Days of Rain Without Leaks: 1

While dryness has an awful lot of utility, it didn't quite seem in the spirit of the Lost Utility Tracker. You can blame it on the rain, but I blame it on the roofers (and if they mind, they can bite me).

While Bruce slept soundly Monday night, I was awakened by heavy rain. After a long consultation with the angel on my left shoulder and the devil on my right, I dragged myself up to see where we needed buckets THIS time. [I know those of you with kids are already thinking this is NOT newsworthy.] I spent about ten minutes with a flashlight upstairs and downstairs checking ceilings, walls, closets, outlets, and light switches, all of which have previously had water dripping/pouring out of them. The only dampness I found was a couple of slightly dark spots in the ceiling that I was almost certain had been freshly spackled that day and just hadn't fully dried.

I crawled back in bed and eventually stopped thinking about the wet spots and the beads of water that could be forming at that very minute. When we got up in the morning (and I explained to Bruce why on earth I was on my tiptoes poking at the ceiling in my pajamas), the dark spots were either smaller or gone. And after a full day of rain yesterday, our buckets remain dry!

Something's Done! (almost)

The retaining wall is (almost) done. It's all done except a few capstones and it looks really nice. The stairs (hats off to Colleen for the finding that idea online) look nice and create a convenient volleyball court access. Once it's landscaped I think what could have been an eyesore will really be a unique feature of the house.

Party Time?

Come hell or high water, B and B Party XII will be held here on Halloween. As that day inches ever closer, I look around me and think: 'Oh crap.' Most of the house is covered in dust, the rest of it is covered in plastic. The greatroom has a dozen sheets of drywall laying on the floor, three boxed up appliances, and enough random construction paraphernalia to open up your own hardware store. The new bedroom (a great potential crash place after party) is looking a lot better, but now that the roof is still leaking it's hard to tell what will have to be torn out and redone. Our PM has assured me that his guys will be sweeping up and cleaning up on Thursday, but he's assured me lots of things in the past.

If the weather holds out and the retaining wall really is all done on Sunday, the final grade should happen early next week. The goal was then to get the heat pump in and running pre-party. While that is still a possibility, I would no longer call it likely since there would be at most four days to build a base for it, have it delivered, installed, and working correctly.

Fortunately, cleanliness and heat are not two things that are required for a successful B and B Party as previous years have clearly demonstrated. Still, when I look at the room pictured below my first thought is not: Let's Party!

Wow, it's a room!

It's funny what things trigger your mind. Something about putting up drywall makes things stop looking like a construction site and start looking like a room. Lots and lots of drywall got put up this week. The entire upstairs is done (including the guest bedroom) and most of the downstairs is done. I knew that drywalling would create a lot of dust, but it really is hard to overstate how much dust there was and still is. They certainly did their best to protect our stuff. You can see in the picture below that my desk was wrapped up so much I thought maybe it was leftovers from a few weeks ago.

The retaining wall is nearly done. Due to the number of steps we needed, the builder ran out of block and had to reorder more. However, there are only about two more steps to go at this point and he has assured us he'll be done tomorrow. It continues to look really great and I promise pictures when it's all done.

Here is the bedroom all drywalled in.

That's my desk under there somewhere.

Deja Vu

I have the distinct feeling that I've sat at this exact same computer and already written a blog about the roof leaking. I've been having that deja vu feeling a lot lately. I had it last week when I got home from work and ran around putting out buckets and towels for leaks. I had the feeling yet again last night when I called our PM and told him that our roof was leaking. If I didn't know any better, I would say that the roof has been unsuccessfully repaired three times now, but certainly that can't be true. . .

Etc.

This is going to be a catch-all blog for all the little things that have been going on around here over the past few weeks while I haven't been regularly blogging. Stuff is going to come fast, so stay ready for it.

Wired
We may not have heat, we may not have electricity, but by God we have the internet! Jeremy came over last weekend and helped me do a little wiring before the drywall was put in. We put up some cable for surround speakers and ran some Cat-5 cable from the study (where the hub will be) to the back wall of the living room (where the TV will be). This gets us ready for HD cable and convenient video game networking. Our new appliances (still in their boxes) are in the foreground of the picture below.

This Stinks
Those of you not in the greater Loudoun County area may not be aware of the stink bug infestation that is going on all along East Coast right now, but let me assure you, it is on (http://loudountimes.com/news/2009/sep/29/stinkbugs-invade-loudoun/). These guys are little gray/brown shield shaped insects that tend to hang out on sunny windows during the day and then invade the house at night when it cools down. The worst part is, if you squash them, or even scare them sufficiently, they let off a pretty foul smell. My favorite killing method right now is to flick them into a tub of water mixed with bug spray. I've killed no less than 4 dozen in the addition so far, but only a few of them have made it into the main house. Hopefully with the drywall going up soon we'll be a bit more impervious to them.

Tanks, You're Welcome

Our new super-sized gas tank was put in the ground last week (see below, right). They did exactly what they were supposed to do when they said they were going to do it and got out fast. If there was anything to complain about, it was that they dug a trench for a 1 inch pipe with a 2 foot backhoe shovel (below, left). But the yard is mostly a lost cause at this point anyway, so oh well.

A Bargain at Twice the Price
After three months of construction noise, strange people in an out of our house, living at times without heat, water, and/or electricity, we finally have something to show for it! New lights were installed in our kitchen a few weeks ago which brightens up the room very nicely, but it is most remarkable as the first item of the addition that we can actually enjoy. Based on the payments we've already made to construction company, these lights are worth about $17,000 a piece (lightbulbs were not included for that price).

I'm Out of Pithy Titles

We had no less than three inspectors come through the house this week. Though we haven't actually heard from our PM (not a surprise), we are under the impression that we passed all our inspections. Woohoo! That means we should be on to insulation and then drywall. Also, the retaining wall got started this weekend. I'm waiting until it's all done to give the wall its own blog, but so far it is looking good! You can see just a bit of the back of it from this week's update picture.

A Dry Spell

If you’ve been wondering what was up with the blog recently, it's because there have been a couple of disappointments in a row and sometimes it’s hard to relive them by writing them down until they have had some closure. Anyway, I’ll try to get back on the regular update schedule again. In the mean time, enjoy catching up.

Crystal Ball

Telling the future is a tricky thing. Predicting what things will be like on an exact date is even harder. One thing I know for sure is that B and B XII will take place in the new addition on October 31st. The big question is: what will the addition look like then?

Here’s how things will probably play out. The plumber is almost done with the rough-in plumbing and the electricians only have a few more things to put in. That means we could be getting all that inspected by the end of the week. Once that passes inspection, they put in the insulation and then it gets inspected, then the dry wall goes up. In the meantime, the retaining wall is scheduled for this weekend. Once it is done, they will be able to do the final grade which allows them to install the heat pump (and hopefully re-seed what used to be the lawn). If everything works out nicely, that means they will have heat and/or AC to help dry out the dry wall. That means we should have a huge heated, unpainted room with a concrete floor on which to host the party, and that’s a pretty perfect scenario for a party that is notorious for the damage it does.

The crystal ball is a little murkier when I try to look into it and see the kitchen. Our PM doesn’t think our cabinets will be in yet, but by my calculations they’ll be arriving days before the party. This would pretty much be a worst case scenario. The counter tops don’t get ordered until the cabinets are in and our sink is actually going to be part of our counter. So we could possibly have brand new expensive cabinets totally exposed and no kitchen sink. That would be a bad scenario. Either way, we’ll have fun!

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