More Paralysis of Analysis

I stumbled across a great deal on Kitchen Cabinets while looking for wood doors for our house. We have finished the drywall and have the first coat of primer on. Anyway, these cabinets are ready-to-assemble (RTA), which I have had some mixed reviews from friends.

Cabinets from Pinnacle

After pricing everything out, it would cost around $3800 for all of our cabinets for our 15x20 kitchen. So the pondering begins - I have searched the ends of the internet-earth for the best deals in cabinetry to no avail. The big box stores have such ridiculous mark up, and the RTAs are the only thing I can find on-line. Lowe's came in around $7000 for a comparable kitchen...
For now, I am still progressing on the wood ceilings. I managed to work a good deal with my final drywall crew (took 3 tries), and they did all of the high work in the great room, the basement stairs, and the ceilings in the childrens' rooms for $1200! So I have the first floor to do the wood ceilings. We also have plenty of heat, as the gas furnace, wood fireplace, and heat pump have all been hooked up.
The latest plan is to press the county inspectors to let us in with either partial occupancy for just the first floor, or try to get in without flooring. We'll see...

Drywall, Drywall, and MORE DRYWALL!!!

Wow - I had no idea what I was in for! This is taking forever!!! We hope to finish up the 1st floor this week. I was at Lowe's talking to my buddy at the contractor's desk - he said I should get my 3 closest friends to just zip through it in 3-4 days. So I asked him when he was available. :) After running my yap with my buddy at Lowe's, and talking with our drywall finisher, I now have 2 helpers with the hanging of the drywall and for working on the siding! Very good stuff!!! Anyway, I've found some great resources for hanging and finishing drywall:
Hanging: http://www.easy2diy.com/cm/easy/diy_ht_index.asp?page_id=35720188
More hanging: http://www.hometime.com/Howto/projects/drywall/drwl_4.htm
Finishing: http://www.drywallinfo.com/

Also, now that we're getting to the finishing, here are some links of stuff that I've found for houses we're modeling after:
Old Century Home - Bigfork, Montana
Parmalee Home - Highlands, North Carolina

Lastly, I made a visit to my friends up in Hicksville, MD yesterday looking for wood for my beams, mantles, and floors. Unbelievable prices! Hickory for $2.40 per square feet!!! My fireplace mantle is going to run me about $20-25 in materials. If you plan on doing any woodworking, it is worth the trip:
Hicksville Planing Mill
14464 Hicksville Rd
Clear Spring, MD , 21722-1240
Phone: 301-842-3474

That's it for now - next up, painting and some cabinetry.

We're Rolling Now

Amazingly enough, we are ahead of schedule on something! August 31st marked the begining of year 3 on the property, and we haven't had anything finish early until this week. I had ballparked the insulation to take 4-5 working days, meaning 2 weeks on the calendar. We were able to finish everything in 3 days, taking just one week.

In celebration of this monumental feat, we hung some drywall. I've been looking up at down for some good drywallers at a good rate, and came to the conclusion that in order to meet our budget (what little money remains), I should at least hang the drywall myself. After one week, we have 5 rooms about halfway done. I've encountered some issues with the framing in each room which must be corrected.

I also met with a drywall finisher today. He has become my new best friend! For $20 per hour, he is going to come and work 3-4 days per week, and he'll show me how to become an expert finisher. Since we're saving a bunch with him doing the finishing, he is going to help with the stone work on the fireplace as well. Previously, the best price I found for drywall was $10k+! He said about 2 weeks and we should be ready for paint! It pays off to do a little work, be patient, and shop around. I've seen some of his work, and it is top notch.

Let the Games Begin!

We did it! We finally passed!!! We have our lovely stickers hanging prominently in the living room for the framing and the mechanical, denoting the passed inspections. Now my work really begins. As of right now, I'm doing the insulation, drywall, painting, floors, stone work on the fireplace, and building the cabinets myself.

I started doing the insulation today. I got about two-thirds of the first floor insulation cut out, and hung the insulation in the living room. I have the drywall coming next Thursday. That will be really fun. After searching for high and low for drywall people, the best deal I found was $45 per sheet with me supplying. Maybe I can go into the drywall business after finishing the drywall in our house.

All Systems Go....almost

We were so close - I had another inspection yesterday - this time for the framing and the mechanical stuff. We passed for the fireplace, but the HVAC failed because of a missing strap on a flex line in the attic, and the framing failed because evidently you cannot have any seams on your plywood sheathing. I spent the day nailing 2x4x14" blocks up...ALL DAY LONG - BORING!!! I think I'd rather watch paint dry - oh the monotony. But, it is all done, so now we wait for the reinspection.
On a side note, since the fireplace passed, and it passed my inspection, I have been using it constantly. The folks at Heat-n-glo have an awesome product in the Northstar.

A Passing Grade

Well - plumber man Tim came and did his thing while we were away on vacation. Cool thing - he took care of everything! He even hung around and stayed for the inspection. Funny thing is, he didn't finish everything that resulted in our failure from the inspector, yet we passed! I'm not complaining...now i have some blocking to do, and try to fix the TJI's the first plumber butchered...that will be fun. We're at least getting closer.

Shifting Gears

I met with our new plumber yesterday. He can do all of our necessary and get the tubs set, but he can't start for 2 weeks! Bummer...so much for drywall by mid-July. So now I'm shifting gears and focusing on the outside. The new goal: siding up and the exterior finished by July 15. It seems kind of crazy, but I think we can do it. I'm hoping by July 31 we have insultation in, drywall at least started, and the outside ready for grass seeding.

I built a bench today. Our children were outnumbering the chairs at the dinner table, I managed to make a scrap 2"x10"x54" and 2"x8"x35" into a bench

Hmm...Plumbing Not So Good

We had a bit of a setback today. I had our plumbing fiasco inspected today, and the inspector wasn't exactly warm and fuzzy. I knew I was in for it when he blew by me in the driveway as I greeted him and extended my hand out for a handshake.

Once inside, he through a royal fit, kicking things around, slamming stuff down on the ground. He wasn't 5 steps in the door before he started going downhill fast. He failed us and kept yelling, "This isn't Tim's work!" and "Tim's a cadillac plumber." My first thought was, who's Tim? And what is a cadillac plumber? He said things like, "It's all wrong", but I still don't have concrete answers on what in particular. When pressed, he just said, "I have to talk to Tim about this." Geez, who's Tim?

I called him later that afternoon and he said the plumber who pulled the permit wasn't the one who did the work at our house. Our original plumber just kind of gave up after doing some of the work. The last I talked to him, he told me, "He was done." I guess that meant he was done, and not the work is done. I knew the work wasn't completed - I'm not an idiot. He did send his son to do some of the work. Also his 19 year old girlfriend (he was in his 60's - should have known then!). After getting rid of all of them, I tried to get it done to what I thought was the point where we were ready for inspection. I tried to get the plates and stuff up for protecting the venting for drywall. But...there was plenty more to be done. Evidently, whirlpool tubs need to be set at time of rough-in, as well as securing everything under the sun with some sort of bracket, plate, or something-er-other. What tipped the inspector off was the fact that I used smaller plates than required by code - code had changed a month before...I thought, "Are you kidding me? Plates? We've had a motley crew in here for over a year working on this fiasco!"

Our conversation that afternoon yielded the number of the master plumber who pulled the permit, and got everything straightened out with the inspector...he only knows the tip of the iceberg!!!