Roof sheathing finished, new water heater

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Barb and I spent most of Sunday sheathing the roof with Jimmy and Jay, a couple of the guys on the framing crew. We were too busy for photos at the time, but I got a few [pictures of the roof sheathing](http://www.flickr.com/photos/sonicchicken/sets/72157600687650901/) afterwards. We still have to look for ‘shiners’ on the roof, but after that we’ll be ready for our next inspection–roof diaphragm and shear wall.

We had a few hours of our weekend remaining so we picked up our new water heater, a 40 gallon [Kenmore PowerMiser 12](http://preview.tinyurl.com/3c3ath). It meets the new California energy efficiency standards, plus we can get a (small) rebate from PG&E for it. [OSH][] had a better price than Sears, plus we had a 10% coupon for OSH so we ended up paying about $330 (plus sales tax) after the discount and rebate–not bad for a high-efficiency water heater with a 12-year warranty!

[OSH]: http://osh.com/

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Happy anniversary, Gil & Mary Ann!

We took a short break from our remodeling project to join our[\*](#2007-06-30_note1) 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.

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More pictures from Mary Ann and Heidi are in the [golden anniversary photoset](http://www.flickr.com/photos/sonicchicken/sets/72157600613792735/) 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. 😉

[golden anniversary]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_anniversary
[Occidental]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occidental,_California
[Spring Hill Cheese]: http://www.springhillcheese.com/

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Quilt shop windows

The windows and sliding glass door were installed on the quilt shop yesterday.

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I didn’t get to stick around and take pictures of the window installation, since I had to scoot off to work. (In fact, I was walking out the door when the window crew showed up.)

[Mark Martinelli][] is our window contractor. He’s installing [Milgard][] windows–we had these on our last house and were very satisfied with them.

Something that I realized *after* the sliding glass door was installed: I should have asked about a keyed lock, so we could come in via the glass door in the morning. I called Mark about this, and he said it would be pretty easy to take care of. It sounds like they just change out the latch handle and replace it with a keyed latch.

[Mark Martinelli]: http://www.martinellihomeimprovement.com/
[Milgard]: http://www.milgard.com/

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Post-remodel aspirations

We’ve had to spend a lot of time, money, and effort since [our remodel began in earnest](http://sonicchicken.net/blog/wordpress/2007/04/12/remodel-started/) 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](http://sonicchicken.net/blog/wordpress/2007/06/21/remodel-master-plan/) 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](http://tinyurl.com/3a8w3z) are at home instead of storage.
– Brewing a batch of beer. 💡 I wonder if I can use the crawlspace to [lager](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lager#Etymology) 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](http://www.estesrockets.com/products.php?number=7000) 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!

[William Glen]: http://www.williamglen.com/aboutus.aspx

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Our roof is covered!

We spent *all day* Saturday putting plywood and OSB on the roof, but we had to call it quits when we ran out of material. Fortunately we got the main roof covered, along with half of the front gable.

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We ran about 20 sheets short on the OSB. I’m actually glad that we ran out–we were all getting pretty whipped, and if we had kept it up I’m afraid that somebody might have gotten hurt. We weren’t *quite* exhausted by the end of the day–Jimmy and Jay still had enough energy to clown around in front of the camera:

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The house looks *much* better now that the roof is (mostly) covered. We were also finally able to get the remaining lumber out of the front yard and water the grass. After just a few days of watering, our brown/tan front yard is starting to show tinges of green. (And it smells more pleasant, too. I hated that dusty, dry grass scent!)

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Our next project is to finish installing the plywood around the outside edge of the roof, so that we can get gutters installed. The masonry crew will be out to extend the chimney about 5′ or so. Meanwhile we’ll tack up the rest of the OSB over the gables and shoot a *bunch* of nails in the body of each sheet, so we can get our roof installed (after shear and roof diaphragm inspection).

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Remodel project master plan

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](http://sonicchicken.net/blog/wordpress/2007/04/12/remodel-started/) 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.

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Quilt shop entering the home stretch!

Barb’s quilt shop is just about to enter the “home stretch”. We met with the GC last night and decided it was time to push hard on this aspect of the project because:

1. The quilt shop is a separate permit from the main structure, so we can schedule inspections for it separately;
1. There is no discount on the roofing or the drywall if we have those crews come out and do both the house and the shop as a single job;
1. I can’t possibly do all the electrical work for the house and the shop at one time, but the quilt shop by itself is a manageable piece;
1. It’d be helpful to get the quilt shop finished, because we’d be able to move some weather-sensitive things out of the house and into the shop *before* we demolish the back of the house and open it up to the elements.

With that decided, we’ll hopefully get the exterior inspections (roof diaphragm and shear wall) done tomorrow so that we can get the roofers out here ASAP.

Just for future reference, I’ve got a couple of pictures of the interior as of today:

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Roof progress

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

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(More photos on the [house fascia photoset](http://www.flickr.com/photos/sonicchicken/sets/72157600413835432/) 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!

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Facebook

I started up a [Facebook profile](http://csus.facebook.com/profile.php?id=588993384) a few days ago, after [Joseph][] linked to the [Facebook platform wiki](http://joseph.randomnetworks.com/archives/2007/06/12/links-for-sat-2-dec-2000-through-tue-12-jun-2007/). Looks like a less juvenile version of myspace. Let’s hope it stays that way. And please, God, don’t allow people to start spamming my speakers with their current favorite tune if I browse their Facebook profile!

Some of the (user-written) Facebook apps look pretty cool. I’ve added the [Board Games](http://apps.facebook.com/boardgamegeek/), [Where I’ve Been](http://apps.facebook.com/whereivebeen/), and [Bookshelf](http://apps.facebook.com/bookshelf/) apps. I had a spot of trouble importing my [Delicious Library][] book list into the Bookshelf app, so I wrote a little [Perl script to filter out the ISBN’s](http://sonicchicken.net/blog/wordpress/snippets/isbn-filter/) from Delicious Library.

[Joseph]: http://joseph.randomnetworks.com/
[Delicious Library]: http://www.delicious-monster.com/

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Weekend remodel chores

Well, we got most of our [remodeling chores](http://sonicchicken.net/blog/wordpress/2007/06/15/fathers-day-2007/) 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.

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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!

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