Rehabber’s Rehab

Framing complete, plumbing roughed-in, and electrical racing to get done. That can mean only one thing, INSPECTIONS.

Inspections are like the big toll bridge and the inspectors are the trolls. If you fail your inspections you cannot pass go or collect (spend) $200. The next month is huge for us, because I actually have two weekends off to work. So in theory we could do insulation the first weekend, an insulation inspection during the week, and then drywalling the next weekend. Then the spackler could come in, followed by the floor guy, and some quick painting which would allow us to install the cabinets after Christmas just before the new year. That would be a level of completion that we thought was impossible just a couple of weeks away.

But this whole schedule rested on the decisions of inspectors who could ridicule the slightest problem.

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No, progress on the house hasn’t stopped, we are still moving full steam ahead. We moved in on Friday as a matter of fact. We’re been out of touch because we still dont have internet set up at the new house. Right now I feel like once I get home I am suddenly in a black hole. Our house has become a pit in which we are suddenly cut off from the world, and our time and energy is sucked away, and am paralyzed because I can’t do anything else but work on the house. It was a little sobering to realize that I really can’t live without internet.

After some back and forth, we had decided to go with DSL. Even though it’s slower, it’s so much cheaper than Comcast, who I feel like they sucker you with their introductory rates, and their customer service sucks. We’ve been happy with the customer service at AT&T so far, and they’ve been very accommodating after we canceled (when I learned that we would have to install the DSL ourselves, and I thought we could get a better deal somewhere else) and then promptly reinstated our service 1/2 hour later when we realized how much Comcast was charging.

However, we are still facing the challenge of the self-install. The set-up package arrived yesterday and I’m going to try to get it running tonight. Although I am a pretty tech savvy person, these things never go smoothly, and I know that there will be some problem. Problem number one will certainly be that we demo-ed all of the walls that had phone jacks in them, so there are currently no phone lines anywhere in the house. After that we’ll see how I do following all of the technical bruhaha.

If I can get the internet going tonight, tomorrow the cable people are going to fix our initial install (right now we only receive local channels, cinemax, and about 50 home shopping channels. Anyone needing to buy gemstones, I’ve seen a deal or two for you!), by Friday we should be up and connected to the world again. I hope I haven’t missed much.

The ultimate goal is to be done with the kitchen, bathroom, and sunroom by Nov. 1, knowing that that goal will probably end up being Thanksgiving.

To keep on track with that goal we have set up a tentative schedule with no real dates yet, but we just keep trying to plug away at things on the list. Here is the rough sequence of things that need to happen.

There is limited things we can do without a permit like floors, demo (under the cover of darkness), painting, and trim. After that things SHOULD be done by permit. Often they are not, but if you get caught you can face some heavy fines and when we sell the house we want to be able to say everything is up to code and we did it right.

So assuming a permit is obtained, the sunroom needs to be framed so that we can do the electrical and the plumbing should go before electrical as common construction courtesy. That leaves us with all the set up to squeeze in between the major work weekend that the sunroom will require before we turn it over to the pro plumbers and electricians. The tricky part will be trying to minimize the amount of time we are living in the house without a bathroom- demoing the tub right before the plumber drops in the new tub and shower and then putting up the tile quickly. All said and down I expect three to four days without a shower. (more…)

So I started my new assignment at work which requires me to work nights 5p-5a.  It is an awesome new assignment that puts me right into the mix of criminal investigations, interviewing suspects, taking statements, putting away bad guys, and letting the innocent go.  It also allowed me to have a lot of time to work at the house during the day.

The biggest thing we were up to this week was taking bids from plumbers and electricians.  Matt sent out the plans last week and set up the interviews and I stuck around the house to meet with the bidders.  I saw two plumbers including a new company we haven’t worked with before and our trusted electrician from the Rice house.

While I was waiting around I painted the trim in the office (white) and covered up the hideous pink in the office closet with white.  It took two coats, but everything looks real sharp and now the office is well along to being finished.  All it needs is the quarter-round around the base board.  Liz is turning the closet into an a craft corner for her sewing machine and jewelry making.  We might also move in a chair and bookshelves to make a nice little library for reading. (more…)

So we submitted our plans today, and it was not so bad as Matt thought.  The initial stages are actually pretty easy.  Looking at the Village’s website, it looks like you have to have everything ready when you go in–drawings done and electrical and plumbing permits signed off by the professionals.  It’s a little overwhelming, and after looking into it I could start to understand Matt’s stress.

After an expensive and hurried trip to Kinko’s, I went down to the Village Hall with Matt. He claims that once those people find out you are an architect, they love to start giving you a hard time, where as home owners can basically get away with anything.  We took a number and sat down to wait.  (more…)