Sunday Funday GONE BAD....VERY BAD!

Oh what a night.......

Joe, Ava and I went to Home Depot to look around...on our way home a really big storm hit, hard rains like we haven't had in a long time....the whole way home Joe kept saying he was worried about our house, but I kept telling him it was fine!  Wellll..it wasn't fine.  When we got into our house we heard water coming from somewhere..we opened the bathroom door and water was pouring in from the windows and ceilings....like a waterfall..the floor was flooded.  I went into the playroom and water was pouring in there too.  Joe ran downstairs and the obscenities were coming out of his mouth just as fast as the water was coming into our house!   I went to our stairs that lead to the basement and saw water pouring in from our old backdoor and heading down the carpeted basement stairs!  When i got down the stairs I couldn't believe what I saw.....the wall on the addition side had water flowing out of it..and we already had about 1-2" on the ground..and it was coming under the walls and into the carpets!  I grabbed as many towels as I could find and headed back up.  Put them where I could and brought Ava up for a nap.  When I came back....the rain was still falling inside and out.  Joe called John (who was with his family for the weekend...far away) and he told him to try and use garbage bags or tarps to close the windows off.   As Joe headed outside the rain slowed down a little.....and one of our neighbors brought over a wet vac.  He got most of the windows tarped.....and headed inside when the rain really started to slow..and tried to vacuum it out!   I kept-up with the inside...especially my photo albums....which were hit with the rain...including my wedding pictures!  I had to try and dry them all and put them in new albums!   So as Joe took care of the basement and windows I took care of the bathroom, kitchen (which did have a small leak) and the playroom.    Just as things calmed down a little....another storm started up..and we got hit with round 2!   At this point Joe called John back and his wife answered (he was driving) and asked her to find out if there was ANYONE we could call to help us tarp better...since the garbage bags we had weren't working....they called back and told us Pete (the electrician) was coming to help!  He got here pretty quickly and so did my BIL (Joe) with another wet vac.  Pete went up on the roof and found out the problem.  Because the drains were removed from the 2nd floor...the water was pooling on the 2nd floor/floor..there was a slight pitch in the floor and it was throwing the water down between the addition and the existing house...basically pouring it down into our house!  He swept about 2-3 inches of water still on the floor, created a new drain leading OFF the roof and then with a drill...drilled a bunch of holes in the 2nd story floor and the 1st story floor, with the hopes that it would guide the water into our new basement which is only gravel and go back into the ground!    The whole thing was horrible......it didn't rain again like that...THANK GOD!   But Joe was in the basement all day and night..from 2pm-midnight cleaning the mess,wet vacuuming, and cutting up the carpet (and moving furniture) in the basement that got destroyed.   It was a lot of work downstairs...and I stayed up and took care of Ava and helped when I could.. ..but we hope this doesn't happen again..and the rain holds off for the rest of the summer! 

here are some pictures I got!
The floor is soaking wet, but it's hard to see....

Water is pouring into the windows..but you can't see it..all that water in on the inside of the window...

You can kinda see it coming in..here...

Basement floor....

Basement after round 1 of wet-vac....

Where the waterfall was......

~Gianna~

Sunday Funday!

Hi everyone!!!

Yesterday Joe and I went and looked at siding!  I was really nervous b/c I didn't know what to expect..we knew we were looking at HardiPlank and then some kind of vinyl...but deciding on a color was going to be the hardest.   Well, what I thought was going to be hard, was actually pretty easy.  The guy there showed us the HardiePlank and then 2 different types of CertainTeed and we decided HardiePlank was the way to go!  It had more pros than cons.....the only con was that it eventually would need to be painted (in like 15-20 years)..but in the end that could be a good thing b/c we aren't "married" to the color we choose...we can change it eventually with paint.   The color was a toss up between Evening Blue and Mountain Sage...

***OBVIOUSLY THIS ISN'T MY HOUSE....IT WAS TAKEN FROM THE WEBSITE****

And we chose.....MOUNTAIN SAGE (the green one)!   They gave us a few addresses of houses in the area that have this color and we drove by and LOVED them both!    So our house will be Mountain Sage with white trim!
~Gianna~

TGIF

Last night, before bed,  I was the one having the dreaded talk with John, but as we drifted off to bed last night...Joe said he'd do it...I'm kinda grouchy in the morning (so it's for the better).    :O)

When I finally woke up at 8:30am, I realized Joe wasn't inside which meant he was still outside talking.   So I went to see what was going on.....Joe, John, Craig and Mike (2 of the carpenters who work with John) were all huddled around a set of plans and looked to be in serious conversations.  Well until Craig looked up at me and cracked a smile..as if to say....."we did all that work yesterday for NOTHING..and now we have to take it all down b/c you idiots didn't realize how small your bedroom really was!"   Which may be what he was really thinking....OR..it was all in my head, as I was still nervous to hear what the outcome of the man huddle was!   John had a similar look on his face....but I've come to realize I'll never know if he is joking or serious nor what he's thinking!  

Well it was good news!  All 3 of them agreed with Joe, my Dad and I....the bedroom was in fact small.  And we needed to do something about it....and something fast.   John liked my Dad's idea...added some of his own in...and voila, we were all happy!   Joe put a call into Dan to let him know what was going on,  and to see how he wanted to handle it....I called my Dad to let him know, John and crew began ripping up what they had laid yesterday and re-"mapped out" the 2nd story.   Everything was falling into place! 

We decided to take the bedroom the entire way out above the 1st floor.  In the original plans we had a "stacking box" effect...the 2nd story was smaller than the 1st...and sat nicely in the middle.  Now we are bringing the walls on both sides out to meet the 1st floor and foundation...and the roof lines won't be as steep and low in our bedroom..giving us a lot more space in the bedroom and bathroom!   They also framed part of the side walls..hoping to be done with the 2nd story sometime next week!  YAY!  Everything worked out in the end!  TGIF!

I didn't get a chance to take pictures, but I will add them in tomorrow!


~Gianna~

Movin On Up........

Today the guys started the 2nd story floor and most of the day was spent doing that.  They also "mapped out" the rooms on the 2nd floor taking wood planks and outlining where the walls will be.

Here are some pictures from Thursday!  They are dark b/c the rooms have ceilings now!

Once everyone was gone for the day, Joe and I went to the upstairs windows (overlooking where the 2nd floor was mapped out) and looked at it.  I was a bit surprised when I saw it..it looked really small.   I didn't remember it being that small and tight when I saw it on the blueprints.  Joe agreed and also told me right before John left for the day even he mentioned that the bedroom was "small, but the closet is big!"   I was a little concerned.....we are spending a lot of money on this..and we want it to be perfect.  We don't want to be sitting in our new bedroom next year saying to each other.."we made this bedroom too small" OR "why didn't we make this room bigger..we can't even fit furniture in it!"   What do we do now????

Well, my Dad was coming over to pick something up and check out the progress (he hadn't been here since the steel was put in the basement).  He was so impressed with everything...until he got to the upstairs windows (the same windows we looked out a little while before) and said, "Wow..that is a small bedroom and it's going to look even smaller once the roof is on."  The plans have the roof line sloping pretty low in our bedroom.  The reason Dan did that was to make it flow with the existing roof lines and make them tie together nicely....which he did...the back of the house looks amazing on the plans, BUT we didn't realize how much smaller it would make our room look and feel.   Seeing it on paper vs. seeing it mapped out was a huge difference.  WHAT DO WE DO???????

We know John and his crew will be here bright and early in the morning to start framing the walls and rooms on the 2nd floor...WHAT DO WE DO??????    Will John be OK making changes this late in the game?  WHAT DO WE DO??????    We aren't happy...we are spending so much money...and we aren't happy!  WHAT DO WE DO?????   Will Dan be OK if we decide to make changes?  WHAT DO WE DO??????

We sat down for almost 2 hours with my Dad....and he gave us a few options that needed to be talked about with John ASAP...like first thing in the morning.  I was so nervous to have this conversation.   What if he can't do it....what if there is some issue that might come from changes....what if he wants Dan to redo the 2nd floor plans and we have to wait a long time to get them back, pushing construction back even further?    What if he gets mad?   What if Dan won't redo the plans?     My Dad had some great ideas and now we have to present them to John..and hope he can help us get what we want.....which is a bigger bedroom!

Joe and I decided that with bagels and coffee in hand, some batting of eyes, and added tears (if needed)...I would have this conversation with John tomorrow morning (bright and early) and hope he'd be OK with our decision and options........wish me luck!!!!
~Gianna~

We've Come A Long Way, Baby!

It's been awhile since I blogged only b/c John was away with his family on vacation and then the girls and I went away for a few days to hang with my Mom at the beach!  I was gone from Sunday to Tuesday and what a surprise I came home to........framing had really taken off and it looked great!    So Monday they did the first floor walls and framed out most of the addition downstairs.  

Standing in the kitchen....

Tuesday they continued framing and cut out the windows and doors and started the floor joists for the 2nd floor.....MOVING RIGHT ALONG!!!!! 

The 2 beams sticking out are part of the balcony.....

By the end of Wednesday the floor joists were all laid..and they were ready to move to the 2nd floor!!!

Gianna 

Sunday Funday

Tonight I will talk about our kitchen cabinets and counters....we are still trying to decide exactly what we want..but we know basics and have almost gotten it finalized.

We have decided to go with KraftMaid cabinets.  We are trying to stick with a budget on the kitchen...and hope that in about 10-15 years we will change it (if we can afford it) if we even want to/need to.  We found a KraftMaid dealer right down the street from our house....and that was before we knew we were getting KraftMaid.

Honestly, we walked into GPS and looked around and I fell in love with one of their display kitchens!    We sat and met with Ron, and he told us they were KraftMaid and they would  fit our budget.....I loved the display so much (and the make of the cabinets) I didn't even really look any further.  That's probably a bad decision on our part, but there are sooooo many decisions we have to make in this process that sometimes it's just better if you find something you like (or love) to just look no further.  We did price the same cabinets at Lowes and they were more expensive....go figure!  

So here are the cabinets we like.....this picture is JUST the cabinets.  Please try to picture it without this counter, paint, tile,etc.....

All of the cabinets will be Maple.  
















Most of the kitchen will be in Canvas with Cocoa Glaze.  We wanted the vintage look, and because we have small children we already know something will happen where a cabinet will get a ding or a nick...so we should just start them off looking like that!  We also really liked them......

We didn't want too much white and being we have to cabinet 2 rooms(kitchen and fairly large butler's pantry)....it would probably be overkill..so we decided to do the island and butler's pantry in a different color.  So both will be in the Cognac finish (I think.....this is the part I want to revisit and maybe change)....

I really love granite and I am leaning toward using this material for our counters, but I am keeping an open mind, b/c I am not totally sold on granite.   I think there are other nice options out there with less maintenance and without radon.  But if we go the granite route....I love this color:

It's called "Venetian Gold" and it's got specks of browns, creams, golds and a bit of red/burgundy in it.  It's really pretty..and what I am leaning toward right now. 

My other option is to do all Canvas with Cocoa Glaze in the kitchen (including the island) and this counter.....EXCEPT on the island we'd do a wood counter....which would be the same color as the butler's pantry cabinets (which are Cognac right now).....

Decisions...Decisions....but this is where I stand on counters (no I really don't stand on them :)  ) and cabinets! 

****pictures taken from KraftMaid.com****
~Gianna~

It's framing time......

The builders spent the 2nd half of the week doing the floor joists (the basement ceiling and first floor, floor).   It took about 2 days, so they did it Thursday and Friday and it's basically done.  Moving along........
John is away on vacation this coming week, so I won't have anything to report, unless we get a surprise visit from the mason and they pour the basement floor...but I don't think that's happening yet. 

Here are some pictures from Thursday and Friday so you can get a visual of what was happening!
The reason the floor looks so high against the existing house is b/c the way our stairs go down to the basement, they are set on a landing....so it actually does line up inside...just looks funny (right now) from the outside. 

~Gianna~

Strong as Steel

I haven't written anything in a week, b/c nothing much has happened.  Little things here and there, but not a whole lot b/c until the final footing was poured and the steel was cut and delivered they couldn't do much.   I woke up this morning to see my brother's smiling face waiting for the beam and column to arrive!  And within minutes it was here....

and it came to the right place!   Ha Ha!
The steel was done by my Dad's company ISE (I think I mentioned it before, but I'd never give up a chance to give a shout out to my Dad and his company) and one of his employees and my brother who works for my Dad did the labor today!  I took a lot of pictures, so I apologize for so many, but I think you can get a good feel for what happened today by looking at them, and not reading what I have to say! 

Column coming off the truck with the help of Sandy....

Column in Place.....

Here comes the beam.....again with Sandy's help.....

Getting beam in place....

Making sure it's level

Sandy welds the beam into place....

I learned today that "welding" is when 3 different "types" of steel come together and create a glue of sorts to hold it in place!  The beam is #1, the plate  (rust color) is #2 and those white sticks at the bottom right of the picture are steel type #3...once all 3 come together under high heat they form a "glue" to hold it into place! 

Then the column gets bolted to the footing...

And then it's all done! YAY! SO that was pretty much what happened today. I didn't get outside to get some more pictures....but John and Craig did pack it with wood so when they start framing they have something to connect the wood too. Pictures to follow tomorrow!


Buuuuuuuuuuuuuutttt....... I can't let you go without giving my Dad a spotlight on this page, b/c without him we wouldn't be where we are today! I love my Dad, and appreciate all that he's done for me, and for my family...and now for this addition! LOVE YA DAD!!!!!   <3 <3 <3

~Gianna~