to the left.
A small gas fireplace with a cozy hearth, will be to the far left.

Yahoo!  The interior walls are in!  That's, believe it or not, the master bedroom seating
area to the left, the door to the master bath in the middle, then the door to the master
closet and a peek at the powder room to the right!  Yes, that's plumbing!!!  Next the
electrician and then insulation and drywall!   Can't wait!  Who knows we
may be in by September of 2012!!  Just kidding!