Getting Close

We're getting close to finishing now. The floor tile is going in - the first floor is done and they started the second floor today.

We decided to do the grout ourselves. Our tile has a pretty serious knocked-down edge, and we didn't want the entire area to be filled with grout, so we are doing it ourselves rather than paying extra to have the tile guys to it to our specifications.

They also painted the exterior doors today - though only the outside of the front door is supposed to be blue. Oops. We'll get that fixed.

We're still on track for a completion date of the 15th, despite the amount of work that still has to be completed.

The cabinets are getting put in on Thursday and Friday, and the countertops will get templated on Monday. We're doing CaesarStone, and apparently it will take at least a week to fabricate the counters once the templates are made. If it goes over that, we'll end up blowing our completion date of the 15th.

Even if we go over, though, hopefully we'll still be done before Christmas.

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Painting...

The painters have started - both the interior and exterior of the house are now primed. The paint should be completed towards the middle of next week.

Installation of the floor tile will start on Monday, and the solar water heating panels will probably be installed next week as well (we're waiting for an appointment).

We poured the concrete countertop for the master bath last weekend - I will be taking it out of the mold this weekend to see how it turned out. I'll also start welding together the vanities for the powder room and the master bathroom this weekend. We're using square-stock steel to build those.

We also met with the welder that will be putting together the railings for the front and back balconies. He is scheduled to complete that work next week.

We seem to still be on schedule to finish the project by 12/15, which would be nice, since it would give us a week or two to get moved back in before Christmas.

Click here to see primer-iffic pictures.

Update - 11/10/2009

The drywall is now all up and taped, and texturing will start tomorrow.

The stucco should be finished tomorrow - All that is left is a few areas of patching.

The final approval of cabinets happened today as well - they will be installed at the beginning of December.

Southwest Gas also started the process of relocating the gas meter over to the south side of the house today, so it looks like that will be done before the project ends, which is handy since all our furnaces are gas-fired.

Click here for all of the pictures from today.

More stucco and drywall

The drywalling has begun, and the exterior has a complete scratch coat now. The plan is to have drywall and stucco finished by the end of next week. After that, the trim will go in and then it will be time to do the painting.

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11/4/2009: Buttoning Up

It's been a couple of weeks since I posted an update, and a lot has happened in the interim.

The trenches in the back and front yard from the plumbing have been filled back so the backyard no longer looks like a war zone. Well, not as much, at least...

The rough electrical an plumbing wrapped up last weekend and I got all the low voltage done last weekend with the help of my brother-in-law. It was a lot of work, but we got almost all of it done, and I finished up the rest over the last few evenings.

The insulation went in yesterday, and the drywall was stocked today (and will begin going up tomorrow). The scratch coat for the stucco was also started today.

Lots of progress, and the end seems finally in sight.

Click here for lots and lots of pictures.

There goes the yard...

The plumber trenched the back yard to tie into the sewer last week, so now we have piles of dirt all over until the inspection happens and we can fill it all back in. Joy.

We also decided to pull all the drywall out and insulate the exterior walls of the old section of the house, so that happened today.

I've also started pulling conduit for low-voltage cabling (CAT-5, coax, speakers, etc.). Thankfully, my brother-in-law will be coming down in a couple of weeks to help out with that effort. He has an ability to make even the most complex cabling installation look elegant, which is a very under-appreciated art form, I think.

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We're back!

So I'm finally getting around to posting progress from the past couple of weeks.

Updates:
The insulation foam was sprayed onto the underside of the roof two weeks ago, and the HVAC installation began a couple of days later.

The electric and the plumbing are both currently being installed. We are also currently working on getting bids for both solar hot water and solar photovoltaic electric systems. The south side of the second story roof will be shingled (as opposed to tiled with mexican clay tile) to accommodate the solar panels.

We also decided to eliminate the ductwork in the old hallway and raise that roof to 8 feet to match the existing bedrooms on that side of the house. The electric will also be upgraded in those rooms, as it is the old style wiring with no ground circuit.

Lastly, the windows arrived yesterday, and all the windows for the new construction were installed today. The last five will be done tomorrow - they are in the old part of the house, so the old windows have to be removed before the new ones go in.

Click here for a slew of new photos.