More issues

I swear, if Bob and I weren't keeping an eye on things this build could go south in a hurry.

The latest fiasco has to do with the faucets in the guest shower and the faucets on the tub surround.

Because we are getting antsy I decided that I wanted to see how the faucet sets I choose would look.  I'm perfectly capable of putting them on and honestly I couldn't think of a single reason not to...so I did.

Hello, Houston, we have a problem.

For some reason known only to him ( tile guy) he made one hole round and the other square but these faucets ( which I might add have been down there the whole time) do not have an eschucion or in layman's terms they sit directly on top of the tile.  So you can see by looking at the pictures the base of this does not cover the hole he made.  I wanted that one piece of tile replaced...I have a ton of this bull nose and plenty of grout.  The NEW tile guy suggested we just get an eschucion and paint it.  Easy fix.  So I'm guessing that's what we are going to do.  The other issue is in the shower.

You see where the arrow is pointing?  Unless I'm mistaken most of that should be in the wall not outside the wall.  The plumber is supposed to be coming today to take a look.  I'm hoping I'm wrong but I dont think so.  This fix is not easy....they are gonna have to break down the wall behind this and Kirby will have to pull everything back.  Which means, sheetrock repair, texture and painting. Just more delays.  I havent been fond of Kirby as a plumber.  I think hes lost his edge and isnt paying attention to things that he should be. Not my fault as the fixtures have been down there since he started.  I dont have a problem saying something is my fault when it is, but this is definitely not my fault.  I'll keep you posted on the fixes once they are decided.

Concrete Acid Staining part deux

I went to the grocery store expecting to get the riot act from the sub about doing the work of his crew but nothing came through so by the time I got home they had put the acid down on the floor and it was working its magic.  

This sits on the floor for 24 hours and then they come back and neutralize the acid with a mixture of baking soda and water.  That gets all vacuumed up and the floor dries for 24 hours before they put the sealer on it.  2 coats of sealer are applied and then the floor gets covered up to protect it further from what construction is is still going on.  Floor is completely uncovered when you want but at least 2 days after final coat of sealer is applied.

This is right before the floor was covered up.  Looks like Monday we meet with finishing trim guys and get that part started.

Concrete acid stained Floor

So most homes these days are built on a concrete pad called most commonly called a "slab".  Depending upon which way a slab is finished will determine how and what kind of treatment you can do to it later on.

Because we knew we would be acid staining it then we had them put power trowels on it to semi polish it up.  As it starts to cure you get a bit of dust on top of it that is very white and gets on EVERYTHING.  Some of it blows off or gets tracked off but a lot of it just stays put until they start framing and actually working on the slab. 

So now we are at the point that we are going to be acid staining the floor.  A crew comes in and power washes the floor, scrapes up all the paint, texture mud and anything else that might not cause the acid to do its thing.  Then they take a polisher and polish to get up more of the dust and dirt. Vacuum that up, mop and mop again.  Floor should be squeaky clean by this time.  Then they do the wall prep. 

This is what it looks like.  That's to protect the walls from any splashing that might occur.  If they are an experienced crew then this should all be kept to a minimum but you cant always count on that.  

The prep people that they sent arrived around 1:30 ish p.m. and were gone by 2:30.  I mean, why even bother coming?  They were here the next day by 7:30 but were on the back porch smoking when I went down around 9:30 to check on progress.  I was hoping that we would be ready for stain on Monday but they were gone by 2:30 ish.  I guess I just come from a different era where you worked a full day.  I dont understand this half day working at all.  And of course they had about 1/3 of the house prepped.  

So I sent a text to their boss asking if this was just a crew that worked part time or was this how this all worked?  I also asked him if he would mind if I went down there and finished up what they had started.  I really felt like I could finish what needed to be done ( by myself) by weekends end.  Never heard from him so I went ahead and started.  

I'm 67 years young.  I have back issues that I have to watch or I'm flat on my back for a week.  And I still managed to get done in one day with breaks what it would have taken them 3 or 4 days to get done.  I'll admit it was slow going at first, but you find out what works for you and you develop a system that works for you.  I'm all about efficiency and taking less steps to accomplish the same task and have it just as good or better than it was supposed to be.  So I found a system that worked for me and managed to complete the rest of the prep work in the house.  I have NO IDEA how the crew is gonna feel about it but Monday is grocery day and I will not be here.  Sometimes you just gotta take the initiative and do the job yourself.  We've been far too delayed by everything and I want to be be in this house before June...its April 3rd....

Solving issues

So I thought this post was gonna be about the process for the acid stained concrete floors but what was supposed to be a Monday start turned into a Thursday.  That's tomorrow and we have issues to deal with today.  

So there sits our wood burning stove.  A stove we bought over 40 years ago and have used every single winter.  Love being able to step on the hearth and back up to the lovely heat coming from it.  Unlike a fireplace where you get one side of your body warm at a time this little stove radiates heat all around itself so you get a very nice overall warm feeling.  

But I digress, we have an issue that we need to deal with.  And that is...a few weeks ago our second in charge GC told us that the GC was not going to be installing the stove pipe for this.  Mind you hes known from the beginning that we were putting this in.  And if we had to do it ourselves that is not a problem either except at this stage of the build it is a problem.  Not cool Ronnie, not cool.  

If we had known from the beginning that we were going to be installing it would have been done right after the framing and before the sheetrock and foaming.  Would have been an easy job, half an hour or less and it would have been taken care of.  

See that tiny little black mark to the left of the top of the ladder?  

Yes, that mark right there.  That is the center of where the stove pipe needs to hit.  And the pipe is centered into a transition box that protects all the surrounding sheetrock and framing and foam from the heat going up the flue.  And it's also centered EXACTLY between 2 rafters.  It's got to be exact.  

We found this spot by taking a measurement from the stove and marking an X on the hearth.  Then we dropped a plumbob from the ceiling down and moved it till it was directly over that X.

This is a plumbob.  It's an old tool but so useful.  Filled with lead and used in various applications but theres nothing else that will do the job.  

This is the space we are working in.

You can see, it's not spacious and in the last picture..

That short 2 x 4 that's on the left...that is EXACTLY where we need to be.  The 2 x 4 is scabbed onto the rafter and all we can figure is that it's where some sheetrock fell funny and had to have extra screws.  

Bob has figured out that just the very end of that board needs to come off and we will be silver...not golden yet cause job isn't done. 

Plumbob was dropped. Center was marked the the transition box was measured ( twice) just to be absolutely sure.  Then 4 corner holes were drilled.

This is my dad's old dremel tool.  Bob and my dad had a mutual admiration society going for each other in figuring out ways to fix things.  He and my dad once consulted each other for weeks about tubing my dad needed to use to build an air powered air brake system for one of the model airplanes he was building.  But I digress.  He used this to cut off just an inch of that scabbed 2 x 4 without cutting unnecessarily into the sheetrock.

There are the 4 holes he will use as his guide.

And here he has started his first cut.

Success!  Hip, hip horay!  It's done.  Just a very small amount of the paper torn but the trim piece for the box will cover that.  Now to go from the top up thru the roof.  But that's for another day.  We need to order stove pipe in order to get our alignment correct.  

Floors!)

We had talked to a bunch of wood floor installers and everyone's bid was just too high.  We had the material, we had the glue, the room is basically a rectangle and the stone Mason undercut the mortar so you could just measure to go right up underneath.  Bob and I had resigned to do it ourselves.  We'd done our wood floors at the old home, this was a bit different. Instead of nailing it gets glued down.  We didnt really want to do it but if push came to shove we certainly could.  But at the 9th hour a local guy came forward with a price that was perfect and so they started on Monday, today is Wednesday and they will be done by Friday. 

Very happy with it.  Its a random pattern and I love the variations in the wood coloring.  You cant see it in the pictures but closer inspection of the actual boards and you see ripples and dips so it mimics real wood boards.  Which is exactly what we were going for.  

I've also heard from the concrete stain guy and he starts on Monday.  Whoop!

This is what we are shooting for.  

1 year and 1 month in!

Yes, we are well over a year into this build and we still aren't in and dont really expect to be in before June.  Even after the builder has been paid and accounts settled we still have septic to do and a yard fence to build to keep the cows out.  They could easily destroy any sort of plantings, mess up the porches, destroy the outside A/C units and who wants to wade through cow poop?  So I dont expect to be moved in and actually living in the house till maybe August?  It could happen sooner but I don't expect or anticipate it.

The light is up for the dining table (yet to be built).

Its a stunner in my opinion.  

Kirby the plumber was finally back to do his  half hour of work so Gerald the tile man could do the tub surround. 

Now I ask you dear readers...notice something missing here in this last picture?  No, it's not the tub....give up?  There is no hole for the water faucet.... O.K., you have 1 job.....and you forgot?  How in hell?  I'm stymied frankly.  Not only that but how can the general contractor be making any money ( especially in these high gas, supply times) when you have people coming all the way out here to do 15 minutes worth of work.  It's like they have never worked before and it reeks of unprofessionalism.  SMH...

Andres Gaspar the rock Mason is coming back to cut down the hearth.  This was a mistake of ours...the base extends too far out into the room so hes gonna cut it down about a foot and a half.  Hopefully he can salvage the rock he cuts away because the GC came and got the leftovers.  Which by the by really belonged to us...we paid for it....but sometimes things are just not worth arguing over and it would only delay stuff even more.

Finally got a bid in on the hardwood flooring and that will be going in this week.  It's kinda backasswards as the concrete staining should happen first but it's all about scheduling and when people can get to stuff in a timely manner.  

Meanwhile although the outside trim is not done Bob and I got busy with dirt work.

We arent making much of a yard and certainly not planting grass.  It will be all native plants and bushes so that it takes care of itself.  Who wants yard work at our age?  All this dirt is courtesy of the driveway improvement project that the 4 land owners have a stake in.  Mostly it's just making the bar ditches deeper so the water washes more into the culverts and streams then washing out the drive.  It would have cost Bob and I $$$$$ to have this dirt brought in and they needed someplace to dump the dirt from the bar ditches and it costs to truck it out so we volunteered our place to dump it.  It's a win- win situation if ever there was one. 

That's the update for now.  Happy Sunday everyone!

Woefully behind

Not them, well yes, them but also me on posting.

So we now have lights and ceiling fans up!  Whoop whoop.  It IS beginning to resemble a home now. 

The light that Bob created for his Fly tying room.

Lots of light with that sucker!

Living area.

Our bedroom.

The A/C outside units were put in place and hooked up but the units wouldn't talk to the heat pump.  Apparently a bad relay switch is the cause so that should be rectified on Saturday.

The crew is here to put on the outside trim, soffits and roofs ( underneath) on both porches.

We've also had the cabinet person come out and measure for cabinets so hopefully cabinets in about 4 weeks.  

We've had visits from a couple of people to lay the engineered Hardwood but so far the bids have been way high so Bob and I might just tackle the installation ourselves.  And last but not least we've had a visit from the finish trim guy.  Said very little, asked a couple of questions and measured and left.  I have no idea how that will come out.  So that about covers everything up to this point.  I'm getting trash out of the house in anticipation of the trailer the GC will bring to haul it off.  I hate a messy work area!