Our Circus Tent

A few weeks ago we went to see Cirque De Soiel under a giant blue and yellow tent on broad street. Which was an amazing experience. There were a few acts of insane balance and some contortionist. I never really expected to associate that with our house. However, this week we came home from work the first day to see how the drywall guys used old floor boards to suspend themselves above our stairs to get the drywall onto the ceiling. The first picture is their upgraded system with some additional supports on the landing and an extra 2x6 to extend the reach. I have to admit I can't imagine hanging heavy sheets of drywall above my head on a floating barely nailed down platform.......but hey, that is the point of having a contractor....The second picture also shows the same boards floating over the railing in their precarious position. You can also see most of the drywall is up and you can really see the closet and how the space is going to look.

Since the pictures yesterday didn't turn out so well due to the super bright sun, this is a better shot looking towards the front of the house. Both of the windows are the same size one just has some extra drywall leaning in front of it.

So in general the last few days have been pretty good, and we are starting to see the light and maybe see the end of all this albeit for a brief, brief moment before the next project starts! Part of every home sale/closing packet really should be a copy of "The Money Pit" movie.......

I think I can see New Jersey from here...

It's Bryan.

Well well...here we are. It's week 6 into our 4 week schedule, and we're just moving along. The picture on the left is from our new bathroom "picture" window that was installed today (you might have seen the hole in a previous post). In the past few days, there has been more drywall added, and drywall removed, and some tense moments over window sizes. But seeing as how I've turned into the complete optimist in the house, we soldier on.

Today the guys (sans drywall crew) finished the install of all five windows in the third floor. As you can see here the this picture, the back of the floor is really just three windows which really makes the space full of light...and neighbors staring at you in the john. It looks like I'll finally be excited for curtain shopping. Huh. Weird. We included a shot of the tub so you might get a feel for how that part of the bathroom is going to be laid out opposite the sink and angled from the toilet.

We've also captured the relaxing ambiance that only our current bathroom work can give you. I call it "East Coast Tornado Chic" and will be consulting on the weekends for anyone else that is interested in this look. Our services are for hire, as we have to pay for all this somehow! Here is a view of the tub on the ledge/open wall that will be there as well as the picture window, as you walk up the stairs. The tub isn't quite in the right spot, but if you squint really hard, you can get the idea (the far right window in the previous picture is in that little bump out you see).

Did you spot Waldo?

With the new picture window in you can sort of get a better view of how the bathroom will look from the bedroom. The 2x4 you see in the shot is the framing for the pocket door that we'll get around to actually installing around Thanksgiving...in time for the family visits. I mean we do own the door already, but that's besides the point right?

Lastly we've included a shot of the windows in the bedroom. I guess it's included as a moral victory for us in that all 5 windows are in!!! Sorry for the dark picture, the stupid sun was stupidly shining into the room. It looks dark, but in reality the whole floor is full of light with all the new windows.

That's it for now. We're officially really off schedule as the drywall crew hit some snags and so they'll take longer than planned. Unheard of! We're hoping the stucco can start in about a week in the back of the house once the windows are finished. And lastly I get to rent a PAINT SPRAYER and paint the entire third floor in the next couple of weeks. Unless we sucker our out of town guests into painting. Hopefully before the hardwoods are finished, but at this point who knows.

Cheers!

I've been to a revival...a drywall revival!!!!

HALLELUJAH!!!! Christina there has been a miracle!!!!

So the drywall guys showed up today to perform an exorcism as well as fix the brakes on our car. Ok, maybe not the brakes part, but I can hope right?

So all horrible attempts at bad jokes aside, you can see the beginnings of drywall is up on the ceiling in the main parts of both the bathroom and the bedroom. I'll refrain from overstating (more then 3 times) how big of a deal this is to us. After a year working up there doing various things, there is DRYWALL!!! THE END IS NEAR (says the crazy guy on the couch with a cat on his lap)!!!

We also had our birch hardwood floors delivered today, and I will skip the nonsense that was. Anyway, I'm going to take this chance to show off our workshop/living room as it was not but 25 minutes ago.

It's turned into a convenient storage space for 175 sq feet of our old hardwood floors, the endless boxes of tile, my random tools, and the new bundles of hardwoods. You get the luxurious experience at night of walking bare foot through the space with the plaster and bricks bits scattered everywhere. It's really how every living room was meant to be used, Martha Stewart be damned.

Yesterday our contractor created the hole in the back wall for the new (and surprisingly large) window that will be next to the tub. You can see it in it's current state in the two pics (click on them for the larger image).

Tomorrow most of the drywall should be completed, with the windows going in Mon/Tues next week and the hardwoods Wed/Thurs. After that the back 4/5 of the house is getting stuccoed and we'll be doing the tile work as well. It's all coming down the stretch now!

HALLELUJAH!!!!!!

- Bryan

Windows and Insulation and Drywall OH MY!

So after a week in Indianapolis over the July 4th weekend, I've returned to the hot and humid Delaware Valley. This post is as much for our friends and family as it is for Christina to see what has happened while she's still in Indy nursing her mom back to health.

Progress while in Indy:

• Supply lines were run for the bathroom
• The tub was hauled from the first to the third floor
• The electrical was wrapped up and passed inspection (who would have guessed!)

Our contractor Jon has really ramped up this week now that there is power and plumbing (even if none of it is hooked up), and all of our non-fixture purchases are arriving this week. I picked up half of the bathroom tile today, and it was a breeze. Who doesn't want to pick up 400 lbs of tile in 8 little boxes in business casual dress when it's 93 degrees out? It really makes sense, and I recommend it to everyone. Anyway, the other half of the tile is showing up tomorrow evening.

We've also ordered our hardwood floors for the bedroom. I'm hoping it gets here on Thursday, and is just 15 crates of flooring weighing a combined 600 lbs. GREAT. I"m looking forward to that workout.

Our windows were brought over today which we've been waiting on for over a month. ----------------->

The insulation in the ceiling was put up today, which had to be fun for the guys. Everyone has been just asking over and over to show some terribly exciting pictures of the insulation...so here you go!!!






The next item on the agenda is the drywall which is to start tomorrow. If all goes well the dry walling should be done by Friday, which the leads to the windows being installed (as well as the new one being created) early next week. I think at this point I need to see some drywall, tape and mud up there. It'll be like some religious experience or something. Or at least I'm hoping so...I'm bored with Christina being gone.

Besides that I wanted to post a picture of the new shutters that were loving passed to us from my parents. They are from my grandparents house in Indianapolis, and we think they'll make a cool element to cover the block walls in the back yard. But I'll let the boss handle that when she gets back.

Pictures of random things, and some updates.

Ok, well since my last couple of rants things have turned around here on beautiful 13th street. Our contractor Jon has been over every day and is pretty much on top of things right now. The electrical is ready for the city inspection tomorrow, and things are looking good to have the drywall up after my return from Indianapolis next week.

Because some people like the random shots of rough in work, here is one of the electrical in the bathroom and a little diagram of how the plumbing is going. First the wires...

The plumbing hasn't gone far in the past few days. The guys were supposed to be here on Thurs/Friday to finish the returns, and to start on the supply (the copper is here at least). Well they were a no-show both days which even had our contractor saying "what in the hell are we doing with this guys?". I feel the same way. There is a slight chance that the plumbing will be done when I return from Indy next Sunday, but I'm not a fish so I'll pass on holding my breath.

What is done I have taken some pictures of and made handy labels...because I'm bored. Here is the view of the return plumbing as it looks from the ceiling of the second floor office. The entire thing snakes around and then goes out of the wall to out stack which is outside of the house. Our place is old. Anyway....


This week we had some friends in town and they were great sports. Our house is filthy, smells very odd at times, and is HOT. It's been 90+ degrees here all week with about 75% humidity. Philly is apparently a swamp, but Christina and I don't seem to notice it anymore.

Anyway, I cleared out a landing zone for the Susan and Steve Tuesday night in our second floor front bedroom. It had been a storage room and where I threw random power tools, but after a little real life Tetris and some trips to the basement the room looked something like the picture on the right.

The last picture for this hot-as-hell Sunday is one for my mom. The cats are getting too used to utter chaos around them at all hours, which is evident when Bing is Ok with playing in the tub...in the living room...precariously on it's side. Eh, at least he found his Binky I guess. That on it's own is hard to do sometimes in this place. I couldn't get a picture without Bing looking like some demon, but it's fitting in various ways.

The first 'punch' list: the anti-DIY part 2

In keeping with my theme from yesterday, I have attached the first punch list my wife has created.

(On a side note: I've asked her a couple of times why it's called a 'punch list' instead of something like 'Stuff to get right' list, or 'We are paying for this?' list. Never got a straight answer on this one. I think it's because you feel like punching something quite often).

Anyway here's the list right now. Again, I'll say that Christina (more so that myself) is very accurate and exact in what she wants done. While that's a great mentality for all of this, it creates a list like:
According to Wikipedia (because it's always 100% accurate):
The phrase takes its name from the historical process of punching a hole in the margin of the document, next to one of the items on the list. This indicated that the work was completed for that particular construction task. Two copies of the list were punched at the same time to provide an identical record for the architect and contractor.

The stark reality of NOT doing it yourself

It's Bryan. So, in the past 2 weeks we've had the framing in the bathroom start, the electrical get roughed in, and as of yesterday most of the return plumbing installed. And it's about 65% correct. that means that for the most part Christina and I walk in the door now, not excited to see what's new, but rather expecting something to be incorrect.

Now, a little history here. In my day job I coordinate various software development endeavors between what my bosses think they want, and the developers that will be grinding the code. It's usually a dance, but my job is to make sure that when the developers start work...they have every possible piece of info to make the application close to 100% as requested, (virtually) bug free, and on time. So I take the requirements from the business units, translate them to 'tech speak' and lay out the technical architecture for everyone to look at and understand that the knee bone is going to be connected to the thigh bone, and it's going to use REST web services and the like.

I'm basically a contractor...only a nerdy one.

Now, what I don't understand about the shenanigans we are seeing, is that there is no communication (or very little) going on between all of the parties involved. The contractor walks the plumber and electrician through the house, and even with my wife (an architect) there to explain the plans. Great! But the funny thing is that when the plumbers showed up on Friday to start, they weren't the same guy(s) that had toured the house. They had been 'briefed' on the project, and had 'an idea' on what is going on.

Come again? You mean that for our third floor OASIS that we've been planning and saving to do for years...you have an 'idea' about where the entire BATHROOM is going to be? It's the general passing the orders down the ranks, and somewhere in there I'm watching and wearing my life jacket...because I know this ship might sink. Quickly.

The electricians have run almost an entire wall of lines (carved into the brick party wall) that are...oh...about 5 feet too low. There are switches where a pocket door will slam into them upon closing. I know what you might be saying..."details, details". Well that's me. The devil is in the details all right.

Let me be very clear here: Our contractor is great. Seriously, he's been great, and pretty much available at all times when we freak out and call him. I know he trusts his subs, and that's one of the reasons that we went with him. The problem might be that my mother thinks I'm type-A, and I would argue that my mother-in-law says the same about my wife. I mean our jobs for years have been to herd cats day in and day out, to prepare for the best and worst and to make s@#t happen. I feel handcuffed.

I can't frame a bathroom, knock a hole in a wall for a new window, or lay tile everywhere. I know that. But I think my mind says "you know Bryan...it's not that hard to do...plus you can control every last detail". My mind is a dangerous place to be in right now.

Anyway, we're really hoping that some of the plumbing things are fixed today (I won't get into the stack connection right now...that'll be tonight probably), and the electricians are coming back tomorrow I think.

In the mean time we have friends in town this weekend, and I guess they'll be sleeping on an air mattress in the living room. Sorry Susan and Steve, you’ve entered the Danger Zone. Time to listen to the Top Gun soundtrack and get pumped for plumbing!