RETURN OF THE HOMEOWNER!
Last time, half of the main
construction crew deserted the Project
and ran off to parts unknown (Texas), leaving
the harried Sullivan family wondering whether their house
might ever be finished, restoring hope and freedom to Kansasville....
Very things seemed almost at a stand-still for the next month or so. Brian was both upset, and had to take a new job to make ends meet (because of the money Mike stiffed him for). Mudding the walls -- the next step -- is a messy and time-consuming job. Not something that a novice can do well. It wasn't Brian's specialty, and I suspect the daunting nature of the process was one of the reasons Mike chose to flee the state, rather than keep his honor (and lack of criminal record) intact.
Still, I realized that to have any chance of ever finishing this project, I'd have to do as much of it myself as an aging, barely-construction-skilled asthmatic I could. I had to take the project into my own hands. (Well, as much as I could.)
I'd done some drywalling and mudding during the construction of my studio, about 10 years ago. In fact, I'd done quite a lot of mudding, though time had dulled my skills considerably. Brian was better, and -- according to him -- my work was actually better than what Mike had done to date (much of which had to be sanded completely away or ripped out and replaced). I wasn't fast, but I was methodical. Working together, Brian and I managed to finish up the mudding. (He did about twice what I managed in the same amount of time.) I even spent several long days by myself on towering ladders, putting up corner bead and tape and mud in the stairwell. Brian finished the carpentry there.
In the midst of all this mudding, scraping, etc. I got mud in my left eye and developed an irritation which caused me to shun bright lights. Yowch! That took serious meds and the better part of a month to clear up. The situation wasn't helped by Kiff's work changing HMOs on us right then -- which meant I suddenly had to find new doctors (our old ones aren't in the new group) to deal with all this (and my ongoing health problems). As you can imagine, it was not a fun time. Somehow, in the midst of all this, I managed not to take any pictures of the work we were doing.
Also, amid all this, the stairway -- the centerpiece of the new addition -- finally showed up from the factory. It's a huge steel and aluminum spiral (which you'll see more of soon). The oak treads needed polyurethaning -- many coats -- which the kids and I developed a system for doing. We laid them out in the basement, and painted (and repainted) the whole shebang. (All except the one tread which came broken -- and, as of the end of May, hasn't yet been replaced by the factory.) You can see a picture of the treads above.
At the end of may, the basement contractor finally came by to remove the mountain of dirt that had been in our yard all winter. (Much to our kids' disappointment.) It was great to have some semblance of yard back -- though the dirt was so dry and packed so hard that it resisted my attempts to rake the top layers to plant grass seed. This, too, would come back to haunt us later.
Then, something of a minor miracle. After waiting what seemed like ages with the drywall done (if not perfect) at last -- Brian's friend finally came by with his sprayer. The idea was to have the walls sprayed with a texture to make them look nice, and also to put on a first coat of paint/primer the same way. The windows and other openings all got covered with plastic. Then the guy came in wearing what looked like a space-suit. I should have taken a picture of him, as he looked really cool, but I was too busy being 1) flabbergasted by the process, 2) incredibly happy that -- after all this waiting -- the walls were finally getting done. You see, the walls were the hold-up. We couldn't get the electrician in or the floor done before the walls were finished. And we had to have floor before the plumbing could be finished in the bathroom. So, spraying the walls was a major step. And it only took a couple of hours!
With the walls done, we could then take action on our own -- and do the painting ourselves. Things were beginning to look a little more under control. With Kiff and the kids and I painting, we were making actual progress. Above is what the walls looked like once they were sprayed (and they may have been painted at this point, too, I don't remember). Over the course of about 3 days, we had the whole thing painted as well. We were moving forward again!
The first shot above is looking through the look-through, through the stairwell, and into the rooms beyond -- Kendall's new room on the left, the new master bed in the middle, and the stair landing and loft at the top right. The second picture is looking into the master bedroom with the door to Kendall's new room on the left. The third picture is standing in the MBR and looking back out toward the stairwell and look-through -- and the old house beyond. The fourth picture is looking into Kendall's new room and closet. As you can see above, it's all starting to look very nice.
Then things could really get jumping. You remember we couldn't actually do anything else without the walls done -- not the stairs, not the floor, not the electricity, not the plumbing. Nothing. We couldn't even clean the place up, because it was useless to clean the floors until the walls were done. (We'd just have had to clean more mud and paint off them later.) But now the walls were done.
Brian was still working his "real" job, but, since that job was outside, he couldn't work in rain (remember that, it's important later). So, though he was sometimes too tired to tackle this ongoing "nightmare" after work, he could sometimes actually squeeze in a whole day of work when his regular job was rained out. One evening (a day I thought I'd be writing my latest novel), he came over and started the stairs. We (he mostly) aligned the bottom plate, and secured it to the floor. The next day, it rained, and he and I started tackling the stairs in earnest.
We did the flight from the basement to the first floor. Then did the flight from the first floor to the new loft. The 2nd flight took a bit more time, as we had a measuring problem 2/3rds of the way through. But we got it sorted out and fixed with only about 45 minutes lost. (Though, at the time, it seemed like a major disaster.)
With the stairs in place (if not completely finished), the whole tenor or the project changed. We could not move easily from floor to floor without ladders or winding through the existing house. This has made everything much easier. And, it's also brought me a bit of peace of mind, because I'd been worried about the staircase since the beginning. It was my "gift" to myself in this project (and after all I've been through since November 2004 on this, I deserve a gift) -- and if it hadn't worked right... well, disaster is not too big a word. But it is working right, and, even unfinished, it looks great. And the kids love it. (And Kiff still isn't used to it -- as I can suddenly appear in Kendall's room on my way to the dining room.)
The first three pix above show the staircase as we were building it. I didn't take any pix that fist day (too excited and stressed), but you can see the top of the first flight and the stacked up stairs which will lead upstairs in the fist pic. The second pic shows the view from the very top of the house, looking down the stairwell. Again the stairs for the second flight are stacked atop the first floor landing. The third shot shows the big spiral winding up from the first floor to the loft. Railings, treads and such are still to come.
And in the midst of the stair construction, Brian (and I) tackled the bathroom floor. We've done it in the same laminate/wood that will be used in the rest of the new construction. (With the planks glued for waterproofing.)
With the flooring and stairs begun, things were looking up. Literally.
CONTINUED....
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