week 26: who knows?

I don't even know where to begin. We had a setback a couple of weeks ago and it was distressing to write an entry for the blog then. It's worse now. But I will attempt at keeping the blog updated with the good, the bad, and the ugly. To keep it short, let me put it this way: we're on our 3rd crew chief and have been upgraded by the contracting company as a "squeaky wheel". What was supposed to be a 6 week project is now going into week 11. No one over there seems to listening to what we asked for or what was agreed upon. They were supposed to remove a skylight, and they did, but only on the inside. The new roof went up and I saw the skylight still on top. Need I say more? It's a lot of stuff like this that really beat us down. Wrong windows ordered, no window ordered, pantry is the wrong size, new electrical box not relocated (no room for stucco where it's at now), exterior "pop-out" trim around windows that we didn't want...it's too much. Apparently, the crew chiefs don't keep our notes and we have to repeat everything to the new crew chief. We're tired of it and just want our house back...

week 24: setback...

week 21: great room opened up!

Things are happening so fast. The original back of the house was busted down and opened up to the expanded great room. You can see the sink pipes from the kitchen. Next week they're going to finish the framing, then I think we're getting windows and doors... oh, and probably ceilings!

week 20: great room walls up

Wow! What a difference a week makes! We had a meeting with the "project manager". (Who were we dealing with all this time?) Anyway, the great room walls went up and they started on the new roof. They also worked on the drywall inside. i was so excited about the outside that Max had to show me the bullnose corners on the inside of the house. TIP: If you're not getting your ideas taken care of call a meeting with the contractor. That's when I found out who the players were. Now I know who to tell to make sure our house turns out the way we want it.

week 19: great room floor down

The cement pad for the great room floor was poured. We went to the house and a couple of the neighbors came over to see how we were progressing. Well, it's going, but we have a meeting with the contractors - all of them! There seems to be a communication problem - what we want done is not getting to the workers. Hopefully, this will be resolved after our meeting.

week 18: office walls up

Walls went up in what was once the living room/dining room. The "living room" is being converted to an office and a bathroom. The "dining room" will be a HUGE storage closet.

week 17: patio cover down

Look at what used to be the covered patio. This will be the future great room. The contractors have also started digging in the front for the new bathroom. We lucked out. We didn't have to demo tile - the contractor said he'll do it for free! Nice, huh?

week 16: soffits down

The construction crew started on the 26th. They spent the week removing soffits (Now all the ceilings are the same height, no more 7' ceilings!), busting down walls, and knocking down the pillars outside. The pic is the future kitchen - remember week 11 when
I had to take a pic through a door? No more door! Next week, more demo for us. We couldn't find tile to match the existing tile in the entry, so we're going to have to demo.

week 14: GOT PERMITS!

We received word that work will begin on the 25th! Finally! We cleaned up the house - separated what we're going to donate and what we're going to trash. No easy feat since it's been over 110 degrees and Max has the A/C off. We need to get stuff ordered this week so I need to make decisions NOW. Yikes!

week 13: no permits yet

We're still waiting to get the building permits to have the contractor's start work. In the meantime, I keep tweaking the design here and there...

week 11: ok - final-final demolition

We wanted to srape up the linoleum from the cement floor in the kitchen, but it was pretty stuck after 27 years. We rented a power scraper but it was still laborious. We got most of it off, but some of the cushiony backing was still left. We'll have to see what the contractor says.

week 10: final demolition

Wow! Could it be week 10 already?! Well, I suppose if you ask Max, he'll say it feels like it. He has been working so hard on the house without my help. We "finalized" the architectural diagrams a couple of weeks ago. The contractor's were supposed to submit the drawings for permits. I believe they did because we haven't heard from them since.
In the meantime, Max (and some guys he hired) cleared out the trees and plants that we didn't want to keep. I wish he took a picture of all the debris; he said it was piled about 12 ft wide, stacked 6 ft high! He also finished removing all the baseboards and trim mouldings. We're going to have the contractor's re-trim the whole house for
continuity. Max also started knocking down the white slump block pillars in the back, but it was solid-solid. Looks like we're going to have the contractor's do that now. What the heck - when you're in as deep as we are, you may as well go for broke. :-) TIP: Marry a man as handy as he is cute! No kidding! I've been so busy at work and Max has been so good about going at it alone. PICS: Top - Back view with all the shrubs blocking the view; Bottom - Back view with view-blockers removed!

week 7: carpeting removal/architect meeting

Sorry, I missed a week, but let me catch you up now. Max pulled the carpeting/tack strips and I don't know what else. (Can you tell I took the weekend off?) We need to remove the linoleum in the kitchen and demo the tile in the masterbath. I think we're going to try out stained concrete while
the floors are bare. The most exciting progress we made was with the architectural drawings! Max did the initial meeting last week and yesterday we went together to see the first draft composites. It was so exciting! I know it's still just paper diagrams, but their paper make it look "official". It was the first time I met the contractor (and the contractor-in-training) and I was pleased with Max's choice. We had a very productive meeting. The next draft will be ready next week. TIP: I hope I don't have to say this, but don't be afraid to tell the contractor what you want. You're paying alot of money for something you'll be living with for a long time. PICS: Top - In the hallway, facing coat closet; Bottom - Same coat closet to the left and what's left of the living room.

week 5: more demo

We finished demo-ing the kitchen (except for the bank of cabinets with the sink on it). We also removed a bank of cabinets from the nook and revealed more wallpaper! Ugh! But this stuff hardly had any glue left so it peeled off almost on it's own. We then started to take down a coat closet in the hall. (Don't worry - there were 2.) That was fun - until we saw that the main power line was coming into that wall. We ended up leaving up the framing, but we could still see how large the foyer is going to be. Next was the bedroom closet wall. The guest bedroom closet and the master bedroom closet are back-to-back. We took down the wall separating the 2 to make it into 1 huge master closet. We just scratched the surface of the whole remodel, but we can
see it starting to take shape. We're still pretty thrilled. Max will be meeting with the architect this week. No tip this week. Everything was pretty straight-forward, safety-first sort of thing. PICS: Top - Original narrow hallway; Bottom - Extra coat closet (almost) busted down to expand entry/hallway.

week 4: kitchen demo

We finished the removal of the popcorn ceiling in the Living Room, Dining Room and Entry. We really got the hang of it (after all this practice) but fortunately, we're done. We also started demo-ing the kitchen. The ceiling in the kitchen is 7' high, so we're going to have the contractors raise the ceiling.
We may want to reuse the cabinets in the garage, so we decided to take them out ourselves. It's true what they say about demolition - it's fun! We didn't actually "destroy" anything (well, not on purpose). TIP: Wear a respirator/mask before taking down draperies THAT WERE NEVER CLEANED IN THE 25 YEARS OF THEIR EXISTENCE. Proper ventilation would be good, too. The dust cloud was so thick, it looked like something was burning in the oven. PICS: Top - Original appliance wall; Bottom - Kitchen w/ one wall of cabs left.

week 3: popcorn ceiling removal

Removing the popcorn ceiling was so much easier than we thought. We finished the 2 bedrooms, the family room and the nook in one day. The cleanup was worse than the actual removal. TIP: Use a one gallon weed-bug sprayer filled with tap water and spray the ceiling sections at a time. Soak it pretty
good. Wait 2-3 minutes and then scrape. It should come off like, like... wet joint compound (duh). Max scraped the utility room ceiling dry during the week and he said it took him 2 hours. Getting the acoustic wet is definitely the key. The second day I sanded the ceilings smooth while Max
removed the intake vents for the obsolete swamp cooler and patched the ceilings. Max also completed the demo of the utlity room. It's now a clean slate for however he wants to configure it. PICS: 1 - Max removing popcorn in the family room; 2 & 3 - Varying stages of the utility room.

week 2: wallpaper removal continued

It took me a whole day to get the rest of the wallpaper off. Finally! We're wallpaper-free! Max spent his time taking down the wrought-iron fencing around the in-ground spa (future dining room) and taking apart the shelves in the utility room (future workshop and golf cart
parking). It looks bigger and better already. Next weekend: popcorn ceiling. TIP: Don't be chintzy on the wallpaper remover and be patient. The instructions for the remover say "saturate" so do it. The instructions also say "wait 15 minutes" so wait. The stuff works so you don't have to. PICS: Top - Max clearing the way for the new addition; Bottom - Original utility room.

week 1: wall paper removal

WALLPAPER SHOULD BE BANNED!! We spent the entire weekend stripping wallpaper. Max started pulling wallpaper during the week. He said the wallpaper was so old that it was coming off the bedroom walls pretty easy.
We anticipated a quick job of getting the rest off, but unfortunately the paper was put directly on the drywall in the bathrooms. We spent 2 full days stripping wallpaper, but we weren't done yet! PICS: Top - Original master bedroom with country blue wallpaper, lace curtains, rollershades, and trees blocking the fantastic golf course view; Bottom: Master without wallpaper or curtains.

the beginning

We've always talked about moving to Sun City West "someday". So starting January of this year, we started looking for a home there. The first house we looked at was exactly what we wanted. But, we didn't want to buy the first house we saw and we figured more like this will pop up. Boy, were we wrong! Houses were out of our price range, too much work, or snapped up before we got a chance to see them. Tensions were rising rapidly after 2 months of looking almost every weekend. Max wasn't willing to up our budget, I wasn't willing to give up the golf course lot. But one fateful day in March, a house hit the MLS that had potential. We did a drive-by that night and LOVED it! We called our realtor and said we were ready to put an offer on this house sight-unseen. She said we better move fast because the listing agent was already waiting for a contract to be faxed. We saw the house (didn't really care too much) and wrote up the offer. By that evening, we were in a 3-way bidding war. We were victorious in the end, but in reality it's just the beginning.