SonicChicken blog

We took a short break from our remodeling project to join our^* cousins, Gilbert and Mary Ann, in celebration of their golden anniversary on Friday. Sylvia and Heidi flew in from New Mexico, but sadly Steve was stuck up in the hills fighting the Angora fire.

More pictures from Mary Ann and Heidi are in the golden anniversary photoset on Flickr.

Many friends and family were in attendance, and it was great to see everybody again. The party was held in Occidental at the Union Hotel, which Gil informed me was chosen because that was where he and Mary Ann used to go dancing when they first met. It was a neat old place, and the food was almost as good as Sylvia’s and Heidi’s. (They set the bar very high, Sylvia and Heidi, and I figure effusive compliments might get them to cook for us sometime!)

We went home via Petaluma because Barb wanted to show us her Ava’s house. Barb has some wonderful memories of the place, but as we drove by the old co-op creamery she noticed something had changed–it now has a retail operation out front. We decided to stop and check it out, and we’re glad we did! Spring Hill Cheese is operating out of “The Creamery”, and they’re producing some excellent cheeses. We picked up ‘Mike’s Firehouse Jack’, ‘Dry Jack’, and ‘Old World Portuguese’. (How could we pass on something named after Portugal?)

* Actually they’re Barb’s cousins, but I hope the family will forgive my impertinence for claiming them as my own.

We’ve had to spend a lot of time, money, and effort since our remodel began in earnest to keep the project moving along briskly. Although we’ve never completely given up “family time” in the evenings, we have given up just about all of our hobbies, time with our friends, and just relaxing occasionally during daylight hours. I’ve been overwhelmed by the project at times, but thinking about some of the things I’m really looking forward to once phase 1 of our project is completed will always get me out of my funk:

• Cooking a meal with the whole family. Right now the four of us can barely fit in the kitchen, and it’s very difficult for even two of us to cook together.
• Getting everything out of storage. We’ve spent about $4,000 on storage since we moved, and it’d be nice to plug that leak in our finances, but the real annoyance it not having easy access to the stuff in storage–it’s 40 miles away and inaccessible at night.
• Going to William Glen without having to worry about where I’ll store any kitchen gadgets or cookbooks I might purchase.
• Seeing how fast Barb and I (and hopefully the kids) can crank out a quilt in her new shop.
• Hosting a nice dinner party(ies) for our friends and family. (Right now we only have space for two extra people at our table.)
• Having a game night, especially once all our games are at home instead of storage.
• Brewing a batch of beer. I wonder if I can use the crawlspace to lager it?
• Finagling Barb and the kids into working on the model railroad in our new attic.
• Taking the family on a bicycling picnic.
• Playing with Lego’s with the kids.
• Going on a motorcycle ride. Perhaps I can get Barb on the back of the bike, and we can ride out to breakfast with Reggie and Barbara.
• Building (and launching!) model rockets with the kids.

Dang, I’d better hurry up and get this project finished–that’s a lot of fun I’m missing out on!

Our current remodeling job is actually only one phase of the overall project. One of my co-workers asked me about the rest of the project, so here is the Master Plan:

• Phase 0 — Acquisition, planning, property survey, financing.
• Phase 1 — Barb’s quilt shop & addition to the house (move bedrooms, expand kitchen, new bathroom, laundry, and great room).
  • Phase 1A — Addition/remodel of the house.
  • Phase 1B — Barb’s quilt shop.
• Phase 2 — Remodel original bathroom, master bedroom.
• Phase 3 — My workshop.
• Phase 4 — Landscaping, exterior living space (e.g. decks, patios, etc.)

Phase 0 began back in December 2004 (?) when we first looked at this house. I consider this phase to have been completed when we got the financing figured out (April 2007), but the property survey (Jan-Feb 2007?) could also be taken as the completion of this phase.

Phase 1 began in April 2007. The contractor expects to complete their portion (through stucco, drywall, tape & texture) by the end of July 2007. We’re hosting a French foreign exchange student for most of August, so we probably won’t complete the rest of the work (finish carpentry, interior painting, flooring) until September 2007.

Phases 2 & 3 can’t start until we get our final inspection(s) for phase 1, but at that point they can proceed somewhat in parallel.

We can begin Phase 2 (remodeling the original bathroom) once our addition passes final inspection, hopefully in September 2007. This is all going to be interior work, so the weather won’t be an issue. We’re hoping that this will only take 2-3 months. It’d be very nice to have this completed by Thanksgiving 2007, but it may take a bit longer than that. Once Phase 2 is complete, we’ll look at refinancing our mortgage and HELOC.

Phase 3 (my workshop) will begin with permit application, which takes some time. This part of the project is (at least initially) going to be weather-dependent so we really can’t put timelines here. If we’re lucky (and persistent), we’ll be able to get my workshop framed and roofed before the rainy season, then continue interior work through the winter. Assuming the weather cooperates, we could have this done by spring 2008.

Phase 4 (landscaping, etc.) could begin in the front yard as soon as major construction is finished on my workshop (winter 2007-8?), since most material deliveries will be dropped off in the front yard. However, we may plant one or two trees in the backyard this fall (the optimal tree-planting season here) once we have the final plan for the backyard decks/patios/etc. Phase 4 is another somewhat weather-dependent project, and much of it cannot begin until the workshop (also weather-dependent) is finished. But again, assuming luck is with us, we may finish this phase (and the overall project!) by the fall of 2008.

The framing crew is putting the finishing touches on the roof today–fascia and barge rafters!

(More photos on the house fascia photoset on Flickr.)

They may not finish until tomorrow, but it doesn’t matter too much. We don’t have the roof sheathing material on-site, so we couldn’t get started on that even if they did finish today. The GC should have at least the initial material (CCX plywood for the eaves) by tomorrow afternoon, so perhaps we’ll get started then.

God, I’m looking forward to having a roof again! Having the sun beating directly onto the ceiling makes the house unbearably hot. I should have realized that was going to be a problem, but it completely blind-sided me. Fortunately the weather has been pretty mild the last few days–highs have been in the low- to mid-80’s. Phew!

Well, we got most of our remodeling chores done this weekend. The range hood is here, the shower/tub wall is fixed. The gables on the quilt shop are almost done–we’ve left a 4-foot section in the middle of each gable, but the vents haven’t been framed so we’re stuck waiting for that.

All the wall sheathing has been nailed up except for one narrow piece (about 15″), plus I have to go back and fix about a half-dozen “shiners”, (nails that missed the underlying framing). And Barb got all the shingle siding off the wall that we’re going to demolish in about two weeks, although we still have quite a few shingles on the east (garage) side and some on the west side of the house that can come down now. The only item we didn’t touch at all was picking up a new water heater.

Last week the framing crew got started on the gable over our front porch. I’m really looking forward to this, I think it’ll look great!