Home Improvement, Part 2 - More pictures

This

Is the “Babe Magnet” - there’s a long story about that, but this isn’t the time or place. Suffice to say, for some stupid reason, it nearly always attracts female attention of the positive nature.

We borrowed the Babe Magnet from a friend so we had both a “trash” truck and a “go fetch more siding” truck. Let’s not discuss the trips to the home improvement store…

The weekend was busy - with a few unexpected issues (and extra trips to those hell-holes on earth - Home Depot and Lowes), but a lot got done.

The wall came down, the spa went out, and the wall, new doors and windows went in - including a framed-in doggy door.

The spa still needs some work (that’s on the list), the exterior still needs coat of paint number 2, and trim paint (also on the list) and then the outside is done.

The interior needs the drywall completed (all that ugly wallpaper is GONE!) and one window still needs interior trim work done, it needs to be taped, mudded and textured then painted (all of that is on that ever-so-long list).

The floor is going to wait - although it’s badly marred where the spa was, and it’s half carpet and half linoleum - the budget simply isn’t there to do all of this and the floor all at the same time. So the floor waits until we’re ready to do the entire house floor and then it will get 18″ tile from front door on back - excluding bedrooms.

We did manage to stick within budget on this monster… The doors and windows were on sale (and we shopped around for those… found some great local resources) and we were able to save money on some of the disposal - there’s a local guy who picks up and recycles metal from demo work, so there went the old and rusty security screen and the nasty old AC unit.

Another friend had use for the gigantic panes of tempered glass and the old single layer glass door - so those didn’t have to go in the trash truck.

And we were able to reuse the old beams, so we didn’t have to do that part of the frame work, only framing in the new windows and doors.

For now, the siding went up - the original patio was all done in siding, and we had originally thought of going to stucco like the rest of the house, but that’ll happen down the road when we repaint the whole house - we’ll just stucco then.

One piece at a time, one project at a time - it’s getting done!

Home Improvement, Part 1- in pictures

And so it began… This quiet weekend disturbed by the sounds of sledgehammers and power tools…

Destruction complete - spa outside - wall rebuilt - new doors and windows installed… Now, next weekend comes the interior!

Deconstruction Underway!

And so it begins…

The wall, windows and door came out… and naturally, unexpected issues arose…

You see, this house is concrete block construction - which limits options when it comes to remodeling… and the way this room was constructed, it means it has three FULL concrete walls (which aside from a window replacement, we aren’t messing with) and one that’s concrete sides and framed in the middle - where the windows and doors were.

Which is exactly what we found. Along with that oh-so-handy horizontal load bearing beam. We also found that the oh so attractive upright beams (there as part of the framing only) were set on 8″ long metal rods, sunk into the concrete foundation. Ever try to remove a beam that’s been set on a giant metal rod? It’s a pain in the sledgehammer.

So, for those and a few other reasons, the original plan got slightly modified … thank heavens for friends who are contractors and do this stuff for a living!

We also discovered a significant lack of insulation in the ceiling over the room. Damn. Another trip to the home improvement store…

But, by early morning, all the deconstruction was complete, there was a truck full of trash and a pile to be repurposed (terrificly huge panes of tempered glass do not belong in the trash heap) and the reconstruction had begun.

Oh, yeah - and Daisy, TCTBMBFH is getting her very own doggy door framed into the new section of wall. Is she a spoiled doggy or what?

So, by tomorrow evening I should have some pictures up (right now, I’m stealing a moment as The BF and friends are finishing lunch…)

Home Improvement Project - or why is there a jacuzzi in my family room?

Someone in their weird wisdom installed a jacuzzi spa in the family room.

In all honesty, the family room was once an enclosed porch, so it’s likely the spa was simply on the porch and they built the family room around it. Well, now that we know the spa works - though it sprung a spectacular leak at the pump… that’s another story… it’s time to put it where it belongs: somewhere other than my family room. Somewhere outside.

However, it won’t fit through the doors of the room (see why I think they built the room around it?) and it means taking out an entire wall…

And so - the weekend project coming up:

Knocking out a wall, a door and three windows, moving the spa to its new home, and rebuilding the wall with new windows (ones that are designed to actually open and close) and brand new French doors…. (and possibly redoing the window with that hideous window AC unit… we have central… hello!)

OOooo I’m all a tingle!