Halloween Party...

We decided to have a Halloween Party this year. Gary Andrade is going to be inviting his peeps in addition to ours. This could be a huge party which means I will be doing all kinds of work on the house in the next two months. Joy.

2008 02 25

We spent the last two weeks getting all the small stuff done and it paid off at the party. We had about 70 people show up and everyone seemed to really like it. We had Rubios again and the funky little trays kinda made it a mess so next party we will try somewhere else. The house is more or less done with the exception of a little bit of touch up stuff which I will get to over the next couple months. Until next time...

2008 02 15

Tuesday night I got the north set of stairs grouted so that takes care if the last remaining large project before the party next weekend. We are getting two kegs and catering the party from Rubios. So far we have over 80 people slated to show up, this will be our first real bash at the house so it should be a hell of good time. I got most of the crap out of the garage and put it up in the new attic. It is almost maxed out and the old one is. Tonight I will get the speakers installed in the old living room and get more work done on the baseboards and crown moulding. This weekend I need to get pretty much everything done so I can have the couple days to get the house cleaned up.

2008 02 11

This weekend Gary came over and we worked on the backyard landscaping. Gary terraced the areas around the back of the house and around the dog house. I filled it in with bark and it is much more usable than it was before. I tried grass seeds and dirt but with it being so cold right now it was not growing.

I also got the barstools cut down and just threw a washer in a rubber foot and they look fine. That was much easier than re-welding the foot back on. Megan did a little bit of touch up pain in the bedroom so the only large task left is the grout on the stairs and the touch up paint. Then we will just need to spend time dusting, hanging pictures and stuff like that.
Jason is going to pay for the food for the party as he is inviting the sub-contractors that worked on our house to show up. so far we have about 70 people slated to show up!

2008 02 04

This past weekend I got the hole in the floor replaced in the hallway where the furnace was. It looked fine when I set the boards but the area seems to have settled and now some of them look pretty bad. For now a rug covers the area and it will suffice. We got bar stools and have pretty much finished the pool room. We pulled off the ugly fake flower stained glass stuff and just put up limo tint. You cannot see in anymore but it keeps you from being able to see that there is a board protecting the window from pool play.

Thats about it for the weekend. Mowing the lawn took almost 4 hours as I let it go too long. I got more baseboards done during the week and some small stuff like the crown moulding above the pantry.

2008 01 28

I finished the side of the panty cabinet but it looks like shit. The two boards fit up perfectly together as I biscuit jointed them together but where they meet up with the cabinet, it sticks out a tad and will drive me nuts. I will fix it later, for now it will suffice. Last Thursday night I dropped the 4x12' boards down in the attic and mounted them. Now we will be able to store about 15 bins up there.

We bought our pool table for $1200 from Pool Table King in Mira Mesa. It is not a name brand one but I could care less about that. It looks to be well made and has a 3 piece 1" slate bed which was joined together with cement like putty. It looks incredible but that of course made us change focus to that room so we got paint and put down the first coat yesterday. The second coat will go on tonight and I should also get the crown moulding on the way home and get it painted tonight.

I started to repair the hole where the split wall furnace was, but its underlayment boards that Lars put down were about 1/16" too low. I took it all apart and re-nailed them all in and now I can get all the boards cut out so I can lay down ones we saved from the old dining room floor.

Now I only have 97 things to do before our first keg party on the 23rd of Feburary...

2008 01 21

We got the garage cleaned out Friday and moved out some of the boxes and bins from the living room. On Saturday I got the bedroom doors and laundry door completed except for the polyuerethane on the laundry center door. We got more stuff moved out of the old living room and that was about it as we went out to the SD Wild Animal Park in the morning. I also got the kitchen pantry boards biscuit jointed together and am contemplating how I am going to mount them.

On Sunday I got the bedroom doors hung and the casing installed. They look great with the ORB finish on the locks, but I was able to do too much more due the AFC/NFC Championships being played. That will be good for me next weekend, no football to slow me down. This week I should get our walk-in closet more complete and some small stuff. This weekend I will continue tackling the big stuff in preperation for getting together a party the weekend after the Super Bowl, or maybe the weekend after that...

2008 01 17

I have been working on the house until about 8:00 every night this week. It would not be so bad but I wake up at 3:45 to get to work by 5:30. I have been working on the baseboards and crown moulding. Getting the putty on and sanded takes time when you have about 400 linear feet of it to do. It looks way better now and will look perfect when it gets its final coat of paint. I got half of the threshold down going into our new bathroom and started cleaning up the whole area doing all the small finish stuff.

Today I am stopping on the way home to get more brad nails to finish off some of the kitchen and double vanity strips to cover gaps where the cabinetry meets the flooring or walls. I am also getting 3 more sticks of 3/4" PVC to run a water line to the jacuzzi for quick fill ups. I may as well since I have the hole open still where Gary and I ran the electrical line.

This weekend I should finish up a lot of small stuff like the mouldings and finally get the doors polyurethane coated so I can hang them and gets the casings on around the doors. Hopefully we can decide to hang more stuff up on the base walls and Megan can get the old living room cleaned out. Then we can finally finish off that room and get the old furnace hole covered up with the hardwood I pulled up and saved.

2008 01 13

Gary came over this weekend so I did not get much done, as far as what was on my list. We did however get the jacuzzi hooked up and it works great. I still need to cleanup the wiring in the box and fill back in the 33' trench we had to dig to run the new 6 gauge wire. I tied it into the junction box I had Lars put in on the north side of the house and then out to a box Gary bolted to the block wall next to the jacuzzi. After over a year of being disconnected, it will be nice to finally use again. Friday night we got the DVD cabinets built and filled them up. We will need to buy another one as I have 400 or so more to put in there. Gary took our old bed so we can now use that room as an exercise room and for guests to sleep in. Now we just gotta buy a fouton.

2008 01 09

Last night I got the granite sealer completed in the new bathroom and also completed more of the caulking in the kitchen due to ants. Had I done it before the cabinets went in... it would have been a whole lot easier. Tonight I should be done with grouting the north set of living room stairs and some touch up grout in the kitchen. That leaves very little as far as large stuff goes, leaving a mountian of small stuff which I hope to accomplish in the next couple weeks. That way we will be able to have a party the week after the Super Bowl.

2008 01 07

I got a new fan for the computer as the old processor fan was just way too loud. It is super quiet and adjustable with a knob on it. It does a better job of cooling and with the Dynamat in the cabinet the computer is also much quieter. Eventually I will need to add another fan as the hard drives are too warm. Seperating them shoud also help as they are running at about 125 degrees F.

2007 12 31

The base boards are now done and I got the kitchen floor grout done last night around 3:00 AM. That was real fun. Once again I had too much to drink and I will need to do some touch up grout but it looks awesome. We just had our new bed delivered and installed. We also got matching nightstands. We got a 50" Vizio plasma screen for our bedroom and it looks awesome too. This now leaves just some grout in the bathroom, caulk and painting. Tonight we are having 5-10 people over for New Years and that will be fun as it will be our first party in our new house.

Next Tuesday Mike and Jackson will be here to close out the project and get thier last check. That will be ccol for them to see all the work I have done in the past 5 months as the last thing they really did was get the drywall on and I did 99% of the finish.

2007 12 28

The hardwood floor is now complete and I have started on the baseboards. I got some more of the kitchen floor grout done last night and stopped around 12:30. Yet another late night. We are off to Lowes to get some quarter round to install around the baseboards and then that just leaves lots of touch up paint and details. Finally we are coming to an end of this project!!!

2007 12 25

I got sick again and it took me out for another day and a half but it will not stop me from finishing the remodel. Tomorrow I will finish off the flooring in the new living room and then that leaves just the finish stuff. I can't wait until this thing is done as the delays and spending all my time off to work on the house is killing me :-)

2007 12 22

We passed final inspection yesterday morning. The inspector was here for 10 minutes, checking the jacuzzi tub power, shower enclosure and light switch cover plates and canned lights. Mike said we shall meet with Jackson and him, first of the year to close everything out.

I have completed the bedroom flooring and last night I laid down the moisture barrier in the living room. Right now I am setting up the first strip against the north wall of the living room to run all the other boards off. Hopefully the living room will go quickly and it will get done today or tomorrow. Yesterday we ordered a new bed, mattress and nightstands from Mor and it should be here Monday the 31st. That was $3400... ouch!

I bought a router and a router table so I can use the scrap from the flooring as we are going to run out of flooring. I am using it to create a tongue on some board ends and groves on others. I picked up 4 boxes of comparable flooring from Lumber Liquidators and it matches up pretty good. We had to go with different stuff as Turion is no longer in business, which is the first kind of flooring we bought. So much for having a 30 year warranty on the flooring...

All next week I will be finishing off stuff like baseboards and grouting the kitchen floor tiles, touch up paint and things like that.

The shower enclosure got installed on Wednesday and it looks awesome. It was a huge amount of money but it really makes the whole room look great.