Week Ending 11/29/2008

By Thanksgiving week we had painted most of the 1st floor area. 1/2 the furniture had arrived, and some pictures have gone up, along with holiday decorations. We were blessed to have a good representation of the Velazquez clan with us, and the house served us well. It was great to see it used in this way, and a real blessing for Josie. Within the month of December we plan to: repaint the 1st floor bathroom, finish the painting and cleaning of the basement, and build out the pantry. If time allows we'll also paint the 2nd floor hallway. We have guests almost every weekend.

Week Ending 11/15/2008

- Final trim installed, caulked, puttied, sanded, primed and painted for fireplace surround;

- Final grout to fireplace surround applied;

- Inspection of wood stove, and final inspection of project, completed;

- Downstairs doors continue to be painted and adjusted with final istallation.

- First of two furniture deliverys this week.

Week Ending 11/8/2008

- Paint prep and painting continue in 1st floor area, including windows and doors;
- Re-installing and final fitting of downstairs doors;
- Staining, painting and installing mantle;
- Confirmed 1st furniture delivery scheduled for 11/14.

Pictures of finished mantle, etc. will be posted next week, after painting completed.

Week Ending 11/1/2008

- Finished tile and grouting around fireplace;
- General painting and trimwork continue;
- Reconstruction of mantle primary focus to close wood stove permit;
- With non-combustible area complete, had first fires. Quite toasty!
- Celebrated one year anniversary since we moved back in.

Week Ending 10/25/2008

Painting, reconstruction of the mantle & fireplace area, installed remaining fireplace tile, trimwork.

Week Ending 10/18/2008

- We picked & ordered furniture (mostly couches/chairs) for the living room and family room. Estimated delivery mid-November and mid-December.
- Rented grinder and prepared European recycled tile for fireplace surround. What a mess!
- Installed sides of fireplace surround, now waiting for replacement tile to finish (next week).
- Primed wainscot in upstairs hall and stairway.

Week Ending 10/11/2008

- The grass has really filled in
- More landscaping has our front gardens filled out with different types of lavendar and roses
- Paint prep (caulk, putty, sanding & priming) in the living room, stairway and 2nd floor hall
- The tile arrived and has been installed for the hearth. Since it is 100+ year old tile "reclaimed" from a house demo in Europe, it's taking time removing cement and grout off the remaining tile (for the surround). We are awaiting five replacement pieces.
- Replacement parts & repair for some plumbing fixtures.
- The wood stove has been installed
- In the process of choosing furniture.

Week Ending 09/20/2008

- With the one exception of the garage door, all exterior painting is now completed.

- Every day something is painted inside.

- Nearly every day some trim is installed.

- The lawn has been regraded, and most of the previous landscaping (which has outgrown the location) has been removed. The lawn has been seeded, and is coming up.

- As I cut the old lawn, just prior to the yardwork, the lawn mower broke! The deck split in half due to rust. It is likely the new lawn will get a new mower by the spring. Timing.

- The entire fireplace area is being reconstructed, partially due to code requirements for the new wood stove, which is due for installation 10/7. The following picture shows the fireplace wall with previous trim removed, with the hearth removed, and with the wood floor extended to facilitate code and the new tile for the hearth (which is due to arrive any day).

Week Ending 08/30/2008

Progress on the house was mingled with vacations, camps and preparation for school to start. Exterior painting was the priority and is nearly completed. The mudroom has been completed, and some additional trimwork, including shelving in the kid's rooms has been done.

As we face the fall, the pace of work should increase, with the kids now in school. The town has confirmed the Certificate of Occupancy was delayed due to other builders escalating their own paperwork. That has been resolved, and I've been assured ours will have priority completion. Landscaping quotes are coming in, and the beginning of the end of interior construction is in site, as the fireplace insert has been ordered. Installation due 10/7.

Week Ending 07/26/2008

This week we received, and submitted to the town, the final "As Built" drawings from the surveyor, which verified and validated our meeting the 20% footprint of the property for zoning.

We continued exterior trim painting, and continued trim buildout, including the upstairs wainscot.

Since the wainscot will be wrapping around and down the stairs, across the foyer and over the front wall of the living room, this also prompted discussions regarding a wood stove and reconstruction of the hearth and mantle area.

Week Ending 07/19/2008

Most of the week has been sunny and hot, exceeding 90. Today will reach 100, with very thick humidity. Most of my work has been exterior painting in the early mornings and afternoons. In between has been camp runs. Once again, our friend Jenna helped (thank you!). Josie also caulked the upstairs wainscot.

While some of our product warranty calls have gone unanswered, I was finally able to get the surveyor to come out and measure, which he did today (Saturday). Once we get his final drawings, assuming the measurements meet requirements, we should have fulfilled all requirements for the town.

Week Ending 07/12/2008

After a few weeks out-of-pocket, we needed to start this week with adminisrative catch up. We checked with the zoning department, who confirmed they were still waiting for the "as built" drawings signed off by the surveyor. Neither the surveyor or archetect could be reached. One of our vendors (a not-so-good one) is threatening to send us to collections for what they claim are outstanding payments, warranting the need to dig into records and receipts to get them to back off. With those and other items resolved, we turned to the house itself.

It was near 90 degrees, very sunny and very humid. Most of the week was spent building out the wainscot on the walls in the upstairs hall. This will take several stages (most of the drawing being completed), and is prompting final planning for the stairwell and fireplace surround.

Finally, exterior painting has (once again) started in earnest. Most of the work will have to be done at sun up (about 5:30am), with a break around 11:00am, then starting again after 6:00pm. Hopefully the constant warnings of thunderstorms will hold off for a while, as there is a lot to do.

Week Ending 07/05/2008

After a couple of weeks away (Block Island and Scout camp), we're back to work. This week we had special help from Pete Hoffman, a very good friend who flew in from Michigan to help us get our automation up to speed. The morning after Pete arrived the cable guy came to set up a 3-1 service, including phone, TV and data. We ended up getting a great guy, and Pete made sure what he did would deliver what we were looking for. Pete worked very long hours for the 4th of July weekend. The result is that we now have wired internet access in most rooms, as he resolved the wiring shortcuts taken by our electrician and the phone guy. We also have wireless access throughout the property. Unfortunately, our main media room lost cable connectivity somehow during the renovation. It appears a wire or connection was damaged. We have yet to identify the exact problem, and may need to open sheetrock to fix it. Nonetheless, all other cable connections are working, and we were able to isolate much of that one issue.

Thank you Pete for all your hard work!!

The building inspector finally made it, and signed off on the building inspection. Next step is the zoning approval, which will result in our obtaining the c/o. We're almost there....

Week Ending 6/21/2008

Some painting done this week. Electrician came and addressed building inspector concerns. Building inspector scheduled for what we hoped to be final inspection, but he didn't show. C'est la vie. The elusive C/O will have to wait.

Week Ending 06/14/2008

Built headboard, repaired walls and ceiling, upgraded outlets, caulked, primed and painted guest room.

Week Ending 05/31/2008

Down and dirty. Friday our builder stopped by to offer some fill dirt from another local project he's working on. Hey, it's free. So after he used his backhoe to fill the dump truck, he drove it over to our place and dropped off two truckloads of good old New England dirt. For those who don't know, there's lots of rock in the rich soil of New England. For the next three days, armed with shovels, a rake and empty 5-gallon plater buckets, the kids and I moved the piles to where we wanted them in an effort to level out the back yard. I offered the kids $1 per bucket of rocks they extracted. While I ended up paying them $47, we hardly made a dent in the rock situation. Nonetheless, the piles are gone and the lawn is that much bigger and more level. Our aim is to move back into the woods about 8' to our property line and to level off the back yard (which was tiered), giving us roughly 240 square feet of new lawn, and all of it useable.

In addition, this week there was interior painting, layout work for the 2nd floor wainscot, we tried installing the cable but need one more CAT5 to install that, and had work done on the kitchen cabinetry.

Week Ending 05/24/2008

Of the three concerns the inspector had, one has been addressed. Though we appealed to him for how to deal with the other two, the electrician will have to come. That is being scheduled.

The screens were delivered. All fit but one. We're getting there.

The foyer was tiled; and, with that, the floors are finally done. It is the first time we've not had exposed sub-floor since last May.

With help from the boys (a little) I created a small garden area in the front, the first real landscaping effort. The 18 square foot area yielded over 4 5-gallon buckets overflowing with rocks.

Some interior painting and general detail work was also done.

Week Ending 05/17/2008

I don't know if "the devil's in the details" or "the devil's in the process." Possibly both.

Most of the last two weeks I've been driving for the final inspection. The good news is that the leak in the front door and the footprint issue seem to be resolved. We have received a Waiver of Lien from the builder, and he has received our last payment. I've been preparing the foyer for the tile (sub floor layed, lines snapped, tile ordered). The oak treads on both front entrances have been sanded, stained and polyeurothaned. Similar small work has been done; thus, the details comment above.

On Friday, 5/16, the inspector came by for the last time...we thought. Unfortunately, he found three items of concern. One, installing a steel door in the garage for plumbing access, was mentioned previously and not completed. The other two were never mentioned. They are, 1) the light above the master bath either shouldn't be there or needs to be at a regulation height. He wasn't sure which and will get back to me. The second, the outlet by the boy's sinks should be in the middle, or there should be one on both sides. In both cases, there have been several opportunities to address these, including from the drawings and at the electrical inspection. Waiting until each room is nearly complete is ... very unfortunate. More to come.

Week Ending 05/03/2008

Several benchmarks this week.

- Heavy rain showed the front door leak is now resolved;

- The builder surprised us by coming over and replacing the exterior basement door with a smaller version, thereby reducing the overall footprint of the house to the legal limit;

- The door headers were finished;

- The 2nd floor linen closet was built out (as the first of 5 closets upstairs).

The saw still does not work properly, and has been returned for complete repairs. Plenty to do in the mean time...

Week Ending 04/26/2008

Just a couple of mitre cuts away from completing the door headers my saw broke, about two weeks ago. I just got that back from the shop and should be able to have the headers completed soon. In the mean time, I took on the final painting of the family room (see pictures). This is now the first room completed. The detail and work involved in painting the doors and windows was more than I anticipated. Also, the tape we used to mask the ceiling when painting the walls ripped off the ceiling paint. So I needed to scrape, putty, sand, prime and repaint the entire perimeter of the vaulted ceiling. Nonetheless, it's done.

Put all the screens up; and, in doing so, found that a good number of the windows came with the wrong color screens. I thought several were missing (they had all been stored in the basement for safety). In looking through the garage I found a couple apparently hidden behind plywood, as they were damaged and covered with plaster. Fortunately, they were the wrong color also. This was due to an ordering error by the retailer, and all of them should be changed out.

No progress yet on the house footprint. This week we finally got the door provider to show up. He did some work on the front door, which apparently did not have some basic sealer in place. The result seems to be a leak-proof door (per hose tests). We are expecting some heavy rain to start the new week, which will b the acid test.

Week Ending 3/29/2008

While there has been little progress on the footprint and front door leak issues, the tangible streak of progress from last week continues.

One of the largest standard-of-living impacts of the project was finally realized when the plumber came this week and installed the faucets for the boy's bathroom and the master bathroom, and repaired some issues with previously installed items. For the first time all bathrooms are 100% functional.

The phone company connected all the jacks, and the water company installed an electric transmiter on the meter, allowing them to wirelessly read the meter from the street.

The container was removed from our front yard, providing the first unrestricted view of the new house from the street since the container and dumpster were delivered, this time last year.

Progress on the door headers / trim is in full production, and layout of the upstairs hall wainscot has begun.

Week Ending 3/22/2008

Our Cabinet maker came and installed the covers for the beams, as well as making final adjustments and additions to the cabinetry (cabinet shelves, fridge panel, cover for exposed pipe in mudroom). Actually, he couldn't fit all 6 14+' boards in his van, so I had to go pick them up with our Suburban. It was fun helping him install these.

I also spent a good part of the week completing the wainscot in the master bathroom, employing some of the most complicated carpentry I've used to date. I started building the headers for doorways (which will take several weeks), and worked to clean out the storage container on our front lawn. The call has been made, and this should be picked up in a couple of days.

All this was while waiting for some promises of "I'll get back to you" by some trades, which I'll need to follow up with on Monday. Regardless of the administrivia, it was great to return to some tangible work with tangible results this week.

Happy Easter!

Week Ending 3/16/2008

When administration is the order of the day, pictures and frequent updates don't have the same value. Most of the punchlist has been addressed, and paid for. The door leak has been addressed twice, but it is still leaking. Builder is now planning on removing and re-installing the front door, but waiting for me to get the door maker on site as well. Footprint issue pending final specs from the architect. Plumber expected next Tuesday. Final cabinetry pending for this week. I've been working on trim, where possible.

At the same time, we've had a birthday party for Ben (6 boys), party with our sailing friends (14 adults), and Church group (10 adults). It's been great to see the house in action and realize the functional benefits of all the work. We are hoping and praying that this month will mark the end of the functional and legal (C.O.) hurdles of the project.

More to come.

Week Ending 3/1/08

March is here, and with it the beginning of the end of this winter.

The grouting of the boy's bathroom is completed, and we have requested the plumber's last visit to get the master and boy's bathroom faucets installed.

Most of the week was consumed with communicating with the builder. We are now down to the punch-list (see above), and our relationship has deteriorated significantly. After a very ugly call we left it that he would send me a confirmation of the final outstanding balance (which he did), and I would send him the punch-list with corresponding valuations for each item (which I did, along with a check for the outstanding balance beyond the punch-list valuation). I have not heard from him since. Legal threats have been made (by him). Lawyers have been retained.

Unless there is a significant change in trajectory, we will be going down a pathway in which no one wins. I hope that is not the case; and, while I wait to hear from him, I followed up on other warranty and service issues. With this new month, I hope this is also the beginning of the end of the project.

Week Ending 2/23/2008

Kids were off for winter break this week. It was great to experience our home as the "vacation villa!" Progress was compromised, but it was well worth it.

The mirror was installed in the master bathroom. The master shower door was also adjusted and now looks great. We ran out of tile for the boy's bathroom, but were able to get a new shipment quickly and their bathroom tile is completed (just needing to be grouted). We've started to empty out the container on the front lawn, filling our home with the contents. With warm weather and little helpers, we also started some landscaping cleanup, in addition to cleaning inside.

Week Ending 2/16/2008

As much as this has been a busy week, there is little tangible evidence. The two primary areas of focus this week were administrative and the boy's bathroom tile. With the first, product and service issues needed to be addressed. The list of products which don't work, or services rendered with low quality requires a lot of phone calling and convincing. This will doubtless go on for a while, but it needed focus to get the "ball rolling" across many fronts.

The boy's bathroom tile has been great to finally address; and, as everyone who's ever wall-papered a bathroom has told me, there are a lot of detailed cuts and angle matching. The result is very rewarding, and prepares us for the final call to the plumber (hopefully), to install the master and boy's sinks. That, unfortunately, will likely be held up now due to issues with our builder; but, first things first. The tile and grouting should be completed mid-next week.

I was also able to finish preparation of the frame for the master bathroom mirror. We're now just waiting for the glass to come.

Finally, there was damage to the boy's bathroom counter in installation. While my heart dropped at the time, the vendor was very quick and detailed in their remote-assistance. By the end of the week the counter was back to new. While I'm not planning on going into the fabrication business, there is great satisfaction in fixing it myself.

Week Ending 2/09/2008

A good week for progress, with many thanks to our dear friend Angelo, who came over to help on Monday and Tuesday. All of the previously cut and painted plinth blocks were installed. Angelo and I were able to install the boy's countertop and cut all of the legs (vertical trim) for the recently hung doors. By the end of the week all of these trim components were painted and installed. Angelo moved an outlet above the Master Bath sink, allowing us to install the trim for the mirror (see picture). With all of the plinth blocks now in, we were able to finish most of the baseboard installation. Angelo also put on the shoe moulding and base-cap in the guest room and hallway on the first floor, finishing the base trim package in each area. A great deal of caulking and puttying followed, in which Josie is becoming a real Ace. Jenna also came by on the weekend to help sand down the recently puttied nail holes.

The glass doors for the Master and Boy's shower areas were also installed. We decided to leave Jessica's tub surround with a regular curtian, for now(see pictures).

With rain during the week, we continue to have leakage in the foyer area, after I caulked a noticable gap in the exterior door trim. The builder is saying I (as the painter) should have caulked every place exterior trim meets cedar shingles. Every source I have consulted has said 1) this should not be necessary 2) the caulk will show and 3) the caulk will not hold to the cedar. With payment of the final amounts being due, we will be dealing with this (and other punch-list issues) in the week(s) to come.

Week Ending 2/02/2008

Superbowl, super Tuesday or super tired, I completely forgot to update the blog this week.

After trimming the cupola the week before (thank you Marc) I painted and cleaned it (see photo). I also cut and painted 42 plinth blocks, as part of the door trim package. Much of the week was spent correcting uneven walls and installing shims so that the door trim would go on without large gaps (see diagram). Since the walls were largely non-plumb, and the doors were (thankfully) hung plumb, I had to shim the difference. Half of the doors had the vertical trim cut painted and installed.

The most exciting part of the week was when a 130 lb. package arrive via FedEx. It was the boys countertop (see photo). If you'd like to see more about this exciting product, check out http://www.shetkastone.com/ and look for their shredded green product called "counterfit." Made from 100% recyled materials, it's pretty cool.

Sorry for the awkward photos. Having PC issues.

Week Ending 1/26/2008

What a whirlwind of a week. For three days we had 3 trim workers here installing the rest of the doors. By Wednesday all doors were in. Thursday my brother Marc came up from North Carolina with his 18-month old son, Noah. That same day, chiminy cleaners came to make sure we didn't burn the place down. While Grammie, Josie and my kids entertained Noah, Marc and I got as much trim and caulk work done as we could. Marc also resolved some other gnawing "to dos" on my list. Hard to capture it all in pictures, but here are a few samples...

Week Ending 1/20/08

Most window trims are done. Doors (correct doors) finally delivered. Two doors installed (thank you Angelo!). Found water leak in foyer. Boy's bathroom countertop ordered, glass shower doors ordered, final tile for bathrooms received, steel I-Beam from lawn finally picked up.

Week Ending 1/12/08

Not much to show with pictures. Pushing trim, especially completion of windows. All window trims should be done by next week, in time for the doors to come!

Week Ending 1/05/08

- Interior trim

- Interior paint

It's a new year, and we've cleaned up the Christmas decorations, which leaves the living room feeling a bit empty again. The recent push on trim has allowed us to make progress on very visible elements which have gnawed at us for a while now. In perfect timing for some real cold weather (8 degrees), this included filling in some breezy gaps where the floor met the walls.