...And Then a Miracle Happened

My banister!  It doesn't wobble!  

My contractor!  Finally showed up!  

I am so excited!  That I must abuse exclamation points!

THE ATTIC CONVERSION IS FINISHED!!

Too bad the slide show isn't.

And now the new upstairs is so stuffed with, well, stuff that 

I don't want to put up pictures.  

But I will.  

Someday.  

I mean it.

Brrrrr or Grrrrr?

It's cold.  Really cold.  Like we should be somewhere north of the Mason-Dixon Line cold.  (Bear in mind that I live in desert-y west Texas and am a cold weather WIMP!)  But wimpiness aside, I have actual proof of the extreme cold: my pipes are frozen. 

As part of the upstairs remodel, we decided to get the house re-plumbed.  There were pin-hole leaks in each of the walls the contractor opened up, so it seemed prudent to take care of it sooner rather than later.  We decided to go with PEX tubing since it would get all plumbing out of our foundation and was also reported to be 'freeze proof' by our builder.  In case of freeze, the pipes would swell to the size of a softball without bursting.  Sounds great, huh?

And it is.  The pipes have, in fact, not burst in the sub-freezing temperatures.  But frozen?  You bet!  Starting on Wednesday, we have had progressive water loss throughout our house.  First, we lost water to the kitchen sink.  Then we lost water to the water heater that supplies three-quarters of the house.  Then we lost water to the fridge.  Next came the master bathroom.  Luckily, the kids bathroom has its own water heater.  It is currently our only source of hot water.  The upstairs bathroom is still working, but only if you like cold showers.

Irony alert:  a couple of weeks ago when we had a hard frost, I noticed that the area over our garage was completely frost free.  I reported to T that we really needed to do something about the insulation there - we were losing a lot of heat!  He gave me the brush off and said the house was sealed up tight and not to worry my pretty little head over it. 

Once the pipes started freezing, he went up to the attic to see what was going on.  Huh.  The pipes weren't insulated!  As a matter of fact, the entirety of the new construction has cold air circulating freely under the (uninsulated) floor.  No wonder our utility bills have been so astronomical.  The heat was going straight out the attic vents.

Awesome.

Construction: Day 4,893,339

Attic still not done.  Just kill me.

We are down to maybe a dozen small-ish items on the remodel.  And have been since before we left for Colorado.  If I had a dollar for every time the contractor said, "We'll get this knocked out tomorrow,"  I could have PAID FOR THE WHOLE FREAKING PROJECT.  Unfortunately, the biggest thing yet to be completed is the attic.  We have tons of stuff hanging around upstairs waiting for attic space to live in.

Just yesterday, he showed up to see what needed to be completed in the attic.  (An hour after he said he would arrive, but who's keeping track?)  First, he said if T would help him, he would deck the whole attic and not charge us.  Huh?  If the homeowner does the work himself... what?  Then he said he didn't realize how much room there was up there and he had to go get a crew, but would be right back.

*Crickets.*

We never saw him again.

That evening, a neighbor over at the in-law's new place called to say that the garage and gate to the property had been wide open all week.  T called the contractor to find out what the heck was up.  He said he'd left it open because he was expecting some deliveries, but that he would swing by and close it that evening.  Oh, and was 9:00 too early to start work on the attic Saturday morning?  (The house was still wide open when T swung by on his way home from his shift.  At midnight.)

Guess who was not here at 9:00?  Or at all?

I have a houseful of company coming next week, so I finally broke down and texted him about it.  He said he would be here as soon as he got a hold of the floor guy.  I promptly texted him back that I was more concerned with the attic, thankyouverymuch.  He said he would come over and do it himself in the morning.  Just call him when we were ready.

Are we taking bets on whether he shows up?

And Now I Feel Like a Jerk

Frustrated with the utter lack of progress on the last few piddly items of the remodel, I sent the contractor a tacky text:  Anyone?  Bueller? Bueller?

He texted back that he was at the hospital with his uncle, but would be by in the afternoon.

Around three o'clock, I lost patience and texted him again:  Please come finish my house.

He texted back almost immediately:  My uncle died.  We were very close.

I? Am such a jerk.

Not Dead Yet

Though the killer germies did their worst, I'm not quite dead yet.  If fact, I think I'm feeling a little better, really.  (Bonus points if you get the reference!)  I spent all of my Mother's Day trip to Ginormousville sick in bed and trying to cough up organs.  Seriously?  A spleen?  An appendix? Who needs them anyway?  A kidney?  A lung?  I've got two!  No need to be greedy!

I didn't get to visit with any of my buds while I was there.  Boo hoo!  And I had to cancel the much anticipated trip to the zoo with the Alpha Aunt, Sister L.

The camp cot of a mattress we started our married life on? Not so good for days of convalescing.  I am SO glad to be back in Wester in my own comfy bed.  Ummmm.  Bed.  (said with Homer Simpson accent).

After a night of sleep on my blessedly supportive/not poke-y bed, I thought I was well enough to take the kids for our usual Monday play date.  All was well until Q had a blow out and had to be carried ALL the way across the park for a new diaper, then carried back again because he left his shoes at our picnic table.  It felt like I was sucking wind for the remainder of the afternoon.  And when deep breaths lead to extended coughing fits?  Bad news.  When we got home, it was naps for everyone - including me!

I have spent the last couple of days improving, but am still kitten weak and limp as a dish rag after the slightest exertion.  Blah.

On the up side, I did manage to get two items moved from the garage to their homes in the attic addition.  Huzzah!  Cough, cough!  Wheeze!  Hack! 

Oh, yeah.  That.  The attic reno is on day what?  48,312 or so?  And no, we aren't finished.  We are SOOOOO close!  We have been promised every week for the last month that we would be done by 'This Friday! No, really!  This Friday!'  Um, we'll see.

Construction: Days 39-48

The heads continue to roll here in Wester. We are nice people. Why are we having such a hard time finding workers who actually work?

So. The guy that was supposed to do the texture repairs on all of the downstairs walls? Fired. The work he did was slipshod to say the least and in the middle of the job, he found other jobs that he had to do first. Basically, he walked out. T says he was the laziest worker he had ever laid eyes on. From the minute he walked in he complained about the difficulty of the job and how things like removing trim or masking 'weren't his job.' That got old quick.

Super painters to the rescue! Turns out, the painter does texture and drywall repair, too. It took him a whole week, but he got the walls and ceilings repaired and they look like new. Got the bill today. His work is good. But not free. Ouch!

The tile for the bathroom arrived and was installed. When T walked in, he was all "Wow." He sounded so serious I thought something was wrong. When I asked about it he said, "This is nice. Really nice." It really turned out well. Except for my gorgeous accent tile. Sigh.

First, they sent the wrong tile altogether. Giant diamonds instead of tiny. Then they installed the correct harlequin-shaped tiles incorrectly; short and fat instead of tall and skinny. When I told the tile dude that it needed to be re-done, he tried to convince me that it looked better the way it was. Both he and his dad agreed! So I had to 'splain him that harlequins are supposed to be vertical not horizontal. They ripped it out, but the replacement tile won't be here until Friday. Bummer.

The tile guys also set all of the fixtures in the bathroom. I ended up making a mad dash for faucets because David had forgotten to tell me to get one - even though I asked (written down on my question list) if I should go pick one up. Grrr! The contractor place only had one faucet in stock that I could get that day. It was okay, but not what I would have picked out, so I went to Lowe's instead. I found a great faucet that is all curvy and tall. LOVE! So now all the water is hooked up and functional. The toilet has a push button on top. Fancy!

We had the final electrical trim-out. So now all of the lights, switches, switch plates, outlets, and outlet covers have been installed. There was a bit of last minute running around there, too. I thought David had purchased the light for the bathroom when he picked up the vanity. Nope. He forgot. When I got to Lowe's, I remembered that we hadn't gotten a ceiling fan, either. So I picked up one of those, too. It all looks great. My one complaint is that the ceiling fan is a little low. I picked the one I did because the display was flush mounted. The electrician installed it with a drop down. No problem for munchkins like in our family, but I have some friends that could lose an eye with a fan at that height! David says it is no problem to fix that. Whew!

Today the cabinet for the wet bar was installed. It is gorgeous! They made it custom to fit the space. Solid wood. It bugs me that I didn't get a choice on the doors, but the ones they selected are nice. I think we are going to stain it medium dark to go with the new stair treads and banister.

We are getting so close! The carpet is going in tomorrow. I can't wait! If the door folks hadn't goofed on the attic doors, we would be move-in ready this week. We have a bunch of attic access doors in the new living space. They are all odd sizes and shapes, so they had to be solid core exterior doors, since they have to be cut to size and the attic storage isn't insulated. They sent interior doors. Rats! The real doors should arrive on Monday. Luckily, with the carpet in, T should be able to set up his weight room again. That will make him a LOT less grumpy - which makes me a lot less grumpy, too!

After the long slog, the project is finally getting exciting again! It has been a lot longer than the projected three weeks, but I think the final product will be worth it!

Construction Days: 36-38

At last! Progress! And drama! Lots of drama! The slug-like (non)painters? Fired. The crew hired to replace them? Fired. The crew hired to replace them? Are the hardest working painters I have ever seen!

The head guy of the first crew has been in the hospital, but he sent his flunkies to do the job. Meanwhile, he was pestering Eldon for money, money, money - well beyond what he was owed. (My guess is that he didn't have health insurance and was trying to get Eldon/ME to pay for his care.) The underlings were working at glacier speed and were doing a half-a$$ed job of it.

The second crew said they could start the next day, Saturday, and would meet David at my house at 10:00. At a quarter of 11:00, David called to say that there had been some kind of miscommunication and that they had to finish up another job first. Hopefully that just meant cleaning up and getting their stuff packed up. Apparently not.

The third crew arrived yesterday in a gold Ford Taurus - the most unlikely painter vehicle ever! They had a look around and got to work around 1:00. They got the entire ceiling rolled (not sprayed, rolled) in one afternoon. They got more done in half of one day than the first crew did in two full days! Today they rolled on the color (which I LOVE, by the way). They got the entire living room, the bathroom, and most of the two new bedrooms done. All they lack is the walls where the ceiling line is curved. Awesome!

We also had a return visit from the electricians today, with a surprise bonus: a granddaughter just Z's age. They were fast friends in about a nanosecond and disappeared into Z's room. We finally have our lights/fans/floods in working order. They had been installed weeks ago, but they kind of forgot about installing the switches. Apart from a pretty dramatic shower of sparks and one burned up pair of pliers, all went smoothly. Let there be light!

I also had a visit from the plumber to scout the location for the wet bar. Luckily, our first choice for location is the easiest place to get water. Huzzah! Unfortunately, Eldon didn't realize that I had planned to put a bank of cabinets on that wall, so it took a while for us to get on the same page. But now we are!

My gorgeous vanity was delivered today, along with the mirror. I am so tickled! I still love them. I can't wait to see them installed. Hopefully soon!

Construction: Days 32-35

The progress, she is very slow these days. I am reminded of my high school Calculus class where Mr. Larson taught us about approaching zero: you can get close, but you will never get there. (Kind of like 'infinity plus one' in reverse.)

The builders were able to frame up and enclose an entire new house on top of my house in a week, but it took them forever to get the trim done and even longer for painting. Actually, now that I think about it, there are still some missing trim pieces. Finish the trim in one day? Ha!

If it weren't my house, the listless-ness of the painters would be comic. The painters were supposed to come on Monday, but we had no painters. The main painter dude was in the hospital with some kidney ailment. Tuesday the painters (minus the head dude) arrived around ten and were gone before lunch time. At first glance it appeared that they had just been hanging out in the attic, but closer inspection revealed that they had caulked the trim. On Wednesday, they had to recover from the rigors of wielding the caulk gun, so they didn't do anything but deliver the equipment to paint the next day.

Today they arrived around 9:30 and left before two, leaving a BIG stink in their wake. No low-VOCs here! There was so much paint funk in the air, I assumed that they had primed the entire attic. Nope. Just the baseboards. We had to open the windows to keep from getting high on paint fumes. Too bad I forgot to turn off the heat. Here comes a $500 utility bill! Yay!

I picked out a lovely shade of pale cocoa to go on the walls (Harvest Hill in the fan deck). I think it will be gorgeous with the carpet and the tile in the bathroom. I wonder if anyone is ever going to ask me what I picked.

I did get to pick out the tile for the bathroom this week. I am so excited! I picked out a stone- look tile with a matte texture for the floor. It should be nice and un-slippery. Also? It has a tiny bit of sparkle. Love! For the walls of the shower, I selected a marble-look tile in cream with brown veining. The piece de resistance, though, is the trim. I found the COOLEST harlequin shaped tumbled marble tiles for an accent. It is going to be gorgeous! By far the nicest bathroom in our house. If it weren't for the relative lack of closet space, I would move the master upstairs!

Construction: Days 26 - 31

We had a whole lot of nothing going on around here the past few days. The guy who was taping and bedding the drywall would come in for an hour in the morning and then be gone for the rest of the day. Finally, on Wednesday, a crew came in and blew on the texture. The walls look really good. The trash can, recliner and phone that also got textured? Not so much.

On Friday the texture dude came back to repair all the cracks, holes and nail-pops in the downstairs ceiling. Unfortunately, the drywaller hadn't gotten the memo that the gaping wholes needed to be sheetrocked, so the texture dude went home. Wah.

Today the drywall repair guy came and fixed most of the holes in the walls and ceiling. Unfortunately, some plumbing was not installed deep enough in the walls to drywall over and will have to be moved. Two steps forward, one step back.

After not seeing hide nor hair of the contractors for the last week, I finally talked to David today. He had been out for the last week with strep. Can you say patient zero? Anyway, he said he was going to get all of the trim installed tomorrow and the painter would be right behind him. He suggested that I pick out a vanity at Lowe's instead of having one custom built because we have gotten so far behind schedule. I found one I liked and he will be building some custom shelving to make the most of the storage in the bathroom. I also picked out the mirror and light fixture. I am so tickled with my selections! They are going to look so amazing! Someday!

Construction: Days 23 - 25

We are cookin' with gas now, folks! On Monday, we didn't have much action, just the delivery of what seemed like an impossible amount of Sheetrock and a million rolls of insulation. Q was quite fascinated by the tiny forklift that unloaded it all into our garage. But on Tuesday? Drywallers!

They got the entire upstairs sheetrocked in one day! Holy moly, does it look different up there! I expected it to look a lot smaller once the walls were in, but I was wrong. It looks HUGE! The bedrooms turned out to be an okay size - big enough for my antique bedroom suite, anyway. The main living area has tons of space. Now if only we had some furniture to fill it!

As if the universe heard my plea, T came home from work with news of some free couches and chairs up for grabs. It is hideous, uncomfortable office furniture, but the operative word was 'free.' So we made an after-dinner dash to the DPS office and loaded up the truck. Ironically, we are pretty sure T's dad is going to love the chair. It is hard as a rock and as cozy as a church pew - just like his favorite chair at home!

We also got windows. It took the masons a couple of days to get the bricks removed/windows installed/bricks re-installed, but today they are all in. Amazing how a window turns a closet into a room! Actually, one of the rooms that got a window is a (giant) closet, but we had to all the window or it would have looked weird from the outside of the house.

I went shopping for carpet for the upstairs. T wanted something with low pile, like the much hated Berber carpet in the rest of the house. Conveniently, I had my eye on a cut and loop carpet with a design in it. My sister has a cool swirl pattern on hers, but the one I like has kind of a wavy grid design. It reminds me of alligator skin. A little funky, but no where near over the top. T liked the one I picked out, so we are on a roll! Yahoo!

Construction: Day 22

Huzzah! The plumbing is done and functional! Today the framing crew came and replaced all the sub-floor that had to be pulled up to do the plumbing and wiring. Now it is much less treacherous for people who fall down a lot, like me. And better? It doesn't feel quite so arctic in here now that there are no direct passages into un-insulated attic.

We are go for insulation (Yay!) and dry walling. Very exciting!

Construction: Days 16 - 21

Okay, it's been three weeks now. Eldon promised we would be done in three weeks. Eldon lied. In his defense, we kind of had to call the game for rain plumbing.

Construction came to a screeching halt while one lone plumber (and his very part-time assistant) re-plumbed my entire house. They were the only worker bees buzzing around the house all week. Since it was just the one (and a half) guy, the change over from the old to the new pipes took two days. Nothing says fun like two days with out water! By the end of the first day, he had gotten the kids' bathroom, the kitchen (including the garbage disposal!) and the potty in the master functioning. It's hard to brush your teeth when your bathroom has no water. Blah. He got everything working by afternoon the next day. That was one hard working plumber dude.

I guess there were a couple of electricians buzzing about, too. They installed ceiling fans on the back porch (ironically, on the day the high temp was 34 degrees), but have yet to put in the switches or reconnect the circuit that will make the lights work. They also re-arranged the massive knots of cable wiring that kept getting moved aside as work progressed. Finally, Eldon noticed that all these cords were running on top of the floor that was about to be sealed up. Good catch!

The electricians also installed some can lights in my kitchen. (Clearly the electricians were around more than I thought!) The cans were supposed to be part of the kitchen re-model some time in the future, but the electric guys said that we needed to do it now while the floor upstairs was open. Sigh. So they got that done, too.

Z and Q are having a birthday party in two weeks. Are we taking bets on whether it is done or not?

Construction: Day 11-15

First off, nothing bad has happened! I have had several inquiries as to whether my lack of posting equated Very Bad Things construction-wise. Nope! Just lazy. And tired. Blah, blah, blah.

So, last Friday we had the usual crew of framers finishing up the details of the main living areas. They got all of the walls framed and started on the next bedroom and the closet in T's weight room. The closet is HUGE. The bedroom is tiny. I guess it is about the size of bedrooms in new construction, but it is still pretty small. It will make a good guest room/sewing room/library/place to stuff things when company is coming.

On Saturday, they framed in the wall that will make T's weight room its own room and tore out the wall between the stairs and what used to be the attic. The put in an eyebrow arch over the new entrance to the living areas. I. Love. It! They also decked the closet and the bedroom, which turns out to have been a little overly ambitious, but more on that later. They also got the majority of the siding on the gable.

On Monday, they finished siding the gable and framed out the closets and doors for the new room and closet. We also solved the conundrum of how to get AC to both T's weight room and the new bedroom given the lack of ceiling height in the bedroom (it has a pitched ceiling). I am tickled that I came up with the solution: they framed in what looks like a window seat, but is actually a false wall to contain ducts and wiring. It looks AWESOME!

Yesterday my house looked like an anthill. Tuesday was the day for the AC guys, electricians, roofers and plumbers to arrive in addition to the usual crew of framers. The AC guys got the air handler in the crawl space and ran all the ducts to the new areas. The electricians put in can lights, wired outlets and moved switches around. I was also informed that to get wiring to the kitchen for the garbage disposal, they would have to remove two pieces of the newly laid sub-floor. Great. The framers removed a lot of sub-floor and made my cool rounded steps up into the living area. I love them!

The plumbers.... Oh, the plumbers. We got trouble! Right here in Wester! And that starts with T, and that rhymes with P, and that stands for Plumbing! The plumbers opened up the walls behind the master bath and the laundry room so they could tie in for the new upstairs bath. What did they find? Totally corroded pipes about to disintegrate in the walls. There was visible corrosion on all of the copper and pin holes seeping water every where they opened up the walls.

So. We have to re-plumb the house. Which means that all other construction ground to a halt while the plumbers pulled up sections of sub-floor to run new space-age plumbing throughout the house. The good news? We no longer have any plumbing coming up through our foundation. The bad news? The money. OMG! The money.

David the contractor looked at me and said, "And all you wanted was a little room in your attic!" Our house has turned into the Money Pit! T is sweating bullets. I swear, he about had a panic attack when he heard about the pipes. When he came home to the swarming house, he had a little shit-fit tantrum mental breakdown moment and ran away from home. He didn't' come back until I gave him the all clear after the workers left. Good times.

Today it rained. All. day. Obviously no roofers. Mostly we had plumbers. They had to pull up great big portions of the floor in T's weight room to re-plumb the kids' bathroom. They flooded the laundry room - and didn't tell me about it. Or clean it up. I found out about it when I went to feed the dogs and squished across the rag rug. Really? Couldn't you have told me about that? Or gotten the things off the floor? Really? Grrr. On the up side, they did get all of the plumbing in place for my garbage disposal. I'm so tickled about that I could make out with the guy. (Okay, no I couldn't. He smells like an ashtray and has, well, plumber's butt.)

The heroes of the day? The electricians. They came in around 2:00 and fixed a couple of things upstairs. (Yes, we would like the light switch to turn off the light. Thanks.) Then, they fixed a bunch of things downstairs that have been making me nuts since we moved in. For instance, they moved the light switch for the main kitchen light from behind the refrigerator (literally) to its logical place next to the door. They wired and installed switches for the garbage disposal and the over-sink light. Here is where the angels sang: They installed the new light fixture over the sink. It works and everything! It is the first visibly finished thing of the remodel. Yay!

T left about lunch time to go to a training out of town. He requested that we have everything wrapped up and the people gone by the time he gets back. Tomorrow. Weenie. Remodeling ain't for sissies!

Construction: Day 10

Thank goodness they got the addition enclosed yesterday! It rained like god was mad at us this morning. (Wester floods like Venice every time it rains, but that's another post!) We had a little leak above the laundry room, but it appears to have been taken care of - or maybe it just stopped raining! The water was dripping out of a light fixture, so that was a little alarming. And disgusting. It washed all the bug carcasses into one big nasty clump. Good thing I'm planning on replacing that fixture, huh?

The workmen worked inside today. Duh. They framed up the ceiling in the addition, and put up the walls for the bedroom and bathroom. I had another panic attack when I went up to look (one of the walls was installed in the wrong place), but a quick call to Eldon cleared it right up. David came over right away and the crew moved the wall. Seems that he had been over earlier while I was out to snap the chalk lines and told the crew to wait until I approved them. But the waiting part was lost in the translation to Spanish. Luckily, no harm done. It is really shaping up!

Construction: Day 9

Like ants swarming to repair an ant hill, the framers swarmed my roof all. day. long. The gable is now entirely enclosed - including windows. This is really a good thing because tomorrow we have rain in the forecast and bitter cold is coming by Friday. I am really glad not to have a gaping hole in my roof exposed to the elements!

Eldon and David came by this afternoon to talk about where the walls will go. Last night's panic has abated. The bedroom is going to be an odd shape, but should have enough room to accommodate the two beds required by my in-laws. The bathroom is going to turn out okay, too. The potty will be under a sloped ceiling, but since you mostly sit down on it, it shouldn't be a big deal.

The living area will be divided into two areas. The smaller attic-y area will be the snacks and games space. I'll put in a table and chairs for board games/puzzles/cards. We are hoping to have a snack kitchen with a microwave and mini-fridge and, if we are lucky, a sink. The larger area under the gable will be the main living area with a TV and couches. Guess I'll be haunting Craig's List and eBay until I find something cheap but not hideous!

Anxiety Attack

It is 3:30 a.m. and I can't sleep. I am freaking out about the attic. The more I think about it, the more I am worried that we have made a massive mistake. Part of the beauty of our house was its nice simple lines: a classic west Texas ranch. Now, instead of the simple dormer that I thought we were getting, we have a big ass gable that ruins the clean lines of the roof. Gables are not simple.
This whole operation is seeming a bit too much 'on the fly' for this borderline control freak. I feel like we talk and talk and still end up with something other than what we were bargaining for. I want to see blueprints! Or at least floor plans. I have never seen anything in print from the contractor. At this point in the game, a sketch of some sort seems a little like closing the gate after the dogs have already gotten out. What are they going to do? Rip out the gable? Somehow I doubt it.

It also seems like the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing. I guess Eldon's son David is in charge of designs, so Eldon seems completely out of the loop. There is a whole bedroom upstairs that he seems to have forgotten to tell the AC guy about. There are walls that we discussed taking out at the initial consult that everyone keeps forgetting are coming out. As-is, both the entryway and the stairway feel claustrophobic. For me, un-enclosing the stairs was one of the most important aspects of the remodel, but everyone keeps acting surprised when I bring it up.

I guess this is the down side of having work done for you instead of doing it yourself: you never know quite what you are going to get. I'm feeling a bit like I have the starring role in The Money Pit or that old Hollywood movie where the Broadway producer buys a house in the country. (IMDB let me down. I couldn't find the right movie.) I know they aren't trying to gouge us - I hope! - but the endless-upgrades-this and most-for-your-money-that are giving me an ulcer.

Okay, now that I have gotten that off my chest, perhaps I can get some sleep.

Construction: Day 8

Wow. That is all I can say. Wow. When we got home from school today, Z and I were greeted with a 22 x 11 foot hole in the roof. By sundown, the whole dormer was framed in. They expect to get it all closed in by tomorrow. That was super fast! It boggles my mind.

What else is boggling my mind? How we are going to fit in all the rooms with the location of the dormer. T and I are both puzzled as to its placement. It seems like it should be about three feet to the north to allow for the bedroom and the bathroom. Originally, the bedroom was to go all the way across the far end of the attic. But the placement of the dormer would make the bedroom way too little. And the bathroom? If the plumbing drain wasn't already there, I would have NO idea where to put it.

Wouldn't that be a bitch if it was a ginormous goof?

Disappointed

While we were away there were crews in and out of our every day. Our contractor was a sheriff's deputy for 27 years, so we had no fears for our worldly possessions. So can anyone explain what happened to the ten pound jar of change in T's office? We turned the house upside down looking for it. It would be kind of hard to miss a two quart glass jar filled with change, don't you think? We just couldn't bring ourselves to believe that one of the workers would steal from us - but the evidence indicates they did.

During the uncomfortable phone call to Eldon that followed our unfortunate discovery, he told T that this was the first time he had anything go missing in 30 years of construction. Dude! Isn't the addition expensive enough without having to fear for our spare change? Gah!


Oh, and, worker dude? Could you not go in my cabinets (!) and take my most delicate glassware outside? And leave it on the picnic table? During a wind storm? Or drink the last of our orange juice and leave your glass teetering on the edge of the sink? Thanks.

Construction: Day 7

They made amazing progress today. All of the sub-floor is in, so you can see how the rooms will shape up. Lots of noise: compressor, air nailer, saws, hammers. Poor Griffin is about to have a nervous break down. Maybe the next phase will be a little quieter.

No, wait. Tomorrow they are cutting a giant hole in the roof. Sorry, Griff. Try not to lose all your fur, 'kay?

Construction: Days 2.5 - 6

Through the magic of everyone assuming T is in charge of the decision making re the remodel, we didn't have any framers on Monday. This resulted in a panicked phone call to the contractor from yours truly. Turns out that they were at a standstill until the AC system was removed, which meant we would have no heat once they started. So T said not to start until we left town on Wednesday. Awesome. I love being out of the loop!

On Tuesday, the AC guys drove up as I was leaving to take the kids to school. By the time I got back from dropping them off, they were finished. I guess demo doesn't take very long! We were left with a big pile of duct-work and insulation in the front yard, but no framers. T called Eldon this time. Seems that the framers had taken on another job to fill the hole in their schedule, and had gotten a little behind. Awesome.

On Wednesday, the joint was really jumping. The attic was swarming with framers (including one with only one arm. Wow! That kid could lift an entire sheet of plywood with one hand. Amazing!). A hole was cut in the roof to get the new joists in and the new floor support system was well on its way.

T and I were watching TV in the living room and had just gotten up from the couch to go to the kitchen when we heard a loud crash from the attic. I just assumed they had dropped a load of 2x4's. Imagine my surprise when I returned to the living room to find a leg dangling from the ceiling! One of the framers had slipped and poked a 18 inch square hole in the ceiling. The chunk of displaced drywall fell exactly where we had been sitting just the minute before! Yikes! there was much apologizing and many promises to fix it all up. Thus far, they have stuffed a piece of fiberglass insulation in the hole.

At this point, we escaped to the in-laws' house. T's uncle is in iffy health, so we needed to visit anyway. We returned this evening to find all of the new floor supports in, the hole in the roof closed up, and some minimal decking. Also, the new downstairs AC was in and working. The change was pretty amazing.

Not so amazing? The HUGE mess downstairs. They had to cut some holes in the living room ceiling to put in new heating vents so there is drywall dust everywhere. They also demo-ed the skylight in the master bath, so all surfaces in there are swimming in fiberglass, drywall debris and 20 years of accumulated attic dust. Blah! I'm bummed that no effort was made to mask off the living areas. The kids' rooms are okay, but our bed (and everything else in the master suite) is covered in grit. I knew there was going to be mess with the remodel, but the contractor blew a lot of sunshine up my skirt about how it was all contained in the attic and wouldn't affect the downstairs. Ha! More fool me for believing him!

The icing on the cake was that Holly escaped. Again. It was dark when we got home, so we just popped the dogs into the side gate of the yard while we unloaded the truck and checked out the attic. When we were done, T went out back to get the dogs and found that the workers had left the driving gate open. Holly and Blackie were long gone. T pounded through the house shouting orders to grab flashlights and leashes and was gone in a moment.

They hadn't gotten very far - just two doors down to the house with all of the free-range male bird dogs. Holly made a hormone-driven beeline for the boy dogs who, luckily, were with their owner. I think we were able to get her before any puppy making could take place. We got her back to the house where she keeps whining and begging to go outside (presumably to find a willing partner!). I will be so glad when she isn't in heat any more!