As expected .....

Another disappointing week.  Things are moving so slow and we are so close to functioning in some of our new spaces.  Another stressful item is some expensive plumbing issues.  Will address that in a different post.

This week the contractor is on vacation so things are even more disorganized than usual.  Have I said how disoganized and lack of detail we experience from our contractor?  Well we have managed it because we have done this before but it seems to be worst these days.  We try not to stress about it because we are stuck with him so we try to help.  Because at the end, we have to live in the house.   So needless to say since he is on vacation and he has tried to coordinate things from vacation, things are going wrong left and right.  

Let's see ..... Tuesday we woke up to a gas leak from our stove.  Yesterday the plumbing under our sink was leaking and last night I tired to run the dishwasher and it will not drain.  So I am left to talk to the "crew" about it.  

Our Drywallers (which are different people) than the "crew" have been at the house yesterday and today.  So the basement has walls and a ceiling.  Oh and I hugged them this morning.  They jumped jays car battery which jay to leave for me this morning when he was late for work.  They were kind of taken back. It was funny. 

The "crew" has been doing random things.  Like finishes and stuff.  So far all of the plumbing work they have done each day has to be redone the next day.  We have a licensed plumber coming to do more work but he does not coming for another week and he will approve the "crews" work. But they have hung the light and mirror. So the bathroom is so close. 

Slowly ..... but one day we will have our house back.  The date keeps pushing back.  Remind me to read this blog when I say we are rennovating again. 

But we did have at a pumpkin patch yesterday.  If I had a working stove, maybe I could make something with them. ;)

The real reason we are tired . . . .

So the renovation makes us tired but the real reason we are tired is because of these two - 

We just never get a break which is like all parents.  The renovation just makes this parenting thing so much harder.  Because our one living space, which right now is our kitchen/dining room/family room constantly looks like this (on a good day) . . . .

When they get tired, they get to do this while I am barely able to keep my eyes open.

The kids must be tired from running us to the ground.

But then you get a smile like this. . . . 

And you watch them play together like this. . . . 

And than we have a fun day like this . . . .

And you watch the boys in your life hang out like this . . .. . . 

 So I realize how lucky we are, but I come to the conclusion that we are going to be exhausted for the rest of our lives now that we are parents.  

So on Memorial Day, it is so trivial that we still don't have a toilet on the main level, no dishwasher still, etc., etc.  We are so thankful for the people who died for our country so we can live our exhausted, fun, crazy life.  

P.S. We did get our backsplash installed today.  The house highlight . . . .

This week update

So this week was not one of the most successful weeks.  One of the "crew" members was MIA.  So for the most part, our crew (which is two guys) did not work much this week.  There was some progress but not what we were expecting for the week.  

Monday - the countertops were measured, the tile in the bathroom was grouted and the bathroom was primed.  The basement passed the first inspection.  I fixed an area on the wall in the basement.  
Tuesday - The insulation for the basement was installed.  Took a trip to home depot.
Wednesday - the fan and recessed light was installed in the bathroom.  Some drywall work was completed and round one of the paint.  
Thursday - The post insulation inspection took place and we passed.  The HVAC company came to install our wall units for basement and family room.  They also fixed some ductwork issues.  
Friday - The "crew" were back.  They did a lot of random things needed before drywall is installed in the basement.  Dryer vent was added.  Bathroom fan vent was added.  Additional concrete added under basement tub.  They cleaned out the basement (there was alot of trash).  The HVAC guys came back to do some additional work.  Spent my Friday night at Lowes getting a new toilet since we the guys took it out of the box, it was cracked.  

As that may seem like a lot of work, we definitely did not have as productive of a week as we had hoped.  When you are on your second month of no washer and dryer and toilet downstairs and week #4 of no running water, dishwasher and stove downstairs . . . . it gets pretty frustrating when the house sits still more than it should.  Yes - we have high expectations.  We honestly have started to address some of the issues we see ourselves vs. asking the contractor.  That may not sound right but sometimes it is just easier.  

The most exciting thing that happened this week is the countertops were installed today. The stone people will be back monday to install the backsplash.  The backsplash is the same as the countertops and will go from the countertop to the bottom of the upper cabinets. Here are pics . . . 

Here are some of the pics to show some of the other work. 

This is called a ductless until.  There will be one in the family room and one in the basement.  

Insulated basement.

Lowes trip

Patched wall.  

Bathroom paint color.  

Some of the other random projects (we like to stay busy) is the yard.  Jay's side project.  For the past couple of weeks, Jay had this fence to keep Finley.  The area used to be a natural area that we wanted grass (you may remember the previous post).  This is how is turned out. . . . . 

Before

New enlarged yard.

Other project we have been working on is some curb appeal.  Jay built the shutters and window boxes and we have all been helping with the painting.  

2nd coat went on today.  So soon they will be going up.  We want to pressure wash the front of the house first.  

As you can tell, we are keeping busy.  Will update on the family this weekend.  We are hanging here over the weekend.  Went to the pool today, grilling out with friends tomorrow and going to a memorial day parade with some friends on Monday.  The parade comes down a street close to our house and than there is an all day festival for memorial day at the main park in Falls Church.  

Happy weekend!

Mid project update

Mid project before and after updates. . . . . . It makes me feel good to see these because it helps me remember how far we have come even though we have so far still to go!

Our countertops were measured on Monday.  The tile in the bathroom was grouted yesterday as well. The bathroom was primed.  The basement passed inspection this morning so insulation goes in tomorrow.

Yesterday was a slow day and today has been too but hopefully there will be more progress at the end of the week.

Before

Mid Project

 Before

Mid project

Before

Mid project

Cabinet Day cont

It was cabinet day.  Very exciting.  The drywaller came on Friday and the plumber was here early to get some last minute plumbing needed for cabinet installation complete. Overall everything went pretty well.  We had one damaged cabinet, 2 cabinets not arrive, one extra cabinet, and several hinges the wrong color.  Truly not bad.  

Our cabinet installations who were great.

View from the family room.

View from the dining room.  (the location of the fridge in this picture is where the floor to ceiling pantry will go, along with a small coat/shoe closet).  Both did not arrive in this shipment.

Jay doing some cleaning so we could see how the fridges look . . . 

So there you go.  Our kitchen is looking like a kitchen.  

In addition to the cabinets, the tiler finished and will be grouting on Monday.  So not only are we closer to the kitchen, we are closer to a bathroom.  

One separate item that was completed on Friday, the flooded basement.  So the contractor dealt with that on Friday.  This meant alot of concrete.  He built a concrete wall in the basement where the flooding happened as well as installed the concrete to the window well.  

This is supposed to cure the leak problems in the basement.

And this is the mess of the basement from the flood in the basement.  

So good weekend on the house front.  Keep moving forward.  Had a great birthday weekend.  Jay and I went out on Friday night and hung with Christy today.  It was great turning 29 again!

 My birthday lunch with my partners in crime :)

Cabinet day

Cabinets are being installed today.  Exciting day with the crazy week we have had with the renovation.  Plumber and tiler are here too.  Will post details later. 

Oh shit

Oh shit. Is what I said multiple times yesterday as well as a lot of other words. Our basement flooded.  Like waterfall flooded.  We already had a little leak but when they installed the window they had stone around the well.  The next step was to pour concrete on top of the stone.  Well it did not happen in time for the monsoon that came through last night.  Our driveway also slopes out to the road.  So imagine the 4 inches of rain that should have been draining towards the road now had this porous well to funnel all of the water. So where did the water go?  Into our basement.  Literally it looked like a waterfall.  

To make the situation more challenging, jace was screaming at the top of the stairs and would not come down. Abby was in her diaper on my hip. So in the pouring rain with Abby I was covering the window well.  

So it appears this issue, will need major work.  $$$$$.  Waiting to see how our contractor handles this.  Not saying it is his fault but we never had a leak before they did demo. I do feel like we need to fix some outstanding issues from the house but he caused some too!  Hoping he partners with us.  I have to give him credit because when I called him pretty panicked he came over right away with pumps and supplies to help.  Hope he partners with us on this one.  We are already past what we planned to spend and things keep adding up!

Happy birthday to me.  I told jay we should have just bought an RV.  

A little bit of this and a little bit of that

Things continue to move forward.  There has been a little bit of this and a little bit of that completed.  

The tile guy continues.  He is pretty slow in my opinion.  Not that it is a big deal because it looks good but just seems very slow.  This is what he accomplished today.  I did a close up of the floor tile.  We are doing basic subway tile for the walls. 

The electrician was back.  From what we have been told our electrical is way over budget.  But alot of that is a result of the first crew messing so much up and things are having to be redone.  

The "crew" worked on more framing things.  Framed a closet in the basement and fixed some framing in the laundry room. 

This is the closet.  It used to be a wasted space that was walled off.  I think we will get alot of use out of this for toy storage.  They also installed these small windows.  There are three of them in the basement.  

The drywall guy came this morning at 6:30.  Sanded his work from the other day and left.  I like our contractor but sometimes I do not understand his logistics.  The walls in the kitchen still need work.  Why would our contractor not have him finish the walls in the kitchen?  The drywaller will probably be back tomorrow.  

The HVAC guy did not come today.  There was something else he needed that needs to come in.  He is coming another day.  Overall things are going fine.  Getting a little nervous about cabinets arriving on Friday and the kitchen will not be ready for installation.  We do not have space in our house to store them so they have to be installed the next day.  To be continued . . . . 

On the kid front.  We needed out of the house.  Jace does not have school on Wednesday and I could not handle another day of dealing with the sub contractors.  So downtown we went.  We went to the Museum of National History and met Christy for lunch.  Little did I know it was her anniversary.  

Sitting with a monkey while we watched a movie about monkeys.