A Christmas Miracle

Just as we were preparing mentally for a January move-in date, we got word that most of the contractors are willing to work weekends (extra holiday money, I’m sure!) to get us done before the holiday. We are trying not to get too excited as a lot could go wrong, but they are going to pull together all the loan docs in case we can pull it off. Either way, I’m pretty sure it will be done enough to open presents in the house Christmas morning and that alone sounds delightful!

There was a ton of work done this week. Almost all the finish carpentry is done and the entire upstairs got a first coat of primer. I measured for and ordered all the blinds we need for the upstairs. We are trying to get anything we could need on sale given the time of year, but I am sure when we move in there are lots of things we will realize we still need and things like rugs that I won’t want to pick out until I see everything come together and furniture moved in.

Outside, all the siding and trim is now on and prepped for paint. The fence guy came and thinks he can get our fence done the first week of December so puppy can have a (muddy) yard again, too. I’m very excited for her. We are also going to try to get the sprinklers in before the end of December leaving only sod for the spring. It’s not clear what money we can or if we can put money in escrow at all to finish the landscaping in the spring, I am still waiting to hear.

We also got all the tile delivered and it’s on a pallet in the front lawn. It’s amazing how deliveries just go wherever the delivery guy decides is a good place!

Below are a ton of pics, mainly of closets because I love them so.

 

Finishes and an Update on Trailer Living

This week they’ve been working on getting the outside siding up and doing all the finish work inside- doors, trim, mud room, and closets.

On the outside, we went back and forth a little on finishes. There was some confusion about the shakes we asked for and how expensive they would be for both materials and labor. Since we decided against stone or brick to save some money, we have three different finishes on the outside of the house- siding, board and batten, and shakes. Our contractor also recommended we pick a secondary accent color whereas the siding company only had us pick 2 colors, so we headed back to the paint store. Of course, we then ended up picking all new colors. Our hope is that this week all the exterior will be done. The red is only going on the doors so you won’t actually see it from the street. Darwin picked out the green from the color swatches to show us and it was a happy addition.

On the inside, closets are mostly in, doors are mostly in, but the trim is yet to be started. The paint was supposed to happen Monday, but the finish carpenter got another gig and walked off the job on Thursday. Welcome to the remodeling world. There is a new laborer who worked yesterday, but we’ll probably be about another week behind.

On the interior, we are doing two-tone paint. This means all the walls in the house are going to be one color, all the trim another. This is pretty much my worst nightmare, but having them paint each room a new color is crazy expensive and something we can do over time. Picking a single color Togo everywhere was a hard task, but we went with a color called Accessible Beige which is a grayish beige that the contractor recommended. I just had the paint store lighten it a bit.

On the inside, the mudroom is also in progress. The mudroom is interesting because it’s not an actual room, it’s a corner, but it’s more than we ever had in the past! You can see it from the kitchen and entry, so we wanted something nice, but cabinets were thousands of dollars we just didn’t want to spend. We are working with the contractor to make it look nicer than something in a garage would and I was promised that the solution would “make you proud.”

I will take some pics of closets this week. They make me so happy, this house has GREAT storage. Who designed this house?! Oh yeah, we did. It will be interesting once we move into it if there are things we wished we had done differently and what they are- both big and small.

We also moved the old cabinets into the basement and realized the shorter ceilings downstairs means that none of the uppers fit. Oh well, it is what it is and whoever uses it as a kitchen will have to decide the best thing to do down there.

New cabinets showed up and are stacked in the basement. I snuck a look at the finish and I love them! I was worried they would be darker than I wanted, but they look great.

We were told that there is no way to get done by Christmas, much less close. Mud-January is now the timeline and that was before this paint timeline getting bumped. My guess is it will keep moving. I was pretty mentally prepared for this, Mike not so much. It means 2-3 more months in the trailer. That seems daunting. So daunting. In the cold weather with the sun going down so early, it really means our space is pretty much just the couple hundred square feet in the trailer.

Trixie is more mobile than ever and not particularly interested in toys or TV. Her only interest seems to be climbing, being in trouble, or having me hold her.

Darwin loves TV on the other hand and we struggle to keep him focused on eating, taking a bath, getting dressed, etc. He is smart and a sponge for knowledge. He started preschool this week and is doing well and completely loves it. Trixie’s energy and loudness frustrate him.

The very cold weather has set in and we’ve winterized the trailer as much as possible, well, Mike did most of it. The water has frozen a couple of times overnight which means showers are now an evening activity to ensure they happen. More insulation went on the hose and so far, so good. The furnace works very well and we go through roughly a propane tank a week to heat it. The trailer has 2 tanks, so we don’t have to worry much about running out.

The next few months will be about us getting out of the trailer to save our sanity. We’re collectively getting over a cold and my Rheumatoid Arthritis is acting up, but hopefully, as we are on the mend we’ll be in better shape.

I owe you all a lot of photos!

TL;DR Siding and finishes are going in, next step paint. The trailer is even tinier in the winter, but warm.

 

 

 

 

Your Video Tour Has Arrived

I know, I know, it’s been a while… maybe you will forget if I give you an actual tour. There are 3 videos, upstairs, downstairs, and outside.

 

TL;DR You are lazy, there wasn’t that much to read! We have sheetrock.

It Looks Like A House!

Over the last week or so the house is starting to look like a house. They took off the siding and added contractor wrap. For some reason, the consistency outside makes the house now look like a house. Exterior siding will go on soon. We really wanted to do some brick on the outside originally, but the budget just wouldn’t allow for it so we are doing concrete siding all around. I’m just excited it won’t be wood we have to stain every 5 years.

On the inside, we did a walkthrough to catch any last minute changes to HVAC, electrical, and plumbing. We noticed a few things that needed to be corrected such as moving vents, missing smoke detector wiring, a bit more demo, etc. Nothing huge, fortunately. Mike also took pictures of all the rooms and walls before they Sheetrock so we know where all the wiring, vents, and plumbing are if we ever need to know in the future. After those fixes, insulation went in. Then, the next day we got a giant sheetrock delivery. They had to take out a basement window to get some of it downstairs. Darwin was SO excited about the crane!

We are missing one exterior sliding door, but once that arrives (hopefully this week!), the house will be dried in and the furnace can get turned on.

The only real problem we’ve had lately is the rain. The house doesn’t have gutters so the roof is basically emptying into the house through the basement door. We’ve had some very heavy rain so it’s been quite a bit of water, but the contractor took some scrap gutters off the house and we should be a little better off moving forward.

After sheetrock, there will be finish work, paint, and flooring. We are still hoping to be in by Christmas, but I’m trying not to get my heart set on it in case it doesn’t happen. The thought of us all waking up on Christmas morning in the new house makes me giddy.

On the landscaping front, it’s clear we’ve missed our opportunity to do it before winter. We’ll have to put the funds in escrow, deal with the muddy yard this winter, then put the sprinklers and sod in come spring. Not ideal, but it’s not the worst thing that could happen.

I think that is all the updates. Pics below.

TL;DR House is ready for siding, Sheetrock, and looks much more like a house!

 

 

More Progress

I get it, I’ve fallen off the posting wagon and you all aren’t happy about it. I hear you and today I’m willing to spend my laundromat time updating the blog.

I can’t even remember what was and what was not done last time I posted so I included a ton of pictures. HVAC is in, plumbing is in, electrical is almost done, and the finish concrete is in.

Electrical seems to be the thing taking the most time. Trying to sort out the old electrical hasn’t been easy, plus, they have to bring the line from the street to the house up to code which means trenching a huge section to put in conduit. The joy of a remodel is that if you touch something you then have to bring it all up to code.

We also have windows and window wells throughout. The only window missing is the patio slider we had to order late.

From what the contractors have told me, they should be doing exteriors soon after that is here, then hopefully landscaping and fencing to put the outside back together. I’m a little nervous about sprinklers and sod so late in the year, but it will get sorted out. They have literally hit every single sprinkler line in our yard at some point during this project so the entire system needs to be replaced.

Inside, we are close to sheetrock. The contractor says if everything goes as planned it will be 2 months from there to finish everything. I would LOVE to be in by Christmas, but I’m trying not to get my hopes up.

All the finishes are finally selected. I’m anxious to see it all come together.

This week we had to turn on the furnace in the trailer after a few nights in the 40’s. It works well and keeps the place rather toasty.

By living in the trailer and paying ourselves our mortgage each month, we’ve been able to save up some money for new furniture. I ordered Trixie a new bedroom set that arrives next week. I need to figure out where the heck to put it! We also have a new patio set and picked out a new couch. Something I learned in this process is that if you buy something at RC Willey during a sale and don’t have it delivered right away (they will hold as long as you need!), you can keep adding to the ticket at the sale price of the day the ticket was opened. That means I picked out my couch weeks later, but I got Labor Day pricing. It’s fantastic and a good reason to put off drivery until the house is completely done in case I decide we need something else.

My current project is also going to be figuring out how to finish out the mud room. We originally wanted cabinets in there, but after the bid was $3-4k, we decided to have the finish carpenters just put something in which means I need to figure out the layout.

Darwin loves all the construction . Every day when he gets home he needs to go check on the house. At school he asks all the teachers to play excavator with him.

The kitties are pretty sure it’s done enough to move back in, especially with the colder weather! Plus, all the exposed framing is good for scratching.

TL;DR Boring progress, no crises, end is in sight… in a few months.

 

Nothing Terrible Happened This Week!

If you want to hear all about the house terribleness from last week when the floor was caving in, scroll down or click here: Do You Have A Big Jack?

This week was insanely normal, thank goodness. In fact, I only have one picture of the house and it’s of the new furnace that appeared one day.

All the work being done right now is HVAC, Plumbing, and Electrical so not a lot to see. We also have a new roof, which I don’t have a single picture of… sorry folks.

We needed a week like this and it meant we got to spend more time worrying about normal things and less time worried about the house. The only real issue that came up was fitting a tub downstairs. We were 1/2 inch too short, but we solved it with a smaller tub.

Here are some pictures of the kids to make up for the lack of drama this week. And I swear Trixie sometimes wears clothes, I just apparently don’t have pictures of her wearing clothes at home.

 

TL;DR: It was awesomely boring at the house this week.

 

“Do You Have A Big Jack?”

Another week and no shortage of house stories.

I should take a minute to say that I am insanely grateful that my husband and I are in a place that we could take on a project like this. I’m fortunate financially and also fortunate that our marriage is strong enough to survive the stress. I realize this blog is full of crappy stories, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that we’re lucky. And the fact that we are lucky doesn’t take away from the fact that this process is a total nightmare. I’m sure it gets fun when it all starts coming together… at least that is what I keep telling myself. Even if it doesn’t, I get to live in a house with my family that we designed and better fits our needs in the end. And there are so many closets. So so many closets. A mom’s dream!

Monday was Labor Day and the crews were still out working at our house. I took the opportunity of a day off to rip out the garden fence. It was a good stress reliever! There was a new demo guy at the house and alone he got more done in one afternoon than the original crew got done in a day.

Tuesday morning the contractors asked me to stay home and meet with the HVAC contractor. I didn’t realize the bid called for two furnaces and two AC units as the new house isn’t THAT big, but I guess we have a pretty small furnace. We had to figure out where to put them as they don’t fit in the originally planned spot. I’m glad I was there because no one ever realizes the side door is the front door of the house and they were thinking about sticking them right there next to the door. I wanted to put them on the east side of the house where they would be seen the least, but the giant beam they had to stick in the basement when they realized the joists went the opposite direction than was planned for. This beam creates a small bump in the basement ceiling, but a big problem for getting HVAC and plumbing to the new eastern part of the house. We settled on tucking the A/C units at the back of the house where they will be seen more but logistically would work better. The second furnace has a good spot in the unfinished storage room downstairs. The second furnace and A/C will control the new addition on the south side of the house which is good because since it faces the south and west it gets the most exposure and in the past, our living room was always hard to regulate temperature in. Now we can control bedrooms separate from living areas which will be more energy efficient, too.

While the HVAC guys were at the house both of our contractors were also there. As we walked around they kept remarking about how much the floor in the existing house was bowing and kept asking if we ever had problems with it or saw cracks in our tile. We never had any problems! It was very noticeable as you moved from the new addition into the old house and while they could even it out with self-leveling concrete, they were worried about the weight of that, grout, tile and the new walls making it even worse. Based on what we could see, the floor joists spanned the entire length of the house. It was perplexing and the contractors told me they wanted to put in a support beam somewhere downstairs and might even need the engineer to come out. I called Mike and asked him to head home as early as he could because this issue was beyond me and I’d already made too many decisions for the day.

The contractor was going to be there all day moving our dirt pile. I found a guy down the road that wanted it to build up his pasture so the neighbors would stop flooding him out. He recently bought the lot and is convinced the neighbors are purposely flooding his pasture because he isn’t Mormon. He is also a disabled vet. These things combined meant that I was more than willing to take him all the dirt at no charge to him. 15 truckloads!

When Mike got home, our dirt pile was gone, Hallelujah! The contractor had also decided where he was going to rip out the ceiling to put in a metal support beam in the basement. He didn’t think it was going to be too expensive, but he would let us know. Everyone agreed that something needed to be done.

Fast forward to Wednesday night. My in-laws came over because I offered them the large gorgeous sliding door that I forgot to plan for and now can’t use in the new house for them to put in their new garage at Bear Lake. We needed to move it somewhere safer than the house and it was super heavy. Once they moved the door I became obsessed with one particular part of the floor. It was so bouncy and loud. I stepped on it over and over because it just didn’t make sense. It used to be under the kitchen cabinets and would have also supported the old kitchen wall, now it was screaming at just my weight. I couldn’t stop messing with it because it was so bad. I just hoped the beam was the answer.

Thursday morning I am leaving the house and I notice the framers are back which is a little weird because they were done the day before and hauled off all their stuff. They asked me if I had a big jack. I told them the only thing I knew we had was my car jack, but nothing bigger. They said not to worry and I didn’t think much more of it. This is a sign of how strange this process has been that I didn’t even ask what they needed it for.

Later that morning, my contractor shows up and calls to tell me that the framers fixed the floor. I guess one of the framers couldn’t stop thinking about the floor the night before and decided he wanted to stop by again because he also thought something just didn’t make sense. As he poked around the basement, he noticed that there was an area in the basement that wasn’t supposed to be touched, but the demo crew had taken out a wall that was supposed to stay. The house has no electricity, so now that the framing is all in it’s in a dark corner of the basement no one has really been in since it shouldn’t have been touched. The room is planned to only get new flooring, nothing else. When he got out his light and looked up, he saw a support beam in the ceiling that was now unsupported. The demo crew had not only taken out the framing, they knocked out a large support beam holding up the middle of the house without somehow thinking that beefy post was important.

They used a big jack to lift the now sagging beam and get a new support under it. It instantly fixed the floor in the entire house. We are so lucky it didn’t give out and cause the back half of the house to cave in. And I am lucky my contractor and the framers were so concerned about it. All the subfloor will need to be screwed down again because it sagged so much the screws came out, but in the whole scheme of things that could have gone wrong because of their error, this is pretty minor. I have no idea how exactly this will be made right with the demo crew, but I imagine their pay will once again be docked. At this point, they should be paying us for their work. In talking to the contractor it sounds like they have not called asking for their check so it will be interesting to see how that plays out.

The windows arrived this week and I am so excited about the new living and dining room. The open floor plan and huge windows will make that a great place to hang out and yell at my goats for being obnoxious. The back windows are basically the size of small screendoors and there are 3 of them side by side.

Here are a bunch of pictures in no particular order as your reward for reading!

A boy and his cat exploring the dirt. There’s a reason they are good friends. 

Trixie is super excited about her new window. And really, she is excited about everything.

The back of the house is pretty much all new. 

I am super excited about the patio now, it is covered and won’t get the hot summer sun anymore in the evening which will make it the perfect summer hangout. We are also extending it our to meet the house on the left of this picture making it a little bigger.

The windows on the right look like screendoors, but they are just huge windows.

Someone drew a heart in blood on the wall. Not creepy at all.   No more pocket door in the basement bath! If you’ve ever stayed at my house you will appreciate this as the thing was loud and annoying because it banged into the framing on the inside of the wall. 

Next up is HVAC and Plumbing!

TL;DR My house was slowly caving in because the demo crew removed a load-bearing wall weeks ago and no one noticed. A hero framer discovered the issue and fixed my house!

 

 

Best Week Ever

This week made up for all the lack of progress over the last month.

Day 1: Framers showed up and put up walls. Seeing the walls was fantastic.

Day 2: Even more walls. They also fixed the issue with the trusses running the wrong direction in the floor. We’ll lose a couple of inches on parts of the basement ceiling, but it isn’t too bad.

Day 3: The floor went in and we could walk out in the new space for the first time. Unfortunately, that also meant I realized we never had the architect update the drawings for the new slider doors we have and that meant we need a new slider ordered. Does anyone need a HUGE sliding door? I have one that is now literally just laying around.

Day 4: All the walls were up! Look at those crazy big windows, I love it.

Day 5: The trusses went up! It looks like a house and it only took 5 days. I keep thanking the framers profusely every day for making us a house. I think they think we are crazy, but they have no idea how frustrated we were when they showed up. You can see in the 3rd photo below the vault in the living room and dining room which we are excited about since the rest of the house is 8 foot ceilings.

There is still framing to be done inside, but this week is exactly what we needed. Everything left is dependent on more demo that needs to get done. On Monday the HVAC guys will start and I will meet with them Tuesday morning to go over some details- like the fact that we might need a second furnace? This was news to me, but I guess it was in the bid. They are also supposed to be hauling the dirt pile out on Tuesday as well which should start getting the yard cleaned up and make my chickens, goats, and dog much happier.

We were also supposed to have concrete window wells poured, but that plan was abandon because of the shoddy concrete work that has happened so far. I am a little sad about it because I liked the idea of them being very clean and easy to maintain, but it is what it is. I’m learning to pick my battles.

We also went and saw our granite slabs on Friday morning. We were able to finalize the backsplash and narrow down paint now that we have the slabs.

Here’s a good reminder of who we are doing this project for- these two crazy kids playing on a woodpile in their jammies. Well, one of them. The other refused to wear pants.

TL;DR Two men framed 80% of the house this week and turned our frowns upside down. We also visited our granite which is beautiful. And my kids only sometimes wear pants outside.

It Just Needs Assembly

This week our general contractor jumped in and really took control of what was going on at the house. He pulled laborers off other jobs and got everything finished up to pour the basement floor so that they can frame starting on Monday.

This included fixing some previous work. Most importantly of which was pouring a footing, the previous subcontractor had simply missed. Glad it got fixed, but seriously, ugh!

It was also discovered this week that the engineer thought the trusses in the basement ceiling ran the other direction so the contractor would have to get with the engineer again to figure that out.

The moral of today’s story though is that we have a basement floor and a huge order of lumber (it’s seriously EVERYWHERE).  Next week, we should start seeing the house really come together- it literally just needs to be assembled. Thank goodness!!

The contractor called me late Friday and wants to have a meeting next week to have a little bit of a project reset, review budgets, timelines, etc. I’m happy that’s going to happen because I feel a little paralyzed in making decisions right now because I don’t know where we are with the money. We’ve tried to put the emphasis on space, not finishes throughout the house, and been smart about the budget, but since we aren’t the ones writing the checks so it’s a bit of a black box right now. It’s all overseen by the lender, so it’s not out of control, it’s just not in our control which causes some anxiety. The lender also called this week and I asked if I could see all the details on the money that went out so far, but I haven’t heard back.

I’m hoping that between the contractor meeting and seeing actual walls next week it will be a turning point. Fingers crossed.

Trixie is getting much more mobile and interested in exploring.  If we can survive 4 more months in a trailer with her we will deserve a new house! I cannot wait for her and Darwin to start running up and down the halls. I will threaten them over and over that if they don’t behave we are moving back to the trailer.

A few other things have been happening around the house that I haven’t included in my updates. First, the neighbors across the street listed their house a few weeks ago. It’s been funny to watch people look at it and stare at our disaster across the street. I’m hoping a young family might move in over there as we haven’t had the best experience with the current neighbors. Sorry for living in the front yard in a trailer while you are trying to sell your house!

We also haven’t had a big power problem in a few weeks. Occasionally, the fan will kick on and off, but nothing like before, so that’s good. Other than that the biggest issue with the trailer is that Darwin found a big spider outside the window.

There was a huge rainstorm this week and it was the first time we really got to see how leaky the detached garage is when it pours for more than a short time. Our entire house is stored out there. We knew there were some leaks and everything is tarped and the water didn’t seem to be enough to cause an issue. There is a gap under the garage door that also lets a bunch of water in, but fortunately, we put everything in that area up on blocks and it stayed pretty dry. The rain also caved the dirt pile in on one side and now we can’t get into the chicken coop. Fortunately, Mike had thought it might happen and pulled one of their feeders out last week, but it’s not very convenient and the dirt doesn’t seem to be moving any time soon.

There have also been some house decisions we are working on making. Specifically granite, backsplash, lighting, cabinet knobs, and paint. These are really the only things left to pick and the hardest to coordinate. I’m excited though. We are going to have things like a patio fan and our master bedroom has a walk out to the patio. We will have a master bedroom. I will have a closet. Holy hell, this new house is going to be AMAZING!  Mike and I have put so much time and thought into it that it will be fun to see it when it’s real. The tides are turning.

 

Two Toddlers, Two Months In

I told my husband that we are now officially living in a trailer with two toddlers. He said that sounds like a horrible idea and he isn’t sure why we ever thought it was a good idea. A baby and a toddler seemed not so bad. Two toddlers sounds like a circus. It mostly is, but honestly it still really isn’t that bad.

Here’s the thing, we are somehow both pretty easy going about the situation. Those that know me (especially at work) are probably thinking (or even expressing out loud) BULLSHIT, but it’s true. I’ve never been afraid of dirt, camping, port-a-potties, bugs, etc. Having kids has taught me that I am never actually in control of any situation anymore so there’s no need to try so hard to be 100% in control. Those two combined have somehow translated into living in a trailer and not having once thought “what the hell were we thinking, we have got to get out of here!”

I keep getting asked how many times I have just burst into tears and there was really only one time on my way to work this week that I was so frustrated about the situation that I cried. Then I got to work and there was enough other issues popping up that I just compartmentalized it and focused on those issues. Work has been a good distraction to chaos at home.

My husband told me that this blog is sad. I asked him if he thought it wasn’t sad or if I was making it more sad than it was and he said no, it’s just clear how frustrated we are, which is true.

We are two months in and they finished pouring the foundation yesterday. This is exciting, but the sloppiness of some of the work just pissed me off. It’s not like this is a small project and a few thousand dollars, it’s a huge investment and it’s a home for our family that I hope to stay in and make memories in until the kids move out.

On Monday, I got a call from the contractor that they officially put the subcontractor on notice that he needed to be done by Wednesday or would get charged a daily penalty. This naturally lead to some nasty phone calls between the two and my contractor called me just to make sure I was aware and to ease some frustration about the pace of work.

They sped up their work and they did some things that were down-right sloppy and they continue to damage all sort of things on our property in the process including caving in the street at the water meter, running over and knocking loose some curbing around flower beds, and my personal favorite, damaging our walnut tree to badly with the excavator that a huge branch came down in last night’s storm. This is sarcasm for those wondering.

I’d post pictures of the foundation, but I will be honest that I don’t want to because I don’t need anyone else’s opinion that it’s not good work. We already know.

The result of this work was a very frank and forward email to our contractor basically saying we expected more and are overall disappointed. Our contractor responded well to this and sent us a very reassuring email that they will work to make it right and address any issues.

So here we stand with a foundation that is almost finished and a laundry list of issues that need to be addressed and a long list of repairs to make as a result. It’s sad and frustrating, but I am hoping this is the bottom of the barrel and it’s only up from here.

I initially hesitated in starting this blog for this exact reason which is that I expected there to be super crappy parts of this project and sharing them all isn’t exactly fun, but it’s honest. I’m pretty sure this process will be like pregnancy and childbirth where you forget just how shitty it was later and when people ask you about it you tell them it wasn’t that bad even though it was awful. At least I have this blog to show them and it’s not as graphic as a child birth video!