So much dirt work done... I love the new yard.....

So much dirt work done... I love the new yard.....
Originally uploaded by polyartgirl

Denny moved a mountain of dirt... I think it looks amazing out there. Somehow this work made the house look even more like a home...

<3

Lots of mudding and taping done!! Looks amazing...

Lots of mudding and taping done!! Looks amazing...
Originally uploaded by polyartgirl

We have to have all three bedrooms and the hallway taped/mudded, textured, and painted by the 10th. We're well on our way after this weekend. I really think we'll be able to finish on time now...

Dirt and mud and chaos day 2

Pablo went crazy with the mudding again today. He and Crystal and Christie worked in the house today. I spent another day on the skid steer. I'd call it a Bobcat because that's what most folks call 'em but this one was a Cat so it seems unfair to do that. I got all the basic dirt work done that I was interested in getting to so now while Crys keeps working on the inside dry wall finishing I'll be outside getting started on the pump/powerhouse.

Our plumber says that he'll be ready for the plumbing rough in inspection on Tuesday. If that happens we can finish putting up the drywall. All but one piece that's waiting on the insulation guy to finish up the re-install of the kitchen island vent hood.

As always, lots and lots to do. Hopefully there's time enough to get to it all.

Dirt and mud and chaos

Pablo came out today and got a whopping load of drywall finishing done. He and Crystal worked on that. I went and borrowed a skid steer (bobcat, though this one is a catapillar brand) and got a good start on the dirt work. So lots of drywall got done, and lots of dirt got moved. I'm thinking tomorrow will be more of the same.

Funny story though.... sort of..... my friend Larry loaned me his trailer to go get the machine. So far so good... but then some of it shredded when I loaded the heavy bastard. I called him right away and he's not worried about it. Then driving home the tailgate fell OFF. I didn't notice and had to haul ass back to get it outta the road before someone crashed their brains out by running it over. Musta looked funny.... I parked the truck and trailer and ran like hell to my pickup to haul ass back to look for that tailgate. :D So it was a bit of a rocky start but it's turning out well.

AND the plumber showed up today AND he put in the propane line. I ran a couple spare 2" pipes in the ditch and covered the whole mess up. Hopefully I'll remember to get some pics tomorrow.

a bit at a time

The plumber is working, perhaps an inspection by Tuesday. This weekend I hope to get some dirt work done. If my buddy comes through with the skid steer he offered a while back. :D I got one measly sheet of dry wall up last night and the spacers built for the ends of the tubs. Tonight? More drywall. That's pretty much it.


Getting a little weary. It would be nice to go home tonight and see the wood stove chimney in the right place......

Ups and downs

The good news today is all about folks coming to help with the carpet installation. That's a very wonderful thing. Especially since I've never done carpet and have no idea how to go about it.

On the other hand the plumber was absent yesterday and today. Oddly because he forgot to renew his license in June and just found out. :D So hopefully he's all reinstated and will be here tomorrow. This is good. He's currently holding up progress. I think plumbers get off on this.

And the other guy I hired put in the chimney today. Of course after having been shown twice before he actually installed it perfectly in the wrong fucking room. I'm hoping he's back tomorrow.

We'll see how tomorrow goes. Today was a bit rough.

Time vs space, the continuum

So I took these pics a week or two ago..... and then didn't get them uploaded from camera to internet. Then there was a birthday party and took a couple days to get those pics uploaded...... The ones of the worksite no longer apply. It doesn't look anything like them any more. Might have to take a few more today.

No plumber yesterday. He had family stuff come up and that always should come first.

We now have every sheet of drywall up that we can do until the plumbing, stove chimney and range hood are here and installed. Probably about a week for those things. Then we have about 25 sheets to hang which is an easy weekends work. In the meantime there will be massive amounts of mudding and taping. Today I'll work on finishing out the window frames (got 5 done yesterday after getting the rest of the drywall sheets up) and there are 8 to go. Two have to wait on the plumber putting the tubs in.

Had a couple visitors yesterday, old friends. It's nice to take a break and show folks around. It's even more nice when they recognize that there's work to do and say, "don't quit working, we can chat with you while you do that".

I'm getting a little weary. So is Crystal. And now we're just about to the point where NORMAL people start a project. Carpet, flooring and stuff like that. :D

The plumber is in the building!!!!

It kinda took me making the show up or I have to find someone else phone call but Jan made it there at about 5 PM yesterday. He got started and got to drilling holes and figuring his layout. We can finish the hallway and it won't bug him so there's still dry wall to put up and he should be ready for the rough in inspection this week.

That means while Crys is at the Saturday showing of tuition and fees (pesky work thing) I'll be trying to finish the dry wall in the master bedroom and getting the hallway done if possible. We got 5 sheets up last night amongst final decisions on the plumbing and getting the wiring into the boxes for the LAN and TV stuff.

Once the last of the dry wall sheets are up the real rock work begins.... trimming out the windows and putting up corner bead and mudding and taping.

PLUS!!!! When the waterline and propane lines are in to their respective main service locations I can go ahead and backfill that damned trench that's been keeping me from getting the pump/power house up. Look for LOTS of dirt work over the labor day weekend while Crys is putting up tile and sponging mud. (I think I get the good part of this)

And by the way..... there is not way to spell tiling, tileing (the process of installing tile) that looks right so I reworded that part. OCD much?

And did you know that Jones Soda has commemorative Buffy the Vampire Slayer sodas? I'd already have some but their shipping is prohibitive.

Pesky day job....

Made some good progress yesterday, still have the bedroom to finish. I got called out at 3 AM for a couple hours which always makes me a little weary, then went to work for my regular shift. Crystal had to go in frighteningly early today so we decided she should take a little break last night and get to bed early. I got a few sheets up, finished the bedroom ceiling and the South wall and got one sheet (of 4) up on the West Wall. Got cleaned up and got called in to work until this morning at 3 AM when I finally got done. Crawled into bed, Crys' alarm went off what seemed like seconds later and I slept in what I could.

I'm thinking tonight we'll both be pretty tired and that tends to impact productivity. :D Not that big a deal, I think we'll still make our goal of getting the drywall done in time for Crys' mom and Jesse to help us (show us... do it.....) put in the carpet.

And the plumber SWEARS he'll get started today.

Slackers

Only 5 sheets today. Finished the TV room and we got most of the master bedroom ceiling up. Also put in boxes for LAN and TV based on Crystal's gentle reminder that we might want that. I figure I'll make a hub and TV switching location somewhere in the pantry. Plumber swears he'll start tomorrow and the guy doing the chimney says he'll be there in a week. I actually believe the second guy :D

Now if we can just nearly finish that bedroom tomorrow......

Another day another 8

It would appear that we get 8 sheets done a night during the week. :D Got 8 on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and got another 8 today. We got 30 over the weekend but we spent a lot more time there hitting it. So we're getting there, slow but sure. Maybe not as slow as I think we are...... they are 12 foot sheets and nearly all have to be trimmed on at least one edge, most on two and then nearly every one has an outlet or light (or 2) in it.

Still.......

It's getting done. And that's what really needed to happen. We're taking tomorrow off for some "stuff".

Relaxing, perhaps some Choc Van Straw...

We got 30 sheets up this weekend. And 24 on the three week nights previous so that brings the total to 54. That leaves 59 to go. Got up all the lid I could in the open part of the house while Crystal did walls. So now 24 of the 35 can lights are cut in, and not too badly if I must say so myself. Had to leave a hole for the island range hood to go into and a space for the wood stove flue to be installed. The entire exterior wall on the North side is done, along with the same for the East side. Tomorrow night we'll work on the rest of the living/TV room, then it's on to the master bath while (cross your fingers) the plumber get us all set for the plumbing starting tomorrow.

And special thanks to Christie and Autum for coming out. Christie did the low expansion spray foam in every single window and door in the whole place. Priceless.

Gotta get backfilled and started building the oversize pump house...... It's the middle of August you know.

plodding along

No new track record today. We got another 8 sheets up. And that officially makes us now under 100 to go. :D .... 97 to be exact. That's if I counted right when I planned and bought material. I think we'd have gotten more than 8 tonight but we did the closet. Closets are small and close in and a giant pain in the buttocks. So we finished the one bedroom, did all of the closet we could do until the plumber has finished, and got one sheet hung in the ceiling of the master bath. Tomorrow night we'll blow and go on the green board, one length across the ceilings and sheets down the outside wall all the way through to the dinning room.

We'll just have to see what tomorrow holds.

Full of Sheet

We are officially putting up 113 sheets of drywall as fast as humanly possible.

Tonight after work we got 8 up. Might be fun to keep a daily tally.

I tired

Insulated!!

This isn't the clearest picture. You should see it in person... All the walls are filled in and we're warm and dry for winter!! The insulator guy will come back and put in the triple wall for the wood stove. The plumber starts on Monday.

The guys carried in 113 sheets of drywall yesterday!! I cleverly scheduled it all to happen while I was at work. ;) All I had to do was make the phone calls/texts to schedule everybody and then buy beer at the end of the day. I call that a win for me.

Vacated

The ditches are dug, waiting for the plumber. The whole house is cleared out so that the insulation dudes can do their foamy stuff. All the stuff from in the house is under a heavy duty 16X20 tarp in the yard.

I'm beat.

At some point I'll get to fill the ditches, soon we start drywalling and I"ll have to start on the pump/power house.

I'm thinking we get to rest sometime near the end of September.