Catching up, part II

The front wall of the house was the second to be completed finished (after the gable wall). With all of the soffit, facia, and siding installed, the house looks basically finished from the front (except for the window stickers, various construction items and lack of landscaping/shutters).
We had been accessing the addition from the outside by leaving the last small window (as wells as the sill and crip) uninstalled. In order to get to a point where we were ready to close up that access and break through the old gable wall, the insulation for the addition had to be installed. The rough electrical for the two bedrooms was also completed and cuts were made for the new heat/air conditioning vents in the two bedrooms. The rough wiring for phone jacks is even completed.

Deciding on the placement for the outlets and vent meant a lot of time spent bent over the plans, staring at them and trying to envision possible furniture arrangements (with many breaks while I ran to measure a piece of furniture). It was reminiscent of when I made the decision on what windows I wanted and where.

Once the rough electrical and insulation inspections were passed, the last window (the small one to the right of the scaffold in the picture below) was installed and the back wall was finished.

Landscaping and shutters will probably not happen until the Spring. Landscaping for obvious weather reasons, and the shutters because we're still debating color. I had originally suggested the idea of blue (a darker blue, but not as dark as navy), but Chuck wasn't sure how that would look. So I suggested black, and he was amicable to that. Unfortunately, his mind reading powers weren't working that day, and he didn't realize that I intended to match the color of the front door to the shutters. As it turns out, he doesn't like the idea of a black front door. So we're back to blue. Which means I have to find the shade of blue that I have in my head that's available for shutters and a door that I like. That could take a while.

Time for a catch up post (or several)

How many entries can I start with a statement about how I haven't blogged in a while and I promise to be better about updating in the future? I wish I could say this is the last, but we'll see.

Anyway, a lot has been done over the past two and a half months, but for now let's start with some of the things we got done in September:

On Labor Day weekend we disconnected the electrical service, relocated everything to the new gable wall, and hooked it back up again. No one got electrocuted, none of the food in the fridge/freezer spoiled, and I was even able to make it to a friend's birthday celebration that evening (albeit a little late). The phone service was relocated a few days later. Because no post is complete without pictures, here's a shot of Dad on the scaffold working with the electrical lines:

A few weeks later, the house got a new roof. We realize that we would never be able to match our 15 year old shingles (which have discolored over time), and that we (meaning I) would never be happy with an eight foot stripe of not-quite-matching shingles on the roof. And really, no one wanted to hear me complain about it for years to come.

So we ended up hiring a roofer to re-do the entire roof. It was money well spent, and they completed the job in one day. If you're looking for a roofer in this area, let me know and I'll happily give you the contact information.

Of course, a new roof meant that we got to pick out any color shingles we wanted. Or, I debated over the color choices while my husband said he was fine with whatever I wanted and my father reminded me that I needed to make a decision and let the roofer know sooner rather than later.

Since I'd never been crazy about the gray shingle / yellow brick combination (I know some people love gray and yellow together, but I'm not one of them), we ended up going with Shakewood. Here's a picture of the roof on the day it was finished:

In the picture above, you can also see that we finished the Tyvek on the front of the house, and finished installing the new windows in the front. You can get a much better idea of the layout of the new windows now that the last old window is gone. The triple window on the far left is almost nine feet wide and fairly heavy, but installation went very smoothly. Same thing for the new double window that's to the left of the front door.

More to come in the next catch-up post.

Tar paper, Tyvec, and two windows!

We passed the sheathing inspection and have begun installing the tar paper, Tyvec, and windows. The new gable wall is the furthest along in this process, with Tyvec, tar paper, and both windows installed. The front half of the roof has also been tar-papered.

Window rebate!

Our window rebate arrived from Andersen this week, right on time (six weeks from the date that the windows arrived at Heath Lumber). I am really happy that I shopped around, even if it meant losing an hour of my life that I can never get back at Home Depot (which I normally like). I hope I'm even happier when we do our taxes and figure out what kind of tax rebate we get.

I am a bad blogger...

I have no good excuse for my lack of posting; other than work and normal life stuff I haven't been particularly busy (sadly I have not been away on a spectacular vacation and thankfully there has not been a crisis).

Since I last posted, Dad and I put up the interior wall for the addition (also the support wall, so it's kind of important) and installed the ceiling joists. At some point I will even get outside during daylight hours to take pictures so I can post them.

The windows arrived exactly as scheduled (June 15th) and will be delivered tomorrow.

Dad has been out of town on a trolley move for the past two weeks (but he should be back this weekend), so there's not much else new to report. With the heat and humidity that we've been having, it's just as well that we haven't been outside working. Cross your fingers for me that it will cool off starting this weekend.

Still here

I haven't written recently because we decided to abandon the idea of an addition and are just going fill the foundation with water and use it as a swimming pool. Good thing we've had a lot of rain recently.

I'm kidding.

The real reason I haven't written is that there hasn't been much to report recently. Dad is away helping one of his friends move a trolley car (restoring antique street cars is one of his hobbies), so not much progress has been made.

The tie downs came in last week, but haven't been installed yet because we need to do a bit of chiseling to the beams to make everything fit. Once that is done we can have the open deck inspection, and then we'll be able to deck the floor and begin framing.

This morning I ordered nine Andersen 400 Series Tilt-Wash windows. In addition to the seven windows needed for the two bedrooms that are involved in the addition, we are also replacing the windows of the smallest bedroom. I want to eventually replace all the windows in the house (they are from the mid 50's, which should give you some clue about their energy efficiency, or lack thereof), and since we'll have the siding off of the wall where the smallest bedroom is, it makes sense to just go ahead and replace them now. Not only does the window purchase qualify us for the federal tax credit, but Andersen is also offering a rebate on purchases of seven or more qualifying windows through select dealers.

Hopefully after next weekend I'll have some more progress to report.

Window shopping

Today I went out and priced windows from three different stores: two local building supply companies and a nearby Home Depot. Before heading out I printed a current sizing sheet with product numbers from the Andersen Window website and carefully noted exactly how many windows I needed of each size and which ones I wanted to order as a double unit and which ones would be a triple. I also knew which options I wanted, so getting price quotes would be very easy. And it was at my first two stops (the two local stores).

I left Home Depot for last, because I figured that with their buying power, they would probably have the best deal. While I prefer to support local businesses when possible, I do not have a bottomless bank account. What follows is the incredibly long and confounding story of my attempt to price windows at Home Depot. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Not only was Home Depot the highest price (at least I think so... I'll explain my confusion in a moment), but they were the most difficult to deal with. First I was informed that Home Depot cannot look up windows using the product number, but can only look them up using the rough opening or unit dimensions. I had both of these figures, but when I started reciting them, I was told that the window sizes I wanted did not exist and that I should choose new sizes. When I showed the associate my printout, I was then advised that she may be able to custom order these sizes, but it would take a few days to find out the prices.

I thought of leaving at this point, and I wish I had. Instead, I politely insisted she call Andersen because even if the windows were not in her computer, they were stock sizes that Andersen makes. After two phone calls to Andersen, she was miraculously able to find the windows I wanted in her system using only the product numbers and sizes. I'm still not sure what purpose those two phone calls served since I had this information to begin with.

While she was on hold during those two calls, she started telling me that delivery fees for other companies would probably not include all the windows and how I probably didn't know the correct questions to ask since I don't do this every day. Apparently she saw the notes I had made about delivery charges when she was looking at the sizing sheet I had printed out from Andersen's website. I can't tell you how glad I was that I didn't have any other pricing information written on it.

I was finally handed a price sheet, and when I pointed out that she had keyed in a millwork kit instead of ordering the windows joined from the factory, she said not to worry about it, that it would just cost "a little more" to order them already joined. After much insistence on my part, she finally gave me a price for the double (but not the triple) so that I could see how much "a little more" would be. Then she mentioned that I could possibly save hundreds of dollars by paying a higher delivery fee to have the windows sent directly from the factory to me, but that it would take her a day or two to figure out how much I could save by doing this. I asked if she could start getting that figure so I would know in a couple of days, and she told me she would only do that if I called back later.

By the time I left, I didn't care to go through the process of finding out about the possible hundreds of dollars I could save (although I was tempted to walk five feet away from the window desk and call them on my cell phone to ask for a quote on that). I know that everyone is entitled to have an off day now and then, and I know that sometimes people are dealing with computer systems that are not as helpful as they should be, but I was more than a little annoyed by the whole experience.

Almost ready for the next inspection

Today Dad and I finished installing the last floor beam and joists as well as all the nailers. Once the tie downs arrive later this week we can install them and then call for the open deck inspection.

This leaves no actual construction work to do tomorrow, but since I have one more day off I'm going to shop for windows (and hopefully order them) and maybe take a look at another one of the bath showrooms in the area.