May 2008
Is This What Final Inspection's Supposed To Look Like?
May/22/08 09:05 AM
I need a few extra hours of sleep, my wife needs a break from the house, my plumber needs more money, and my electrician needs a good beating with a blunt object. In fact, we have now postponed the final inspection another day so that the electrician can figure out why half of the house does not have electricity. Grrrrrrrr.
The above photos show the current state of the house going into the inspection. It’s sort of ironic how the whole inspection system works. It exists to protect the homeowner, and by all means it is a good tool to keep contractors from screwing you over; but for a renovator who does most of the work themselves it can be quite a pain in the arse. For instance, I had to buy the cheapest flimsiest fixtures just to slap up to pass inspection. And normally I would take my time and do it right with the highest quality of materials and the finest attention to detail. BUT, in order to pass final inspection, so we can move in (because we can’t move in until we do), we have had to cut a few corners. In the current state of the house I feel it is slapped up and duct taped together so that we can pass inspection and get in there. After we do, of course we will go back and fix it all. So in this case the inspection system is causing me extra work, extra money and extra headaches, when I would LOVE to do it right the first time.
I understand it is partly my fault for agreeing to let the renters move in on June 1st at our current house, but you can’t pass up a good renter when they come along. Trust me, in another house that we have in Rogers, we have renters that most landlords have nightmares about. But that is another story.
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Tile Is Down, Well Almost
May/20/08 09:03 AM
I took half a day off yesterday to lay tile in the downstairs bathroom. All-in-all it went pretty smooth except...
A few years ago I laid white hex tile in the bathroom of our other bungalow, and subsequently had about 5 square feet left over. So when I measured the square footage for this this bathroom I assumed that I wouldn’t need any overage since I had those leftover tiles. Well, in about the last 3 sq ft I ran out and began to use the leftover tiles. Apparently there are different versions of 1” white hex tiles, because they were NOT the same, even though they had been purchased from the same source 3 years ago.
Ugh, so today Kristin is driving to M&M Tile up in Tontitown to purchase 3 sq ft of tile to finish the bathroom. Meanwhile I’ll go ahead and start the grout so that we can get the claw foot tub installed this week.
Hardwood Floors Before And After
May/19/08 08:59 AM
Before.
After.
This weekend was a huge weekend. We got our hardwood floors installed and our doors hung. Since then I’ve been driving myself crazy with the floors, being overly careful not to wear work shoes on them and obsessing about every little imperfection. I’m still not sure if one little spot was from a manufacturing defect or from where the door was installed.
The other little spot was my fault, I dropped a piece of door hardware on the floor and it made a 1/4” dent in the wood. I’ve been just sick about it. Fortunately, it will be under the dining room table, but sill, I will always know it’s there.
We’re getting close. Today I’ll be taking half a day off from work to lay the tile in the bathroom. Kristin will be picking up her sister and her sister’s husband from the airport. I made double sure that he has plenty of plumbing supplies and, oh I dunno, maybe a couple extra paint rollers. You know, just in case.
Also, thanks to all our friends and family who donated wood flooring to us through the link on this website. The floors look fantastic!
The Mad Dash
May/16/08 08:58 AM
You may have noticed a flurry of blog activity from us lately, well... It’s crunch time. We rented out our other bungalow, and the tenant moves in on June 1st (actually they just asked to move in on May 28th). So now we have a checklist to fill before then, or rather before we can even move in. If we don’t get it all done and pass the final inspection, then we will be living in a tent in our yard with our furniture under tarps. Here are the major things we have to do before then.
- Install hardwood floors
- Install outlets and temporary fixtures
- Install bathroom tile
- Hang doors
- Install all plumbing fixtures
- Install kitchen cabinets
- Paint
- Put in handrail
- Install stair treads and risers
- Deliver and Move in appliances
- Pass final inspection (Scares the crap out of me)
And after all that we have to move, which I hear is the most stressful thing next to death. So I can safely say we are feeling the pressure.
The good news is that I think it can all be done by Wednesday of next week! Ok I know that sounds like crazy-talk, but really we DO have a plan.
Here goes:
I have a guy installing the hardwoods on Saturday and his crew has also agreed to hang the doors as well (staining will come later). I’m installing the bathroom tile on Saturday. My brother-in-law (the plumber) and his wife are coming in on Sunday to stay the week (hooray for slave labor). Kristin has been painting like a madwoman. The treads and risers will hopefully be done the first of next week. And here is the hard part... While our cabinet guy may be the best, our concern for meeting deadlines has caused me to do something I have not done so far in this project... BEG. I called Doug and begged and pleaded with him to have at least the sink side of our cabinets done so we can have the plumbing installed. He tentatively agreed to have it late next week. We’ll see.
Basically we have the stuff to accomplish it all, except for the tile which I’m going to go pick up today.
Wish us luck...
Our Beautiful Doors
May/15/08 08:56 AM
Our interior doors have arrived! Call me biased but they are quite possibly the most beautiful doors I have ever seen, and they don’t even have a finish on them. Yet. They are shaker style, craftsman doors in Alder (which I now know to be called “poor man’s cherry”).
Travis at Mid America Hardwoods has taken great care of us. Excellent customer service, and has done a good job on getting us some deals. I used the door order to leverage a better price on the hardwood flooring that they manufacture. He got us beautiful 4” wide, 3/4” solid oak, pre-finished plank down to $2.99 a sqft This brings our hardwood flooring to about $5.00 a sqft installed. Not too shabby... That means our floors will run about $6,000, and considering our last quote was $15,000, we are pretty darn excited.
We Have Power... In The House
May/14/08 08:55 AM
As of yesterday the electric company has restored
power to the house! Albeit we only have one GFI
outlet that works and no lights, but HEY! at least
it’s not extension cords plugged into a temporary
pole outside.
This is the first time we’ve had power restored to the house since the electrical fire incident. I came home yesterday and eagerly fed the extension cords back through the windows and and plugged them into the lonesome little outlet in the kitchen... and it worked! Yes I was a little surprised, but that is another story. I was so excited I had to call someone, hmmm, I know I’ll call the electrician. Unfortunately my excitement was lost on him, because apparently he sees this sort of thing all the time. But anyway he said he’d be out next week to hook up the outlets and switches.
We needed a bunch of cheap fixtures to install so that we can pass inspection and move in by the 1st of June, so a trip to the Habitat store and a grab-bag-box of brass fixtures for ten bucks and that’ll about do it. Ten fixtures for 10 bucks! That’s better than the cheap plastic ones at the supply store, although they are tacky-as-hell-brass. I think they’ll make good conversation pieces until the Rejuves arrive. Geesh, I wish the Habitat store was open every day.
This is the first time we’ve had power restored to the house since the electrical fire incident. I came home yesterday and eagerly fed the extension cords back through the windows and and plugged them into the lonesome little outlet in the kitchen... and it worked! Yes I was a little surprised, but that is another story. I was so excited I had to call someone, hmmm, I know I’ll call the electrician. Unfortunately my excitement was lost on him, because apparently he sees this sort of thing all the time. But anyway he said he’d be out next week to hook up the outlets and switches.
We needed a bunch of cheap fixtures to install so that we can pass inspection and move in by the 1st of June, so a trip to the Habitat store and a grab-bag-box of brass fixtures for ten bucks and that’ll about do it. Ten fixtures for 10 bucks! That’s better than the cheap plastic ones at the supply store, although they are tacky-as-hell-brass. I think they’ll make good conversation pieces until the Rejuves arrive. Geesh, I wish the Habitat store was open every day.
DIY Blown In Cellulose
May/13/08 08:50 AM
This past weekend I finished up the last major portion of the insulation. With a little help from my neighbor and the insulation blower that he had laying around in his garage, we knocked it out in about 4 hours. Although, half of the time was spent setting up the equipment and half of the rest of the time was spent standing around BSing, about how Roger inherited the insulation blower from the Mayor.
Anyway, This part of the job was so easy that I can’t believe that people actually get paid for this! And really overall, I probably spent about $150 on this project, minus what it would have cost me to rent the blower, which I believe runs about $50 a day. I think a few years ago it would have been much cheaper, but the one thing we can thank the “green movement” for is that any material that can be labeled as “green” can be charged double. I joke with Kristin that it’s called a “green” product, because it takes so much “green” to purchase it.
So here’s a few tips on how to do it.
- -It is a two person job for sure a feeder and a spreader.
- -Check local building code and see how many inches you need.
- -Carry a poker stick the depth that you will need for quick measuring (it gets deep and it’s too dusty to judge accurately)
- -Use a good dust mask and don’t be afraid to stop occasionally and let the dust settle.
- -Try doing it on a day with a lot of humidity (After a hard rain) this cuts down on the dust.
- -Work out a signal system with the feeder, on-off-on-off to let them know there is a problem, should one arise.
- -Start at the farthest point from the blower and work back towards it.
I don’t claim to be a “expert” but feel free to email me any questions you have about how to do it.
Completely Off Topic - Derby Day
May/07/08 08:49 AM
A recent hobby of mine has been racehorse handicapping. So Kristin and I have been following the Road to the Roses and participating in a fantasy horse racing league. Ironically, since I grew up in Hot Springs and my first job was working at Oaklawn racetrack, most of my friends think of me as the closest thing to a horse racing expert that they know.
Some friends of ours, who were also in the horse racing league, had a derby day party on Saturday. It was a day of sipping mint juleps and eating waaay too much (Yes we took a perfectly good saturday that we could have spent on the house, and did something strangely unfamiliar... we had fun).
I don’t know if any of you watched the Derby but it had an oddly sad ending. The horse that came in second, Eight Bells, broke both front legs and was immediately euthanized on the track. She was the only filly running in the race, and honestly ran a helluva race. And even though I lost my exactas and trifectas, I have to give her a special nod for competing in such a stiff competition and doing so well, albeit at the cost of her life. I suppose if I were a racehorse, I couldn’t think of a better way to go than to do it crossing the finish line of the Kentucky Derby.
People seemed shocked that this happened and some are raising a big stink about it. I, however, have seen this before and it happens surprisingly more often than most people know. But sometimes you have to realize that these horses are bred specifically for this reason, such as a cow that is bred for the beef industry. If people saw their beef being “euthanized” on national television, then I think Eight Bells’ blaze of glory would quickly be forgotten.
As far as our fantasy racing league goes, the only thing the winner gets is bragging rights, so here goes...
I WON! I WON! I WON! (Thanks Big Brown!)