Walls, Day 2

Things appear to be slow-going. The addition seemed to go so much quicker. However, I found out today that there were MANY more people here for addition drywall. I assumed that because there were 3 or 4 people here when I got home during that time, that that was the whole crew.

At least, they are doing some of the more difficult stuff first. The Living Room should be a piece of cake after slanting walls, curving arches, patching, etc. This is the top floor, where the previous ceiling was, uh, sloppy curvy. Hopefully, we'll get something a little more crisp this time.

And it's always good to have extra supervision when dealing with a new crew.

Playing in the mud

The sheetrock guys are "mudding and taping" the walls. They have to apply the joint compound to fill in the seams and nail holes, and cover it with wide tape. Then they wait for it to dry (takes longer when it's raining outside), sand it and repeat. Then they need to spray some kind of texture on the wall; it hides imperfections and helps to hold the paint. All that could take most of the week.

L put our big stand fan, probably 30 inches across, over there to run all night and accelerate the mud drying.

And, there is mud outside everywhere, too. Portland is into the serious rainy season. Well, that's actually September thru mid-June (it has to rain on the Grand Floral Parade; it's like a tradition). My kitchen floor gets 3-dimensional with crud about every 3rd day. OK, well it gets dirty EVERY day, but it takes several days for me to get so thoroughly disgusted I have to mop. I never pretended to be Donna Reed. Our house has always been more like Roseanne, but with less children and more cats.

Tomorrow, I'm taking a half-day off so we can resolve the bathroom tile situation. I'm ready to just pick something just be done with it.

We have WALLS !

The sheetrock/drywall was delivered Thursday. Some of it had to come in through the sliding doors on 2nd floor balcony, using a boom truck !

I expected they would start next week, but Friday L emails and says they are on-site. They were still there when I got home around 6, and they stayed til 6:30. I was stunned that they got 95% of the addition nailed in one day; they just ran out of sheets. Here is their handiwork, and OUR WALLS !!

Garage:

Office (the "ledge" is required to insulate the areas with a crawlspace):

This open area is the cutaway for new stairwell. Once the drywall is mudded and sanded, and the hardwood floors are installed, sanded and sealed (the dust for both of those will be huge), then L is considering opening up this transition wall a bit. As the weather gets colder, wetter, etc. everyone is tracking a LOT of mud through both old and new construction.

The Master Bedroom (L-R: entrance, arch to closet and bathroom, south wall). The bed will probably sit between the two windows.

The guest room upstairs:

But, to get to the Guest Room you have to go through the hallway which will include The Yarn Wall !! (yay!)

There's not much to see yet in the Bathroom. The box with the vanity has been moved out of the way so the drywallers can get done. That corner is where the tub/shower will sit. The toilet is behind the pony wall on the right. There's a chunk of insulation sitting on that wall right now.

It's been hard to get a good pix of the vanity and its countertop, and we're trying to keep it in the box until installation, to keep it from getting banged around.

We haven't purchased the faucet yet, but I like both of these, I think I like the one on the right a little more:

It just gets better and better

First, the most entertaining bit. If you missed the beginning of the siding story, read this. Then read this. Then, get ready to laugh. The "ABC" Siding company called AGAIN today, wanting to know what they could do to get our business, and find out why their previous attempt fell flat. L said, because your price was higher than nearly everyone else's, you stood us up for an evening appointment, and you refused to present a detailed proposal. (A number on the back of a business card is not a proposal. Especially when it's a five-digit number.) We now have someone out there siding the house AS WE SPEAK. (For 25% less, even.). Thank you for playing our game, bye now.

Yes, the insulation guys started Monday. The siding guys had material delivered on Monday and started on Tuesday. They basically did most of the housewrap first day and started siding Wednesday.

This morning, the siding guys couldn't find the materials they needed for work under the eaves, then L found it, wrapped UNDERNEATH the siding and had to show them where it was. That was probably the fault of their vendor who wrapped the material and put it on the pallet.

Then the sheetrock truck came and they used a boom truck (crane?) from the street behind us, to load the sheetrock for upstairs through the 2nd floor balcony window (!!) They navigated over power lines and the garage and pissed off the lady behind us because they blocked her driveway while they were clearing away from power lines, etc.

THEN L discovered that the siders were putting the vented soffits underneath the eaves, BACKWARDS, and he had to go to the manufacturer's website and print out the official installation instructions to show them how it's done.

Finally, after dinner, Joey, who managed to sneak into addition through the "secret passage" last week, got the full tour tonight after dinner. Ever since he "accidentally" got over there last week, he's been dying to figure out what's going on over there. Everything has been officially investigated and sniffed, so I don't know if that will kill his curiosity or make it worse. In a few months, he'll have full reign, I mean, rein, in the area.

Not sure when the sheet rock crew gets here, probably next week. The sheets are 4x12, very heavy and there are dozens of them. We thought moving the tile was bad!!!