Bryon Blog-O-Rama

So we moved back in, after 14 months of remodel. Tada, we’re all done now right?

Please ignore the note of insanity that may have crept into that last ironic laugh. No, we’re not done. Like dishes, I don’t really expect to ever actually be done, until we’re dead or sell the house and wander the land like David Carridine in “Kung-Fu”. Moving on, or in. Whatever.

Made a before and after remodel video, which kinda sucks as the camera work was really bad for the before, and the color saturation went totally yellow on the after, and we are just too tired to fix it. On the plus side, the after was shot with a gopro HD cam, so the quality is a bit better, and the wide lens gives you a better perspective, if a little fish-eyed, of the space.

But you can get an idea of the hugeness of the change anyway, and only be out about 11 minutes of your life. Fast forward, I won’t tell.

Haus Before/After Video

Still many details to work on, some big some small. Just got “internets” this morning, so yay for that. Wireless works, wired net I’ll be working on over the next few weeks. Cables are all pulled, just need to terminate the jacks. There are a lot of them, I decided that this was the only chance to cable, so cable I did. Everywhere we might need a connection, I put two. In case one fails. Yes, I’m a networking guy, what did you expect? Wired is still faster, more secure, and more stable, so we’ll have that and wireless as well.

My new wireless router is also really nice, and was cheep on amazon for $80. Buffalo technologies, can’t remember the model, but it’s the more-or-less top end one. Something-300-something n-finiti. Runs DD-WRT, so it won’t need to be rebooted every week like some other Cou*linksys*gh routers I could mention. It’s a derivative of linux basically, very stable. Setup was cake, checked connectivity while the cable guy was there with my iPhone even.

Lots of power features I might play with later, right now it works and I have other things to do.

Other bad/good news of the week:
-I’ve had a cold and no laptop (which died just as I got the cold) for the past week. Bleah.
-But now I’m mostly better, and I’m getting a new laptop from work, and I have backup data. Yay.

-Biggest good news of all, is that I met my cousin Taylor for the first time, and hit it off magnificently! Looking forward to building that family relationship, she is just fab-o! Can’t wait to meet her hubby and kids, and have her meet Lois. We do share a family resemblance, but she’s considerably cuter, (i.e. we both have Bryon noses, but I bet mine is bigger, and given the cold, definitely redder…).

All in all an exciting week. Well, except for the lying in bed and snuffling for about 96 hours straight part. But the more recent events more than made up for it. And I got to snuffle in a well insulated and centrally heated house.
Counts for something.

Several to-do items are complete. One, I sanded all the dipped/stripped doors. They needed it, and some of them were a real PITA.
Oh yeah, I also reversed the fridge door, now opens on the left, and leveled the fridge appropriately. And I think I did something else minor like rehang the TP holder in the bathroom (it was loose).

Lois filled nail holes, cleaned, applied Tung oil and polyurethane to sanded doors. And some more stuff I can’t remember. She is a robot sent from the future to run my lazy butt into the ground. When we got home she made me food for the week. I was flopped on the bed moaning quietly and wondering if I could take more ibuprofen. Robot, no question.

But we march ever closer to our move in date, now sometime in May.

Someday I’ll start work on the studio, but that now looks to be a bit farther away than I was hoping.

Now that the outlet issues have been dealt with (by me, didn’t need to get the electrician back after all, yay), and the final inspection is passed (in both senses) we’re now hoping to move back in a few weeks.

We have about a billion details to finish, two largish items for me to deal with (seal bathroom floor, finish out range hood chimney), but then we can get back in the house and start on the remaining million details of making it truly finished. This is down from the current billions of details, so vast progress is occurring!

Also, I have the studio build out to do, and this is fairly high priority. The “man cave” art-studio/workshop/machine-shop/Internet-enabled-secret-laboratory will be instrumental in finishing out the house, as my fabrication ability will be considerably increased. This should speed things up in regards to finishing out house details and getting things all worked out to our satisfaction.

Basically I need to get electrical and phone/data/cable installed with a trenched set of lines from the house. Renting a trencher for that. Then I’ll be building out the interior with a carefully thought out layout for electrical buses etc etc. Insulation, drywall, paint, and then I should be in decent shape to fabricate house parts. Of course I’ll probably be fabricating even before this is done with an extension cord and a shop vac… Hmm… need more clamps…

So, things are hopeful:

We passed final inspection today! As far as the city is concerned, we’re all done.

Sadly, the actual state of affairs is not quite as complete. We are planning to move back in, in about 2 weeks.

The todo list is still quite a few minor items, and not so minor items. The biggest is probably finishing the studio, trenching for power etc. But that can wait until after we’re moved in.

The kitchen cabinets are finally almost done, and so I only have two items left there, backsplash and the range hood chimney. Both involve cutting, but with different tools. That and sealing the bathroom floor are my last big items pre-move.

Anyway, progress!

Final inspection went well, we have three electrical issues to deal with, two outlets that need to be added (ow) and a different cover on our outside outlet in the back yard (5 min w/a screwdriver, no big). Hope to have that done in a week. Then we just have to seal the bathroom floor with something that doesn’t make it slick (it’s concrete), and we can think about moving back in.

It’s been exactly one year since we moved out.

There are a billion details still to be done, some of which will be significant, but we won’t have to drive 20 minutes each way to deal with them. Or not have hot and cold water to wash with afterwards. So, easier now to be home than outside the construction zone.

We still have our $50 beater truck, which will be used to move us back in and also for some home depot equipment rentals (ditch-witch for a bit of trenching mostly). And then we will bid it a fond farewell.

At some point I plan to produce a slide show of the highlights. I went back over some pics already and was amazed at how much we’ve done. I must have blocked it out.

Well, giving birth might be more painful, but you couldn’t tell it by us.

However, the results are spectacular. The bathroom floor is being finished(literally) as I type this. Also, the plumbing is pretty much wrapped up. The icemaker in the fridge even works.

We have some minor issues left, but the main focus now is the kitchen. Cabinets are partially in, and our range hood chimney arrives today. It’s already functional, but needs this to gussy it up.

The bathroom floor glows in the dark, obviating the need for a night light. And it looks cool. Pictures soon, I have to do the whole tripod and long exposure thing to capture it. It glows blue, although in light you see nothing unusual.

All that’s left in the bathroom is a big piece of glass for the shower. We even got the ikea sink to work with non-ikea faucets and drains. Oh, we do need to seal the floor etc, but it looks pretty good.

We’re putting up lights and preparing for the final inspection, in the first week of April. Hoping it all goes well, we really need to finish this project and get on with our lives.

So the steel is in the floor, perfectly level and awaiting the concrete pour. Once we get the pour done, that log-jam will be gone and we can get the rest of the bathroom assembled and we’re about halfway to habitable.

The other half is the kitchen, which is also progressing. Floors and Cabinets are on the way, so once that’s done we’re looking at getting the appliances in, plumbing finished, and we’re cooking with gas (unless it’s the oven, which is electric).

We also just got the attic dry-walled, mostly to minimize the impact of the inevitable mess while we still have floor protection down, and that looks pretty good. I have to start thinking about the communications and AV cabinets up there…

So while it never truly ends, dramatic progress is right around the corner. Good enough.

The house is a few steps closer today, I got the stainless steel pieces for the bathroom floor partially ready. Still have a bit of work to do before we’re ready for the final step: Concrete.

It’s shaping up quite well, I’m really pleased with the results so far. It’s the first time I’ve sculpted metal in any way for a while, glad to see I haven’t lost my touch.

I’ve got them cut and bent to the correct shapes now, just need to do a bit of trimming on the bottom edge with my band-saw to level them out. Then I sand the tops to a nice finish with a 4″ grinder and sanding wheel, then finally use some epoxy putty to secure them for the pour.

I may also get some more thinset to seal up the bottoms. This would be good for the slab, for crack control. The steel is acting as a divider as well as an asthetic piece, so any cracking is limited. But if any concrete manages to bridge the sections by going under the divider, it’s quite possible for a crack to go right through. I thought of using silicone, but that might not be as compatible. So better safe than sorry, don’t want to do this again anytime soon.

I’ve also made sure that the dividers are just slightly below the intended finished surface level on top, so we don’t get a hotfoot from the warmfloor coil. No idea if that’s a potential issue, but it’s easy enough to avoid. It also makes it easier to seal it with an epoxy or such, which I’m planning to do. When we do the pour, my concrete guy will edge it appropriately, so it doesn’t get buried. It’s only about 1/16″, so surface tension alone should do it.

Hopefully I’ll finish it entirely next weekend. So much is hung up on this being finished, we’ll have a ton of progress once this is out of the way, and have a functional bathroom, always a plus for moving back in…

A little film series inspired by the “iPhone 4 – I don’t care” meme that was making the rounds a while ago.

Episode 1: But honey, it’s 4G!…
http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/6917603

Episode 2: He gets his phone, she gets the bottom line…
http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/7264395

And the original inspiration:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FL7yD-0pqZg
Hilarious, but language isn’t exactly G rated.

So for our 3rd anniversary I got my wife a Schlage primus deadbolt. It’s for the new back door. She feels so fortunate to have such a romantic husband.

Just wait until her birthday: a lawn mower!