It doesn’t look like a lot happened this week, but quite a few things got done. Somehow, the ceiling tongue & groove was underestimated, so a rush custom order was needed for about 300 more square feet. AND, there was a fire at the lumber yard, so we lost a few days. But other work continued.

• The ceiling tongue & groove is finished (after the straggling materials arrived).
• The framing is completely done. All of the walls and windows are roughed out now.
• All of the final trim decisions were made. There is a lot more wood than anyone anticipated, so we have some BUDGET additions. I’m not sure why this is a surprise and it was perfectly clear to me. :> . It’s on the plans, but Tim’s says he’s surprised, too.
• Electric has been roughed in and passed electrical inspection
• HVAC ducting has been roughed in & mechanicals should arrive next week.
• The custom redwood siding to match our existing house has been ordered.
• I finally finished grinding out the stupid drywall and caulk from the beam cracks.
• We’ve been testing stain colors for all of the wood in the house
• My Dad and I got all of our phone, cable and A/V wiring done. I can now say what it’s like to crawl around in the crawl space.

Upcoming Fun

• The roofing starts Tuesday. Hoorah for actual roofing that drains properly and has some insulation. Can’t wait.
• HVAC & Plumbing mechanicals should be arriving & begin to be installed
• Our West facing wall/window is on its way from California. It’s scheduled to arrive late next week.
• Our windows guy may start cutting glass for all of our fixed windows this week.
• I need to get my butt in gear and finish ordering our kitchen faucet, lighting, a few hinges, and heat registers.

I’ll post lots more pictures this week. This weekend, it seemed to just be more of the same!

No remodeling project is without a little angst. And, we’re significantly uptight, so we feel a bit bad for the scrutiny that we subject our contractor and architect to. But, they’ve both been great and have humored us. We have a few small hurdles…nothing large, but just a few minor interesting things.

• Our back wall currently is concrete block. That wall is being “popped” out, but the concrete block wall was to remain for support and architectural detailing. Because of the intricate cutting and stripping, we went ahead and decided to have the 4 foot wide wall rebuilt. Good thing we decided that. The crew demo’d the wall this week. Turns out that it wasn’t a weight bearing concrete block wall. They were DECORATIVE! They were not solid blocks…just half blocks in front of very flimsy 2×4 frames. Our architect was surprised how little was holding up our entire back wall.

• Our architect has worked with a structural engineer to do all of the complex weight bearing design issues. We’ve never met him, as our architect worked directly with him. The structural engineer just completed some consultation and city inspector required work. We thought we needed to call him again for more clarification on our beam hangers. (Yea, what are those? I’ll take pictures once I learn more). Our contractor called the engineer and was told that the structural had died a few days before in a motorcycle accident. Shocking! Selfishly, we’re so glad that he got most of the complex work done already and we’re hoping we don’t need more structural engineer engagement. Apparently, he was an avid cyclist. Geez, they scare me.

• Our fence and retaining walls have been difficult. Tim did the drainage and retaining wall plan. We had to totally redesign the slope of the yard (away from house), while building structurally sound retaining walls. Our east neighbor’s lot is about 3-4 feet higher than ours. Our southern neighbor is about 4 feet higher than us. Tim staked out the retaining wall heights before hand and consulted with the guys setting the walls. Well, they sorta ignored him. Our contractor is taking care of everything and it is all good now, but we are learning that many people don’t understand grading plans, including the fence guys (and me).

Morals of story:

1. A lot of things are simply out of our control.

2. Even when you are in control and have perfectly planned, sometimes the plans aren’t used  we just need to roll with them a little

3. There is no way to perfectly plan (or see through walls).

We got our permits for the entire house remodel today. I had a little shock when I had to pay $3850 for a USE TAX in addition to the $1800 or so for the building permit. Apparently, I can ask all contractors to NOT charge me sales tax, so I think it’s a big wash, but it was a bit shocking to pay for it up front.

To continue my love my new city, Englewood, CO, I love the simplicity of the Permitting office. They are a one counter shop and they coordinate with all of the other departments and inspectors so that I don’t have to run around. This is very much UNLIKE getting permits in San Francisco. There is something to be said for smaller cities, right?

Now, our contractor is working to get the excavators over to start digging!!!