The deck was delivered

W2 ordered the supplies for the deck yesterday at 3:00 p.m. When we got home last night at 5:30 it was there. All of it. It was rather impressive. Curtiss Lumber has definitely done right by us on this one.

I continue to fight with Home Depot over the poor design for the kitchen. The refrigerator door can't open all the way because it hits the molding to the door into the dining room and once we installed the dishwasher I can no longer open the corner cabinet. Someone is coming out to look at it at the end of this week. I wasn't going to make stink, since it is people I used to work with and all, but we've spent too much money to not be able to utilize all of the space and the appliances correctly. So stink, I will make.

The heating duct work is coming along and should be finished today. The stuff we need finished in order to close in the walls. W2 and I will finish wiring, finish installing the bathtub, install the exhaust fans and lights in the bathroom, move a ceiling fan box to over our bed and get ready to close up the walls.

The next few days and weeks will be totally hectic but we're closing in on it and have tentatively scheduled our housewarming party!

Team Bright and the bathtub

I put out a panicked call to my sister on Thursday when my father in law started saying that he might not be able to help with the deck if it rained on the weekend between then and May 18th. I was in a panic because he is the only one that knows how to build a second story deck. My brother in law built their deck, so grasping at straws, I called in the hopes that they might be available to help us get this done.

I didn't hear back until today, but when she called she had come up with the plan that the whole family, Team Bright, would come down today, work through this afternoon, evening and tomorrow morning to help us get done whatever they could, prior to meeting up with my folks for lunch tomorrow. She even suggested that maybe my folks could come up and we'd have Mother's day together before we have to head over to my in-laws to celebrate Mother's day and W2's dad's birthday tomorrow evening. It won't help us get the deck done, but it will get a ton of other things accomplished.

This kind of thinking blows me away, and makes me feel incredibly blessed. I am at work and W2 is home working alone. We thought I would only be working a half day, which was bad enough, but yesterday learned I am working full days on Saturday's. That threw a total kink in W2's plans, and mine as well. Also, completely limits what can be accomplished.

Now we will have reinforcements and may have some real progress. W2's mom delivered our tub for the master bath last night and then we all headed up to the Evil Orange Box for plumbing supplies. W2 should be able to get the tub plumbed in and possibly installed today.

Maybe with the help of Mr. Bright we will be able to finish putting the kitchen floor down, thus allowing us to install our new dishwasher that was delivered last week. Mom and Dad bought us the dishwasher as a housewarming gift. Thank you very much Mom and Dad.

I am feeling frustrated to be at work, but thankful beyond measure for Team Bright and their willingness to pitch in. So thankful there really aren't words to describe it.

Magic Closet be gone

We at Casa Su Rehab have called the little closet in the offisery the magic closet since we purchased the house. It was named this as it is the door that allows you entrance to the upstairs part of the addition. Without opening the door, you would not know that there was more to the house than meets the eye.

Last night W2 and I tore out the Magic Closet as well as the closet that was at the end of the hall. So now when you get to the top of the stairs and look to the left there is, what appears to be, an enormous hallway to, what will soon be the master suite. As is the norm with this house, we were amazed at the lack of construction skills the last owners had. They had used 1.5" screws to go through 1.5" boards when building the closet at the end of the hall. And one nail installed from the attic down was holding the frame for said closet in place. Amazing that nothing fell apart. But we've thought that time and again during this process.

Tonight will be spent hauling away the sheet rock removed in last nights project, burning the un-recyclable lumber and vacuuming all of the dust the project created. Tomorrow W2 will do a million small tasks such as finishing the windows in the dining room, so I can paint the trim and finish that room, for good! Putting outlet covers on, finish installing the fan ceiling boxes, finish putting the safety brackets on all of the beams that electrical wire runs through, straighten out the debris from all of the above mentioned projects. On Sunday we will install the tub in the master bath, that is, if my in laws actually bring it out to the house as they have said they would.

Our lists are long, but we are crossing things off daily. Making progress!

it's been a while

Things at Casa su Rehab are insane. The bank has basically told us that regardless of giving us the extension, they have no intention of giving us anymore money because they don't think we are working fast enough. The root of the problem is that they want us to do the bare minimum to make the house habitibal. We are trying to do things right, not the bare minimum. This is a major difference in approach and has caused all of our problems.

So the plan as it stands is get everything done by June 1st, go to another bank and refinance. Can't refinance if the house isn't finished. So we are barrelling ahead. And it's too much to type at this time. So I'll save it for another day.

Hate the bank, hate the bank, hate the bank

It doesn't seem to matter what we get accomplished, it is not enough. The bank, although extending our Rehab loan, is now giving us a hard time about inspections and engineers drawings, which we do not have and are not required to have in our town for the work we have done. The addition was on the house prior to our purchasing it. If the owners at that time did not get the appropriate permits, it is not our fault and we cannot get them after the fact. We have told the bank that we can cancel the remainder of the rehab and to take it off the principal. But apparently it doesn't work that way. If they cancel the rehab loan we would be responsible to pay the mortgage in full within 30 days. AS IF!!

So now we forge ahead, slamming through our to-do lists in order to get the heating system done, our bedroom walls in, our bathroom done and then get the back deck on. All of this in order to be able to refinance and pay off our mortgage with this bank. This bank has been nothing but a nightmare, our General Contractor a nightmare in the fact that he is W2's dad, and doesn't know what the hell he is talking about, therefore screwing us over time and time again on money and issues with the bank. The two combined are lethal.

Ok. breathe. that's all I can do, right? well, that and swinging a hammer, alot!! (all right that's an exaggeration, we have pneumatic nail guns, but you get the idea!)

Finito

I know I've said this before, but now it is the truth, 100%. The siding is completely finished, bump out window and all. It took W2, who really should be W1 since I don't do nearly as much as he does, 20 hours total to get the siding and detail on the big bump out window off the dining room. It is beautiful. I am often in awe of my husband and this is definitely one of those times. I just could not visualize what it was going to look like. He kept describing it and I would nod and smile as if he was speaking a foreign language, but I couldn't see. He could see and he did a tremendous job of bringing as much detail as possible to the feature, with the limited resources he had available within the vinyl siding. I am so proud of him and impressed by him.

Yesterday was a big day at the house. W2 had the day off in anticipation of the bank inspector and the arrival of our new refrigerator. He worked on electrical in the kitchen in the morning and moved everything out of the path for the fridge. The delivery guys got there and had to take the refrigerator apart in order to make it fit through the doorways. Then they installed it (IE. slid it into the slot and plugged it in), only to learn the doors can't open all the way. Now, I told the good folks at Home Depot that we would have a standard size french door style refrigerator when we designed the kitchen. They told me they built in room for the doors to open fully. Guess what?! They didn't. And now, the world's most expensive refrigerator can't open all the way. Grrr. It's not horrible, just horribly frustrating.

The bank inspector never showed, but W2 did get in touch with him so that's a good thing. They'll handle all of the paper and then he'll come out to take a look at what we've gotten done. Which means we'll get a check and can move on with the furnaces and duct work.

So now onto the kitchen floor. In an effort to have it done before the Breeze flies in from San Francisco we will break open the boxes tonight and start the installation. I can't imagine it is as easy as they say it is, so I have no hope of it actually being done prior to her visit. If it is, it would be a wonderful thing. If it's not, oh well, she knows she is coming to visit a construction zone.

Aaahhh!

I cannot describe the great glee this image gives me. I will not be taking it for granted any time soon, that's for sure!