BIG Update - 1 of 4

Finally an update that doesn't involve me working on something for hours at a time! The front door is refinished and the new glass is here. I'm glad this is finally done! Austin Cut Glass is the company that designed and installed the new windows, and refinished the door.








Coming up soon - getting ready to finally do the wood floor... check back soon for the next update.

New Roof is Done

Finally a project that I didn't have to do. The new roof is on, and it only took a day from start to finish. The roofers showed up early and wrapped up close to 8 in the evening, so it was one very long day.

I did manage to grab a few pictures while the action was still going on.

This one shows the color of the new roof. Similar to what the old one probably was once upon a time, but just a bit lighter. The ridge vents weren't in yet when I took this - that was done towards the end of the job.



While I was up there I realized... that's not a bad view!



Looks like somebody still has the frame for an old satellite dish up on their roof. It must've gone up not long after the house was built because they haven't made them this big in a long time!



They're starting the ridge vents here. Cool old truck - the gauge clusters from these go for a pretty good price because they fit the '67-'72 regular-sized Ford trucks.



Here's the finished product!



Actual data showing how much the ridge vents are doing will come within the next few days. The radiant barrier dropped the temperature from the mid-140s to about 117-118. I'm really curious to see what more this will do!

At this point I'm laying low for a bit because I'm still waiting on Allstate to realize they got the wrong roofing material on their paperwork (adjustment check #1). Now they need to release the rest of the original claim money (check #2), and then whatever more the adjustment would've added to the rest of the original claim money (check #3). In other words, ramen may be on the menu this week. And by 'may' I mean 'boil 2 cups of water, add noodles and come back 3 minutes later.'

The roof work came out really well and they were the only roofing company to actually answer the phone, make an appointment show up and give an estimate on time, as promised, so I'm going to take a few minutes to plug the company that did it. They're A-Tex Roofing and Remodeling. http://www.a-texroofing.com or (210)-857-4151 or 1150 N. Loop 1604 W, San Antonio, TX 78248. Ask for Nicholas, and mention you saw their info on a blog and they'll probably cut you a better deal. This one's an easy decision since they're the only roofing company I dealt with to actually deliver what they say they would. After bouncing back and forth with the glass guy for the last two months I can say this is the hugest thing over the competition.



Now the door... I was told earlier this week that the last glass bits that are needed were arriving on Wednesday, window being assembled this weekend (now) and that it'll get done sometime this week. *fingers crossed*

The only thing I have remaining to do this weekend is to properly vent a bathroom shower/tub to the outside with a new pipe that was added yesterday. Either the previous owner or the one before them changed the light/heater/fan unit that was in an upstairs bathroom. This is the one they didn't wire up correctly that I fixed last month. The problem is, the exhaust fan unit has a square-shaped outlet and somewhere in the box it came in was an adapter to make it 3 inches / round so you could connect it to your vent. They or whoever installed it didn't know what it was for and just tossed it. Brilliant move. Check back here late Sunday or Monday for a post showing how to fab up your own adapter and vent a bathroom.

Project Updates

A few updates on the projects going on...

The Roof:
Insurance is covering it!!! This is the most awesome thing that could have happened. I've chosen a roofing company and they're starting the work on Wednesday. The one little snag is that the insurance company got the wrong roofing material type on their paperwork - 20 year / 3-tab vs. the 30 year / dimensional stuff that I have. It should be a simple fix because they're hugely different in appearance. While they're doing the work they're going to be installing a ridge vent, covering up the existing turbines (too close to the ridge vent) and adding an exhaust outlet for the shower/tub combo on the second floor. Also fixing the bad flashing around the chimney and doing tons of other small things. This couldn't have turned out any better.

The front door:
Glass guy was here a couple of weeks ago. Left his samples behind so I could show the different materials to Danielle. The guy does good work and had a stack of work orders an inch thick. I'm waiting to get to the top of the list. This is taking forever. NOT happy with the slow progress here.

The flooring project:
I've decided to go ahead with the flooring work ahead of changing out the fireplace surround and all that other work. It's still taking me a while to figure the design for that out, but I know I want to do the flooring. Might as well go ahead and do that while I figure out the fireplace surround. The plan right now is to raise the fireplace up 6in or so and I have a concept for what this should look like, but am not sure how to build the structure supporting the new mantle. Also unsure of the color, so maybe by doing the flooring first that'll help push me through the rest of this. I can just undercut the bottom 3/4 inch of the existing mantle and some of the grout from below the bottom row of tiles to install the wood. That's no big deal.

The big question about the flooring is where the material comes from. I can't remember if my aunt said something about being able to acquire the stuff at a discount or if that was something else. She's on vacation somewhere right now so I'm waiting for her to get back home and get onto her email account...

So right now I have one thing that's moving forward and two more that I want nothing more than to finish. Hopefully they'll come along in the next two weeks or so.

Everything done earlier is still holding up well - the trees are handling the drought pretty well (drop irrigation line) and I'll probably have to put another coat of stain on the pergola because the sun is intense. But surprisingly, the trees seem to be growing a bit or at least looking healthier now.

Side note - the reason why I didn't do anything last weekend is right here:


This is what the front of a Volvo looks like when you take it apart to overhaul and convert the air conditioning. It blows cold - 25 degrees at the vent :)

Progress... but it's slow

I should have somebody working on the window in the front door right now. He's also designing a new window to go above the door that will match it to a degree, but I'm waiting on what he comes up with so I can say which one to go with. I'm really looking forward to this being done... I hope this is the last 'pre-window' post!

The insurance company is coming on Monday to have a look at the roof. The first thing both roofers said when they got up there was 'look at all the hail damage!' It did hail on February 10th and I owned the house at that time so why not phone it in. I've got my fingers crossed, hoping for the best. I wound up going with a roofing company owned by somebody else in this neighborhood. He was the only one to get the estimate in on time, and I've already been dealing with delays and the front door... The other quote arrived four days after it was promised, and I'd already called up the company I went with to let them know I was going with them at that point. It was a tough call though - the person behind me was about $1,300 higher but I noticed that the late quote was lacking some of the other things that would cost extra. The ridge venting and lots of flashing, for instance. Not sure if the area was quoted differently - that could affect things too.

So for right now I'm just hurrying up to wait. Insurance helping with the roof would really be great because it would free me up to do more around the house. I do have a concept for what I'd like the fireplace to look like but no clue who builds such a thing. I would really like to get the floor and fireplace done soon. Maybe if insurance will cover the roof I could use the savings to pay for someone else to install the flooring... I'll be able to do it this fall though; my long trip back to Seattle has been delayed a few months. Just love being here in limbo for now though.

STILL Waiting

Still waiting on the glass guy (Austin Cut Glass) to get back to me. I've called back, set up numerous times for him to come over or get back to me but they've all been broken. There's nothing more annoying than someone not following through. So unless they get back to me before the end of the week, I've had a change of plans.

This afternoon I'm going to measure the size of the window. Accurate measurements that I can take somewhere else. I know what kind of design I'm looking for, so I can take the measurements around and get a new window made on my own. Dunno about installing it... if bad comes to worse I can always take the door off the pins and install the glass horizontally. Unless there's a way to install it while the door is installed (maybe they give it to you in a box because you have to get the glass from their place to where you live somehow.

And refinishing the door... shouldn't be as hard as I thought according to one of my coworkers who's done it before. He described it as taking only a few hours. I might do it myself even though it's also a pretty intimidating job. I could do that when I change out the door hardware, or at least refinish it with the hardware off so in theory there wouldn't be any marks whenever I get around to deciding what I want to change it to.

That would save a few hundred $$ which would go immediately towards replacing the roof. I don't need to worry about contractors, because one of the three I called about a quote (and the only one who actually gave me a firm date which is in about an hour) is actually the owner of the company and I'm pretty sure he lives in the house behind me and over 1. I'm looking forward to getting that taken care of, and I'm sure it will. Even if the other two companies don't call back. They were supposed to by the end of this weekend so I guess we'll figure that part out pretty soon.

I have a pretty good idea of the cost. Reroofing isn't exactly cheap but if you do it right it's not something that'll have to be done again for a LONG time.

Change of plans

Still waiting on the door and window guy to make the new window and get back to me. He's on vacation this week. In the meantime, I've done some more work on what it'll take to install the new flooring downstairs.

If I want to go with a solid wood I have to put down a plywood subfloor to attach it to. That's no big deal - I've looked into what it'll take to do it. What I didn't do was measure whether or not everything would fit under the actual doors. It turns out I'm about 3/8 inch short on most of them. So this idea won't work, and now I'm trying to figure out whether engineered wood will work better because I may have to go with a glue down installation. At least I found this out now, rather than later.

Also discovered that it's time to get a new roof. Definately not a DIY project, and I'll spare all the details around it. It's not leaking, but the end is near. I'm holding out until it cools down some - in my strange line of reasoning maybe you get better workmanship from people when they're not up on the roof constantly thinking about how hot it is. Idunno.

That's about enough depressing news for now. Some weeks it's good, some weeks the news isn't so great.

Don't things ever get fixed?

I really wanted to get the front door fixed before the wedding. REALLY, really wanted to. But the stained glass guy was busy and the window was in much worse shape than I thought, so it makes a lot more sense to just replace it. It won't cost a whole lot more than fixing it anyway, and it'll look a lot newer. Now that we're back from the honeymoon of course now it's time for him to go on vacation. Oh well, it'll get done when it gets done... at least it'll be fixed the right way.

We've also trained Snowy to be more calm when the doorbell rings. This isn't going to happen again.

I got a lot of advice from my aunt who knows a lot about decorating and design while she was here. Apparently the shade of green that the entire downstairs is painted in has a lot more life left on it than I thought. She also said that a dark wood would go well downstairs in the living room and dining room, and that it'd be a good idea to think about doing something with the mantle. The floor will be easy because I've been looking into that for months now, but the fireplace... much more difficult. I'm hoping to break ground on this project sometime in late July. Until then I'll be busy planning and trying to integrate all the stuff Elle and I got for our wedding with everything.

Stupid breaks the door (May 26, 2009)

Stupid the dog (formerly known as Snowy) had a rough day today. Someone rang the doorbell today and he took off to go see what's going on but this time he's extra excited and decides it's a good idea to jump on the window. One of the glass panels breaks. No, the dog wasn't hurt.



Thanks, Snowy! The estimate:
$125 to fix the glass
$25 to repair the solder
$300-ish? to refinish the door. But they're taking it off to take somewhere and refinish and I'm really not that great at staining and finishing stuff with funny edges to it. I would've had to farm that out at some point anyway because I don't have the time and space to do a good job of it myself.

For the time being there's a band aid of tape covering the hole, and obedience training in store for the dog.