More House Renovations; new pics #5 almost done; #9 DONE

[Freedom]

*giggle* love that saying Candace, not heard that one ha haaa!

Dad knows they are doing this work, and he is crying that he can't be here to join in the fun!

[Freedom]

Ha haa, Tues and today are days of reprieve, no workers here at ALL!!!

They have finished jacking up the addition, put in the lolly columns and other supports, and put the subflooring back in too! We are waiting for the new hardwoods to be delivered, should be Thurs, then put that in on Thurs and Fri. Also have the person coming in to regrout Dad's shower stall, and hook up his shower again. I think that is Thurs, waiting for a phone call on that. We need 2 new doors, to Dad's bedroom and to his bathroom. I've been staining those so they are all ready for cutting out the hinge areas and knob hole and hanging. I do have a photo, still in the camera, the 1.5 inch they raised the addition is now visible at the TOP of the doors! Darn first owners, they just sheared off the tops at an angle so the doors would close~!

Dad is due to come home either Fri or Sat, I find out at the next care meeting, which is Thurs afternoon.
Edit: just learned from the Insurance Case Manager, he won't be home before July 5th.

Tasha is so happy to have that plastic DOWN. She has been quite put out with all this, and had returned to an "early in her arrival" habit: go outside and refuse to come in at all costs! I had to keep her on collar and harness as we went out the front door, walked across the driveway and through the gate to the back yard. I could drop the leash while she was busy back there, but had to leave her to drag it, as that was the only way I'd get her back in. Then on Sat, as we walked across the driveway, someone across slammed a car door and she panicked, backed out of the collar and ran to the end of the driveway. There she sat, watching me, for an hour. If I tried to circle around and get behind her she'd just run out into the street (good thing we live on a quiet road). I had bits of hot dog and cheese all over, like Hansel and Gretel, but only Lacey and Willy would eat them, ha haaa. I kept taking those 2 out trying to get her to follow them in. No dice. Finally I just came in and sat quietly, pretending to read. After about 15 - 20 minutes she was in. Then tuesday evening, we went out the usual way as the plastic is down. She refused to come IN to the empty Family Room. This was at bedtime, 10:30 PM, and she didn't come in till almost midnight. Today she seems a bit calmer. Poor girl, once she is in she is fine. We must get back to normal routine, for all our sanity, lol.

Here are the pics:
Door to bedroom: now the area has been jacked up and leveled, the frame work all meets nicely in the corners as it should


And the top of the door has been cut off


I think it shows better with no flash




Door to the Master Bathroom is the same now. This is what the Family Room looks like at the moment:


The 2 doors are stained the same color, and in real life they do look the same, the flash is making them look quite different ha haa. And notice they broke my lamp; should have made them go back to their place and get their own work light. Sigh.


All the furniture is stacked up in the front Living Room: 4 recliners, 2 sofas, the aquarium, 2 stereos with CD players, and our one TV; I really didn't think this through well in advance, just too rushed to get it moving while Dad is not here. I've had either the kitchen table or my bed and that's it. for 2 weeks. Almost done.

[cassiesmom]

Dear Tasha and Lacey, please hang in there! The project is getting closer to "done"! I'm glad Papa Nonno is doing well at the rehab center and his stay has been extended a bit longer. Maybe that will give you more time after the renovations are done and everything is back in order, to put your feet up and enjoy it, Freedom! And I do think the contractor should replace your lamp.

The elevator company has taken our elevator off line for yesterday, today through tomorrow for "extensive renovations". The management company decided to do it this way in order to avoid a huge special assessment for a new elevator.

Half a bubble off plumb-- I've never heard that and I like it! Some days that's exactly how I feel.

[phesina]

This is great, Sandie! What a wonderful setting this is coming along to be, for you and your Dad and all the critters! God bless.

[pomtzu]

And you'll soon be able to look back and laugh (maybe) at all the turmoil, once it's completed. I'll bet Dad will be so pleased with the end result, even if he wasn't there for all the fun and to be acting sidewalk supervisor. And poor little Tasha - so traumatized. Hope she bounces back to normal once everything is back in order.

[Freedom]

The renovations - to jack up the addition on the back of the house - are finally done, as of about 4 PM yesterday.

This is how it looked once they had the new floor in, and the baseboards and new door to the bedroom:




They worked both Saturday and Sunday to get it done. Sunday evening, I went over to the Rehab Center and discussed all of it with Dad. Only to learn we had a huge problem. The General Contractor - someone we have used many times including for the extensive kitchen redo 4 years ago - had his younger brother as Job Super for this project. Now, this is no kid, he is over age 50! He took a short cut. He "forgot" the concrete slabs to set the jacks and lolly columns, so he used . . . my decorative landscape blocks from the back yard. Cut them in HALF! So the 20 ton jacks were sitting on a weak block that measured 4 x 8 inches! That should be 16 by 16 concrete slabs, to spread out the weight, and to ensure the columns don't shift. I had the dubious pleasure of informing the GC of this when he arrived early Tuesday morning to collect his final payment.

To his credit, he knew straight away that this was WRONG. Didn't give me any issues, said he would correct it. He had to pull 2 guys off other jobs, pick up the needed supplies. And now, since the top was all finished, they had to go in through the cellar, and work in the enclosed crawl space. It is maybe 4 foot high -- not enough that they could crawl along on their hands and knees from the entry point to the work site, they had to roll and shuffle along. Under all that newly installed insulation. NOT a nice job at all. But they did it! I took a few pics from the entry point, then one of them took my camera, rolled back, and took pics for us from close to.






This jack is holding much of the weight:


We now have 5 lolly columns and 2 20 ton hydraulic jacks holding up the addition. AND they sistered up the beams under the Family Room floor as well. This "should" be plenty to hold the whole thing in place for years.

I am glad it is done. What with losing 2 dogs (Sugar and Marlin on April 30), one cat ((Chestnut May 15). having Dad in ICU for 5 days then hospital and then 3 weeks in Rehab, it's been a stressful time. I really wasn't "up" to handling the chaos of a renovation, but I knew it had to be done and that having it done while Dad was out of the house was THE time to do it. I spent 3 hours last evening reconnecting my TV, dvd/vcr, stereo and home theater system. The dvd /vcr is not working, so I'll have to phone the support line for help tomorrow. I have 3 wires coming out of it but no clue where to put them in ha haaa. I marked so much, and wrote things down, but there were 24 wires in all, 48 connections to be made! Now the work is done, that is a HUGE thing off our TO DO list. Still have to get someone to repair Dad's walk in shower, raising it up has caused the 40 year old grout to loosen up too much. That will be minor compared to what this was, though.

[phesina]

Wow, what a horrible setback there, Sandie. So glad they didn't give you any guff about fixing it.

Congratulations on getting this huge job done! What a load off your minds this must be. Looking forward to learning about Dad moving in.

God bless you and Dad and critters!