Ya Estoy De Vuelta!

Hola!
I was without a computer for about 2 weeks....so I couldn't post any updates!   But my computer is fixed and I have so much to talk about!!!! 

So I will try and update and add as many pictures as possible so you can see all the excitement that's been going on!!!  We are starting to see an end to this journey!  We still have a little more to go...but the end is nearing!  YAY!!!!

Siding is just about finished.  We still have the peak in the front of our house that needs to be done, but that was put on hold until we got a new front door.  Front door was ordered and is now here...so it should be done soon!

Our bay window was removed and 3 new windows were added in it's place!  I LOVE THE NEW LOOK!  I think it makes the room look so much better.....and the outside of the house also!   Apparently the window was put in very poorly also, so we made the right decision getting rid of it! 

Next up...all the sheet rock and spackle was finished before John left for vacation.  Si...he took another vacation..and Si....in my next life I will be coming back as a carpenter/contractor.   This time he was in Mexico..sipping on Coronas, Cerveza and Tequila...while splashing around in the ocean and sitting in the hot tub!  Nice..huh?  

Before he left.....the sheet rocking and spackling was finished and the hardwood floor was installed!   Here are some pictures with the spackle and floors in! 

We also finalized the doors and the new front door, the plumbing fixtures, and lined up the painter...who was here while John was sitting poolside! 
~Gianna~

We have Cabinets and Men on Stilts!

Yesterday I went and finalized everything with Ron (at GPS) for our cabinets!  We made some changes..but I love it all!  He wasn't a big fan of the changes, but it's hard to convince a kitchen designer to change things.   So we decided on Canvas with Cocoa Glaze in the whole kitchen.  And Cognac in the Butler's Pantry.  Both are Maple...and both are beautiful!   We put the deposit down on them today! 

And here are a few pictures of the design! 

More siding and windows today! 

And the funniest part of the day.......Little man, in PJs, walking around on stilts!  I didn't get a picture of him..but I wish I did!  Apparently they wear stilts (the PJs were an added bonus) to put insulation in the ceilings!  It was interesting!  And now we have insulation and our house will be warmer!  YAY! 

We have another inspection (on the insulation) on Tuesday.    Tomorrow Joe and I go pick our granite and finish up the tile!


~Gianna~

Inspection Day!

"A Gang Bang Inspection" is what John called it.....and it was!  I was nervous b/c we had 3 inspections to get thru today.

First up was the electrical inspection.  The inspector came early this morning..walked around and we PASSED!!!!!!

Next up was the building inspector.....he walked around and we PASSED!!!!!

And finally was the plumbing inspector and guess what...........WE PASSED!  3 for 3!!!!   Happiness all around!  :)

While the inspections were happening we had a lot going on.  Mostly siding and window wrapping!  It's all coming together!   And I LOVE it!  Love the color, love the way the windows look...and I am so happy with everything!

We also had the plumbers come and start working on placement of the new baseboard heat and where we want our shower fixtures. 

~Gianna~

Lather, Rise, Repeat....

is pretty much what this week has been!  

Every morning John and crew get here, followed by the plumbers......
then the electricians......
then the HVAC guys.....

Then they all work in their own little areas to get ready for an inspection next Thursday.  This is probably our biggest inspection, so far, and probably the biggest we will have (aside from the final walk thru).   So there is a lot of work to be done before then!

John, Craig and Mike have been busy gutting the existing kitchen, and putting up beams where they need to go (like the ceiling upstairs for the air handler, the shower walls, etc).

Kicthen is gone....totally..

Bob's (the plumber) guys have been tearing out old pipes and replacing them as well as putting all the pipes for the new plumbing where they need to go.

Pete (the electrician) and his crew are placing and wiring all the wall sockets, the light switch plates, the recessed lighting, smoke alarms, etc...all in the right places.

And the HVAC guys have been busy doing all the duct work (we don't have central AC now, so it's all new) in the existing and new parts of the house....they got the air handler up in the ceiling and they got all the new vents in the 2nd floor of the existing house (Olivia's & Ava's rooms & the bathroom) and then did a vent (I think it's called a kickback, but I am probably wrong) in the hallway upstairs. 

What have we been doing?  Well....a lot of vacuuming and sweeping!  No matter how clean anyone tries to get it (and the guys do their share) there is always SOMETHING that needs to be cleaned!    Some of it I don't mind doing at all...I stay home, it's my job to keep the house clean (even in times of chaos like this), BUT some of it I hate!  Washing dishes in my tiny pedestal sink in our upstairs bathroom...is NOT my idea of fun, nor is it something I want to do anymore....so I just switched everything over to paper and plastic.  And we've done it for 24 hours..and I LOVE it!  Sorry all you "greenies", but there is a time and place for everything....the time is NOW and the place is NOT my pedestal sink!  :)

What else.....oh we picked out all the bathroom fixtures....sinks, toilets, faucets, etc.  But you have to wait for my next "Sunday Funday" entry to see what we picked! 

Lather, Rinse, Repeat.......but way more productive and not as relaxing as it will be in my new shower!

Oh and I am calling it now..with you all as my witnesses...I GET FIRST SHOWER!!!!!!!   

~Gianna~

Lights! Camera! Action!

"Lights" and "Action" is spot on for today...and the "Camera" part is sort of true (b/c I always have a camera on me)...but this title best sums up the day we had! 

Where do I begin?   LIGHTS!!!   The electrician (Pete Horan) came today for a walk thru....Joe, myself, Pete and one of his workers walked thru the whole house (existing and new) and plotted where everything will go.  It included everything from switch plates and electrical sockets to the recessed lights and all the other lights we are getting.  Once we did that..they got to work. 

ACTION!!!   Joe left and I  decided to clean my car.  I got Ava ready and we went outside...she loves playing in the trunk while I clean the car (it's an SUV....I don't put my daughter in a real trunk....although some days I'd like to..just for an hour or so! KIDDING!!!!).  She wanted me to put the music on, and I realized the keys were inside.  I locked her in the car, ran in to get the keys and as I was heading out the electrician was running in asking for wet paper towels and ice....b/c someone got hurt.  He seemed pretty worried, so I ran back in...grabbed a Ziploc with ice, he grabbed the paper towels ...and he explained a nail gun fell on one of the worker's heads!  OMG!!!!!   I had to get back to Ava though......with my spare set in hand...I opened the car door, and she had the music playing....she found my keys, hidden in the car and turned the ignition on (just to the part where the music comes on..she didn't start the car)!  SHE'S TWO!!!!!!!  Now do you see why some days I'd like to put her in the trunk for a little while?    OK back to Mike (the injured)....so he was finishing the roof (which was started yesterday) and somehow the nail gun he was using fell and hit him on his head pretty bad.  They got the bleeding to stop, and aside from a headache he seemed fine..and wanted to get back on the roof to finish (THAT'S DEDICATION!).   His only problem was he wanted to keep the cut clean, and the gauze wasn't staying put....they had already come up with taping gauze on his head, but he was worried it would pull his hairs out, so when he mentioned tying something...it clicked....I have tons of ribbons (pretty ones) in my wrapping paper stuff!!!!  Being an accessorizor ( think I made that word up)....I ran downstairs and grabbed all colors, shapes and sizes of ribbon...so we could find the right fit!  I even brought out a Christmas bow and a birthday hat...I wasn't sure which "look" he wanted!   We found a nice grey/silver silk ribbon....tied it on his head and topped it off with the green bow!  It was perfect...back to work her went and it stayed put for the rest of the day!  Of course we all thought it was funny....but I have to admit I was so worried about him...I'd keep checking on him (out my window) to make sure he was OK...but every time I'd giggle to myself...seeing a man with tattoos and a ribbon tied around his head is just FUNNY!   Good news...he seemed OK...Bad news...I didn't get a picture of him!   :(

OK...the day ended with the roof being done (YAY!)  CAMERA!!!!

and a bunch of electrical sockets and stuff being installed.  No wires or anything like that, yet...but recessed lighting, the electrical boxes all on the first floor was started!  LIGHTS!!!  (again)

Kitchen gets gutted tomorrow.
Basement floor being worked on (not poured til Friday)
"Gang Bang" -- still waiting on this b/c Bob never showed up!   But everyone got a good laugh about it today......especially with Mike all dolled up in ribbons!  :oP

~Gianna~

A very productive day.....

We started the day off making some decisions with John.  1st on the list was the roof.   John showed up this morning with a bunch of roof samples (basically different colors to choose) because they no longer make the one we have (OBVIOUSLY -- that's the way we roll) it was discontinued.  While the choices kinda look similar, they are pretty different.  And since we don't need a new roof on our existing house,  the bottom line is they won't match.  So we decided to pick the closest color and then have John remove the back of the existing roof and put new up..... so it looks good from the back.  That way when we do re-do the existing roof (in about 10 years or so) we only have to worry about the front.   We also found out that there aren't any "roofers" as I said in my last entry....John will be wearing his "roofer hat" (I've come to find out he wears many hats) and doing it himself....well with Craig and Mike of course.    And like magic....all the roofing material was delivered within a few hours!  DONE!

Next up was deciding if we want the basement windows to be pull outs or sliders.  We chose pull outs.   DONE!

Next was siding.  I don't think I did an entry on the siding changes we made.  So here's the short of it.  We decided on vinyl instead of Hardie Plank.   With all of the "problems" we've had so far and the additional money spent to fix them.....we had to make some cuts.  The biggest cut we made was siding.  We didn't want to, but we didn't have much of a choice.   So vinyl it is..and we are still going with green!  So today we had to decide on the size and the type of trim.   We will be going with regular siding on the whole house and then shakes (shingle type siding) on the new dormer upstairs.  DONE!

We also asked John to change the location of the door to the master bath. It's going on the angled wall in the bedroom! DONE!

















We also discussed the kitchen because Joe and I are finalizing the cabinets tomorrow (YIPPPEEE) and off to work John went, Joe went golfing and I went to visit my sister in law and nieces!

When I came home around 1:30 (I left around 11am).....I opened the front door and it sounded like the guys were working inside our house, upstairs.  I was hoping nothing happened and no one fell thru the ceiling (even though they were done with that part).  I went to the bottom of the stairs and looked up.....

OH MY GOD......HUGE HOLE IN MY WALL!!!!!  But it was supposed to be there!  :) 

They cut thru the existing house to "tie together" where the hallways will meet!  I had no idea this was happening today....but it did, and it was exciting!  They did board it up until a later date...



















And finally,  they removed the window in our existing bathroom.  This left us with only 2 windows upstairs, and no pictures or frames or anything on any walls b/c every time they bang..everything falls off!  :) 



















EYE ON THE PRIZE.......

~Gianna~

Oh, What A (Bad) Feeling....When They're Dancin on the Ceiling.....

We found out today that the existing ceiling on the 2nd floor...directly under the roof was built poorly.....

Soooooooo poorly that no one can stand on it and it's unsafe.   Why, you ask????  Well I asked the SAME question and here was the answer I got (from John).  When houses were built a long time ago, they didn't have power tools, so it took a lot longer to build than it does now.  So what builders did was build the entire shell of the house FIRST (the outside frame and the roof)...and then they built the inner walls (ceilings, floors, etc) this way when they had bad weather, etc...they were protected while they continued building.  Makes sense...right?   So they didn't care how sturdy the ceilings were since no one had to stand on them! 

The last 2 days have consisted of the guys tiptoeing around on the roof...and every once in awhile putting a foot thru the ceiling....as soon as I hear the yell (or the profanity)  and the trickle of debris I leap to my feet and start vacuuming....it works out nicely for everyone!  :)  

What didn't work out nicely was that naps for Ava (and Mommy) were put on hold until they were done working.  John was nervous that while they were working upstairs the ceiling would give out above the bedrooms and then we'd have an even bigger problem.    The ceiling and roof was finished today and we are ALL well rested and happy no one got hurt! 
We are now ready to get the roofers here to put the shingles up and then the basement floor can be poured!!!!   MOVING ALONG!!!!!!!


~Gianna~

COLUMNS!!

This entire week has been spent with John (and crew) working on the 2nd floor ceiling (existing and new)...and framing the roof to get ready for the roofers to come and put the shingles on.   Of course, nothing is ever easy or "normal" when dealing with our house...so we ran into a few problems. 

John and Dan decided to take the steel out of the plans and replace it with wood columns.   I honestly have no idea why there was steel or what it was for (so I don't know what the wood is for either) but I can tell you we have 2 large beams of wood in our existing house.  I think it has something to do with holding up the roof..but I could be lying!   Everything started with John telling us that the girl's (existing) closet needed to be emptied out by afternoon so they could work in it.  With all the other existing house demo that has happened already we were down to 3 closets in our house..and with this news we'd be down to 2.  2 closets for 4 people...and 1 of the closets is already filled to the max with playroom stuff, and coats, shoes and more.  So 1 closet for all of our clothes!   It wasn't easy...but I did it!  So Tuesday they built the column in the girl's closet and then they did one in our bedroom.  I don't think I was prepared for this one.....I wasn't prepared for how it would look, and the placement of it.   But it is what it is...it had to be done, and we will be making a larger closet in Olivia's new room b/c of it!   SCORE!!!! 

This is our existing room's column (Olivia's future room and future closet)

And here is the one in the girl's closet (Ava's room to be)

~Gianna~

Back in the Saddle Again......

Sorry it's been so long since I last updated....but we were away for a week and then I've been trying to get myself back into some sort of routine with my kids.  Olivia started Kindergarten, dance and soccer and Ava had Preschool Orientation and starts swimming this week...so it's been busy in our house! 

So what's new on the "home" front?   A LOT!  The 2nd floor has been pretty much framed out..with the exception of the master bath (it's started, but they need to cut into the existing roof and can't until the new roof/ceiling is up).   With the 2nd floor changes we made a few weeks ago.....we were able to sit down with John's wife (who has a degree in interior design) and come up with a great plan...which gave us a HUGE closet, nice sized master bath (with HUGE shower and double sinks) and a way to fit a King sized bed and multiple pieces of furniture.  Our original master bedroom didn't have any of these things...so we know we made the right choice going bigger with the master suite! 

More pictures to follow.....tomorrow of the actual rooms framed out!

They also gutted the playroom and existing bathroom........while gutting the bathroom they found that whoever built our house used dirt and rocks to level the floor out.  Unreal....the more we move forward the more bumps we find in the road!   So this means they have to pull the floor our and redo it...coming up with a way to level the floor.  They also found like 4 layers of wall when taking down the walls.....lots of layers of sheet rock and tile glued over each other!   So needless to say it took an entire day to gut a small bathroom.  It's done now......Here are the bathroom floor pictures.  You can still see some dirt ad rocks!

Here is the full gut job!  :)

You can see in this picture...they moved the window to it's new home!

I will add some more updated pictures tomorrow!

~Gianna~

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~

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~