Holy Sh*t we have a baby!: January 2012

Working with photos in Blogger is a nightmare! One would think it would be such a simple concept but Blogger does not feel that way. This reason is only one of the excuses why there have not been any house updates in over a month. The other is I don't feel like we've really made a lot of blog worthy progress. Never the less here we are.

To start: the front door and windows are in. We still need to replace a few strips of the hardwood floor and build a threshold for the door but that is not critical. The door turned out great, it is solid and heavy but with the ball bearing hinges we installed it moves perfectly with just the right feel. Yesterday we just found out that a neighbor told another neighbor that our door must have cost us $3,000. So at least it looks expensive. We also were able to replace the kitchen door and part of the wall where an old original window was still hanging. The old window had to go to make room for a planed pantry but we still wanted the light it provided so we decided to go with a full glass door with the mini-blinds inside the glass, just like the rear doors we put in the master bedroom. Our old original door had the doggy door in it so we had to move that over into the wall since the new one was all glass.

Front

New kitchen and doggy door. Also no more hot water heater

we still have to build the enclosure.

Living in a house while replacing everything takes a lot of planning since some things must be done before you can do another but at the same time we need those things working to live there. A perfect example is the hot water heater. Our old 40 gallon tank water heater was critical so it had to stay until we could get the new tankless installed but I first had to get everything ran and hooked up for it. We got the electrical, gas and water lines all ran then juiced that thing up a few weeks ago. We could then remove the old tank and finally rip out the last section of stucco we had on the house. Now with the heater gone and the new kitchen door framed I could get going on the rest of the Tyvek wrap.

Left side (driveway/kitchen side)

The house is now mostly wrapped in Tyvek, I just need to cut up around all the overhangs. You can see on the side peaks where we did not cover, that will be the attic vents we're working on. I'm glad we got the Tyvek up because it has been raining the last few days and it gives us some moisture protection. I can't wait to get the siding, insulation and drywall up because it will make a huge difference.

right side (fireplace side)

The fireplace is now in and working. That took some work since I had to run new gas and electrical to that as well. We we were able to get the box and venting in finish the framing and sheeting for that all except the cap. We're going to get the metal cap made soon but for now I've got a scrap plywood covering it (it keeps most of the rain out but not all). McCall, Baines and I have been enjoying the fire almost every night now.

Most of the electrical and lighting for the rear addition is ran, we probably just need one more weekend to finish that up and then some finish up work before I call the inspector out and hope he'll let us insulate and drywall the rear addition so we can get some more livable space.

Not the greatest picture but it's our fireplace where the old window was.

It's a New Year and already I'm playing catch up. I have a million pictures from Christmas and our week off for Utah Vacation. I thought I should break up my posts so not to overwhelm you... Of course most pictures are of Baines. I really like her :-)

On Christmas Eve, we spent the evening with Nicholas Mom's side of the family. We do a big dinner, socialize, and all the kids open gifts. Last year she was so into the packages and pulling tissue paper out, as you might remember here . This year it she wasn't really interested in the wrapped gifts. I had to open them, when she saw the toy's inside she was so stoked and wanted us to open the boxes right away.

She got some really fun gifts that include a Tree House tent, cute hair clips and necklace hand made by Nicholas's cousins wife, an Elmo guitar (her favorite), a little piano, and tea set. Spoiled Rotten and its only Christmas Eve.