What a difference a week makes...

Lots of min-steps this week:

Electrician Rob found the missing connections... then we had light & fans...

Craftsman Barry installed all the trim moldings and successfully custom-fit the drawers in the base of the entertainment center...

 


Screen installers showed up and got all the framing done on the lanai. only to discover the opeming was too small for the 36" door (makes 100% for doors and windows wrong match initially) - so they wandered off to wait for smaller door and finish on Mon.

Concrete finishers made the base of the house look finished (still looks like it's floating 12'' above the ground), but at least looks new.

Unfortunately sprinkler guy still on half-hour break (started a week ago), and we still have moat and drawbridge.

Also folks that were supposed to install gutters last Mon never showed, so we still have dramatic waterfalls whenever it rains...

Waterfall here ! ^^^

Then yesterday the granite showed up and the kitchen transformation occurred!

Before ...

During ...

Greg actually used a color palette to blend the seam  

Takes a LOT of effort to place 800 lb slab of granite (Fran tries to help) !!

After... happy wife!

 

Tomorrow finishing touches on granite (plumbing the kitchen sink, electric in bath, shelf in the new bar area), and the custom laundry room cabinets. Also, hopefully finish the screening & door on the lanai, and sprinkler repair (no more moat), lastly a bit of final plumbing and it should be done... just over 6 months after we signed the contract, and 3 months after the birdcage was removed...

Floors! and more...

Last few days were down to earth... literally... new tile floors were put in the expanded laundry room (space to right of installer is where the old furnace was - it's now above the garage, and we will be adding new laundry tub and freezer)...

 


And the main new room...

Key is first few tiles...

New concrete needs moisture barrier

Room is looooking good....

Needs grout, but getting there....

NOW it looks like a room!

 ....

However - We thought the sprinkler moats were going to be gone yesterday, since Joe showed up, fixed the mystery leak, and left for half-hour ... his watch must have stopped - still waiting.

Naturally, Fran is excited about the new lanai... screens and a door need to be installed (should be this week).

We started moving in furniture to see if it fits the way we envisioned it - answer appears to be YES! - will have to wait until the trim / moulding goes in (Mon-Tue?) to be sure, but looking almost like a livable room.

 

Need to install a few fans, turn on the electric in the new rooms, and by this time next week, granite should be installed and we should be just about finished.

Begining to look real - siding & electrical finished (almost)

Bright and 7:30 early yesterday and today Antonio and his siding crew showed up and finished the siding and soffits ... rain delay yesterday (1" poured!), so all they could do was the inside of the lanai.

 

Even had to borrow my sump pump to drain the sprinkler ditches (beginning to really dislike having a moat around the new rooms).

Looking like a real house again ... almost.

View of finished siding & electric on lanai

Think maybe they stopped one run of siding too short?

 The overall effect is GREAT...

Simultaneously the electricians showed up and finished wiring 90 % of the outlets, installed chandelier and fans, moved smoke detector, and more.... rooms now looking real.

Tomorrow Chris and his crew show up to install the new tile flooring...

How many tiles cover 590 sq.ft? We think one more box :)

Getting excited about the fact the end is in sight ... except for delayed Mar 29th granite installation...

Two steps forward... one back....

On Wed (Mar 5 th) we took day-trip to nearby GA - we expected that while we were gone, sprayers would show up and prepare ceiling and walls with texture so they could be painted... using the remote camera, we kept checking progress all day, and had given up hope that anything would happen.  Then about 4 pm we saw movement behind the plastic barrier that has been up nearly a month to contain the dust from foam spray, dry wall and the finish spraying...

When we arrived home about 2 hrs later, everyone was gone but all the texturing was complete!  And we discovered that we now had a wonderful series of ditches intended to re-install the sprinklers that were cut when the foundation was poured in early Jan.  As of today (Sun), we still have the ditches, and rain is expected tomorrow ... sigh.   Also visible is lots of concrete pieces... seems the original porch foundation was out of square by about 2-3 inches... now trimmed off (well, as trimmed as you can get with 8" of concrete - will have a pretty finish layer shortly)

Yesterday, Antonio showed up with a trailer of supplies which are to be used when they begin installing the siding theoretically tomorrow as well. But not if it rains - at least we know they are not going to use the material on another job, since 3 of the 4 tires went flat in last two days <grin>.

Starting Thurs., the plastic barrier came down, and the painters showed up... Fran & I painted 1000 sq.ft of ceilings (15 ft peak in the roof - guess who got to climb the shaky ladder? - few things in life are more exciting than having your leg vibrate while trying to balance paint 15 ft in the air!), all the walls; re-painted the kitchen, and painted the laundry room (no furnace!) from Thurs thru today - all in preparation for the new tile flooring to be installed on Wed & Thurs... whoopie.

 

      

Jim & Mary, Bob & Joan admiring newly painted room :)

Bad news is that ARS granite installers informed us that they wouldn't be able to install new kitchen & bath granite until Mar. 29th - VERY unhappy with this setback, since Advance Construction (main contractor) made major effort to be ready for the granite installation initially scheduled for this past Thurs / Fri.    Looks like everything will be done by end of next week, except for granite... sigh.

Starting to look like a real room...

Last couple days, dry wall was finished (first crew took one look at 15' ceiling and never returned) ... Randy and his crew showed up and did all rough-in within 24 hrs.

 

Then Roger & Cassandria came in and have done great job of finishing ...  They worked all day Sat, most of today (Sun).  The entertainment wall is looking just like we imagined... the tool Roger is using sets the metal corner supports and crimps it as well to keep it in place...

                

This caught us back on schedule, almost... tomorrow is supposed to be the day with the most dust and inconvenience from spraying coatings on the walls and ceilings in preparation for painting....

 

Now looking like real rooms!

Foam great / ditto for e-wall !

Once the nozzle was replaced the next day things went quick.  Steve did great job of finishing the new room, and an additional 2/3 of the original roof. Will come back in day or so and finish foam insulation all the way over the garage.  Should drop electric bill about 30-40% in summer.  Plus it strengthens the roof in case of occasional hurricane gusts :).

 

Dry wall was delivered yesterday - very interesting process using BIG truck and remote controlled boom:

Yesterday Supervisors Danny and co-worker Tyler came and roughed in the new entertainment wall.. 3 shelves for equipment, plus drawers at the bottom to hold all the CD's and stuff that goes with entertaining :) ...

Jim & Mary approve

Waiting patiently (not) for dry-wallers - a crew showed up early yesterday, looked at 15' ceiling and wandered off in search of scaffolding. They must not have found it, since a new crew showed up today about 2 pm, and are making great progress at getting things under wrap...

Should be done today with rough work, then lots of filling and sanding a spraying next week. Beginning to look like a real room!