Category: House Plans

“It Looks Like A Bomb Went Off”

I’m at the laundromat again which means you all get another update. I like this place more than I should and today it’s completely empty which makes me like it even more.

Our contractor stopped by to leave a check for on of his subs right after my last post. It was the first time we’d talked to him in a little while. He said this project was taking much longer than expected. Not what we wanted to hear, but not unexpected. They told us up front that demo and getting the foundation in was going to be something they wouldn’t even put a timeline on because it was so hard to find subcontractors to do it, much less get them scheduled. He also said, “It looks like a bomb went off here.” Again, not exactly what you want to hear as the homeowner, but again, not unexpected. It validated how I’m feeling lately that the house is truly a total disaster and I’m not just hypersensitive.

He answered a few of my other questions and we talked about a few things that aren’t on the plans that we needed addressed so he asked me to write them on the plans.

Let’s talk about these plans for a second. These plans are the builder plans and there are a few sets of them. One they keep back at the office and one that stays at our house, the Field Set. It’s the Bible of the project. I love these plans and I have every intention of keeping them when we are done- assuming someone doesn’t accidentally throw them away. It’s fun to see all the notes on them, the dirty hand prints, and the wear and tear.

The contractor asked me to draw on the plans exactly were the plumbing that was left off the plan goes in the basement. This plumbing is for a kitchen that we could potentially put in later as a mother-in-law apartment, but don’t plan on finishing now. This is more nerve wracking than I can explain. Based on where I put it, it will be exactly there because the plumber will come in and do EXACTLY what I write. I got our my ruler, my pencil, and quadruple checked my math.

This was actually a good exercise because it got Mike and I looking at the lighting schematics and realizing that there are a few things that got left off of those as well. Looking at the plans and realizing that is what this place is going to be in a few months makes me excited. Even if every time we look at them we seem to find one more thing that got left off or end up with 10 more questions.

The other thing that is exciting to see if the building up of things, not just the tearing down of things. It’s emotionally more satisfying than anything. It feels like a sign that this place is going to actually get finished at some point. I don’t think I’ll Be super excited until the framing is done, but it’s weird to look at the foundation starting to come together and realize those are actual walls and they enclosed space that will soon be our home. The foundation rebar is in so forma should be in early next week. I’m really hoping by next weekend we have a foundation!

There are lots of goofy, quirky, and sometimes frustrating stories that go along with having crews at the house all the time. We never really know when to expect them so occasionally I’ll be chasing cats in my pajamas and they’ll roll in or I’ll find them sleeping in their van while parked directly in front of our fire hydrant while they wait for their boss to arrive.

One of the crews has this van that needs a jump every day. We’ve jumped them, my in-laws have jumped them, and they’ve used our jump box a few times. Yesterday they took the jump box with them and went to another job. Annoying. Especially when Mike realized his own truck wouldn’t start and he needed it to go get hay.

We asked the two teenage boys that were at the house working about it and he said the other crew would be there “soon” and bring the box. This was around 6. This van was also the guys ride so we knew they’d be back eventually.

They finished up the work they could do alone and waited. I talked to them around 7 and offered them some water as it was clear they didn’t really have anything with them. I also made sure they had power for their phones.

Around 9 we finally offered them a ride home. They said they couldn’t leave the tools or they would be in trouble. I felt bad. It’s hard to be terribly hospitable when you are living in a trailer. We didn’t even cook dinner last night to offer them something and don’t have a lot of food around right now as we were on vacation last week and have yet to go shopping. We fed kids their food last night and split a bag of pretzels for “dinner” because that’s just how the night worked out.

Finally, right around 10 and well after dark, the guys pulled in with the van, the jumpbox, and seats for the guys. I was happy, annoyed, and glad I could go to bed without worrying about them. Until this morning when I looked in the hole out back and saw that they just discarded all the empty water bottles I’d given them without even throwing them away in the dumpster. Then I was mostly just annoyed as shit.

I’ll still offer them water if it happens again, but I’ll probably point out to them that the courteous thing to do would be to thank me by not using my new house as a dumpster.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Can’t you live in the house during the renovation?

Lots of people have asked me this question and I think this video pretty well sums up why that isn’t possible.

The house, for the most part, is being completely demolished other than one room upstair and downstairs and the garage. This, combined with the fact that our Construction Loan doesn’t allow for it are the main reasons we couldn’t stay in the house and also had to move out all of our stuff. We can’t move back in until the city issues us a certificate of occupancy.

When Inside Becomes Outside

I know you are all losing sleep over this like I am, so here are your updates!

First, the insurance saga continues. I think we are close to figuring out a solution, but it’s a few more hundred dollars out of pocket to make sure we have the appropriate insurance to protect the entire property and our belongings. The long and short of it is that there never should have been a change requested to our policy, but since there was the insurance company rejected the new coverage which resulted in the cancellation of our homeowners insurance.  It’s extra complicated by the fact that we have out buildings (barn and detached garage), not just the property under construction. Lesson for those at home that ever take on a project like this is that you should talk to your insurance provider, figure our if it makes the most sense for you to carry the policy or your contractor, have them document everything, and never close on a loan when your insurance guy is on vacation.

Also, the labeling didn’t really work on everything in the house, I almost cried when I discovered this cabinet had been junked. Not because I was sad about the cabinet, but mainly because Mike was right when he told me the week before that we should just take the time to remove it so nothing happened to it. I kid. We saved all the upstairs cabinets to potentially be reused downstairs if we put in a mother-in-law apartment and this was the last one to the set. Heartbreaking.

Last week they got the east foundation dug out. See the house plans here if you aren’t familiar. It’s a crazy big hole even though the house is only coming out about 5 feet on that side.  The gas company hadn’t come out to move the gas yet, so they couldn’t finish that side out completely.

A few more photos from that stage that I never got around to posting last week are below.

Darwin took one look at the hole and wagged his finger at the excavator and said, “No, no, no.” He told me that the tractor made a huge mess and it was in trouble. He still tells me that the tractors stole the house, but they are going to put a new one in the hole so it’s okay. Poor little guy, it’s a lot to take in!

We have to pay to have all this dirt trucked out of here, so I am working on finding people on Facebook that want it all. Who knew that dirt brokering was such a lucrative business? Tomorrow we hopefully have a couple coming to get it all for their back yard and that will save us some money.

Fast forward to today and now all the sudden inside is outside and outside is inside because windows and walls are coming out!

A lot of demo has been done, but there is still a lot to do. Both the bathrooms still need to come out, the exterior of the entire house is coming off, and there are exterior walls that need to be removed, including large sections of the existing foundation. We are on our second dumpster already and there is so much more that needs to go.

We don’t have internet again. When they took the utility panel off the back of the house, the cable apparently ran through it. Darwin is devastated that Netflix is not working. We do have a port-a-potty though, so that’s a pretty good trade-off, right? I am hoping Darwin never discovers what it actually is or I will be taking 11pm trips to the port-a-potty, I guarantee it!

We met with the contractors and are finishing up most of the color selections and finishes. We have all the flooring, all the tile, the exterior finishes, and the cabinets picked. We just need to finish up by selecting countertops, backsplash tile, and a paint color. It’s a lot of work and it’s hard to visualize it all coming together so it will be exciting when it does. I feel like every time we meet we think of something that we didn’t specifically include in the bid like window well covers, an outside railing around the new basement stairs, egress ladders, etc. I really like our contractors though. They are very on top of things and pretty calm and collected which makes me feel better.

Trailer living is trailer living. I think the only part I really hate is dishes. Our sink is so small and the kitchen really has no space to dry everything. I need bottles for Trixie so it’s a bit of a never-ending process. Showers are similar, the shower has hot water and works just fine, but it’s just so small and I love a good bath so it’s hard to get used to really fast and cramped showers. Laundry is sometimes a problem, but not too bad. Mike had to run to his parents and do an emergency load of kid bedding on Monday for the first time, but at least we have options. We accidentally unplugged the trailer this weekend when we went to the lake house and lost all the food in the trailer fridge- we just weren’t thinking about it and were so used to closing everything up like we did before when we were hooked up to a converter. It’s been hot in Utah this week, a few days in the triple digits, but we’re decently comfortable all things considered. It just takes a while to cool the trailer off when we get home at night. It has pretty good storage everywhere except the kitchen and in our room, but having so much space in the garage and that being so close means thats not too big of an issue.

I’ll try to update again this weekend as I suspect there will be lots of big noticeable changes around here the rest of the week!

 

The Hole

Excavation officially started today! We are having to hide this fact from our toddler because his obsession with tractors will result in so many fights about how often he can go see the tractor and if he can go ride the tractor.

This window is in the basement and will be eventually replaced with a door leading to the new basement storage room. Here’s to hoping that window doesn’t get broken as it’s the window that will go into the front of the house in Trixie’s room. We’ve done a good job of repurposing all the windows in the remodel.

It’s like a very complicated paint by number in the house with everything labeled as to what stays and what goes, including walls.  

They must have also been interested in seeing just how much work it was to take out the exterior walls because one now has the tiniest of holes in it. I can see daylight inside.

Most of the basement flooring is also out now. Walking on broken tile is slippery and dangerous. I took Darwin in the house for the first time yesterday and he kept asking what happened to the house. I told him tractors came and took it. He seemed a little upset so I told him that we were going to build a new house and he said, “that seems fun.”

Late last week we ran into an additional issue with insurance. I am thankful we have a great agent that is a rockstar because it’s so complicated. The construction loan requires certain coverage, but he was out of the office when we closed and it was not properly taken care of so now we are working it out. Even more unplanned money, but it’s only a few hundred dollars at this point and it’s piece of mind to know we are properly insured for the house, trailer, property we have stored in the detached garage, the detached garage, and the barn. We also need renter’s insurance at our own house since we are not living in the insured dwelling- we are renters and tenants at the same time. As mentioned, it’s complicated!

Today Mike got home and the contractor was here on the phone with the gas company. They haven’t capped their line yet and it sounds like a request was missed, but it’s not clear yet how much of an it is and who dropped the ball. This could cause some delay on digging the east side of the house out for the foundation.

The good and bad thing about being here all the time is that we are here all the time. It’s nice to see progress, it’s frustrating to see no progress, and it’s anxiety inducing to hear some of the conversations. It’s good to not be totally in the dark, but a little bit of me understands the benefits of not being around and instead just being completely in the dark.

 

 

Construction Start Date

We met with the contractor and the lender last week to approve budgets. Our dig date is set for June 18th, so this whole project is getting very real.

I’ve had a few people ask me exactly what we are doing and why we can’t live in the house while it’s being renovated. Here is a high-level picture of the before and after, as you can see the changes are pretty major and it will move much faster and smoother if we aren’t in the house.

Before:

After: