The Walls are Coming...The Walls are coming

It was a good week in remontel land as a lot of progress was made. At the beginning of the week, the foundation work began while the electricians finished their pre-insulation tasks and then the insulators stuffed all of the exterior walls.

Here is the view from the closet into the bathroom.



Here is the view of the bedroom with the drywall waiting to be hung.



They also chipped out the foundation near the bathroom door so they will be able to patch in the hard wood floors.



Once the foundation work was done and we partially passed inspection for the insulation (we learned they don't fully pass you until there is insulation in the ceiling which obviously can't happen until the drywalling is done) the walls starting forming. They even came in on Saturday to do the taping and bedding.

Here is the view of the bedroom with actual walls. The bed will be centered under the raised portion of the ceiling between the outlets.



Here you can get an idea of the tray above the bed. It will have 3 inch tall beams in a grid pattern eventually.



The shower hasn't been done yet since they will be putting cement board in there instead of drywall.



The reading nook turned out to be a really good size even after my initial hesitations at the framing stage and I really like the new window placements.



They did pull the electrical out too high since the outlets will be in the side of the vanities and here it would be in the backsplash. They say its an easy fix.



Here is a view of the closet from the doorway.



They also added the wiring for the chandelier in the guest bedroom since one of the oddities of the house was no overhead lighting in the guest bedroom at all.



It will be a lot of progress for Jami to see when she gets back tomorrow.

They will let the bedding dry over the weekend and then start sanding and texturing. They hope to complete this by the end of the day Tuesday. Then I think the next step is the trim guys and tile guys. Hopefully next week will be as successful as this one.

Rough In and a Minor Setback

So as noted it has been a little longer than anticipated for the next post but things are back on track after another week. We'll start with the rough in....

We went out to the house and met the plumber and our contractor to determine the placement of the faucets. Since we are converting a dresser into a vanity for the bathroom, it isn't as deep as a typical vanity, so we are wall mounting the sink faucets. Although we got the valves in on time, we didn't have the faucets themselves, so Jami went to the bath supplier and make a cardboard template of the faucet, which the plumber thought was very clever. If we would have only gotten a folding rule for the measuring, Grandpa would have been very proud. We made the decisions and then they came out the next day and "roughed in" the valves. Our friends who are doing the stone top and backsplash also came out for the placement and took the vanity to their shop to start on the work.

Here is the plumbing for the double sinks in the vanity.

Here is the shower rough in... we will have a thermostatic valve with a dual diverter (so you can run the rain shower head and hand shower simultaneously if needed), a slide bar with hand shower on it that Jami will likely use as a shower head most often, and a rain shower head in the ceiling for me. Here you can see the thermostatic valve on the far left. We decided to put it there so you could open the door and easily reach in and get the water going before you got in. The right hand side is where the water will come in and go through the hose to the hand shower, which will be on the slide bar centered on the wall. Not pictured is the valve in the ceiling for the rain head.

We were cruising along and getting ready for our next inspections when we got an unpleasant surprise. Apparently during the installation of the tankless water heater (something we were very excited that the previous owner had taken care of), they had only placed the appropriate sized gas lines where they were visible. Under the house, the lines reduced to 1/2 or 1/4" pipes, which wont support our needs nor pass inspection. As the old saying goes, nothing time and money can't fix. We had a "variance" allowance in our estimate that will cover the cost, but it did cost us a couple of days of work to replace all the gas lines under the house (see below in the wall - larger pipes).

After the pipes got fixed we passed the second inspections for electrical and plumbing. So we are back on track.

Other things that have happened since the last post are...

The mason came out and re-stoned the outside of the house for the windows that had been moved.

They cemented in the water and drain lines in the bathroom.

They capped off all the old lines behind the walls in the reading nook.

One other thing that Jami noticed with the help of our friends who are doing the stone is that the light wasn't centered over the window in the bathroom. So we had them move the joist over so they will be able to center the light on the window.

Our contractor also suggested we add blocking in the shower and water closet so if we need to add bars later in life we will have the support in the walls to secure them. Always good when your contractor thinks of the little things.

Since the washer and dryer will be "built in" to the cabinets, we also planned an easier way to access the cut-off valve - turns in the left wall behind a false wall in the broom cabinet.

I'm sure I'm missing things, but that at least gives you an idea of where we are in the process. The schedule for next week includes the foundation company out at the beginning of the week. There are repairing or replacing 6 piers and sistering or replacing over 200 linear feet of wood under the house. This is stuff we got compensated for after the inspection as part of the purchasing contract. The electricians are also coming out early in the week and making some adjustments and finishing things up. Then the insulation will go in and get inspected. After that drywall will hopefully start to go up at the end of the week. So if all goes well, when Jami comes back from her trip we may have solid walls.