Real House Keys!!

We spent a couple days this week getting the three exterior doors into the house so that the outside of the house can be stuccoed and the inside can begin drywall. We have 4 total exterior doors but the french doors to the backyard were installed by the pros. The front door, utility room door and the door to the backyard from the master bathroom were our job. The utility room door went in first.

The Utility room door has those handy blinds between the two panes of glass. Cookie is so jealous! If you look closely, out the window you can see our be-a-utiful falling down fence that is currently being propped up by 4 x 4's. (gotta get through most of the inside of the house before we can get to building a new fence).

The new front door went in next. It has hurricane proof leaded glass in it making it SUPER HEAVY.

We installed a pin pad deadbolt. So you can use your key or if I'm out running and don't want to carry my keys I can just use the code. I would tell you code but of course then i would have to kill you.

A few days later the master bathroom door went in. This door is inside the shower in the master bathroom and looks out on the backyard. We had to remove the window in the bathroom because it ended up directly over the vanity so the door is there for light. Also, if you are swimming in the canal or lounging in the hot tub you don't have to go all the way thru the house when your wet. It will make more sense when the backyard is landscaped and we build an enclosure so Dave and his wife across the canal can't see into the shower. Perhaps eventually it will become and indoor/outdoor shower. We shall see.

 

So now we have real keys to the house!!

Insulation!!

I know! I know! It has been too long since our last post! I am gonna make a few new ones today! First, the insulation guys came and banged out our whole house in an hour or so! The boss man pointed and said go and no less than 8 guys ran in, utility knives blazing and got through the whole job in hours if not days faster than we could have ever gotten it done.

Hallway to master suite

 

Hallway Bath

Office

Office

One of the guest bedrooms

Work Continues

In the last 3 weeks we have had a lot of workers in and out of the house. The air conditioning guys finished up (finally!!!) and the electricians got everything done in 4 days. We completely re-did the electrical work throughout the house. The breaker box was moved to the office instead of being in the middle of the hallway and new romex was run. Plumbing has also continued in and out of the house and the new french doors to the back yard were installed.

Also started is the prep for the drywall! We have been running nailers thru out the house.

 

Soon to come: Insulation, possibly a new metal roof and of course DRYWALL!! Woo!!

The Air Conditioning is Almost Done!

We have has air conditioning guys in the house for more than two weeks and now they are almost done with the ducting and lines.

 We are having a whole new system put in. New ducts. New lines. New units.

We should have an inspector out soon to pass the rough and then its time for DRYWALL!!!! Woohoo!!!!

Welcome 2011!

Happy 2011! Sorry for the huge delay folks. We have been working on the house quite a bit! Plumbing, mechanical and electrical are all underway!

The plumbing was the first order of business. The Eric and Ryan rented a mini excavator to dig up the old deteriorating clean out pipes in the front yard.

The boys dug out the old iron pipes and cleared out trenches for new pvc pipes coming out of the bathrooms and kitchen inside.

 

 The old clean out lines also needed to be replaced inside the house so concrete cutters were hired to cut trenches inside. We then hired some guys from home depot to clear the trenches and prep them for new lines.

After the trenches were dug we switched gears to electrical be we will be getting back to the plumbing soon.

New Windows!!

The old security bars and gone along with the old tinted windows!!! Replaced with new "Energy Stormsaver" hurricane windows!!!

The new french door to the backyard has arrived but cannot got in until the floors go in.

Turning Windows into Doors...

The work has continued all be it very slowly. While waiting for permits we have cut some new doors in the house. We made the window in the utility a door out to the side yard. It took a lot of work from the Swakon boys. And 5 trips to Home Depot....

 

Ryan and the shitty Home Depot concrete saw

 Eric knocking out CMU

 Our new door!

We also cut a door to the exterior in the master bathroom and enlarged the opening for the french doors in the family room. Everything is all set up for new doors.

New Concrete

Monday morning we had the concrete guys show up to make the house all one level. It took a whole truck or 11 yards to fill the three rooms.

The pour brings the family room, office, and utility room up 8" in some places and hopefully up enough to keep water out during a big storm.

 

The rooms look a lot better...

Clean Slate

With the discovery of some fair amounts of mold throughout the house the motivation and work have slowed and the frustration mounted. We made the decision to gut the whole house down to the studs...

We also took down all the studs that were termite eaten between the kitchen and utility room

 

I think its safe to say that demo is finally over...since there is nothing else to demo.

Yard Clearing

Eric and Cookie headed over to the house a few days ago to do some tree trimming at the house. The palms in the front yard had a lot of branches down and the back needed all the help it could get. After awhile of the palm tree winning the battle Cookie called in the big guns. Lee came in with his guys and cleared the property pretty quickly....

Front of the house before...

Front of the house after. That brings about the issue of what we are going to do the the god awful bars and paint color. 

Before in the backyard...

After...

They were kind enough to leave the gutter tree tho....

Clearing out numerous trees and the so called fire pit made the backyard look at least twice the size it looked before. A few large plants were left in place to hold up the failing fence and of course all the choice trees were left in place. We are really happy we didn't have to do it all ourselves..it would have taken months.

CLOSET!!!

Woohoo!!

Still trying to make granite decisions...

This was our second trip to Opus Stone and we only widened our options instead of narrowing them. The granite we like the most is of course the most expensive so we are still trying to pick a cheaper one out.

Way too many choices...

Conveniently enough for us all of the wood in the show room is the same color as our cabinets so we don't have to guess which granite looks good with our wood choice. We'll let you know when we come up with a decision but we are thinking that the counter tops will be green granite of some kind.