Frontline rebuilds his house

Floors! I have Floors! Christ all mighty it was a PITA, but they look damned good. The project will continue on this pace:

Week 3: Master Bathroom remodel, 3rd Bathroom remodel, paint house, repair fencing damaged by April Tornado
Weeks 4 and 5: Remodel Kitchen, Remodel 2nd Bathroom, Pool Deck rebuild, remove chimney, repair drywall, paint interior
Week 6: Repair roof, possible epoxying garage floor, possible tear out drive way and put in pavers.

Thanks for the update. Im going to have to search and see when it is on down here.

Oh and we fired the crew that was working on the project today. From now on in the GC and his partner will be doing the work WITH us. Lots of drama, but I'm happy now. The laborers were the reason why it took nearly 2 weeks to do the floor and to be honest they wrecked the place. It took all of Friday, Saturday, and Sunday to clean up the mess they made.

I hear ya. However I have a slight leg up on you in that I am tangentially connected to the construction / architecture fields. I've been able to foresee quite a few problems and have worked to avoid them but even then I'm gonna hit em. Right now I am just burned the hell on out and am gonna make a stupid mistake sooner or later.

Fuck, at this point I ought to move into Lowes or Home Depot. I currently has a demoed kitchen, two demoed bathrooms, one bathroom that is barely functional. My back patio and the rest of the interior looks like the set of Sanford and Son. Hell I don't even have a wall to my office any more. Here are some pics of what the shit hole looks like now

The master bathroom










The office wall where we ripped out the fire place







The 3rd bathroom



Kitchen / family room




The back patio

The guy doing the tile work is great. He's the 3rd contractor we've had working in the place. The other two were found to be lacking

The nooks in the shower were my wife's idea. She also put a nook about 12 or so inches high on that partial height wall. That nook is so she can comfortably shave her legs.

One of the things Im gonna do this month is build a tiki bar on the back porch.

Funny you say that. This piece of shit was built in 1998. I say piece of shit because though the floor plan is kick ass, the construction methods and materials were way sub par. That's why we are doing this..we had too many damed problems. Two collapsed showers. Roofing tar that was run UNDER the soffit flashing, doors that are hung poorly. Christ allmighty.

I'm in Florida, this what thrown up during the building boom. What do you think? It's worse than that. A small time builder that went by the one name of. They were doing stupid stuff like semi customizations of the houses for little to no fee. So they went under. So the old man who owned the company reorganized and came back under the name of his son. Nice way to dodge any liability. I think they went tits up as well. The only reason we bought in a sub division was for the crumb snatchers. Our game plan was to stay here until Dr. Evil Jr was about 15 or so and then move to a more rural area. We were looking at the ameneties like side walks and other kids for him to play with. Where we are is on the very border between BFE and civilization. We figured that by then he would be old enough that he would welcome the move, my business would be doing a lot better, and the house would have appreciated NORMALLY (we bought before the boom). Obviously that has all gone to shit (the business is doing OK though) so we have decided to upgrade the place and make the best of the situation. Who knows where things will be in 5 years.

Some, but not a lot of, progress:

The former Fireplace:





The master bathroom is scheduled to be ready Wednesday





The kitchen has been tiled, counter tops installed







I can finally haz completed kitchen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!





Some touches

The wine rack we installed in a formerly useless space


I got a killer sink to work out of


We managed to recess the refrigerator and put in a pretty big pantry to add to our storage capacity


In the corner lower units I had em rip out the lazy susan's in there and put in shelving and to be honest it has made a worlds load of difference in storage. I can fit all of my pots, pans, wok, griddle, etc.. in one easy place between the stove and the sink.

We're getting there.

The cost is getting danged close to the budget, but we're doing ok for now. For example, the cabinets and counters in the kitchen and all three bathrooms came in at about $12,000 total. That seems like an ass ton of money, and it is, but its a lot cheaper than we priced it out else where.

As for the back splash, we're considering our options. Pressed tin is on our minds.

The down side to stainless that everyone keeps telling me are the smudge and finger prints. They say its a PITA to keep clean. But they are on the wish list.

I like it. Is that stone or stone and glass blocks?

If you dont mind, what model /brand is that? How much was it a SF?

Well the shit just hit the fan. Cost containment has gone out the fucking window. When we started this project the one thing I made clear was no mother fucking change orders. We sat down, discussed everything in minute detail. I made sure we found designs that we both liked. I made goddamned sure that she was 100% sure of everything. I made sure that she completely understood the ramifications to the budget that change orders cause.

I return from the road and guess what...change orders. Kids bathroom IMO looks like shit. I had wood wains coating in the family room that I was going to stain. I fucking hate painted wood. Why the fuck would you want to paint wood paneling? If you want fucking painted paneling then get drywall or some plastic shit. Wood is beautiful in its own natural state. What, agreeing to the house exterior be painted in some shitty mud hut hippy adobe color wasnt enough of a compromise?

Yeah so Im fucking leaving the house for the next few hours to cool down.

Yeah we did. The key is walking away before blowing up your stack. We had to have a hard talk and she realized that some of the things she wanted can't be done now.

Someone shoot me. Please shoot me now.

Ok so I leave for camp Friday evening with uncertainty on my mind. The interior of the house is probably at 98%. What remains to be done is grouting, texturizing some walls, and finish work like quarter round. Other than that we need to switch two bedrooms around. I only leave after being assured that everything is in hand and she has help coming over to assist with the furniture and putting the place back together.

I come home about 4pm. Aint shit done with the bedrooms or putting stuff back. it's understandable since the help backed out. But the disaster is that apparently, while pouring the shower pan in one of the bathrooms, the concrete was too wet and the drain cover wasnt sealed too well. Guess what? Amazingly enough the leaked concrete solidified and clogged the drain. End result is that after the bathroom fixtures are installed, after the floors are grouted, they had to take a jack hammer to it all to try to gain access to the drain.

Oh and I am supposed to be throwing the mother of all parties on the 22nd for my wife's birthday / grand re-opening of the house

Shoot me, please. Do it for the children.