7 - 20 Januar (Days 70-79) Almost Finished

The pace of work has slowed to a crawl--not because of contract issues or any such thing.  Things are slow because there is so little left to do--which is a good thing.  The Punch list is done with the exception of two minor issues.  The gutters are up.  The new blinds are up.  The only things that remain are the shower enclosure in the bathroom, the Audio Visual system, and those nagging punch list items.

The interior clearly has Starbucks' paw of approval.  There are plenty of sunny spots that happen to fall on soft carpets.  Perfect for a dog to relax.  The landscaping is a different issue.  Now that the work is essentially over and we can reclaim the work site.  It time for irrigation, drainage, sod and plants.  I feel my Spring being fully occupied.

The shower enclosure really should be complete except . . . when they brought the glass out last week, they discovered that they had manufactured the panels upside down.  Because the walls are not absolutely plumb (off by 3/8" over 6'), the glass had to be cut slightly out of square.  Sound OK so far--just turn it upside down.  Not so easy.  The glass panels were drilled to support towel rods.  Once you flip the glass, the towels rest on the floor.  Off to the scrap yard with those panels.  New install date is Wednesday.

We placed the final order for the A/V gear.  Only one problem.  Two of the speakers that we want are back ordered because of weather delays FROM ENGLAND.  Everything is scheduled to be on hand on 29 January with a 31 January install date.

And of curse the punch list.  As expected, it is real minor stuff.  One item is simply cleaning up the debris from the stucco job.  The other issue is the damn plastic plugs that cover up the screws in the exterior door.  Watching the door installs on this project has been like a Marx Brothers movie.  The supplier says we have the doors--then we don't have the doors--then we will install the frames with dummy doors so that work can continue--the the dummy doors (both of them) swing in the wrong direction--on the next attempt improvement is made--only one door swings in the wrong direction--then dummy doors are installed but the real doors are waiting to be found--then the real doors arrive missing the infamous screw plugs--then the screw plugs are found and someone drives all the way up from Jacksonville to install $1 worth of plastic plugs--but they are the wrong size.  I think that we have been installing doors since before the time of Rome.  It should be perfected by now.  But on the other hand, if this is the biggest issue that we have outstanding, we are in pretty good shape.

Day 63-69 (December 23 - January 6)

We have made significant progress over the holidays which I did not expect.  Our new project manager has been instrumental in ensuring that the pace continued over the holidays.  There were a couple of setbacks which I will discuss below.

First, the exterior stucco is completed.  I was curious about how the shells are embedded in the coquina, but I was surprised by the technique.  Once the wet finish coat is in place, the shell pieces are simply thrown at the siding sort of like rice at a wedding.  Not what I envisioned, but the effect is eerily similar to that on the original structure.

The electrical finishing is 99% complete.  The ceiling fan is up.  This one is nice in that there are no operating pull chains.  Everything is remote control--capable of being operated from our iPads.  All of the ceiling lights are up and working.  The new security system is in and tested.  The blinds are on order.  We have transitioned our home phone from the land line to another cell phone (no number change).

The flooring is complete.  It has been difficult getting all of the haze and dirt of the floor.  I suspect that this will continue to be a battle until the final day.  The medallion that we had put in the floor came out well.

The niches that we had put in to display small items also came out well

Nonetheless, we did have a couple of aw shits.  Last Friday we were scheduled to install the shower enclosure.  Shortly before the appointed time, the glass company called to inform me that they did not have all of the parts and that there would be a three working day delay.  No real impact on our lives.

Today, the electrician was having trouble getting continuity and voltage to some of the outlets.  We pulled out the prints to find that the drywallers had drywalled over two of the outlet boxes that were now behind the stone wainscoting.  Fortunately, I had pictures of the all phases of the construction process, and we were able to locate them.  Unfortunately, this meant breaking into the stone.  Initially we had hoped to clear all work permits tomorrow, but this will delay the process until Friday.

The new blinds are scheduled to arrive on the 13th.  They will be installed shortly thereafter.  That we leave only the AV system to be installed.  We are targeting the week of the 20th for that effort.

Day 58-62 (December 16-21)

We have made great strides in the last week.  The new project manager is really driving the problem.  He is the same manager that we had for two earlier renovations so there has been no need to figure out our relationship.  He knows what is expected and is moving out smartly--this is really a breath of fresh air and it is greatly appreciated

The bathroom is now completed with the exception of the shower enclosure which is due to be installed next Friday.

The floor in the living room is complete and furniture has been moved back in.  This is not the final arrangement.  That will not be in place until the extension is completed and furniture is moved into there.

The master bedroom has been put back together and the master closet has been reoccupied.  We have full use of our master bath again (yea!).  The barn doors that lead to the extension from the master bedroom are in place.  All that is left is to paint the doors and the valance.

The tiling is down in the extension but it still needs to be grouted.  The first coat of paint is on the walls.  Painting continues tomorrow.  It is the only game in town until after Christmas.  We are very pleased with the way that the stone wainscoting came out.

Starbucks has found that he can get to places in the house via new routes.  He quite likes the idea of completing the new spaces, but he will miss the contractors.  He has become quite friendly with them and looks forward to their arrival in the morning.

The door to the AV room is in place, but there is nothing behind the door yet.  The air handler, the AV equipment, and the circuit breaker box are still required.  After the holiday and painting we will be into finish electrical.  More of the A/C system will also be put in place.  However, the A/C system will not complete until after the stucco which will finish after the first of the year.  This actually turned out to be beneficial.  Because this will not be an air conditioned space on the first of the year, my property taxes will not reflect the addition until 2015.

The lath for the stucco is in place.  We have seen the sample match for our existing stucco, and it looks pretty good.

We expected the deck to complete late last week, but it has been pushed to next week.  It is not critical path yet, so I am not overly concerned.

As I said at the beginning, the change in project manager has put the project into high gear.  The excuses have died off and the deconflicting of the subcontractors has taken a more aggressive tone.  We are very happy to see this amount of progress.

The new security system is scheduled for install on 3 January.  That will leave blinds and the AV system.  The AV system installers want the blinds in place before they do their thing so that the TV can be adjusted to the room properly.

Days 53-57 (December 9-14)

There has been a shake up in the management team for the project.  It appears that the new management is more Type A like Kate and I.  Certainly, there are more workers on site and they are starting at 0830 instead of 1000.

We now have six job sites going at once--the Living Room, the Master Bedroom, the Master Bedroom closet, the extension, the clean up form the driveway refurbishment, and the deck.

First the Living Room.  Once upon a time we had a living room,

then the living room moved to the dining room and the kitchen

except for the sofa that moved to the foyer.  Starbucks was not pleased that the sofa was not right side up and that there was no room to stretch out.

But all is not lost.  There is still an easy chair to curl up in...until it moves again

The passageway to the extension is finally open for a few hours so that we can see what the view will be from the living room once this job is finished,

The tile is going into the living room here.  After watching this for a while, this was definitely one that I am happy to have contracted out.  Up to this point, the hardest working trade that I had seen was the carpenters.  They are mere laggards compared to the tilers.

The tilers came in on Saturday to finish up laying the tile in the living room so that they could grout on Monday.

The Master Bedroom has been almost completely vacated.  Most of the bedroom furniture is in the bathroom and we are sleeping in the guest room.  This is being done to get rid of the hideous popcorn ceiling in the Master Bedroom and the Master bedroom closet.

 

 

 

The upstairs bathroom is nearing completion.  We expect that everything should be done except the shower enclosure by the end of next week.  The tiling is done with the exception of final clean up.  The wainscoting is almost finished.  The sheet rock has been prepped for painting.

As far as the extension goes, the trim is in place around the windows and doors, the REAL HONEST TO GOODNESS doors have arrived and they are installed.  The sleepers for the deck are in place and the trex deck is at 90 percent.  They ran a bit short on materials and will need to finish next week.  All of the mudding has been completed on the inside and it appears that the sanding is nearing completion.  The tiling of the extension floor has started and is about 10% complete.  Most of the baseboards are installed in the extension. Stucco is a bit of a question mark.  The first sample was prepared three weeks ago.  It was judged to be too light at the time but a second sample has not yet made it to us.  Stucco was never intended to be critical path, but it could get that way.

All in all, much progress was made this week.  This is the first time in seven weeks that we have had workers here every day of the week.  Hopefully this drive to completion will continue.  Next week, the project manager who did the previous two projects is assuming the reigns.  We will be happy to see him.  We have faith that he can keep the momentum of the last week going.

Days 43-52 (24 November - 6 December)

'Twas the week of Thanksgiving and all through the house, not a craftsman was stirring . . .

We figured that the Wednesday before Thanksgiving as well as Thursday and Friday would be a loss, but we had not counted on the entire week.  There was one major accomplishment--the upper window is in place.  It is not going anywhere.  The clearances on the sides were on the order of spark plug gaps.  I will give the installers credit.  They knew how much they could groom the windows without damage (groom (v):  beat the crap out of to establish the proper alignment without cosmetic damage).  The rest of the week was consumed on our part by getting all of the exterior Christmas decorations out of the attic, tested and in place.

But the construction gods have a sense of humor.  If you complain about too few craftsmen, they will hear you.  Days 48 and 49, the Monday and Tuesday after Thanksgiving were a bit slow--the troops were massing for the assault.  On day 50, the masons showed up to replace part of the driveway, the drywall people showed up to start mudding the extension, the tilers started tiling the bathroom, the painters asked for a paint schedule so that they could start painting the eaves and fascias (which they did).  At the same time, the Trex was delivered for the patio, the last of the floor tile was delivered, a new order for a few extra glass tiles was processed and delivered, and the sills for the large lower windows showed up.  The framing for the towel hook and medicine cabinet was completed. The forklift path to our door is well worn.  Grass?  I think that there used to be some back there.  Oh yea--the forced ventilation for the extension arrived.  We were warned that the dust from the sheet rock sanding would be extensive.  Hopefully, this contraption will reduce that problem.

Of course, you must be careful what you ask for.  How much can be done by Christmas has turned into how quickly can you vacate the Master bedroom, the Master bedroom closet, and the living room for work on the floors and ceilings.  It looks like a good deal of next week will be consumed relocating about half of the crap that we own.  Again--be careful what you ask for.

We had thought that the garage would be a large enough lay down area for materials.  WRONG.  The backyard is now taking up the slack.  Hopefully, this will be the case only for another couple of weeks.