Dave has been working on the bathroom/laundry room in the basement for the last couple of weeks. Plumbing seems to be taking quite a long time. He has to think about the bathrooms upstairs, because the plumbing in those bathrooms and laundry room have to drain into the drains in the basement. It's quite the engineering job.

So he called me out there one evening to help him decide where we are going to put the toilet, vanity, tub, and shower in the upstairs bathroom. Who knows....I can't get past this bathroom in the basement! We talked it through, and figured things out. My goodness, who knew it would be like this.

These two pipes, above and below, had to hook up. He had a little bit of trouble with that, but it's done now.

Plus working above ductwork adds an extra challenge.

Also had to install a bathroom fan.

In the meantime, while I was in Italy, the concrete guy poured our patio! We went with terra cotta.

The color seemed a little bright at first.

But after it dried real well, and was sealed. I decided I like it.

Also had a piece of roofing fly off the house! He makes me nervous when he does stuff like this.

Cindy

Roof update and some settling - now

See our roofer on the ladder?

He's putting on the finishing touches.

That's right folks - he's done with the roof! And I like the color. It's some sort of dimensional slate color.

The company that sold us the shingles told us that the manufacturer of these shingles use a talcum type powder to make them. They said the white streaks could be excess powder, and will hopefully lessen after some rain. The pic on the left is the original. The pic on the right is after the rains we had this weekend.

The streaks are still there, but they are lighter.

I don't think they look as bad. The rep is still going to come out and have a look, just in case, but lets just hope they disappear over the winter months.

Now these two photos are right up next to the house. When we had all of the rain this weekend, the disturbed ground around the house settled. Not good. We are going to have to get some dirt and fill that in. We had tons of dirt that we smoothed out, and now we need dirt!

Cindy

Shingles - now

I have not been to our house site this week, but yesterday Dave took the camera with him, so he took these pictures for me.

See the roof. Looks pretty good right?

And remember that really high area I was concerned about?

Here they are, walking around like it's no big deal.

And see the off colored white streaks across the roof? That's the front of the house, by the way.

See them here, on the garage?

Nope...that's not camera shadows, or the sun playing tricks on our eyes. Those are shingles folks. Gaf ELK shingles. We have those same brand of shingles on our house that we live in now. We love them, we've never had a problem, and there was no discoloration like there is on our new house. I'll let you know what the rep says about it. He's on vacation this week. I'm going to be nice. I'm going to try to stay positive. I am not happy about it though.

Cindy

Store and Roof - now

So, I went to a rather large local building supply store tonight to pick up some lock sets. We were having them all keyed the same for our outside doors. The conversation went like this...

Me, "Hi, I'm here to pick up some lock sets."
Dude, "hmmmm, well I have no idea where those would be."
We have a stare down. Like I'm going to leave if he just looks at me long enough. I don't think so. I'm old enough to be his mother, I'm peri-menopausal, and even though I have no children of my own, I have mastered 'the look'. And the whole time I'm thinking...'why do boys grow sparse, scraggly, beards like that. Shave for crying out loud.'
There is a geek on the computer the entire time that only looked up once. If I had a gun in my hand, he wouldn't have known it.
Me, "well, you need to find them, we've paid for them, and we need them."
Dude walks away and returns empty handed. "I just don't know where they are...."
Geek, still on computer not looking up.
Me, doing the eye roll, "This is just why I do not like shopping here. We bought 7-8 doors here and door locks, we got a call they are done, and we need them. I have two kids getting off the bus in 20 minutes, so you need to find them now." I want to tell Geek man to get the hell off the computer, and help Dude find my lock sets. I am the customer after all.
Geek finally looks up.
I think they think I'm Cindy Crawford or something (see my 'other' blog) because they are just staring. Geek speaks. "who called you?"
"I have no idea what his name is. HetalkedlikethisrunninghiswordstogetherandIcouldhardlyunderstandathinghesaid."
Geek looks back down, Dude just stares.
Finally, when I kind of did the head nod eye bulge look, like you better get moving Dude...before I pinch someones head off...Geek man says, without looking up again I might add, "look in receiving."
There were seven of these in two boxes.

Dude stacked one box on top of the other

and plopped them in my arms. They were heavy.
And this folks, is why I go to small locally owned businesses whenever I can.
People care at small locally owned businesses.

I'm wondering if stores should go back to commission.

But the good news is...right before that, I was at our house and I saw a truck pull up.

Full of roofing shingles.

And these guys get on the roof. They walk around on the roof like mountain goats.

These leg kind of things pop out of the truck

This crane thing pops out of the top of the truck

And it starts lifting roofing shingles to the roof!

They plan on starting tomorrow! WOOHOO!

It was very cold and windy out by the way. I'm sure these poor guys were freezing.

Cindy

Roofs, roofers, R&R - now

So, I pretty much had a melt down last Sunday. I get that way when I'm frustrated, and I have too much on my plate. I'll discuss it on my other blog at some point, but right now, let's talk about a roof(er). We finally have a roofer that says he'll start on Friday.

Here's the story. First of all, we have talked to about 10-15 roofers. We only got three estimates back. Two of them were for a standing seam metal roof. One was $27,500 and the other $24,225. Yes we are talking 27 Thousand and 24 Thousand! We can not afford that. So, we've switched back to shingles. Which means we need to talk to different roofers. Most of which cannot start until January, or later. Our tar paper will not hold out that long. Probably won't hold out until the end of the month. But finally, someone came through. He could start right way. We really wanted to hire him, but then Dave and I had a "discussion" about insurance. The guy did not have insurance and I refused to hire someone without it. I called our insurance company. I was ready to buy the guy insurance just to get a roof. Couldn't do it. He has to buy his own workman's comp, but I could raise our liability. How much liability is enough if he falls off the roof? So we went with the guy that can start on Friday, that has insurance.


These are the shingles we picked out. But here's the other thing. This guy doesn't like the brand of shingles the other guy liked, which is what we picked out. So we had to pick out another brand of shingles...but they look the same, I guess. I never saw them.

In the meantime, Dave's been working on this area getting it ready for seed.

Our framer has been working after hours on some extra jobs for us. This is part of the basement that we will be living in. He been framing it so we can put up walls.

And we all had a bit of R&R today. Dave, feeding Noah and Allie. They are the geese that live on our pond year around. Allie has a broken wing and cannot fly. Noah stays with her. Just like in the movie The Notebook, where Noah stays in the nursing home with Allie. We love our geese.

Dixie napping on the way home.

And I opened a bottle of port that has been on my kitchen counter a little over a year.

Cheers!

Cindy

Felt Paper for the roof - now

Thank you for the offer Gloria, to have 'Dave' help 'Dave' roof. I'm really trying to keep him off of the roof if at all possible. You know how he's always getting hurt when he does stuff like that~




He did put "ice and snow" or "ice and water" paper or something like that on the roof in spots where snow might not melt so readily.


But see this view? It scares me to think about him on the roof. And guess what? I think it scares him too. Even one of the roofers told me it's daunting. Funny, the things you don't think about when you are in the architect's office!



We have called about 8-10 roofers. There are a couple that might be able to get to roof it in December, which isn't that far off.

In talking with roofers, we were told to have them put synthetic felt paper on the roof, rather than the usual 15 or 30 pound felt paper. Felt paper, or tar paper, is what you put on the roof to help keep the house dry until you can get the real roof on. Kind of like the Tyvek paper is for the house wrap, the tar/felt paper is for the roof. Synthetic is only a couple of years old, but it's suposed to hold up better. Well, someone was supposed to show up last Saturday and put the 30 pound felt paper on the roof. He didn't show. He was supposed to show Tuesday, he didn't show. He was supposed to show Friday, so I got up and ready early to get the synthetic paper purchased early, and get it there early, before he started on the roof. Guess what? He didn't show. Our framer told him if he doesn't show Saturday, just don't bother at all. It was kind of a blessing he didn't show though, because we would have had the 30 pound paper on there, and it might not be strong enough to last a couple of months, and the synthetic is supposed to last. So anyway,


this now has to be returned! And I'm learning a lot about roofs.


And isn't this the cutest detail above the garage? They are going to put it on the little gable roof hanging over our door (to the right) too. It's to help shed snow/water away from the entries. Cute!

Cindy

Dormer, Roof - now

Isn't this dormer the cutest ever!

It's false....nothing behind it or in it....

It just adds interest, and kind of balances out the roof line.

And makes us have nightmares for getting a roofer. We are having a hard time finding someone that can roof our house before February or March!!!! This is Indiana folks...we have bad weather coming soon. So, My husband is reading on metal roofs and thinking about doing it himself. Yikes.....

Cindy