Update on the Neighbors

The neighbors are officially building a McMansion. 5,500 square feet of living space, with a double height basement and two stories above ground. This for a family of mom, dad, and two wee kiddies.

They deconstructed the old house for recycling, which we were pretty impressed with - took them about 10 days to do. The building has not been too intrusive. There has only been one occasion on which I felt it necessary to ring the owner and ask him to ask the builders to stop work, and that was when we were hosting a party on a Saturday afternoon.

The Neighbors Have Started

Our neighbor's tree protection fencing is going up today, so they must be about to start their tear down/new build. After only 14 months of owning the house, and 16 months of the house standing empty, gradually becoming more derelict. Well, at least if they're starting now, the worst of the noisy phase will be over by the time the summer starts.

Still no Neighborly Action

The neighbors still haven't made a start on their building project. They got their planning permission on September 22, and not so much as a piece of tree protection has gone up yet.

Update on the Neighbors

I forgot to mention, the neighbors have yet to make any start on their new construction. Goodness knows what that piece of kit was that I mentioned in a previous blog entry. Anyway, it doesn't seem to have been tremendously important. Maybe it was something to do with the basement that they're planning to build. Our neighbor's house has now stood empty for a whole year.

In other news, the City looks like it is going to fix our sidewalk in the next two weeks. Yay!

One percent away from completion

The exterior screen doors actually arrived yesterday, just after I'd written the day's entry. SS2 will be here later on to install them. He was here this morning to reattach something in the hallway bathroom that the Architect had pulled off the wall by mistake some time ago (!) and also to investigate the non-functioning lights.

We also had part II of a visit from the tub refinishers, who have been working on the guest bathroom tub. I just took a peek. It looks perfect. I guess we shall have to see what happens, as it looked perfect after the last attempt at sealing it. Did I mention that the refinishing stinks?

I had a quick meeting with the Landscape Designer. We had a delivery of another 30 or so plants this morning and she was here to place them out before planting. I pointed out that the pool cover still isn't closing properly and that a stone has fallen out of the walkway by the guest bedroom. She tells me that the grass is forecast to be laid this week.

Our neighbors started their demolition preparation this morning. They actually managed to have a piece of equipment I'd never seen before, and I thought I'd seen it all. (I had to stand on a chair next to the fence to look over and see it. Nosy neighbor, moi?)

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!

Neighbor Troubles

We had our first encounter with an angry neighbor yesterday, which isn't bad since we've been on this project since October. Actually he was perfectly pleasant, but not happy. It's the new guy next door - who hasn't even moved in yet - and he'd noticed that a) our workers are walking through his yard to get to our work and b) the foundation for the garden wall has encroached on his property. Naturally I fell on my sword and apologized - I don't want to annoy the neighbor before he's even moved in! - and said we'd stop the walking (which I had only noticed yesterday too) and fix the concrete.

He said that they are in the permitting stage, and plan to get their work started in April. Just as we finish. Which also means that they'll be doing building work all through the summer. Nice.

On the subject of concrete, Hubby and I went out this morning to have an inspect, and we weren't at all sure that the area outside the bedroom door is correct. There is a large landing pad which doesn't seem to be on the plans. I hope they remembered to fix the solar heating pipes before laying the concrete, too. Just emailed the Landscape Designer to ask her to come and take a look this week before any work continues.






We also burst through the dust wall into the guest bedroom/bathroom. There's obviously a lot of detail work going on. The dresser is now installed. I wonder what is going to happen inside the closets?

It can't go on much longer....

Here are some photos of the pink tide, taken this morning.

I naively thought that today might be the last day of demolition out front, but I have just realized (peering through the window) that, although the demo guys have broken up all the brick, they now have a layer of concrete to get through. How wrong I was. The jack hammering started up at 8am. All our neighbors appeared to come out of the house and get in their cars at 8:05am. I am sure they are as sick of it as I am. I took Hubby's car to get petrol this morning and spent a moment with the garage squeegee wiping pinkness off the windows.

Out back we have a different crew of guys with jack hammers. These are with the pool renovation team. Their jack hammers are smaller but just as annoying. They are standing in the pool peeling the plaster off. The plaster bits fall into the bottom of the pool, where another guy shovels them up into the scoopy thing of a waiting Bob Cat. (Did I mention the Return of the Bob Cat yesterday?)

Both the demo guys at the front and the ones at the back are running generators, to add to the overall loveliness of the experience.

The pool renovation really is going along speedily, though (not like last time, when it took 7 months to get a not-very-good result). The pool is now eight inches deeper than it was, thanks to the building up of the walls with gunnite to allow for the leveling of the lot; the vault for the pool cover has been created; and most of the plaster is off.

Here's some photos of the pool guys in action:

Utterly Pink

One more day of jack hammering, I think, and the front will be entirely gone. One effect of taking out a good deal of red brick is that everything around is now covered in a thin film of pink dust. It really is very pink. There is a tidal wave of pink dust nestling against the front door. Pink dust is rimming the window frames. The trees that remain in the front yard are crowned with pinkly dusted twigs and leaves. Hubby's car has a light coating of pinkness.

I can only wonder what the neighbors' yards, houses, cars, etc etc must look like. Sorry folks.

The very jolly mustachioed guy who is in charge of the jack hammering promised that he would clear a path through the rubble to the garage side door tomorrow. As it is, we either have to go through the garage door (which we can't close from the outside as the opener/closer doesn't work) or we have to tip-toe through the rubble. And become very pink in the process.

There was an earthquake today in the local area, something like a 4.1. Did I feel it in the house? Did I heck. In fact, I think we may have been the epicenter.

Still no mail, even though I put a nice little mail box on the tree protection fencing yesterday. Hubby thinks the mail man - who is less than conscientious about actually delivering the mail he should - has simply crossed us off his list of acceptable customers.

BBBRRRRRR

It is so utterly draining to sit here all day listening to the vile noise of the jack hammer. It is currently at work ripping out the front yard. I am not sure how I will get from the front door to the road. Pity the poor neighbors who have to listen to this and will get no benefit from it.

Kitchen again

The cabinet guys left the stain samples on our doorstep today, while we were out, so late in the afternoon. They were supposed to have left them yesterday around that time. I think they must be in a different part of the space-time continuum, because they seem to deliver everything precisely one day later than they were asked to.

Hubby is in a huff about the kitchen situation and refusing to look at the colors today. He has moved onto grommets, the all important question of where the wire management holes will be in our office desk tops and what color the inserts will be.

Outside it is raining gently.

Inside we are worn out from a two hour shift wrapping gifts in the warehouse of the local Family Giving Tree charity. They distribute gifts to 75,000 children for Christmas. I bet we only wrapped about 25 each, but it felt like many more!

Tomorrow the arborist is due to be here with his crane to dispose of the Monterey Pine.

Still no sign of any neighbors in the house next door.

Eights week begins

Or more specifically, the eighth week of our remodel. But I thought some of my loyal readers (hello Kim) might like the Oxford reference. And I also thought it was time to bring the blog up to date so that other loyal readers (hello Mom) don't think I've fallen off the face of the planet. So...

Last week included the Thanksgiving holiday. Jim's bunch were here with the framing guys on Monday and Tuesday, but there was little activity on Wednesday and, of course, nothing at all on Thursday and Friday. So quite little to report.

The guys completed the sheathing of the bedroom/bathroom addition. They also opened out a nice big slice of the family room roof and began the framing/tie in of the addition roof. Photos here of the bedroom from outside and through the door looking at the roof tie in.



Photos here of the hole in the roof of the family room. When we sit in the remainder of the family room to watch TV, there is an interesting sense of being in a tent, as the road noise is much louder than you'd expect, and the plastic dust wall billows gently in the breeze. We've bought an oil radiator, though, so the temperature isn't too bad.



On Friday it rained a lot. The fact that there was no tarpaulin over the aforementioned roof hole was of some concern to us, but we took a look at the construction area and decided it could be lived with. There are now so many holes in the family room floor in that area that any pooling water would just drain away. It was a shame to see all the timber and sheathing getting soggy, but luckily the weather was lovely on Saturday and Sunday. Everything just dried out again.

Today the guys completed the framing of the office/laundry addition, and also framed the wall dividing the two new rooms. Progress suddenly seems slower, but I wasn't around today to see how many workers were on the project. I saw Achilles here this morning before I went out, so there is obviously supervision taking place.

Still no word from The Arborist on the Monterey Pine. Here's a factoid for you: The pine is 11 feet 13 inches in circumference. That's a big tree.

More material from the Landscaper Designer, bids for the hardscaping. I haven't yet felt strong enough to open them. I suspect the numbers will be larger than we had previously imagined could be possible. Also more material from The Architect relating to the kitchen cabinets. Much discusion of the location of the garbage and recycling bins; and do we want to be able to see all the little holes in the adjustable shelves, or do we want the adjustment to be limited to a couple of places in order to eliminate the holiness...? Finding it hard to care about that one. We have our regular site meeting with The Architect and the guys from Jim's Bunch on Thursday, and the Landscaper will be joining us; so I guess we have to find the inner strength to look at all this.

I keep telling myself that there can't be many more decisions we have to make. Wishful thinking, eh?

Still no sign of new neighbors in the recently sold house next door.

Stumped (but only temporarily)

The Arborist returned this morning to tackle the cedar stump. He had wanted to bring his big grinding machine, which would have meant he could have demolished the whole thing in about two hours. However, he needed to access our yard via our neighbor's drive (because of the tree protection fencing getting in the way). Our neighbor's house is up for sale and currently vacant. The lovely real estate agents refused permission, so The Arborist had to bring his small grinder instead, with the result that the work will take an extra day - more expense, and more noise for the neighbors. (This is a photo of the small grinder.)

It could all have been over today, folks. Blame the neighbors for that one.

The Cedar Tree

Our deodar cedar tree was about 50 years old, reached about 70 feet in the air and had a canopy spread of some 30 feet. It had suffered from pruning over the years to take the branches away from the house, so it was rather lopsided. Friday was its last day in this world, its fate sealed by the fact that it was located exactly where our new bedroom will be.

The Arborist arrived with a crew of five guys in hard hats, two tree debris grinders, two trucks and a massive crane. This is a picture of the front of the crane jacked up at the edge of our drive.

The crane reached at least 90 feet in the air: It had to, so it could reach the top of our 70 foot high cedar tree. The process was this: Tree guy shins up tree, attaches ropes to piece of tree, cuts piece of tree off; then crane lifts piece of tree clear of the house and other trees, bringing it down to rest on the side of the road. Pretty amazing to watch.

The main part of the tree came down in four sections. Each was enormous. At one point the road was blocked by our fallen branches, but only for a couple of minutes. The tree grinding machine soon dealt with it all.

After the branches were all dealth with, another truck came along to gather up the remaining pieces of trunk. The crane lifted them into place too.


The piece de resistance was the removal of the 10 foot high pine stump from the back yard. Rather than cut it into pieces - a task that would have taken the best part of the day by itself - The Arborist decided to have the crane lift that out too. So the stump was cut down, then attached to the crane's lifting arm. Up it went, up and up and...over the house...over the porch (at which point I decided to go back inside)... and onto the front lawn. The crane driver said it weighed 3200 pounds, which is the weight of a car. It was quite a sight to see this great lump of wood swinging over our roof.

Several of our neighbors came out to watch the tree removal at one time or another. No one challenged our right to remove the tree, thank goodness, though I did have the building permit to hand just in case. Everyone mostly seemed to be amazed by the crane and the way that big ole tree came down so fast - in less than four hours altogether.

We now have a stump in the front yard waiting to be ground down on Monday. It is sitting by the house like a grand table. Of course it isn't a perfect circle, but at the widest point it was 60 inches in diameter, and at its narrowest it was 50 inches. Very impressive.

Blowing the roof off

We continue to make ourselves popular with the neighbors with our third day of "badoom, badoom, badoom"... "grrrrr".... "tackatackatacka"... in the side yard. Bob Cat Man is back with his drill bit, trying to get the pond out. It's a tenacious thing, clinging to the side of the house with a strength that can only have been designed to withstand nuclear explosion. Less koi carp pool, more bunker.

The wretched bridge is still outside on the drive. We are now on our fourth potential customer for that: The first couldn't lift it, the second never showed up, the third couldn't get it in her van. Number 4 is supposed to be here today. Tomorrow it will be heading to the landfill.

And speaking of the drive, our garage door stopped working. The construction guys are mystified, but have made it work by running an extension cable from an outlet. They suspect that the power was routed through an outlet that was on the fence next to the BBQ, and of course that was demolished on Saturday. "Unorthodox" is what our site supervisor called it.

The arborist finally came back to say that he will be here on Friday to remove the large cedar in front of the house. Until that has gone, the work on the foundations can't happen.
(Work gets started on the Family Room side of the house.)

The main action of the day is the demolition of the overhang between the kitchen and the dining room.

First of all they had to insert a heavy post to hold up the roof, now we have discovered that the original support is flapping freely in the wind. Since then there have been men up on the roof with circular saws and all kinds of scary tools.


Naturally it started raining again today, just in time for them to make an opening into the roof over the dining room. But the sun is shining right now.

Day One: The Fences Have Landed

We've been planning our remodel since the New Year, and it's finally here.

Yesterday we signed the contract with our construction firm (to be referred to as Jim's Bunch) and today the tree protection fences arrived. They were installed with much energy and a lot of noise by a team of four men. Some of the poles could go in by hand, others had to be driven in by an "air hammer". It was like a mini-pile driver.

We went out.

When we got back, we discovered that we could no longer go up our main front garden path, nor could we go into the back yard through the main side gate. I hope the meter reader has good eyesight, because he won't be able to get within six feet of the electricity meter. Luckily the fence was installed so that we can still get up to the front door: This looked touch and go on the plans, as the tree protection rules apparently call for 10 feet clearance from the trunk of the tree being protected...which would have pretty much stopped us using our front door. What fun!

Our next door neighbor has their house up for sale - they've moved away already. It's been on the market three weeks so far. I can only imagine how delighted the realtors are going to be when they arrive tomorrow morning.