Getting warmer!

Wednesday morning brought insulation. This stuff is amazingly "solid" on the walls.

The plumbers installed our shower Wednesday afternoon.

Today, Mick brought the deposit for our countertops to the kitchen guy, and picked up some supplies for building cabinets. This pre-finished plywood will be the cabinet interiors.

Our granite is "off the boat" and at the supplier. Soon it will be at Elegant Stone Products in Viroqua, where we can "visit" it.

This is one of our pieces: Slab

The electrician was back today and hooked up the lights in the breezeway and basement.

The foam insulation is arriving tomorrow. Gary should be here between 7:00 and 8:00. He said it should go relatively quickly, and that he will air the house out when he's done.

Nothing...

Nothing changed today, except the construction trailer that had been parked outside disappeared, and some of the tools in the garage went away. Not quite what we hoped for, but the contractor called tonight, and it sounds like tomorrow could be insulation day. There's a lot left to do, but it's split into a bunch of small jobs that need to happen in the right order.

Scratch that, the phone just rang. Insulation is now scheduled for Wednesday.

More of the same...

Didn't I already have a post by that title?

Arrrrrghhhh, she says!

Mike's crew did a bit more framing. This photo shows the new entrances to the basement and kitchen.

There were inspections on Friday. There was a change needed in framing by one of the windows. Unfortunately there was a lot of electrical stuff in that area. In the spirit of getting the framing done, the electricity for lighting was shut off in the kitchen, breezeway and the main area of the basement. On Friday afternoon. Late. Hopefully the electrician will be here to power us back on tomorrow. It feels a little old-fashioned to pay attention to getting the dishes done while it's light outside!

The plumber stopped by on Saturday morning to fix one spot where his pipes had to move because of the Friday inspections. He also got the hot and cold on the proper sides in Elizabeth's tub.

Mick has been busy with Great Stuff cans, plugging all the holes around wires that pass between the floors. He also double-checked and secured the central vac piping.

The last piece of glued-down flooring between the dining room and living room came out, and the good sub-floor is now down underneath the piano and fridge, and extends a little way into the living room.

We had the living room carpet rolled back to slide the plywood underneath. Mick wouldn't let me cut it back any more. This carpet has been through three dogs, one toddler, two construction projects and a glass of red Koolaid. It's on my list.

Our hopes for this week: passing inspections, getting insulation, installation of the shower stall on the first floor.

Sheetrock? Doubtful.

Garage gourmet

Mock Lobster Alfredo

Make a roux in a large skillet:
1 small onion
2 T butter
2 T flour

Add:
2-3 cups milk (no measuring when you cook in the garage!)
1 cup shredded parmesan (use the real stuff, you know, the container that you pitched into the freezer a couple months ago that was getting short on date)
2 packages lobster chunks (like Krab, only better)

In a separate pot, cook 1/2 package egg noodles. When the noodles are almost done, add a pound of asparagus. Drain veggies and noodles and add to parmesan pan!

Measuring up...

The insulation guy stopped over tonight to discuss our insulation. He'll be back next week to blow in closed-cell foam in the outside walls and sills.

Mick just measured to see what the space gained was in our kitchen. He calculates the difference to 38 square feet. I include the "corner of contention" in the tally and arrive at 51 square feet. Any way you look at it, that's pretty good for not changing the footprint of the house.

Plumbing and general inspections are happening tomorrow.

The picture project...

Yesterday's project was to take photos of all the walls, with a ruler and identifying sign held up. It's boring, but we'll know where our pipes, wires, and vents are. That might save us some excitement in the future.

The contractor left a message that the shower unit has arrived. The insulation crew needs to come before that can be installed. We are doing blown in cellulose, I think.

Doors!

Last Friday we went to Badger Corrugating and finally made a decision on the doors to the kitchen and basement. They need to be exterior doors, since the breezeway is not heated and cooled. We really considered solid wood, because they are inside and protected from the weather. This theory became a challenging search that would require strong funding and yield minimal warranty.

Eventually we gave in and picked out two fiberglass doors. They are fancier than I had envisioned, but not too elaborate. Sometimes it just makes sense to go with the flow.

The weekend flew by with lots of little projects. Nothing photo-worthy at home, although Elizabeth attended her first big-girl birthday party. Esmerelda had a "Princess Party". It was a little chaotic, but that's to be expected with at least 15 kiddos and their grown up friends. They all had a great time at the fiesta.

It's quiet.

It's quiet.

I think Friday was the first day in a couple weeks without workers here. HVAC, plumbing, and electrical rough-ins are done. The carpenters have a few minor things left.

We've been busy, but there's not much that's visibly exciting to see. Mick has been running cable and phone wire like a mad-man. We decided to wall-mount an upstairs TV while we had access to the base of the stud bay. If you haven't shopped for a TV mounting bracket, hold onto your credit card, and do a little shopping around. I researched the models at Best Buy, and we went there and bought a bracket and some wire. Since we were close by, we decided to pick something up at Home Depot. Out of curiousity, we checked their brackets, expecting to see more of the same stuff. They had a different brand with the same features for almost half the price. Their spool of cable was significantly cheaper too. The TV is up and feels secure, and the Best Buy bag is being returned untouched. After the TV was up, we remembered that it is hooked to a TiVo that uses a phone line. Run phone line.

Mick has also been running pipes for a central vac. We did this in the first phase of our remodel years ago, in preparation for actually buying a vac unit. I think this time we'll hook the pipes up to something!

Cool...

The guys from Ona Sheet Metal, the HVAC contractors, are determined to fix some issues we've had with controlling our second-floor heating and cooling.

They managed to pull out all the flexible tubing and slide in new sheet metal ductwork to all three bedrooms upstairs. Some of those runs are more than twelve feet into the floor truss space. They are also adding numerous cold-air returns.

There will be a vent near the bookcase that runs along the staircase (a summer hot zone), and they even added one in the ceiling of the living room.

We already have a variable speed furnace, and they recommend leaving the fan running on low nearly all the time.

Isn't it pretty? Here you can see our new sheet metal ductwork, and a couple can lights that will be over the bank of cabinets with the fridge.

Cory from Graf Electric did a lot more wiring today. Things are starting to turn back on now, it was a bit dim this weekend. He's done a great job with all our details, and we passed the electrical inspection today. Progress!

Resolved, or at least a truce, I hope?

A decision has been made, although the household is still divided on this one. The framing came down....

... and this sketch went up. Thank you Mick!

It was very interesting. With the exception of one, all the women liked the counterspace option, and all the men liked the closed-door pantry. Hmmm....

This is the other corner of the kitchen that faces the breezeway. The bump-out is new kitchen space.

The HVAC contractor has a pile-o-stuff here now. I expect he will be working tomorrow.

The electrician has worked three+ days so far. He's got more to do also. We had post-its and blue tape ALL OVER to tell him where things go. It's a daunting task to think about every outlet, light fixture and switch.

This is the view of our two new sets of steps, from the breezeway side. Four up to the kitchen, ten down to the basement.

The general contractor stopped in late this afternoon. It sounds like his crew may also be here tomorrow, and that the foam insulation might come later this week as well. We gave him our dimensions and tile choices for flooring, and talked some more about the doors for the basement and kitchen.

The Corner of Contention

So, here's the deal: The new stairs to the basement pass under the end of the kitchen space. It's a space roughly 40" x40". The stair pass through at an angle, with the highest point about knee-high.

Option 1:

Make it sort of a pantry, you might be able to step in with one foot on the right side, onto a raised step to reach items in back.

Advantages: Hidden storage, reuse a door that got evicted from the bathroom, it's framed this way now

Disadvantages: Closes off the corner with a solid sheetrock wall.

Option 2:

False-front the bottom cabinet doors. Drawer space at the top, probably a bit deeper than shown here. Do standard depth granite in front, with an extra-deep upper cabinet behind. Possibly an appliance garage on the surface level.

Advantages: Appliance garage, drawer space, visually matches the rest of the kitchen. Not a solid sheetrock bump-out

Disadvantages: It's framed the other way, another cabinet for Mick to build, could be hard to reach items in upper cabinet (like the angel food cake pan that might get used once a year!).

So, what do you think? Leave a comment if you have an opinion!

Utilities!

I had a planning session with the electrician before work, then he came back in the afternoon and started doing wiring.

The HVAC contractor was also here today. He has some ideas about how to fix our lack of air flow to the upstairs rooms. More ceiling sheetrock came down for this one.

The kitchen planner faxed me the revisions late afternoon. There's still a "corner of contention", but it's coming together.

We still have colds. Blech. Tired.

Maybe tomorrow...

The space looks great! (I guess I'm building suspense here?)

Today the plumber and crew worked all day. They did the bath and kitchen plumbing rough-ins, and did some improvements for our upstairs baths as well.

The kitchen designer also stopped over for a look-see and to take down the exact measurements now that the framing is done. We'll meet with him again on Friday.

Tomorrow = Electrician!

No energy for photo-posting again tonight. We both have nasty colds. Goodnight!

Closer

No photos today, but the kitchen space really looks good. The stair framing and the south wall is done. We have one corner of contention to figure out, as well as some minor stuff.

Stay tuned for photos tomorrow...

Office closet and back of shower.
Wall between dining and bathroom.

New subfloor in the breezeway, the bump-out for the kitchen. Basement stairs on the left. Tomorrow, the old landing will come out and the old stair crater will be filled over.

We spent the evening "discussing" placement of lights, air-to-air vents and switches, light switches, and outlets. The place was hit by a flurry of post-its and painters tape. Not very exciting, but it must be done!

Too cute to skip this one...
The sink and stove came out today. We'll be washing dishes in the basement, and cooking on the grill or in the garage. This work triangle is WORK!

The next three pictures are the wide-open spaces without anything in the kitchen. We expect the contracter and crew tomorrow. Let the reconstruction begin!

Down stairs

On Thursday and Friday a little more flooring got removed, and the fridge and dining room table came to the living room.

The plywood that was in the corner of the kitchen, between the kitchen and breezeway came out. The kitchen will extend almost to the round window.

On Saturday, the basement and breezeway stairs went away.

Breezeway and basement steps are gone.

A prize to...

A prize to the one who can figure this picture out in 10 seconds or less! I took it just a few minutes ago, and just the fact that it was rotated wrong when I first loaded it really confused me for a moment.

Got it?

The top of the photo is the basement ceiling. I'm tucked in under the existing stairs, just about where the new staircase will end. The white area is the basement wall, with the hole cut in for the stairs to pass through. Near the center, you can see the door that passes between the breezeway and garage. The black area is where the top of the stairs will start.

The Big Dig...

I'm back from a couple days with my parents. My Dad is the owner of a new cardiac stent. It seems that all is going well. What a relief!

I pulled into the neighborhood and saw a pile of rubble. That's great news!

Apparently, having a large wedge of concrete protruding out over the area of the new steps is not a good thing.

At the end of the day, a concrete lined pit. This will become our basement access very soon. The plan for tomorrow is to break through to the basement. Stay tuned.