Waiting for Legality

We are currently in a rather frustrating holding pattern. This is the escrow period. We have paid our deposit and are hoping to see the contingencies removed in the 45 days allowed. However, not much has happened. Hubby has consulted with the septic and well men, also with the Architect and one builder, and has had multiple conversations with the realtor. But nothing seems to be moving forward. The seller needs to establish the legality of the parcel - which may apparently cost as much as $40,000 to do - and nothing seems to have happened on that yet. We can't move forward on drilling for a well until the parcel has been surveyed and legality established. Until the legal question has been seen to, we don't have confidence about what kind of parcel this is - i.e. whether it is one that will permit building. And the last thing we want is to end up with a Land Lemon...a parcel that we are simply conserving for the pleasure of future generations (and that no one would want to buy from us).

Seems to me that these are questions that the current owner could possibly have looked into before he bought it himself; but apparently the person he bought from insisted that he purchase this land alongside the parcel on which he actually built a house.

Those of a suspicious nature might think this implies there is a problem with the parcel. I guess we shall see.

BBQ Fiasco

Today was the day when the outdoor kitchen was supposed to be finished. What a fiasco. First of all the grill installers didn't turn up this morning - they claimed to have been given the wrong address. When they finally did turn up, they unpacked all the equipment and discovered that none of it fitted into the holes waiting for it in the frame of the outdoor kitchen. The holes cut in the counter top were not big enough.

The gal in the Landscape Designer's office tried to get the counter top guy out, but he was not to be found. After the BBQ installers had hung out for an hour, they prepared to go home, leaving all the equipment out on the patio. At that moment the counter top guy arrived. He had started to cut the counter top as I left for an event elsewhere.

Returning home, I see that the two grills are positioned in their spaces on the counter top - but there is a big gap behind them, about two inches wide, which means that the unit is not water tight and generally looks rubbish. Did I mention that this counter top - honed limestone - cost us over $8,000? Unless there is some magic fix, they've ruined it. Also some of the stone cladding fell off the wall.

The BBQ installers were pretty sour and unpleasant. They also tried to install the fridge but couldn't because they said it was impossible to reach the feet under the fridge when it was in place. The space in the base of the kitchen unit is apparently insufficient for the installation to happen. The BBQ installers also said that they wouldn't be installing the other pieces of equipment we bought from their store - at immense expense - because "we only install into wood studs, not concrete, so someone else will have to do this."

All in all, a total fiasco, and Hubby is on the verge of firing everyone. (Which of course would be madness, given the late stage of the project, but I understand his frustration.)

When we embarked on the landscaping, we were assured that it would all be done by the end of May. How wrong that was.

Today's Menu of Action

Several things happened today:

- The hardscape people cleared out their stuff. The outdoor kitchen is still not finished, pending a solution to "the paper towel holder doesn't fit."
- The counter top people arrived and left again without doing anything to the outdoor kitchen.
- The landscaping crew continued to rotovate the back yard. In fact they were using something that looked like a spade attached to a jack hammer. It took them all morning to do the majority of the ground.
- A very large pile of soil arrived, and the landscaping crew started to distribute it by wheelbarrow.
- The painters arrived and started to do the undercoat on the bedroom/bathroom extension exterior.
- The dry wall guys came back to fix the ceiling in the office, guest bathroom and hallway where the plaster had shrunk away from the metal beading, causing the plaster to crack.
- Site Supervisor II covered up the kitchen skylights with black plastic, at my request. It was so hot in the kitchen that you could have fried an egg on the floor.
- SS2 also thinks he has found a solution to the tub problem.

Tomorrow we have the first site meeting for several weeks.

Too much weather and not enough action

Yesterday it rained. Today it has rained and it looks like there is a lot more in the sky. It's quite unbelieveable. This is California, people! We're supposed to be in bright sunshine by now.

Despite the inclement weather, the hardscaping has been moving forward. While the stone mason has finished putting the capstone on the rear wall, and is now working on the walls of the outdoor kitchen, one of his mates has been grouting the back patio, and the other has been cleaning up general mess. It all looks a lot tidier all of a sudden. The head hardscape honcho thinks that we could be finished tomorrow, but perhaps more likely on Tuesday because of the weather; and then we'll be ready for the BBQ guys to install the equipment, and for the granite guys to install the counter top (both of them being different subcontractors). The tidying up is in preparation for the landscapers, who we are expecting to appear next week to start working on the soil.

In and around the house, all has been quiet. In fact no one was here yesterday, and no one today. I've had no response on the bath issue reported yesterday. Apparently Jim, the boss and our "project manager", is on vacation this week. The lack of finishing is becoming quite frustrating. I've asked our architect to organize a site meeting for next week in the hope of chivvying the construction company along. We are so close, and things have gone so well thus far, that it would be a shame for everything to go wrong at this late stage. At the very least I am hoping to receive a genuine schedule for the remaining items, notably (1) finally getting the skylights and shades in the kitchen to work; (2) the exterior painting; (3) installation of the downspouts by the sheet metal subcontractor; (4) completion of the touch ups in the interior paint; (5) boxing in the electrical area by the guest bedroom and moving around the exterior lights to a better position.

I think it is fair to say that we are irritated that we are about to have Memorial Day weekend, and we're not finished. It is all dragging on too much now.

One step forward, two steps back

We are still tantalizingly close to being finished.

The painters were in last week and at the start of this week, painting the living room, dining room, hall and entry hall. All looking nice. We are moving the furniture round, and the living room in particular looks like a complete disaster with piles of unsorted books everywhere.

Site Supervisor II tells me that there is now power to all the skylights and blinds in the kitchen. The two openable windows now open, but the blinds are not working. This is proving to be puzzling as all the necessary pieces are in place. We are waiting for the Velux guy to show up again.

I just discovered what looks like a crack in the new bathtub. I suspect someone stood in it. It may be cosmetic rather than catastrophic, but the crazing doesn't wash off. I have reported it to the powers that be, and we'll see what the outcome is.


Outside it has been raining again. We are still waiting for the sheet metal people to come back to install the downspouts, and the painter plans to start on the exterior next week when the forecast is for dry. The weather is also causing more delays on the hardscaping. They're doing what they can - including some of the grouting yesterday, that they then covered up with plastic when the rain came - but it is slow going. The outdoor kitchen seemed to be making good progress on Monday but, when I got back from a trip to the grocery store, all the bbq equipment pieces had been removed again. The cap stone is going onto the retaining wall today.


Trying to get rid of a dining table and computer desk on Freecycle this week, and having no luck. I have managed to dispose of the four bar stools. I've been trying to sell our TV stand, which cost over $1,000 about 18 months ago, and there's no interest in that at all. Odd what you can get rid of and what you can't.

Slow progress...but will it never end?

Welcome to week 29 of our remodel.

I know things have been quiet in the Cardboard Box's blog recently. Well, there's not been a whole lot to report. First of all, we've had rain again. Bah. Second, we've been waiting, and waiting, and waiting...for subcontractors...for supplies...for an act of God maybe.

Site Supervisor II had a bit of a triumph last week on the kitchen skylights. He finally found someone who actually knew something about Velux windows. The diagnosis was that we need insect screens which will keep a magic button depressed, thus enabling the windows to open. They are now on order and, in the meantime, SS2 has put a stick pressing one of the magic buttons, and we now have an openable window. Yay! He's installed the new blinds too. We're waiting on a new transformer and new keypad, and hopefully that will result in the skylights being fixed.

The electricians came back yesterday to install the exterior lights. (We still have a couple on back order.) They also installed a couple of new telephone plates inside - with the result, it seems, that our phone is now out of order.

It would be nice if we could finally get the interior of the house fully complete. We have new furniture on the way for the family room, and we particularly don't want painting to be done after it arrives. We've not seen a sniff of the painters and the majority of the outstanding work is now for them.

Alas, SS2 has gone off to start supervising another job which is not so close to completion. I fear this will result in a long slow tail of our unfinished items being polished off.


On the landscaping, the inclement weather has not put the hardscapers off. They can't grout when it's wet, but they have finished laying all the ashlar paving. They've done an amazing job of laying out the crazy paving, and are waiting for the weather to improve before mortaring it. In the meantime, they've moved on to the stone cladding on the back wall, under the redwood trees, and the walls of the outdoor kitchen. I'll take photos tomorrow when it's not pouring with rain.

Just paid a bill for almost $8,000 for the granite countertop for the outdoor kitchen.

Finally, a prize to anyone who can explain why we have this little witch's hat on the roof?

Nice Weather for Ducks

More rain today, just a light shower this morning, but looks like it will be settling in this afternoon.

Site Supervisor II and Azmir have been cleaning up debris from the back yard; the hardscaper was also here this morning cleaning up his palettes and so on. The Landscape Designer is keen to lay out (with paint) the side yard path so we can decide how sinuous it should be; and it's hard to do that with piles of stuff everywhere.

The fence guys returned today and are bravely working through the rain. The back fence is coming on quite nicely: see photo. I spoke to our neighbor - owner of the vacant house - this morning and got his okay to let them go into his yard, and also to cut back any of the trees/bushes that might impede their work. Since he's planning to take out the two trees against the fence (an exceptionally ugly and messy lo-quat and a sadly neglected olive) he was perfectly fine with that.

No action on the patio stone today. It's really too wet. As you walk across the stones in the back yard, you can actually feel them squelch. I presume this is normal.

Also posting a photo here of flowers sent to us for our wedding anniversary from my mom and dad. Thanks!

Rain Rain Go Away Redux

Hard to believe that there is still rain, but there is. Today it is pouring. Bah. The fence contractors and the stone mason arrived, watched the rain for a bit and left again. Site Supervisor II is picking up a few odds and ends around the house, but since most of the remaining action is on the exterior, it is extremely quiet here today. The forecast is for rain through Thursday. This will impact the schedule for the pool plaster - which can only be applied when the pool surface is bone dry - and the stone grouting - which also requires a bone dry surface. Double bah.

C-Day Arrives...and Leaves

Today was supposed to be punch list day, which we might also term Completion Day. Over the course of last week, this became reframed as "punch list for the interior" day. In the event, it was not completion day at all.

Don't get me wrong: The project is very close to being finished (at least inside the house), but every room has something in it that needs completing, tweaking, fixing, touching up, etc. On the instructions of Site Supervisor II, I went round the house - though not the family room/ bathroom/ bedroom end - this morning with a pad of paper and some painters' tape, obsessively opening drawers, looking for scuff marks, and such like; and I sent him a list of 29 items requiring attention. Since sending it, I've spotted two more, but 29 seems like enough to be getting on with for now.

The list includes things like electrical receptacles unfinished, the phantom screens on the office windows being sticky, some minor dry wall damage in the dining room, scratches on the top of the dresser in the master bedroom.... By themselves, nothing major, but adding up to enough work to keep them busy for a few more days at least.

The only rooms that are finally complete are the master bathroom and Deep Thought's room, which were having only minimal work done to them anyway. The guest bedroom looks done, but then you discover that the lights inside the closet have not been wired in. The family room looks done, but then you open the TV cabinet and discover that the shelves where the DVD player and other kit should sit are not straight as the holes for the pegs to hold them have not been drilled at the same level (I kid you not). The office looks done, but the desk grommets need to be secured in place and the screens need correcting. You get the idea.

To say that SS2 is frustrated by the lack of finishing would be an understatement, I think. The cabinet makers reached the top of his hit list again last week, having made medicine cabinets for the guest bathroom that were too large to allow the light fittings to go between them (despite the light fittings having been in our garage for three months). Hubby is also getting pretty fed up with the endless fiddling about that is required at this stage. I am trying to be stoic about it as I have to live with it - and answer multiple questions every hour on all manner of subjects, from handle placement to likely mode of using the windows.

The two big steps forward of the day seem have been having door handles (well, actually finger cups) added to the office doors, which now look rather stylish; and the finalization of the cable man's work on the telephone, ethernet and cable installation. We now have a "smart panel" on the wall in the TV cabinet that should eliminate any need for ugly grommets and wires on show.

Where did the week go?

Here we are at Thursday! I've been so busy this week it's been impossible to get to the blog. Plus our internet connection has been having some screwiness - we think Comcast, rather than the remodel - which has been frustrating. But here I am now.

Landscaping - We accepted a bid from a landscaping firm, and they'll be here on Saturday to start clearing up the back yard and prepping the soil. The stonework guy returned to work and has been laying the patio out back. It looks great.

Remodel - Site Supervisor II is compiling a hit list of subcontractors. High on his list are the cabinet people, who have delivered the TV cabinet wrongly made for the second time. (As I write, the painters are shouting angrily at each other in Serbo-Croat in the family room...I think there may have been an "oops" moment. I try not to notice.) The electrician has gone AWOL, but it sounds like if we get to a critical mass of things for him to do then he will come back. The hinges for the interior doors were delivered - in the wrong size. I've filled our closet with clothes twice this week...and then had to take them all out again.

Anyway, it's been a bit like that all week. I think SS2 may explode with frustration soon. (The head painter is now scolding his workmen in English. I can't see them, but I can sense them hanging their heads in shame.)

Our microwave oven has been installed by SS2 (who has started simply doing the work himself instead of delegating it), and we also got the new dryer. SS2 and the plumber installed the washer/drier units, and managed to get them closer to the wall than the original installers.

Jim and SS2 claim that we'll still be finished on April 12. The Architect is skeptical. Well, I guess we'll see.

In other news, our large purple window seat cushion was just delivered. I do hope it fits.

Wet Weekend Round Up

So little seemed to happen last week that I gave up writing the daily blog. So here's a brief summary of action:

- wood floors went into the bedroom, office, and the base of Little Starlet's closet, and each received their sanding and first two coats of varnishy stuff;
- the gimble mounted lights went into the bedroom and office ceilings;
- the snap-on outlet plates were installed in the kitchen (mostly);
- the baseboard and crown molding were painted in the master bedroom;
- the tile was almost finished in the guest bathroom, except for a small area around the toilet sewer pipe;
- the tub deck in the guest bathroom had the corner rounded to eliminate potentially injurious point;
- some of the cabinets in the kitchen were adjusted (again);
- the shelf inserts inside the main food pantry were installed - but they have to be removed because now the rolling shelves have no way to come out.
- the door bell was repaired, and now plays the first couple of bars of the 1812 overture (not sure this is a big improvement on the last tune).
- wood siding installation began on the exterior of the bedroom/bathroom
- the "scratch" coat for the stucco was installed on the office/laundry and the rear main wall.

That may sound like a lot, but is actually not a great deal. Most days we only had one or two guys here, which is a big difference. There was no action in the landscaping at all, as our stone layer was off with family issues.

In other news, I had a bit of taxpayer triumph. A couple of months ago, Site Supervisor II spoke with the City about repairing our sidewalk and road. The City told him that it would be ten years before they were back on our street, and that we were essentially out of luck. Last week I took matters into my own hands - inspired by new puddled formed by new rain - and contacted the Public Works Department. Long story short, they came to inspect and agreed to add our section to their repair schedule for 2010. In fact they said there were 20 places on our street that needed repair, so they'd be repairing the whole block! Hubby says, maybe they checked the computer to see how much property tax we pay....

Avoidable Delay Due to Sub-Contractor Incompetence

Almost nothing happened yesterday. Senmet was the only person working at the house, and he alternated between the exterior siding and little jobs inside, depending on the rain. Site Supervisor II was away at another project, where they're trying to finish the punch list this week. The wood floor people were supposed to be here - and we severely disrupted the house in preparation for their arrival - but they didn't arrive, despite SS2 phoning them eleven times (so he reported this morning).

The wood floor folks finally turned up today at 8:30am, which was still half an hour late. SS2 is livid because he has had to put all the other subcontractors off while the floor is being done, and knocking one day out of the schedule because of yesterday's no-show has implications for all the other subs and their availability.

Well, at least they're here now, which is more than we can say for the hardscaping crew. It rained a fair bit yesterday, but there is no rain today. In fact we have sun. But no hardscapers.

The stucco subcontractors arrived yesterday after we passed our lath inspection. They have stuccoed the office extension and are currently working on patching some of the small areas around the house perimeter.

Trying to Get Beyond 80% Done

The frustrating thing about the remodel now is that lots of things are almost finished; but not many things are actually finished.

The kitchen floor is complete, but the wine fridges can't go in because the walls haven't been painted. The kitchen cabinets still need adjustment. The office is ready to have the floor installed and the walls painted. The light fittings also need to go in. The exterior lights are here, but awaiting installation. The laundry is awaiting cabinet pulls and painting. (We're also waiting for the correct top half of the dutch door to come.) The interior doors are in and painted, but still need the correct hardware (handles, hinges etc). The family room floor is complete and the window bench is in, but the TV cabinet is having to be remade (see earlier post about how it was made up in the wrong material). The guest bathroom tile is half done. The window frames have all been painted, but the glass needs cleaning up.

The guys from Jim's Bunch have been installing the closet doors in our bedroom since yesterday. California Closets will be coming on Friday to install the innards.

I could go on. All this is not to say that work is slowing down, or that the guys aren't working hard, because it isn't and they are. It's just that it would be nice to see something actually 100% complete because every room in the house is currently impacted by the remodel.

They pulled the back off our house

We did give them permission to do it. The stucco at the back of the house turns out to have gone rotten. I wasn't tremendously surprised: The source of the problem seems to have been the master bathroom. When we moved in we discovered we had subterranean termites there. The termites had been encouraged by a water leak under the shower. When the shower pan was removed it turned out that the whole bathroom floor was rotten, as was most of the interior wall. We had to have everything replaced.

Anyway, the exterior stucco seems to have gone rotten from a combination of moisture wicking up from the earth via the stucco that had been spread down into the soil line (a total no-no) and the moisture inside the walls from the leaking shower pan way back when. That internal leak had no doubt been going for some years, and the stucco-in-the-ground was 50 years old, so rotten is no surprise.

As a result we've had the stucco subcontractors strip most of the exterior of the gable end off. This has given us an opportunity to add insulation in the wall - we had none before, which makes the way our room got very cold in the winter more understandable - and there will be a new moisture barrier under the sheathing. An unexpected but appropriate upgrade.

Family Room Recovery

Our architect has fallen on her sword for the mistake in the family room. She is deducting $700 from her current invoice and the cabinet guys are remaking the cabinets in the appropriate paint grade wood. Site Supervisor II assures me this will not cause any additional delay.

I have an appointment to meet an upholsterer on Thursday to discuss the bench cushions for the family room and kitchen.

Catch up post

I can't believe I haven't posted since Wednesday. Blame it on the children who were off school on Thursday and Friday. When they're here, it's hard to get onto the computer.

The dishwasher went into gush-mode on Thursday during our weekly site meeting, which was handy as Jim himself was able to witness the food particles spurting out of the sink. A plumber was called (the third time the dishwasher has needed TLC since reinstallation). Speaking of sinks, the laundry sink and countertop was ready for installation, but before cutting the hole, the granite guy called Site Supervisor II and explained that there wouldn't be space for the faucet at the back of the sink - it was too big. We gathered in the laundry to watch SS2 draw the sink on the hardboard top and agreed that, yes, it was too big. A new sink is being ordered. This will delay the completion of the laundry.

In the office, Hubby noticed that the wire management trays do not run behind the upper drawers in the cabinets, which seems to defeat the purpose of having them. Appropriately sized holes are there - the top drawers are not as deep as the bottom ones - so it looks like something has simply not been installed.

In the guest bathroom, the tile is going into the shower, and it looks really splendid. I'll try to grab a photo tomorrow.

In the guest bedroom, nothing has happened recently except the addition of handles to the dresser drawers. This room has become a storage area to keep things out of the rain.

We do, alas, have a problem in the family room. The cabinets which have been built for the TV cabinet have been put together in alder instead of paint grade wood. This turns out to be our architect's fault, for not properly communicating the wood choice (which I was able to demonstrate we decided in November). So she is offering to suck up any additional cost to change the cabinets. Fortunately (though it didn't seem so at the time) last week it turned out that the cabinets had been made too large anyway. Site Supervisor II was onto the cabinet makers to replace some of the units they had brought over. I am hopeful that they haven't started remaking them and perhaps at least some of the units can be changed at no additional cost to anyone (except the cabinet guys who got the measurements wrong in the first place).

Lastly we have selected paint for the new rooms: Grant Beige (warm grey) for the family room, Engish Hyacinth (lavender) for the guest bedroom, and White Mist (off white) for the bathroom. We're going to repaint the exterior grey-blue but can't yet decide on the shade. SS2 is asking the painting subcontractor to paint out tester panels in our top three picks.

Good weather Thursday, rain on Friday, nice this weekend. Our concrete is officially dry and walkable.

Landscaping Redux

The Landscape Designer was here this morning to meet with the Hardscaping Guy. So the landing pad outside the bedroom door is, indeed, incorrect. It wasn't actually a misreading of the plans, but a misinterpretation of local building code and an attempt to reconcile that with the plans, which resulted in a five inch gap between plans and reality.

The result is that the Hardscaping guys are currently demolishing their newly laid concrete along the side of the house, with the intention of putting in new forms that will raise the level up a few inches. The landing pad outside the bedroom door is also going to be filled in so that there is no step. I don't completely understand how this is all going to happen without creating another step somewhere else, but the Landscape Designer assures me it will all work out.

As a consequence, our front yard concrete won't be poured till Thursday :-( It's already better though: Even with yesterday's rain/hail, the fact that we now have the gravel bed down waiting for the concrete means that there are no large puddles or muddy holes to wade through.

In other landscaping news, the concrete blocks for the outdoor kitchen (what we Brits would call breeze blocks, but which apparently have no special name here) have been delivered into the back yard; and all the appliances for the BBQ have also arrived on site.

Goodbye to the Closet, Hello More Cabinets

I can hardly contain my excitement about the progress in the landscaping, so I could go on and on about that; but I'll mention the wonderful progress inside the house too.

The pocket door is completed in the kitchen/study (except for the insertion of the actual doors, which haven't arrived yet). Since the drywall has been done, we are now in position to complete the kitchen floor tile and install the cabinets for the wine fridges (which have been living in our dining room in huge boxes for over a month.) Lots of cabinets have arrived and the slow process of installing them all has begun. Photo here of the cabinet that fits between the wine fridges going in. Also a big heap of drawer units and bookcases in the office.

As it was our weekly site meeting today, I got a peek at the bedroom/bathroom addition. (We may get more than a peek soon, as Site Supervisor II says that the dust wall will be coming down in a day or two.) The inside of the shower has been prepared by the tiler and is currently drying. I was hoping that some of the mosaic tile would have been installed so I could get a look with the paint in mind, but no luck. Well, you can't have everything. The valves for the tub faucets are in. The cabinets have also been installed in the bathroom and are looking good. We had a fairly detailed conversation about where the handles and pulls should go on the cabinets. It's amazing how much time you can spend on an item like that.

In the master bedroom, there has also been progress on the closet reworking. The drywall and "mud" has been completed. When we started on the closet, I assumed that the interior - the hanging space and shelves - would be ripped out. Then I had a conversation with SS2 who said we should keep them till we had chosen our new layout. Well, the net result of the reframing and drywalling is that the closet interior has been wrecked. (I never really expected anything else.) I told SS2 that they might as well rip it out and dispose of it for us. The doors for the closet have not yet arrived on site. I guess we'll be living with our clothes on wonky IKEA hanging racks for a while longer.



Time to call California Closets?

We Almost Passed the Inspection

We had the All Trades inspection this afternoon, and we almost passed. The two things we need to do to pass the inspection actually have nothing to do with the work that all the construction guys have been busily doing!

First of all the inspector says that we need to upgrade our gas meter - that it is undersized for the house with our current appliance load, never mind when we add the extra items in the outdoor kitchen. Since this will involve the City, I can only imagine how expensive it's going to be.

Secondly the inspector wants us to remove a piece of asbestos waste pipe from the front yard. Site Supervisor II says this is really pretty silly, since it is a waste (i.e. attaches to sewer) pipe, the asbestos is the "good" sort with no damage, and it's two feet undergroud. But if that's what the inspector wants, that's what he gets. So the Site Supervisor has asked the hardscaping company to dig yet another trench through the front yard in order to remove this pipe (about 15 feet). I fear it might spell the demise of our cherry tree, which is ironic in a city that is so keen on trees.

Photos attached from today:
1) the current state of the kitchen - don't the cabinets look fine;
2) a big, big trench in the back yard, waiting for the dissipator to be installed tomorrow - rain permitting - and also a photo of the plug that goes in the end of the pipe (I thought this was just funny, whoever expects to see an 18 inch plug?)






One of the families in Deep Thought's class heard that we have no kitchen, and brought dinner round to us this evening. Aren't people nice?

Still no rain, lots of activity

The rain in holding off, so we have teams of guys around the house again today. The hardscaping crew are still in the back yard trenching and adding drainage pipes. I had a discussion with the Hardscaping Boss and the Landscape Designer today about adding an additional 200 feet long trench alongside the pool in order to allow the power, water etc to run from the house to Hubby's blessed outdoor kitchen. This trench will have to be dug by hand and will take two men three days to complete. Does that sound expensive to you?

Here's a photo of the dissipator pipe, and also of the man digging a hole for it in the lawn area. (Look for his head and a long stick in his hands at the center of the photo.)


The house wrapping continues and is nearing completion.


The central vacuum man was here scoping out the work and prepping to make an estimate for the vacuum to be extended into the bedroom/bathroom addition. Turns out that the regular pipe for use with the vacuum is so long we don't need to add attachment vents in the office or laundry.

The lights in the dining room and hall that were out over the weekend are back in action. Apparently the outage was caused by a short in the kitchen. We still don't have a doorbell, but that's hardly an issue since no one ventures over the front yard any more.


This is how the kitchen looked at the end of Sunday. The dry-wallers have now completed their work, the walls have been primed, and the cabinet company is busily completing the installation of the cabinets. Site Supervisor II reckons we lost a day with the dry-wallers taking too long.


Finally, the concrete guys are back, pouring additional concrete around the foundation of the bedroom. You remember the not-perpendicular-house problem from a few weeks back? After the additional foundation material has been poured, it will no longer look like our addition experienced an earthquake.