SonicChicken blog

Our remodel/addition project has gotten to the point where it’s time to make a punch list. We (and our subs) still have quite a bit to do, but this phase (1A) is definitely nearing completion!

It’s been about 32½ weeks since construction began on our remodel, and we’re getting down to the finishing touches. We (and our subs) have been pretty busy, which explains the paucity of articles recently. Barb and I have taken a few pictures, but I haven’t had a chance to pull them off of the camera yet.

The drywall is finished except for a rough patch job in what will eventually be a closet. The texturing is done except for sanding in the old dining room.

Painting is complete in the entry, great room, kitchen, laundry/utility room and bathroom. Caitlin’s bedroom is painted except for the closet. Caira has two walls finished, one wall needs to have the edges cut in, while the fourth wall and closet still need their color coats. We can’t start painting the old dining room until the texturing has been sanded, and Barb ran out of paint while working on the bedroom hallway. Unfortunately this was after the paint store had closed for the weekend, so we’re stuck until the paint store re-opens and we have time to resume painting.

Our kitchen and utility room cabinets arrived last week. Our cabinet maker works up in Chico, so he delivered the cabinets and stayed in town overnight to do the installation. We got Shaker style cabinets in natural cherry, and they look fantastic, but unfortunately we can’t load up the lower cabinets because we’ll just have to empty them next week when the countertops are installed.

The third and final coat of stucco was applied on Wednesday, right before Thanksgiving. It’s amazing how much of a difference it makes! I don’t know whether it’s due to the finished texture or the colored stucco (or both), but the house exterior really looks finished now. (It’s not, of course. I still have to install exterior light fixtures, clean up all the construction debris, and begin the arduous task of post-construction landscape remediation. Groan…)

Once Barb has finished painting a room I’ve been coming along behind her to take care of the electrical finish work, (e.g. installing outlets, light switches and fixtures, etc.) But it’s a sad fact that she can paint faster than I can do all the wiring, especially when I drop what I’m doing to help her paint! :/ I’ve been putting most of my effort into getting the lights working, and I’m almost finished except for ceiling fans/lights–I’m waiting until our HVAC contractor installs the registers and air return grills because the ceiling fans will be in his way otherwise.

This coming week is going to be another busy one. Our tile setter will be back from vacation, and he’s supposed to start working on our project next Saturday, so the goal for this week is to have everything ready for him then. I have to return to my day job after being off this past week, so that’ll cut a huge chunk out of my remodeling time. Our plumber will be out mid-week to remove the drain and water supply from the old kitchen sink. Barb and I have to salvage about 150 square feet of the hardwood flooring from the entryway, then we have to put ~45 sheets of hardiebacker in the entry, kitchen, nook, hallway, laundry/utility room, and bathroom. Oh, and I still need to do electrical finish work. No rest for the weary!

After nearly seven months of construction, we’re finally starting to paint! The garage, which required the least drywall compound, is ready for painting. Because this is all fresh drywall, we’re putting on two coats of primer–the first one basically seals the drywall, while the second coat actually primes the wall for the color coat. Even though it’s not quite a two-car garage, it’s going to take a fair bit of paint because we have 9′ high walls plus the ceiling. Barb picked up the primer(s) and the color paint this afternoon, and she has already started painting. I’ll be joining her as soon as I finish posting this, and Punk is coming over after work to lend her expertise as well.

We’ll get some more painting done over the weekend. According to our drywaller, the texture on the laundry/utility room and the new bathroom should be cured and ready for paint by Sunday morning, possibly even Saturday afternoon. He’d like us to paint those rooms so he can compare his texture to the 60 year-old texture on the plaster. I think we’re going to put more effort into the utility room, since we’d really like to get the washer and dryer back into operation! (Laundromats are definitely sucking!)

It’s sure handy being one of the few people building or remodeling a home at this point. I called Jack, our stucco subcontractor, yesterday afternoon to see if they could put the first coat on the house now, seeing as we didn’t have the shop ready yet. Jack: “No problem. Is the drywall done?” Well, they’re still taping and texturing, but the drywall is up and they’re done hammering if that’s what you’re asking. “Okay, I’ll have a crew out tomorrow morning!” Uh, Jack? We have a whole bunch of stuff right next to the house. Maybe you can give us a few days to move everything? Jack: “Don’t worry about that, the crew will move it for you.” Wow! About 8-10 people showed up this morning at 07:00, and the scratch coat was done before I came home for lunch at 12:45, less than 24 hours after I called.

We’ll have to wet down the stucco a few times per day while it’s curing, especially on the south side of the house:

Barb has Friday off, so we’ll probably call for our stucco scratch inspection that day.

Insulation was installed on Wednesday. Wow, what a difference! It’s quiet, and the temperature in the house is much more stable. (Not so cold in the morning nor hot in the afternoon.) I thought they were only going to do the walls at this time, so I didn’t prep the ceiling and left some attic/ceiling wiring work undone. But when I got home that night, I found that all the “open” ceiling (i.e. bare joists without drywall) had batting insulation installed. Rats! That made it even more difficult for me to finish the wiring that night.

The drywall started going up yesterday morning. Artisan Drywall is our sub, and they’ve been outstanding! Ron (the owner) and one of his guys even came out and helped us finish clearing out much of the house in order to keep the project on schedule. Ron hired out a separate company to hang the drywall, and they made quite a bit of progress yesterday. They were back pretty early this morning, and they should be finished putting up our walls early this afternoon. (Ceilings were already finished yesterday.) Ron and his crew will be in next week to tape and texture the drywall.

I had to straighten up two studs in our one-and-only hallway, (one on each side of the hall), because they were bowed enough that the drywall would crack if they tried to attach to those walls. One side of the hallway is merely a partition wall, (not load-bearing), so I was able to correct that one pretty easily by making about 5 cuts with a circular saw to bowed-out side of the stud. (A picture or diagram would be very handy here…) This relaxed the stud enough that we were able to push it into alignment with its neighbors, and the drywall guys screwed a sheet of drywall to the back side of the stud to hold it in place. (Took maybe five minutes to fix.) Of course the other stud was on an exterior, load-bearing wall, so I had to plane down the high spot and put some drywall shims in a few places. I did manage to fix this wall, but it took the better part of an hour fiddling with the power planer, a 4′ straightedge, and many drywall shims. Added bonus: a huge mess of wood shavings from the planer stuck to the wall insulation and sprinkled all over the floor!

Our plumber came out yesterday afternoon to connect the gas line for the new furnace. He’s doing us a big favor to pull this off on short notice, so I stayed out there and helped him. I was amazed at how easy he made it look, but like any skilled trade I imagine it’s all about the know-how and proper tools.

I got power up to the FAU late last night, and the HVAC contractor was out this morning to fire up the furnace. We have heat! We’ll have to turn it off while the drywallers are sanding, but we’re pretty much climate-controlled at this point. After 2½ years without central heat, it’ll be a huge improvement!

On the “even more good news” front: I just spoke with our cabinet maker and let him know that the drywallers would probably be finished by next Friday, and I asked if he would be ready to install our cabinets on the following Monday. He responded, “Yeah, but would you guys be okay with me coming in on Saturday instead?” Heck, yes!

On the downside, Barb and I gave up on hosting Thanksgiving this year. There’s no way the floors will be finished in time, and we don’t really want our 10-month-old nephew crawling around on the unfinished floor. So once the addition is complete we’re going to host a post-Thanksgiving dinner–all the same food, and hopefully all the same people, that we would be having for the real turkey day.

One more minor problem: we lost our Internet connection again yesterday, but I’ll probably be able to get that working again over the weekend. And hopefully we’ll have more time for pictures (and blogging!) now that the bulk of the remodeling work is behind us.

Aside from a few minor glitches, it feels like we’ve finally crested the hill that is our addition/remodeling project. Looks like Barb and I will even have a chance to sit around and enjoy a glass of wine some time this weekend.