New house, new...

...job!  I've done the "new house, new baby" thing twice already.  I figured I'd change things up a bit this time.  I am now officially my dad.  Auburn Middle School 8th grade science teacher.

On the house front - this week has been very busy and exhausting laying flooring.  Amy came over with the kids on Thursday and loaded all the trash from the garage into the dumpster.  Thursday and Friday nights Amy and I worked until nearly midnight to get the dining/kitchen/front hall/foyer floors done.   Restarting the flooring after stopping for a day was wicked hard since the glue that sets in at the tongue of the last finished row can prevent the first new row of the day form going in.  Amy and I wrestled with the first row on Thursday for over an hour trying to scrape hardened glue out from under the tongues after the new glue was already spread.  Very messy.

With the floors done my dad and I started installing cabinets today.  Met with Jeff again about grading the back yard.  He guaranteed it would be done this weekend... but then again, that guarantee has been in place every weekend since October and nothing has been done yet.  We'll see.

The view down the hall towards the front door.

The front foyer and front closet.  When we got to the closet with the flooring we discovered that the closet is 2 inches out of square!  The right side of the closet is a full 2" deeper than the left.  Drunk framers...

Looking into the dining room bay.  The tape is used to hold the joints tight while the glue sets. 

Two top cabinets up.  Dad is chipping away at the plaster to get the wire for the under-cabinet lighting to come out just below the cabinet.  The top cabinets took a long time since we also had to cut out hole in the back of each to allow for an outlet for the over cabinet lighting.

All that could be done today.  Having stuff in the room will take some getting used to.

The pantry corner.  Top cabinet on the left will hold microwave and cookbooks in open shelves.  Fridge will go to the left of those.  Stove goes in the gap between the two cabinets.  Deep drawers will hold pots and pans.  Range hood will go between the uppers.

Apron sink goes on the low section.  Dish washer to the left in the opening.  2nd oven goes in the open cabinet to the right of the sink.  Once the counter top is on there will be a tower on the far right and left with glass front cabinets up top.

Happy Anniversary

On May 18, 2010 the first trees were cleared from our lot and this whole process began in earnest.
Here's an update on where things stand one year later:

One year ago, yesterday.

A slow week for me while the finish carpenters set up shop in the kitchen, play room, and garage to install stairs and balcony railings.  But now that they're out of there I'm getting going on the kitchen/dining/front hall floors.

With the stairs done we could start installing real flooring Friday after work.  Started in the play room.  The laundry room was the first room done thanks to a late Saturday night with Amy.

Continued into the rest of the room on Sunday.  I did the little closets in the morning and dad came over for the afternoon to do the big area.

This helps explain why my back hurt all week...

The new toy: pneumatic flooring nailer.  After struggling to make it work (not split or buckle the wood) and still messing up a lot of spots, I did some research and discovered strand woven bamboo is best glued down since it is so hard and nearly impossible to nail.  The rest of the house will be glued.

After a hard day's work.  But we got the whole thing done in a weekend!

Carpenters were delayed because one of the newell posts was damaged on delivery.  We got the new one with the door delivery and the balcony railing is now done!  No more fear of letting the kids go upstairs.

The top of the stair case as seen from the play room.

The top of the stair case as seen from the landing outside the bedrooms.

Tile guy was also there to do the shower and bathtub tiling.   A little more wood trim work to do around the tub and then it's done.  You can't see it from here, but the shower floor is tumbled stones to match the band up on the shower wall.  Meeting with the glass wall guy this weekend.

A sad week.

I'm guessing most people reading this know that my good friend, Dave Brodeur, was killed in Afghanistan last week.  He was a Major in the Air Force deployed in Kabul to train Afghan pilots.  Please keep him and his family in your thoughts and prayers.

Since then, things have been a blur and motivating to work on the house has been near impossible.   I'll try my best to update on the work done since my last post. 

The last few weeks have seen a few things visibly change.  But mostly it's been organizing, planning, and coordinating people.  Had a great weather weekend to urethane all the upstairs windows.  I managed to get that done with a lot of help from dad.  

Prepped the bathroom for tiling the shower and tub.

Met with the carpenter doing the stairways and railings.  He started Tuesday and things are looking good so far.  Pictures of that soon.

Plumber came to hook up well, run basement piping, and put in outside fixtures.  One of them has hot and cold water.  Hello outdoor shower!  While he was there I convinced him to install one bathroom so we could get rid of the outhouse.  He also needed to cut my central vac pipes to run his, so I had to do some reworking of that...

The well is connected and wired.  Unfortunately, I wired it wrong (120 V instead of 240 V), so they couldn't turn it on.  I fixed the wiring today and turned it on myself.  Very scary to start pumping water at pressure into the house.  A few clanks and bangs that made my heart stop, but otherwise no issues... except the leak at one of the joints in the basement ceiling.  SO Shut everything down and get the plumber back.  Just hoping there aren't any inaccessible leaks behind walls.

Started laying bamboo flooring in the playroom to learn how to do it.  This is the tiger strip style for that room.  Only a few messed up nails with the new nail gun.  Having Amy there to help made it go way faster.  She measured and cut.  I nailed.

Trimmed out the master bath tub so the tiler could continue his work.  The angled corner step seemed like a good idea when it was rough framed.  The trim details were a little hairy.  Also trimmed out that window.  Everything is ready for tile.

The waterproofed walls and sloped mud bed.  Ready for the next phase.

Moved the swing that my Uncle Kirk made to the porch.  We had our first real opportunity to use the porch last night when Meg, Tara, Jenny, Amy, and I were interviewed by Curt Nickisch for a story about Dave on NPR.  It was a good experience to hang out and tell stories.  I'm looking forward to hearing what he puts together for his report.  It's supposed to air Friday on Morning Edition and again on Saturday for Weekend Edition.  I'll post a link when it's up.

Still waiting to connect the geothermal wells to the house.  One step closer since Jeff dug a trench to redirect the spring water away from where they'll have to trench.  Hopefully it'll be dry enough soon to connect to the house.

This is actually a photo from Simon's house, next door.  My plumber had never connected a sewer pump, so I had to do some research to figure out how it's done and pass it on to him.  He connected mine today.  The start-up inspection is scheduled for Friday.  Should have running water and a flushable toilet then!