Den Ceiling

Another case of "sagging ceiling." Andy and Bill spent an evening helping Jewels jack up the den ceiling. Same procedure as the living room - Jewels nailed in the attic with Andy and Bill working on ground level.

HVAC System

Miles Service Corp installed 70% of the HVAC system last week. We have all new ducts and registers. The boxes in the pictures are a part of the damper system.

First New Wall

Jewels and Bill built the wall between the new utility and kitchen on Thursday. They discovered that the house is not plumb - not a big surprise. Jewels built the water heater closet earlier in the week. The heater will be encased in the utility room, but the door will be accessed from the garage.

Four Generations

Saturday was a beautiful day. Four generations of the family hung out at the house for a bit enjoying the weather.

Ceiling Support

The living room suffered from “sagging ceiling”. Jewels and Kenneth went into the attic and discovered the stiff back (support for the joists) had completed failed. They installed a new stiff back. Then, with Jewels still in the attic, Kenneth and Bill jacked up the ceiling. Jewels nailed the new board to the joists.

Wall Between Dinning and Living Rooms

The wall between the dinning and living rooms is gone. Jewels made a beam (like in the kitchen) for support. Kenneth came over to give some “Hi Quality” help.

Open Kitchen!

With the new beam in place, the supports came down. Jewels made the comment that the kitchen was going to be too big. I told him that a kitchen could never be “too big” and the way to proportion it was to buy awesome appliances!

Kitchen Support Beam

Because the wall between the old utility and kitchen was removed, Jewels put together a support beam. He enlisted Todd and Bill’s help for installation. The project did not run as smoothly as hoped – let’s call it a learning beam. After few modifications here and there, and here and there again, the beam placement was correct.

CONstruction Begins

Jewels and Bill have been working on the kitchen. They removed two walls (The new kitchen is expanding into the old utility room and a few feet of the back room) and put supports up so the ceiling joists wouldn’t sag/fall. We still need a plumber to come out and remove the old washer and water heater lines.

HVAC System

Miles AC & Heating removed the old system and duct work last week. One word - YUCK! They have started running new ducts and cutting vents for all the rooms. Jewels and I are still debating on where all the return air registers will go. The unit itself will be installed when the remodel is closer to being finished.

New Roof

New Roof and no dumpster!

Starfish Roofing worked three days last week putting on our new roof. The old one was asphalt over wood shingles, which our insurance company said they would not cover. We had 30 days to replace it (though insurance was understanding of the weather and gave us a variance). Luckily, the rain that has been plaguing us for weeks held out and the roof is on. We opted to go with the cool-ply decking – radiant barrier. We are looking forward to cooler days during the summer!

Don's Tree Service

Don's came out on Monday to remove 3 trees and 7+ stumps. The chicken tree in the front had to go, an oak was way to close to the bathrooms and bedroom (just spent several thousand on foundation and would rather not do that again), and the other tree was pretty but dropped every one of its' leaves in the pool. We are now "tree free" except for two in the front bordering the neighbor's drive. You can really see the house now - don't know if that's a good thing. We are trying to decide what kind of column to put on the porch. Landscaping will help. Later on, when I can talk Jewels into it, we will change the front walk from the drive way to the house.

I highly recommend Don's Tree Service! Richard was the main guy on our job.

Birthday Girl

We had a small celebration for our youngest's first birthday. She enjoyed playing with her cake, but not a speck went into her mouth!

Welcome to the Neighborhood

We were robbed Friday night. Someone took $1,000 worth of Jewels' (and some of Bill's) tools. The windows inside the front bedroom were unlocked - we are assuming that a worker from the foundation crew is to blame. No proof... Whomever it was loaded up a plastic bin of saws, a tool box FULL of screw drivers and such, and other items and rolled them out on Jewels' new air compressor. The tools were locked up in the garage, but they easily opened (apparently) the cabinets. They let themselves out the backdoor, but were polite enough to lock the bottom lock.

Jewels called the police, but in reality nothing can be done. He also called the foundation company telling them his theory. No word on that side of things.