Yesterday Was Overwhelming

Even Les said so !!!!  (so you know it was a bad day)

As we need to go to St Thomas to Home Depot for supplies and to The Paint Depot to order the Total Wall, Les worked on the inside of the lower room yesterday and started ripping everything out instead  of continuing to frame the exterior as he wants/needs to purchase nails so he can nail the plywood up using his nail gun vs pounding them in by hand like he was doing – that was hard going.

When I can home from the kiosk he was struggling with removing all of the tile in the shower – he really did a fantastic job when he rebuilt it 6 years ago – it was a tough job to say the least.  After looking around and seeing what is ahead………all new framing, installing the new plywood, installing mesh, installing Total Wall, new windows, new doors, new sub floor, new tile, complete new bathroom, two new decks, new roof over the new deck, painting, trim, drywall, new electrical…….the list goes on and on and on……….we were both overwhelmed yesterday.  It wouldn’t be too bad if we didn’t have a deadline but we have guests in January !!!!!

Here is his progress – he still did a great job.

Room before….

Room after….

Bathroom before….

During….

Bathroom after….

 

Sunday We Started A New Chapter In The Remodel

Sunday was a fabulous day in terms of progress – weather was good as the Tropical Wave had moved out.  I walked the girls to allow Les to get an early start and when I returned I returned to this………

Which soon turned into this ….

It’s a little hard to tell but there are no walls at all – the large X you see is the bracing on the scaffolding behind Les (and yes I made him change T Shirts as he was sooooooo *glistening* 🙂 )

And now the framing can begin.  Remember from yesterdays post, we are moving the entrance to the room so Les needed to frame the door.  The door will be on the right (in these pictures) and on the left of the door will be a unit with the flat screen TV.  All of the old walls had been framed in 2″x 4″  – Les’s comment when removing them was “I can’t believe how easy it is to tear this down” – he framed the new walls in  2″x 6 ” and his comment was “I feel sorry for the next guy that tries to remodel this” – so I think that means it’s sturdy 🙂

Now it was time for plywood to be installed.  First we are installing plywood, then over that will be cement board then mesh then blue tinted Total Wall (a stucco type product). First section of plywood……..wooo hooo

From the inside you can see the framing of the door clearer….

We decided not to cut out the plywood revealing the door opening as there really isn’t any point until the doors are here and it protects the inside of the room.  Tomorrow Les is moving around the lower level and will begin the removal of the long wall that will have the two windows and begin framing and maybe even get plywood up on part of that section as well so stay tuned 🙂

 

What’s Behind Curtain Number 1

Nothing – yep I mean nothing !!!!

Yesterday (Saturday) Les started to remove the exterior T1-11, window and interior drywall on the short wall but due to a tropical wave passing over us which bought cloud, wind and rain we needed protection overnight – a great use for a Neat Sheet don’t you think 🙂

Anyway, back to the work that was done yesterday – where the window was located will become the new entrance to the downstairs guest bedroom – which is a great improvement (remember we are adding a deck downstairs)  Currently you enter the room from the side with a 10.5″ step down – not great if you forget if you have had one (or five) too many at Skinny’s…………

Current entrance (door on the right)….

Large step down into room….

The great news is that where this door currently is will be turned into a wardrobe – a perfect use for the space.

Here is Les progress before the rain came….

Start at the window…….

Move inside….

m

Moving outside….

And then the rain came and work was halted for the day – stay tuned for the next post as great progress was made today (Sunday)

Practice Time

With the harness, I’m so proud……..

He only used it for a very brief time but he is safe and that is all that matters.

In the meantime I decided it was time to make sure the Azek decking will look OK with our patio furniture – I think it does….

Staying on the deck, remember the post “So What Brilliant Idea Have I Come Up With Now” (posted on May 23rd) well we went ahead and purchased stone for the deck 🙂   The stone veneer we have ordered is made by Owens Corning and we ordered the Pro-Fit Ledgestone in the Southwest Blend (as seen in the Kansas City Crate and Barrel)           The area on the deck that it will be installed is the “solid” wall behind the BBQ in this picture as the view from that area has you looking straight down the driveway so not a pretty view if it were to be open railing – we also think it will add nice dimension, texture and interest to the deck and for those of you who have visited St John and walked the trail to Waterlemon Cay you will notice it is the same color of the stone found along the trail.

The stone in the Crate and Barrel store was much whiter than this picture as was the sample board at the store in Kansas City – I really hope when it arrives it is as white as white can be as we do have to tie it into the white railings (I hope a change to our railings is not in order)

Stay tuned for the next post as removal of exterior siding has begun – fun, fun, fun – or is it ???  All I will say is so far we have encountered dead bees, a dead tarantula and a live scorpion with babies !!!!

Power Washing The Eaves

So in preparation of repairing the roof and then painting the eaves they needed a good power wash – 20+ years of built up *gunk* along with peeling paint was not a pretty sight.  You can see in the first picture the section of roof that Les will be working on (probably this weekend)

Before…….

We will be using a mold and mildew resistant exterior paint with a guaranteed to prevent the growth of mold and mildew on the painted surface for 5 years and to resist cracking, fading, peeling and blistering for 15 years which is a really great thing because trust me this scaffolding is not going up again in our lifetime – I guess anyone interested in purchasing “On A Whim” in the year 2025 (14 years from now) please let me know.

I Am Painters Tape Happy

Sorry Waterguy (please read the “comments” on the July 17th entry titled “it’s amazing what you can do with painters tape” if you are unsure what I am talking about) but I couldn’t resist 🙂

So staying with the window placement *dilema* I decided to double check my downstairs window placement…………uh oh !!!!  Well it’s not really “uh oh” as they would have been fine until you add into the equation that we need an additional electrical panel for the new split air conditioners, the electric hurricane shutters and a few other minor electrical *thingies* (love my terminology don’t you) and we have no other option but to have it in the downstairs room and the only location will be between the windows.  Now, when you add in the fact that I have this need to have everything symmetrical and because should the next owners of this home (we are not selling but you do have to plan for the future) decide that they want to cover the really ugly electrical panel with a 25″ picture frame containing a beautiful St John beach photograph hung vertically, you have to plan for it – I mean I won’t be covering with a 25″ picture frame containing a beautiful St John beach photograph hung vertically, no sir because it is illegal to do so !!!!

There is one support post that (obviously) has to stay where it is as it is (obviously) holding up the second floor of the house and the electrical box will be to the right of it when standing in the room with a window on either side.  For the electrical box, should the (way in the future) future owners of “On A Whim” decide to place a 25″ picture frame containing a beautiful St John beach photograph hung vertically over said box and have the same amount of distance between the edge of the frame and the start of the windows, the windows needed to be moved from where I originally planned for them to be.  Here is a photo showing where the new windows will be placed, the short piece of painters tape showing the electrical box location and the longer piece of painters tape showing the “never going to be hung” 25″ picture frame containing a beautiful St John beach photograph hung vertically and then 8″ away from said nonexistent frame, the windows………..

Our Roof

Continuing on with yesterdays saga………..when removing gutters Les knew there was a small section of roof damage but I’m not sure he expected it to be as bad as it is 😦

Removing the gutters…..

Not sure he was expecting this….

Ever watched the movie “The Money Pit”  I’m getting a sinking feeling $$$ cha ching        cha ching $$$ but he has assured me this is an easy fix 🙂

OMG – I Don’t Know Where To Start

I actually thought about not posting as I really don’t know where to start and you just feel like there is soooo much to write that’s it’s easier to not post anything but here goes with the “cliff note” version

Monday started off very relaxed – Les walked the dogs, I cooked breakfast (yes I really cooked a fantastic breakfast casserole – I’ll post the recipe if you want) Les started to casually take off some trim around the door so we could get an accurate measurement for the new hurricane doors we are about to order – the downstairs door we can make fit as Les is reframing the wall but upstairs has to go into existing concrete walls so it has to be perfect as thy are custom –  and then we get the call (OK the fist of many calls) that the delivery truck is waiting for us to go to Tropical and clear the furniture (read pay our bill) so he can deliver it, OK no problem, so off we go and it all gets hectic from here on out and looks something like this………….

• Try to pay bill but a tiny bit of confusion as to how much it is
• See exactly how Crate and Barrel shipped the furniture and have mini heart attack why I see one of the boxes (you’ll see why in the photos)
• Load the truck
• Drive to Coral Bay just as a tropical downpour occurs
• Unload truck in said downpour
• Remove all furniture from sopping wet cardboard packaging
• Try to figure out where to store patio furniture…….ends up in our living room where it will sit until the deck is finished (remember we had to order it about 2 -3 months earlier than we wanted it because they were almost out of stock)
• Les removes gutters and finds roof damage – more than expected – what a surprise
• About 17 business phone calls (not complaining but they were very time consuming – it’s 8:40pm and just finished the last one)

Our day in photos…….a brief break from the downpour – truck backing up the driveway do you notice anything strange ???

Yep that’s right, if you look closely enough you will see my caliente cushions proudly sticking out of a box which is exactly how they were delivered to Tropical in Miami, put on a container, unloaded in St Thomas, sent over by Tropical to St John and unloaded into the holding “warehouse” !!!!!!  How they made it I will never know – not one got lost, stolen, dirty or ripped 🙂  A closer look…..

Here comes the rain………………again

Full speed ahead………..

Windows made it (only 2 have a small dent in the frame but Les said it’s no problem)

Just a little wet  – oh and nice following the instructions “Pack For Export” Crate and Barrel  !!!!!

In our living room  – can you spell Deja Vu

And now this website is giving me a headache – it is changing the font size and text style every time I write a new sentence so I am off to bed – it’s 11:25pm and I’m tired so stay tuned for the photos of the roof damage.  

Goodnight xxx

It’s Amazing What You Can Do With Painters Tape…….

Like use it to attach trim to walls 🙂

OK, so change of plans today as Les had to go into the office (hopefully it will be a good thing) so no gutter removal or power washing is happening today therefore I thought I would post my new dilemma………………..window placement………………again.

So I was watching one of the design shows on HGTV and it got me thinking about our new designated dining area.  You see, currently we do not have a dining room in our home (remember we are a tiny home) but once Les removes the load bearing wall (yes you read that correctly a load bearing wall !!!) and installs a header we will be moving the sofa and TV to face the view (see the previous post on window placement) and therefore giving us an area for a dining table – albeit a small dining table – that will be able to seat at least 4 people.  Now onto my new thought (it’s not really a dilemma) – if I move the window over it might define the space more clearly so I wanted to see what it might look like if it lined up with the wall that has to/is staying therefore giving a perfectly (well the term perfectly is all relative here) rectangular space.   We will probably be using trim about the size of the trim in the photo (maybe even the trim shown in the photo) so I wanted to be able to stand back and see if it will be better than where I had originally planned for the window to go – but how to do that ???  I know – painters tape 🙂

This is where the dining “room” will be – it currently holds the TV…………..

And here you can see what I mean when I say line the window up with the wall that is staying to make it a perfectly rectangular space….

I think I am 100% convinced that this is the right thing to do – I only moved the window over by 6″ but it will be visually much better and have more of a symmetrical feel to it – what do you think ????

I keep going back to the question – does everyone go through this – soooo many mistakes could have been made – well maybe “mistakes” is the wrong term, small changes that could have been made here and there in the planning stages, that would make for a much better and at times useable space – anywhere from wall space for pictures to be better balanced to defining areas better.  I never thought that 6″ could make a difference (OK, that sounded really rude……..don’t go there people, don’t go       there 🙂 🙂 🙂 )

Hopefully tomorrow we pick up windows and patio furniture as they should have been cleared through Customs – wish us luck and stay tuned.

He Moved Over 1 TON Of Lumber………..Twice!!!!!

In preparing for this weeks upcoming events, Les went to purchase our lumber and some of the needed plywood on Saturday and it was perfect as they had just received a new delivery – the only problem was he had to load it into the truck and unload it at home (some of the plywood had to go up a flight of stairs and around a bend !!!)  total weight over 1 ton (tonne if I spell it correctly :))

This is what he purchased

• 3     2’x8’x8′ pressure treated lumber
• 10   2’x’4’x8′ pressure treated lumber
• 52   2’x6’x8′ pressure treated lumber
• 23   1/2″ 4’x8′ plywood

Here is *Superman* in action………

At the “lumberyard” and I use that term loosely (I did actually help a little – not a lot but a little)

First load….

Second Load….

Next up – removing the gutters (after he goes and picks up a harness) and power washing the eaves – stay tuned – photos soon come.