a little progress, not much

There has been a little progress but not much.

Thursday, Ameren IP came and installed the 400 amp service upgrade, the electrician switched our house to one meter, the pool will be on separate meter now so I can monitor usage separately.

Friday, the proper geothermal heat pump arrived. Thank goodness! Tim indicated his plan is to have it up and running by the end of next week. That would be wonderful.

Deb has been trying to keep up with weeding and gardening, but the weeds are winning in a lot of areas.

Kitchen progress--not much. With a neighbor's help, Chris, Deb and I got the patches on the ceiling where the soffits were. The kitchen is cooler and smells better now! I am still bogged down in wiring, now I cant get the circuit to work that has the GFCI's. I am suspicious I have a bad GFCI, going to try a different one next. I still have the dedicated lines for the micro, dishwasher and computer to wire, then tear out and patch the floors where the old cabinets were. Then I can get to drywall installation on the walls. Then, we can move to doing the lights in the mudroom and bathroom. It seems so far away. Its more difficult now with my working a full 40 hr week again.

The waiting game............

Seems like we are waiting on about everything recently.
1. I've been waiting for weeks for IP and the electrician to get numbers put together, and FINALLY have a final answer. I need 400 amp service, so that has to be dug in and installed. Sooooo I get to WAIT up to 3 weeks.
2. Waiting on parts for the lawn mower. Today?
3. Waiting on parts for the RV we are partially living in. No word-any day?
4. Waiting on the contractor that will be installin the 2 marble showers, he is coming today, and then I get to WAIT again.
5. Waiting on an answer on where the heck our pool geothermal unit is. The company is blaming the factory, and cant get a straight answer from the factory on what is going on. So I get to wait and get really frustrated.

Had a setback on the kitchen progress yesterday. I found out the dryer was miswired, so I have to get a new line ran today, no laundry faciulities around here for a long period is NOT a good thing.

A little progress today

I got a couple of can lights in today, so finally am making some progress. Yahoo!! Its going to be nice, especially if we use the right type bulb! I have the 5 on the south wall to do now, then do the wiring for the 2 new fan/lights and the pendant. The ones in the mudroom and closet are on the same circuit, as are some outlets. The mice chewed the daylights out of the wires, so I have to put new wire in. What a pain. I'd lose my butt if I did this for a living and took this long. Sheeeesh.

Mandi came down a little bit, I helped he cut boards for a bunk bed for the boys. When she saw the cabinets in the shop, she said "That's a lot of cabinets." Believe me, I know!!

I was tired by the end of the day, fell asleep watching TV, missed the end of the show. Will post later with kitchen progress.

The work continues

Its been a while since I posted about our remodeling.

Deb has been working on the great room, putting some finishing touches on painting, doinf some trim up to the parts where I need to finish the last board on some walls. It has come together nice so far.

I have been working on the kitchen. Demolition came first, the soffits were the first to go. Then the walls on the north, the west, and the south wall where cabinets were. It has been frustrating, slower progress than I wanted. The house kitchen needed to be shut down, so the RV went to the driveway to be used for dining and some cooking. The decisions to be made for the lighting and receptacle locations, and the rewiring wiring of this has been slow. The trips to town is getting old too, but they have been necessary trips. It always seems like I have missed something, so off I go. Today, I finally came up with the wiring plan,. and started wiring the overhead cans. I have the lights on the generator circuit, and possibly an outlet or 2. Its really touchy business working in the panels, but managed to survive the day. Finally about 6 I quit, tomorrow is a new day. I goofed and forgot to wear a mask when I stuck my head in the attic to run wire, now I dont feel so hot.

I've never taken on this scope of remodeling before, its getting nerve wracking.

Tim and his 2 men worked the last couple days on the pool geothermal, they got most of the duct work installed in the building. The factory goofed, so they had to send me the unit I had ordered, the one that is here has to go back. Another delay, but I want it right. I felt if I kept the one that was here, I would always regret it. I will say the company bent over over backwards to make it right, even though the factory goofed, not Dry-Air. I am pleased with their customer service.

Off to watch a movie, I'll try to post more often about the progress.

Great room-saga of the screw gun

I worked on the great room again today, but didn't make very good progress. A friend of ours bought a screw gun, then let me use it. I could NOT get this to work, would just sit and spin, wouldnt countersink screws, it was frustrating. I went to a store on my own, ended up buying a Makita, with a Quick Drive attachment. I had trouble with it, so went back, and he had trouble with it too. After some work with it--it turned out I had it set up wrong--boy will this ever put the screws in. I only got 1 row of plywood in, but look forward to getting a good day in Thursday on the floor. I want to get another row of plywood down, then start on the hardwood part. That gives me some room where I can move a little furniture to make room to demolish the other half.

Chris and Larry started breaking up the ceramic tile in the kitchen before the dumpster goes away. It is a chore, and makes a mess!

Debby worked all day on the garden and landscaping before it rains.

The supply duct was basically finished today, he will be back Friday or Saturday to work again.

Great room and Kitchen

The drywall was put on the beam today, and all the other places that were left open were patched. We finally got to take down the plastic corridor, and uncovered and moved some furniture around so we can watch TV the next couple nights. We have a LOT of work to do before Tuesday! The drywall finishers are coming in, so we have to take all the fake beams down from the old family room. One of the hardest decisions we have to make is the color of the walls, 2'nd will be what we want the lighting plan to be. I might let the 2 boys start tearing out the floor also. We have floors at all different levels, so I am going to go down to the original subfloor, put down plywood and then the hardwood. That will be later, after the drywall is finished and walls painted!

Kitchen-they installed the LDL laminated beams in the basement, there was a section of the floor sagged very bad. They got most of the sag out, its hard to get 100% of it out. Its much better than before!

Kitchen remodel

Saturday, Deb and I went to see what we could come up with for a cabinet plan. I had detailed measurements of both bare walls and the way its laid out now. Deb told her kind of what we had planned, but that really it was blank slate, because we just didnt know exactly what we wanted there. The working area in the kitchen was not efficient and cramped, and the dining room space was wasted. The kitchen table would very likely come out. Diane thought, said to give her a couple minutes, that she had a plan in mind. She did her computer magic, and then showed us. Boy I havent seen Deb that excited in a long time. As we were finishing the plan, I first saw the non-discounted rate. A look of panic crossed my face, wondering how I was going to tell Deb that wasnt possible. When we got the discounted rate, I felt SO much better. Diane wondered what was wrong, I said I was just recovering from the shock of the full price and relief of not having to say no to Deb. All Deb could talk about was how that would be so much better than she has now. Once we get the full installation price from Blair at CBE for the kitchen and 2 baths, hopefully by the end of the week, we can then decide to go full speed or not.