Quick Construction Update

[Virgs Sew n Sew]

I've been pretty quiet on the construction front lately.  Simply because not much to report on.  Thankfully that is about to change.

Our regular plumber moved the washer/dryer and got the washer connections taken care of.  A week or so later, they were back and set the toilet and installed the vanity sink.  I was more than pleased to have a sink/toilet downstairs as that cuts down on the number of up and down trips I make every day and it still seams like a lot of trips.  I heard a lot of fussing from the plumber about the idiot plumber that the idiot contractor hired.  Still very confusing.  Plumber also worked on the Royal Indian Cuisine job and work was fabulous.  Also, he has a master plumber's license for Grand Island.  But as Eric said, that just means he passed a test.

A week or so ago, Bob & I spent the morning at Home Depot ordering the tub and all the necessary stuff (pump, heater) as well as the light fixtures that disappeared, towel bars and everything else I could think of that we needed to purchase.  Heater arrived via USPS today and tub and pump arrived at our local HD last Saturday (or at least that is when we got the call that they were in). 

Electrician will be here on the 1st of June to install lights, hard wire the UGS connection (we are using an extension cord right now), and rough in the heater and pump for the tub.

Contractor Tim is going to come by this week just to go over again everything that needs to be fixed/finished and we should see him within a week or two to get this project finished at long last.  I'm hoping to get everything done before we hit the 6 month mark but at this point, not a big deal if we don't.

I had to laugh when the heater arrived in today's mail as when Bob ordered it, the computer told him that it would ship July 19th.  I'm thinking that they meant May 19th but their algorithm was screwed up.  So, I chuckled with great relief when it arrived in plenty of time.

Virginia

[Virgs Sew n Sew]

Trying not to bore everyone with our progress.

Electrician, plumber & contractor were all here this morning.  Man that room was standing room only!

All electrical is finished (rough in only on the whirlpool stuff but they will finish that once the tub is actually in place).  At any rate, I now have real lights, my UGS is fixed to the wall and I don't need an extension cord to get it to a power source.  Those are big items!

Plumber will either be here Thur. afternoon or Fri. morning to cap off plumbing in the old laundry room and tear out the old utility sink.  Contractor will start repurposing that room as soon as plumber is done, as well as getting saloon doors and changing room bench affixed to walls.

I'm contacting HD this afternoon to see if they can deliver the tub since they have those cool flat bed trucks.  We'll keep in garage until plumber/contractor are ready for it.  Once tub is in, we're really down to some cosmetic issues from contractor #1.

I don't expect this process to take too much time.  Very excited for the end finally to arrive. 

I'm most excited about the vinyl storage system that contractor is building for me.  That will be housed where the old utility sink is in the old laundry room.  Will hold 4 rolls of full size vinyl rolls.  I could probably use one that holds twice as much but I will stash any extras in the corner of the furnace room.  The best part of this remodel process is that I will be: A) more organized and B) much less clutter laying around as I will have real storage systems which should help me to function more efficiently and with much less frustration.

Virginia

[Darren Henry]

Glad to hear things are going your way for a change. Post some pics once done---we all love to see the other "guy's" shop upgrades. Gives some ideas and makes us get off our duff and get some of our own projects done LOL.

I'm most excited about the vinyl storage system that contractor is building for me.  That will be housed where the old utility sink is in the old laundry room.  Will hold 4 rolls of full size vinyl rolls.

I had a rack mounted to the wall at the end of my cutting table in Kenora when I had my big shop, like that. It rocked!! If I was doing boat tops I'd load bug screen, Sunbrella of the day, and window plastic. I'd just roll them out onto the table and cut. If I was doing a tri-coloured interior I'd swap out to the different colours of vinyl.

If I remember right your layout doesn't allow the cutting table to be there full time---How about a used ping pong table for large projects ??? Especially if you want to get into doing pontoon work.

[Virgs Sew n Sew]

Sadly, the storage system goes into the old laundry room, the world's SMALLEST laundry room ever.  No way could I ever get a cutting table anywhere near it. 

My cutting table is also the cabinet my main fabric sewing machine is housed into.  The sewing machine is on a motorized lift so I lower the machine, put the piece in that conceals the hole where the machine comes out of, pop out the extension and I'm ready to rock.  I thought about having Tim put it in Sew & Sew (I actually could now that I don't have the closet in that location) but I'm trying to get Sew & Sew organized with less "stuff" in it.

I will just bring a roll out, cut off what I need and return the roll back to the store room.  If my waiting/changing area was the first room that customers entered, I'd have that bad boy installed opposite the cutting area but, unfortunately, that is not the case.  When I start making thousands of dollars and can afford to rent a real shop, that will definitely be how I'll set up.  Until then, this is going to be so much better.  I just hate having rolls of vinyl propped up against the walls and soon they won't be.  My excess, or rolls I"m not currently working with, I will store in the furnace room.

Cannot wait for Matt & Eric (plumbers) to get back and cap off the old washer lines and remove the utility sink.  Once that is done, then Tim will come out and start getting that room ready for it's new use as Sew & Sew File/Storage area.

I also did get Home Depot called yesterday and they switched our order over to delivered (for a nice charge of course), so we are just waiting for them to call and schedule delivery on the tub.  Right now it's going into the garage (Bob's suggestion) and when Matt & Eric are ready to install that, they will get the fun of going down the stairs with it.  I think I'll go somewhere and hide when that is going on as I'm always crazy nervous when high dollar items get installed or moved down a flight of stairs.

At least we are finally making progress.  It is so nice to have real lights in the multi-purpose room.  I will still need to pick up a floor lamp but will hold off on that until Tim and the plumbers are out of there.  The UGS controls are also mounted and that was cool as I needed to run them last night after the dogs came in.  No more bending over and then trying to read upside down.  I almost gave the electricians a huge bear hug when that was mounted and no need for an extension cord to plug into.  Small things I know but made me extremely happy to have them corrected.  I have a growing list of things i need to purchase once the construction/clean-up has been completed.

Virginia

[Virgs Sew n Sew]

So plumber came by last Wed and capped off the lines in the old laundry room.  I called Contractor Thursday to let him know that and also that the tub is now in our garage so that meant everything on our end that needed to be handled had been.  Tim asked if it was OK to wait until Monday to start.  That was fine with me as I did have a few boxes in what will be the closet to relocate.  Tim said they would be out at 8:30 on Monday.

8:10 yesterday and the dogs started carrying on.  I looked out and we had 3 contractor vehicles pulling up.  These guys are great.  They did more in the morning than Ray did in an entire week.  In addition to downstairs, we had some concrete work to be done and a three piece section of our original fence to be removed.  Initially we wanted to keep it as I had honeysuckle blooming and some day lilies planted but it just really cut into the openness of the yard and made it a pain to open the gate leading out into the driveway. 

All old concrete and fence are down and gone from our yard.  They made the forms for the sidewalk sections being replaced today.  Downstairs all damaged rock in the old laundry room was cut out.  The platform that the washer & dryer sat on was torn out.  New rock in place and the first mud and tape applied.  Closet doors were installed (hardware needed to be replaced as that is still the original closet door from when we had a bedroom in part of what is now Sew & Sew).

This morning the concrete crew showed up at 7:50 and is hard at it already.  Indoor crew just got here.  Another coat of mud in the old laundry room, a coat of mud on the wall in Sew & Sew where there was a closet and then they are tearing out the frame Ray did for the tub (too large for the tub we can get downstairs). 

Obviously these guys know the meaning of the word "Work" and also do quality work.  I'll be surprised if they aren't done by Mon or Tue next week, possibly before.   Bob & I both are very pleased with their work.

Virginia

[Virgs Sew n Sew]

It was a fabulous week for getting stuff done for the construction project.  Working on my customer projects ... not so much.  I got a couple of projects finished and inched closer on some pillows (seat and back) for a dining room chair that customer uses to do her "counted cross-stitch" on.  I used to hunker down in the couch when I did that stuff.  LOL

Of greatest importance is that Josh (contractor) built the new frame for the tub to perfection.  He actually increased one of the dimensions by an inch and it's a good thing that he did as that thing fit better than the glove on OJ's hand.  (attempt at humor there)  Seriously, if had not made that change, the directions would have been incorrect and he would have ended up tearing out his work and doing it over.  As Bob said, that's what experience does for you.  The tub is now in the changing room area as we need the electrician back and that won't happen until the 27th.  Not a big issue as I suspect I will see the contractor all of this week to fix all of Ray's "issues".

The Sew & Sew wall where my closet used to be is painted but the new store room and my new room are still getting mudded.  The humidity was horrible this week so the mud just did not want to dry so it's taken a bit longer than Josh wanted.  He has ended up mudding over probably 80% of the new sheet rocked walls in order to fix the glaring errors that Ray painted over.

I'm very excited about my changing room.  I need to finish stapling the bench for the changing room. Tim (contractor) didn't like the fact that the bench didn't extend all the way across the wall so he had Josh build a bench, maybe 4 inches in depth, that goes wall to wall.  Once I have the smaller bench upholstered, that will be fastened to the bench Josh made.  I've got my little bench sitting on what Josh constructed and it looks great!  A fabulous idea on their part.  Josh also marked where the saloon doors will hang and left early to go back to their shop and fashion them. 

So, lots of progress made.  Still a lot of little things and some big things to get done.  George came by to inspect Friday afternoon and is very pleased with what Tim has Josh doing.  I zipped out this morning and got another gallon of paint each for the new room and the old laundry room, soon to be Sew & Sew's storage area.  I also got some paint for a couple of storage cabinets I have.  Will paint both bases white and the doors and/or drawers will be painted the pink and green trim that is in Sew & Sew.  That is probably a month away before I'll have free weekends to work on that but also excited to get that done as it's been on my "to do" list for at least a year and a half now.

Hoping that the 27th will be the last day for the contractors and that things will return to normal.  Getting up a little after 5 so that I'm showered and dressed and the dogs get some play time out in the yard.  It's all worth it in the end though!

Virginia

[Virgs Sew n Sew]

Forgot to mention actually getting the tub down the stairs.  What a trip that was!  When the three workers brought the tub straight down, it hit the top of the stairwell and wasn't going to budge at all.  I was dying about ten thousand deaths at that point.   Josh told the other two guys to tilt the tub just a bit and it went through with about 1/2" to spare.  I had moved two cabinets that would have impeded getting through Sew & Sew and into the new all purpose room so it was a breeze after that.  This was the smaller tub so there is absolutely no way that the tub Ray insisted on buying would have fit here.  As I recall, there was no tilting that tub, due to the width and this tub also has less depth in addition to a slightly smaller size.  No matter, the tub is definitely as big as it needs to be.  I cannot wait until the 27th when the electrician does his thing.  I'm to call the plumber once the electrician arrives and they will both do their thing.  Once they leave, the tub will be ready for either a long soaking bath or to use as a whirlpool.  I foretell a long, happy relationship between the tub and myself - ;)

Virginia

[Virgs Sew n Sew]

Pretty good week as things went.  Old laundry room and new "multi-purpose room were both sanded and painted.  Trim is up (still need to have quarter rounds put up in the new room.  Electrician had some free time and came Thur. (he was scheduled to come in on Monday next week).  I was thrilled to have him in early.  We're ready for the plumber to set the tub now.  They couldn't until the Electrician pulled the wires for the outlet for the whirlpool portion.  Rub now is that one of the plumbers is in the Marine Reserves and is at summer camp for 2 weeks (gone next week as well) so I'm not sure we'll see Matt until Eric gets back).  Everything is pretty much on hold until the tub gets in.  Then mostly down to cosmetic stuff.  I am also compiling my list of things I see that need to be touched up in some fashion or another (like original electrician or Ray not sure which) cut the hole too big for one outlet and there is a small gap between the outlet face and the wall.  Nothing that they can't fix.

Finally have my doors on the changing room as well as the bench so that is a big plus.  Down side is that I hate having the tub just sitting on the floor as you walk into that area.  Keep reminding myself that this too shall pass and the project looks soooo much better than it did when Ray was in charge of things.

Also have a couple of storage cabinets that I've come across over the years.  I've always wanted to repaint them and I've started that.  Figured that since I had to empty them so they could be moved to get the tub in, I might as well get them painted before I put stuff back into them.  Got the first one painted yesterday.  Will wait a couple of days before "loading" it as our humidity is terrible right now so things are taking forever to completely dry and don't want to get paint on tools, etc that are stored in it.

Not to the point of taking pictures yet and still really have a mess everywhere but can see the end result in my mind and it's fabulous!!

Virginia