It is pretty cool to see such big changes every time I go there. I know the demo/framing part goes pretty fast and there are material changes from day to day, and it will slow down later.
The electrician was there today ripping out old wiring, and we went over the lighting plan. The kitchen is going from two lights to about 15 or 16. He wants us to finalize appliances because things have to go in specific locations behind them. So many decisions…
My builder is an interesting guy. Very laid back. I keep offering to give him money and he keeps refusing to take it. B-)
We still haven’t paid him a dime yet on this project. We must be at least $20K into it by now, with all the excavating, concrete, framing, window work, and labor. Apparently he trusts us. 
No one expects perfection, but geez, being off by 5" on a 12’ wall just seems careless. What do I know though.
I once had a job where both the owner and I had measured and we were both off by nine inches. I am still scratching my head about where we went wrong. We ended up overhanging the second floor addition over the first floor. Sometimes space disappears because the plumber insists on extra fat plumbing walls, or in old houses the original house isn’t square so when they try to make things square they lose space. But off by five or six inches that’s really ridiculous in my opinion. I measure both sides of every room and take an overall. If they don’t line up I go back and remeasure, but I admit I’m a little OCD about measuring. I do always put field verify in my notes - because sometimes there are things I have to guess about, but except for that one project I don’t think I’ve ever been off by more than half an inch. Now the guys who pour foundations… I worked on a project where the owners did big skyscrapers in NYC, they were doing an addition on their Dad’s house in the suburbs. They were used to tolerances of several inches, but that’s not a great idea in house. The contractor who did the carpentry work complained bitterly about it because we ended up having to make a lot of adjustments on the fly - and the project had gotten variances so we certainly didn’t want to get in trouble for having the house closer to the property lines than were allowed.
The windows look great.
Can’t have enough water views! Great window layout. So happy that your project is moving forward.
Speaking of windows, the weather was so nice today I decided to wash the woodwork around our large windows in the back. When I got done, to keep the momentum, I washed the windows, too. While I was balancing on the ladder, Mr. B cleared some dead wood out of the forest.
H finally started prepping the master bedroom for new paint over the weekend. He has had all winter to do this - so naturally waited to start until we finally are getting nice weather. It’s the only job we don’t hire out now. He says he will work on it after work, but I know that is never going to happen.
CB will likely be finished with her next flip before our bedroom is painted.
Prep is the worst and the biggest part of painting. Applying the paint is fun!
We need to paint the new Hardi on the house this summer. I am going crazy trying to pick a color! Mr. B is no help… we walked around the Fremont area on Saturday, and he pointed to every single bright blue house with a red door. 
nope.
The worst part of painting is the floor trim, especially if the finish flooring is there. All on your hands and knees, and you have to be super neat. And it usually need to coats.
I wouldn’t think there would be much prep on an interior room
Moving furniture is the worst part for me.
My floors were just done two summers ago, so H had to cover every bit. Then he had to chalk all the holes and the walls had to be sanded as the old paint was textured (I was in my Ralph Lauren phase the last time we painted.)
Our new furniture is being delivered in a few weeks, so except for our bureaus (which we need until new ones arrive) and our mattress, everything else was donated to refugee organization.
That is a lot of prep!!
I agree, painting baseboards over carpeted floors is a pita, especially if the carpet is fluffy.
It’s been a couple of weeks - so I thought it was time for an update…
On the contractor search front, we narrowed it down to five contractors and then gave each of them a detailed description of what we wanted. Six pages in length going through the house room by room plus 24 pages of quotes from various vendors for appliances, plumbing fixtures, cabinets, etc. We were hoping to make the responses as comparable as possible. Well, the responses were interesting - one guy said “no thanks, you guys are too demanding” and the other four reflected their differing business approaches. Two contractors do everything in house, one does some work and subs out other aspects, and the fourth is strictly a project manager and all works is done by subs. They also had different ways of structuring their responses. So, I built a spreadsheet and adjusted for the variations. Bottom line - three of them are within a few thousand of each other - and the fourth is over $100K higher. We eliminated the outlier and had a call yesterday with the remaining three. We’ve decided we aren’t comfortable with the project manager only model and so we are down to two. We will be doing reference checks on the remaining two.
Meanwhile, outside progress in two areas.
We hired a dowser to come tell us where to drill the well. It was a fascinating process. He had two L shaped metal rods - about nine inches long on the short side and two feet long on the other side. He held them by the short end with his fists, long part sticking out parallel to the ground. As he walked along, they would jiggle back and forth. All of a sudden they swung hard towards each other and crossed. He then kept walking and they swung back apart and start pointing away from one another - and kept going until they pointed backwards toward where the crossover point was. Then he handed me the rods and had me walk around. I deliberately walked a different path - and the rods crossed over for me too - although in a different spot. I then walked over his spot - and they crossed again. We ended up with 6 different spots that were crossovers in kind of a wavy line up a ridge. He said that basically we have a stream of water running down the ridge. He picks one of the spots as being the strongest - and said that we will hit water at 150-200 feet - but to keep going as there was a heavier pool of water at around 250-300 feet. It will be fun to see what the well guys find when they drill. Also, as a side note, when I was telling my mom about this, she said that her father had a side job as a dowser for most of his life, using a forked stick instead of rods.
Secondly, I’ve spent four days on my hands and knees along with three friends from our current home town, repairing the irrigation system. What a mess. The existing system had 35 valves and three controllers. Two of the three controllers were completely rusted out inside and the third just resets itself every time you program it. We installed two new controllers along with 23 valves (consolidating some of the runs) and then started reviewing the sprinkler heads and drip lines. Well, we ended up replaces about 50% of the heads and all of the drip tubing (which had not been buried and as a result had rotted in the sun.)
End result is really gratifying. The irrigation system works, is ready for conversion over to well water when that gets drilled, and I understand how it works for future maintenance. I have also discovered I’m not 25 anymore and that I need to spend a little more time working on my core and legs in the gym.
More news as we move along…
Stopped by the little strip mall that has all sorts of home improvement stores today. Getting quotes for door replacement upstairs (ugh, top of the line 1990s oak) and kitchen cabinet refacing. Can’t stand to look at our painted cabinets with their peeling paint.
Stained the deck posts with some Sikkens (post-PPG, so I hope they did not cheap out to change the formula!), then joined Mr. B in the ravine to help him take out the invaders- Himalayan blackberry, anyone?
Yay! Now it looks like a home. Are you going to repaint the house in a different color or are you going to keep the color? My vote is for keeping. Looks very coastal.
Speaking of color, BM apparently has a $10 off a gallon of their Regal Select paints until May 29. Guess who is going paint shopping?
Master bedroom now has two coats of new paint. Now I need to go pick out color for trim.
It’s a nice pale blue, but I’m not excited about it. Over time we are going to vinyl-side the whole house with grey siding like we used on the basement repair.
Funny story about that door. We went to a local window and door place, and DW picked out the door, only with 3/4 length glass. My builder says, “you know, I’ve got that exact door with half-length glass sitting in my barn that I got for another job that I never used. If you want it, I’ll sell it for cheap, I want it out of my barn.”
Price from the door place: $2800
Price from my builder: $500
Uh, yes, we will take that door off your hands and save $2000+ for giving up a little glass, thank you very much!
A round of applause for your builder!
BM makes paint for… vinyl siding. Just saying. But who would want to paint their vinyl siding?! Isn’t the whole purpose of vinyl to have no paint issues?
A gallon of Sikkens and a few hours of elbow grease on Sunday completely transformed our outdoor eating space!