Flooring

Now that the Countertops have been put in, Max has to finish the flooring before we can install the appliances.

Here again is how the floors looked like after the demolition was done.

Today is September 9, 2007. Max is now installing the remaining tile under the stove and refrigerator space, in addition to bits and pieces around the cabinets. Here is a link to more pictures of Max's work on the floor.

Such a smart man, he rechecked the dimensions of the stove and determined that he had to put additional flooring under the stove so that it would be even with the countertop which turned out to be a bit higher than we originally planned.

Luckily, I'm not too short, so the height of the countertops are not a real issue.

Here is the additional layer of board that will be installed under the stove.

Demolition - Day 2 (Tuesday)

The crew came in to finish up any demolition and start installing the overhead lights. Instead of letting the wires hang loosely, they drilled through the boards to run the wires through. It looks much more organized, but I asked our contractor if this will affect the solidity of the foundation of the second floor. I guess the vision of me falling through the ceiling came to mind. He said that there is a percentage of the board that they can drill through and they are well within that percentage.

The old cabinets are still out on the front porch.

I hope our neighbors are not disturbed by all the noise and mess.

Day 3 (Wednesday) - Construction

Habitat for Humanity came to pick up the appliances and gave us a receipt for tax purposes. Also, the pickup guy came and all the trash was picked up. Yay!

The crew replaced the wall they accidentally tore down. The new wall was better than it was before. The old wall was slightly crooked. It was supposed to be left alone because the neighbors with the same floor plan told us the wall housed the plumbing. Nope, no pipes there.

I thought it would be a good thing to just leave the wall down and gain more space for the cabinets. But Max nixed that idea because all the measurements are complete and we aren’t changing anything. It would cause complications. So far, change orders on the cabinets have mostly caused an increase in price, so we aren’t going there.

The construction crew finished installing the overhead lights. Originally, they were cutting holes in the ceiling to put the overhead light canisters. After a while, they decided that there were going to be so many holes that they just tore down the whole kitchen ceiling and a new ceiling would be put in once the electrician was done with his part. Max was glad to hear that, because patching holes in the ceiling for the number of lights they were installing would be noticeable.

Doug brought over the electrician and plumber to survey the job. Jared, the plumber will start working on Thursday to reroute plumbing to allow room for the vent for the oven fan to fit. He will also finish the gas line connection for the new stove.

A couple of our neighbors, Phil and Duncan, came over to see the progress and Max gave them the brief tour.

After they left, Max and I surveyed the work. Again, we were pleased with the progress. But we noticed the lights….and how many of them there were. For the size of the room, there were 19 lights along with the 3 Murano glass hanging lamps we bought when we were in Venice.

Much of the room is being designed around these lamps. Here's a picture of those lamps over the dining room table.

Max went to Home Depot and bought light bulbs for the kitchen just so that we can see how bright it would be. It was bright enough for a hospital operating room. Thank goodness the lights are on dimmers. After we thought about it, we figured we could do away with 3 lights and it would still be bright enough. For heavens sake, some of the lights were just a foot apart. We were imagining our electrical meter just whirring madly when we turned on the lights, full blast.

We will still have to pay for the light fixtures, but we figure we can use them for the bar or laundry room.

Day 4 (Thursday) - Day 7 (Sunday)

Plumbing
Jared and his apprentice came over to reroute the pipes and water lines for the air vent. The air vent is for the range wall hood. The circumference is huge. Max jokingly said I better watch out because if I turn the hood on high, it could be powerful enough to be sucked up into the vent.

Max was all excited with the new technique and tool used to connect copper piping. (Construction excites him). He was concerned about soldering because so many accidental fires can start due to welding. Nowadays they use a crimping tool that costs around $2k that can crimp and connect up to 2 inch pipes. It supposedly does a better job than soldering. They also rerouted the water pipes for the water and icemaker in our SubZero built-in which is now being moved to another part of the room.

Jared didn’t come over one day but his apprentice did. He struggled for 45 minutes to connect the hose that had been put in a couple of months ago with the extension to reach to where the stove would be. Max told him he was putting the connection piece on the wrong end, but he kept struggling. Finally the apprentice called Jared who confirmed that he was putting it on the wrong end. Doing it the right way took a few short minutes. Later, after the apprentice left, Max called Jared that he wanted the connection checked to ensure the 45 minute struggle didn’t cause damage to the gas line. Max did his own check to make sure there wasn’t a leak. Later, Jared did come and did a check with some sort of sniffer that measures molecules or whatever to make sure there was no leak.


No work – Day 7 Sunday.

Day 8 (Monday) - Day 14 (Sunday)

Electrical – Day 8 Monday through Day 9 Tuesday

While I was on business travel to Dallas/Ft Worth, the electrician spent a couple of days finalizing the electrical and installing the plug outlets. I have no pictures or detail.

To make the outlets less conspicuous, they were installed sideways.

Our alarm guy came and fixed the line. So when I finally arrived home around midnight, we were able to turn on the alarm.

No Work – Day 10 Wednesday
No work due to the Fourth of July holiday.

I woke up to a tripped alarm because Lauren didn’t know the alarm was turned on the previous evening.

No Work - Day 11 Thursday

No work today, but Don, Lisa and Alyssa came over after skating practice to see the progress. After reviewing the kitchen, Max wanted to show Don where the electrical and gas connections were located in the garage. (Thrills). Alyssa went with them and with assured discipline, she insisted on taking off her shoes before going into the family room. As she stepped through the zippered opening, she tripped on the plastic, pulling down the divider.

Alyssa is such a graceful, elegant skater, but can have two left feet on dry land. Max spent a few minutes putting it back up with duct tape and a staple gun.

Construction - Day 12 Friday
In the morning Max and I drove to Escondido to watch Alyssa skate. She did well, placing First in the qualifying round. We had to rush home because Doug said he would meet us at the house at 1pm. When we arrived a couple of the workers were laying out on the front porch.

They removed the lighting fixtures we identified as overkill. Doug and Max went over final agreements on what was going to be done starting on Monday. We paid a portion of the final bill and got a lien waiver from Doug. This waiver indicates that Doug will pay the subcontractors (electrician and plumber) and that they cannot come after us for payment or put a lien on our house to force a payment.

They also replaced the zippered plastic divider using reinforced duct tape.

No work - Day 13 (Saturday) and 14 (Sunday)

No work over the weekend.