Once Over (Again)

I had an early morning (7 a.m.) appointment today with either a designer or a general contractor or both. I think he's both, I think he was from a design/build company. We went through the whole house to talk about what was needed in each room. We also talked a little bit about the deck and storage.

Aside from some smaller aspects of the kitchen and bathroom in progress, we're mostly focussing on the living room/dining room wall and the fireplace. I'm hoping to do those both at once and by the same designer so that they'll sort of match. He did some quick sketches for the fireplace and the wall and said he would put in some design time on the bid so that I could see full fledged drawings and approve them before we start.

Now I just hope the money's not too much. We also talked about stuff to be done in the basement. It was fun to think about, but I'm not sure what I'll be able or willing to do. We'll see, I guess I should receive some bids before the end of the day. Whew!

Bathroom Plumbing

For days I've been poring over installation instructions for my bathtub faucet rough in kit, pictured right on my beautiful refinished-though-rustic loft floor. It's laid out there roughly how it looks inside the wall with the hot water supply valve on the left, then the spout/diverter, then the cold water valve, and then the handshower thingy on the far right. Connections from the valves to the spout/diverter are copper, and from the spout/diverter to the handshower are threaded connections and a braided hose. I kept trying to decide if I could do it myself, the drawings and instructions were just specific/detailed/straightforward enough that I had a pretty good understanding of what needed to go in and how (order/position-wise that is).

Ultimately, however, I decided, no, I can't. As I type the plumber is soldering joints under the tub, in among the plastic pipe and electrical wiring, in/under the backside of the fiberglass tub and metal struts or whatever you call the bars that help the fiberglass hold it's shape around the loose-ish edges. Yuck.

Still, I'm glad I read it all, I was able to review the instructions with the plumber before he started and I think I even helped a little in that bit. There was one step he did that I wouldn't have done, he drilled smaller holes than the instructions dictated and then chisled out the rough deck so that the plate that mount thereupon would then be flush and snug whereas if they were drilled per instructions they would have had considerable play in them to the point that the handles would have wiggled. "Movement is not good in my business. I don't like movement." So I held my tongue--after questioning him once of course, I mean just because he has 20 years experience doesn't mean I'm not going to question him. Seems to me like anytime something's done differently than what the instructions direct, it's worth questioning... except where the valves are less than 3 inches from the wall behind them, I asked him to do that.

So there's this kind of weirdness where the plastic (CPVC) pipe that was already in there leads to a panel at the side of the tub instead of to the ledge by the tub where the faucet is actually installed. I guess it makes sense if you're expecting to install a faucet including the rough-in kit after tile, but it seems like it would be a lot easier to do it before. So there are these juts of pipes heading to the side of the tub that the plumber had to meet up with. This plumber did all his work in copper even though all the existing stuff is in plastic. He just whipped that stuff out. And while it seems kind of goofy and indirect, there is a certain elegance to it too where maybe there's a little more play in the system that will somehow give it flexibility and longevity where at first it seemed like more pipe lengthe would mean more vulnerability to mistakes.

It turns out when my tiler said "starting Monday?" he meant "starting next Monday?" That's okay, or at least it all works out okay since I did a lot of prep stuff this week on what I thought was borrowed time. The only real, or biggest, cost was the added stress of that.

I've got someone coming tomorrow morning EARLY to talk about design. I'd better make it an early night tonight.

Sunny Sunday Too

Today started out grayer than I thought it would be. It was a blessing because I really needed to spend some time indoors. I tore out some sheetrock where the tile for the shower is going to go. Even with the hurdle of having to figure out how to change the bit in the rotozip tool which, after blind attempts going on just intuition, required my looking the manual up on the internet to get it right. It turned out I had it right, just didn't have the confidence to crank on the wrench as much as I needed to to get the thing out.

That new bit went through the board like it was soup!

I know it wasn't the most efficient way to get a bunch of sheetrock down, but it was pretty good for leaving up areas that I didn't want down. I'm leaving 8 inches around the top rather than having tile all the way up to the ceiling. For ripping out sheetrock it was a precision operation compared to stuff I've done before. I'm amazed I didn't cut myself pulling off the outside corner bead thingys, so yippie for that.


I got most of the big pieces out to the front porch--my dump staging area, I'm sure my neighbors are thrilled. One side is garbage, the other recyclables.--but have yet to do the shop-vac sweep. I have some smaller pieces to do and I'm not sure how to get them but I know it'll create enough rubble and dust for another pass with the vacuum so I'll leave them be for now.

My quitting buzzer went off and I showered for my Oscars party. I had intended to stop at Home Depot on the way, but that didn't happen. It seems like there was something else, but I guess that was it.

Oh yeah, I remember. My faucets arrived earlier this week. I love the internet! I ordered my kitchen faucets and my tub faucet both over the internet. I think it was all through faucetdirect.com. I got Moen for the kitchen and Delta for the bathroom (links are to the models I ordered).

Sunny Saturday

I started the day unable to find my cell phone, my only phone. Arece said he was going to get trees and plant them himself because I was too busy with interior work to do the trees this weekend... But I had a change of heart. I had to catch him before he left for the store, so I paid the Hampton residence a possibly earlier-than-appropriate visit for a Saturday morning. But they were up and they let me in anyway, and I even got to have coffee with them to start the day off right.

Then we were off to the nursery to get trees and seed. We got 2 Dwarf Stella Cherry trees, a self-pollinating variety with "rich red fruit and light pink blossoms". Awesome. Thank heaven people all over the place know stuff about plants, 'cause I know nothing. I couldn't even find the grass seed. I went to the "seed room" but apparently that was just for gardening stuff, not lawn seed which was in a totally different corner.


We got all that, strapped the trees into the back of the truck and headed to 5211. Arece came in to admire the cabinets (thanks Arece! :) and we were about ready to get to work when Leslie called to say she was on her way (back) over, and she was bringing us lunch. Yippie! (thanks Les! :). Leslie admired the cabinets and Arece started the hole for the first before we ate lunch. It was so nice we picnicked on the front porch and got to chat with a few passers by.


We finished up planting the trees and I had Leslie and Arece help me review the bathroom plan as the tile guy is supposed to start Monday. Yie. These occasions always make me panic. They thought it all looked good. I found the old bathroom sink drain behind the sheetrock, but I have no idea if it's still plumbed all the way down. There's also some copper pipe from the former water supply to the old sink, but that's clearly not plumbed any longer. I have yet to open the sheetrock around where the new sink was supposed to go.

I forgot to take BEFORE pictures of the trees. I might have forgotten to take AFTER pictures, but when the truck pulled up with the new lightpost, Leslie mentioned maybe that was a good occasion for a blog picture. I'm down with that.

4pm is quittin time on the weekends, just to put a little break in my break from other work. Which means on Saturday I got to watch the rest of an Adam Sandler movies while napping on the couch at Hamptons', and today I get to make it to an Oscars party. I haven't seen any of the movies this year, not even Ratatouille, but I'll enjoy the social occasion all the same.

We've Got Cabinets!

(click on photos for a larger view)

I'm so tired. But what a great weekend!! All of the cabinets are in except for the two in the island, and I need to figure those out still... like, now. I also need to get a cooktop and an oven, then I can order countertops. If I do the countertops in two separate orders, I could do the perimeter ones now and the island, with the cooktop, later.

I've posted new pictures from the last 2 days are on flickr. But here are a choice few, looking north and south at the ends of days 2 and 3, and one of Paul lending a hand. Days 2 and 3 were not as popular as day 1, but we had got our method pretty much down and production was pretty quick.

Day 2 we got in the lowers in the south wall and the uppers on the north wall and got the boxes out for the lowers on the west wall. Day 3, Julia, Barb, Pat and I got all the lowers mostly in on the west and north walls and Lara and Julia moved the refrigerator into the kitchen from the dining room which involved emptying it and taking off the doors. Paul pretty much floated, and Dad was on call for helping us while he was otherwise upstairs working on putting together a shopping list for the bathroom plumbing.


We went as long as we could before Paul basically demanded a nap, which meant it was time for the Portland and points south contingent to have lunch and hit the road. I met them at Kidd Valley for lunch, then we pretty much went our separate ways. When I returned home Steve had arrived and Dad was not yet back from the hardware stores for plumbing supplies (he has all my sympathy for that task which is never so simple as it might sound).

We re-set the cabinet above the refrigerator, which had been quite a puzzle when we put it in the day before, and still didn't look quite right. I can't remember which assumption we'd made that worked against us, either that the box was square or that the corner of the wall was, or that the wall itself was plumb. Anyway, we released a little pressure on all but one of the screws and placed another shim or two and then called it good. Similarly we made some final adjustments to the lower cabinets in the northwest corner and then screwed everything together one final time. (Pat and Barb, you won't believe how tight we finally got that joint. It looks great and when I got the doors back on those cabinets at first they actually overlapped a little bit!).

Finally Dad and Steve tried to level the refrigerator. As luck would have it, the installation instructions included a section on how to level the fridge. Unfortunately, however, the diagram did not match the actual hardware, so it didn't entirely work but it's pretty darn good.


Here's hoping the dentist can find time for me tomorrow. I lost a filling on Saturday night and have been dealing with a sharp crag where my lower left molar is supposed to be for a coupld of days now. I'm not having sensitivity to hot and cold (yet) so maybe I should count myself lucky for that. With all the great help and passing luck on everything with the kitchen this weekend, I am counting myself very lucky for a lot of things right now.

A MILLION THANKS TO ALL WHO HELPED!!

Gettin' Busy, Hangin' Cabinets

We got to hanging cabinets yesterday. I started early morning, okay 9 A.M. after coffee/breakfast at Starbucks and a grocery run to PCC. I finally got the insulation and sheetrock up and taped/mudded (1st coat) around the west sink. Next time I looked at my watch it was 10:30. I started clearing crap out of the kitchen to make some room to move and by the time that was done people were showing up at the appointed time of 11 A.M.

We unboxed all the cabinets for the south wall. Then removed and labelled all the drawers and cabinet doors. Shuffled everything around so that the boxes were roughly in position for where they were to be mounted. Each consideration was translated through the whole set so we could see how everything would finally fit with all the cabinets lining up where it really made a difference.

We ended up moving the broom closet about 3 inches west of what was originally planned so that the trim around the window could be symmetrical. I AM THRILLED that that worked out. It means there'll be a notch in the countertop at the west end of it so that the back door can still open all the way and that's just fine. It also means there's an extra hole, or an extra-wide hole inside the broom closet which is worth it because it means I can flip Pat shit about it. :) Just kidding. It's fine and a reasonable price to pay for having the rest of it gone how I like it.

It was a fun day for me. Joe's help was INVALUABLE. He and my Dad and Steve all have infinite patience and persistence for this stuff. If I'm lucky, I'm learning that from this work. I enjoy the work, if I can get the stress out of it, I may take it up as a long term hobby.

I have some new pictures on flickr in set 20080216_Seattle. But here's the last one from the end of the day. After moving cabinets around and measuring things for about 3 and a half hours, we hung 5 in about 30 minutes to an hour. Excellent.

The F-Word

Financing.

I applied to refinance my mortgage a couple of weeks ago. It turns out they don't like to appraise houses that don't have kitchens or finished bathrooms. So the refi is on hold until the remodel is done. That'll put a little snap in my step.

A couple of months ago I don't think this would have been a problem, but with the market the way it is right now, I guess I shouldn't be surprised... BUT I AM. NOTHING in my neighborhood sells for less than 35% more than what I'm looking for in my loan. Agh.

I guess I'll try to get myself in gear here. I ordered kitchen faucets online for both sinks. I think I'm going to get sinks through the countertop vendor. One will be free, whoopie for Costco! Anyway, that should simplify/streamline things somewhat.

Happy Valentines Day, Happy Presidents Day, and Another Day

I'm gearing up for a working weekend and a visitng weekend. These are my FAVORITES.

Getting to cabinet installation. I'm praying for patience, persistence and diligence for myself this weekend. The plumbing and electrical stuff are ready. I have most of the material and supplies I need, Dad is bringing a few things more.

I've never been particularly good at planning for other people's time. I'm hoping and expecting to get some help this weekend. I know my folks will be here, and as we learned a couple of weeks ago, we can get a lot done when we focus and keep at it. For this cabinet business though, we'll really benefit from leveraging some extra help.

I need to get doors and drawers off of and out of boxes and make sure everything's well labelled so I can get the boxes in their proper places mated with their proper parts. I'm spinning my wheels trying to think of where's the optimal place in my house to put this stuff, but the best place, the storage room in my basement, is full of crap. I had to gasp this week when I had an appraisal and I saw her taking pictures. The horror! Well anyway, life goes on, and so does this project.

I'm planning to work the days and relax in the late afternoons and evenings, putting in roughly 6 or 7 hours per day in 2 to 3 hour shifts then breaks. I dunno if that's how it'll work, I'm just trying to develop and note my expectations. I'm anxious still, but feeling pretty good about it.