Remodeling
June 10, 2010
The house we bought in 2002 came with this crazy 3-level deck, part of which—a ramp leading to the sort-of attached garage—was covered by a very sloped little roof. No part of the deck was really quite large enough to be useful for entertaining or relaxing, so it became kind of a storage space for plants, a potting table, recyclables, plastic chairs, etc. I don’t think I was able to get my husband to spend more than one or two short spells out on the deck during the entire eight years that it existed!
December 23, 2009
The tape, float and texture guys finished this morning — it looks great! I can paint starting Saturday.
December 22, 2009
…on air…it took three tries to find a crew of tape, float and texture guys who could (and would?) do our job in our timeframe for our price, but these two guys who came late this morning were fantastic! Very nice, very professional (as almost all of the workers we’ve had have been), and they did a beautiful job!
December 20, 2009
Woo-hoo! Something else went right!
The insulation inspector came out yesterday, poked his head in the attic, and gave it the thumbs up. Excellent. No having to wait around all day for an inspection before scheduling the next step! Our wonderful general contractor got right on the phone, and made arrangements for the drywall crew to come today.
December 17, 2009
Today, something went right (woo-hoo!). We got our attic foamed! After three (or four?) years of waiting for the right time to follow through on our plans — it’s kind of a red-letter day!
December 16, 2009
This morning, work started early on digging holes to sink the posts for the pergola, while our contractor, Tom, was at the City Code office trying to sort out a permit snafu. When Tom arrived here, he brought bad news. We are not going to be allowed to build our deck until the Board of Adjustment approves a variance and issues us a permit for our garage. Now, mind you, this garage came with the house when we bought it, but had never been permitted — a fact we had never been made aware of throughout the entire house-buying process.
December 15, 2009
The city code inspectors came today for the first inspection of framing (attic and deck) and wiring (fire alarms in series, which we have to do because we’re having any electrical work done, so-o-o-o, since we’re adding some wiring to the attic, we have to spend an extra several hundred dollars to bring our 1937 house up to 2009 code standards). Our contractor, Tom, was sitting out in his truck waiting for them for 3 hours. (Just fyi, he was absolutely welcome to hang around in our house, but it was his choice to stay outside in the cold).
November 27, 2009
Our replacement deck got framed in yesterday. It’s so amazing how much bigger it looks in person than on paper! The size is almost exactly the same size as our living room(!) It is less sq. ft. than our old nearly unusable three-part deck, yet seems much bigger. Magic!
November 25, 2009
Today we are getting the remainder of our old siding removed and having it replaced with Hardie siding. It had been hail-damaged in last year’s hailstorm, so we decided to get the whole thing replaced. Now it will all be the same stuff, applied the same way. The siding crew did a bang-up job on cutting the siding perfectly.
November 24, 2009
For 3 years, since we started and then prematurely stopped this attic project, we have been lovingly storing 35 sheets of drywall in our attic. The above photo shows about 21 of them stacked on the right. The other 14 block half of the door between front and back attic, making moving crap around a lot of fun….
November 23, 2009
Three years after starting the window and attic project, the windows are going in. Woo-hoo! There will be light in the attic.
November 19, 2009
I never liked the tri-level deck that came with our house; then last year the hail damaged our siding and deck, so now we are getting ready for new siding, a new deck, and someday, a garden. The photo above is Circa 2002; just after we bought our house.
November 18, 2009
In preparation for making part of our attic into a conditioned space — a place where I can safely store my artwork and art supplies, as well as the bazillion other things we seem to need storage for, we are embarking on a remodeling project again, with some trepidation. I dread the daily disruption of my space, my time and my life, but hope that, in the end, it will all be worth it.
