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We have a painting contract!
Sorta hard to believe it, but we actually signed a contract tonight shortly after closing on our new home equity loan. So we will be getting a new paint job in the next four weeks, in time for our Christmas open house. In the same time, we will be closing in the walls in the front rooms, because we're at the point where we need to order drywall right now.
I'm looking forward to making actual progress.
# posted by ayse on 11/25/03 10:48 PM
I'm like, cursed or something as far as deliveries go. The bank neglected to Fedex the paperwork, so we didn't close on the refi tonight, so we didn't sign a contract with the painter, either. Instead we did some minor woodworking (repairing huge holes cut in the bearing wall by whoever wired the house last) and called it a night so I could study for my test. (Notice how well I'm doing that.)
# posted by ayse on 11/19/03 08:15 PM
The magnolia arrived today, dishevelled, much the worse for having spent the night at the Oakland PO. Most of its soil had come out of the container. I spent ten minutes planting it, by flashlight, then watered it in. There's nothing that makes you feel like you're disposing of a body quite like planting a tree by the light of a weak-batteried flashlight. Even if it is in your own front yard.
Very little happening on the home improvement front. Noel continues with the wiring, and we will be closing on the new loan tomorrow, then immediately signing the contract with the painter. The house is a huge mess, with a pile of things-to-be-given-away taking up half the front hall, and the contents of the living room jammed wherever and however we could fit them in every other room. Much as I'm pleased to be making progress again, I kind of miss the emptiness of the dining room from this summer.
My tasks for this week:
1) Take plans and lists and go talk to the city about permits and permissions
2) Price out insulation and order it
3) Price out wallboard and order it
4) Take this gigantic pile of donations, make a list of what's there and what it's worth, and take it all to charity. Get receipt.
And I have an exam Friday. No problem!
# posted by ayse on 11/18/03 09:23 PM
WHERE'S MY DAMNED MAGNOLIA?????
It's 6:45pm. Airborne Express (I hate those bitches; they never seem to deliver anything properly) shows the package out for delivery. But it's not here, and it's well past times when I would expect a package to be delivered. And here I have this huge hole waiting patiently to be filled, right out in front of my house.
Had a mildly exciting day on the home improvement front. Went down to Economy Lumber in Oakland (on High Street just off Alameda) to get some 2x4 redwood to replace the wood in the places where the Previous Owners cut the original framing of the house to add random doorways. The parlours have 12' ceilings, so I had to bring home four 12' 2x4's in the Golf (well, or in the Geo, but I prefer the Golf for my ridiculous adventures in lumber). Add to that perplexing problem, they had no untwisted 12' pieces, so they offered me 14', but there was no way those were coming home in my car without a roof rack. After a bit of hard thinking, they cut them down to 12' and we jammed them in the car, sticking out through the sun roof. I'm now a legend down at Economy Lumber. Just wait until we buy insulation. Although I was figuring on getting that delivered.
Also, I'm thinking of buying a roof rack. Thule apparently makes one with a lumber attachment.
Update: Airborne has obviously found my blog, because they changed the status from "Out for Delivery" to:
11/17/03 11 : 30 am Arrived at USPS. Oakland, CA
Why in hell is Airborne dropping packages off at the USPS in Oakland? Anyway, still no magnolia. If that baby is hurt in any way, there will be hell to pay.
# posted by ayse on 11/17/03 06:53 PM
Spent twenty minutes today digging a huge hole in the front yard for Magnolia "Jon-Jon," my newest addition, who should be arriving Monday afternoon. I have peat moss and compost ready to fill up the hole, and the drip hose is set up to be on timer and water that puppy as often as needed as soon as he's in the ground. It's not the greatest timing to be planting a new tree right before a hoarde of painters descend on your house, but it was basically now or not this year for planting a magnolia. Jon-Jon has 10-12 inch flowers, a heady fragrance, and tends to be small for a magnolia (15 feet as opposed to 50 feet tall), which is good for our lot. I'm planting it in the center of the front, where there used to be a huge pine tree.
Other stuff we've been doing this weekend:
We met with our painter another time to go over the contract and discuss the work we'd have done. We like these guys a lot, because they always show up on time, they answer the phone when we call, and they are very upfront about communication. Plus, the salesman likes our dog. Since we close on the line of credit on Wednesday, we'll be signing a contract this week and paying them a whole heck of a lot of money Real Soon Now.
We also met with a painter who we're not interested in having paint our house, but who we're hiring as a renovation consultant, to help us draw up a master plan to work from. He's blown us off a number of times, so it was a bit rough at first to force myself to listen to him, but he seems to have an idea what he's talking about. He gave us the name of an engineer who can come up with a structural plan for us.
# posted by ayse on 11/16/03 05:22 PM
Pulling nails is really dull work. We meet with painters/general contractors this weekend to discuss contracts. We're in the home stretch for finalizing the painting work this week. We close on the new home equity line next week, and basically moments later we will be signing a painting contract.
We also put in an order for a couple of rebuilt windows with Hanson Windows in Oakland. To replace the two windows which might actually fall out and kill somebody during the renovations. I guess that means I better get my ass down to City Hall and pull permits for all this work, huh? I finally finished the drawings I need to have to get everything done, and tonight the plotter we bought from a friend is coming to live in my office, so I can even print on large paper.
# posted by ayse on 11/14/03 06:26 PM
Hard work this week: caulking and pulling nail ends in the living room, preparing for drywall in the double parlours. This is more work than it seems, plus we've bought three cases of caulk and could easily use more. But all sacrifices are worthwhile in the name of airtightness and waterproofing.
# posted by ayse on 11/12/03 11:07 PM
We spent the weekend clearing out the parlours to prepare for closing in the walls. Basically, it got cold enough that we were motivated to get to work.
Plans are to put this rafter ventilation stuff on the siding, in case water gets in (what they teach you in architecture school: always give the water a path out), then encapsulated insulation (another level of protection against wetness), then 5/8" wallboard screwed in more than really necessary, because I'm a big worrier. Then we'll hire somebody to come in and tape it for us, because anything involving fine motor skills and plasterlike substances is not something we should be taking on.
As part of this project we're rewiring the room, too, so I drew up a wiring plan and we shopped for light fixtures. We're going to keep one of the old fixtures for now, until we find the right semi-period piece to put in the place of the old gas lamps, but we are also going to use wire lighting from Tech Lighting. I spent some time drawing out the design for that, too, and figuring out how to work in a fairly complex control system without installing a huge ugly computer in the wall of my living room.
The last part of the project, the one dearest to my heart, is that we're going to replace our old wood-burning fireplace that doesn't draw with a gas fireplace that looks like a coal grate and has a thermostat (so it can be used to heat a room). If we design it right, we can even add a second unit upstairs, which means heat, actual usable heat, on both floors of the house. I really feel motivated to close in the walls now, you better believe it.
# posted by ayse on 11/03/03 07:42 PM