Thursday, January 30, 2014

Correction

It's not 5000 outlets and lights.  More like  around a hundred. I love how my wife thinks things are larger than they really are.  :-)
I was not involved in the purchase of doors and moulding so am pleasantly surprised to see the primed pre-hung doors. While harder to paint, they will be way easier to install not having to route the hinges and such as a traditional door would require. 
That reminds me! It's time to build the workbench in the garage from which we will be cutting all that casing and base board. 
Too bad, I'm taking a weekend off to ski with my kids and watch the Hawks beat the Broncos!

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Molding & Doors

So I was getting bored living this life of leisure so I came up with a new project! 

I now have doors and molding to paint. I guess they will have to wait until ceilings are painted and flooring is installed. Oh, and now that the walls are painted I have about 5000 outlets and light switches to install! Is it odd that I'm really looking forward to it??

Oh my... paint

I'm pretty sure I love the color of my walls now. It will be nice when the ceilings get painted and there is a clean line there, but the wall color is warm and not too dark which I love!
Kitchen:
Upstairs hall (wall not painted yet):
Dining-Foyer-Den:
Living room:
Dining room & Hall:




Monday, January 27, 2014

Fail to launch


This weekend, for me, was a bust. I got S I C K !
Nonetheless, we continue or at least Sandi does. The garage is painted and stripped. There's some touch up to do around the doors and heater but its a sort of milestone. I can now start trimming stuff out!! Lights, speakers, sensors, fans. 
Tuesday should see the walls done throughout, stand by for that. You-know-who is pretty darn excited!
I've made no more progress on the controls, and have in fact "lost" a wire. It's for a temperature sensor in Amanda's room, one that is flush into the wall and mudded/textured/painted. Not really something I want to dig out with my knife! I'll get it, one way or another. 
This Super Bowl weekend the kids and I are at the mountain so we won't be painting. On Saturday we are helping with a medical training event then skiing on the crappy snow cover Sunday. I have to staff our first aid room in the afternoon. I'm hoping nobody gets hurt so I can watch the football game!
No beer for daddy!  No telling what Sandi will do while we're out "playing".  Probably down at the tavern playing pool, gambling and telling lies to the boys.
Anyway, my mind is starting to turn towards tile.  We have not found what we're going to use yet, but that's the next big step.  The doors and mouldings are showing up this week, so that'll be another on-going task we'll have to occupy our "spare" time.
There ya go, all updated and stuff!
TB

Evolution of a wall

Once upon a time, there was a creative girl with an idea...
Then along came paint.
And the girl was happy.
Very, very happy.




Sunday, January 26, 2014

Productive morning

So Tom and I enjoyed a cup of coffee, discussed cabinets (read: I showed him what they were going to be) and got the upstairs ceilings painted. All before 8am! Now, he and Amanda can go to the pass for his shift in the first aid room while Hailey and I paint the walls in her room and possibly the loft area. I'm dying to see what the wall color looks like en mass.

Thursday, January 23, 2014

Paint

I'm so ready to put this in the walls now!!!

Stay tuned for pics of the girls' rooms. You may need sunglasses to view...

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Optimus Primed...

We are primed and ready for paint! I pick it up today and will be having some serious painting fun this weekend!!
Garage primed

Nuff said.

Monday, January 20, 2014

Did you happen to see...

...the most beautiful walls in the world?

Just sprayed:

Wow, it's really hard to get a picture of texture.



And according to the girls, my level of excitement for it is disproportionate to the actual product.  They're just kids, though. What do they know??  It's flippin' BEAUTIFUL!

They will come back and do a final primer coat on Wednesday. Paint Party this weekend!!!!!

Sunday, January 19, 2014

Under Control

Ok, the heat pump is fixed, the rental heater is gone after costing almost a thou$and bucks. Since the revived system is kicking ass, it seemed like a good motivator to work on the control system. It's fairly complex, consisting of seven zones via four manifolds and 23 heating loops. After the game tonight I turned a portion of the system to thermostat control. There's quite a bit more to do on it including configuring the automation controller. All in good time. The rest of the weekend was spent helping Sandi  mask for paint, now proposed for the next couple of weeks. 
Manifold control valve. 
Security controller


Texture Eve

It looks like the texture guy putting us off until Monday is a blessing in disguise. It gave us a chance to prep/mask the entire house and garage. 











Party mode had to go mobile during this phase, but it's still here! :)











Saturday, January 18, 2014

I'm feeling the love

I know there's a LOT more work to do, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel now. 







Thursday, January 16, 2014

Boys and their toys...

Tom has been having waaaay too much fun with his temperature gun. 
He checks the walls, the floors, the heat pump intake and outlets, the dog. I think his giggling is the most disconcerting. :)

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

White walls!

I love them on my car and I love them in my house!!!
For our few faithful followers (some of whom have NAGGED me for not posting pics in a few days) here is the blank canvas upon which we shall paint (after texture, of course). The texture guy is really busy and will be out to finish up on Monday. 



It's probably a blessing in disguise. Now I can get out there and do a thorough clean before they do the texture. 

Still getting bids on cabinets. I suppose I should go into a big box store to compare, too. I'm running out of time!!!



Monday, January 13, 2014

Final insulation

The final insulation is going in as I type...  The batts under the floor and the blow-in insulation in the attic.  
The heat pump has been fixed and the house is a comfortable temperature for working. Tom can expound upon that topic. I'm just happy we can return the behemoth diesel heater today!
Texture guy will be here this afternoon to mask windows and prime! Should be back to texture on Thursday, I think.
Guess I'd better get some paint ordered, eh?

Friday, January 10, 2014

It will be done right...

The original taper that I hired (who brought 6 different guys at various times to help) is coming out tomorrow to finish the job. I rescheduled the texture guy to Wed or Thurs. I was really hoping to get some paint on the walls this weekend, but no such luck. I'd rather have it done right, though.

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

The bad along with the good...

This whole 'Hey, let's build a house!' thing generally has been a wonderful experience so far. That's not to say it's been without problems. I guess if I want to be the General Contractor, that entails managing the subs. Good and bad.  I will say that the large majority of them have been GREAT to work with. I still smile when I think about our framing contractor who got so animated about barge board. Love him! There always has to be a couple bad apples in the barrel, though, just to make you really appreciate the good ones. There was the roofer who showed up hung over, balked at safety harnesses and (the final straw) tried skipping the tarpaper on part of the roof. The lead roofer, fixed it and didn't bring that guy back. The latest was a taping duo who were making themselves comfortable and padding their time sheets. I'm really not confrontational, but don't cheat me. I try to be more than fair in my business dealings and won't tolerate dishonesty. First time I had to kick someone off my job. Crap. Now I have to get the last bit sanded before the texture guys come tomorrow!!

Fired!

I'm so proud of my bride and partner, who this morning confronted the latest pair of drywall finishers for padding their time sheets. They didn't impart any confidence anyway, and the job is done save for a small amount of sanding. The end result is a very nice surface, and the texture-seal crew starts this Thursday! 

Monday, January 6, 2014

Sunshine!!!

It's really cold outside, but the sunshine is so bright in the real house!
So many things to look forward to about moving in here but I think the BRIGHTNESS is near the top of the list for me.


Sunday, January 5, 2014

Hhhnnnngggghhhhh

What am I doing? I'm staring cross eyed at wires...where do they all go?


Saturday, January 4, 2014

Almost...

There were three tapers here today, which turns out to be their last day. It's not done, and is being turned to another "team" to finish the high foyer, garage and first floor sanding. This is turning out to be a story for the campfire, the very odd lead taper. Excellent workmanship, but we won't refer him without full disclosure first! We expect they'll finish by mid week, and leaving slightly over budget (~10%) but a very nice canvass on which to lay pigment. I don't know who or when the seal and texture will go on, Sandi is handling that. 

I'm still working on building the security system. We should be able to power up and have a minimal system operable to guard our stuff. 
I know it doesn't look like much yet, but it's started and I have a plan!


Thursday, January 2, 2014

Forgot to post this last month. The first snow of the season. And hopefully the last! 

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Happy New Year!

Five years ago we had a dream, money and *almost* a building permit. 2014 is now our Year of the House. It really looks like we are going to pull it off just past that 5-year mark. 
Spent most of today puttering on the house. Added an insulation well at the attic stair and with the help of Mike B added a framework in the attic on which to lay planking without crushing the (soon to add) blow in insulation. 
While I was up there, I installed a digital antenna I have, up about two feet below the peak. That puts the Terk FM Pro aerial at about 28-30' above ground. I think we will have excellent reception. Still to be done before insulation is to box in the four speakers that mount up in that ceiling. 

Oh yea, no word yet on the heat pump problem. Waiting for a part. 

So with appliances here I'm thinking about security, which made me want to get the wiring center moving along. 
Taped only. It's an attic. 

Now primed and sealed. No paint, it's an attic. 

Now I am staging for trimming of the systems. That's some audio stuff on the left. I should have the alarm on shortly, at least as a basic system. I sent our window screens out for alarm modification, but they're not back yet so it's doors and motions and perhaps a shotgun on a trip wire. Don't try it!

We met a guy named Don today, another in a series of drywall finishers. I think it's almost done but our guy won't say and I'm not allowed to ask him. I will speculate optimistically for paint-ready the 3rd, or 4th weekend of January or perhaps sometime in February...