Tile

Add one more Home Depot visit to make the total 37. I picked up all the supplies for the tile on Sunday. I still have to go back to get a couple of rolls of Ditra mat for under the tile. Trip number 38.

Today I was supposed to set up the tile delivery. I was hoping it would happen tomorrow morning. When I called I found out that 1. They were out of the tile I had chosen for the shower floor. 2. The truck was full and they couldn't deliver until NEXT WEEK!

All I need is 12 square feet of tile for the shower floor and they cant find any! This information would have been helpful last week when I ordered.

The truck is full? You have got to be kidding me.

After explaining to them how disappointed I was and a little yelling... All the tile will be delivered Friday morning. I did have to pull a last minute substitute for the shower floor tile. They are also like the cable guy and have to give me a window. As usual I have to take time off work to wait for a 15 minute delivery. 

Lets hope the delivery goes well.

Finishing the stairs

Add three more Home Depot visits to the total making that 36. One today and two during the week.

Today Filipe started to tape, mud and skim the drywall. He has two more days to get it paint ready.

While this was going on I started to work on the dryer exhaust vent. It started to get complicated and quickly became a pain in the ass. I was not sure what to do so I gave up on that for the day. I decided to start finishing the stairs. It came together real nicely and I'm just about done with all the hardwood. I still need to stain it, but that will happen when all the messy stuff is over.

Thanks Atilla for the nail gun!

Lauren came over to check things out. I told her not to touch the walls... That is her fingerprint in the wet drywall.

Don't tell Lauren this is a framing square and not a sword.

Ripping down a riser.

All the hardwood is on.

Lauren shot a few videos too!

Installing a riser.

Installing a tread.

Drywall

I hired Felipe a guy recommended to me from one of my commercial projects to do the drywall. He asked if he could start a day early. Today he was able to get all the drywall hung! Tomorrow he is going to do al the blocking, taping and mud. All the hard work behind the scens is hidden now!

Looking down the hallway towards the stairs.

In the "office"

The bathroom. Looks like he ran out of green board...

Tomorrow I'm going to start finishing the stairs.

PASSSSSSED!

I passed all inspections today. What a relief. The inspector noted a few things I need to take care of but all minor stuff.

He did know about the main electrical panel clearance issue that the previous inspector had brough up. They must have made a note on my pemit. I explained the situation (using my charm and persuasive powers). He acknowledged it does not meet the literal interpreation of the code but was OK with what I had provided. That was a huge win. If he would have strictly followed the rules, it would have been a $2000 fix!

Drywall is happening this weekend!

Middle of a big week

This is a big week for the project. First, electrical is ready for inspection. I ordered the tile on Monday and it should arrive next week. That put a dent in my credit card.

Next I ordered the doors on Tuesday. Unfortunately they are much more expensive than I thought. Due to the ceiling height and existing conditions I had to order mostly custom doors. That put a nice dent in my budget. I also have to modify some framing in order to squeeze in some standard doors. Not sure when I am going to do this... I also learned that custom doors have a 3 - 5 week lead time. Not too happy about that but there is nothing I can do about it.

Insulation got installed today. It was well worth it to hire someone for this. Very inexpensive and they were done in 3 hours. I got them started and then headed to work. Yes mom, I did let these people in my house while I was alone and I do not know them. I had to go to work.

Tomorrow I planned 6 inspections. Building insulation & close in. Electrical rough in & close in. Plumbing rough in & close in. Hopefully the inspectors are having a good day... because they usually don't want to do the close in and rough in at the same time especially when there is insulation in the way. I am HOPING this goes well because I have drywall scheduled for Saturday.



This was unexpected... more holes, more dust, more mess

Mystery wires... where do they go? Why are they hot?

Insulation of the exterior wall.

Jam packed around all the pipes. These guys did a good job.

Sound insulation in the ceiling.

Like I said... big week.

Lets hope the inspections go well tomorrow!

First official injury

This has been a big week so far. The electrical is as far as it is going to get and ready for inspection. It did come at a cost. Jason got a nice gash on some of the metal framing. First official project injury. I have several bumbs, cuts and bruises, but this one easily tops them.

"This is why I hate metal framing." - Jason

Big weekend

Add another Home Depot visit to make the new total 33 for the project.

Today Filipe came back real early to redo the one hall ceiling framing. We were able to get the ceiling about 4 inches higher. I'm definitely happy with the fix. There will probably be a few little box outs where I have one radiator line and at the AC condenser line. I can live with that.

Next Jason came to start all the electrical work. The recessed fixtures I purchased were much larger than expected. There were 4 locations where they did not fit. Yet again I had to shut the water off and move more pipes, adjust framing and move some more pipe to get 3 of them to fit. The fixture over the shower was not going to fit no matter what. I ended up purchasing a small renovation recessed fixture which has a much smaller housing and that should do the trick.

Most of the recessed fixtures are roughed in and some wiring is done. Jason is going to do most of the electrical while I am at work tomorrow.

This was an easy one.

Here are the new fixtures in the bedroom ceiling.

How is the insulation supposed to fit with all this shit up in the ceiling?????

While Jason was doing some of the electrical work I started to run the exhaust ducts for the bathroom fan and for the laundry. Both vents have to run a long way. The flex duct is real easy, but the hard duct is a huge pain in the ass. I needed to get the ducts at least into the back room so that next weekend the drywall can go up. I'll deal with the rest of the runs later.

Still shooting for insulation on Wednesday and inspections Thursday. This week I'm going to place the tile order and I need to get the carpet order in as well as doors. I am expecting a door quote tomorrow. I have a feeling the doors are going to be a lot more expensive than I thought because they are all custom height. I'll find out tomorrow.

Serious plumbing progress

I made some serious progress this week. Definitely made up for last weekend today. First lets add two more Home Depot / Lowes visits to the total making it 32.

I had some professional help today. I had my plumber Mike come to help me with some of the work. He started with the last of the plumbing vent modifications. He also moved some gas lines for me to clear up the ceiling and get some funky jogs out of the way.

This is the sanitary line and vent stack for the kitchen sink above. We put this funny jog in to get is far away from the electrical panel. This will hopefully make the inspector happy. Though the larger pipe there is still too close, but I think I'll be OK. I'll find out for sure when I get my inspections this week.

The gas line used to have several turns and it came in front of the studs. Now it is tucked behind and will be hidden by drywall.

While Mike was working on the sanitary and gas line, I was working on the water supply lines. He helped me finish it up and now it is all complete!

I even had some time to finish some misc framing and replace the expansion valve on the boiler. Hopefully this will stop the leak that has been happening.

Tomorrow the drywall guy is coming back to finish setting the resilient channels and I'm having him redo a ceiling area. It is too low and now that the water lines are done he can raise it a few inches. I'll take all I can get. After that electrical starts! I have all my recessed lights.

First official neighbor complaint

Since I couldn't work on the copper today, I decided to cut a hole in the masonry wall. This hole is to run the exhaust duct for the bathroom. The drywall guy was using his screw gun and making a good amount of noise. However it was the big hammer drill in the brick wall that did the trick. It took me about 45 minutes of drilling to get the hole complete. As I was taking a break my neighbor came to the door. He asked if I was going to be working all day because he couldn't even watch TV. I guess the vibrations from the hammer drill are pretty damn loud in an attached townhouse. It was a nice day... he should be outside and not watching TV. Good thing I was just about done with the hole.

I also had a chance to install the new weather head and run the 4/0 service wire through the deck. Now the power company can finally come and complete their end of the work.



Ceiling Framing

They drywally guy came today to frame the ceiling and install all the resilient channels. The bathroom and corridor are pretty complicated because of all the pipes and underframming he had to do.

Unfortunately the ceiling in the corridor outside the laundry is a few inches lower than I had hoped. Of course this was the part he did while I ran to Home Depot (yeah lets add two more trips to make it an even 30). Because of one of the radiator pipes, he dropped the whole area. I'm now thinking that I would have modified the radiator pipe to get the ceiling 2" higher. Too late now...

Now I'm ready to set all the recessed fixtures... just have to get them. Hopefully the will arrive tomorrow.

Drywall

The Drywall has been delivered.... Still a few weeks away from having it hung.

NOT on my game

Today was supposed to be a productive day... it ended up being far from it. First, lets add two Lowes / HD visits to the total making it 28. Today I was supposed to run the copper water supply lines for all the new plumbing fixtures and replace a number of the existing waster connections. I didn't think I would get it complete but I ended up not getting far at all... and have to cut some of it out!

First I tried to remove some wires that are pretty old and seemed like they went no where. They were in the way of the plumbing. "Seemed like" are the operative words. I was pretty sure they were all old phone lines. I do not have a land line so I was just going to take them all out before the ceiling gets closed in. As usual when I work I listen to satellite radio over the Internet. It was too odd of a coincidence that the music stopped when I cut one of the wires... Yep. I cut out my Internet. Look at this jumble of wires.

Somehow my internet WAS going through this rats nest of wires... First time on the project I had to call for help... Thankfully Jason Dorp lives 5 min away and was able to come help. Internet is back up and running... only an hour delay.

Then my parents showed up. A few days ago they decided to visit. Good to see my family but as most of you know they are a cross between the Costanza's and the Grizwalds. My dad practiced being a supervisor. He did help me unload the trash from my neighbors trash cans... Yes... the trash guys finally said no to my construction debris. I guess the 2000 lbs of concrete in the trash did me in. 

I did get a few of the water lines in. I had to get it done today because tomorrow the drywall guy is coming to set the ceiling and resilient channels. I roughed in the lines to the toilet, shower and sink.Here are a few shots.

I got about 30% complete with the water supply lines. Not nearly as far as I wanted but far enough for the drywall guy to set the ceiling.

I then had to mark on the floor slab where the new light fixtures are going so that the drywall guy does not run any metal framing for the ceiling blocking fixtures. While doing this I realized I PUT THE DAMN WATER SUPPLY LINES FOR SHOWER AND SINK BLOCKING THE FUTUER LIGHT FIXTURES!!!! So now I have to cut out some of what I did today. This is me contemplating how I could have made such a stupid mistake. Thank you Lauren for catching me at the height of my glory.

Not on my game today. Despite having my parents and Lauren as supervisors.

Lauren is supervising and eating some melon.



Stairs!

I have not posted in a few weeks because I had a perfectly timed vacation right in the middle of all the construction. I just got back from my trip to Germany and Austria.

Some work did happen while I was gone. Jason roughed in the new steps for me. It was nice to come back from vacation and actually be able to use stairs instead of a ladder. Check them out. These are just the roughed in stairs. I'll have to come back later and do the finished carpentry with hardwood.